Draft:Blindness
Blindness restricts the player's local vision and prevents reading scrolls or using Examine. True sight, gaze immunity and curing blindness solve different problems: true sight can stop murk-fungus spores, but does not cure existing blindness or protect against the catoblepas' gaze.[1]
Effects
While blind on a local map, ordinary vision updates redraw the player's position instead of revealing the surrounding area and updating visible monsters normally. This does not erase every remembered map square. The countryside drawing path is separate and still reveals nearby countryside terrain; it is not a model for vision inside a local encounter.[2]
| Activity | Effect of blindness |
|---|---|
| Read a scroll | Refused before selecting a scroll |
| Examine a location | Refused, including a remembered location |
| Ordinary local exploration | Normal surrounding-vision and visible-monster updates are suppressed |
| Walk, fight, drink, cast or use a wand | Blindness adds no universal action ban; targeting and each effect's other checks still apply |
In particular, a scroll of true sight cannot be read as a remedy while already blind. Being blind does not stop enemies acting, remove their line of sight or make the player invisible.[3]
A positive blindness count below 1000 loses one count per ten-minute-status check. Local time normally reaches that check every ten game minutes; an hourly countryside advance runs it once. A count of 1000 or more does not naturally decrease. Services that skip hours need not simulate the intervening checks.[4]
Sources
| Source | Blindness | Protection and repeat behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Catoblepas gaze | Sets 1–4 counts | Requires no existing blindness, line of sight and distance below five; checks gaze immunity, not true sight |
| Murk fungus spores | Adds 4 counts | Within three squares and only when not already blind; true sight prevents it, gaze immunity is not checked |
| Cursed scroll of true sight | Adds 1–10 counts | Neither true sight nor gaze immunity is checked; ordinary reading is already blocked when blind |
| Cursed cloak of true sight or cursed ring of truesight | Adds 1500 when its worn power is applied | No true-sight or gaze-immunity check; separate applications can accumulate |
Ordinary catoblepas ranged actions restrict the gaze's opportunities further, normally to distances three and four. Murk fungus can darken a lit room as well as blind the player; preventing the spores does not preserve that room's lighting or torch fuel.[5]
Prevention and recovery
| Method | What it actually does |
|---|---|
| True sight from its spell, noncursed scroll or equipment | Prevents the fungus' blindness and helps with certain visual deceptions; does not clear blindness or block the catoblepas' gaze |
| Ring of gaze immunity | Adds gaze immunity while used, even if cursed; does not clear blindness or prevent spores and cursed true-sight effects |
| Beneficial healing effect | Clears all blindness, even when no HP recovery is needed |
| Noncursed curing potion or cure spell | Clears all blindness along with its disease/poison effects; does not itself restore HP |
| Remove a cursed true-sight item | Subtracts that item's 1500 blindness counts, down to zero; ordinary removal restrictions still apply |
A standard noncursed healing potion invokes beneficial healing, but an enchantment below -1 reverses that potion's healing amount even without a curse. Such a harmful effect does not clear blindness. The healing spell, lembas and successful sources that really invoke beneficial healing can clear it; a service that merely sets HP is not equivalent.[6]
Other checked remedies include a positively blessed immunotab and beneficial healing through Azoth, a successful holy-symbol use, religious benefices, or particular altar and magic-pool rewards. Their prerequisites still apply. Ordinary cleansing removes poison and disease, not blindness; the Healers' injury and disease services likewise do not use the blindness-clearing healing or cure effects.[7]
The Arms' week of rest resets counts below 1000 between removing and reapplying equipment. A cursed true-sight power can blind you again when reapplied. A village void stone clears all counts, but drains mana and erases carried item magic. Clearing blindness with healing while a cursed item remains worn is possible, yet any later reapplication of its power can bring the blindness back.[8]
Strategy
Carry a remedy that remains usable while blind. A healing or curing potion can restore vision immediately; a true-sight scroll cannot be read and would not remove the existing count anyway. Choose gaze immunity for a catoblepas and true sight for fungus spores, then handle the enemy or leave its effective range before it blinds you again.
Treat blindness and darkness separately. Restored eyesight does not relight a room darkened by a fungus, while lighting alone does not clear blindness. A long wait is also a poor remedy for cursed equipment: a 1500-count effect does not naturally expire.
References
- ↑ scr.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 663–710; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 38–49; command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 17–36; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 364–382; mstrike.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 42–66; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 812–823.
- ↑ scr.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 663–725.
- ↑ command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 38–49; command3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 17–36; aux1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 353–376; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 457–520; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 12–68.
- ↑ aux2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 410–416; time.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 19–23; aux3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 11–47; site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 765–801.
- ↑ minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, lines 85–99; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 12–68; mstrike.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 42–66; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 364–382; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 812–823; itemf1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 892–934; iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 128; iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 318; iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 334.
- ↑ effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 203–226; itemf1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 181–189; itemf1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 447–452; spell.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 67–70; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 770–823; itemf2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 66–71; itemf1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 900–934; inv.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1354–1358.
- ↑ itemf1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 262–295; itemf1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 461–470; itemf3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 161–213; priest.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 47–66; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 870–885; move.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 303–335; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 103–137; site2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 164–189.
- ↑ site2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 109–131; move.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1070–1094; itemf1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 900–934; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 118–156.