Does anyone use race-specific pref files? & pref file UI changes

[takkaria]

Does anyone use race-specific pref files? I can imagine that being worthwhile in variants maybe but not in V.

I ask because I'm thinking about making changes to the pref file UI after reading through some open pref file bugs. When you save a pref file at the moment, the game just lets you type in whatever you want for the filename. I'm not sure how useful that is. Seems to me that if you're saving, you're either saving to your

• class-specific pref file
• savefile-specific pref file
• character-specific savefile (shared with other characters with this name - minus the roman numerals)
• global pref file

Does anyone use pref files outside of those? It would make sense to me for the game to give you a choice of these if they are the ones that 99% of people use.

Thoughts?

[Twilight]

Originally Posted by takkaria

Does anyone use race-specific pref files? I can imagine that being worthwhile in variants maybe but not in V.

I ask because I'm thinking about making changes to the pref file UI after reading through some open pref file bugs. When you save a pref file at the moment, the game just lets you type in whatever you want for the filename. I'm not sure how useful that is. Seems to me that if you're saving, you're either saving to your

• class-specific pref file
• savefile-specific pref file
• character-specific savefile (shared with other characters with this name - minus the roman numerals)
• global pref file

Does anyone use pref files outside of those? It would make sense to me for the game to give you a choice of these if they are the ones that 99% of people use.

Thoughts?

I only use class-specific and savefile-specific pref files.

I used to have a pref file named blue.prf for cyan permanent walls back when perm walls weren't distinct from granite walls (to transfer between versions), but that change could have been in global pref instead.

As you say. I can't see much use for a race-specific in vanilla.

I guess there's no real practical reason for naming pref-files yourself, except the slight annoyance that some might be used to it!

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by takkaria

Does anyone use race-specific pref files? I can imagine that being worthwhile in variants maybe but not in V.

Thoughts?

I only use class-specific. Thought about race-specific, but there actually is very small use for race-specific: only thing I can think of right now is priest "sense invisible" is useless for elves and high-elves, so I could use that for something else, but OTOH high-elf or elf as priest is not very common selection anyway (maybe paladin could be useful though).

Also how to set which is preferred, race first, then class or vice versa? Some priority-setting? Sounds complicated.

[kaypy]

I use a custom filename about 100% of the time.

That is, in general I do *not* want the autogenerated content to barf over my prefs- I want it barfed somewhere safely to one side where I can then grab the small subset of barf that is actually useful and transcribe only that into my pristine pref file.

But as long as there are multiple destinations I suppose I can always save it to an unused 'slot' and then rename it myself.</ocd>

While we are dealing with ripping out prefs file functionality, can I preemptively add that I also use loading custom filenames frequently (It allows you to create a cyclic self-modifying macro)

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by kaypy

I use a custom filename about 100% of the time.

That is, in general I do *not* want the autogenerated content to barf over my prefs- I want it barfed somewhere safely to one side where I can then grab the small subset of barf that is actually useful and transcribe only that into my pristine pref file.

But as long as there are multiple destinations I suppose I can always save it to an unused 'slot' and then rename it myself.</ocd>

While we are dealing with ripping out prefs file functionality, can I preemptively add that I also use loading custom filenames frequently (It allows you to create a cyclic self-modifying macro)

OK, I wasn't planning to remove the functionality entirely, but it makes sense to provide choices for most players.

And what is a cyclic self-modifying macro?

[kaypy]

Ah. UI restriction may be contentious, but UI streamlining is always good 8-)

Hmm. But then the question you might need to be asking it "How many people use prefs other than the player-name.prf default save file?". If the default is the 90% case, adding multiple choices may wind up antistreamlining it... (Unless the UI has changed in the most recent version- I've been off in npp-land recently so I'm not up to date with the most recent V... Also I haven't read the aforementioned UI bug reports, so take everything here as buried under a suitably sized pile of salt)

A cyclic self-modifying macro is a made-up-on-the-fly-and-thus-less-self-explanatory-than-hoped-for term for something along the lines of:

Macro A does action A and also replaces itself with macro B
Macro B does acton B and also replaces itself with macro C
...
Macro N does acton N and also replaces itself with macro A

So for example a single button that fires off each type of detection in order, but doesn't commit the player to more than one turn worth of activity per keypress.

There may also be a less made-up-on-the-fly term for it...

[Derakon]

For what it's worth, I recreate my keymaps with every new character, unless the character dies early and I just reincarnate them.

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by kaypy

Ah. UI restriction may be contentious, but UI streamlining is always good 8-)

Hmm. But then the question you might need to be asking it "How many people use prefs other than the player-name.prf default save file?". If the default is the 90% case, adding multiple choices may wind up antistreamlining it...

Yeah, maybe, that's a good point, and something to weigh up.

A cyclic self-modifying macro is a made-up-on-the-fly-and-thus-less-self-explanatory-than-hoped-for term for something along the lines of:

Macro A does action A and also replaces itself with macro B
Macro B does acton B and also replaces itself with macro C
...
Macro N does acton N and also replaces itself with macro A

So for example a single button that fires off each type of detection in order, but doesn't commit the player to more than one turn worth of activity per keypress.

That's very smart.

[takkaria]

OK, and another question: does anyone use pref files to save their options? There was a thread a while back about pref files with options in them being undesirable because it's not obvious that there's a file loading each time you start the game that overwrites your options. What do people think?

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by takkaria

OK, and another question: does anyone use pref files to save their options? There was a thread a while back about pref files with options in them being undesirable because it's not obvious that there's a file loading each time you start the game that overwrites your options. What do people think?

Maybe saving/dumping them but not automatically loading them is desired way to go. After loading then they stay in the savefile.