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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site orca.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!andrew
From: andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: net.games.hack
Subject: Re: using scroll's of identification (* SPOILER *)
Message-ID: <1698@orca.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 12:31:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: orca.1698
Posted: Thu Aug 29 12:31:19 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 07:38:22 EDT
References: <5503@fortune.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 31

[]

	"I have read a scroll of identification and used it to identify
	all of the objects of a particular type (like scroll's) that I
	possesed.  I did this 3 times during one game.  I can not do it
	again in any other games.  What did I have/do/not have/not do
	that allowed this extended use of a scroll of identification?"

My reply is a SPOILER drawn from examining the source code.  You may
want to stop reading here.



When you read a scroll of identify, there is a one in five chance that
it will identify multiple objects.  The number of objects is a
(separate) random number from 0 to 4.  If you run out of objects
prematurely, it will say something like "that was all"; this means that
you could have identified additional objects of the selected class, but
blew the chance.

I exploit this by arranging my inventory so that the items I want most
to identify appear first (e.g., the uncursed rings before the cursed
rings).

[Disclaimers: all this is true of hack versions 1.0.2 and 1.0.3.
"Random number" is shorthand for "element of a sequence of incorrectly
computed pseudo-random numbers"; the routines in the hack "rnd.c" file
are woefully ignorant of proper pseudo-random techniques.]

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew)       [UUCP]
                        (orca!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA]