Cthangband (now at v6.7.0)

[getter77]

RISE FROM THE ABYSS OF TIME ELDER DEV!   

https://gurbintrollgames.wordpress.com/cthangband/

Cthangband

Cthangband is a free Rogue-like game for Windows XP, Vista or 7. It should also work fine on Linux or other Unix-like systems using Wine, and the source code is provided for those who wish to port it to their system of choice.
More Info...

Cthangband is a variant of the classic game Angband.

In Cthangband, you play the role of an adventurer descending into the depths to find fame and fortune, and to eventually (should you become powerful enough) kill all the guardians guarding the various dungeons found within the game. The game is similar to "Action RPGs" such as those in the Diablo and Torchlight series, except it replaces action with strategy and tactical play. Instead of being a real-time clicking frenzy with you dying because you failed to press the "Potion" button quickly enough, the game is turn based and you must plan and strategise your moves or die because you didn't manage your resources well enough.

Cthangband does not have flashy graphics or animation. Instead it uses ASCII characters in different colours to represent the player and their surroundings (see the screenshots below). While this may seem positively stone-age to the younger players, it does have its advantages. Firstly, it means that a large amount can be displayed on screen at once. Secondly, our brains are good at recognising letters quickly - so we can see what is what without having to peer at barely distinguishable graphics. And thirdly, it means there can be much more content. While modern Action RPGs may have anything up to a hundred different types of monster (Diablo 2 has about 60, for example) and must palette-swap them for more variety, Cthangband can have over 550 different monster types with unique abilities without needing to have loads of animation data, graphics, and sound effects for each of them. Similarly, it has 30 races and 15 classes for a total of 450 combinations; and over 200 spells without needing to have lots of graphical data and animations for any of those.

Cthangband differs from most Angband variants by having multiple dungeons spread through a randomly generated wilderness, and by using the alternate magic system first used in the Zangband variant.

For those of you who want to port Cthangband to your own system, the source code can be found here: Cthangband Source

Note: Cthangband is a very old game, having been first written over 18 years ago. As a consequence of this, it doesn't always play as nicely as it could with the latest versions of Windows. For example, it needs to have read+write access to files in its local folder in order to run. Unfortunately, by default Windows refuses programs write access to the C:\Program Files folder and its subfolders. Therefore when installing Cthangband you should either install it in a folder in a different location or modify the shortcut's properties to always run in Administrator mode.

http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=7279

Yes, it's been a while since the last release - fifteen years to be precise - but here is Cthangband 5.0.0!

Windows Console Version (this is an installer).
Source Code (this is a zip file).

If anyone maintains libraries of Angband variants, feel free to upload these and re-host them there. For my part, I've not yet put up a page on my website for Cthangband 5.0.0 yet. But the above links will remain valid when I do.

The change log for this is quite large, since it reverts back to the class/level based mechanics of Cthangband 3.1.2. However, it does re-implement many of the other features of Cthangband 4.x as well as a couple of features taken from both Hellband and Yeekband and a whole host of new features as well.

Here's the changelog:

Cthangband 5.0.0

    Many other minor code changes
    Cleaned up commands (fewer need control pressed), and added a command list
    Removed 'pouch' slots.
    Mystics (now renamed "Martial Artists") now have a choice of three realms of magic. They can be "Ascetics" who use corporeal magic to improve their body, "Street Fighters" who zap people with projected chi or "Ninja" who use planar magic to move around and summon allies.
    Added Crafter class, who has no spells but who can use mana to prevent items from losing charges or being consumed when they are used.
    Added Chosen One class, who has passive magical abilities but no active ones.
    Fixed Thief (Rogue with Folk Magic) spell stats.
    Fixed symbol identification for shop doorways.
    Increasing in level now restores all stats.
    Added warpstone crystals.
    The screen is now refreshed after the options page is viewed - so the effects of any changed options are immediately visible.
    Cleaned up character history tables.
    Fixed display problem with bolts/balls.
    'help.hlp' is now system specific ('help-dos.txt', 'help-win.txt' etc.) so that it can point to a different set of files for the different interfaces and systems.
    The random character generator now picks a class first, then a race to fit, rather than picking a race first and then a class to fit.
    The random name generator has been expanded to now provide 'angelic' names for Imps and to provide 'yeekish' names for Yeeks.
    Swapped the order of effects in the 'Major Displacement' mindcrafter power.
    Corporeal realm now gets 'Wraithform' instead of 'Polymorph Self'.
    The alchemist shop can now research an item, which identifies it fully.
    The 'Identify All' shop function has been moved to the pawnbrokers.
    Spectres now glow in the dark.
    Imps now get fire immunity at level 20.
    All Half-Trolls now get slow digestion, not just warriors.
    Druids now have a smaller upkeep cost for pets.
    Included character's birthday in character display.
    The 'mini-map' is now centred and bordered showing the size of the level.
    A new spoiler (mon-stats) can be generated, which lists the frequency of each of the RFX_XXXX flags by monster level.
    DEAD.TXT and NEWS.TXT files replaced with internal functions to enable full colour splash and death screens.
    Some clean-up of folder structure implemented - 'pref' files are now located in the 'pref' folder (not the 'user' folder) and spoilers now have the suffix '.txt' and are output to the 'info' folder.
    Monster recall (and spoiler) now gives attack speed if at least one attack is known.
    Added a 'Destroy All' command ('K') to destroy all worthless items in your pack and equipment list (equipped cursed items are not destroyed by this).
    If the 'auto-destroy' option is on, worthless items are stomped on rather than picked up.
    Removed most hard-coded 'Special Monster' hacks.
    The slime molds are revolting!
    Added Orbs, as described in RAK's history of Moria
    Character dump now dumps last 10 messages (so you can see how stupidly you died).
    Stats over 18 are no longer displayed as percentages.
    'Dungeons' may now be towers (tiny levels heading upwards) as well as caves (larger levels heading downwards).
    5 new dungeons added.
    Dungeons now have a 'bias' towards a certain type of creature.
    Dungeons (but not towers) display offset depth, rather than true depth.
    Startup options have their own option page, to reduce the number of questions the player is asked when creating a new character.
    Paths are now lit like floors.
    Problem with 'missing' options fixed.
    Wizard Mode moved to 'Cheat Options' page.
    Windows Console version added.
    Player breath weapons (from dragon plate or mutations) and 'wands of dragon breath' now use cone shaped attacks.
    Bug in 'unified commands' fixed so that objects on the floor no longer get prompted for twice.
    Corrected 'time of day' algorithm and added time display.
    Added Eric Bock's code to combine similar messages in message recall.
    Monster breaths are now cone shaped, rather than ball shaped (from Zangband)
    Added Zangband's view centring code.
    Reorganised and cleaned up 'options'.
    Added (and modified) 's point based stat generation code.
    Reverted source code to 3.1.2 base, losing all 4.0.0 and 4.0.1 changes

This has to be in at least the top 5 as far as projects making a comeback after so many years...

[akeley]

Well, according to a much-disussed couplet

That is not dead which can eteRnaL lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

Not to mention the fact that I was actually reading about this fork few weeks ago and thinking it sounds interesting and what a shame it`s "dead". Ha!

[getter77]

Now with proper site and hopes from the dev that somebody with a Roguebasin account AND nice reckonings might throw it up proper:

http://www.gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/cthangband.html

[akeley]

Maybe somebody with oook account could ask why does it not work on XP? First I was getting  "not a Win32 application" now this version throws up "error executing program".

Though somebody post similar question  there already and was ignored so perhaps it`d be a waste of time.

[getter77]

v6.0.0

https://gurbintrollgames.wordpress.com/cthangband/

Yes, that's right. It's 20 years since I first released Cthangband onto an unsuspecting world.

Well, now it's back in yet another new edition.

This is the first fully .NET version of Cthangband (written in C#), and as such it will run on any Microsoft OS from Vista onwards. I don't think Mono or similar alternates can handle WPF, so unfortunately it's Windows only.

The installer is here: Cthangband 6.0.

If you're missing the .NET Framework 4.5.2 (you shouldn't be unless you're using an older Windows edition) you can download that from Microsoft here: .NET Framework 4.5.2.

Here's the change log:

Cthangband 6.0.0 (July 2018 - 20th Anniversary)
- Documentation now moved to a separate file
- “Lite” changed to “Light” throughout source code and user interface.
- Spectres now have Feather Fall.
- The sewers under Ulthar now have a bias towards animals.
- Word of Recall now takes you back to your house, if you have one (if you don’t then you will be returned to the last town visited, as normal).
- You can now only own a single house at a time, but on buying a new one any items stored in your old one will be moved into it for you.
- Added “worthless items” section to journal, so you can designate any unwanted item type as being worthless (meaning it will be stomped on rather than picked up), not just those with zero value.
- Character view screen re-arranged, and redundant pages removed.
- You can no longer accidentally drop below the last level of a dungeon through a trap door.
- Barbarian replaced with Tcho-Tcho.
- Trap doors in towers now correctly take you to the previous (i.e. “lower”) level rather than the next level.
- Increasing in level no longer restores all your ability scores.
- Chaos Features changed back to Mutations.
- Chaos-Mage and Chaos Warrior are now Cultist and Fanatic.
- Digging items (spades, picks) now have their own equipment slot once more.
- Broo replaced with Miri Nigri.
- Chaos Patrons replaced with Cthuloid entities.
- Entire program re-written from the ground up in C#!

[getter77]

v6.2.0

That's right. It's time for a new Cthangband.

This is only a minor release in terms of gameplay changes, but it feels a lot more like a major release because of the large amounts of internal refactoring (I'm still steadily converting it from a procedural program to an object oriented program) and the graphical changes.

The other large change is that I've written somewhere around 30,000 words of documentation that I've included in the game via and HTML viewer - because I'm aware that people were getting confused by some of the systems that work differently in Cthangband to vanilla Angband now that the two have drifted so far apart.

    Replaced old plasma-based terrain generation with a Perlin Noise based one for a more realistic island.
    Flavoured items now have their true appearance even when unidentified.
    New town layouts to give towns more personality.
    Added an “Other” gender for those who want it (or those playing sexless golems).
    A metric ton more internal code refactoring.
    New animation system for spells and similar effects.
    Lighting and line-of-sight is now visible on more than just basic walls and floors.
    “Organic” cavern levels added (using the same Perlin Noise algorithm as the new terrain).
    New in-game “Cthangpedia” documentation added.
    High Score Table is now versioned, so you’re only comparing scores with characters who have had the same game experience as you.
    When choosing to re-use a character, the character gains a generation after their name (which is displayed on the high score table, save game preview, and gravestone). For example, “Bob”, “Bob II”, “Bob III”, “Bob IV”…
    Recovery rate is now properly shown as a multiplier on the character sheet, rather than a misleading “Regen” bonus, since it does not actually affect health regeneration; only poison/stun/bleeding recovery rate.
    Fixed occasional crash where the game would try to delete a non-existent monster.
    Chests are now included in the Journal’s “Worthless Items” section.
    Fixed bug where examining a disarmed but still locked chest would cause a crash.
    Fixed Journal’s monster list so it doesn’t skip monsters when browsing backwards.
    Reverted to classic speed system.
    Fixed bug where fixed-quest uniques could sometimes appear outside their designated level.
    Journal’s pet list now identifies what your pets are even if you’ve not seen them.
    Fixed bug where unusual key combinations (e.g. Alt+Numpad2) could sometimes cause a crash.
    Removed the (albeit very remote) possibility of getting an offensive name for a random artifact or an offensively shaped vault.
    Doubled the size of the colour palette.
    Changed the colour and/or character of over two hundred monster types to reduce ambiguity (fewer monsters now look identical); particularly Lovecraftian creatures, which have been mostly moved to the new characters of ‘A’ (for ‘Abomination’) for the races and ‘X’ (for ‘Extradimensional Entity’) for the unique Great Old Ones and Outer Gods.
    Glyph of Warding changed to Elder Sign
    Explosive Rune changed to Yellow Sign
    Recoloured a large number of items and dungeon features to take advantage of the new colours and enhanced lighting.
    Tunneling through trees no longer gives a confusing message about walls.
    Corrected cost/level of Chaos Bolt spell for Cultists.

(Remember, this is now a native Windows game written in C# - so if you're not running Windows then I'm afraid you're out of luck. It requires the .NET Framework 4.5.2, but that should already be pre-installed on the vast majority of Windows machines.

[getter77]

v6.3.0

This is only a minor update - fixing a couple of bugs and tweaking the user-interface. Although since the user-interface is what you see when you play, it looks like qute a major change.

It's not. The gameplay changes in this version are minimal...

    Monster tracker now shows name of monster.
    Game time is now shown on main screen.
    Shops (and home) now have room for 26 items instead of 24.
    Backpack now has 26 slots instead of 23.
    Added wizard command to instantly win the game (rather anticlimactic, but useful for testing!)
    Fixed bug where using <Shift> to run didn't work.
    Graphical backgrounds added to game screens.
    Dungeon size tweaked to match new squarer display. The maximum size has gone from 198x66 to 198x123, and the minimum size has gone from 80x22 to 80x42. So that this doesn't produce a level with too many rooms, rooms have been spaced out more in the north-south direction by an amount proportional to the size change.
    Towns and wildernesses made smaller to fit new display.
    Display changed from 80x25 to 80x45 so that grid squares are actually square (on a standard 16:9 widescreen monitor).
    Event loop optimised, so game no longer uses 30%+ CPU while idle and waiting for a keypress.

[Sereg]

Oh this is cool - I used to play Cthangband a long, long time ago. Great to see it's back in development; I'll go ahead and check it out.

[getter77]

v6.5.0

The changes in this version are mostly cosmetic - and are immediately obvious, since I've added ambient music and sound. That's not the only change, though. The full change log includes various bugfixes and tweaks too and is:

    Fixed rounding error in character viewer where a Con of 6 was showing +0.5 hits per level rather than the -0.5 hits per level it actually gives.
    The ‘Restoration’ service has been moved to the Alchemists.
    The ‘Research an item’ service has been moved to the Magic Shop, to replace the Ritual of Recall (which has been removed).
    Chosen Ones have been rebalanced (mostly a reduction in combat skills and hit points).
    Fixed bug where tall but narrow levels caused LOS glitches near the bottom of them.
    Base ability scores are now generated in a new manner on character creation.
    Fixed bug where characters with the ‘other’ gender weren’t being given a height and weight.
    Added atmospheric background music (don’t worry, you can turn it off if you don’t like it).
    Added Amulet of Anti-Theft as a useful low-mid level item.
    A Potion of New Life will now restore you to your original birth race as well as curing all mutations.
    A new character based on the previous one will use the race the old character was born as rather than their race at the point of death (in case they had been polymorphed into a different race at any time).
    Fixed rare hang condition when generating world map after character creation.
    Replaced in-console splash screen with a proper one that includes game options, making them more visible.
    Replaced most background textures.
    Level feelings are now given separately for danger and treasure.
    The slime molds are no longer revolting!
    If players Word of Recall without ever having entered a dungeon, they will now end up on level 1 of the dungeon instead of returning to their starting town.
    Kill count moved to end of monster description so that basic ‘what is it’ text comes first.
    Corrected class documentation to properly include the Globe of Invulnerability spell on the various spell lists.
    You no longer have to kill all the monsters in a multi-monster quest in one go. You can kill some, leave the level, then return later and kill the rest to finish the quest.
    Wizard Bolt can no longer be reflected back on you by monsters.

[getter77]

v6.7.0

Yes, it's release time again.

This one has quite a few changes. It started as a simple bugfix to fix the vault issues and the whirlpool issue (both of which had been recently reported by a player), but rapidly got away from me and ended up as a pretty major release.

Here's the change log:

    Dead monsters no longer futilely try to flee in terror.
    Fixed bug where if a player had multiple natural attacks they’d not stop making them when the monster was dead.
    Fixed a bug where stumbling into a town while confused would mean you didn’t realise you’d visited it.
    Even characters with poor item sensing can now sense artifacts.
    Potentially offensively titled ‘Genocide’ spell (and its variants) renamed.
    Fixed longstanding bug that stopped you running along the edge of a room (eventually!).
    Monsters that steal gold will now drop it when killed.
    Monsters will no longer try to summon help against other monsters if there isn’t room to do so.
    Adjusted a few character history text fragments to make them more diverse and lose some sexism/racism.
    Fixed bug where a monster breathing on another monster would fire a ball instead of a cone.
    Fixed bug where a monster attacking another monster with a theft attack would continue attacking it after having blinked away.
    Fixed wrong message being given when a monster breaks through an Elder Sign.
    Fixed sanity checks not being fired when eldritch horrors come into view.
    Fixed Channelers’ ability not working on scrolls of Rumour.
    The chance of having your race changed through mutation has been reduced.
    Priests have a patron deity (based on the realm of magic they choose), and they get increased favour with that god.
    Sacrificing items to win the gods’ favour (at the temple) will give you benefits.
    Manual and Journal are now both accessible from within stores (racial high scores moved from ‘h’ to ‘v’ to make room).
    Exact dungeon offsets will vary from game to game (randomised on world creation).
    Cleaned up formatting of skill display.
    Small balance tweaks have been made to most classes; in particular Channelers and Druids have been given a bit of a boost.
    ‘Mindcrafting’ powers have been renamed to ‘Mentalism’ powers, since the Mindcrafter class is no longer the only user of them.
    The spell-using martial artist has now been renamed to ‘Monk’ and a mentalism-based martial artist (the ‘Mystic’) has been added.
    Abilities screen now highlights abilities you have to make it easier to see at a glance.
    Removed numerous annoying and useless wizard mode messages.
    Huge amounts of behind-the-scenes code refactoring.
    Fixed bug where monsters casting whirlpool on empty spaces would crash the game.
    Last bits of confusion between ‘allies’ and ‘pets’ cleaned up.
    The high score table now includes living characters from the three save slots.
    Added documentation for how martial arts works.
    When rolling stats, characters with too low a score in their class’s main ability score will be rerolled automatically.
    Fixed two vaults that had invalid definitions.
    Fixed occasional crash when placing a greater vault on a level.