[net.games.rogue] Ghosts in HACK...

dan@rna.UUCP (Dan Ts'o) (01/08/85)

Hi,
	How do you get rid of those ghosts in HACK ? They are among the
most annoying monsters... The only saving graces are that they can be
blinded and they move relatively slowly.
	Am I also right that not only do you get the ghost of a previous
player, but that along with it comes (often) its dog and all the monsters
in that level where the player died (as well as piles of objects left by
the dead player).
	Several time I have entered a level only to be surrounded by orc,
as barely escaping, find not one, not two, but three ghosts after me along
with many (say three) times the monsters that normally appear on a level.
And the worst is to be trapped between several ghosts which seem unkillable.
(makes sense, I guess). Also more often than not, the escape door down is
covered by junk, making very hard to discover an escape downward.

					Dan

albert@harvard.ARPA (David Albert) (01/09/85)

> Hi,
> 	How do you get rid of those ghosts in HACK ? They are among the
> most annoying monsters... The only saving graces are that they can be
> blinded and they move relatively slowly.
> 	Am I also right that not only do you get the ghost of a previous
> player, but that along with it comes (often) its dog and all the monsters
> in that level where the player died (as well as piles of objects left by
> the dead player).

> 					Dan

As a caveman, down on about level 8, with strength of 18/02
(I ate some spinach) I had no problem killing ghosts and in fact
polished off three in a row quite nicely.  Their dogs, I am glad
to say, were no longer around; the old dogs do stay around on
occasion, but not always, it seems.  After killing the ghosts,
I ended up with about 20 scrolls, 20 potions, and 20 rings more
than before.  I like ghosts!
-- 
"...sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things
before breakfast."

David Albert
ihnp4!ut-sally!harvard!albert (albert@harvard.ARPA)

red@ukma.UUCP (Red Varth) (01/14/85)

Wands of death, wands of fire, wands of cold, wands of polymorph (be careful 
with these), and teleport-away are the most effective in dealing with ghosts.

As far as them being the ghosts of previous gamers, you're right about that.
I believe it remembers whether or not you had a dog, and if you did, it keeps
that around too.

Ghost loot: weapons and armor are almost certainly cursed. Wands usually don't
have very many charges. (some have none). I think the ghost wanders around on
the level where the player died. The best things about ghosts are that they're
slow (and if you have a staff of Slow Monster....).

Wands of magic-missile don't seem to be effective. If I remember right, it
said "The magic-missile goes through the ghost--More__" Or something like
that.

				Hope this helps,
					Red (ukma!red)