22 May 2011 development release

[kaypy]

I'm not sure why the assertion failure was in z-bitflag.c though, when there was already an assert in update_smart_learn itself. Compiler optimisation, I guess.

The assert used to be assert(what >= 0), which wouldn't catch the null...

[myshkin]

Yet another build

Fixes for the tunneling bug that kaypy reported and for the magic missile crash that jens reported are now on their way to the next dev release. Note that the one marked ef9e70e6dc still has some problems; you'll want the one marked 31b20dac9b. It should be up in a couple hours. The only other changes from the 22 May 2011 release are the Mac OS X accented characters fix, some tweaks to level feelings, and a more sensible message at death about keeping randarts.

[Magnate]

Been doing some digging.

Should monster_learn_resists or update_smart_learn abort where
gf_ptr->resist
gf_ptr->immunity
or
gf_ptr->vuln
is null?

Because as near as I can tell, when that null goes into FLAG_OFFSET(flag) we get a negative-wraparound on the unsigned flag_offset which is what causes the crash.

Excellent, thank you - that explains the regression. Last time I had to add the nullness check to check_for_resist, this time it needs adding to update_smart_learn.

I'm not sure why the assertion failure was in z-bitflag.c though, when there was already an assert in update_smart_learn itself. Compiler optimisation, I guess.

Anyway, a new nightly should be out in a couple of hours. Thanks for the catch.

[kaypy]

Been doing some digging.

Should monster_learn_resists or update_smart_learn abort where
gf_ptr->resist
gf_ptr->immunity
or
gf_ptr->vuln
is null?

Because as near as I can tell, when that null goes into FLAG_OFFSET(flag) we get a negative-wraparound on the unsigned flag_offset which is what causes the crash.

[Magnate]

I'm getting about the same: magic missile = destroy the world

I have seen it occasionally get the spell off without crashing, but it's 80% crashing so far...

Hmmm. Inconsistency makes bug hunting much harder, but if it happens 80% of the time it's probably going to be easy enough to find and fix.

Looks like there will be a new nightly out soon, as there's not much testing that can be done if magic missiles crash the game ...

[kaypy]

I'm getting about the same: magic missile = destroy the world

I have seen it occasionally get the spell off without crashing, but it's 80% crashing so far...

[jens]

So far it's crashed for me each time someone cast a magic missile on me, so guessing it is still buggy...

[Magnate]

Tinkered a bit more with this, seems the crash occurs whenever the kobold shaman casts a magic missile.

Made a new save just before the encounter. In the save file just walk north and walk around in the room until the kobold casts a magic missile. Have a bunch of the new and improved CLW, so it's quite safe :-)

That's odd, because I fixed a crash on magic missile earlier on in the spell refactor. Either I messed up and regressed somewhere, or it's a coincidence and it's a completely different problem.

Thanks for the savefile - I'll have a look this evening.

[jens]

Tinkered a bit more with this, seems the crash occurs whenever the kobold shaman casts a magic missile.

Made a new save just before the encounter. In the save file just walk north and walk around in the room until the kobold casts a magic missile. Have a bunch of the new and improved CLW, so it's quite safe :-)

[kaypy]

The Alter command doesn't seem to be working on some terrains. I am having to manually dig through veins and treasure.

--
My dev-release summoning ritual worked!
1) Start a new character
2) A new dev-release will immediately become available

[Magnate]

Encountered a real bug!

I've started a HE mage, and was down at dlvl 3. Had just tried out like 4 different potions to ID them. Then a while later I was fighting a snake, when something offscreen mumbled, and there was an assertion crash.

I have a save file from less than 100 turns before, but don't believe it's helpfull (I've tried twice to reproduce the crash but no success). However I did find out that there was a kobold shaman lurking out of sight.

Excellent - thank you. This is a real bug - something is going wrong with a spell that the kobold shaman is trying to cast. (I presume it was the shaman - were there any other casters lurking just out of sight?) Please post the savefile and I will try to reproduce.

[jens]

Assertion failed

Encountered a real bug!

I've started a HE mage, and was down at dlvl 3. Had just tried out like 4 different potions to ID them. Then a while later I was fighting a snake, when something offscreen mumbled, and there was an assertion crash.

I have a save file from less than 100 turns before, but don't believe it's helpfull (I've tried twice to reproduce the crash but no success). However I did find out that there was a kobold shaman lurking out of sight.

[Timo Pietilä]

+5 Cestus of Power with max damage bonus is such an implausible outlier that IMO it's not worth considering. And glove artifacts don't need to beat out glove egos.

I disagree on both counts. Even +5 to dam +5 power beats both Fingolfin and Cambeleg. Cestus having innate combat bonus is new addition. They are also relatively common, common enough that you find several during single game. Cambeleg/Fingolfin needs to be able to compete with those and they both do that by doing just what you said, Cambeleg giving +2 to CON and Fingolfin giving +4 DEX as well as FA. However they also need to have big combat bonuses, otherwise they are not worth using. +8 and +10 are good numbers for both of them, less makes them too inferior to high-end egos. If something you could make them a bit more rare (not much though, that too is pretty on spot currently).

These two artifacts are top artifacts, so they need to beat egos in most combinations. And be relatively rare. Otherwise there is no "Wohoo!" -effect. Other artifact gloves are not that important.

[Derakon]

Cambeleg and Fingolfin were unaltered old artifacts with +8 and +10 respectively. they need to retain those, because ego handgears are so powerful. Same for Cammithrim. without good damage bonuses it is just weak slaying ego with FA. If you look at damage bonus STR gives and find Cestus of Power (+5,+8) (+5) you have handgear that beats all of the above artifacts in damage if you actually need that +5 to STR. Cambeleg could still be preferred because of +2 CON, or Fingolfin because of +4 DEX, but if you have max blows and don't need CON that ego is better than any of the artifacts.

+5 Cestus of Power with max damage bonus is such an implausible outlier that IMO it's not worth considering. And glove artifacts don't need to beat out glove egos. They can do things that glove egos don't do; personally I find that more interesting. Then you have to decide if e.g. the gloves that give you +3 WIS/DEX and resistance to darkness are better than the gloves that make you better at melee. Right now most of the standart gloves are combat-oriented -- three of the Paur* gauntlets and Eol aren't, but the Paur*s are wimpy and Eol aggravates. I'd rather replace Cambeleg with late-game non-melee-oriented gloves, to contrast with Fingolfin. Fingolfin only had trouble competing because +4 DEX and +2 damage wasn't generally worthwhile compared to +2 STR/CON; take that away and Fingolfin becomes the ultimate melee gloves (barring lucky Cesti of Power) while Cambeleg can do something else.

Cammithrim doesn't have a slaying ego (it might have earlier, but it doesn't now); it's basically supercharged gloves of Free Action. Its competition when you find it is likely to be Gloves of Slaying (which it might or might not beat through non-combat-boost abilities) or Gloves of Free Action, which it is strictly better than. Of course if you find it later after the better glove egos show up it's useless, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Also, Haradrim still has +1 blows.

[Timo Pietilä]

I took a quick look at a diff of artifact.txt, and here's the changes I'm seeing:

Narya at (+1, +1) (was +6)
Nenya at (+3, +3) (was +8)
Vilya at (+5, +5) (was +10)
All three have also lost the minor speed boosts they used to give (+2, +3, +4, respectively)

Those used to be +1, +2 and +3 (PVAL). If they were +2, +3 and +4 then they were only in dev versions.

Elessar at (+7, +0) (was (+7, +7)); lost its speed bonus

I would prefer keeping speed, losing combat bonuses completely. Now it is weaker than Trickery (unless you tweaked trickery as well).

Hammerhand at (+3, +3) (was +9)
Cambeleg at (+6, +6) (was +8)
Cammithrim at (+2, +2) (was +5)
Paurnen at (+3, +3) (was +4)
Fingolfin at (+8, +8) (was +10)
Haradrim at (+0, +0) (was +5)

Cambeleg and Fingolfin were unaltered old artifacts with +8 and +10 respectively. they need to retain those, because ego handgears are so powerful. Same for Cammithrim. without good damage bonuses it is just weak slaying ego with FA. If you look at damage bonus STR gives and find Cestus of Power (+5,+8) (+5) you have handgear that beats all of the above artifacts in damage if you actually need that +5 to STR. Cambeleg could still be preferred because of +2 CON, or Fingolfin because of +4 DEX, but if you have max blows and don't need CON that ego is better than any of the artifacts.

Haradrim has lost its extra blow as well, I take? Extra blow is much worse than damage bonuses. In shields damage bonuses actually make sense too, shield bashing is part of the medieval martial arts. If something shields would make it harder to hit multiple times, not easier.

Gondor, Numenor, and Holcolleth lost their speed bonuses

These are all good

Colannon's pval reduced from 3 to 2

Didn't lose speed?

Luthien's speed bonus reduced from 4 to 2 (other modifiers remain at +4)

Looks interesting; should make the game harder too. Though, I'm not certain Hammerhand is worthwhile any more.

Hammerhand could keep the +9 until we have some other solution to aggravation, however "Hammerhand being useless" is tradition