[Announce] FrogComposband 7.1.salmiak released

[Sideways]

Get your copy of FrogComposband 7.1.salmiak 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.)

As usual, savefiles are unidirectionally compatible; you can safely use old savefiles in 7.1.salmiak, but you can't use 7.1.salmiak savefiles in older versions.

Many thanks to all players and feedback providers, keep it up! I do hope to have a changelog one day that doesn't have page after page of "fixed such and such bug", but please don't ever stop reporting them

Changes in FrogComposband 7.1.salmiak:

* Added new dungeons and randomized which dungeons actually appear

* Added new objects, ego types, artifacts, item curses, terrain features and random artifact names

* Added new monsters (including the reintroduction of the Greater Cyber Wyrm Angel Daemon Lich as an exclusively postgame monster)

* Added new player-monster race (Mummy) based on Maledicts from Pos-R

* Moved to a 32-color palette and changed the colors of many monsters
-- NOTES: If your platform does not support more than 16 colors, or FrogComposband's coloring code for your platform is faulty, compile with --disable-xtra-colours to retain use of 16 colors only. If your platform does support more than 16 colors but you wish to stick to 16 (from nostalgic reasons or for greater contrast between colors), load user-lim.prf (typing &4 in-game does this automatically) or otherwise modify the colors with the '&' command
-- Special thanks to Oneiron for helping me debug the 32-color palette

* Town services could enchant multiple weapons for the price of one; this has been fixed (thanks to Thraalbee for reporting)

* Directions were given for Heaven and Hell even if the player had not won; this has been fixed (thanks to Marty and ster for reporting)

* Fixed bug when Teleport Level was used after completing Crystal Quest (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Fixed bug when stairs were taken just when recall kicked in (thanks to wobbly and bostock for reporting)

* Fixed bug with hand grenade explosions sometimes causing a "player" fake monster to temporarily appear (thanks to wobbly for reporting)

* Fixed bug with multi-effect monster blows sometimes killing an opponent repeatedly (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Fixed bug with autotargeting the mount for hasting and healing (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Fixed bug with devices in wilderness rooms generating with no effect (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Fixed bug with standard artifacts disappearing from the floor if they had been carried there from another level (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Fixed bug with Ninjas continuing to attack if Kawarimi was triggered mid-turn (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Timed monster statuses were not processed in the overworld; this has been fixed (thanks to bostock for reporting)

* Fixed old bug with statue stacking (thanks to kt for reporting)

* Fixed infinite loop on junk autoget when always_pickup was on and the Easy Destroyer was not on (thanks to DavidMedley for reporting)

* Fixed crash when the object list subwindow was on and an item with specific properties was equipped from the floor (thanks to caruso for reporting)

* A potion of Restore Mana thrown from the floor could cause a phantom copy of itself to explode; this has been fixed

* Bumping into mountains while confused consumed no time; this has been fixed (thanks to Hugo for reporting)

* Fixed weirdness on player beholders with mutational innate attacks (thanks to Karkaroth for reporting)

* Fixed annoying and inconsistent handling of erratic movement on mounts (thanks to budswell for reporting)

* Fixed bug with newly acquired locked mutations not affecting regeneration properly (thanks to ster for reporting)

* Fixed bug with insurance and player-elemental item destruction

* Fixed bug with inappropriate handling of insured items left behind on a level the player subsequently returned to

* Fixed crash on shop shuffle if too many items had been reserved

* Fixed ancient bugs with the wilderness terrain-selection algorithm, and adjusted some numbers that had been optimized for the buggy version

* Fixed various types of weirdness with Bunshin; it is now generally less useful against auras, but more useful in a number of other situations where it previously did not apply

* Fixed minor bug with innate attack damage calculations

* Fixed weirdness with charmed clones

* Fixed yet another loophole to anti-scumming item/gold drop limits

* Fixed incorrect pluralization of some quiver egos

* Fixed weirdness with door placement in cavern areas

* Fixed occasional weirdness with stair placement after quest completion

* Multiple items could be reserved for the price of one; this has been fixed

* Turncounts in character dumps now properly account for midnight starts (this does not apply retroactively)

* Changed the power of confusion effects, they should now at least resemble the claimed powers

* Fixed issue with the powers of Slow Monster bolt spells (thanks to Saru for reporting)

* Allowed Samurai to view damage averages for Kendo attack techniques (thanks to ster for suggesting)

* Renamed weak Beam of Light to "Moonbeam" to more clearly distinguish it from strong Beam of Light (thanks to bostock for suggesting)

* Slightly relaxed capture-balling requirements for hostile monsters to prevent some low-HP monsters from being captureable at all (thanks to caruso for bringing this up)

* Added option (on by default) to limit quantity prompts in shops to the highest amount that is both available and affordable (thanks to caruso for suggesting)

* Added option (off by default) to indicate unknown item flavors in shops (thanks to caruso for suggesting)

* Added option (off by default) to display the nominal energy cost of the most recent action (thanks to Bucephalus for suggesting)

* Added option (on by default) to extend the unknown attribute indicator '?' to cover random dragon resistances (thanks to bostock for bringing this up)

* Combined the empty_levels option with the ironman_empty_levels option

* Allowed using Home/End and 7/1 to immediately move to the beginning or end of a long home or museum inventory (thanks to Melum for suggesting)

* Renamed the "Cause Wounds" monster spells/auras to various types of "Curse", making it less unintuitive that most of them can curse the equipment

* Changed the Patient personality to be more the opposite of Hasty; it now has slightly better stats and skills than before, but gives a speed penalty

* Potions of New Life now shuffle Split personalities (thanks to Aav for suggesting)

* Improved the object list and monster list UI (thanks to kt and bostock for suggestions)
- allowed customizing the lists' width
- allowed looping between the first and last entry with Up/Down arrows
- the object list now displays visible stairs if no objects are visible

* Allowed scrolling long monster descriptions while targeting

* Allowed the Gloves of the Master Tonberry to generate for Tonberries

* Allowed pets to recall with player from slightly further away

* Average rings, amulets and Feanorian Lamps are now identified on pseudo-ID

* Buffed Dwarven body armour again, it now has much more potential upside

* A number of additional uniques, most notably Mandor, now resist confusion

* Player quylthulgs can now (usually) summon around a target location starting at CL 20, regardless of which options they use

* Changed the special Bloodrip player-cutting mechanic; it is now less severe but happens more often, and happens in melee rather than at random times (thanks to bostock, ster and MITZE for feedback)

* Changed hallucination to make it more difficult to figure out which monsters are real

* Automatic combining of pack ammo with quiver ammo now happens even if the ammo is unsuitable for the current shooter

* Tweaked the confusion-resistance message for already confused monsters (thanks to Bucephalus for suggesting)

* Tweaked Rune-Knight mana gain formula

* Slightly tweaked the effects of Easy-Spell/Dec-Mana on spell fail rates

* Re-allowed the use of Destruction in Witch Wood as a reduced-power special effect

* Tweaked the XP values of many monsters

* Dungeon entrance guardians are no longer vulnerable to genocide

* Life ratings are now displayed by default on a scale of 0 to 76, rather than on a percentage scale of 87% to 117%; this is purely a display change, intended both to permit greater accuracy and to distinguish them even more clearly from the unrelated racial and CON/equipment-based HP multipliers

* Trap warnings now reveal the trap

* The Mogaminator is now applied to items on shop-ID and museum-ID

* The in-game high score list now adjusts scores for options and accomplishments (this does not apply retroactively)

* Race change attempts disallowed by competition mode now trigger the Baby Foul Curse instead (also, the Baby Foul Curse is now more evil)

* Pass-wall monsters and players are no longer slowed by trees

* Nerfed humans (instead of the second demigod talent at CL 40, they now receive a primary-stat-dependent weakness at CL 35)

* Allowed the recall interface to give a multi-column dungeon list

* Changed innate attack damage display to show the damage for each effect separately instead of combining it with the damage from the first effect

* Further reduced energy randomness, it is now more strictly limited at higher speeds

* Replaced the hidden ability of some Mage-type classes to recover mana twice as fast with a public "Mana Recovery" object flag. Also, effective HP regen and effective SP regen are now displayed separately on the character sheet for transparency

* Destruction no longer always works on summoned monsters, except in instant-coffee mode. It still always works on "nice" summons (i.e. most high-level monsters the turn after they appear), and summoned monsters never gain destruction immunity

* Allowed monsters to resist disintegration

* Allowed two-handed wielding of baseball bats

* Additional monster health bar coloring:
- temporary slowness is indicated with dark grey stars (lowest priority)
- temporary haste is indicated with violet brackets
- a high monster power (above 133.3%) is indicated with dark blue brackets

* Wilderness level display in the immediate vicinity of a dungeon entrance now indicates which dungeon it is, e.g. "Wilderness (Angband): L1" instead of just "Wilderness: L1"

* Allowed Beorning Rage-Mages to use Rage in bear form (thanks to clouded for suggesting)

* The 'U'/'O' power selection menu now displays the stats involved in determining fail rates

* Further improved and updated the help

* Various minor tweaks and code improvements

Good luck everybody, have fun, and don't die!

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Sideways

I do hope to have a changelog one day that doesn't have page after page of "fixed such and such bug"

The way to achieve this is to make your changelog a summary of changes

[Sideways]

The next changelog will just say "various minor tweaks and code improvements"

[Saru]

What do you mean by "Changed the power of confusion effects, they should now at least resemble the claimed powers?" Did some of the confusion spells not use the displayed power?

Thanks for the new release @Sideways, looking forward to all the changes!

[Sideways]

Originally Posted by Saru

What do you mean by "Changed the power of confusion effects, they should now at least resemble the claimed powers?" Did some of the confusion spells not use the displayed power?

Yes, confusion effects frequently had misleading powers. I mentioned this in our earlier discussion

[HugoVirtuoso]

* Life ratings are now displayed by default on a scale of 0 to 76, rather than on a percentage scale of 87% to 117%; this is purely a display change, intended both to permit greater accuracy and to distinguish them even more clearly from the unrelated racial and CON/equipment-based HP multipliers

So no option to back to the 87% to 117% systenn?

[CyclopsSlayer]

Originally Posted by HugoTheGreat2011

So no option to back to the 87% to 117% systenn?

87-117% meant something intuitively. 0-76 Means NOTHING to those who don't know the code. Like me.

[emulord]

Id much rather have a life rating % because its more intuitive. I don't care if I'm seeing +/- 0.5% of what the true value is.

[wobbly]

which is why old players like my are switching it back in options.

displayed by default

it can be changed in the options menu

Edit: Also hurrray for lilac! Graphics of the future. Good work as always.

[Sideways]

That the 87-117% scale seems more intuitive is the other reason (besides accuracy) why I made it not be the default, because this is an area where people's intuition tends to lead them completely astray. Every other time I see new players intuitively get the wrong idea or hear established players repeat popular misconceptions, it's something related to life ratings.

Some of the common myths about life ratings I keep hearing again and again include:
- A life rating multiplies the player's HP. [It doesn't multiply anything, though in the special case of a CL 50 player it is reasonable to think of it as multiplying 245 HP, a fraction of the total.]
- Life ratings are affected by the player's race, class and personality, and/or the race/class/personality HP multipliers shown at character creation are connected to life ratings in some other way. [Nope; the multipliers and the life rating are unrelated and don't even operate on similar scales.]
- Items with +Life or -Life on them have at least something to do with life ratings. [Nope; they affect an unrelated CON-based HP multiplier and operate on different scales.]
- The average life rating on the percentage scale is 100%, or it's 102% because that's half-way between 87 and 117. [It's higher than 102%, and would be very close to 103% without rounding effects (such as 117.9% being displayed as 117%) dragging it down.]
- There are 31 possible life ratings, all of them equally likely. [Only in Oposband. Frog/Pos/Compos technically have more than 700 possible life ratings, 77 of which are functionally distinct, and not all are equally likely.]
- Life ratings and life points are somehow connected, and/or life point drain drains the life rating, and/or life ratings can be drained in some other way, and/or life points are sometimes called a life rating. [Nope.]

Not all of these misconceptions are entirely the fault of the percentage scale; the average being off-center is mystifying on any scale, and some of the others also have to do with awkward terminology (which I have tried to improve); but the percentage scale is the leading culprit. The option to switch back to it is there so old players can stick with what they find familiar and are used to estimating "good", "bad" and "meh" with; but please use it responsibly and knowing what it actually means.

(The practical meaning of the 0 to 76 scale shouldn't be that unintuitive: a life rating of 76 will eventually give you 76 more HP than a life rating of 0, before accounting for the various multipliers. At any rate, I don't think that's less intuitive than "a life rating of 117% will eventually give you [30% of 245] more HP than a life rating of 87%, before accounting for the various multipliers"...)