Competition 146

[Nick]

ok, so I've managed to build the code and get it running on my Ubuntu box. I haven't tested it much, but it seems ok. I had to fix a couple of errors in the source, and update a few anachronisms (e.g. -fwritable-strings isn't supported by gcc any longer, and the whole BSD sgtty style TIOC* ioctls are not current practice), and eliminate a feature or two (e.g. the signal handling seemed to be of marginal utility and a real mess to update).

I have not yet managed to correctly read the starting save file however. I can read save files that were generated by the compiled executable, so its not completely broken, but I haven't yet figured out what's different about the save file that comes with the competition. If the government shutdown goes on long enough, I hope to have the time to figure it out.

Excellent. If you could post your changes somewhere, that would be great, especially if you do get the savefile issue sorted. Please pass on the Angband community's thanks to Congress.

[bron]

ok, so I've managed to build the code and get it running on my Ubuntu box. I haven't tested it much, but it seems ok. I had to fix a couple of errors in the source, and update a few anachronisms (e.g. -fwritable-strings isn't supported by gcc any longer, and the whole BSD sgtty style TIOC* ioctls are not current practice), and eliminate a feature or two (e.g. the signal handling seemed to be of marginal utility and a real mess to update).

I have not yet managed to correctly read the starting save file however. I can read save files that were generated by the compiled executable, so its not completely broken, but I haven't yet figured out what's different about the save file that comes with the competition. If the government shutdown goes on long enough, I hope to have the time to figure it out.

[Nick]

I just found out when submitting an update to my character that the parser reads the "Gold" line instead of the "Experience" line for xp, leading to "a character with higher experience already exists".

Should be fixed now.

[MattB]

I've lost five Frogs this afternoon; one on lvl2, three on lvl1 and one...in the town.
Apparently red 'p's are BSVets - years of playing with tiles leads you to forget things like that!

[PowerWyrm]

OK, should work now - I'm not sure what happened the first time.

Also, pav says

Quote:
I have rigged the Ladder to accept header-less dumps as "Angband 2.4".

He's away from home but still loves us enough to fix our competition

I just found out when submitting an update to my character that the parser reads the "Gold" line instead of the "Experience" line for xp, leading to "a character with higher experience already exists".

[PowerWyrm]

Wow, this takes the cake! Mughash just dropped... a broken sword (-2, -3). And before that Bullroarer dropped a dagger (+1, +0). This version seems to generate garbage at shallow depths... Half of the items on the ground are skeletons, empty bottles, spikes and such. Fortunately, no turn count exists in this version... because a char like this will take forever to level.

[PowerWyrm]

Well... Frog, Frog II and Frog III didn't live very long and croaked like normal frogs in face of kobolds and such pussies. Frog IV is now clvl9 and has seen dlvl5. I guess with such low mana you need to buy a big puncher (there was a battle axe in 3 which is now enchanted to +2) and melee half of the monsters, keeping your mana for support spells and draining critters.

[Nick]

Did you autoroll the char? I've made tests with chars having 18/70 INT and didn't get far. With 18/20 INT, it will be a nightmare to play a mage in FK...

Yes - with min INT 18 This is also in the original spirit of the competition...

[PowerWyrm]

Did you autoroll the char? I've made tests with chars having 18/70 INT and didn't get far. With 18/20 INT, it will be a nightmare to play a mage in FK...

[Nick]

All right, third attempt. It seems that the game detects something to do with the age of the savefile; I can download it and it works fine, then I download 5 minutes later and it fails. So we have a new strategy.

The savefile for download is now not a savefile. It is a zipfile of the entire game folder with the correct savefile in the folder. So what you need to do is

1. Download the 'starting savefile'
2. Rename it whatever.zip
3. Unzip it, and just open the game; the competition character should load straight away.
4. If you die (perish the thought!), just unzip again and repeat.

[fbworker]

Still doesn't work. I got the latest {everything}, from the compo page. After a few bumbling starts, I still can't get it to stop thinking that I rigged it. I tried a fresh unzip with the '146' save renamed 'SAVE' and it still thinks I fiddled with it.

[Nick]

OK, should work now - I'm not sure what happened the first time.

Also, pav says

I have rigged the Ladder to accept header-less dumps as "Angband 2.4".

He's away from home but still loves us enough to fix our competition

[MattB]

Seems to me that the savefile format (Windows) is altered when stored by oook. You should zip the starting savefile to prevent that.

Looking through the text in the savefile I found an excerpt that looks particularly tolkienian:

ïõððððððððððñòñÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÁÁÁÁÁÁÁÆÆÆÆÆÆ

I think it's a heavily-armoured dwarf swearing as he falls through a trapdoor.

[MattB]

"Error during reading of file. -more-
Please try again without that savefile.

Fiddled savefile"

Yep, me too.

Seems a bit harsh for it to accuse us of cheating before we've even started!

[PowerWyrm]

Seems to me that the savefile format (Windows) is altered when stored by oook. You should zip the starting savefile to prevent that.