Talk:Candelabrum of Invocation

Candle life span

The spoilers say candles burn only half as long on the candelabrum. I think their life span gets halved each time you turn the thing on. Am I reading the source correctly? Apply.c, line 899 --Tjr 00:07, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Looks like it according to the source, however wizard mode testing gave some odd results:

• Timeout, current turn
• 230, 106 - 124 turns
• 131, 108 - 23 turns
• 142, 109 - 33 turns
• 119, 110 - 9 turns
• 123, 112 - 11 turns
• 118, 113 - 5 turns
• 116, 115 - 1 turn

Which is a very odd set of results, and I got a set of results similar to this a second time. The time was drastically reduced after the first toggle, but somehow increased twice during the test. Wax candles seem to always have a life of 325 turns, so even the first time was a drastic cut.

Other notes: The /2 isn't done if you're on the vibrating square, so I believe the most life you can get out of it is to activate it once there and only there. It might be possible to snuff them, go into the sanctum, and then relite them on the downstaircase when you have the amulet; I can't say I've ever tried to perform the invocation twice.

And finally something very fun happened while testing this both times: The final timeout was set for a single turn, so when I went to lite it again it let me (since I still had one turn of light left), but then set the remaining time to 0 (1 / 2 = 0). Line 899 doesn't check to make sure the time isn't being set to 0, nor does it round up on the division. The result was that I could not light the candelabrum (not even on the vibrating square), but I also couldn't attach any new candles because the candelabrum was full. I'm pretty sure that if this happened in a normal game it would be unwinnable. -- Qazmlpok 01:07, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. Congrats to finding one of the rare ways to make the game unwinnable! -–Tjr 01:10, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Ok, updated this page and light sources to correctly mention that the time is cut in half each time. Also, it is possible to avoid this cut by lighting the candelabrum on the vibrating square after the invocation is completed (the other two items check to make sure you aren't standing on stairs, i.e. the ritual is complete). I also figured out why the timeouts were fluctuating like that; the timeout isn't always set to expire at +age turns, as earlier timeouts must be set for 75 turns before expiration and 15 turns before expiration to give the "candles going low" messages. So the very first reported timeout was "expire in 199 turns, but give a message in 124", which adds up as 199 is half of 400, minus one turn for lighting it. I've also confirmed the unwinnable bit in SLASH'EM wizard mode now, so it definitely isn't just a fluke from Vulture's Eye or anything. -- Qazmlpok 17:10, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Possible Reference

I thought this might be a nod to the bell, book and candle required to enter Hell in Zork, given the age of the game. --121.73.146.144 11:58, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

No longer lose weight of candles attaching to candelabrum

In my current 3.6.1 game I was unencumbered, I took 7 candles from BoH and became encumbered. I attached the candles to the candelabrum and stayed encumbered. I made a small modification to the Strategy section of the page reflecting this.

--Froon (talk) 06:45, 12 May 2018 (UTC)