[Announce] Poschengband 2.0.0 Released

[chris]

Let's call it a beta release! It is available here in the hopes that I can get some playtesting help.

This release finally puts the Pos in PosChengband. That's right, we finally have a Possessor! How does it work?

First, the possessor is a monster race and is available under the Monsters menu during racial selection. When you choose this option, you don't get to select a class (just like with all the other monsters).

Next, you begin life as a "soul" which is really nothing but a pathetic ghost in search of a body. You can't wield anything other than a light source, and you have no physical attacks. But don't fear, you have a nice wand of magic missile to play with, fully charged.

So your first order of business will be to procure a corpse. Most human type monsters drop them and are good starting choices. You might mosey on out to the wilderness surround Outpost for example and snag a Novice something or other. Corpses are not guaranteed to drop, but they are quite a bit more likely to show up when you are in your native ghostly form. So don't get greedy using up all your missiles on something too big as you might not get a corpse!

Once you have one, use the racial power of Possession to inhabit the body. At that point, you won't be so weak and can probably wear some gear as well.

At any rate, that's how to start. I haven't done a whole lot of playtesting yet. Also, I moved the body type information to an external file (b_info.txt) which required me to change all of the existing monster races. Hopefully, I didn't break anything obvious.

Oh, one final note: Uniques no longer drop 100% of the time. And I guess I should also mention that corpses now have realistic weights, at least when you are playing a possessor.

[Derakon]

Congrats on the release! I can believe this was a lot of work.

[chris]

Thanks ... It is cheating a bit to take a beta and call it a 2.0 "release"

Some more on Possessor mechanics:
When you possess something, you gain stats and skills based on that form. Obviously, you get resistances and abilities too, but you don't always get the monster's armor class (e.g. a novice warrior is wearing armor and does not have intrinsic tough skin!).

If you gain spells, then your spell stat will vary depending on the form (e.g. priests use wisdom, mages use intelligence, etc).

If you gain intrinsic powers, then these are usually breath weapons and generally run off constitution. There are some exceptions, like throwing boulders which runs off Strength. Remember, intrinsic racial powers ('U' command) can be used when berserk or in the presence of anti-magic. Their costs can be paid for with hp if your sp run out, etc.

Possessor's still need to gain levels just like everybody else. Racial powers and spells generally have minimum casting levels and fail rates too.

Your current form limits how much experience you may gain. Everybody can get to CL15, but generally the rule is you may advance to the monsters level + 5. So, you really can't stay as a baby white dragon forever as you just will stop gaining levels pretty soon. And you won't ever "evolve" the way monster races do. No, you need to find another corpse!

You can *identify* a corpse and it will tell you some info. You can probe a monster and learn more!

Edit: Innate attacks can be blocked by equipment. So, if your form has a "Hit" attack or a "Touch" attack, then you need at least one empty hand to use it. Innate attacks are generally what is specified in r_info ... They don't progress the way they do for other player monster races.

[Nick]

Wow, excellent.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Totally ingenious way to incorprate Possessors.

[Nick]

Initial playtesting makes me grateful for quickstart

[Derakon]

Originally Posted by Nick

Initial playtesting makes me grateful for quickstart

I'm reminded of the recommended start for ToME2 Alchemists: make a Potion of Detonations, head into the wilderness, and try to blow up a 4-headed hydra.

I don't suppose you have any idea how hard it is to compile for OSX? I'm tempted to give it a play in my Copious Spare Time.

[chris]

Originally Posted by Derakon

I'm reminded of the recommended start for ToME2 Alchemists: make a Potion of Detonations, head into the wilderness, and try to blow up a 4-headed hydra.

I don't suppose you have any idea how hard it is to compile for OSX? I'm tempted to give it a play in my Copious Spare Time.

Instructions here. Except you want this source and you can ignore the stuff about malloc.h (hopefully). And I think XQuartz or X11 needs to be installed first so the lib files and headers can be found.

HTH

[HugoVirtuoso]

Are version 1.0.37 savefiles compatible with 2.0.0? Let's say I want to upgrade one of my Angels (well, after the competition is over) to version 2.0.0, just for version namesake.

[chris]

Originally Posted by HugoTheGreat2011

Are version 1.0.37 savefiles compatible with 2.0.0? Let's say I want to upgrade one of my Angels (well, after the competition is over) to version 2.0.0, just for version namesake.

Yes, it should work. However, whenever upgrading versions it is always highly recommended that you first backup your savefile just in case!