NetHack: The Next Generation 1.0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

0. Contents:
	0. Contents
	1. What is this?
	2. What does NHTNG include?
	3. How do you install NHTNG?
	4. To which extent are NHTNG and vanilla NetHack comparable?
	5. On Forcing stats
	6. The Legal Stuff
	7. Dedication
	=== SPOILER WARNING ===
	8. What *exactly* does NHTNG include?
	9. Rationale of some of the new features in terms of Game Balance
	   and Plausibility

1. What is this?

	Nethack:The Next Generation (NHTNG) is a set of patches
	for NetHack 3.1.3. It is highly inofficial and should not be
	confused with vanilla NetHack.

2. What does NHTNG include?

	- Various Douglas-Adams like monsters and objects (see README.DNA).
	- A new character class, the Geek, with assorted Quest Levels.
	- Six new levels
	- 58 new monsters
	- 38 new objects
	- Some fortunes come true.
	- Eight new artifacts, among them non-quest non-weapon artifacts.
	- A selector for ability preference.
	- Special monsters for the rogue level
	- and much, much more.
	- The Nethack&DouglasAdams patches I released on Mar 14,1994
	  are incorporated into NHTNG as well.

3. How do you install NHTNG?

	a. Before starting, read the legal stuff (point 6). 
	b. You will need a patch program that understands context
	   diffs (GNU patch, for example).
	c. Uncompress the original 3.1.3 sources. It is important that
	   you start with a clean source tree.
	d. Install the Makefiles as instructed in sys/unix/Install.unx
	e. Uncompress the archive containing NHTNG. To do this, go to
	   the main NH313 directory and then type for a shar archive:
		$ sh <nh313.tng.shar
	   or the following for a gzipped tar archive:
		$ gzip -dc <nh313.tng.tar.z | tar xvf -
	f. Step c will have created, among others, a file named patch.pa
	   It contains the actual patches to the NH313 sources. To
	   apply them, type:
		$ patch <patch.pa
	g. Now follow the DevTeam's instructions for configuring, compiling
	   and installing NetHack. DO NOT copy the Makefiles again (as you
	   did in step d)
	h. Have fun!

4. To which extent are NHTNG and vanilla NetHack comparable?
	In NHTNG there are both features making the game easier and
	making it harder. I suspect, however, that on a large scale
	NHTHG will be somewhat easier. Since I have never ascended
	with NHTNG (and in fact, not with vanilla NH313, either), I
	unfortunately cannot really do more than guess on that.

5. On Forcing Stats
	"Oh darn, why has this newly-born Valkyrie only Str: 10 ?!?"
	In situtations as the above, how many times did you quit
	the game to try again? How often did it take you ten times
	or more until you had what you wanted? You're now shown the
	stats of your new character and then you can accept them
	or not (in which case you roll again).
	You even can do what I call "forcing a stat". That means that
	you tell the game that any combination of stats where Xx is
	lower than 42 is totally unacceptable to you. When you indicate
	that you want to force something, you're first asked for
	the stat you want (you can't force more than one). The answer
	is given according to the following key:
		s - Strength (St)
		d - Dexterity (Dx)
		c - Constitution (Co)
		i - Intelligence (In)
		w - Wisdom (Wi)
		h - Charisma (Ch)
	Then you're asked for the minimum value (for Strength, 19 means
	18/01, 20 = 18/02 etc.), after which all rolls are guranteed
	to satisfy your condition.
	Some players might object to this extension as a means of cheating
	or inappropriate manipulation of the stats. I believe that this is
	not the case, because of:
		a) It doesn't give you any real advantage over repeatedly
		   running and then immediately quitting the game. Remember
		   that all my extension does is rolling dice until
		   the required conditions are met.
		b) Remember that you were (or, actually, your character
		   was) "heralded from birth as the instrument of XXX".
		   But guess the reasons because of which you were
		   selected. Surely you were tested on your various
		   abilities and then chosen. My 'forcing' just
		   simulates this.

6. The Legal stuff
	I, being of sound mind and body, do write down on this day of
	the twentieth of May in the year nineteenhundredninetyfour,
	for all to see, that these patches of Nethack shall be placed
	in the Public Domain and therefore free to use for anybody
	without any restriction. However, I disclaim any liability
	for any damage or consequences caused by these patches or
	bugs in them. By using this software you agree to be 
	bound by these terms.
	However, note that in the act of applying my patches to 
	the actual NetHack sources causes the resulting program
	to be completely bound to the NetHack license agreement
	as stored in dat/license.

7. Dedication
	| :hacker: [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n.   |
   	| 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable        |
   	| systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most   |
   	| users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.  2. One who  |
   	| programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys          |
   	| programming rather than just theorizing about programming.  3. A    |
   	| person capable of appreciating {hack value}.  4. A person who is    |
   	| good at programming quickly.  5. An expert at a particular program, |
  	|  or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a UNIX   |
   	| hacker'.  (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who   |
   	| fit them congregate.)  6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind.  One |
   	| might be an astronomy hacker, for example.  7. One who enjoys the   |
   	| intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing    |
   	| limitations.  8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to      |
   	| discover sensitive information by poking around.  Hence `password   |
   	| hacker', `network hacker'.  The correct term is {cracker}.          |
					- The Jargon File, version 3.0.0
	| 9. A hack or nethack player.					      |

	I hereby dedicate Nethack - The Next Generation to all hackers
	in this world, by any definition of 'hacker' you care to name.
	I have really enjoyed programming this piece of software and I 
	believe it is now truly ready to be shared with the world of
	the USENET. I hope that you enjoy using this piece of software,
	which is the second one I release to the USENET. Of course, I 
	am also always interested in bug reports (or, preferrably,
	fixes :-), suggestions, enhancements etc.

	At this point I would like to thank the NetHack Development Team
	for making this marvellous game real and to maintain it. It is
	only from people like you that such a game can emerge and it were
	your efforts which inspired me to enjoy this game not only
	in the way of playing it but also in the way of enhancing it
	and eventually make my own 'play on NetHack' available on USENET. 
	I encourage everyone to do the same.

	On Mon May 30, 1994, 9:56am MESZ I will release this to USENET.
	May you enjoy it!

							05/20/94
							Sebastian Klein
							aus001@rrz.uni-koeln.de

8. (P.S.) What *exacty* does NHTNG include?
	(The following material contains only spoilers. If you do not want
	to be spoiled, don't read any further. I really believe that stopping
	here might enhance your fun - so DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!)

	There's a truck full of spoilers driving past. Jump in front of it? [yn]
























DO NOT READ!!! 

























	You're spoiled to death. You have been warned.

	The Geek Class:
		Class Name:	Geek
		Alignment:	Neutral
		Abilities:
			Str	Dex	Con 	Int	Wis	Cha
			10+30%	10+15%	10+15%	8+10%	9+20%	7+10%

		Intrinsics:					(Level)
			Poison resistance			1
			Shock resistance			1
			Teleport control			8
			Warning					15

		Starting Equipment:
			a blessed +1 electric sword
			(1..7) ICs
			+1 gauntlets of typing
			4 potions of Jolt Cola
			2 Hacker's Foods
			a pack of floppies

		Quest Leader:		The DevTeam
		Quest Nemesis:		Bill Gates
		Quest Artifact:		The Nethack Sources 
					(#invoke = IDENTIFY)

		The Geek is a mixture between a hacker, as defined in the
		Jargon File and a NetHack player. I would have preferred
		to call the class "Hacker" but the Healers strongly 
		disapproved of that.

	New monsters:
		Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal
		Schroedinger's Cat
		algolian suntiger
		leprechaun elder
		leprechaun king
		nymph queen
		giant mumak
		young unicorn
		Deep Thought
		Eddie
		bug
		heisenbug
		PDP-11
		PDP-9
		VAX
		walking disk drive
		cray
		Douglas Adams
		ancient multi-hued dragon
		Dragon Lord
		baby lich
		vogon
		vogon lord
		Prostetnik Vogon Jeltz
		Marvin
		Zaphod Breeblebrox
		creeping 42
		pupil
		teacher
		principal
		blacksmith
		Ford Perfect
		Arthur Dent
		Mr. Prosser
		news daemon
		printer daemon
		UNIX Kernel
		babelfish
		deminewt
		masternewt
		geek
		The Dev Team
		Bill Gates
		hacker
	
	The Rogue Monsters:
		aquator		centaur		dragon		emu
		venus flytrap	griffin		ice monster	kestrel
		nymph		phantom		quagga		rattlesnake
		xeroc		zombie

	58 new monsters.

	New Objects:
		electric sword			Nothing special
		tooth of an algolian suntiger	A very good weapon indeed
		gauntlets of typing		Nothing special
		ring of health			Increases Constitution
		ring of timely backup		See Computer Level
		amulet of second chance		
			The Amulet Of Second Chance is much like the
			amulet of life saving, but it doesn't bring
			you to max HP again, but only to the HPs you
			had before the final hit. Great for those
			who think "Well, I have 30HP left. I can
			surely take one more hit from that mumak."
		amulet of data storage		See Computer Level	
		Schroedinger's Box
			This contains a potion of radium + either:
				- a live cat + a potion of cyanide
			or
				- a cat corpse.
			What of the two is inside is not determined
			until the box is opened.
		bag of digestion		Eats your stuff
		Hitchhiker's Guide t.t. Galaxy	see README.DNA
		diode,transistor,IC		see README.DNA
		pack of floppies
			They have a random content. If it is MS Windows,
			you will get confused if you're a geek and 
			(a)pply them.
		god-o-meter
			If blessed, it tells you whether your prayer
			timeout has expired. If uncursed/cursed, your
			timeout is prolonged.
		relay				Artifact prototype
		bottle				see Chemistry below
		chemistry set			see Chemistry below
		Hacker's Food			a food ration for geeks
		potion of extreme power		gives you rn2(10) HP
		potion of recovery		puts you back to max HP
		potion of invulnerability	makes you invulnerable 
		potion of heroism		
			gives you several intrinsics + invulnerability
			for a short period of time.
		potion of cyanide		kills you
		potion of radium		makes you sick
		potion of Jolt Cola		gives you 5 HP up to max
		potion of Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster
			You can guess that yourself :-)
		scroll of mass murder	
			kills all monsters present of a type, like genocide,
			but doesn't prevent future creation of them.
		scroll of undo genocide		permit creation of a mon again
		scroll of reverse identify
			This scroll asks you what you want to identify.
			You do not need a sample of the item, however. It
			suffices to answer with something like "loadstone",
			"wand of wishing" or even "smoky potion".
		scroll of consecration		makes an altar
		scroll of root pwd detection	see Computer Level below
		spellbook of finger		like wand of probing
		spellbook of chemistry		see Chemistry below
		wand of acid			shoots an acid ray
		wand of draining
			This takes away from the hit monster half of
			its max HP. However, the amount taken is 
			subtracted from your own HP as well, so care
			is advised. This wand is inspired by Angband.
		wand of wonder
			This does the effect of a random wand class
			(with a bias against wishing). This is 
			inspired by Angband as well.
		wand of bugging			see Computer Level below

		38 new objects.		

	New Levels:
		The Forge:
			Here is where the blacksmith Duri lives. (The name
			Duri is taken from the short story "Blades" by Sonia
			Orin Lyris, published in the Quanta Magazine, 
			December 1989). He makes artifacts for you, but
			it might cost a lot.
	
		The School:
			This level is in memorial of my days at school
			(which includes today :-). The teachers' names
			are verbatim and their character as well. Note
			that it is not by chance that this is in
			Gehennom.

		Computer Level:
			This level contains various dangerous computers.
			Some objects, namely:
				- ring of timely backup
				- scroll of root password detection
				- amulet of data storage
				- wand of bugging
			can only be found on this level and will vanish
			from your pack once you go up or down. The wand
			of bugging creates bugs and heisenbugs, the other
			three items only display cute messages.

		Key Level: 
			This level is full of leprechauns and nymphs,
			all awake and waiting to steal your stuff. You
			will eventually be able to kill the nymph
			queen and get the Key Of Access (see below).

		Dragon Level:
			This level contains the Dragon Lord with his
			unique scales.

		The Hitchhiker's Level:
			In the honour of Douglas Noel Adams and his
			works this level has been created. 

	New Artifacts:
		Name		Type		#invoke	Damage	A C
		~~~~		~~~~		~~~~~~~	~~~~~~	~ ~
		Mumakbane	long sword	- 	Fire	N -
							(vs. mumakil)
		Wormbiter	crysknife	-	Phys	N -
							(vs. worms)
		Shocker		electric sword	-	Elec	N -

		Scales Of The Dragon Lord	red dragon scale mail
						DRAGON_BREATH	C -
		Burned Moth Relay	relay	-	-	- -

		Wand Of Might	wand of wishing	-	-	- -

		The Key Of Access	key	CREATE_PORTAL	- -

		The Nethack Sources	pack of floppies
		(G Quest Artifact)		IDENTIFY	N G

		8 new artifacts.

	Chemistry:
		There has been created a way to create potions, similiar
		to the blank paper/magic marker combination for scrolls
		and spellbooks. Before you can use it, you must have met
		the following conditions:
			- Read a spellbook of chemistry. Reading it once
			  is enough - it doesn't wear off like ordinary
			  spells (save amnesia).
			- Have a chemistry set. It corresponds to the
			  magic marker for scrolls. It is charged and
			  therefore can be used only a limited amount
			  of times. Charge diminuation is dependent
			  on the price of the potion.
			- Have a bottle to hold the newly made potion.
			  It corresponds to the scroll/spellbook of
			  blank paper.
			- Have identified the potion you want to make 
			  (unless you're lucky).
		The potion created will be marked as 'selfmade' in the
		inventory (and so will be selfmade scrolls, spellbooks
		and tins, now). If you quaff a selfmade potion, there is
		a chance (luck-dependent) that something bad (posioned
		from a mistake in making the potion) will happen.

9. Rationale of some of the new features in terms of Game Balance and
   Plausibility 

- The Hitchhiker's features (hitch level, "42" room etc.)
	None of the features presented herein have any significant use,
	with two notable exceptions:
		- Eating a creeping 42 corpse making you gain a level
		  Serious abuse (cursed genocide) is prevented by making
		  the creeping 42 un-genocideable. Minor spoilage of 
		  game balance is diminushed by making it usually peaceful,
		  thereby increasing the price of getting its corpse.
		- Killing a babelfish gives an extraordinarily high amount
		  of Xp, usually providing a gain level to lowlevel
		  characters.
		  This is included (or, rather, not removed) as an extra
		  gimmick for those ambitioned enough to find out. As
		  babelfishes are sufficiently rare, there's no real harm 
	 	  done.

- Various 'parody' items (compu room, Geek class etc.) that might drive
  the game to the point of being ridicolous
Well, NetHack as it is consists of elements taken from many different
authors and fantasies, for example:
	- Herbert ("Dune") --> crysknife etc.
	- Tolkien ("The Lord Of The Rings") --> elves, orcs, hobbits etc.
	- Greek mythology --> Medusa etc.
	- other mythologies --> Asmodeus, Juiblex and many others.
All I have done is adding elements taken from other, possibly from more
recent, sources:
	- Adams ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy") --> 42, Deep Thought,
		Arthur Dent, algolian suntiger etc.
	- Computer Folklore --> Geek, PDP-11, UNIX, news daemon etc.
	- NetHack itself --> Stormbringer attracting vortices
	- myself --> pupil, deminewt, Douglas Adams etc.
I strongly believe that those added things enhance the game a lot. It
certainly does not become ridicolous.

- Ring of Health
Someone on USENET has objected to my ring of health, increasing constitution.
He said that, since Co is only significant when you gain a level, you would
have a permanent gain from wearing the ring only when you're about to go up.
I believe this to be irrelevant, however, since there are many rings doing
exactly this: for example, the extra HP gained by wearing a ring of 
regeneration do *not* vanish again once you remove the ring again. 
My ring of health fills a niche in which it nicely fits.

- potion of invulerability too powerful?
Come to think of it, it is not really *that* powerful. If you're surrounded
it only delays your fate by several turns. If there's only one mumak (or
Archon) there trying to blast you, it is indeed the most valueable thing
to have, however. But, remember, that it is also very rare and expensive,
so you're not likely to get more that at most one or two per full game.