From: ianb@netcom.com (Ian Barkley)
Subject: More suggestions for 3.1
Organization: The Order of Ancient Mysteries
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 00:51:53 GMT

Well, since everyone is giving out suggestions for the next nethack version,
whenever it comes out, here's a few (or maybe a slew :) of my own...

Oh, it's possible that a few VERY minor spoilers follow:









First, to agree with what some other's said: Bags of Holding should be
easier to manipulate. Something like dropping - able to put in any object by
letter, or a bunch of objects by symbol, and be able to take things out by
symbol or all at once. It gets really annoying digging though the bag of
holding for that one thing at the bottom.

I always try to (T)ake off rings or (R)emove armor (or is that the way your
supposed to do it?) - why not just one command for putting on and one for
taking off any item. You might want to keep wield separate, since you change
weapons a lot and this will save you either a keystroke (if it's like a
"wear/wield what? [ ="[)( ]" type command) or a lot of excess items if you
type ? from a "wear/wield what [a-Z ?*]" type command - important for us
2400 baud users. Talking about 2400 baud, any reduction in screen updating
is appreciated. For instance, running could just put you at the appropriate
place when you stop.

Moria-style looks: Moria has a cool thing where you look in a direction, and
it 'looks' at everything in that direction. Much easier than looking at each
monster by positioning the cursor.

I also like the idea of being able to wish for things other than items.
Other wishables might include: 

empowering your god (which would make them happy - like offering a very nice
corpse); 

fixed items like altars, fountains, traps, and maybe even stairs (well, if
you really WANT to waste a wish getting out of Vlad's tower...); 

teleports (even in areas which normally don't allow teleports, though of
course level teleporting with the Amulet should be disallowed - or at least
restricted to one level up at a time (hey, it IS a wish :)); 

intrinsics (yes, you can get most of these by wishing for a corpse, but this
would allow you to get them more directly, and to get intrinsics normally
available only though items directly (water-walking, conflict, regeneration,
protection (adds +2 to AC always), searching, good-luck doesn't time out,
etc.) You might also want to create some useful intrinsic available ONLY
though a wish (see below for a bunch of intrinsic ideas, any one of which
could be wish-only).  Or some really powerful ones could be wish-only, like
automatic mapping (as if you read a scroll of magic mapping on each level),
automatic identifying, resistant to cursing (the Wizard and others can't
curse your items), resistant to curses (cursed items act like un-cursed
ones), perfect memory (spells don't disappear for you and scrolls of amnesia
don't work on you (though cursed ones might take this intrinsic away)), and
so on. Some really powerful intrinsics might be wishable for *only* if you
have a WoW with more than one charge in it, and you get the message 'This a
powerful thing you've wished for...-more- The wand glows brilliantly with the
strain of granting it... -more- The wand explodes!' <damage/stun as per door
exploding or scroll of fire, but maybe with some neat-o magical effects as
the wand's magical energies are freed> and then the intrinsic's message.
Other ways of getting wishs will just give you 'That is beyond even my
powers' or 'I'm not THAT grateful' and then the creature will ask you for
another wish, give up on this foolish mortal, or attack you, depending on
your luck & charisma. WoW with 1 or 0 changes will explode without giving
you the wish, or only have a % chance of doing it.)

luck - gives you a permanent +x to your luck

curing (fixes a bunch of problems like the ones that praying can fix, like
strangulation, being petrified, hallucination, sick, lowered abilities,
lycanthopy, being non-human, low hit points, etc, etc); 

polymorph (into a particular form - esp. back to human - again you can do
this by wishing for a ring of polymorph control and then a wand 'o
polymorph, but this would save wishes (and also be less powerful, since you
won't have permanent control)); 

blessing (takes all items in your possession up one step on the
cursed/uncursed/blessed scale, or at least uncurses all cursed items.); 

enchanting: Ups all items you're wearing/carrying by +1; or one item by like
+5 or more (only safe way to get a weapon past +8).

knowledge: gives a complete list of intrinsics and their basic descriptions,
useful for people who have several wishes and want to see what intrinsics
are available. Subject to explore-mode abuse, though.

a map: All levels ALREADY VISITED are mapped.


Other suggestions which I'd really like to see:
First, it is really annoying when you go though the whole dungeon and some
things just NEVER appear. Most of them are items you can get by just waiting
long enough (and/or repeatedly killing a troll who will show up, it seems,
with more items each time); but the chief annoyance is when you never get a
shrine (or whatever they're called - the things with the priests/priestesses
where you give lots o' money). It would be nice if there was always at least
ONE per game - it is hard to win otherwise. Perhaps when the game starts, a
variable like "iShrineLevel" could be set to be between 20-30, and whenever
a new level is created, have it check the variable, and if the level being
created is equal to iShrineLevel, a shrine WILL appear. If you wanted, this
could be de-set when a shrine is created on any previous level, so this is
only a safety-net. 

Also, the way pools (}) are handled is annoying. You walk in and BANG! you're
dead. I can't even try to get out, even if I'm wearing no armor? For that
matter, how did this pool of water deep enough to drown a man form in the
middle of a flat room, while there are dry spaces next to it? How can one
identify boots of water walking. OK, so my idea is that there are three
types of 'water-filled areas' - puddles, shallow water, and deep
water/moats. Puddles (< 1' deep), which are mostly what form from
overflowing fountains, do nothing but get your feet wet. (Of course, this
can rust your boots if they're not water-walking, and it will identify boots
of water walking.) Jumping in a puddle can destroy the puddle or form more
around it. Shallow (1-3') water can normally be walked though safely, but it
can rust boots, armor, and maybe weapons that aren't being wielded. If you
are polymorphed into a low-to-the-ground form (scorpion, spider, xan, grid
bug, etc, etc, etc,), or you collapse under your load, or you wearing those
boots of slipping, you CAN drown in these. Shallow water is created when the
level is made. Deep (6'+) water can either be created with the level (like
the moat around the castle) or when an overflowing fountain is in the same
room as a pit.  Entering deep water without protection or shallow water
under the conditions above may cause you to drown - you get a chance based
on your load (verses your max. load - people who are too heavily loaded to
get up the stairs have no chance), dex, and maybe stunned/confused-ness to
get out of the pool before you drown. Even if you don't drown, all your
items have a small, but noticeable, chance of rusting, and you always get out
the way you came in (unless you were already on the water-filled square when
whatever made you almost drown - levitation failing, polymorphing to a small
creature, slipping, etc).  Other ideas include water-filled rooms, deep
water 'eating' items (anything smaller than a boulder dropped in deep water
vanishes), etc. Maybe even underground streams ('passages' which can only be
swum - water walking/levatation doesn't help because there's no air above
the water) or a level of hell like that. Also - pools of oil. Anyone
entering one will start to slip (like the boots) - if you fall down in one,
your hands become slippery, like eating deep-fried food, and your weapon may
become slippery, as well. Getting hit by any flame, using flame, etc will
cause the pool to go up in flames, causing great damage to anyone
standing/lying in it. Of course, #dipping rings (even cursed ones) in the
pool may cause them to slip off, while making your hands slippery.

An 'auto-recover' program, suitable for being put in an /etc/rc file, which
would recover any games being played when the system went down, and send
mail to people if the games couldn't be recovered, and delete the xlock
files. This would be nice so that system crashes don't kill your characters
(of course), and so that systems that look at the lock files and say 'Too
many hacks running now...' if there are too many sets of lock files don't
require constant attention by the sys-admins. I don't know if it would be
possible to recover from sudden system crash fully, but even if you could
recover to the last time you entered a level, but this would be better than
nothing. If you think this would be abused too much, you could recover into
explore mode.

Some random weirdities which I think would be neat:
More intrinsics - some of these a powerful, and might be available only via
wish or a god's good will. I think there should be some NOT available by
corpses or items, but only through special means:

Paralyzation resistance: I don't know if this exists or not, but if not, it
should. (I'VE never seen it.)

Flight (ring of flight): Like levitation, but you can reach things on the
ground, go down stairs, etc.

Sensitivity (wish & pray only?): Like the thing priests have of knowing the
blessed/cursed status of items. 

Magic Sensitivity: Any item which is 'magical' tingles as you examine it;
and gets a (magical) in front of it in the inventory, unless something
better is known about it (i.e. that it's +3). 'Magical' items might mean:
any weapon/armor with a plus OR minus OR special ability; any amulet except
the cheap plastic imitation (the real Amulet might tingle strongly or
something); all potions except slime mold juice, poison, liquor, sickness,
and water (maybe hallucination and confusion, too?); all scrolls except
blank paper; all wands (fully charged wands get a strong tingle, 0 charge
wands get a weak tingle); all rings except adornment; luckstones & load
stones; bags of holding and tricks; magic lamps; unicorn horns; etc. I'm not
sure if you would want to include blessed/cursed items in the list. Also,
items hit with a rust trap really shouldn't 'become magical', but on the
other hand, we don't want to have bad stuff that's found (-3 cursed sword)
be too obvious, so maybe cursed items should get magical. Examining things
might take too long, so maybe this should just produce a (magical) in front
of items when you find them.

Good memory (mage's hat (those tall, pointy things) - which gives no AC
bonus): Spells take longer to forget. 

Probing: (Low prob. off floating eye corpses, some amulets, or maybe only
wishes) Any monsters you look at with / list as if you had used a wand of
probing on them. 

Reserves of Strength: You can carry REALLY heavy items, (half again as much
as your normal carrying capacity) but only for a few turns, then you get the
intrinsic 'tired', which lowers your carrying capacity below normal.

Airy aura - (from potions & wearing ring of air): water doesn't get too
close to you - you are always surrounded by air. You can walk through
water-filled areas without drowning, and without having anything rust. Even
rust traps won't affect you. But you can't drink from fountains or sinks, or
dip anything in them. Any potions of water you try to handle (quaff, drop,
pick up, dip into, etc) dry up. Maybe any potions at all. Deep water acts as
a pit, in that it is hard to get out of. Water Elementals do damage to
themselves, not you. If you are standing on the water-filled square in front
of the drawbridge when it come down (and aren't wearing boots o' water
walking), you don't get crushed, since you're underwater. Maybe you can walk
under the bridge too.

No need to breath (potions, being some monsters, and amulet or ring of
breath) - you don't need to breath. Gasses don't affect you. Nor does water
drown you, though it can still rust things. Best of all, you can't die from
choking on food - it will just make you vomit. Same effects on the
drawbridge as airy aura.

Tired (carrying a lot with reserves of strength (see above) or tire easily,
blessed potions of sleep, some monsters, some items) Reduce carrying
capacity by x amount, like having hurt legs. Normally goes away soon.

Tire easily (god being angry with you? poisons? Some (otherwise nice)
character classes?) You tire easily. Whenever you carry a load (i.e. picked
up enough weight that you can't climb stairs), you have a x% chance per turn
(modified only by luck) that you will get the intrinsic 'tired'.

Curse of Tantalus (god getting REALLY angry with you) Any food you attempt
to eat, and potions you try to quaff, turn to dust. Any fountains or sinks
you try to drink from give a message like "The water pulls away from your
lips". Goes away only when your god relents.


@ on item lists:  

On some lists of items, there could also be a symbol @, which would be YOU,
so that you can do things to yourself that you normally only do to items.
I.e. you could (if the bag-of-holding interface is improved, like I said
above) put yourself in the bag. Great protection (unless the bag is cursed),
but can lead to problems if something picks up the bag, making it hard to
get out, and maybe even suffocating you (lose, say, 1/4 hp/turn until you
get out unless you have a ring 'o breath or teleport or your god decides to
save you. If the bag is ripped/destroyed, you die - or maybe you get to a
neat place, like the astral or ethereal plane, where you can fight a few
neat, different monsters, and find a few weird items available only on that
plane. A nice little side trip. (It would, as I picture it, just be a blank
(no walls or anything) level, which occasional *'s in the background to
represent stars. Walking one way or another just gets you to another star
field (effectively the same place), you can return home only with a certain
item you have to find. Or something like that.) Maybe this only happens if
the bag was blessed, or you're lucky.) You could also #dip yourself in
potions, fountains or whatever (tends to rust your helmet...), attempt to
use a scroll of charging on yourself (restores your power or maybe even
'recharges' one of your spells so you can remember it again), identify
yourself (tells you your intrinsics if the scroll is blessed, or just acts
like a wand of probing if not). #offer'ing yourself would probably be a bad
idea, but might be a short-cut to hell if the altar was chaotic (and you
have flame-resistance). Applying yourself gives you a pat on the back.
Eating yourself gives an appropriately sick message, referring the user to
alt.sex.wanted :). The various things that have - (wield nothing, engrave
with nothing) could use this, or we could use - instead of @ for everything. 

Sipping from potions:  Just as a neat-o, you could have a command sip, which
would allow you to take a SMALL drink of a potion. You could get 6 sips from
a full potion, quaffing from a non-full potion would just get you the equal
of 5 sips.  Obviously, sipping from potions would have less of an effect
than normal - a potion of healing might only restore 1 hp, and not do
anything if you were at full; a potion of gain ability might only raise one
attribute if blessed, or none at all if not. Of course, a sip from a potion
of paralysis would only paralyze you for a few turns. In general, 6 sips of
a potion would have equal or less effect than a quaff, but this could be
used to test unknown potions more safely. A person feeling lucky might be
able to get extra effects out of a potion by sipping and dipping - dipping
sometimes restores the potion to full, and sometimes just gives you a full
potion of water. 

Moria-like waiting:
It is very annoying to wait (or do some other extended action) for a long
period of time, and then to watch some monster walk up to halfway across the
room to you and get a free hit. In moria, you stop waiting as soon as a
monster in your line-of-sight moves. Perhaps this could be done in nethack
too? Tame and peaceful monsters shouldn't count, so that your little dog
being around doesn't prevent you from eating in peace. Also, a special
option or command might disable this so you can eat while things happen
around you. Telepathy should also not make you stop doing something any time
any monster in the level moves - maybe only when a monster comes within x
squares of you?
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