Angband 4.2.4

[Bill Peterson]

Estie's suggestions are well thought out, but

WoR isn't just a utility, but a valuable escape. How many times have you invoked speed, WoR, and ran? Making the rod too reliable deprives the RNG of opportunities to kill you.

I wouldn't favor making rod activations too reliable when there are scroll or staff alternatives. Players should have some downside to using something as light and durable as a rod.

I would not be the one to ask developers to spend their time on this auto repeat rod activation scheme. If I were seriously bothered by the keypresses involved I would make a keymap and just keep pressing that.

Finding a device far above it's normal depth and having trouble activating it doesn't mean the game is broken. Store it at home and wait until you gain some levels.

[Nick]

As used in artifact.txt for "special" artifacts, doesn't it also influence an out-of-depth check in artifact generation? That out-of-depth check could be changed to use the minimum allocation depth, like make_artifact() uses, to avoid that.

I was actually looking at that check and I think it's been left in by mistake, because make_artifact_special() has all the same checks as make_artifact() and that one as well. I think it can probably just come out.

[Estie]

Estie's suggestions are well thought out, but

WoR isn't just a utility, but a valuable escape. How many times have you invoked speed, WoR, and ran? Making the rod too reliable deprives the RNG of opportunities to kill you.

I wouldn't favor making rod activations too reliable when there are scroll or staff alternatives. Players should have some downside to using something as light and durable as a rod.

I would not be the one to ask developers to spend their time on this auto repeat rod activation scheme. If I were seriously bothered by the keypresses involved I would make a keymap and just keep pressing that.

Finding a device far above it's normal depth and having trouble activating it doesn't mean the game is broken. Store it at home and wait until you gain some levels.

If you want WoR to take longer, you can simply increase the charge time without forcing unnecessary clicks.

When I played my last troll warrior, I did make macros I dont normally need (like for activating a rod of restoration), but macro space is limited - I am already using most available keys for some macro or other. But even that is not acceptable - you still have to click your macro and pay attention to whether it triggers the desired effect or not. Doing that for the majority of your actions, regurarly requiring multiple attemps, is a nightmare, not enjoyable gameplay.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Nick, I may have found a possible bug while doing my comb through the txt files.

In class.txt the Mage spell "Tap Magical Energy":

Where is the TAP_DEVICE effect described? I didn't find it in the other txt files.

Is the Tap Magical Energy spell missing the following two lines:
effect: TIMED_INC:STUN
dice:1d2
to accomplish the “tapping stuns the player briefly” which is described in the spell description?
These code lines are in the FAAngband class.txt file for the same spell, but are missing in the Angband class.txt file.

[Nick]

Nick, I may have found a possible bug while doing my comb through the txt files.

In class.txt the Mage spell "Tap Magical Energy":

Where is the TAP_DEVICE effect described? I didn't find it in the other txt files.

Is the Tap Magical Energy spell missing the following two lines:
effect: TIMED_INC:STUN
dice:1d2
to accomplish the “tapping stuns the player briefly” which is described in the spell description?
These code lines are in the FAAngband class.txt file for the same spell, but are missing in the Angband class.txt file.

I believe the current situation is correct (and the latest FAangband spell is the same - although it's so long since a version update that it's not in the latest actual version).

The TAP_DEVICE effect (like all effects, really) is coded (in this case, in effect-handler-general.c). It was changed to avoid the stunning effect happening if the device had no charges, or the player's mana was already full.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I believe the current situation is correct (and the latest FAangband spell is the same - although it's so long since a version update that it's not in the latest actual version).

Thanks for this update. I guess since my test @ had acquired a pStun hat (and I forgot) by the time he had the tap spell, it seemed like the spell's stun effect wasn't there and I couldn't see it in the txt file as I had before.

Found another one. The "Detection" spell now takes a direction? That was a surprise. Maybe the spell description needs updating.

[Nick]

Found another one. The "Detection" spell now takes a direction? That was a surprise. Maybe the spell description needs updating.

What are you seeing happening?

[Hounded]

What are you seeing happening?

Ditto Staff od Darkness. Requests a vector before it activates. same execution logic as a wand.

[backwardsEric]

I can reproduce Hounded's report of staffs of darkness requiring aiming but can't reproduce Ingwe's report of the Detect spell requiring aiming (tried on a Mac; used the debugging commands to advance a mage to the maximum level). A save file or more description of the circumstances when the Detect spell requires aiming could help diagnosing what's wrong.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

What are you seeing happening?

@ is now dead, so have to build another Mage back up, but @ cast the Detection spell and was immediately asked "Direction ('*' or <click> to target, "'" for closest, Escape to cancel)?" Nothing in the class.txt file suggests a reason why to my mind.

spell: Detection:30:10:70:30
effect: DETECT_TRAPS
effect-yx:22:40
effect: DETECT_DOORS
effect-yx:22:40
effect: DETECT_STAIRS
effect-yx:22:40
effect: DETECT_GOLD
effect-yx:22:40
effect:SENSE_OBJECTS
effect-yx:22:40
effect: DETECT_INVISIBLE_MONSTERS
effect-yx:22:40
effect: DETECT_VISIBLE_MONSTERS
effect-yx:22:40
desc: Detects all traps, doors, stairs, treasure, objects and monsters in the
desc: immediate area.

[extra space added between : and D to avoid a grinning face on the post.]

[ewert]

You sure it was not needing aiming only when it was unidentified?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

You sure it was not needing aiming only when it was unidentified?

Unidentified? What? It's a spell in a spell book. It required aiming every time it was cast.

[ewert]

May have quickreplied to wrong one, the other post mentioned staff of darkness.

[Hounded]

May have quickreplied to wrong one, the other post mentioned staff of darkness.

Yeah, staves've never required a direction like wands or un-id'd rods do.

I just thought it might be relevant as both bugs manifest as heretofore unrequired vector selection.

[malcontent]

I feel like this is a new thing with 4.2.4...

Sometimes when I map an area (this just happened to me with a rod of magic mapping) I get messages about off screen monsters catching fire.

Does anyone else see that? Can anyone explain what is going on?