Nethack 3.6.2

[Krice]

I think the drop style has changed to old school, when you select something it drops it without that + sign thing. Looting containers is now more complex for no reason, but whatever. Maybe there is some kind of change log somewhere, didn't read it. And when you throw something you have to select * for other than money, can't really understand why.

Sometimes I play Nethack and it's still quite nice. In fact what I like about it is the simplicity (at least in early game before the Quest), you don't have to do anything special, but you can. The current "run" I have with monk has been quite hilarious. I started by stealing a huge scroll shop in like second level of the dungeon, then escaped to gnomish mines and went to bottom level (the special level after mine town), almost got killed there by two vampires (the other one was a lord) that become out of vampire bats (I think it's a feature in that level). Luckily I had two orange potions which were full health potions. The I ran into a mumak which almost killed me. Then, back at the shop level I was almost killed by the shopkeeper, but I was able to go around it with a scroll of teleportation and continue to sokoban, where I'm now in the last level of it.

I've almost never played with a monk, but if you get AC low it's quite easy. I have only the original gloves and robe (improved with stolen scrolls of enchant armour), plus iron boots. No weapon, I think it's what you are supposed to do? AC is -2 and HP 70. Monk seems to be a ridiculously tough tank, you can bash through almost everything with it. Also, monk has healing spell as default which helps a lot.

[Troubler]

I noticed a few changes in the new version, which has been really underwhelming...
Sometimes the game now drops random human corpses with a weapon and armor.
No more pudding farming, which is disappointing from a historical perspective, but I guess that's not a big deal gameplay wise.
I guess it is going to be mainly bug fixes and rebalancing going forward, if anything, for the next couple of years.

I don't really play much Nethack anymore, but occasionally I try another tourist.
My last one died a couple of months ago to a touch of death from a lich after the quest, which has killed my interest for a while.

[Krice]

I didn't go to the last room in sokoban, it seemed to be too dangerous (with all those trolls, my own kind). After leaving sokoban I went down to level 23 which is some kind of water level I guess, couldn't continue there so I went back to Quest level. It was full of xorns and earth elementals, but I had a ring of conflict so I just went around the place and more or less let them kill each other. I stole that ring from a ring shop, I had so much stuff I was only able to steal more expensive rings. But I wasn't yet ready for the Quest so I went back up, bumped on a floating eye in a dark corridor and was killed by a yeti. I was a grand master in unarmed combat so monsters were quite easy to kill, but you have to prepare for special monsters like floating eyes. I think I could have had more/better armour, like a helmet, monks are allowed to wear it, right? I went the whole game with the armour I had in the beginning plus iron boots.

[Krice]

I guess it is going to be mainly bug fixes and rebalancing going forward, if anything, for the next couple of years.

It must be difficult to add something new, because game balance reasons. If there is something they could fix it's the way monsters spawn on top of the holes in sokoban levels. It's annoying, because I don't know any other way than break the boulder, then kill the monster and try to create more boulders with scroll of earth. Actually, sokoban levels itself are quite annoying, they (sokoban puzzle) are easy but tedious.

[Troubler]

It must be difficult to add something new, because game balance reasons.

I'm fine with it. To me the Nethack ship has sailed. There is not really much reason to keep it updated.
Beyond a few bugs, which I was lucky to never run into when I used to play the game frequently, there isn't much to do with it.
So really they have done nothing wrong. But since they did update after such a long hiatus I was expecting something more interesting.

Floating eyes are garbage. Although the run key helps, risking your life every time you turn in a dark corridor is ridiculous when you think about it.
I liked the way rogue did it with the eyes mostly sticking to their rooms, but then that almost makes them a non-threat.
I can't see a great way to fix the issue without just removing the enemy or essentially castrating it.
Maybe if they could only work in lit areas, but then could also actively attack the player in those areas to keep them a threat.

Also there is a (somewhat risky) fix for your sokoban problem, which would work pretty well with your monk. You just have to drop enough inventory items.
Eventually your character will be light enough that they can squeeze through the space between the boulder and the wall to reach whatever is on the other side.

[Krice]

Then again sometimes the game doesn't feel that balanced so who cares what they add into it. Like the last one, I had AC 2 and stepped in a rolling boulder trap which instantly killed my archeologist (14 hp) in DLVL 3. There is nothing you can do, although I guess if there is a boulder in a room it could indicate a trap. I think boulders aren't often created in regular rooms. Before that I tried to kill a gas spore with a priest in I think DLVL 2 or 3 and that was also a bad idea.

[Krice]

There is I think a new kind of minetown added, I don't know when (never seen it before myself). It was like a regular square minetown, but surrounded with a wall (with hidden or no doors) and occupied by orcs who all had names. Shops were almost empty with broken walls etc. Lots of orcs, I almost died when some invisible shaman or whatever was confusing me. I was a barbarian so it was semi-easy and fun-ish to bash them. Then later in mines first I got blinded by yellow light, but I was looking at the enemies and they were just gnomes and dwarves. But there was something else which I didn't realize until it was too late. When I was blind and attacking something I got strange "you cough!" messages which I guess tried to warn me about the green dragon that killed me in couple of turns. I think it was an out of depth monster in that situation.

[Troubler]

I don't think I've ever seen a green dragon or anything so serious that early in the game.
There are some polymorph traps at the bottom of the mines but I've never seen any in minetown.
It might be a part of the new layout? It sounds like a reference to something.

[Krice]

I don't think I've ever seen a green dragon or anything so serious that early in the game.

It was the next level after minetown. What if they have increased the difficulty of the game? I think a new feature is also how vampire bats turn into vampires in the bottom of the mine. I guess it's a new feature, not sure about it, but it's quite annoying.

[Troubler]

I heard on Reddit they released a new version. It looks like it is mostly bug-fixes again.
Too bad I don't have the time to play it!

[Krice]

Bugs are common problem if you have C based legacy project like Nethack. I just wish they could add some gameplay stuff as well, maybe next time.

[Troubler]

I used to play Nethack all the time. For years I could have sworn it didn't have a single bug in it.
It's strange to find out it is such an issue.

[Krice]

I used to play Nethack all the time. For years I could have sworn it didn't have a single bug in it.

I have found bugs in Nethack. But I think they are mostly something special, when you do something weird. It may have something to do with the way the "engine" is made, it just doesn't handle all situations that well.

[Krice]

They have changed file locations for no reason.. it's that annoying users/username location which is "linux style" I guess. You have to find some files there. Of course, options file doesn't seem to work. At least not autopickup, it's off in the options file, but it's on in gameplay. You can change options with O so it's not a big problem, but really?

[Krice]

3.6.3: Explored mines with Samurai. This time it seemed to be quite easy, but I never know what to do at the end of mines level. The right side had that circular wall, when you dig into it you find some gold. I have AC -5 and good skills in katana so at least close combat is easy-ish. Still, almost died when a soldier ant attacked. Ants seems to be always dangerous. Returned from bottom of mines and I'm now in sokoban. I left my pet dog somewhere before entering mines and now it doesn't remember me. It's just annoying when you need to hurry and it doesn't follow. I also have amulet of life saving.