Gems ====== by Bryan Butler (butler@cluster.gps.caltech.edu). Gems overview. ============= Name Colour Prob % Value Material Hard? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ dilithium crystal white .3 4500 GEMSTONE no diamond white .4 4000 GEMSTONE yes ruby red .5 3500 GEMSTONE yes sapphire blue .6 3000 GEMSTONE yes emerald green .7 2500 GEMSTONE yes turquoise * .8 2000 GEMSTONE no aquamarine * 1.0 1500 GEMSTONE yes amber y-b** 1.1 1000 GEMSTONE no topaz y-b** 1.3 900 GEMSTONE yes opal white 1.5 800 GEMSTONE no garnet red 1.7 700 GEMSTONE yes amethyst violet 1.9 600 GEMSTONE no jasper red 2.1 500 GEMSTONE no fluorite * 2.2 400 GEMSTONE no jade green 2.3 300 GEMSTONE no worthless piece... of white glass white 11.6 0 GLASS no of blue glass blue 11.6 0 GLASS no of red glass red 11.6 0 GLASS no of y-b** glass y-b** 11.6 0 GLASS no of green glass green 11.6 0 GLASS no of violet glass violet 11.6 0 GLASS no * The colour may vary: turqoise can be either green or blue, aquamarine can be either green or blue as well, and fluorite can be either violet, blue, white or green. The chances are equal for each colour. ** y-b: yellowish brown The following are really "stones", but they are put here, since they are all the same sort of object, and thus are virtually the same for random object generation. Name Colour Prob % Value Material Weight ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ luckstone gray 1.0 60 MINERAL 10 loadstone gray 1.0 1 MINERAL 500 rock gray 10.0 0 MINERAL 10 The weight of all gems is 1. The nutrition value of all gemstones is 15, except the worthless pieces of glass, which are worth 6. Note that you are not normally capable of eating gems or stones. The nutrition value for stones is 10. Engraving with gems. =================== You can only use hard gems to engrave in rock. Other gems will engrave in the dust. When engraving with gems or rings, it takes one turn per letter to engrave. Throwing gems at unicorns. ========================= Throwing a gem to a unicorn can change your luck in one of several ways, depending on the type of gem, its identified status, and the type of unicorn: Gem Unicorn Luck Status Co-Aligned? Type Adverb Change ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ unnamed yes gem gratefully +1 no gem hesitatingly -1 to +1 yes glass graciously 0 no glass graciously 0 named yes gem gratefully +2 no gem hesitatingly -1 to +1 yes glass * 0 no glass * 0 id'ed yes gem gratefully +5 no gem hesitatingly -3 to +3 yes glass * 0 no glass * 0 The message sequence in all cases but the (*) is like: "The gray unicorn neighs! The gray unicorn catches the red gem.--More--" "The gray unicorn (adverb) accepts your gift." where the color of the unicorn and the color of the gem are appropriate for the situation. (Adverb) comes from the table above, except where the column has a *, in which case the message sequence is like: "The gray unicorn neighs!--More--" "The gray unicorn catches the worthless piece of red glass.--More--" "The gray unicorn is not interested in your junk." after which the unicorn will promptly drop the "gem". If you have only named the gem, but not identified it, the second line will read a bit different. Identifying gems. ================ There are four methods of identifying gems: 1) Engraving with them. This will immediately tell you if the gem is "hard" or "soft". If the gem is hard (see the above list), you'll get the message (for a red gem): "You engrave in the floor with the red gem.". If the gem is "soft", you'll get the message: "You write in the dust with the red gem.". Note that after you get the above message, you'll be prompted with: "What do you want to write in the dust here?". If you just type at this prompt, you won't waste any turns writing something. 2) Throwing them at a unicorn. See the above section. 3) "Kickboxing". If you put gems into a chest or large box, and then repeatedly kick the chest or box, all worthless pieces of glass will break eventually. 4) Waiting. If you wait long enough, you'll accumulate a large number of gems. Since the probabilities of getting worthless pieces of glass are so much higher than getting true gems, you'll acquire them much faster than other gems. So, if you just wait long enough, and look at all of the gems of a certain color that you have, more often than not the gem of which you have the most is the worthless piece of glass. This is a bit risky, and usually takes much more time than methods 1 and 3. An easy method of identifying gems is thus as follows: 1. Try to engrave with it. If you "engrave in the floor", you immediately know it's a true (and "hard") gem. If you "write in the dust", it's soft, and you don't know if it's a true gem, or worthless piece of glass. If it's a "hard" gem, #name it to a representative name. If the gem is white, you know it's a diamond, if yellowish brown, it's a topaz, if blue, it's a sapphire. If it's green (or red), name it either hardgreen1 (or hardred1) or hardgreen2 (or hardred2), since there are then 2 possibilities as to what it is, namely emerald or aquamarine (or ruby or garnet). 2. If you can find a box or chest, use method 3, in the following way: for each gem: a) #name it something like "worthless, red", according to its color; b) #loot the box, and put the gem(s) into it; c) repeatedly kick the box, until about 5 to 10 kicks don't break anything anymore; d) #loot the box again. If any gems remain (in the same number as you originally put in), then that gem type is valuable, so you can re-#name the gem to something like: "red gem n", where n starts at 1 (for the first one you find) and increments. Then, whenever you find a gem called "worthless, red" or something like that, you know it's really a worthless piece of glass. Of course, once you've found the worthless type of each color, you need no longer concern yourself with other gems of that color. 3. If you can't seem to find a box, you should resign yourself to using method 2 or 4. This is pretty unusual, however. Note that #name-ing a gem is not the same as truly identifying it (via a scroll) for some purposes (throwing to unicorns or selling to shopkeepers). So if, early on in the game, you have a gem that you know is a true gem, and find a shop which will buy gems, it is a good idea to identify the gem and sell it. If you have a well-trained pet, this is a great way to get all of the shopkeepers money!