From a 7.5 year old news posting (with a reply by Kevin Hugo speaking
on behalf of slash'em...): when a monster "nimbly jumps to evade" hero's
kick, it can pass through walls and grid bugs can jump off their grid.
Likewise when a joust or staggering blow knocks a monster back, it could
move grid bugs diagonally. This fixes both cases.
Offhand I can't think of any other non-standard movement situations
which might need similar handling, but it wouldn't surprise me if there
are some. Leashed movement is close but I don't think maybe_mnexto helps.
The documentation for symset also changed Guidebook.tex to use the
hyperref package, which the old DECUS TeX distribution I'm using doesn't
have. I can't remember any discussion about inserting URLs into the
Guidebook and using LaTeX to generate html output. If there was, no
comments to that effect made it into the .tex file or the cvs log text.
So I'm guessing that \usepackage{hyperref} was a work-around for the
font issue (below) and that the latter was a side-effect of converting
from deprecated \documentstyle{} to recommended \documentclass{}.
I tried installing hyperref after tracking it down, but using it
generated complaints about several other packages either being too old
or missing entirely. Coping with them would be too much hassle. I also
tried just commenting it out, but that results in a font warning that I
assume isn't present when it gets used. I managed to cobble together
a fix for that, but since hyperref.sty isn't actually needed by our
Guidebook, it was simpler to revert to the way things were done back in
the old days....
Last fall when Michael added the symset stuff to supersede the old
handling for IBMgraphics and DECgraphics, Guidebook.tex was changed to
support multi-page tables in the output. But that requires that the
input be processed twice, because it requires feedback stored in
Guidebook.aux and the first pass can't rely on that file being present
or up to date. This updates the Unix, VMS, and OS/2 makefiles to do
two-pass processing. (I didn't see latex usage anywhere else, and the
branch version doesn't include the formatting change which needs this.)
Rephrase "a type of object" to "the type of an object" in the menu.
#name
What do you want to name?
a - a monster
b - a particular object in inventory
c - the type of an object in inventory
d - the type of an object on discoveries list
Implement <Someone>'s menu-mode for #name, primarily because it
is the natural place to add [re]naming entries in the discoveries list,
something that was requested in the newsgroup ten or so years ago. The
latter allows changing the type name of something which has previously
been named and is no longer being carried.
This also makes the C command become a synonym for #name or vice
versa; one or the other could now be reassigned to something else.
Implement <Someone>'s menu-mode for #name, primarily because it
is the natural place to add [re]naming entries in the discoveries list,
something that was requested in the newsgroup ten or so years ago. The
latter allows changing the type name of something which has previously
been named and is no longer being carried.
This also makes the C command become a synonym for #name or vice
versa; one or the other could now be reassigned to something else.
#name
What do you want to name?
a - a monster
b - a particular object in inventory
c - a type of object in inventory
d - a type of object on discoveries list
Menu group accelerators provide unseen alternate choices: C for monster,
y for individual object, n for object type (and d for discoveries, but
that's only interesting if inventory is empty so that usual b & c are
omitted and discoveries entry moves up to b). These alternates allow
`#name y' and `#name n' to work the same as before, for users who have
trouble retraining their fingers. Using C to name a monster now takes an
extra keystroke, but using `C C' for it could make that be less annoying.
Something else from a copy of an old news message:
You return to human form!
Do you want your possessions identified?
I don't think that this can actually happen any more because the pieces
of code which subtract hit points should all be polyself aware now, so I
didn't bother with a fixes entry for it.
This is probably on <Someone>'s bug list, but I don't remember where
that lives. I found a copy of an old news message by him which pointed
out that gem probabilities are set for a given dungeon level at the time
it is being created, but they don't get reset when an existing level is
revisited. So giants' inventory creation and any monsters' death drops
generate gems using values from the level most recently made rather than
from their/hero's current location. That can lead to high level gems in
the main dungeon after entering the mines.
While testing something, I noticed that my last remaining discovery
would never be forgotten. The formula
count = ((count * percent) + 50) / 100
always yields 0 with count==1 and percent==25 (the value used for mind
flayer attacks). Not likely to come up in actual play very often....
From a bug report: nymphs could steal
boulders even though they aren't allowed to pick those up. It happened
becuase can_carry() is only called for monkeys (consequently, they don't
have this problem), not for nymphs.
From a bug report: amulet of strangulation
continues to kill hero if he polymorphs into a creature which doesn't
need to breathe or doesn't have a head or even a circulatory system.
Currently, the messages are different when the hero doesn't need to
breathe, but that doesn't seem good enough. This makes strangulation
stop when you polymorph into something which shouldn't be vulnerable and
restart if you poly into something vulnerable while still wearing the
bad amulet.
can_be_strangled() is doing more checks that necessary, in case the
strangulation property ever gets conferred by something other than an
amulet. Its criteria for protection from strangling might need tweaking.
From the newsgroup: Conflict caused tame engulfer to swallow hero.
To try to get out, player hit it (with Magicbane, but that's not relevant
other than to provide an alternate "you hit it" message).
The magic-absorbing blade probes the invisible Audrey!
You get regurgitated!
placing defunct monster onto map?
Program in disorder, &c
[some look_here() feedback]
You kill poor invisible Audrey!
The problem was caused by hmon_hitmon(): it subtracted damage from the
target's hit points, did some bookkeeping and message delivery, then
called killed(). One bit of bookkeeping was to call abuse_pet() and
monflee() when the target is tame, regardless of whether the damage was
fatal. monflee() -> release_hero() -> expels() puts the hero and the
engulfer back onto the map, and that warning was triggered because the
former engulfer had no hit points left.
From a bug report, getting the "you kick at
empty space" result doesn't use any turns but can have side-effects like
waking up monsters and negatively exercising hero's stats. It should take
a turn even though nothing gets kicked.
Add #vanquished command to show the vanquished monsters list during
play. At present it's only available in wizard mode. Slash'em has it as
a regular mode command, and I found it handy sometimes: when I managed to
kill an unfamiliar monster, I could immediately get an idea of how the game
ranked its difficulty compared to other monsters. But having this command
available might encourage extinctionism. On the other hand, it might stop
some existing extinctionists from cycles of save+copy+restore+quit to view
disclosure data for their current game.
This also makes merging the wizard mode extended commands into other
extended commands be more robust. It will panic instead of going out of
array bounds if someone adds entries to debug_extcmdlist[] without also
expanding extcmdlist[] to make room.
From some notes I made prior to release of 3.4.3, about applying a
carried mirror in the direction of a monster:
invisible player applying mirror toward monster which can't see invisible
should have no effect (monster can't see hero's equipment);
similarly when inside engulfer regardless of whether it can see invisible;
applying mirror at worm tail shouldn't work but does;
applying mirror toward unseen monster that can see invisible (so should be
able to see its own image) doesn't work because bhit() won't target it;
mirror shouldn't work when target is only visible via infravision.
The fourth one is iffy since it assumes that invisible monsters produce
invisible reflections rather than no reflections. The reverse of that is
probably more reasonable but isn't as interesting. The fifth one may be
contradictory; it fails to extend that logic to "infravisible monsters
produce infravisible reflections."
splatter_burning_oil() is called when a lit potion of oil gets
broken, and it can dish out fatal damage to the hero. An earlier fix
to prevent a light-source panic (thrown item is not on any of the object
lists) during bones creation didn't address leaving that lit potion
intact if it was on the floor (which can happen if the breakage is caused
by striking or force bolt rather than its being thrown or kicked). Use
the existing obj->in_use mechanism as a more general fix, after teaching
bones code that it applies to other things besides the hero's inventory.
From the newsgroup: Sunsword is ineffective against shades. It
gets a special bonus of double damage vs undead, but since it's not made
of silver it was only doing 1 point of damage against shades. Make the
bonus-vs-undead attribute override the silver-required criterion. (No
comparable handling for flimsy weapons against thick-skinned critters
this time.)
Reverse the previous patch. It made other artifacts like Fire Brand
also do full damage against shades, which wasn't inteded. Back to the
drawing board....
From the newsgroup: Sunsword is ineffective against shades. It
gets a special bonus of double damage vs undead, but since it's not made
of silver it was only doing 1 point of damage against shades. Make the
bonus-vs-undead attribute override the silver-required criterion. (If
there's ever a whip or other flimsy weapon which gets a bonus against
some type(s) of thick-skinned monster, its attack will override the skin
thickness in similar fashion.)
A change a couple of weeks ago to have player's chosen ammo be auto-
quivered when using the 'f' command while quiver is empty was excluding
objects with quantity 1. That was on the basis that it was in the process
of being thrown so there was no point in putting it into the quiver slot
first. But if it was a boomerang, or Mjollnir under suitable conditions,
there was a chance for it to be available for another throw, so there is
a point to quivering it. Also, player can hit ESC at the direction prompt
and end up not throwing it after all. So, put even quantity 1 items into
the quiver when 'f' command is used with empty quiver.
I found a copy of a news posting from 1996 which suggested that
using a[pply] to break a wand which has 0 charges should have a chance of
wresting out one extra charge, like zapping. That way the player can't
destroy spent wands with impunity, and it makes the two wand actions be
more consistent. Also, it's trivial to implement. :-)
Move some common code from makeplural & makeingular into a separate
routine. Also, add ``candelabrum <-> candelabra''. Wizard mode wishing
for "candelabra" now works; "Candelabra of Invocation" does not--not due
to case but because the " of " isn't preceded by 's' in the plural form.
From the newsgroup: attempting to #chat to a gnome elicited "the
gnome grunts" (because gnomes have MS_ORC sound, and MS_ORC is just a
synonym for MS_GRUNT) even when the hero was a gnome. This patch makes
MS_ORC (orcs, gnomes, kobolds, a couple of named demons) or MS_GRUNT
(ogres, ettins, trolls, gargoyles) behave as MS_HUMANOID when the hero
has same race. That by itself wasn't quite enough; hostile MS_HUMANOID
monsters other than fake players wouldn't respond, so this gives those
a generic message (threatening the hero). In a somewhat similar case,
peaceful MS_CUSS monsters wouldn't respond; now they say something too.
Spotted by Janet: in the ``using #monster to breath[e] at self''
patch I accidentally reversed the Half_spell_damage adjustment (to breath
only from non-breath attacks only, not by doubling instead of halving
damage :-). Changing it to include zaps by the hero is intentional.
When testing the monster-breath-at-self patch I noticed that trying
to cure green slime by having hero breathe at self didn't work. The code
was calling buzz() with arguments that produced an attack directed against
the hero's location, but there was a chance for it to miss outright and
when it didn't, reflection would block it. This makes breathing at
yourself with `#monster' comparable to zapping a wand or casting a spell
at yourself: it always hits.
Extend defense against being turned into slime to monsters who can
breathe fire. Other attack types which dish out fire damage didn't seem
suitable for this.
Move some of the singular<->plural transformations from code to data.
Also fixes one more missed singularization: lurkers above. A big chunk
of this is just a bit of minor reorganization: moving otense() & vtense()
next to makeplural(), and moving the wishable subranges array from between
makeplural & makesingular to in front of the wishing code.
I was going to redo makeplural to use the same style as makesingular
(switch from ``len >= N && !strcmpi(buf, spot-(N-1))'', with spot pointing
at final character, over to ``BSTRCMPI(bp, p-N)'' which tests p-N against
bp as the bounds check and has p pointing to the string's terinating '\0')
but have decided not to tackle that.
Extend makeplural/makesingular case-insensitivity to vtense() and to
wizard mode wishing for dungeon features. And the previous set of fixes
missed one: makesingular("zombies") was producing "zomby". Plus a bit of
groundwork for a likely second overhaul of makeplural/makesingular.
I stumbled across a copy of an old newsgroup bug report which
complained that wishing for "Gauntlets of Power" didn't work. I thought
that this was something which had already been fixed, but when I tried it
out, I discovered that you still couldn't wish for that. It was failing
because case-sensitive makesinglar() didn't recognize that "Gauntlets"
needs special handling. After the unwanted transformation, the case-
insensitive object matching would fail to find "gauntlet of power".
Removing case-sensitivity for special cases like "boots" and "gloves"
would have fixed that, but this patch goes further and removes case-
sensitivity entirely for both makesingular and makeplural. Words which
get their endings modified work when the input is upper or mixed case.
Any modified letters retain the case of the original, so the reason for
case-sensitivity--user specified fruits that aren't lower case--is covered.
Some makeplural fixes: the plural for dingo is dingoes (dictionary
says "-es", not "-s") and for roshi is roshi (just guessing here; most of
the Japanese names use same spelling for singular and plural, but we were
producing roshis). Several words which makesingular leaves in plural form
(boots, gloves, &c) are now recognized by makeplural (avoiding gloveses).
It also fixes a bunch of incorrect singularizations of plural monster
names: foxes, *wolves, lynxes, fungi/humunculi/succubi, mumakil, wumpuses,
baluchitheria, Aleaxes, *elves, erinyes, djinn, priestesses, & valkyries.
Some non-monsters that makeplural handles correctly were also not being
singularized right: feet, hooves, lice/mice, algae, children, nemeses.
For an explosion caused by the player while the hero is engulfed,
skip adjacent monsters. Also, don't give "you hear a blast" when an
unseen explosion is caused by a scroll of fire (explosion is always unseen
when hero is engulfed, regardless of explosion's cause). [Offhand I'm
not sure whether something other than the player can trigger an explosion
while the hero is engulfed.] Lastly, round up instead of down when a
monster takes half damage, so that non-zero can't be reduced to zero.
Like their use of lizard corpses to defeat being turned into stone,
let monsters use wands of fire, fire horns, and scrolls of fire to try to
defeat being turned into slime. If the scroll is read while confused, it
won't succeed. Otherwise, monsters who don't resist fire will take some
damage in the process and might end up killing themselves (although with
the testing I've gone I've yet to see that happen--I guess that means
that handling for dying-in-the-process hasn't been adequately tested...).
So far, they don't know how to jump onto adjacent fire traps, nor
will fire breathing monsters breath at themselves. I don't know whether
I'll get around to tackling either of those.
New macro slimeproof() to decide whether something is susceptible
to turning into green slime. Most of this is just making use of existing
cached permonst values in damageum() and mdamagem() and shouldn't affect
anything. I wanted to avoid mixing that in with the actual slime changes
which are coming.
Something that pops up in the newsgroup periodically, with <Someone>
inevitably pointing out the bit of code that the user needs to tweak,
about control of feedback when hero is walking across floor objects.
Implement new option ``pile_limit'' which allows user to set the point
at which the game switches from listing the objects to giving "there are
several/many objects here". Default is 5, same as previous hard-coded
value (1 object gets listed via pline, 2..4 are listed in a corner popup,
5 or more objects yields a pline message instead). Setting pile_limit
to 0 means no limit, so objects will always be listed regardless of pile
size. Setting it to 1 effectively forces no listing since any non-empty
pile size is always at least that big, so can produce "there is an object
here" even though that's no briefer than a pline() to show one object.
From a bug report: moving while blind
and gloveless onto spot containing a cockatrice corpse is fatal if there
are fewer than 5 items there, but harmless when you get the "there are
several/many objects here" result for 5 or more. I thought that this was
something which had already been changed, but it wasn't. Run a touch
check on the whole pile of objects even when no object-by-object feedback
is being given.
Trunk only because it's using the trunk version of corpse_xname().
Noticed while testing a patch for touching cockatrice corpses;
corpse_xname(,, CXN_ARTICLE) would produce "a cockatrice corpses" when the
object stack quantity was greater than 1. (This applies to the post-3.4.3
expansion of corpse_xname() in the trunk code, so no fixes entry.)
While updating discard_minvent I noticed that m_useupall is using
the wrong routine to get rid of a monster's weapon. It probably doesn't
matter since I don't think monsters can use up items they're wielding or
wield items they could use up.
Genociding * to clear a level in wizard mode, or paying off a
shopkeeper to dismiss kops in any mode, could trigger the recently added
warning about deleting worn items in obfree(). mongone -> discard_minvent
wasn't bothering to unwear/unwield monster gear before deletion.
From a bug report, mimics
which were exposed at the time the hero leaves a level remain unhidden
upon return no matter how long the hero is away. It was actually expected
behavior since the old level is stuck in stasis and hiders only hide when
it's their turn to move, but it was noticeably odd. This makes unhidden
hiders attempt to hide when hero returns to a previous level or enters a
bones level. I reorganized the monster handling in getlev() because the
relevant part was taking place before floor objects got restored, so
hidesunder() monsters had nothing to hide under at the time.
From a bug report: rogue's backstab bonus
(extra damage when foe is fleeing) doesn't apply when dual-wielding but
does apply to thrown weapons--unless both conditions apply. Having it
apply to throwing is too powerful. Elbereth makes it trivial to get
monsters to flee and a rogue with expert dagger skill can throw up to 4
of those at a time, so a level 30 rogue could get rnd(30) bonus 4 times
in a single attack. This makes the backstab bonus only applicable to
melee and polearm attacks.
There was a suggestion in the newsgroup that if you use the 'f'
command when your quiver is empty, that whatever missile you supply to the
"what do you want to throw?" prompt be automatically put into the quiver.
This implements that, and separates most of the common code from dothrow()
and dofire() into a separate routine. A post-3.4.3 change to dothrow() to
require hands for throwing wasn't propagated to dofire(). With the common
routine, they're much less likely to get out of sync like that.
This is going into the branch as well as the trunk because the hands
checking mismatch was added there too.
Suggested by <Someone>: in the special level compiler, support
"random" in addition to "open" and "closed" for a drawbridge's inital
state. Drawbridge shares code with door, so the necessary parsing was
already present. This just treats random as valid for drawbridge instead
of explicitly rejecting it, and makes the special level loader process it.
He also suggested that the two drawbridges on the bottom level of
the Valk's quest be changed from open to random, but this patch doesn't
go that far. I think it's a good idea, but since the player can't use a
musicial instrument on those bridges, this has more impact on game play
than it might at first seem. I don't really want to see Valkyries be
required to use magic for occasions where both bridges start out closed.
