The Future of Zothiqband

[Nerdanel]

I've done quite a bit, but there's still a ton to be done...

Of particular note: I have finally solved the longstanding randart bug of doom! Yay! I've also done various other stuff like the removal of all zip code and net code and making Zothiqband start automatically without asking about module selection and generally tinkering with items and stuff.

Some of the things that baffle me are the little ones: What should I do about the separate changelogs now that the T-Engine becomes just a part of Zothiqband?

[Sirrocco]

Start a new changelog, referring back to both of the previous changelogs?

[AnonymousHero]

(Chants:)

WE WANT SOURCE! WE WANT SOURCE!

[Nerdanel]

Yeah, I should probably start a new unified changelog, sometime...

On releasing the source, things are so unsettled at the moment that I'd like to get the big sweeping changes done before I release anything. The T-Engine/Zothiqband module meld is currently very hackish and so on. It just looks so ugly I'd be embarrassed to release something like that... On the other hand, I may be too much of a perfectionist...

In other news, Zothiqband is now the game where the player will be able to eat the heart of Great Cthulhu and comment on the taste.

[darkgod]

Don't be perfectionist, release release release
Don't fall into that trap or you'll never release the source and then I will be most unhappy

[Sirrocco]

The game is brought into being by creative energy

Creative energy is fed by the approval and engagement of the fans

The approval and engagement of the fans are bought with playable releases.

For releases, "ugly and hackish" means nothing. Fantastic half-built potential that the player cannot reach mean nothing. Playability means everything.

Release when you think you have something playable. If it is truly not playable then the fans will tell you - fix the bugs that make it unplayable and rerelease quickly. Bask in the love and approval of your fans, and allow that to carry you onward. This is the true Tao.

[Nerdanel]

Status update: I have done a lot of cleanup in the code that mostly amounts to ripping out things. I hope no one is interested in having modules for Zothiqband, because I totally took that out.

But really, I just feel like complaining:

Code: Select all

Program received signal SIGFPE, Arithmetic exception.
0x00000000004f0eb1 in luaV_execute (L=0xa14110, cl=<value optimized out>, base=<value optimized out>)
    at lua/lvm.c:553
553               nvalue(top-2) /= nvalue(top-1);
(gdb) bt
#0  0x00000000004f0eb1 in luaV_execute (L=0xa14110, cl=<value optimized out>, base=<value optimized out>)
    at lua/lvm.c:553
#1  0x00000000004e6e1d in luaD_call (L=0xa14110, func=0xa14650, nResults=1) at lua/ldo.c:183
#2  0x00000000004f0861 in luaV_execute (L=0xa14110, cl=<value optimized out>, base=<value optimized out>)
    at lua/lvm.c:382
#3  0x00000000004e6e1d in luaD_call (L=0xa14110, func=0xa14620, nResults=1) at lua/ldo.c:183
#4  0x00000000004f0861 in luaV_execute (L=0xa14110, cl=<value optimized out>, base=<value optimized out>)
    at lua/lvm.c:382
#5  0x00000000004e6e1d in luaD_call (L=0xa14110, func=0xa145a0, nResults=0) at lua/ldo.c:183
#6  0x00000000004f0861 in luaV_execute (L=0xa14110, cl=<value optimized out>, base=<value optimized out>)
    at lua/lvm.c:382
#7  0x00000000004e6e1d in luaD_call (L=0xa14110, func=0xa14520, nResults=0) at lua/ldo.c:183
#8  0x00000000004f0861 in luaV_execute (L=0xa14110, cl=<value optimized out>, base=<value optimized out>)
    at lua/lvm.c:382
#9  0x00000000004e6e1d in luaD_call (L=0xa14110, func=0xa144e0, nResults=0) at lua/ldo.c:183
#10 0x00000000004f0861 in luaV_execute (L=0xa14110, cl=<value optimized out>, base=<value optimized out>)
    at lua/lvm.c:382
#11 0x00000000004e6e1d in luaD_call (L=0xa14110, func=0xa144a0, nResults=0) at lua/ldo.c:183
#12 0x00000000004e71bf in f_call (L=0xa14110, ud=<value optimized out>) at lua/ldo.c:216
#13 0x00000000004e69a9 in luaD_runprotected (L=<value optimized out>, f=<value optimized out>, 
    ud=<value optimized out>) at lua/ldo.c:377
#14 0x00000000004e6a51 in lua_call (L=0xa14110, nargs=<value optimized out>, nresults=<value optimized out>)
    at lua/ldo.c:225
#15 0x000000000044c728 in process_monster (m_idx=<value optimized out>, is_frien=<value optimized out>)
    at melee2.c:1298
#16 0x000000000044e5e7 in process_monsters () at melee2.c:2258
#17 0x000000000042373c in main_loop () at dungeon.c:2327
#18 0x00000000004252a3 in dungeon (new_game=0 '\000') at dungeon.c:2580
#19 play_game (new_game=0 '\000') at dungeon.c:2973
#20 0x000000000044afab in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffdf28) at main.c:717

Sigh. Just imagine trying to debug that...

Also:

You see a puce potion decompose. You see a pint of dark beer decompose.

What?

It looks like I have introduced some serious bugs which means it'll be a while before I can release...

[Nerdanel]

In case you're curious, I managed to track the crash bug to monsters trying to cast a spell. I still have no idea why calling get_level from get_mana would generate what appears to be a division-by-zero error but luckily I'm not using monster mana anyway, so commenting out the offending line fixed the issue. I just hope the same bug doesn't affect player spellcasters...

TODO before release:
- Fix the grave bugs still present affecting hitpoints and skills and check if player spellcasting works
- Finish basic, unsophisticated randarts
- Write a help file for key commands
- Make rayguns work
- Complete move to the new directory structure and add the module part to the Mercurial repository
- Do a few other things for polish/content that are quick to implement
- Figure out the hosting issues and if converted Zangband monsters are a problem for GPL

[madmonk]

Looking forward to it!

[Marcotte]

Also:

You see a puce potion decompose. You see a pint of dark beer decompose.

What?

It looks like I have introduced some serious bugs which means it'll be a while before I can release...

Hum, that's probably the fault of the corpse rotting code (although that should require the presence of a specific flag). That was pretty much the last piece of TE3 code I ever touched, and it was very slow on the overland map, so you should probably remove it. (Sorry I don't remember where it is, but it was some C code.)

[Nerdanel]

Also:

You see a puce potion decompose. You see a pint of dark beer decompose.

What?

It looks like I have introduced some serious bugs which means it'll be a while before I can release...

Hum, that's probably the fault of the corpse rotting code (although that should require the presence of a specific flag). That was pretty much the last piece of TE3 code I ever touched, and it was very slow on the overland map, so you should probably remove it. (Sorry I don't remember where it is, but it was some C code.)

Yeah, I had re-enabled that and ended up having to disable it again. Even my attempts at improving performance (which caused the bug above) didn't make it run at an acceptable speed and then there was this huge memory leak...