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NetHack: The Next Generation 1.0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0. Contents:
0. Contents
1. What is this?
2. What does NHTNG include?
3. How do you install NHTNG?
4. To which extent are NHTNG and vanilla NetHack comparable?
5. On Forcing stats
6. The Legal Stuff
7. Dedication
=== SPOILER WARNING ===
8. What *exactly* does NHTNG include?
9. Rationale of some of the new features in terms of Game Balance
and Plausibility
1. What is this?
Nethack:The Next Generation (NHTNG) is a set of patches
for NetHack 3.1.3. It is highly inofficial and should not be
confused with vanilla NetHack.
2. What does NHTNG include?
- Various Douglas-Adams like monsters and objects (see README.DNA).
- A new character class, the Geek, with assorted Quest Levels.
- Six new levels
- 58 new monsters
- 38 new objects
- Some fortunes come true.
- Eight new artifacts, among them non-quest non-weapon artifacts.
- A selector for ability preference.
- Special monsters for the rogue level
- and much, much more.
- The Nethack&DouglasAdams patches I released on Mar 14,1994
are incorporated into NHTNG as well.
3. How do you install NHTNG?
a. Before starting, read the legal stuff (point 6).
b. You will need a patch program that understands context
diffs (GNU patch, for example).
c. Uncompress the original 3.1.3 sources. It is important that
you start with a clean source tree.
d. Install the Makefiles as instructed in sys/unix/Install.unx
e. Uncompress the archive containing NHTNG. To do this, go to
the main NH313 directory and then type for a shar archive:
$ sh <nh313.tng.shar
or the following for a gzipped tar archive:
$ gzip -dc <nh313.tng.tar.z | tar xvf -
f. Step c will have created, among others, a file named patch.pa
It contains the actual patches to the NH313 sources. To
apply them, type:
$ patch <patch.pa
g. Now follow the DevTeam's instructions for configuring, compiling
and installing NetHack. DO NOT copy the Makefiles again (as you
did in step d)
h. Have fun!
4. To which extent are NHTNG and vanilla NetHack comparable?
In NHTNG there are both features making the game easier and
making it harder. I suspect, however, that on a large scale
NHTHG will be somewhat easier. Since I have never ascended
with NHTNG (and in fact, not with vanilla NH313, either), I
unfortunately cannot really do more than guess on that.
5. On Forcing Stats
"Oh darn, why has this newly-born Valkyrie only Str: 10 ?!?"
In situtations as the above, how many times did you quit
the game to try again? How often did it take you ten times
or more until you had what you wanted? You're now shown the
stats of your new character and then you can accept them
or not (in which case you roll again).
You even can do what I call "forcing a stat". That means that
you tell the game that any combination of stats where Xx is
lower than 42 is totally unacceptable to you. When you indicate
that you want to force something, you're first asked for
the stat you want (you can't force more than one). The answer
is given according to the following key:
s - Strength (St)
d - Dexterity (Dx)
c - Constitution (Co)
i - Intelligence (In)
w - Wisdom (Wi)
h - Charisma (Ch)
Then you're asked for the minimum value (for Strength, 19 means
18/01, 20 = 18/02 etc.), after which all rolls are guranteed
to satisfy your condition.
Some players might object to this extension as a means of cheating
or inappropriate manipulation of the stats. I believe that this is
not the case, because of:
a) It doesn't give you any real advantage over repeatedly
running and then immediately quitting the game. Remember
that all my extension does is rolling dice until
the required conditions are met.
b) Remember that you were (or, actually, your character
was) "heralded from birth as the instrument of XXX".
But guess the reasons because of which you were
selected. Surely you were tested on your various
abilities and then chosen. My 'forcing' just
simulates this.
6. The Legal stuff
I, being of sound mind and body, do write down on this day of
the twentieth of May in the year nineteenhundredninetyfour,
for all to see, that these patches of Nethack shall be placed
in the Public Domain and therefore free to use for anybody
without any restriction. However, I disclaim any liability
for any damage or consequences caused by these patches or
bugs in them. By using this software you agree to be
bound by these terms.
However, note that in the act of applying my patches to
the actual NetHack sources causes the resulting program
to be completely bound to the NetHack license agreement
as stored in dat/license.
7. Dedication
| :hacker: [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n. |
| 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable |
| systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most |
| users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who |
| programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys |
| programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A |
| person capable of appreciating {hack value}. 4. A person who is |
| good at programming quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, |
| or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a UNIX |
| hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who |
| fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One |
| might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys the |
| intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing |
| limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to |
| discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password |
| hacker', `network hacker'. The correct term is {cracker}. |
- The Jargon File, version 3.0.0
| 9. A hack or nethack player. |
I hereby dedicate Nethack - The Next Generation to all hackers
in this world, by any definition of 'hacker' you care to name.
I have really enjoyed programming this piece of software and I
believe it is now truly ready to be shared with the world of
the USENET. I hope that you enjoy using this piece of software,
which is the second one I release to the USENET. Of course, I
am also always interested in bug reports (or, preferrably,
fixes :-), suggestions, enhancements etc.
At this point I would like to thank the NetHack Development Team
for making this marvellous game real and to maintain it. It is
only from people like you that such a game can emerge and it were
your efforts which inspired me to enjoy this game not only
in the way of playing it but also in the way of enhancing it
and eventually make my own 'play on NetHack' available on USENET.
I encourage everyone to do the same.
On Mon May 30, 1994, 9:56am MESZ I will release this to USENET.
May you enjoy it!
05/20/94
Sebastian Klein
aus001@rrz.uni-koeln.de
8. (P.S.) What *exacty* does NHTNG include?
(The following material contains only spoilers. If you do not want
to be spoiled, don't read any further. I really believe that stopping
here might enhance your fun - so DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!)
There's a truck full of spoilers driving past. Jump in front of it? [yn]
DO NOT READ!!!
You're spoiled to death. You have been warned.
The Geek Class:
Class Name: Geek
Alignment: Neutral
Abilities:
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
10+30% 10+15% 10+15% 8+10% 9+20% 7+10%
Intrinsics: (Level)
Poison resistance 1
Shock resistance 1
Teleport control 8
Warning 15
Starting Equipment:
a blessed +1 electric sword
(1..7) ICs
+1 gauntlets of typing
4 potions of Jolt Cola
2 Hacker's Foods
a pack of floppies
Quest Leader: The DevTeam
Quest Nemesis: Bill Gates
Quest Artifact: The Nethack Sources
(#invoke = IDENTIFY)
The Geek is a mixture between a hacker, as defined in the
Jargon File and a NetHack player. I would have preferred
to call the class "Hacker" but the Healers strongly
disapproved of that.
New monsters:
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal
Schroedinger's Cat
algolian suntiger
leprechaun elder
leprechaun king
nymph queen
giant mumak
young unicorn
Deep Thought
Eddie
bug
heisenbug
PDP-11
PDP-9
VAX
walking disk drive
cray
Douglas Adams
ancient multi-hued dragon
Dragon Lord
baby lich
vogon
vogon lord
Prostetnik Vogon Jeltz
Marvin
Zaphod Breeblebrox
creeping 42
pupil
teacher
principal
blacksmith
Ford Perfect
Arthur Dent
Mr. Prosser
news daemon
printer daemon
UNIX Kernel
babelfish
deminewt
masternewt
geek
The Dev Team
Bill Gates
hacker
The Rogue Monsters:
aquator centaur dragon emu
venus flytrap griffin ice monster kestrel
nymph phantom quagga rattlesnake
xeroc zombie
58 new monsters.
New Objects:
electric sword Nothing special
tooth of an algolian suntiger A very good weapon indeed
gauntlets of typing Nothing special
ring of health Increases Constitution
ring of timely backup See Computer Level
amulet of second chance
The Amulet Of Second Chance is much like the
amulet of life saving, but it doesn't bring
you to max HP again, but only to the HPs you
had before the final hit. Great for those
who think "Well, I have 30HP left. I can
surely take one more hit from that mumak."
amulet of data storage See Computer Level
Schroedinger's Box
This contains a potion of radium + either:
- a live cat + a potion of cyanide
or
- a cat corpse.
What of the two is inside is not determined
until the box is opened.
bag of digestion Eats your stuff
Hitchhiker's Guide t.t. Galaxy see README.DNA
diode,transistor,IC see README.DNA
pack of floppies
They have a random content. If it is MS Windows,
you will get confused if you're a geek and
(a)pply them.
god-o-meter
If blessed, it tells you whether your prayer
timeout has expired. If uncursed/cursed, your
timeout is prolonged.
relay Artifact prototype
bottle see Chemistry below
chemistry set see Chemistry below
Hacker's Food a food ration for geeks
potion of extreme power gives you rn2(10) HP
potion of recovery puts you back to max HP
potion of invulnerability makes you invulnerable
potion of heroism
gives you several intrinsics + invulnerability
for a short period of time.
potion of cyanide kills you
potion of radium makes you sick
potion of Jolt Cola gives you 5 HP up to max
potion of Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster
You can guess that yourself :-)
scroll of mass murder
kills all monsters present of a type, like genocide,
but doesn't prevent future creation of them.
scroll of undo genocide permit creation of a mon again
scroll of reverse identify
This scroll asks you what you want to identify.
You do not need a sample of the item, however. It
suffices to answer with something like "loadstone",
"wand of wishing" or even "smoky potion".
scroll of consecration makes an altar
scroll of root pwd detection see Computer Level below
spellbook of finger like wand of probing
spellbook of chemistry see Chemistry below
wand of acid shoots an acid ray
wand of draining
This takes away from the hit monster half of
its max HP. However, the amount taken is
subtracted from your own HP as well, so care
is advised. This wand is inspired by Angband.
wand of wonder
This does the effect of a random wand class
(with a bias against wishing). This is
inspired by Angband as well.
wand of bugging see Computer Level below
38 new objects.
New Levels:
The Forge:
Here is where the blacksmith Duri lives. (The name
Duri is taken from the short story "Blades" by Sonia
Orin Lyris, published in the Quanta Magazine,
December 1989). He makes artifacts for you, but
it might cost a lot.
The School:
This level is in memorial of my days at school
(which includes today :-). The teachers' names
are verbatim and their character as well. Note
that it is not by chance that this is in
Gehennom.
Computer Level:
This level contains various dangerous computers.
Some objects, namely:
- ring of timely backup
- scroll of root password detection
- amulet of data storage
- wand of bugging
can only be found on this level and will vanish
from your pack once you go up or down. The wand
of bugging creates bugs and heisenbugs, the other
three items only display cute messages.
Key Level:
This level is full of leprechauns and nymphs,
all awake and waiting to steal your stuff. You
will eventually be able to kill the nymph
queen and get the Key Of Access (see below).
Dragon Level:
This level contains the Dragon Lord with his
unique scales.
The Hitchhiker's Level:
In the honour of Douglas Noel Adams and his
works this level has been created.
New Artifacts:
Name Type #invoke Damage A C
~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~ ~
Mumakbane long sword - Fire N -
(vs. mumakil)
Wormbiter crysknife - Phys N -
(vs. worms)
Shocker electric sword - Elec N -
Scales Of The Dragon Lord red dragon scale mail
DRAGON_BREATH C -
Burned Moth Relay relay - - - -
Wand Of Might wand of wishing - - - -
The Key Of Access key CREATE_PORTAL - -
The Nethack Sources pack of floppies
(G Quest Artifact) IDENTIFY N G
8 new artifacts.
Chemistry:
There has been created a way to create potions, similiar
to the blank paper/magic marker combination for scrolls
and spellbooks. Before you can use it, you must have met
the following conditions:
- Read a spellbook of chemistry. Reading it once
is enough - it doesn't wear off like ordinary
spells (save amnesia).
- Have a chemistry set. It corresponds to the
magic marker for scrolls. It is charged and
therefore can be used only a limited amount
of times. Charge diminuation is dependent
on the price of the potion.
- Have a bottle to hold the newly made potion.
It corresponds to the scroll/spellbook of
blank paper.
- Have identified the potion you want to make
(unless you're lucky).
The potion created will be marked as 'selfmade' in the
inventory (and so will be selfmade scrolls, spellbooks
and tins, now). If you quaff a selfmade potion, there is
a chance (luck-dependent) that something bad (posioned
from a mistake in making the potion) will happen.
9. Rationale of some of the new features in terms of Game Balance and
Plausibility
- The Hitchhiker's features (hitch level, "42" room etc.)
None of the features presented herein have any significant use,
with two notable exceptions:
- Eating a creeping 42 corpse making you gain a level
Serious abuse (cursed genocide) is prevented by making
the creeping 42 un-genocideable. Minor spoilage of
game balance is diminushed by making it usually peaceful,
thereby increasing the price of getting its corpse.
- Killing a babelfish gives an extraordinarily high amount
of Xp, usually providing a gain level to lowlevel
characters.
This is included (or, rather, not removed) as an extra
gimmick for those ambitioned enough to find out. As
babelfishes are sufficiently rare, there's no real harm
done.
- Various 'parody' items (compu room, Geek class etc.) that might drive
the game to the point of being ridicolous
Well, NetHack as it is consists of elements taken from many different
authors and fantasies, for example:
- Herbert ("Dune") --> crysknife etc.
- Tolkien ("The Lord Of The Rings") --> elves, orcs, hobbits etc.
- Greek mythology --> Medusa etc.
- other mythologies --> Asmodeus, Juiblex and many others.
All I have done is adding elements taken from other, possibly from more
recent, sources:
- Adams ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy") --> 42, Deep Thought,
Arthur Dent, algolian suntiger etc.
- Computer Folklore --> Geek, PDP-11, UNIX, news daemon etc.
- NetHack itself --> Stormbringer attracting vortices
- myself --> pupil, deminewt, Douglas Adams etc.
I strongly believe that those added things enhance the game a lot. It
certainly does not become ridicolous.
- Ring of Health
Someone on USENET has objected to my ring of health, increasing constitution.
He said that, since Co is only significant when you gain a level, you would
have a permanent gain from wearing the ring only when you're about to go up.
I believe this to be irrelevant, however, since there are many rings doing
exactly this: for example, the extra HP gained by wearing a ring of
regeneration do *not* vanish again once you remove the ring again.
My ring of health fills a niche in which it nicely fits.
- potion of invulerability too powerful?
Come to think of it, it is not really *that* powerful. If you're surrounded
it only delays your fate by several turns. If there's only one mumak (or
Archon) there trying to blast you, it is indeed the most valueable thing
to have, however. But, remember, that it is also very rare and expensive,
so you're not likely to get more that at most one or two per full game.
================================= END OF FILE =================================
