Z+ 0.3.3 - call for feature requests

[Mangojuice]

So I've gotten my development environment back up and am working on Z+ version 0.3.3 for near-term release.

What's definitely going to change:
* There's a bug that applies your melee weapon +to_h when you shoot a bow or throw
* The Vista crash-on-loading bug
* Occasional "fatal error!!" crashes when hallucinating
* Turn count will be included in character dumps
* Dawn & Dusk: transition from day to night and vice versa, when outside, will be more gradual.
* Rods of perception will not expend charge when ID is cancelled

Any other suggestions? I'm looking for things that are easy to hack in, rather than grand ideas, so minor tweaks are just fine.

One idea I'm toying with adding for v0.3.3 is more containers. Right now there are three types of quivers, that only carry ammo. I definitely am not up to adding generic containers (e.g. using empty chests to carry anything) because it's a whole other level of annoying to deal with containers-in-containers. But there could be potion cases, scroll cases, food bags, etc.

I think it would have too great an effect on the game to have fireproof scroll cases or coldproof potion cases, at least at the moment. Even having such containers at all could be a big deal but I see potential to keep things balanced by making the containers have a relatively low quantity limit: for instance a potion case could hold only 18 potions, say. Which is great if what you want is to carry around 12 different sorts of potions, not so great if you want to have a lot of any one. Thoughts?

[RogerN]

One issue that I still encounter (though very rarely) is that sometimes when entering a dungeon level the player is placed in the same tile as a monster. The game does not crash immediately, but it will crash if the monster wakes up. This problem seems to happen more frequently when orcs abound, but that's probably just because they appear in such large numbers.

Regarding containers I would see additional container types as a detriment to gameplay. Quivers for ammunition make sense, but other object types seem way too powerful to be able to carry many flavors without penalty.

Something like Sangband's blanket of elemental protection would be nice.

[Mangojuice]

One issue that I still encounter (though very rarely) is that sometimes when entering a dungeon level the player is placed in the same tile as a monster. The game does not crash immediately, but it will crash if the monster wakes up. This problem seems to happen more frequently when orcs abound, but that's probably just because they appear in such large numbers.

Regarding containers I would see additional container types as a detriment to gameplay. Quivers for ammunition make sense, but other object types seem way too powerful to be able to carry many flavors without penalty.

Something like Sangband's blanket of elemental protection would be nice.

Thanks. Two quick questions: 1. I imagine the monster-on-the-player tile bug happens in quests; do you remember it happening in a quest to kill mages by any chance? Anything you can remember about when that happens would be helpful. 2. The blanket of elemental protection - what does it do exactly? I take it it protects your stuff from elemental things that kill it somehow... I'm not so interested in protecting high level potions / scrolls / staves, but there are actually (rarely) basic spellbooks that aren't harmed by fire.

[RogerN]

1. Every instance I can remember has been in a quest, but given the disproportionate amount of time that I spend doing quests that really doesn't prove quest specificity. I know I've run into the bug when doing quests to kill orcs and minor demons.

2. The blanket of elemental protection is an item that goes into your inventory. Supposedly it protects items in your backpack from being destroyed by the elements. I say "supposedly" because when I find one of these blankets it's inevitably the secretly-cursed variety which immediately burns half of my scrolls and staves the instant I pick it up

[camlost]

2. The blanket of elemental protection is an item that goes into your inventory. Supposedly it protects items in your backpack from being destroyed by the elements. I say "supposedly" because when I find one of these blankets it's inevitably the secretly-cursed variety which immediately burns half of my scrolls and staves the instant I pick it up

I <3 Leon.

[RogerN]

A couple random requests:

1. Scrolls of Weapon Branding automatically attempt to brand your equipped melee weapon. Could this be changed to prompt the user for any weapon in the inventory? I've wasted some scrolls before by not knowing about this slight inconsistency (vs Enchant Weapon or Enchant Armor). As long as you're at it, it would be wonderful if ammunition could also be branded

2. I assume that !Heroism and ?Blessing only affect melee skill. If that is the case, I'd love to see a potion or scroll that temporarily buffs shooting skill. If the aforementioned items already boost shooting skill then their descriptions could be improved to mention this.

And now for a public service announcement. Players using the roguelike keyset should avoid wielding Trump weapons when possible:

y [move north-west]
y [move north-west]
y [move north-west]
Teleport (y/N)? y
The Ancient green dragon breathes poison.  You die.

For those that don't understand the above... Trump weapons induce random teleportation. Every 100 turns or so, the game asks you if you would like to teleport. Since the default response is 'No' you can quickly get into the (bad) habit of clearing the prompt by pressing the movement key for the direction in which you were already traveling. This works great unless you happen to be traveling north-west using the roguelike keyset [y].

[Roch]

I think there may be a way around this -- I have a dim recollection that if you inscribe the weapon with a period (?) it will cancel a teleport. I may be off on this though and I'm not certain it works with the roguelike keyset but I think it should . . . anyone? I think I read it in the macro faq -- I'll go back and check it tonight.

[Derakon]

I believe you're correct: inscribing an item with random teleportation with "." will prevent the teleportation prompt so long as the item is not cursed (if it is cursed, then it will teleport you without prompt regardless of inscription).

[Mangojuice]

1. Scrolls of weapon branding: Can do. No point making them possibly wasted, and at the stage in the game when you find them, you probably need to be able to enchant arrows or they aren't much good.

2. Heroism / Blessing: Actually, these give you a bonus to your "to_h" which affects both melee and missile. In fact there's a bug in the game right now which makes your melee weapon +to_h affect your hit chances with a bow. I'll adjust the description; I'll say they affect your "accuracy," which should cover it.

3. Teleport: That's right, an inscription with a . in it will prevent you from even being asked about teleportation when it's voluntary. Now, if you want to avoid this problem *without* suppressing the query, so that you could still use the random teleportation on some occasions, I don't know what to tell you.

[RogerN]

Another possible oversight - Gorlim, betrayer of Barahir, has a ridiculously high armor class (120), which puts him well above the Serpent of Chaos. Isn't that a bit much for a depth 56 monster?

[Mangojuice]

Another possible oversight - Gorlim, betrayer of Barahir, has a ridiculously high armor class (120), which puts him well above the Serpent of Chaos. Isn't that a bit much for a depth 56 monster?

He's probably not the only one. I imported some monsters from V that weren't there before and some of them are simply on a different difficulty scale from what you should expect in Z+. Eol, the Dark Elf is another, and Maeglin is a third, but please mention any other specific cases you come across.

[Chud]

Just a side note - I haven't played Z+ before, just checking it out for the current competition, but the Vista crash-on-load bug also appears to affect Windows 7. I assume it's the same one anyway (you probably knew this already, but there you go).

[RogerN]

Just a side note - I haven't played Z+ before, just checking it out for the current competition, but the Vista crash-on-load bug also appears to affect Windows 7. I assume it's the same one anyway (you probably knew this already, but there you go).

In case you missed the fix in one of the other threads, you can work around this problem by just deleting z+angband.ini before you launch the game.

[Mangojuice]

Just a side note - I haven't played Z+ before, just checking it out for the current competition, but the Vista crash-on-load bug also appears to affect Windows 7. I assume it's the same one anyway (you probably knew this already, but there you go).

Hm. I had a friend test it out on windows 7 and he had no trouble. But regardless, I've found the bug and corrected it already for v 0.3.3. In the meantime, here's the workaround: every time you start the game up, delete the "z+angband.ini" file before you do. You'll have to bring your windows up again and position them where you want but the game won't crash.

[Mangojuice]

So one more feature that will be coming in Z+ 0.3.3, which I had wanted to include but was hesitant to promise, is "competition mode."

Here's how competition mode works: it's a birth option. Whenever you load a dead character that was in competition mode, it starts you in exactly the same game state as you were originally in with two key exceptions: (1) you keep the monster memory from your dead ancestors, and (2) all object flavors are re-randomized.

A feature that was easy to add with the competition mode feature: when you load a *non* competition-mode character, it gives you the option of "rebirth" which means you can skip rolling your character and just start with exactly the same character.. but without competition-mode, the world will be a fresh random one.

Anyway, I'm willing to promise it now because I'm pretty sure I've gotten it working.