Competition 100

[Nick]

The good news is that the body count seems to be "fixed". The bad news is that player ghosts seem to be appearing despite being turned off, which is messing with the body count. I will check winners by hand

[nppangband]

hmmm - I'm not sure that is a fair or accurate way of checking for stair-scumming.

I just left a superb level after killing Ulfang the Black. I left because of Harowen the Black Hand almost killing me. I never saw the Hourglass vault, and I wasn't stairscumming, but I *needed* off that level asap. I explored about half the level and killed a unique (the point of the comp).

My notes show this:

| 791124| 1750 | 31 | Killed Ulfang the Black
| 796163| 1700 | 31 | Left the level without entering the Greater vault
| continued... | | ("Hourglass")

Thoughts on fairness of counting this as stairscumming?

It is doubtful the game will generate 15 greater vaults in a single game, much less 15 you have to flee from.

In my latest game, which was a 2 million turn win in which I killed every unique except Castimir the Usurper (couldn't find him), only 3 greater vaults were generated, and I only made it inside one of them.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=11185

[nppangband]

The good news is that the body count seems to be "fixed". The bad news is that player ghosts seem to be appearing despite being turned off, which is messing with the body count. I will check winners by hand

And I will start de-bugging. grrrrrrr.

It should be real simnple to verify a winning savefile at the knowledge screen, if the person e-mails the file.

If we do anything like this again in a future NPP comp, with a couple days notice I will code a special comp version that will put this information in the character dump for us.

[Nick]

Don't worry too much - the "checking by hand" will involve a 20-second glance at the dump for ghosts

[Matthias]

| 551549| 1950 | 31 | You enter the Greater vault ("Twisted Cube")
| 560712| 1900 | 31 | Left the level without entering the Greater vault
| continued... | | ("Twisted Cube")

hmmm game can't decide eh I entered the gv cleared one small corner and then escaped iirc. Or did i get the same gv twice in a row?

[Derakon]

Depending on how notes are applied, I could see that being "same GV twice in a row" since the two notes are on different depths, or it could be that the "didn't enter vault" note doesn't get applied until after your depth has been updated. The odds of getting the same greater vault twice in a row seem pretty slim though.

[Matthias]

The didn't enter note gets added after arriving on the new level

[nppangband]

| 551549| 1950 | 31 | You enter the Greater vault ("Twisted Cube")
| 560712| 1900 | 31 | Left the level without entering the Greater vault
| continued... | | ("Twisted Cube")

hmmm game can't decide eh I entered the gv cleared one small corner and then escaped iirc. Or did i get the same gv twice in a row?

Definitely two different vaults. The different depth is noted. First one was at 1950', the second at 1900'.

[Matthias]

hmmm i'm almost certain that the note is added when you arrive on the new level though. I checked that when I left another gv alone

[nppangband]

hmmm i'm almost certain that the note is added when you arrive on the new level though. I checked that when I left another gv alone

I checked the source. When you take stairs, the player depth is changed before the note is written, so the wrong level could be written for the "failed to enter" note (it is handled properly if the player does word of recall, however). But I don't see any way you could get two notes from the same level. When you stepped on the first square in the vault, the note is written that you entered it. And the variable that remembers there is a vault on the level is erased. So the game could not write two notes for the same vault. If the note was not properly erased, you would get a note written for every single vault square you stepped on.

But I promise you, if this happens 15 times, we will grant you a pardon.

[buzzkill]

If you use a shaft to bypass a quest level do you fail the quest?

[Derakon]

I don't think that's possible; the game shouldn't generate shafts when you're one level away from the quest level.

[Matthias]

I'm chased by hunting parties after too much stealing. I think this is going on for more than 200k turns already. Will it ever stop? Also how much are they hasted?

[nppangband]

I'm chased by hunting parties after too much stealing. I think this is going on for more than 200k turns already. Will it ever stop? Also how much are they hasted?

How much have you tried to steal? The counter shouldn't be that long, unless you have done it hundreds of times.

I put out a note with the original comp. Stealing is kind of a waste of time. I will improve it someday. You definitely don't want to try it in front of monsters who are awake. The only time it is really worth it is if you come across a sleeping monster who drops excellent items. The higher the monster level, the harder it is to steal from him.

One worthwhile tactic is to is hold off on killing Wormtounge, and when your brigand is at a high level, you can repeatedly steal excellent items from him.

They are only hasted +10. Hasting and slowing for NPP monsters are a timed effect. It is temporary, and it can only go to +10 or -10. The counter might have gone higher than the variable it is stored in if they are hasted for 200k turns.

[Matthias]

How much have you tried to steal? The counter shouldn't be that long, unless you have done it hundreds of times.

I put out a note with the original comp. Stealing is kind of a waste of time. I will improve it someday. You definitely don't want to try it in front of monsters who are awake. The only time it is really worth it is if you come across a sleeping monster who drops excellent items. The higher the monster level, the harder it is to steal from him.

One worthwhile tactic is to is hold off on killing Wormtounge, and when your brigand is at a high level, you can repeatedly steal excellent items from him.

They are only hasted +10. Hasting and slowing for NPP monsters are a timed effect. It is temporary, and it can only go to +10 or -10. The counter might have gone higher than the variable it is stored in if they are hasted for 200k turns.

Tried maybe like 15 times in total, most of those on the same level and from an awake monster as stealing from a sleeping one worked good enough.

+10 is a lot by the way


I do remember clearing out a lesser open vault with everything asleep after the stealing, but only recently do most monsters seem to be awake and hasted, which does indeed sound like some kind of overflow... We'll see how long it lasts

edit: haha, i "fixed" the problem by going to dlvl1 and stealing from an awake snake twice. Then I got the "everyone is on a lookout, you cannot steal here any longer" message and now when I enter a new level nothing is hasted. I do still get the hunting party message.