NPPAngband/Moria QT Port (Windows) Beta-1 released

[nppangband]

For anyone willing to playtest tor try out the new QT port beta, here is a link to a windows binary:
http://download.nppangband.org/NPPQT-BETA1.zip

This beta is for people who are willing to play around with it, and give feedback on how well it works on various machines.

The zip file is about 43 MEGS. It includes a deployment package with all the .dlls and other dependencies necessary to play the game. To play, you just have to unzip the game in a folder of your choice, and click on "NPPGAMES.exe". This is assuming QT added all of the necessary .dlls and plug ins for all of the different versions of windows. Please let me know if any are missing.

The game should be stable and not too buggy at this point. You can play a complete game of either NPPAngband or NPPMoria, however still to come are several vital features for an enjoyable game (macros, multiple windows).

I need to create deployment packages for the MAC and LINUX as well. Although anyone who downloads QT can just download the source, compile and play on any platform.

It will be interesting to see how well QT handles the large variety of screensizes out there.

For any display bugs, e-mailing me a screenshot is probably the best way to let me know what is wrong.

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing any constructive feedback.

[getter77]

Congrats on the first beta release---2015 on a fine track in the land of *BAND!

[Zireael]

Loving the interface and the effects so much!

My only complaint so far is that the @ character looks a bit... squished? cramped? dunno, I don't like it for some reason.

EDIT: There is a space missing in "amountto drop" line when you drop eg. ammo.

EDIT 2: A 'click to move' functionality would be brilliant.

[Nick]

This is really impressive, Jeff.

It took me a bit to realise many commands have changed, and I couldn't get mouse movement to work, but the overall effect is amazing.

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by Nick

This is really impressive, Jeff.

Thank you, I want to deflect much of the credit to Diego. He has always been the much better coder, and this never would have gotten off the ground without him.

Originally Posted by Nick

It took me a bit to realise many commands have changed, and I couldn't get mouse movement to work, but the overall effect is amazing.

I guess I could have mentioned the new keymapping. {OOPS} Under the help menu, you can pull up the command list.

With the ALT and CTRL keys opened up a whole bunch of options. I centered the movement around the "h" key (for 'H'old). You can use any object with 'e', and handle everything in your inventory with 'I'. All the spellcasting commands are under 'm'. ('m' to cast, 'M' to learn spells, and CTRL-M to browse). All the various rest commands are under "r". Simply pressing 'r' will rest the player until fully healed. All movement options use some form of modifier key and the direction. shift+direction looks around, ctrl+direction runs, alt+direction is the alter command, etc...

Mouse movement isn't programmed yet. It is very high up on the list. Along with the start of a macro interface that will allow the player to cast spells or use an object. Inscribing objects don't help with macros any more. A macro will simply have the instruction to to quaff a potion of cure critical wounds, and the game will figure it out from there.

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by Zireael

My only complaint so far is that the @ character looks a bit... squished? cramped? dunno, I don't like it for some reason.

Is that with the default font? You can select any font on your system, or change the font size as well.

Originally Posted by Zireael

EDIT: There is a space missing in "amountto drop" line when you drop eg. ammo.

Fixed, thanks.

Originally Posted by Zireael

EDIT 2: A 'click to move' functionality would be brilliant.

Soon, very soon. The arrangement will probably be left-click to move one square, double-click left to run to a square, and right click to see all the dungeon square information. I think right now any click just brings up the square info.

[Zireael]

Default font. Haven't found the option to change it in the 20 mins I spent playing (and I went "damn you muscle memory" a few times lol due to all the changed keybindings).

Will poke around the options to see what to do to change the font and size.

EDIT: Changed the font and it looks much better.

Also, there should be a log message on searching and hopefully a bar for search like the one for stealth or disarming because I don't really understand *band searching even though I've played a lot of variants and vanilla.

EDIT 2: Please bind ? to command list.

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by Zireael

Also, there should be a log message on searching and hopefully a bar for search like the one for stealth or disarming because I don't really understand *band searching even though I've played a lot of variants and vanilla.

There are two Search fields on the player screen. One is search frequency. This is the one in X chance the player will search that turn. The other is the % chance, when searching, of finding something. If you mouse hover over the fields on the player screen, an explanation comes up.

Originally Posted by Zireael

EDIT 2: Please bind ? to command list.

Good suggestion. Done.

[Thraalbee]

Wow, this is nice. REALLY nice! Somewhat difficult to play with 20+ years of rogue-like keyset in my palms though, but if an old dog can be trained maybe I can too.

[buzzkill]

OK. I've been lured back in. If you don't hear from me in three days call the authorities.

Minor point on birth options. If an option such as ironman is selected, then incompatible options such as connected stairs should be greyed out.

Name your save file kinda comes out of nowhere. Can't NPP handle this for us based on character name, providing there is no conflict.

YOU DIE. Seems like a bit more could be done with this. Can we get a nice tombstone graphic a dry description of the event and perhaps an irreverent comment on one's banding skills.

After death and choosing to continue, you're presented with a mostly blank screen (as when the game is launched). Select an item from the menu or something to that effect would be nice.

Capitalization: It should be (according to me) "Giant Yellow Centipede" or "giant yellow centipede", not "Giant yellow centipede".

Re inscriptions (on the wall): Please discard use the qualifier "try" when I'm successful.

Center screen continuously is still described as "(very slow)" but it's not, hasn't been in ages.

When I restart REMEMBER my birth options from character creation from the last game (replicating name and starting stats) and offer a reset to defaults option.

Maybe offer to save save/load different birth option profiles.

THE TILE MULTIPLIER: some crazy settings there, 16:16= about 2 grids per screen. Some smaller settings might be nice instead, .75:.75 or .50:.50.

My first real issue. You seem to have co-opted the Fn key(s) that I use to simulate the keypad on my laptop (sans-keypad). That means I can't move diagonally (Fn+7, Fn+9, Fn+j and Fn+l and my diagonal movement keys).

I don't see where I can alter the movement delay. I like my @'s to walk, perhaps leisurely, not teleport.

I can resize the status bar, but I can't resize the messages area. Also, seems like a lot more could be done with use of colors and styles, maybe even font sizes in the message area.

Changing fonts doesn't seem to work unless it only affects the main window. I'm playing with tiles and wanted larger status bar text.

Ctrl-m, trying to bring up a map, produced repeating popup, "Lookup_kind could not find object (0,8)". Was blind at the moment if that matters.