Angband 4.0 beta release

[Nomad]

You might want to have a look at some of the stuff in vault.txt that isn't actually operational yet - in particular the layout rules at the top, and the interesting rooms (starting about line 1550). In particular there's more general control over what can be put in vaults, and this could be easily extended to the template rooms. I've also tweaked the use of symbols so they're pretty much common between vaults and template rooms, and I guess in the end the two will probably become more of a continuum from template room all the way to greater vault.

Ooh, those interesting rooms look excellent! That's exactly the sort of thing I wanted to do next with pits and room templates, so I'd be very excited to see those implemented. (My thoughts were along the lines that instead of having fixed monsters for a specific room, you might load a room layout from one edit file, and then fill it out according to a themed profile from another file like the ones in pit.txt. So one time you might come upon a given room and find the monster types at positions A, B, and C are priests and the treasures at X are priest books, but another time you might find the same layout room with the monsters at A, B and C being archers and the treasures at X are stacks of ammo, etc. Which makes it more variable and also has the advantage that you could then do an entire themed level like an orc town by giving every room the same profile.)

The other idea I had was unique-specific templated rooms, where, say, when you arrive at Mim's native level there's a chance of encountering a 'Dwarf Hall' special room/vault that contains Mim and his two sons (if they're still alive) or a ruined version of the same room if you've already killed them.

...I have all sorts of thoughts on this, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself when you're still doing the bugfixes at the moment. (Especially considering that by now I've forgotten almost everything I previously knew about the Angband code and how to use Git.)

[Nick]

Ooh, those interesting rooms look excellent! That's exactly the sort of thing I wanted to do next with pits and room templates, so I'd be very excited to see those implemented. (My thoughts were along the lines that instead of having fixed monsters for a specific room, you might load a room layout from one edit file, and then fill it out according to a themed profile from another file like the ones in pit.txt. So one time you might come upon a given room and find the monster types at positions A, B, and C are priests and the treasures at X are priest books, but another time you might find the same layout room with the monsters at A, B and C being archers and the treasures at X are stacks of ammo, etc. Which makes it more variable and also has the advantage that you could then do an entire themed level like an orc town by giving every room the same profile.)

The other idea I had was unique-specific templated rooms, where, say, when you arrive at Mim's native level there's a chance of encountering a 'Dwarf Hall' special room/vault that contains Mim and his two sons (if they're still alive) or a ruined version of the same room if you've already killed them.

...I have all sorts of thoughts on this, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself when you're still doing the bugfixes at the moment. (Especially considering that by now I've forgotten almost everything I previously knew about the Angband code and how to use Git.)

Having forgotten the detail is probably good because a lot has changed. You probably want to look at gen-room.c (for template room and vault generation, and also new stuff which isn't appearing yet, like rooms of chambers) and gen-monster.c, which does all the stuff about placing particular monsters. There are some unused pit profiles too, and also the capacity to do entire themed levels (see the 'lair' and 'moria' levels in gen-cave.c).

The plan is for new dungeon gen to be one of the big things in 4.1, so I'm really pleased you're thinking about it. I like the ideas already

[Nick]

Update 5301a6b fixes:

• Thrown flasks of oil doing no damage
• Debug teleport level crash
• Objects not being moved off Sauron and Morgoth quest stairs
• Inscriptions on home objects vanishing on save and reload
• No menu on the pickup command

I think the pickup behaviour is OK - please complain if not.

[MattB]

Is it just me...or has anyone seen a trapdoor recently?

[Nomad]

Is it just me...or has anyone seen a trapdoor recently?

Now you come to mention it, I don't think I have. Looking at the trap.txt edit file, there seem to be two entries with the same index, "name:16:door lock:door lock" and then "name:16:trap door:trap door".

Also, as per discussion in the Memorable Randarts thread, randarts don't seem to be being generated with any brands or slays.

[Nick]

Nice catch guys - trap doors will be back next update.

[MattB]

Oh, and I still haven't found a rod of door/stair location. It's probably just random chance, but it's getting a bit embarrassing searching around for doors on dlvl 55!

And there we have it: just ID'd my first rod of door/stair on dungeon level 81!
I'm happy to believe it's just an anecdata outlier, unless anyone else finds the same issue.

[PowerWyrm]

And there we have it: just ID'd my first rod of door/stair on dungeon level 81!
I'm happy to believe it's just an anecdata outlier, unless anyone else finds the same issue.

That's a regular issue with the new system for object generation (with allocation lines). Objects are created with a very high probability around their base depth, so if you want to find a rod of door/stair location, your best bet is to scum dlvl 8 for a while. Many times I've found an unidentified potion on dlvl 90+ just to find out it was potion of boldness or something similar.

[MattB]

That's a regular issue with the new system for object generation (with allocation lines). Objects are created with a very high probability around their base depth, so if you want to find a rod of door/stair location, your best bet is to scum dlvl 8 for a while. Many times I've found an unidentified potion on dlvl 90+ just to find out it was potion of boldness or something similar.

Ah, thanks PowerWyrm. Makes sense.

[MattB]

That's a regular issue with the new system for object generation (with allocation lines). Objects are created with a very high probability around their base depth, so if you want to find a rod of door/stair location, your best bet is to scum dlvl 8 for a while. Many times I've found an unidentified potion on dlvl 90+ just to find out it was potion of boldness or something similar.

Although it makes things a bit tougher if you play forced descent. I probably (un-ID'd) Deep Descented my way through about dlvl 6-11.

[Nick]

Update d496ef6 fixes

• invisible glyphs of warding
• missiles killing multiple monsters
• Amulets of Inertia - these now generate with correct negative speed modifier, but don't display or ID correctly (you can only tell the modifer by player speed reduction)

After some detective work by noz the ignore-drop-crash bug is kind of fixed, maybe. At least, there is a place in the code after the real problem (which we still don't fully understand) where we can (probably) stop the crash. But we still really want to fix the actual problem. The fix should just print a message instead of crashing; please try to note the conditions where you get the message and report back. Over and out.

[Nomad]

• missiles killing multiple monsters

Damn, I was enjoying that one. Special monster-piercing ammo would be a fun ego item, actually. Though probably not good for game balance.

[Derakon]

Damn, I was enjoying that one. Special monster-piercing ammo would be a fun ego item, actually. Though probably not good for game balance.

I could imagine e.g. Arrows of Lightning that invoked a lightning bolt effect instead of a standard missile effect when fired, and dealt launcher-independent damage. Sort of like a wand that used ammo instead of charges. Base damage would be higher than for wands (especially for enchanted ammo), but it'd be heavier and the ammo would be used up with each shot with no option to "recharge".

[Therem Harth]

ToME 2 has piercing shots as a high-level ability for archers...

[wobbly]

Arrows of piercing in Sil also occasionally hit multiple targets.