Macro difficulty

[stabbo]

I'm a new player and I've decided to start off with a Ranger due to the awesomeness of his early detect monsters spell. The main difficulty I have is with shooting his bow.

Currently I have arrows inscribed as "@F0".

And a macro set as "\e\e\e*tf0" with the trigger key being F1.

When I hit F1, it brings up the firing options instead of firing at the nearest enemy automatically. Is there some way of just making it fire when I hit the button? I don't mind the targetting info showing up when there is more than one enemy in sight, but it quickly gets annoying when there is only one enemy to choose from.

[PowerDiver]

@f0 rather than @F0

[kaypy]

Two points:

1) you are missing the last keystroke that would actually select to use the previous target. (Well, or you could have use_old_target set instead)

\e\e\e*tf05

2) although you aren't likely to need the F1 key, for the most part what you actually want to set up are keymaps, not macros. (The difference is that keymaps only fire when the game is expecting a command input, which is for the most part when you want to use them, while macros will go off for completely unrelated input functions)

[stabbo]

Originally Posted by PowerDiver

@f0 rather than @F0

That was a typo. Thanks for pointing it out though.

Originally Posted by kaypy

Two points:

1) you are missing the last keystroke that would actually select to use the previous target. (Well, or you could have use_old_target set instead)

\e\e\e*tf05

2) although you aren't likely to need the F1 key, for the most part what you actually want to set up are keymaps, not macros. (The difference is that keymaps only fire when the game is expecting a command input, which is for the most part when you want to use them, while macros will go off for completely unrelated input functions)

Of course, adding 5 to the end is the obvious answer. Can't believe I didn't think of that.

As for the key maps do I set those exactly as I would a macro? Also for macro/key-mapping needs, is there any way of making sure that an item always uses the same slot? I wouldn't want to have a detect monster key-map set up only to have my spell book move to b) rather than a). or does this not matter?

Thanks for the help.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by stabbo

As for the key maps do I set those exactly as I would a macro? Also for macro/key-mapping needs, is there any way of making sure that an item always uses the same slot? I wouldn't want to have a detect monster key-map set up only to have my spell book move to b) rather than a). or does this not matter?

Thanks for the help.

Just inscribe your books with @m1, @m2, @m3 etc. and refer to them in your marcos/keymaps with the number, not the letter. Same with wands, rods, staves etc.

m1c casts spell "c" from book inscribed with @m1, z1 zaps rod @z1, u1 uses staff with @u1 and so on.

[ewert]

Also of course if playing current version, the key 'h' is for "shoot first ammunition at closest target", which means you migth want to use @f1 etc. for own keymaps ...

[kaypy]

Originally Posted by stabbo

Of course, adding 5 to the end is the obvious answer. Can't believe I didn't think of that.

When in doubt I will 'switch to manual' and type in exactly what I have in the macro to figure out why its stopping... Things get more "interesting" in some of the variants: "If I go into targeting mode, switch to absolute offset, select one tile north, then switch to closest monster, then while I wont quite be targeting the absolute nearest critter, at least I wont shoot myself[1] if there's nothing targetable- which may or may not be equivalent to in LOS"

As for the key maps do I set those exactly as I would a macro?

Other than using "create keymap" instead of "create macro", they are the same (although they come out a bit different in the config files)

[1] It was getting to the point where I needed to show up in my own monster memory "You have killed at least 10 of your ancestors, and have exterminated at least 10 of you..."

[Derakon]

Argh, that whole "you can shoot yoursefl with your own spells" thing. Very annoying for those of us who rely heavily on "shoot nearest" keymaps. Good call on inserting an offset, though that kind of workaround really shouldn't be needed.

[Lord Fell]

I think that if any proof were needed that I can no longer code my way out of a damp paper bag, I just haven't been willing to learn to Macro. I haven't found them to be all that necessary, but it probably would smooth over game-play.

I don't know how easy it would be to do... but if Angband featured some sort of Macro wizard, that would do all of the Inscribing and Keymapping FOR you, that would be great. Earlier in another thread, I posted that Angband was written By Coders For Coders -and I think Macros is a definite example of this.

I think the main thing I'd use Macros for is Tunneling. Having to swap my digger in, and then out when I'm done is a tiny bit tedious (but not exactly game breaking). I think that if the Equipment set had three weapon slots: Weapon in Hand, Weapon at Ready, and Launcher, that would solve things for me. I think one of the earlier Angbands had an "exchange" function, where you had a in-hand and stored weapon slot, and all you had to do to swap them was hit "x" for exchange.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Lord Fell

I think that if any proof were needed that I can no longer code my way out of a damp paper bag, I just haven't been willing to learn to Macro. I haven't found them to be all that necessary, but it probably would smooth over game-play.

I don't know how easy it would be to do... but if Angband featured some sort of Macro wizard, that would do all of the Inscribing and Keymapping FOR you, that would be great. Earlier in another thread, I posted that Angband was written By Coders For Coders -and I think Macros is a definite example of this.

It already has macro/keymap wizard. Look at options - interact with macros. It isn't extremely smart wizard, but not extremely bad one either.

Originally Posted by Lord Fell

I think the main thing I'd use Macros for is Tunneling. Having to swap my digger in, and then out when I'm done is a tiny bit tedious (but not exactly game breaking). I think that if the Equipment set had three weapon slots: Weapon in Hand, Weapon at Ready, and Launcher, that would solve things for me. I think one of the earlier Angbands had an "exchange" function, where you had a in-hand and stored weapon slot, and all you had to do to swap them was hit "x" for exchange.

That was for swapping in your bow. In old versions you needed to swap your sword to your bow in order to shoot anything. That lead to cases where you killed uniques by bashing them into head with your bow.