Borg for 320 is running.

[Nolendil]

Yesterday, I noticed something weird about my borg, I'm not sure it's related to him going to shallow depth (for some reason, I haven't seen that behaviour since) but here it is:
He keeps recalling from the dungeon to the town with the reason "too deep: rs clw/csw" and "need to restock".
However, he NEVER buys those potions even though the "4" store provides them, and still he recalls down to his max depth (dlvl 31) without those precious potions.

I wondered if it could be linked to the "weird shopping" and "Shopping" bugs so I updated to the May 9th version (I was previously using the May 5th version).
However, this behaviour still occurs.

Attached to this post is my savefile not long after recalling to town, if you need to examine it. I'm pretty sure he will recall to the dungeon without the needed potions pretty soon after you resume the borg from that state.

I hope it can help. Thanks.


EDIT: Oh, wait, I just noticed I should update to the May 12th version. I'll give that a try.

EDIT 2: I've just checked, and the issue is still there on the latest borg version.

EDIT 3: Added my BORG.TXT file to the post as I use a few non-standard settings, like "borg_slow_optimizehome = TRUE".

[Tobias]

In these new versions real players know what is inside every shop even without visiting them once you are in town. Maybe you could take advantage of that info with borg.

(IMO that info is so unrealistic it breaks the suspension of disbelief, I think visiting stores at least once should be required to get that info).

Huh, I missed that change. How do you get that info?

[Timo Pietilä]

Huh, I missed that change. How do you get that info?

Knowledge-menu "~". It lists objects, monsters, score, stores etc.

[APWhite]

In these new versions real players know what is inside every shop even without visiting them once you are in town. Maybe you could take advantage of that info with borg.

(IMO that info is so unrealistic it breaks the suspension of disbelief, I think visiting stores at least once should be required to get that info).

The thought process is this:
The borg has limited financial resources. If he goes to the GStore to buy that stylish Cloak [+2]. Later he finds that there is a super sweet Rod of Speed on sale, but he will be 100gp short because he bought the Cloak [+2]. If he visits all the shops to see what good deals they have, then he will prioritize his shopping.

Allowing him to cheat the store inventory would allow him an advantage over a human player, who would otherwise have to risk wading through pools of BSV and SER in order to see the sales.

Having said that, there are times when the borg is allowed to do 'immediate shopping' without having to visit all the shops first. He can buy food, cure potions, and light sources at the appropriate shops, when he needs (not wants) those items.

But, you are right. Since all the shop inventory is now available without actually visiting the shop, the borg would be delighted to use that cheat.

[Derakon]

Note that the knowledge menu only updates when you're in the town. When in the dungeon it just lists the state of the stores when you left.

Personally I just use it to check my home and see if I really need a particular niche item.

[Timo Pietilä]

Allowing him to cheat the store inventory would allow him an advantage over a human player, who would otherwise have to risk wading through pools of BSV and SER in order to see the sales.

It isn't cheat. That info is updated in knowledge-menu when you are in town and there is no way to turn it off.

It is updated only when you are in town, but without actually visiting stores to see what's inside them. If borg doesn't use it then it is the human player that has advantage over borg not the vice versa.

Also discounts do not exist anymore, and I think CHR doesn't have any effect in BM.

[Netbrian]

Hi!

The borg's behavior is much better now. I particularly appreciate that she's not carrying around giant piles of stones anymore.

I've uploaded another savefile if you have a chance to take a look at it. The borg seems to be having trouble with an anti-summoning corridor for some reason.

The memory usage of the borg seems to increase over time (I'm playing on Windows), but I know that's difficult to narrow down. I have noticed that the borg seems to have trouble with monster counts sometimes (for instance, she said there were over 200 monsters in an empty town,) so one possible guess is that she's not forgetting things when she should.

Oh, and I learned something today. Apparently, the borg doesn't do very well if you forgot to turn off auto-squelching rations.

[Netbrian]

Oh, and one more quibble -- do you know why this borg would give fuel as a reason for not diving? She has about 50 torches at home and plenty of money with which to buy more. Every trip to town though, she complains about how she needs to refuel but can't.

This isn't the first time I've seen this oddity -- the eventual solution the borg happens upon seems to be "find the Phial."

[Nolendil]

Oh, and one more quibble -- do you know why this borg would give fuel as a reason for not diving? She has about 50 torches at home and plenty of money with which to buy more. Every trip to town though, she complains about how she needs to refuel but can't.

This isn't the first time I've seen this oddity -- the eventual solution the borg happens upon seems to be "find the Phial."

Maybe it's related to my issue?

[buzzkill]

I don't use the borg, but I find it's thought process and this thread very entertaining.

Have you ever seen the episode of Family Guy where Stewie (imperfectly) clones himself? I want that borg.

[Tobias]

My borg has a strange Problem. It doesn't seem to notice it is in a screensaver. When it dies it doesn't restart, but instead waits at the deathscreen. When I end and restart the screensaver, it always takes a human warrior.
It shouldn't be the settings, they are set correctly and the borg respects changes in delay from the same file.
It also sometimes thinks I pressed a key, and stops playing screensaver mode. Although I can't normally press a key without ending the screensaver.

[Nick]

My borg has a strange Problem. It doesn't seem to notice it is in a screensaver. When it dies it doesn't restart, but instead waits at the deathscreen. When I end and restart the screensaver, it always takes a human warrior.

Try going into the options and setting cheat_death to yes.

[Tobias]

Try going into the options and setting cheat_death to yes.

I tried it, if kill the char by hand and then start the screensaver, it still gives me human warriors. So this part is not fixed.
Waiting for the guy to die normally now.
btw. even when I roll up another class for the borg by hand, and then kill it, it still restarts with human warrior.

And how could this even help?

[APWhite]

I tried it, if kill the char by hand and then start the screensaver, it still gives me human warriors. So this part is not fixed.
Waiting for the guy to die normally now.
btw. even when I roll up another class for the borg by hand, and then kill it, it still restarts with human warrior.

And how could this even help?

Try this:

1. close angband
2. open angband
3. load your borg character
4. Hit ^z$

Do you get any warnings about not having a proper borg.txt file? Check the log for the warnings.

If you do not get any warnings about a proper borg.txt file, examine the borg.txt file. It is probably in the \lib\user directory.

Look for the section on Respawn

# Respawn

# If the borg is in continual play mode (as with the screen saver),
# he will respawn a randomly generated character at death.  This section
# allows the user to make certain bias for the type of character generated.
# You may select the race and or class and or minimal stats for the Borg.
# You may also select the minimal character level needed before the
# character dump is created in the game directory.

# With regards to race, the borg is programmed to accept the variety of
# user defined races which may be in the p_info.txt file.  So the values
# given in table below are for the default races.  But if you are bright
# enough to modify the p_info.txt file then you are bright enough to figure
# out that race 0 does not necessarily equal Human.  It's just the first
# race listed in your p_info.txt file.
#
# RACE:-1 Random Race          CLASS:  -1 Random Class
#       0 Human                         0 Warrior
#       1 Half Elf                      1 Mage
#       2 Elf                           2 Priest
#       3 Hobbit                        3 Rogue
#       4 Gnome                         4 Ranger
#       5 Dwarf                         5 Paladin
#       6 Half Orc
#       7 Half Troll
#       8 Dunadan
#       9 High Elf
#	10 Kobold
#
# With regards to the stats.  The minimal stats are rolled by the
# borg.  CON will be 16, the secondary stat (usually DEX) will be 17,
# The primary stat will be 17.  These are the maximal values which
# can be rolled (racial and class bonuses added after).
# If the borg can not reach the stats after 500,000 tries the game
# will just assign you a random stat.
#
# After killing Morgoth, generally, the borg will stop and allow you
# to inspect the victory.  If you set the respawn_winners then after
# killing Morgoth,the borg will generate a new character.  A map file
# is created so you can see what the final battle looked like.

borg_respawn_race = -1
borg_respawn_class = -1
borg_respawn_winners = FALSE

You can for the borg to respawn using ^zR
If it is a human warrior every time and you don't have 0's for your borg_respawn_class and respawn_race, then there is an issue.

[Tobias]

No warnings.
^zR works correctly, and respects the settings in borg.txt.
Starting the screensaver with a dead character in the savefile always gives human warriors.

This seems to be unrelated to my other bug, where the borg does not restart on death, or stops the screensaver due to imagined key-presses.

Edit: The keypress message is always:
#User key press <43><+>
# Key type was <1>< > # with a white block in the second brackets

It also happens on both of my computers, one on XP and one on Vista.
Here is a savegame: