Borg update

[s0be]

I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but...

Over the past few days, I've been running into a 'hung' borg (not amnesiac, not disconnected). I just ran into it now, attached gdb, and here's the relevent spot:

borg_danger_aux (y=7, x=116, c=1, i=22, average=true, full_damage=true) at borg4.c:7074
7074	    for (k = 0; k < 32; k++)

When I get these, I just kill (not kill -9 btw) the pid and then restart it and it continues fine.

if I get any other amnesiac disconnects, I'll send you the save file.

[edit] I see a new borg popped on the 24th... I'm upping my borg code, I have a save file that's suffering from this right now, so I'll make a backup and send it if it persists[/edit]
[edit2]E-Mail sent[/edit2]

[APWhite]

Anytime you get a freaky borg, send the savefile to my email.

The hang above is going to be a problem. Any idea what type of monster he was fighting at the time?

The update on the 24th is a pretty important one. I screwed up and forgot a couple of important lines of code in a previous update. That slip was having him rest adjacent to molds and such.

PS, thanks for the notes on the leather gloves [+1, -1]. I was able to track down the cause and correct it properly. The problem only surfaced when he had a deep recall depth. All my tests were with shallow borgs.

[APWhite]

I don't know if this will be of any help to you, but...

Over the past few days, I've been running into a 'hung' borg (not amnesiac, not disconnected). I just ran into it now, attached gdb, and here's the relevent spot:

borg_danger_aux (y=7, x=116, c=1, i=22, average=true, full_damage=true) at borg4.c:7074
7074	    for (k = 0; k < 32; k++)

When I get these, I just kill (not kill -9 btw) the pid and then restart it and it continues fine.

if I get any other amnesiac disconnects, I'll send you the save file.

[edit] I see a new borg popped on the 24th... I'm upping my borg code, I have a save file that's suffering from this right now, so I'll make a backup and send it if it persists[/edit]
[edit2]E-Mail sent[/edit2]

Great savefile. I was able to find the problem immediately. The fix took about 2 minutes and then about 10-15 more to test and retest it. Update made. Problem was in borg6.c in the borg_caution() routine wherein he looks at strategically retreating if surrounded. Your borg had 322 grids that he was considering. He was stuck calculating the total danger that each of the 6 monsters was imposing onto each possible pathway to each of those 322 grids. In the process, he could (and did) attempt to test every possible pathway to a grid very far from his current position. This was slowing him down. In reality, he would not have retreated to a grid very far from him. He usually retreats about 1 to 5 grids, rarely 6 grids. The fix was applied by limited the depth of the retreating.

[s0be]

Great savefile. I was able to find the problem immediately. The fix took about 2 minutes and then about 10-15 more to test and retest it. Update made. Problem was in borg6.c in the borg_caution() routine wherein he looks at strategically retreating if surrounded. Your borg had 322 grids that he was considering. He was stuck calculating the total danger that each of the 6 monsters was imposing onto each possible pathway to each of those 322 grids. In the process, he could (and did) attempt to test every possible pathway to a grid very far from his current position. This was slowing him down. In reality, he would not have retreated to a grid very far from him. He usually retreats about 1 to 5 grids, rarely 6 grids. The fix was applied by limited the depth of the retreating.

I can confirm this fix worked. I just ran into it again, re-upped the borg and BAM, it works. Sooner or later, I'll get around to sending you my borg.dat... 4292 and counting... haha

[s0be]

I may tackle this tomorrow night if you don't have time to look at it (or see this post before then). Any chance you'd add a reason for money scumming to the borg screen? Also, the code that updates the 'unique on level line' doesn't clear out what's there before updating to a new unique (when multiple are seen). This can leave partial names and parenthesis around, which is ugly. Finally, I'm seeing crashes during money scumming. I haven't had time to check a dump of what's happening though.

[APWhite]

I may tackle this tomorrow night if you don't have time to look at it (or see this post before then). Any chance you'd add a reason for money scumming to the borg screen? Also, the code that updates the 'unique on level line' doesn't clear out what's there before updating to a new unique (when multiple are seen). This can leave partial names and parenthesis around, which is ugly. Finally, I'm seeing crashes during money scumming. I haven't had time to check a dump of what's happening though.

Money scumming crashes are usually happening at night when there are lots of monsters in town. It might be a game crash. I have not been able to get the borg to crash for me while scumming, so its hard to know for sure. But I am sure they happen at night. If the borg sees a town monster he will track it down. He is resting 5 rounds each time, and allowing the denizens to breed, but they don't show up in his lighted area so he can't break the rest-cycle and hunt them down. What would help him is not resting 5 rounds at night. Forcing him to make a random movement each round would get him encountering monsters sooner, thus keeping their population manageable.

I know what your saying about the borg status screen. I need to repair the deep heal stuff too.

APWhite

[s0be]

I have a hack fix for the scary guy on level problem. I'll clean it up and send it your way shortly.

The gist of it is:

int foo;
for(foo=56; foo < angband_term[j]->wid; foo++)
  Term_write(2,56,null,something that sets the color, " ");

right before you do the conditional scary guy write. I plan to just make a helper function that is like Term_clear_range(start,end)
or something like that...

[s0be]

Money scumming crashes are usually happening at night when there are lots of monsters in town. It might be a game crash. I have not been able to get the borg to crash for me while scumming, so its hard to know for sure. But I am sure they happen at night. If the borg sees a town monster he will track it down. He is resting 5 rounds each time, and allowing the denizens to breed, but they don't show up in his lighted area so he can't break the rest-cycle and hunt them down. What would help him is not resting 5 rounds at night. Forcing him to make a random movement each round would get him encountering monsters sooner, thus keeping their population manageable.

I just got one, have the save file from immediately after (pity, it's from after and not before), and the crash happened during day.

[s0be]

--- angborg-virgin/src/borg9.c	2008-10-27 10:38:22.000000000 -0400
+++ angborg/src/borg9.c	2008-10-30 20:15:14.000000000 -0400
@@ -6125,10 +6125,14 @@
 
    if (unique_on_level) attr = TERM_WHITE;
    else attr = TERM_SLATE;
+
+   int foo;
+   for(foo=58; foo < angband_term[j]->wid; foo++)
+       Term_putstr(foo,2,-1,attr," ");
+
    Term_putstr(42, 2, -1, attr, "Unique on level");
    if (unique_on_level) Term_putstr(58, 2, -1, attr, format("(%s)",
                        r_name + r_info[unique_on_level].name));
-   else Term_putstr(58, 2, -1, attr, "                                   ");
 
    if (scaryguy_on_level) attr = TERM_WHITE;
    else attr = TERM_SLATE;

[takkaria]

--- angborg-virgin/src/borg9.c	2008-10-27 10:38:22.000000000 -0400
+++ angborg/src/borg9.c	2008-10-30 20:15:14.000000000 -0400
@@ -6125,10 +6125,14 @@
 
    if (unique_on_level) attr = TERM_WHITE;
    else attr = TERM_SLATE;
+
+   int foo;
+   for(foo=58; foo < angband_term[j]->wid; foo++)
+       Term_putstr(foo,2,-1,attr," ");
+
    Term_putstr(42, 2, -1, attr, "Unique on level");
    if (unique_on_level) Term_putstr(58, 2, -1, attr, format("(%s)",
                        r_name + r_info[unique_on_level].name));
-   else Term_putstr(58, 2, -1, attr, "                                   ");
 
    if (scaryguy_on_level) attr = TERM_WHITE;
    else attr = TERM_SLATE;

You can make things easier for yourself by doing: Term_erase(58, 2, 255), or something along those lines.

[s0be]

You can make things easier for yourself by doing: Term_erase(58, 2, 255), or something along those lines.

Thanks, I was planning on digging deeper into the term handling code first. In actuality, the borg redraws all statuses every time, so a term clear function first thing in the function would have sufficed, which was what I was planning on looking into.

[chem]

Is there any news on the borg and [V] 3.1.x? I am interested in testing the borg for that version. In fact, I am hoping the borg can be merged as a patch, to be a feature of [V] (but that's a different thread).

[takkaria]

Is there any news on the borg and [V] 3.1.x? I am interested in testing the borg for that version. In fact, I am hoping the borg can be merged as a patch, to be a feature of [V] (but that's a different thread).

I don't recommend changing to accommodate 3.1 until there's a version not marked "beta" out. I don't think it'd be worth anyone's time.

[APWhite]

I will take care of the 3.1.X as soon as it is done. It won't take me too long to make the update.

It will go much faster If I get a detailed change-log. Stuff like "I added a few more ego items" is a lot less helpful than "Added Ego rings of Bad Breath, Ego Sword of Breakage"

Tracking down shop/store layout changes takes a while. But I should be able to get through it.

If you don't mind, the borg does need to have some changes made to the game code in order to work a bit more efficiently. Usually is stuff like Extern'ing an function and little stuff like that. Most of the game code changes I need are found in the borg source code zipfile. Open the games source code and search for APW and you will find them. The files are birth.c
cmd0.c, externs.h, main-win.c, store.c, util.c, variable.c

Do you need me to detail the changes in a post?


APWhite

[takkaria]

I will take care of the 3.1.X as soon as it is done. It won't take me too long to make the update.

It will go much faster If I get a detailed change-log. Stuff like "I added a few more ego items" is a lot less helpful than "Added Ego rings of Bad Breath, Ego Sword of Breakage"

Tracking down shop/store layout changes takes a while. But I should be able to get through it.

If you don't mind, the borg does need to have some changes made to the game code in order to work a bit more efficiently. Usually is stuff like Extern'ing an function and little stuff like that. Most of the game code changes I need are found in the borg source code zipfile. Open the games source code and search for APW and you will find them. The files are birth.c
cmd0.c, externs.h, main-win.c, store.c, util.c, variable.c

Do you need me to detail the changes in a post?

I'll take a look.

For V 3.1, it's very hard to give an exact changelog, since so much has changed, but I will try to get one done for the first non-beta. You'll be glad to hear I've not done anything with the stores.