[Announce] FrogComposband 7.1.salmiak released

[Bostock]

The new option to show energy used is cool.

Why is the energy-used display sometimes orange though? I get it after teleporting with my staff of teleportation, for example.

[CyclopsSlayer]

Just died as my Spectre was confused and wandered into a wall. Kept walking in an effort to escape. Stupid summoners summoning more nameds... lol

[Sideways]

I wonder why the cost is still -100 in this case? I was expecting a greater cost.

Confused moves do not spend any more energy than regular moves. 1 wasted move is just 1 wasted move.

[HugoVirtuoso]

At one point, one of my chaos-warriors was inflicted with the confusion status and bumped into the mountain range and this nearby young bronze dragon got free hits, which is expected (and supposed to happen) yet I see Energy:-100.

I wonder why the cost is still -100 in this case? I was expecting a greater cost.

To anyone else reading, this energy notation is a non-wizard mode option ('=' then '3')

[CyclopsSlayer]

Hahaha, I thought the game had locked up, but no, entering a higher level quest zone no longer uses a y/n confirmation, now it is Y/n. Subtle difference.

[invisibletroll]

Compiling and playing with SDL enabled on Ubuntu 20.04 has lots of issues.


First of all, GCC 9.3.0 gives lots of warnings.

Disabling SDL mixer will result in compilation error.

./autogen.sh && ./configure --enable-sdl --disable-sdl-mixer && make
src/main-sdl.c:3165: undefined reference to `play_sound'

Compiles fine with SDL mixer, but...
Tile graphics doesn't seem to work at all and 32x32 refers to David Gervais tiles. (Do sounds work?)

Can't find file lib/xtra/graf/32x32.png - graphics mode '32x32' will be disabled.

Then change the font size with mouse many times in a row.
This should lead to crash with various messages.

[Bostock]

As far as I can tell, the most notable effect of the wilderness generation fix is that swamps are now actually-swampy. But what are the other major effects?

[Bostock]

* Fixed bug with standard artifacts disappearing from the floor if they had been carried there from another level (thanks to bostock for reporting)

The main thanks here belongs to MITZE, who believed in this bug when nobody else would!

[Sideways]

That the 87-117% scale seems more intuitive is the other reason (besides accuracy) why I made it not be the default, because this is an area where people's intuition tends to lead them completely astray. Every other time I see new players intuitively get the wrong idea or hear established players repeat popular misconceptions, it's something related to life ratings.

Some of the common myths about life ratings I keep hearing again and again include:
- A life rating multiplies the player's HP. [It doesn't multiply anything, though in the special case of a CL 50 player it is reasonable to think of it as multiplying 245 HP, a fraction of the total.]
- Life ratings are affected by the player's race, class and personality, and/or the race/class/personality HP multipliers shown at character creation are connected to life ratings in some other way. [Nope; the multipliers and the life rating are unrelated and don't even operate on similar scales.]
- Items with +Life or -Life on them have at least something to do with life ratings. [Nope; they affect an unrelated CON-based HP multiplier and operate on different scales.]
- The average life rating on the percentage scale is 100%, or it's 102% because that's half-way between 87 and 117. [It's higher than 102%, and would be very close to 103% without rounding effects (such as 117.9% being displayed as 117%) dragging it down.]
- There are 31 possible life ratings, all of them equally likely. [Only in Oposband. Frog/Pos/Compos technically have more than 700 possible life ratings, 77 of which are functionally distinct, and not all are equally likely.]
- Life ratings and life points are somehow connected, and/or life point drain drains the life rating, and/or life ratings can be drained in some other way, and/or life points are sometimes called a life rating. [Nope.]

Not all of these misconceptions are entirely the fault of the percentage scale; the average being off-center is mystifying on any scale, and some of the others also have to do with awkward terminology (which I have tried to improve); but the percentage scale is the leading culprit. The option to switch back to it is there so old players can stick with what they find familiar and are used to estimating "good", "bad" and "meh" with; but please use it responsibly and knowing what it actually means.

(The practical meaning of the 0 to 76 scale shouldn't be that unintuitive: a life rating of 76 will eventually give you 76 more HP than a life rating of 0, before accounting for the various multipliers. At any rate, I don't think that's less intuitive than "a life rating of 117% will eventually give you [30% of 245] more HP than a life rating of 87%, before accounting for the various multipliers"...)

[wobbly]

which is why old players like my are switching it back in options.

displayed by default

it can be changed in the options menu

Edit: Also hurrray for lilac! Graphics of the future. Good work as always.

[emulord]

Id much rather have a life rating % because its more intuitive. I don't care if I'm seeing +/- 0.5% of what the true value is.

[CyclopsSlayer]

So no option to back to the 87% to 117% systenn?

87-117% meant something intuitively. 0-76 Means NOTHING to those who don't know the code. Like me.

[HugoVirtuoso]

* Life ratings are now displayed by default on a scale of 0 to 76, rather than on a percentage scale of 87% to 117%; this is purely a display change, intended both to permit greater accuracy and to distinguish them even more clearly from the unrelated racial and CON/equipment-based HP multipliers

So no option to back to the 87% to 117% systenn?

[Sideways]

What do you mean by "Changed the power of confusion effects, they should now at least resemble the claimed powers?" Did some of the confusion spells not use the displayed power?

Yes, confusion effects frequently had misleading powers. I mentioned this in our earlier discussion

[Saru]

What do you mean by "Changed the power of confusion effects, they should now at least resemble the claimed powers?" Did some of the confusion spells not use the displayed power?

Thanks for the new release @Sideways, looking forward to all the changes!