Angband 4.0beta status

[Jungle_Boy]

Now that we've successfully hijacked this thread to talk about DSMs I was thinking the other day that they should aggravate dragons of the appropriate flavor as they see you wearing the skin of one of their kind.

[Timo Pietilä]

I think, a bit confusingly, 'average' DSM does already include a default magical boost to AC, so an 'average' Blue DSM is actually "Blue Dragon Scale Mail [12, +10]" and 'magical' starts at "Blue Dragon Scale Mail [12, +11]". (I guess it's done that way to represent the fact that DSM is already inherently magical, and so it's hard to enchant up any further?)

Shouldn't game consider "average" as "good" in this case? It does have bonus to AC.

....maybe DSM:s should also resist disenchantment somewhat, a bit like artifacts do. To make them a bit more special than ordinary armors.

I would also like to have them give you permanent double-resist to the appropriate (basic) element, but that makes a bit bigger gameplay change. Make MHDSM a bit more desirable than Elvenkind with poison resist.

[Nick]

I was about to explain exactly what Ingwe said, so I'll just echo the welcome back bit - good to see you indeed

[Ingwe Ingweron]

... I thought I'd check out if it was still as active as it was, and lo and behold there's an exciting v4 to try out!

Confusingly, v4 is pretty much defunct - an old testbed for what were potentially "radical" changes to Vanilla Angband. Vanilla Version 4.0 is currently nearing the tail-end of beta testing and will be released soon.

The current "released" version of Angband (version 3.5.1) can be found at: http://rephial.org/

If you want to try out the Beta version of 4.0, it can be found at: http://rephial.org/nightlies

Welcome back!

[topazg]

Apologies for what feels like a thread hi-jack, but having been clearing out my old game archives and coming across my old friend here, I thought I'd check out if it was still as active as it was, and lo and behold there's an exciting v4 to try out!

I tried to download the latest build and just received this from the page: http://prntscr.com/7ehvsr

Happy for someone to PM me with what exactly I'm not doing / doing wrong, but couldn't see a particularly good place to post the request.

Nice to see so many familiar named posters too

I think, a bit confusingly, 'average' DSM does already include a default magical boost to AC, so an 'average' Blue DSM is actually "Blue Dragon Scale Mail [12, +10]" and 'magical' starts at "Blue Dragon Scale Mail [12, +11]". (I guess it's done that way to represent the fact that DSM is already inherently magical, and so it's hard to enchant up any further?)

My comment on this is that I would have thought quality-ID would reflect how good/magical the item is in general terms, rather than "how much better it is than the normal item of this type you might expect to find" - I'd find it less confusing to have all things +X referred to as magical than know what + value is required for the magical flag for a number of different item types.

[Nomad]

Also, shouldn't all DSM be at least magical? I don't recall finding any with +0 to AC in 3.5.1.

I think, a bit confusingly, 'average' DSM does already include a default magical boost to AC, so an 'average' Blue DSM is actually "Blue Dragon Scale Mail [12, +10]" and 'magical' starts at "Blue Dragon Scale Mail [12, +11]". (I guess it's done that way to represent the fact that DSM is already inherently magical, and so it's hard to enchant up any further?)

[Thraalbee]

Latest revision. I came into a situation where I could not interact with a pile of 2 items on the floor. But when I saved, copied the save file and then started up again it worked as it should. I have not been able to reproduce the error.

[Timo Pietilä]

There seems to be a minor ID issue remaining with DSMs - I just found a blue DSM early on in the game that turned out to be magical, and it's still got the {magical} tag inscription and "You do not know the full extent of this item's powers" even after I've learned the AC bonus. (Average DSMs appear to ID themselves correctly after the pseudo kicks in; not sure about egos.) This is in f59f9e5.

Ignore -flags? All DSM ignore all four elements. I'm not sure if they should get ID:t automatically though.

Also, shouldn't all DSM be at least magical? I don't recall finding any with +0 to AC in 3.5.1.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Yes, that's correct.



I just tested this with a freshly generated Narthanc, and did ID correctly. If you already had Narthanc before the update, it's possible that that may prevent it from IDing properly.

I think it was after, but I'm not positive. The activation did ID correctly, but even after hitting with it and being hit, it still had the {special} identifier. Now that I think about it more just now, that may be correct. I probably had not been hit by fire yet, so did not know of the rFire property.

[Nick]

As may also be reduced by permanent and temporary resists, if I recall correctly.

Yes, that's correct.

This should also apply for the 'thanc daggers, but it does not. Even though @ knows everything there is to know about Narthanc from use and activation, without using ID the {special} identifier is still there.

I just tested this with a freshly generated Narthanc, and did ID correctly. If you already had Narthanc before the update, it's possible that that may prevent it from IDing properly.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Great, thanks for all those.



What lava does is up for discussion, but in FA it does the player 100 fire damage if they have Feather Falling, and 250 if they don't

As may also be reduced by permanent and temporary resists, if I recall correctly.

[Nick]

Great, thanks for all those.

And on the super trivial non-bug front, if you try to walk into a pool of lava you get the "There is a wall in the way" message instead of one more lava-appropriate. (Also, though this is probably more an idea for 4.1 than 4.0, I am cruel enough to think that trying to walk into a pool of lava should probably punish you with a chance of doing fire damage to your inventory.)

What lava does is up for discussion, but in FA it does the player 100 fire damage if they have Feather Falling, and 250 if they don't

[Nomad]

The new trap knowledge section has caused the knowledge menu to go a bit wonky: if you select anything below "Display trap knowledge" on the list, you get the next list item down instead. (i.e. if you select "Display contents of general store" you see the armourer instead, select the armourer and you get the weaponsmith, etc.) This occurs regardless of whether you select the option by typing the letter or using arrow keys + enter, and continues on down through all the shops until, if you select "Display contents of home", the game crashes. (The last two options on the menu, hall of fame and character history, both still work correctly.)

Also, the trap knowledge menu itself looks good, but I think the description for Teleport rune is maybe a little misleading for newbies: "A portal to another area" makes it sound a bit like it's a fixed portal to go back and forth - "teleports you to a random location" might be clearer.

And on the super trivial non-bug front, if you try to walk into a pool of lava you get the "There is a wall in the way" message instead of one more lava-appropriate. (Also, though this is probably more an idea for 4.1 than 4.0, I am cruel enough to think that trying to walk into a pool of lava should probably punish you with a chance of doing fire damage to your inventory.)

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Update ee39bf8 fixes:...
Activations are learned on the item being successfully activated (mainly affects dragon scale mail)....

This should also apply for the 'thanc daggers, but it does not. Even though @ knows everything there is to know about Narthanc from use and activation, without using ID the {special} identifier is still there.

[Rhonwyn]

This one is also minor, not really a bug so much as a description issue. For a Scroll of Blessing, when inspected: "Can be destroyed by acid, fire. When read, it extends blessing for 6+1d12 turns." This does not answer my question of "what does it do?" since it doesn't say what "blessing" is.
Same thing with Scroll of Holy Chant description: "When read, it extends blessing for 12+1d24 turns."
I vaguely remember something from an earlier (pre 4.0) version about AC and to-hit bonuses, but I don't have 3.5.1 on this computer to look it up. I think, for new players or people who don't remember, it might be good to explain, if possible.