Checking if walls are permanent or not with the look-function?

[Nemesis]

In 3.12, all permanent walls are brown instead of grey, except when it comes to vaults. The only way of checking vault walls (without spoiling yourself with the edit files) is trying to tunnel into them, and while walking around the vaults looking for a way in you'll probably wake lots of nasties up. I found out that a better way of locating the entrances is to cast Magic Mapping and then use the look command and mouse-click on the wall tiles.

Do you consider this a bug that's cheap to take advantage of?

Personally, I think making use of such quirks in Angband is okay. There are also quirks that work against you, like the combining of staves that leads to worse charge/staff ratio and thus higher weight and riskier recharging. Especially if you discovered the trick yourself I consider you worthy of using it, if someone else told you the trick, using it is a bit cheaper.

I personally abstain from using birth options marked as cheating and using backup savefiles to come back from the dead, but anti-summoner corridors and stairscumming are fine by me. But each to his own, I totally respect Power Diver for his chivalrious code of honour and even though I think every win is impressive, no matter how many corridors dug or artifacts scummed for, Power Diver's skill is of course extra wonderful.

[Zikke]

The permanent walls inside and surrounding vaults appear as brown to me like any other permanent walls. I'm on Vista.

[PowerDiver]

Sounds like a tile issue. One can change the char or color to distinguish different kinds of walls through the visuals menu. Also, if you go into targeting mode [press '*'] you can move the cursor to check which is permanent.

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by PowerDiver

Sounds like a tile issue. One can change the char or color to distinguish different kinds of walls through the visuals menu. Also, if you go into targeting mode [press '*'] you can move the cursor to check which is permanent.

I'm playing with ASCII graphics, also on Vista.

But now that I think of it, I'm not 100% sure I've encountered vaults yet in my first 3.12 game. I assumed I had run into vaults as I'm clvl 25, but then again I have poor detection and mostly stay near stairs in search for free action). Maybe I'm mixing up my memories with my 3.11 game (where both granite and permanent walls are grey). If so, sorry!

However, it seems probable that those playing with tiles are suffering from inability to tell permanent walls from granite walls, someone should make an extra tile for the permanent ones.

[PowerDiver]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

I'm playing with ASCII graphics, also on Vista.

Never mind then. I don't know anything about tiles, but you wrote about clicking on a wall tile so I thought maybe that was your issue.

[Zikke]

Many of the vaults don't actually have permanent walls around them, even though they are vaults. Might that be the issue?

[Matthias]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

However, it seems probable that those playing with tiles are suffering from inability to tell permanent walls from granite walls, someone should make an extra tile for the permanent ones.

Already the case, and has been this way long before the color change. Actually in older versions the easiest way for ascii players to find the breakable walls was to switch to tiles mode for a turn or two