FAangband 1.3

[Nick]

8x8 v3.png is available. Pending approval of Psi, the only guy who seems to give a hoot, this will be the final version and I suggest that interested parties grab it, as it's home on my MediaFire page is indefinite (but it'll be there for a while at least).

Grabbed, thanks - in fact I grabbed all three.

Psi, which of these is best?

[Psi]

8x8 v3.png is available. Pending approval of Psi, the only guy who seems to give a hoot, this will be the final version and I suggest that interested parties grab it, as it's home on my MediaFire page is indefinite (but it'll be there for a while at least).

As that person who gives a hoot, it is much appreciated. However something really strange happened with the latest version. My light stopped identifying adjacent walls! I had to walk into them to discover them as if I was blind. I changed back to v2 and though I still couldn't see those particular walls automatically, if I walked down the corridor I could start seeing tiles again.

If I was to guess I'd say that it is something to do with the new lighting code. Old tiles never used to have degrees of lighting - it was either lit or not.

Seen some unrelated bugs too. I found a vault without any monsters - just the items! Also seen some vaults not connected to corridors. I have a ring with an ammo branding activation which doesn't have a recharge time so it works whenever. I just carry it in my pack.

[Nick]

As that person who gives a hoot, it is much appreciated. However something really strange happened with the latest version. My light stopped identifying adjacent walls! I had to walk into them to discover them as if I was blind. I changed back to v2 and though I still couldn't see those particular walls automatically, if I walked down the corridor I could start seeing tiles again.

If I was to guess I'd say that it is something to do with the new lighting code. Old tiles never used to have degrees of lighting - it was either lit or not.

Looks like my bad for copying Vanilla. When will I learn.

Seen some unrelated bugs too. I found a vault without any monsters - just the items! Also seen some vaults not connected to corridors.

I'm guessing these may be a consequence of too many monsters for the level, and general difficulty in fitting in more vaults than intended. The tunnelling code has never been 100%, and I think hard mode is kind of a stress test for it.

I have a ring with an ammo branding activation which doesn't have a recharge time so it works whenever. I just carry it in my pack.

Bug, fixed in development.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

The tunnelling code has never been 100%, and I think hard mode is kind of a stress test for it.

I'm guessing it's the permanent walls. At least in Ey (which I'm familiar with), the tunneling code stopped when it hit a permawall.

Maybe let the tunneling code penetrate permawalls that also have CAVE_ICKY, or whatever the flag that prevents teleportation is called? All vault permawalls whould have it.

IIRC, the tunneling code also cares about permawalls inside a room, even though it is never going to actually penetrate them.

[buzzkill]

As that person who gives a hoot, it is much appreciated. However something really strange happened with the latest version. My light stopped identifying adjacent walls!

Try v3.1. Just a minor change. I hope I nailed it.

[Psi]

Try v3.1. Just a minor change. I hope I nailed it.

I wondered what was coming when three empty lit spaces started carving through the dungeon... they were Hounds of Tindalos depicted by a blank tile. Very weird. I've gone back to v2 again which works nicely in the dungeon.

[buzzkill]

I wondered what was coming when three empty lit spaces started carving through the dungeon... they were Hounds of Tindalos depicted by a blank tile. Very weird. I've gone back to v2 again which works nicely in the dungeon.

This time fer sure, nothin up my sleeve, Presto!!! v2.1. All the awesomeness of v2 without any transparency.

Something odd happened with v3. I think I got confused and combined 2 partially identical but (upon closer inspection) different 8x8 tilesets. That's what I get for pushing out work completely untested.

[debo]

That's what I get for pushing out work completely untested.

That's what users are for

On an unrelated note, I hear that Microsoft is hiring.

[Derakon]

That's what I get for pushing out work completely untested.

I can't think of a time when I've tried that and it hasn't bitten me in the ass. Untested code must be presumed buggy.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

That's what users are for

On an unrelated note, I hear that Microsoft is hiring.

Actually nowadays Ubuntu and various other Linux distros are probably worse than Windows in that respect...

EDIT: I've been using Linux exclusively for many years because it is much more efficient than Windows for many tasks once you have invested lots of time to learn the tools. Lately I've been using Windows 7 in my teaching work. Windows seems much more stable in common office work than the average Linux distro nowadays. I've also been surprised to see my wife and my father running Windows 7 without any issues at all for a year or so. I should write a long operating system rave because I seem to like all of them nowadays...

[Therem Harth]

I hate to say it, but Windows 8 may cure you of that.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I hate to say it, but Windows 8 may cure you of that.

Reviews say it's the perfect OS for tablet computers with an optional keyboard. Quite a narrow target system. Luckily I just bought a new laptop with Win 7. I figured it was a good time to upgrade from my Win 2000 in virtual machine. I have a LONG term strategy in Windows upgrades, even more than with Linux distros.

Slackware 14 & Windows 7 is my choice for the next two years or so. The numbers seem to have some magic in them. It's a blackjack. And when Debian Wheezy comes out it's time to upgrade on the old laptop.

(I critiqued Ubuntu earlier, but the LTS versions seem to be pretty solid according to reviews.)

I'm stopping my midnight to morning rant & rave now. Everybody, feel free to rant about Windows 8 on Idle chatter, I'd like to read some early views. Should I tell my elderly students to steer clear of it?

[Therem Harth]

If they're used to Windows XP/Vista/7, then definitely tell them to steer clear. Metro applications hog up the entire screen, and you have to use keystrokes to move between them. It's not intuitive or novice-friendly at all, IMHO.

(Too bad, because I hear there's some amazing stuff under the hood.)

[eeeickythump]

Bug with 'no wilderness' game

Started a new character, selecting 'no wilderness' as a birth option. Entered the dungeon OK, saved after returning to town. I loaded the game a day or two later, and tried to take the stairs down from the town. I got the message "You trigger a magic portal", and the town layout changed (presumably I entered a new town). Now I am stuck in "groundhog town" - every time I take the down stairs I am allowed to do so (no "magic portal" message) but it transports me to an identical staircase in an identical town (only the townspeople are different). There is no way to get to the dungeon short of saving up to buy a recall scroll.

Maybe 'no wilderness' mode needs some love?

[Nick]

Started a new character, selecting 'no wilderness' as a birth option. Entered the dungeon OK, saved after returning to town. I loaded the game a day or two later, and tried to take the stairs down from the town. I got the message "You trigger a magic portal", and the town layout changed (presumably I entered a new town). Now I am stuck in "groundhog town" - every time I take the down stairs I am allowed to do so (no "magic portal" message) but it transports me to an identical staircase in an identical town (only the townspeople are different). There is no way to get to the dungeon short of saving up to buy a recall scroll.

Maybe 'no wilderness' mode needs some love?

Are you using 1.3.0, or 1.3.1? 1.3.0 had a bug with no wilderness mode which behaved pretty much exactly as you describe.

If you send me a savefile (address on title screen) I can fix it for you; it then should load fine into 1.3.1.

If you're already using 1.3.1, then I can still fix the savefile, but I'll need to do some more fixing too.