FAangband 1.4

[Nick]

FAangband 1.4 is now available for Windows, OS X, several flavours of Linux and as source from the home page. The main changes are as follows:

New game map
There is now a fourth game map. As well as the compressed and extended wilderness and the hybrid dungeon, there is a Vanilla-style dungeon - complete with town at the top, Sauron at level 99, Morgoth at level 100, etc. In many ways playing on this map is very like an updated and modified Oangband.

Option revamp
The process of choosing a character now starts with choice of map (as above) and then "game modes" - which are what used to be called birth options. Map and modes appear in the 'C' screen and character dumps, but not in the options. Regular options have been trimmed down and reorganised, too.

Improved squelch
There is now a menu on item destruction like the Vanilla one, but squelching is finer grained than in V. Each level of squelch (good, average, etc) can be set individually for each type of item, and individual ego types can also be set to squelch; all this should be easy from the destruction menu, but can also be set by going to squelch under the options menu.

There are also a bunch of minor improvements and bugfixes:

• Wilderness ironman works properly again
• Choice of specialty is slightly smoother
• Spell and other menus are a bit neater
• Shopkeepers don't get ripped off as easily
• Autoinscriptions work properly now
• Quiver inscriptions work properly for throwing weapons, and trigger automatic pickup
• Pseudo-ID inscriptions are wiped properly when the item is fully known
• Item selection should always start on the right one of inventory, equipment, quiver or floor
• A lot of savefile and other code improvements imported form Vanilla
• Door creation works properly
• Artifact rods have timeouts
• Word of Recall is always stocked by the Alchemist

Many people have provided code, reported bugs, or generally been supportive. These include the Angband devteam, Derakon, buzzkill, Shockbolt, Jeff Greene, Antoine, half, Scatha, Fendell Orcbane, UglySquirrell, LostTemplar, Mondkalb, Teclis, clouded, Whelk, HugoTheGreat2011, Tenka, eeeickythump, Psi, APV, skadefryd, Malak Darkhunter, debo, HallucinationMushroom, Seany C, master.discord, tg122, getter77, Jason Banks, Atriel and Mr Mushroom. Thanks to all, and apologies to those I've missed.

[getter77]

Awesome, always good to see this project continuing to improve on multiple fronts---much obliged on the supportive shout out too. Keep at the fine works!

[takkaria]

This looks ace - nice one.

[Fendell Orcbane]

Hmm, I have a lvl 32 mage in FA. BUt I think I'm just going to play the new game. Maybe start with something easy like a high elf assassin : )

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Fendell Orcbane

Hmm, I have a lvl 32 mage in FA.

If you do decide to import a 1.3 character, I always advise backing up first; also, check options and squelch settings on loading into 1.4, as these are the obvious points of failure.

I'll probably put up an FA comp with an Angband dungeon character in the next couple of days.

[tg122]

I encountered a strange bug with the new 1.4 version. Played my first game, died, and then started again with the same character type (Adan Paladin), and I spawned in what looked like Ephel Brandir, however there were no exits to the wilderness, I couldn't enter any stores, and the town was called "nowhere."

After quitting and reloading a saved game, the town was now called Ephel Brandir again, and I could enter stores, but there were still no exits to the wilderness so I was essentially stuck in this town.

[AnonymousHero]

Originally Posted by tg122

the town was called "nowhere."

AAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAA! It's baaaaaaaaaack!

[HugoVirtuoso]

Send a PM to Nick about this.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by tg122

I encountered a strange bug with the new 1.4 version. Played my first game, died, and then started again with the same character type (Adan Paladin), and I spawned in what looked like Ephel Brandir, however there were no exits to the wilderness, I couldn't enter any stores, and the town was called "nowhere."

After quitting and reloading a saved game, the town was now called Ephel Brandir again, and I could enter stores, but there were still no exits to the wilderness so I was essentially stuck in this town.

*facepalm*

Which map were you playing? Standard wilderness?

EDIT: OK, confirmed - it's a problem with quickstart. Workaround: don't use quickstart, go through the whole birth process. I'll work on a fix.

EDIT2: Because this is a bug in the birth process, it doesn't affect the new FA competition. I know you were all worried.

[Whelk]

Very awesome, thank you Nick! So glad to get back to my hobbit throwing rogue with the throwing fixes. I missed him so!