Unbelievable bones level

[HugoB]

I'm playing the Android port of Nethack 3.6.6 and have enabled bones sharing via Hearse. Now my Valkyre found unbelievable bones of some other player, containg some artefacts, a BoH with lots of good stuff, and an ascencion kit with each item enchanted up to +10. Now I have AC -67. ;-)

a blessed rustproof +10 helm of brilliance
an uncursed +10 pair of gauntlets of dexterity
an uncursed fireproof +10 pair of speed boots
an uncursed fireproof +10 cloak of magic resistance
a blessed fireproof +10 T-shirt
an uncursed greased +10 silver dragon scale mail

How realistic is it, that the player who left these bones played normally, or did he cheat? Maybe you can achieve this with massive polypiling?

[Janis Papanagnou]

Post by HugoB
I'm playing the Android port of Nethack 3.6.6 and have enabled bones
sharing via Hearse. Now my Valkyre found unbelievable bones of some
other player, containg some artefacts, a BoH with lots of good stuff,
and an ascencion kit with each item enchanted up to +10. Now I have
AC -67. ;-)
a blessed rustproof +10 helm of brilliance an uncursed +10 pair of
gauntlets of dexterity an uncursed fireproof +10 pair of speed boots
an uncursed fireproof +10 cloak of magic resistance a blessed
fireproof +10 T-shirt an uncursed greased +10 silver dragon scale
mail
How realistic is it, that the player who left these bones played
normally, or did he cheat? Maybe you can achieve this with massive
polypiling?

It is known that usual armor can be enchanted once from +3 to +4/+5,
and they say that specific armor (like elven armor or cornuthaum)
can be safely enchanted from +5 to +6/+7. This enchanted armor can
be polymorphed to retain its enchantment for the polymorphed item.

Decades ago I *thought* to have seen in the source code that there's
a _chance_ that weapons or armor don't vaporize when over-enchanted.

Getting crowned may make a wielded weapon go beyond the usual limit.

I don't think that polypiling plain unenchanted armor will create an
enchantment different from the original item.

If there's a chance to not vaporize armor that would require a lot of
preparation and time. Since AFAIK pudding farming doesn't work in 3.6
my guess would be some form of cheating (like a direct change of the
bones file before uploading it).

I like getting bones when playing on public servers. (The idea that I
get them from unreliable sources rather repels me.)

Janis

[Pat Rankin]

On Monday, December 19, 2022 at 11:27:25 PM UTC-8, HugoB wrote:
[ set of armor with all seven slots having a +10 item ]

Post by HugoB
How realistic is it, that the player who left these bones played
normally, or did he cheat?

It looks like blatant cheating by the player. It you play
in wizard mode, you can wish for normally out of reach
enchantment values, and if you die you're asked whether
to save a bones file (intent being to set up for testing
uncommon scenarios in regular play, not to acquire
god-like loot in subsequent games). I think that Hearse
rejects bones files made in wizard mode, but modifying
the file to clear the mode flag isn't rocket science.
Modifying the source code to clear the mode flag when
saving, then rebuilding the program would also be trivial.

That bones file should be reported as abuse. If Hearse
is still actively maintained, the machine that the file got
uploaded from won't be allowed to provide future uploads.

Post by HugoB
Maybe you can achieve this with massive polypiling?

Objects retain their own class (armor or food or whatever,
with a handful of exceptions) and their own enchantment
(if applicable) when polymorphed. So you could only get
a +10 item of armor from polymorph by enchanting an
item of armor which is already +10. You still have the
problem of generating one of those to be poly fodder.

With weapons, you could gather a huge stack of arrows,
bolts, or darts and enchant them up to safe enchantment
limit, then split the stack into smaller stacks and risk
enchanting those higher. With enough scrolls and luck,
you could get some highly enchanted missiles and then
attempt to polymorph them into other types of weapons.
That cannot be done with armor because no types of
armor stack. So any over-enchantment event destroys
the lone item and puts you back at square one.