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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!mcvax!aeb
From: aeb@mcvax.UUCP (Andries Brouwer)
Newsgroups: net.games.hack
Subject: Re: dead lizards
Message-ID: <579@mcvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 6-Apr-85 19:35:26 EST
Article-I.D.: mcvax.579
Posted: Sat Apr  6 19:35:26 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 9-Apr-85 00:20:55 EST
References: <353@desint.UUCP> <399@wjvax.UUCP> <4644@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: aeb@mcvax.UUCP (Andries Brouwer)
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 47

In article <4644@ucla-cs.ARPA> srt@ucla-cs.UUCP (Scott Turner) writes:
> ... ~ I don't like the way cockatrices and poison can kill you instantly ...
>
> The question is, how can it be (easily) fixed up.  HACK doesn't have fuses
> like some of the other versions of ROGUE, so it is difficult to implement
> things that happen some time in the future (i.e., so you could have the
> hissing be a warning of impending stoning, or have the character die after
> 3 turns of poison).

Well, Hack *does* have fuses, although they are not called by that name
in the source. In fact they occur in several shapes. The shape most easily
used for the present purpose would be the code in hack.timeout.c
(isn't that name revealing?). Add a bitfield to the struct u called
being_turned_to_stone, and call done("died") after the timeout, if nothing
else has happened in the meantime. It need not be more than 5 lines of code.

If enough people support this view (letters from 25 sites expressing
agreement would be enough) I'll put something like this in version 1.0.3
(this fall). Personally, I do not agree. There are many ways one may die
instantly (I just died in the following way:

                      ----------
                     /          \
                    /    REST    \
                   /      IN      \
                  /     PEACE      \
                 /                  \
                 |     andries      |
                 |      666 AU      |
                 |   killed by a    |
                 |   visit to the   |
                 |       hell       |
                 |       1985       |
                *|     *  *  *      | *
       _________)/\\_//(\/(/\)/\//\/|_)_______

) and usually but not always there is some warning beforehand. In the case
of a cockatrice all players I know consider the mere appearance of a 'c'
as a warning that if they be not very careful, they'll soon be a statue.
More generally, I seem to recall that one of the fortunes contains the
warning: "Playing Hack may be dangerous to your health".

But let me be somewhat more constructive - one of the fuses in hack is
started after eating corrupted meat; if you haven't quaffed a potion of
healing within ten or so moves you die. By analogy one would want to
have something stopping (reversing) the petrification. But what?
[No, not dead lizards.]