Current master post 4.2.0

[Chud]

Do the latest nightlies include the latest changes to the evolving Blackguard? Or is that a separate branch?

[Nick]

Do the latest nightlies include the latest changes to the evolving Blackguard? Or is that a separate branch?

Yep, they're all in the nightlies. There should be another small update over the weekend, too - David's original plan was for their detection spell to be for monsters which can be frightened, and I've implemented that in my dev version.

[moosferatu]

When you hit 'r' on a stack of items, is it supposed to list all of the items in the stack? I did this last night on a stack of two items (wand and silver). It listed the wand and had a line for the sliver, but the text was empty. I had just drank a !enlightenment, so I assume @ should have known it was silver.

[DavidMedley]

Yep, they're all in the nightlies. There should be another small update over the weekend, too - David's original plan was for their detection spell to be for monsters which can be frightened, and I've implemented that in my dev version.

Hmm that should be interesting. I had semi-repented that choice because I started to think it would miss too many crucial enemies. But it'll make the BG more distinct...!

[Nick]

When you hit 'r' on a stack of items, is it supposed to list all of the items in the stack? I did this last night on a stack of two items (wand and silver). It listed the wand and had a line for the sliver, but the text was empty. I had just drank a !enlightenment, so I assume @ should have known it was silver.

Nice find! This bug has been in existence for a long time, certainly since before my time as maintainer. The problem is actually that money is not given a colour to be printed in in object lists (because it never appears, I guess - right?), so it is printed in black on a black background.

Fixed in development

[moosferatu]

Great!

Tangentially related, it is annoying when a monster obscures items that you've detected. For example, detect treasure then detect life and, if a monster is in the same location as an item, only the monster's symbol is displayed. It would be wonderful if there was a way to toggle between giving display preference to monsters or items, or maybe there already is? If there isn't, I'm guessing this is easier said than done.

[DavidMedley]

Hmm that should be interesting. I had semi-repented that choice because I started to think it would miss too many crucial enemies. But it'll make the BG more distinct...!

I'll post some more about this in the BG thread

http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?p=145479

[DavidMedley]

Hmm that should be interesting. I had semi-repented that choice because I started to think it would miss too many crucial enemies. But it'll make the BG more distinct...!

After looking at this change closely, I think it'll be really good actually.

[Grotug]

For Forced Descent games would it be a good idea to convert up staircases to down staircases? As an almost exclusively forced descent player this would be sooo nice.

[Nick]

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

• Fix for bug where repeated reading of scrolls of Identify Rune to no effect was possible
• Blackguards' detect living monsters change to detect monsters which can be scared
• Make copying monster.txt to lore.txt work again
• Drop grid target after a monster gets teleported (or is otherwise out of LoS)
• Adjust throwing damage so that shots/pebbles are less OP
• Adjust break percentage back up for shots/pebbles
• Adjust critical hit rate for O-combat
• Allow gold objects to appear in floor lists
• Make more projection effects wake monsters, and add a line in projection.txt governing (most of) this
• Assert stairs are placed when asked for (#4243)
• Fix some address errors (thanks Kusunose)
• Fix crash after incorrect cleanup from killing a mimic (thanks backwardsEric)

[DavidMedley]

I don't expect this suggestion to be popular, but I think selling should be on by default. I've gotten a few new players into the game in the last several months and they all ask me about why they can't sell items for more than $0. I don't mind that experienced players think no_sell is the better way to play, but I really don't think it should be the default for people who don't even know how to change the birth options.

Might as well make "show effective speed as a multiplier" default for the same reason.

[Nick]

I don't expect this suggestion to be popular, but I think selling should be on by default. I've gotten a few new players into the game in the last several months and they all ask me about why they can't sell items for more than $0. I don't mind that experienced players think no_sell is the better way to play, but I really don't think it should be the default for people who don't even know how to change the birth options.

And once you tell them, then they know

Many long-time players (me included) were sceptical about no-selling before it was made the default, and it has been pretty much universally acknowledged that it is a big improvement to gameplay. I think setting it as not the default is sending the wrong signals (especially to new players) as to what is important in the game. There was a period where Angband was derided as the "game of shopping", where a large part of the game consisted of wandering the dungeon slowed to -2 or -3 so you could lug around the latest collection of useless ego weapons to sell in the shops. I'd rather not go back to that.

[DavidMedley]

Many long-time players (me included) were sceptical about no-selling before it was made the default.

I know that history, and I'm glad some or most players are enjoying the game more on no-sell. But it's very counter-intuitive. New players are confused by it. Conceding that no-sell is much better, a moderately experienced player can choose it when he discovers birth options.

But another way to go about it would be to have explanatory text somewhere. I can't tell every new player about the rules of no-sell!

[Nick]

I know that history, and I'm glad some or most players are enjoying the game more on no-sell. But it's very counter-intuitive. New players are confused by it. Conceding that no-sell is much better, a moderately experienced player can choose it when he discovers birth options.

The problem is, though, that the beginning player has already learned to value getting stuff and selling it, and it's quite addictive - "1500AU for a weapon I would never use - that's great! Next time I'll get 5!". And it gets repeatedly reinforced, so that the player will make inventory decisions which are ultimately bad (being overburdened, leaving too few slots for useful items) because of the drive to bring back more stuff to sell.

But another way to go about it would be to have explanatory text somewhere. I can't tell every new player about the rules of no-sell!

That's fair - where do you think is the best place to put such an explanation? Players' tendency to read useful explanations varies...

[EpicMan]

That's fair - where do you think is the best place to put such an explanation? Players' tendency to read useful explanations varies...

Maybe mention it the first time a player visits a shop, or the first time they sell an item.