Angband Borg 3.0.9 and windows

[APWhite]

I've been playing with it as my screensaver and it is SO cool...

1. However, is there any list of "Reason for not diving" codes?

My guy is stuck is stuck at a depth of 9 at clvl 19, even set as risky....... It said 'rs tele&esc (1)'...

2. Is there any documentation out there?

3. A couple of odd things... He had a dagger +8,+3 equipped, then sold an unidentified main gauche {excellent}. ??? Does the borg identify things marked {excellent}? At least in the early levels?

4. Also, he seemed to not be using WoR to dive, but used them to return 99% of the time until I turned it to "risky".

Responding:
1. Yes the list is in borg4.c. "rs" means Restock. He must immediately leave the dungeon to get something. In this case, Phase and Teleport items.

2. Borg4.c, but not what one would consider a cheat-sheet or anything.

3. Yes, he will ID {excellent} items in the equipment list, and inventory. In fact, he makes it a priority to buy ?ID if he has an {excellent} item.

4. He does not ?WoR until deeper in the dungeon (maybe depth 10 or so. He tries to save money. At $250 ?WoR can break the bank. As for leaving via ?WoR. He tends to flee the dungeon like a rat from a sinking ship. If a dungeon level is pretty scare, he tries to get off asap.

Thanks for comments. Keep the bug reports coming. I may not get here very often, but I mess with the borg almost everyday. Certainly the zborg every day.

Andrew

[dhegler]

Another odd thing... He was using a sling +0,+0 and found a short bow +4, +3 (or similar), then sold it or dropped it, rather than restocking with arrows rather than pebbles and shots when back in town. This was a warrior with 18+ STR, so weight couldn't have been an issue, but the missiles would have been lighter anyway.

I seem to have a problem with my borgs starving. I have had two starve to death of 6 or so deaths recently. Last night I watched him try to find his way out of level 5 (with no WoR) and go from about 9 rations to 5, which is where I stepped in. Sometimes he has odd search behavior... If I were the borg, I would search on and next to doors and at the end of hallways. However, he tends to search mid-hallway almost more than end-hallway.

As I see odd things, I will report them, if anyone is interested. On Windows 7, I can keep my mouse on my secondary montiro, wait 1 minute for hte screensaver to come up, and watch while I work on my secondary monitor. For some reason, the actual Angband 3.0.9 will not run the borg.

[dhegler]

Another suggestion... my HT Warrior is at 18/70 STR and he does not mine the gold from the walls. It would probably take an average of 10 turns to get it, and considering how "valuable" gold is to the borg, maybe there should be something in the code to check for gold in walls, unless I missed the option in there.

Perhaps that would allow my borg to go and buy more WoR so he doesn't spend so much time scumming at dlvl 1-5, actually making him more efficient...?

[dhegler]

As I watch, my borg walks right past or around gold/copper on the ground... Literally 3 spaces around... There should be very little "cost" to picking up existing gold, I would think, considering how high maintenance my borg is regarding his horrible shopping habit.

[dhegler]

Last comment... He was just using a sling +3, +3 and had an {excellent} sling in inventory. Next thing I do, I look at him in town and he either dropped it, or sold it, but kept the +3, +3!?!? I would think just about any ego item would be better than a low-power {good} sling...

Still, extremely fun to watch periodically...

[buzzkill]

He knows you're watching. He's just screwing with ya.

[APWhite]

Another odd thing... He was using a sling +0,+0 and found a short bow +4, +3 (or similar), then sold it or dropped it, rather than restocking with arrows rather than pebbles and shots when back in town. This was a warrior with 18+ STR, so weight couldn't have been an issue, but the missiles would have been lighter anyway.

This I have seen a few times and it has been reported for a few years now. I have made several attempts to stop the behavior and the borg is doing much less frequently now. Basically this happens when a certain sequence sequence happens. He must (in order) run out of his own ammunition, find a missile weapon, then find ammunition for the new missile weapon. He must do this within a couple of turns.

He is programmed to junk ammunition which does not match his proper bow. But he may (and obviously does) swap out his proper bow for the crappy one. And he will only do it if he has ammunition for the new bow. There is a sequence issue. The borg is programmed to consider wearing equipment before considering crushing any of his inventory. If I could have the crushing considered before the wearing, then it would solve that issue but then it creates a host of worse problems. I will revisit the issue this weekend.

As far as mining for gold. The borg does know how to do this, he also knows how to carry a digger tool along for just this sort of thing. It turned out that he was more efficient selling loot. It boiled down to strength and digging skills being so low at low clevel. By the time he could mine gold and not have to worry about being slowed down by carrying a shovel, he was high enough level that the gold didn't matter as much. Right now he will mine gold if he has the Stone to Mud spell or a digging skill of 40, and has less than $1mill.

As far as selling that {excellent} sling. That is a problem. There are special checks for him to make sure he ID's {good} and {excellent} items before selling them. I will check the code and make sure he is not passing them over.

Andrew

[dhegler]

He knows you're watching. He's just screwing with ya.

That gave me a heck of a laugh. I just saw him pick up and id-by-use an excellent sling and keep it, thank goodness.

[dhegler]

As far as selling that {excellent} sling. That is a problem. There are special checks for him to make sure he ID's {good} and {excellent} items before selling them. I will check the code and make sure he is not passing them over.

Andrew

He may have dropped it too... All I know is by the time I looked next, he was in town, no more excellent sling, and he kept the "good" one.

Maybe you should check on STR for mining... Mining with 18/50 is relatively easy with any weapon, let alone a digger. It could provide a nice boost for warriors. Could get tedious if you had a dwarf who sensed things in walls though...

[dhegler]

I saw that there was some borg discussion on the development board.

Not that I could do it, but if additional documentation was given to control how the borg acts (I get lost in all the formula stuff in the borg.txt file), would people be interested in having a borg contest? See who could get a borg to win in the least turns, etc?

I just think it is so cool watching my borg play around during lunches, etc... It could almost become an Angband variant on its own...

I know that if given the proper protocols and explanations for how his activities work in the borg.txt file, I would be interested... There is already some good documentation in it, but I heed the warning given "not to touch anything here else you can expect erratic borg behavior" or whatever it says.

Kudos to the programming already in there!!!

[Derakon]

Heh. Sounds like trying to run an evolutionary algorithm on the borg's parameters. Start with the base parameters, make a bunch of random small tweaks, run all those borgs, and the ones that make it to some specific depth and live for some specified number of turns after that point "survive" to have their genes mixed with more mutations thrown in...

[APWhite]

Heh. Sounds like trying to run an evolutionary algorithm on the borg's parameters. Start with the base parameters, make a bunch of random small tweaks, run all those borgs, and the ones that make it to some specific depth and live for some specified number of turns after that point "survive" to have their genes mixed with more mutations thrown in...

I was thinking about doing this about 8 yrs ago. I was going to have the borg decide what he needed at certain depths. My basic plan was to have him start fresh with no understanding of monsters or their different attacks. Then learn as he progressed. He would need to learn about resistances and when monsters started using breath weapons and at what levels these monsters would show up. It seemed like a neat project but that information didn't really help with tactics beyond fearing monsters and carrying certain resistance items. This was simply knowledge acquisition with simple association, not innovation.

What would really make a cool borg is one that could try innovative techniques and evaluate the result. I'm not interested in programming that though. Sounds way too time consuming. Maybe if I were working on a PhD and needed a project.

Andrew

[Zikke]

Unfortunately the game isn't balanced to be able to learn from your mistakes as your character levels up; you will be killed. Unless you were referring to the borg learning from multiple character deaths instead of within the lifecycle of one character.

[dhegler]

I was thinking about doing this about 8 yrs ago. I was going to have the borg decide what he needed at certain depths. My basic plan was to have him start fresh with no understanding of monsters or their different attacks. Then learn as he progressed. He would need to learn about resistances and when monsters started using breath weapons and at what levels these monsters would show up. It seemed like a neat project but that information didn't really help with tactics beyond fearing monsters and carrying certain resistance items. This was simply knowledge acquisition with simple association, not innovation.

What would really make a cool borg is one that could try innovative techniques and evaluate the result. I'm not interested in programming that though. Sounds way too time consuming. Maybe if I were working on a PhD and needed a project.

Andrew

Anyone here working an a PhD in Artificial Intelligence?

[reidypeidy]

The link to the screensaver file is no longer working. Does anyone have a copy they can repost or send me?