Angband 4.0beta status

[Nick]

On this note: Are different bits of the code still using the "or a flag in p_ptr with PU_XXX mask" thing which restrict exactly which bits of the player are going to get updated? If so, I'd recommend just removing that for a general "update player" flag instead. I submit that all computers (even phones!) at this point are fast enough to not care about individual flags. Just recalculate and redisplay everything. If there's a problem with display speed, you just defer to the display code to avoid "flushing" things that have actually changed. It just soooooo much easier to avoid this kind of bug by doing this.

Sadly, I think that's not actually the case - there has been some noticeable slowdown in places, in some cases due to design decisions of mine based on the principle that computers are fast enough now...

[AnonymousHero]

Sadly, I think that's not actually the case - there has been some noticeable slowdown in places, in some cases due to design decisions of mine based on the principle that computers are fast enough now...

Maybe one solution would be to actually just do "caching" on the p_ptr struct (via shadow fields) instead of "hoping" that everything does the PU_XXX thing correctly? At least you'd have isolated the potential problems to a smaller bit of code.

(I know it's easy to suggest these things when you don't have to implement them.)

EDIT: Actually, maybe just forget that: Try doing to the change and see if there's anyone who objects in practice. It's far easier to optimize correct code than it is to correct optimized code.

[takkaria]

Maybe one solution would be to actually just do "caching" on the p_ptr struct (via shadow fields) instead of "hoping" that everything does the PU_XXX thing correctly? At least you'd have isolated the potential problems to a smaller bit of code.

Could you elucidate on what you mean by this, perhaps?

[Timo Pietilä]

Summon uniques, however, if I recall correctly, if ALL of them were dead (well except Farmer Maggot and/or Father Christmas) then indeed nothing would come. A small reward for hunting every one of them down.

IIRC that used to be Jabberwocks then Black Reavers. At least in some point of angband development.

Many, many times more dangerous than most of the uniques.

[MattB]

3. Never did get a confirmation that the change of the "Summons ringwraiths" in 4.0 was intended. In 3.5.1, when all the ringwraiths were dead, "summons ringwraiths" would instead actually summon fiends of darkness, but now "nothing comes". The change makes sense, but would just like confirmation that it was intended.

I think this is a good thing. But maybe we could have more flavour - "Morgoth howls with rage as no one answers."

[MattB]

Too lazy to read backlog to see if this has been reported already, but you might want to look at this winning comp dump wearing the Massive Crown -- the stat display is kinda hilarious http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=17796. (It's entirely possible it looked like this before 4.0, also too lazy to find ladder dumps to corroberate.)

(congrats MattB)

What do you mean? My stats were like that from the start of the game. I just thought it was a 4.0 thing?


Seriously though, thanks debo and Ingwe for the congrats.

[AnonymousHero]

Could you elucidate on what you mean by this, perhaps?

Hopefully. The idea would be to cache intermediate calculations in the p_ptr struct and to build a sort of hierarchy of recalculations triggered by patterns along the lines of "x_shadow != x, therefore recalc x and anything depending on x, afterwards set x_shadow = new x". Does that explanation make sense?

[Thraalbee]

Crash bug. New character in village. Rogue key set.
~
"g"-"m" displays are offset by one and "n" crashes the game.

[Nick]

Crash bug. New character in village. Rogue key set.
~
"g"-"m" displays are offset by one and "n" crashes the game.

I think you don't have the latest update - this bug was in ee39bf8 (315) but is fixed in 4c26520 (323) (according to my testing, at least).

[Zireael]

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.

Neat idea indeed.

[Nomad]

Super trivial, but when you wield a stack of ego ammo to the quiver, the ID message you get is singular instead of plural, i.e. "Your Arrow of Venom seethes!" when it should be, "Your Arrows of Venom seethe!"

[Nomad]

Something slightly hinky about ID of Resist Element jewellery - you're learning the name if you're hit by any element, regardless of whether it's actually the one it resists.

For instance, if you're wearing an unidentified acid-resistance amulet and are hit by a breath from, say, a Cold hound, the name of the amulet will change to an Amulet of Resist Acid even though it wasn't acid that hit you. (This doesn't just apply with base four attacks: I tested it with a shard attack from an Earth hound and that also caused the jewellery to ID.)

This bug also affects Ring of Frost/Flames/Lightning/Acid, but I don't know whether it affects ego armour. ETA: nope, armour seems to be fine, it's just the jewellery that's affected.

[Jungle_Boy]

I noticed that any item with a light radius besides an actual light includes the phrase "cannot be refueled which send kind of funny applied to my sword.

[Nomad]

Okay, here's a niche one! In a selling game, I accidentally bought an item of a type I'd already set to squelch. It came with the {ignore} tag but wasn't immediately dropped, so I thought I might as well sell it back to the shop and get some money back. The shop accepted it quite happily, but then when I tried to leave I got an "Assertion failed" crash. (I assume because the game was trying to drop the squelched item that I didn't have any more?) This is reproducible, and the crash doesn't just happen if you leave the shop, but also if your next move is to buy/sell something else instead.

So basically I guess the actual bug here is that there's a one turn delay before squelched items are dropped when you're in a shop, rather than the fact I managed to cause a crash by ditching the item in between the squelch and the drop.

[Jungle_Boy]

Here's a bug related to the artifact knowledge menu. It seems artifacts are being added when they are generated rather then when they are found, as there are several artifacts in the knowledge menu for my current game that I have not found.

Also in the Unique monster knowledge menu it says I know 36 uniques and have killed 20 but if you look in the player history I've actually killed just over 50 but most of them do not show up in the menu.