Preparation for 4.1 release

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Let me know if there are other deficiencies in monster pathfinding.

Consider behavior of hounds, crebain, etc. @ found them in a room and they are awake and aware of @. They don't come out into the hallway, that was never their way, but @ retreated to a very close adjacent room expecting them to come after him, as they used to do before all the changes made to make pathing more effective. They just stay in their original room. Is this the desired action, especially by lower intelligence monsters?

[Nick]

NIghtlies page has new builds:

• Status effect wands have more charges
• Monster pathing is improved

In particular, the problem from Saplaran's savefile is fixed; the problem was monsters choosing a direction to move, and then failing to because someone else was in the way. Let me know if there are other deficiencies in monster pathfinding.

Note that the various message space problems aren't fixed, and nor are prices, but I wanted the pathfinding out for testing.

[Nomad]

Something still borked with selling, I'm afraid. You can sell some types of armour back to the shop for considerably more than it costs to buy. Soft leather armour costs 50 AU to buy, sells back to the shop for 224. The same issue seems to affect all body armour apart from robes, all shields, and the various metal boots and helms, but not leather caps/sandals/boots, cloaks, or any type of gloves. Make of that what you will.

[Saplaran]

Another example of the pathfinding issues that I've been talking about (e.g., with Saruman). Now, it might be argued that Saruman and Khim are exhibiting superior intelligence in not letting @ choose the field of battle, but the same behavior is seen with far less intelligent creatures, which leads me to believe it is a bug.

I think so, too, since Khim hand no problem following me whereever I went once I entered the room.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

YKhim doesn't know how to get to me unless I enter the room.

Another example of the pathfinding issues that I've been talking about (e.g., with Saruman). Now, it might be argued that Saruman and Khim are exhibiting superior intelligence in not letting @ choose the field of battle, but the same behavior is seen with far less intelligent creatures, which leads me to believe it is a bug.

[Saplaran]

You are right, the game was started with an earlier version.

But here is another pathfinding-bug (819-g9b83fba). Khim doesn't know how to get to me unless I enter the room. Example is in savefile as always.

And another completly gamebreaking bug!!1! In monster description:

It cannot be frightenedNothing is known about it's attack.

and

It resists cold, and cannot be frightened.  It can touch to shoot acid... (two spaces after the first sentence)

[Nick]

angband-4.0.3-816-gf643be9

Hm. Any chance it was a game started in an earlier build?

[Saplaran]

This is a bug which I believe was fixed in the most recent build - which one was this in?

angband-4.0.3-816-gf643be9

[Nick]

Is this change for artifacts only?

Not exactly. It was actually to fill a loophole where ego items or artifacts were treated like to-hit-reducing body armor even if they had a + to-hit and weren't body armor.

[kandrc]

Non-weapon artifacts with +n to-hit and 0 to-dam now show (+n, +0) not just (+n)

Is this change for artifacts only? Because it was actually consistent with the negative to-hit on heavy armor, before. If the change was only to artifacts, then you've introduced a potentially confusing inconsistency.

I recall seeing at least 2 posts asking about the (+n) on some artifact armor, so clearly it was causing some confusion as it was, but over the decades that I've lurked and participated here and on r.g.r.a., I've seen countless posts from new players asking about the (-n) on their armor. The maximally-clear, minimally-confusing solution is probably to display both to-hit and to-dam whenever either is non-zero on all non-weapons.

And I haven't done an update yet, so maybe I'm making an argument that doesn't need to be made.

[Nick]

New builds on the nightlies page with (probably) all current bugs fixed:

• Store prices fixed for real this time
• Monster list has correct locations
• Non-weapon artifacts with +n to-hit and 0 to-dam now show (+n, +0) not just (+n)
• Tombstone carver has stopped wasting space on trap deaths

That's all known bugs for now, I'll get back to updating help files, etc.

[Nick]

Another (maybe minor) bug, the coordinates for monsters in the monster list are sometimes wrong. Example is attached where the wolf isn't at the coordinates of the monster list.

Nice catch, fixed now in development.

And another monor bug:

You see a ring of feather falling {??}.
You have learned the rune of feather falling. (after identifying)

This is a bug which I believe was fixed in the most recent build - which one was this in?

[Nomad]

On the "ridiculously trivial" front: there's an extra space in the gravestone/hall of fame message when you die by falling in a spiked pit:

Killed by a  spiked pit on dungeon level 2

[Derakon]

I noticed questionable path issues with Saruman in my current game, but the result was actually a better fight. He stood out in the middle of a room and cast spells.

Keep in mind that the AI doesn't cast spells more often just because it's not moving, so all this really means is that he avoided coming to you in terrain of your choosing. That does give him more room to summon pals into, though, so I can see how that'd make the fight harder.

[Gwarl]

Wands of slow monster and confuse monster still spawn with fewer charges than their associated staves.

I still think we should revert the status affect changes altogether but this thing in particular bothers me.