What's happening with the game at the moment?

[TJS]

Just wondering what is happening regarding changes with the game.

There's been some pretty good ideas discussed recently and I wondered what is being implemented at the moment. Is there a list of what is being planned somewhere knocking about?

[Magnate]

Just wondering what is happening regarding changes with the game.

There's been some pretty good ideas discussed recently and I wondered what is being implemented at the moment. Is there a list of what is being planned somewhere knocking about?

Well officially it's here, but Takk hasn't updated that in a long while. In January I started a discussion on the angband-dev ML about plans for 3.1.3 and who wanted to work on what. Pasting from those emails:

From Takkaria -
As to what's on my priority list:
* moving to a distributed VCS
* revamping curses
* tweaking object allocation a bit more (tweaking the gear/consumables ratio, making sure uniques don't give disappointing drops, toning down the number of egos found)

Stuff I'd like to work on but isn't as important as the above three:
* store revamp
* separate monster memory from savefile
* splitting up the code into smaller portions
* improve the SDL port so it can be used as default on Windows

From me -
- add home and store inventories to the knowledge menu, searchable
(#256, #879)
- completely rewrite prefs to be more intuitive, with sensible defaults
(#671, #758, #1036)
- separate monster memory from the savefile (#808, #950, #1091)
- rebalance body armour in terms of AC and weight (#951, #1004)
- abstract elements into a structure like slay_table (#803)
- update/rewrite the monster power algorithm (#869)
- continue working on artifacts and randarts (#1002/3/5/6, #1014, #1039)

From d_m -
Stuff that I should definitely have for 3.1.3:
* NPP-esque 256 color support[*]
* small targeting/range improvements/fixes
* fixing other small bugs
* smoother (and less constrained) difficulty curves for OOD monsters

Stuff that I hope to have working:
* more interesting/cool level feelings
* better level generation (possibly pulling from S, Un, and/or FA)
* more varied levels
* better L/G vault frequency

Stuff that I'd be willing to work on, but which is contentious:
* missile rebalancing[*]
* FOV/LOS refactors and/or more fundamental changes[*]
* dungeon stores/towns

From MarbleDice -
Things I may work on:
* Bitflags
* Player damage
* Shops

Please bear in mind that these are from a speculative discussion and are not commitments of any kind, just ideas. MarbleDice has already checked in his bitflag rewrite, but otherwise there's no guarantee of any of this.

For my part I haven't started anything on my list yet: it took me ages to get 3.1.2v2 accepted into Debian because it was built completely differently from previous Debian packages. The Debian package no longer has any sounds, so I am trying to package Dubtrain's sound pack for Debian before starting anything else.

[miyazaki]

Any chance that spellbooks will be rearranged any time soon? There was quite a bit of discussion recently, and most people are pro-change, though there was no consensus on what approach to take...

[fyonn]

Any chance that spellbooks will be rearranged any time soon? There was quite a bit of discussion recently, and most people are pro-change, though there was no consensus on what approach to take...

I've been thinking about poking those threads again to see if we get more activity. I suspect there's not likely to be change just yet, as there's still quite some controversy over whether it's a good idea or not, and if it is a good idea, then what changes would be appropriate.

dave

[PowerDiver]

Any chance that spellbooks will be rearranged any time soon? There was quite a bit of discussion recently, and most people are pro-change, though there was no consensus on what approach to take...

Most of the recs were to make the game easier, but [IMO] it needs to be made harder. In the same vein, most recs also improve casters compared to warriors, but warriors need more lovin' now. Whatever is finally decided will be contentious, and I think that means later rather than sooner.

FWIW the next thing on my own list is to remove the wielding silliness from the quiver. There are plenty of things that need to be done that should not be contentious, like that for instance, and my guess is that these are the kinds of things that will be done for a while.

[miyazaki]

Most of the recs were to make the game easier, but [IMO] it needs to be made harder. In the same vein, most recs also improve casters compared to warriors, but warriors need more lovin' now. Whatever is finally decided will be contentious, and I think that means later rather than sooner.

FWIW the next thing on my own list is to remove the wielding silliness from the quiver. There are plenty of things that need to be done that should not be contentious, like that for instance, and my guess is that these are the kinds of things that will be done for a while.

Fair 'nough. I will keep an eye on things because I want changes to make the game harder as well.

[ekolis]

FWIW the next thing on my own list is to remove the wielding silliness from the quiver.

"Wielding silliness"? What do you mean by that? I thought the quiver was essentially a way to wield ammo... what would it be without wielding?

[Derakon]

The main problem I'm aware of currently with the quiver is that it perfectly protects ammo from destruction from fire/acid attacks. The quiver is just meant to allow you to carry many small stacks of ammo without sucking up inventory space; the elemental protection was an unintended side-effect.

Are there any other issues?

[PowerDiver]

"Wielding silliness"? What do you mean by that? I thought the quiver was essentially a way to wield ammo... what would it be without wielding?

Do you get resistances from ammo that you wield? Should "wielded" ammo be invulnerable to elemental attacks? Yes to those questions constitutes the current working definition of "wielded". There also used to be "Do items wielded not count against pack space" but that was broken when ammo was considered wielded.

The quiver is simply additional pack space with special rules about how much fits. No more, no less. You don't "wield" items into your pack, and neither should you "wield" them into your quiver. When you pick them up or buy them, they should just go into a suitable slot.

The current implementation is presumably because it was easier to hack things this way than to rework the item selection mechanics and UI issues related to showing at most 24 lines on a screen at a time.

[bron]

the quiver [...] protects ammo from destruction from fire/acid attacks.

Are there any other issues?

IIRC, the other problem is that since you wield the ammo, you get certain information about some types (e.g. "of Flame") just like you would if e.g. wielding a weapon. Anything beyond the standard pseudo-id should only come with use and/or identification.

[Derakon]

Arguably, any information you get when equipping a weapon should be given when you pick it up instead (or are you not using your hands to pick the weapon up?). Thus you should recognize elemental brands, stat bonuses, etc. on pickup instead of on wield, regardless of the item type.

[bron]

information you get when equipping a weapon should be given when you pick it up instead (or are you not using your hands to pick the weapon up?)

That would imply that curses should take effect when you pick it up as well. I don't want that, so I argue against the other.