Deferred and defunct features (SlashTHEM)

SlashTHEM was once a variant of Slash'EM Extended v75 - from the v0.8.0 release up until v0.9.3 and 0.9.4, a "Great Cleanup" occurred that either reverted or removed many of those features in order to bring the game much closer to vanilla SLASH'EM, though with some influence from earlier versions of Slash'EM Extended remaining, and subsequently iterate from that point. Some of these removed and reverted features from Slash'EM Extended still remain in the code in a partial form - these deferred and defunct features for SlashTHEM are listed below.

For the sake of brevity, this article will focus on features that still have code in the most recent post-"Great Cleanup" version; as of this writing on October 5th, 2022, the latest version of SlashTHEM is v0.9.7.

Quests and artifacts

These racial quests and artifacts from SLASH 6, as well as their associated monsters, were originally deferred in SLASH'EM and removed at some point during SlashTHEM's lifespan; they were reintroduced in commit c1f38b8 and slated for possible future use. SlashTHEM currently has a Lunatic role that acts as a successor to the lycanthrope starting race - as Lunatics use the lycanthrope's racial quest, their quest artifact, leader, guardians, and nemesis are all unchanged.

All the listed features below are defunct unless marked otherwise.

Race	Quest	Quest artifact	Quest leader	Quest guardian	Quest nemesis
Doppelganger	Doppelganger quest	The Medallion of Shifters	Master Shifter	Shifter	Transmuter
Drow	Drow quest	The Tentacle Staff	Lolth	drow†	Earendil
Dwarf	Dwarf quest	The Arkenstone	Thorin	dwarf warrior	Smaug
Gnome	Gnome quest	The Pick of Flandal Steelskin	Ruggo the Gnome King†	gnome warrior†	Lareth
Hobbit	Hobbit quest	The One Ring	Bilbo Baggins	proudfoot	Gollum
Lycanthrope	Lycanthrope quest	The Staff of Withering†	High Lycanthrope†	Fiend†	Sir Lorimar†

(^†) Not defunct

Starting races

While many of the starting races from Slash'EM Extended were cut, some still have remnants of code left behind, and some others that are present in SlashTHEM were renamed and still retain some of their previous traits.

Asgardian

The Asgardian was a playable race that, among other things, had a 30% chance to gain a random intrinsic the first time they reached a given experience level.

Gigant

The gigant was a starting race that corresponded to playable giants; they were renamed to "giant" in SlashTHEM v0.9.3-0.9.4.

Ogro

The ogro was a starting race that corresponded to playable ogres; they were renamed to "giant" in SlashTHEM v0.9.3-0.9.4.

Trollor

The trollor was a starting race that corresponded to playable trolls; they were renamed to "troll" in SlashTHEM v0.9.3-0.9.4.

Starting roles

While many roles were removed, some roles previously in Slash'EM Extended are still present in the code of SlashTHEM; two roles in particular were deferred pending a complete rewrite, according to comments by the developer. Quest nemeses tied to some of these roles can be found within the code of monst.c as well.

Goff

The Goff was a role derived from My Immortal, an infamous Harry Potter fanfiction known for its convoluted narrative and constant digressions, and commonly cited as one of the worst works of fanfiction ever written; the work has also been speculated to be a satire or elaborate "troll" hoax. The work's author self-identified as "Tara Gilesbie" - this name was used for the Goff quest nemesis, T, who still exists within the code of monst.c in SlashTHEM.

Psion

The Psion was a role that does not seem to be related to the Psions of ZAPM, and is slated for a potential rewrite in the future.

The data of monst.c contains entries for the Psion quest leader and quest nemesis: the leader is the Psi Master, @, and the nemesis is Master Sabrina, @. Master Sabrina may be based on Sabrina, a Psychic-type Gym Leader from the Pokémon franchise.

Pokemon

The Pokemon was a role with a signature poke ball technique that it could use to try and tame monsters, and is slated for a potential rewrite in the future. The poke ball technique had an increased chance of working on monsters with the M3_PETTY and M3_POKEMON tags, both of which are also unused in SlashTHEM, and references to the technique exist in the role's deferred data and a few other files within the game.

The data of monst.c contains entries for the Pokemon quest leader and quest nemesis, as well as the quest guardians: the leader is Dr. Wusiji, @, the nemesis is Ho-Oh, B, and the guardians are Pokemon trainers, @.

In the Pokémon franchise, Pokémon trainers are people who catch the eponymous monsters to collect them and/or battle alongside them; the poke ball technique is meant to simulate the Poké Balls used to catch and store Pokémon. Ho-Oh is based on the legendary Pokémon of the same name from the franchise, while Dr. Wusiji is the name used for [1] in Pokémon Vietnamese Crystal, a bootleg of one of the games infamous for its poor translation job.

Zyborg

The Zyborg was a role that gained random techniques from leveling up, among other traits. Their quest nemesis is Master Brain, @, who still exists within the code of monst.c, and is based on the Masterbrain from Fallout 3.

Techniques

Of the techniques that were introduced in Slash'EM Extended, only a handful remain. Four of them - appraisal, booze, create ammo and world fall - are still listed among the defined techniques inherited from Slash'EM Extended in include/tech.h, with a reminder to possibly remove them at some point. However, the booze technique is still actively used, and serves as the signature technique of the Drunk role - the others are among the unused techniques listed below.

Appraisal

Appraisal is a technique that was available to nearly every race; unlike create ammo and worldfall, the functions of the technique were preserved, but are not used by any race or role in SlashTHEM.

Using this technique would allow you to determine the enchantment value or amount of charges for your currently wielded item. Its main use was for weapons, though their enchantment could also be determined via the weapon practice technique on occasion; upon appraising a weapon, there would be a 200-turn timeout, and if used on something other than a weapon, it would take about 2000 turns instead. This timeout would still apply if the wielded item could not have an enchantment value or any amount charges (e.g. potions), or if the enchantment or charge amount was already known.

Create ammo

Create ammo is a a technique that was available to a few roles, including the Pokemon. The technique would add (techlevel+1) bullets to the inventory, unless it was full; every individual bullet had its own chance of being blessed, cursed or having a random positive or negative enchantment. After use, the player would have to wait a random time in order to use it again; the timeout was usually around 500 turns.

Invoke deity

Invoke deity is a commented-out technique that was available to nearly every race; when used, it would hurt or heal you based on your alignment record. A positive alignment record resulted in healing and decreased timeout for prayer, while a negative alignment record resulted in taking damage and increased prayer timeout - if you alignment record was exactly zero, nothing happened. Using this technique broke atheist conduct, and had a timeout of about 3000 turns; negative effects would not (further) anger your god.

World fall

World fall is a technique that was available to a few roles, including the Pokemon. The technique would kill all monsters on the current level, hostile and otherwise, with a level is lower than the technique's level; unique monsters and quest nemeses were immune. The actual number of turns after which it became reusable was random, but usually it took at least 10,000 turns to recharge.