Borg bugs and feature requests

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

[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.

[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]

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

[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

[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.)

[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

[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]

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."

[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]

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

[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).

[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.