Fatal Distractions!/fataldistractions.bin/chap02/hacklite/hints.doc

Text File | 1992-12-19 | 21KB | 462 lines

  Hints for beginner HACKERS
  --------------------------

       Hack Lite is a Dungeons and Dragons like game where the object is to
  descend into a dungeon to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor and return to the
  surface with it.  The Amulet is harder to retrieve in Hack Lite than in
  some other versions of Hack, but it's not impossible!


  Your character

       You can be one of several character classes when you start the game.
  Each character starts with different attributes (strength, hit points) and
  a different inventory of items (armor, weapons, etc).  You should try the
  different classes to see which is best for you.  The class most likely to
  survive the first few dungeon levels is probably the cave-person.  However,
  each class has its strong and weak points so you should try them all.


  The status line

       At the bottom of the screen is displayed information about your state
  of being.  You see the dungeon level you are on, how many hit points you
  have now (and will have when fully recovered), what your armor class is
  (the lower the better), your strength, experience level and the state of
  your stomach.  If you are playing the full-blown game, you will also see
  your energy level, needed for casting spells.


  The little dog

       You start Hack Lite accompanied by a little dog (nameable with the 'C'
  command) who can be very useful to you -- try not to kill him!  Your dog
  will follow you -- if you carry tripe rations, he will follow you even
  better.  Sometimes he gets in your way.  Either move around him, or wait
  (with the '.' command) until he moves.  If you want him to follow you to
  the next dungeon level, he must be on a square next to you when you descend
  or ascend the stairs.  Sometimes he gets hungry and confused and hits you.
  You can feed him by throwing food at him with the 't' command.

       Your dog may get mad at you if you move to a different dungeon level
  without taking him with you.  Although he may not hit you, he won't help
  you either.  You'll have to appease him somehow.

       Your dog is useful for his ability to fight and to pick up and carry
  objects.  Of course, your dog might be a female, so change all "he" and
  "him" to "she" and "her".


  The dungeon

       The dungeon is a set of levels connected through stairways and
  trapdoors.  Each level is an interconnected system of rooms and corridors.
  The rooms have doors that lead to the corridors.  You must walk straight
  through a door -- no diagonals allowed.  Some doors (and some corridors)
  are hidden and you must search for them (with the 's' command).  Usually
  you must search several times, so use a repeat count (eg '5s').  Some rooms
  are special and have no doors or connecting corridors.  There is a way to
  get in, though, but you will have to experiment.






       The Wizard resides below the normal dungeon levels and can't be
  reached by only taking the stairs.

       Some rooms have special contents -- some are shops (but be aware that
  the shopkeeper expects payment (the 'p' command) for the items you get
  there) and some are zoos, full of interesting monsters.  Some rooms are lit
  and you can see the entire room, and some rooms are dark so you can see
  only the floor near you.


  Monsters

       To fight monsters, move to occupy the same square they are in.  You
  can also throw things at them, or zap them with wands.  It is best to leave
  some monsters alone.


  Objects

       The objects you find may be enchanted (that's good) or cursed (that's
  bad) or normal.  Cursed items are generally less effective than normal and
  also, once you have them on your body they are impossible to remove unless
  you remove their curse.

       You use different objects in different ways:

       )  WEAPONS are wielded ('w') or thrown ('t')
          Some weapons are more effective when used together.  For example,
          you get more effect by wielding a bow before throwing arrows.
          'w-' means to wield nothing; ie. be barehanded

       [  ARMOR is worn ('W') and taken off ('T')
          You can wear more than 1 piece of armor, but there are some
          restrictions on the combinations.  For example, you can only wear 1
          SUIT of armor, but you can always wear an elven cloak.

       !  POTIONS are quaffed ('q')

       =  RINGS are put on ('P') and removed ('R')
          You only can only wear 2 rings at a time, one on each hand.  Also,
          wearing rings makes you to use up more food, so use them sparingly.

       /  WANDS are zapped ('z')
          Some wands need a direction to be zapped in, but others do not.

       ?  SCROLLS are read ('r')

       (  TOOLS are applied ('a')
          For example, to blow a whistle, you apply it.

       Initially you will not know what the potions, rings, wands or scrolls
  do until you use them.  They will have names like "XIXIXI".  Some of these
  objects are identified as soon as you use them (for example, a scroll of
  light causes a dark room to be lit).

       Other objects have no noticeable effect.  If it's not immediately
  obvious what a scroll or potion does the first time you use it, you may be
  asked to give it a name.  Hack Lite does this so that if you have an idea
  about what the object does you can name it something appropriate so the next
  time you find it you will know something about it.  Whenever Hack Lite asks






  for a name it is possible to use the backspace or backarrow key to back
  up, or <Esc> to quit without supplying a name.

       Using some objects gives a message like "You have a strange feeling
  for a moment, but it passes".  This means the object would have done
  something but couldn't do it now (for example, some scrolls affect your
  weapon, but if you're not wielding a weapon you'll get this message).

       The call command 'c' can be used to name individual objects, or all
  objects of a certain type.  When you do a 'c', Hack Lite asks if you want to
  name an individual object.  Answer 'y' if you do and 'n' if you want to
  name all objects of the same type.  Then Hack Lite will prompt you for the
  inventory letter of the object you want to name.  For example, if you put
  on a silver ring that has inventory letter 's' and notice your strength
  increases by two then you do:

       'c' 'n' 's' 'strength<return>'
            (call all objects with the same type as item 's' "strength").

       then 'c' 'y' 's' '+2<return>'
            (call individual inventory item 's' "+2")

  When you do an inventory you will see

       s) a ring called strength named +2

  The next time you pick up a silver ring it will be called strength so you
  will know what it does.  However, you will not know if it will increase or
  decrease your strength!  You will have to put it on to find out or you will
  have to identify it.


  Enchanting objects

         If you enchant an object, it will be better than it was before.
  Enchanting armor changes your armor class by 1 (eg. you could go from class
  7 to class 6 -- the less positive the number, the better the armor class,
  as in Dungeons and Dragons).  For weapons, the more positive the number,
  the better.  Thus a +2 mace is better than a +1 mace.  Some armor is better
  than others -- normal plate mail is better than normal ring mail.  Some
  weapons are better than others, but factors such as experience and luck
  determine whether you can effectively use the better weapons.


  Identifying objects

       The scroll of identify will help you to identify many objects, but
  generally you just have to use them and see what happens.  Occasionally a
  scroll of identify will have the ability to identify several objects.  So
  it is to your advantage to have several unidentified objects before you use
  an identify scroll.  When you read a scroll of identify Hack Lite will ask
  you which classes of objects you want identified.  If, for example, you
  answer '=/' then for each ring in your pack you will be asked if you want to
  identify it.  After going through all rings, you will be asked about the
  wands.  If you do not identify any of these objects you will get back to
  the question about which classes of objects you want identified.










       The effect of rings may not be obvious, and cursed rings can't be
  removed unless you remove their curse.  Thus scrolls of identify are
  probably best used to identify rings.


  Scoring

       When the game ends, either by your death, when you quit, or if you
  escape from the caves, Hack Lite will give you (a fragment of) the list of
  top scorers.  The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior but a
  rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in the
  cave plus four times your (real) experience.  Precious gems may be worth a
  lot of gold when brought to the exit.  There is a 10% penalty for dying.


  What is "--More--"?

       Whenever there is a lot of information for you to see, Hack Lite waits
  for you to read it all by giving you a "--More--".  If the "--More--" is
  displayed on the normal response line (the top line that most messages are
  shown on), then Hack Lite is waiting for you to enter ' ' (the space
  character) or <return>.

       If Hack Lite has printed out a list of information (eg. you did an 'i'
  command), then it will accept ' ' or <return> as well as the inventory
  letter of anything in the list.  Where is this useful?  An example is when
  you want to quaff a potion but you can't remember the letter of the potion
  you want.  You do 'q' then '?' and Hack Lite gives you the list of all your
  potions followed by a "--More--" message.  If you type ' ' or <return> you
  get back to the prompt about which potion you want to quaff.  If you type
  the inventory letter of the potion, you immediately quaff that potion.

       If the screen is completely cleared to give you information (eg.
  you're looking at the help documentation with the '?' command), then there
  will be more than one screen full of information.  In this case, ' ' or
  <return> mean "show the next screen" and ESC means "stop".


  Getting Help

       Of course, there is much about Hack Lite to discover yourself.  The
  RUMORS file provides helpful clues for playing.  (Of course, since these are
  only RUMORS, you can't trust everything you read.)  You can also use the
  '?' command to get help during play, and you can find out what a monster or
  object you don't recognize is by moving the mouse to it, and clicking while
  pressing the shift key.


  Playing on the Amiga

       Hack Lite takes advantage of the unique capabilities of the Amiga
  to make the game even easier to play.  For instance, monsters and objects
  are displayed graphically, not just as letters and special characters.  But
  each monster and kind of object still has an associated character as well
  as an icon.  Sometimes, you will need to reply to Hack Lite messages with
  these letters.  You can use shift-click to find out the letter in this case.
  (For a monster, the letter is usually the same as the first letter of the
  monster's name.  For instance, the symbol for an acid blob is 'a'.)








       You can use the HackIconIII program to change the graphics for all the
  monsters and objects.  This program is documented in another file.

       Most of the Hack Lite commands can be given using the Amiga's
  pull-down menus.  Just use the right mouse button to see what menus are
  available, and then select the command you want.  When you use the menus,
  Hack Lite will always show you the part of your inventory that the command
  could use (for example, if you do a READ, it will show you all your
  scrolls).  You can select an item using the mouse rather than by typing a
  letter, if you prefer.

       You can also use the mouse to indicate the direction you want to move.
  The mouse position only defines the direction of movement, not the exact
  spot to move to.


  What's New In Hack Lite v1?

       Hack Lite has a number of features that are not in previous versions
  of Hack.  Some of them are surprises that you will have to find for
  yourself.  The ones you need to know about in advance are:

       You will sometimes find magic fountains in the dungeon.  You can
  drink from a fountain using the QUAFF command.  Sometimes, fountains will
  be good for you, sometimes not, and sometimes it will be very difficult to
  tell.

       There is a new #pray command that you can use to ask the gods to help
  you.  But don't ask too often, or they'll get annoyed, and the game may
  become very unpleasant for you.  Also, try to avoid evil acts, or the next
  time you pray, the gods might punish you.  You might even end up in Hell!

       Ctrl-a is now defined as the "again" command, which executes the
  previous command again.  It's very handy when you're using throw or zap
  to defend yourself, since you don't have to enter the object or direction
  a second time.  You can use a count with again, for instance, 40^a says
  "do the previous command again 40 times".

       This version of Hack Lite does not have -D (WIZARD mode), which is
  useful mainly for debugging the program.  Instead, when you start Hack Lite
  up, you can use the -I (IMMORTAL) option.  With this option, you can come
  back from the dead, if you don't die too often.  This is good for "training
  missions", since it lets you get deeper in the dungeon than you otherwise
  would.  Of course, your score goes down each time you die.  Note that you
  are only mostly immortal.  If you walk naked into a swarm of bees, you're
  probably not going to survive, no matter what.

       There are some new monsters in Hack Lite.  Keystone Kops are created
  if you succeed in robbing a store.  There are several kinds of Kops in this
  version, and some are more dangerous than others.  Rock moles are new pests
  that eat gold and rock, and dig new tunnels in the dungeon.  Giant spiders
  (which spin webs to trap the careless) and deep worms (which are like
  mimics, only worse) have also been added.

       There are some new scrolls, rings and artifacts as well.  But it would
  spoil the fun to tell you what they are!










       This version of Hack Lite lets you keep level files on RAM, to make
  going from one level to the next faster.  Just put a RAMDISK line in your
  HACKLITE.CNF file, e.g. "RAMDISK=RAM: 50000", to tell the program how much
  RAM disk it can use.


  What's New in Hack Lite v2?

       Version 2 of Hack Lite is filled with new goodies: new monsters, new
  objects, new character classes, new traps, new ways to die...  Some
  features are left out of the limited game (which keeps it playable on
  a 512K Amiga).  Many of the new features come from NetHack 2.2, but they
  have usually been "Litened" in major ways.

       One of the big changes is that when you have the opportunity to pick
  up a number of objects, you no longer have to go through all the objects if
  you only want to pick up a few.  If there is more than one kind of object,
  you will be shown the letters for each kind of object (like / for wands, ?
  for scrolls, and so on).  You can then enter these letters to select what
  kinds of objects you might want to pick up, and Hack will only ask you about
  these.  You can also answer 'a' to pick up all the objects or 'A' to be
  asked about all the objects.  If you answer '=!a', it means "pick up all
  the rings and potions".  (Some players prefer the old style where you are
  always asked about all objects.  To avoid having to select object types
  when you pick things up, put the "noselect" option in the OPTIONS line
  of your HACKLITE.CNF file.)

       You can now set up your HACKLITE.CNF file to give a name to your
  first dog.  Just put "dogname:Fido" after your name on the OPTIONS line.

       Hack Lite now supports 16 color graphics.  If you want this option
  (it uses extra memory), add the line "GRAPHICS=16" to your HACKLITE.CNF.
  Or, if you are familiar with UNIX Hack, and prefer a boring ASCII character
  display, add "GRAPHICS=ALPHA" to your configuration.

       If you're busy doing something (like searching) and want to stop (say
  because something is creeping up on you), you can now do it using the <Esc>
  key.  This works as a reply to --More-- as well as when there is nothing
  to respond to.  Note that the <Esc> won't help if you've been put to sleep
  or otherwise disabled.

       The ctrl-H command now lets you get a history of recent messages from
  Hack.  This is easier than using ctrl-P over and over again.

       There is a new 'A' command to take off several pieces of armor at
  once.

       There are seven new character classes, and the Fighter and the
  Speliologist have been renamed the Barbarian and the Archeologist.  The
  Archeologist now has some special abilities to make up for his weaknesses.

       As a result of new Federal regulations, the shopkeepers will now tell
  you how much an item costs before you buy it.

       In addition to its other uses, you can use the #dip command to dip
  things in a fountain.  The results could be very interesting...










       Many existing monsters have been modified.  (For instance, you will
  find ghosts and dragons a little tougher than they used to be.)  You may
  also have to change your dietary habits, since the list of edible monsters
  has been changed somewhat since version 1.

       New monsters include giants, quantum mechanics, demon lords and
  princes, liches, golems, soldiers and the Medusa.  Be careful of the Medusa,
  since one glance will turn you to stone!  The Wizard of Yendor is also
  tougher and meaner, since there's a rumor that someone named Baggins once
  won this game!

       New useful objects include leashes, blindfolds, mirrors, stethoscopes
  and magic markers (good for writing on blank paper).  There are also some
  new scrolls, potions and rings, but we'd rather not give them away.

       You will now sometimes find "throne rooms", where the ghost of a
  deceased ruler holds court.  If you can fight off the courtiers, you can
  sit on the throne with #sit, and see what it feels like.  (You might even
  like it.)


  Spells

       One of the features of the latest version of Hack Lite is spell
  casting.  Sometimes, you may find spellbooks, which record the magical
  directions for casting a spell.  (The object symbol for a spellbook is +.)
  To use a spell, you must first study it and memorize it.  This is done
  with the X (eXamine) command.  Of course, a spell might be cursed, and
  examining it might backfire.

       Once you have learned a spell, you cast it with the Z command.
  Casting a spell is a delicate business, and requires strength and enough
  magical energy.  Your energy increases with experience, and from the
  potion of gain energy.  Your energy is depleted by spell casting, and also
  by anti-magic traps.  Casting a spell when you are not strong enough to
  do so is not a very good idea.  Each time you cast a spell, your memory
  of it fades, and eventually you will have to find another spellbook to
  relearn the spell.

       The x command gives you a list of all the spells you have memorized.
  The bracketed number before the spell name (for instance, [1] in
  "[1] sleep") is the spell level.  The higher the spell level, the harder
  the spell is to cast.


  Tournament Mode

       "Tournament mode" is a new Hack Lite feature that allows several
  players to compete to see which one achieves the highest score in the
  same dungeon.  When you invoke Hack Lite, specify the option -Zseed,
  replacing "seed" by a 1-9 digit number, which will be used to build
  each dungeon level.  For complete fairness, specify -ZBseed, which will
  prevent previous games from affecting this one.  You can specify just
  -Z or -ZB, in which case the game will generate a seed and display it to
  you, so the game can be played again if you wish.