News - December 1998

December, 17th 1998

• Psionic ZAngband
  Added Aram Harrow's PziAngband, based on PsiAngband and ZAngband 2.1.0e to the list of variants.

• ZAngband for PPC Macs
  Rodney Somerstein compiled the new 2.2.2d version of ZAngband for PPC Macs. You can download it from the Angband FTP Server.

• ZAngband 2.2.2d released
  My new version of ZAngband is now available as: source code, DOS version, and Windows version as self-extracting archive for easy installation

  Changes since version 2.2.2c:

  • Having mutations will now slow down hitpoint regeneration and reduce the hitpoints healed from draining monsters with a vampiric weapon. Beastman are affected less by this effect.
  • The door creation spell no longer creates a door directly on the player.
  • Added many new rumors by Juergen Neitzel.
  • Fixed the display of the life rating.
  • Fixed the wilderness mode prompt.
  • ZAngband now removes the '.lok' file when quitting at character generation on systems where VERIFY_SAVEFILE is defined.
  • Removed the space after Thorondor's name in r_info.txt.
  • Beholders are now worth less experience than the undead beholders.
  • Really fixed the bug in the 'Eric's Stronghold' quest.
  • Fixed the articles of the new armors.
  • The 'Assault on Montsalvat' quest is now only available to Paladins of Death.
  • Fixed two bugs in the monster polymorph code.
  • Changed the prompt when quitting (commiting suicide).
  • Changed the behavior of the automatic trap disarming. Traps that can't affect you are now ignored.
  • Disintegration spells no longer affect water or lava.
  • Fixed a bug in the artifact activation code that prevented artifact dragon scale mails from activating correctly.
  • Scrolls of artifact creation no longer affect dragon scale mails.
  • Splitted up the source code into smaller files.

• ZAngband for Amiga
  Mark Howson compiled version 2.2.2c of ZAngband for the Amiga (680x0). This version includes some basic support for Adam Bolt's 256 colour tileset.

• ZAngband and KAngband Bug-tracker
  A new system for reporting and tracking bugs in ZAngband and KAngband is online. The Z&K Bugtracker is based on Jitterbug, a web based bug tracking system developed by the Samba Team.

  You can report bugs online or send them to tgbugs@angband.org, view already reported bugs and the current state of the bugs.

  The Bugtracker can also be used as a discussion forum and to suggest new features.

  Please direct all bugreports, suggestions and ideas directly to the Z&K Bugtracker.

  A Big Thanks to the Samba Team for this great tool and to the admins of angband.org for installing it!

• Mark Howson joins the Thangorodrim team
  I'm proud to announce that Mark Howson is now my co-maintainer for Thangorodrim. Mark recently took over the KAngband project, and he looked for a website. I offered help and thanks to the admins of angband.org he is now part of the (small) Thangorodrim team. Maybe it's the best if he introduces himself and says something about his future plans with KAngband.
• Mark Howson
  Hi! I became the new maintainer of Kangband when Ken Wigle was forced to step down due to lack of time. Kangband 2.8.3k has been in more or less continuous development ever since; it will feature a new S-Lang interface that will give extensive control over quests, monsters, etc - you'll also be able to 'plug in' new races and quests just by copying a file. Some of the other new features include:
  • Enhanced map, with wilderness, more towns, extra dungeons...
  • Much wider range of quests, combined with a richer and deeper plotline.
  • Improved town with quick-navigation feature.
  • More interaction with other characters...
  However, all these features take time, and it is unlikely to appear before 1999, though it is possible that an alpha (source only) version will be made available late December 1998. More documentation on the new quest formats and S-Lang interface will be uploaded soon.

  Thanks to Robert for letting me share his space!

• ZAngband 2.2.2c released
  My new version of ZAngband is now available as: source code, separate graphic-files for the source code, DOS version, and Windows version as self-extracting archive for easy installation

  Changes since version 2.2.2:

  • The chaos tower can now remove mutations.
  • Fixed a bug in the layout of the M$ quest.
  • Fixed a bug that made pack animal fearless.
  • Fixed a bug that could hang the game in mountain areas.
  • Fixed several spelling errors.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented already killed uniques from being revived for a quest.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed normal sized levels to be created when the 'always create small dungeon-levels' option is active.
  • Fixed a bug that caused monsters to cast spells at the player even if they can't hit the player with the spell.
  • Fixed several bugs in the M$ quest.
  • Fixed a bug in the 'Eric's Stronghold' quest.
  • Fixed a bug in the R'Lyeh quest.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed monsters that can 'destroy weaker monsters' to destroy quest monsters.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the extra attacks from mutations to sometimes "kill" an already dead monster.
  • Changed the vampiric mutation to act like the racial activation.
  • The mindcrafter 'psychometry' spell now can pseudo-id already sensed items.
  • Added Jesse Jones' updated main-mac.c file (used for the Mac versions) with improved handling of multiple monitors, arg_graphics is saved with the preferences, and a much more attractive alert window.
• ZAngband for PPC Mac
  Rodney Somerstein compiled version 2.2.2 of ZAngband for PowerPC Macs.
• OS/2 ports
  Alexey Guzeev ported CthAngband and (J)Angband/64 to OS/2.

• PernAngband update
  Version 3.0.4 of "Dark Gods" ZAngband variant PernAngband is now available.
• KAmband 1.7.5
  The updated version of Ivan Tkatchev's KAmband improves the interface. Laurence Withers already compiled the DOS version available from the DOS KAmband page.
• PPC Mac compilations
  The new versions of GSNband and PernAngband have been compiled by Prfnoff for PowerPC Macs.
• OAngband for Windows 98/98/NT
  Tim Baker compiled a Windows version of OAngband for all the *band addicts out there. ;-)

• GSNband update
  Version 0.1.3 of the ZAngband variant "Gwidon S. Naskrent Angband - GSNband" is now available.

© 1997/98 by Robert Rühlmann, rr9@thangorodrim.net