kneller@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Don Kneller%Langridge) (01/23/86)
In article <618@tymix.UUCP> stimac@tymix.UUCP (Michael Stimac) writes: >Several weeks ago I posted the outcome of a game in which I had >retrieved the amulet, only to find out upon leaving the dungeon >that it was a cheap, imitation amulet, worth only a couple of Zorkmids. > ... >I had read a scroll of mapping to find the Wizard and his Hound. > ... >In the middle of the moat I noticed an "@" which I did not go near. Someone had been on the maze level before you and had died (drowned I suppose). Magic mapping shows ghosts as '@', even on normal levels. The previous player left a bones file. However, when HACK creates the bones file, if there is an real amulet on the level the amulet is made into a cheap imitation. Whenever you go to a different level, HACK checks if you've been there yet. If not, 1 time out of 3 HACK checks for a bones file. If there is a bones file, you get put on that "ghost" level. If neither of the cases are true, HACK creates a new level. If the real amulet has not yet been created, when you arrive at a level lower than 29 and HACK must *create* a level, it creates a "moat" level and notes that the amulet has been created. However, since you landed on a ghost level, the real "moat" level has not yet been built and the real amulet has not yet been created. If you'd have walked up the stairs to level 38, and if HACK didn't find another bones file, you would have again seen a "moat" level, but the amulet on this level would have been the true amulet. -- Don Kneller UUCP: ...ucbvax!ucsfcgl!kneller ARPA: kneller@ucsf-cgl.ARPA BITNET: kneller@ucsfcgl.BITNET