[Announce] PosChengband 7.0.0 Released

[chris]

I've begun a substantially redesigned 7.0 version, mostly in response to monster related issues and player effects. While I am not finished playtesting, I have tested enough that what I have seems stable and playable. 7.0.0 is available in the usual spot, but only those brave and eager for design changes should attempt this. I'll keep playtesting ... I had planned to sit on this 'til November or December, but having so many local changes not pushed to github makes me nervous (and once I push, people will play, I think).

Monster Issues:
Playtesting the recent monster additions revealed numerous problems, and investigation led to frustration with the existing system and, therefor, another major re-write. I've redone monster melee, monster auras, and, most aggressively, monster spells. I can go into issues if you like, but perhaps it will be better to just browse the commit history if you are curious. I tried to explain my reasoning whenever possible. Dont' browse r_info.txt unless you wish to spoil stuff ... Try playing "blind" instead!

Monster spells are now lored, and you can legitimately learn damage numbers with enough experience. Try playing without easy_lore and easy_id ... The lore system is quite good, IMO. And player omniscience does make the game much easier (not to mention spoiling anything new I might add).

Many monster types have been redesigned. Some new types have been added. Many of the recent 6.1 additions have been dropped (e.g. the Steam stuff) as there was just too much. For example, there is no need for new unique angels, but some work on the existing ones should do the trick. Go slay Azriel and Raphael (preferably in melee), and let me know if we really need new, harder stuff

Player Effects:
While working on monsters, its hard to avoid considering player effects. If the only way to improve monster difficulty is to bump up raw melee damage, then the game goes in a direction I dislike. So, player effects were changed:

[1] Free Action: No longer all or nothing. FA entitles you to a saving throw: one per source. (TODO: More late game monsters need PARALYSIS, I think).

[2] See Invisible: No longer all or nothing. SI entitles you to a "skill roll" to notice an invisible monster: one roll per source of SI. Which skill? Why, searching, of course!

[3] Hold Life: Very interesting changes here. I won't spoil, but powerful undead monsters (especially uniques) might have something nasty in store for you!

[4] Stun: Redesigned effects (for players and monsters alike). Effects are smoothed out, and more significant, I think. Monsters, on the other hand, had an off-the-wall ridiculous stun system where the least stun affect made them miss half their moves, miss half their blows and fail half their spells (non-innate). They now use the same system as the player.

[5] Poison: No immediate damage. Instead, all damage is delayed. You'll see a poison counter in the current version. Poison is much harder to cure and many things only cure it partially.

[6] Nether: A significant portion of nether damage has been siphoned off into ... something nasty. So there will be a bit less direct damage.

I'm sure I'm forgetting major changes ... Many bugfixes and game balance issues.

Oh, and a new score system. The old scores.raw was segfaulting by (1) keeping raw ids in the score table; (2) attempting to display without calling init_angband. Many monster races need a valid r_info to work. The new system is available with ~H or from the Birth Welcome Screen. It is a single user system, not designed for large concurrent access (as in the old, original VAX days). Don't delete files in the scores (apex) directory unless you know what you are doing. The system keeps dumps for you, and you can view them directly from the high score listing. Also, live characters are added to the score list so that if, like me, you have large numbers of currently active characters, there is no need to wait until they die/win to see them.

Finally, I haven't been on-line for the last 4 months or so. Any issues or complaints raised on oook in that time will be addressed in a future release.

Enjoy!

[HugoVirtuoso]

7.0.0 already.... One word, before I even have any chance to read further...AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Here is the usual place to get PosChengband 7.0.0.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Some notable stuff in 7.0.0:
*Poison counter
*Snaga snappers are much more nasty
*CCW poisons won't relieve you from poison anymore. You definitely at least !Neutralize Poison to really knock down the Poison Counter

[TheQuest]

Huge thanks, Chris!

No immediate damage. Instead, all damage is delayed.

this one is cool and tends to more realistic poison behavior.

Free Action: No longer all or nothing. FA entitles you to a saving throw: one per source

probably life of melee characters become even harder.

you can legitimately learn damage numbers with enough experience.

I see a potential here, like you can remember approx. damage dealt
to you after very first hit and improve this after you taken more and more damage to more precise figures. Like after childhood everybody know pretty much how painful an ant can bite even after first bite, right?

[clouded]

Lazy removed, the lazy arts removed, the plain gold ring removed, blue mage removed, imitator removed, greater hell beast removed, the unicorn of order has 7000 HP and more yet unknown. the spirit of poschengband has been lost, perhaps version 6.1.0 and 7.0.0 should be the start of a new variant.

[getter77]

Always good to see an aggressive update!

[Nivim]

I had been building up a list of various criticisms, bugs reports, and conspicuously missing features/content, but I'm realizing that I'm better off just putting that list up as a reminder for myself instead of posting it here.

Chris is very much making a version of Poschengband specialized for his long hours without internet, as well as for mitigating or leveraging his familiarity with the game, and that will slowly but steadily drift from what new or more sporadic players might want.

Makes me pine for two or three hundred spare hours I could throw into the commit trees immediately.

[TheQuest]

I had been building up a list of various criticisms, bugs reports, and conspicuously missing features/content, but I'm realizing that I'm better off just putting that list up as a reminder for myself instead of posting it here.

You should still post it, I think, hopefully Elliptic could use it in his ElliPosChengband

[Nivim]

Originally Posted by TheQuest

You should still post it, I think, hopefully Elliptic could use it in his ElliPosChengband

Well, here then; (Edit: It appears that spoilers cannot nest here, or have labeling, and so are less useful for organization.)

The advent of angband.live got me playing the current version of Poschengband again (instead of procrastinating on reading and accepting/rejecting every commit since 4.0.0), and as a result I have accumulated thoughts on the variant; they are organized by bugs, maybe-errors (irregularities), and requests for conspicuously missing features, in that order. (Edit: Originally also had a Perspectives section, but that was basically a bunch of ranting at chris for his design philosophy before I realized what he was doing.)

Bug list:

• For at least Possessors, the startpoint of the Pattern behaves like a wall instead of allowing a character to start walking the Pattern, displaying the message "There is a Pattern startpoint blocking your way.". Similarly, the other parts of the pattern display "There is a section of the Pattern blocking your way." instead of the expected "You must start walking the Pattern from the startpoint.".
• The behavior when getting items from the Home or a shop while inventory is full has regressed; instead of not getting the item and giving an error, it gets the item, exits the building, and drops the item on the ground.

Irregularity list:

• The help text for ironman_rooms should probably say "makes the game harder, but faster" since there are a lot more opportunities to get insta-killed but you can level faster and get good loot sooner.
• If you manage to get a Vampire monster body, you cannot wield a light source; this is strange, because almost all the darkness-producing items in the game take up the light source slot.

FR list:

• There is no possible Wis-based pure-caster that can have Nature as it's primary realm. Put simply; there is no Druid class. (Along a similar vein, the Ranger class can't have Craft as its secondary realm, but perhaps that is intentional for some reason.)
• The game implies there is an Orc race, but that race isn't available anywhere.

It's not nearly done, as you can see, and it doesn't include other things that go on my to-do list, such as the Nanite race.

Originally Posted by Mocht

When is a good time to read scrolls of acquirement
I always try to save them for a deep level, and my character always dies before I read them

I generally call them "scrolls of Disappointment" and Artifact Creation "honorary scrolls of Disappointment"; you might get better loot for bringing them to Olympus or whatever, but practically speaking it's just delaying the time you get a single piece of loot. It isn't worth the attention, and at the time I get them I usually just sell them, since their score is high enough to always sell for max shop price.

Originally Posted by Mocht

Can anything cunning be done with scrolls and staffs of summon monster, I always just destroy them

If you play a race like Balrog or Vampire, a high-charge staff can function as a Staff of Food. Also, if you have a low-level melee character, the extra targets mean you don't have to hunt them down.

Edit: Also these questions, for you Mocht;

Originally Posted by Mocht

(1) Are random dungeons still implemented, I haven't seen one in a while

They are, so long as you're loading sections of forest, water, or mountain. If you want to force one to appear, get on a loading boundary triggering one of those areas and hop back and forth until you get a "found something interesting" while going in the right direction.

Originally Posted by Mocht

(2) How do vampiric weapons work
Is the amount of life drained a percentage of the damage inflicted, or is it more complicated than that

I skimmed the code, and it looks like it's a roll with sides based on how much damage was done, with a couple multipliers for being a Vampire, using a Hex blade vampiric effect, and having a particular mutation. Also, of course, the target needs to be Living, but you probably already knew that.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Originally Posted by Mocht

Gnome mages can teleport you away, more monsters can summon, the guy at the bottom of stronghold can now summon uniques, this is a huge change
Is it just me, or have the drops improved as well

I think I have found a bug
Trying to autodestroy cursed ammo, it doesn't work and in the autodestroyer commands it says that I want to destroy good ammo

Are sappers more deadly now
Is dazed a new status ailment
Could door mimics paralyze before

Telepathy is less informative

Welcome to the world of PosChengband!

I'm not sure if the drops improved that much since I always play my staple Tonberry Skillmaster combo every time. The increased summoning is kind of new - it was toned in the version 2.x - 3.x days. The dazed ailment is a light player stun - Chris had changed the player stunning mechanics a bit. And yes, monsters can banish you away.

Sappers and packs are more dangerous now. I don't recall if Door mimics could paralyze befofre. The less-informative-telepathy is new and forces more strategy on the player.