Message handling patch for Angband 3.1.2r1980

[Twilight]

Hi all.

I've fiddled around for a few days with trying to fix some issues with the predefined colors for messages. I'll just post the readme and a screenshot. I think it's kinda nifty with a slim use of message.prf to just color dangerous events. In the screenshot of my message window I had played around in wizard mode for a while and the color scheme is a little bit off, but you get the idea.

I'll attach the patch here or send it to the dev's or both later on.

Readme:
Message handling patch for Angband 3.1.2r1980
by Tomas Dedorson (Twilight).

This patch makes the code use the available msg_types so
/lib/pref/message.prf and lib/xtra/sound/sound.cfg can get
maximum use.

This fixes several issues with messages not using message
types for color. For instance melee messages weren't
functioning properly, breaths couldn't be configured etc.

What this means is that almost all 150 message type colors
can be defined in message.prf and be useful. This is not only
aestetically pleasing, but you can configure it to only highlight
dangerous events like shrieks, create traps, summons, specific
breaths or whatnot.

As a sidenote if you're one of those who wants soundeffects
you can configure the same messagetypes in sound.cfg and the
sounds will be played as well. Or you could download the
Dubtrain Sound Pack linked from the Angband homepage

lib/pref/message.prf has been initialized with all possible
message types.
attack.c Message handling and also a grammar bug.
cmd-obj.c Corrected message type using a staff.
cmd3.c Message handling.
dungeon.c Message handling.
effects.c Message handling.
spells2.c Message handling.
monster/melee2.c Message handling.
object/obj-util.c Message handling.
player/timed.c Message handling.

Edit: It's kind of a lowres screenshot. Hope its viewable.
I guess the patch should have been called message color patch.
To be clear: this patch does not change anything gameplay-wise, but
makes the game make full use of message.prf.

[Twilight]

Here's a zipfile with the readme, patch and the preliminary new (personal)message.prf I've been tweaking today.

Hopefully there aren't any bugs.

[d_m]

Hey there,

Patch seems good. I did some clean-up and tweaks to it but overall it seems solid.

It has been committed as r1981.

I didn't commit the heavily colorized version of message.prf because I thought some of the colors were too distracting or hard to read (e.g. the purple identify messages). But overall I've been playing with the patch for a bit and it seems nice. Thanks!

[Twilight]

Originally Posted by d_m

Hey there,

Patch seems good. I did some clean-up and tweaks to it but overall it seems solid.

It has been committed as r1981.

I didn't commit the heavily colorized version of message.prf because I thought some of the colors were too distracting or hard to read (e.g. the purple identify messages). But overall I've been playing with the patch for a bit and it seems nice. Thanks!

Nice!

Yeah - I went a little overboard when trying out message coloring. I'll probably settle down with some (bright) colors for status changes (poisoned, buffs etc), shrieks, create traps, pseudoid and maybe some more. For my personal message.prf that is. In short - messages I don't want to miss.

A feature suggestion:

Making message color configurable ingame, like visuals. This would make it much quicker to see how it'll look. With grouping of the message types. For instance: player attacks, monster breaths, spells and attacks, status changes and misc.

Edit: A somewhat minimalistic approach to the default Vanilla message.prf must be the right way to go IMO. Not saying that some colorization may/should not be done, but not go overboard.

[Twilight]

Originally Posted by d_m

[SNIP]
I didn't commit the heavily colorized version of message.prf because I thought some of the colors were too distracting or hard to read (e.g. the purple identify messages). But overall I've been playing with the patch for a bit and it seems nice. Thanks!

I'm not giving up on a heavy use of colors just yet. Here's another heavily colored scheme I'm about to test for a new game. I tried to use brighter colors:

COMBAT:
Hits 'B' Light Blue 'Z' Deep Light Blue
Kills 'V' Light Violet'
Miss 's' Slate
Flee 'W' Light Slate

PLAYER:
Recover 'y' Yellow
Bad effects 'o' Orange
Buffs 'G' Light Green

MONSTER:
Attacks 'R' Light Red
Breaths 'P' Light Purple 'i' Magenta Pink
Spells 'M' Mustard

MISC:
Level, study 'Y' Light Yellow
ID, cursed, pseudo 'Y' Light Yellow
HP, bell, Hit wall 'r' Red
Lockpick, disarm 'U' Light Umber
Destroy (item) 'z' Blue Slate

DEFAULT:

STORE(1-5)
OPEN DOOR
TP_LEVEL
NOTHING_TO_OPEN
STAIRS_DOWN
STAIRS_UP
MONEY(1-3)
WIELD
ACT_ARTIFACT

I'll probably end up "turning off" most except for HP warning, player buffs/effects and recovery. Perhaps shriek and create traps as well.

Btw - perhaps something for the to do list?: defined message types for general breath (messages while blind) and item recharge.

Edit: switched lockpick and kills color for clarity
switched monster attack- and bad effect - color.

[Twilight]

A perhaps overly ambitious project would be to make *all* messages have a type, even if default, for maximum flexibility in making color-(sound-) schemes.

I realized there was a lot of the message-handling not using the "type-function(s)" when I was going through the code for this patch ... and I concentrated on fixing the message-types that were currently implemented when making it.

I for one am just more into playing the game (and other non-angband (gasp!) stuff) atm and this would probably task my c-coding skills, since I've never worked with coding outside of back in my uni-days and in home-projects. On the other hand if one of the devs (or someone else) think this is worth their time this is my semi-official feature-suggestion.

I might get the itch to make a go at it in the future though.

On another note - a new default message.prf, however conservative, would be nice. Compare with how colors have come to be utilized in monster memory/lists.

Another ambitious project would be to implement an ingame editor of message-handling colors a la visuals.

Oh well. Enough of my rambling and back to *banding.

[Twilight]

I thought I'd post the message.prf I'm using. I've been using this since shortly after the patch and kind of like it. The colours are brighter than in the one d_m commented on above.

To use it you just copy the text file into lib/pref. Back-up the old message.prf for easy reversion of course.

message.zip

Edit: The scheme I use is the one a couple of posts above, with maybe some slight modification I can't recall.