Borg bugs and feature requests

[backwardsEric]

In recent post 4.2.5 builds, there's this compiler warning on macOS:

borg/borg-trait.c:1180:9: warning: variable 'extra_blows' set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
    int extra_blows                   = 0;

I suspect that borg-trait.c should be using extra_blows at line 1892 (though it will have to avoid double counting extra blows from the equipped weapon) missing a line around 1858 to set borg.trait[BI_BLOWS] with the new value of the extra blows from the equipment.

[Pete Mack]

A mage cannot dig magma for some time

[agoodman]

I didn't remember that @could now dig without having to swap to the pick, but... are you telling me @spending hundred of turns to dig through a *magma* vein with a shovel of digging is normal efficiency ?

I often dig through magma with crappy weapons.. is it that Vanilla's magma is tougher than Forg's one ? Or a question of non-optimized stats in my case (chose default human warrior for the borg, far from my usual brutes)

Ya, that was caused by the RNG bug I just mentioned... If you failed once, you failed forever for repeats with the code the way it was. I just checked in a quick fix. Hopefully this will solve "repeated commands don't seem to work so well for the borg".

[Evilpotatoe]

I didn't remember that @could now dig without having to swap to the pick, but... are you telling me @spending hundred of turns to dig through a *magma* vein with a shovel of digging is normal efficiency ?

I often dig through magma with crappy weapons.. is it that Vanilla's magma is tougher than Forg's one ? Or a question of non-optimized stats in my case (chose default human warrior for the borg, far from my usual brutes)

[agoodman]

ok, its calculation of the digging chance isn't great (code needs improvement) and additionally this character is on the hairy edge of what the borg considers "acceptable chance of digging". The game calculates the odds at 192 out of 1600
okay = (chance > randint0(1600));
so it failing over and over seems long odds... if not for a bug where the borg is resetting the random seed on repeated commands! Argh! Time to fix that one.

The digging chance calculations will go on my "todo" queue.

[agoodman]

File was indeed broken.
After several reuploads, it was broken everytime... dunno why. Maybe the hyphen ?
I don't remember my filezilla breaking sent file in the past.

Anyway, looks fine in a zip (I fixed my link).

--
I downloaded a fresh Angband 4.2.5 just to test the borg, so there's nothing particular on my version
But Is that digging behavior a real new discoverey ?
It looked so "obvious" to me I thought it would be a known issue. I'm not even sure I changed one birth option.

This zipped save file works for me. With the latest code (including the fix I mentioned doing last time) I see
You tunnel into the magma vein with treasure with your swap digger. <100x>
so it -is- using the digger. I am now checking if the code has miscalculated the chance of successful digging so it is trying to dig when it shouldn't. I am not confident in the code that calculates the digging chance with swap.

As for if this digging behavior is new, I think it is. It is definitely new for the borg to take advantage of it rather than manually swapping to the digger.

[Evilpotatoe]

File was indeed broken.
After several reuploads, it was broken everytime... dunno why. Maybe the hyphen ?
I don't remember my filezilla breaking sent file in the past.

Anyway, looks fine in a zip (I fixed my link).

--
I downloaded a fresh Angband 4.2.5 just to test the borg, so there's nothing particular on my version
But Is that digging behavior a real new discoverey ?
It looked so "obvious" to me I thought it would be a known issue. I'm not even sure I changed one birth option.

[agoodman]

I'm not able to load the savefile; is there a chance that it was generated with a modded version? Looking at the code for the tunneling command, the only reason it wouldn't be able to swap for a digger in the inventory is if the currently wielded weapon or the digger has a sticky curse, but there's no weapons or diggers with sticky curses in Vanilla.

I didn't notice the save file. Ya, I am having the same issue. It looks like it is failing when loading the dungeon. I wonder if this is pre-dungeon size fix and we happen to be past that limit on this save.

That said, the problem here, IMO, is that it doesn't tell you it used the digger. So it is probably trying the digger and failing to dig. What do you think of changing the messages to say things like
You have removed the rubble with your swap digger.
when you auto-swap or
You have removed the rubble with your weapon.
when you don't? Gets slightly wordy when
You dig in the rubble {with your swap digger/with your weapon} with little effect.
but not too bad. I can put together a quick change around this.

[backwardsEric]

@backwardsEric Shouldn't it be auto-switching to use the shovel? Is there something that would prevent this?

I'm not able to load the savefile; is there a chance that it was generated with a modded version? Looking at the code for the tunneling command, the only reason it wouldn't be able to swap for a digger in the inventory is if the currently wielded weapon or the digger has a sticky curse, but there's no weapons or diggers with sticky curses in Vanilla.

[agoodman]

@backwardsEric Shouldn't it be auto-switching to use the shovel? Is there something that would prevent this?

[Evilpotatoe]

Taking a glance at the borg, I notice it loves both digging and carrying a digger in inventory but doesn't seem to get the point of it



Savefile, if interested

http://evilpotatoe.free.fr/Referenced_files/Bjorg%20-%20Digging%20with%20unequipped%20digger.zip

[agoodman]

I may not have coded for the cowardice curse. That is a new curse so it is possible I don't have code to avoid it. I will take a look.

Yep. Looks like it is on the list of curses the borg knows but doesn't yet handle. So far that's been okay because the borg usually will try to uncurse such objects quickly... but it looks like yours got stuck before it could. I will add some checks for the newer curses.

[agoodman]

In the attached save file, the borg playing a blackguard has equipped a ring of searching with the cowardice curse and has managed to be surrounded by the townsfolk. The ring has been fully identified so, at least in my mind, there's absolutely no reason to keep it.

I may not have coded for the cowardice curse. That is a new curse so it is possible I don't have code to avoid it. I will take a look.

[agoodman]

With the latest post-4.2.5 code (last commit is https://github.com/angband/angband/c...150f6c1d929bc2 ), there's cases where the borg repeatedly tries to dig out a granite wall despite the game saying "You chip away futilely at the granite wall." (which means there's no chance for success; for rubble the similar message is "You dig in the rubble with little effect."). I haven't checked if that's because the borg miscalculates the chance of successfully digging or if it proceeds to dig even knowing there's no chance.

The borg doesn't currently check for the "bad digging" messages. It relies on having calculated the chance of digging right and thinking it can dig. I don't think my recent digging change caused this but... maybe. Either there is a case where he thinks he can dig but he can't or he is desperate to get somewhere and is digging even though he has low chance of success. If you can get a save file of him doing this, I can look into it further, otherwise, I can look at the code but it will be hard to fix.

[backwardsEric]

In the attached save file, the borg playing a blackguard has equipped a ring of searching with the cowardice curse and has managed to be surrounded by the townsfolk. The ring has been fully identified so, at least in my mind, there's absolutely no reason to keep it.