Monster trails and where they really are

[bonuslevel]

Hi,

I'm currently trying playing a Formicid - nice!

With my antennae, I can sense monsters through walls. If the monster moves and I still can't see it with my eyes, I get a trail of equally looking tiles with a placeholder for a sensed monster. This makes it a wild guessing about how much monsters there really are, and where the monster is currently sensed.

Also, when I'm coming back to that position, the placeholders stay there until I can look at the tile with my eyes. That's not too bad since it's consistent with direct monster view. But is there a way to distinguish whether I currently sense a monster at a certain tile, and I only did in the past? It would be nice if the placeholders on tiles where a monster was, but currently isn't sensed though it's in the range of my antennae would be removed (as it is done for direct visibility).

Can something like that be done in my rc, or do I miss something? Or is it even a bug?

0.21.1 tiles version on Debian btw.

Thanks, Michael.

[bonuslevel]

Oh, and I'm very disgusted with being entitled a "Dungeon Dilettante" here.

[Siegurt]

Oh, and I'm very disgusted with being entitled a "Dungeon Dilettante" here.

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[Siegurt]

Hi,

I'm currently trying playing a Formicid - nice!

With my antennae, I can sense monsters through walls. If the monster moves and I still can't see it with my eyes, I get a trail of equally looking tiles with a placeholder for a sensed monster. This makes it a wild guessing about how much monsters there really are, and where the monster is currently sensed.

Also, when I'm coming back to that position, the placeholders stay there until I can look at the tile with my eyes. That's not too bad since it's consistent with direct monster view. But is there a way to distinguish whether I currently sense a monster at a certain tile, and I only did in the past? It would be nice if the placeholders on tiles where a monster was, but currently isn't sensed though it's in the range of my antennae would be removed (as it is done for direct visibility).

Can something like that be done in my rc, or do I miss something? Or is it even a bug?

0.21.1 tiles version on Debian btw.

Thanks, Michael.

There's not a way to differentiate, probably there should be, but it's just not something that's implemented.

[bonuslevel]

Well, today I continued the game, and had the impression that maybe the placeholders are actually a tiny bit different. It is hard to see, but I had the impression that the placeholders where the monster curently is sensed has a very light bright blueish background, whlle the others are plain white/grayish. I'll keep an eye on it.

Anyway, for now I've become a worshipper of Ashenzari and am getting smilies instead (not the best choice for a formicid maybe, but I find the combination interesting)

[bonuslevel]

Hmm, but for the Ashenzari placeholders it seems to be indistinguishable whether a monster was or is there.

[bonuslevel]

FWIW, ^C removes the outdated monster positions, but it also removes anything else that is remembered. And I need to waste a turn to make the current monster position appear again. Not good.

I started a new game today. This time, in one situation the issue didn't appear. Seems it sometimes does work as I want.

[bonuslevel]

Wow, I've received a new title: termagant. Very proud.

[Siegurt]

Well, today I continued the game, and had the impression that maybe the placeholders are actually a tiny bit different. It is hard to see, but I had the impression that the placeholders where the monster curently is sensed has a very light bright blueish background, whlle the others are plain white/grayish. I'll keep an eye on it.

Anyway, for now I've become a worshipper of Ashenzari and am getting smilies instead (not the best choice for a formicid maybe, but I find the combination interesting)

The background color just indicates whether you've actually ever seen the square in question, it has nothing to do with whether the object/monster you sensed there is 'currently sensed' or 'remembered'

Technically speaking all things are 'remembered' as you only get a snapshot of what you sensed last turn, and the thing in question could have moved (well, if it's a monster).

When you "sense" stuff, it's more like a random sampling of squares around you at a distance (think like spotty sonar or something) it is not an ongoing tracking mechanism, knowing where something was at a particular moment doesn't give you any insight as to where it might be *now*.

What happens is that you get an updated sample of some random number of squares that would be in your line of sight, but which are blocked from actual observation by walls. When things appear to update (and monsters disappear/move) it's because you happened to get a ping on your radar from those specific squares, indicating there's no monster there, if you get no update from a square that used to contain a monster, the monster's placeholder is still there, because you 'remember' it, even if they might have subsequently moved.

[bonuslevel]

But AFAIK antennae don't work randomly: antennae 3 detects all monsters within 7 tiles (says http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Antennae).

[Midn8]

Chaosforge is quite bad, I recommend you make use of the great learndb instead (crawl.develz.org/info)

[bonuslevel]

Chaosforge is quite bad, I recommend you make use of the great learndb instead (crawl.develz.org/info)

Thanks for the hint!

Though, what it says about the matter isn't substantially different: http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php?q=antennae