Angband 3.5.0 released!

[takkaria]

I'm using Ubuntu Linux 13.04, using wine for the windows version, by defaut it displays fine although small, once I try to change the font to a bigger font for term zero the display gets jumbled up. To get it work I had to select a 10x20 term zero font, roll up a character start game. From that point I turn off graphics and go pure acii, switched term o font size to 16x32 and then changed term zero window to 16x24, it displayed correctly at that point although a tad to big as everything is a little stretched. I can get things to display correctly eventually, I am just wondering why the fonts are getting jumbled up, I am wondering if termo O font and term O window have to kind of be the same to display properly...you can't adjust term 0 font until you start the game however, kind of forcing you to go through the initial start with a small font size in which i think is hard to read.

also when you click on (file) and the (new) for the new the game the selection of character gender (male,female,neuter) is invisible with only the block cursor there, once you select the gender however it clears back up again and you can read the words again,

Ah right, I remember you reporting this last time around. I'm sorry but I don't have the time or expertise to try and track down bugs in a wine-run version.

[gglibertine]

I had the font/tile size issue two days ago with a freshly downloaded copy - when I set Term-0 to 12x24 the tiles were much too wide, and with the other windows set to 10x20 they were way too short. (Yes, I'm practically blind, why do you ask?) Nothing I did helped except manually tweaking the tile size. I'm on 64-bit Win7.

Once I got it set up properly the first time it did remember my settings, so not such a big deal, but I figured I'd mention it.

I'm really liking the new version! I'm finding good items earlier on, and I especially love stats auto-restoring when I level up and always being able to get replacement spellbooks in town. And since I play half-orcs primarliy, I'm thrilled to see charisma go away

[Zikke]

Is there any way to get the solid walls back?

[Nick]

Is there any way to get the solid walls back?

It's an option now

[Timo Pietilä]

It's an option now

There is also (potentially) quite nice tile editor in the game, unfortunately UI for using it is still WIP -state. I usually end up using that and then edit results directly in pref-files.

[taptap]

A few things I noticed in 3.5.

Is it really useful to have three different keys for interaction with staffs, rods, wands?

Shouldn't there be only one examine command in floor/shop and inventory/equipment?

Why is the traditional keyset not explained in a separate file instead of complicating the help files?

[takkaria]

A few things I noticed in 3.5.

Is it really useful to have three different keys for interaction with staffs, rods, wands?

The universal use command is the 'U' key if you don't want to use separate keys for the different kinds of item.

Why is the traditional keyset not explained in a separate file instead of complicating the help files?

What's the traditional keyset? You mean the 'rogue like' commands?

[Timo Pietilä]

A few things I noticed in 3.5.

Is it really useful to have three different keys for interaction with staffs, rods, wands?

If you have so many of them that @<key><number> means numbers beyond 9. Nine isn't really that many after all, especially if you are playing warrior.

It actually goes beyond just those three, there are also 'A'ctivate for items that you are wearing, so four different commands for different uses. Come to think of it quaffing potion or reading a scroll isn't any different than using a staff. It's arbitrary command count for different item types.

I think there is/were option for unified use-command.

[taptap]

What's the traditional keyset? You mean the 'rogue like' commands?

Yes., exactly.

[slinberg]

A couple of quickies:

First, I'm really enjoying 3.5.0. I've been playing this $&*!@ game for over 20 years (!) and have still never won. Love the elimination of charisma, the more sensible groups of monsters, the less-sprawling dungeons and new room types.

A couple of buglets:

1. Missiles seem not to combine if one set is enchanted up to match another. e.g. find some +1,+1 arrows, then find some +1,+0 arrows and enchant them to +1,+1: they used to combine into the same slot when wielded, but now they don't.

2. Something's wrong with the character history display under "knowledge" - most of the past items all have the same turn number (162,015 in my case)

3. The other day, an ant crushed Ibun, son of Mim, and he disappeared! He reappeared later on another level.

General comments since 3.4.1:

- Giants seem a lot tougher! (That's actually fine.)
- Potions of restore life levels seem much rarer in the shops. True, or just bad luck?

Thanks to everyone who's worked on this.

[Derakon]

A couple of quickies:

First, I'm really enjoying 3.5.0. I've been playing this $&*!@ game for over 20 years (!) and have still never won. Love the elimination of charisma, the more sensible groups of monsters, the less-sprawling dungeons and new room types.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it. 3.5 is a really solid release IMO; the devs worked hard on it.

A couple of buglets:

1. Missiles seem not to combine if one set is enchanted up to match another. e.g. find some +1,+1 arrows, then find some +1,+0 arrows and enchant them to +1,+1: they used to combine into the same slot when wielded, but now they don't.

I can't remember if this was the case in 3.4, but in 3.5 the max stack size is 40, not 99; would the combined stacks have exceeded that number? If so, that might be why they didn't combine. If that's not the case then it sounds like a bug, agreed.

3. The other day, an ant crushed Ibun, son of Mim, and he disappeared! He reappeared later on another level.

Is this a bug? Ought uniques to be invulnerable to crushing? It seems odd that Grip could prevent a Horned Reaper from passing, for example. Maybe monster trampling should revert to "push past" when it comes to uniques?

General comments since 3.4.1:

- Giants seem a lot tougher! (That's actually fine.)

I think giants were always badasses, but since they only showed up alone we didn't notice so much. The new small groups and accompanying hounds make a big difference. I think the only change made to giants in recent years is the ability to throw boulders, which really hurt...but I'm pretty sure those have been in the game for awhile now.

- Potions of restore life levels seem much rarer in the shops. True, or just bad luck?

They're in the Alchemist now, not the Temple.

[slinberg]

I can't remember if this was the case in 3.4, but in 3.5 the max stack size is 40, not 99; would the combined stacks have exceeded that number? If so, that might be why they didn't combine.

That's it, then - the stacks were 25 and 17. I guess I assumed they'd fill up to maximum and then overflow somehow.

Is this a bug? Ought uniques to be invulnerable to crushing? It seems odd that Grip could prevent a Horned Reaper from passing, for example. Maybe monster trampling should revert to "push past" when it comes to uniques?

Well if "crush" means "kill", then the question becomes: should uniques be able to be killed by non-uniques? Or, anything other than the player? I see your example, but maybe the way to think of it is "the Horned Reaper stomps Grip through a crack in the floor" or something like that Maybe just a change in wording so that it doesn't sound like the unique has actually been killed/removed from the game is what's needed.

It actually never occurred to me to wonder about that - can an AHMD, for instance, kill Grip with a radius attack at the player? Is that the kind of attack that can affect monsters as well? I guess I never thought about that, really...

They're in the Alchemist now, not the Temple.

I always check both because I can never really remember which is in which, apart from healing potions... might just be bad luck and a small sample size, but I waited a *long* time for one when I really needed one, and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen one at all until I was clvl 30 or so and at 1600'. Not a biggie.

[OOD Town drunk]

2. Something's wrong with the character history display under "knowledge" - most of the past items all have the same turn number (162,015 in my case)

I ran into this issue in 3.5 and I believe I know what is going on. I do not know, however, if it is an intentional addition or not.

It seems that if you use the task manager to end your game, it will edit your current save file, changing all of your character history line items turn counts to your current turn. I discovered this during a run in which I was cheating a bit. If you utilize the task manager to end your game, (even on the tombstone screen) it will end without overriding your current save. Not something I always do, but sometimes I play with a drink or two (or more) in me, and I require a handicap.

Like I was saying, I am unaware if they added this as some sort of save-scum flag, or if it is some sort of glitch in the code, but as far as I have seen, this is how this situation seems to happen. It will continue recording your turn count correctly afterward, but the second you end the program abruptly, it will again alter your save file character history record.

[OOD Town drunk]

I would like to thank everyone involved in the latest update! (and everyone who has ever participated in making the game what it is today)

I have been playing Angband since about 1998, and have watched it slowly evolve over the years. I can easily say that it is about as close to perfect as a game can be, and yet somehow, each update seems to bring it even closer to perfect.

This latest update is a serious one. I haven't yet made it past the early mid-game, (My most successful game so far was about dlvl 40/clvl 25) but what I have seen in the early game has been fuggin sweeeet!

The first 20 levels or so used to be somewhat tedious. Now they are much, much (...much, much, much....) more enjoyable, primarily due to the fact that ego weapons are now found commonly from the jump.

One might assume that this would make the early game much easier. One might assume incorrectly. I don't know if the early game enemies were buffed at all, in order to balance the better early game equipment, or what was done exactly, but the challenge remains perfectly intact.

Another change that I have enjoyed immensely, is the greater amount of variety involving dungeon layout. After more than a decade of virtual spelunking, the dungeon design had grown quite stale. The addition of new rooms/vaults/passageways has done wonders in remedying this situation.

Also; NEW ENEMIES!! There is nothing more thrilling than running into a completely unknown foe.

Over the past year or so, (since I joined the oook forums) I have made a number of suggestions on ways I felt the game could be improved. And then 3.5 came out. It turns out the Angband Gurus who are in charge of the code listen to their gamers. I have run into quite a few of the suggestions I have made. Which is awesome. For example, there are now direction and range indicators for enemies in your enemy term window, similar to those located in the item term window. Also, you can now dump your autoinscriptions to a preference file, as you could with macros and such before, allowing you to avoid another tedious early game job: setting up dozens of autoinscriptions. Those are the only two I can recall off the top of my head at the moment. (Other than the change/removal of charisma, which hundreds of people have suggested)

There are many, many (...many, many, many....)more, but I believe I have made my point. In the event that I have not made myself clear and simple enough, allow me to clarify and simplify: I AM LOVING ANGBAND V3.5!! Thank you takkaria and d_m and fizzix and magnate and myshkin and blubaron and Elly Jones and Bardur Arantsson and Ben Semmler and Brett Reid and Gabe Cunningham and Han Boetes and Janeene Beeforth and Nick McConnell and Seebs and Nomad and PowerWyrm and any/everybody else who helped on the best version of Angband yet!!

More than anything, I would like to thank the coders for listening to people like me. Every time I ran into something that I had suggested, it had me literally tearing up... maybe not literally literally, but figuratively, I was literally tearing up.

HAPPY SPELUNKING!!

[fizzix]

Thanks for the effusive praise OOD. I think everyone on the dev team appreciates it a lot.