I'm pleased to announce yet another polishing & bugfixing version 1.2.3. This time we also have a cool new feature: charge attacks with large weapons!
This release came earlier than I anticipated because some work-related commitments got canceled. Have a nice weekend in the Halls of Mist!
Read the
RogueBasin page to learn quickly what the game is about, and
the announcement thread on the oook forums for download links and discussion. Currently there are executables for Windows and 64-bit Linux, OS X will probably follow soon.
BTW, how can I change the title of the thread, or are only admins able to do that?
Halls of Mist 1.2.3## Most important changes ##
- Large weapons (at least 17 lbs) may be used for charge attacks. After you move, if there is a monster right in front of you, you get to swing at it once. You can't charge at previously unseen monsters. You also can't charge at scared monsters because they are doing their best to keep away from you. If you hit and succeed in a Jumping skill check, the assault deals double damage! You're asked to confirm charging at a sleeping or calmed monster. Large weapons should now be genuinely competitive, and they also feel very different in play. It fits that Warriors are the best class at Jumping (at high level).
- Characters of non-faery races gain Escapes points at levels 15 and 35 as long as they as they are blessed by at least one goddess. This is how the goddesses protect their favorites. "A benevolent spirit carries you away." Note that you lose this power, like any other benefits gained from blessings, while tainted. (Inspired by Arjen's notes that Escapes is needed for surviving.)
- Alertness doesn't give bonus to AC anymore. It now gives +15 to Saving Throw and +30 to noticing traps, runes, and nearby invisible creatures.
- Resting doesn't recover HP and mana at double speed anymore. You may want to rest while moving to conserve your torch. (Thanks, buzzkill.)
- Reroll the stats if MEM is the spell stat and it got lower dice rolls than WIS, or vice versa. You can't roll a mage that has higher WIS than MEM anymore.
- Melee weapons are 14% more common. (Thanks Shinedog, Hallucinationmushroom, and others.)
- Monsters have more drops. 30% chance becomes 35%, 70% chance becomes 80%. Monsters that always have drops sometimes get an extra drop. Chance is 1d20 <= sure item drops.
## Other changes ##
- Randomly generated up stairs are slightly rarer. The chance was 1/3, now 3/10.
- XP-bar is bigger, equal to the monster-HP bar. (Thanks, ekolis.)
- Renamed command: Tunnel a rubble/Topple a tree. Updated help on tunneling.
- The game now picks a large weapon as a starting weapon over other weapons with equal damage/turn.
- Disease rate slowed somewhat, from 1000 to 1500, thanks to Starhawk. It wasn't slowed by more than that thanks to buzzkill
. Beware, disease will still ruin your stats unless you are prepared!
- Elves cannot be priests or shamans. Their WIS is just so bad compared to MEM. I want the random choices for class and race to produce competitive characters.
- Made starting weapons more interesting for people with average or somewhat above average STR. Awl-Pike weighs 15 lbs and deals 3d4 damage, up from 12 lbs and 3d3, it's a good weapon for warriors with 13 STR. Mace weighs 13 lbs and deals 3d3 damage, up from 10 lbs and 2d4, good for starting characters with 12 STR. Club gets new stats, it's now identical to the old Mace. Bullwhip is available to everybody at character creation, upgraded damage to 1d5 from 1d4. Upgraded Hatchet damage from 3d1 to 1d6, +1 lb to weight. Upgraded Shortspear damage from 2d2 to 2d3, +1 lb to weight.
- Player melee attacks that blind -- like the notorious light brand -- have a lower chance of success. The check was 1d100 > monster level, now it's 1d50 > monster level. Blinding also lasts for a shorter time. It's still very powerful against lower level opponents. (Thanks, Satyr.)
- Golden weapons weigh more.
- Lowered other special status chances for melee attacks, too, but not as much. Confusion 1d60 > monster level. Cut, Poison, Stun 1d70 > monster level. Many of these are possible results for critical hits.
- Any Y/n confirmations now default to yes when you just press enter.
- Removed all permanent walls from lesser vaults in vault.txt. They might hinder the tunnel generation.
- The !* inscription doesn't block two "harmless" commands, 'I'nspect and 'b'rowse. (Thanks, ekolis.)
- Running stops near interesting terrain. (Thanks, ekolis.)
- Search nearby squares every time the monster_swap function moves the player, not just when you walk. Now searching functions automatically even after Phase Door.
- Removed the search command and the searching mode.
- The Rapiers 'Careth Asdriag' and 'Forasgil' are somewhat rarer. People were finding Careth Asdriag all too often.
- Earthquake now creates rubble, not stone walls. It's now centered somewhere close to the player, not exactly at the player. The player can now actually get damaged by the earthquake.
- You can't find items under rubble anymore.
- Squelch Junk is no longer the default. Many items that cost 0 GP have some value in Halls of Mist: Shamans like bad mushrooms, everybody may use bad potions for mixing.
- No more birth options! I want to design a single game, and not to worry about many different game rules.
- Character dump only shows Cheat options. I don't think other options are interesting enough for dumps.
- Modified scoring a bit. Score is now equal to your experience points. The winner's score multiplier for shallow Min Depth now applies to experience points. You may easily rise to level 50 after killing The Duke, if you completed the mission quickly.
- Winners can't gain any more experience. They can regain lost experience, though.
- Also, I had forgotten to modify winner's score multiplier from low Min Depth when I changed The Duke's level from 50 to 48.
- Gaining experience levels is slower at first but faster at high levels. The table starts with a 1.3 multiplier and ends at 0.85. (Version 1.2.2 had a 1.1 multiplier all around.)
- Some name changes for devices: Wand of Soothing, Wand of Stunning, Wand of Transference, Staff of Detect Aura. (Thanks for the new names, buzzkill!)
- Rewritten the help file section on Winning the Game. (Thanks, buzzkill.)
- You may find the statue of the first winner, Arjen's Flashback the Elf Templar, in the dungeon.
## Bugfixes ##
- Detect_doors had weird bahavior with secret doors in special walls.
- Detect_traps didn't detect inactive runes in walls.
- No message if an unseen monster gets blasted by a Rune of Change.
- Mushrooms of Cure Light Wounds were made of wrong material. (Thanks, buzzkill.)
- Staff of Eden was made of wrong material.
- Double blessings never ran out. (Thanks, Satyr and Arjen.)
- Templars could use Alertness. (I lost notes on who reported this, sorry.)
- Pressing 'n' in response to the to buying dialog resulted in a sale. Now using the standard y/n check. (Thanks, buzzkill.)
- Runes were revealed when unseen monsters got blasted by them.
- Entering many vaults was impossible. Two separate bugs: vault.txt didn't have doors, I added them. And my dungeon generation changed doors into walls. That's important in different context; I changed the rules so that doors can't get removed inside vaults. (Thanks, Arjen.)
- After killing the Duke the game could still end with Duke's world domination when Min Depth rose above 48. (Thanks, Arjen.)
