The Angband FAQ

The best way to get answers to your questions is to post them on the 
forum [http://angband.oook.cz/forum].

1. Issues and problems
	a. How do I report a bug?
	b. I hate the store interface!
	c. Dark monsters are hard to see.
	d. I want old-school '#'s as wall tiles, not solid blocks!
	e. I use Vista and my display is messed up.
	f. I play in the console on Linux, and the colours are screwed up.
	g. I'm playing in a terminal and the Escape key isn't working as it
           should - I have to press it twice, or just wait a while.
	h. Is there a way to disable that thing that pops up when you hit the
           enter key?

2. Development
	a. What are the current plans for the game?
	b. How do I suggesting an idea/feature?
	c. How do I get a copy of the source code?
	d. How do I compile the game?
	e. How do I contribute to the game?

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1a. How do I report a bug?

First of all, go to http://trac.rephial.org/wiki and use one or more of 
the links there to see if your bug has been reported already.

If you can't find it there, you're best off posting on the forum or the 
newsgroup: if it's been reported already, you will get replies sounding 
more annoyed as the number of times it's been previously reported goes 
up, but so life goes.

Bug reports should *always* include your current operating system (e.g. 
Windows XP), what version the problem appeared in, and the best steps 
you can figure out to reproduce the bug.  Savefiles that show the 
problem might be requested, because they help tracking bugs down.

1b. I hate the store interface!

Sorry, but it's staying that way for now.  Expect a better one.

1c. Dark monsters are hard to see.

Fix (reduce) the alpha on your screen, or use the "Interact with colors" 
screen under the options ('=') menu.  (On older versions, use the '&' 
command.)  Navigate to the '8' using 'n' and increase the color 
intensity with r(ed)g(reen)b(lue).

1d. I want old-school '#'s as wall tiles, not solid blocks!
1e. I use Vista and my display is messed up.

Please see http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=88 and 
http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=26

1f. I play in a terminal on *nix, and the colours are screwed up.

It's very likely that your console is not set to display 256 colours. Try
setting the TERM environment variable to "xterm-256color" in your shell
before starting angband (in bash this is "export TERM=xterm-256color").

1g. I'm playing in a terminal and the Escape key isn't working as it 
should - I have to press it twice, or just wait a while.

This is a feature of terminals to allow you to enter keypresses that 
can't be sent directly.  Use the backtick '`' key instead - it's 
equivalent in every way to Escape.  (This doesn't apply in Sangband, or 
NPPAngband.)

1h. Is there a way to disable that thing that pops up when you hit the 
enter key?

Go into the options menu, choose "Edit keymaps", then "Create a 
keymap".  Press Enter at the "Keypress" prompt and a single space as the 
"Action".  In short: `=m8<enter> <enter>`

And then you'll probably want to choose to "Append keymaps to a file" so 
that it persists for next time you load the game.

This just replaces the default action of Enter with a "do nothing but 
don't tell me about help" action. If you want to keep the menu 
available, say on the 'Tab' key, you can also remap the Tab keypress to 
the '\n' action.

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2a. What are the current plans for the game?

Ever-changing and subject to U-turning with public dissent. See 
http://trac.rephial.org/roadmap

2b. How do I suggest an idea/feature?

Post it on the newsgroup or the forums.  If people think it's a good 
idea, it will generally get some discussion; if they don't, it won't.  
The developers keep an eye on r.g.r.a and the forums, and ideas deemed 
OK will get filed for future implementation.

Sometimes a suggestion may not be right for the game, though. Some 
suggestions would change aspects of Angband that are essential to its 
nature; Angband has a long history, and so has developed a certain 
character over the years.  Some suggestions might make a good game, 
perhaps even a better game than Angband, but would make a game that is 
not Angband. To some extent, variants exist to address this, but even 
so they tend to adhere to the core Angband principles.

2c. How do I get a copy of the source code?

The latest release's source is linked to from the page http://rephial.org/.

To get the bleeding-edge development code, clone the git repository at 
git://github.com/angband/angband.git

2d. How do I compile the game?

Please see http://rephial.org/wiki/Compiling for an up-to-date guide to this.

2e. How do I contribute to the game?

First, join the mailing list 
[http://angband.oook.cz/mailman/listinfo/angband-dev] and/or drop by
#angband-dev on freenode IRC.

If you already have a patch you want to be included, please send it to 
the mailing list in the form of a unified diff against either the git master
branch (e.g. using git diff) or the latest public release. Please be 
careful to follow the Angband coding guidelines 
[http://trac.rephial.org/wiki/CodingGuidelines]. All contributions to 
individual files are accepted under the licences used in the file 
header. Make sure you're OK with this before sending in patches.

If the patch is a bugfix, then you can reasonably expect it to be 
integrated into the development tree. If it's more involved, and the 
feature is not one that the next version is planned to have, the patch 
may go through several reviews before being incorporated. It may also 
just be unsuitable for Angband - in which case, please don't take 
rejection badly; you may just be better off writing a variant.

Non-code activites are different. Documentation can be written on the 
wiki, or if you're a graphics designer (and they're always welcome) then 
please talk on the mailing list about your work.
