Playing 3.1.1 for the first time...

[dhegler]

I have played Angband, Moria, Nethack, and Hack for years (not enough to even get close to winning, someone called it OCD needing to clear every level - I'm currently receiving treatment for that)... However, this is probably the bets upgrade from prior versions yet...

My questions:
Stores - why was the purchasing changed from earlier version (3.0.5 for example)? I find it clumsier to purchase items (personally).
Why is the scrolling of the map set so close to the edges? In 3.0.5 when it scrolled, it would be be an extra few characters from the edge of the screen. I get a headache with the auto-center - any way to change the amount of spaces from the edge it will scroll?
Why for a while did my game not refresh any of the term windows? Magically, it started to refresh again after I played for a while. I have never had that happen before, I assume it was a bug.
Where do I turn on the prompt to pick up items? I can either pick them all up, or none (as best I can find). I am sure this is because I am not used to the options in the game.
In 3.0.5 I could hold down "s" or "." or whatever and when something would hit me the first time, it would either prompt or freeze my command somehow most if not all of the time. Any chance on there being an option in 3.1.1 I don't know of that fixes this?

I LOVE the status bar, the detection status, etc. I am getting annoyed with things saying magical and then being utter garbage, rather than "worthless" or "average", etc. Since I am now trying a mage it doesn't matter much since I now have identify, but still annoying.

Thanks!

[dhegler]

FYI, my problem with the scrolling is because I find that it cuts off rooms sometimes at the end of a screen and I cannot see the entire room at once like I used to be able to do, hiding monsters and goodies...

[Marble Dice]

Store UI was changed to be more compatible with mouse input, but this has been a polarizing change, and many people do not like it and think it's inconsistent with the rest of the command behavior in the game.

Unfortunately I don't think you can set scroll distance currently, so it's auto-center or inconvenient scrolling. If using the latter, the monster list can help a bit, at least so you know if you can see some baddies in the portion of the visible dungeon that is off-screen.

Pretty sure the prompt to pickup option was removed, since you can emulate the same behavior by pressing 'g' any time you move over an item you want to pick up (instead of pressing 'y'). Also you don't have to cancel a prompt this way when you don't want to pick something up.

I'm not sure about command interruption but that sounds handy if it's possible. I'm always wary of just holding a button down - always worried a drolem is going to spawn, wake, and breathe before I can react.

The new pseudo system takes a bit of getting used to, but in general I think it's great. Normal items pseudo as "average", items with pluses or minuses are "magical", ego items are "ego", and artifacts are "special." Once an ego item is wielded, it becomes "splendid" or "excellent" depending on if it has obvious bonuses (+stats or speed, branded, etc) or not.

[dhegler]

I saw something about mouse commands, like moving your character. This change seems almost like me going from developing film to digital (took me YEARS to finally get a digital SLR!)

Is there any key to auto-center the screen? If not, that should be a must-have now...

Monster list? Hmmm... I assume that is a term window that I am not using? I'll check it out.

"g" prompts for pickup? I can live with that I guess...

Command interrution would be great for searching. I see something like that was put in for removing rubble (and I assume any digging, but I'm a mage, so I have stm spell....)

So, I can wield the items to get a better flavor of it? What is the distinction between splendid and excellent? I would be worried of wielding a cursed "magical" item, but identify takes care of that.

[dhegler]

Also, just wondering, is there much/any chance of fire destroying my spellbooks? Has that changed at all? I remember the last time I tried a mage, I always ended up carrying 2-3 spellbooks per slot just in case. I assume that can still happen...

[dhegler]

Your comment just made me realize that when I cast ANY detect spell, it shows up on my overhead view, even if not on the current visible screen... If the grid was now Y x Z large, is there any option to make it Y+10 x Z+10 large? Basically, so I can see more of the map on my playing screen?

[dhegler]

Just found BoS in a chest at dlvl 9! Never found them so low before....

Also, is there any way to auto-inscribe objects??? Looks like there is. And if I start to understand what this squelching is, I may be a very happy person...

[ekolis]

Autocenter is Ctrl-L, I think... and there's also an option to auto-center the player every move.

The monster list can be placed in a term window, yes, and it can also be invoked from some keyboard command or other... maybe [ or ] or |, I forget...

Since when does g prompt for pickup? Must have your pickup options set weird...

Splendid means it's an artifact, IIRC, or maybe just a really powerful ego item; I'm not sure. Excellent is lots of pluses, or maybe a weaker ego item. Oh, Marble Dice explained that just before you posted :P

You should be able to press M right after casting a detect to get the level map with detected stuff shown on it. If you want to see more of the screen at once without resorting to the map, you'll have to reduce your font size or increase your screen resolution!

One thing that's always irked me about detects though is that you see the area of effect for un-ID'd detect scrolls, and yet even afterwards, the scroll is not ID'd! So you know it's a "detect something" but you don't know what it detected??? Seems like a bit of a quirk to me...

[fizzix]

a couple things.

As Marble Dice pointed out, the visible monster terminal is useful. I would also put in a pitch for the visible object terminal. It allows you to make sure you don't miss useful items in the dungeon that you've detected. I generally use subterminal windows for visible monsters, visible objects, monster recall and previous messages.

The shop interface is clunky at first, but like anything else, you get used to it. I definitely bought things I didn't intend to my first couple games with the new UI.

I don't know about the keyword for centering the map. but you should be able to make a macro that turns on the center map continually, refreshes the screen, and then turns it off.

[dhegler]

Great answers. If I change the font smaller, it does not show me more dungeon squares, just makes it smaller, unless I am missing something...

Thank to all!