Angband 4.0beta status

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Update 58e2622 fixes....

The MacOSX version is still not up. That's a pretty long time for it to compile, isn't it? Or, is there a different problem?

[takkaria]

Angband 4.0 dev a5ccbbe

Not necessarily a bug, but as of this version the file saving structure has been changed. Instead of saving scores in the Apex directory, and savefiles in the Save directory, these are both now being saved in subdirectories of the User directory. Is the higher level Save directory now redundant? Was this an intended change?

Nick, can we change the names of subdirectories while there's going to be no backwards compatibility? I've been hacking on Angband for years and I still didn't get 'apex' until just now.

e.g.

apex -> highscore
file -> text
info -> spoiler?

Take everything out of the xtra/ subdirectory just into lib/, and then...

xtra/graf -> graphics

???

[tumbleweed]

Oh, totally.

angband-win-v4.0beta-360-g58e2622

• Got a reliably reproducible assertion failure trying to look at that lava square to the northeast using the context menu.
  

  File: cave-square.c
  
  Line: 522
  
  Expression: square_in_bounds(c, y, x)

  
  Ignoring makes the game throw the same failure again, this time at line 532.
  The top row of squares in the image is the very topmost in town, in case that matters.

[Timo Pietilä]

angband-win-v4.0beta-356-g0644321

• Trying to dig into Lava: "This seems to be permanent rock."

That one should obviously be "You just burned to crisp. You die -more-"

[tumbleweed]

angband-win-v4.0beta-356-g0644321

• Trying to dig into Lava: "This seems to be permanent rock."
• The Options menu does not actually have a menu item that brings up the in-game options ('=') analogous to Help->Contents bringing up the help ('?')

Some more issues that seem to specifically affect non-1x1 tile modes:

• There are odd redrawing issues when you Alt+Tab, Alt+Tab right after moving. Ctrl+R afterwards fixes, and so does using Ctrl+R BEFORE doing the Alt+Tab, Alt+Tab thing.
• There's something about trying to look after leaving a shop that sometimes makes your character disappear?! For example by moving to the far west of town, toggling mouse movement, then entering and leaving a shop, then pressing 'l', then picking a direction that doesn't land you anywhere interesting (west or north-west to the edge of town in my case) - I know this is horribly unspecific, but I've been able to (unreliably) reproduce the issue several times. Ctrl+R afterwards fixes, but using Ctrl+R BEFORE looking does NOT prevent the quirky behavior. Saving and reloading before looking DOES prevent the quirky behavior.
• It is possible to open the context menu at the very right edge of the game window, but not closer than about one context menu height to the bottom of the window.

And some assorted suggestions, possibly for later versions:

• Flash screen red/green/orange/brown/whatever when receiving periodic damage/effects like bleeding/poison/hunger?
• Colorize disenchantment and item destruction messages, and possibly others that are not "business as usual"?
• Make the Main Gauche a shield (off-hand item) that mostly boosts offense? (I haven't thought about the implications for balance)?

Also there's a bunch of issues I've reported before that still affect the game, but I guess I better cross-check with the issue tracker before reporting them again.

[Nick]

Update 58e2622 fixes:

• Some inadequate mushroom descriptions
• Errors in Wonder effect (thanks PowerWyrm)
• More fixes to Wonder...
• Update of help files

Still haven't finished the last help file, and will probably change the OSX user directory as discussed earlier - this means the ~/Documents/Angband directory in OSX and the ~/.angband/Angband directory in Linux behave exactly the same.

[Nick]

Well, you are the master so it's up to you. A fuller description was given in 3.5.1 and, for a newbie, even after eating the mushroom I think they will be left confused and wondering what went wrong. They won't find any explanation anywhere in the game as to the ill effect their @ suffered.

The problem I've been having with this is that with the new structure of effects, the effect descriptions need to be a bit more general. So the sprinting effect is actually implemented as "increased in timed effect", so it's hard to get the details in there. Similarly, purging is "set food value", and the effect doesn't know that that means the player is left hungry.

On the other hand, the thing that I was completely forgetting was that every object also can have a general description as well as its effect description. So the next update will have some new object descriptions

[Ingwe Ingweron]

The descriptions are precise - they're just not fully informative to the newcomer:

• The Purging description doesn't tell you that being "nourished for 499 turns" means you're at the point of fainting
• The Sprinting description doesn't tell you that the sprinting effect means haste followed by slowing

Personally, I'm comfortable with that

Well, you are the master so it's up to you. A fuller description was given in 3.5.1 and, for a newbie, even after eating the mushroom I think they will be left confused and wondering what went wrong. They won't find any explanation anywhere in the game as to the ill effect their @ suffered.

[Nick]

Likewise Mushroom of Sprinting. Only says it extends Sprinting for x number of turns, but fails to mention the negative effects of leaving @ slowed thereafter.

Any reason the negative effects have been removed from the descriptions?

The descriptions are precise - they're just not fully informative to the newcomer:

• The Purging description doesn't tell you that being "nourished for 499 turns" means you're at the point of fainting
• The Sprinting description doesn't tell you that the sprinting effect means haste followed by slowing

Personally, I'm comfortable with that

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Description for Mushroom of Purging is deceptively innocuous. It describes the good effects, but fails to mention @ will vomit and faint from lack of food. Luckily, I knew this and had a ?Satisfy Hunger handy for just that occasion. A newbie, on the other hand, might get a nasty surprise even though the mushroom is supposedly fully identified.

Likewise Mushroom of Sprinting. Only says it extends Sprinting for x number of turns, but fails to mention the negative effects of leaving @ slowed thereafter.

Any reason the negative effects have been removed from the descriptions?

[myshkin]

Although, I find the User directory helpful as the repository for the prf file with my standard keymaps, inscriptions and subwindow setups, as well as the txt files for ladder uploads.

Hmmm, so what do you currently keep in its parent directory, besides the subdirectories? I think I'm in favor of moving the contents of $HOME/Documents/Angband/user into $HOME/Documents/Angband, as long as it doesn't make init_file_paths() more complicated for other platforms. That function is already rather tangled.

Incidentally, does anyone here play Angband on a multiuser OS X computer? I still like the idea of shared score files, but I suspect there is little to no interest in doing the work for it on OS X.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Not exactly - it was a consequence of some other changes. I'm actually thinking that the User directory is a bit superfluous on OSX. I'm thinking that a better setup is to have the things that go into User go straight into Documents/Angband, and save and scores be subdirectories of that (as they were before this most recent change).

Although, I find the User directory helpful as the repository for the prf file with my standard keymaps, inscriptions and subwindow setups, as well as the txt files for ladder uploads.

[Nick]

Update 0644321 fixes:

• Object effect messages are grammatical and sound a bit better
• Objects the player is standing on count as seen in the object list
• Message for last used item on the floor is back
• Mushroom of Debility crash is fixed (thanks for that - easy fix to something that had big potential for problems)
• Level feeling indicator should update immediately.

AC failure to update still has me completely baffled.

[Nomad]

I'm getting a reproducible crash in 5a88d78 if I eat a Mushroom of Debility.

[Nick]

Angband 4.0 dev a5ccbbe

Not necessarily a bug, but as of this version the file saving structure has been changed. Instead of saving scores in the Apex directory, and savefiles in the Save directory, these are both now being saved in subdirectories of the User directory. Is the higher level Save directory now redundant? Was this an intended change?

Not exactly - it was a consequence of some other changes. I'm actually thinking that the User directory is a bit superfluous on OSX. I'm thinking that a better setup is to have the things that go into User go straight into Documents/Angband, and save and scores be subdirectories of that (as they were before this most recent change).