New FAangband Tileset

[Clatch]

Github Link: https://tinyurl.com/hither-lands

This tileset includes over 1400 tiles exclusive to FAangband.

https://imgur.com/a/srefElj

Disclaimer: The tiles were generated by AI, which won't make traditionalists happy. I mainly just wanted to see if AI could do a decent job of it and stay within the Tolkien theme. This tileset doesn't have Nick's blessing, so don't blame him. Considering it was a fairly expensive endeavor, I thought I'd share it for those who are interested.

I've always liked FAangband and wanted a fully themed tileset for it with a few extras. It includes a full set of player graphics and shape changes, as well as named monsters.

[Nick]

Thanks for emailing me about this first, and sorry for not replying - this post can do as a reply

I have been thinking this through carefully, as I have mixed feelings about AI. On the other hand, this is a nice-looking set of tiles designed with intent by someone who enjoys the game and appreciates the Tolkien theme.

On the whole, then, I would like to just leave things as they stand - the tileset is available with instructions for use at the link in the OP. And it's nice to see people still playing FA, maybe I'll do some more actual work on it one day

[Clatch]

Thanks, Nick. Again, please don't blame Nick. FA is a passion project of mine. The foundation of it really strikes a chord with me. I'm a heavy professional user of AI, and I just thought, why not? Now, we have animations and fauna that actually represent their structure. Not everyone agrees with this direction. There are a lot of hours dedicated to handmade sprites, and they are timeless. I'm not trying to compete with that. I just had a vision, that's all.

https://i.imgur.com/WP0iexC.png

[Clatch]

Thanks to some great input, the install script is in much better shape. Also, there was a bug where shapeshifting forms weren't showing their tile graphic. That's also been fixed.

[davidk64]

I've installed the tiles using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The process is straightforward, especially in my case using Gemini LLM to step me through it. I recall trying FAangband with ASCII and feeling underwhelmed by e.g. lighter green dots being lowland trees and darker green dots for highland trees. Having a customised set of tiles created specifically for this variant is fantastic and I think a nod to the positive aspects of AI LLMs. I'm playing on a 24 inch monitor at 1920 x 1080 and have the font set at 16 x 16 with tile height and width modifier at x4. This gives me a good look at the tile details while still seeing a moderate viewport area. I use the keep player centered option. I wouldn't be surprised if we see customised tile sets retrofitted to other variants. One related idea I had is a LLM trained on all original David Gervais tiles (assuming permission was granted) and then able to build tile sets in that style for any variant you chose.

[Clatch]

One related idea I had is a LLM trained on all original David Gervais tiles (assuming permission was granted) and then able to build tile sets in that style for any variant you chose.

Good point. That's exactly what I did here, too. I put all of Tokien's work in a directory and asked Claude to build a skill that indexed all the topics in the books for thematic reference. So, as Claude scans the FAangband code for tile-creation opportunities, it could look up the topic in Tolkien's work to get descriptions, etc.

I really like how FAangband segregates the outside world, where the edges of the map provide escape points. Reminds me of Everquest back in the day. It's a great mechanic. I've always wanted to see a bit more life in the overworld maps, too. Eventually, it would be nice to see talking NPC's there. I haven't had a whole lot of time to scoure through the code to figure out how to make that work. So, I thought it would be interesting to see how AI did with the task.

A lot of the elements to make this possible are already in FAangband. There's factions and alignments. So the latest patch includes monsters acting on those alignments, instead of just being "asleep". Now they are moving around and engaging. It brings a bit more activity to the screen, especially for the stealthy character runs. The picture's kind of fuzzy, but creatures have several states indicated on hover).

[davidk64]

A lot of the elements to make this possible are already in FAangband. There's factions and alignments. So the latest patch includes monsters acting on those alignments, instead of just being "asleep". Now they are moving around and engaging. It brings a bit more activity to the screen, especially for the stealthy character runs. The picture's kind of fuzzy, but creatures have several states indicated on hover).

Any chance of Claude giving us a summary of what the patch does? Something along the lines, "This is what you would've seen and experienced before the patch and this what you are likely to see and experience afterwards". Not having played a great deal of FAangband and then quite a while ago I'm struggling to see the changes.

[Clatch]

Any chance of Claude giving us a summary of what the patch does? Something along the lines, "This is what you would've seen and experienced before the patch and this what you are likely to see and experience afterwards". Not having played a great deal of FAangband and then quite a while ago I'm struggling to see the changes.

Nice question, because you prompted me to fix an issue there. Mainly, those three patches make the overground areas an ecosystem rather than a hostile-mob spawner.

It might be fun in the future to entertain a hunting upgrade with more skittish fauna, dropped meat, hides, cooking and other crafts... etc. In anycase, here are a list of changes:

Situation	Before	After
Spawn state	Every monster targets the player; your safety came from it being asleep	Disposition is set at spawn: four shallow critters spawn neutral, everything else hostile
Scrawny cat, scruffy little dog	Wake, chase, attack	Neutral. Startle briefly if you bump into them; they never fight back
Crow, giant white mouse	Wake, chase, attack	Neutral and skittish - they flee as you close, at any character level
Other shallow animals (rock lizard, cave spider, wild dog, centipedes)	Attack	Still attack - unchanged from vanilla
Deep animals (hound packs, hydras, wereworm, mumak, the Tarrasque)	Attack	Still attack - unchanged from vanilla
Molds, jellies, floating eyes	Attack / gaze whenever in range	Unchanged from vanilla - the sessile-neutral rule was dropped before release
Animals inside a vault	Attack	Always hostile, even the four neutral critters
Druid (Charms specialty)	No disposition effect - Charms only boosted sleep/slow/confuse/hold spells vs animals	Non-evil animals within 10 levels of the Druid's own spawn neutral and never aggro on proximity. Scales as you level, ceilinged at monster level 30
High-level Druid	No difference	The ceiling bites: multi-hued hounds, the big hydras and winged horrors turn hostile again no matter how high you climb
Recruiting animals (Beguile)	Not possible - only player-race folk could join	Non-evil animals can be recruited while neutral - a Druid's charmed fauna, or just the four critters for a Mage or Necromancer
Sleep	Most animals spawned asleep for 5-250 turns	All animals spawn awake (sleepiness 0) - hostile ones included. Nothing waits to be woken
Day and night	Not a factor - a non-zero sleep timer overrode it	Sleepiness 0 re-enables the vanilla night rule: animals doze ~20 turns at night, outdoors only. Always awake in caves
Townsfolk and player-race folk	Slept up to 255 turns	Sleepiness capped at 5 - the town feels populated rather than comatose
Look and hover text	, hostile / , allied / , neutral - player-race monsters only	, aggressive [(unaware)] / , aligned / , neutral[, territorial] on all monsters

[Clatch]

Thanks, David. I've added a new patch to make sure that packs of creatures provide mutal aid rather than wandering about into the abyss.

+--------------------+------------------------+------------------------------+
| Situation          | Before this update     | After this update            |
+--------------------+------------------------+------------------------------+
| Idle pack          | Wander off the level   | Hold home area, roam in it   |
| Territorial packs  | Abandon their turf     | Stay on their turf           |
| Once they spot you | Chase, never come back | Chase, then return home      |
| You hit one        | Others ignore it       | Nearby packmates rally       |
| Sneaking past      | Same as before         | React only if you strike     |
| Charmed animals    | Wander off too         | Hold area, allies stay yours |
+--------------------+------------------------+------------------------------+