[Frog] - Help switching from ZAngband to Frog

[Soul Eater]

I played ZAngband, but decided to switch to Frogcomposband because it had more things to do and more races and classes.

The problems are mostly appearances and a interaction.

How to make Frog look more like ZAngband.
-Put the player status on the left side,
-Use the same text font for the tiles,
-Use the same numbers of tiles movements before centering the display around the character

How to give a prompt when you stand on items that says: Pick up a Broad Sword (2d5)? [y/n/k]
For Yes/No/Destroy

Basically to have the sharp display of ZAngband and the fun of Frog. Though the looks are secondary to the prompt that tells me what I am standing on.

Thanks

edit: I am using the ASCII graphics

[Sideways]

Originally Posted by Soul Eater

How to make Frog look more like ZAngband.
-Put the player status on the left side

This is not possible because Frog supports multiple message lines, and message lines need to be on the left or they'll look incredibly ugly. ZAngband only has a single message line which occupies an otherwise empty row at the top, so both it and the status sidebar can be on the left without conflicting.

-Use the same text font for the tiles

Very difficult, since FrogComposband just uses the computer's normal fonts while ZAngband uses its own font; there's no easy, quick way to convert the ZAngband font into a normal modern-day font. I'd suggest just testing out various fonts at various font sizes until you find one you like.

-Use the same numbers of tiles movements before centering the display around the character

That's a very understandable request (though actually FrogComposband's centering logic is identical to nearly every version of ZAngband, it's only the most recent ZAngband release that follows a different rule). Unfortunately Frog only has the old-ZAngband centering logic.

If you're worried about walking too close to the edge, you can try playing with the center_player option on, although admittedly it is not for everybody; some players can't live without that option, others could never learn to live with it.

How to give a prompt when you stand on items that says: Pick up a Broad Sword (2d5)? [y/n/k]

That exact prompt does not exist in Frog, because Frog has so many ways to automate and streamline loot-handling (always_pickup; the Mogaminator; the Easy Auto-Destroyer; auto-get with the ^G command; travelling to the nearest interesting object with the H command; travelling to specific objects through the object list; etc.) and manually picking up items with the g command does not cost any game time.

If you really want the closest equivalent of that specific prompt, turn on the Mogaminator and add the following lines somewhere in your Mogaminator preferences (add them near the top if you want them to override all other rules):

;special items
!worthless items
;items

This will prompt you for pickup once per each item, and although it will not prompt for destruction, total junk will be handled automatically. You can specify other types of item for automatic destruction here, too. But this is not in any way a solution I'd actually recommend; there are many better ways to handle objects, starting with just turning the Mogaminator on without modifying the preferences at all.

Though the looks are secondary to the prompt that tells me what I am standing on.

Even if there's no outright prompt you'll always be told what you're standing on, regardless of your options and pick-up/destruction settings.

[Soul Eater]

Thanks, that was very helpful.

Which font does ZAngband use? There are several in the /lib/xtra/font folder.

Does Frog select its font in the frogcomposband.ini file?

[Sideways]

Z's default font file is probably 8x13.fon, though all of the Z font files should be the same basic font, just in different sizes.

frogcomposband.ini is used by the Windows version of FrogComposband only. If you're using Windows you can indeed change fonts by editing frogcomposband.ini before starting play; but I'd recommend changing fonts during play through Window->Font->Term-0 window.