Many, many hours of NetHack since 10 yrs. ago...

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

*sigh* Not saying I'm not having fun. NetHack is one of those rare types of
games (for me, at least) where I can die 1,000 times and still be having a
good time. Just goes to show that pretty graphics do NOT make a great game
(take THAT, XBOX!--they could learn a thing or three from NetHack, but
unfortunately that will never happen... ah, well...). Mostly I play wizards
because I prefer casting spells. It's not really the character I play, it's
just that you can make one mistake or have one unlucky thing happen to you,
and it's all over. My biggest problem so far is starvation, or having
monsters molest me to death while I'm unconscious. Praying only works so
many times, and my pet seems to beat me to the edible corpses. In any case,
food is the problem I'm faced with. There's a few things I'd like to do
here...
One, train my pet. Somehow. I need tripe rations, but even when I somehow
manage to stumble across a food shop, my pet eats the tripe rations off the
floor before I can get to them. Stupid little bastard! Anyway, is stealing
from shops all you can train your pets to do?
Two, find a way to NOT starve. Either way I'm screwed, because I try not to
delve too much into the dungeon because I level slowly on purpose (I let the
pet fight most of the time, and they get pretty strong, for kittens!)... but
if I go down in search of food, I am beset by ever more powerful beasties.
Then I have Anhur getting miffed at me... hey, God, I'm only trying to find
YOUR stupid amulet! Think you could feed me once in a while, or is that
asking too much!?
Anyway, I don't think I've gotten past level 5 as far as dungeon levels go.
Maybe 6. The poop really hits the fan when those giant ants and bees come
for me, but I can usually play and instrument and scare them off...

Anyway, in my last game I got my strength and constitution up to 15, and my
wisdom to 13 (started with 10). I think I have strength figured out. Walk
around stressed, easy enough. I think I boosted wisdom by finding secret
pathways, but I am not sure. I have no idea why constitution went up. How
about intelligence, dexterity and charisma? Any tips on bringing those up?
Also, can someone tell me how to control my pet better? It wanders off
sometimes, eats food in shops, that sort of thing. What can be done with
pets?
Well back to getting killed I guess.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 15:01:12 GMT
"Simmie Simmerson" <radiohead3@earthlink.net> wrote:

> My biggest problem so far is starvation, or having monsters molest
> me to death while I'm unconscious. Praying only works so many times,
> and my pet seems to beat me to the edible corpses. In any case,
> food is the problem I'm faced with.

Prayer is essential for nutrition in the first few levels - turn on the
turn counter in your options and try to figure out what a safe time
between prayers is. (Or we could give you some hints, but it sounds like
you're playing unspoiled.) As for the pet, you may just have to get out
in front and take on some of the critters that you know to be
nutritious. There are many people around here that play the "protection
racket" and let their pet do all the killing in order to remain low
level - there are benefits to that, but it's not an easy way to play for
beginners. While it is possible to get hopelessly screwed early on by
lack of food, I'd guess that this happens in much less than 1 out of 10
of my games.

> Anyway, is stealing from shops all you can train your pets to do?

AFAIK, yes. I'm not a real pet lover, though.

> Two, find a way to NOT starve. Either way I'm screwed, because I try
> not to delve too much into the dungeon because I level slowly on
> purpose (I let the pet fight most of the time, and they get pretty
> strong, for kittens!)... but if I go down in search of food, I am
> beset by ever more powerful beasties.

See above. And again, you need to strike a balance in levelling. Keeping
your XL at about the same as the dungeon level up to about level 7 or 8
is not a bad rule of thumb. Also, as a wizard, you may want to consider
wearing some armor for a while unless you start with a particularly good
second spell (Sleep or Magic Missile) - by the time you get to the
things that are likely to kill you, Force Bolt starts missing a lot.
Finally, don't underestimate the power of throwing daggers.

> The poop really hits the fan when those giant ants and bees
> come for me

Yes, those are famous low-level killers. Especially the ants. Use
whatever means you have at your disposal to fight back. Don't get hung
up on saving things for later. There is no later when you're dead.

> Anyway, in my last game I got my strength and constitution up to 15,
> and my wisdom to 13 (started with 10).

I don't think you need to worry about this so early in the game. There
are ways to train everything besides Int and Cha, but there's too much
food pressure early on to spend time on this. Just keep going and you'll
probably find that your stats take care of themselves.

> I think I have strength figured out. Walk around stressed, easy
> enough.

Yikes! This is a really, really bad idea. Yes, you gain strength. But
you also lose turns and get significant penalties to combat and other
things. There are better ways to exercise strength (think about other
things that require great effort), but again you don't really have time
for them at low levels.

> I think I boosted wisdom by finding secret pathways, but I am not
> sure.

Correct. There are other ways, too. Wisdom will almost always rise
without you having to work on it specifically. There's a good bit in the
Guidebook about engraving that both exercises your Wisdom and can help
keep you alive.

> I have no idea why constitution went up.

I don't remember what exercises it, but like Wisdom it usually happens
on its own.

> How about intelligence, dexterity and charisma? Any tips on bringing
> those up?

Intelligence and charisma can't be exercised, though there are some
other ways to boost them. None of those options are available until
later on, though. Lots of little things boost Dex - think about typical
rogue/thief activities. Just fighting should do it too.

> Also, can someone tell me how to control my pet better? It wanders off
> sometimes, eats food in shops, that sort of thing. What can be done
> with pets?

Pets will generally try to stick somewhere close to you, but they're not
telepathic - if they can't see you, they can't follow you. There are two
items you might find that help a lot with pet management as well.

> Well back to getting killed I guess.

It happens to everybody. Have fun!

--
Todd Pytel

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005, Simmie Simmerson wrote:

> *sigh* Not saying I'm not having fun. NetHack is one of those rare types of
> games (for me, at least) where I can die 1,000 times and still be having a
> good time. Just goes to show that pretty graphics do NOT make a great game
> (take THAT, XBOX!--they could learn a thing or three from NetHack, but
> unfortunately that will never happen... ah, well...). Mostly I play wizards
> because I prefer casting spells. It's not really the character I play, it's
> just that you can make one mistake or have one unlucky thing happen to you,
> and it's all over. My biggest problem so far is starvation, or having
> monsters molest me to death while I'm unconscious. Praying only works so
> many times, and my pet seems to beat me to the edible corpses. In any case,
> food is the problem I'm faced with. There's a few things I'd like to do
> here...

If you let the pet do the killing while you're close to the (would be)
corpse, the pet will kill on its turn, leaving you a move ahead of it to
go and eat the corpse. of course, if you're further away, then the pet
will move and eat before you can reach it.
Alternatively, just let your pet a few rooms behind you and kill/eat while
it's not here.

> One, train my pet. Somehow. I need tripe rations, but even when I somehow
> manage to stumble across a food shop, my pet eats the tripe rations off the
> floor before I can get to them. Stupid little bastard! Anyway, is stealing
> from shops all you can train your pets to do?

If you close the door of the shop, your pet won't be able to come in. Once
you've brought the tripe rations, you can open the door and let it come in
and steal the rest of the stuff, rewarding it whenever it deserves a
reward.

Hypocoristiquement,
Jym.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Jym wrote:
> On Sat, 25 Jun 2005, Simmie Simmerson wrote:

> If you let the pet do the killing while you're close to the (would be)
> corpse, the pet will kill on its turn, leaving you a move ahead of it
> to go and eat the corpse. of course, if you're further away, then the
> pet will move and eat before you can reach it.

This won't always work, since your pet starts out faster than you (not
sure when you start out fast yourself).

--
Boudewijn.

The garden of happiness is surrounded by a wall so low only children
can look over it. - "the Orphanage of Hits", former Dutch radio show.

 

[ANON]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Simmie Simmerson <radiohead3@earthlink.net> wrote:

(spoilers)

> My biggest problem so far is starvation, or having
> monsters molest me to death while I'm unconscious.

Ring hunger is your problem, and it's another one of those obscure
Nethack features that seem to exist only to kill beginner players.

> Anyway, I don't think I've gotten past level 5 as far as dungeon levels go.
> Maybe 6. The poop really hits the fan when those giant ants and bees come
> for me, but I can usually play and instrument and scare them off...

Ants and bees are a pain, but can be attacked from a distance with
daggers. They shouldn't give you much trouble after you build up some
speed and damage bonuses.

> How about intelligence, dexterity and charisma? Any tips on bringing
> those up?

A blessed potion of gain ability will raise all your stats by one, so
the ideal way is to collect the uncursed potions and get them blessed
all at once (so you won't waste holy water). But I wouldn't worry too
much about raising your stats - especially strength, because there's so
many foods that will raise your strength.

> Also, can someone tell me how to control my pet better? It wanders off
> sometimes, eats food in shops, that sort of thing. What can be done with
> pets?

You need a magic whistle.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

> A blessed potion of gain ability will raise all your stats by one, so
> the ideal way is to collect the uncursed potions and get them blessed
> all at once (so you won't waste holy water). But I wouldn't worry too
> much about raising your stats - especially strength, because there's so
> many foods that will raise your strength.

How can I get things blessed? So far I figured out I could dip things in
potions (holy water in this case) but that uses up the holy water and I've
never tried it with other potions, but I would assume that would dillute the
potion of gain ability or cause an explosion (I vaguely remember mixing
potions though I forgot how).

>
>> Also, can someone tell me how to control my pet better? It wanders off
>> sometimes, eats food in shops, that sort of thing. What can be done with
>> pets?
>
> You need a magic whistle.

I need lots of things . Lately my cat seems to either step on a
teleportation trap and I never find her again, or she falls in a pit and
dies, or a rock falls on her head and she dies. She has even worse luck than
I do.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Simmie Simmerson wrote:

> How can I get things blessed? So far I figured out I could dip things in
> potions (holy water in this case) but that uses up the holy water and
> I've never tried it with other potions, but I would assume that would
> dillute the potion of gain ability or cause an explosion (I vaguely
> remember mixing potions though I forgot how).

Yes, dipping something in holy water uses up a potion of holy water; but
you can dip a bunch of things at once (on the same inventory letter) in
holy water, and you can dip *water* in holy water. And when you bless
water...? Exactly.

Contrary to common belief, holy water isn't wet. If you dip something in
it, it becomes uncursed if cursed and blessed if uncursed; never diluted
or blank or rusty. And holy water isn't reactive either; dipping a potion
in it can't cause an explosion.

Raisse, killed by boiling potions

--
irina@valdyas.org LegoHack: http://www.valdyas.org/irina/nethack/
Status of Raisse (piously neutral): Level 8 HP 63(67) AC -3, fast.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

anon wrote on 26 Jun 2005 16:42:55 GMT:
> Simmie Simmerson <radiohead3@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> (spoilers)
>
> > My biggest problem so far is starvation, or having
> > monsters molest me to death while I'm unconscious.
>
> Ring hunger is your problem, and it's another one of those obscure
> Nethack features that seem to exist only to kill beginner players.

Unlikely.

5% or 10% added hunger is not why the OP is starving. The game provides
far more than enough food. Most likely, he is proceeding through the
levels too slowly or not eating corpses.


--
"Sometimes I stand by the door and look into the darkness. Then I
am reminded how dearly I cherish my boredom, and what a precious
commodity is so much misery." -- Jack Vance

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Rast wrote:

> 5% or 10% added hunger is not why the OP is starving. The game provides
> far more than enough food. Most likely, he is proceeding through the
> levels too slowly or not eating corpses.

You've demonstrated pretty well that "too slowly" is somewhat subjective

--
Benjamin Lewis

"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips
over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."
--Matt Groening

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Benjamin Lewis wrote on Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:34:38 -0700:
> Rast wrote:
>
> > 5% or 10% added hunger is not why the OP is starving. The game provides
> > far more than enough food. Most likely, he is proceeding through the
> > levels too slowly or not eating corpses.
>
> You've demonstrated pretty well that "too slowly" is somewhat subjective

I'm not talking about fast ascensions, but about playing the early
levels very very slowly, and probably not eating corpses either.


--
"Sometimes I stand by the door and look into the darkness. Then I
am reminded how dearly I cherish my boredom, and what a precious
commodity is so much misery." -- Jack Vance