Development version of PWMAngband 1.2.0 released for testing

[tangar]

/rfe

I. ignore setting
It would be fun to have a hotkey for 'ignore item'. Currently you need to push:
1) k
2) choose an item
3) c (ignore this item type)

It makes it impossible to macro this action (cause of #2)

It would be fun to have it like:
1) ctrl+k -> it asks 'ignore which item?'
2) you choose which item to ignore

II. ignore & destroy

add option which would make possible to do all following actions with one key:
- ignore item type (eg. all kind of magic books)
- destroy items of such kind in inventory

..because atm you need to ignore, then destroy.. to much buttons to push by lazy players

Or maybe it's possible to assign to ignore all kind of item type (eg books, corpses) in game options? I didn't find such option, would be great alternative.

III. in '=' -> 'k' (macroses)

1) most important - it would be fun to be able to adjust macro in 'Browse' macro menu. The way to make it - like it's done in 'auto-inscription' menu (&) in TomeNET. Actully this 'browse keymaps' menu could be main tool for macro assigning and if so - it would be even much more comfortable than macro system in TomeNET!
2) make 's' button to save macroses, not 'b'; 'l' for load
3) 'query' should be called 'test' (really confusing)

--
One more thing:
Ctrl+x - save & enter.. It's very bad place for such command in online game where if you quit accidentally - you would die. It's not critical thing, cause you could use macro to remove it from this place; but I suggest to move it somewhere else in next version too (if it's not too hard to do).

[Derakon]

Also kinda tiny 'bug' - levitation ring cost 50 g in compare to lantern which cost 500+ g Or is it 'feature'?

Which of those do you, the player, value more highly?

[tangar]

Derakon, ring which makes you fly or simple lantern? Flying in Middle-Earth isn't so common thing I suppose

*Remembering old Tolkien's dispute: Frodo & eagles* %)

[Derakon]

Derakon, ring which makes you fly or simple lantern? Flying in Middle-Earth isn't so common thing I suppose

*Remembering old Tolkien's dispute: Frodo & eagles* %)

Ring that makes you fly (hover, really) is pretty useless to adventurers going underground. Brass lanterns are very important! The shopkeepers know what you want and are perfectly willing to gouge you for it.

[clouded]

* Is there really no fire-till-kill mode? Makes playing mages and ranged chars a huge amount less enjoyable.
* hjklyubn does not work when using the look command or while targeting, maybe elsewhere too.
* I cannot put a keymap on `, this is quite a big deal because it is my phase key. It's near both numrow and f-keys so it is a key I assume other people would want to use.
* Can't believe you haven't imported ToME's ability to use @Phase etc, not having that makes the whole keymap system far far worse and highly increases the likelyhood of mistakes, is there even a way to auto inscribe?
* I would like to be able to turn off the game speed slowing when hurt, it is extremely jarring.

I know you've spent a huge amount of time keeping this updated with Vanilla, but I'm a little baffled that there are some very core TomeNet features neglected (like FTK, @keymaps)

[tangar]

* Is there really no fire-till-kill mode? Makes playing mages and ranged chars a huge amount less enjoyable.

yep, it's not there.. the closest thing is 'h'.

I've made a mini-guide considering 'new' hotkeys in PWMA (compared to TomeNET), maybe it could be useful: http://tangar.info/en/p/advanced-hotkeys/

* I cannot put a keymap on `, this is quite a big deal because it is my phase key. It's near both numrow and f-keys so it is a key I assume other people would want to use.

Indeed. It's kinda bug. But I suppose you could put in manually in .prf file

* Can't believe you haven't imported ToME's ability to use @Phase etc, not having that makes the whole keymap system far far worse and highly increases the likelyhood of mistakes, is there even a way to auto inscribe?

yep, it's the most critical macro-related issue atm. The same issue in MAngband ( https://github.com/mangband/mangband/issues/1182 ) - I beg MAngband devs to fix it.. Now I would start to beg PowerWyrm too also no auto-inscribe

* I would like to be able to turn off the game speed slowing when hurt, it is extremely jarring.

It's possible to do in options '=' 'h'.. Although I liked it in the end (with new char it's a bit annoying, but when you play at 10+ lvls it's really makes sense).

--

Ring that makes you fly (hover, really) is pretty useless to adventurers going underground. Brass lanterns are very important! The shopkeepers know what you want and are perfectly willing to gouge you for it.

Ouch I got kinda the similar answer from Blue (TomeNET developer) when I tried to convince him to add empty bottles to '1'. He said that it's shopkeeper conspiracy and alchemist had joint share with '1' shop to forbid to sell emtpy bottles, so players needs to buy potions of cure light wounds and /empty them to get bottles

[CyclopsSlayer]

Derakon, ring which makes you fly or simple lantern? Flying in Middle-Earth isn't so common thing I suppose

*Remembering old Tolkien's dispute: Frodo & eagles* %)

On that note: How The Lord of the Rings - Should have Ended

[tangar]

I've started PWMAngband server in Frankfurt (so it would have good ping for all parts of Europe). So far it's got only access by IP:
3.120.40.160
but tomorrow I'll try to setup dns for it

(to connect: when start the game, push ctrl+m and enter IP).

Enjoy!

Some /rfe

- add separate server release (without client itself)
- use .zip for it (cause hosting got Windows OS which doesn't have .7z program, so I had to repack it manually)

p.s.
I'm very newbie in hosting app servers, but I hope I'll be able to learn in time and this server would become permanent one

CyclopsSlayer,

[tangar]

Attention! Currently server is in TESTING mode. There could be a wipe soon, after everything would be setted up. I wanna make it traditional roguelike with a limit of one character per account and also to prevent cheezing.

so yet another /rfes considering .cfg (server configuration file):

- add an option to limit amount of characters per acount ('RPG server') to 1
- an option to turn off EL (ressurection) mode (so it would be traditional roguelike gameplay with 1 life only) // IT'S ALREADY THERE Ding! %)

I suppose, after this two /rfe would come to life (if they come.. I hope so very much) - server would be wiped and would go live

[tangar]

pwmangband.tangar.info

is live and could be accessed via MAngband metaserver Just run latest version of PWMA and you would be able to play at it =)

yay!

[PowerWyrm]

"So having auto-dump on every death is useful thing. maybe it could be turned on as option in config file"

Ok I'll try to add that.

"add time to UI"

Will be hard, the UI is already pretty crowded, that's why I added it to the '%' command. I'll look at it.

"This doesn't work atm, minimum isn't 6, but 8"

Works perfectly, must be your addon. But if you want less, I can reduce to a 1/8 of the max (10x3) instead of 1/4, so you'll be able to get a smaller term 1 for messages.

"levitation ring cost 50 g in compare to lantern which cost 500"

Angband prices. Not a bug, lantern is 2 radius of light, levitation is just… levitation. Note: it's not a ring of flying, just levitation. The only thing it helps with is avoiding drowning when crossing water in the wilderness (+ the old feather falling effect).

"Also I wonder is it possible to make 'redrawing' when character moves - 'smoothier'"

The movement/display code is so complex I wouldn't dare touch anything here without fearing to break everything. Atm the code "freezes" the environment when character runs to avoid redrawing everything constantly, which would make the game unplayable.

"It makes it impossible to macro this action "

\ek-cy\n (iirc)

The ignore feature works fine imo and I don't see a reason to change it.

"because atm you need to ignore, then destroy"

No, all ignored items in the inventory are immediately dropped on the floor and ignored (made invisible) as long as 1) you didn't equip them (equipping something marks the item as "non ignorable" so you need to destroy manually) and 2) you're not in a town (to prevent littering)

"maybe it's possible to assign to ignore all kind of item type (eg books, corpses) in game options"

Yes it is, option menu (=) then i) item ignoring setup

"macro system"

It's the Angband system, and works fine. I'm used to it, doesn't take long to learn.

"but I suggest to move it somewhere else in next version too "

Unfortunately at this point, all keys are mapped to commands, it's completely impossible to move any of them.

"Is there really no fire-till-kill mode?"

Nope, it never was a problem in MAngband, but I could add that if it feels more convenient to play archers or spellcasters. I should check how it's done in TomeNET, especially how to handle interruption.

"hjklyubn does not work when using the look command or while targeting"

You mean the roguelike keyset? I'll look into that…

"I cannot put a keymap on `"

This is alt-è for me, so it's a strange key to put a keymap. No idea why it doesn't work, I'll also have to take a look.

"Can't believe you haven't imported ToME's ability to use @Phase etc"

Cos it's not in MAngband and I didn't have the need for it. Again I'll look at it.

"is there even a way to auto inscribe?"

No. There's such system in Vanilla, but I have no idea what it's for… You pick a set of inscriptions (for example: @r1 = ?Phase) and each time you pick up an item it automatically put the inscription?

"I would like to be able to turn off the game speed slowing when hurt"

Option menu (=) then "set hitpoint warning" then put 0.

"I'm a little baffled that there are some very core TomeNet features neglected "

As I said, I just didn't have the use for them and noone asked for that before…

"- add an option to limit amount of characters per acount ('RPG server') to 1 // IT'S ALREADY THERE Ding! %)"

Already there? o_O
Anyway the limit is hardcoded iirc and I can simply put that into a variable.

"an option to turn off EL (ressurection) mode "
NO_GHOST=true in mangband.cfg

"is live and could be accessed via MAngband metaserver "
Congrats and thank you!

Note: I tried to play but each time I try to type something or put something on the chat line my client crashes. Sounds like the same bug as MAngband… Need to fix that as top priority...

[clouded]

"is there even a way to auto inscribe?"

No. There's such system in Vanilla, but I have no idea what it's for… You pick a set of inscriptions (for example: @r1 = ?Phase) and each time you pick up an item it automatically put the inscription?

Yes, in vanilla people would more likely use it for putting !* on destruction etc, here putting a number on everything is much more crucial. From what I remember you did it from the ~objects menu, assigning to specific objects rather than using a regex like in TomeNET.

[tangar]

PWMAngband suggestions: wilderness and houses

"This doesn't work atm, minimum isn't 6, but 8"

Works perfectly, must be your addon. But if you want less, I can reduce to a 1/8 of the max (10x3) instead of 1/4, so you'll be able to get a smaller term 1 for messages.

Addon just removes header of window and doesn't influence other way. But I figured out how to solve it for now - it works (to have 6 rows) only if I apply addon when I start a client and yet didn't enter the game (stay on login screen). But if I apply addon later on - min. rows becomes 8.

So there is definitelly a bug, but as I've found a way to solve it (protecting .ini file and applying addon before login) - it's not a critical one.

"maybe it's possible to assign to ignore all kind of item type (eg books, corpses) in game options"
...
Yes it is, option menu (=) then i) item ignoring setup

It doesn't work. It's impossible to assign there to ignore all kind of books at once; only books which you already found, they appear there one by one. Is it a bug then?

"is there even a way to auto inscribe?"

No. There's such system in Vanilla, but I have no idea what it's for… You pick a set of inscriptions (for example: @r1 = ?Phase) and each time you pick up an item it automatically put the inscription?

There is a problem:
every time when you die and start a new character - you have to inscribe manually all items again - all scrolls, potions & etc. And you die quite often in PWMA. And it's very annoying to reinscribe items after each death.

So there could be two possible solution:

1) allow to macro with name of the item, like @Phase (right now you should use @r1 for it). Then after you saved macroses once - you don't need to bother about inscribing items again
2) auto-iscription feature

I would prefer first variant, it's more comfortable.

"- add an option to limit amount of characters per acount ('RPG server') to 1 // IT'S ALREADY THERE Ding! %)"

Already there? o_O
Anyway the limit is hardcoded iirc and I can simply put that into a variable.

yeah, I messed it with NO_GHOST mode (which is already there, yay! this feature (1 character per account) - isn't there and it would be GREAT to have it D

Some more stuff which I've noticed during todays stream in Russian:

1) 'R' -> 'm' (rest till morning) didn't work at my server (donno why). Is it works only at localhost?

2) WILDERNESS.

a) wilderness is too hard to pass. There is should be a road from Hobbiton to Bree (it was there @ Tolkien) and Brandywine Bridge over Baranduin.. I didn't manage to find Bree and.. I'm quite experienced online roguelike player (3+ years) and I've read Tolkien like.. hm.. 30 times. If there would be a road - it would be more lore-precise and also easier to find it

b) wilderness is too dangerous. First newbie dungeon should be 250 ft at least. So it wouldb e possible to get some survivability before going out. And if there is no way to 'R' -> 'm' (#1) - then first town should be till -1500 ft (so player wouldn't be insta-killed by 12-h hydra at night)

c) problem of wilderness - you have to move near border to run away from monsters. it's very cheezy way to play, non-roguelikish. But it's the only way to survive, cause monsters are too powerful.

At the same time, if monster would be weak, it would become boring.. So there should be found a middle.. Like - lvl of monster could depend on lvl of character which currently exploring location. Or monsters power could depend on how far away player are from map center, eg. like this:



So problem is: it's pretty easy to run away from monstes in open-world. You just go to another sector – and you are safe (a least if there is nothing dangerous at another sector hehe).

As it's quite impossible imho to make monster follow player to the next sector when player flee, we could do this:
if player engaged in combat in open-world, bind player for some time in current sector, so player can't leave this location immediatelly. Actually right now we got quite close mechanics, but in terms of running when player not in combat he could run faster x5, when player see active monster you move with regular speed. In open-world this mechanics would look a bit different: when you engaged in combat you can't pass sector line and have to wait 30 seconds in combat; but if you kill enemy then bind would be released immideatelly and you could exit sectom right away.

Such mechanics would give wide possibilities to make open-world more real and interesting. And it won't be needed to have too pwoerful monsters around

3) it would be great to be able to save 'ignore' settings, so you won't need to add items to ignore list every time you died

4) gameplay modes (= c). It would be great to move all this modes to server .cfg file. I'm not sure, but I suppose right now it's possible to cheeze, eg. two player, one with birth_n_selling to get more gold, second without it. 1st could give 2nd items to sell in shops.

5) currently my server works in no_wilderness mode (reasons why is above). It would be great to add there some houses. I suppose they could be added in quite funny way - like a 'storage' houses in TomeNET, but entrances could be right in the 'walls' of a dungeon, like this:



It's great to have the all server population in one town, feels very active and alive. So having some houses around would make everything just perfect

6) add /empty comman to empty potions?

[tangar]

/rfes

1) add server .cfg option for faster recall (currently Word of Recall is too long for kick in.. it's especially important if you play at 'not connected' stairs server). Like 2x faster (now it's ~20 turns I suppose.. I didn't perform proper test, just my feelings)

2) hit point warning (time bubble) - it's really awesome feature, which makes gameplay much more fair and skill-based, in comparison to reaction-based 'arcade'-style. I really like it.

The problem:
when time seizes - it's hard to understand when turn pass. eg.
player is '1' life; monsters chasing him. Player drinks a potion and try to run further. Because of 'slow time' effect it's very hard to understand did your previous command worked or not. So you could cancel your previous action and not to drink potion, but run further.

Possible suggestion:
to mark end of each turn in 'low hp mode' as red line, like
**********************************
in game messages window.

I'm not sure - would it help alone.. Maybe add also this solution:
when player push any key while in 'low hp mode' - show this action as (queued) in game messages window. eg:

(**planned**) you are to drink a potions of cure light wounds

and when this action was completed, write it in game message window with yellow ink something like:

(**completed**) you finished your action queue

---
p.s.
just a laugh: I j'adore such curses1!! screenshot

[PowerWyrm]

" only books which you already found, they appear there one by one"
Intended. You cannot ignore items you don't have seen yet.

"I would prefer first variant, it's more comfortable."
Noted. I'll try to implement something similar.

"rest till morning didn't work at my server "
It works. Resting increases speed by something like 5, so it'll take something like 4 minutes instead of 20 to sleep the whole night. When you checked the feature, you didn't wait more than a couple seconds…

"There is should be a road from Hobbiton to Bree (it was there @ Tolkien) and Brandywine Bridge over Baranduin"
Next time… simply go east
The bridge is there (-19,21).
Bree is something like 3 squares away from Hobbiton straight east. You need to go east, then north one (to cross the bridge), then east, then south one. During your steam, you went like 10 squares north lol…

"wilderness is too dangerous"
It's the same as MAngband an TomeNET. In MAngband, people often go a few squares away at night, kill a vampire or similar and level up fast. In TomeNET, I've been killed multiple times in the wilderness by such things as greater kraken or leviathan.

"monsters power could depend on how far away player are from map center"
In fact, monster power depends on distance to the closest town, so as long as you're close to a town you shouldn't meet too dangerous foes. During the DAY. Never go in the wilderness at night.

"you won't need to add items to ignore list every time you died"
When you die you lose flavor knowledge. So can't do anything here.

"one with birth_n_selling to get more gold, second without it. 1st could give 2nd items to sell in shops"
Yes that's a problem, but how to solve it? It's the same when one player gives other player stuff for free…

"It would be great to add there some houses"
The "0" building is your house

"It's great to have the all server population in one town, feels very active and alive"
I checked recently and 5 people were playing. Great!

A lot of things to consider…
Unfortunately I won't have time for everything, so the most critical issues will be tackled and I'll leave the rest as is. I'm way too behind regarding latest Vanilla features, and I want to finish adding stuff to release a 1.4 version to match MAngband version.