New character Squelch Defaults

[ChodTheWacko]

Can we please do something about 'remembered' squelch settings for new characters?

If I die and restart a character with the same name, the new character remembers all squelch settings for the previous incarnation, which probably has a LOT of stuff squelched. For example, if I have an armor that resists cold, I typically squelch rings of resist cold. That sucks for the new character, who
needs those rings.

What sucks more is that for a new character, since you can't see any of those items in the squelch menu, you can't unsquelch them until you find them.
That's kind of okay for items you find yourself (when you identify the ring,
it says: ring of resist cold (squelch). (wait, I need that!)
but it's more annoying for items that you see in the black market which
all of a sudden appear in your squelch menu as (squelch).

I'd like an option that for a new character, resets (to not squelch)
all items.

- Frank

[Pete Mack]

In 3.0.8, the squelch menu used the "everseen" flag, not the "known" flag. I don't know why it doesn't still. And there was an option for remembering squelch after rebirth that defaulted to no...

(I don't use squelch anymore, except in NPP where it works more properly IMO.)

[tigpup]

(I don't use squelch anymore, except in NPP where it works more properly IMO.)

Agreed. NPP squelch perhaps need a little refining, but is (IMHO) more powerful and flexible.

-Neil.

[ChodTheWacko]

I figured out an easy way to reset squelch to no.
Go into the prefs file, and delete the entire squelch section at the end of the
file.

Start the game, load and re-dump the prefs file, and it should reset all
those lines to zero again.

- Frank

[PowerDiver]

IMO reading squelch choices from prf files is a bad idea. Should that be removed entirely?

[Pete Mack]

Eddie--it was a request for an initialization file, for stuff like spikes, cursed rings, magical armor and magical polearms, etc. What doesn't make sense is to store it every time you write a general pref file, only if you are explicitly writing squelch info.

[PowerDiver]

I've had people report "bugs" that turned out to be forgotten squelch stuff in prf files. Perhaps there should be a command to create a squelch only file, and an explicit command to load it. For the most part, squelch choices should be in the savefile, not in a prf file, and certainly not in anything loaded at startup. After you load squelch settings once, they are stored in the savefile, and changes made in the game are stored in the savefile, but the next time you restart the old prf stuff overwrites the changes stored in the savefile.

I think removing squelch entirely from prf files would eliminate more anguish than it would cause.

That's my current thought. I'd be interested in pros and cons of alternative approaches.

[Rizwan]

I've had people report "bugs" that turned out to be forgotten squelch stuff in prf files. Perhaps there should be a command to create a squelch only file, and an explicit command to load it. For the most part, squelch choices should be in the savefile, not in a prf file, and certainly not in anything loaded at startup. After you load squelch settings once, they are stored in the savefile, and changes made in the game are stored in the savefile, but the next time you restart the old prf stuff overwrites the changes stored in the savefile.

I think removing squelch entirely from prf files would eliminate more anguish than it would cause.

That's my current thought. I'd be interested in pros and cons of alternative approaches.

Sounds good ... or death resets squelch settings whichever is easier to implement I guess it would be what you suggested.

[PowerDiver]

Sounds good ... or death resets squelch settings whichever is easier to implement I guess it would be what you suggested.

Death *does* reset squelch settings. At least, it does in my code. I'm not up 100% on current V squelch. Then maybe some prf file gets read in that overwrites the reset ...

[ChodTheWacko]

For the most part, squelch choices should be in the savefile, not in a prf file, and certainly not in anything loaded at startup.

After you load squelch settings once, they are stored in the savefile, and changes made in the game are stored in the savefile, but the next time you restart the old prf stuff overwrites the changes stored in the savefile.

It would be very very nice if squelch stuff was in the save file.
If you forget to redump the pref file before you save/quit, you lose new squelch settings.

An optional squelch init file (ala macros) is nice for new characters, to set squelch for
stuff you never use.

- Frank

[Pete Mack]

I had no idea squelch wasn't in the save file. It certainly was in 3.0.8...

[ChodTheWacko]

Okay, I've done some more empirical research, and I've determined the following:

Squelch settings are, in fact, saved in the save file.
Apparently they are then overridden with the pref file's squelch settings.

What works very well (for what I want, anyway) is to delete the squelch
lines from the pref file whenever you dump the pref file. Without those
lines, all squelch settings are saved/loaded from the save file.
And empty for new characters.

- Frank

[takkaria]

Okay, I've done some more empirical research, and I've determined the following:

Squelch settings are, in fact, saved in the save file.
Apparently they are then overridden with the pref file's squelch settings.

What works very well (for what I want, anyway) is to delete the squelch
lines from the pref file whenever you dump the pref file. Without those
lines, all squelch settings are saved/loaded from the save file.
And empty for new characters.

- Frank

I've fixed this in SVN just now.

[Magnate]

Please can we have some way of changing the default squelch settings for new characters? I always always always want to squelch all "bad" items, so I have to delve into the quality squelch menu every time I start a new character (which is often dozens of times a day!).

I usually play the same class/race combo in batches, so I want to be able to specify the squelching of (for example) the first four mage books when I'm playing priests (and indeed the first four of either books when I'm playing warriors).

I guess I'm arguing for optional append-squelch-settings to a chosen pref file, using an explicit command.

[PowerDiver]

Please can we have some way of changing the default squelch settings for new characters? I always always always want to squelch all "bad" items, so I have to delve into the quality squelch menu every time I start a new character (which is often dozens of times a day!).

Unless you are really obsessing over turncount, it's not such a big deal to squelch useless kinds when you pick them up. I find it kind of fun to keep track of what I have seen that way. E.g., if I squelch ?MB1 at 3000' that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

I agree that what you ask for would be an improvement, but try playing without touching the squelch menus for a while and you might have a little extra fun for a while at least.