The future of Oangband?

[CJNyfalt]

Basically the player gets RDark and +3 stealth, plus when not wielding a light

• Vision radius 2;
• Terrain bonus of ac/8 + 10 (for melee) when on an unlit grid;
• Damage reduction of 1/4 (against spells) when on an unlit grid;
• no_lite is always false (so you can read in the dark)
• Additional +3 stealth when on an unlit grid

Well, the only things that differs are the vision radius and the stealth.
I fixed the stealth bug, leaving the vision radius issue.

Considering that I improved infravision so that it is usable, I will probably just have unlight grant more infravision, instead of using your dark vision.

EDIT:
I decided to have unlight add +2 to infravision. Maybe that is too much considering that I did improve infravision?

[CJNyfalt]

Ran into a strange bug: Turning on PRIVATE_USER_PATH removes colors from inventory.

Otherwise, I am progressing nicely with adding the new file handling functions. What is causing issues however, is the x-char stuff because it is such an ugly hack that I'm having problems to stomach adopting it.

[Nick]

What is causing issues however, is the x-char stuff because it is such an ugly hack that I'm having problems to stomach adopting it.

Agreed - I do like the results, though. The V devteam is working on UTF-8 support, so if you wait a bit there'll be a correct solution available.

[CJNyfalt]

A bit of update of on the ports:
- main-x11: Almost updated, only key handling and moving over to the new file-handling version.
- main-gcu: Progressing.
- main-win: Some progress, looks doable.
- main-crb: The diff is so big, that I can't really change this file gradually. It looks like the best best is to copy over the vanilla version, and hope for the best.

[camlost]

I decided to have unlight add +2 to infravision. Maybe that is too much considering that I did improve infravision?

Not all races will have infravision innately, and it's really cool to see walls appearing 10 squares away. You still can't see cold-blooded monsters in the dark. I say +2 INFR is fine.

[CJNyfalt]

Now that would be interesting. Please post if you find an alternative.

Well, I am intending to test out cmake, and I just started writing the config file for it. Looks promising so far.

[AnonymousHero]

Well, I am intending to test out cmake, and I just started writing the config file for it. Looks promising so far.

There are may be a few somewhat tricky/non-obvious bits when detecting SDL. Feel free to be 'inspired' by http://gitorious.org/tome2/tome2/blo...CMakeLists.txt

[CJNyfalt]

There are may be a few somewhat tricky/non-obvious bits when detecting SDL. Feel free to be 'inspired' by http://gitorious.org/tome2/tome2/blo...CMakeLists.txt

Thanks! That will be useful.

[CJNyfalt]

I decided to try out the next competition character to get a feel of things that needs fixing, and it clearly stands out that the early game is too annoying.

Not because of hard monster, no. It is because of lack of consumables and how hard it is to get enough money stocked up to start diving. The main problems seems to be identify and word of recall. Lack of identify stops me from clearing out stuff from inventory/home, while lack of WoR keeps me from going deeper than dlvl 3.
I have to consider different solutions to these problems. For example:
- Like I mentioned earlier: study the vanilla identification model.
- Just make the scrolls really cheap and always in stock.
- A Diablo II approach of using scroll books. Making these unsellable and give players a decent stock at start would speed up gameplay while preventing them from being abused for money.

I am also open to other ideas.

[buzzkill]

Not because of hard monster, no. It is because of lack of consumables and how hard it is to get enough money stocked up to start diving. The main problems seems to be identify and word of recall. Lack of identify stops me from clearing out stuff from inventory/home, while lack of WoR keeps me from going deeper than dlvl 3.

I couldn't agree with you more. My characters have experienced the same pain with ID and WoR. That said, I haven't played nearly enough O to give a solid opinion on what needs fixing and what doesn't, but I view these things as challenges that should be overcome by the player (if possible), not a maintainer. I've walked back to the surface from as deep at DL12, not the worst fate with detect doors and stairs and a bunch of un-ID'd flavors still to be discovered. Plus you find a lot of Potions of Speed that way.

Unless the comp character simply has horrible pseudo-ID skill, having stronger pseudo-ID, or simply fixing pseudo-ID, would help immensely.

WoR isn't necessary at all (in the early game) if you're willing to abuse the elevator-staircase mechanic (playing with connected stairs).

If you want to do some maintainer work, yank CLW form the mage spellbook, add low level potions of restore mana that just restore 10 SP or 10% or something so mages don't have to rest all the time. Resting sucks!

[Nick]

Not because of hard monster, no. It is because of lack of consumables and how hard it is to get enough money stocked up to start diving. The main problems seems to be identify and word of recall. Lack of identify stops me from clearing out stuff from inventory/home, while lack of WoR keeps me from going deeper than dlvl 3.

The WoR problem I only find occasionally annoying, but the ID is a big one for O. The other thing to remember is that the comp character gets the spell and early easy recharge - I usually play SF necros, and there the ID issue is just awful.

I have to consider different solutions to these problems.

FA has used the following:

1. ID by use (like Vanilla's, but better )
2. unidentified things will still stack if they would identified
3. Rods of Perception are shallower and more common
4. Mages get the spell earlier and cheaper

[the Invisible Stalker]

I decided to try out the next competition character to get a feel of things that needs fixing, and it clearly stands out that the early game is too annoying.

Not because of hard monster, no. It is because of lack of consumables and how hard it is to get enough money stocked up to start diving. The main problems seems to be identify and word of recall. Lack of identify stops me from clearing out stuff from inventory/home, while lack of WoR keeps me from going deeper than dlvl 3.
I have to consider different solutions to these problems. For example:
- Like I mentioned earlier: study the vanilla identification model.
- Just make the scrolls really cheap and always in stock.
- A Diablo II approach of using scroll books. Making these unsellable and give players a decent stock at start would speed up gameplay while preventing them from being abused for money.

I am also open to other ideas.

I don't agree with this at all. I think you just haven't played enough. There are ways around these problems which you learn with practice. My solutions to the problems you listed are:

Identify: The most important thing is not to pick up everything you see. Sure that dagger on dlevel 1 might be a Defender, but it probably isn't. In fact it almost certainly isn't worth an identify scroll, or even a charge on a staff of perception. I rarely pick up weapons or armour before dlevel 10. Wands and staves are much better, as they are more likely to be valuable and can largely be identified by use, cautiously of course. Scrolls and potions are best identified by selling in the early game.

WoR: I don't use WoR to go down in the early game. I often don't use it to go down in the mid or late game, as I often don't want to go down to my max depth. So I am using one scroll per trip. I just need to make sure that I collect some stuff worth one scroll per trip. Since I typical dive to at least dlevel 12 on my first trip I am almost certain to find something.

In general I don't think you should be considering changes in game mechanics until you have played more. You risk solving problems which don't really exist.

[myshkin]

Agreed - I do like the results, though. The V devteam is working on UTF-8 support, so if you wait a bit there'll be a correct solution available.

You can see the latest attempts on my utf-8 branch on github. noz has done almost all of the heavy lifting. We still have a ways to go, though.

[Magnate]

You can see the latest attempts on my utf-8 branch on github. noz has done almost all of the heavy lifting. We still have a ways to go, though.

Out of interest, how much of what we have left to do is front-end-specific? Because one wonders whether it's worth investing in that or the core-UI split.

[myshkin]

Out of interest, how much of what we have left to do is front-end-specific? Because one wonders whether it's worth investing in that or the core-UI split.

I've only worked on the OS X port, which still has a few problems specific to it...things like redraw artifacts, occasional problems with detecting character widths, etc. I am pretty sure that the core-UI split would help to simplify the UTF-8 code; for example, one of the big problems to resolve is how to handle the visuals editor. (I will grant that takkaria didn't explicitly discuss the visuals editor, but I would expect a core-UI split to rethink interacting with such pickers.) A cleanup of main-crb.c would also help my particular plight.