[CF-Devel] polymorph - worst exploit ever

[Pertti Karppinen (OH6KTR)]

On Sun, Dec 10, 2000 at 05:02:30AM +0100, Andreas Vogl wrote:
>
     
      At first glance, polymorph seems like one cute little
     
     >
     
      spell, completely harmless, no big deal.
     
     >
     
      It turns out that this is completely wrong. Polymorph
     
     >
     
      is a huge problem!
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      The spell can be used in three different ways:
     
     >
     
     
     >
     
      o Polymorph items:
     
     >
     
        In terms of gameplay - TERRIBLE! Not only that one can
     
     >
     
        get all sorts of items that might not even be available
     
     >
     
        in shops, one can even transform artifacts! I once casted
     
     >
     
        polymorph over a bonecrusher and received a kobold dagger.
     
     >
     
        I'm sure I would get a wdsm and magic cloak if I tried
     
     >
     
        hard enough. But those items are supposed to be unique!
     
     >
     
        The player should solve long quests to get them, not just
     
     >
     
        sit there and cast a spell.
     
     
I never got anything useful with polymorph. I thought that you can only get
less 'valuable' items with polymorph? I tried polymorphing a ton of girdle
of damages (the old, useless ones) and never got anything.
>
     
      o Polymorph generators:
     
     >
     
        Rather harmless compared to the issues above. But still
     
     >
     
        not good. One can abuse this to create certain generators,
     
     >
     
        hence endless supply of monsters for collecting their loot:
     
     >
     
        For example: Postmen for readables, vampires for spell-
     
     >
     
        books/rings etc. Second problem: Fog is a generator.
     
     >
     
        So guess what happens when you cast Polymorph at a fog?
     
     >
     
        - Yes, you get a random monster generator. Since one
     
     >
     
        can summon fog, this is possible on any given map.
     
     >
     
        Even in scorn, or on savebed places, or in shops. One
     
     >
     
        could annoy low-levels real bad with this trick!
     
     
Guess how the stat wrap-a-round bug was used? One char with 600 SP would
cast million summon fogs over about 6 squares and then he would fire a
polymorph rod. In scorn, so one dies over and over and over and over and ... 

>
     
      - Remove Polymorph. All we need to do is make it unavailable.
     
     >
     
        And when someone managed to fix it, we can make it accessable
     
     >
     
        again.
     
     
I think polymorphing monsters is the only real problem, as atleast me nor
any of my friends ever got anything useful by polymorphing artifacts.
(Not even the bloke who is lucky enough to have received katana of masamume
from raffle)
-- 
BSc. Pertti Karppinen <
     
     pjka at iki.fi
     
     >                   |'Bridge Players |
Systems Designer, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland    |      Do        |
     
     http://www.iki.fi/~pjka/
     
      | Office  : +358 14 260 2088 |      It        |
HAM: OH6KTR QTH: KP22UF  | Cellular: +358 40 564 0786 | on the Table'  |