Xref: utzoo rec.games.hack:1890 comp.sources.bugs:628
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!iuvax!silver!creps
From: creps@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps)
Newsgroups: rec.games.hack,comp.sources.bugs
Subject: NetHack bones bug + blindness bug
Message-ID: <581@silver.bacs.indiana.edu>
Date: 27 Dec 87 22:38:39 GMT
Reply-To: creps@silver.UUCP (Steve Creps)
Organization: Indiana University Computer Science Department
Lines: 38
Summary: your ghost becomes a little dog


   I've come across another NetHack error. I'm using the MS-DOS version.
When the player is killed, and a bones file is created, it seems that
instead of leaving a ghost of the player, a little dog is left in its
place. I know this isn't the player's little dog, because this dog is
unnamed, and I find another dog on the same level that has been named.
(I'm the only one playing on this machine. It's mine!) This bug seems to
be consistent, and I never find a ghost, just a little dog by the pile
of deceased adventurer's stuff.
   I seem to remember a similar bug being fixed after the 1.3-1.4 release,
but can't find the solution. If anyone remembers that fix, it would probably
solve this problem. (That bug left a different monster instead of the ghost,
but not a little dog. Maybe a killer bee?)
   Another problem is very annoying bugs having to do with blindness,
probably caused by the new blindfold feature. I've mentioned before
that sometimes you can't see anything, even though it tells you you are
no longer blind. I have some more information, possibly not quite related.
Today I went into a shop on a bones level in which I had been killed
by the shopkeeper, and he was still mad. Anyway, after a short battle with
a demon, a little dog (guess why he was there instead of a ghost), and the
shopkeeper, all three lay dead from a wand of fire (I was in debug mode
checking on the ghost bug). It was then I noticed that the computer thought
I was blind, even though I shouldn't have been. Thing was, I could see
monsters all over the level because of my telepathy, but I also could still
see objects in the shop (even after moving over them). I scanned some code
and found something suspicious in shk.c, in which Blinded and Blindfolded
are stored in tempory variables, changed, then restored. That could be a
problem. I don't know if that was the cause, or if it was because I read
a scroll of monster confusion. I've noticed problems with blindness after
reading one of these other times as well.
   Another problem I noticed was that when I dropped a blindfold while I
was wearing it, I was still blind. Reminds me of an old bug with the
leash code.

-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Steve Creps on the VAX 8650 running Ultrix 2.0-1 at Indiana University.
	creps@silver.bacs.indiana.edu
"F-14 Tomcat! There IS no substitute."