qw for DCSS 0.31

0.3.0 (2024-02-11)

This version supports DCSS 0.31.

Highlights

• Retreating tactics for characters using launchers.
• Greatly improved threat assessment.
• Attack comparison that lets qw use throwing or wands for nasty monsters.

Backgrounds and Species

• Support for Djinni and using HP as MP.

Configuration and Performance

• Scripts to run qw locally:
  • The util/run-qw.sh script runs qw for a given number of iterations,
    optionally keeping track of completed games.
  • This script will back up the save and c_persist files if it sees that a
    crawl run did not remove its save file.
  • The util/batch-qw.sh script runs instances of run-qw.sh in parallel via
    tmux, passing through command-line arguments as necessary.
• A Save goal for testing that saves and quits. Upon resumption of the game,
  qw considers this goal complete.
• A Quit goal that can be used for testing.

Debug

• toggle_single_step() enables/disables automatic mode.
• toggle_delay() enables/disables the delay between actions.
• get_qw() becomes get_vars(), which now returns both the qw and const
  tables.

Exploration and Map

• Take alternative stairs when threat levels are high at a destination
  staircase:
  • Track the total threat levels last seen in LOS for all staircases.
  • If at least one destination staircase has high threat level, take whichever
    other staircase has the lowest threat level instead.
  • Unvisited stairs are considered to have high threat.
  • Assume very high threat levels for unvisited arrival stairs on Vaults:5.
  • If a destination staircase has very high threat levels, take a down-hatch
    to the level instead when one is available.
  • If no hatch is available when all destination staircases have very high
    threat levels, read teleport before taking one of the stairs.
• Exploration for and movement to the Abyssal rune is greatly improved:
  • Move towards a reachable position that's both adjacent to unexplored areas
    and as close as possible to the runelight/rune.
  • Always move towards positions related to the Abyssal rune goal if we're at
    least 75% HP.
• A plan for distance-mapped movement towards runes to cover cases when those
  are blocked by plants, clouds, or traps.
• Traps are considered traversable, but we try to avoid moving onto them when
  possible.

Items and Equipment

• Use of the following wands for individual high threat monsters: acid,
  iceblast, light, mindburst, paralysis, and quicksilver.
• Use of might and haste potions based on threat.
• Use Fragile equipment. qw gives Fragile items the lowest min rating, but
  doesn't penalize current or max rating. It will unequip/destroy Fragile items
  when an upgrade is found, but never temporarily swap Fragile weapons.
• Evaluate Okawaru's capstone gifts similar to how we evaluate acquirement
  items. For armour, pick the item giving the biggest increase in utility
  compared to what's currently in the slot.
• Increase valuation of the penetration launcher ego (based on results seen
  with Stormbow).
• Evaluation for the Dreamshard Necklace.
• Pick up gems we happen to find.

Strategy and Tactics

• Retreating for characters using launchers. Evaluate nearby retreat squares
  based on how many monsters could melee qw at that position compared to our
  current position. Retreat distance and number of non-reaching ranged monsters
  are also weighed when considering a potential retreat position.
• Improved threat assessment.
  • Monsters are evaluated based on threat level, with usage of buffs such as
    Finesse, Heroism, Berserk, Might, and Haste being based on the cumulative
    threat in los and on individual monsters having high threat.
  • Attempt to flee to upstairs if threat levels are extremely high and we
    can't find a retreat position where two of fewer monsters can melee us. If
    we can't flee in this situation, read teleport.
• Treat certain monsters such as moths of wrath, glass eyes, and hellions as
  threats that should receive targeting priority over the default
  considerations like distance and threat level.
• Attempt to flee or teleport when in bad forms when no potions of cancellation
  are available.
• Track item identification and try to emergency quaff unided potions/read
  unided scrolls when we need to heal wounds or teleport and those items aren't
  identified yet.
• Add enemy monsters crawl currently considers as "safe" to the enemy list so
  we can attack them from safety.

0.2: qw 0.2.0

0.2.0 (2023-06-16)

This version supports DCSS 0.30.

Release Highlights

• Support for ranged combat with launchers.
• Greatly improved within-level pathing.
• Use of exclusions for unreachable monsters.

Configuration and Performance

• The default 15-rune route now attempts Slime before converting to TSO.
• The Orb goal now only has qw seek and pick up the Orb of Zot. This can be
  used with subsequent non-winning goals to do challenges like Orb run Tomb.
• A new Escape goal that has qw exit on D:1 (regardless of having the Orb).
• A new Win goal that executes the Orb goal followed by Escape. This goal
  is always selected when the end of the goal list is reached.
• qw assumes 32MB of max memory available to lua and will halt execution if 90%
  of this limit is reached. Crawl has a new -lua-max-memory argument that
  should be used to increase the memory available to clua to at least 32MB.
• A COROUTINE_THROTTLE variable to enable or disable use of yielding to
  break up cpu-intensive calculations.
• Crawl should be run with the -no-throttle argument for WebTiles or
  dgamelaunch servers, since we can't guarantee that qw won't trigger crawl's
  lua throttle even if qw's coroutine throttle is enabled.
• Gameplans are now referred to as goals in both documentation and code.

Debug

• New functions reset_coroutine() and resume_qw() to aid in debugging when
  qw halts due to an error.
• An override_goal() function to set which has qw attempt the specified goal.
• New functions print_traversal_map(), print_unexcluded_map(),
  print_distance_maps(), and print_distance_map() to display sections of
  map data in the message log.

Exploration and Map

• Use of distance mapping to navigate many previously unsolveable pathing
  situations:
  • Unreachable monsters withoutlos_no_trans that still prevent resting or
    autoexplore.
  • Unreachable monsters with los_no_trans that we can't move to and that
    can't move to us.
  • Unreachable travel destinations due to firewood monsters blocking the path.
  • Moving towards unexplored areas to satisfy exploration goals when
    autoexplore is unable to reach these areas.
• Use of exclusions for unreachable monsters:
  • Unreachable monsters we can't attack with ranged.
  • Unreachable monsters that get us to low HP while we try to use ranged
    attacks.
  • Consider whether we have digging and want to dig out a currently
    unreachable monster instead of excluding it.
  • Move past excluded monsters to the next feature we need to take for travel
    purposes.
  • Mark excluded stairs in exclusions as unsafe. Don't stairdance up a
    staircase if its destination staircase is unsafe.
• Move towards the abyssal runelights to help find the abyssal rune.
• Move towards the abyssal rune even with hostiles around if HP is not low.
• The Orb run and Abyss are handled in what is now the single move plan list.
  This allows attempting non-Win goals after the Orb has been obtained, e.g.
  Orbrun Tomb.
• Waypoints are used on every level, allowing execution of plans that use
  distance mapping in the Abyss, Pan, and in portals.
• Monster pathing checks now considers each monster's specific traversal
  abilities.
• qw can recover from missing c_persist data and will visit any levels as
  necessary to re-record data.

Items and Equipment

• Assessment and use of launcher weapons for characters that start with one.
• Dex and Str from items are valued according to which stat qw's weapon uses.
• On weapons, value the spectral brand twice as much and the electrocution
  brand half as much. The new heavy brand is valued 33% more than
  flaming/freezing.
• More accurately keep currently unfavorable items based on future goals:
  • Items that won't be disliked by future gods.
  • Items that don't remove availability of MP required for future gods.
• Correct evaluation of future god MP requirements for items.
• Evaluation of Str and Dex based on which stat our weapon uses.

Strategy and Tactics

• Targeting for throwing and launchers that chooses the best enemy based on
  relevant criteria like distance, threat, damage level, etc.
• A new tatical step that tries to move away from slimy walls.
• The water movement tactical step can activate if we have a ranged target even
  if we have no adjacent enemies.

0.1: First tagged release

0.1.0 (2022-09-16)

This is the first tagged release of qw. Each future release will coincide with
a new version of DCSS that qw supports; this release supports DCSS 0.29. The
0.1.0 changelog covers the major changes to qw since DCSS 0.28.

Release Highlights

• Configurable game planning that handles all in-game goals.
• Greatly improved travel and exploration.
• Support for Gauntlet and WizLabs.
• Support for Ignis and Cinder Acolytes.

Backgrounds and Species

• Cinder Acolyte support.
• Zealots don't need to specify their starting god in their god list. They
  never attempt to change gods unless the gameplan list explicitly requests it.
• Chaos Knights abandon Xom according to the new CK_ABANDONS_XOM variable,
  which defaults to true.
• Ghouls now prefer axes, and Ogres no longer prefer maces.

Branches

• Support for Gauntlet and WizLab portals. These and the Desolation portal are
  now done by default.
• Improved tactics for Tomb that use potions of hasting, attraction, and magic
  for Tomb:2 and Tomb:3 ambushes.
• Use potions of might and haste and scrolls of teleport when facing many
  dangerous monsters in Hell branches.
• Handle the case when permanent teleport/dispersal traps block both paths
  deeper into the Zot:5 vault. Conditionally enable attempting to walk into
  these traps until we're able to continue autoexplore.
• Portal tracking that allows transitioning into and out of the plan to enter a
  portal based on level messages and time passed.
• Collect and use ziggurat figurines when the gameplan list requests visiting a
  Zig.

Configuration

• Support for a game planning syntax:
  • Each gameplan specifies a branch, level range, rune, god conversion,
    shopping, or getting the Orb.
  • Gameplans are grouped into lists defined in the new GAMEPLANS rcfile
    variable, with the DEFAULT_GAMEPLAN variable specifying the active list.
    The gameplans of the active list be achieved in sequence.
• The COMBO_CYCLE_LIST syntax allows specifying a gameplan list on a
  per-combo basis.
• The set of allowed portals is specified in the new ALLOWED_PORTALS rcfile
  variable.
• qw's version and basic configuration are noted in the note log at game start.

Exploration and Travel

• Travel and exploration systems rewritten:
  • Travel between levels and branches proceeds directly to the desired
    destination instead of first requiring travel to the end of any parent
    branch.
  • Stair finding and exploration is explicitly tracked, with a level being
    considered explored only when any generated up and down stone stairs have
    been seen and are reachable.
  • A stair exploration process allows qw to try unexplored stairs in order to
    find any missing stairs.
  • Due to precise tracking of autoexplore and stair exploration state, qw is
    far more capable of continuing exploration instead of getting stuck in
    disconnected areas.
• Transporter usage in portals, Pan, and the Abyss.

Gods

• Ignis support:
  • Use fiery armour based on current HP and scary/nasty monster presence.
  • The normal plan converts to a god in our god list when piety drops below
    1*.
• Use Ru's apocalypse more aggressively.
• Prefer Ru sacrifices by how much piety they're worth.
• Use TSO's cleansing flame ability aggressively.
• Revised "scary" and "nasty" monster lists used for god abilities that
  incorporates new monsters and adjusts existing monsters based on observed qw
  death counts.

Strategy and Tactics

• Added assessment for more weapon and armour egos and amulet types and such
  that all assessments apply to both mundane and artefact items.
• Use throwing at the default throwing target based on availability of non-dart
  projectiles. Train Throwing skill with appropriate utility based on available
  ammo.
• Shield skill utility calculations updated for the current shield penalty
  system.
• Collect potions of cancellation and use them when in danger and polymorphed
  into a bad form.
• Use might and haste for Cerebov.