Announce DaJAngband v1.0.96 Released

[will_asher]

changes since 1.0.96:
- added FORCE_SLEEP flag to several monsters which needed it, also added POWERFUL flag to some monsters, and reduced the group size for some very tough monsters which come in groups
- POWERFUL flag now affects more things: reduces your saving throw against most melee and spell effects including cause wounds spells, also gives about a 6% chance for stat draining to bypass sustains, and POWERFUL monsters still do slight damage with an element you are immune to (because if you're immune to fire, the smoke from it can still do damage, if you're immune to cold, the ice can still do damage, etc..)
- A couple race/class restrictions have been removed (specifically, a dunadan can now be a druid,
and a half-orc can now be a priest or paladin.)
- weapons that give light now usually do slight extra damage to HURT_LITE monsters
- birth.txt help file updated to include new races and class (but it doesn't have the war mage yet)
- monster stealth implemented. How well you notice steathy monsters is based primarily on distance between you and the monster and your perception/searching skills. A couple other factors also make a small difference. Stealth level ranges from 0 to 6 and take up the previously unused slot in the monster entries of monster.txt. (stealth of 0 has no stealth effect, stealth of 6 is nearly invisible because of stealth). Most stealthy monsters are: felines, higher level thief-types, higher-level dark elves, and the ranger and ranger chieftain (instead of invisibility). Most very small monsters (white rats, mushroom patches) have a stealth of 2 which means you might not notice it from a distance. Most other monsters have a stealth level of 0 or 1.
- The assassin class now gets a couple more useful spells. (It previously lacked any detection spells in the town books.)
- More tweaks with artifacts, egos, and items including the addition of gloves of magic mastery and some other ideas borrowed from FA/O. Also descriptions for a lot of objects borrowed from OAngband.
- Necromancers' summon demonic aid spell now works. Added a couple spells to the wizardry realm.
- War Mage character class added. This is supposed to be a class where you can actually use magic as your primary offence and (in theory) not need to attack with weapons at all. They get extra mana and most attack spells even earlier than the V mage. At this stage, it is barely tested and not finished, suggestions for improvement are encouraged.
- Social class has an effect on starting gold even when using point-based stats.
- a few misc. minor bugs fixed.
- primary spellcasters (the ones that get zero fail) get a slight damage reduction on high clvls representing the magic power that builds up around them. This damage reduction applies to different kinds of attacks, including breath attacks unlike damage reduction from armor. War mages get extra damage reduction because they have low HP, CON, and less defence spells than the wizard.

Download link:
http://angband.oook.cz/dajangband/DaJAngbandsrc1096.zip
(DaJAngband website link is in my sig)

[CJNyfalt]

Grats on getting your new release out.

And, BTW here's the answer to the question in your sig:
http://groups.google.fi/group/rec.ga...9b1e3c6fb2ade3

I had always assumed that the various yeeks were based loosly on
H. Beam Piper's "Fuzzies". Several of his stories were about them,
esp. _Fuzzy Sapiens_; "The Fuzzy Papers" collected that one and another
one, both ?novella length. I've got these in paperback somewhere,
but have just moved, so can't give ISBN, etc.

SPOILERS for the Fuzzy stuff FOLLOWS:

Fuzzies are upright bipedal humanoids, covered with (frequently gold
toned) fur, about knee height (maybe less, it's been several years).
They are tool-using sentients, with a default hunter-gatherer culture
and primitive religious beliefs (they've got "Ceremonional Burial",
but no further, to put it in Civilization terms), but learn *fast*.
Highly dexterous, relatively large eyes for night work, primary food is
something called a land prawn, which is pretty much what is sounds like.
Tool use developed for more effecient shell-cracking, meat picking, etc.
They have a fairly developed primitive language, but most is
in a frequency range well above human hearing (and that of their
predators); the only audible portion comes out as "Yeek". This is a
major plot point; they are not believed sentient at first, and the
evil megacorp (tm) owning the planet would loose their exclusive
licence to mine the really keen jems if there were native sentients.
So you have these things spending most of the book going "Yeek?"
"Yeek!", etc. at people, which is used as an example of them lacking
a real language, until the Space Navy people happen to have something
that could hear the real ultrasonic language around at one point.
** James **

[will_asher]

Interesting.. Now that they have some character for me, I might consider putting them back into DaJAngband ..if they didn't sound so cute.

Now I have to think of a new DaJAngband tagline and change my sig.

[Narvius]

Uhm, heh. I've just read that thread, tried your variant and found it's great. I've got no idea how I could've overlook it for so long...