Re: Mouse patch for XArchon 0.45

[Ronen Tzur <rtzur@shani.net>]

hi!

> } I'm also ashamed to say I haven't applied it at all yet, so I don't
> } know the difference between relative and absolute.  Could you
> } please explain?
> In relative mode, the mouse's last x,y is remembered, and a direction is
> generated if you move the cursor more than some threshold distance from
> that position.  So, if you move the mouse down, the STATE_MOVE_DOWN key is

Okay, that sounds good.

> In absolute mode, the mouse cursor is visible and free to move in and out
> of the window, as normal.  frame_human() generates a keypress to attempt to
> move the board cursor or field creature towards the mouse cursor.  This is
> why frame_human() needs to know the location of whatever is being
> controlled by the mouse

Hmmm.  That doesn't sound so hot at all.  If I understand correctly,
in this mode of operation, you could stick the mouse somewhere
(for instance on top of your opponent), and the game would take care
of moving the piece for you.  Am I right?

(I guess I'll find out soon enough, I'm going to apply the patch
in a few minutes.)

> BTW, I found an actual bug.  The function computer_board_imprison didn't
> handle the case when there's only one enemy piece on the board that isn't
> the wizard/sorceress correctly, because it iterates x and y over the board
> counting pieces, and if that total is one it then just sets x1 and y1 to x
> and y, which will always equal BOARD_XCELLS and BOARD_YCELLS.  Here's a
> fixed version:

Great, thanks!

> } >     last piece).  It should also probably mention stalemates (mutal death
> } >     in the battle between the last two pieces, or too many useless moves on
> } >     the board.)
> } Neither of these can happen in X ARCHON.  I've never seen a battle end
> } with the two battling creatures dead in the real ARCHON, and so X ARCHON
> } is written so as to not let such a thing ever happen.
> 
> Actually, it can happen in the original ARCHON... it's even explicitly
> referred to in the interview with Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall
> (http://www.concentric.net/~Beruche/interview.htm) that's hanging off the
> Archon FAQ page.  In the first question Jon Freeman answers, about what
> inspired Archon, he concludes "This is where the notion of the
> 'double-kill' in Archon came about."  But, hey, as I said, it's your
> project :)

Hmm.  Perhaps the PC version doesn't have double-kill, because I played
ARCHON more than a few times (but only on the PC version) and I never
ever ever saw a double-kill.  The PC version is different from the
C-64 and Amiga versions in few other ways, so it might be different
in this respect too.

> BTW, is the archon-l list very active?

No.  That's because people usually mail directly to me, and
I (for some reason, which is beyond me) don't forward it to the
list.  I guess I can try now.