[Un] Unangband 0.6.2-wip7b has been released

[andrewdoull]

This is a release to fix a couple of shop stocking bugs that would otherwise make the competition character unplayable. It also fixes a major UI bug on Windows.

The source code is available at http://prdownload.berlios.de/unangba...-wip7b-src.zip

A precompiled OS/X binary is available at http://prdownload.berlios.de/unangba...-wip7b-osx.dmg

A precompiled Windows binary is available at http://prdownload.berlios.de/unangba...-wip7b-win.zip. Thanks to Nick McConnell for this.

Please report any bugs to http://developer.berlios.de/bugs/?group_id=331

### Game Play ###

- Every dungeon guardian creates a stairwell at death.

- Allow torches to be taken from walls.

- Tweaked trick throws, etc. a little bit (Mikolaj Konarski)

- If you have a torch or weapon with a known fire brand wielded, you can use this to light the terrain directly under you, using the | command.

- Added 'dungeon chicken'.

- Tweaked Bree so that it's doable in one go without WOR, made Bill Fenry and a pair of similar uniques bit weaker (Mikolaj Konarski)

- Give druids another spell at 3rd level. They didn't have enough of a choice otherwise.


### User Interface ###

- Tips about spikes, cooking, body parts and magical bags added.

- Added help files for when looking/targetting.

- Always dump character file at death.

- Update tips text to indicate importance of visiting the home in each town to
ensure restocking of shops occurs.


### Bug Fixes ###

- Fix problems with use_trackmouse causing messages to be lost.

- Fixes to make sure doors have to be opened, not walked around.

- Fix for Bug #8712 chaos is overly deadly for earlier levels.

- Fix several secret door types that were also dropping objects when searched.

- Corrected all problems with rings and amulets under 'C' and in combat. (Mikolaj Konarski)

- Remove corrupted OS/X pngs.

- Corrected style descriptions, fleshed out rings and amulets. (Mikolaj Konarski)

- Corrected characters from old messages appearing beneath "You feel stronger. Etc." messages (Mikolaj Konarski)

- Fixed 012322 Dungeon visited flags not reset at birth. (Mikolaj Konarski)

- Fix bug where stairs would be generated under the player in the wildernes.

- Ensure travel warning appears before travelling.

- Fix bug with shops not restocking after starting the game and not visiting Bag End.

- Description of the darkened Isengard was too long for travel UI (Mikolaj Konarski).

- Ensure that player knows what killed him if the object is unidentified.

- Forgot to include which dungeons were visited in save file, resulting in tips
being displayed too often.

- Hacky fix for player school books not restocking after reloading game.

- Show which regions visited in character dump.

- Fix fountains with objects in them disappearing once searched.

- Fix a couple of instances where reflexive pronoun was used incorrectly.

- We built a tunnel off to nowhere if we had difficulty placing the player but
didn't bother trying to put the player at the end of it. Fixed.

- Fix my favourite recurring bug: allied monsters can move even with NEVER_MOVE flag.

- Allies attempt to minimise player disturbance while resting.

- Fix missing UNDEAD flags and allow icky things to be animated... for a short space
of time.

- Remove some diagnostic code.


### Build / Platform ###

- Replace ralloc with mem_alloc in main-win.c (Thanks to Nick McConnell for the fix).

[Nick]

Originally Posted by andrewdoull

- Added 'dungeon chicken'.

The monster that every other monster tastes like?

[zaimoni]

My first thought was a Nethack import, but that seemed out of place for Unangband.

"Give me that old-time petrification...."

[andrewdoull]

Originally Posted by zaimoni

My first thought was a Nethack import, but that seemed out of place for Unangband.

"Give me that old-time petrification...."

As pointed out on my blog, I'll be implementing the following conducts in the next version of Unangband:

• Fly - The only food or drink you may eat must be produced by you vomiting on corpses.
• Basejumper - As per ironman, but you must jump in all chasms you can find. Note that this includes the roofs of all towers.
• Prince Charming - Start with 100 social class. You may not use the wield or take-off commands.
• Itchy - You may only kill cats.
• Lepidopterist - You may only kill monsters by using alcohol
• "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" - Start as a non-specialist warrior. Only use a thrown knife or unarmed combat to kill monsters. The only magical devices (rods, staffs, wands) you may use must be from a Six Demon bag.

[Daven_26d1]

Okay, I'd like to give some feedback, but there is a _lot_ in UN to feedback on! I've only played two @'s since getting the new version, so I guess I'd like to get a bit deeper before I give you another review of the first quarter of the dungeon. Suffice to say I'm really enjoying the game right now!

Some promininent bugs:
-------------------------------

* Sometimes (seems to be certain dungeons, not intermittent) when recalling or using a magical staircase, your character finds him/herself on an "<" on entering the top level map, away from the ">" that leads to the dungeon. In Trollshaw forest (tested Trollshaw a few times and this always happens), I was able to reach level 3, then 2, 1, 0, -1 and -2 by climbing stairs. Oooops! Levels 1-3 were the Trollshaw outdoor map, but with "arena-level" rooms (ie no corridors were visible because the map started open) levels above that were empty Outdoor map but still had gold, monsters etc. I saved at level -2 and this broke my savefile, though I did hang onto the savefile.

* Sometimes (I can't reproduce this casually despite some effort, but I have seen it twice now) when taking a html screen dump (']') monsters visible on the map turn into 'h's in game. This last occurred for me in moria, in a room full of potion mimics. I did detect monsters and took a screndump - all of a sudden the mimics were a lot easier to spot amidst the real potions!


Some suggestions for minor feature tweaks:
---------------------------------------------------------

* It would be really nice if light (beams & the AOF of balls) could pass through windows. I appreciate that there are a _lot_ of hacks in Un, so I understand this may or may not be tivial to implement, but it would make a lot more sense.

* I think "detect life" should detect creature eggs.

Hope some of that is of some use. =)

[Arralen]

Is there an anti-cheating mechanism in Un7wipb,
or is it just the game acting up or the RNG having fun with me?:

After restarting my Darf Bard from lvl3 because I'm tired of running DLvl1 of the Bree dungeon 5x to get some basic equipment and level to be able to go deeper, I went from CLvL6 to 8 thanks to some 163 maggots

Yet no stat gain, and when I went up to DLvl1, it's suddenly filled with traps and in the next room of the "can't be all that bad"-level .. look for yourself ... (btw., the screenshot-key gives me "Error 1 in line 1 of file %path%\lib\user\dump.prf Parsing F:0:0x01:0x20::YES").
And the basins are even not searched at this point - when I got a little bit nearer, they began to spit out tons of items ?!?!

[Bandobras]

You have to teach me that trick with basins.

Seriously, there is no stat gain from CL6 to CL8.

I have the same problem with the ']' screen dump command and no problem with ')' screen dump.

The room filled with traps and with items looks like a bug in dungeon generation (surprise!).

You can file bug reports at
http://developer.berlios.de/bugs/?group_id=331
or just count on people looking up forum reports from time to time. If the bugs persist, please let us know how to reporoduce them; it helps a lot.

BTW., do you think Bree is too hard? Perhaps we need an even easier starting dungeon? Or are you just bored with the sandbox? The first three level don't have monster ecologies IIRC, so they can as boring as an ordinary variant. ;P I was bored, so I went scumming Hornburg. Andrew himself kept killing insects in the Marshes with his new characters. I'm sure there are other weird things to be done with starting characters. Oh, of course try the Farm some day...

[Daven_26d1]

No, bree is not too hard. My last pair of shadow fairy rangers managed it in one dive, clevs 5 & 6 respectively after slaying Bill Ferny.

I think when people are struggling with Un they probably just need too look a bit deeper at the myriad new tactical options that the game is giving them. If you make the start game any easier, I think newer players will simply default to V-like playing patterns and miss much of what is original in Un, basically just seeing a pretty but glitchy V clone with multiple locations. This would be a shame.

I have to say though, that ranged fighters get a lot of new options in Un, but melee classes seem to have been left out a bit. Trying to clear bree with just melee and potions/scrolls is pretty hard, and it seems that some amount of floor clearing would be necessary to do it in a single dive. Its been suggested already I think, but perhaps the charge move could be made a little more powerful, this would give a little more of an edge to those who like to play pure warriors, and even bad players who just wander around running into stuff. After all, a player like this still won't last very long, but might be nice if they could see a bit more of the game and maybe get an incentive to learn to play well.

Just my ten cents.

[Arralen]

CRASH BUG:

I picked up a "Magical Bag of Supplies", hit "I","b" to have a look at it and the game froze ...
Back to Clvl1 ..

Originally Posted by Bandobras

Seriously, there is no stat gain from CL6 to CL8.

Hmmm... readme.txt says:
- Scaled down the costs of high stats when using point based character generation due to stat gain at every level (Suggested by mikon).
.. and I think I got some every levelup from 2-4 on the first run...

Daven_26d1: No, bree is not too hard. My last pair of shadow fairy rangers managed it in one dive, clevs 5 & 6 respectively after slaying Bill Ferny. ... I have to say though, that ranged fighters get a lot of new options in Un, but melee classes seem to have been left out a bit. Trying to clear bree with just melee and potions/scrolls is pretty hard, and it seems that some amount of floor clearing would be necessary to do it in a single dive.

Now, a Dwarf Bard (modeled after someone I met on a LARP event ) isn't really that much of a spellcaster or ranged fighter, therefore ... .
And it's not that the Bree is too difficult or boring in itself, it just that the typical Lvl1 melee character sucks .. 2 bat will just tear him to bits, even with hard leather armor, shield and leather helmet, which seems a bit unrealisitc, btw. - and that after prolonged scumming of level 1 to get at least some equipment.
Making "charging" stronger wouldn't help at all - at that point you're glad with every weapon you get, and most times it wouldn't be a (+5,+5) glaive but more likely an {unsual} dagger or something.. and as charging is length-dependent (isn't it) you won't get much from that most times.

[Bandobras]

Thanks for the comments. Charging is more powerful now. If you manage to start with decent SIZ and 3 blows, you get 2 blows with charge x4 from the start. That's a lot, but then charging requires skill, so it won't help newbies much. I guess early warriors really require coating and some help from either missiles or thrown things (or wands of Spark if you are one of those running melee Shadow Fairies:-). No barbarians here, unless you play one of the huge races (but even they can do some throwing or devices, depending on race)...

Originally Posted by Arralen

I picked up a "Magical Bag of Supplies", hit "I","b" to have a look at it and the game froze ...
Back to Clvl1 ..

No emergency save fired up? Or was the savefile corrupted?

.. and I think I got some every levelup from 2-4 on the first run...

Check it out again, perhaps it's a bug. You should get increases at CL2, CL5 and CL10. All the increases require user choice and confirmation, so it's hard to miss one.

Now, a Dwarf Bard (modeled after someone I met on a LARP event ) isn't really that much of a spellcaster or ranged fighter, therefore ... .

Bards are great at throwing and lousy at missiles. Dwarves are lousy at both, so it makes matters a bit difficult, but some thrown items are guaranteed to hit, so it should work until class bonuses stack up.

And it's not that the Bree is too difficult or boring in itself, it just that the typical Lvl1 melee character sucks ..

I agree and that's natural about CL1. I tend to play them aggressively. If they die, that's natural, after all.

2 bat will just tear him to bits,

This is wrong. You seem to allow yourself to get mobbed. If fact, being hit by even 1 bat counts as being mobbed, because bats are quick and so 1 attacks for 2, so you should kill it in melee before it can hit you or even better from a distance.

even with hard leather armor, shield and leather helmet, which seems a bit unrealisitc, btw. - and that after prolonged scumming of level 1 to get at least some equipment.

Waste of resources IMHO. If offense is the best defense, get some throwing gear at the shops, some Phase Door if there is any, wands (dwarves are good at that, especially with high INT), etc. No point in armor or healing for CL1 characters --- you'll be dead before they make a difference.

Making "charging" stronger wouldn't help at all - at that point you're glad with every weapon you get, and most times it wouldn't be a (+5,+5) glaive but more likely an {unsual} dagger or something.. and as charging is length-dependent (isn't it) you won't get much from that most times.

Charging is weapon-weight dependent (so the starting weapon of warriors may suffice for long), limited by SIZ and calculated depending on class. You are right, the class factor gives you 2x charging even with best fighting stats, as opposed to 4x for a warrior, so charging does not help much. I've just bettered Bard charging factor to be as good as priest's, thief's and archer's and increased SIZ by 2, but you are still limited by max SIZ, so that does not help CL1 either. You need at least 2 increases to SIZ with that short funny Dwarf for chargingx3 or learn throwing. :P