Angband News - January 1999

News - January 1999

Daily news from the world of roguelike games:
Roguelike News

January, 26th 1999

ZAngband 2.2.3b for NetBSD
Paul Wain ported ZAngband 2.2.3b to NetBSD 1.3H or later.
KAmband 1.8
Ivan Tkatchev released version 0.8 of KAmband.
GSNband ports
Gwidon S. Naskrent compiled GSNband for Linux and Windows.

January, 21st 1999

ZAngband 2.2.3b for Acorn RISC OS
Musus Umbra ported ZAngband 2.2.3b to the Acorn RISC OS.
PAngband 0.1.1
Keldon Jones released version 0.1.1 of Programmable Angband - PAngband. This variant uses the Python scripting-language to allow various enhancements by the users.
GSNband bugfix
Gwidon S. Naskrent re-compiled a bugfixed DOS version of GSNband.

January, 19th 1999

ZAngband 2.2.3b available
The bugfix for ZAngband 2.2.3 is now available as: source code, DOS version, and Windows version.
Changes since version 2.2.3:
- The algorithm for the selection of random quest monsters is now less likely to choose an easy monster, especially on the deeper levels.
- Prevented savefile-scumming of the casino.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused monsters in quests to share the same position with the player.
- Fixed a bug that allowed up-stairs to be created in the 'no climbing up' mode on quest-levels.
- Fixed the palette of the 16x16.bmp for the Windows version.
- Fixed the 16x16 tiles for 'Wolf, Farmer Maggot's dog' and the 'insect swarm'.
- Fixed a bug in the vanilla_town option that could cause the player to be trapped in permanent walls.
Variants news
Gwidon S. Naskrent has released GSNband 0.6, Leon Marrick released OAngband 0.3.2, Musus Umbra ported ZAngband 2.2.3 and OAngband 0.3.2 to the Acorn RISC OS, and Dave Bacher created an OS/2 port of Utumno.

January, 15th 1999

ZAngband 2.2.3 graphics glitch
The Windows version of ZAngband 2.2.3 had a small graphical bug in the new tiles. The copper-coins and the bookstore (and maybe other tiles as well) have some wrong white pixels in them. I've reuploaded the fixed Windows version and the separate graphic-files for the source code as well as a patch if you already have a version with this bug. I'm really astonished that I've not received any bug-reports about it yet, even with the several hundred people who downloaded the beta-version.

January, 14th 1999

ZAngband 2.2.3
The final version of ZAngband 2.2.3 is now available as: source code, DOS version, and Windows version.
Changes since version 2.2.2d:
- Improved the initialization- and game-speed and reduced memory requirements.
- Added a menu for startup options (press '=' at character generation to enter it).
- Added a 'vanilla town' startup-option, that disables the wilderness, buildings and quests (but you can still use the random quests).
- Added several 'ironman' startup-options, like 'all stores closed', 'no climbing upwards', 'always small levels', and 'always autoscum'.
- Added a menu for 'pet commands' (press 'p' to access it). You can call them to you, send them out to kill monsters, dismiss them, and allow/dissallow opening of door and picking up items. Your pets will drop all picked up items when you disallow them to pick up anything.
- Greatly lowered the fail-rates of the trump spells.
- Trump summoning spells will now only summon hostile monsters if the spell fails.
- Rangers start now with a short-bow, a dagger and some arrows instead of the broad-sword.
- High-mages will now start with a wand of magic missile.
- Changed the monster AI to allow monster groups to surround the player in arena levels and in the wilderness.
- Completely changed the item enchantment and recharge services of the buildings and adjusted the prices.
- You can now also enchant bolts and shots in the Rangers guild.
- Changed the Weaponsmaster to display the weapon-damage including the players bonus to damage.
- Random quest monsters may now appear in groups or with escorts.
- Changed the creation of trees in the dungeon to a more reasonable layout.
- Added a new room type with four pillars.
- Lowered the odds of ammunition breaking when thrown/fired.
- Changed the display of racial powers and mutations to show fail rates.
- Adjusted the 'shriek' mutation.
- Changed the 'Hellfire' spell. Now it hurts Good, Evil resist, and others take normal damage.
- Fixed a bug in the mindcrafter 'psychometry' spell that could cause crashes.
- Fixed a bug in the rumors code that produced *strange* rumors.
- You no longer receive "The sun has risen/fallen" messages when in a quest.
- The 'Living Trump' spell now correctly gives 'random teleportation' or the 'teleport control' ability.
- Golems, skeletons, zombies, vampires and spectres no longer get food rations at character birth. Vampires no longer get scrolls of light.
- Fixed a bug that messed up quest-descriptions with single quotes in the text.
- The 'banish evil' mutation no longer affects quest monsters or uniques.
- 'Swordsman' will now be correctly pluralized.
- The 'Eric's Stronghold' quest in the 'lite' town is rewarded correctly.
- A bug that caused *strange* problems when the sound of the DOS version was enabled was "fixed" by disabling MOD-file support.
- Added a bunch of new 16x16 tiles by Adam Bolt.
- Updated the ZAngband FAQ and the documentation a bit.
- The following bugfixes and patches are taken from Tim Baker's ZAngbandTk:
- Added the 'easy floor' option. You can now select an item from a stack on the floor by browsing a list.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the player from entering a new wilderness area if the target grid was lava or water.
- The monster-health bar is now correctly updated.
- The 'Cowardice' mutation is now correctly handled.
- Animal pack monsters will now flee correctly if afraid.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the mindcrafters spell-points to go below zero if a failed spell caused a mana-storm.
- Friendly monsters and pets are now a bit more careful in the selection of targets for distance attacks.
- Monsters falling asleep from an psi-attack are now correctly noted.
- Escaping from an earthquake works now correctly.
- Monsters that are embedded in rock after an earthquake are now killed.
- Snaga sappers will now explode when killed.
Angband chat The Java-based Angband chat has moved to the FireStar IRC Network. Just choose a nickname and join the channel #angband. You can also visit the channel #angband on the Pearljam.Ms.US.FireStar.org, Rush.Va.US.FireStar.org, or Phase.Eu.UK.FireStar.org IRC servers directly with an IRC client like mIRC.

January, 12th 1999

I'm back
My vacation is over and now I'm slowly making my way through the big heap of e-mail sitting in my mailbox. This will take some time, but I'll try to do my best to answer them all quickly. Now on to the good news:
ZAngband 2.2.3 beta
A beta version of ZAngband 2.2.3 is now available as: source code, separate graphic-files for the source code, DOS, and Windows version.
Changes since version 2.2.2d:
- Improved the initialization- and game-speed and reduced memory requirements.
- Added a menu for startup options (press '=' at character generation to enter it).
- Added a 'vanilla town' startup-option, that disables the wilderness, buildings and quests (but you can still use the random quests).
- Added several 'ironman' startup-options, like 'all stores closed', 'no climbing upwards', 'always small levels', and 'always autoscum'.
- Added a menu for 'pet commands' (press 'p' to access it). You can call them to you, send them out to kill monsters, dismiss them, and allow/dissallow opening of door and picking up items. Your pets will drop all picked up items when you disallow them to pick up anything.
- Greatly lowered the fail-rates of the trump spells.
- Trump summoning spells will now only summon hostile monsters if the spell fails.
- Rangers start now with a short-bow, a dagger and some arrows instead of the broad-sword.
- High-mages will now start with a wand of magic missile.
- Changed the monster AI to allow monster groups to surround the player in arena levels and in the wilderness.
- Completely changed the item enchantment and recharge services of the buildings and adjusted the prices.
- Changed the Weaponsmaster to display the weapon-damage including the players bonus to damage.
- Random quest monsters may now appear in groups or with escorts. At the moment this will cause huge numbers of quest monsters to be created if the quest monster appears in groups.
- Changed the creation of trees in the dungeon to a more reasonable layout.
- Added a new room type with four pillars.
- Lowered the odds of ammunition breaking when thrown/fired.
- Changed the display of racial powers and mutations to show fail rates.
- Adjusted the 'shriek' mutation.
- Changed the 'Hellfire' spell. Now it hurts Good, Evil resist, and others take normal damage.
- Fixed a bug in the mindcrafter 'psychometry' spell that could cause crashes.
- Fixed a bug in the rumors code that produced *strange* rumors.
- You no longer receive "The sun has risen/fallen" messages when in a quest.
- The 'Living Trump' spell now correctly gives 'random teleportation' or the 'teleport control' ability.
- Golems, skeletons, zombies, vampires and spectres no longer get food rations at character birth. Vampires no longer get scrolls of light.
- Fixed a bug that messed up quest-descriptions with single quotes in the text.
- The 'banish evil' mutation no longer affects quest monsters or uniques.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused wilderness areas to be flooded by lava.
- 'Swordsman' will now be correctly pluralized.
- The 'Eric's Stronghold' quest in the 'lite' town is rewarded correctly.
- A bug that caused *strange* problems when the sound of the DOS version was enabled was "fixed" by disabling MOD-file support.
- Added a bunch of new 16x16 tiles by Adam Bolt.
- Updated the ZAngband FAQ and the documentation a bit.
- The following bugfixes and patches are taken from Tim Baker's ZAngbandTk:
- Added the 'easy floor' option. You can now select an item from a stack on the floor by browsing a list. This option has still a known bug, because I forgot to add support for quests. So switch it off in the Sting quest.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the player from entering a new wilderness area if the target grid was lava or water.
- The monster-health bar is now correctly updated.
- The 'Cowardice' mutation is now correctly handled.
- Animal pack monsters will now flee correctly if afraid.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the mindcrafters spell-points to go below zero if a failed spell caused a mana-storm.
- Friendly monsters and pets are now a bit more careful in the selection of targets for distance attacks.
- Monsters falling asleep from an psi-attack are now correctly noted.
- Escaping from an earthquake works now correctly.
- Monsters that are embedded in rock after an earthquake are now killed.
- Snaga sappers will now explode when killed.
If you find any bugs, then report them to me!
Amiga ports
Bablos compiled (with help by Mark Howson) almost any existing variant for the Amiga.
ZAngband infos
There are several new pages with infos and spoilers for ZAngband available. John I'anson-Holton's ZAngband Knowledge Base and Chase Tingley's Mutation spoilers (for version 2.2.2c).
GSNband
Gwidon S. Naskrent made version 0.5 of his variant GSNband available.
PernAngband
Version 3.0.7 of DarkGod's PernAngband is now available.