Worthless piece of glass
*         
| |
|---|---|
| Name | worthless piece of <colored> glass |
| Appearance | <colored> gem |
| Damage vs. small | 1d3 |
| Damage vs. large | 1d3 |
| To-hit bonus | +0 |
| Weapon skill | sling |
| Size | one-handed |
| Base price | 1 zm |
| Weight | 0 |
| Material | glass |
A worthless piece of glass, known simply as worthless glass, is a type of gem that appears in NetHack. It is naturally made of glass and comes in nine different variants based on their colors: white, blue, red, yellowish brown, orange, yellow, black, green, and violet. Worthless glass appears as a "gem" of the matching color when unidentified.
Generation
Worthless glass is incredibly common among the random gems that can be discovered in the dungeon.
- Of the individual worthless pieces of glass, orange and black glass each make up 19⁄250 (7.6%) of all gems that are randomly generated on the ground, in general shops or as death drops—all other colors of worthless glass each make up 77⁄1000 (7.7%) of all gems that are randomly generated this way. Jewelry shops may also stock worthless pieces of glass.
- Several worthless pieces of glass are buried or embedded within the stone walls of the dungeon during level creation, and occur as early as the very first dungeon level.
- The "Mimic of the Mines" map for Mines' End has seven pieces of worthless glass distributed among the six gem piles created on the level: two pieces of violet glass, two pieces of white glass, two pieces of red glass, and a piece of green glass.
Worthless pieces of glass are always generated as uncursed, with the exception of bones files and fake "bones" generated on some early traps.
Glass golems leave behind 2-8 worthless pieces of glass of varying colors as a special death drop in lieu of a corpse.[1]
Description
All types of worthless glass are considered to be soft gems. Though they have no base cost, worthless pieces of glass that are found in shop will be priced as though they were actual valuable gemstones unless they are identified. Worthless glass does not break under normal circumstances like most other glass items.[2]
Applying a touchstone to worthless glass or rubbing them together will identify the glass if either the touchstone is blessed or the hero is an Archeologist or gnome using an uncursed touchstone.[3] Otherwise, it will always produce scratch marks on the touchstone, with a cursed touchstone having a 1⁄5 chance (20%) of destroying the glass.[4][5]
Worthless pieces of glass can be thrown or fired as weapons, and worthless glass that is used as ammunition this way and hits a monster may mulch and disappear like other projectiles—shooting worthless glass with a sling trains the skill and enables them to be multishot. Worthless glass can be automatically quivered by using the firing command while wielding a sling if the autoquiver option is enabled.[6][7]
Throwing or shooting a worthless piece of glass at a unicorn that is not asleep or otherwise immobilized will cause it to catch the glass, pacifying the unicorn and producing a different message depending on whether or not the glass is identified.
Strategy
Worthless glass is generally not of much use to most heroes, but can still serve some niche purposes: it is the lightest possible sling ammunition that can be carried around, and does the same damage as throwing or slinging a normal rock; some players also keep glass in their open inventory to "catch" the effects of the curse items monster spell. Otherwise, a player that does not seek to use worthless glass can safely leave behind any that they identify. Try to avoid being fooled by high-priced worthless glass when trawling shops for gems!
Glass golems provide a means of reliably identifying worthless glass, since they will always leave behind worthless glass when destroyed. Touchstones trivialize the process of identifying worthless glass, especially once blessed.
History
Worthless pieces of glass first appear in Hack 1.0, where they occur in blue, red, yellow, and green colors: NetHack 2.3e adds white glass and replaces yellow glass with yellowish-brown glass; NetHack 3.0.4 adds worthless pieces of violet glass; and NetHack 3.3.0 reintroduces yellow glass alongside adding orange and black colors. In some of these early versions, the color of the glass does not necessarily correspond to the color of their randomized appearance.
In versions prior to NetHack 3.2.0, including some variants based on those versions, worthless pieces of glass are fragile like other glass objects. A common strategy for these versions involved players gathering a large collection of gems, naming them all "fake blue" or whichever color they desired, placing them in a container such as a chest or large box, and then repeatedly kicking the container to break any worthless glass within until the game stopped printing messages about gems shattering—the surviving gems are confirmed to be valuable. This tactic was nicknamed "kickboxing", and NetHack 3.2.0 fixes this by making worthless pieces of glass non-fragile.[8][9]
Origin
Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals that comprise approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust, and is likely to be the "source" of the worthless glass that can appear embedded in the walls of the dungeon.
Messages
- The <unicorn> catches the <gem>.
- You threw a (valuable or worthless) gem at a unicorn while blind.
- The <unicorn> graciously accepts your gift.
- You threw an unidentified piece of worthless glass at a unicorn.
- The <unicorn> is not interested in your junk.
- You threw a formally identified or type-named piece of worthless glass at a unicorn.
- You make scratch marks on the stone(s).
- You rubbed a piece of worthless glass on an uncursed touchstone.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, three worthless pieces of white glass are generated within The Chamber of Greed in the Lawful Quest during level creation.
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the advent calendar level has several worthless pieces of glass scattered around as a form of decoration during level creation.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, using worthless glass as a focus gem for a lightsaber will always produce a red blade regardless of the color of glass 'gem' used.
Mind flayers and master mind flayers generated in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest) have a 1⁄3 chance of generating with a worthless piece of red glass serving as the focus gem for their lightsaber weapon.
xNetHack
In xNetHack, Archeologists start the game with all types of worthless glass identified.
Dwarf rulers and gnome rulers will not pick up worthless pieces of glass off the ground.
A blessed thiefstone is capable of "stealing" gems, including worthless glass.
EvilHack
In EvilHack, worthless glass is one of the few item types that can be placed inside a bag of treasure.
References
- ↑ src/mon.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 656-L662
- ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2594-L2596: glass items other than armor, artifacts and gems will always return TRUE, while glass gems always return FALSE
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2744-L2751
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2707-L2719
- ↑ src/apply.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 2752-L2757
- ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 392-L404
- ↑ src/dothrow.c in NetHack 5.0.0, line 431-L441
- ↑ dokick.c in NetHack 3.2.0, line 339
- ↑ rec.games.roguelike.nethack @ Google Groups - Kickboxing doesn't work in 3.2.0
