User Preferences
FrogComposband allows you to change various aspects of the game to suit
your tastes. You may define keymaps (changing the way your keypresses
are mapped to underlying commands), create macros (allowing you to map
a single keypress to a series of keypresses), modify the visuals
(allowing you to change the appearance of monsters, objects, or terrain
features), change the colors (allowing you to make a given color
brighter, darker, or even completely different), or set options
(turning them off or on).
Preference Files
There are two types of preference files: system preferences and user
preferences. The former represent the default display and input
options, while the latter are optional customizations that you may add
to override the default settings. System preference files, such as
pref.prf, are usually stored in /lib/pref relative to the installation
(e.g., on Windows, if you installed in C:\games\FrogComposband then the
system pref files may be found in C:\games\FrogComposband\lib\pref).
User preference files, on the other hand, are stored in the user
directory, which is /lib/user on Windows, relative to the install
location, and perhaps (this is customizable) ~/.angband/FrogComposband
on Linux. In general, the location of user files is platform-dependent,
and can vary depending on how you configure and install the game.
During initialization, the system preference file pref.prf is loaded,
and this file directs the loading of other preference files, such as
pref-key.prf for keyboard mappings and pref-opt.prf for default option
settings. Then, system preference files for visuals are loaded starting
with font.prf for normal ASCII display and graf.prf for those weird
graphics users. Each of these system preference files will redirect to
another file depending on which platform you are playing (e.g.
font-win.prf on Windows).
Finally, once your character has been born or loaded, the game then
tries to load the following user preference files:
user.prf
user-$SYS.prf
$RACE.prf
$CLASS.prf
$PLAYER.prf
Here, $SYS is the 3-character system code for your platform, such as
win for the Windows port or gcu for the Curses port. $RACE is your
current character's race, $CLASS the class name, and $PLAYER the
character's actual name, unless it contains illegal characters for your
file system (e.g, naming your player Mr. *WONDER* is probably a bad
idea). User preference files are loaded last so that you may override
system preferences with your own settings. We'll discuss some examples
below.
Preference files consist of a list of commands which are parsed to
configure various options. These are discussed next.
Preference Commands
There are many commands for setting preferences. The syntax is
complicated, but mostly, you can use the user interface commands %, &
and @ to do things easily and leave syntax worries to the game itself.
I'll give one example of the syntax in the next section, and then we
will discuss setting up preferences using the user interface commands
which are designed to hide the details of the syntax from you.
An Example
In this example, fire up the game and load your character. My character
is imaginatively named Test, so when I refer to Test.prf later on,
you'll know to mentally change that filename to whatever your character
happens to be named.
For this example, we will be directly entering a single user preference
command. To do this, we use the special Enter a user pref command
command which is available with the ! key. This requires us to know the
exact syntax of the preference command we want, as well as the internal
numeric code for various values. It is an advanced command, and
normally you will want to use one of the friendlier in-game commands
(for visuals, in this case) instead.
Suppose you find @ boring to look at. Let's use @ instead! To make this
change, type ! then enter R:0:11:@. The R preference command is used to
set display values for monster races (which, as you may know, are
defined in /lib/edit/r_info.txt). The game uses the special 0th entry
in the monster race table as the display options for the player. That
we entered R:0 says we wish to override this value. The next field is
the attribute to use. We need to enter a value of 0 to 15 for one of
the 16 available colors; I picked 11 for yellow. Finally, we keep the @
as the character for this monster race. After entering this command,
you'll notice the player is still a plain old @; type ^R to force a
redraw, and now you should be proudly displayed as @.
If we were to restart the game at this point, our change would be lost.
We'll discuss the Interact with Visuals command in just a moment, but
for now, just blindly press % followed by 1 to dump the current monster
race visuals to a user preference file. I get the file Test.prf listed
as the default (remember, my character is actually named Test). You
should keep this $NAME.prf suggestion since, as I'm sure you remember,
this is one of the files the game tries to automatically load during
initialization. Keeping this value ensures our changes get
automatically used the next time we play this character! So press ENTER
to actually dump your preferences.
One final comment: You may edit the Test.prf file you dumped directly,
or you may delete it. Since this was an example, you probably just want
to delete it, but you should know that the game stores all user
preferences for your current character here (by default), and this
includes any macros you might have defined.
Interacting with Visuals (%)
Now, you may have found the need to type in a cryptic instruction like
R:0:11:@ rather disgusting. If so, you can relax: there is an easier
way. Let us repeat the change from the previous section using the
Interact with Visuals user interface. Press % and then choose one of
the menu options for changing monster attributes, either 4 for numeric
mode or 7 for visual mode. Actually, let's combine the two: press 4
first, and then v to switch to visual mode! (The player, not being a
normal monster, can only be accessed in visual mode this way.)
Visuals - Monsters
Name Idx Sym
==============================================================================
Player 01/40 0 @
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
<dir>, ENTER to accept, 'c' to copy, ESC
Now use the arrow keys to select your favorite visual (in this case,
the yellow @):
Visuals - Monsters
Name Idx Sym
==============================================================================
Player 0b/40 0 @
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~#
<dir>, ENTER to accept, 'c' to copy, ESC
Go ahead and press ENTER to accept the change.
This accomplished the same change as ! followed by R:0:11:@ which we
did in the last section. It's a bit more work, but you don't need to
remember any syntax or ASCII key codes or color numbers.
When you want to keep your changes, use option 1 to dump monster
visuals, just like before. I'll let you work through the other visual
options; you can configure not just monster visuals, but objects and
terrain features as well. Be sure to dump your changes so they are
remembered for this character.
Interacting with Colors (&)
This option allows you to configure the basic colors used by the game.
This can be a bit of work: while the UI is easy to figure out (use the
R, G and B keys to adjust the RGB value), each keypress only increases
or decreases the value by 1, so reaching the value you would like can
take a while. Here too, remember to dump your changes!
Modifying colors may not work on some platforms.
Interacting with Options (=)
The various game options are documented elsewhere (see [a]). Here, I'll
just mention that there exist two preference commands for turning
options on and off: you may use Y:option_name to turn an option on, and
X:option_name to turn it off (use ! for this). Obviously, replace
option_name with the exact name for the option you wish to configure.
The list of internal option names is documented in the previous link.
Note: You cannot alter cheating options with the user
pref commands X or Y. Nor can you configure these
options in the pref-opt.prf system preference file. To
cheat, you need to enable the allow_debug_opts and then
set the option through the user interface. This will
mark your character as a cheater, though!
Interacting with Macros (@)
The "Interact with macros" command allows you to define or remove
macros, which are mappings from a single logical keypress to a sequence
of keypresses, allowing you to use special keys on the keyboard, such
as function keys or keypad keys, possibly in conjunction with modifier
keys, to "automate" repetitive multi-keypress commands that you use a
lot.
Since macros represent keypress sequences, and not all keypresses have
a printable representation, macro triggers and actions must often be
"encoded" into a human readable form. This is done using several types
of encoding, including "\xHH" for character number HH in hexadecimal,
"\e" for the "escape" code, "\n" for the "newline" code, "\r" for the
"return" code, "\s" for the "space" code, "\\" for backslash, "\^" for
caret, and "^X" for the code for any "control" key "ctrl-X".
In FrogComposband, a special key used as a macro-trigger will be
displayed using its real name, for example the Control-key plus the
F1-key is displayed as "\[control-F1]", and the Alt-key plus the G is
displayed as "\[Alt-G]". In some other variants these special keys are
displayed using key-codes.
Note that the "action" of a macro will not be checked against other
macro triggers, so you cannot make infinite loops. You may specify
extremely long macros, but you are limited in length by the underlying
input mechanisms, which in general limit you to about 1024 keys in both
triggers and actions.
The special "\" command (which must be encoded in macros as "\\") is
very useful in macros, since it bypasses all keymaps and allows the
next keystroke to be considered a command in the underlying
FrogComposband command set. For a list of the FrogComposband command
set, see the "command.txt" help file. For example, a macro which maps
Shift-KP6 to "\" + "." + "6" will induce the "run east" behavior,
regardless of what keyset the user has chosen, and regardless of what
keymaps have been defined.
Macros can be specified in user pref files as a pair of lines, one of
the form "A:<str>", which defines the encoded macro action, and one of
the form "P:<str>", which defines the encoded macro trigger.
Keymaps
The "Interact with macros" command also allows you to define keymaps,
which are vaguely related to macros. A keymap maps a single keypress to
a series of keypresses, which bypass both other keymaps and any macros.
FrogComposband uses keymaps to map the original and the roguelike
keysets to the underlying command set, and allows the user to modify or
add keymaps of their own. Note that all keymap actions must be
specified using underlying commands, not keypresses from the original
or roguelike keysets. The original keyset is almost identical to the
underlying keyset, except that "numbers" are mapped to ";" plus a
direction, "5" is mapped to ",", and a few control-keys are mapped to
various things. See "command.txt" for the full set of underlying
commands. Some uses for keymaps include the ability to "disable" a
command by mapping it to "\x00". Keymaps are safer than macros in that
macros should always use a special key as the trigger; using a regular
key as a macro trigger will interfere with that key's normal
functionality, but using regular keys as keymap triggers is okay as
long as the key does not overwrite commands.
Keymaps can be specified in user pref files as pairs of lines of the
form "A:<str>" "C:<T>:<key>", where <str> is the encoded keymap action,
<T> is the keyset (0 for original and 1 for roguelike), <key> is the
encoded trigger key.
Some Macro and Keymap Examples
You may now forget about keymaps and pretend that macros are things
that allow you, the user, to bind a sequence of commands to a single
keystroke. Here are a few examples:
Example #1: Archery
Inscribe @f1=g on your primary ammo, then map the sequence f1*5 or *5f1
to your favorite macro key. This will automatically target the nearest
opponent and fire the inscribed ammo; and the =g part of the
inscription allows you to automatically pick up the ammo once the
battle is over. (Use f1*5 if the use_old_target option is off, as it is
by default, and *5f1 if you have switched that option on.)
Example #2: Resting
Add the macro sequence R&\r to a convenient key, say F1. Normally,
resting requires 2 keystrokes (R and Enter), which some players find
frustrating when their resting gets constantly interrupted.
Example #3: Illumination
Inscribe your Staff of Illumination with @ug, then map the sequence ug
to your favorite key, say F6. When you find a Rod of Illumination, just
change the macro action to za and you can keep lighting up rooms with
the same key.
Example #4: Mass Identify
Inscribe @ui on your Staff of Identify (the one with 50+ charges) and
then bind ui* to your favorite knowledge key. Use this macro once your
pack has filled up with unknown objects.
Example #5: Spells
Suppose your favorite attack spell is spell e in a book you have
inscribed with @mf. Let's use y as our trigger key here; for this
trigger key we'll want a keymap rather than a macro, otherwise we'll
interfere with the normal functionality of the y key! Create a keymap
for y with mfe as the action; mfe*5 or *5mfe if you want to go a step
further and automatically target the nearest monster. See [b] for more
spell examples.
Example #6: Screenshots
The screenshot key ) is somewhat limited in that it only works in
specific situations and can blank potentially interesting material like
messages. The special key x1d (keycode 29) will take a screenshot at
any time without such downsides, but many keyboards or platforms offer
no way to actually trigger keycode 29. Add the macro sequence \x1d to
your favorite key, say F11, and use it to take a screenshot whenever
you want! (Note that this must be a macro, not a keymap.)
Remember to append your macros and keymaps to a file.
Original : Alexander Cutler and Andy Astrand
Updated : (2.7.6) by Russ Allbery ([email protected])
Updated : (2.7.9) by Ben Harrison ([email protected])
Updated : Zangband 2.2.0 through 2.2.6c by Robert Ruehlmann
Updated : Zangband DevTeam
Updated : Hengband 1.7.0
Updated : PosChengband 4.0.0
Updated : FrogComposband 7.1.liquorice