I wonder why these silver spears don't stack, or only partly stack.

r - 2 +0 silver spears {72}
L - a +0 silver spear {36}

Both identified, none was from a polymorph. Dropping individually
and picking them up retains that separation. Could a cancel-zap -
though not sure I've done that - result in that effect?

Maybe I'm going to cancel the whole stack and see what happens...

Janis

On Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 7:28:02 PM UTC-8, Janis wrote:
> I wonder why these silver spears don't stack, or only partly stack.
> r - 2 +0 silver spears {72}
> L - a +0 silver spear {36}
> Both identified, none was from a polymorph. Dropping individually
> and picking them up retains that separation. Could a cancel-zap -
> though not sure I've done that - result in that effect?

If one of the stacks came from wishing and the player
who made the wish included 'fixed' or 'rustproof' out of
habit, that stack wouldn't match with other similar
items even though rustproof isn't relevant for them so
isn't shown when the item gets formatted for inventory
display. Internally one stack would be flagged as
erosion-proof and the other wouldn't so they would not
be compatible for stacking.

But that seems unlikely here. I can't imagine you
wishing for spears and I assume if you were using
Hearse to get access to other player's bones files you
would have said so. I suppose that if one stack came
from a special level, the level definition could be forcing
erosion-proof but that also seems unlikely.

I don't think cancellation will strip off rustproof but I'm
not sure about that. I do think enchanting via confused
reading of cursed scroll will do that though.

On 05.03.2022 21:51, Pat Rankin wrote:
> On Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 7:28:02 PM UTC-8, Janis wrote:
>> I wonder why these silver spears don't stack, or only partly stack.
>> r - 2 +0 silver spears {72}
>> L - a +0 silver spear {36}
>> Both identified, none was from a polymorph. Dropping individually
>> and picking them up retains that separation. Could a cancel-zap -
>> though not sure I've done that - result in that effect?
>
> [...] I can't imagine you
> wishing for spears and I assume if you were using
> Hearse to get access to other player's bones files you
> would have said so.

All assumptions are correct.

I'm playing locally, only own bones files would qualify as source.
An idea was that a bones heap with the Holy Spear of Light could
have produced the base item erode-proof if case the artifact was
already existing somewhere in the dungeons, but strings|grep'ing
my files in the Nethack playground should then have shown that
artifact (and it's non-existing in the game).

> I suppose that if one stack came
> from a special level, the level definition could be forcing
> erosion-proof but that also seems unlikely.

Could a randomly generated silver spear get an erode-proof flag set?

Janis

On Saturday, March 5, 2022 at 4:17:59 PM UTC-8, Janis wrote:
> Could a randomly generated silver spear get an erode-proof flag set?

I don't think so. Either all of them would, or none; that isn't a
randomly assigned attribute. Maybe slash'em has a prayer
reward or other uncommon event that sets weapons or other
items erodeproof and you got that while carrying one of the
two stacks?

Lawful minions have their starting inventory become blessed
and erodeproof, but I can't see where any of them are given
silver spears or random weapons that might happen to be
spears. Fake player undead slayer's get silver spear(s) in
starting inventory, but they aren't lawful minions and there
isn't any attribute manipulation for their gear that I can see.

Is there a technique that makes a thrown weapon behave like
a throw-and-return weapon (boomerangs; Mjollnir for Valkyries;
in nethack 3.6+, ordinary aklys when thrown while wielded)?
The original pickup_thrown patch had a bug with items that
get thrown and then added back into inventory without being
explicitly picked up and slash'em is probably affected by it.
Having the item-was-thrown flag set on one stack and not the
other would prevent merging. But that issue would go away if
you dropped the flagged stack and picked it up again, which
you're bound to have tried already.

On 06.03.2022 19:09, Pat Rankin wrote:
> On Saturday, March 5, 2022 at 4:17:59 PM UTC-8, Janis wrote:
>> Could a randomly generated silver spear get an erode-proof flag set?
>
> I don't think so. Either all of them would, or none; that isn't a
> randomly assigned attribute. Maybe slash'em has a prayer
> reward or other uncommon event that sets weapons or other
> items erodeproof and you got that while carrying one of the
> two stacks?

I don't remember (but cannot exclude that possibility).

>
> Lawful minions have their starting inventory become blessed
> and erodeproof, but I can't see where any of them are given
> silver spears or random weapons that might happen to be
> spears. Fake player undead slayer's get silver spear(s) in
> starting inventory, but they aren't lawful minions and there
> isn't any attribute manipulation for their gear that I can see.

I'm quite positive that I had got two of the spears from the
player monsters at the Guild of the Disgruntled Adventurers.

>
> Is there a technique that makes a thrown weapon behave like
> a throw-and-return weapon (boomerangs; Mjollnir for Valkyries;
> in nethack 3.6+, ordinary aklys when thrown while wielded)?
> The original pickup_thrown patch had a bug with items that
> get thrown and then added back into inventory without being
> explicitly picked up and slash'em is probably affected by it.

I think I've never thrown any of the spears.

> Having the item-was-thrown flag set on one stack and not the
> other would prevent merging. But that issue would go away if
> you dropped the flagged stack and picked it up again, which
> you're bound to have tried already.

Yes, I did that.

Ah, well, that game will anyway end soon without my character
having used these spears. I carried them with me because it's
one of the unrestricted weapons for Monks and the silver bonus,
but now that I am only a few steps away from the Wizard these
spears are in some distant stash. I hope my XL:25 neutral Monk
will not have lethal issues with angelic beings at Air...

Janis