Chengband (Now at v0.0.138)

[getter77]

This is a fork of the roguelike dungeon adventure game, Hengband.

The purpose of the game is to defeat the dreaded Serpent of Chaos. You may play a variety of races including elves, hobbits, dwarves, half giants, half trolls and even various undead races. You may play a variety of classes including hack and slash warriors or spell wielding mages. The game is littered with powerful and rare artifacts to assist you on your challenging quest. But the road is long. The enemy's forces have grown numerous and fester in the deep. Perhaps death awaits you? Perhaps glory? Are you up for the challenge?

http://code.google.com/p/chengband/

[getter77]

v0.0.97 and back a ways.  Really, the dev progress has been especially vigorous, if out of the limelight, as demonstrated by the massive amount of earlier changelogs I didn't arbitrarily post prior to this 0.0.9x generation.

Release notes for 0.0.97

    Mauler Tweaks
        Tweaked starting skills. For lighter 2h weapons, they can only become Skilled and begin Unskilled. For shooters, they begin Unskilled.
        Dispel Magic now removes Killing Spree and, more importantly, Slay Sentient.
        Monsters will now always try to dispel Slay Sentient
        Anti-magic no longer disrupts Mauler talents.
        Terror Mask no longer generates with AFC for Maulers (Note: This code executes when the object is created. If you found Terror Mask in an earlier version and then upgrade, it will still have the AFC).
        Character Dump now knows about Death Force and boosts displayed damage accordingly.
    Object Tweaks
        Boots of speed are now much more common. Also, the ratio of speed boots to other types of ego boots is level dependent.
        Brand and Ringil are now only +5 speed. You might not want to upgrade if you currently have these (although you can simply edit the pval back to 10 in your copy of a_info.txt if you disagree with this change).
    Rand-art Tweaks. Power is up a bit, as is the randomness. In other words, you might find end game stuff early again. Its hard to gauge power based on anecdotal evidence, so I've written a bit of code for gathering data. If anybody wants to take a look, you may do the following:
        (Optional) Turn off the play record options for artifacts. (= R record_fixed_art and record_rand_art). This will slow things down alot if you don't.
        In Wizard Mode, use the Jump to level command to jump to desired level (Ctl+A J). This is the level that stuff will be generated on.
        Use the Ctl+A 6 wizard command. You will be prompted to generate replacement artifacts are not. Replacements score the original and try to generate something at least half as powerful, so you will get better results (This mimics playing with rand_arts turned on). Warning: This might take a few seconds, depending on how fast/slow your computer is relative to mine
        Open up ~/lib/user/Arts1.txt and have a look. I generate 30 copies of each possible artifact. If you aren't doing replacements, then the original artifact just determines the object type.

Release notes for 0.0.96

    Device Power now applies to artifact, ring, amulet and DSM activations.
    Psion tweaks to fail rates and some high level powers.
    Replacement artifacts now keep the weight of the original.
    New Class: The Mauler

Release notes for 0.0.95

    Psion Tweaks:
        Adjusted damage from Mana Thrust and Energy Blast. Energy Blast now does full damage to all monsters hit by the ball.
        Ego Whip does more damage and the Monster Health Bar now indicates when a monster is being whipped.
        Ego Whip no longer does initial damage on casting. Instead it will affect the foe for up to 5 of its actions until a saving throw is made.
        The Psion character dump now accurately reports casting costs when wielding a wizardstaff.
    Slingmaster's Painted Target now only grants 95% accuracy. A miss resets the target so you will need 3 additional consecutive hits to repaint.
    Demigod Tweaks
        Artemis starts as Beginner in all missile weapons, can Master any missile weapon, and begins life with a short bow and some arrows.
        Hades gets another point of Con and Free Action.
    Fixed cavalry bug ... Riding a pack member off the current level was causing an access violation.

Release notes for 0.0.94

    Crimson won't be generated in 0.0.92 and 0.0.93. Fixed. Changed rarity from 150 to 250 which is near the limit. If you see "The Unkown Artifact" in your list of artifacts, well, that was Crimson
    Tweaked object valuation code. Negative AC on armors was being ignored. Negative plusses to hit and damage on weapon was decreasing the scoring weight, but broken swords and other junk was still being valued positively. Junk is now junk again.
    Blood Knigths/Magi are no longer biffed when healed by vampiric weapons and the Infernal Deal. (Note: Vampiric drains on the other hand are still reduced by 50%) (Also Note: Mutations biff the effectiveness of vampiric weapons ... This is from Hengband, but I'm not sure anybody ever realized this!)
    Summoned monsters are treated like breeders with regard to xp and drops. That is, once you kill 800 the xp starts being reduced. Once you kill 1200, they no longer drop loot.
    Ignore max monster depths when the player summons (e.g. Summon Manes stops working fairly quickly since Manes are restricted to L40 max).
    Immunities are now easier to get and can even be found at the top of the Dragons Lair!
    Rand-art rings, amulets and lights may (rarely) pick up spell power.
    Fixed bug when generating replacement artifacts for the top 3 rings of power. Occasionally, you would get a Gruesome Software bug for these 3 artifacts.
    Mutation scumming is now more difficult.
    Tweaked potions of polymorph so they are less likely to do nothing on quaffing (i.e., often a mutation would be granted and then immediately removed).

Release notes for 0.0.93

    New Class: The Scout

Release notes for 0.0.92

    Restored Ambidexterity and Evasion to original design.
    Several artifacts are now more rare (Crimson, Thorin, Eternity)
    Stop Time capped at 6 actions for the Time Lord, 5 actions for the Mindcrafter (Spell Capacity potentially breaks the old code).
    Updated status bar to indicate when time is stopped.
    No monsters follow on Rewind Time (Pets included!)
    DROP_GOOD is yielding too many stat potions. 1 in 3 odds changed to 1 in 7. (Clarify: The 1 in 7 is the odds that a stat potion is allowed for consideration in the drop. It still needs to be generated normally thru rarity/depth).
    The town Weaponmaster's Compare Weapons service now accounts for vorpal when displaying all damages (and correctly considers the 3 uber vorpal weapons).
    Rangers are now Wisdom based casters. As such, they no longer choose which spells to learn.

Release notes for 0.0.91

    Fixed up demigod birth menu so that arrow keys work.
    Sacred Vitality biffed a bit.
    Olympians are no longer human.
    Monks and Forcetrainer gain retaliation.
    Reworked Life realm. Cause Light Wounds, Cause Medium Wounds, Day of the Dove, Cause Critical Wounds and Alter Reality replaced by Regeneration, Fasting, Sustaining, Cure Mutation and Transcendence, respectively. Ultimate Resistance no longer grants sustaining/hold life.
    Frakir back to normal, and now Frodo gives levitation.
    Tonberries get a (lame) birth description. They are now small.
    Tweaked Runesword feeding (untested)
    Athena talents (-5% fail, -1% min, no sp on fail) now work for Time Lords and, presumably Mirror Masters as well. Athena talents also work for innate powers (like Peerless Tracker).
    Weaponsmiths can only enchant ammo to (+10, +10). This compensates for being able to enchant everything else to (+20, +20).
    Adjusted pricing calculation to consider darkness lamps.
    Monks get slightly better AC bonuses for not wearing armor.
    Goosed Olympian Artifacts: Poseidon gets slay evil; Athena decreases mana consumption and is blessed; Apollo is (+5).
    Polearm Masters get boosts to Knockback, Piercing Strike and Reaping.

Release notes for 0.0.90

    Frakir now gives levitation
    Create Artifact no longer reduces the plusses of the object (e.g. A diamond edge (+32, +32) won't become (+29, +29)).
    Samurai's Boomerang now handles equippy characters correctly
    Spell Power restored to original 1/13 rather than 1/20 per point.
    Nature's Wrath attack spells now slightly more deadly.
    Added "No Selling" birth option.
    DROP_GOOD can now drop stat potions.
    Decreased room sizes a bit.
    Short Bow now shoots slightly faster.
    Short Bow and Light Crossbow ranges increased from 8 to 10.
    Fixed bug with Piercing shots (Snipers) and Bouncing Pebbles (Weaponmasters). When artifact ammo strikes a foe, it sticks to the monster and should cancel any piercing or bouncing effects.
    Added some New Artifacts
    Staff masters can now specialize in Three Piece Rods.

[getter77]

v0.0.98

    -Hera Demigods now get +2 Wis (We previously had Str(Ares), Int(Athena), Dex(Artemis), Con(Hades) and Chr(Aphrodite))
    -Birthing a demigod now displays stat and experience adjustments.
    -High Mage spell power adjusts class stats (+1 Int, -1 Str/Dex/Con). These now display in the Class Column rather than the Mod Column in the Character Dump.
    -Mauler's Death Force now charges based on Weapon quality (Benkei costs 3, a Heavy Lance 4, Nyoi-bou 7 and Iron Ball 12).
    -Object Changes. One of my goals is to make ego items interesting enough so that players don't simply destroy all objects in search of artifacts. Another goal is to attempt to address the Too Much Junk (TMJ) problem. As a result, game balance may be off a bit starting with this release.
        New Easy Auto-Destroyer Option: leave_excellent. Turned off by default. When turned on the auto-destroyer will abort destruction of an object registered for auto-destroy, provided the object is unidentified and excellent. The object gets inscribed "{Excellent}". Normal destruction ('k') will not check this option. Use at your own discretion, but the number one culprit for ignoring egos stems from the tedium of the current pseudo-id/identify system. There comes a point were wading thru mountains of objects is too cumbersome, and requiring the player to pick up objects one at a time and rest for a feeling is just nuts.
        Added Gloves of the Berserker as rare as Genji. They grant extra blows and resistance to fear, but come with -(10+d15) penalty to hit and -(10+d15) penalty to ac. They can not have their ac enchanted. They grant 1d2 extra attacks and have +(10+d8) bonus to damage. Extra attacks only apply to your leading weapon.
        The lame guantlets (Paurhach, Paurnimmen, Pauraegen, and Paurnen) are no longer so lame.
        Tweaked rings of power and added a new artifact ring.
        Replaced Scrolls of Fire, Ice and Logrus with new stuff.
        New ego armors and shields.
        Egos have depth information, including a min level and a max level. Egos can spawn outside their depth range, but at increased rarity.
        Object kinds now have a max_depth field. I was fairly aggressive in setting limits for objects that I consider to be junk, using these baseline item statistics. Please let me know if you really miss finding Apple Juice on DL99 and I can add it back
    -Reworked drawing code in main-win.c. Its possible I've introduced some bugs, so keep your eyes out for display anomalies! Also, I removed the menu options for drawing a background picture (Anybody use this? Seriously??)
    -Added command Ctl+L to center the player on the map. Try using the macro (Shift+5 doing a run 5 never really worked anyway, but having it center the map is very convenient):

[getter77]

v0.0.99

1. New Race: The Doppelganger
2. Extensive work on Spoilers.
        -Races are done.
        -Classes are still in progress.
        -Spell spoiler descriptions default to player descriptions, which usually don't spoil much. Given the hundreds of spells, this will be a long time work in progress.
3. Fixed resize bug for "list windows". They should now draw correctly after a resize.

[getter77]

v0.0.100

    -I broke Armor pricing in 0.0.98 (e.g. Armor of Resist gives a base price of 6k rather than a more reasonable 32k). Fixed.
    -Doppelganger Tweaks:
        *The Doppelganger will lose their form whenever they rest to regain hp or sp. However, if they rest for a set number of turns or if they are confused, or if they rest for recall to kick in, then they keep their form. (Doppelgangers do not regenerate hp or sp while transformed, so this is purely for ergonomics).
        *When mimicking a Human or Demigod, the Doppelganger may choose their powers the first time only. From that point on, their choice is remembered and will be applied automatically when choosing this form. Also, note that the Human choice and the Demigod's first choice coincide, so that the Doppelganger may only choose to special powers, not three.
    -Spell Experience: You may no longer spam spells for experience (i.e. Casting spells thousands of times for no purpose other than gaining experience to bring down casting costs and fail rates).
    -Kobolds are now 90% xp rather than 55%. Yeeks and Snotlings can now duke it out for weakest race.
    -Monsters and Pets no longer follow on Teleport Level or on Alter Reality. However your mount (if any) will follow.
    -Blood-Knights gain the ability "Cauterize Wounds" at L30.

[getter77]

v0.0.101

-Ents now move thru trees without penalty.
    -Fixed bug with Android xp for items with a negative value (e.g. Cloak [1, -1])
    -Ironman Quests get reinforcements.
    -Daggermaster Shadow Stance now consumes energy when attacking monsters in a wall. Shadow Stance is disrupted if you enter the forest (just like Ninja's Quickwalk)
    -Moving into a locked door will repeatedly try to unlock (but running or shift moving still won't ... I haven't figured that code out yet).
    -Store discounts always show as item inscriptions, even if the player also inscribes.
    -Monster memory now learns about the revenge aura (e.g. Tonberries or Atlas)
    -Apollo's extra light now works even without equipping a light.
    -Named pets now get short names. Rather than "Your kobold called Captain Kobold" they describe as simply "Captain Kobold".
    -New Item: The Dragon Fang. It is a rare blade that picks up resistances like dragon armor, but might also pick up elemental slays. The Daggermaster may specialize in this weapon.

[getter77]

v0.0.102

-Poseidon Demigods now melt armor with archery.
-Destruction now has a notion of 'power'. Staves and spells are somewhat weak forms of Destruction, but scrolls work really well.
-Protection from Evil has been redesigned. It now works less effectively than before early on, but it can be a useful spell the entire game. In fact, you can even repel the Serpent's blows, though probably not as often as you might like.

[getter77]

v0.0.103

    -Fixed bug with Android missing starting oil (sometimes). If missing, this causes inventory corruption since the counter code uses to track the number of items in inventory is out of sync, though I'm not sure what all the effects of this bug might be. For sure, it will prevent you from picking up a last item when you still have one slot remaining.
    -Brand's Crossbow gets extra plusses since it is only +5 speed these days.
    -Master Tonberry gloves are now very rare, though you may still get them from the unique (sometimes).
    -Kill Evil on rand arts is now more rare.
    -Falcon Sword rand arts toned down a bit.
    -Divine Intervention toned down. Max damage is 650 rather than 750 and stasis effects are biffed.
    -Daemon Blood curse now does 500 damage instead of 600 (since the curse effects are now mostly beneficial to the player).
    -Elven cloaks of Thievery might get as high as +3!
    -Weaponsmiths can't enchant harps, rune swords or berserker gloves. If they drain slaying essence from berserker gloves, this no longer removes the negative to hit penalty.
    -Tonberry melee bonuses split when dual wielding.
    -Shovelmaster's Bury Dead now cures afraid status after L15 (since it gives heroism!)
    -Permanent walls and mountains boost Shovelmaster's AC just like regular walls.
    -Armors that grant extra attacks now split the bonus when dual wielding. So berserker gloves +2 will only grant +1 attack to each hand if dual wielding. Also, Shiva's jacket will only grant an extra blow to your leading hand if you are dual wielding.

[getter77]

v0.0.105

-Yikes! 0.0.104 crashes if you kill Farmer Maggot or Lion Heart. (Divide by zero for monsters of level 0). Here is an emergency fix! Sorry about that ...
    -Imps may eat normal food ... again.
    -New ego amulet.
    -Doomcaller loses -50 AC and regains -5 Con. I added Vampirism as well.
    -The Blood Mage may don Stone Mask with impunity.
    -Object counts no longer displayed unless in wizard mode.
    -Speed randomness reduced a bit.
    -Warrior character dump now displays Resist Fear (L30)
    -Added my next installment in my "Save the Egos" campaign. It should be obvious once you get deep enough.

[getter77]

v0.0.106

    -Archons may eat normal food ... again.
    -Mimic Golems (Craft) may eat staves or wands, just like regular golems (untested).
    -Demigods and Tonberries are now slain by the Death Scythe.
    -Necromancer Touches can now trigger Monster Confusion.
    -Necromancers now get prompted before touching their pets.
    -Bloodrip now feeds much less often. Also, Bloodrip won't feed if you are in the Big Map Mode for the Wilderness. BTW, this will kill you (eventually), so be careful if you haven't upgraded!
    -Shields of Resistance no longer get an extra high resistance, though they might still pick up Poison resistance.
    -Added Rings of Weaponmastery (I'm trying to move the balance of melee power from quantity to quality, and these should help).
    -Tweaked the way the leave_excellent option works since there is still too much junk!
        With leave_excellent turned on, whenever you try to destroy an excellent object, the object gets automatically pseudo-identified as excellent, and then the game re-checks your preferences to see if you want to keep it. (Some players may find leave_excellent objectionable, so it is not the default behavior of the game).
        I added the line '~ego' to the default pickpref.prf file. This instructs the automizer to keep all ego items when the leave_excellent option is on. I know most people keep their own pickpref files and don't use what I push, so you probably want to add this line.
        You could subsequently decide you only care about some excellent objects. For example, '~ego boots' or '~ego weapons' or '~ego bolt' or '~ego katana'. You should get the idea ...
    -Weaponmasters now have "favorite weapons" for the automizer. I made this only be their subspeciality weapon, however, not every weapon in the group.

[getter77]

v0.0.107

    -Warriors no longer get +1 attack at L40.
    -Rings of Extra Attacks removed.
    -Rings of Weaponmastery now described by id.
    -Rings of Power lose plusses to hit and damage but gain something else (No fair upgrading if you found one in an older version!)
    -Dragon pact warlocks get a multiplier of 4 rather than 2 for computing blows per round.
    -Potions of Giant Strength are now twice as rare.
    -Fleshed out Wild Talent talents:
        Added Bless at L3
        Detect Evil at L7 now runs off Wis
        Added Burning Strike at L17
        Added Cure Critical Wounds at L23
        Added Polymorph Demon at L37
        Added Clairvoyance at L43
        Added Hide in Mud at L45
        Added Building Up (aka Giant Strength) at L47
        Added Polymorph Colossus at L47
        Added Force Branding at L50

[getter77]

v0.0.108

    -Nenya now displays properly.
    -"It retaliates!" messages suppressed (i.e., Monsters need to be visible).
    -Fixed number of attacks bug for (Crusade) weapons. Diamond Edges and Diggers could get +5 attacks or +4 attacks, for example.
    -"Inner Feature" rooms make a stunning come back.
    -Deep jelly pits are no longer Memory Moss infestations. Beware!
    -Fleshed out Wild Talent talents:
        Create Food (L13) replaced by Teleport To.
        Added Resist Environment (L23)
        Added Touch of Confusion (L25)
        Added Eye for an Eye (L45)
    -New Monster surprises.
    -Rings of Spell Power/Capacity no longer generate. Amulets of Spell Power can get more powerful, though.

[getter77]

v0.0.109

    -Beautified Magic-Eater character dump.
    -Major reductions to extra attack weaponry. Some got compensations, some did not. Apologies if your favorite got biffed
    -Diamond Edges now resist becoming egos (6 in 7).
    -Weapons of Slaying are now less likely to double damage dice for big weapons.
    -Monks and Force-Trainers now benefit from Mana Branding or from gear that grants elemental slays (This is hugely powerful, so I may retract it later. Note that Mana Branding never worked for Monks in Hengband! Also, note the slay is not the normal 2.5x but a bit less.)
    -Monks max at 7 blows rather than 8.
    -Mauler's Slay Sentient is now only 2x.
    -Giant Strength no longer gives Maulers 4 max blows.
    -Fixed Lonely Mountain bug: After picking up the reward, you couldn't choose the next quest until you left the town and came back.
    -New monster surprises.
    -Pack AI change: The pack leader will now always attack if next to the player, rather than wasting turns trying to surround the player.
    -Draconians get poison resistance at L30 rather than L35.

[getter77]

v0.0.110

Development is on hold for a bit, but here is a patch release to fix a major bug:

    -Random quests for Nazgul are no longer allowed. This will crash the game if the quest is for more than 5 Nazgul. If you upgrade, your Nazgul qu-est should be replaced with a different monster.
    Fixed bug to disallow random quests for Unique2 monsters (e.g. Greater Cyber Angel Wyrm Demon Liches) since this would cause the same crash.

Other changes:

    -Scouts start with a Light Crossbow rather than a scroll of phase door.
    -Nature spell of Elemental Branding replaced with Ice Bolt.
    -Warlock's Empowered Blast now does 1.75x damage rather than 1.50x damage.

[getter77]

v0.0.111

Well, that was a short hiatus indeed.   

   

-New dungeon: Icky Caves. The Icky Queen is mistress of this dungeon. Yuk!
    -New dungeon: Mount Olympus. Zeus is master of this dungeon, and you are much more likely to find fellow Olympians here as well.
    -New dungeon: The Lonely Mountain guarded by Smaug. This replaces the old Lonely Mountain quest.
    -Replaced Disintegration Ball with Throw Boulder. Monsters formerly with disintegration ball now breathe disintegration instead, which is far more deadly anyway.
    -Most giants gain the ability to Throw Boulders. Watch out! (Throw Boulder idea shamelessly borrowed from TinyAngband)
    -New dungeon: The Giant's Hall. Guarded by Utgard-Loke.
    -Tiamat is now master of the Dragon Caves
    -Yeeks are now quite common in the Yeek Caves
    -Wilderness scumming is now a bit more risky
    -Added maze levels
    -Randomized size of monster nests
    -Getting many uniques per level is now more difficult
    -Smeagol has a very small chance of dropping The One Ring
    -64 bit compiles on Linux no longer need to define L64
    -New Text Option: show_discounts. When set, object discounts will always be displayed in your inventory, even if you also inscribe the object.