Chat

From NetHackWiki
(Redirected from Whickers)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is about the in-game extended command. For the IRC channel, see Libera.

#chat is an extended command in NetHack that enables talking to a monster.

Description

Using this command will normally prompt the player to select a cardinal direction, and if there is a monster on that adjacent square, then the hero will attempt to talk to them.[1] If the hero is blind, they must also be able to see the monster, or at least their current location, to attempt chatting in that direction. The command can be aborted at the prompt without using up a turn.[2]

The hero cannot chat at all if they are polymorphed into a silent monster, or if they are being strangled, currently engulfed, currently underwater, or deaf.[3] Attempting to chat up (<) or down (>) will simply print YAFM with no effect and does not use up a turn.[4]

Chatting only uses up a turn if the hero chats to a monster and a response from that monster is printed. This normally does not include any messages indicating that the monster cannot respond, i.e. if it is sleeping, paralyzed or otherwise immobile[5]—additionally, if the monster is deaf or silent, then no response will be printed and the hero's turn is not used.[6][7] However, there are a small handful of exceptions:

  • A hero that chats to a steed they are riding while the steed is asleep or immobilized will still use up their turn.[8]
  • A hero that chats to an aligned priest will cause the priest to respond even if they are sleeping or immobile[9]—this will use up a turn as normal, but it also restores their mobility and turns them hostile, regardless of if they were in their temple or not.[10][11] Aligned priests also behave differently in many other ways from the average monster that a hero can chat to.
  • A monster that is in a "waiting" state (e.g. a quest leader upon entering the Quest branch for the first time) is not fully immobile and thus will be able to respond to a chatting hero.[12] This uses up the turn as normal. Most such monsters will begin moving when the hero chats to them, unless the monster is a pet that is in the middle of eating.[13]

Special cases

There are several cases where chatting to a specific monster will produce additional effects or function in different ways from normal chatting.

Foocubi

Chatting to a foocubus that is the opposite sex of the hero will initiate an encounter with it, regardless of whether the foocubus is tame, peaceful or hostile. See the monster's article for details on encounters and their outcomes.

Hallucinatory responses

Monster responses when chatting to a hero will generally remain the same even if the hero is hallucinating when they chat, although there are a couple of cases where chatting while hallucinating produces responses that normal chatting will not:

  • If a hallucinating hero chats to a monster that either is a gecko or has the appearance of one, the game will print YAFM based on a GEICO slogan[14][15]—this will also happen with a 1⁄2 chance if a hallucinating hero chats to a shopkeeper.[16][17]
  • A hero that talks to a gnomish monster while hallucinating will get YAFM as a response from the monster based on a gnome-related gag from South Park.[18]

Shops

If the hero is in a shop, they are not blind, and they are standing on an item or stack of items that is not gold, then chatting will cause the shopkeeper to describe the item's price and use up a turn without any prompt occurring:[19] this only works if the shopkeeper is present, is not hostile and is capable of responding (i.e. they are not polymorphed into a form that cannot speak).

Temple priests

Main article: Temple services

If a peaceful aligned priest is not immobile or scared, and they are tending to a temple that is not desecrated, then a hero with gold in their inventory can chat to them in order to donate for services such as intrinsic protection and clairvoyance.[20] Chatting to a temple's priest will also break atheist conduct.[21] See the linked section on the aligned priest's article for more details.

Strategy

This command can give amusing results (see vampires for an example) and is occasionally a hindrance (for example, when chatting with skeletons), but it also has a number of practical uses.

  • Using #chat when standing on an item in a shop will tell you its price. Picking the item up will give the same information, but may be unwise to do (for example, a scroll of scare monster might turn to dust, and the shopkeeper will ask you to pay for it).
  • Since chatting to monsters will generally produce the same range of responses even if the hero is currently hallucinating, chatting can be useful for a hallucinating hero to tell monsters apart with (e.g. any monster that purrs or yips must be your pet cat or dog), though it uses up your turn to do so.
  • Chatting to your quest leader will cause them to roam about. This is useful if you want to get certain quest leaders such as Shaman Karnov or Neferet the Green off their thrones before you have quest permission—being (very) fast can help in that regard.
  • Talking to a monster hit with a sleep spell, a wand of sleep ray, or a potion of sleeping can tell you if it is actually sleeping—but beware if it wakes up that turn!
  • Talking to an appropriate-sex foocubus to initiate an encounter can be useful if you are trying to consort with one that cannot reliably hit you (e.g. through strong AC levels). Be mindful to check whether other hostile monsters are in the vicinity before you do, though!

Pets

Talking to your pet can give you information about its welfare, dependent on its nutrition and tameness levels:

  • When their tameness is less than 5, kittens and their growth stages will yowl, while little dogs and their growth stages will whine, and ponies and their growth stages will neigh. For cats and dogs, these messages also appear when confused, scared, or trapped. Dogs also whine when hungry, while cats will meow and horses will whinny.
    • Tame dogs and cats also have special messages for being particularly non-hungry (yipping and purring respectively)—if none of the other cases apply, cats will mew, dogs (other than dingos) will bark, and horses will whicker.
  • Humanoid pets will vocalize their hunger when chatting to them. They will ask for a potion of healing when chatting to them at less than half of their HP, and moan in pain when chatting to them at less than 1⁄4 of their maximum HP.

Aligned priests

  • If you decide to donate nothing ("Thou shalt regret thine action!"), you lower your alignment. If you accidentally chat to a priest but do not desire any services, then donate just 1 zorkmid - this will prompt the priest to simply call you a "cheapskate" with no other effect.
  • If you have no gold in open inventory and are co-aligned, the priest will instead "give you two bits for an ale" (two zorkmids) if they have any gold, or one bit if they only have that; they will "preach the virtues of poverty" if they have no gold.
  • #chat-ting to a peaceful aligned priest outside of a temple or inside a desecrated (converted) temple makes them hostile - this is usually the product of a bones file.

Dangers

Chatting can be detrimental or even dangerous in some situations, many of which usually occur when the hero is blind or hallucinating and you are trying to distinguish your surroundings.

  • #chat-ting with a skeleton paralyzes you for a short time; free action does not prevent this.
  • #chat-ting to a shrieker causes it to shriek, which will wake up all monsters on the level—this can have especially bad repercussions if it attracts the attention of something you want to avoid fighting (e.g., soldier ants or a sleeping nymph). Note that shriekers are mindless, so they will not appear if you are blind and have intrinsic telepathy.

Variants

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, as a Convict you can #chat with sewer rats to pacify and tame them.

References

  1. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 985: dochat() function
  2. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1024
  3. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 991-L1010
  4. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1037-L1040
  5. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1081-L1087
  6. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1099: call to domonnoise()
  7. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 502-L505: cases for dead and silent monsters in domonnoise()
  8. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1029-L1032
  9. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1081
  10. ↑ src/priest.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 551-568
  11. ↑ src/priest.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 559-563: response printed if a sleeping or immobile priest was made hostile this way
  12. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1090
  13. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1092-L1097
  14. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 520: checks mon_is_gecko()
  15. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 471-L488: mon_is_gecko() function
  16. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 519-L521: comment notes "slight chance to interfere with shopping"
  17. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 541-L549
  18. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 808-L819: joke explained by the comment that composes most of the highlighted lines
  19. ↑ src/sounds.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 1012-L1021
  20. ↑ src/priest.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 592-L644
  21. ↑ src/priest.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 542
Retrieved from "https://nethackwiki.com/index.php?title=Chat&oldid=200958"