User talk:Tomsod/YANIs and patches

Wand of make invisible idea

This is pretty interesting and provides a good use for the wand after the player's already gotten themselves permanently invisible, fixing the zap-once-and-never-use-again issue. I have some concerns about it on Astral: by secret-door-ifying the (initially locked) doors there, you could prevent all monsters, even the Riders, from getting through them. If that can be fixed somehow, since there's a patch provided I'd possibly add it into xNetHack. And I'll also mention it to AntiGulp in case he's interested in adding it to SpliceHack as well. --Phol ende wodan (talk) 23:08, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

Actually I did think about that! It doesn't work on Astral plane at all. ("The door momentarily fades.") But note that my patch is buggy. In particular, you should incorporate the fix to this bug once either the Devteam writes or I write it myself (I'd prefer the first outcome). As it stands now, you can turn a shop door invisible, then break it down, and shopkeeper won't charge you because of the bug. Tomsod (talk) 08:18, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

#bite idea

This is an idea that has done the rounds but in practice I fear there is less need for it than one might think. Ordinarily if you are being actively attacked the eating process will be interrupted after one turn anyway (which means lizard corpses normally are multiple-use) and if you aren't you probably wanted to eat all of your lembas wafer anyway. You should bring K-rations not because they take only one turn but because you probably don't have an unlimited supply of lembas.

Changing lembas's time to eat to 3 turns would make K-rats superior in one respect; more nutrition/time, potentially useful when fighting Famine or casting very nutrition-intensive spells. Pinkbeast (talk) 22:42, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Well, if you say so! I usually switch to a lembas-only diet as soon as I can polypile enough meatballs, so I was only going by what I read on the wiki. There's some advice here that apparently doesn't apply to my personal circumstances (e.g., it's stated often that Rodney can and will steal your quest artifact so you can never rely on it -- but I always wand of death him as soon as he appears, so I just don't see what the problem is; but maybe for less prepared players it's more relevant), and I've assumed it was one of those cases. Tomsod (talk) 19:57, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Good catch; I've corrected K-ration and lembas wafer. Polypiling meatballs (or, I guess, the heaps of useless C-rats) is ingenious but indeed not common practice.

I'm not sure I would be that sanguine about the quest artifact, though; any given zap can miss... Pinkbeast (talk) 20:42, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

If I can position myself so that a rebound is possible (happens fairly often, esp. in the Gehennom mazes), the chance of hitting the Wizard on either the direct hit or the rebound is 82%. Since I also usually have speed boots and over -50 AC, I am unlikely to suffer even if I miss the first time. Further, the theft attack always steals the Amulet first, and if I face Rodney I probably already have it, so that's a safety buffer. (I suppose if he appears right after the invocation I won't, but I tend to wield a rubber chicken for the Sanctum (if I can detect the pit in advance), and the chicken surely won't miss.) And if all else somehow fails and the Wizard is now magic-resistant and I am not, I still should have a few "oLS and potions of paralysis. MR doesn't protect from paralysis and subsequently being stabbed to death. Tomsod (talk) 21:18, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

That all seems prudent, and indeed there is no chance of missing with maxed Luck etc. Pinkbeast (talk) 22:06, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Bite could be abused to eat most of a corpse that gives a negative intrinsic upon finishing the corpse, like bat/stalker stun or teleportitis. There is also the case where the player is stunned but may not be under direct attack, like a booby trapped door or a slow gnomish wizard. --Luxidream (talk) 21:03, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Fair enough. I suppose it's amendable by having a X% chance for the special effect after eating X% of the corpse, but I see now why the option is absent in vanilla. Tomsod (talk) 21:18, 3 September 2019 (UTC)