Games, Toys, Puzzles, Quiz, Tests, Hobbies etc

[blid2def]

Well, I've only ever ascended once - as a knight. I've since tried many, many, many times but not been able to ascend. 'Cause I'm such a sadist, I try to ascend with every class - in this case, I start from "A" - an archaeologist. It's damn hard.

Not sure which version you're playing - the current one is 3.4.3 (http://www.nethack.org/). IMO - the best game of all time; the gameplay is simple, but the wit and richness behind it is amazing.

I used to love visiting the Usenet Nethack newsgroup, and reading the thread on YASD... "Yet Another Stupid Death". Funny as hell.

[blid2def]

By the way, my avatar is me and my dog digging my way into a bank vault on the first level of the dungeon. That's what archaeologists are good for. Glad to find another Nethacker.

[la papillion]

I don't play nethack, I played moria and rogue. But this version I liked the best - http://www.bebits.com/app/4207

It's the same thing, though it plays different. This one have religion! Everytime I sacrifice one corpse to the gods, I'll gain some power Doesn't have pets though, unlike net hack

Haha, I tried all sorts of classes too. Some are insanely hard. I remember there's even a class called tourist..goodness

[blid2def]

Yah tourists start with a camera - use it to blind mobs and run away. Nethack is basically moria / rogue / hack evolved and maintained by the Net community, so it retains a lot of the old features and builds on it. So, yeah sacrificing stuff at altars still works.

Gotta' love it when you get a wand of create monster, or a cursed scroll of genocide. Lock yourself in the room with the altar, and have fun sacrificing corpses and getting objects (if you can kill them, that is)...

[la papillion]

haha, yeah, I love the wand of create monsters

Here's a few ways I cheated:

1. Have a scroll of identifying. I'll save the game, exit and backup a copy of my avatar. Repeat and rinse This way, I'll get rid of cursed items yet retain the good ones. For potions I just drink and remember which colours are for what effects

2. Wand of create monsters are good to level up. I'll just clear the area, find a good place to create monsters then cast a spell to annihilate them all at once Let's hope no big monsters comes out from that wand

3. I love those monsters that can multiply like w and r. Those are great to level up at all levels. I'll control the crowd and leave a few to multiply! Can be quite dangerous if it goes out of control, haha

4. I like to find those shapeshifters at higher levels. After you kill them, you can dissect them and eat them for some mutations I'll save the game and keep those good mutations, and restart those with bad mutations

[blid2def]

LOL yeah the gameplay is so diverse, and the possibilities are almost countless. The devs have done an amazing job with the game.

And to think - the whole thing is FREE. TOTALLY FREE - both economically, and in the distribution and modification sense. Amazing thing.

[blid2def]

Here are some other tricks - not sure if they're applicable for rogue/hack/moria, but I'm sure you might've used/heard of them:

Use a cursed scroll of genocide. Take off all your armour and weapons.
Read the scroll, genocide all nurses.
Nurses appear, let them hit you... max hit points keep going up.

Kill a cockatrice. Wear gloves. Wield the corpse. Anything you hit gets petrified. Saves time.
Make sure you've a helmet on - otherwise, if you drop into a pit, that's it.

Play a neutral character, get the Vorpal Blade object. One hit lops the head of a mob off.

Play a lawful character, get a long sword. At about character level 7 or 8, dip the sword in a fountain. If you're lucky, the lady of the lake reaches out, grabs the sword, and turns it into Excalibur.

Man, this game is just awesome...

[la papillion]

Hey SPORE is out I saw the packaging out on the streets. Anybody got the game? Not a great fan of Sims though..

[blid2def]

Nope, haven't got it yet. There was a review I saw somewhere - think Wired magazine. Seems like if you're a hardcore gamer, this game could be a bit boring.

[blid2def]

Found the link to the Wired magazine review I mentioned above:

- http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/09/spore-review.html