Flashing, unresponsive screen

[Susramanian]

I was selling a bunch of stuff to the Angolwen staff store and the game window started blinking slowly. It would go all black for a second or so, then back to normal for a couple seconds, then black again. It was totally unresponsive and I had to force quit. Bizarre. Here's the last bits of stdout:

[STORE] stocking up: yew staff
[Identify] yew staff true
[STORE] stocking up: yew staff
[Identify] ash wand true
[STORE] stocking up: ash wand
[Identify] ash staff true
[STORE] stocking up: ash staff
[Identify] elm wand true
[STORE] stocking up: elm wand
[Identify] yew staff true
[STORE] stocking up: yew staff
[Identify] yew staff true
[STORE] stocking up: yew staff
[Identify] yew wand true
[STORE] stocking up: yew wand
[Identify] solid yew wand of flames true
[STORE] stocking up: solid yew wand of flames
319 frames in 10.019 seconds = 31.8395 FPS
1607792 ticks in 10 seconds = 160779 TPS
334 frames in 10.02 seconds = 33.3333 FPS
[Identify] acid-proof potion of mana true
1654941 ticks in 10 seconds = 165494 TPS
[Identify] potion of free action true
331 frames in 10.021 seconds = 33.0306 FPS
1623001 ticks in 10 seconds = 162300 TPS
[Identify] potion of see invisible true
325 frames in 10.02 seconds = 32.4351 FPS
[Identify] steel amulet true
[Identify] gold ring true
[Identify] poisonous steel battleaxe true
[Identify] dwarven-steel dagger of massacre true
1240783 ticks in 10 seconds = 124078 TPS
[Identify] shocking dwarven-steel dagger of accuracy true
[Identify] dwarven-steel greatsword true
321 frames in 10.019 seconds = 32.0391 FPS
[Identify] yew longbow of speed true
[Identify] shocking iron longsword of massacre true
[Identify] steel longsword true
1417316 tic

[darkgod]

Uh? weiird.
Is this reproducible ?

[Dervis]

I've had this error twice as well, but don't know what causes it.

[Susramanian]

I haven't had it again. But if I'm remembering correctly, I might have been witnessing another weird bug at the time. The game sort of got stuck saving, though I don't think it was really saving. There was no fps drop, but the yellow 'Saving...' text stayed indefinitely in the left bar. I don't remember whether it was a deliberate save or an autosave.

[Susramanian]

Okay, I just got it again. Same situation. A save got stuck and I went to town to sell stuff. Screen went all blinky while I was selling and I had to force quit. Here's the last part of stdout:

[Identify] galvorn greatmaul true
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[Identify] galvorn greatmaul true
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[Identify] galvorn greatsword true
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[Identify] galvorn greatsword true
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[Identify] galvorn greatsword true
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
301 frames in 10.023 seconds = 30.0309 FPS
1401021 ticks in 10 seconds = 140102 TPS
[Identify] phase galvorn greatsword true
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[Identify] poisonous galvorn greatsword true
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[Identify] slime-covered galvorn greatsword of massacre true
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
325 frames in 10.02 seconds = 32.4351 FPS
1427440 ticks in 10 seconds = 142744 TPS
318 frames in 10.017 seconds = 31.746 FPS
1338482 ticks in 10 seconds = 133848 TPS
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[STORE] not restocking yet 5733856 10000 5733056
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[TALENT WEAPON MULT] 2.8 0.1 0.45 0 0.36191601707418
[Identify] flaming galvorn shi



ToME's last word, as with so many who die unexpectedly, was "shi"

[overtrix]

I'm having this too, on porting to Angolwen the yellow "Save ..." notice appears, and then stays there.

At first everything seems normal, but then things slow ever more until it hangs - have a feeling it's not actually hung, but is giving so little time to the interface that it appears to be. The problem progresses in real time rather than game time - think so anyway, because possible to "get in and get out" e.g. to imbue a ring.

If you catch it early enough, can "save and quit" - it tells you that it is saving and then quitting, albeit slowly, but on reloading you are back before using the portal - probably a blessing in disguise.

The problem is accompanied by ever-increasing disk activity, with intermittent pauses (swirly effects come back for a short while, think it's fixing itself, but the programs's just teasing).

[Mushroomhermit]

Check out the ticks per second. From what I've seen 160000 is higher than usual

[Dervis]

I'm like 70% sure this bug (and the no-save bug) is related to the Rod of Recall. I haven't looked at the code yet, but I was having continuous problems on a save just after Tempest Peak, I tossed the Rod of Recall, and everything's working fine from now on. I'll try to look into this.

Edit: I can't spot anything, the only possible issue is that max_power = 1000, but my knowledge of the program is quite limited.

[vstat]

I had it happen in the mage city once. The game crashed on it's own, and I reloaded I was back at the beginning of the Old Forest (where I warped out of). I imagine that was the last time it auto-saved. This time is started blinking as I left Minas Tirith. It loaded again at the beginning of Amon Sul. I had finished that dungeon, went to the mage city, and saved the forest town from the axe guy before going to Minas Tirith. Surely it would have auto saved somewhere in there?

I have always loved the stability of the game. This version is almost unplayable to me because of this issue.

[darkgod]

Does everybody have the problem only after a teleport angolwen or using the rod of recall ?

[overtrix]

My first b13 character was an archer who gained access to Angolwen the hard way - there was no problem with using the town.

edit: the first one who didn't run out of arrows, especially after pressing '4' instead of '3' at some unnoticed stage and ceasing to forage !

Just now I ran a mage quickly (in real time, before the slowdown got out of hand) along to the head elf and got her to send me to the quest zone - where the problem continued just as if still in Angolwen. So that looks as if it's something started by the recall process.

It's a bit disturbing because the thing with the chuntering hard disk continues long after ToME has been forced to quit.

Hopefully the character will still be there to re-run from the previous zone - because I've just modified the LUA file so that the apprentice bloke will (hopefully) grant the non-mage access route ... maybe this sturdy hobbit will get there 'up the stairs' without any subsequent problems, let's see.

[overtrix]

Okay yes - and hope you appreciate that I just gave him the nice staff, am a martyr

So ... exactly the same character which encountered the grinding-to-a-halt thing after teleporting there, has just been through the non-mage portal ... the yellow file-saving message appeared - fingers crossed - and then went away as normal, no problem.

[darkgod]

I do

that is so weird, does the bug happens every time you use teleport angolwen ?

[Mushroomhermit]

Hmm, now that I think about it, recalling or porting to angolwen does seem to be what triggers the glitch.

[Susramanian]

I've had it happen three times now, I think. All three were after using the rod of recall, but I've also had lots of bug-free recalls.