Competition 103

[Nick]

Competition 103 is now available from the competition page; it is an Angband nightly Dwarf Paladin, with a twist.

Note that comp 102 still has 24 hours to go.

[ewan]

Was looking around and noticed that this appears to be no-selling; I assume intentional?

[bron]

The competition page for 103 has "... by throwing this lantern at him .." in bold face. Is "this" in the above phrase a reference to a particular lantern (a random artifact perhaps?). Or does "this" just refer to the lantern from step 2 of the "to-do list" (i.e. " .. by throwing *a* lantern at him ..") ?

[Derakon]

I see two possible problems:

1) Lanterns may break when thrown. I'm pretty sure any item is breakable through throwing (certainly e.g. melee weapons are).
2) Morgoth has per-turn regeneration that is more than the amount of damage a thrown lantern can deal.

Assuming you can win by throwing any old lantern, the former could possibly be overcome by stockpiling every lantern you ever find (presumably after draining their oil to 0). The latter might be possible if you double-move Morgoth, deal enough damage to leave him with 1 hitpoint, and then hit him with the lantern, but it'd be incredibly fiddly. Best odds I see still require you to know precisely the regeneration rate so you can do this sequence:

1) Hit him with normal attacks
2) Morgoth goes
2) Probe him
3) Morgoth goes and regenerates to precisely X+1 hitpoints
4) Hit him with a fixed-damage attack dealing X damage (e.g. Annihilation, Dispel Evil) leaving him with 1 hitpoint
5) Throw lantern

[Magnate]

I see two possible problems:

1) Lanterns may break when thrown. I'm pretty sure any item is breakable through throwing (certainly e.g. melee weapons are).
2) Morgoth has per-turn regeneration that is more than the amount of damage a thrown lantern can deal.

Assuming you can win by throwing any old lantern, the former could possibly be overcome by stockpiling every lantern you ever find (presumably after draining their oil to 0). The latter might be possible if you double-move Morgoth, deal enough damage to leave him with 1 hitpoint, and then hit him with the lantern, but it'd be incredibly fiddly. Best odds I see still require you to know precisely the regeneration rate so you can do this sequence:

1) Hit him with normal attacks
2) Morgoth goes
2) Probe him
3) Morgoth goes and regenerates to precisely X+1 hitpoints
4) Hit him with a fixed-damage attack dealing X damage (e.g. Annihilation, Dispel Evil) leaving him with 1 hitpoint
5) Throw lantern

Perhaps Nick has edited the savefile so that *this* lantern does 25d25 thrown damage?

[Matthias]

Do monsters regenerate only every normal speed turn like the player does? If so you don't have to doublemove M, but have three moves to do it

[Nick]

Perhaps Nick has edited the savefile so that *this* lantern does 25d25 thrown damage?

I tried to, but the game "repaired" it on reloading. Or else I did it wrong.

In fact, I nearly abandoned the idea at that point, but then decided to go with the even lamer joke. I suspect that the lantern-kill is in fact impossible; I was going to add, though, that save-scumming would be permitted for that purpose only.

[Magnate]

I tried to, but the game "repaired" it on reloading. Or else I did it wrong.

That figures - the rd_item() code does (re)assign the default dice and sides from k_info. Damn - I liked that idea. I guess you could have got a bugged nightly put out for this purpose ;-)

[Nick]

That figures - the rd_item() code does (re)assign the default dice and sides from k_info. Damn - I liked that idea. I guess you could have got a bugged nightly put out for this purpose ;-)

I just wanted to hack the game, not the dev team.

[bulian]

I was going to try my hand at this but ran into a game stopping bug on my Windows laptop that does not have a number pad. Using the function + j,l,7, and 9 keys is necessary to move diagonally, which does not work with the current version.

[myshkin]

I was going to try my hand at this but ran into a game stopping bug on my Windows laptop that does not have a number pad. Using the function + j,l,7, and 9 keys is necessary to move diagonally, which does not work with the current version.

Are you using the original or roguelike keyset? (My guess is that you should be using the roguelike keyset, given that you're on a laptop without a keypad.) Try going into the options menu, interacting with keymaps, and querying a keymap. What does the game report for "Key:" and "Found:" when you press Fn + j? How about when you press whatever key(s) you use for moving straight down?

[NotMorgoth]

Could you claim the Palantir as a 'lantern' given that it is worn in the same slot, and throw that? Assuming it does reasonable thrown damage in V of course.

[bulian]

TLDR: I solved the problem, though the present keymaps for directions are not intuitive. Inclusion of a semicolon was necessary.

Are you using the original or roguelike keyset? (My guess is that you should be using the roguelike keyset, given that you're on a laptop without a keypad.)

I've always played with the original keyset. Learning a new keyset would likely require too much effort. After posting, I did find pressing "1", "3", "7", and "9" in the top row of the (QWERTY) keyboard allowed diagonal movement, but this was too impractical and resulted in mistakes.

Try going into the options menu, interacting with keymaps, and querying a keymap. What does the game report for "Key:" and "Found:" when you press Fn + j? How about when you press whatever key(s) you use for moving straight down?

I had tried remapping the keymaps before I saw your post but did not meet success. I redownloaded angband so as to give accurate results of initial keys.

Keystroke Key Initial Map
Fn + j ---- [End] ---- Not mapped
Fn + l ---- [PageDown] ---- Not mapped
Fn+7 ---- [Home] ---- Not mapped
Fn + 9 ---- [PageUp] ---- Not mapped
Up arrow ---- [Up] ---- ;8
Left arrow ---- [Left] ---- ;4
Right arrow ---- [Right] ---- ;6
Down arrow ---- [Down] ---- ;2
1 ---- 1 ---- ;1
3,5,7 --- 3,5,7 --- ;3, ;5, ;7

Mapping the Fn + X to 1,3,5,7 resulted in the generic "Type ? for help" message. Mapping the Fn + X to ;1, ;3, ;5, ;7 resulted in the appropriate direction. What's up with the semicolon?

[bron]

So I notice that the posted characters for both Darin and myself show as zero experience and zero turn count. Some sort of parsing problem?

[Nick]

So I notice that the posted characters for both Darin and myself show as zero experience and zero turn count. Some sort of parsing problem?

Looks like it, maybe to do with the top line of the dump having no version string. What OS/Angband version are you using?