Talk:Engraving

Stones

It appears to be possible to {E}ngrave 'Elbereth Elbereth' in 1 turn using a soft gemstone in vanilla. This is in conflict with the description on the main page and if corroborated, should be updated to reflect true behavior.

This is my first comment on this wiki, so excuse formatting issues if I screw it up. --Kaeroku (talk) 22:39, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

Soft gemstones will write in the dust. Hard gemstones will cut into the stone, making semi-permanent engravings. It should say something like "You write in the dust with the <x>". See the quality section on the page. -- Qazmlpok (talk) 12:07, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Athames

It appears to be possible to (E)ngrave 'Elbereth Elbereth' in 1 turn using a noncursed athame or Magicbane. Dunno why, though. Bug? --Renx 10:16, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, according to the code the duration of your engraving is (chars/10) , which is rounded down due to C behaviour. So you can basically go for 19 chars per turn with any fast method. --Renx 10:20, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Edited the article to reflect this finding. --Renx 10:26, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Naming

The #name command is certainly related to engraving, even if only partially. It certainly rises to the level of deserving a mention on this page. An in-game message speaks of your hand slipping while engraving the #name on the object if you are exploiting the artifact naming bug. It is difficult to understand the behavior of object names in Nethack outside of making some kind of distinguishing mark on the object itself. The mechanics are entirely different from the engrave command, but that's Nethack.

(comment left by Ckbryant on 15:34, 6 June 2008 according to talk page history --Rogerb-on-NAO 21:54, 6 June 2008 (UTC))

Please sign contributions on talk pages.

It's only related in that they are both forms of internally stored writing and the message mentioned happens to use the word "engrave". The current wording on the page implies there is some underlying link in game mechanics. As you note, there is not. Since the message mentions engraving however, it is reasonable to mention it on this page. I suggest the wording of the note is changed to:

• When you name an item, it is possible to get a message such as "While engraving your hand slips." The mechanics of engraving and naming are separate and quite different; the message is part of an internal mechanism to preserve the unique naming of artifacts. This is certainly a special kind of engraving, because it is absolutely permanent and requires no tool at all!

Unless there are objections, I will do so shortly.

--Rogerb-on-NAO 21:54, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Suggested message edited --Rogerb-on-NAO 10:16, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

That certainly seems like a good compromise to me. I happily support it.--Ckbryant 16:56, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Cool. Done. --Rogerb-on-NAO 10:26, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Charged Wands

Anyone know how many charges are used up for wands? Also, is there some limit on how many letters you can engrave, or is it a cost per number of letters? AileTheAlien 03:21, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

In vanilla, it should cost one charge regardless of how many letters you write. NetHack Brass however requires one charge per letter plus one charge overhead plus one charge if it's a wand of fire (or lightning presumably. Getting this info from Elbereth#NetHack brass) -- Qazmlpok 03:38, 13 January 2011 (UTC)