PosChengband (now at beta v7.0.2)

[getter77]

v4.0.0 

There is also a patched 3.5.1 version that just fixes the Draconian Polymorph bug (sorry about that).

4.0.0 should be considered beta, as any X.0.0 release. It also breaks savefiles, so you'll need to finish up your current characters on 3.5.0 or 3.5.1. before upgrading.

There have been many, many changes for this release, almost 400 commits in fact. But most changes have focused on the Help files and various UI improvements (For example, there are window options for the Monster and Object Lists).

I apologize in advance for any bugs ... I changed a lot of code for this release. I'll try to do better at keeping up with bug reports, but without internet access, this is difficult.

Enjoy!

[getter77]

v4.0.1

I just uploaded a band-aid 4.0.1 release in the usual places. You should be able to post html dumps to oook now (Huge thanks to Pav!!!), and plain-text dumps from Windows should display properly on oook. Other changes are mostly playtesting adjustments ... You can view the commit logs on github for details.

I haven't managed to read very many character dumps yet, but I did read some forum issues and perhaps the following comments will help:
[1] The game now has an ego lore system. While the player is born with innate knowledge of some ego types, like Gloves of Free Action, other types must be learned. To learn an ego type, you may (1) *ID* the first one you find, (2) sell the first one you find, or (3) Examine an ego in a shop (e.g., The Black Market). You definitely do *not* need to *id* every ego you find. For this release, I spruced up the Inspect to command to hopefully make the mechanics clearer.

[2] Selling has long had a bug: The offered price was based on unknown attributes of the item. This leaked information about object quality to the player, and is no longer possible. Pricing is now based on the *known* quality of the item (even if only pseudo-identified). Sometimes, this can work out to your advantage (e.g. Worpal Blade). Other times, not. Its up to you if you want to *id* before selling, but I seldom bother. Sell or *id* the first instance of an ego type to learn it, but generally, don't bother *id*'ing subsequent instances to sell. The only exceptions to this are Elemental Resistance and Celestial Protection.

[3] Shopping and Town Services are based upon the player's race, charisma and *fame*. The last is particularly important and makes fame useful for more than simply reforging.

[4] Devices: Rods cannot be destroyed, and recharge 10x faster than wands or staves. There is less overlap between the device types now as well. Finally, some things like Stone to Mud and Teleport Away are deliberately more difficult, but there are late game alternatives.

[5] Sorry if people find *id* cumbersome, but I personally enjoy the tiered object lore system. Sure, *id* is now more important, but it is also more common, and late game there are even staves of *id*. You definitely do *not* need to *id* everything in the game, just stuff you plan to use. My experience is that I id 10% of the objects I find, and *id* another 10% of those (so only about 1% of drops overall), and I definitely *id* more than I need to and only because/if it is commonly available. A typical game might use 200 *id*s, which is less than the amount of food I eat Its really not a big deal and not having cheesy automatic full object knowledge does lead to interesting game scenarios that I'd rather not remove.

Finally, Hugo, the Windows HTML screen dump menu should be working again Also, its not documented, but Ctl+] automatically generates screen dumps (screen.txt and screen.html in /lib/user, I think).

Edit: Also, make install should be working on Linux with regard to helpfiles and other non-compilables. As for the usleep putenv issues, gcc warns for me if I don't add declarations, and I can figure out how to shut gcc up on the issue. If anybody knows the correct way to do this, I'd appreciate feedback.

Edit:
[6] Use Ctl+v to recenter the viewport (map) in the event that messages are overlapping the player. This happens if you wander near the top of the dungeon, or if you are getting a lot of messages. Personally, I usually macro this command to Shift+5 on the numpad, which is very ergonomic if you are shift running a lot anyway.

[getter77]

v4.0.2

I really wanted to hold off releasing until this version is stable and balanced (that would be when I would call it 4.1) but after another flurry of development, I need to take a bit of a break. Perhaps by the end of the year?

So, what changed?

First of all, I see many people are playing with "mpa changes", so I decided to look and see what those might be. Aside from bug fixes, the 3 main issues I see are:
[1] Complete removal of monster lore
[2] Almost complete removal of item lore (Id = *Id* and everybody gets automatic *Id* of every object at CL25)
[3] No Selling

Well, I can't say I agree with these, but I went ahead and added an easy_id birth option. It is not so munckinesque as mpa, but it makes Id the same as *Id* and also grants instantaneous pseudo-id at CL1. The automatic Loremaster change is too much for me to stomach, though, so you'll need to suffer a bit!

I did nothing at the moment to address monster lore. I suppose the cheat_know option could be replaced by a birth option called easy_lore?

For no selling, I previously removed this option since, in my experience, it promotes/requires digging for gold. In fact, the one time I tried it, I spent almost 80% of my game time digging (in the end game), but I was using Angband's gold boosting code at the time (not mpa's) and I was also playing an old time "One and Done" devicer, where you needed to recall to town to recharge after killing each notable end game monster (cost 20k to 30k to recharge rockets, etc). So my experience was probably unfair.

But honestly, I don't understand why we need an option for no selling. Instead, I think the problem might be the gold distribution. As monsters grow more powerful, they stop dropping gold. This is considered a "bonus". Also, deeper chests don't drop gold at all. This means your only sources of gold in the late game are digging and the occasional floor drop, along with a handful of monsters like hydras.

For this release, I boosted the amount of gold drops from monsters and chests, but *not* from digging. (I even made digging less effective.) Also, DROP_GOOD and DROP_GREAT monsters now usually drop (extra) gold as well. You should be finding much more gold than before, and digging should only be considered as an early game option or just as a casual diversion to pass the time as you wander down long corridors ...

So that we can make intelligent judgments, I added statistics for this release displaying how much gold you find versus how much you get from selling, etc. My current character is finding about 50% as much gold as that gained from selling, which seems to negate the need for a no_selling option at all (but I made this change only yesterday, so my experience is very limited).

Pack usage is a gameplay choice, and if you want to use more and sell less, you should be able to do so, but there should be consequences to this. But this playstyle should be possible as well, and I don't think it was before I boosted the gold drop amounts. So play with the changes and let me know what you think ... I'd like the distribution of gold gained to be balanced, perhaps 33% gold found and 66% from selling? If selling is too overweighted, we can boost the drop amounts a bit more or decrease the resale values of objects to even things out.

I also grabbed a bunch of bug fixes from mpa. I'd prefer not to get pull requests, since they invariably rot to the point of mega merge conflicts by the time I get to them, and I end up spending more time figuring out a merge than it would take to implement myself. Also, when I access the internet, it is for a restricted amount of time (2 hours) which means I simply don't have enough time to play with github. Issues would be nice ... But it might take me months to a year or so to get to them. Please be patient

Next of all, I did some work with the wilderness, including:
[1] I fixed the 555 and 666 bugs. Talk about unanticipated consequences from a minor code change! Wow. Sorry about that ... And if you were enjoying these as a feature, I'm sure they'll show up shortly on the mpa branch
[2] The wilderness is now more difficult. Be careful, especially early on. Monsters are much more alert and will act over longer distances on the surface, so you are likely to get into trouble. This change has not been thoroughly playtested yet ... I no longer scum the surface like I used to.

Penultimately, I did alot of work on objects, especially on object distribution. This is a major gameplay rebalance effort. You might want to finish playing out on 4.0.1 before upgrading, as the early game feel will be much different. Speed and Spellbooks have been addressed, so the need for 555 and 666 exploits should be mitigated. Rockets *should* be rare, and end game devices are OP, so are intentionally hard to get. _Healing is still a bit deep, but have you tried _Holiness lately?

Finally, I recoded the Weaponsmith. This is a very enjoyable Hengband classic, and I thought it could do with a bit (actually a lot) of love, especially in the UI department. I'm still playtesting this one, so there may be future changes, but you might want to check this class out. (You won't be able to upgrade Weaponsmiths from old versions, though). The Judgment power has been removed and Smithing is now a class power rather than a hijack of the 'm' command. When you smith an object, you automatically judge its quality (pseudo-id until CL10, then id until CL30, then *id*). You can view your essences on the Character Sheet (Cee) or using the Class Extra Knowledge command (~x). Also, on the smithing top level menu, you can look at your current essences (L). Absorption is available from the Smithing command, of course, but it also is applied automatically whenever you destroy an object. So, the autodestroyer is your friend

[getter77]

v5.0.0   

And, one more quick update. I've been thinking a lot about Object and Monster Lore. For the latter, I went ahead and added the easy_lore option, as promised. But, I must confess, I never really paid attention to monster lore, mainly because the monster recall display is so darn horrible! For example, what I, as a player, usually want to know is whether my weapon slays will work, or whether my enemy resists my chosen attack. As a test, I timed myself in attempting to determine whether or not the Serpent of Chaos has reflection or not. It took me way too long to answer this question, mostly because I didn't feel like reading a long story format and kept trying to guess where in the description this tiny, but relevant piece of info would be located. I kept guessing wrong, and in the end, had to skim the entire entry which was horribly annoying. (Not to mention that output wraps using the terminal's entire width, which might be over 200 characters long ... Yuk!)

So, monster recall has been *redone*. It is now presented similarly to the character sheet in that information is labelled and generally appears in the same place on the screen. I used the object display pattern for line breaking long lists of resistances and the like. The description is at the bottom since its length is highly variable (and, I confess, it is the last thing I would care to see . With this change, the Monster Recall window option is now, officially, the first darn extra terminal window that is actually worth using! Perhaps Monster List is as well, but being able to SHIFT+5 to re-center the map really makes that one unnecessary.

With regard to Object Lore, I have some ideas for improvement. I do not think this should just be removed from the game, and won't do so! For those of you who will naturally hate anything I do in this area, don't fear, easy_id will be here to stay But what I want to change will be a big project, and will break savefiles. Thus, I'm pushing everything now, at this point, in a very under-tested change. Next release will be 5.0 (around Xmas?).

Other changes include:
[1] Monks and Ninjas can now choose Metamorphosis as a Draconian talent. I haven't tested this one, but I think it'll be fun. Originally, it was restricted since monks will lose martial arts, and ninjas would have lost their sneak attacks and criticals. But I gave monks a bit of stunning and added support for ninja sneakiness (and rogues too) so this should now be a good option to try. I can't remember who suggested this ... Fnord, maybe? (Sorry, I'm currently offline).

[2] The Weaponsmith got some playtesting tweaks. Not much though, and I did playtest towards the endgame before getting squished. They are more powerful now then in Hengband, but overall, I was happy with the new version.

[3] I added the MPA Rune-sword changes, with a slight addition to adjust the AC penalty as the weapon grows more powerful. I also tested the this a bit in wizard mode, and the changes look to be good ones.

[4] I tried to make SHIFT+5 bind to CTL+V by default now (Windows and X11). If you don't know, CTL+V recenters the map, and since I am running alot, my hands are naturally ready to press SHIFT+5 more than CTL+V. Sorry to curses fans, but "curses doesn't do that!"

[5] I added new Dragon Armor egos and tweaked distributions a bit. More big changes coming next release.

And, one final last final release before taking a break ... You see, I am slightly obsessive compulsive

I had some more thoughts on Object Lore and decided to try them out. Unfortunately, the changes were large and savefile breaking, so rather than 4.0.4 we'll need to move to 5.0.0. We're still beta (I still have classes that need playtesting) but so far, I think the game is playing nicely.

So, what is Object Lore? Consider Monster Lore. Here, the player learns monster abilities one "flag" at a time, as they occur. If a monster breathes fire on you, you learn that. If a monster resists poison and you aim your almighty wand of stinking cloud, you learn that too. The idea is to add "flag" level object lore to the current system.

Here is a quick summary:
[1] Pseudo-id is as before, though it is much faster for low level players. Also, there are objects that grant automatic instantaneous pseudo-id as you step over objects. Use this to locate excellent and special items.

[2] You can learn about objects by equipping and using them. Many bonuses, such as stat and speed boosts will be immediately obvious. Other things, like weapon slays, must be experienced in the obvious manner. (I got the idea from Vanilla, since I heard it had this, but I am not familiar with V's implementation here. Probably, it is similar).

[3] Object Lore is not just at the indiviual object level. In addition, you learn fixed attributes for the Standard Artifacts and all non-cursed attributes for ego items. This lore is part of your savefile, and is transmitted to the next character using this file, just like Monster Lore. So, having discovered and learned the Phial of Galadrial in one game, you'll never need to *Identify* it again for future players. Identifying an object automatically reveals learned flags.

[4] You don't need to Identify an object to begin learning its powers. However, anything you learn at the object level will not be remembered if you die before identifying the object.

[5] You learn flags by use, as mentioned. Also, by *Identify* (spell, scroll or town service). Finally, you can sell objects for lore.

[6] Identify also accurately reveals the object's score. This is meant as a guide to encourage you, the player, to explore the object by using it. It will also assist you in determining if it is worthwhile to return to town with the object.

[7] Object inscriptions add a ? to indicate that the object still has unlearned powers.

[8] Jewelry no longer has easy_id automatically applied. However, as you learn the optional attributes for each ego type, you'll see that pretty quickly, Identify is enough.

[9] Activations must be learned. Generally, these are safe enough to simply try out.

[10] Learning device fail rates requires *Id*.

[11] View your lore by using ~e or ~a and pressing r.

EDIT: I almost forgot a rather big change: Many of the wilderness dungeon entrances are now guarded!

[getter77]

v5.0.1     Some real good momentum seems to be brewing with this new approach~

Another release of PosChengband (5.0.1) is available in the usual spot. This is just a playtesting release with a few major gameplay changes, but no new classes have been added (I've committed myself to playtesting all the Chengband classes until I am satisfied before adding new stuff. At the moment, I'm working on Warlocks and have tested the Spider (fun!) and Hound pacts, and like them both.) I should also mention that I haven't accessed the internet since the last release, which was a bombshell change to object lore. So I haven't had a chance to see or address all the problems. I'll respond to those for 5.0.2

Now, what changed this release?

Gameplay Changes:
[1] Confusing Lights has been toned down. Seriously, that was crazy before
[2] OK, it was a bit too easy to win with devices, so I made Rockets come slightly later and have higher casting costs. Tiamat got a new reward to celebrate this change.
[3] Grow Mold no longer spams Death molds.
[4] Big change to Archery multipliers and ranges. I never liked the Chengband changes, and some inspection showed that Short Bows and Light Crossbows were too powerful, since they retained the faster shooting rate. In fact, Short Bows are the most damage effective, being even more effective than Heavy Crossbows, which is a bit silly. Ranges have been restored and multipliers reduced, but not all the way to Hengband levels (e.g. Short Bows are now 2.50x). If you are upgrading, your Short Bow and Light Crossbow multipliers will be reduced.
[5] The Birth Autoroller is now a bit more generous. You *can* do two 17s if you are greedy. Or 3 16s. Or 16, 16, 15, 15 even ...
[6] Added option to display range to target. This is mostly for Warlocks, who have extremely gimped targetting ranges, and often need to know when monsters are in range. The option is called display_distance and the range will show up in the monster list for visible monsters, as well as when using the target and look commands.
[7] Jewelry drops from dungeon guardians, quest rewards and DROP_GREAT are no longer insulting in the early game. For example, one of my players got a Barbarian Talisman with -2 Int and nothing else! No more!!
[8] no_wilderness: Playing with this option means you forgo stat gains from dungeon guardians. To compensate, you will gain a chosen stat for each random quest completed (i.e. DL6, DL12, DL24 etc quests in Angband)

Class Playtesting Changes:
[1] Samurai and Mystics no longer automatically concentrate to charge their power. It's annoying to do this by hand, but you don't always want or need the supercharge.
[2] Rune-Knights get reduced benefits from Clarity and Great Clarity.
[3] Tweaked Book of Shadows for Burglary rogues.
[4] Mystics can browse powers to display effective damage
[5] Leprechauns no longer have mana, but instead use gold for their powers. Also, they no longer need quite so much gold to receive various bonuses. They also have a new power called Hoarding.
[6] Giants were a bit silly in the start, being quite weak. I changed their stat allocation so they start stronger, but gain strength less quickly. They are also more stupid, less wise, and quite clumsy.
[7] I playtested a Balrog and found the casting costs a bit too high.
[8] Warrior's Sword Dancing is *much* easier. But still fairly useless ... sigh.
[9] Fixed Magic Eater's regeneration rate for ego regen devices. It was quite a bit too fast before. I finally playtested to completion and found this build strong, but acceptable ... and fun
[10] Magic Eaters: Object display now shows the regen rate.
[11] Magic Eaters: Auto detect traps and Auto ID now work.
[12] Scouts were tweaked, with a few new abilities. It took surprisingly little to make this class fun for me to play, though I haven't played all the way thru yet. Try sniping with the Arrow of Bard some time!
[13] Warlocks: I'm in the middle of playtesting. Angels lose Invulnerability and get Crusade instead (untested). Various warlock pacts offer thematic ways to gain Economical Mana (e.g. Undead Warlock can use the Stone of Death). New abilities added ... But I'm still working on Warlocks, so more to follow.
[14] Evil Priests: Since good priests have an affinity for Life magic, evil priests get a bonus to Death magic. Also, why all the qualms about edged weapons if your evil god delights in bloodshed? Icky weapons, and Bless Weapon are only for good priests (Basically, one never played evil priests before, since Healing is so powerful. Now, perhaps, there will be some more reason to choose the dark side?)
[15] Draconian Metamorphosis: As a Monk, your postures will now effect your innate dragon attack deadliness. I would have playtested this change more, but got squished by Hastur shortly after CL35!

Bug Fixes:
[1] Fixed Barbarian Talisman in the Tengu and Death Swords quest.
[2] Brand Fire/Poison spells weren't giving appropriate resistances.
[3] Fixed Object Lore problem with Ego activations.
[4] Fixed SegFault when viewing Cheat Options.
[5] Doppelganger Samurai/Mystics now decay supercharged mana correctly.
[6] Fixed themed jewelry drops (e.g. Archers should drop rings of archery).
[7] Fixed AI Bug with Shoot posture. Monsters with this AI can now melee if the player is adjacent.
[8] Crossbowmaster's Overdraw was adding +0.01x to the multiplier, rather than +1.00x. (Trifling, I know ...)
[9] Vulnerability to fear no longer removes the player's chances of saving. It was fun to die thanks to my Cloak of Cowardice, and probably deserved as well, but players deserve some chance!

Reported Issues:
[1] Fixed gold exploits with the Rune-Knight
[2] Doppelgangers need to repaint the effect list after stopping mimicry

Minor Tweaks:
[1] Glove encumbrance is displayed in the status list.
[2] Fix message spam for characters that auto Clear Mind. Turn off disturb_minor to remove these messages. (I use disturb_minor quite a bit for message suppression).
[3] Monster Recall now includes the max depth when necessary.
[4] Staves of Identify now come in larger sizes. I've seen them up to 70 charges! You should no longer need to carry 2 in the end game.

Aside: If you are viewing changes to the git repository, you might want to use the --ignore-all-space option. My editor (QtCreator) has an option to clean up whitespace for the entire file as you make changes. Mostly this is the removal of trailing spaces, but it also makes sure the file ends on a blank line to avoid compiler warnings on certain platforms.

[getter77]

v5.0.2

A quick update, mostly addressing recent posts on the forums, is available in the usual spot (5.0.2).

Bug Fixes:
[1] Last release had a tweak to fix early jewelry drops for Quest Rewards and Dungeon Guardians. Unfortunately, there was a bug in this code making late jewelry drops average from DROP_GREAT monsters. Hopefully, this release comes quick enough so that no one but myself was affected by this!

Forum Comments:
[1] I relented even further regarding jewelry, making rings of combat a little better in the early game. Azog, the guardian of the Orc Caves, now drops a ring of combat.

[2] I fixed the auto-roller display code during player birth. There seemed to be some confusion regarding the UI here ... This is not a point based buy in system for starting stats. Rather, it is the same old auto-roller the game has always had, but rather than forcing the player to guess what starting stats have a chance of working, the UI now tells the user when they are asking for too much. If the display is green, you should get your request. If orange, then you are being greedy, but it is still possible (Hey, you might get lucky). If red, then there is no chance for success. If black, then you are being too conservative! (Internally, I added scoring for other purposes, but this need not concern the player.)

[3] Mimics now get a saving throw during Dispel Magic in order to maintain their current form.

[4] Morgul weapons are now more rare (Rarity changed from 6 to 16).

[5] I tried to address the "out of range splash" exploit on dungeon guardians. Of course, this offers new opportunities for dealing with these guys ... I'm sure you'll figure them out. (BTW, Hengband tried to address this exploit, but their redress only works if the monster has summoning, teleportation, or healing. Unfortunately, none of the guardians have this.)

[6] Minor: Left handed monks can now assume postures while using a shield.

[7] Hallucination no longer displays the monster list at all.

[8] Object Lore: Fixed learning the OF_WARNING and OF_REFLECT flags.

Other Changes:
[1] Monster Lore: The game now reports actual observed spell frequencies rather than the funny guess code. Basically, we keep track of the number of turns a monster cast a spell as well as the number of turns it moved or attacked (while in LoS where it could have cast). If you probe or use easy_lore, than you will see the true frequency as set in r_info, but I prefer to have a record of my actual experiences for the current game.

[2] Egos: IGNORE_ACID has been adjusted on a few types. High level egos, to be competitive, need this flag (e.g. Helmets of Valkyrie) while a few low level types don't deserve it (e.g. Cloaks of Electricity). Some mage like egos now grant mage resistances (confusion and blindness).

[3] Wilderness: Some monsters can now climb in the mountains, and don't need levitation to chase the player. (Basically, I think the Wilderness Mountains are scummable, so I'm trying to address this.)

[4] Beholders have been redesigned a bit. Their melee attacks are non-physical, being just a gaze, so Str and Dex no longer offer bonuses to hit and damage and they never gain critical blows (You aren't bashing things with your eyeballs, after all!). Blows are gained by level (slight boost from Int) like a monk. Finally, the Beholder can "melee at a distance", gazing at nearby foes that are not necessarily adjacent. The range is short, but this change is quite powerful. They lose many of their early level spells (Paralyze, Confuse, Cause Wounds, etc) to compensate. They no longer start with objects on birth and now have some early detection spells.

[5] Monsters with a max level now gradually become less and less common, rather than suddenly cutting off at a specific level (Every 10 levels, their rarity doubles).

[getter77]

v5.0.3

Now for the big changes:
[1] Player birth has been completely rewritten. I removed the auto-roller, since this apparently confuses new players, and replaced it with a generous point based system. In addition, the game picks a reasonable default stat allocation for you. If you are a new player, you can quickly begin play with a decent build.

[2] I added a new monster race: The Vortex. It is sort of a cross between a hound and a jelly, if that makes any sense. The ultimate form is rather fun and probably a bit too powerful.

[3] I added some new classes: The Gray and Yellow Mages. These are tweaks of the mage class and I figured we've done so many melee twists that it was time for some spellcasting love. The first is a slot based mage that 'learns' spells from books, but then casts them from memory (even if blinded). The second gets multiple spells per round, but cannot learn the really powerful stuff.

[4] I rewrote the Wizard Object command, since someone was complaining (Wizard and Cheat commands aren't really supported ... I used to compile these out altogether before I switched over to Linux for development). I list this as a big change because it was a huge amount of work!

Now, some smaller changes. Many were inspired from forum posts but since I work offline, I cannot remember which was which at the moment. Anyway, thanks for your feedback and keep it coming. I do read the forums (offline and irregularly) and will try to address issues major and minor (eventually):

[1] Fixed (?) curses display bug with beams of gravity (pref/spell-xx.prf was the culprit, using TERM_DARK for a display attribute. I'm not sure why, but on xterm, this erases to the end of the current line until you ^R to redraw)

[2] The Blood-Mage now uses his own blood (hit points) for the recharging spell.

[3] I tried to fix the issue with Burglary traps in the Arena ... but I thought I had already fixed this once before, long ago, so who knows? It might still be broken!

[4] The object list now collects interesting features on the surface, including shops and dungeon/quest entrances. Since you can 'travel' using this list, this should address the request for auto-travelling to various shops on the surface as well as the issues somebody had with being unable to locate a quest entrance. As an example, ]h` will auto travel to your home (You can quickly select an entry in this list by pressing the first letter of the choice ... h for 'Home').

[5] Travelling now checks for abort. This is very useful with [4]!

[6] The curses command line interface has been cleaned up. We now support -top and -left panels and a -spacer option. For example, I play with:
./poschengband -mgcu -u$1 -r -- -spacer 2x1 -left 56x22,* -spacer 0x0 -bottom 78x5

[7] Berserker updates display when tearing off a cursed item.

[8] Monster recall now always displays the observed spell frequency, even if you probe or play with easy_lore.

[9] cheat_peek now works for egos.

[10] ?CurseWeapon et. al. no longer downgrade heavy and permanent curses.

[11] html is now the default for character dumps. You'll need to change the extension to txt manually to get a plain text dump.

Now, for some experimental changes:
[1] I added an auto_target option. Use this with use_old_target for best effect. Every offensive spell or device will automatically target the nearest monster if there is not a valid target already specified (and you need to set use_old_target to be able to target before casting and zapping). With this option, simply cast 'n blast!!!

[2] With this, I tried to improve the monster recall child terminal to auto track monsters *before* you kill them. You should not need to target a monster to remove a stale tracking race.

[3] I played around with the repeat last command stuff. It seemed like a good idea at the time to use this facility as a quick temp macro facility, but I learned some surprising things in the process (like repeat does not record keystrokes and certainly doesn't work everywhere). Anyway, it was a bit of work to implement, so I left it in. Use "<register><command> to record <command> to <register> where registers are named with a single ascii character. The game always records new commands to the '.' register. Use '<register> to repeat the contents of <register> (so '. works just like 'n' or 'X', depending on your keyset, but you can now repeat many many commands). Use '' to list the current recordings prior to entering a register to repeat. So, ''f works the same as 'f, playing back the contents of the f register, except that the current recordings are listed to you once you press the second '. Recordings are not saved in your savefile.

There might also be a few minor bugfixes. You can check the changelog on github for all the details.

[Samildanach]

Wow, these PosChengs are coming (relatively) thick and fast! 

[getter77]

Yep, nothing finer than some dev and release momentum spinning up nicely~   

[getter77]

v5.0.5

The big change this time is the addition of a new class: The Skillmaster.

The Skillmaster allows you to build and design your own class. I did a lot of work on the user interface and helpfiles, so, rather than repeat myself, I'll let you read about it inside the game. The only thing perhaps worth mentioning is that you use the 'G' command to gain skills. In the UI, the uppercase version of a command usually brings up context sensitive help.

Other changes this release include:
[1] Better handling of repeated messages, especially Clear Mind and Virtue spam.

[2] Burglary Rogues are CL1 casters and use DEX. Non-burglary rogues remain CL5 casters using INT.

[3] Sorcery Identify spell becomes 'Mass Identify' rather early on.

[4] Burglary books were not being stocked in the BM (remove the TOWN flag in k_info.txt to fix this since black_market_crap() now simply disallows objects where this flag is set).

[5] Ammo allocation has been redesigned. Perhaps seeker stuff is too common now? Somebody play an Archer/Ranger and let me know

Bug fixes mentioned on the forum (up to around Dec 1) include:
[1] Gold amounts overflowing and becoming negative (I guess this was a tax to raise some revenue for The Variant Maintainer??)

[2] Draconian Metamorphosis in the middle of berserker melee was raising a divide by 0 error, since changing your body form chucked all your melee weapons in the middle of the attack loop.

In a BANDing context, such a new class is perhaps the new standard for the edge of madness~   

[getter77]

v6.0.0

A new version, 6.0.0, is ready in the usual spot. This version breaks savefile compatibility so please finish your current characters before updating. This release is extremely beta ... I've playtested a bit, but not nearly enough to be sure that there are no showstopper bugs.

The main point of this release is an attempt to address some of the archery complaints. Based on comments and my own playtesting, I see the following problems, and have attempted to address each of them:

[1] Ammo breakage is too high. Players need to town scum in order to have enough ammo.

To address this, I made ammo breakage dependent upon archery skill. As your skill improves, ammo breakage will decrease. Archers are slightly worse off from this change, but every other class benefits greatly, assuming they have reasonable archery skill. Remember, arrows break twice as often as shots or bolts.

[2] Picking up ammo after a battle is tedious.

To address this, I turned the 'g'et command into super-get. This command combines the travel code ('`') with the auto-picker ('_') to automatically get all interesting objects in line of sight. The player travels to the next nearest object until there are no more interesting objects. The options auto_get_ammo and auto_get_objects control this behavior. This might surprise you the first time you use this command, but once you get used to it, you'll love it. I promise

If there are a large number of objects to pick up, then you will see multiple -more- prompts. I recommend g<Esc> to deal with this. As you know, <Esc> automatically dismisses all -more- prompts until the next prompt for a top-level command.

[3] Ammo makes inventory management tedious. Ego ammo is seldom used since there are not enough inventory slots (exception: Holy Might). Artifact ammo is completely non-usable since wasting a slot for a 65% chance to hit is not worth it.

Enter the quiver. I implemented this as a new equipment slot for every body type with a bow slot. There is a new object type (TV_QUIVER) and you must buy/find a quiver and then equip it. Doing so gives the player access to a separate set of object slots for their ammo, reducing the strain on your normal pack slots. Ammo is added to the quiver by 'w'ielding it, and removed from the quiver by 'd'ropping it or 't'aking it off. You cannot take off a quiver with ammo inside it, but you can wield a new quiver provided that its capacity exceeds the current quiver contents. You can shoot ammo from either the quiver, your pack, or the floor. There is no penalty for shooting ammo that is not inside your quiver.

The quiver has a large number of slots (currently 26, but could be infinite if desired). However, the quiver has a fixed capacity, such as 60 arrows. This means you can carry many different types of arrows for specialty situations (e.g. various slaying ammo in case you run across a matching monster) without penalty. 60 arrows is a low capacity that you can buy in town. You can find or buy higher capacity quivers during the game. There are even a few ego quivers.

Implementing the quiver was a large amount of work and required me, for purposes of sanity, to break savefiles. During this process, I completely re-wrote the inventory management code and the shop code (e.g. your home is now infinite). You'll notice a new UI for selecting objects for the various commands. Press '?' for help the first time you see it so that you can learn the various command keys.

Note: I made a bold change for this release that will probably require some getting used to. When prompting for an object, the lettering always begins with 'a' and has nothing to do with where the object happens to currently reside in your pack. For example, eating food is always 'Ea' no matter how many spellbooks you are currently carrying (Of course, picking up mushrooms might move the choice, but you'll see this on the screen when you press 'E'). This change will burn you if you have the bad habit of memorizing slots on the 'i'nventory display (I speak from experience). Stop doing this! Please read the prompt when ever you are quaffing potions, reading scrolls, etc.

Note: On any object prompt, the uppercase for a choice no longer prompts for confirmation, but instead inspects the object.

[4] Archery is boring. Ammo is much less interesting then the shooter. Once you have an awesome shooter, then vanilla seeker ammo, enchanted in the town, and carried in stacks of 99 is all there is to the game.

I rewrote ammo egos and the archery damage calculations. The goal is to make ammo much more important. Ammo dice, previously completely irrelevant, now features prominently. Damage is calculated similar to melee, where the slays and criticals multiply the damage dice roll. Criticals are now much much more common, and archery skill, previously irrelevant, is now the single biggest determinant of critical frequency. If you must know all the details, damage is now M*(XdY*C*S + D1) + D2 where:
M is the bow multiplier
XdY is the ammo damage dice
C is the critical multiplier
S is the slay/brand multiplier
D1 is the ammo bonus to damage
D2 is other bonuses to damage (shooter, rings, equipment)

Archery damage has also been reduced a bit. The numbers I work with for design purposes are now 1000 max melee and 700 max archery. These are soft maximums which you can break with awesome finds, but I get slightly alarmed every time I see this. Good end-game numbers are more like 700 melee and 500 archery. And, for archery, you are going to need slaying ammo to achieve this. We'll have to see if I went too far with this, but archery needs to be weaker than melee since you are fighting from a distance.


Another major change for this release: I completely rewrote the quest system. A long time back, I beefed up v_info.txt for new non-vault rooms, and created a nicer syntax for defining 'map letters'. But all the town and quest files continued to use the old syntax. I finally converted everything over, and tried to make the quest system something I'd be willing to add content for. If you are interested in designing quests then take a look at q_info.txt and follow the links to the various quest files. Setting up the town quest sequences is still annoying since you need the quest ids defined in q_info.txt, but the rewards are now part of the quest file (so they can be shared with t_lite and the normal wilderness towns). There are a few new quest surprises, but this release was mostly a herculean effort to convert to the new system. New content will follow in a future release. Failing a quest in a series no longer terminates the series. But intentionally failing quests makes me sad ...

This release also has many bugfixes, many grabbed from PosChengband R (Thanks!). I can't list all the changes. If you are curious, just checkout the commit history on github.

[getter77]

v6.0.2

I just noticed that the last 6.0.0 Windows release was unable to reload savefiles. I did test, but not enough to notice the bug and I always run Linux these days. Sorry for the mistake. Also, I see that Windows Security Center is deleting msvcr100.dll for some reason, causing the Poschengband.exe not to run. While preventing programs from running does make your system more secure, it probably makes it less useful. I'll try to resolve this issue but it might take me a bit to figure out as my Windows partition no longer touches the internet. Probably, I just need to find an updated version of the C runtime redistribution. For 6.0.2, I switched to msvcr110.dll ... maybe that will make a difference. But probably not as I haven't patched my Windows in quite some time.

For the future, I'd like to build using mingw like Vanilla does, but I don't know what I am doing. You'll just need to bear with me while I grope about for a solution. Perhaps someone can step up and provide a more stable Windows build in the meantime if this 6.0.2 release is still having issues? You really should just be able to dump in an updated msvcr*.dll to fix the issue, but the number (formerly 100 but now 110) must match the version that Poschengband.exe was linked against.

Other changes:
[1] Wow, I just tried out clouded's new monster list (elliposchengband). I think I managed all the new monsters except that Dor and Michael the Overlord. I enjoyed them, so I've added them as is. Thanks for the contribution! You'll find the game is now a bit longer and more difficult, and you'll need quite a bit more healing to survive. Some re-balancing may be required ...

[2] I grabbed a few commits from elliposchengband, which I get in a round-a-bout way from a poschengband R repository I happen to have locally cloned. Not sure if it is up to date ... These include "The X resists" patch, the RF3_NONLIVING patch for monster lore, the replacement artifact level patch, a tweak to artifact ring generation, and a patch to allow WILD_ONLY uniques to show up in the no_wilderness option. There might have been a few other patches that I grabbed as well. Check the git log for details and thanks for the bug-fixes and improvements!

[3] Also from elliptic was the idea to mix random and standard arts. He did an option for 50% replacement, but I decided to let you choose the amount (from 0% to 100% in 10% increments). I really like this option.

[4] Riding skillmasters no longer receive the -30 to hit archery penalty once they have enough skill points.

[5] Staves of Genocide are now deeper, making them much less likely to be found. You only need one, of course, but don't expect them every game.

[6] By request, randomized birth has been returned. Press '*' at any of the birth menus (I didn't test this too much, though).

[7] I started to look at Rune Knights (it is one of elliptic's major changes) and added documentation and a few minor changes. But I do think they need to keep their mana as it is the only check on unlimited rune creation. I haven't found them to be outrageously OP, but I also haven't played them too often (and certainly not to endgame). Comments?

[getter77]

v6.0.3

[1] This release is a mingw build and no longer requires any msvcr*.dll to run. This should address all the issues with Windows Security Center deleting the c runtime dll causing poschengband not to run. (Huge thanks to Vanilla Angband for making this possible ... Nick set up the original buildsystem for me, and even though I've never worked with this type of system before, I was able to get this working fairly quickly by looking at the Vanilla stuff.)

[2] If you are compiling on Windows, you can try the instructions in Vanilla's compiling.txt with regard to autotools (I include a configure in the repository in case you don't have autoconf on your system). They might just work. Of course, you can continue using Poschengband.sln in Visual Studio ... I'll probably continue keeping it up to date just in case I need to debug something specific to the Windows port.

[3] This version adds an option to "reduce_uniques" to a specified percentage of the total. For those of you (including me) who think the game is too long, you might want to check this option out. The way it works is that dungeon guardians (if !no_wilderness), questors (q_info.txt), bounty uniques (20 randomly chosen) and any FIXED_UNIQUE monsters (r_info.txt) are excluded. Then, the remaining uniques are reduced to the indicated percentage (smoothly distributed by monster level ... see _reduce_uniques in py_birth.c). If you really want a shorter game, try setting no_wilderness, reduce_uniques (10%) and quickband (see below).

[4] Quickband: I've wanted an option for a faster game for a long time. With reduce_uniques, I think it is finally reasonable. This is new and untested, so probably needs some tuning. How does it work? With this option you get:
[4.1] Double experience from kills
[4.2] Stat boosts every 3 levels rather than every 5
[4.3] Better object drops
[4.4] More object drops
[4.5] !Healing, _Healing, and !Curing are all buffed. No need to wait for a huge pile of *Healing*. This option is really designed to work with reduce_uniques and, probably, no_wilderness as well. After all, exploring all the various dungeons is hardly a quick way to play! This option is designed to replace the Munchkin personality which I found to be quite a bit too much.

[5] Fixes from elliposchengband, pseudoelliposchengband.
I really need to improve my git skills here as I'm not sure how to get commits from other repositories. I simply re-key in the changes (most were simple fixes) or cut and paste. Thus, the git log of poschengband doesn't list the correct original author. My apologies. If I've missed something you feel is important, please drop a post in this thread of the forum (I might miss new threads, but I always download a copy of this thread for offline reading whenever I drop a new release). If you explain why something *must* be done, it is more likely to get included. Some changes (like restricting the eldritch horror to los; giving recall access to all dungeons from the start allowing you to bypass the guardians; branding spells working on egos and artifacts; removing erratic movement; replacement arts keep standard activations; allowing all races to eat at the inn) I don't agree with. Other changes (like removing birth object randomization; birth begins with lantern) seem really minor and don't fix bugs. I could be persuaded to add them ... they just didn't seem to be worth the effort.
[5.1] New vaults from clouded
[5.2] New quests from clouded (I converted to the new system). Might need some work on the placement in t_lite.txt, though, as they are placed after the Haunted House. I didn't have time to look at all of clouded's quest mods, though. I think he made the Haunted House easier.
[5.3] And more. "pseudo" is GenericPseudonym, "elliposchengband" is probably elliptic, though I've also grabbed fixes from MarvinPA and Chris Campbell. And, of course, clouded (who also wrote t_lite.txt and designed about half the new non-vault rooms in v_info.txt). I'll come up with a thanks.txt file at some point, so if I missed your name, give me a shout.
pseudo: Fix naturally tele-resistant dugeon entrance guardians being teleportable
pseudo: 'Charm' -> 'Charm Ring Bearer'
pseudo: all nazgul uniques qualify as ring-bearers
pseudo: fix pronouns with named pets
pseudo: message when a blue mage COULD learn a spell, but failed the random chance
pseudo: give the duelist's special attacks some more color
pseudo: don't cut off the last entry in the 'p'et menu
pseudo: count seeker and mithril ammo as rare for Mogaminator
elliposchengband: cap idle time at 30s
elliposchengband: don't print message when autosaving (MarvinPA)
elliposchengband: remove gender restrictions from sexy/lucky personalities
elliposchengband: allow quickstart after wizmode game
elliposchengband: don't fail to eat at inn if full
elliposchengband: improve monster spoiler listing
elliposchengband: Fix autodestroying gamble shop items not giving essences

[6] Fixes from oook forum requests (See, I do actually read these :
oook request: give the home shop-like command aliases
autoget: turn off options by default
oook report: wilderness scroll invalidates a local cave_type pointer in move_player_effect
oook report: typo (High Priest of Morlok)
oook report: museum donations are fully identified
oook report: selling unidentified junk should not keep the item in stock
oook report: shop inventories are sorting incorrectly
oook report: Quiver is full msg when no quiver worn.
oook report: home/museum display centers the title using the screen size, not the document size, resulting in clipping
Study: Regression. item_tester_learn_spell broken for Hex High Mages

[7] Finally, some minor fixes and tweaks:
Rune Knights: Rune Swords already have runes
Artifacts: Flags should extend the base object rather than override them.
Skillmasters: Martial Artists get too much DEX
Skillmasters: Remove (+h,+d) melee bonuses
Wilderness Travel: More issues
shops: initial inventory load turns over too quickly

[getter77]

v6.0.4

This is a quick update mostly because I integrated many contributions from pseudo and elliptic. Since cherry-picking commits generally involves manually fixing merge conflicts, I'm hoping to save others some tedium! I also converted some more quest changes (q_vapor2.txt and q_haunted_house.txt) and I resurrected the sdl port.

Here is a shortlog of changes:

GenericPseudonym (18):
Re-color some easily confused monsters.
Add a flag in autoinscription for weapons that inflict stun.
Fix the "odds" text in the casino's monster arena
*Recharging* fails if the player doesn't have enough sp.
Add display_race option to control the player's symbol
Metamorphosed draconians become D instead of @
add some MSVC 2015 stuff to .gitignore
Cancel fasting on anything that increases nutrition.
Fix spell fail messages for Sorcerors and Red Mages
ditch ""These resistances can be added to which from equipment for more powerful resistances. ""
Buff hephaestus demigod slightly, and give better messages.
Clarify some race descriptions.
Give snipers a different message at maximum concentration.
Rename sniper's "plasma bolt"
Let Psionic Speed override smaller speed buffs.
Dont lose turns when trying to zap a 0-charge device.
More informative failure messages for riding/rodeo.
Let wands of heal/haste monster target pets.

elliptic (5):
Add a few flags to monster recall.
Change Warning to apply only to traps.
Use the previous game's race/class/etc as default (if the same game mode).
Don't reduce weaponsmith essence gain due to removable curses.
Reimplement no_selling option.

poschengband (25):
Recharging: cherry-picked 61cb737 was broken. After clipping amt to max resource, it reset amt back to power.
Bump Version to 6.0.4
no_selling: minor wording changes
quickband: quicker stat gain (potions)
Quests: Replace Vapor Quest (st_)
Quests: New Haunted House by clouded
quests: display quest name when appropriate
py_display: add color to some notable options
-fsanitize=undefined on 1 << 31
mingw: improve my cross-compile script. prune Makefiles
quests: display monster level for random quests in quests_wizard (^Aq)
quests: remember last filter
sdl: make it compile ... still lots of warnings
sdl: compiler warnings
sdl: macros for arrow/numpad direction keys
sdl: tabs to spaces; reduce repeat rate
sdl: use Angband fonts
sdl: shift+numpad5 should recenter the viewport
sdl: other macros (home, end, etc). reasonable menu font
sdl: make inkey_special work
sdl: configure issues
sdl: experimenting with fonts. cleanup colors
sdl: reformat for the sake of sanity
Wilderness Centering
tiles: adam bolt's 16x16 tileset

[getter77]

v6.0.5

This time, there was a SIGSEGV bug report ... ouch!

Main Changes:
[1] New option for old pack behavior: use_pack_slots. Should be on by default.

[2] Sniper rewrite for better UI. Browse spells to display damage/accuracy. Bookless casters can browse using the uppercase menu choice just like Skillmasters. That only leaves book based casters with the lame UI.

[3] Miscellaneous sniper game play changes:
[3.1] Monster vulnerabilities (Fire and Cold) are now a factor. The first player to one-shot one of the big giants (Loki, Ymir, Surtur) will get a special prize!
[3.2] Sniper powers enhance rather than supplant corresponding ego flags. For example, Burning Shot on flame branded ammo is even more deadly.
[3.3] Alas, snipers are a bit too OP for the Serpent, so I had to make stunning more meaningful. They still should be the easiest class to win with (once you get to the Serpent, of course).

[4] Lots of work on inventory messaging. With use_pack_slots, you should see the correct slot in your messages (unlike the old pre 6.0 code, which usually told you the slot just before re-sorting your pack).

[5] 'g' is now normal get. '^G' is auto-get. Now you can decide which to use. If you always want auto-get and find '^G' annoyingly hard to type, add a keymap from g->^G. Then, when you want the conservative get, type '\g'.

[6] Quivers no longer automatically accept everything: only ammo that can combine with an existing pile or that is inscribed with '=g' is automatically added. Of course, you still need to wear a quiver, and the ammo must also match your shooter.

Here is a git shortlog of all the commits. I'm trying to write more meaningful commit messages, so you may want to read the full commit info on github.

poschengband (51):
Bump version to 6.0.5
x11: restore blending of monster/object with terrain features
oook: quest reward lost when pack is full
oook: fix wilderness travel lag
oook request: give alternatives to page_up/down in home/shops/inventory
oook report: no running in wild_mode (introduced in b11b419a)
oook report: SIGSEGV in wilderness shop encounter
oook report: possession history incorrectly displays quests
oook report: selling un-identified excellent ammo gives full price (sometimes)
use_pack_slots: new option for old pack behavior
oook request: bring back disturb on autoget obj
Downgrade Dragons' Lair Guardian
Sniper: Recode for more informative UI
Inventory: Displaying Slots
Inventory: Display Slots (cont)
Inventory: Display Slots (cont)
Sniper: Playtesting (UI)
Snipers: Adjust Damage Distribution
UI Messages: Playtesting
Auto-Get: Separate Commands for Normal and Auto-Get
Quiver no longer 'likes' unidentified ammo
Fix double screenshot for killing The Serpent of Chaos
UI Messages: Playtesting
Playtesting
Improve UI for Getting Object Piles
Home: Fix double get message
Messages: Combining objects (piles) loses OM_DELAYED_MSG
Devices: Display Fail Rates inside Inscriptions
Travel: Improve Route Selection
Devices: Tighten up random distributions
Sniper: Apply Ammo Boost Before Vulnerability Check
oook report: funky activation messages
Wilderness: Force Viewport Center on Generate
Devices: Blandify Fail Rate Inscriptions
Devices: Give Message after Usage
Snipers: Endurance Ammo Endures Evilness and Holyness
Snipers: OP vs Serpent
display_percentages in status bars rather than [****---]
oook bug: shapeshifting and the quiver
oook report: un-necessary pack overflow when wielding
oook request: display object list from do_cmd_look
Object List in do_cmd_look: Handle case when monster is on a pile of objects
Egos: Increase pvals ... especially on early CON boosters
Golems: Change Test Hit Mechanics
Stats: Show Ammo Usage
gcc -O2 found something clang missed
Stats: Show Equipment Usage
Archers: More Crits. Smooth Critical Multipliers
Archery: A new bolt, the deadliest of them all!
Quivers: Don't prompt for quanity if just 1
Quiver is more discriminating in its affections