Experiences with new Angband 4.2.5 and questions about Identifying and Variants

[Michaelyx]

No, this is the way the stat swap potions have worked since they were introduced; sustains don't work against the stat loss from them.

Thanks for the info! Then I remembered it wrong.

[Nick]

Hello!
I need your advice again.
Increasing stats with suitable potions is no longer as successful as I remember.
e.g. Sustain wisdom of objects does not protect. Was still reduced by a Potion of Toughness. Since all of my stats except Constitution are sustained, I was actually sure that I would only have the advantage of stat gain.
Since when has this been like this? Is this a bug?

No, this is the way the stat swap potions have worked since they were introduced; sustains don't work against the stat loss from them.

[Michaelyx]

Hello!
I need your advice again.
Increasing stats with suitable potions is no longer as successful as I remember.
e.g. Sustain wisdom of objects does not protect. Was still reduced by a Potion of Toughness. Since all of my stats except Constitution are sustained, I was actually sure that I would only have the advantage of stat gain.
Since when has this been like this? Is this a bug?

[Michaelyx]

Thanks for the tip!
I created a startup shortcut: With a script called “angband” in /usr/local/bin/ using an editor:
sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/angband

Contents:

#!/bin/sh
cd /home/michaelyx/Downloads/angband_28_01
./src/angband -c -msdl2

Then make this script executable: sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/angband

[PowerDiver]

2. To easily start from a new terminal: It was recommended to start from the installation directory with: src/angband -c -msdl2 What speaks against starting from an other directory with a link like this: ~/Downloads/angband_28_01/src/angband -c -msdl2

Perhaps things are better now, but in the old days there were relative paths in the code, so e.g. for the game to be able to find the "lib" directory you needed to be running in the directory above it. I continue to do it that way.

Assuming you have a personal bin directory that appears early in your $PATH, you could put the cd and options and whatever else into a script in your bin directory. E.g. there was a time I was tracking real time played, and I used

#! /bin/bash

cd ~/angband/Angband-4.2.5/
echo "" >> ../logs/log.4.2.5
date >> ../logs/log.4.2.5
./angband
date >> ../logs/log.4.2.5

The ./angband was a symlink to src/angband. Technically I had that file in a directory of shell scripts and a symlink to it from ~/bin

[Michaelyx]

THX for your help!

Two more questions:
1.With the current version of Angband from git installed in Ubuntu, Options are not accessible through the = command. The * key also has no function, e.g. when picking up objects - selecting: all. How can I change the keyboard layout?

2. To easily start from a new terminal: It was recommended to start from the installation directory with: src/angband -c -msdl2 What speaks against starting from an other directory with a link like this: ~/Downloads/angband_28_01/src/angband -c -msdl2

[PowerDiver]

The 1000 prefix is a userid specifier. By default, the first [non system] user created is 1000 in every linux distro I've used. If you ever have multiple different accounts on your box, or if you muck with userid numbers, there would be a different prefix on each savefile for other users.

[Michaelyx]

Thank you for your help!
Using the old save files now works for me - like this:
Before copying the save files, you should start Angband at least once and create your first character. Angband then creates the lib/save folder and in it an initial save file with the user name (not the chosen character name!). Each additional save file created this way will have the character name (which you enter during the birth process). Now the old backup files can be copied to the lib/save folder and selected in the window the next time you start “Angband -c”.
In the version of Angband installed via the package repository, all save files must also begin with the suffix “1000”. and the folder is there by default: /var/games/angband/save. Otherwise this worked straight away.

[PowerDiver]

lib/save is in the same directory as src, presumably /home/michaelyx/Downloads/Angband_git/angband_20_1/lib/save

[backwardsEric]

I recognised there is no way to open or load a character file in my installation. Once the birth process is complete, Angband will automatically start with that character every time you reboot.
Any idea how fix this so I can use personal save files?

If the save file you want to use is not already in the save folder, put it there. Then you can use

angband -u<name_of_the_save_file_to_use> -msdl2

(replace <name_of_the_save_file_to_use> with that save file's name) to load that save file rather than the one it defaults to.

angband -l

will list the save files that are available for use with the -u option.

[Michaelyx]

Thank you! That gave me the crucial clue: Now Angband starts again!
I had copied the sdl2ini.txt from a previous installation to get the windows in the right place and forgot to adapt the path to: window-wallpaper-path:0:/home/michaelyx/Downloads/angband_24_01/lib/icons/att-128.png in the file for the new installation.

Unfortunately, I haven't made any progress with using or finding personal save files in my Installation yet.

OK. Have you looked in ~/.angband/Angband/save/ ?

No save folder is created in ~/.angband/angband.
I recognised there is no way to open or load a character file in my installation. Once the birth process is complete, Angband will automatically start with that character every time you reboot.
Any idea how fix this so I can use personal save files?

[PowerDiver]

When I was mucking about a couple days ago, I got my ~/.angband/Angband stuff into an inconsistent state. You might try renaming that and running again. A new one will be created. There is stuff in there that is accessed by the different installations. If that works to allow startup, you can then check what you want to copy over. E.g. lore.txt contains your monster knowledge. There are also some things that look like startup configs, in particular sdl2init.txt

Another possibility is that the sudo make install did stuff in a way that is inconsistent with a local install. You might try starting over from the download and omit that.

[PowerDiver]

Another question: Are multiple installations of Angand possible on one Ubuntu? E.g. to test the new version. What needs to be taken into account in order not to endanger the existing installation and, for example, accidentally overwrite save files.

You should always configure using --with-no-install until you are sure what you are doing. Then, everything is stored in that directory tree. You can use each install independently. You are making a mistake doing sudo make install when you aren't 100% sure of what you are doing. That is copying stuff to the system directories.

[Michaelyx]

I need your help again: I now have several installations of Angband next to each other in different folders.
I zipped the non-current installation folders to search for the missing save file. On startup "my Angband" produces an error:

"Fatal Error - cannot load image '/home/michaelyx/Downloads/Angband_git/angband_20_1/lib/icons/att-128.png': Couldn't open /home/michaelyx/Downloads/Angband_git/angband_20_1/lib/icons/att-18.png"

The startup process then stops - the terminal says:

michaelyx@michaelyx-HP-EliteBook-840-G5:~/Downloads/angband_last$ src/angband -msdl2
angband: main-sdl2.c:6848: free_globals: Assertion `!a->subwindows[i].inited' failed.
Aborted (memory dump written)
​

"my Angband" is obviously using a file from another Angband installation. I checked, this file is present in both installations. If I unzip the folders again, the error is gone - angband starts.

I deleted "my Angband" downloaded a new version from Git and recompiled:
1. Load angband:
a) cd ~/Downloads
b) git clone git://github.com/angband/angband
c) mv angband angband_24_01
2. Compile the sourcecode:
a) cd ~/Downloads/angband_24_01
b) ./autogen.sh
c) ./configure --with-no-install --enable-sdl2
d) make
e) sudo make install
3. Start: src/angband -msdl2

Unfortunately the error remains. The recompiled version uses the same file from the wrong folder. Does anyone have an idea how to fix this error?

[Michaelyx]

After I deleted all the older installations from the neighboring folders, Angband no longer works. When starting, the following error message occurs:

"Fatal Error - cannot load image '/home/michaelyx/Downloads/Angband_git/angband_20_1/lib/icons/att-128.png': Couldn't open /home/michaelyx/Downloads/Angband_git/angband_20_1/lib/icons/att-18.png"

The startup process then stops - the terminal says:

michaelyx@michaelyx-HP-EliteBook-840-G5:~/Downloads/angband_last$ src/angband -msdl2
angband: main-sdl2.c:6848: free_globals: Assertion `!a->subwindows[i].inited' failed.
Aborted (memory dump written)