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Hi,
Joshua invited me to post bug reports either by e-mail or to oook, and since more eyes see better, I figured I'd put them here. Here we go!
All these relate to the unofficial beta.
I. ACTUAL BUGS
1. Ironman Doesn't "Stick" Right
The ironman setting is badly retained from game to game. The key behaviors I see in this area I see are these:
* If you start a game with a character whose last game was ironman and check the settings, the ironman setting will be set to "yes."
* If you then go through with character creation, the resulting character will not have the "Ironman" flag.
* Turning ironman off and back on during character creation eliminates this problem.
* Once I encountered even stranger behavior, where a character with this "ignored Ironman setting" started off without Ironman, dived a little, went back down, and suddenly found themselves in Ironman (which of course made it impossible to continue the game in good faith). Unfortunately, I have not been able to reproduce this behavior.
It's strange that this problem has not been reported earlier, since there have been reports of ironman runs other than mine here and there since the 1.0.0 release. Perhaps it is something machine-specific... but I've gotten it on two different machines and operating systems, so I dunno.
Note that the autoroll setting, on the other hand, *is* preserved.
2. Transformations at Low MP Can Cause Damage without Warning
Unlike the previous problem, this one should be straightforward to understand and fix, since AFAICT, the culprit behind it is a certain JM. :-) Normally, of course, when you cast a spell without enough MP to, well, cast the spell, you are warned that this is risky before continuing. If you continue after this warning, the spell is cast at a high fail rate and you can receive "punishments" like paralyzation or stat loss. So far so good. The trouble is, mana levels when casting transformation spells are apparently silently treated as if they were already post-transformation, and thus lowered. There's the mentioned code in the source that's apprently to this effect, and the game behavior corresponds to it too. When casting transformation spells with nominally just enough mana to cast the spell, fail rates are unusually high (and higher than the nominal rates) and effects typical for insufficient-mana casting can occur after the casting.
I'm not sure what the reason is for treating mana this way, but if it's not necessary or useful, the simplest would be to just remove it. Otherwise, there should at least be the usual warning, although this may seem to players like buggy behavior since on the surface, there's enough mana for the casting. Maybe transformation spell costs could be increased at low mana instead?
3. Error Message When Appending Macros/Keymaps
...at least on my Vista machine. :-) When appending macros/keymaps, I get the error message "failed to create temporary file \s2s0.1", (where "1" is actually a counter and can be 2, 3, etc.). The process then continues from there and seemingly completes successfully.
4. "Graphics" Setting Not Preserved Between Starts
...at least on my Vista machine. By "Graphics" I mean the setting with the command path Sangband Options > User Interface > Graphics. It returns to extended graphics on each new start. Perhaps this is linked to problem 3.
II. ARGUABLE BALANCE ISSUES
Only one in this category.
1. Ironman Viability Varies Wildly Between (Otherwise-viable) Builds
This is something I've gone on about in some of my ancient Ironman posts. In short: nearly all magic-using builds are close to literally impossible to play in Ironman. "You whiner," you say, "Ironman is *supposed* to be nearly impossible!" Well, yes (although Ironman can eventually be downright comfy in Sangband if you're patient enough), but I think it should be nearly-impossible to a similar degree for all builds. However, it is not. The trouble is that for all magic-users except sorcerors and, very arguably, necromancers*, it seems to be impossible to preserve one's stocks of town books up to the end of the game. Strong fire attacks can destroy town books, and there are enough of them out there that one starts seeing town books fry (especially, but not only, as a fighter-caster) as early as the mid-30's. Meanwhile, town books have rather low drop rates. Book two and especially book one also have rather tight windows when you take into consideration how relatively little "stuff" is dropped until the 30's or so. A typical Ironman game will see 1-3 copies of the relevent book one, a few more of the relevant book two, and a decent supply of book three. Book one can be bought in multiple copies if you skimp on stats (ouch) and scrolls of phase door (double-ouch). But I think that, especially for books one and two, the supply is just not enough to withstand all the unavoidable fire attacks one will see throughout a whole game.
Compare this to the life of an OoI ironman, who is periodically provided with opportunities to replace and even improve their armor throughout the game. Imagine if instead there were only one armor type for each slot, but it was degradable and unrepairable, and only dropped four times per game!
Or compare it to how the life of ironman bowman (who do have it perhaps tougher than characters who skip archery, but not *as* tough as above) would be if, from level 50 onwards, they could only use their bows on a weekday when it's not raining... like a caster without their book one.
If this is something worth addressing, then some solutions could be:
a) Increase the drop rates for town books.
b) Widen the drop windows for town books.
c) Make town books inflammable. :-)
*Sorcerors can convert boulders into blankets of elemental protection (yes, you read that right) using Chaos Cloud, making it child's play to always have one on hand. Necromancers *may* be able to guard their book supplies from the worst offenders -- monsters with non-beam non-bolt fire attacks -- by staying permanently in wraithform and always ducking into a wall when appropriate, but I've never gotten one deep enough with an iron necro to test out this theory.
III. A COMMENT ON AN EARLIER THOUGHT OF YOURS
While mulling over shadowstalkers earlier, you considered condensing the light/douse keystrokes down to one when the command was unambiguous (which it normally is). In the name of ironman players everywhere -- all three of us -- I beg thee, do this! do this!
Best regards,
Bostock
Joshua invited me to post bug reports either by e-mail or to oook, and since more eyes see better, I figured I'd put them here. Here we go!
All these relate to the unofficial beta.
I. ACTUAL BUGS
1. Ironman Doesn't "Stick" Right
The ironman setting is badly retained from game to game. The key behaviors I see in this area I see are these:
* If you start a game with a character whose last game was ironman and check the settings, the ironman setting will be set to "yes."
* If you then go through with character creation, the resulting character will not have the "Ironman" flag.
* Turning ironman off and back on during character creation eliminates this problem.
* Once I encountered even stranger behavior, where a character with this "ignored Ironman setting" started off without Ironman, dived a little, went back down, and suddenly found themselves in Ironman (which of course made it impossible to continue the game in good faith). Unfortunately, I have not been able to reproduce this behavior.
It's strange that this problem has not been reported earlier, since there have been reports of ironman runs other than mine here and there since the 1.0.0 release. Perhaps it is something machine-specific... but I've gotten it on two different machines and operating systems, so I dunno.
Note that the autoroll setting, on the other hand, *is* preserved.
2. Transformations at Low MP Can Cause Damage without Warning
Unlike the previous problem, this one should be straightforward to understand and fix, since AFAICT, the culprit behind it is a certain JM. :-) Normally, of course, when you cast a spell without enough MP to, well, cast the spell, you are warned that this is risky before continuing. If you continue after this warning, the spell is cast at a high fail rate and you can receive "punishments" like paralyzation or stat loss. So far so good. The trouble is, mana levels when casting transformation spells are apparently silently treated as if they were already post-transformation, and thus lowered. There's the mentioned code in the source that's apprently to this effect, and the game behavior corresponds to it too. When casting transformation spells with nominally just enough mana to cast the spell, fail rates are unusually high (and higher than the nominal rates) and effects typical for insufficient-mana casting can occur after the casting.
I'm not sure what the reason is for treating mana this way, but if it's not necessary or useful, the simplest would be to just remove it. Otherwise, there should at least be the usual warning, although this may seem to players like buggy behavior since on the surface, there's enough mana for the casting. Maybe transformation spell costs could be increased at low mana instead?
3. Error Message When Appending Macros/Keymaps
...at least on my Vista machine. :-) When appending macros/keymaps, I get the error message "failed to create temporary file \s2s0.1", (where "1" is actually a counter and can be 2, 3, etc.). The process then continues from there and seemingly completes successfully.
4. "Graphics" Setting Not Preserved Between Starts
...at least on my Vista machine. By "Graphics" I mean the setting with the command path Sangband Options > User Interface > Graphics. It returns to extended graphics on each new start. Perhaps this is linked to problem 3.
II. ARGUABLE BALANCE ISSUES
Only one in this category.
1. Ironman Viability Varies Wildly Between (Otherwise-viable) Builds
This is something I've gone on about in some of my ancient Ironman posts. In short: nearly all magic-using builds are close to literally impossible to play in Ironman. "You whiner," you say, "Ironman is *supposed* to be nearly impossible!" Well, yes (although Ironman can eventually be downright comfy in Sangband if you're patient enough), but I think it should be nearly-impossible to a similar degree for all builds. However, it is not. The trouble is that for all magic-users except sorcerors and, very arguably, necromancers*, it seems to be impossible to preserve one's stocks of town books up to the end of the game. Strong fire attacks can destroy town books, and there are enough of them out there that one starts seeing town books fry (especially, but not only, as a fighter-caster) as early as the mid-30's. Meanwhile, town books have rather low drop rates. Book two and especially book one also have rather tight windows when you take into consideration how relatively little "stuff" is dropped until the 30's or so. A typical Ironman game will see 1-3 copies of the relevent book one, a few more of the relevant book two, and a decent supply of book three. Book one can be bought in multiple copies if you skimp on stats (ouch) and scrolls of phase door (double-ouch). But I think that, especially for books one and two, the supply is just not enough to withstand all the unavoidable fire attacks one will see throughout a whole game.
Compare this to the life of an OoI ironman, who is periodically provided with opportunities to replace and even improve their armor throughout the game. Imagine if instead there were only one armor type for each slot, but it was degradable and unrepairable, and only dropped four times per game!
Or compare it to how the life of ironman bowman (who do have it perhaps tougher than characters who skip archery, but not *as* tough as above) would be if, from level 50 onwards, they could only use their bows on a weekday when it's not raining... like a caster without their book one.
If this is something worth addressing, then some solutions could be:
a) Increase the drop rates for town books.
b) Widen the drop windows for town books.
c) Make town books inflammable. :-)
*Sorcerors can convert boulders into blankets of elemental protection (yes, you read that right) using Chaos Cloud, making it child's play to always have one on hand. Necromancers *may* be able to guard their book supplies from the worst offenders -- monsters with non-beam non-bolt fire attacks -- by staying permanently in wraithform and always ducking into a wall when appropriate, but I've never gotten one deep enough with an iron necro to test out this theory.
III. A COMMENT ON AN EARLIER THOUGHT OF YOURS
While mulling over shadowstalkers earlier, you considered condensing the light/douse keystrokes down to one when the command was unambiguous (which it normally is). In the name of ironman players everywhere -- all three of us -- I beg thee, do this! do this!
Best regards,
Bostock
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