Oldschool walls

[Whelk]

I have Angband 3.0.6 and it has the "new" walls that are solid blocks. I liked the oldschool walls that were represented by the pound sign (#). Is there any way to change them back with the edit files? I tried changing walls to random characters in the lib\edit\terrain.txt but it didn't seem to make any differences - walls were still solid blocks.

I admit I've got no experience in editing Angband features, so any help would be very much appreciated. Used to be (years ago when I last played) you could go in and change things like that in-game via the options menu, but I couldn't find that feature in this version.

[CJNyfalt]

Try the files in lib/pref. I'm not familiar with those, so I can't help you more than that.

[Nick]

I have Angband 3.0.6 and it has the "new" walls that are solid blocks. I liked the oldschool walls that were represented by the pound sign (#). Is there any way to change them back with the edit files? I tried changing walls to random characters in the lib\edit\terrain.txt but it didn't seem to make any differences - walls were still solid blocks.

If you're using windows, you need to go into lib\pref\font-win.prf and put a # in front of all the lines starting with F that refer to walls (which is pretty much all of them. In fact, you can probably delete the whole file and that would work too. If you're not, then do the same thing for font-???.pref where ??? is whatever you are using (mac, x11, gtk or whatever).

I admit I've got no experience in editing Angband features, so any help would be very much appreciated. Used to be (years ago when I last played) you could go in and change things like that in-game via the options menu, but I couldn't find that feature in this version.

You can still do that; you need to hit % to go to the 'Interact with Visuals' menu, which will allow you to change the graphic for any terrain feature, monster, object or flavour of object.

[Whelk]

Thanks a ton for the help, folks. I just renamed the font-win file in lib\pref and that did it. Also handy to be reminded how to get to the "interract with visuals" menu. I used to love customizing things just the way I liked them.

Thanks again. Those old #s as walls make me feel nostalgic.

[aricz]

What about the other way around?

I want the blocks, not the '#'. Can anyone help me?

I'm playing angband 3.0.7s3 using NCurses.

[takkaria]

I don't think you can get them with ncurses. They require customised fonts--if you want the block chars, try X11 or such instead.

[Djabanete]

That really is old-school, Whelk. I remember playing Moria that way. Damn.

I think the blocks are much nicer than the #'s though.

[Cyrlous]

Hmmm, pushing % in-game doesn't do anything for me.

[Malak Darkhunter]

In the new Angband release, the interact with visuals command is availiable through the options menu by pressing the = key for gameplay options. % didn't do anything for me either.

[Goldbug]

What about the other way around?

I want the blocks, not the '#'. Can anyone help me?

This.

I've just downloaded v3.2.0 (that's the latest version, right? I'd been playing 3.0.9), and when I press "=" it just gives me options to dump files and tells me to go to the "knowledge" menu if I want to edit my preferences.

Going to the knowledge menu didn't seem to help.

There's a few options for different graphics under Options>Graphics, but I'd very much like to play with block walls and have the monsters and features represented by letters and ASCII in the way I'm used to. Is that still possible?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

PS Browsing the forum I've come across several references to "Nightlies". What are they, exactly?

PPS I should probably start a new thread to ask about this, but I've never used an iron spike (I assume they're used for making doors "stuck" so that a monster can't chase you) or a glyph of warding. Are they actually useful?

[ekolis]

Nightlies are development builds, typically generated once per day, at night (hence the name).

Iron spikes are indeed used to jam doors using the 'j' command.

As for glyphs of warding, I've never made it far enough to use them, but from what I've heard on the forums, they seem to be some sort of trap that the player can set to block or injure monsters.

[Nolendil]

Some more info from the wiki:

Jam a door (j) / (S)

Jam a door (so that it needs to be bashed down). Many monsters can simply open closed doors, and can eventually get through a locked door. You may therefore occasionally want to jam a door shut with iron spikes. Each spike used on the door will make it harder to bash down the door, up to a limit of eight. This command takes a full turn.

Rune of Protection

Inscribes a glyph of warding on the floor beneath your character; monsters can't move onto the glyph or attack your character while standing there without breaking the glyph (chance is (monster level)/550)

[Timo Pietilä]

As for glyphs of warding, I've never made it far enough to use them, but from what I've heard on the forums, they seem to be some sort of trap that the player can set to block or injure monsters.

Glyphs prevent monster to enter the grid where glyph is, preventing them to melee you when you stand on it. They have a chance to break the rune which increases with monster depth, so Morgoth breaks one pretty fast while orc wont be able to break it until zillion turns. It also prevents summoned monsters to appear in that grid or traps or items. Only thing that can enter the grid where you made the rune is you. Earthquakes can and destruction will destroy glyphs.

Very useful against hard-hitting monsters, no so much against monsters which main weapons are spells or breaths. They also slow even deepest monsters down quite a bit allowing you to run away if you need to. Pass-wall and eat-wall monsters just go around them so not very useful against those for running purposes.

[SSK]

There's a few options for different graphics under Options>Graphics, but I'd very much like to play with block walls and have the monsters and features represented by letters and ASCII in the way I'm used to. Is that still possible?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Actually me too. I've not figured out how to do this on the mac. I am playing some nightlies. I lost two characters in part because I didnt recognize the graphic representing some very dangerous monsters (impact hounds once and Dracolisks the other time) until it was too late. Finally I just won now, so I can recognize the baddies better, but I think I still liked the old ASCII monsters, but with the new walls/treasure, and love the new targetting system too. Can't we have a built-in feature for various combos of walls and monsters?

[Goldbug]

Thanks a lot for the responses.

I think I'll try using some iron spikes to see how it helps my game.

Sounds like I'll have to get used to '#' walls if I want to continue viewing monsters as letters. Pity, as they just look really messy to me.