Persistent levels

[Sky]

nope, five crashes out of 5 different characters with 5 different set of birth options.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Sky

nope, five crashes out of 5 different characters with 5 different set of birth options.

Any extra information or savefile would be helpful in tracking down the problems.

[Sky]

i'll have a whole bunch of saves available tonight.

[Sky]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9...klwaWZwMHpVVjA
there.
this is a freshly-unpacked WIN nightly, regardless of race, class, or birth options, as soon as i try to enter the dungeon i get a crash.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Sky

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9...klwaWZwMHpVVjA
there.
this is a freshly-unpacked WIN nightly, regardless of race, class, or birth options, as soon as i try to enter the dungeon i get a crash.

OK, thanks. That is very odd - linux build works fine, windows build fails, and the failure doesn't look remotely platform-related.

EDIT: macOS version seems to fail in the same way. Further research needed.

[PowerWyrm]

This option gives Priests a huge advantage I guess...

[PowerWyrm]

For MAngband/PWMAngband, the way levels persist is much simpler (because of multiplayer mode): there is a chunk_list array for all the levels and a players_on_depth array for the number of players on a level. When players_on_depth is not zero, the level persists, otherwise it is regenerated. The players_on_depth value is automatically increased/decreased when a player enters/leaves a level, and can be manually changed using the DM menu to static/unstatic a level.

To determine how players arrive on a persistent level, there are three fixed locations: location for players going up, location for players going down, location for players arriving randomly (usually by WoR or tele level). This is much simpler than pairing stairs, so every staircase down on level n-1 goes to the same staircase on level n, and every staircase up on level n+1 goes to the same staircase too on level n.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Nick

OK, thanks. That is very odd - linux build works fine, windows build fails, and the failure doesn't look remotely platform-related.

EDIT: macOS version seems to fail in the same way. Further research needed.

New build on the nightlies page that should fix the bug.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Zikke

So even if one explored each level completely, and made notes of any uniques left behind, an OOD unique might randomly spawn carrying an artifact and the player would never know it or see them again unless they went back to that level for some reason.

Also, this means there would essentially be a finite number of monsters to kill and loot to roll in any given game (except for the randomly generated monsters as you're exploring).

I'm now thinking that saved levels should be maintained - perhaps after a set time remove 1/10 of the monsters on the level and add 1/10 of the usual starting numbers.

[kaypy]

Word of Recall seems to keep x,y location fixed, which may leave you stuck in a wall or worse yet off the valid map area for a savefile wrecking crash.

I'll go poke around in the source now and see if I can come up with a patch for it.

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I've begun looking through the code, and am now in mortal terror of how "Create Stair" might behave...

...

... Ah. I see I am not alone there then 8-)

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BTW, I am seeing a fair amount of code like

level_by_depth(p->depth + 1)

in the new code.

Does that cooperate with the stair_skip constant?

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OK, I have a somewhat hacky quickfix that randomizes the players location if they are in a bad location. It needs a bunch of work but it'll at least not crash. Should be on github shortly