fix #H2059 - writing spellbooks while blind

     From a bug report, you could write a
spellbook with a magic marker while blind and were told the description
(often a color) of the resulting book.  This prevents books from being
written while blind, just as they can't be read in that situation, and
it adds an extra test when attempting to write scrolls while blind.
(When you succeed in writing a scroll while blind, you're just told that
the result is ``x - a scroll'' as it's moved to its new inventory slot.)

     This also removes a couple of overly hyper exclamations when writing
fails.  Someday somebody ought to go through the whole program and decide
which messages actually warrant exclamation points, but I doubt that
that'll ever happen.

diff --git a/doc/fixes34.4 b/doc/fixes34.4
index ef8c204e0ba3c0a1c07b78f8e7a450d750eddd8e..66d1e028f9fd7c9785f6cb295d5debad799ad0a7 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/fixes34.4
+++ b/doc/fixes34.4
@@ -388,6 +388,7 @@ prevent "object lost" panic if/when drinking a wielded potion of polymorph
        causes hero's new form to drop weapon
 documentation tidbit:  change Guidebook and in-game help for pickup_burden
        option to match game's 'O' command ("Unencumbered", not "Unburdened")
+writing while blind no longer possible for books, might fail for scrolls
 
 
 Platform- and/or Interface-Specific Fixes

diff --git a/src/write.c b/src/write.c
index de34bf3691c766b200ffd8b8872282563fd8f530..b3e3cfa6c04b81e9f89969d3ae73295cacee4d3e 100644 (file)
--- a/src/write.c
+++ b/src/write.c
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 /* NetHack 3.5 write.c $Date$  $Revision$ */
-/*     SCCS Id: @(#)write.c    3.5     2001/11/29      */
 /* NetHack may be freely redistributed.  See license for details. */
 
 #include "hack.h"
@@ -96,9 +95,16 @@ register struct obj *pen;
        if(!paper)
                return(0);
        typeword = (paper->oclass == SPBOOK_CLASS) ? "spellbook" : "scroll";
-       if(Blind && !paper->dknown) {
-               You("don't know if that %s is blank or not!", typeword);
-               return(1);
+       if (Blind) {
+           if (!paper->dknown) {
+               You("don't know if that %s is blank or not.", typeword);
+               return 1;
+           } else if (paper->oclass == SPBOOK_CLASS) {
+               /* can't write a magic book while blind */
+               pline("%s can't create braille text.",
+                     upstart(ysimple_name(pen)));
+               return 1;
+           }
        }
        paper->dknown = 1;
        if(paper->otyp != SCR_BLANK_PAPER && paper->otyp != SPE_BLANK_PAPER) {
@@ -197,10 +203,10 @@ found:
        pen->spe -= actualcost;
 
        /* can't write if we don't know it - unless we're lucky */
-       if(!(objects[new_obj->otyp].oc_name_known) &&
-          !(objects[new_obj->otyp].oc_uname) &&
-          (rnl(Role_if(PM_WIZARD) ? 3 : 15))) {
-               You("%s to write that!", by_descr ? "fail" : "don't know how");
+       if (!objects[new_obj->otyp].oc_name_known &&
+           !objects[new_obj->otyp].oc_uname &&
+           rnl(Role_if(PM_WIZARD) ? 3 : 15)) {
+               You("%s to write that.", by_descr ? "fail" : "don't know how");
                /* scrolls disappear, spellbooks don't */
                if (paper->oclass == SPBOOK_CLASS) {
                        You(
@@ -217,6 +223,19 @@ found:
                }
                obfree(new_obj, (struct obj *) 0);
                return(1);
+       } 
+       /* can write scrolls when blind, but requires luck too;
+          attempts to write books when blind are caught above */
+       if (Blind && rnl(3)) {
+               /* writing while blind usually fails regardless of
+                  whether the target scroll is known; even if we
+                  have passed the write-an-unknown scroll test
+                  above we can still fail this one, so it's doubly
+                  hard to write an unknown scroll while blind */
+               You("fail to write the scroll correctly and it disappears.");
+               useup(paper);
+               obfree(new_obj, (struct obj *) 0);
+               return 1;
        }
 
        /* useup old scroll / spellbook */