Announce DaJAngband 1.3.5 released

[will_asher]

Highlights of the changelist between 1.3.3 and 1.3.5:
(This is only the highlights of the changes & bugfixes, but all of the changes and fixed bugs are listed in DaJAngbandreadme135.txt)

Fixed bugs:
- fixed bug: "There's nothing to disarm there" when moving onto new terrain types with EASY_ALTER turned on.
- fixed bug involving monster resistance to light and dark. The most noticable effect of the bug was that dark hounds and a few other monsters were hurt by light (or dark) more than they were supposed to be.
- fixed bug: corruption increases even after you stop wearing/weilding the corrupting item
- fixed bug: the tunneling code sometimes has trouble making doors into rooms which are mostly corners (like "circle in a diamond") because it doesn't allow making a corner into an entrance.

Dungeon terrain, design & traps:
- separated big rubble and small rubble into two separate terrain features.
- lesser vaults modified so that no lesser vault requires digging through granite to get into the main part of the vault. (Many have had their granite entrance replaced by big rubble. ...although a few still have certain inner parts of the vault which require digging through granite to get to).
- The teleporter box is more controllable and generally works better now.
- Some flavor changes to themed levels.
- room runes added which give a special effect to the whole room.
- chance for vault/room designs to be flipped (taken from Sil)

Object changes:
- added staff/wand ego which prevents charges being drained (This is the only ego wands can get)
- brands on elemental rings are now x2 instead of x3. Also you can now get a brand from a weapon (like a main gauche) wielded in the shield slot, but it becomes a x2 brand.
- branded ammo is much more likely to break on hitting a monster. Also ammo is much more likely to disappear when the destination is a water grid.
- improved mushrooms of stoneskin (added Rslime and Rshards among other things)

Monster changes:
- Different actions make different amounts of noise. (In the little time I've had to playtest, this seems to have less gameplay effect that I expected.) Also, temporary monster effects (like confusion and stunning) are now handled in a separate process_monster funcion.
- summon illusion monster spell, also clone self: Make several illusory copies of the monster casting the
spell. These illusions appear to have the same HP as the casting monster at all times. Upon casting, the caster immediately swaps places with one of the illusions.
- <censored> -This is a certain monster change I don't feel like warning people about beforehand... Only a couple monsters have it. Be the first to discover it! (I should have a prize but I don't..)
- monster champions: certain monsters (captains/cheiftains, etc), have a chance to be named & become a pseudo-unique (kindof like a randart). Many other monster types have a much smaller chance to be named.
- water-only monsters should hide better in water when the PC is not adjacent to them even if the PC has noticed them before. Water monsters in water are harder to hit with range weapons.
- tweaks made so that shallow monsters are less common in vaults, and groups are less likely to be big in vaults.
- scared monsters can pust past monsters of the same race to run away.
- monster trap-setting spell tweaked

Spell changes:
- more minor improvements to the chance magic realm (mainly for tourists). new spells: awareness of thieves, celebrity watch (basically detect uniques and named monsters), travel journal. (replacing two useless spells and a redundant spell) Also, tourists get reduced mana compared to other classes that get their 1st spell at clvl 1.

- There are likely some changes not listed here that I have no record of anymore since I lost my old DaJAngband ideas text file.

Download here

warning: This version has some new, not-very-well tested features. For instance, the room runes are wizmode tested only to make sure the mechanics of the room effects work. Actual game play effects are still mostly untested. So let me know what you think, not just with bug reports, but what you think about the effects that the changes have on gameplay.

*EDIT: yes I'm aware that I skipped version 1.3.4. This is on purpose because there were more changes than a usual small release.

[buzzkill]

Sounds like good stuff. It'll probably be a while before I get a chance to play. I'm still working on adding DAJ to UT32 (very slowly), and even after that is complete, there are still lots of missing tiles.

[getter77]

Excellent, congrats on making another release! Please throw it up to Roguebasin new release and such when you get a chance, so things can be orderly reckoned and hopefully more people give the new version/game a shot:

http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopme...itle=Main_Page

[will_asher]

Originally Posted by getter77

Excellent, congrats on making another release! Please throw it up to Roguebasin new release and such when you get a chance, so things can be orderly reckoned and hopefully more people give the new version/game a shot:

http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopme...itle=Main_Page

Done.
I usually announce on roguebasin at the same time I announce here, but I didn't get around to it yesterday.

[buzzkill]

Slightly buggy behaviour... still playing 1.3.1 (doh!)

When failing to disarm a pit trap, you receive two messages "You set off the pit!", which seems sort of odd, and them "You fall into the pit!", when in actuality, you're still standing exactly where you were, beside the pit.

Solution: First, repress the first message, it's unnecessary (or change it, "You lose your footing"). Second, actually move the player onto the same grid as the trap, if that is possible. Else, convert pit-type-trap into earthquake-type-pit and place player in it .

[will_asher]

Originally Posted by buzzkill

Slightly buggy behaviour... still playing 1.3.1 (doh!)

When failing to disarm a pit trap, you receive two messages "You set off the pit!", which seems sort of odd, and them "You fall into the pit!", when in actuality, you're still standing exactly where you were, beside the pit.

Solution: First, repress the first message, it's unnecessary (or change it, "You lose your footing"). Second, actually move the player onto the same grid as the trap, if that is possible. Else, convert pit-type-trap into earthquake-type-pit and place player in it .

First, I think that pair of odd messages was inherited from the version of V that DAJ is based on (3.0.9b). Second, in a later version of DAJ (don't remember which), I fixed the thing about 'falling into the pit while still being in the grid next to it.
I'll change the message, "You lose your footing" sounds good.

[will_asher]

The download link in the first post is updated with a bugfix. (The cause mortal wounds monster spell sometimes caused ~24K damage.)

The other bug that ranger jeff reported about the fire elemental that seemed to have died and kept casting fireball hasn't yet been fixed. I won't get around to serious bugfixing for at least a month, but I thought I'd do a quick update to fix that one deadly bug.

EDIT: now if only I knew how to ressurrect a savefile...

[buzzkill]

Crash bug (1.3.5)... When I try to view the details of the "spy" in the knowledge menu, the game crashes.

[Malak Darkhunter]

I'm kind of Curious because *Shamefully* I haven't looked at Daj since it was released, since it was being fined tuned and worked on, I notice you seem to like Daj quite a lot, so my question is this: What is it about Daj that you like, and how is it different from V upon which it is based?

[buzzkill]

Off the top of mu head, it's not very different than V at first glance, but it's got a greatly expanded number of races and classes to play, as well as a spattering of new enemies, not too many though, not like Steam.

Will has reworked perception/stealth, magic spells, and tweaked many other of the main mechanics in a way that works. It's a bit more evil with mimics being truly disguised. If you get deep enough you'll find enemies that can bypass your most treasured resists, like rConf. It's also one of the few variants I've ever beaten.

Basically, Will managed to changed the game for the better, mostly in small ways, but threw a few big changes in there too, and maybe even a few silly ones, without breaking it. DAJ should surprise you on occasion, something that just doesn't happen in V, no fault of it's own.