I just tested this in pr18, and these wands seem to work as usual.

Well, if it fires always in the direction of last move, then it's a bug probably, but lack of direction choice is a feature. Wands of ball lighting fire a bolt in a random direction.

Shouldn't it fire actually lightning ball instead of bolt?

Nope. It fires a lighting bolt in a random direction. That's why it's ball lighting as opposed to lighting ball. Not very descriptive but what can you do.

I think it is rather descriptive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

If the wand produced a lightning ball spell effect, it would still be more fitting, both game-wise and in reality. Supposedly those ball lightnings explode, which the spell demonstrates quite nicely.
Increase their DL significantly and you have another useful item added to the game instead of something that is the first in the line to be sold or thrown away, to avoid accidentally using it in a corridor, via the fatfinger phenomenon.

The wand is fine as it is - it adds an element of danger to zap-identifying wands, especially in a dungeon with tight corridors and small rooms.

Note that I would not be opposed to add a new item called "wand of lightning balls" that has the same effect as the spell, in hopes the player will mix them up. :D

Well, they're not so useless. You can still drain them with the mana battery corruption to get a little power, or polymorph them with a PoRC in hopes of getting something better, or zap them and hope for a good roll on a desperate emergency situation (which has worked for me a couple of times, but the risk is very high).

Precisely why zap-identifying wands should only be done in large rooms or preferably in the open levels. Takes away the element of danger ENTIRELY.
Pointless feature that brings nothing to the game save for another bothersome situation, but of course vengeful guardians of tedious and annoying will defend it until dying breath.

As for their usefulness it is marginal at best. Draining them with mana battery is yet another thing that can be done with any wand, same as polymorph.
Going further with your line of thought, every item in the game is useful, since every pair of even gauntlets of peace can be sold for 1gp or used as a projectile for a whopping 1d3-2 damage etc.
Wrong thinking. Just like the gauntlets, wand of ball lightning is not only useless, it's harmful.
Solution to this could be very simple - when cursed it explodes like lightning ball, including the square on which the player stands.
When uncursed it would function as it does right now (most common state so you should be happy)
Blessed could produce lightning ball effect without damaging the PC or inventory/equipment.
There, all bases covered. But of course you will disagree, I know :P

That wand is the last thing I would touch in emergency situation, since it has such a tremendous potential to make matters even worse. Indeed, I have tried that only once in my entire adom career and I will never make that mistake again.

Trying hard to make lives of adom players as miserable as humanly possible... you're just plain mean :P you're one of those guardians I mentioned above.

That's because you already know that from previous games. Once you're aware that wooden wand could randomly fire itself at a wall and fry you, damn right you're going to take safeguards in the future. Just because you, or me, or most people here are spoiled about that risk it doesn't mean it should be removed because it's no longer a challenge to us.

Certainly. All items in ADOM are at least marginally useful in some form, even if just as junk that gets you some side income from selling it (and yes, I have berserk-thrown gauntlets for their missile damage when I didn't have anything else).

This is actually not bad, but from your above post, I was under the impression you wanted to do away with the random bolt effect entirely?

I'm not bashing you or anything, and neither are the others. I respect you and your opinions about the game, as well as everyone else's. Of course, they may collide with mine, but that's the idea of having a discussion space.

If you've never used a wall of ball lightning in an emergency, you haven't been in enough emergencies! :)

Anyway, I have used wands of ball lightning in practice, and not necessarily in dire situations. For example if you are surrounded in an open space (big enough room, river, cavernous level, wilderness, etc.) is not that bad.

The gauntlets of peace can be used to start honorable duels as a duelist.

Which can be said about any gauntlets, without the risk of accidentally equipping them and disabling your melee.

Gauntlets of peace has actually been designed to protect the PC whilst dealing less damage to the opponent, same with Shesaystryakiss. That is why a merchant gets crowned with them, so they can make peace easier, thus giving them a chance to get more customers with pockets. Healers, so they can not accidentally kill monsters. Monk, because they are also against killing.

I'm trying to find some middle ground here. If we can't get this removed entirely, then at least it could be made situationally useful depending on its b/u/c state.
Typically in discussions like this, I ignore potential uses for items that go way outside of their perceived intended use - anything can be sold or thrown, but not everything does that effectively.
I have never thrown gauntlets in my adom games, you must have been truly out of options to be forced to do that, I can't imagine any such situation.

The protection they provide is near-nonexistent next to the penalties they incur. This item is greatly underpowered. [+3,+3] for basically crippling your melee abilities is a bad deal for any character. I'd rather not wear any gloves at all than this, even if I was on coward. You can often deal with monsters in melee while at coward setting. With those gauntlets this nearly becomes impossible.
No, this item is truly useless however you look at it.
If Shezestriakis granted something like [+10, +10], I could understand some situational usefulness but as it is now, random gloves with 3 or even 4 PV points aren't that uncommon to find. I get at least a pair or two in every game, early on.

Oh one more thing to say. I hate to break it down to you but if you're playing adom as a healer/merchant/monk with the intention to offer peace and not kill, then you're doing it wrong.
Customers for merchants? What customers? I'm talking about actual practical use in the game. Merchants can't set up a store and sell stuff. Monsters don't wander around them non-hostile asking if they sell an axe or a wand of digging.
If a monster is hostile then a healer approaches and kills it, just like a barbarian or an assassin would do. If you don't want to accidentally kill monsters, wear two shields.
Monks are against killing? They are quite fearsome fighters then, smacking enemies in melee rather effectively. I can't see how they are against killing in the game, with all those encumbrance issues and their impact on combat.
They are born to kill, in their own fashion.
You think why healers start with find weakness skill? To cure patients by knowing what parts of them might have failed and applying their skills there?
No, they have it because it represents their ability to practically employ their knowledge of human and non-human body anatomy to better cripple and kill them.
In all those instances, mentioned gauntlets are useless and harmful, every time.

You misunderstand the whole point of the gauntlets is to make you deal less damage, so you don't kill humanoids, but rather get a chance to offer peace, hence the name. You can't damage monsters with shields, this is getting way off point, I just informed you what they are for, take it or leave it.

I believe you can only offer peace when a monster is panicking. It's panicking because it was hit by you and severely wounded (typically).
The point of gauntlets is to have a totally useless item that doesn't even fit thematically into the game that is all about killing.

Not for wizards. Melee? What melee?

Because you think ADOM is all about killing doesn't mean it is. Theoretically you can reach xl 50 and grand mastery in a weapon skill without killing once. I recall getting a healer to xl 8 without killing once, still one of my do to things in ADOM. There is so much on that list.

I melee with wizards all the time. I would never put those gauntlets on with any wizard I play.

Gauntlets of peace only affect to-hit, not damage (no idea where you guys got that from) and are not at all useless - in the right situation they're quite nice (though also fairly rare), much like wands of ball lightning (which, let's be clear, come in quite handy in emergency situations that arise because you can't deal enough damage in melee).

Any change to the wand would be a step in the wrong direction.