New builds are now up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Some efficiency and reliability fixes (thanks eastwind)
• Fixed some stupid plurals
• Feature where unreadable books were less common has been restored
• Earthquakes can now push the player into traps, webs or squares with objects, which makes them less likely to be crushed

Another update, builds etc. in the usual places. Just code cleanup this time, a big lot of improvements to the macOS port from backwardsEric and fixes to some potential problems found by infer.

Commit 84ffecf changed hunger to a timed effect, but this also removed the messages (aka sounds) for the effects since "msgt" is not defined in player_timed.txt for the FOOD effect.

Initially, there were two sounds here: MSG_HUNGRY for when going "Hungry" and MSG_NOTICE for any other food status change. Using MSG_HUNGRY would fit better, as MSG_NOTICE is mroe generic.

Been jumping in to 4.2 for the last couple days. Having some fun, refreshing myself with an attempt of the older classes before hopping in to the new ones.

Might just be me, but it felt like Poison had a much bigger role in the early game, my warrior was pretty poorly suited to deal with it. Cure poison / rpois as a ranger spell was a pleasant surprise.

Its been ages since I played, can I learn past the first spell book as a Rogue / Ranger? Do I need to reach a certain level? Currently CL 31 as a Ranger, things are going fairly well, except almost dying to one of the newer tree enemies.

Might actually have a winner on my hands, going to take a break from it and see what I can do with a ~necromancer~

There are dungeon books for each class, yes.But only one town book

Commit 13db04d introduced different code for lighting which only consider TORCH features. Before, it was considering all COLOR_WHITE features. Result: stairs aren't lit differently anymore (ASCII mode). Maybe they should get the TORCH flag.

Gothmog's lash is made of fire in canon, yes.

OK, they get the TORCH flag.

Commit 62e771f has probably the logic reversed:

I'd say the checks should be done when the monster is NOT taking damage, no?

OK, thanks, fixed in dev. Also I get to continue playing "Where is PowerWyrm up to in pulling in V changes?" :)

New builds up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Fix to the weird visual effect when there's a panel change while running, showing two players (thanks Diego)
• Added back sounds for food changes (thanks PowerWyrm)
• Stairs get torchlit (PowerWyrm)
• Logic in monster fleeing from damaging terrain corrected (PowerWyrm)
• Trap immunity and aggravation runes are now learned correctly (#4195)
• Problems with door openeing and running with trap immunity fixed (#4235)
• Upgrades to readme (thanks cameron ball and fruviad)
• Change to scalable tiles in macOS port (hurrah!), and some display code correction (thanks backwardsEric)

Sound is no longer working on MacOSX with the latest build.

bacwardsEric is all over this, fix coming soon.

This is already in stable 4.2.0. but I'm curious how 'monsters learn from their mistakes' actually work. Does the monster need to be intelligent to learn what type of damage doesn't hurt player or what?

The Tarrasque breathed zero-damage fire through Narya at least thrice so it definitely did not learn anything during the long fight.

Sphara--it is correct for the occasional immune breath because you might have changed your equipment. It should be rare though, more like 1/5 to 1/10 the normal rate. Tarrasque usually breathes fire 1 in 6 turns (1/3 of spells and 1/2 of turns casting.) Was this the case?

Never switched the equipment. Narya was wielded throughout the fight. I think it breathed cold twice through Eonwe too (ImmCold).

Edit: For all I know, unless there isn't any 'intelligence' factor, only reasonable thing that caused it to breath through immunity I can come up with, was because it was stunned by Explosion spell. Otherwise, the mechanic didn't work at least the way I expected.

But how many times did it breathe disenchantment? Presumably many more than 2 or 3. That would mean it *did* learn that you have immunity, but "checked" that you didn't take it off. And yes, stunning might have an effect too. Don't know about that.

Pete - It did use Disenchantment the most. I did hockeystick it quite many times before I allowed him to do the first breath. The first one was fire breath and the ratio of Disen - Fire - Cold was about 6 - 3 - 2.

The reason I posted was that I thought it would NEVER try breathing through immunity twice.

Wobbly--does this mean you can take of Narya once the monster learns your immunity (and presumably doesn't hit you in melee with the same element)?

No idea. I haven't yet found where the routine is called from or what it actually does with the knowledge yet. I'm struggling to understand how most of the spell code actually works. My experience playing was that it isn't doing anything. Also breathe weapons have switched to "innate" & I'm not sure what difference that actually makes. Heck maybe it sets the monster to know your resist & then just ignores the knowledge.

In principle, kind of; monsters do have a chance to forget the current player state occasionally, and how much notice they take of their knowledge depends on how smart they are (smart monsters take more notice, so are actually easier to fool the way you describe).

Checking this stuff out has made me aware of a huge hole in the system, though - monsters don't learn from breath attacks. Something will have to be done.

Not very smart then. It should keep trying occasionally just to keep you honest, at around 10%-20% odds.

New builds up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• More improvements to macOS port from backwardsEric, including re-fixing sound;
• Finally incorporated a patch from molybdenum allowing fancier color-cycling for multicolored monsters;
• Made the throw command start on the inventory instead of the quiver;
• Several class changes foreshadowed here:
  • Re-introduced the device damage boost, at half its former value;
  • Reduced duration of Mana Channel to 5+d5, and increased its mana cost;
  • Make Cover Tracks (ranger spell) more effective, and make monsters generally a bit less psychic about where the player is;
  • Blackguards get crowd-based regeneration and damage reduction, a spell to make monsters more likely to rush the player instead of breathing or casting, more hitpoints, ability to wear more armour without impairing spellcasting, permanent aggravation, and melee splash-damage to adjacent monsters.

Some big changes, especially to blackguards; very interested to hear how they play.

Looks like blackguards are digesting way too fast, will have to track that down.

EDIT: Bug found and fixed, new builds will be up shortly.

Probably a stupid thing, but...

z_info->move_energy * 3 / 4

Should be

3 * z_info->move_energy / 4

Years ago the 3/4 part could be optimized to 0. I remember angband coders being careful about that.

Cool, thanks.

?
 

I started playing around 1993? - 2.5.1 - 2.7.9 - 2.8.1 - 2.8.3 was pretty stable. The 3s never worked well on Macs and I stoped playing games in 2000. I like 4.0.5 but I don't think artifacts on the ground should be destructible as that does not make sense traditionally after all and if it were posable monsters would have destroyed them by acid or intention a long time ago. Destruction can destroy an Artifact - you must be kidding; I was shocked. Not possible in 1990's so why now. Maces of Disruption always *slay* undead; not now; that's what made them so great. I am not completely sure about all I have said!

New builds are now up with refinements to the changes to blackguards and rangers.

Note that artifacts are not lost in this process unless you have identified them; they can get regenerated later. The reason this was added was to eliminate a tactic of walking up to vaults, using Destruction to remove the enemies, and then picking through the rubble for the artifacts. It was a zero-risk, high-reward strategy, and such things tend to get targeted by game developers because otherwise every game ends up looking the same. As I recall, the main alternative considered at the time was to make vaults Destruction-proof; I don't recall the finer points of the debate though.

I don't think Maces of Destruction had *Slay* undead, just the regular slay. But I admit it's been a long time so I could be wrong.

New builds on the nightlies page and angband.live (source here) with a few changes:

• More fixes to tiles from backwardsEric
• Some code fixes that unbreak elemental attack side-effects (thanks wobbly)
• Spells no longer show negative duration (#4206)

Playing a recent nightly (not the most recent, but pretty new), and it seems that most monsters lose track of me quite a bit more quickly than they used to (there are some exceptions, like those oh-so-obnoxious hasty ents...).

Overall, this makes looting vaults a lot easier, at least so far; Portal and sometimes even Phase Door take me out of their detection range, so I can blink out, rest, go lure a few more out and pick them off, repeat. It may be my imagination, but it seems to me that I used to have to get farther away before most things would lose me.

I don't mind this, and it does seem to vary, maybe by monster level? I did find that the Tarrasque was already heading for me by the time it came within telepathy range, so that was different. :)

New builds are now up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Several more improvements to the macOS frontend from the inestimable backwardsEric
• Another fix from backwardsEric that stops weirdness from resizing while a menu is up
• Improvements to the GCU port from moosferatu (I think)
• New command 'S' to browse the character's race and class abilities

Draught of the Ents which acts like both a potion of strength and constitution costs 1 gold, shouldn't it be a *bit* more expensive?

Yes, thank you.

I think those Ent draughts should also provide some nourishment. For flavor also a bit of increase in @ height.

Harooooom!

Is that what Ents say? I might be getting confused with my own card game
https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...87&oe=5EA57AC1

Latest nightly, found Wiruin, the Maelstrom in a checkerboard rectangle room. He doesn't appear to be moving, even though the description says he moves "somewhat erratically, and incredibly quickly". Not moving made him very easy to kill.

Yes, Wiruin doesn't move - the "erratically" is because all vortices get that. It is clearly misleading, so I'll remove it.

You caught him in a lucky spot - well, unlucky for him :)

New builds are up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Several more improvements from backwardsEric, mainly to macOS tiles
• Bugs with visibility of traps (when detected, and when disabled) have been fixed (#4205)

Something I don't know if it is intended or a copy-paste error:

Comment says "enlarge damage dice", but code enlarges sides.

When I create a new character with the latest build, it says "melee: 1d1-20" and "missile: 1d1-20" on the birth screen.

This is correct - it is enhancing the dice by giving each dice more sides.

This, on the other hand, is not intentional. Thanks :)

Problem was the new food system - the birth screen was generated with the player at 0 food, and hence getting all the penalties from being starving. Fixed by feeding them first.

A little copy/paste error: lore for BA_HOLY says "invoke mana storms".

New builds now up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Bonuses to movement speed added to status line (#4298)
• Fox only gets one extra blow (#4303)
• Shapechanged players can't throw any more, and can't do other stuff by using the context menus
• Smart learning now allows monsters to learn from breaths, and is reset more often (so they forget everything and can respond to equipment changes); also it's now the default (#4295)
• Monsters at their preferred range are more likely to cast spells instead of advancing (#4307)
• Fixed PowerWyrm's birth screen problem

I think there's a little code error in build_store(), line 1540:

Everywhere else in the function, the negation is used before square_isfloor(), but not there, which seems suspicious.

Bit of a minor issue, the / command (identify symbol) reads straight off the top of the object list. For example if I move spear to the top of object list & give it the , symbol, then the command returns "polearm" for identify ','. This is mostly ok '!' returns flask which works ok for potion & ',' returns food which works ok for mushroom, I guess the only questionable one is the mushroom patch case.

Actually found a few more '^' is unknown symbol. '+' is closed door (which may be an issue for FA with trees). '#' is secret door.

This sounds like a very good change. Makes me think, "why do ranged/casty monsters advance at all after getting in range" and then "they should probably retreat a square if they're not going to shoot/cast" and then "geez that would be super annoying if I had a melee character" and then "well, monsters would just be kiting the player like the player kites monsters all the time" and then "really should be a way to nerf kiting for players and newly minted kiting monsters" and then "everyone will hate me for even suggesting such a thing."

Haven't tried it, but I suspect you'll actually get mages doing a funny dance a certain distance away. Sils archers fire every turn, if they don't move they shoot. What does a V caster do when it reaches ideal range?

This proposal is because melee classes are already so ridiculously OP?

Thanks, I think you're correct.

Yeah, the lookup_symbol() function has a whole lot of comments about how not ideal the method is. I'll file a bug, but not an urgent one.

As for the ranged monsters keeping their distance, don't panic - I said more likely, not certain.

Not sure if you're referring to me, but if you are... When I said "it would be super annoying with a melee character" I could have expanded to say "and further imbalance the game in favor of shooters." Though if we went further and nerfed kiting then the balance could swing back in favor of melee characters.

I don't understand build_ruin(). For me, each time I try to generate a town in debug mode, this crashes because either "west" is bigger than "east" or "north" is bigger than "south". And when I use the latest build without debug mode, the game doesn't crash but I never see any "ruin" (because I suppose fill_rectangle() absorbs the error and simply does nothing in that case).

I didn't write it, and haven't actually looked very closely, but it doesn't seem to have caused me any problems. I just generated a new town, here's a screenshot - there seem to be two ruins in the lower row and one in the upper, next to the stairs.

I don't get it either. I mean it seems to work out, but if you look at it without the "now blow it up bit"

http://angband.oook.cz/screen-show.php?id=4735

You can see that its spread out & invades the walls, its the magma.

Hmm I see. My local copy has iterators instead of "for (y...) for (x...)" loops that's why I get an error. In V code, when the bounds are incorrect (west > east or north > south), fill_rectangle() actually does nothing and the "ruin" just consists of rubble. I just need add a bounds check in fill_rectangle() before my iterator.

New builds are now up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Many new fixes from backwardsEric - I'm starting to run out of words for this. This lot includes:
  • More macOS fixes
  • Inclusion of some more tiles for new stuff
  • Stopping hangs in targeting
  • Preventing crashes when a commanded monsters is killed
  • Possible fix to regenerating uniques
• Fixed a bug where a confused player trying to run could actually sometimes run a bit in the correct direction (thanks David Medley)
• Fixed a bug where blackguards with bloodlust would randomly move (instead of randomly attacking a nearby monster - David again)
• Stopped randart launchers from getting negative multipliers (#4275, thanks Sky)
• Added a comment in object_property.txt to clarify why 0 values of type-mult are necessary (#4216)

Looks like there might be a bug in the new running while confused logic. In the attached screenshot I am not confused, tried to run, and was unable to.

pretty sure if player_confuse_dir will always return true if you tell it "too"

Edit:Yeah working in mine now. Will open a pull request

Edit2: I guess the "running attempts always fail" bit was literally true

Thanks, pulled, new builds will be up soon.

So how is innate + spell freq meant to work? If innate 3 & spell 4 is that:

1/3 + 2/3 * 1/4?
1/4 + 3/4 * 1/3?
4/12 + 3/12? ( 2 & 2 would be always here)
Something else?

Spell is checked first, so your second one is right - 1/4 chance of a spell, then 1/3 * 3/4 of innate for a total of 1/2.

https://github.com/draconisPW/PWMAngband/issues/103

Food depletes every turn when it shouldn't. Same error also in V code. This is because food counter was changed to a timed effect and is decremented like all others timed effects in decrease_timeouts().

Thank you, I've felt like something was wrong here for a while (I suspect because people have been telling me).

After magic has been reworked, I am sometimes confused about which stat is used for spellcasting by each class. Would it be possible to show it in the character creation screen? For instance "Learns nature magic [WIS]". It would be helpful also for new players.

Speaking of which, what if we moved Druids to INT? I know this breaks with some traditions, but the race/ class combos for Druids are also breaking tradition. Would it then be 5 INT and 3 WIS casters? I don't see Blackguards as especially wise, but I don't see them as especially smart, either. Could swap them to WIS and the race combos might improve for both classes. This would disrupt some other things as well, but I think it's worth considering.

The philosophy of the current class model (short version) is that there is an original design of Middle Earth and its inhabitants, and traditional knowledge (WIS) emphasises sticking to that. Then there is thinking you're smarter than that (INT), which can be done by changing the world to suit you or perverting the entire scheme of intelligent life. So we get two sets of opposing realms - nature vs arcane on the tech axis, and holy vs shadow on the morality axis.

Even shorter version - no thanks :)

What about dropping normal elves a couple points of INT and raising a couple points of WIS?

Races all got left the same in 4.2, essentially because I'd done a massive shakeup of classes and monsters, and races as well would have been a bridge too far.

For my personal take on races, see here.

Yeah, that makes sense for sure.

Where are we with thrown weapons? I see that the thrown damage is shown upon inspection, but it seems really low compared to shooting.

I think thrown weapons have potential, but I find myself never using them.

If I have a good throwing weapon I am unwilling to throw it at a dangerous unique for fear that I have to run away and leave it on the ground. And, for non-dangerous monsters, why using my throwing spear when I can kill them easily even without it...

Maybe it is just my hoarding instinct kicking in though.

Throwing for rogues at least should be competitive. The thing I really ought to do is allow thrown weapons in the quiver, but I haven't got to that yet.

Possibly allow them to gen in stacks too? 1 throwing hammer of lightning isn't that useful.

That would sound good to me. The possible objection is "realism", though.

We all know that Angband characters can browse a book while holding a bow, a greatsword, a shield and a lantern. And that they can carry an insane amount of gear and potions in their inventory. So at this point having a reserve of 10 throwing hammers and throwing them at monsters one per turn like a machine gun doesn't sound like a stretch. :)

New builds are up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Digestion rate fixed (thanks PowerWyrm)
• New data file chest_trap.txt and overhaul of chest traps (thanks to a comment by tangar)
• Removal of obsolete treatment of gold graphics (thanks moosferatu)
• Massive effort of plugging memory leaks from (naturally) backwardsEric

Need to check latest V build, but I ported the chest changes today and when I try to open a "locked" chest, my game crashes with trap->effect = NULL...

EDIT: in latest V build, opening a "locked" chest results is "bad effect passed to effect_do() please report this bug".

Thanks, fix pushed.

New builds are up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Fixed a couple of bugs in curses (#4190, #4334) caused by not fully storing learned knowledge
• Updated help as indicated by PowerWyrm (#4227)
• Improved datafile documentation (#4229)
• Implemented backwardsEric's fix to targeting hang (#4217)
• Allowed wizard mode tweaking of curses (entirely done by backwardsEric)
• More plugging of memory leaks (backwardsEric again)

Fixing typos in the help files added more typos ;)

"Many items found, especially early in the game, will unidentified or partially"

"however, when youreach this point"

"Each iteration through, the this loop runs the level main loop"

Not as many, though...

New builds are up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with the following changes:

• Correct several errors found by PowerWyrm (#4240)
• Remove some redundant flags in monster.txt (thanks eastwind) (#4265)
• Made some improvements to necromancers, including notable replacing Noxious Fumes by a chaos attack (suggested by Sinquen, #4331)
• Fix some quiver anomalies pointed out by wobbly (#4238); there's still some slight weirdness where you can carry more stuff with careful use of inscriptions, but it's pretty intuitive now
• Implementation by backwardsEric of his idea that detect/sense objects should also wipe things that the player thought were objects but now aren't, and some other code improvements

Big change to blackguards from David Medley should be landing soon, too.

Inventory letters aren't supposed to go up to x, are they? Recent master, g0130e370. I can provide a savefile on request.

https://i.imgur.com/syNXBSO.png

Another small report: I just found Draught of the Ents at the Black Market for 6000 gold. That seems insanely cheap, considering that it is worth at least as much as a !str plus a !con.

This is precisely the bug I just fixed in the most recent build :)

It does, but somehow it seems appropriate.

Oops, thanks, I will update right now!

Surely there are better options then AC for alchemist gloves? Perhaps a set of mage-y egos for them?

Ooh ..

Gloves of the Mage: +INT, FA
Gloves of the Forge: +STR, rDis, rFire. Activate for rFire

+2 smithing?

In V? Heaven forbid.

+20 magic device skill?

New builds are now up on the nightlies page and angband.live (source is here) with some big changes. Changes are:

• Massive changes to blackguards, mainly by David Medley. They have a completely reworked spell list, and now *lose* mana over time but *regain it* from hitting monsters. Please check for balance and fun-ness
• Big effort to reduce object-related crashes and difficulties from backwardsEric. This has potential to be a step forward in stability of the game - please report if you find any problems.

I would greatly appreciate play and comment - this is likely to be the last gameplay change before 4.2.1.

Using my already existing Blackguard character with the new version. Is there still a chance of hitting multiple nearby enemies through normal melee or does that require the Whirlwind Attack spell?

Requires the spell now.

There are new builds up with a few bugs fixed.

"Need more rage"
"Not enough rage"
"Need more rage"

:D

Warning! Sugar low... ;)

I have noticed on several occasions that amulet of trickery got displayed diffently in the inventory list.
Example (from file dump):
I don't get it - why are there sometimes only three numbers and sometimes all five in the brackets?
It seems, when the values occur twice the game will only dispaly one of them.