Difference between revisions of "Mail daemon"

From NetHackWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(mail daemon creation on special levels (bug))
(Added info regarding NAO's mail system.)
Line 23: Line 23:
  
 
When an item of mail needs to be delivered the daemon is placed on a square just out of sight of the player, rushes over to the location of the player (pushing anything in its path temporarily out of its way, exclaiming "Gangway!", "Pardon me!", "Excuse me!", etc.), hands the scroll to the player ("<Hello>, <player>! I have some mail for you." - it will "throw" the scroll to the player with an exclamation of "Catch!" if it can't maneuver next to the player for some reason), rush back to its starting square, and disappear.  This all takes place within the space of one turn.
 
When an item of mail needs to be delivered the daemon is placed on a square just out of sight of the player, rushes over to the location of the player (pushing anything in its path temporarily out of its way, exclaiming "Gangway!", "Pardon me!", "Excuse me!", etc.), hands the scroll to the player ("<Hello>, <player>! I have some mail for you." - it will "throw" the scroll to the player with an exclamation of "Catch!" if it can't maneuver next to the player for some reason), rush back to its starting square, and disappear.  This all takes place within the space of one turn.
 +
 +
On [[nethack.alt.org]], a user may observe other user's games. It is then possible to communicate to the player by means of this mail. The player, however, cannot send mail back to the spectator, but often the # command is used to display messages to the observing user. The player does not need to enter the command, as the observer will see the message be typed in.
  
 
It is possible to create a mail daemon by means of wishing for a [[statue]] of it which can then be re-animated by casting [[stone to flesh]].  This is largely useless, as the resulting mail daemon will disappear in one turn ("I'm late!") unless you attack it, in which case it will disappear if you step away from it.  Killing a mail daemon will automatically (and silently) [[genocide]] mail daemons, preventing future mail delivery.
 
It is possible to create a mail daemon by means of wishing for a [[statue]] of it which can then be re-animated by casting [[stone to flesh]].  This is largely useless, as the resulting mail daemon will disappear in one turn ("I'm late!") unless you attack it, in which case it will disappear if you step away from it.  Killing a mail daemon will automatically (and silently) [[genocide]] mail daemons, preventing future mail delivery.

Revision as of 04:23, 25 August 2011

The mail daemon is ostensibly a monster in NetHack, but has extremely peculiar properties and appears rarely. Its primary function, as its name suggests, is to deliver mail to the player.

When an item of mail needs to be delivered the daemon is placed on a square just out of sight of the player, rushes over to the location of the player (pushing anything in its path temporarily out of its way, exclaiming "Gangway!", "Pardon me!", "Excuse me!", etc.), hands the scroll to the player ("<Hello>, <player>! I have some mail for you." - it will "throw" the scroll to the player with an exclamation of "Catch!" if it can't maneuver next to the player for some reason), rush back to its starting square, and disappear. This all takes place within the space of one turn.

On nethack.alt.org, a user may observe other user's games. It is then possible to communicate to the player by means of this mail. The player, however, cannot send mail back to the spectator, but often the # command is used to display messages to the observing user. The player does not need to enter the command, as the observer will see the message be typed in.

It is possible to create a mail daemon by means of wishing for a statue of it which can then be re-animated by casting stone to flesh. This is largely useless, as the resulting mail daemon will disappear in one turn ("I'm late!") unless you attack it, in which case it will disappear if you step away from it. Killing a mail daemon will automatically (and silently) genocide mail daemons, preventing future mail delivery.

A mail daemon can be created when creating random demons on a special level. This is bug C343-415. These mail daemons will immediately disappear as soon as the player moves.

Mail daemons will not appear if MAIL is undefined when compiling the game, or if the mail option is set to false.

Encyclopaedia entry

It is rumoured that these strange creatures can be harmed by
domesticated canines only.


Origin

On Unix-like operating systems, a daemon is a program that runs in the background, performing various tasks such as managing log files, performing timed maintenance tasks or answering incoming network connection requests. The program responsible for receiving mail and dispatching it to the correct location is commonly referred to as the mail daemon.

External links