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Yup.

65 (12.2%)

Not even close.

391 (73.4%)

Almost . . . but didn't

26 (4.9%)

Maybe managed halfway

51 (9.6%)

Total Members Voted: 530

[coalboat]

I also remember that barbarians used to be unable to read scrolls, but now they seem to be able to, and nothing is mentioned on the changelog.

[Sime]

Nethack is still relevant among today's roguelikes, due to the higher quality of monster AI and the  complexity of monster-object interaction that  creates emergent  and unpredictable stories in a way that  is not done so well in other roguelikes.        My favourite variant is Evilhack on the hard-fought server.    Also, Facebook recently released the Nethack Learning Environment for AI research that turns nethack into an AI  gym  for studying and training reinforcement learning algorithms, so we might be  seeing realistic NPCs in Nethack sooner than in other roguelikes.

[Aoi]

I also remember that barbarians used to be unable to read scrolls, but now they seem to be able to, and nothing is mentioned on the changelog.

That sounds like an ADoM thing? Beastfighters and barbarians there are special-cased to not start with Literacy even if they have the Le requirement. (I think that one gets overridden by elves always having Literacy, if you're running a frail warlord with delicate sensibilities for some reason...)

I'm pretty sure the PC in Nethack is always assumed to be literate (even if the player refuses to let them read anything else for the conduct) because it's mandatory to read The Book to finish the game. (Side thought: What happens if you attempt to read it while blind or polymorphed into something eyeless? If it works, that means going through the motions of reading is enough, allowing for a truly illiterate chacter...)

[coalboat]

I must've misremembered about illiteracy then.

How do I check on the wiki how many hp a monster has? It isn't listed.

[Aoi]

How do I check on the wiki how many hp a monster has? It isn't listed.

There's a pretty big possible range, even for monsters of the same type:
https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Hit_points#Monster

[hops]

I want to like Nethack but Sokoban is so annoying it sours me to the rest of the game.

But maybe my problem is that I don't cheat often enough in Sokoban. It's still incredibly annoying though because I play on tablet and I've had my runs destroyed because I messed up on a dumb rock pushing puzzle through a miss-tap.

[MrRoboto75]

I don't think I've ever been good at sokoban puzzles, in any game.

[coalboat]

I'm currently at sokoban now. I always follow the cheat on the wiki. The game is already difficult as is.

[hops]

See, the thing is I follow the walkthrough, but I keep accidentally pressing the wrong button and ruin it since the later puzzles have a very small margin of error, or a monster is behind the damn boulder.

I guess maybe I should consider visiting the Gnomish Mines or later floors and getting a few scrolls of Earth first. Assuming those even work. I'll test it in wizard mode.

[coalboat]

Yeah the monster-in-the-way is the most annoying. Nethack has a lot of things like this. Even if you try to play perfectly there are always things coming out to ruin a perfectly fine run. 

[hops]

i guess this wouldn't bug me so much if i wasn't a monk main who absolutely needs that amulet of reflection

[Aoi]

Aren't you guaranteed two scrolls of earth on the first Sokoban stage still? You can use them, though like any other 'cheat', it incurs a luck penalty.

[gimlet]

I haven't played in a long time, but there used to be several ways to deal with a monster behind the boulder, it's definitely not "game over". 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

iirc one was to take off (nearly) all your armor and you could "just squeeze by" a boulder.   Or thrown weapons?

[Cthulhu]

I also remember that barbarians used to be unable to read scrolls, but now they seem to be able to, and nothing is mentioned on the changelog.

That sounds like an ADoM thing? Beastfighters and barbarians there are special-cased to not start with Literacy even if they have the Le requirement. (I think that one gets overridden by elves always having Literacy, if you're running a frail warlord with delicate sensibilities for some reason...)

I'm pretty sure the PC in Nethack is always assumed to be literate (even if the player refuses to let them read anything else for the conduct) because it's mandatory to read The Book to finish the game. (Side thought: What happens if you attempt to read it while blind or polymorphed into something eyeless? If it works, that means going through the motions of reading is enough, allowing for a truly illiterate chacter...)

Reading conduct-breaking items while blind still breaks conduct.  Reading the book of the dead, blind or otherwise, does not, since otherwise you couldn't beat the game.

[hops]

I haven't played in a long time, but there used to be several ways to deal with a monster behind the boulder, it's definitely not "game over". 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

iirc one was to take off (nearly) all your armor and you could "just squeeze by" a boulder.   Or thrown weapons?

First one doesn't work in Sokoban.