Angband 4.0 beta release

[Nick]

OK, update ff5349e is up, and despite all this nonsense it appears to have fixed object selection so that it gives a scrollable menu and is compatible with inscriptions, keymaps, etc. Note there is also a new feature - left and right arrows scroll between equipment, inventory, quiver and floor menus.

I say "appears" - I have not tested very thoroughly, so would appreciate everyone throwing their usual inscription habits at it and seeing how it stands up. I believe there is an issue with the 'x' command, but I haven't chased it down yet.

Also fixed are

• Extra line full of junk in character history
• Tiles being messed up after using menus, etc
• A hilarious bug found by fizzix which allowed the player to be reborn by using 'repeat' as the first command of the game
• All the outstanding issues from PowerWyrm except the last one

[Nomad]

Trivial, but it's mildly confusing how Scrolls/Rods of Treasure Location handle the distinction between 'treasure' and 'objects'. The issue is that there are two things classed as 'treasure', buried treasure in the walls and money/gems on the floor. Detecting treasure will give you a 'You sense no treasure.' message if there's no buried treasure, even if you do sense some piles of money. But things like the ]-key item list don't count piles of money as objects, either, so you can conceivably end up in a situation where the detection message tells you there's no treasure, only objects, while the item list tells you there's no objects.

[Nomad]

Found a randart Star that purports to have radius 10 light. (It doesn't, though, it has radius 5, and that doesn't increase when I wear other light-giving items - is there a hard-coded maximum?)

[MattB]

Found a randart Star that purports to have radius 10 light. (It doesn't, though, it has radius 5, and that doesn't increase when I wear other light-giving items - is there a hard-coded maximum?)

Yes. I believe it's 5!
Though I suspect that as randarts currently only have one stat boosted, your Star has turned some or all of its boni into light.

Count yourself lucky, BOTH of my last two Arkenstones have had zero light.
The last one I actually wore anyway from when I found it at dlvl49 until I died on dlvl89. Made for an intersting game...

[Nick]

Yes, randarts are my next target if you people can't find anything wrong with the new object selection.

[MattB]

Yes, randarts are my next target if you people can't find anything wrong with the new object selection.

We'll do our best!

[MattB]

Note there is also a new feature - left and right arrows scroll between equipment, inventory, quiver and floor menus.

Ach, I hadn't even noticed that I used the right arrow predominantly to select an item.
This is going to take some muscle-retraining...

[Nomad]

Monster path-finding is definitely off compared to 3.5. Nothing can follow you through the turns of labyrinths or complex vaults, and monsters are frequently completely stumped by situations like this:

 #.#    
 #.#####
 #[color=lightgreen]p[/color]#.[color=orange]@[/color]..
 #.#.###
 #.#.#  
 #...#  
 #####

The monster ends up just jittering back and forth in the same two squares while you sit there and heal up for hundreds of turns.

And there are some rare situations where they won't come down a straight corridor after you but move away instead, though I can't figure out what exact set of circumstances causes that.

[Emperor]

Will 4.0 do shared save-files? A bunch of people use one of my linux servers as a shared angband machine, and it was a bit sad when some versions around 3.0 didn't support shared score files any more. I'm happy to see them back in 3.5, and wouldn't want them go go again.

[not tried the beta yet, 'cos I have an active 3.5 scorefile ]

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Thanks, Nick. You've solved a lot of the bugs. Of course, there are still quite a few left. Inscriptions are definitely *Not* working. I think I've narrowed down at least one of the problems. Also, I think the "x" key is working, the problem is in the inscriptions, not the swap.

As I've been doing, I play the new dev version until a crash. Since it's been awhile, here are the bugs I've found in the latest iteration. Some previously reported bugs have better explanations of the problems. There are also new bugs not previously reported.

Angband 4.0 dev ff5349e

1. Battle crash-not easily replicable so no save file.

2. Inscriptions not working. ?Word of Recall inscribed with @r0!*. Pressing [r0] while in town just brings up list of scrolls in inventory. Removing the “!*” from the inscription doesn’t change the behavior. One problem seems to be that if more than one item has the same numerical component, inscriptions do not work, i.e., @r1 on a scroll of identify works until you inscribe a staff of identify with @u1, then it doesn’t matter if @ is or is not carrying both, the inscriptions do not work. The same is true if you inscribe two weapons with "@0”. The “x” swap key isn't broken when only one weapon is inscribed with @0, but once two weapons are, it fails. It seems it’s the inscription routine that is broken, not the swap key. This inscription nonsense is quite frustrating.

3. ID by use appears broken. 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 sandals of speed; a fairly obvious id, but it didn’t id by use. =Reckless Attacks, Launchers of Power, etc. But =of the Dog does ID by use. Even {magical} items don’t drop their appendage after use. It seems the difference is that when an item requires an action like firing, or being hit, or hitting, to learn its attributes that the ID by use is not kicking in to remove the {appendage}.

4. Having to count quiver items to see if they equal more than 40, thereby taking up another inventory slot. It was helpful to see the quiver count on the inventory screen. Please bring it back.

5. While selling (or dropping) in store, Messages clear instantly. Always have to go to <ctrl>P or the message sub-window to find out what was sold or dropped when the storekeeper identifies the item. Messages seem to work properly when @ is not in a store.

6. When changing armor or weapons, in 3.5.1 there was a message, “you were wearing …” followed by "You are wearing….” Now there is only the “You are wearing…” message. Is this change intended? It was helpful to see the “You were…” message to quickly compare the two armors or weapons and know whether to change back or drop the old item. Please bring it back.

7. The “swish” sound for when items are placed in quiver is missing. Now it is silent, so you have to check to see that @ actually picked up the missiles.

8. Rest for set multiple turn counts, e.g., R10, is interrupted every turn by terror or hallucination. This is a change from previous versions. Interruption should only occur for monster or possibly poison.

9. While in home, if you select an item in inventory, the option to drop is not in the list of available actions.

10. An old bug that has been present in the previous versions too. The object display sub-window shows all objects encountered and still on the floor as "seen". Like the monster display sub-window, the objects should be separated into what @ can "see" and what @ is "aware" of.

11. Object sub-window delayed 1 turn. E.g., pick up a potion and it still appears in the sub-window until the next move by either player or monster. The monster sub-window works correctly, kill a monster and it immediately is removed from the sub-window.

12. Ignore/drop messages - E.g.,”You feel the Robe (e) in your pack is average…”, “You have no more Robes [2,+0] {ignore} (e)", “You drop a Robe [2,+0] {ignore} (e)”. The last two messages in this string of messages are out of order, you should “drop" before you have "no more”. .

13. Ignoring objects while in store, there is a delay of one turn in the inventory sub-window and the messages displayed in the message sub-window are out of order. E.g., the inventory sub-window displays, “Potion of Slowness {ignore}”, until the next item is dropped/sold or @ leaves store. Also, the drop messages are out of order, with the “no more” occurring before the “drop”.

14. Visual display hesitation when a missile is fired and kills a monster, the monster disappears and then there is a hesitation before the missile appears in the spot it landed.

[fizzix]

Monster path-finding is definitely off compared to 3.5. Nothing can follow you through the turns of labyrinths or complex vaults, and monsters are frequently completely stumped by situations like this:

 #.#    
 #.#####
 #[color=lightgreen]p[/color]#.[color=orange]@[/color]..
 #.#.###
 #.#.#  
 #...#  
 #####

The monster ends up just jittering back and forth in the same two squares while you sit there and heal up for hundreds of turns.

And there are some rare situations where they won't come down a straight corridor after you but move away instead, though I can't figure out what exact set of circumstances causes that.

Are the heat maps being stored correctly? IIRC there's a debug command to display the heat map. I can check this later if you can't. I should probably work on this bug anyway, I know the pathing algorithm reasonably well.

[Nick]

2. Inscriptions not working. ?Word of Recall inscribed with @r0!*. Pressing [r0] while in town just brings up list of scrolls in inventory. Removing the “!*” from the inscription doesn’t change the behavior. One problem seems to be that if more than one item has the same numerical component, inscriptions do not work, i.e., @r1 on a scroll of identify works until you inscribe a staff of identify with @u1, then it doesn’t matter if @ is or is not carrying both, the inscriptions do not work. The same is true if you inscribe two weapons with "@0”. The “x” swap key isn't broken when only one weapon is inscribed with @0, but once two weapons are, it fails. It seems it’s the inscription routine that is broken, not the swap key. This inscription nonsense is quite frustrating.

Quick update on this - I think I understand the problem. If there are two items with valid inscriptions (for example @0 and @r0 when you're trying to read), the one which is picked is essentially the one you picked up first. So inscribing a weapon with @0 will potentially stop a @r0 inscription from working (solution - use @w0), and the 'x' command will switch to your 'earlier' weapon, but not back.

So I believe that not using the @0, @1,.. form solves every problem except the 'x' weapon swap one; I'll work on a solution for that.

[Estie]

Quick update on this - I think I understand the problem. If there are two items with valid inscriptions (for example @0 and @r0 when you're trying to read), the one which is picked is essentially the one you picked up first. So inscribing a weapon with @0 will potentially stop a @r0 inscription from working (solution - use @w0), and the 'x' command will switch to your 'earlier' weapon, but not back.

So I believe that not using the @0, @1,.. form solves every problem except the 'x' weapon swap one; I'll work on a solution for that.

Mmmm I doubt that, the spellbook messup I had was without any "@n" inscriptions (I dont use the latter normally).

[Nick]

Mmmm I doubt that, the spellbook messup I had was without any "@n" inscriptions (I dont use the latter normally).

I believe that was also before the update of a day or two ago that may have fixed your problem.

I think I have a fix for the 'x' problem which should be in the next update.

[Nomad]

...Aaand the award for "least likely error to have been caught by coming up as a random occurrence in beta testing" goes to the redundant bit of repetition in this message:

You have the Ring of Power of Power (The One Ring) {special, cursed} (p)