                                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 <RETURN> 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!

