Competition 83

[PowerDiver]

Originally Posted by Zikke

I downloaded the savefile but every time I try to cast a spell it lags out when selecting a book for several seconds. Playing a mage on the same game installation with a different character doesn't do that.

What's going on?

edit: I tried installing a new copy of 3.1.2 and it seems to be just this character file that freezes for a bit before casting spells from certain books.

My only guess is a difference in options? Something about displaying ranged attacks?

I didn't set anything on purpose, but maybe the default was different when I started this savefile.

[Zikke]

Everything seems to look normal. When I press "m" it correctly brings up the list of books I have. But when I press "b" nothing happens unless I press it about 10 times and then it tries to cast some spell and asks for a direction. I have uninscribed the books too, but it didn't fix anything. Oh well, I'll try to jump into the next competition.

[bron]

Even though I don't personally like it, I really think you need to go with game turns as the measure of time. Yes, it does mean that the winner is likely to be the character that finds some early boots-of-speed. But resting is a choice, and it needs to have pluses and minuses: the plus being that you get your HP and SP back, the minus being that it takes time. Using player turns largely eliminates the minus of resting, meaning you'll rest after everything, and come to (nearly) every encounter at full strength. Perhaps some hideous compromise, like playerTurns + ((gameTurns - playerTurns)/10) [i.e. count resting at 1/10]. But time is time, and the race goes to the person who crosses the finish line in the least time, not the one that uses the fewest steps to get there.

[Zikke]

Doesn't resting cost player turns?

[fizzix]

Originally Posted by bron

Even though I don't personally like it, I really think you need to go with game turns as the measure of time. Yes, it does mean that the winner is likely to be the character that finds some early boots-of-speed. But resting is a choice, and it needs to have pluses and minuses: the plus being that you get your HP and SP back, the minus being that it takes time. Using player turns largely eliminates the minus of resting, meaning you'll rest after everything, and come to (nearly) every encounter at full strength. Perhaps some hideous compromise, like playerTurns + ((gameTurns - playerTurns)/10) [i.e. count resting at 1/10]. But time is time, and the race goes to the person who crosses the finish line in the least time, not the one that uses the fewest steps to get there.

Resting is also dangerous in that it allows more monsters to appear on the level. Often these monsters are closer to the level depth.

[bron]

Originally Posted by Zikke

Doesn't resting cost player turns?

Humm .. maybe I'm confusing Player turns with Active turns ...

[buzzkill]

Originally Posted by bron

Personally, I would like to see some sort of scoring scheme that penalizes you for having your character die. Like say the current scoring scheme, but with your score divided by the number of attempts. (That is probably too harsh, but you get the idea.) Unfortunately, this would require some sort of modification to the source and the savefile in order to track attempts.

It would require no modification at all, just a tweaking of the rules (and the comp ladder logic). We already operate on the honor system. All that would be required is that each player post every attempt and suffix them sequentially. I wouldn't mind seeing something like this in an occasional competition (I usually post all my attempts anyhow).

[PowerDiver]

Originally Posted by bron

Humm .. maybe I'm confusing Player turns with Active turns ...

Player turns appears to count actions that use any energy. I wish it simply counted total energy. Just p_ptr->player_turn += p_ptr->energy_use; instead of p_ptr->player_turn++; would make things sensible.

It might be wise to buy extra ammo and try to avoid picking up what you shot. Every pickup costs you a full extra turn even though it uses 1/10 the energy of a turn. Also, you are charged 1 turn for each shot even when shooting multiple times per turn. There must be a couple more places partial energy use comes in, but that's what comes to mind.

[Nick]

OK, XP/player turns it is for this comp. Let's see if that seems sensible.

[PowerDiver]

Originally Posted by Zikke

Everything seems to look normal. When I press "m" it correctly brings up the list of books I have. But when I press "b" nothing happens unless I press it about 10 times and then it tries to cast some spell and asks for a direction. I have uninscribed the books too, but it didn't fix anything. Oh well, I'll try to jump into the next competition.

I had another unlikely idea about your problem. I have the auto-clear more prompts option set. Your comment suggests maybe you set something so 'm' brings up a list? I've forgotten already if that is standard. Is it possible that the game is repeatedly auto-clearing and resetting the list of spellbooks?

Unlikely, I admit, but how your problem can be savefile-specific is baffling.