Pathos: Nethack Codex now: Google Play, Apple iTunes Windows Store/Desktop v7.2

[getter77]

v6.3

Hail Adventurers,

This new release introduces four new classes, bringing the total to 30 player classes!

Necromancer: Obsessed with blurring the line between life and death, these meddlers of dark forces prefer to associate with cadavers over the living. To some, the rituals are grotesque, but they see pure majesty in the manipulation of the natural order.

Mystic: After many years of intense contemplation these soothsayers are ready to venture into the world. Masters of their own mind, they are capable of acts of formidable willpower.

Templar: Questionably pious individuals from an ancient religious and military order. They abuse this power and influence to crusade against practitioners of the occult and supernatural beings.

Miner: Strongly built, this tough and industrious worker is more than capable in dangerous situations. Traditional practices and heavy tools are used to overcome obstacles in their pursuit of valuable gemstones.

To accompany your character there are three new companions: ghoul, imp and dragon egg. Please don't eat your baby dragon egg :-(

Pathos now has a third gender: non-binary. Unlike in the original Nethack, gender has never restricted your class or how you want to play. In Pathos, you can start as a male valkyrie, if you so wish. All genders can be equally seduced by incubus or succubus. Anyway, I hope the inclusion of non-binary makes someone, somewhere, happy.

For new items, the notable addition is three upgraded versions of the skeleton key.

dimension key: auto-blinks through a locked door.

detonation key: explodes the door with a force blast.

phantom key: brief phasing transient so you can pass straight through the door.

For sharing your progress with your friends, there is a new vanity mirror. This is a condensed version of your character sheet and equipment.

For aethetics, there is now a simple bounce animation for every character (not just for those flying or leviating).

Last but not least, the fame calculation has been redesigned to reward playing the game rather than grinding and generally exploiting mechanics. I encourage all players to upgrade to v6.3 as to keep the Hall of Fame as fair as possible.

Major changes since the last public release:

    new classes: necromancer, mystic, templar, miner.

    new companions: dragon egg, imp, ghoul.

    new gender: non-binary.

    new items: dimension key, detonation key, phantom key, sickle, poison dart, potion of divinity.

    new artifact: Creeping Sprout.

    new spell: animate dead.

    vanity mirror for sharing your progress.

    idle bounce animation.

    redesigned fame calculation.

[getter77]

v6.5

Hail Adventurers,

Introducing a brand new official module: Pixel Sojourn by Ken Wang. This 25 level dungeon adventure is based on the map generation from Shattered Pixel Dungeon. The Java algorithms were ported to C# and hooked up to the Pathos Module API. And yes, we did receive permission from Evan Debenham

In other major updates, this release adds three new player races:

    Troll. Ravenous, predatory species of giant humanoid with a severe hunch that causes the backs of their hands to drag on the ground. Despite the awkward physical appearance, they are powerfully built and are infamous for their ability to rapidly recover from any wound to their rubbery hide.

    Echo. Astral beings who are a vessel for the indomitable spirit of a vanquished adventurer. Having no motivations of their own, they are glad to permit the possession; for the deceased adventurer, it is a second chance at revenge or redemption. Born from astral matter, they are slightly built, translucent and can move freely through physical obstacles.

    Satyr. Fey creatures linked by powerful nature spirits to fuel their antics. They are stocky with furry lower bodies, cloven hooves of a goat and curled horns of a ram. Ribald and clever, they cheerfully lead hedonistic escapades of drinking, dancing and fighting.

The vision algorithm has finally been reworked to use line-of-sight. Vision now extends to five squares around the character, which helps to make the cavern levels feel more natural. This is in addition to seeing all the squares in the current room.

The random seed used to generate your adventure is now displayed at the bottom of the side menu. eg. 'SEED #AABBCCDD'. Tapping on this button will copy it to the clipboard, so you can share seeds with friends.

The Help > Index now supports full text search, including the highlighting of results. The Help > Guides now has a linked table of contents for better navigation. The loading screen also displays a random tip from the guides.

Fixtures such as fountains, altar, workbenches, etc can be brought to life with animation magic. In addition, fixtures are tinted to indicate when you know they are blessed (blue) or cursed (red).

A music skill has been introduced to give more depth to instruments. Playing an instrument while confused will now produce a strange effect. Playing when unskilled also has a chance to trigger this confused effect.

The unique shopkeeper names has increased from 11 to 78. To pay homage, these new names were assembled from the list of developers credited for Rogue, Hack and Nethack.

Pathos has been translated to Hungarian thanks to [Cziger Márton]

Major changes since the last public release:

    new module: Pixel Sojourn.

    new races: troll, echo, satyr.

    new entities: pig, giant slug, giant frog.

    new items: bell of strife, bell of harmony.

    new artifact: Runesword.

    new skill: music.

    new special room: prison (replaces void room).

    line-of-sight vision.

    full text search in the help > index.

    table of contents in the help > guides.

    copy random seed to clipboard.

    fixtures can be animated.

    fixtures tinted to indicate blessed or cursed.

    eat button shows nutrition and indicates, with an asterisk, if there are side effects.

    attribute conveyance from corpses extended so all attributes are represented.

    entities and armour now has defence biases against pierce, slash and bludgeon attacks.

    shop keeper names increased from 11 to 78 unique names

    statues are now drawn with a base.

[getter77]

v6.6

Hail Adventurers,

This release introduces 9 Specials to complement the existing 30 Classes and 15 Races. Play as a dwarf vampire priest, giant skeleton pirate, human noble paladin or an orc fugitive rogue. Each Special has unique advantages and disadvantages to make your adventures more interesting and challenging.

    Colossus. Being unusually tall and heavy for your kind, you move a bit slower but are more resilient.
    Fugitive. Whether innocent or guilty of their accused crimes, these individuals are desperate to escape custody.
    Midget. Being unusually short and slight for your kind, you are more nimble but are not as effective in combat.
    Noble. Aristocrats who enjoy all the privilege that comes with wealth and wonder why everyone hates them.
    Protagonist. Main character syndrome has resulted in a reliance on plot armour but they are destined for a major reality check.
    Scholar. Lifetime of study has focused your learning on books at the cost of other hobbies and fitness.
    Skeleton. Somehow still alive, albeit without the flesh required to be truly living, this peculiar existence has some advantages.
    Vampire. Forsaken creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence of the living.
    Werewolf. Forever cursed with lycanthropy, these beings can transform themselves into monstrous wolf forms.

Pathos now has a proof-of-concept web app written in WebAssembly. This web app has been designed for Chrome Desktop and is, currently, unlikely to work properly on any other browser. The main deficiency of this version is there is no support for saving settings and adventures. See below for the Web App link.

Pathos has been translated to German thanks to kingdata.

As always, this release contains many qualify-of-life improvements as well as tileset upgrades. Please see the in game, Help > Updates, for the full list of changes.

Major changes since the last public release:

    specials: colossus, fugitive, midget, noble, protagonist, scholar, skeleton, vampire, werewolf.
    new artifacts: Blinderäg, Witherloch.
    new platform: crystal bridge.
    new translation: German.
    micromange every decision for your party of adventurers using the new instruct mode.
    amorphous entities slide under doors and around boulders.
    wand of theft grabs items from the ground.
    throw corpses at your enemies to impact with special effects (eg. acid blob, 1d8 acid splash).
    item selection now has a filter at the bottom, just like the inventory.

[getter77]

v6.8

Hail Adventurers,

This release features the Underdeep expansion of the Mines branch which was designed and contributed by the much talented /u/wyrdean. These seven, handcrafted levels are some of the largest Pathos has seen to date, and are chock full of secrets to explore. The deeper you go, the more you find, until you stumble across the secret remnants of the dwarven civilization, buried deep under the mushroom forest.

There has been an overhaul of elemental magic for consistency across the five elements (earth/flame/frost/shock/water). There are now five elemental sphere spells which introduced the earth sphere and water sphere. Representing each element, there are three elemental mercenaries (eg. flame binder, flame seeker, flame maker). New elemental specials were added as well, so you can play as a human frost knight or an demon flame wizard, etc.

In addition to the five elemental specials, there is a new psychic special. This special grants the gifts of telepathy, clairvoyance and telekinesis but is offset by the burden of hunger. Telekinesis is a new talent that can be used to remotely pickup items, push boulders, knockback entities, remotely trigger traps and open/close doors.

For quality of life, there is now a continue button that appears at the bottom of the screen. This can be tapped to resume your last target. For example, if you use the map to travel to the stairs but were interrupted by hostiles on the way. You can dispatch your enemy and then tap on the continue button to resume your path to the stairs.

While only cosmetic, there is now a shroud effect on squares that are not lit. Previously, it was not clearly distinguished if a square was lit or unlit. Dark areas now feel grungy and dim.

Sonyvanda is now the default tileset (selected when Pathos is first installed). There has been lots of updates to the Sonyvanda tiles, notably for blobs, fungus, jellies and puddings. While there is still plenty of love and support for the other tilesets, Sonyvanda has become the most popular.

For the PC players, please note that Windows Desktop version upgraded from .NET Framework v4.5 to .NET Framework 4.8.

Major changes since the last public release:

    new branch: Underdeep, seven new levels under the Mines.

    new property: telekinesis.

    new specials: psychic, earth, flame, frost, shock, water.

    new entities: cave bear, treant, earth sphere, water sphere, 15 elemental mercenaries.

    new items: kanabo, mithril plate mail, ring of telekinesis.

    new artifact: Deagle.

    new spells: crushing sphere, soaking sphere, telekinesis.

    new barrier: shroom.

    new ground: chasm, moss, sand, metal floor.

    new zoo: spider nest.

    unlit squares are now rendered with a shroud tile.

    'continue' button to resume your last interrupted target.

    filter by item type when trading and sharing.

    slower/faster animation setting.

    new animations for light/darkness and detection magic.

[getter77]

I am pleased to announce that full source code for the official content and modules is now available on GitHub:

https://github.com/callanh/pathos-official

You are welcome to fork this repository and to start a new variant of Pathos! All game assets such as images, sounds and translation files reside in the public repository. The content definitions and module generations are declared as C# code. This code is built into an assembly so it can be executed by the Pathos game engine. The game installation files include automated tools to generate the asset pipeline.

Anyway, enough about modding, this release introduces three new player races:

    Kobold. Unfairly characterised as cowardly and weak, these diminutive reptilian creatures overcome their physical limitations by employing vicious and cunning strategies.
    Plasmoid. Amorphous beings who have no typical shape but often take on a translucent humanoid form. While unmistakable for anything other than a plasma-like ooze, this form enables the use of clothing and tools.
    Tortle. Tortoise-like nomadic survivalists who leave their birthplace, from the moment they can walk, to travel the world with the comfort and protection of home on their backs.

As well as three new player specials:

    Drunkard. The habitually drunk make for brazen yet slightly unsteady adventurers; just don't ask them to recite the alphabet backwards.
    Glass. Sculptured from living glass that reflects energy and refracts light, you are a perfect but delicate emulation of your natural counterpart.
    Quantum. Uncertain of your position, you are accustomed to being anywhere and everywhere all at once.

Tiles now support multiple frames of animation. New animated tiles include fountains, altars, water and lava. Animated gif files are supported only in the Windows Desktop version and are best used for custom portraits.

Polymorph has been significantly rebalanced. Characters now keep their current experience level, instead of taking on the level of the entity. This means your life/mana is rolled based on the polymorphed entity but at your current level. If you are lower level than your polymorphed entity, this will reduce your natural defence and damage as well. This change is intended to make it fairer when a low level character is polymorphed into something overly powerful.

There are numerous quality of life improvements, rebalanced mechanics and updated tiles which are detailed in the in-game Help > Updates screen.

[getter77]

v7.1

Hail Adventurers,

The major feature of this release are spills which are temporary environmental effects. The types of spills are blaze, freeze, electricity and steam. Spills are created from a number of sources including spells, items, entities, traps and barrels. A spill occurs in a square for a short period of time and applies continuous effects. Elemental effects also have interactions such as water on lava creates steam.

Adamantine material has been introduced. The new adamantine weapons and armour are expensive to buy but they can be enchanted up to +7. There's also the adamantine golem which has huge defence and life but no attacks; it follows you around just to obstruct your path.

The shroud tile is now drawn to indicate when there are more squares to explore. This is a subtle but important change because it resolves a graphical ambiguity: is this a dead-end or is this a corridor that hasn't been completely explored?

Staff weapons have been rebalanced to give a defensive bonus. Sabres now deal double damage while mounted, with respect to them being traditionally a cavalry weapon. All animated features are now mountable (eg. bed, fountain, etc). And last but not least, throwing a fish at a seal will charm them

There are many other quality of life improvements, rebalanced mechanics and updated tiles which are detailed in the in-game Help > Updates screen.

Summary of major changes since the previous public release:

    new mechanic: spills.
    new artifacts: Brumstyk, Miserus.
    new material: adamantine.
    new items: sabre, battle staff, adamantine plate mail, 12 adamantine weapons.
    new entities: adamantine golem.
    new settings: instruct each character, disable mask animations, disable swipe gestures.
    shroud tile drawn to indicate unexplored squares.

[getter77]

v7.2

Hail Adventurers,

Announcing the release of the Kaloi Opus module, featuring over 20 new generation algorithms with extensive overland and underground maps plus set pieces and side dungeons. Hopefully without spoiling too much, check out this short video showcase:

This module inspired most of the new content and changes in this release. Notably, there are 'area labels' to indicate when you have changed locations on a large overland map. You will notice them at the bottom of the screen in the showcase video.

To make your battles a little bit more visceral, blood spills when you kill a monster to beyond -10 life points. There is plenty of variation in the blood splatter tiles to entertain all you butcherers.

Features can now be broken such as the fountain and sarcophagus. This means fountains are less likely to turn into water traps and may simply dry up instead. Sarcophagi no longer vanish once they're opened and remain as a constant reminder of your indiscriminate vandalism.

Speaking of vandalism; breaking of boulders, statues, barrels now incur a small loss of karma. This is to discourage the wanton destruction of the dungeon environment as it's important to leave some decoration for the adventurers that follow you.

Enemies will now use musical instruments to wake up nearby sleeping monsters. Those brass bugles and leather drums are no longer harmless in the hands of your enemies.

The mostly redundant statue gargoyle entity has been removed so that the gargoyle and winged gargoyle can conceal themselves as statues. Having a 'statue gargoyle statue' was a little silly.

The remaining eight quick actions are now accessible from the right-click/long-press personal menu. Access to additional quick actions has been a much requested feature and I've finally found a place to put it.

The floor panel is now limited to 100 items and displays 'X more items' when it is truncated. This means you grinders will have to find another way to crash the game.

The offline hall of fame now supports top 20 by class, aimed at those of you who fiercely guard their digital privacy.

Original title music for Pixel Sojourn and Dhak Legacy modules have been composed by Lucas Kneipp (https://www.lucaskneipp.com). Much appreciation to this amazingly talented and generous artist.

Support for Android Themed Icons contributed by 'flexagoon'. Thank you for the suggestion and then being prepared to do all the work to help me out.

Due to the inexorable march of time, things that were completely fine have been deprecated. Android 5.0 (API 21) is now the minimum supported OS, previous minimum was Android 4.4 (19). iOS 10.0 is now the minimum supported OS, previous minimum was iOS 8.0. I stand on the shoulders of software giants who are obsessed with planned obsolescence.

And of course, there are many other quality of life improvements, rebalanced mechanics and updated tiles which are detailed in the in-game Help > Updates screen.

All adventurers are welcome to come join our Discord.

Summary of major changes since the previous public release:

    new module: Kaloi Opus.
    new items: adamantine bident, plastic sword, zircon.
    new entities: emerald golem, topaz golem, blue light, red light.
    new hordes: beetle, scorpion.
    new spill: blood.
    new device: pressure plate.
    new block: trophy.
    new gates: gold door, iron door.
    new barriers: wooden wall, sewer floor.
    new grounds: snow, gold floor, granite floor, cave floor, sewer floor.