Embarrassment of SPEED footwear riches

[SSK]

New to 3.2.0

Is it just this ridiculously lucky character, or has there been a change in the frequency of speed boots in the newest versions? In prior versions, my character would be slowly progressing constantly lacking speed, *longing* for speed boots.

This lucky b*stard Carog the Dunedain Paladin scored a +9 Speed boots off Wormtongue on D level 8, and has since found:

Speed boots +4
Speed boots +8
*another* Speed boots +9
*another* Speed sandals +8,

...and now-- Dal-i-Thalion (+5) off a Crystal drake on DLevel 37--I haven't even gotten down to D level 40!

And I can't even sell all the other speed boots since I can't get rid of that cheapo Kondar the Ugly LOL.

Dal-i-Thalion is just great--don't think I should wear it just yet though giving up 4 speed until after I get some other speed items...

[Timo Pietilä]

New to 3.2.0

Is it just this ridiculously lucky character, or has there been a change in the frequency of speed boots in the newest versions?

There is a bug in Leather boots object type rarity.

Check the object.txt

It should be

N:131:& Pair~ of Leather Boots
G:]:U
I:30:2:0
W:3:0:20:7
A:20:3 to 100
P:2:1d1:0:0:0

IIRC that A: -line starts with 110 which makes dungeon a one big shoe shop.

[SSK]

There is a bug in Leather boots object type rarity.

Check the object.txt

IIRC that A: -line starts with 110 which makes dungeon a one big shoe shop.

Hey Timo.

I don't bother looking at source code, but that is interesting: In fact 4 of the 6 speed footwear items I found were leather, but the other two were iron or steel-shod.

So Morgy's developed a foot fetish heh. I have found about a bazillion boots of free action and stability as well, in line with overgeneration of leather footwear being a culprit, but still--so many of speed flavor? You think that's just a normal percentage of the increased amount of footwear generation?

[Timo Pietilä]

Hey Timo.

I don't bother looking at source code, but that is interesting: In fact 4 of the 6 speed footwear items I found were leather, but the other two were iron or steel-shod.

So Morgy's developed a foot fetish heh. I have found about a bazillion boots of free action and stability as well, in line with overgeneration of leather footwear being a culprit, but still--so many of speed flavor? You think that's just a normal percentage of the increased amount of footwear generation?

You got lucky with two BoS, but that is quite normal. Lucky, but not extraordinary lucky. I fixed that in my object.txt and it fixed the "too many boots" problem.

It isn't source-code, you only need to edit that pure ASCII text file in \lib\edit to fix this problem. Not like the "8" block problem in vaults which requires editing sources and recompiling.

[SSK]

I fixed that in my object.txt and it fixed the "too many boots" problem.

It isn't source-code, you only need to edit that pure ASCII text file in \lib\edit to fix this problem. Not like the "8" block problem in vaults which requires editing sources and recompiling.

OK so my next question is:

A: How do I edit the object.txt file and more importantly

B: What is this "8" block vault problem you speak of? I haven't encountered it yet... (and what can one do about it)?

[Derakon]

If I recall correctly, speed boots have no particular depth bias, so any given pair of boots you find has an X% chance of being boots of speed. Let's say X is 1 and normally you find 50 pairs of boots by the time you hit dlvl 40; then you have about a 40% chance of having found any speed boots by that point (1 - .99^50). If boots become more common and you instead find 400 pairs of boots by that same time, then the odds of having found any speed boots are instead 98%!

Of course, these numbers are pulled out of the netherworld (ahem), but the same statistical principles apply regardless of what the actual numbers are.

[Timo Pietilä]

OK so my next question is:

A: How do I edit the object.txt file and more importantly

B: What is this "8" block vault problem you speak of? I haven't encountered it yet... (and what can one do about it)?

A: Any text editor is sufficient for editing (I use freeware notepad++). Unfortunately windows notepad (win XP) doesn't seem to understand unix-style EOL so it shows garbage contents.

B: Greater Vaults have fixed shape determined in vault.txt and blocks that contain symbol 8 should have monster 40 levels OoD and guaranteed item 20 levels OoD. Instead they have monster 40 levels OoD and just guaranteed good (dagger (1d4) (+1,+0) is enough) 20 levels OoD.

In order to fix that you need to edit generate.c, find "case" that determines what block 8 should do and change one "FALSE" to "TRUE" for item, then recompile.

[buzzkill]

A: Any text editor is sufficient for editing (I use freeware notepad++). Unfortunately windows notepad (win XP) doesn't seem to understand unix-style EOL so it shows garbage contents.

...and you can find object.txt in your Angband/lib/edit folder.

[SSK]

A: Any text editor is sufficient for editing (I use freeware notepad++). Unfortunately windows notepad (win XP) doesn't seem to understand unix-style EOL so it shows garbage contents.

OK thanx will look into fixing this.

B: Greater Vaults have fixed shape determined in vault.txt and blocks that contain symbol 8 should have monster 40 levels OoD and guaranteed item 20 levels OoD. Instead they have monster 40 levels OoD and just guaranteed good (dagger (1d4) (+1,+0) is enough) 20 levels OoD.

In order to fix that you need to edit generate.c, find "case" that determines what block 8 should do and change one "FALSE" to "TRUE" for item, then recompile.

This seems to be a much bigger problem--I love greater vaults. I usually just get precompiled stuff for MacOSX and have no experience compiling. Hasn't anyone posted a precompiled fix? Or maybe I can backtrack to 1 previous version that doesn't have this bug? With what versions will my 3.2.0 save file be compatible?

[Timo Pietilä]

Make that "should have ..guaranteed excellent item 20 levels OoD....".

[SSK]

Make that "should have ..guaranteed excellent item 20 levels OoD....".

Yes I understood (it was implied) LOL.

Does one have to have some sort of compiler downloaded? Like I said I usually just grab precompiled stuff and have never touched source files.

As I said above, given you guys know about bugs like this, I'm surprised nobody has fixed them, recompiled, and posted...

[Derakon]

I went ahead and put my compilation of the current nightly up here. This has a lot more than just the vault fix, though; I don't have a list of everything that's changed.

[SSK]

I went ahead and put my compilation of the current nightly up here. This has a lot more than just the vault fix, though; I don't have a list of everything that's changed.

Awesome Derakon--thanks much; will check it out a bit later today. When you say "a lot more" is it just fixes of various bugs you found or a few "personalizations" :-) ?

Again, thanx,

--S

[Derakon]

I haven't made any personal changes, but the devs have been busy mucking around with all kinds of things -- a "nightly" is simply the code as it was on a given night (though since our devs are working in their own individual branches and only merge to mainline when they're "done", Vanilla nightlies are more stable/polished than you usually get).

Anyway, this includes stuff like new level types, tweaks to the squelch system, removal of brands from elemental rings, multiple pvals, and a whole bunch more.

[SSK]

I haven't made any personal changes, but the devs have been busy mucking around with all kinds of things -- a "nightly" is simply the code as it was on a given night (though since our devs are working in their own individual branches and only merge to mainline when they're "done", Vanilla nightlies are more stable/polished than you usually get).

Anyway, this includes stuff like new level types, tweaks to the squelch system, removal of brands from elemental rings, multiple pvals, and a whole bunch more.

Yeah I thought Elemental rings causing brands was a bit much. I liked the aspect of autosquelch where you choose to squelch at the time of a kill command, but I found the interaction with the squelch menu in the options a bit challenging--basically I couldn't get it to toggle the flags.

Not sure what you refer to regarding "pvals".

Specific features I appreciate in 3.2.0 relative to the last I played:

1) empty chests auto-disappear--couldn't stand cleaning up that mess.
2) *LOVE* having artifacts be sort of identified on casual sight and doing away with the *Identify* system
3) REALLY like Inspection of weapons listing total damage/round, so I don't have to calculate it myself
4) Like the potions of gain stat X/lose stat y.
--
I think rings of soul/body keeping, Dog, and Mouse are kinda useless...

Things I was surprised to see but eventually came to like:

1) Getting rid of autoscumming
2) Getting rid of auto-character-roller.

Game feels "purer" as a result.