Angband on android

[Pete Mack]

Not android per se. The issue is that I am running in a *primitive* VM app with no browser, just basic command line. As far as I can tell, its files are not accessible from the main OS.

[Angrist]

But I have somehow dumped several characters in 2014. I don't remember the details, but the device was rooted.

[DavidMedley]

I forget... does vanilla have a (u)se item command rather than the absurd proliferation of individual commands for each device type + activation? It seems to me that you could do away with most of the keyboard just by doing a little unification on that front.

The (i)nventory command is very versatile. I'm always telling my kids to YOOse a staff or ZZZap a rod, but they just access everything through (i). I don't think they even use the (e)quipment command, just (i) and then right arrow.

I'm also pleased with the versatility though I often forget to use it. Like, I'll check just how much damage a rod will do then unnecessarily ESC out to (z)ap it. But whomever added those features - good job! I miss them when I play versions that don't have them.

[DavidMedley]

I have 400K EXP from Mumak, Vrock, and Hezrou--roughly 1/3 of total experience at cl 35.

How do you know this?

[Pete Mack]

David-
Game keeps a list of the numbers of each monster species killed. You can see it thru the knowledge menu. Those monsters are each worth 2000-3000 EXP, depending on CL, so killing ~150 of them puts you at 400K+. In older variants, it is common to find 10 at a time, so that would be around 15 encounters.

Hunting down mumak in particular is a standard way to level up in a high speed dive. Wake them up one at a time and plink them. A single group will give you 30K+ exp for a low level character for no risk.

[Diego Gonzalez]

Hi! I'm working in updating the android port of Angband. I have running 4.2.0 in my cellphone. I'm currently improving (I think) the keyboard.

Some screenshots.

The first one is a transparent keyboard borrowed from Sil-Android.

https://ibb.co/gvp138z

This one is when you press the "..." button. Some keys are made more transparent.

https://ibb.co/Yf5D38C

If you long-press that button you get a solid keyboard.

https://ibb.co/bvvP3p7

The Sym key gives you access to the F1-F12 keys, for macros.

https://ibb.co/0jjxhQM

I have to improve some things, like asking for permission to store files in the device... and figure out how to upload this thing in the playstore!

What a great job did Takkaria, Nick and many others to improve the architecture of the game...

[Pete Mack]

How does it do in portrait mode? My biggest complaint about the existing app is it wastes about 1/2 the screen with blank space. That said, this looks great.

[Diego Gonzalez]

I'm focusing in landscape mode, because in portrait the game view is very small or you have to scroll the window too much to see messages.

We can make a portrait keyboard, but to have a proper portrait mode we need more complex interactions between the C backend and the Java frontend...

[Pete Mack]

Yeah, the font is pretty small, but you can at least see a reasonable distance vertically. I am not sure what you need different in the front end than you already have. I play in landscape mode with the existing app pretty often.

[gglibertine]

Hi! I'm working in updating the android port of Angband. I have running 4.2.0 in my cellphone. I'm currently improving (I think) the keyboard.

I'm glad to hear this! I bought a keyboard for my Android tablet hoping I'd be able to play on Angband Live, but it's just too much of a faff.

[Pete Mack]

@gg --
You can build curses-mode angband (from git) pretty easily in a linux window on android. You might have to install lynx to upload character dumps, but that is easy to. It is sort of a pain, but it does work. I had to make a small number of obvious changes to Makefile.std for it to build properly.

[Diego Gonzalez]

Published Angband 4.2.0 for Android in the Play Store

Hi,

You can find it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...hial.xyangband

Sources: https://github.com/Cuboideb/angbandroid

Vanilla sources were updated to the commit on 2020-02-09. Next version will add newer updates.

TODO:
-Fix term refresh while running and changing pannels.
-Make a reduced keyboard (The player could drag and drop it across the screen). I'm open to suggestions here...

Enjoy!

[moosferatu]

Nice! Thanks for putting this together! I messed around with it for around an hour and it seems to work great. My only nitpicks are the running refresh problem (that you already noted) and that the min-map is a lot less usable, though I'm guessing you can't do anything to fix that.

PS: Your Git repo name is excellent.

[Diego Gonzalez]

Im glad you like it!

Yes, I have to take a deeper look to that refresh glitch.

By the way, I added a modification to the display visible monsters command. The trigger is Ctrl-U and it sort the monster list by experience gained. Im trying to figure out if its too much of a spoiler

[Diego Gonzalez]

I've uploaded a new version in the playstore to fix the problem with running. I've also added the latest changes in the official repository.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.rephial.xyangband

https://github.com/Cuboideb/angbandroid

The update takes a few days to appear in the play store.

I put the change in player-calcs.c here because it may be a problem in Vanilla too. The game doesn't change the panel when running.

@@ -2593,7 +2593,7 @@ void redraw_stuff(struct player *p)
 
 	/* Hack - rarely update while resting or running, makes it over quicker */
 	if (((player_resting_count(p) % 100) || (p->upkeep->running % 100))
-		&& !(redraw & PR_MESSAGE))
+		&& !(redraw & (PR_MESSAGE|PR_MAP)))
 		return;
 
 	/* For each listed flag, send the appropriate signal to the UI */