Borg bugs and feature requests

[agoodman]

Necromancer bug: seems to cast crush at anything that looks like it's in its line of sight, which can become a real problem if it has telepathy. Repeatedly. Often runs very low on hp this way and this may be the indirect cause behind some unnecessary deaths.

okay, I will take a look at his use of crush. I have run into issues with it before. It is new code and was a SWAG on how to use it.

Ooh, was looking for the "keep playing" borg.txt cheat death WIll try that. Thanks-- ah, the version I have (via MacPorts) is still using the Sep. 26 2024 borg compile. Not sure whether the Nov. 2024 compile is available for the Mac yet. (maybe if I'd downloaded it more normally, rather than by MacPorts. Worth checking.)

Further edit: Mac just won't open Angband opened from Rephial.org at all. Back to Macports version with September 26 2024 borg, then, for now!

Hmm. Nick or backwardsEric might have some clue on the Macport. I don't have a Mac handy so I can't test.

[Nick]

Ooh, was looking for the "keep playing" borg.txt cheat death WIll try that. Thanks-- ah, the version I have (via MacPorts) is still using the Sep. 26 2024 borg compile. Not sure whether the Nov. 2024 compile is available for the Mac yet. (maybe if I'd downloaded it more normally, rather than by MacPorts. Worth checking.)

Further edit: Mac just won't open Angband opened from Rephial.org at all. Back to Macports version with September 26 2024 borg, then, for now!

You can get the very latest version from the releases page - have you tried that?

[backwardsEric]

Further edit: Mac just won't open Angband opened from Rephial.org at all. Back to Macports version with September 26 2024 borg, then, for now!

The method described at https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-...er-mh40616/mac does not work? The ways to open an unsigned application were restricted further in macOS 15; before that you could also do this:

1. Control click (i.e. click while holding the control button down) on the application in the Finder.
2. Select "Open" in the menu that comes up.
3. That will bring up a confirmation dialog about allowing the application to open on the system.
4. If your account does not have administrator privileges, there'll be an additional dialog asking you to authenticate as an administrator to apply the exception to the security settings.

I don't know who handles Angband in Macports, but they likely only update for the major releases. So I wouldn't expect the version available in Macports to change until after 4.2.6 is released.

[eschiss1]

I'll try the prereleases page. Thanks

[eschiss1]

There, found out how to get past Mac Gatekeeper...

[eschiss1]

btw will it still work with my old borg save file, borg.txt, etc., or do I need to start a whole new installation? never mind- solved that problem, I think.

[eschiss1]

Tried the new/old borg log feature but now not sure how to turn the log off - replacing the map file name with blank, as a conjectural way of saying "ok that's enough", just crashes the program... Oh, because it's a snapshot log file, not an ongoing one as in earlier borg versions once upon a time, and there's nothing to turn off. Maybe shouldn't crash the program, but shouldn't be trying to create an empty file, either.

[backwardsEric]

The precompiled versions for macOS on rephial or the GitHub releases page use ~/Documents/Angband as the user directory and ~/Documents/Angband/save for save files. The "aqua" variant from Macports should be the same as that. The "universal" and "x11" variants look like they'll use ~/.angband/Angband as the user directory. I'd guess that those two variants put the save files in /opt/local/var/games/angband/save. Copying borg.txt and save files between the installations should be fine though you'd need administrator/root privileges to access the save files saved in /opt/local.

[agoodman]

I created https://github.com/angband/angband/pull/6314 which should reduce overuse of the "crush" spell. It should ensure the following two things:

1. the player has 50hp left after casting crush (previously was 5hp)
2. the player has twice as many hp as the "new danger" after casting (previously was equal to danger level).

[eschiss1]

Yep, that helps explains why I have at least two versions... and thanks, I'll try that!

[eschiss1]

Also, my borg presently has and can use part of necromancer book 4/d, and there are spell in there (annihilation, chaos, e.g.) which it should definitely be using much more often than crush

[eschiss1]

One further suggestion (sorry): if there's no monsters in los who can be affected by crush, the borg shouldn't bother. That's a quick way to "getting oneself breathed on by the Phoenix while repeatedly casting a spell that has no effect except lowering one's hitpoints."

[agoodman]

One further suggestion (sorry): if there's no monsters in los who can be affected by crush, the borg shouldn't bother. That's a quick way to "getting oneself breathed on by the Phoenix while repeatedly casting a spell that has no effect except lowering one's hitpoints."

The borg, in the latest bleeding edge build, should only be casting Crush if it reduces the danger. If the borg is casting it while nothing is around, it is confused and thinks there is something around.

[eschiss1]

Thanks much, downloading this version now (it's in cheat-death mode and has been playing around on level 99 etc for awhile) and looking forward to seeing what happens

[eschiss1]

Crush is still not handled as well as could be, I think - still casting at monsters that have way too many hit points for Crush to affect them, e.g.... but ...
Here's another issue that may be worth looking at?
"# Performing attack type 49 with value 347.
# Targeting master lich who has 1095 Hit Points (55,39).
# Casting Curse (4,3).
Target Selected.
No monster selected!"
The borg never seems to manage to use Curse properly (which is something it rarely has a chance to do, I know, since it's in Necromancy book 5 - which is hard to get - but there's some bug or other in the Targeting code related to that spell.)