NPP thoughts

[nppangband]

I should have BETA-3 out either today, in about 10 hours, or tomorrow, depending on how my night goes.

[Derakon]

Can you import it rather than opening it? I've been caught with that one in OSX.

Ah! That was it. I'm back in business; thanks!

[nppangband]

I remember something similar happening back when we were talking about the "start a new character at clvl/dlvl 20"; for some reason the savefiles modified by the character patcher weren't openable by Vanilla. I did something trivial and they started working; I wish I could remember what it was...

Would you like me to send you back the file I opened and saved? Maybe that will work for you again.

[Nick]

I remember something similar happening back when we were talking about the "start a new character at clvl/dlvl 20"; for some reason the savefiles modified by the character patcher weren't openable by Vanilla. I did something trivial and they started working; I wish I could remember what it was...

Can you import it rather than opening it? I've been caught with that one in OSX.

[Derakon]

I remember something similar happening back when we were talking about the "start a new character at clvl/dlvl 20"; for some reason the savefiles modified by the character patcher weren't openable by Vanilla. I did something trivial and they started working; I wish I could remember what it was...

[nppangband]

Okay, I've put the save for the flickering wall issue up here. * The terrain docs talk about dying instantly in certain terrains, which sounds a bit harsh. I'm assuming that they merely do heavy elemental damage...

A creature who walks into lava would take 200 hp damage per turn, unless they are native to lava. So yes, for a prestat gain character, it would be death. The game does give the player a warning and they must answer a prompt to walk into it if not native.

[nppangband]

Ha! Yeah, that'd explain the flicker.

I've put the savefile online here. I hope you can figure out what's wrong with it.

I have some good news. The issue isn't with the savefile. I can open it with no problem. I open up to a level 34 paladin at 2050' in a corridor near a vault. There must something wrong with the Mac build.

[Derakon]

Ha! Yeah, that'd explain the flicker.

I've put the savefile online here. I hope you can figure out what's wrong with it.

[nppangband]

* I'd not realized how heavily I relied on automatic damage/blows display in Vanilla until I saw how much I was missing it in NPP. An indication of damage-per-blow vs. applicable target types would be wonderful. The notes on required stat improvements to get more blows would also be nice.

This is on the list for me to add.

* After hitting '{' to inscribe something and then selecting the item, I have to clear the "inscribing an X" message twice before it will actually let me inscribe the item. Also, objects inscribed with !* don't prompt before re-inscribing them, though I don't mind that.

This was reported and fixed for Beta-3.

EDIT 2: Hm, problem! Having closed the program so I could edit p_class.txt, on reopening I cannot open my savefile! The program does not consider it to be valid -- it's greyed out in the "open file" dialog. So...so much for that! I assume you don't have this problem on other platforms, so it probably has something to do with the custom build. I wonder what...

This one I am extremely concerned about. Nobody has reported any corrupted savefiles in Beta-2, evenwith a Mac build. But still, I want to be sure. Can you please send me the corrupted savefile? At least that way I can determine if it is a custom build or if there is something inconsistent with load.c or save.c. Thanks.


Oh. Remember that flickering wall savefile you sent me? There was a creature on the other side of the wall with the has-light flag and no path to the player. So we was walking back and forth on the other side of the wall trying to get to you. With the view special lighting option on, he was lighting up the wall from the other side.

[Derakon]

Ah, makes sense on the *ID* thing, though it's not intuitively obvious what happens. Maybe *ID*'d items could be bolded or something.

* I'm running a paladin now, and pseudo-ID is painfully slow. We're talking "pick up eight items, then rest for more than 500 turns before any of them pseudo" here. Couple that with the large amounts of loot dropped and the lack of an early ID spell and paladins (and presumably priests) have a terrible time sorting through the results of pits and the like. Either fewer items or faster pseudo, please. (EDIT: I took a look at p_class.txt. Paladin pseudo is more than ten times worse than that of warriors, which is odd, because priests are only 25% worse than warriors. Bug? Easily fixed, at any rate.)
* Got a quest for power drakes. Those things are nasty. Quests for pits are comparatively straightforward, since there are limits on the monsters that can appear in pits; they tend to be a manageable challenge, if not straightforward (c.f. troll pits). Quests for themed levels tend to just be slogs, though my warrior had a hairy one where he took on every orc unique in the game in rapid succession, well before he was supposed to see them.
* I'd not realized how heavily I relied on automatic damage/blows display in Vanilla until I saw how much I was missing it in NPP. An indication of damage-per-blow vs. applicable target types would be wonderful. The notes on required stat improvements to get more blows would also be nice.
* After hitting '{' to inscribe something and then selecting the item, I have to clear the "inscribing an X" message twice before it will actually let me inscribe the item. Also, objects inscribed with !* don't prompt before re-inscribing them, though I don't mind that.
* Hitting/killing monsters that are standing in dark spots by using Sunbeam doesn't reveal what they are before they react (e.g. "it squelches" as a nexus vortex is revealed).
* An option to put all status information vertically on the left side would be nice. Since I play with such huge windows, I don't notice the status bar at the bottom very easily, but I look at my HP tally often, and thus it's easy for me to see status information placed near there. Heck, I'd like this for Vanilla too. Main reason for this: I often don't notice that my character is hungry until he's gotten weak from hunger... (seems like a rewrite of update_statusline() should suffice for this).

EDIT 2: Hm, problem! Having closed the program so I could edit p_class.txt, on reopening I cannot open my savefile! The program does not consider it to be valid -- it's greyed out in the "open file" dialog. So...so much for that! I assume you don't have this problem on other platforms, so it probably has something to do with the custom build. I wonder what...

[nppangband]

* Using the recharge-item service at the magic store on my staff of speed with 1 charge caused it to become un-ID'd, but using it on my staff of destruction with 0 charges did not.

In the scenario above, the staff of speed was not *identified*, but the the staff of destruction was *identified*.

* A Scroll of Recharging added only 2 charges to a Staff of Perception. Intended?

I just re-did recharging so the re-charges are is proportional to the initial amount of charges a wand/staff gets.

* Lotho Pimple's drop seems overly generous; I got three items from him, one excellent.

I changed the drop from 2d2 to 1d2.

[Derakon]

I did compile myself, using the OSX makefile...and shockingly enough, the OSX operating system too.

Anyway, that character's dead. I got reeaaallly sloppy when an ancient chromatic dragon was in LOS, letting him breathe three times. It just so happens that the first two dealt just enough damage for the third, which was unresisted poison, to put me at -17 HP. Mind, if I hadn't just previously found Aule and swapped it in for Gurthang (which gives poison resistance), I would have survived that just fine. Or if I'd spent less time dicking around with the on-fire door he created with a fire breath. Shows what I get for considering the monster to not be a threat. I had over 1000HP and wasn't even level 40 yet; playing as a dwarf warrior with maxed CON, I wonder how much of that was due to the vitality quest bonuses?

Incidentally, making Kavlax a hydra with your new pan-elemental hydra system is genius.

[nppangband]

I downloaded the source for NPPAngband, did 'make -f Makefile.osx', and rolled up a dwarf warrior. Here's my thoughts so far:

* Not all accents display correctly. For example, the Dunedain on the birth screen

On my screen, Dunedain displays right (in Windows). Did you compile yoursels, and if so, what operating system are you using?

[/QUOTE]

[Nick]

beware of a unique called Azathoth. I think he kills more high level adventurers below 3000' in the NPP dungeon than all monsters combined

Yes, indeed.

[nppangband]

Okay, bug: if you try to swap in a piece of gear from the ground when your inventory is full, you get the message "You are unable to take off X", where X in the item currently occupying the slot. Then the item you tried to equip is equipped, and the original item vanishes entirely, as if it were destroyed (haven't tried on an artifact though).

This bug was reported, and has been fixed for Beta-3. I will work on those other issues & suggestions. Although WOR scrolls should almost always be in stock.

I am trying to get Beta-3 out as soon as possible. It is almost ready but my progress has been a little slow these last couple weeks.

As for the time traps, There are also gravity traps and inertia traps as well, but they all shimmer so they are easy to spot. As a heads up, if you think that is mean, beware of a unique called Azathoth. I think he kills more high level adventurers below 3000' in the NPP dungeon than all monsters combined. {edit - with the high level hydras coming in a close second place - those are basically the enforcers of the deep dungeon, and make it hard to survive down there if you aren't ready for a tough fight.}