Beta version of PWMAngband 1.2.0 released

[tangar]

it seems there could be another 'cheat' trick: winderness houses could spawn with too much staff in it. eg:



The question is - do they respawn? Or it's predifined at server seed; generated only once, upon server start after wipe? (if so - it's ok)

[PowerWyrm]

1) add possibility to move ctrl+w map

Impossible. This uses the "screenshot" code which just sends to client some fixed data, cant interact at that level.

2) add admin char features

If you want enlightenment, generate a potion
Teleport to player is useless, just make the admin char a "Telepath" (or Sorceror) and use Mind Vision spell to exactly "see" what a player does!
Since server restart can occur frequently, I'll add a "recall all players" feature.

3) do you have a map of the world?

\lib\gamedata\wild_info.txt

4) Assign 'escape any pending input request' before all macroses

This is a good idea. I'll try to add that so people who forget to start their macros with it have that automatically when clicking on "create macro"

5) Do not close the game after death

Currently impossible with MAngband code. I tried to remove the "destroy connection" call after death to fix the problem with death screen/last messages not displayed properly, but this was bugging the game big time because all player indices are reallocated. Being "dead" doesn't exist in the game and the only way to continue properly is to quickly remove the dead player before everything breaks.

6) Add possibility to define disturb_faint as 'false'

Ok changing that for next version.

7) I've just tested and found that now when you start a character with birth_start_kit=false you start with 2700 g or even more

I'll have to look at this, because it seems strange that 2 scrolls of phase door and 2 WoRs and 2 potions cost 2700 gold. Can you tell me what amount you have changed for "player:start-gold"? And post both object.txt and class.txt?

8) wilderness houses could spawn with too much stuff in it

Intended. These are Mangband features (invaders, settlers).

9) do they respawn?

No. And that's why people should explore wilderness area and not just "pass by". Once you leave an area with all this cool stuff, it is gone FOREVER. You will get a "this seems to be a deserted area" message, and nothing else.

[tangar]

Thanks!

"7) I've just tested and found that now when you start a character with birth_start_kit=false you start with 2700 g or even more"

I'll have to look at this, because it seems strange that 2 scrolls of phase door and 2 WoRs and 2 potions cost 2700 gold. Can you tell me what amount you have changed for "player:start-gold"? And post both object.txt and class.txt?

It's because Satisfy Hunger scroll cost 1k. Also I plan to adjust some other prices in future and reassign gear for different classes, so it would be great to have two separate constant for starting gold:
for "player:nogear-gold" (for which would be independed from 'birth_start_kit=false') and "player:gear-gold" which also would be independent. It would provide the best customization possible.

[PowerWyrm]

It's because Satisfy Hunger scroll cost 1k.

In this case, if you start with 2 of those scrolls, it's logical that people who start without get 2k.

Otherwise there's a simple solution: [event] items. In the game I currently play, when DMs want to give away expensive items during an event, they make a copy of the item tagged as [event] and make it untradable and without value.

In our case, make a copy of the scroll of satisfy hunger in object.txt, assign a zero price to it and remove the "alloc" line: this ensures the scrolls are not found anywhere in the game except at birth and don't contribute to the gold pool at start. I've done exactly the same with the "Deed of Property" so people start with one and that's it.

Also be VERY careful with giving expensive items at start. At the beginning of MAngband back in late 1990s each Priest was starting with a "potion of healing" instead of some cure serious wounds. And what did people do? They were creating priests, dropped the potion, suicided, repeated 100 times and BAM... 100 free potions of healing for their next char.

[tangar]

In this case, if you start with 2 of those scrolls, it's logical that people who start without get 2k.

Yep, it looks logical, but we got special case there. As I've wrote there:

I've changed prices for consumable items to make them rare and more hard to get via Black Market; player are intended to find certain consumable items in the dungeon, not to buy them ezpz in town.

This scroll is intended given to players to survive at least one dangerous meeting with Glutton Ghosts (as they destroy common food). But if player is advanced, he knows what he is doing and want to setup starter items by him own by buying them - then he could have such privilege and could start with gold only. But in return he should start without some predefined bonus, like extra Satisfy Hunger scroll.

Players who starts with predefined equipment are quite restricted in their starter paths as we got no_selling and pre-difined chars. So it's fun that we have such choice and I'll make sure to balance it.

Otherwise there's a simple solution: [event] items. In the game I currently play, when DMs want to give away expensive items during an event, they make a copy of the item tagged as [event] and make it untradable and without value.

In our case, make a copy of the scroll of satisfy hunger in object.txt, assign a zero price to it and remove the "alloc" line: this ensures the scrolls are not found anywhere in the game except at birth and don't contribute to the gold pool at start. I've done exactly the same with the "Deed of Property" so people start with one and that's it.

Thanks for solution; I've already mentioned this idea before:

Temporary solution could be to create special 'starting' items and make their value as 0.. But then this items would be 'for free' in Black Market. Is there a possibility to exclude item from sale somehow? If so - I'll make 'newbie' items and would return gold right now.

So.. The question: could event items appear at BM? I'm making this bold format, cause last time it seems this quesion was lost among other and you missed it

But I still believe that more right way to solve this problem: to use simple and elegant decision: predefine gold for starting character, with or without start equip.

Why should game calculate amount of gold fom equip at one mode for another and restrict server customization if there is easier way to solve this issue by just assigining constant gold values? We should follow Occam's razor and solve such problems.

Also be VERY careful with giving expensive items at start. At the beginning of MAngband back in late 1990s each Priest was starting with a "potion of healing" instead of some cure serious wounds. And what did people do? They were creating priests, dropped the potion, suicided, repeated 100 times and BAM... 100 free potions of healing for their next char.

Thank you for your concern, but no worries there; I'm pretty aware of such problems As I got loads of MMORPG (playing UO from 99) experience - I'm trying to protect realm from cheaters with all possibilities which game engine gives. MAX_ACCOUNT_CHARS, NEWBIES_CANNOT_DROP and NO_SELLING provides certain protection (actually it would be fun to add some more restrictions, but we got plenty of other, more critical stuff to implement); at least makes it not so easy. But our main protection is strict rules at the website:

http://angband.online/rules/

If player would make wrongdoing - he would receive warning and his is account would be purged (not too big problem for permadeath game hehe). If he would repeat - ban by IP for certain days.. or forever if he would be caught again. But this is quite inlikely event as we got VERY nice and community for now and players are willing to abide rules.

And considering preotection VS wrongdoers..

Do we have admin console and how to use it? (I've asked this question a few posts above, maybe it was lost too, so I've 'bolded' it).

I found info about console @ \src\server\control.c ; Please could you explain how it works; so if we would have troublemakers on the server I'll be able to to purge/kick/ban them. There is some info about TN console: http://www.tomenet.eu/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=749 , is it relevant for PWMA?

[PowerWyrm]

"So.. The question: could event items appear at BM? I'm making this bold format, cause last time it seems this quesion was lost among other and you missed it "

As I said, look what I did for the "Deed of Property". It's an item that people get at start and doesn't appear anywhere else in the game. To do that, simply remove the "alloc" line from scroll of satisfy hunger and set its value to zero. For example:

name:Satiation
graphics:?:w
type:scroll
properties:0:5:0
effect:SET_NOURISH
dice:$B
expr:B:FOOD_MAX:- 1

Ok about the console, it's quite hard to use

I tried and couldn't make it work, because the connection types (8202 and 8205) are obsolete. So for next version I'll add the type for PuTTY (65531). Now it works like this:

- download and launch PuTTY
- create a session with parameters: host name = localhost, port = 18346 (or whatever value you have set for TCP_PORT in mangband.cfg), connection type = Telnet
- if this works, a window will open with the text "Connected"
- enter the console password (value set for CONSOLE_PASSWORD in mangband.cfg)
- if the password is correct, you will see the text "Authenticated"
- press "help" to see a list of commands
- press "Enter" after each command to go back to the left of the window (it's not automatic)

There are few commands right now. The most used are "who" to list the players currently online, "whois" to get a detail of a player, "kick" to kick a player out of the game, "wrath" to kill cheaters and "shutdown" to shut the server down. The complete list of commands is in control.c.

[tangar]

YAY Cool! I've used putty a lot for webdesign stuff. Btw maybe such console connection could give possibility to get server status to the website ('who' command)..

Ok, I'll create event items to fix starting $ problem

Maggot, death sword and trees

http://angband.online/maggot-death-sword-and-trees/

[tangar]

Time to plan: http://angband.online/time-to-plan/
Now we got trello – https://trello.com/b/CuFa9Xiz; fancy web-tool for planning Everyone are welcome to register there, participate in discussions and suggest new ideas!

/bug (?)

it seems that if mob very fast and attack you in melee - 'h' with 'fire-till-kill' doesn't work (tested with archer w/ bow) // auto-ret off, ^O inscribed on melee weap

[PowerWyrm]

Fire till kill only works until you get disturbed (it's a plain "repeat" command on spells and shooting -- so it is also limited to 99 times).

[tangar]

Maggot’s day! http://angband.online/maggot/

1)

Fire till kill only works until you get disturbed

Is it possible to add resuming shooting after disturbance? like it's in TomeNET (I suppose they used not simple loop, but 'while' condition)

2) it seems items generation in & menu doesn't work. I wanted to generate Flask of Whiskey for testing with admin menu, but it didn't work:
& 4 2
then I push 'k' and enter the name: Flask of Whiskey
then 'Enter'. nothing happens
also when I push 'g' it ask about number and also do not generate anything

(in the end I've added whiskey to '1' shop and testing was alright *hic*)

3) /rfe
give unlimited ESP radius to admin char no matter if server got limited esp in .cfg

4) it seems there is imba (I'll even say 'cheat') race: ethereal dragon.. could pass walls. I suppose, that in compare to shapechanger who could also have passwall forms - this passwall could kill anything, not only ghosts (?)

please could you move this race customization to the gamedata so it would be possible to balance it at server side (now dragon takes stuff @ monster.txt; maybe there should be separate file with dragon race properties for proper rebalancing without ruining monsters)

[PowerWyrm]

Item generation works fine, but it only works for items that can be allocated since it uses the allocation code.

Admin char doesn't get full ESP? lol... i'll change that

For ethereal dragon, I'll add some small restriction so it's less imbalanced, but I cannot change shapechanging code.

[tangar]

1) Admin char got ESP, but as server got

# Option: limited telepathy.
# If enabled, makes telepathy work in a "max_sight" radius around the character
# (usually 20 squares).
LIMITED_ESP = true

admin restricted by this 20 squares too

2) maybe Dragon race shouldn't have 'ethereal' type at all? is it possible to exclude it?

[PowerWyrm]

Yeah it was a bug. Now admin char gets full ESP even on LIMITED_ESP servers.

To nerf WRAITHFORM on players a bit, I added IMPAIR_HP to compensate when a player is wraithed. I won't remove ethereal drake as it is fully part of the dragon world, and except wraithform it is pretty bad.

And by the way...

When the server is NO_SELLING, you sell items for 0 gold in shops. But this also includes player shops! Remember when players complained they didn't get gold when they sold items in player shops... well it's because of NO_SELLING. At the moment, player shops function exactly like normal shops, so you can put items on sale, the buyer will have to pay the normal amount but the seller will get nothing.

I'm annoyed by this because I have to tag objets with a '*' in their inscriptions when NO_SELLING is on and this messes up with the autoinscription process. So what should I do?

1) Leave as it is now: you can put items for sale in your house, buyer has to pay, seller gets nothing. This will require more development, as autoinscriptions can't handle the '*' and nothing prevents players from doing trade by hand (player 1 drops item, player 2 drops gold, player 1 picks gold up, player 2 picks item up).

2) Enable selling in player shops even on NO_SELLING servers. This will be done by removing the restriction on "for sale" inscription, so players will be able to trade freely by either putting items on sale in player shops, on the floor or simply trade freely.

3) Disable selling in player shops on NO_SELLING servers. Simply prevent people from inscribing "for sale" on items. Nothing can still prevent players from trading freely.

If nobody objects, I'm gonna implement the second method. It's simpler and more logical: you cannot sell to shops which buy anything but you can sell to players which buy only special items.

[tangar]

1) Cool that you figured out source of player-stores issue Yep, second options is good.

2) considering WRAITHFORM. I suppose IMPAIR_HP is too small penalty:

desc:makes you slow to recover hitpoints

You won't even notice it at mid-high lvls. And at low lvls it also meh. At the same time WRAITHFORM is one of the most desirable thing in the game.

I suppose even

name:slowness
type:boots
values:SPEED[-5]
desc:drags at your feet

and

name:weakness
type:gloves
values:STR[-10]
desc:weakens your grasp

...while in eth form, could not be enough to make it fair. Players would still prefer this breed.

3) /rfe
add a delay before rogue could go to stealth mode (atm rogue do it at once)

4) /bug it's strange but 'text' entry in chat (after you push : ) become very short. I mean the field. It's like half of normal size. Even 1/4

5)

Fire till kill only works until you get disturbed

Is it possible to add resuming shooting after disturbance? like it's in TomeNET (I suppose they used not simple loop, but 'while' condition)

[tangar]

Golden start http://angband.online/golden-start/