Preparing for 4.2 release

[Nick]

Ok, thanks for the answer.
For slow digestion: I have sDigest and it CERTAINLY did not divide the characters hunger rate by 5. Did you mean 2? I lost 1% in about every 60 turns of waiting and 1%/30 turns without it. This was tested by resting at 32% satiation level.

The problem with testing like this is there is insufficient accuracy in the food bar. Also digestion only happens every 100 game turns - 10 player turns at normal speed - so testing for only 30-60 turns would not be accurate.

I have just tested this in a debugger where I can see the amount of digestion and how often, and I can guarantee slow digestion does actually divide digestion by 5.

I find out now that blackguards have ImpHP as an intrinsic. That seems an important drawback. Maybe it should be mentioned on the character creation screen?

Yes indeed, it's kind of a bug that it isn't already. Will be in the next build.

[Gwarl]

found a rather obscure bug

when using autoconf to compile variants on angband.live, it seems they were using scripts/version.sh to look for a version number to describe themselves with. This finally explains why 4.1.3 has been showing up in-game as 4.1.3-dirty all this time on the site. Using Makefile.std seems to avert this and then everyone knows which version they are, but it might be nice if future angbands don't like to lie about their version number credentials

[Sphara]

I dunno if a closing wall-trap is such a good idea, if it works this way. This character in question survives only because he happened to find a ring of teleportation just a few moments earlier.

[Nick]

found a rather obscure bug

when using autoconf to compile variants on angband.live, it seems they were using scripts/version.sh to look for a version number to describe themselves with. This finally explains why 4.1.3 has been showing up in-game as 4.1.3-dirty all this time on the site. Using Makefile.std seems to avert this and then everyone knows which version they are, but it might be nice if future angbands don't like to lie about their version number credentials

The reason for not using Makefile.std is that it only gets updated at version change, and version.sh tries to be more precise for if people are playing a nightly or something modified. Are you making changes before you compile?

[Gwarl]

The reason for not using Makefile.std is that it only gets updated at version change, and version.sh tries to be more precise for if people are playing a nightly or something modified. Are you making changes before you compile?

No, I think what it might have been is that they were all in subfolders of a folder that still had a hidden .git folder, and so maybe they looked around and saw that they were inside a git repo and declared themselves (from 3.3 onwards) to be 4.1.3-dirty.

I'm inclined to think, in contradiction to my previous post, that this might not be worth looking into afterall.

[Nick]

New builds on the nightlies page and angband.live with the following changes:

• Temporary brands and slays are now included in weapon damage calculations
• Being teleported wakes monsters
• Problem with mana not being shown when increasing from 0 is (I believe) fixed
• Classes with innate object flags (only example - blackguards with ImpairHP) now show on the birth screen
• Webs cleared while the player is out of LoS now don't update until the player sees the grid again (as was already the case for terrain changes)

Please let me know of any issues, especially with traps/webs/glyphs/decoys as a result of the web fix.

[Nick]

New builds on the nightlies page and angband.live with the following changes:

• A few monster colours that I missed earlier have been reverted to their originals
• Problems with curse (mainly) ID which resulted in unremovable {??} on items apparently fixed
• Some small changes to help
• Stop monster memory for undead saying that they don't resist nether (thanks clouded)
• Add a light meter at the bottom of the map indicating the light level of the player's grid

This last one is in place of clouded's suggestion for warning necromancers when they wielded a lantern, which had potential for annoying message spam no matter how it was done.

I now expect no more changes before 4.2.0 is released apart from documentation (oh, and a few tile fixes).

The only outstanding issues I could find in this thread are Ingwe's not-picking-up bug, which I have never managed to find or reproduce; and a comment about wands of darkness not doing damage which I never answered, the answer being they're not meant to, they're an equivalent utility for necromancers as wands of light are to other players.

If there are other bugs or problems, please tell me now.

[gtrudeau88]

10 ft tall high elves

New builds on the nightlies page and angband.live with the following changes:

• A few monster colours that I missed earlier have been reverted to their originals
• Problems with curse (mainly) ID which resulted in unremovable {??} on items apparently fixed
• Some small changes to help
• Stop monster memory for undead saying that they don't resist nether (thanks clouded)
• Add a light meter at the bottom of the map indicating the light level of the player's grid

This last one is in place of clouded's suggestion for warning necromancers when they wielded a lantern, which had potential for annoying message spam no matter how it was done.

I now expect no more changes before 4.2.0 is released apart from documentation (oh, and a few tile fixes).

The only outstanding issues I could find in this thread are Ingwe's not-picking-up bug, which I have never managed to find or reproduce; and a comment about wands of darkness not doing damage which I never answered, the answer being they're not meant to, they're an equivalent utility for necromancers as wands of light are to other players.

If there are other bugs or problems, please tell me now.

[Chud]

10 ft tall high elves

That's the "high" part.

[Voovus]

If there are other bugs or problems, please tell me now.

I seem to recall that there were balancing issues with the necromancer and the druid (esp. melee-oriented) a while back. They may have got fixed since. Has anyone played through with these classes recently? Are they fine and happy to go to 4.2.0?

[Nick]

I seem to recall that there were balancing issues with the necromancer and the druid (esp. melee-oriented) a while back. They may have got fixed since. Has anyone played through with these classes recently? Are they fine and happy to go to 4.2.0?

I think so. There has been no real complaint for a while, and some positive feedback on balance, especially for necros.

Also, some race heights modified in development

[Chud]

I seem to recall that there were balancing issues with the necromancer and the druid (esp. melee-oriented) a while back. They may have got fixed since. Has anyone played through with these classes recently? Are they fine and happy to go to 4.2.0?

I'm running a late game druid at the moment -- no complaints worth holding up a release for.

Still, in general it feels to me like spell-based damage output for primarily casting classes is weak in the end game; it doesn't really seem right that a primarily spell-casting class should be better off in melee than relying on spells, and yet in the late game it seems to often come to that with good gear.

[mrfy]

I think so. There has been no real complaint for a while, and some positive feedback on balance, especially for necros.

Also, some race heights modified in development

I've been playing a high-elf ranger for a bit and it doesn't seem overpowered. For bow so far I've only found a Short Bow of Lothlorien. I've found plenty of artifact weapons but no bows. Once I found the dungeon book and could create arrows it's been easier.

It appears that it maxes at 2.6 shots per turn. Which seems fine.

[Nick]

I'm running a late game druid at the moment -- no complaints worth holding up a release for.

Still, in general it feels to me like spell-based damage output for primarily casting classes is weak in the end game; it doesn't really seem right that a primarily spell-casting class should be better off in melee than relying on spells, and yet in the late game it seems to often come to that with good gear.

Druids are kind of expected to fight a bit, or at least to have it as an option - their shapechanges and timed healing allow for some melee, in a similar way to how priests can win by melee + healing or by OoD or a combination. Let me know if the spells are really too weak, though, or the melee really too superior.

[Sphara]

Early game and midgame play beautifully for druid. It's relatively easy class to start right after you get Stinking Cloud. Lighting Strike is a great crowd control spell and its possible stunning effect further helps when you need to melee. Earth Rising is druid's obvious all-around spell. Utility spells are a good mixture of minor detection, backups and environment manipulation. Slow Monster is especially strong and allows really early kiting. I could consistently reach dungeon level 15-20 with just the first book, even if it doesn't have any translocation spells. Druids moderate firepower and utility spells justify that nicely.

Didn't make it to the endgame but at CL34, druid already lacks big-damage crowd control spells and certainly wants either a good melee weapon or a launcher. As I looked at the late spells, I can imagine late-game druid play a lot like priest, whose near-invulnerability has been turned off.

IMO, early to midgame druid, needs very little to zero changes.