News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by pvaldes on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @07:06PM (#32258247)
And it feels so good...

Nethack is notoriously unfair with the player, and not a really winnable game. The player can be killed at any moment without allowing a single defensive move. If I think that the game was cheating, I act accordingly.

The other option is the exploring mode (X), when you can't be killed, but I find that is boring.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by Natsu on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @07:28PM (#32258440)
Oh it is a winnable game, I ascended several times after reading a lot of detailed spoilers. You just need a lot of strategy (and spoilers) or an early wand of wishing. Preferably both.

Neutral Wizard blessed PYEC, blessed Orb of Fate, blessed magic marker, +3 blessed greased SDSM, BoH, +3 fireproof speedboots, +3 greased fireproof cloak of magic resistance, write out +ID, ?charging, get your Magicbane or better Greyswandir, etc.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by pvaldes on Thursday July 28, 2022 @07:28AM (#32262919)
> "It seems that you are having a hard time eating this yeti corpse? stop eating?"

No

> "You choke on your food and die after 20200 moves"

> "It seems that you are having a hard time eating this dragon corpse? stop eating?"

Hum... yes?

"You choke on your food and die after 40678789 moves"

Well, this is simply ridiculous.

In the last 20 years playing nethack, consulting the oracle, reading the wiki, and learning, I reached gehennon... once. This is like the 30% of the game or so. Don't even reached a quest. After a while, solving sokoban and gnome mines by the 800 time is just... meh; Wesnoth is better.

The game would greatly benefit of something like: You lose 70 of your 71 points just descending the stairs into a bones level and become stressed, unable to move and surrounded by enemies. This is your last point, do you want to try something?

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by Natsu on Thursday July 28, 2022 @04:40PM (#32269840)
If that's what is killing you every time, then get a blessed tinning kit and stop eating random corpses like that. Or at least wear an amulet of magical breathing while you eat.

Or if you want to be really fun, polymorph into a Xorn or whatever and eat a few amulets of magical breathing to gain it as an intrinsic.

https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Amulet_of_magical_breathing

Generally just go through your death list and find what is killing you then look at how to avoid that. Eating random corpses late game is pretty much always a mistake, you should have normal food to rely on in your bag of holding and a blessed tinning kit from the mines for intrinsic granting corpses.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by pvaldes on Thursday July 28, 2022 @05:48PM (#32270498)
Well, is a long list...

I think that I was even killed by a lichen once

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by Natsu on Thursday July 28, 2022 @08:28PM (#32271710)
Yes, there are a ton of ways to die. Part of making an ascension kit is checking them off one by one. You can see that my wizard would have reflection, MR, grease to avoid mindflayers and drowning monsters (though blessed ?geno on LhV; makes life much easier), etc. Naturally I'd use that blessed magic marker to write every spellbook, the PYEC can recharge all the things and I take half damage. If I get Greswandir from sacrificing, I can get up to basic proficiency, otherwise I'd best stick with magicbane which is easy to get.

Get your levels up, your stats up, your resists covered and it's mostly just a slog at the end because turns take forever when 30 monsters want a piece of you.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by eru on Thursday July 28, 2022 @12:37AM (#32260536)
Wizard isn't even the easiest class to ascend.

Wizard just has perhaps the easiest endgame, but that part tends to be easy enough with any class for a well-spoiled player. Wizards have a relatively hard early game.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by Natsu on Thursday July 28, 2022 @04:36PM (#32269804)
Yeah, but they're the best for ascending an early !oW I think.
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by GolfPopper on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @07:47PM (#32258601)
>not a really winnable game

Um, it's quite winnable. It's much easier to win once you've been thoroughly spoiled (either via investing a large amount of playtime or reading spoilers), but it's quite possible to Ascend (win) through extensive preparation and brute force. The number of truly unavoidable, single-move deaths, particularly in the mid-to-late game is a very tiny part of the whole gamespace (as witnessed by the many, many players who win without anything more than knowledge of the game). And wearing an Amulet of Life Protection will save you from most of those.

Veteran players (at least, back when there was Usenet), would regularly refer to Yet Another Stupid Death (YASD), called such not because it was unavoidable, but because it was avoidable if the player had not made an easily avoidable mistake.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by jankins on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @07:42PM (#32258560)
> not a really winnable game

It’s totally winnable! The player almost always has a chance to avoid death. Deaths are usually due to missing knowledge or laziness/impatience. The knowledge is really really hard to gain without wikis, and I absolutely wouldn’t have ascended without wikis, but reading them added another layer of fun for me.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by eru on Thursday July 28, 2022 @12:36AM (#32260531)
Huh? I've ascended quite a few times, and I am soo far from being the best player.

It's totally winnable. It's your job as a player to avoid getting into situations where you don't have 'a single defensive move'.

(It's not the best game ever, nor is it the most fair game ever. True. But almost all games of Nethack are winnable, if you are careful enough and learned enough about the game.)

If ascended a tourist and a healer and an archaeologist and quite a few of the easier classes, too.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by tubs on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @07:17PM (#32258334)
The game is notoriously fair, given the fact there are players who have runs of some hundred ascension or so.
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by klyrs on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @07:46PM (#32258590)
It's perfectly fair. Merely unforgivingly difficult (I've never quite gotten my hands on the actual amulet). You can always read the source.
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by linuxlizard on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @07:19PM (#32258359)
I hacked the code, built my own version so I wouldn't take damage. I still kept dying of starvation. That game does not mess around.
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by omegaham on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @11:41PM (#32260249)
You can #pray for your god to fill your stomach if you are Weak or worse.
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by praptak on Thursday July 28, 2022 @12:20AM (#32260454)
Gods are notoriously stupid though when "helping" you. C'mon Thoth, uncursing of the stupid boots? I'm dying of hunger here!
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by eru on Thursday July 28, 2022 @12:38AM (#32260543)
Just play in explore mode?
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by handoflixue on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @07:46PM (#32258592)
> The player can be killed at any moment without allowing a single defensive move.

Technically true, but there are always moves you could have done prior to avoid being in that situation. Part of the game is knowing what protections you need to have before advancing deeper into the dungeon.

Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by phonepostingsux on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @09:25PM (#32259355)
With the exception of the legendary early gnome with a wand of death - sometimes the game just hates you.
Re:You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes by cwillu on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @10:14PM (#32259718)
Some players just need killing.