HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Stefan_Muench@un.maus.de (Stefan Muench)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: Minimum spell failure chan
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 20:49:00 GMT
Organization: MausNet
X-Gateway: MausGate/News 1.11

Before commenting on what you wrote, let me say 'hello' to all of you:

My name is Stefan Muench, I am from Germany, writing this message into the
moria-group via the German 'Mausnetz' (mouse-net). We finally managed to get
the group into it, and I guess I can speak for the others as well when I say:
We don't want to annoy you or mix up this fine group. If there should ever
be messages passed into here in German tongue: forgive us and please ignore
it ! We will try to avoid that it happens (which is quite easy to say for
oneself, fairly harder to say for people who will join this group in the
future). If it should happen, we will take care that it is stopped
as soon as possible.

If there should be anything else for us to take care for: don't mind to tell
us ! And, please: forgive my English ...

To come back to the point, you wrote:

>Truly, the 5% minimum is a pain in the bum.

I don't think so at all. In my view, it's quite a good value ... I wouldn't
mind if it were a little less or more, but why ? There is not so much a
difference to me if a spell fails once in 20 tries or once in 50: I have
to do it again once, sometimes twice (and very seldomly thrice), that's all.
Where's the problem ?

A remarkable difference would be if certain spells could be cast with total
security to work, once you have reached a certain level. But I don't like
this idea: it would take a bit of 'reality' (speaking about realism while
talking about magic is funny, isn't it ?). And: it is not true that spells
like 'light' and 'detect m' are powerless. They do no harm, that's true -
but without them, you would often have problems having time to do harm ...

>about a compromise... something like 2% sounds far more realistic to me...

5% IS a compromise. If you think of lesser values, imagine it were 10.
And if you get your 2%: the next will come, saying: 'it must be 1 !'. He
will have the same reasons, the same arguments, the same right ...

>Also, is it just that God has something against me personally, or is it
>normal for an Identify spell with a failure rate of 80% (i.e. it should

Normal is, that you with the growth of experience you will find spells working
better and better ... never perfect, but quite close to it. There are tales
of people identifying with the same chance as you light up areas ... ;-)

(some tales say that wit and dexterity must not be neglected, too ...)

>If not that, at least a means to say "Keep resting and casting this spell
>until it works!" would be nice!

This sounds very nice to me me, too.

May God's blessing keep you always, sm
From: grabiner@math.harvard.edu (David Grabiner)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: what is "compacting monsters..."?
Date: 24 Jul 92 17:42:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: zariski.GRABINER.92Jul24134247
Organization: Harvard University Dept. of Mathematics
In-reply-to: Robyn.C.Reed@dartmouth.edu's message of 24 Jul 92 01:05:57 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.010557.16491@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>, Robyn C. Reed writes:

> My character, a level 10 rogue at 250 feet keeps running into a message
> that says "Compacting monsters...", near the doorway to a room filled
> with Giant White Lice.  It doesn't decrease its HP or change any stats,
> but toggles off the "Search" mode.  What does it mean??

The program has a limited amount of space to store monsters; when there
are too many, it cleans out the monster list by deleting a few of them.

If you are playing 5.3.0 or any earlier version, you should leave the
level when you see lots of "Compacting monsters..." messages; a bug in
the compaction routine makes monsters which are sufficiently far away
immune from compaction, and thus the game sometimes locks up when it
cannot delete a monster.  5.3.1 and 5.4 have fixed this bug.

--
David Grabiner, grabiner@zariski.harvard.edu
"We are sorry, but the number you have dialed is imaginary."
"Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again."
Disclaimer: I speak for no one and no one speaks for me.
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
From: overlord@wam.umd.edu (Identity Unknown)
Subject: Re: Usefulness of misc objects
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 05:14:45 GMT

In article <1992Jul22.191557.27117@u.washington.edu> angus@hardy.u.washington.edu (Angus the Demonchild) writes:
>In article <549fo1n@Unify.Com> dbrus.Unify.Com.ceb@unify.uucp 
>(Caroline E. Bryan) writes:
>>Please help out a novice (email if you prefer):
>
>>What earthly use are
>>	broken shards of pottery
>>	empty bottle
>>	filthy rags
>>	large bone
>>	other apparent trash whose description escapes me at the moment??
>...
>
>Filthy rags occasionally provide passable body armor, as they have
>equal probablities for being tagged.  One of my mages went around for
>quite a while in filthy rags (1,+5) (RF).  Other than that, all the
>items you mentioned are almost completely useless.  I think, though,
>that it would be nice if one could wield a bone as a weapon.  You
>could have a Half-Troll warrior named Gilgamesh slay an AMHD with the
>jawbone of an ass. :)
>
One good use for these seemingly useless items is just to take up space in
your inventory.  What? you may ask, hold useless items?  That's right!
As you know there are some monsters that steal your items and don't you
just get really pissed when one just happens to steal your only copy
of the great tome of magic.  If you have space in your inventory, then
these items aren't so useless.  If you have some of these items in your
inventory and want something else just drop it or throw it at a monster.
Just a couple of ideas from a ranger.
						Overlord

overlord@wam.umd.edu
UMCP, the Bermuda Triangle of telnet mud sites.
From: angus@hardy.u.washington.edu (Angus the Demonchild)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: Getting your stuff back
Date: 29 Jul 92 19:46:17 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <SWOTA.92Jul28215256@odin.albany.edu> swota@cs.albany.edu 
(Judith A Swota) writes:
>In posting <...> Kenneth E. Mohnkern wrote:
>
>> Here's a gripe or suggestion for future versions or just a chance to
>> vent some steam...
>> 
>> What happens to the stuff that a Brigand (for example) steals from your
>> pack? Why can't I take it back after I toast the sleezy little
>> orc-lover?  [Rest of Griping deleted]
>
>YEAH!!  This has always bothered the heck out of me too!  Unless the
>theiving critters have had a chance to teleport away before I kill them,
>I SHOULD be able to retrieve everything they stole from me when they
>die.  If they HAVE teleported away, then I suppose you could argue
>they'd had time to deposit all the goodies in some secret lair.  In that
>case, it might be a nice touch to have the lair be locatable - e.g.,
>somewhere on that same level I could get back all my stuff if I just
>explore far enough.  Oh well, wishful thinking...

Funny you should mention this, but Nethack does exactly this.  One
objection I could see is that it would be an enormous drain of cpu
time, since it would have to maintain inventories for every single
monster, rather than generating treasure randomly when it dies. It
could be argued that only monsters that pick up or steal items need
this.

None the less, the idea is intriguing.  Perhaps monsters could even
use the items they grabbed.  It would give those kobolds at 1500' a
bit of a survival advantage.

"The kobold hits you with his Katana (+10,+10) (DF)!  -more-"

--
Disclaimer:  I could be wrong.  It wouldn't be the first time.

another fine product from the house of angst
From: hades@coos.dartmouth.edu (Hades)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: Elvish Waybread?
Date: 21 Jul 92 14:52:25 GMT
Reply-To: hades@Dartmouth.Edu
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Disclaimer: Personally, I really don't care who you think I speak for.
Moderator: Rec.Arts.Comics.Info

price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu (John Price) writes:

>So, like, what's it do?

    It's about 1/10th the weight of a Food Ration and lasts about 1.5x
longer.

--
			"Seems awfully breezy in here." - Drip-along Daffy
-Hades (Brian V. Hughes, Moderator: Rec.Arts.Comics.Info)
From: jonok@terapin.com (Jonathan Keller)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: Elvish Waybread?
Date: 23 Jul 92 16:37:49 GMT
Organization: BBS

In article <1992Jul21.180045.22068@samba.oit.unc.edu>,
Scott.Maxwell@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Scott Maxwell) writes:
>In article <1992Jul21.005615.24332@physics.ucla.edu>
price@uclapp.physics.ucla.e
>du writes:
>>So, like, what's it do?
>
>       It makes you full, no matter how hungry you are. I don't know of
>any other effects.

Not really, It counts for 1.5 times as much food as the ration.  If you eat one
after 500 turns have passed since the Hungry flag has come up then it won't
quite fill you up...and if you're hurt you will see a message about feeling
better.
From: josh@cqs.washington.edu (Josh Hayes)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Boy, am I glad I tried them on
Keywords: boots, speed, remove curse
Date: 28 Jul 92 22:56:00 GMT
Organization: University of Washington

Well, here's a lesson for you.

My 29th level dwarf priest, Shunli Shomin, has been bopping around
at 1800 feet or so, looking for something, ANYTHING, good. He's got
a SU weapon to see invis with (bought it at the shop). He's got soft`
leather (yuck) armor that's R (nice; also bought at shop). But, FINDING
good stuff? Ha, it is to laugh.

So he finds a pair of soft leather boots, just lying around. He tries
them on. He sees the magic word "fast" appear in the lower right part
of the screen. He screams with glee.

Now all I need is some free action, and I'm off to the depths....

Josh

--
Josh Hayes, Quantitative Sciences HR-20 U of Washington
josh@mowgli.cqs.washington.edu             206 685-2793
Exclaimer: Hey!           Plan: Birth School Work Death
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
From: c8841288@cc.newcastle.edu.au
Subject: Re: Argh!  Ancient Dragons already?!
Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 05:14:00 GMT

In article <Br6q69.E0K@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, jra37189@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Kwyjibo) writes:
> Geeze!  Here I am with my 26th level ranger down at 1550 ft,
> and I walk into this room where from the other side (luckily)
> walks in a quasit (no problem) and an Ancient Red Dragon (!).
> For a minute I thought, "Gee, shall we be daring and give this
> most noble creature a fight?" Then I realized what a terrible
> terrible mistake that would be...I haven't even run into young
> or mature dragons of any sort yet!  Kind of sucks too, because 
> there was a potion of gain dexterity in the room as well as a
> ring of some sort.  Oh well, I teleported out, thus probably 
> saving me from instantaneous destruction.  My question is,
> is this normal for Ancients to be on this level?  Can I expect
> more, or was it just a fluke?   

That's nothing.

Whilst rolling around at a mere 1350' I ran into, wait for it, an
Ancient Multi-hued dragon. It was in another room (I found it with detect
evil), but almost immediately it attacked. First a spell of slowness, so
it moved four spaces at once, then a slight breath of gas. I ended up with
about -500 hit points. It never even gave me a f---ing chance!

I also encountered a mother-f***ing Emporer Lich at only 1150', but I managed
to get away before losing too many levels and wands and too much dex. (But
admitidly he appeared after I foolishly read a scroll of summon undead).

This illustrates one of the things about Moria which really sucks heavily.
It should be IMPOSSIBLE, no not highly improbable, but impossible for monsters
with such devistating power to exist above their nominal depth. I can't really
see the point or challenge of being wiped out in one hit after weeks of play
by something which is a mere fluke. All it does is increase the toupee sales
(after tugging your hair out in frustration).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

	====== Honorius the Holy Avenger =====

	(Holding his temper ... he is, after all, a man of the cloth)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason Quarry
Uni of Newcastle
Aus
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: The Balrog is Dead
From: grabiner@math.harvard.edu (David Grabiner)
Date: 31 Jul 92 11:24:03 EDT
 <1992Jul29.084926.15714<1992Jul31.065317.17826@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu><1992Jul31.100452.11260@eng.cam.ac.uk>
Organization: Harvard University Dept. of Mathematics
In-reply-to: bm125@eng.cam.ac.uk's message of 31 Jul 92 10:04:52 GMT

In article <1992Jul31.100452.11260@eng.cam.ac.uk>, B. Maxwell writes:

> Afraid I forgot to save the stats sheet, but Arathorn was a half-elf
> with all stats above 18/90 except Wisdom, which was 18/70.  Cloning
> Ancient Blue Dragons on level 49 was definitely a useful exercise in
> terms of getting a lot of neat stuff.  Now I can upgrade to Moria 5.4,
> which is much nicer (NO MORE GRAPE JELLY TRICKS!!!).

Note that he was playing 4.87.  Cloning ancient blue dragons is more
dangerous in 5.x; lightning breath can destroy your wands and rings.

--
David Grabiner, grabiner@zariski.harvard.edu
"We are sorry, but the number you have dialed is imaginary."
"Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again."
Disclaimer: I speak for no one and no one speaks for me.
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
From: cs348b4@ibma7.cs.uiuc.edu (michael g xakellis)
Subject: damage done by wands
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 18:14:06 GMT

I have several bolt-type wands: lightning bolts, frost bolts, fire bolts,
and drain-life.  I need to clear out my inventory somewhat, so I'd like
to know which wands do the most damage.  Also, do lightning, frost, and 
fire weapons encounter a penalty when used against a creature which breathes
the same stuff?

I'm playing PC-Moria version 5.2.

Any moria gurus out there?

Mike
From: murraysd@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Stephen D Murray)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Amulet of the magi?
Summary: Request for info
Date: 27 Jul 92 12:27:48 GMT
Organization: Glasgow University Computing Science Dept.



     Anyone know what an amulet of the magi actually does for you? I've got
two, but can't figure out what use it is. It's worth enough in the shop
so I expect it must do something, but what?

   Any relevations gratefully received.

         Stephen D Murray

     <murraysd@dcs.gla.ac.uk>


HM Balrog Health Warning: Cloning Ancient Multi-Hued Dragons can seriously
damage your health.
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
From: t_spindl@tangram.informatik.uni-kl.de (Torsten Spindler)
Subject: Re: Argh!  Ancient Dragons already?!
Reply-To: t_spindl@tangram.informatik.uni-kl.de (Torsten Spindler)
Organization: University of Kaiserslautern (Germany)
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:41:03 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.151400.1@cc.newcastle.edu.au>,
c8841288@cc.newcastle.edu.au writes:
	< stuff deleted >
|>This illustrates one of the things about Moria which really sucks heavily.
|>It should be IMPOSSIBLE, no not highly improbable, but impossible for
monsters
	       ^^^^^^^^^^
|>with such devistating power to exist above their nominal depth.
	< stuff deleted >

Oh no! As I was a lvl 13 half-elven thief I polymorphed a mold in a 
grave wight (with a wand of wander :). First I wrote my testament and
then I used a wand of slowness and started killing it! As it was near
dead I cloned it (again with w.o.w.). I killed both wights and gained
about 1.2k xp for them. Ok, I had a lot of luck, but I think things
like this are entertaining. If you would know that a wight or a lich
or a whatsoever would first appear at level x this game wouldn't worth
playing it, IMHO.
	Torsten Spindler.                                            

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Legal, illegal - sch????egal!" - Slime

email  		@uni-kl.de:t_spindl@poker.informatik.uni-kl.de
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bigham@acpub.duke.edu (Scott Bigham)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: Elvish Waybread?
Date: 21 Jul 92 23:20:33 GMT
Organization: n. Arrangement in an orderly or logical fashion.  See "miracle".

From the Holy Book of <1992Jul21.180045.22068@samba.oit.unc.edu>
  as spake by Scott.Maxwell@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Scott Maxwell) :
>In article <1992Jul21.005615.24332@physics.ucla.edu> price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu writes:
>>So, like, what's it do?

>	It makes you full, no matter how hungry you are. I don't know of
>any other effects.

Spoiler?

It also cures poison and restores some hit points (roughly the same
level as Cure Serious Wounds, I think).

						-sbigham
-- 
Scott Bigham                   | The opinions expressed above are
bigham@hercules.acpub.duke.edu | (c) 1992 Hacker Ltd. and cannot be
                               | copied or distributed without a
                               | Darn Good Reason(tm).
From: gharris@jade.tufts.edu (George W. Harris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: Elvish Waybread?
Date: 21 Jul 92 20:50:25 GMT
Organization: Tufts University - Medford, MA
Originator: gharris@jade.tufts.edu

In article <1992Jul21.180045.22068@samba.oit.unc.edu> Scott.Maxwell@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Scott Maxwell) writes:
>
>	It makes you full, no matter how hungry you are. I don't know of
>any other effects.

	Actually, no.  It takes you about 3/4 of the way from hungry to full,
so it equals 3/2 a food ration or 9/2 a pint of mush.

>	(Incidentally, Moria spells it "waybread," but shouldn't it be
>"wheybread"?)

	No.  It's not made of whey; it is intended to be eaten on journeys, or
`on the way.'  Hence, waybread.

>Scott Maxwell (CSMAXWEL@ECUVM1.BITNET or Scott.Maxwell@bbs.oit.unc.edu)
--
"If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste more like
prunes than rhubarb does."              -Groucho Marx 

gharris@jade.tufts.edu          George Harris, Tufts Univ. Dept. of Mathematics
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
From: c8841288@cc.newcastle.edu.au
Subject: Re: Argh!  Ancient Dragons already?!
Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 06:25:23 GMT

 
> Oh no! As I was a lvl 13 half-elven thief I polymorphed a mold in a 
> grave wight (with a wand of wander :). First I wrote my testament and
> then I used a wand of slowness and started killing it! As it was near
> dead I cloned it (again with w.o.w.). I killed both wights and gained
> about 1.2k xp for them. Ok, I had a lot of luck, but I think things
> like this are entertaining. If you would know that a wight or a lich
> or a whatsoever would first appear at level x this game wouldn't worth
> playing it, IMHO.

Firstly, I'd hardly classify a woosy Grave Wight as a devistating character.
I refer to things like ancient dragons and emporer liches ... the ones
which are immune to staffs/wands of slowness ("cannot be charmed or slept");
the ones which can kill in one hit before you know its there.

OK it is fun to use your wit and resource to wipeout a more powerful opponent,
but being blasted off the face of the earth in one hit by something
which you would neither expect nor see until its too late is far from
entertaining. It should be up to the player who feels they are ready to meet
the challenge of these supreme monsters to choose to do so; and the weaker
characters of low levels can venture knowing they won't be suddenly
faced with that horrible tomb-stone saying "killed by Ancient Mutli-Hued
Dragon at 1350 Feet". There's still plenty of challenge in that, I'm sure
you'll agree.

Well, I suppose there's always the save and restore (yes, I am in favour
of this "cheating" method).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

	==== Honorius the Holy One ====

	" Ghosts are .... weeds "

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
From: paul@wolf.demon.co.uk (Paul Smith)
Subject: Latest UMORIA?
Distribution: world
Organization: (none)
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 03:24:29 +0000

Would someone tell me which is the latest version of UMORIA
for DOS that is available, and a possible FTP site. I currently
have 5.3, but I've heard mention of later versions.

Thanks,

Paul Smith
--------------------------------------------------------------------
paul@wolf.demon.co.uk		     | psmithb@cix.compulink.co.uk |
100023,25@compuserve.com	     |				   |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
From: z0w6103@rigel.tamu.edu (WU, ZUOGUO)
Subject: Re: Aren't boots armor?
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 05:24:00 GMT

In article <1992Jul31.014435.27168@physics.ucla.edu>, price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu writes...
>I'm playing VMS Moria 5.00, and I can't seem to enchant my boots with a 
>scroll of Enchant Armor.  If boots aren't armor, then what *are* they?  Is 
>there a way to increase the AC of boots, or is this a bug in this version, 
>or am I not understanding something?
> 
>           John Price * * * * price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu
>           Where there is no solution, there is no problem.

I played VMS Moria years ago, not sure my memory is correct.

In VMS Moria, boots can't be enchanted (looks like a bug to me), however,
didn't you notice that they never get damaged by acid or disenchanted by
the annoying 'b' (another bug)? So, overall, it's fair.

--- ZGW




Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
From: Scott.Maxwell@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Scott Maxwell)
Subject: Re: Elvish Waybread?
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 18:00:45 GMT

In article <1992Jul21.005615.24332@physics.ucla.edu> price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu writes:
>So, like, what's it do?

	It makes you full, no matter how hungry you are. I don't know of
any other effects.

>           John Price * * * * price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu

	(Incidentally, Moria spells it "waybread," but shouldn't it be
"wheybread"?)

--
Scott Maxwell (CSMAXWEL@ECUVM1.BITNET or Scott.Maxwell@bbs.oit.unc.edu)

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
From: grayson@hougen.seas.ucla.edu (David A. Grayson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Purple X's Mac port of Moria (bug?)
Date: 30 Jul 92 01:43:14 GMT
Organization: SEASnet, University of California, Los Angeles


Recently I have been living on the schedule of bacteria (30 minute
doubling time) so sleep deprivation, strange meals, and
many botched moria games later I have noticed something.

When my characters die and I request a listing of them
it doesn't print out what I am using.

The first screen comes up with the Character stats. 
The next screen says

You were using:
You are carrying: 
a) Book of Magic
b) dagger
c) ------

etc...


that's it. It tries to show me what I was using, but it never makes
it out of the machine?

Anyone else notice this?

dave

--
UCLA, Dept. Chem. Eng., 5805 Boelter Hall, LA, CA 90024
David A. Grayson                  grayson@seas.ucla.edu
From: madmax@cellar.org (Alex Strumpf)
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria
Subject: Re: Elvish Waybread?
Date: 25 Jul 92 05:22:19 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system

price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu (John Price) writes:

> So, like, what's it do?
> 
>            John Price * * * * price@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu
>            Where there is no solution, there is no problem.

they're a VERY good supplement to those food rations you carry about with 
you..for that matter, if you have enough Waybread, who needs those Food 
rations?! Plus, easier to carry around with you.

madmax@cellar.org
PREFERRED mailpath: madmax%cellar@tredysvr.tredydev.unisys.com

"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."

Doctor Who, ROBOT
Newsgroups: rec.games.moria