TomeNET

(3.11) Death, ghosts and looting                                                
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Death messages
--------------
Depending on how a player died, there are different kinds of death messages:
- "committed suicide"
  The player committed suicide to delete his character permanently.
- "retired to a warm, sunny climate"
  This is like suicide, but what happens if winners attempt to suicide:
  They simply retire. The character is deleted permanently same as suiciding.
- "was defeated by"
  The everlasting player was killed but got auto-resurrected because he had
  the "instant resurrection" feature enabled in a temple.
- "was killed by"
  The player was killed.
  If the message is enclosed in asterisk pairs, it was a permanent (no-ghost)
  death, so the character is permanently deleted now.
  If the message was not enclosed in asterisks, the player turned into a ghost
  and is probably hoping to get rescued and revived now.
- "was annihilated by"
  Same as "was killed by", just different wording.
  This message appears if the damage taken with the death blow was very high.
- "was vaporized by"
  Same as "was killed by", just different wording.
  This message appears if the damage taken with the death blow was extreme.
- "was destroyed by"
  The player was permanently killed so his character has been deleted now.
  Instead of the asterisk-paired "was killed by" message (which indicates
  permanent death same as this message does) this message is used exclusively
  for insanity-induced deaths.
- "ghost was destroyed by"
  The player's ghost was destroyed (ie 'killed').
  This means the character is now permanently deleted.
- Some special, random death messages when the player gets killed by the game
  boss, Morgoth, Lord of Darkness.


Death
-----
If a player dies, an automatic chardump is generated in /lib/user called
'<charname>-death.txt' (see (9.2)) which you can view with any text editor.
Also, a screenshot is made automatically, displaying your situation, saved
to '<charname>-death-screenshot.xhtml'.
(You can view xhtml files in most webbrowsers.)

Normal/everlasting characters will turn into ghosts if they die. When you
become a ghost, your title will change to 'Ghost' until you get revived.
Depending on the server configuration, ghosts of a 'normal mode' player
can usually be resurrected only 2 times, so a normal player has 3 lives
before permanently biting it.
Unworldly/hellish characters don't have a ghost and are completely destroyed
if they die.
Everlasting characters may also use the 'Instant Resurrection' feature offered
by town temples, see (4.5a), which will avoid turning into a ghost.

Ghosts are very fragile, but can pass solid walls, float up and down freely
using the < and > keys, their melee attacks can cause fear and they gain a few
special abilities listed further below under 'Ghosts' (such as infra-vision).

If a player ultimatively dies on a dungeon or tower floor, ie he didn't turn
into a resurrectable ghost but got completely erased, then that particular
floor he "perma-died" (also termed "ghost-died") on will remain static for
a while, instead of being regenerated.
This allows other players to go down there later and retrieve his items or
money, however, whatever killed him/her will probably also still be down
there!

The time a level stays static is usually 2 minutes * dungeonlevel.
Example: A player dies on -300 ft in The Orc Cave dungeon.
         In The Orc Cave, the first floor at -50ft is alreay like -500ft ie
         level 10 (compare (4.5)). The player died 5 floors deeper at -300
         so we have to add 5 more floors to 10, so the player died at dungeon
         level 15 in fact. 2 minutes times 15 = 30 minutes time for others to
         go there and pickup his loot until the level randomly changes again.

Levels below 9 (eg for Barrow-Downs less deep than -450ft) are usually exempt
from remaining static and will regenerate normally, meaning the loot is lost
after a couple of seconds.

Sauron's floor (the bottom of Mount Doom) is special and will only stay static
for 60 minutes to avoid possibly blocking other players for a long time who
want to try and defeat him.

Notes: If a player enters a static-by-death floor, the floor timer will be
       reset and start counting down the full duration again, prolonging its
       staticness. This timer-reset happens the moment a player enters that
       floor. How long he stays or when he leaves again has no effect.

       The same timing that applies for static-by-death floors is also valid
       for static-by-save&exit floors, ie floors where a player logged out
       instead of doing that in town.
       So if you logged out because your character was stuck, make sure you
       don't log on too early or you will reset the timer as mentioned above.


What happens to your loot
-------------------------
If you die, all of your items are dropped to the floor at the place of your
death. Additionally, 0-4 random items from your inventory and sometimes even
one random item from your equipment might get destroyed on death, but most of
it is waiting for you to pick it up again after someone came and revived you.

Note however that if you float up or down with your ghost while noone stays on
the level to keep it, the level will usually immediately change and be lost and
all your items with it!
(Only a ghost's death or death of a character which has only 1 life will turn a
floor static as described further above.)

If you stood in a place where there is no room for your items to drop, for
example inside a dense forest (green tree fields) or mountain regions (brown ^
fields) then your items will be scattered randomly over the whole level.

Watch out for nearby monsters that have the ability to pick up items, they
might pick up your loot too, and they don't always drop all items they picked
up again when you slay them, possibly resulting in more permanent item loss.

Last but not least, non-validated players and characters below level 3 don't
drop their items on death, their loot will vanish forever. (The level depends
on server settings, so check them via ~i to verify.)

If you are an everlasting-mode player you can enable 'instant resurrection' in
any town's temple (see (4.5a)) in which case you will not drop your items on
death but just respawn near the temple on death, provided you had enough funds
at the time of death to pay the fee of getting automatically resurrected.
The usual loss of 0-4 inventory items and sometimes one equipment piece will
still occur though as it cannot be avoided. And the experience loss is even
greater with instant resurrection than with normal deaths.


Ghosts
------
You can continue playing as a ghost, getting a slight experience penalty,
but that's not recommended. Instead, you should go for resurrection!
Ghosts also do not share experience with party members on the same floor.

Ghosts can float up and down freely (just hit '<' or '>' key as if you take
a staircase), so they can quickly float out of the dungeon without having to
search for staircases. However, on some servers, a ghost cannot float down to
very deep dungeon levels which he hadn't visited yet when he was still alive.
So 'Ghost-Diving' (means: simply continuing playing as a ghost) is somewhat
limited there.

That will bring you back to life at the cost of experience (35% usually).
There are 3 ways to be revived:

-the ghost can visit a temple (green '4' in town). The temple priest will also
 give him some money. The temple priest will turn the ghost away without
 resurrecting it, if the town isn't the last one visited by the player when
 he was still alive. ('The temple priest turns you away')
 If you want to do this but don't want to lose your items that dropped in the
 dungeon where you died, either have someone wait down there for your return or
 ask someone to pick up your items before your ghost leaves the dungeon level.

-wait down there for another player to come to your ghost and (doesn't work
 inside vaults!) read a 'Scroll of Life' when standing directly next to you.

-wait down there for another player to come to your ghost and (doesn't work
 inside vaults!) speak a prayer of 'Resurrection' when standing directly next
 to you. This method costs you the least amount of experience penalty, which
 gets reduced depending on the level of the resurrection spell.

By any means of resurrection, the ghost will then return to the world of the
living under the cost of a lot of experience but at least the player can resume
playing. If the ghost dies, the character will finally be erased permanently,
watch out!

Ghosts slowly lose experience, if they go below 0 they will fade and the
player will be erased completely.

Ghosts have some special abilities, these are
-they can see invisible creatures
-life force can hardly be drained from them
-they cannot be paralyzed
-they spot warm-blooded creatures easily (aka +5 to infra-vision)
-they resist darkness effects, cold, blindness, fear and confusion
-they are immune to poison and don't suffer from continuous disease
-they cannot be cut since they don't bleed
-they resist insanity attacks
-they can pass solid walls and mountains
-they can levitate
-they cannot use items
-they cannot carry items except for the Book Of The Dead.

Ghosts can access ghost powers with 'U' (currently not available, sorry) or
with CTRL+X if using rogue-like key map.
Those powers drain your experience. If you use them too often you might lose
character levels even, and if you eventually run out of experience you will
fade away and permanently cease to exist without a chance of resurrection
(which means your character is erased then same as on ghost-death or unworldy
character's death).


Getting help
------------
Don't hesistate to ask other players online for help. You can press '@' to see
who is currently logged on. To try and get the attention of someone who seems
to be afk, you can try the  /page  command. It will make his game client beep
three times.
Write in normal chat (so everyone can read it) that you need help, the dungeon
you are in, and the depth you are on, eg: "Help! I died in Mordor -50 ft!"
Make sure your ghost is in a safe spot, preferably within walls, so most
monsters will be unable to attack you. Avoid moving around until the player you
called for a rescue confirms that he has cleared out the monsters and tells you
where you should move next.

Note that certain items can be traded cross-mode (ie between everlasting and
non-everlasting players) to make rescues easier! These are:
- Basic food and ale
- Torches
- Flasks of Oil
- Scrolls of Satisfy Hunger
- Scrolls of Word of Recall
These items will be 100% discounted on cross-mode trade, so they become
unsalable to stores, but at least you can use them!