Angband 4.0 beta release

[Ingwe Ingweron]

The fix will work for now, but at some point I will need to break savefiles to get a more robust solution.

Thanks, Nick! No problem breaking savefiles. We're all in Beta, right? Wish I could code so I could offer solutions like the amazing PowerWyrm. In real life, I always hate identifying problems without proposing a solution. But, since coding isn't in my repertoire, I'm just glad to contribute through playtesting.

[Nick]

I now have an actual fix for the movement problem, which will be in the next update - it was nothing to do with the AI logic, but rather some silliness with variable types. In the process I redid the logic to read more sensibly, though, so it was all really quite productive.

The fix will work for now, but at some point I will need to break savefiles to get a more robust solution.

Damn, the latest iteration didn't fix the no downstairs after killing Sauron and recalling issue. "Tester" still can't go kill Morgoth. Oh, well, I think I'll let him die and start a new Tester. That will be good from a playtest perspective since it will reexamine the early play bugs of id-by use, etc.

Your savefile was interesting - the problem was that despite Sauron being dead, the Sauron quest wasn't registered as complete, so the game wasn't generating stairs. So any fix to the original problem wouldn't fix your savefile; it will enable me to (a) look for why the quest didn't register as complete and (b) put a failsafe in place for if that happens again.

[fizzix]

The player property recalculations have improved ID by use a little bit. {magical} items now drop their appendage after use. However, other obvious {excellent} items remain a problem. E.g., Sling worn as {excellent}. After successfully firing a missile, it shows as a “Sling (x2) (+15,+6) {excellent}". Obviously, it is a Sling of Accuracy, but the “{excellent}” appendage remains rather than id by use. Same thing with a Cloak of Stealth, the stealth is obvious, but after defending an attack so the armor class is known the cloak still carries the {excellent} appendage. Have to burn Identification simply to remove the appendages.

The problem with ID currently is that in order to fully ID something you need to know everything that it isn't (unless it has the "easy_know" flag). This makes ID quite a bear. I suggested a partial fix, but I don't think Nick liked it. I have no idea how else to fix the problem.

[Nomad]

But on further testing, I'm getting some weird monster movement all round - I keep seeing monsters move upwards away from me instead of down towards me, and getting stuck in similar sorts of corners. Looks like a new bug has been introduced with 9296830 - it has the feel of a copy/paste error or accidental inversion where some sort of IF [situation] THEN [move in x direction] statement is outputting the wrong direction.

Yep, further experimenting does seem to confirm that up and down are currently flipped. If you're standing left or right of a monster it will happily attack you, but if you're below, it will move upwards, and if you're above, it will move downwards. So right now, as long as you attack from one of the vertical directions, you can melee everything with impunity and the monsters are unable to hit back.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Update 9296830 fixes [LIST]
...there has also been a large rewrite of player property recalculations, after PowerWyrm pointed out some deficiencies with it. This should have improved the logic, but it's possible it will have introduced new bugs, in particular from places where compensation had been put in place for the old logic...

The player property recalculations have improved ID by use a little bit. {magical} items now drop their appendage after use. However, other obvious {excellent} items remain a problem. E.g., Sling worn as {excellent}. After successfully firing a missile, it shows as a “Sling (x2) (+15,+6) {excellent}". Obviously, it is a Sling of Accuracy, but the “{excellent}” appendage remains rather than id by use. Same thing with a Cloak of Stealth, the stealth is obvious, but after defending an attack so the armor class is known the cloak still carries the {excellent} appendage. Have to burn Identification simply to remove the appendages.

[Nomad]

Reminds me of how monsters behaved in 3.5 when you were standing on a Glyph of Warding. Maybe he thinks he can't melee you for some reason?

Well, I'm a level 7 warrior with an average dagger standing in an empty square, so I'm not sure what he's so afraid of...

But on further testing, I'm getting some weird monster movement all round - I keep seeing monsters move upwards away from me instead of down towards me, and getting stuck in similar sorts of corners. Looks like a new bug has been introduced with 9296830 - it has the feel of a copy/paste error or accidental inversion where some sort of IF [situation] THEN [move in x direction] statement is outputting the wrong direction.

[Derakon]

Some weird behaviour from Wormtongue here in the latest version (9296830). I've got him in a corner like this:

[tt][bc=black][color=grey] #[COLOR="#C08040"]'[/COLOR]##### 
 #.[COLOR="#C08040"]'[/COLOR]..[COLOR="#00FFFF"]p[/COLOR]# 
 #[COLOR="#C08040"]'[/COLOR]###[color=white]@[/color]##
 #.......
[/color][/bc][/tt]

I've been hitting him a while, but he just keeps moving one square to the left and then back to the right again without attacking me or casting spells. (Not sure if it's relevant, but just before he started doing this he cast create traps, so the square one step to the left that he keeps moving into has a concealed trap in it.) Savefile attached:

Reminds me of how monsters behaved in 3.5 when you were standing on a Glyph of Warding. Maybe he thinks he can't melee you for some reason?

[Nomad]

Some weird behaviour from Wormtongue here in the latest version (9296830). I've got him in a corner like this:

[tt][bc=black][color=grey] #[COLOR="#C08040"]'[/COLOR]##### 
 #.[COLOR="#C08040"]'[/COLOR]..[COLOR="#00FFFF"]p[/COLOR]# 
 #[COLOR="#C08040"]'[/COLOR]###[color=white]@[/color]##
 #.......
[/color][/bc][/tt]

I've been hitting him a while, but he just keeps moving one square to the left and then back to the right again without attacking me or casting spells. (Not sure if it's relevant, but just before he started doing this he cast create traps, so the square one step to the left that he keeps moving into has a concealed trap in it.) Savefile attached:

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Update 9296830 fixes [LIST][*]Movement problems (all I believe - please report if not) - thanks to fizzix for pointing out to me which way was up

Before I suicide Tester, here's a savefile which demonstrates AI movement problems are still present. @ can rest, move around a little, and it's rare for one of the monsters to come out after him. Frustrating since there's Crebain in there that accelerate the nasties. Tester.zip

You can also check out the level on the full map. No downstairs even though Sauron is dead. The stairs appear when you kill him, but if you don't take them and recall to town or go up, @ can never descend below DL99.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Damn, the latest iteration didn't fix the no downstairs after killing Sauron and recalling issue. "Tester" still can't go kill Morgoth. Oh, well, I think I'll let him die and start a new Tester. That will be good from a playtest perspective since it will reexamine the early play bugs of id-by use, etc.

[Nick]

Update 9296830 fixes

• Movement problems (all I believe - please report if not) - thanks to fizzix for pointing out to me which way was up
• Empty lists (especially quiver and floor) can be selected from the inventory 'i' or equipment 'e' commands
• Messages now appear correctly for mages taking gloves on and off, and beginning and end of armour encumbrance

Related to the last, there has also been a large rewrite of player property recalculations, after PowerWyrm pointed out some deficiencies with it. This should have improved the logic, but it's possible it will have introduced new bugs, in particular from places where compensation had been put in place for the old logic...

[Nomad]

Just found a randart Star with no activation - is that supposed to happen? (As far as I know, randart lights in earlier versions always retained their standart equivalent activations.) This one just has radius 3 light and disenchantment resistance.

Also, on far a more trivial note, when you generate artefact spoilers there's no "Successfully created a spoiler file." message any more, so it's not obvious anything's actually happened from selecting the option.

[fizzix]

That's definitely a bug.

Honestly, as long as it's not a crash, I think that's a low priority bug.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Reading ?Rune of Protection from the ground fails. Probably since the ground is occupied by the scroll. Pick it up first and it works. Not sure if this was always the case but I would prefer that it works.

That's definitely a bug.

[Thraalbee]

Reading ?Rune of Protection from the ground fails. Probably since the ground is occupied by the scroll. Pick it up first and it works. Not sure if this was always the case but I would prefer that it works.