feature/monster

[mrfy]

I was able to drop some damaged armour in the Armoury, a Hard Leather Cap [2, -2], which they now have for sale for 6 gold, same as a regular Hard Leather Cap [2, +0]. More interestingly, they now have a Wicker Shield [2, -1] for 4 gold but 39 Wicker Shields [2, +0] are only 1 gold each. A Pair of Leather Sandals [1, -1] is 4 gold but 16 Pairs of Leather Sandals [1, +0] are 1 gold each. Of course selling is disabled (as it should be).

[PowerWyrm]

Tiles: I have been pretty lazy with this. Renamed monsters have kept their same tiles, but new monsters have typically either got the (possibly not very appropriate) tile of a removed monster, or not got a tile at all. I would be grateful for any suggestions of better tile allocation.

That's why I tend to change monsters really sparsely in my variant because tile allocation is a sandcastle that will crumble each time a single change is made. Basically every tile is taken and there are none for more mobs or different mobs.

[Nick]

That's why I tend to change monsters really sparsely in my variant because tile allocation is a sandcastle that will crumble each time a single change is made. Basically every tile is taken and there are none for more mobs or different mobs.

Yes, indeed. My position is that I'm constrained by tiles, but I refuse to be constrained by tiles...

[tangar]

Yes, indeed. My position is that I'm constrained by tiles, but I refuse to be constrained by tiles...

From now on we have Shtukensia. She is an artist and coming into tiles field right now Right now (literally) she is working at new passable rubble tile (and also hunger trap for Angband Online).

The only problem - it's super hard to support so much tilesets. Maybe it's time to choose one _official_ tileset and leave others for community.

There are two main tilesets: Shockbolt and Gervais. I myself prefer Gervais, because Shockbolt is kinda heterogeneous (some tiles are sharp, some are blurry) and it's hard to remember monsters there. So for Angband Online we would work only at Gervais tileset.. But as I see, Shockbolt's tileset got plenty of Gervais tiles, so new tiles could be ported there too.

Nick, is there a list of monsters/objects which Angband needs to draw? I saw only rubble @ trac.. And also - where to post new tile's pictures (cause I didn't find 'registration' @ trac).

[Thraalbee]

Crash bug

Fighting Maeglin I get repeated crashes without info but at different places. Finally got one with this info: Error. Bad group index: group: 92, monster: 91
Have a save of entire lib catalog if you want more

[EDIT] Restarting and killing him again, now I got Bad group index: group: 92, monster: 90
[EDIT] But mostly it just crashes without info when Maeglin dies

[Version angband-4.1.3-300-g9ce38b40e]

[EDIT2] Later when I met him again, he died without a crash.

[Nick]

Fighting Maeglin I get repeated crashes without info but at different places. Finally got one with this info: Error. Bad group index: group: 92, monster: 91
Have a save of entire lib catalog if you want more

[EDIT] Restarting and killing him again, now I got Bad group index: group: 92, monster: 90
[EDIT] But mostly it just crashes without info when Maeglin dies

[Version angband-4.1.3-300-g9ce38b40e]

If you have a savefile that might be helpful (and randart file if you're playing with randarts and it's not still your standart priest).

As for tiles, I will get back to them later, but for now I want to focus on the actual gameplay. There isn't a list of which monsters need tiles, but looking at monster info in the knowledge menu with tiles turned on will show which monsters don't have a tile at all.

[tangar]

There isn't a list of which monsters need tiles, but looking at monster info in the knowledge menu with tiles turned on will show which monsters don't have a tile at all.

Thanks. I press ~ to look into them, but there are only the ones that I've encountered. Is it possible to 'Display monster knowledge' for all monsters even if I didn't meet them?

[Thraalbee]

If you have a savefile that might be helpful (and randart file if you're playing with randarts and it's not still your standart priest).
...

Attached. Not critical for me but good to eliminate of course.
First thing to do is to throw the Orome spell on Maeglin. m5d iirc.

[Thraalbee]

Decided to go with the old save file to keep testing [would never have put it on the ladder] and got the same crash on killing Morgoth. This time "Bad group index: group: 6, monster:9"
Savefile attached.

[Thraalbee]

Review of new monsters

Like it! My priest could not kill everything and had to leave some situations be. Ehm, destruct. But the dragons and demons are great and makes the end game more interesting! The only thing is that the Morgoth fight becomes even more anticlimactic. Yes, I know making him stronger just prolongs the game and then you'll end up with the same complaint, but could we at least increase the %chance of him using Manastorm? That's the only thing he does better than eg Ancalagon.

Notes
* Both the big Giant bosses seem to miss the unique flag
* I had a large number of crashes in the late game (see above)
* I never found an artifact ring except Barahir (iirc)
* I had sick base speed half the game, never even used Cubragol

[t4nk]

Tiles: I have been pretty lazy with this. Renamed monsters have kept their same tiles, but new monsters have typically either got the (possibly not very appropriate) tile of a removed monster, or not got a tile at all. I would be grateful for any suggestions of better tile allocation.

I also support the idea of having only ONE official tileset. 5 of them is simply not maintainable at all.

There are two main tilesets: Shockbolt and Gervais. I myself prefer Gervais, because Shockbolt is kinda heterogeneous (some tiles are sharp, some are blurry) and it's hard to remember monsters there. So for Angband Online we would work only at Gervais tileset..

Another problems with Shockbolt's tileset is that the tiles are big (64x64 pixels) and detailed; scaling them down them doesn't work very well.

[MattB]

As for tiles, I will get back to them later, but for now I want to focus on the actual gameplay.

So, getting back to tiles...

I use Shockbolt, because they're beautiful and I, for one, find them perfectly clear, but others' mileage may of course vary.

I notice that the new books have no tile (obviously) and I seem to recall that Shockbolt's tileset has firm restrictions on altering it (which is 100% fair enough). Do we still have any contact with him? Last I saw him here we were talking about Father Christmas and his elves, but then again I've been AWOL for a while.

Anyway, what I was wondering was whether he would be averse to someone else recolouring the existing spellbooks, or doing it himself of course.

Finally, when you say you are constrained by tiles, Nick, do you mean that you lack the tiles you need, or that you are maxed out on the number of possible tiles?

[Hounded]

+1 for Shockbolt tile set.

I like the other one that is bundled as well but last I tried it there were some incompletions. It's jarring to see a giant "W" (or whatever it was) wandering through the middle of the tiles.

[Nick]

Finally, when you say you are constrained by tiles, Nick, do you mean that you lack the tiles you need, or that you are maxed out on the number of possible tiles?

I mean that every time a new object, monster, trap or terrain feature is introduced, I have these choices:

1. Leave it without tiles
2. Search through the tilesets in the hope that there is an appropriate tile I can use
3. Make new tiles for it (or hope someone else does)

and I'm not very happy with any of them.

So far I've gone with option 2 when a monster is renamed or replaced by something roughly equivalent, and otherwise option 1. So I'm constrained in the sense that introducing new stuff means breaking tiles further, and they'll then have to either remain broken, or be fixed by someone.

[PowerWyrm]

Shockbolt tile set (updated):

http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=4012

Note: it now comes in 32x32 and 64x64 formats!

The only drawback is that many useful tiles that could have been added (see: http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showpos...&postcount=799) didn't make it into the regular tileset because they were "paid for" tiles and therefore copyrighted.