r/nethack

Here's another question about 5.0 that might not be super easy to answer at this point. So, from looking at the WIP edits on the wiki, I like the overall ideas behind the sacrifice changes, but I keep wondering about one thing. Since the strongest artifact weapons require high levels of enemies to offer, is it possible to shoot yourself in the foot a little by sacrificing early? For example, if I'm an archeologist who would like to get grayswandir at some point, in 3.6 if I found an early altar I'd throw as many corpses on it as I could before moving on, but now, unless I have high level corpses around, I'm probably just going to get sting and orcrist and lock myself out of a better weapon, since the odds of getting an artifact go down with each one that already exists. Obviously artifact choices were pretty random before, so it's not like the best possible choice was guaranteed, but at least the pool was limited, now the ability to get cross-alignment gifts complicates things to a degree that's kind of hard for me to work out without the figures on the wiki yet. What do you all think of the sacrifice changes? Does anyone have more insight into the specifics of the mechanics?

Saw this on the wiki, was wondering if anyone knew the specifics here?

I've beat Hack.

Is anyone else getting sick of the levels being taken over by Remembered Unseen Creatures? Especially when you have clairvoyance... look at this nonsense:

https://preview.redd.it/zd959knf0a2h1.png?width=1656&format=png&auto=webp&s=e991e0da2f8341a07a88ec804e1e2eda68a31771

It's at least a bug that clairvoyance doesn't get rid of the existing I's when you detect a bunch more, since you're supposedly being given insight as to where the monsters are and aren't. For example, those houses that are full of I's on every space almost certainly contain exactly one (1) gnome; they've just been in different spots each time my clairvoyance kicked in.

Is there a way to get rid of them all at once? ^R to redraw the screen doesn't do it. Or even an option to stop them being there in the first place? At the very least, if you knew that an I represented a visible creature - as you do a lot of the time - it should disappear when you have a line of sight to that space. AFAICT the only way to get rid of them is to 'm'ove through them (just stepping into them wastes a turn "attacking thin air"), and even that is likely to waste several turns if you weren't walking that way anyway.

If such a command (or option, or whatever) doesn't exist, and a friendly dev or patchy person is reading this, can we have one?

Guys...I have another question...I wanted to make a portable version of nethack and I found that changing an option in the sysconf file will do the trick but I had a few questions regarding that:

1. is there a pre existing sysconf file in one of the automatically made nethack directories which I have to edit or do I have to manually change the extension of the template file and then place it in the same folder as the binaries?

2. can the sysconf settings regarding portable installation be changed anytime or does it have to be done during a fresh installation. Will the change be apparent right after opening a new game?

3. are there any specific files that do not obey the portable installation setting and will get sent to random directories regardless of the option?

I would be really grateful if I got some help with this as I didn't get any response when I posted this in the roguelikes discord server.

Edit: figured it out with help from u/BlindGuyNW. What you have to do to activate portable mode is to uncomment that line in the sysconf file , Save the changes and then change sysconf.template to just sysconf. Once you do this all the files including the savefile and the rc file will get transferred to your main directory containing the .exe game files.

Edit 2: so I tried to make my installation of 3.6.7 portable as well and it turns out that the option is not given in the sysconf file as in 5.0 but inputting the same setting in the 3.6.7's sysconf file does enable portable mode. But unlike 5.0, in 3.6.7 on startup after changing options the game expects there to be all files of the original installation including the template file you just altered. If the template file is not present then it'll give you an error stating template file not found. An easy solution to this is once you change the option and rename the sysconf file just make another copy and add the .template extension back into it. Now you should have both the sysconf and the sysconf.template file allowing the game to run in portable mode.

Edit 3: one more thing...any changes you've made to your rc file prior to option change will not cross over after converting it to portable mode as it creates a brand new rc file...so you'll have to edit it once more. Just copy and paste the text from your old rc to the new rc.

I just started my first session with 5.0.

A few levels in i began filling a chest with stuff i couldn't use immediately, as usual. Unknown potions and scrolls, surplus wands etc., the usual.

I went a few levels down, gathered some stuff and wanted to return to my chest, only to see that it was gone. Gave me a mini heart attack! I suspected a gelatinous cube, but in the first levels? Maybe from a poly trap? Several turns later i saw an "n" and read the message (from memory) "You see a water nymph rummaging through a chest". Sure enough it then proceeded to take stuff out and peppered me with all the potions and wands inside.

I survived and got most of my stuff back, but it was close.

So, always lock your chests and hope that you don't encounter monsters with a key! Scare monster and Elbereth are your friends, too.

Note: Yes, i read the changelog and knew that such a thing could happen. But after playing nethack for so long, much is muscle memory by now and i'm kind of set in my ways.

Now i'm sitting in dlvl 25, 70.000 turns in and have no means of levitating or flying. No boots, ring, amulet, spell or potion whatsoever. None! I could poly into a flying creature or dig through the Medusa lvl, come back from below and lvl teleport back to stash. I have the means for both, but i don't like either. Or i could polypile all the armor in Ludios and hope for boots. I haven't decided yet.

I got my god angry for praying when I wasn't supposed to. I have done about 30 sacrifices and still getting a feeling of inadequacy. C'mon, Thoth, don't be such a prick! Anyone else facing the same situation? Tips? I'm squishy gnome wizard, I don't want to go deeper down without being able to pray.

A Traveler's Companion to the Mazes of Menace https://mazesofmenace.ai/spoilers/

Last time I played NetHack was in the 90s. My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I had a grand time playing together and ascending with a Valkyrie that we had outfitted with a super-enchanted Mjollnir, gauntlets of power, speed boots, shield of reflection, the works. One of my fondest memories was reading Paul Waterman's WCST spoilers together to learn the secrets and texture of the game.

The modern NetHack wiki is great, but I find myself missing that narrative "handbook" feel. So: inspired by the 5.0 release, I've assembled some spoilers written in a travel-guide style at https://mazesofmenace.ai/spoilers/, updated to 5.0 as best I can.

I had a great time writing and trying to update "A Traveler's Companion" for 5.0: the slight alteration in Sokoban maps, the new monsters, the new levels, the new rules about wishes. Please take a look and enjoy. Corrections and suggestions welcome. If there's any additional advice you'd give an adventurer, I'd love to fold it in.

(The spoilers are part of an AI coding contest around NetHack that I'm running: using LLMs to create a readable, maintainable JavaScript port. Programmers welcome.)

How is the smart money playing nethack on iOS and Android these days? I know there’s lots of different apps, but I’m wondering if any have risen as clear winners by this community?

Friendly creature react violently to a gentle bump (even with the 'm' prefix), but only when they're invisible and there's no way you could have known to avoid them. Seems nonsensical.

I went looking through the source code; this seems to occur because, on line 250 of uhitm.c, wakeup() is called with TRUE instead of FALSE, as if the attempt at taking a step was an attack. There's a code comment:

> #H7329 - if hero is on engraved "Elbereth", this will end up assessing an alignment penalty and removing the engraving even though no attack actually occurs. Since it also angers peacefuls, we're operating as if an attack attempt did occur and the Elbereth behavior is consistent.

I don't understand this. At first I thought it was saying that, before we even reach this point in the code, the game has already treated this harmless walking as an affront to Elbereth (in which case, why not just… not do that?) But actually, the Elbereth check is in setmangry(), which is called after this point. In fact it's only called because wakeup() treats this like an attack. So what gives?

Edit: I want to clarify—just because there's a call to a function called wakeup(), doesn't mean the monster was asleep. In fact, it's most likely a peaceful monster who's wide awake, knows you're there, and turned themselves invisible on purpose.

Coming back after a long time the new effects on each of the artifacts feel extremely fun and interesting. I'm not a god in this game (I've only ascended once legitimately), but I wanted to voice some positive feedback.

The Snickersnee's 1/turn free ranged Apply attack is my favorite effect so far. "Shkink!" Some fights can feel extremely tactical and interesting when trying to maximize the use of this ability.

The Sunsword has incredible utility, between it's wielded light and the new Expensive Camera style #Invoke blind effect you don't even need to wield it for. Could easily save a run vs all sorts of baddies, even in the Astral Plane vs a Rider.

Even the Trollbane's regeneration was super helpful for an early character.

You definitely feel the fewer wishes now, but there's just more interesting items available sooner that can really change a run. All the different dragon mail effects seem like they'd have good use cases if you have other essentials already covered. The Amulet of Flying working on mounts too means flying Wand of Speed boosted Warhorses.

The game is just more fun. That's my 2 cents anyway.

Apologies if this is from an older version and I hadn't noticed it! But, seeing this just a moment ago brought a smile to my face. I love all the little changes in this game, new graffiti, etc. I haven't played in a few months, asides from the major changes like the new features of various colors of dragon scale mail, what little flavor updates or game changes made you happy?

First Ascension Finally after 30 odd years of playing Nethack I have succeeded in ascending. I had a very lucky run. I found 5 magic lamps, 6 wands of death, and 7 magic markers. I didn't use all wishes, didn't use all WoDeath, and didn't use all the markers.

I had a really easy run up the dungeon. Only got hit by the mysterious force once. Dealt with the Wizard a few times but the WoDeath made short work of him. I encouraged him to leave the dungeon at level 1.

Planes were relatively straight forward though I did forget to put my BoH back into the oilskin sack on the plane of water. That almost did in my various health potions but I realised what had happened and rescued them. This was fortunate as Pestilence was a complete pain when I reached the Astral Plane.

Death was surprising easy, I thought. I just whacked it a couple times and it died. Repeated twice. Same with Famine. I don't recall meeting War but there was a lot going on.

I had to visit all three altars. It's quite a task beating a path between them. Only had one Wand of teleportation so it really was a slog.

But I got there!

https://preview.redd.it/fh44apvwae1h1.png?width=2248&format=png&auto=webp&s=e75e8b8960d4adc384019cd307d6e431bd687b5d

Did anyone else notice there's a sound when you level up in 5.0? I'm wondering if there are other sounds I haven't found yet.