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[Sylverone]

Recently I had the pleasant experience of discovering nethack for the second time! This time I actually downloaded it (!), and have since been amazed at the depth the game gives. I've created this topic so that any Nethackers around here can discuss the game and share their most powerful moments.

Feel free to post about things that have happened to you in the game. Just remember to avoid any major or unnecessary spoilers if they aren't require to tell your story.

Firstly, for the most amazing thing that has happened to me thus far, check out this topic: http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=001791

One of my first peeks into the true depth and fun of this game occurred when I walked into a room to see a friendly goblin (I was an orc). I was hesitant to approach, as I had never encountered anything "friendly" aside from my pet. I pressed "." to wait a turn, and the goblin disappeared! Upon further inspection I discovered the teleportation trap it had stepped on, and knew that I was going to like this game...

More recently I drank from a sink in the first room of the dungeons. I discovered the wonders of toxic water. I also discovered how much harder it was to kill enemies as a level-1 knight with a +2 sword than it was as a level-1 fire ant.

[JoRo]

I loved Nethack, though I failed at it pretty miserably.  My first character died of food poisoning while caught in a bear trap.

I got down to level 11 once.  "What is that, a big gray 'W'?  A wraith, huh?  Well, how hard can that b- *you have been level drained**you have been level drained**you have been level drained**you have been level drained**do you want your possessions identified y/n?*"

My one problem with ascii is that without experience it's hard to make an accurate threat assessment.  I misinterpreted this grim specter of death as some harmless ghost thing that would doubtless fall beneath my blade.  And how giant are "giant ants" any ways?  If you saw an ant that was the size of a dog, you'd say "wow, that's a giant ant."  If you saw an ant the size of a horse, it'd still be a giant ant.  If you saw an ant of immense and terrible size, with a head the size of Volkswagen it'd still be a giant ant.

Death can come so swiftly in Nethack, which is both part of its charm and sometimes very annoying.  One second your eating your way through the gnome mines, and then one of them points a wand at you.  You take one step and then get fried.  And there went my second most successful character.

[ March 25, 2008: Message edited by: JoRo ]

[Sylverone]

Yeah, I've had some interesting experiences along those lines (not too many though, I just started playing less than a week ago). One was fairly similar to yours, with one key difference; it was a wand of summon monster, and the Gnome Lord was firing it off every turn. Needless to say, things got crowded quickly.

Oh, and also, a funny moment (condensed);

-The Shrieker begins to flee!
-The Shrieker shrieks!
-The Shrieker falls into a pit!

[Cthulhu]

My best death in Nethack was actually in GTK+ Slash'em, I was a samurai, and had gotten to like level 5 or 6, my highest ever.  I kicked down a locked door, only to find  a very pissed shopkeeper behind it, who beat me to death for breaking his door.
One shot kill, too.

[Deon]

Woot, shopkeeper? xD

I've played the Deingeon Crawl stone soup (graphical version) for some time, but no I want to try the nethack =).

Really, I'm an old ADOM fan, but I was a bit tired of it and wanted to play somethig similar.

I think I will start from Falcon's eye graphics, generally because if I want a pure ASCII i will play ADOM or DF.

[ March 25, 2008: Message edited by: Deon ]

[Tahin]

Nethack is fun... My best death involved a sink, and a shitload of snakes that decided to pour out of it for some reason.

It wasn't terribly epic, but it was certainly random.

[ March 25, 2008: Message edited by: Tahin ]

[Keiseth]

Well, they are the dungeons of doom. By that extension, you must have used a sink of doom. =)

My favorite deaths in no particular order:

1. Kicking a wall. It adds up.
2. Knight, trying to mount his pony. Fell off three times, died.
3. Wizard, drank from the first sink, Succubus popped up... things happened and he died of exhaustion.

And my least favorite ending of all time:

1. Archaeologist. Bumped into a wand of wishing, got a Ring of Polymorph and a Ring of Polymorph Control. Transformed into a Master Mind Flayer (for now: Dragons are great but they don't have proper hands.) Made it quite far, then accidentally opened the game with my debug shortcut and quit out of disgust when I found myself in non-scoring discovery mode. =\

Favorite Message:

(After dipping a bottle into itself) "What do you think this is, a klein bottle?"

Favorite Event, in SlashEM:

I fired several bullets at a Crystal Golem, and may have even thrown a few out of desperation. Finding myself empty I threw the now useless pistol at it and got my melee weapon. I didn't expect the Crystal Golem to pick up a few bullets, the pistol, and shoot me with it. Ouch!

[Gaulgath]

Ah yes. NetHack. Several hours of my life have been wasted on the alt.org NetHack server. I have ascended precisely once, and that was with a human valkrie (one of the easiest classes to play) who found a wand of wishing AND wand of death on dungeon level one. Grayswandir made all the levels of the underworld area very easy, and the rest of my awesome equipment made the ascension run fairly easy.

Which is not to say that I have been without embarassing deaths. NetHack is a cruel, cruel game.  

[Sylverone]

I've had several run-ins with the sink-demons on early levels. Once I actually managed to run away and shut a door behind me, but I'm pretty sure they can open them. I died to something else before I got up the courage to challenge them.

[LSTAR]

Not quite my death, but still a pretty amusing event...

The Water Nymph gazes seductively at your pet dog
Your pet dog isn't swayed
Your pet dog bites the Water Nymph
The Water Nymph is killed!
Your pet dog eats the Water Nymph corpse

My worst death has to be the time that my high level barbarian stepped on a bear trap and died of system shock despite being still on about 120 HP  

[Torak]

quote:Originally posted by LSTAR:
<STRONG>
My worst death has to be the time that my high level barbarian stepped on a bear trap and died of system shock despite being still on about 120 HP   </STRONG>

It's the same with a level S person, if you get your foot severed off with a trap, it's still going to hurt like a bitch. The same with an arrow shot into your eye.

(S being any level 1-223i9721827)

[beorn080]

Having recently started playing nethack I can say that it is the most evil game imaginable. My latest character managed to get a wish from a djinn that appeared after I drunk a random potion.  Thinking to get decent armor I wished for some nice +1 silver dragon scale armor. Then next level I managed to drop a floating eye and eat its corpse for telepathy. Finally I enter the gnomish mines take one step and get dropped by a boulder trap.

[Sylverone]

Yes, the game is very cruel to the player. At least you can count on one thing, which is true in DF, Nethack, and Angband (which I've also recently started playing): Losing is fun!

I haven't played Nethack this week, as I've been testing out Angband. I'll try to keep this thread alive for a while though, if only so that you folks can laugh at my many deaths.  

I'm beginning to interpret the phrase "text based game" to mean "death based game", hehe.

[Skeeblix]

You guys think Nethack is an evil game? Try playing Angband, where a single game can take weeks (and a few million in-game turns) to get through. The levels are huge, we're talking multiple screens compared to Nethack's single-screen fishbowls, you need torches or lamps to see at all in the dungeon, the levels are randomly generated ANY time you take a staircase (though persistent levels can be turned on in the options), and a whole lot of other really evil, nasty, horrible, no-good stuff.

Each dungeon level represents 50 feet of depth below the surface, and you need to go all the way down to 5000 feet and kill Morgoth himself, who makes the Wizard of Yendor look like a newborn baby.

To give you an idea of how difficult this game is, I will tell you this: I have personally only made it to around 500 feet. 1/10th of the game, and that was one time.

EDIT: I didn't even catch the part about Angband in the last post, haha. I'm guessing you're figuring it out for yourself then how bastardly hard it can be.
Maybe one day you'll take Morgy's crown as your own.

[ April 04, 2008: Message edited by: Skeeblix ]

[Mephisto]

Not only are those games hard in normal playthroughs, wizard mode is just as impossible. Get turned into a wererat or accidentally hit the wrong guy once and see what happens. One time, my screen was filled with those pie-throwing bastards. You _CAN_NOT_ hit them at all! If you do hit one, it will be by sheer luck. If you manage to kill one, it was probably asleep. Those aren't the hardest enemies, by any stretch of the word, either.