NPPAngband and NPPMoria 7.0.0 beta-1 released!

[nppangband]

NPPMoria 700 Beta-1 has been uploaded.

This is a re-creation of Moria 5.5.2 with the many Angband ui improvements over the last 20+ years, such as targeting, monster health bars, multiple windows, color display, mouse support, etc. It also has NPPAngbands 4GAI, themed chests, and some other features from NPPAngband. It should be a fairly bug-free and playable beta, but by no means a polished version.

Besides de-bugging, the two biggest things on the NPPMoria to-do list are to update the help files and change the bow slot to a swap weapon. I held off doing this just because it is the change that is most likely to cause alot of problems. So I wanted to be confident in all the other changes before I worked on the swap weapon slot.

The links are:

Souce Code:

http://download.nppangband.org/npp-7.0.0beta-1-src.zip

Windows Binary:

http://download.nppangband.org/npp-7.0.0beta-1-win.zip

Github respository:

https://github.com/nppangband/NPPAngband

The complete changelist for NPP 7.0.0 Beta-1 is:
Add moria game mode, based on Moria 5.5.2.
Added opportunity to do a shield bash on a monster as in Moria.
Bugfix: Fix inconcistency when describing damage from ammo.
Bugfix: Fix display of equipment flags on equipment screen.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Wow thanks, I look forward to playing and reminiscing a bit.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Dang, error at startup. I'm on XP.

It says, error at line 14 of m_limits.txt

Then, record -1 contains a 'obsolete file' error. Parsing V:6.1.0

I'm also pretty toasted so I'll try again tomorrow... maybe I'm supposed to do something besides extract and click go.

[nppangband]

This is fixed. It was a classic "I'll just make this one quick little change before uploading. No need to check, because it is just a minor little thing that can't cause any problems" mistake. I changed the version number in the executble, but not in the *npp/lib/edit files. Thanks.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Cool, it's working a-ok, thanks!

[Derakon]

This is fixed. It was a classic "I'll just make this one quick little change before uploading. No need to check, because it is just a minor little thing that can't cause any problems" mistake. I changed the version number in the executble, but not in the *npp/lib/edit files. Thanks.

I've done that so many times that I now assume that any code/change/etc. that has not been tested does not work. It's the safest way.

Also, congrats on the release!

[getter77]

Definitely an interesting endeavor that'll be a sight to behold once it all gets fully situated.

[Malak Darkhunter]

Awesome Jeff ! Going to give this a run, thank you!

[nppangband]

I've done that so many times that I now assume that any code/change/etc. that has not been tested does not work.

Me too. I wonder if I will ever wise up and stop. It is usually something like dinner is on the table, my family is waiting, and I have 30 seconds to finish up, or wait another day.

[Derakon]

Me too. I wonder if I will ever wise up and stop. It is usually something like dinner is on the table, my family is waiting, and I have 30 seconds to finish up, or wait another day.

What I do in that situation is leave myself a plaintext note in the middle of my code, e.g.

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    I WAS GOING TO LEAVE A PRINT STATEMENT HERE
}

That way, as soon as I try to do anything with the code, I get a syntax error as well as a reminder of what I was up to.

[Pete Mack]

What I do in that situation is leave myself a plaintext note in the middle of my code, e.g.

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    I WAS GOING TO LEAVE A PRINT STATEMENT HERE
}

That way, as soon as I try to do anything with the code, I get a syntax error as well as a reminder of what I was up to.

That is what ////TODO: comments are for!
any half-decent editor will highlight them in a special color; some editors index them.

[Derakon]

That is what ////TODO: comments are for!
any half-decent editor will highlight them in a special color; some editors index them.

Sure, but no editor can stop me from being able to run my code until I pick up where I left off.

If you take a look at the Pyrel source code, it's liberally strewn with \todo comments, mostly marking sections that could stand to be expanded to be more flexible or to remove implicit assumptions.

[nppangband]

Sure, but no editor can stop me from being able to run my code until I pick up where I left off.

+1. Sometimes it might be 3-4 days before I can get back to it, so I need a compile failure to remember to pick up where I left off. Although sadly I usually don't type anything coherent, something like this where I need to add some code:

ad;kjbasdnbdfgjbndsfagjn

[emulord]

I tried this out. Its fun! My thoughts:
Question: is 80% (or whatever) encumberance supposed to make you -1 speed? Because it seems pretty low, I generally can only pseudo 1 armor or heavy weapon at a time or else im half speed :P
I feel like a 17 Str rogue should be able to carry a little bit more.

I like how enemy density increases as you go down, im just entering stat potion depth and rooms will have like 4 enemies at a time. Way more interesting than angband 1 or 2 at a time, except for groups.

No home hurts.

Bug?: 'S'earching mode says my speed is +1 or +2. Im not sure how fast it actually makes me. Look into this?

Sad about bow/weapon at same time, but I guess its a UI change and the increase in bow DPS doesnt matter that much. It does smoothen gameplay.

[nppangband]

I tried this out. Its fun! My thoughts:
Question: is 80% (or whatever) encumberance supposed to make you -1 speed? Because it seems pretty low, I generally can only pseudo 1 armor or heavy weapon at a time or else im half speed :P
I feel like a 17 Str rogue should be able to carry a little bit more.
.

Keep in mind this is the moria speed system. -1 speed is half speed, -2 is quarter speed, +1 is double speed, +2 is quadruple speed, etc..

The formula for ecumberance is straight out of Moria 5.5.2. The player is slowed when they hit 50% of their weight carrying capactity.

I like how enemy density increases as you go down, im just entering stat potion depth and rooms will have like 4 enemies at a time. Way more interesting than angband 1 or 2 at a time, except for groups.

No home hurts.
.

I started on the VAX version of moria in the late 80's. I don't remember if there was a home, but there was definitely a black market that you could enter if you had more than 100,000 gold. Due to the fact that this is a scaled down version of Angband, both are actually in the game, only the town in drawn with only 6 buildings so you can't find your home to enter it. Still, once the game gets settled down and de-bugged & we all start brainstorming on how to improve it, it probably would not take much coaxing to have them both re-appear.

Bug?: 'S'earching mode says my speed is +1 or +2. Im not sure how fast it actually makes me. Look into this?
.

Yes, definitely something to look into. Thanks.

Sad about bow/weapon at same time, but I guess its a UI change and the increase in bow DPS doesnt matter that much. It does smoothen gameplay.

That will happen soon. That is a change that probably doesn't take long to code, but can mess up the game in many, many ways. I wanted to have some confidence in the codebase before I made that change.

I really appreciate the feedback. I will be particularly interested when people get deeper how the battles against 4gai enhanced Emperor Liches, The Balrog, and Evil Iggy go. Even wwhen I was testing with a wizard mode character those creatures put up a heck of a fight.

So far, the most serious bug reported is that the game crashes when a player, after dying, chooses to create the same character with the same stats. I see the cause of the bug but it has proven extremely frustrating to fix. Other than that AFAIK things have been pretty smooth.

Also, Pav set up a ladder for NPPMoria (Thanks again, Pav!). For Beta 2 the character dumps will be lableed right, but for right now if somebody took thier character dump and edited the first line to be NPPMoria instead of NPPAngband, it should make it to the right place.