Regarding perma Torch grids...

[Avenger]

In many variants, there's a setting that causes the game to remember all torchlit grids permanently, in addition to actually permanently lit grids. In most variants I have played, this setting is either non-existent, or is an option that can be toggled on or off.

In the latest Vanilla(and possibly earlier, I haven't played it for ages), that setting is not an option.

There's a discussion about the issue a few posts down in this thread here, which summarizes my difficulties with that setting. There also does appear to be a workaround for it, albeit one not exactly to my liking.

My question here is, does anyone else have similar issues with this setting? Does anyone know why it went from non-existent to option to option defaulted on to forced?

Is there any possibility this can be reinstated as an option?


For those who prefer not to follow random offsite links or scroll through forum threads, I've re-posted my comments on the setting below:

When this setting is on, the game treats your torch as if it were a light spell, and permanently lights up every single square of the map you've ever lit up with your lightsource. Unfortunately, this only works for display purposes - that is, the map will look lit, but in reality it will be dark, and monsters in these formerly torch-lit squares, that look as if they're lit up, behave as if they were in complete darkness. I suspect that, originally, this setting was designed as a way of tracking where the player had been on the map - which I suppose it does. Unfortunately, it's very confusing when I'm being attacked out of what appears to be a well-lit area, and I can see nothing.

The biggest problem I had with this was my Vanilla priest, who had to kill things by luring them into long hallways and orbing them as they approached. I'd often have things creep up on me through hallways or rooms that looked lit, where I should have had a long time to orb them, which was rather dangerous and unpleasant. I got to the point where I ended up creating a macro for my call light prayer, and using it almost everywhere, just so I'd know that important areas actually were lit.

There is, of course, a slight difference between a remembered lit square and a currently lit one, and presumably one would become accustomed to that difference if they played with that setting on long enough. However, as a player who's grown quite accustomed to actual voids indicating darkness, and dots for light, over the past 10 or 12 years of playing Moria, Angband, MAngband, and other variants, it's very unsettling to completely lose that option. Over the past few years I've been playing variants that defaulted to torch-lit remembered, and I'd have to adjust it every time I began a new character. Now, I can't even do that anymore =\

[Derakon]

At least in ASCII mode there's a significant intensity difference between "remembered" tiles and "lit" tiles, so you should be able to differentiate. I wouldn't be surprised if it's possible to fiddle with the graphics settings to make the difference even more pronounced, either.

As for why it was removed as an option, generally the devs have been trying to prune down on unnecessary options; if the vast majority of people agree on what an option should be set to, then it's not really accomplishing anything other than making the codebase more complicated.

[PowerWyrm]

There's a simple workaround. Edit font-win.prf (or the font-xxx for your OS) and replace the "F:1:all:1:7" line by:

F:1:torch:1:7
F:1:los:1:7
F:1:lit:1:7
F:1:dark:0x80:0x80

This should make dark tiles instead of shaded dots when out of LOS.

[Avenger]

Much appreciated.

For clarification, that's a client side workaround - I edited the server file first with no effect, but succeeded after making the same change to the client file.

Of course, that distinction is irrelevant in the vast majority of variants.