Interface frustrations

[schmoe]

I'm currently playing the last flavor of 0.8. I tried 0.9, but I found two interface changes so frustrating that I went back to 0.8. I tried searching through the options files to see if there was something that I could do to revert the changes, but was unable to do so. Here are the changes:

1. The targeting interface. In 0.8, when you (f)ire a missile, the cursor is initially placed on the nearest enemy, and you can confirm the action by pressing "f" again. So to fire a missile at the nearest enemy you just need to press "ff". It's very simple. In 0.9, when you (f)ire a missile you first have to use either the "+" or the direction keys to select an enemy, then you need to press (t) to fire at the enemy. It's more complicated and involves several more key presses. In addition, in 0.8 if you want to fire in a direction without targeting an enemy, you can use "<Shift>-direction". It's great for hitting invisible enemies. I haven't figured out how to do the same thing in 0.9.

2. Dissecting corpses. In 0.8, if there is only one corpse, pressing "D" will dissect it. In 0.9, you must confirm the dissection even if there is only one possible corpse to dissect. It seems minor, but it's an extra keypress and it's obnoxious. All those key presses add up. Why would I possibly need to confirm that I really want to dissect the only thing available to dissect? It's like the Windows Vista version of Stone Soup.

These changes are annoying enough that I don't play 0.9, and I've avoided 0.10 because I didn't see them addressed in the change log. I'd happily switch, though, if I could find some sort of configuration option to change these two interfaces. Is there a way to change the interfaces? Any hope of the interfaces being reverted? Both of the changes seem to be worse, not better.

[galehar]

The targeting interface hasn't changed since 0.8. ff still works just fine.
Same for butchering, there's no prompt if there's a single corpse. You can even skip the prompt when there's multiple corpse by setting the confirm_butcher option to never. Maybe you have set it to always somehow.

[schmoe]

The targeting interface hasn't changed since 0.8. ff still works just fine.

That's interesting. I distinctly recall "ff" trying to target myself in 0.9. I have 0.9 installed at home, so I can't confirm right now. Maybe something in my settings is overriding default behavior?

Same for butchering, there's no prompt if there's a single corpse. You can even skip the prompt when there's multiple corpse by setting the confirm_butcher option to never. Maybe you have set it to always somehow.

I'll check again. I may have gotten this setting confused, thinking that confirm_butcher=always meant the game should always auto-confirm and not prompt me.

[galehar]

What has changed is the repeat command,but I think it dates back from before 0.9. At some point, you used to be able to fire at a monster then use repeat to fire at the same target again. It was buggy and unreliable, now it doesn't at all. I think the repeat command need to be rewritten or scrapped, but I haven't really dived into that code.

[schmoe]

What has changed is the repeat command,but I think it dates back from before 0.9. At some point, you used to be able to fire at a monster then use repeat to fire at the same target again. It was buggy and unreliable, now it doesn't at all. I think the repeat command need to be rewritten or scrapped, but I haven't really dived into that code.

Well, I double-checked dissection, and it looks like I had misunderstood the always_confirm_butcher option. I set that to false and everything is good there. For targeting, I'm still having problems. Here is exactly what happens for me, running 0.9.1

Setup: I have quivered some darts, there is a rat 4 squares away

1. Press "f", no target is selected, prompt follows:

Throwing (i - inventory): e - 32 darts (quivered)
Press: ? - help, f - you

2. Press "+", rat is targeted, prompt follows:

Throwing (i - inventory): e - 32 darts (quivered)
Press: ? - help, Shift-Dir - straight line, f - rat

3. Press "f", I throw a dart at the rat

4. Press "f", no target is selected, prompt follows:

Throwing (i - inventory): e - 31 darts (quivered)
Press: ? - help, f - you, p - rat


As you can see, the first time I try to fire a missile, no target is auto-selected and I'm forced to manually select a target. In addition, even after I've targeted an enemy once, I can't use "ff" to throw a missile at it, I have to use "fp".

I haven't ruled out init options, but I'm stumped as to what I can do to get back to the 0.8 behavior. This targeting behavior is the same for spells, btw.

[Kate]

Try setting default_target = true (all of these are documented in options_guide.txt, also). Are you sure you haven't changed a bunch of options accidentally? confirm_butcher = auto (no prompt if there's just one corpse) and default_target = true are both the default settings for a fresh install, so it seems strange that they're both changed somehow.

[schmoe]

Try setting default_target = true (all of these are documented in options_guide.txt, also). Are you sure you haven't changed a bunch of options accidentally? confirm_butcher = auto (no prompt if there's just one corpse) and default_target = true are both the default settings for a fresh install, so it seems strange that they're both changed somehow.

Well, it's very strange, but I think I've been able to resolve it. My init.txt had "default_target = true", which should allow "ff" targeting, and also had "target_unshifted_dirs = true", but I was experiencing the behavior I described. I commented out both lines (as the packaged version has) and re-started, but still had the same behavior. I uncommented just the one line and changed it to "default_target = false", but still had the same behavior. Finally I changed the value back to "default_target = true" and re-started, and lo and behold I can now use "ff" targeting. I'm really not sure why it wasn't picking it up the first time, but is picking it up now, or even why, once I commented out the option, the default wasn't kicking in.

At any rate, things are working now, so thanks!