Borg bugs and feature requests

[eschiss1]

One other thing btw...
Left newer high-elf necromancer on overnight. Woke up to see a loop that had been going on I do not know how long:

"# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Resting to recharge a rod...
# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1)." and so forth. (I have the log file saved and can upload it as a text attachment if that will help show the situation in which this occurred. Should, now I think of it, have created an html or forum screenshot too or instead. Anyway, for whatever reason, the crush-when-nothing-is-actually-able-to-even-notice problem is not totally solved yet as of 4.2.5.554, unfortunately

[agoodman]

One other thing btw...
Left newer high-elf necromancer on overnight. Woke up to see a loop that had been going on I do not know how long:

"# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Performing attack type 40 with value 264.
# Casting Crush (1,1).
# Resting to recharge a rod...
# Performing attack type 40 with value 224.
# Casting Crush (1,1)." and so forth. (I have the log file saved and can upload it as a text attachment if that will help show the situation in which this occurred. Should, now I think of it, have created an html or forum screenshot too or instead. Anyway, for whatever reason, the crush-when-nothing-is-actually-able-to-even-notice problem is not totally solved yet as of 4.2.5.554, unfortunately

If you can get me the save file I will take a look at it. you can either attach it here or on github you could write up an issue (either https://github.com/angband/angband/issues or https://github.com/agoodman00/angband/issues) or email me goodman.adam(at)gmail.com

[agoodman]

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.)

hmmm, I will take a look. the curse stuff is all new code so not very well tested

[agoodman]

hmmm, I will take a look. the curse stuff is all new code so not very well tested

okay, I took a look and here is the problem. When the borg picks a spell target it does

*p (move to the monster using directions) 5.
cast spell
5

but, even if the square it picked has a monster on it, this doesn't count as selecting a monster. Is this right? Is it a game bug? I will write this up on github and ask Nick

I think this will mess up the borg casting:

curse
command (not currently used by the borg)
single combat (not currently used by the borg)

I don't think there is a way to positionally select a monster and coding for targeting a spell at a specific monster rather than a point will be difficult. I am not sure how to do it.

I think I will have to disable curse for now until I think of a solution to this.

[eschiss1]

I've had to use * to select, iirc, not 5, when casting curse. (Something like that?)

[agoodman]

I've had to use * to select, iirc, not 5, when casting curse. (Something like that?)

discussion of the solution found https://github.com/angband/angband/issues/6337 and code checked in https://github.com/angband/angband/pull/6338

[eschiss1]

I still think the borg casts Crush far more often than it needs to.
Crush instantly kills any monster in line of sight with less than four times the player's level in hitpoints, also hurting the player. Other monsters are unharmed.
I see no evidence that the player's line of sight is being checked, that the monster's hitpoints are even being guessed at (an unharmed Witchking of Angmar is not likely to be harmed by Crush- well, to use less complication, I do sometimes see the monster's HP in the borg window, is it not allowed to make decisions using that information?...) - - well, briefly, the borg is taking this spell that's not actually that useful at deep levels (not compared to some others one of the same class should have by that point) and using it -constantly-, and practically ignoring others. That's practically perverse That, at least, can be fixed, I think.

[agoodman]

I still think the borg casts Crush far more often than it needs to.
Crush instantly kills any monster in line of sight with less than four times the player's level in hitpoints, also hurting the player. Other monsters are unharmed.
I see no evidence that the player's line of sight is being checked, that the monster's hitpoints are even being guessed at (an unharmed Witchking of Angmar is not likely to be harmed by Crush- well, to use less complication, I do sometimes see the monster's HP in the borg window, is it not allowed to make decisions using that information?...) - - well, briefly, the borg is taking this spell that's not actually that useful at deep levels (not compared to some others one of the same class should have by that point) and using it -constantly-, and practically ignoring others. That's practically perverse That, at least, can be fixed, I think.

hmm, okay, I think I miscoded how it works due to a lack of understanding of how it works. I will likely have to recode that entire attack.

[agoodman]

hmm, okay, I think I miscoded how it works due to a lack of understanding of how it works. I will likely have to recode that entire attack.

also missed "walls protect monsters" so LOS plus "not in a wall". Not sure if that last part was on purpose but CRUSH is considered a "projection" and walls protect monsters from projections.

BTW: https://github.com/angband/angband/pull/6346 checked in. Wasn't as much work as I feared... but the old code was waaaaay wrong.

[eschiss1]

Downloaded latest prerelease, borg definitely fighting/casting smarter Thanks!

[Estie]

So I have been running a priest borg and after many deaths got one that made it far: lvl 40ish, dlvl 30, decent gear.
His gear choices were not terrible except for the fact that he seems to love rings of fire. He was using a =speed +6 and a =Fire for the longest time, not needing the fire ring at all (he has immunity and never activates it). So I went and took it away. He filled the now empty slot with the next thing he found - a =feather falling, soon replaced with a = int +3. Also, he upgraded his speed ring to +11, but didnt keep the +6. Next time I looked he was wearing = Fire and =accuracy

How can this happen, this is a cathastrophe, and why does he love the useless elemental rings ?

Edit: He died to Huan breath, having gone through various iterations of speed/con/artifact ring combod with some elemental ring. He was at speed +13 when he died, having been at > 20 base speed several times before. He does use the elemental ring activation; the reason he never used the fire one seems to be that he was carrying several rods of fire bolt/ball and used those in preference to the ring.

Anyway, he should never replace important rings like con or speed with elemental damage ones.

[agoodman]

If you look at borg.txt there are the "power rules" which says what "power" he gets from each item and ability. Power is what is used to determine how good he thinks one item set is from another. Usually the borg.txt power calcs are turned off and the internal (C code) ones are used but they are identical and should always come up with the same number. If you think you have better numbers, turn on the borg.txt ones and edit the file with new numbers.

You can also use ^zp to tell you the current power level of the borg. Doing things like
see borg has a weird item combo (like useless ring of fire). Hit ^zp. Switch ring for a different ring, hit ^zp again and see what he thinks that did to his power level. It seems likely the activation on the ring is giving too much power and should be toned down a bit.