User:Metanite64/MetaHack
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MetaHack is a variant of NetHack 5.0.0 developed by MetaNite64, borne out of spite and frustration over the presence of generative AI tools in the development of other variants.
https://github.com/MetaNite64/MetaHack
New Roles
Brainstorming
- Alchemist: a role heavily focused on potion use in and out of combat.
- auto-identify potion BUC?
- never causes alchemical blasts, random alchemy is much more likely to give you a random potion
- start with an alchemy smock and like 5-10 random stacks of potions (maybe always start with a stack of healing)
- new Alchemy skill? Warns against quaffing dangerous potions at higher skill levels, improves chances for thrown potions to hit enemies
- new potion brewing system? Dip alchemical ingredients (maybe mold corpses?) into potions of water (and/or other potions to upgrade/modify them) to brew other potions (similar to gem alchemy but based on the potion's effect, and with a time delay?), improves with Alchemy skill upgrades
- Quest artifact: The Philosophers' Stone, a chaotic artifact amethyst that can be #invoked to polymorph yourself, a single object/stack in your inventory, or a pile of objects on the ground adjacent to you. Grants polymorph control, magic resistance, and hungerless regeneration when carried. Additionally, when #invoking on a potion, you may choose to transform the potion into the Elixir of Life instead of randomly polymorphing it. This effect also occurs (including setting the invoke timer) if you #dip it into a potion or a stack of potions.
- The Elixir of Life is a special potion that does not naturally generate (or maybe a special artifact potion of full healing that can appear infinitely many times?). Alchemy with the Elixir of Life always produces more of the Elixir of Life, overriding color or random alchemy. The cursed Elixir acts like a blessed potion of full healing. The uncursed Elixir additionally cures all the ailments that a unicorn horn can cure, plus wounded legs. And the blessed Elixir will cure sliming or stoning if you are affected by it, or grant invulnerability for (undecided) turns if you are not being slimed or stoned.
- Guaranteed sacrifice gift: The Emerald Tablet, an unaligned artifact scroll of knowledge. Reading the Emerald Tablet will always grant knowledge of every potion's randomized appearance if you don't know it already, and will not use it up. #invoking the Emerald Tablet will let you fill an empty bottle with any potion of your choice, like a magic marker (but without the chance of slipping) (see the Empty Bottles section below).
New Items
- Potion of ESP: similar to the item of the same name in SLASH'EM, a blessed potion of ESP grants 150-199 turns of temporary intrinsic telepathy. An uncursed potion instead grants 200-299 turns of temporary warning, and a cursed potion afflicts the player with a mind blast. 2% chance to appear in the dungeon, 250 base price.
Brainstorming
- Potion of antimagic: A blessed potion of antimagic grants 200-299 turns of temporary magic resistance, while an uncursed potion gives 300-499 turns of half spell damage. A cursed potion instead creates and immediately triggers an anti-magic field on the quaffer's position. 1% chance to appear in the dungeon, 300 base price.
- Potion of phasing: similar to the item of the same name in NerfHack, a blessed potion of phasing gives (undecided) turns of temporary phasing, while an uncursed potion only gives (undecided) turns. A cursed potion instead causes you to phase through the floor, randomly falling 1-3 dungeon floors (or burying you if you are unable to go down). 1% chance to appear in the dungeon, 250 base price.
- Scroll of knowledge: similar to the one from SpliceHack, this scroll reveals various forms of knowledge to the player. The cursed scroll identifies itself ("This is a scroll of knowledge! It sure is nice to learn something new."), the uncursed scroll randomly identifies 1-5 random object appearances, and the blessed scroll lets you name 3-5 objects to identify their random appearances. Reading the scroll while confused gives you enlightenment ("You learn a lot about yourself!").
- Portalstone: new very rare magical gray stone; #rub (or apply) it on your bare hands (flavored as rubbing it between your hands) to create a magic portal on the current square (will fail if the player is on a no-teleport level). The stone is now keyed to that portal, and can be #invoked to instantly return there (as long as the appropriate type of teleporting is allowed). Artifact invoke timer applies. Attempting to re-enter the created magic portal causes you to get a feeling about where the keyed portalstone is, in case you lose it (if it's on the level, you can hear it chime, and if it's in sight, you can see it glow. In your inventory it vibrates). Inspired by the portal stones from UnNetHack.
Potion alchemy
The vanilla alchemy recipes are (will be) removed. Instead, a color alchemy system is (will be) implemented, with all randomized potion appearances adjusted to represent colors (milky and smoky potions remain, as they both can be considered shades of gray). Similar but not identical to the color alchemy patch. Currently unimplemented.
| Base color | Light | Dark |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Pink | Ruby |
| Red-Orange | Vermilion | Cinnabar |
| Orange | Apricot | Brown |
| Yellow-orange | Amber | Butterscotch |
| Yellow | Lemon | Golden |
| Yellow-green | Chartreuse | Asparagus green |
| Green | Emerald | Forest green |
| Blue-green | Cyan | Teal |
| Blue | Sky blue | Ocean blue |
| Blue-purple | Mauve | Grape |
| Purple | Lavender | Royal purple |
| Red-purple | Magenta | Amaranth |
| Gray | Milky | Smoky |
| Colorless | White | Black |
Potions are never the base color, only a light or dark variant.
Recipes
- Any light potion can be mixed with the black potion to obtain the dark version of the same hue.
- Any dark potion can be mixed with the white potion to obtain the white version of the same hue.
- The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.
- The secondary colors are orange, green, and purple, and can be obtained by mixing the appropriate primary colors.
- The tertiary colors (red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, and red-purple) can be obtained by mixing the appropriate primary and secondary colors.
- light + light = light, dark + dark = dark. light + dark will produce the brightness of the potion being dipped into, not of the potion being dipped.
- Similarly, dipping a white potion into a black potion produces a smoky potion, and dipping a black potion into a white potion produces a milky potion.
- Importantly, color alchemy does not dilute potions.
- Any potion-dipping that does not trigger color alchemy simply acts as random alchemy like before.
Empty Bottles
Quaffing a potion will prompt you to save or discard the empty bottle, which goes in the Junk section of the inventory. You can also #tip a potion to spill it and get the empty bottle without drinking it. Thrown potions always shatter.
You can write with a magic marker on the label of an empty bottle, which causes it to magically fill with liquid. There is always a chance for the marker to slip and produce a different potion ("The marker slipped on the glass! The bottle fills with [color] liquid/a potion of [something]..."). Assuming that doesn't happen, writing a random appearance always works, while writing the type of potion is only guaranteed to work if you have that potion identified.