green@osu-eddie.UUCP (jeffrey greenberg) (02/13/86)
I've played rogue (ultra, super, 5.*) and just started playing hack version 1.0 (december 1984). It's got a dog... Tell me about the dog... How do you talk to him... or what does he do? Does he distinguish between poisoned food or not...(he seems to eat good food and leave bad stuff...but one animal of species seems to be poison and another of the same species seems not...???) Give me some clues... Does the dog fetch good things from the shopkeepers? Can the dog be told not to attack the leprechans (is there anyway to stop them from robbing you blind)... why do shopkeepers get angry other than not paying them? Tell me about engraving things. Is the dog that important? Is there another vicious dog? Is there some way not to get splashed by the acid blob other than wearing leather armor - but what about protecting your weapons from acid? Is there some general strategy? Should one just plunge downward at the earliest opportunity? And how much are those gems worth? (I ask for all these spoilers because I only have access to this game for only a short period and I'd like to see what its about... and as ken thompson says (roughly), "the serious use of computers IS games." never below level 4, jg ps: mail me please. -- jeffrey greenberg 614-263-0065 cbosgd!osu-eddie!green and after march 15: ihnp4!allegra!phri!dolphy!jmg
falk@sun.uucp (Ed Falk) (02/17/86)
The dog is *very* useful, it can save your ass. To start with: the dog will usually attack monsters. Early in the game, I let the dog take on all of the tough ones rather than risk my own hide (but if you do this, the dog gets the experience points, not you). As the dog kills monsters, it accumulates experience just the way you do, and that makes it very formidable as the game progresses. As the dog eats, it gets larger -- progressing from "little dog" to "dog" to "large dog". The dog won't step on cursed objects, this is how I test an object before wearing it. The dog likes to pick things up and bring them to you. You can rob a shop this way. I often sell the same item back to the shopkeeper several times this way. Some dead things are always poisonous in some way (Kobolds for ex.). The dog will never eat an always-poisonous animal. Pay attention to what the dog never eats. This is not to say that everything the dog eats is good for you. The dog needs to be fed just as you do. If it gets hungry enough, it can become confused and accidently attack you. A well fed dog will not eat food rations, a hungry one will get them before you can. There are whistles that will call the dog. The dog will follow you up/down stairs iff it is right next to you when you ascend/descend them. DONT leave the dog alone on a different level too long, if you do, it will forget you and stop fighting for you. It will also not accept food from you anymore, AND (most importantly) if you should accidently hit it, it will turn on you and attack to the death. This problem seems to be worse when there's a ghost on the level you left the dog at. When you die, the dog remains on your level along with your possesions and your ghost. The next person to come along will have to fight it. A full grown dog can be very dangerous and mean. When you enter a level and find an alien dog, there's probably a ghost there somewhere. Give your dog a name so you can distinguish it from alien dogs. Dont use the same name every time. Rumor has it that the dog can be trained, but I've never met anyone who knew how. other notes Leprechauns wont rob you unless you're carrying gold. Whenever I see a leprechaun, I leave the room, drop the gold and go back to fight it. Leprechauns can't teleport until they've robbed you, but thay can run away. When you drop your gold, hide it or the Leprechaun will find it while running away from you. Shopkeepers don't get angry when you rob them, they just follow you around nagging you. They get angry when you hit them. When that happens, they don't forgive you and they're *very* strong. Being followed by a shopkeeper is very dangerous because the chance of accidently hitting them is high. Never go down a dead end with a shopkeeper following you, because then you'll have to fight (and die) to get out. To avoid damaging your weapon when attacking an acid blob, either use your bare hands or use a throwing weapon (such as arrows etc.). This latter method protects you too. Dont plunge down too fast, there's some really nasty stuff down there. As a general rule, I never go below level three unless I have twice as many experience points as the the level I'm at. After that, I try to have as least as many experience points. If you fall through a trap door, get back up as soon as possible -- especially if you've left the dog behind. By the way, if the dog falls through a trap door, it usually (always?) goes into that mode where it doesn't recognize you. I usually try to kill all the monsters on a level before I go down to the next one. This isn't all that import though, as new monsters keep getting generated at whatever level you're at. now for some questions of my own.. How do you wield a cockatrice without getting turned into stone yourself? How do you get past invisible force fields? What do you do when an eel is attacking you from the water (you can't attack back, because the eel might swim away and you'd drown yourself)? -ed falk, sun microsystems
utrupin@yale.ARPA (Josh Trupin) (02/17/86)
Summary: Expires: Sender: Followup-To: Keywords: In article <3246@sun.uucp> falk@sun.uucp (Ed Falk) writes: > now for some questions of my own.. > >How do you wield a cockatrice without getting turned into stone >yourself? > -ed falk, sun microsystems Try wearing gloves... Also, make sure you don't carry too much, because if you're wielding a cockatrice and you fall down the stairs, it might fall on you. Then you die. Josh Trupin trujose@yalevmx.BITNET No more ARPA/UUCP for a while...
ptraynor@bbnccv.UUCP (Patrick Traynor) (02/18/86)
In article <3246@sun.uucp> falk@sun.uucp (Ed Falk) writes: > now for some questions of my own.. > >How do you wield a cockatrice without getting turned into stone >yourself? How do you get past invisible force fields? What do you >do when an eel is attacking you from the water (you can't attack >back, because the eel might swim away and you'd drown yourself)? > > -ed falk, sun microsystems You must be wearing gloves to wield a cockatrice. The only invisible force field that I know about is the one that is created when Hack cannot write to the directory where it saves the current dungeon level when you try to go down to a new level, and a message like: 'A mysterious force prevents you from going down' appears on the screen. Several things to do with eels... If you can see invisible (wear the proper ring, or previously eat an Invisible Stalker) you can see, and therefore attack, the eels. If you have a wand of fire, you can evaporate the muddy pools, thus forcing the eels onto land, where you can see them, and force them to fight you on YOUR turf! The only problem that you are trying to overcome with eels, is not knowing if they are in the pool that you attack. If they are, you hit them...fine. If they aren't, you swing and fall into the vacant pool...and drown. --pat traynor--
andrew@hammer.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (02/20/86)
[]
"DONT leave the dog alone on a different level too long, if you
do, it will forget you and stop fighting for you. It will also
not accept food from you anymore, AND (most importantly) if you
should accidently hit it, it will turn on you and attack to the
death. This problem seems to be worse when there's a ghost on
the level you left the dog at."
You can make the dog friendly again by throwing it food. Tripe rations
are best, but food rations will work as well. You'll see the message
"<Fido> devours the <food>"; the word "devours" lets you know that Fido
wasn't as friendly before but is now.
This works for any dog, not just the one you start with. You can
befriend a ghost's dog. You can even befriend the Hell Hound, who will
then fight for you!
"Leprechauns can't teleport until they've robbed you, but thay
can run away."
When they're running away, they will teleport (randomly) about once in
40 times.
"Shopkeepers don't get angry when you rob them, they just
follow you around nagging you."
This is great when you are wearing a ring of conflict. The shopkeeper
will trash pretty much any monster that tries to bother you. If it's a
really *big* monster and he trashes the shopkeeper, you can pick up his
gold without having lost luck by killing a human yourself. Of course,
you then have a *big* monster to deal with.
To avoid getting stuck in a dead end with a shopkeeper blocking the
way, you should only do this if either you can teleport or you have a
pick-axe.
"How do you wield a cockatrice without getting turned into
stone yourself?"
Wear gloves.
"How do you get past invisible force fields?"
You are only told about invisible force fields when there's a system
problem, such as a full disk preventing the creation of a new level
file. Check with your system experts.
"What do you do when an eel is attacking you from the water
(you can't attack back, because the eel might swim away and
you'd drown yourself)?"
Wear a ring of see invisible and you can see the eel in the pool. You
can also attain intrinsic "see invisible" ability by eating a dead
invisible stalker while invisible (via the potion).
All this is true of hack version 1.0.3.
-=- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew) [UUCP]
(tekecs!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay) [ARPA]