First 3.4 dev version

[Magnate]

Hi all,

Lots of people submitted interesting pull requests during the last few weeks of testing 3.3.0. Although we had the facility to merge them without affecting 3.3, we got busy with RL so nobody did. We've finally caught up on the backlog - with apologies to all the contributors, here's the list of changes for the first 3.4 dev version (which should be available from rephial.org at some point in the next few hours):

- significantly improved tile support thanks to a ton of commits from Blubaron - still work in progress, but we are now well on the way to supporting Shockbolt's tiles

- Nomad's updated 8x16 tiles

- some changes to make stealth less of a no-brainer and harder to rack up, and to make monsters have more rational alertness (thanks to both Jens and fizzix for work on this)

- changes to occurrence of consumables in stacks so certain things aren't so obvious (thanks again to Jens)

- changes to monsters' to-hit vs. AC, redressing the balance slightly against tough melee monsters (Jens once again)

- changes to summoning to make it work better and be less game-breaking (thanks again to fizzix)

- further improvements to pits and nests (thanks CunningGabe)

Please quote that version string in any bug reports etc. You can find this in chardumps, or by pressing V in the game.

[Magnate]

Ooops. That's what I get for assuming that a couple of minor compile warnings on Windows won't hold it up if it builds fine on Linux ...

... we apologise for the delay. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible ...

[Magnate]

Ok - this version has actually been built, but is not yet available from rephial (the "nightlies" page is still tracking the 3.3-release branch). If you want it, the Windows version is here.

[Nomad]

Ok - this version has actually been built, but is not yet available from rephial (the "nightlies" page is still tracking the 3.3-release branch). If you want it, the Windows version is here.

I get an immediate "angband.exe has stopped working" error as soon as I try to start the program. (Windows 7 64-bit.)

[Magnate]

I get an immediate "angband.exe has stopped working" error as soon as I try to start the program. (Windows 7 64-bit.)

Thanks for testing - I did fear as much. We'll fix this ASAP.

[d_m]

I get an immediate "angband.exe has stopped working" error as soon as I try to start the program. (Windows 7 64-bit.)

I can replicate this under WINE on an x86_64 Linux machine.

Interestingly, the last two public staging builds (at http://buildbot.rephial.org/builds/staging/builds.html) fail with this error, but the one before it works. So it seems like the PNG transparency changes (or something else in that mix of commits) is to blame.

I can build any of those versions from source and they work fine on my machine (under WINE).

[fizzix]

feedback on monster summons would be greatly appreciated. Right now you should see much less dangerous summons from, say, Lorgan. But Morgoth should be pretty much just as powerful as he was.

[Blue Baron]

The crash problem (for me) is that a file I added, graphics.txt, is not in the package, and the code I wrote, does not handle the absence well.

For now, attached is a graphics.txt that can be copied to the angband/lib/graf/ directory, and it should work.

[Nomad]

The crash problem (for me) is that a file I added, graphics.txt, is not in the package, and the code I wrote, does not handle the absence well.

For now, attached is a graphics.txt that can be copied to the angband/lib/graf/ directory, and it should work.

Yep, that's fixed the crash for me on Windows 7.

Although I now have a new graphical bug with my tile set where there are random black squares scattered across the town. In ASCII mode they appear to be green dot floor tiles instead of the customary white ones: are they level feeling tiles accidentally made visible?

[d_m]

This should be fixed in the latest nightly.

For now, please go to http://buildbot.rephial.org/builds/master/builds.html to download nightly builds. I think Takkaria is on vacation, and the nightlies there are still tracking the 3.3-release branch.

[CunningGabe]

The graphics.txt file in staging on github is missing the first N line. Without it, I can't even start angband, but when I just added in "N:1:Original" it worked.

[Nomad]

I'm playtesting my pit designs in this version, and something seems to have gone awry with the new pit code - I'm looking at a type 1 pit that's supposed to have 0% chance of treasure on each square, and it does in fact seem to have a 100% percent chance of treasure on each square. ...I'm kind of looking forward to clearing it.

[CunningGabe]

I'm playtesting my pit designs in this version, and something seems to have gone awry with the new pit code - I'm looking at a type 1 pit that's supposed to have 0% chance of treasure on each square, and it does in fact seem to have a 100% percent chance of treasure on each square. ...I'm kind of looking forward to clearing it.

Oops >_>
I've just submitted a pull request that fixes this. It also changes the 1-in-N object rarity to an N% object rarity, so you'll have to update the O lines on any pits you're adding.

[d_m]

Oops >_>
I've just submitted a pull request that fixes this. It also changes the 1-in-N object rarity to an N% object rarity, so you'll have to update the O lines on any pits you're adding.

This has been pulled into staging... should go into master relatively soon.

[Nomad]

Okay, I downloaded the August 15th nightly, and that now runs fine for me on Windows. I'm liking the new more random stack sizes for consumables - it definitely makes ID-by-use less predictable in the early levels.

The pit treasure code also looks like it's working correctly now: I'm going to re-test all my pit designs with the updated code and try out a couple of new ones, and then I'll upload a copy of the edit files for inclusion in the nightlies.

I'm still having some issues with the display of my tile set. Spell/breath effects are using the ASCII effects instead of the tiles, and features on the trap detection border show up as blank black squares - unless there's a monster or object in the square, in which case they show up as a white potion behind the monster/object (). The white potions disappear when the squares come into line of sight or the monster moves off. Additionally, level feeling squares are displaying as if they're trap detection squares, and so suffer the same visual effects.