Forum shorthand

[Merlin]

I'm a bit confused about some of the acronyms and abbreviations I've been seeing. Nightlies, character statuses, diving, and YACD to name a few.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Merlin

Nightlies

These are windows versions of the latest development code, available from this page.

character statuses

I'm not sure exactly here, but I'm guessing it's things like blindness, confusion, etc which affect what actions the character can take.

diving

This is not precisely defined, but broadly speaking it's an aggressive playing style which usually involves going downstairs at (almost) any opportunity. It is usually used in contrast to the "level-clearing" style which involves completely exploring any level before going downstairs.

YACD

Yet Another Character Dump - here is another page which may help.

The fact that you're asking this may mean that the internet habit of putting YA on the front of everything might finally be dying...

[Max Stats]

Originally Posted by Merlin

I'm a bit confused about some of the acronyms and abbreviations I've been seeing. Nightlies, character statuses, diving, and YACD to name a few.

Nightlies = Interim "beta" releases that enable people to preview and playtest features that are going into the next "full" release (see here).
Character statuses = Various effects that hinder your character somehow (e.g., blind, confused, hallucinating, slowed, etc.)
Diving = Descending dungeon levels rapidly in hopes of getting quickly to a depth where better items are found. Usually used to combat boredom.
YACD = Yet Another Character Dump, refers to posting the results of dumping a file from the Character screen either to the ladder or directly within the post itself. Usually done when asking for advice about a character in progress, as opposed to YAWP (Yet Another Winner Post), which refers to the posting of a character who has won and retired, and YASD (Yet Another Stupid Death), which refers to the posting of a character who is "pining for the fjords" (i.e., dead).

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Max Stats

Character statuses = Various effects that hinder your character somehow (e.g., blind, confused, hallucinating, slowed, etc.)

In case you mean stats, they are strength (STR), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), Dexterity (DEX), constitution (CON) and Charisma (CHR).

Strength helps you hit and damage your target, carry stuff, and it is one factor that determines how many blows you get with your weapon / turn against foes.
Intelligence is mage, rogue and ranger spellcasting stat, it determines your amount of mana (SP, spellpoints) and failure rates you get to your spells, and also affects magical device skill with all classes.
Wisdom is priest and paladin spellcasting stat, it determines your amount of mana (SP) and failure rates you get to your spells, and also affects saving throw with all classes.
Dexterity helps you to hit your opponents and also affects blows you get / turn, high enough dexterity also prevents thieves from stealing stuff from you.
Constitution affects you Hit Points (HP), HP in turn affects your regeneration rate. Negative HP means you died, so this is very important stat.
Charisma affects shop prices.

Also one commonly used abbreviation here that can cause confusion is PVAL. PVAL means item power value, the part of the item that determines how much bonus (or malus) it gives to your stats, speed, stealth, searching, infravision and/or tunneling.

IMM_xxx are immunities. You can get total immunity to all basic 4 elements, fire, cold, acid and electricity. With immunity items in your inventory (and in case of acid also equipment) are also protected from damage/destruction from that particular damage type. This is not to be confused to IGNORE_xxx which is item feature that protects just that item against damage from that particular element.

[Merlin]

Thanks for the acronyms page. It is helping and will a lot.