jcg (06/28/82)
For some time now we have watched this newsgroup and the discussions contained herein with interest. Some of the "folklore" that passes over this network is quite amusing -- some of it is even quite true. Recently, a series of gripes and explanations concerning Rogue's Floating Eye have been exchanged. We waited patiently for Ken Arnold to respond, but since he appears to be unhearing, we will break our long silence on the subject. By now you should all be asking, "who are these condescending jerks?" There are two of us, actually, and we consider ourselves a minor source of Rogue development. From somewhere (I actually don't know where) we obtained an early version of the source. This stuff dated from around version 3, I believe. Being software jocks, we immediately tore the code apart and reassembled it to our liking. We instituted a number of different things and made some extensive modifications because we felt the game was too easy to win. We communicated nearly all of our ideas back to Ken with the hope of influencing the "official" version in some fashion. The latest version I have seen (5.2) does include a few of our ideas, although not that many. Anyway, what I have been getting at is the Floating Eye question. We agreed with most of you in thinking that the Floating Eye's ability to put you away for good was unfair. We argued this point extensively with Ken and offered a solution which we have built into our local version. He listened, but apparently thought better of our idea. In 5.2 rogue the Floating Eye (when awake) can transfix you for a short period of time (about 5-10 rounds) during which time the "nocommand" variable is advanced. Unfortunately, the Eye gets to extend the transfix time EVERY turn if it hits you. This means that with any bad luck at all, you will get transfixed forever, since "nocommand" is decrement far less often than it is incremented. In earlier versions, your terminal just got hung, but after we argued with Ken about this, he "demured" and in 5.2 your rogue eats food all the time he/she is transfixed, so eventually you starve (unless another critter shows up and ends the game mercifully). Our solution, which is in our local version, but not in 5.2 was to change the rationale behind how an Eye works. We made our Eyes transfix you longer (about 20 turns) but gave them only two chances to retransfix you (once on the turn before the transfiction ends and once on the turn after it has worn off, but before you can move). While our Eyes are still dangerous and the good roguist deals with them carefully, this scheme has made battles with Eyes both less deadly and more interesting. I have often seen roguists get transfixed and untransfixed several times, miss and hit the Eye several times and still survive. We have made alot of other (more significant) changes to our version and have built-in all the best new features that 5.2 brought us. For a number of reasons we are reluctant to offer it for anything other then local use here, but I would be willing to discuss its features with anyone. Jim Grams cbosgd!jcg Bob Flandrena cbosgd!bob P.S. Sorry about the length of this item. In the future I won't have to include all the explanation.