Monday, June 27, 2005

@-D---- The white dragon dodges your Magic Missile

After months of play, I'm finally getting better at Nethack!


----------
/ \
/ REST \
/ IN \
/ PEACE \
| Hiroyuki |
| 10451 Au |
| petrified by a |
| cockatrice |
| corpse |
| |
| 2005 |
*| * * * | *
_________)/\\_//(\/(/\)/\//\/|_)_______

Sayonara Hiroyuki the Samurai...

You turned to stone in The Dungeons of Doom on dungeon level 20 with 86483
points,
and 10451 pieces of gold, after 13279 moves.
You were level 12 with a maximum of 110 hit points when you turned to stone.
--More--


I got off to a great start, and proceeded to kick some serious ass! Along the way, I picked up the much sought amulet of life-saving (after your die, you get resurrected!) and I nearly used it on three occasions, including my fight with the white dragon, as depicted in the title of this post. As you can see from my tombstone, I made it to level 20, and was petrefied by a cocatrice corpse. You may be wondering... why were you petrefied by a cocatrice CORPSE?! Well, to those patrons of Nethack, the answer would be obvious... I was blindfolded. Why was I blindfolded? Because when you are telepathic, you can "see" any living monster on the level, but only when you are blind. I used the blindfold to see what monsters I were on the level.

Which begs the question: "why would being blindfolded cause you to die at the hands of a dead cocatrice???"

When you are blind you cannot see (I'm glad that's clear) and therefore, to find items, and other inanimate objects around you, you must feel for them. SOOOOO, if I were to walk over some items, I would feel on the ground, and find out what they are. If I feel on the ground, and find a cocatrice corpse, I would have to touch the cocatrice, and those who know their mythical beasts, know that a cocatrice is a dragon which rooster-like features who can turn you to stone with a simple touch!


Yikes... better keep some dead lizards handy!

My first death (and use of my amulet of life-saving) was after a huge fight (which included my slaying the white dragon :) I defeated a cocatrice sometime during the fight. While I was navigating the dungeon blindfolded to make sure nothing could sneak up on me, I happened upon a cocatrice corpse, which turned me to stone and forced the use of my amulet of life-saving. Once on level 20, I fought off some elf lords, and apes, and (with the help of my telepathy and blindfold) avoided the invisable cocatrice for as long as I could. When it came time to fight it, I killed it, and then (not learning from my previous mistake) walked over the body, felt what was on the ground, and...
Sayonara Hiroyuki the Samurai...

Though I wonder, if I walk up to a cocatrice corpse with my blindfold off, I can see the cocatrice corpse, and don't have to touch it. But what if I walked up to an invisable cocatrice corpse? Would I have to feel for it anyways? I hope not, because the DEV team thinks of EVERYTHING!!

On a side note, one can avoid such a fate by simply wearing some form of gloves. I had only run across one pair of gloves on my adventures into the Mazes of Menace and they were cursed anyways... Though wearing those cursed gloves would have saved me from those two deaths... and it IS possible to remove curses by dipping the item in water... aw crap... I could have survived... Oh well. Now I have to get to thinking up a new Japanese name for my new samurai character. Nethack, why must I love you so?

Those who wish to learn more about Nethack, can head over to www.Nethack.org and get some more information. Those who want to play, follow this link:
telnet://nethack.alt.org

Critics call nethack "ASCIIcking"

If you laughed at that, you are a geek, I know because I did!

And for those of you who are interested, here's an artist's rendition of Hiroyuki snowboarding...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't know if you're still interested in the question, but in Vanilla Nethack at least objects can't be invisible, only monsters (and you). So if you kill an invisible cockatrice and it drops a corpse, the corpse will be invisible. No need to worry. I just tried this out in Wizard mode with a lichen -- made the lichen invisible, killed it, and I had a perfectly visible lichen corpse.

--Sister Bridget, killed on the first level of the mines by a gnome lord with a wand of death

Fletch said...

The cockatrice corpse was not invisible, it was nonvisible because I was wearing a blindfold.

Also, that's a tough break for Sister Bridget. :) Sometimes the RNG can be so cruel.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, I wasn't clear what I was responding to -- it was this:

But what if I walked up to an invisable cocatrice corpse? Would I have to feel for it anyways?

--I'm pretty sure that you don't have to worry about it because there's no such thing as an invisible cockatrice corpse.

I was actually pretty amused when Sister Bridget bit the dust -- she was a level two human monk who had lost her pet (walked into a boulder trap right next to the downstairs) and was probably going to get surrounded and wiped out in the next few turns anyway, unless I was very clever about getting into a corridor where she could take on everyone one by one. And probably even then the gnomes could've beat me. So since if you're doomed, might as well be doomed by the legendary gnome with the wand of death -- I've actually ascended one character [I'm spoiled up the wazoo] but getting killed by gnomes with wands of death are even rarer and harder accomplishments!

Right now I'm playing a monk who's doing much better. She [so shouldn't she be a nun? get with it, nethack] just offed a liquor store owner so she can buy protection from the Minetown priest. Shopkeepers, don't leave sleeping potions lying around when a chaotic monk comes in.