Partial intrinsic
A partial intrinsic is a type of property system that occurs in some variants of NetHack. Under this system, binary intrinsics gained from eating corpses are turned into gradual properties that become more effective as more sources of that property are consumed, with the intrinsic behaving as it does in NetHack once it is fully obtained.
Description
A partial intrinsic property is one that has a certain percentage of it conferred when consuming a corpse that confers the property. The percentage of an intrinsic given is typically dependent on the weight of the corpse: the formula is x⁄90 where x represents the corpse's weight, with a minimum of 5% (1⁄20) resistance is granted if the corpse weighs less than 450 aum. For example, a fire giant corpse has a 1⁄2 chance, or 50% percent of conferring fire resistance normally - in a variant with a partial intrinsic system the fire giant confers 25% (1⁄4) of additional fire resistance. Once a partial intrinsic property reaches 100%, the intrinsic takes effect as it does in NetHack unless the property is lost.
The general impact of a partial intrinsic property system is that extrinsic sources of properties become much more valuable and used by characters, at minimum for complete protection against certain types of damage in the earlier and even middle stages of the game - variants that additionally have object properties systems offer a much wider range of build options throughout all stages of play.
Implementations by variant
SporkHack
In SporkHack, the following intrinsic properties are partial:
- fire resistance
- cold resistance
- shock resistance
- poison resistance
- sleep resistance
- disintegration resistance
- telepathy
EvilHack
In EvilHack, the following intrinsic properties are partial:
- fire resistance
- cold resistance
- shock resistance
- poison resistance
- sleep resistance
- disintegration resistance
Partial intrinsics are a factor in the following effects:
- Instadeaths from poison no longer occur if a character reaches at least 35% (7⁄20) poison resistance.
- Disintegration by gaze is not an instadeath if a character has 5% (1⁄20) disintegration resistance and disintegration by other means is not instadeath if a character has at least 50% (1⁄2) resistance - in both cases, they still take significant damage.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, the following intrinsic properties are partial:
- fire resistance
- cold resistance
- shock resistance
- poison resistance
- sleep resistance
- disintegration resistance
Partial intrinsics are a factor in the following effects:
- The threshold for safety from instadeaths by poison is lowered to 25% (1⁄4) poison resistance.
