Old School Needs Help With New School

[prh182]

Man you guys are great. I don't think I have ever seen a game forum where people are so nice, informative, and willing to help the game illiterate. Thanks a lot!

[Timo Pietilä]

You're talking about what we call "pseudo-ID". Different classes have different pseudo-ID strengths; generally, warriors have the best pseudo-ID (strong and fast), hybrid classes have strong-but-slow pseudo-ID, and pure-casters (priests and mages) have weak and slow pseudo-ID.

Actually priest pseudo is second fastest, only warrior beats it. Mage is extremely slow, but they get ID as spell very early so it doesn't matter. Second slowest I think is ranger in 3.0.9. Paladin and Rogue are about equal to each other.

[Magnate]

I agree that some of the wording could be improved here.

I think this is because all options are variations from the basic default game, and the default is "no variation". So the default setting is that artifacts will be created, but you can turn on an option called "no artifacts". So you end up with the back-to-front concepts of "yes, no artifacts" or "no, I want artifacts as normal please". Similarly no_stores, no_selling etc. These are all options to turn off various things in the game.

I guess we could just call them turn_off_artifacts, turn_off_selling etc.

[EpicMan]

Or just call them 'Artifacts', 'Selling', etc and set the defaults so that the result is the same.

[Nomad]

Well, several of the options like maximise, keep_randarts and monster ai default to yes anyway, so it seems like you might as well set the whole lot that way:

Allow use of stairs/recall                   : yes  (birth_recall)
Allow use of stores/home                     : yes  (birth_stores)
Allow creation of artifacts                  : yes  (birth_artifacts)
Allow objects to stack on the floor          : yes  (birth_stacking)
Preserve artifacts when leaving level        : yes  (birth_preserve)
Generate connected stairs                    : yes  (birth_stairs)
Show level feelings                          : yes  (birth_feelings)
Stores pay money for items                   : yes  (birth_selling)

[fizzix]

Well, several of the options like maximise, keep_randarts and monster ai default to yes anyway, so it seems like you might as well set the whole lot that way:

Allow use of stairs/recall                   : yes  (birth_recall)
Allow use of stores/home                     : yes  (birth_stores)
Allow creation of artifacts                  : yes  (birth_artifacts)
Allow objects to stack on the floor          : yes  (birth_stacking)
Preserve artifacts when leaving level        : yes  (birth_preserve)
Generate connected stairs                    : yes  (birth_stairs)
Show level feelings                          : yes  (birth_feelings)
Stores pay money for items                   : yes  (birth_selling)

I thin this is an improvement. What do you think Magnate? It shouldn't be too hard to fix this up. (and I guess that can be interpreted as me volunteering...)

[d_m]

I thin this is an improvement. What do you think Magnate? It shouldn't be too hard to fix this up. (and I guess that can be interpreted as me volunteering...)

Agreed.

Biggest thing is probably writing the compatibility to code to update (and possibly reverse the sense of) the old options.

[fizzix]

Agreed.

Biggest thing is probably writing the compatibility to code to update (and possibly reverse the sense of) the old options.

oh, i hadn't thought about that part. drat. That is going to be a pain.

[Magnate]

oh, i hadn't thought about that part. drat. That is going to be a pain.

Really? Is it any more difficult than reverting the logic of all the current if statements? So opt(birth_foo) becomes !opt(birth_foo) and vice versa.

Unless I am being dim and have missed something.

Anyway, I'm fine with this change.

[takkaria]

Really? Is it any more difficult than reverting the logic of all the current if statements? So opt(birth_foo) becomes !opt(birth_foo) and vice versa.

Unless I am being dim and have missed something.

Anyway, I'm fine with this change.

It's the savefile update that is the pain in the arse, I think.

[Magnate]

It's the savefile update that is the pain in the arse, I think.

Even that should be ok if rd_options_4() ... or whichever version ... just inverts and renames those options one time only.