Z+Angband version 0.2.2 beta released; looking forward

[RogerN]

Also, there's a (new?) save corrupting bug involving delivery quests. I just turned one in and pressed Q to get another and the game crashed, and even with panic saves left at the default setting of off, the save now crashes on load

You just saved me a lot of frustration. I was about to complete a quest from a courier when I remembered your post. I made a backup of my save file in case the same crashed happened to me. Sure enough, the game crashed when I tried to get another quest.

Second, do people like the High Mage class? Because I feel like it's underpowered. Is there a way to rescue it so it would be a viable option?

You might give high mages some intrinsic abilities similar to the mindcrafter powers. In previous versions of Z the main reason I stopped playing High Mages was the lack of detection spells (assuming you didn't specialize in Sorcery). Since high mages have so few HP it's practically suicide to not be able to detect monsters. However, this may no longer be an issue now that Z+ has added staves of detection (yay!).

[Mangojuice]

Originally Posted by RogerN

You just saved me a lot of frustration. I was about to complete a quest from a courier when I remembered your post. I made a backup of my save file in case the same crashed happened to me. Sure enough, the game crashed when I tried to get another quest.

Ooooooooo! Can you please send me that backup save file? (Mangojuice75 at gmail.com)

You might give high mages some intrinsic abilities similar to the mindcrafter powers. In previous versions of Z the main reason I stopped playing High Mages was the lack of detection spells (assuming you didn't specialize in Sorcery). Since high mages have so few HP it's practically suicide to not be able to detect monsters. However, this may no longer be an issue now that Z+ has added staves of detection (yay!).

I'm mulling it over. In the end, I may just design a new class; I noticed that of the ZAngband dumps in the ladder there were as many High Mages as Mages. Maybe the class isn't as unattractive as I thought.

[sgasga]

I've had a crash in 0.2.2beta while running in the wilderness. Worse, it has corrupted my save file, presumably by autosaving at the time of crash. Can you possibly take a look and see if the bug can be resolved and the savefile restored? I was fond of that character. Unfortunately the zipped savefile exceeds the allowed attachment size on this forum so I'm unsure how to get it to you. Should I send it via e-mail?

Regards,
Shane

[Mangojuice]

Originally Posted by sgasga

I've had a crash in 0.2.2beta while running in the wilderness. Worse, it has corrupted my save file, presumably by autosaving at the time of crash. Can you possibly take a look and see if the bug can be resolved and the savefile restored? I was fond of that character. Unfortunately the zipped savefile exceeds the allowed attachment size on this forum so I'm unsure how to get it to you. Should I send it via e-mail?

Regards,
Shane

Sure, go ahead and send it but I doubt it would help. What I really need is a backed-up copy of the savefile from before that happens, where I can reproduce the error. But I think what this shows is that the "panic save" disabling option isn't working properly. The game should not be trying to save your character when it quits unless you have that enabled, and it's probably enabled by default.

I would expect the savefile is unrecoverable. I'd say stash the file away somewhere, and at some point if I figure out how to fix these files, I may post a utility that will recover them.

(My email is noted a couple of posts up.)

[RogerN]

Originally Posted by Mangojuice

Ooooooooo! Can you please send me that backup save file?

It's not on this computer but I think I've still got the file. I'll try to send it to you on Monday.

[perost]

I've been playing Z+Angband for a while now, and I've got a lvl 31 high-elf monk going really well. However, I've found some possible issues that I wanted to report.

The first is that you can sell rings and amulets of teleportation if you uncurse them. The issue is not that you can sell them though, it's that you get somewhere around 10000 gold for each of them. It seems a bit much for something that you can find so early. Is it really supposed to be like that?

Another issue is that if you are confused, you hit in random directions when you fight. However, if you happen to hit the enemy that you want, you only need to repeat the previous command to continue hitting in that direction, regardless of your confusion.

The last possible issue is that I've found some Rings and Amulets. After identification they are still just named "a Ring" or "an Amulet", with no description. Are they supposed to just be plain rings and amulets without any special properties, or is this a bug? If they are supposed to be plain rings and amulets, perhaps it would be better to call them that. Now when you identify them nothing seems to happen, since their name doesn't change after identification. It's quite confusing, and I even went and *identified* a ring just to make sure that there was nothing special with it. And also, if I remember correctly you couldn't sell them either, not even to the black market.

Edit: Btw, I migrated the character from Z+ 0.2.1 to 0.2.2, but I don't think that has influenced any of these issued that I've described. I've had some crashes when getting a new delivery quest though, but nothing that has corrupted my save file.

[Mangojuice]

Some truly elite playtesting here, I applaud you.

Originally Posted by perost

I've been playing Z+Angband for a while now, and I've got a lvl 31 high-elf monk going really well. However, I've found some possible issues that I wanted to report.

The first is that you can sell rings and amulets of teleportation if you uncurse them. The issue is not that you can sell them though, it's that you get somewhere around 10000 gold for each of them. It seems a bit much for something that you can find so early. Is it really supposed to be like that?

No, definitely not. Good find there! That turns out to have been a bug in Zangband, probably a long-time one. Basically, the algorithm for evaluating an object compares the object's inherent value to the inherent value of it's basic type. Rings of Teleportation have a very negative inherent value, which leads to a problem, because you get artificially high credit for how much better an uncursed one is. (Basically, the inherent value is subtracted, but should be treated as 0 if it is negative.)

Another issue is that if you are confused, you hit in random directions when you fight. However, if you happen to hit the enemy that you want, you only need to repeat the previous command to continue hitting in that direction, regardless of your confusion.

Another good find, and another inherited bug from ZAngband. Basically, when a movement direction is required, the direction needs to be randomized whether or not there was a saved direction.

The last possible issue is that I've found some Rings and Amulets. After identification they are still just named "a Ring" or "an Amulet", with no description. Are they supposed to just be plain rings and amulets without any special properties, or is this a bug? If they are supposed to be plain rings and amulets, perhaps it would be better to call them that. Now when you identify them nothing seems to happen, since their name doesn't change after identification. It's quite confusing, and I even went and *identified* a ring just to make sure that there was nothing special with it. And also, if I remember correctly you couldn't sell them either, not even to the black market.

I think I have finally figured this one out. Objects 667-670 were intended to be placeholders for randart rings/amulets, much like the placeholders for special artifacts like the Phial or the One Ring. I set their rarities to be 0, thinking this would prevent them from appearing in the game. As it turns out, though, having a "A:50/0" line doesn't do what it should: it makes the object very common on level 50 (the "/n" part is ignored if n is not at least 1). I had been pretty baffled because I was sure that their continued appearance in the game was due to some piece of randart-creating code I hadn't been able to find.

A bug I did manage to fix in 0.2.2, though, prevents the creation of "The Ring" / "The Amulet", etc.

As for the crashes, I'm glad you haven't lost a savefile. I'm planning to implement an auto-backup option for the next version, because disabling panic_save doesn't seem to have helped people.

[pampl]

Oh, I'd crashed probably four or five times (mostly from the getting-a-courier-quest bug) and it was only once that it messed up my save. Not perfect but definitely working to some degree.

I normally avoid Rangers in rogue-likes because I hate fussing with ammo but I finally caved and gave em a try and man are they sweet. Are they the only class besides the four casters who can go below 5% min fail?

[Mangojuice]

Originally Posted by pampl

Oh, I'd crashed probably four or five times (mostly from the getting-a-courier-quest bug) and it was only once that it messed up my save. Not perfect but definitely working to some degree.

I normally avoid Rangers in rogue-likes because I hate fussing with ammo but I finally caved and gave em a try and man are they sweet. Are they the only class besides the four casters who can go below 5% min fail?

No. The best the classes can do are:

Mindcrafter: 0%
High Mage / Mage: 0% in all schools
Priest: 0% in primary, 1% in secondary
Warrior-Mage: 1% in Arcane (primary), 3% in secondary.
Monk: 3% in primary.
Ranger: 3% in Nature (primary), 5% in secondary.
Rogue, Paladin, Chaos Warrior: 5%.

[perost]

I just found another odd thing. A shop is selling a "a Long Sword of Fury (2d5) (+5, +15%) (+0)". It gives resistance to fear and aggravates monsters, and nothing else. So technically that last +0 is correct, it doesn't give any bonuses, but it seems a bit odd though.

Edit: I just completed one of those "many women"-quests. It was a level 59 quest, and it consisted of me killing a single White Harpy. Seems a bit easy, doesn't it?

Now when I think about it this isn't the first time that I got a quest where I only needed to kill a single enemy, despite the description hinting at a whole level full of them. One time I also got a quest to kill some dark elfs or something like that, and when I went down the stairs I found a completely empty level. I went up and down again, and it was still empty. The third time I went down the stairs the whole level was full of dark elves as it should be. But as I said this character started out in Z+ 0.2.1, so you might already have fixed some or all of these issues.