Angband for Android 10 (volunteers needed)

[Diego Gonzalez]

I've uploaded another version to the play store, this time updated to android 10

I don't have such a device. Can someone try it and tell if it works?

Thank you all!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.rephial.xyangband&hl=es_419

[Yamaneko]

I tried this on my Nokia 6.1 with Android 10 (we discussed this through email) and after the port was updated to version 1.6, everything seems to run just fine.

Thank you so much for your efforts!

[Diego Gonzalez]

Thanks to you for trying !

[saeniel]

Thank you so much!
It looks..great!

Just one question. How do I have turn on the keyboard in landscape orientation?

[Diego Gonzalez]

Thanks! Long-press over the game show options.

Usually I pick "Fit height" and "Toggle Keyboard"

[Diego Gonzalez]

Also, you can set the orientation of the screen there.

[saeniel]

Oops. Thank you

By the way, are you planning some updates to improve usability for Android gaming ?

[Diego Gonzalez]

By the way, are you planning some updates to improve usability for Android gaming ?

As you know, Angband is keyboard-intensive, and it has a lot of commands. The menus can also have many options (letters and numbers).

The angband screen has many elements (stats at the right, flags at the bottom), so dealing with all that (on small devices) isn't an easy job. Plus, we are all accostumed to access the many commands of the game in a very fast way.

I think that the transparent keyboard is a nice addition, but it's a bit annoying in the middle zone of the screen. Still, the game remains playable. I have a ranger near dlvl 100 right now.

I have plans to take that middle portion of the keyboard and put it in the upper-right corner as a possible improvement.

I'm open to brainstorm about new inputs methods

[Pete Mack]

Nick did something similar for FA on NDS (IIRC) back in the day. There were only a handful of buttons left--one for "use", one for fire, ones for directional movement/running, and it had mouse movement. It also allowed new buttons bound to keymaps. And it was heavily used by the FA guru Psi.

[Diego Gonzalez]

Thanks! Have to take a look!

[Yamaneko]

I'm super happy with the Android port. Usually I play in portrait mode with the fit width option. But zoom-in and zoom-out mapped to the hardware volume-up and volume-down buttons respectively is really helpful.

On Android I play much slower compared to the desktop version. This is not necessarily a bad thing; playing on Android has a certain flow to it. For me, the interface is well done overall.

I use tap on screen for movement. This works well most of the time, but I also ran into some walls because I tapped slightly off, like I wanted to walk west but somehow my big thumb landed on southwest. Maybe an optional and very transparent 3x3 grid overlay would help me.

In addition, I was wondering whether it might be helpful to extend the keyboard by including F-keys. Let's say five of them.

Some frequent commands on Android require multiple taps and are more cumbersome compared to a full-blown hardware keyboard, such as "list of monsters" or "cast netherbolt." If I had five F-keys, which I would be able to easily remap, I would put list of monsters on F1, list of known objects on F2, netherbolt on F5, or something like this. This is not about remapping key commands. Instead, it's about having additional keys to make some commands more easily accessible and more convenient while keeping the original keyset intact. Ideally, I would be able to assign F-keys to keystrokes such as m-a-a (or whatever I happen to choose).

But as said, I’m very happy with this port, so these suggestions are more for convenience.

Finally, I recommend to have a look at the Android port of DCSS (ASCII version). There too the interface is done quite well IMO.

Again, thanks for your efforts so far.

[Diego Gonzalez]

The game has 3 keyboards, the normal one, the "Sym" and the "Ctrl^".

If you tap in the "Sym" key you get access to the F-keys and other stuff.

Long press over "..." and "Ctrl^" trigger different levels of keyboard visibility.
Long press over p,f,o,u trigger (Ctrl-P, Ctrl-F, Ctrl-O and U, the last one is the "use" command).

I like your idea about the tap "zones" very much. Will do that.

I installed DCSS briefly on my phone some months ago. I'll take a better look now.

Thanks!

[Yamaneko]

The game has 3 keyboards, the normal one, the "Sym" and the "Ctrl^".

Yes, I know about the three keyboards. As said, I find the interface well done actually.

But why not allow for some more customization by adding five (or whatever number) of additional buttons to the interface that can be mapped and re-mapped by the user? I called these buttons "F-keys" in my last post. They can be optional of course, but would allow to increase the flow of gameplay without tempering with the original keyset.

I didn't know about long-press p to trigger Ctrl-P (and the others). This is nice.

[fph]

On a touch interface, it would be very cool to use gestures (for instance, swipe up for "use", swipe down for "monster list"), but I have no idea how hard it is to implement it.

[tg122]

In terms of UI and Key mapping, i find that Nethack for Android works really well. You can create customizable, scrollable key mapping ribbons on the bottom of the screen and down the sides. This doesn't intrude upon the playable window too much, and you can easily access the keys you frequently use by mapping them the way you like. The reason why it works so well is because you can create multiple key ribbons and its highly customizable.

I found that I was able to map it so that I could have the frequently used keys all at my fingertips, and the less frequently used keys would require me only to have to scroll slightly to access. It may be worth trying Nethack out if you want to see how this works.