Beta version of PWMAngband 1.3.0 released

[PowerWyrm]

New PWMAngband 1.3.0 beta 1 released!

Here's a list of changes since the last development release:

- Remove DEATH flag from graf-xxx.prf files
- Update monsters when leveling up
- Fix room templates with specified treasures
- Fix possible nuking of useful item when too many are generated on a level
- More struct loc refactoring

Files updated: binaries.
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

[DrWho42]

looking forward to playing this!

[tangar]

Great I'll update server today

[PowerWyrm]

New PWMAngband 1.3.0 beta 2 released!

List of changes:

- Hopefully fix "undefined packet" errors when sending a large amount of features from pref-xxx.prf to the server
- Remove pseudo-3D tileset
- Remove player shop types, allow free colorized house doors
- Allow variable number of stores in store.txt

Files updated: binaries.
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

[tangar]

PWMA: shadow, light and joint work

Yay! It seems 'undefined packet' on login is beaten at last Good job! And it's great to have custom house doors and STORES Thanks!

New problem appeared - night in towns. I often get client crushes without any error (in server log it's just 'disconnect'). Also main town at night is really glitchy, I've prepared video (it's not published at youtube, accessible only via this link):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6aZMh341k4

It shows 'walls' and hide them on the screen without any purpose. I suppose this error could appear because there are too many different objects on the screen, so it's hard to change their appearence with shadows for game engine.

/rfes:

1) if it's not possible to fix this shadows glitches asap, maybe as a temporary solution to night problems: add an option to server config file - to turn off day/night changes in towns (because it's quite critical problem; not possible to play the game when it's night around - crushes and glitches)

2) add an option to client config file - 'view'_yellow_light'. Then I'll be able to turn it on by default in my client distribution; because without it players do not understand is there a light in dungeon corridors

3)

[22:59]flambard:not sure if it made it into PWMA, but I guess so, there should be an option to enforce any client option (or set a default) in server .cfg

It would be cool to have such feature - to be able to assign any client option at server cfg. I've tested it by adding 'view'_yellow_light = true' to server config, but it seems it doesn't work.

----

And some topics considering development process:

A) Considering upcomming monster's change and tileset:

You said before that you are planning to rework all monsters in the game and port latest V monster changes there. I'm not fun of V-changes in monsters, but still I kindly invite you to use my tileset as default in PWMA for this job. You said before that you need to make a decision - which tileset to maintain (you are working at 3 of them at once) and which to drop. You are welcome to use Tangaria's tileset, with all it's terrain features. It's got plenty of empty space to bring new monsters (and would give possibility to save from extintion old ones, by moving them somewhere down, I'll do it for Tangaria). I've assigned 'torch' light for all regular dungeon terrain features, so now it's looks much better (the only problem is night at towns). Actually we could work on this tileset together - you just say what do you want to add and where and I'll make it. We could rework tileset structure, so we both would be happy with it.

Also you are welcome to use my map of the world or any parts of it, eg town or some other locations in default PWMA. Tangaria's main town is really beautiful and it makes starting location feels pretty special.

B) For the future, maybe it's good idea to try and port game to SDL2, as Flambard investigated. And there is already a working demo!

[18:05]flambard:there are automated client builds that keep up with latest developments, https://github.com/mangband/mangband...g/auto-develop

SDL2 gives loads of new features, eg possibility to make _animation_ to the game, looks really great (now it's already works on monsters attacks!). Also SDL2 client possible to port on Android and iOS. We tested it, it works %)

C) Finally, there is an old idea: combine online roguelike developers efforts - to try to find more point of joint work. Server's code isn't really compatible it seems, so as a start Flambard suggested - to make unified client for all trinity of online roguelikes. If it's not possible at this step - maybe at least make new features compatible for all clients? Maybe there could be certain 'API'-like compatibility?

[PowerWyrm]

"Yay! It seems 'undefined packet' on login is beaten at last"

Perfect, now I can remove the old code I saved in case it didn't work. Once the last problems are fixed I'll release the final 1.3 version and immediately start working on 1.4 which I want to complete asap.

"New problem appeared - night in towns. I often get client crushes without any error (in server log it's just 'disconnect'). Also main town at night is really glitchy"

This scares me, as it seems to be a serious problem. However, I've tested regular PWMangband and I don't have the problem, so I tend to think it's an issue with your terrain.txt file. Send me your /lib configuration and I'll check the client in debug mode to see where the crash occurs.

"add an option to client config file - 'view'_yellow_light'. Then I'll be able to turn it on by default in my client distribution; because without it players do not understand is there a light in dungeon corridors"

Well if you remove your torch, you'll see the difference
When I play, I really don't feel the urge to set view_yellow_light on, it works well without. Unless of course you edit the terrain features and set bright and dark tiles too close. Then simply adjust your shading (make dark more dark and bright more bright).

"It would be cool to have such feature - to be able to assign any client option at server cfg"

Only gameplay options should be in server.cfg, otherwise it would break the purpose of the file.

"You said before that you are planning to rework all monsters in the game and port latest V monster changes there. I'm not fun of V-changes in monsters, but still I kindly invite you to use my tileset as default in PWMA for this job."

Changes don't only include changes in monster list, but many gameplay changes. Like spiders spitting webs, monster hordes, pit/summon refactoring and much more. Those gameplay changes are mainly what I want to port from V4.2. I'll redo the monster list to stay close to V, but without porting everything (because 1. I don't like all that was changed and 2. there are constraints for shapeshangers and non-V mobs).

"Actually we could work on this tileset together - you just say what do you want to add and where and I'll make it. We could rework tileset structure, so we both would be happy with it."

I will try to maintain a true 32x32 tileset and a true 64x64 tileset. For 1.3, the old UT32 Gervais and Shockbolt will do. However I never was satisfied with any of them, because Gervais uses tiles that have no relation to what they describe (lobster-headed mobs for example) and Shockbolt is proprietary (had to remap many tiles to old stuff because they don't exist, and tiles that would fit are "paid for" tiles and cannot be used). But with V4.2 the Shockbolt tileset has been completely redone and has no old tiles anymore, so it will be a nightmare to do anything with it.

"try and port game to SDL2"

As I said, this won't happen because it would require me to switch to a completely different compilation environment.

[tangar]

"New problem appeared - night in towns. I often get client crushes without any error (in server log it's just 'disconnect'). Also main town at night is really glitchy"

This scares me, as it seems to be a serious problem. However, I've tested regular PWMangband and I don't have the problem, so I tend to think it's an issue with your terrain.txt file. Send me your /lib configuration and I'll check the client in debug mode to see where the crash occurs.

I've send you the link to PM and discord

"add an option to client config file - 'view_yellow_light'. Then I'll be able to turn it on by default in my client distribution; because without it players do not understand is there a light in dungeon corridors"

Well if you remove your torch, you'll see the difference
When I play, I really don't feel the urge to set view_yellow_light on, it works well without. Unless of course you edit the terrain features and set bright and dark tiles too close. Then simply adjust your shading (make dark more dark and bright more bright).

Shading of tiles is alright. I've recorded quick demo about this issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjPrKhMgCp0

Please could you add 'view_yellow_light' option to client config file, so it would be possible to distribute the game client of Tangaria with it's 'on' by default.

[Flambard]

C) Finally, there is an old idea: combine online roguelike developers efforts - to try to find more point of joint work. Server's code isn't really compatible it seems, so as a start Flambard suggested - to make unified client for all trinity of online roguelikes. If it's not possible at this step - maybe at least make new features compatible for all clients? Maybe there could be certain 'API'-like compatibility?

I'm on in, and am trying to follow either TomeNET either PWMA when implementing ideas, which are similar.

Some things are kinda odd, for example, I wanted to copy PWMA's '#R500'-styled inscriptions, but noticed TomeNET already uses '#' inscriptions for something else, so that's a stalemate :/

I think we need some common place to gather, perhaps a wiki or a forum, where we can discuss this 3-way. I believe every party will have to 'give in' some features, which I'm fine with, as long as players benefit in the end.

[PowerWyrm]

I've send you the link to PM and discord

Shading of tiles is alright. I've recorded quick demo about this issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjPrKhMgCp0

Please could you add 'view_yellow_light' option to client config file, so it would be possible to distribute the game client of Tangaria with it's 'on' by default.

As seen, the shading problem is actually a bug. I started implementing "necromancers must play in the dark" feature from V4.2 but reverted cos I didn't like the idea of necromancers being "vampires", and forgot to revert the part in the lighting code. This is fixed for next version.

About "crash while running around at night", this is due to having too many tiles to redraw, so the game has not the time to finish redrawing before next server packet comes in and gets badly processed. I'll add some debug code to see what goes on. Fix would be to optimize tile redrawing, hope it's possible.

add 'view_yellow_light' option to client config file: ok it's "client" config, not "server", that should be an easy change. I'll add that for next version.

[tangar]

Great! Really hope it would be possible to optimize the redrawing *crossing fingers*

[PowerWyrm]

About "crash while running around at night", this is due to having too many tiles to redraw, so the game has not the time to finish redrawing before next server packet comes in and gets badly processed. I'll add some debug code to see what goes on. Fix would be to optimize tile redrawing, hope it's possible.

add 'view_yellow_light' option to client config file: ok it's "client" config, not "server", that should be an easy change. I'll add that for next version.

In fact I simply turned the 'view_yellow_light' option on by default, this saves me some useless work.

For the night problem, I'll add some debug code into rle_encode/rle_decode pair to see if it's indeed a problem of packet size (not enough redundancy).

[PowerWyrm]

Ok I found the problem with night crashes. In rle_encode(), we use "char=-1" to encode the repetition of 3 or more tiles for the RLE_LARGE mode. The problem is that "char=-1" is also "char=0xFF", which means the last column in the tileset!!! Basically each tile located in the last column will break the rle_encode() mechanism. That's some bug that was in the original MAng code, but never appeared as MAng didn't use tiles and PWMAng didn't have much in the last column of the tileset.

Since PWMAngband now uses u16b for attr, the fix was easy to make. I simply rewrote the rle_encode/rle_decode pair using "attr" as marker for the encoding mode, so now not only the code is fixed, but it's also faster (since it uses 5 bytes instead of 6 for the RLE_LARGE mode).

Since that was the last problem in this version, I'll release the final thing this weekend so I can immediately start on the 1.4 version with the new monster features.

[tangar]

Great

Since that was the last problem in this version, I'll release the final thing this weekend so I can immediately start on the 1.4 version with the new monster features.

This beta version didn't has much testing cause of all this critical bugs.. it was pretty unplayable. All reported bugs was seen just on logon, without actual playing in dungeons. So when light-shadows bugs would be fixed, I'll make playtest with streams and players would come to test together.. so we may find a lot of new bugs So maybe new monster features could be postponed a bit - after we would check everything and would be sure that current version is smooth?

[PowerWyrm]

Great



This beta version didn't has much testing cause of all this critical bugs.. it was pretty unplayable. All reported bugs was seen just on logon, without actual playing in dungeons. So when light-shadows bugs would be fixed, I'll make playtest with streams and players would come to test together.. so we may find a lot of new bugs So maybe new monster features could be postponed a bit - after we would check everything and would be sure that current version is smooth?

Well usually I start with build 1 and release consecutive builds to fix bugs, sometimes a version had over 10 builds releases after first release. It's ok...