TomeNET

(4.1a) Auto-retaliation                                                         
-----------------------
If you stand still and an enemy is on an adjacent grid (directly next to you,
no space between you and the enemy) then your character will automatically
attack it with the equipped melee weapon.

Starting in 4.9.3 there is an option 'new_retaliator' that toggles the
behaviour of auto-retaliation and of fire-till-kill, in Gameplay Options 1.
The recommended and standard setting is 'on':

- If on, autoretaliation will grant an almost instant manual teleport/walk/run
  action while auto-retaliating or FTK'ing (fire-till-kill).
  This allows especially classes who cannot split their turn energy over
  multiple attacks per turn, ie all spell-casters, to qickly escape dangerous
  situations.
  (Technical explanation:
   If a spell is cast (manually or via FTK or auto-retaliation, doesn't matter)
   it will use up your turn energy completely, like any other action would.
   This is nothing new. However, this also means that you have to wait for a
   full turn until you have enough energy again to perform your next action, eg
   reading a scroll of teleportation to escape. This too is nothing new.
   However, currently classes that use multiple melee attacks or multiple shots
   per round to fight have it easier, because each attack or shot only costs a
   partial turn of energy! (Eg if you have 6 BpR, each single blow will cost
   you 1/6 turn energy, so you can actually perform 6 blows per round aka 6
   attacks per turn.) That means that these characters only have to wait for
   a fraction of a turn to recover their full energy (in the above example for
   1/6 of a full turn) and therefore can react to dire situations much faster
   most of the time. A spell-caster's teleportation macro would only be able to
   react that quickly if their energy happened to have already recuperated very
   close to a full turn's worth of energy, ie if the spellcaster hits the tele
   macro after almost a full turn has already past since the last spell had
   been cast.
   This is where this new option, if enabled, comes in:
   As soon as a character has completed at least one turn of auto-retaliation
   or of firing-till-kill, it will gain an internal extra turn of energy for
   free, which is reserved solely for the purpose of performing a movement
   action, specifically teleport, walk or run.
   This means that no matter which fraction of a turn has passed after casting
   a spell, the character will always be able to trigger such an action
   basically instantly, getting out of trouble as easily or even more easily
   as multi-attack melee/ranged chars did so far. (This new retaliator works
   for them too, so they get the same benefit and are not suddenly worse off.))

- If off, your character will not gain any special energy modification;
  this is like it used to be in all game versions before 4.9.3.
  Leaving it off therefore holds no benefit.

There is one novelty in 4.9.3 however:
It is no longer possible to store two turns of energy by standing around idly,
except for the purpose of walking, so the 'double-tap jump' walking technique
that basically lets you cross one hazardous grid almost instantly will still
work, but for example if a monster walks up next to you you will only get one
turn of attacks in via auto-retaliation, not a burst of two turns at once.

More about auto-retaliation:
----------------------------
Instead of melee attacks, you can also configure the auto-retaliator to use
other items. To do so, you use '@O...' (the letter 'O', not the number zero!)
item inscriptions:

Note: To inscribe an item press '{' key, to uninscribe press '}'.
Note: You cannot use any sort of teleportation or recall for auto-retaliation.

Weapons:
    @Ox         Don't auto-retaliate with it.
                It's recommended for spell-casters who just wear a weapon to
                profit from its magical abilities to always inscribe it @Ox
                so it won't accidentally get destroyed when fighting a Nazgul
                and the auto-retaliator won't take over.

Ranged weapons:
    @O          Auto-retaliate with it (shooting ammo).
                (Note: @O can either be on your ammunition or on the bow.)

Magic devices:
    @O          Auto-retaliate with it. (Wands, staves, rods.)
                Note that you cannot use self-relocation magic such as teleport
                or word of recall for auto-retaliation.
                You can restrict auto-retaliation to town-only by adding a 't'
                after the '@O' like this: '@Ot'.

Spell scrolls, books or crystals:
    @Oc         You will auto-retaliate by casting the spell 'c)' from this
                book (or any other spell, change the inscription accordingly).
                You can restrict auto-retaliation to town-only by adding a 't'
                after the '@O' like this: '@Otc'.
                IMPORTANT: If you cannot cast spells from the book or you
                inscribe an unsuitable item, auto-retaliation will be disabled
                completely!
                If the spell letter, in this example 'c', is omittted, the
                first spell in the book will be chosen.
                Note that you cannot use self-relocation spells such as
                phase door, teleport or word of recall for auto-retaliation.

If you want an auto-retaliation-enabling inscription to only work while you are
around a town (in town or in the town area aka housing area), add a 't' after
the 'O', examples: '@Ot', '@Otb'.
(Note that 't' cannot be combined with 'x'.)

Alternative to @O inscriptions, can be used on magic devices and for spells:
     @Q         If you want to fall back to melee-autoretaliation in case you
                cannot cast right now (or out of charges/energy on magic
                devices), use a 'Q' symbol instead of the 'O'.
                Examples: '@Qt', '@Qtb'.
                This is useful for classes that may use attack spells yet can
                perform decently in close combat, such as paladin or
                mindcrafter.

Aside from inscriptions there are also three commands for auto-retaliation:

Melee:
    /ar [t]+   or   /ar -
                Turn melee auto-retaliation on or off, see (0.2b) for details.
                Optionally use 't' for 'in town only'.
    /ar help    Shows details for the /ar command.

Mimic powers:
    /arm [Q][t]<power>   or   /arm -
                Auto-retaliate with a mimic power, see (0.2b) for details.
                Optionally use 't' for 'in town only',
                and/or 'Q' for 'fallback to melee if cannot cast'.
    /arm help   Shows details for the /arm command.

Runes:
    /arr [Q][t]<a-f><a-f><a-h><a-f>   or   /arr -
                Auto-retaliate with a runespell, See (0.2b) for details.
                Optionally use 't' for 'in town only',
                and/or 'Q' for 'fallback to melee if cannot cast'.
                The four mandatory parameters: rune, rune, mode, type.
    /arr help   Shows details for the /arr command.