Angband 4.0 beta release

[Nick]

The beta release of Angband 4.0 is now available from the autobuilder page (select the Latest Build link for your platform). The download link on Rephial will remain unchanged until the official release.

This release is the result of a major rewrite, and has been a massive effort by the devteam and many others. It is intended to have no gameplay changes - aside from one obvious one The highlights are the removal from the game core of any reliance on the user interface (masterminded by takkaria), and the moving to the edit files of a lot of game content. If that seems a bit dull, don't worry; significant gameplay changes are planned for 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3, and work on 4.1 will start as soon as the official 4.0 release is out the door.

The purpose of this release is to enable more people to test and find bugs, and to give a first look to the community. There are number of things unfinished - notably, the thanks.txt file needs a big update. Please report bugs as you find them either on the forums or at the bug tracker; the autobuilder page will contain updates as bugs are fixed.

There are a number of changes to the way things work; a list of the main ones is below. Please ask questions if needed, and please play and find as many bugs as possible.

Here are the main noticeable differences:

• Savefile compatibility is broken, more thoroughly than you could imagine. Start a new game.
• Genders have been removed, but the player history is editable so you can write your own backstory.
• Monster memory is no longer in the savefile, but in a file called "lore.txt" in the user directory (\lib\user on Windows, ~/Documents/Angband on OSX, ~/.angband/Angband on Linux). Putting a copy of monster.txt, renamed to lore.txt, in the uder directory will give full monster memory.
• There is much more game info in the edit files, and for the most part it should be changeable without breaking the game (or mostly even your savefile). If you want to change an edit file, putting an amended copy in your user directory will make the game load that instead of the regular one.
• In particular, there is a new edit file called constants.txt which contains many formerly hardcoded values - dungeon and town level dimensions, store and home invetory size, view and spell ranges just to name a few.
• There will be others I have forgotten (especially since this is my second version of this post having accidentally deleted the first)

[fizzix]

Make no mistake, this release was about 90% Nick, 9% Takkaria and 1% other people who primarily contributed via "moral support."

[Derakon]

Congrats on the release, you guys! This is monumental.

[mrrstark]

Excited for the release.

I extracted it to a fresh folder, Windows 7. Made a priest and noticed a couple problems with the XP right off the bat. AU and XP were the same number, then I killed a drunk and the XP went to what's shown in the image.
angband-v4.0beta-1-gf2fa8c2

[Nick]

I extracted it to a fresh folder, Windows 7. Made a priest and noticed a couple problems with the XP right off the bat. AU and XP were the same number, then I killed a drunk and the XP went to what's shown in the image.
angband-v4.0beta-1-gf2fa8c2

Congratulations - first bug, and it's a beauty! I'll see if I can work out what is happening.

[Nick]

Well, the good news on this one is that it's just a (Windows only) display bug - if you go to the 'C' screen, you can see the actual values. That said, it's a rather annoying one. I'll post in this thread when there's a fix and updated version.

[Raajaton]

Nice! Thanks for all of your hard work! I've got my hands full now between this, the new npp beta, and the new release of neoband. I will start play testing this hopefully later today.

[klassik]

yay, things are moving forward.

great job!!!

[Nick]

OK, there's an update which seems to fix the windows number display bug, and also fixes a bug which was causing crashes on exit in windows.

Please download the latest and find more bugs!

[Nick]

One other change I forgot to mention - ammo is automatically put in the quiver now, there is no need to wield it.

[Nomad]

Looking good so far from the little bit I've played! A few minor issues:

* Quiver contents are not showing up on either the 'e' screen or 'i' screen. (This is on Windows.) It's not possible to Inspect or drop them, either. They do still exist somewhere though, because I can select them to throw with 'v'.

* Also, I note that the new on-screen level feelings indicator from 3.5.1 isn't included, so maybe that could be copied over? That was a nice little feature I was just getting used to. (And more importantly, maybe somebody should check if any of the 3.5.1 bugfixes need to be copied too, if this is based off a prior version.)

[Nick]

* Quiver contents are not showing up on either the 'e' screen or 'i' screen. (This is on Windows.) It's not possible to Inspect or drop them, either. They do still exist somewhere though, because I can select them to throw with 'v'.

Yes, I should have explained the quiver. You can view it, by either 'e' or 'i' and then '.' - this is not very intuitive, but I was reluctant to give it a whole new command. If you try to inspect or drop, there should be a header at the top of the list of items which gives options to go to equipment (/) or quiver (.). This works for me in Windows; if it's not working for you, that's a bug.

There's then the separate question of how people like the new behaviour, which is open for comment

* Also, I note that the new on-screen level feelings indicator from 3.5.1 isn't included, so maybe that could be copied over? That was a nice little feature I was just getting used to. (And more importantly, maybe somebody should check if any of the 3.5.1 bugfixes need to be copied too, if this is based off a prior version.)

This is a very good point, and thank you for reminding me. Some of the bugfixes have been included, but I'm pretty sure some have not. And yes, the feelings indicator will come back.

[Nomad]

Yes, I should have explained the quiver. You can view it, by either 'e' or 'i' and then '.' - this is not very intuitive, but I was reluctant to give it a whole new command. If you try to inspect or drop, there should be a header at the top of the list of items which gives options to go to equipment (/) or quiver (.). This works for me in Windows; if it's not working for you, that's a bug.

Yes, I was just going to ETA to say I'd found it! My mistake. Couple of issues after playing around with it, though:

* I think you need to restore the "in Quiver: 40 missiles" display on the inventory screen that shows how many slots the quiver is taking up. Otherwise it's unclear when your inventory's actually full.

* Nothing happens if you press '.' when the quiver is empty, which is a tad confusing, especially for a newbie investigating the controls. I think it needs to go to the quiver display and just show "(nothing)" like empty equipment screen slots do.

* The "(Inven a-w, / for equip, . for Quiver, ESC)" line you've added at the top of the 'i' display has pushed slot 'w' off the bottom of the screen if you're playing with the screen resized to the minimum 24 rows. (I don't know if many other people actually do, but I still habitually resize the display as small as it'll go so I can switch programs easily. And I'm guessing it might be more of a problem for ports to devices with small screens.)

[MattB]

Loving it - thanks Nick!

Ref quiver, I don't seem to be able to store any ammo at home? (maybe I'm being stoopid...)

Also, I've just been paralysed while wearing boots of FA (and two other sources of FA to... er... boot).

[MattB]

Oh, and I'm constantly having to hit <i><escape> to redraw the map due to missing tiles (because I'm too lazy to look up the 'redraw' command). Shockbolt tiles, if it makes any difference.