Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (
More info?)
On 04 Sep 2005 19:35:33 GMT, paxed@alt.org (Pasi Kallinen) wrote:
>chuck <chucko@nil.car> wrote:
>> what the heck is a psammead?
>
>A quick googling reveals it's a type of fairy in some children's stories
>by Edith Nesbit. The following quote would fit nicely in the NetHack
>data.base:
>
>psammead
> Its eyes were on long horns like snail's eyes,
> and it could move them in and out like telescopes. It had ears
> like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's
> and covered with thick soft fur -- and it had hands and feet like a
> monkey's. It told the children -- whose names were Cyril, Robert,
> Anthea, and Jane -- that it was a Psammead or sand-fairy.
> (Psammead is pronounced Sammy-ad.) It was old, old, old, and its
> birthday was almost at the very beginning of everything. And it
> had been buried in the sand for thousands of years. But it still
> kept its fairylikeness, and part of this fairylikeness was its
> power to give people whatever they wished for.
> [ The Story of The Amulet, by E. Nesbit ]
>
>
>I think I'd expand the 'l' class of monsters to include fairies and
>other wee folk in addition to leppies, and add "psammead" in there.
>
>And I'd make it so that the first time you dig a pit, there would be
>a small chance of a psammead appearing and giving you a wish, and I'd
>make the appearance chances very small, and increasing the deeper in
>the dungeons you go, like reverse the chances or water demon.
>This would make it kind of tactical: do you want to dig to get out of
>a tight spot, or do you want to keep that first dig until you're
>deeper in the dungeon so you're more likely to get that wish?
>(Not to mention, getting a wish when you expect to fall through a hole
>might be not what you want in a really tight situation...)
Guys, what makes Nethack hard is that
a) It lets you kill yourself.
b) No automatic backup save files, especially *older* backup
save files.
Since _Secret of Monkey Island_ started the trend of adventure
games where you could *not* make the game unwinnable, perhaps not
so may Nethackers are aware of the need for older save files.
Such older backup save files would be useful for when the
player changes alignment before qualifying for the Quest.
(If such behavior wasn't frowned upon mightily.)
Explore mode provides another example. You can't die in
explore mode, but you can make the game unwinnable (see
immediately above/below.)
The game can be made unwinnable in explore mode by getting next
to a monster that kills you in one turn every time. So what if
you can always bring yourself back to life? You just die
immediately every time. (Such situations have been posted to
rgrn.)
This is the problem with recommending explore mode for
beginners. Avoiding most Nethack deaths requires preparation
long beforehand.
I'd say 99% of the unascended could not ascend in explore mode.
Perhaps the devnull tournament could have an eXplore mode bracket
for the unascended? Give people a reason to try explore mode
and determine how useful it really is to the newbie.
Starting with a wand of wishing is the equivalent to my
previous assertion that even starting with Dragon Scale Mail,
weapon of choice, all resistances, and maxxed stats,
non-ascendeds still wouldn't ascend.
Starting with a wand of wishing makes failure even more
probable, as effective use of it requires more knowledges of
Nethack, specifically in the current race/class, and even
more of the individual's playing style.
Perhaps the devnull explore mode bracket could require random
race/class? Or perhaps two brackets, one where you could choose,
one where you couldn't. And hold the eXplore mode tourney in
October, so the traditional one doesn't overshadow the eXplore
mode one.
Let's face it, right now Marvin is unbeatable in ascending any
race/class tried. Clan EIT has the determination and skill to
win clan contests. And that means most regular *ascenders* have
no chance to distinguish themselves. What can the un-ascended
play for?
So let's try to get new blood ;^D into the game. During the
month of October/December have a non-ascendeds tournament.
Brackets for explore mode, random and non-random, and a bracket
for regular Nethack with just non-ascendeds competing.
Players who ascend in each bracket would be barred from
competing in that bracket there after. I.e. Players who ascend
in random explore mode would be barred from the explore mode
brackets subsequently. Players who ascend in the regular Nethack
bracket would be barred from the whole non-ascendeds tournament
thereafter.
Perhaps some of my ideas (cough) about ranking games by game
ending could be incorporated, i.e. a game ending in no not-dying
is better than one ending in dying. That would encourage players
to go as deep as they felt comfortable with, then go up and
escape the dungeon. What better training for the ascension run?
(No, it's not very good training for it. I asked what *better*
training.)
Modify nethack to record a separate ascii file for each
game showing important landmarks: level gains, magic objects
found (especially unihorn and speed boots), armor tried, stat
increases, intrinsics gained, altars, etc. Perhaps even a screen
shot to go with each achievement.
Such a separate ascii file would be much easier to review for
game difficulty than the ttyrec files:
"Look!, they started with a ring of poison resistance, then
found speed boots on level 2, along with a silver shield and
cloak of magic resistance! With a co-aligned altar an Dlvl 4!"
As opposed to:
"They didn't get reflection until the Astral plane!" (Whether
this shows lack of luck or excessive luck is open to debate.)
For the players, such a record would be a wonderful way of
remembering the game (should they choose to ;^). (My YAFAP
has some screenshots with comments that I still like to
review.) Add in the DYWYPI info and it would almost be worth
printing out, to bore friends and relatives with (like wedding
photos). (Insomniac golf-widows would not longer be the
luckiest. If a Nethack-widow can't sleep, she just asks her
husband, "Honey, tell me about your first ascension again." ;^)
Being in a separate file it would not, of course, affect
save/bones file compatibility.
The Nethack scoring system is much more accurate for newbies
than regular ascenders, so it would be useful here. There would
be much more competition and uncertainty about the winner.
Comments? (Good/Bad/Indifferent?)
--
All the best,
Jove
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