[net.games.hack] killing ghosts in hack

ugthomas@sunybcs.UUCP ( Timothy Thomas) (02/06/85)

=-=-=ugthomas ghost hits...=-=-=

alright...How do you kill a ghost in hack.  I can tell you then number
of times I have been killed by them (or for that matter my own ghost).

I have tried everything, and always miss.



-- 
...Tim Thomas

...{burdvax, rocksvax, bbncca, decvax, dual, rocksanne, watmath}!sunybcs!ugthomas


Remember......
	Only you can prevent software piracy.

neves@uwai.UUCP (02/06/85)

> =-=-=ugthomas ghost hits...=-=-=
> 
> alright...How do you kill a ghost in hack.  I can tell you then number

  Usually you can just bash on a ghost if you have good strength and
a good weapon.  If you don't have good wands, strength, etc. then make
sure you don't get into a deadend passage.  Ghosts are either somewhat
confused (or slow) so you can outrun them.  They also leave their
treasure behind, so you can do an end run, gather it all up, and exit
that level.

  As far as fortune cookies...I never used to get them either.  Then I
stop killing my dog right away.  Does this have something to do with the
"luck" attribute people talk about?  I don't know if it is a valid correlation.
After you eat the fortune cookie a message will appear.

  Note:  I found the amulet on the 26th level under a boulder.  The 26th
level was horrible, one big maze.  What is beyond the 26th level?  More
mazes?  I only found the amulet because I found and quaffed a potion of
object detection.

-- 

...!{allegra,heurikon,ihnp4,seismo,uwm-evax}!uwvax!neves
neves@uwvax

holly@dartvax.UUCP (Holly Cabell) (02/08/85)

> alright...How do you kill a ghost in hack.  I can tell you then number
> of times I have been killed by them (or for that matter my own ghost).
> I have tried everything, and always miss.
> ...Tim Thomas
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WI**AUGHHHHH**TH YOUR MESSAGE ***

  The first time I ran up against a ghost, I was very lucky.  I had a
sword, had eaten a Leppy and was about 3rd level.  I just kept 'hacking'
away at the ghost.  I think I had a regen ring, or something, because
eventhough we were hitting eachother fairly frequently and he hit for
2 or 3 pooints each time, my hit points went down very slowly.  Then,
just as I was going below 15 hps, I teleported and by the time I found
my way back, I was back up near full points, and started hacking
again.  I teleported twice before I finally killed it, though.

The next time I found a ghost, I was only second level, and there were
two ghosts there, by the same name.  I confused me a little, and by the
time I got it straightend out, they had killed me.  Oh well.
--johnc at [the.world] ! dartvax ! holly

geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) (02/14/85)

Ghosts are apparently kept in files with names of the form "bones_nn" where
nn is the level the ghosts are on.  I have had bones files go away of their
own accord.

-- 

	Geoff Kuenning
	Unix Consultant
	...!ihnp4!trwrb!desint!geoff

jeff@alberta.UUCP (C. J. Sampson) (02/16/85)

In article <337@desint.UUCP> geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) writes:

> Ghosts are apparently kept in files with names of the form "bones_nn" where
> nn is the level the ghosts are on.  I have had bones files go away of their
> own accord.

  This is true.  What happens is that there is a small chance (I don't know
how much, I haven't looked at the source) that when someone dies they will
become a ghost.  The entire level is then saved in a file called bones_XX
where XX is the number of the level.  When someone enters level XX, there is
a chance that rather than getting a new level, they will get the ghost level
instead.  If they die, they will become part of the ghost level.  I have had
levels with as many as four ghosts.
  After a certian amount of time (it may be random, I don't know) the level
will be outdated.  Someone will go down there, and then hack will give a
message saying somthing about the level being outdated (I can't remember
exactly what it says) and will throw away the bones_XX file.
  I hope that this helps anyone who is interested.  I also welcome any
corrections.

liang@cvl.UUCP (Eli Liang) (02/17/85)

> Ghosts are apparently kept in files with names of the form "bones_nn" where
> nn is the level the ghosts are on.  I have had bones files go away of their
> own accord.
> 
> -- 
> 
> 	Geoff Kuenning
> 	Unix Consultant
> 	...!ihnp4!trwrb!desint!geoff

*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
The bones files go away when all the ghost on that level have been killed.
Interesting question of the day: What happens when bones_27 or such is
copied into bones_01 or bones_02?  Anyone know?  Do people suddenly become
confronted with nurses and demons on level 1?  If bones_27 is copied into
bones_01, does screw up all the following levels for those players?

-eli

-- 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eli Liang  ---
        University of Maryland Computer Vision Lab, (301) 454-4526
        ARPA: liang@cvl, eli@mit-mc, eli@mit-prep  CSNET: liang@cvl
        UUCP: {seismo,rlgvax,allegra,brl-bmd,nrl-css}!umcp-cs!cvl!liang

robert@gitpyr.UUCP (Robert Viduya) (02/18/85)

><
Posted from  jeff@alberta.UUCP (C. J. Sampson)
>   After a certian amount of time (it may be random, I don't know) the level
> will be outdated.  Someone will go down there, and then hack will give a
> message saying somthing about the level being outdated (I can't remember
> exactly what it says) and will throw away the bones_XX file.

Actually, I believe the 'outdating' of files done by comparing the modification
time on the program binary file and the save file.  This prevents the program
from going crazy if presented with a file that was saved with a previous ver-
sion of the game.
				robert
-- 
Robert Viduya
Georgia Institute of Technology

...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,masscomp,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!robert
...!{rlgvax,sb1,uf-cgrl,unmvax,ut-sally}!gatech!gitpyr!robert

geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) (02/23/85)

I guess I wasn't clear.  When I said I have seen bones files go away of their
own accord, I really mean that -- I didn't kill the ghosts (I never have),
and they didn't get out of date (the modification times were within a few
hours, and in any case I got no out-of-date message).  I am on a single-user
machine, so nobody else could have killed the ghosts either.

One possibility is that the saved level goes away when too many ghosts are on
it.

A bit of advice -- if you do encounter a ghost, don't retreat towards an
upwards staircase ("<").  When you get killed near the staircase, you join
the ghost, and the next person down the stairway gets attacked by two ghosts
(and probably two dogs).  Frequently the end result is four or five ghosts
clustered around the stairs, and when you descend, they hit so hard and often
that you die before you can do anything.  The only solution I have found is
to keep trying until the bones file goes away of its own accord (usually no
more than 5 or 6 games).
-- 

	Geoff Kuenning
	Unix Consultant
	...!ihnp4!trwrb!desint!geoff