[Gllug] "Open source has its own problems" - article in Computing

[David Damerell]

On Thursday, 11 Aug 2005, Nix wrote:
>Answer me this: How the *hell* do you avoid running out of food? I seem
>to starve in no time flat (unless I hack the code to reduce the rate of
>energy consumption, but that's cheating).

Reduce consumption. Rings of hunger and regeneration use a lot; other
rings and amulets use a little (but so little that their utility
exceeds the penalty). Being Burdened or worse uses quite a bit.
Spellcasting as a "not wizard with high Int" uses food. Jumping with
boots or as a knight uses a lot. The amulet of slow digestion cuts
consumption enormously but of course you won't have one early on.

Eat as many corpses as possible. There are two ways a corpse can be
bad; one is species-associated - some are poisonous, some induce
hallucinations - and one is age, which almost any species can suffer
from. Unless it's a lizard or lichen, do not eat any corpse that is
not known to be fresh - this is the "deathly sick" message; in terms
of species association, learn the bad species.

Prayer. If you only pray to your god when Weak with hunger and aren't
increasing consumption as above, the risk of angering your god through
successive prayers is miniscule. If you have any other food resources,
it is effectively zero.

Don't linger on cleared levels, and generally avoid wasting turns that
accomplish nothing.

I essentially never lose characters to starvation, including secondary
effects like doing something otherwise foolish in a desperate search
for food, and I'm not doing anything more clever than what you read
here.

-- 
David Damerell <damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk> flcl?
Today is Brieday, July.
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