[Announce] FrogComposband 7.1.chocolate released

[Sideways]

Get your copy of FrogComposband 7.1.chocolate here, with the source code, precompiled Windows full game (without the source code) and precompiled Windows executable.

(Windows users who download the .exe should also download the source code, but not the full game, which would be superfluous. Windows users who download the full game won't need to download any other files.)

Savefiles are unidirectionally compatible with previous versions of FrogComposband; you can safely use old savefiles in 7.1.chocolate, but you can't use chocolate savefiles in older versions. (It's possible some characters may experience weirdness during the postgame if they update versions mid-game, but it shouldn't be too bad.)

Many thanks to everybody who provided ideas or feedback! I hope you'll like the new version and keep pointing out all the problems

Changes in FrogComposband 7.1.chocolate:

* Added a new player class (Disciples; which are essentially three classes rolled in one, because the three subclasses don't have much in common)

* Made quest lines less predictable (many quests now have an alternative version that can take the place of the original; some of the substitutes are simply different versions of the same basic quest, but most are connected only through similar rewards and themes, and a few are completely unrelated)

* Added two new player races (Tomte and Beorning), one new player monster race (Pumpkin) and three new personalities (Fragile, Sneaky and Noble; thanks to emulord for suggesting Noble)

* Added many new random artifact names; also, random body armour, shield, glove, boot, cloak and helm artifacts now sometimes pull their names from a sub-list specific to their slot

* Added/re-added several options related to level generation
- option to modify the level size algorithm
(can take any of 13 values, from "always tiny" to "always huge", allowing all players to pick their preferred level size and to experiment)
- option to have all rooms generate as vaults
(greater vaults unless one of the two smallest level size options is used)
- option to increase monster density on small levels to match the density in old versions of PosChengband
- option to allow small levels even in dungeons with the "big" flag
(with the exception of Arena)
- option to sometimes reshape levels with an extreme width-to-height ratio

* Added "thrall mode" option (player starts on level 90, with a few extra items to make survival possible; inspired by FAangband and other variants with similar options)

* Some key consumables are now guaranteed to generate in shops at birth

* Plugged holes in input flushing after casting/device failures

* Orc shamans crashed on casting attempts due to a missing magic descriptor (a rage-mage hack I added shortly before the 7.1.toffee release made this bug a lot more serious); this has been fixed (thanks to aban for reporting)

* Monsters seen through fuzzy telepathy still appeared as "Monster" on the tombstone; this has been fixed

* Level feelings did not work properly with munchkin pseudo-ID; this has been fixed

* Fixed an old PosChengband bug that allowed non-Burglary realms to learn the Burglary realm during the game (thanks to Tiltorax for reporting)

* Bowmasters' Readied Shot caused strange and undesirable results when triggered by an exploding monster; this has been fixed (thanks to Aav for reporting)

* Questors were not marked correctly in a random quest for chameleons; this has hopefully been fixed

* Archaeologists sometimes inappropriately received the "You feel you are leaving something special behind" message (thanks to Draghmar for reporting)

* Deaths from unusual sources like traps and exploding mirrors were not listed correctly (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Spell points were sometimes temporarily displayed incorrectly after a spell was cancelled; this should be fixed now (thanks to bostock for prompting)

* If a unique monster's clone was killed in the Monster Arena, the unique itself was erroneously marked dead; this has been fixed (thanks to the player who reported this - unfortunately I've forgotten who it was)

* With a quest for non-unique monsters, summoning a pet of the target species counted as a kill towards the quest's goal; this has been fixed (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Some monster spells were inappropriately inaccessible on Possessors because they required mana but the monster's pseudo-class had no mana; this has been fixed (thanks to clouded for reporting)

* For players who had permanently race-polymorphed, the character sheet sometimes listed inaccurate previous races; this has been fixed (thanks to MITZE and Thraalbee for reporting)

* Fixed a bug reported by Hugo (picking up items only sometimes consumed time) by making picking up items never consume time

* Directions could be given for collapsed dungeon entrances; this has been fixed (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Artifact Feanorian Lamps were described as giving light with radius 3, but actually had radius 2; fixed by buffing the actual radius
(thanks to MITZE for reporting)

* Quickwalking characters with a low poison counter could walk indefinitely without incurring any poison damage; this has been fixed
(thanks to Oneiron for reporting)

* Game-initial pets for Cavalry and Beastmasters were not placed properly due to outdated assumptions in the code; this has been fixed
(thanks to Mitternatch for reporting)

* Fixed several crashes/infinite loops with Berserkers getting stat-drained
(thanks to SethaWetha and Marty for reporting)

* Travelling ignored confusion; this has been fixed
(thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Autoget could get stuck in a loop trying to destroy artifacts; this has been fixed (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Fixed duplication of displayed dragon realm stat modifiers during character creation (thanks to TauzentBlitz for reporting)

* Alchemists who died with a heroism buff on could have that buff carry over to their next incarnation; this has been fixed (thanks to Wolpertinger for reporting)

* It was possible to die with positive HP if the player was posthumously cured by a chaos patron; this can no longer happen (thanks to Hugo for reporting)

* Recall dungeons were improperly initialized at birth, allowing no-wilderness characters to recall to Warrens in some circumstances; this has been fixed (thanks to Hugo for prompting me to discover this bug)

* Hex auras and Bard songs processed immediately on entering a new level, allowing players to hurt following monsters repeatedly with no retaliation; this has been fixed (thanks to Gwarl for reporting)

* Some unusual situations (at least in Labyrinth) caused the game to plot travel routes through undiscovered secret doors; this has been fixed

* Entrance guardians were not marked dead if killed by other monsters (including pets); this has been fixed

* Item curse memory was not wiped for some unusual methods of uncursing, causing non-existent curses to be displayed on inspection; this has been fixed

* Character dumps through the high score list had weird turncount indicators; this has been fixed (though not retroactively, so the weirdness will persist for retired characters)

* Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed characters with chaos patrons to select more than one stat-up on reaching a level divisible by five

* Fixed missing burden checks after destroying items or equipping ammo straight from the floor

* If multiple chests were piled on the same square, only one of them was accessible to the "disarm" and "open" commands; this has been fixed

* Hopefully fixed bug with Politicians sometimes randomly crashing at game start (I'm not 100% sure about this; if it still happens, please report)

* Tweaked Nibelungs (they now have different bonuses, slightly lower life rating and melee, and a lower XP modifier)

* Skillmasters are no longer allowed to pick the Weapon Versatility demigod talent (they received no benefits from it anyway, so this just protects them from picking a useless talent)

* Werewolf psions can no longer change shape with Graft Weapon active (thanks to MITZE for suggesting). Also, using Graft Weapon requires an actual weapon

* Doppelganger shape changes no longer reset visuals
(thanks to clouded for suggesting this)

* Mimics and Possessors no longer get permanently gender-swapped by temporarily mimicking/possessing a monster of the opposite sex
(thanks to Oneiron for suggesting this)

* Pets and friendly monsters no longer receive XP for killing other pets or friendly monsters

* Various class-specific attacks that cancel if an empty square is attacked now always consume time if the player is blind (preventing the player from attacking each square in turn until he finds one with a monster in it)

* Being immune to charge draining now also protects from food draining

* Characters who die during the postgame no longer lose their Winner status

* Nerfed recharging somewhat
- Staves of Restore Mana can no longer be recharged with spells or devices
- Blood-Mage damage from recharging spells now ignores invulnerability
- Failed attempts to recharge a device from SP/HP now empty the target device completely

* Politicians' probing/background check now also displays the probability of successfully charming a monster with the current buffs active

* Reduced Hezrou and Barbazu group sizes a bit

* Slightly buffed player Filthy Rags

* Added new command (H in the regular keyset, ^E in the roguelike keyset) for travelling to the nearest unidentified wanted item

* The game now allows easy switching of ring fingers, and automatically suggests doing so if it detects a combat/weaponmastery ring and a non-combat ring being equipped the wrong way around. The easy switch can be triggered either from the automatic prompt or by pressing 'W' (regular keyset only), and costs no time

* Potions of Restoring now also restore life levels

* Tweaked Duelists a bit
- the damage numbers on the character sheet are now more indicative
- very weak monsters are no longer automatically challenged
- retaliating against a monster no longer automatically challenges
- slightly reduced top-end damage from Greater Wounding
- Phase Charge is now slightly more expensive
- removed the Nemesis effect
- the weight limit formula is now more permissive in the early game and less permissive in the late game

* Finishing Heaven is now a bit more interesting (adapted from Frogspawn) (thanks to ster for testplaying and feedback)

* Tweaked Rune-Knights a bit

* Improved travel routing in areas with deep water and/or lava

* Increased the tunnelling bonus on shovels and picks

* Added a text display option to show device power in inventories if known (copied from Composband)

* Added a disturbance option to alert when a wanted unique is killed (thanks to Bucephalus for suggesting)

* Added a disturbance option (on by default) to alert when the poison counter is dangerously high (thanks to ster for suggesting)

* Equipping an item with Auto-Identify now identifies all unidentified items in your inventory (including itself)

* Allowed inscribing an item with '!1' to notify when it has 1 charge, and '!!1' to notify when it's either fully recharged or has 1 charge (thanks to wobbly for suggesting)

* Allowed use-ID'ing fear vulnerability on equipment
(thanks to wobbly for suggesting)

* Reserving cheap objects is no longer hideously expensive

* Tunnelling attempts are no longer automatically repeated if the attempt is completely futile

* Opening doors no longer disturbs travelling

* Updated the in-game FAQ

* Various minor tweaks and code improvements

Good luck everybody, and have fun!

[MITZE]

Congrats!

(It's so odd not being around at all and seeing oneself being credited for something . . .)

[meltdown]

noticed a bug starting in thrall mode as a quylthulg,, crashing on start.

btw love this variant, longtime player
any intrest in adding a class based version of a quylthulg, like a summoner perhaps?
maybe summoner would be weak melee and average/weakish magic device skill but get a bonus to summon monster xp and capture balls
and the allready conceptualized hexblade?

[wobbly]

Re summoner: What would you do with it that makes it different from a beastmaster or trump high-mage?

[Sideways]

Originally Posted by meltdown

noticed a bug starting in thrall mode as a quylthulg,, crashing on start.

Thanks, confirmed.

Composband has hexblades. As far as I can tell, the main difference between them and Hex high-mages is that hexblades are overpowered.

[fred]

Bug. Ring. Game treats ringbearer/pet as a nearby monster preventing entering global map.

[Sideways]

Originally Posted by fred

Bug. Ring. Game treats ringbearer/pet as a nearby monster preventing entering global map.

Thanks for the report, I can't reproduce this problem.

Is it giving you the "leave your pets behind" message, or the "you cannot enter the global map because there are some monsters nearby" message? If it's the latter, are you sure there are no hostile monsters nearby? If it's definitely the ringbearer that's stopping you from entering overworld, is the ringbearer properly marked as a pet, or has it somehow lost pet status while still remaining your ringbearer (which would be a bug)?

[fred]

My bad. Used a dead character for a Ring and didn't adjust the birth option regarding monster summoning/charming.

[Destro]

Was wondering when the next build would be, since there were so many amazing changes on the GIT. I feel like it's time to play again.

Also, I do want to say that I have long-missed the blue mage that could learn from monster abilities. Seeing the vault-only option reappear has made me inspired to shout this oldie out, haha. Though, I know that I'm being extremely optimist on this front. Thanks for your work Sidways!

[Firons2]

Oh heck yes! I'm most excited about the new level generation options, since I found the massive levels to be a big of a slog for me. Thank you for your work and kudos to all of the other contributors too.