Mail daemon
& mail daemon 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 26 |
| Attacks |
None |
| Base level | 25 |
| Base experience | 1 |
| Speed | 24 |
| Base AC | 10 |
| Base MR | 127 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 0 (Not randomly generated) |
| Genocidable | Not through normal means (see article) |
| Weight | 600 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | Fire, Cold, Shock, Sleep, Poison, Stoning |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A mail daemon:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line2773 |
A mail daemon, &, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The mail daemon is a unique demon-like monster that has many unusual properties, some of which are related to its very specific purpose of delivering mail to players.
A mail daemon has no attacks.
Contents
Generation
The mail daemon is not randomly generated, and is not a valid form for polymorph.
On multi-user systems where the MAIL compile-time option is defined, the mail daemon will deliver a scroll of mail when the player receives an email. Reading the scroll will typically launch the user's preferred mail reader. After closing the reader, the player may continue their game. On a public server, users observing another player's session may be able to send messages to that player. The message is displayed in the in-game message bar when the scroll is read.
MS-DOS and Amiga are single-user operating systems with no built-in mail support. On these platforms, a mail demon will appear every 2000-5000 turns, delivering a scroll with a meaningless "junk" message.
It is possible to wish for a statue of a mail daemon, which can then be re-animated by casting stone to flesh.
Mail daemons will not appear if MAIL is undefined when compiling the game, or if the mail option is set to false. If MAIL is not defined, any attempts to reference them within that game (e.g. wishing for a statue, generating them in wizard mode) will treat them as a non-existent monster; the encyclopedia entry for mail daemons will still be present. The official Windows binaries do not define MAIL.
Delivery
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 their location and moving through any monster in its path - upon reaching the player, it hands them the scroll, rushes back to its starting square and disappears. If it cannot maneuver next to the player for some reason, it will "throw" the scroll to the player. This all takes place within the space of one move: as the mail daemon is capable of flight and swimming, can see invisible, and is unbreathing, it can deliver mail in any environment.
On public servers such as nethack.alt.org, a user may observe other users' games and communicate with them by sending mail. The player cannot send mail back to any spectators, but the # command can be used to type arbitrary messages visible to them .
Strategy
While the mail daemon themselves will not factor in the strategy of a mass majority of players, some seek out ways to successfully kill them, primarily for bragging rights. The only way to do this is to stone to flesh a mail daemon statue, as mentioned above - the resulting mail daemon will normally disappear in one turn unless attacked, and if you step away from them after attacking, they will also disappear. A player looking to kill the mail daemon must do so quickly, keeping in mind that they possess all forms of elemental resistance and move at twice the speed of an unhasted player character.
Killing a mail daemon will automatically genocide them with no announcement, breaking genocideless conduct and preventing any further mail delivery for the duration of that game.
The services of mail daemons can also be used to generate scrolls of mail for certain somewhat-niche purposes, such as using them to propel yourself while levitating.[1]
History
The mail daemon first appears in Hack 1.0.2. From this version to NetHack 2.3e, it uses the 2 glyph.
In NetHack 3.4.3, a mail daemon can be created when creating random demons on a special level; these mail daemons immediately disappear as soon as the player moved. This was bug C343-415.
Origin
The mail daemon and its default tile are a pun on computer "daemons": a daemon is a program that runs in the background of Unix-like operating systems, 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" - this is why the mail daemon of NetHack appears as a demon in a postal worker outfit. The encyclopedia entry also makes a reference to the stereotype of dogs attacking postal employees.
Daemon-like programs in the Windows world are commonly referred to as services: while most Windows machines lack a "mail service" program analogous to the mail daemon, mail daemons are still present on modern Unix-like operating systems, including Linux and MacOS. Mail daemons virtually never handle user email, though some internal programs (such as cron and sudo) still use the mail daemon to send administrative messages to shell users.
Messages
- Gangway! Look out! Pardon me!
- The daemon pushed past another monster.
- Excuse me.
- The daemon pushed past you to get to a square near you.
- This place's too crowded. I'm outta here.
- The daemon left because it couldn't get close enough to you.
- <Hello>, <player>! I have some mail for you.
- The daemon delivered a scroll of mail.
- Catch!
- The daemon couldn't get next to you, so it threw the scroll from a distance.
- I'm late!
- A mail daemon that was not generated via normal means disappeared from the level.
Variants
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, in addition to delivering mail, the mail daemon can also deliver one scroll of mail per game containing a hint if the hints option is enabled. This "helpful hint" behavior has earned the mail daemon the nickname "Unclippy - the helpful hint daemon"; this is a pejorative reference to the infamous Microsoft Word "helper", Clippy.
Encyclopaedia entry
It is rumoured that these strange creatures can be harmed by
domesticated canines only.
External links
- Spam — A short story centered on the mail daemon of NetHack written by Virgo Vardja
- Mail daemons in the Extinctionist Spoiler
