v1.2.62
New skill - Pra(y)er of Might - The first of the new cleric changes, this skill replaces Turn Undead as the base good cleric skill. For a short period, the cleric can chant a prayer to his god, filling himself with a zealous rage. During this time, melee damage is greatly increased, as is defensive rating. When the prayer ends, the cleric is unable to issue another prayer for a period of time. Improving Willpower increases extra melee damage, defensive boost, and prayer length, and decreases the time needed before you can pray again.
Balance change - Turn (u)ndead is now a baseline skill for clerics, available free to all three alignments. As always adventurers do not gain base skills, and thus this skill is now denied to them (and the other 3 classes as well).
Quest system - The first iteration of this system is in place after some work this weekend. Previously, you had to find a boss creature each level in order to advance. I have expanded on the idea, and given each level a random objective. Now, you may still need to find a boss creature to advance, or possibly a key, or maybe some kind of switch puzzle. Right now, only a few are in, but I will be working on expanding these numbers over the week. It's a little light so far, as I have been working getting the code structure in place, but expect more very shortly, as the backbone is complete.
Certain levels will now have 'themes' (such as fire creatures, swamp creatures, etc.) , in line with the changes to monster classifications.
Bug fixes and balance changes continue to be worked on (the sound addition was just taking a break from bug hunting), thanks in huge part to Sunrise and some extremely helpful criticism and comments.
New item - One of the long deceased Lords of Darkhall wielded a mighty hammer, blessed with the power of the sun to smite the undead. Somewhere below lies the legendary hammer 'Sunrise'.
Balance change - There are more 'mace' types in the game now (hammers, clubs, mauls) to improve the relative weapon drop rates for clerics (as they are the most limited weapon users in teh game so far.)
Balance change - Spells can no longer 'miss'. They can still be resisted, however.
Balance change - Ice armor - Previously, Ice Armor provided you with a shield that drained your mana instead of your health when you were attacked. This proved to be counterintuitive to how a mage should work - draining the very thing he needed for combat, and forcing him into meleeing, his weakest ability. Now, Ice Armor works more like a traditional shield - for a fixed cost in mana, you get a damage buffer that absorbs a set number of points of damage before falling. However, the shield slowly wears out whether you are taking damage or not. So, if you cast it and immediately fight, you may have it absorb, for example, 50 points of damage. But if you cast it 10 turns earlier, and then encounter an enemy, it may only absorb 10 points before falling (number do not reflect actual damage reduction.) Ice armor still provides ice resistance.
Balance change - LONG overdue revamp of weapon and armor values. While they weren't too badly off, there was some inconsistency. I have now set up the tiers more rigidly, and armor values/weapon damage/prices/weights are now based on linear formulas. There should no longer be any wondering over whether or not piece of armor/weapon is worth wearing - total armor value is a rigid value based on a mean of several attributes.
Bug fix - You can no longer simply walk through locked staircases.
Bug (sorta') fix - With the new monster classification system, certain monster were endowed with conflicting elemental attributes. For example, while a red skeleton, being a fire creature, was naturally resistant to fire, it was also weak to fire as it was also undead. I have tried to resolve some of these conflicts.
Bug fix - Wand can now be generated cursed. Watch out for the backfire!
Bug fix - Removed the descrition text from the inventory screen for unidentified items.
Balance change - The maximum enchant value that you can enchant to has been reduced to five. Also, please note that on items with a special property, such as rooting, stunning, poison, etc, enchanting them with a scroll DOES improve the property, it just is less obvious as it doesn't change the items name. I couldn't think of a decent way to do this 'Wand of More Rooting??' 'Brass Longsword of Stunninger??' Yeah, seemed silly, as without a number, assigning a quality (more, greater) is meaningless without something to compare it to. I may reconsider.
New monsters
More to come tomorrow. I am looking at making some major changes to godd and neutral cleric lines to bring their early game up to par. Also, I have a MASSIVE list of excellent ideas from Sunrise, that I am working through implementing. He has yet to send me anything but great ideas and suggestions.
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v1.2.54
A HUGE thanks to Sunrise!!
New skill - Schiltron - Like the name (possibly) suggests, this skill upgrades Phalanx, adding a damaging component to the defensive stance. Enemies creatures which attempt to attack you in melee will possibly damage themselves in the attempt. Schiltron improves with your strength rating. Quite effective for the defensive player, as phalanx buffs your defense against groups of enemies, while schiltron will wears them down, essentially attacking the enemy back without using your turn, all while the player is free to drink potions, fight back, or use magic items.
New skill - Mana Tap - The final skill in the healer line is a simple skill that helps drive many others. Mana tap allows you to possibly drain some of your target's life essence when every you strike them with a melee attack, and return it as a bump in your mana pool. This skill does not work on the undead, or certain other creature types (though magical constructs do indeed contain magic which can be drained.)
New monsters
New hotkey - shift+S will read a town portal scroll without having to open your inventory.
Improved UI - Minor upgrades, such as now showing whether an item can be equipped on the inventory screen, in addition to the store, and suppression of certain irrelevant messages.
Bug fix - Mages erroneously were set to not be able to use wands.
Balance change - More stat points awarded on level up.
Balance change - Experience required to advance at higher levels has been reduced.
Improved Save Game Files - Save games will now retain whether or not you have cleared a level, whether you have killed that levels boss, and whether or not you have rescued any allies. (Not compatible with save game from prior to version 1.2.50.)
Balance change - Store goods have been tuned slightly to offer more level appropriate gear.
Balance change - Store will no longer sell stat increasing potions. These must be found.
Balance change - 'Garbage items' will no longer drop.
Extensive Rebalancing
Balance change - Autopickup will ignore garbage.
Balance Change - Exploding arrows damage increased.
Balance change - The look command (shift mouse click) will identify whether a creature is undead or not.
Balance change - Many creatures have been altered so that certain status effects are meaningless to them (ie, blindness on eyeless creatures, confusion on mindless creatures.) Keep in mind that undead creatures still have something that they use for vision, and some kind of magical intelligence, so blindness or confusion would still work against a skeleton, for example.
Bug fix - Fixed an error where the look command would identify the item being examined.
Bug fix - Recoded extensive parts of the identification system. What I originally had was too complicated, and I was unable to resolve certain bug without a very messy code structure.
Bug Fix - Fixed an error with how the experience bar was being drawn.
Bug fix - Fixed an error with lower level NPCs being unrescuable.
Balance fix - You can voluntarily jump into holes using the > key.
Bug fix - Crystal maces were incorrectly flagged as maces.
Bug/Balance Fix - Pets will now attempt to follow your through teleporters, though you will leave them behind if you use a teleport scroll/skill. Changing levels (via stairs or falling through a hole) will take you out of range of pets that require control (skeletons or elementals, possibly dominated creatures), while a wolf is smart enough to try and follow you. (There is a message to clarify this as well.)
Bug/Balance Fix - Undead can no longer be poisoned.
Bug Fix - Pressing <i> now acts like a toggle and will close the inventory screen in addition to opening it.
Bug fix - Fixed an error where pets/enemies where incorrectly labeled as friendly.
Bug fix - Exploding Shots/Rooting shots does not work with wands.
Bug fix - Monster and pet line of sight when facing each other should be working correctly now. (Previously, pets and monsters could shoot each other through walls, even though player/monster line of sight was working correctly.
Bug fix - Fixed an issue where certain potions where being flagged incorrectly, and the player was unable to drink them without going into the inventory and manually clicking them.
Bug fix - Fixed some odd tiles on level 5, including blank tiles and incorrectly impassable tiles.
Bug fix - Fixed one of the crash bugs where the turn counter was exceeding the maximum numberical assignment.
Bug fix - Incinerate could sometimes generate a negative number when facing high level enemies. Fixed.
Bug Fix - Statues were being generated in incorrect locations
Bug Fix - There is now a limit to how many arrows/bullets you can conjure at a time.
Bug Fix - Using a town teleporter warps you on top of the receiving porter rather than 1 space below (and potentially on top of a creature).
Bug Fix - Open doors no longer block line of sight.
Bug Fix - Exploding Shot no longer works when you are blind.
Bug Fix - You can no longer see spells/shots when you are blind.
Bug Fix(?) - Still at a loss as to why certain overflow errors are occuring (I have yet to replicate one), I have added more robust error handling to the program. Hopefully, this will eliminate the worst offender. (crosses fingers)
Bug Fix - Heal Pet and otehr pet functions previously did not apply to the wolf upgrade properly. Now fixed.
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v1.2.35
New skill - Battle-cry - The final upgrade starting with charge stun, battle-cry turn the single target charge attack into an area-of-effect stun. Shouting a terrible battle-cry as you charge into a group of foes may stun most or all of them, allowing you time to dispatch them with ease. Like the new skill Terror, this skill allows you to deal with large groups of swarming foes. Some enemies (mindless, turrets, etc) are immune to this attack.
New skill - Terror - Evil clerics can now radiate pure horror in a considerable radius around themselves. All creatures, friend or foe, will run from the player in terror, not even stopping to defend themselves from attack. Certain creatures are immune to this, as you will discover.
New skill - Upgrade Wolf - The final skill in the good rogue line, this skill does exactly as you would think - your wolf becomes more powerful - meaning faster, stronger, and harder hitting. However, it's more than a simple stat bump. Your wolf gains some new abilities, including the ability to stun their opponents with a frenzied maul, and resistance to a certain element. Finally, the wolf actually is higher level than the player for purposes of landing attacks and special abilities. The wolf gain additional power dependent on your dexterity skill (counter-intuitive, I suppose, but it follows the general rule that a certain stat governs a set of skills.)
New Item Type - Wands - Self-explanatory for the most part, they are equipped in your ranged shot, and consume charges much like any other ranged weapon.
Skill Upgrade - Divine Armor - Now provides Holy resistance when active. Balance change - Enemy ranged magic has been rebalanced. On one hand, their raw damage has been slightly increased (around 10-20%). On the other, the effect of willpower in reducing incoming magic damage has been MASSIVELY increased (more than doubled). Gangs of ranged magic users at the lower levels were simply far too lethal. A group ganging up on you is still a dangerous situation, its simply possibly managa
Bug fix - Cleaned up dominate code a good bit. Dominate will now automatically give you a chance to continue controlling a creature, rather than the previous countdown to a guaranteed breaking-free. The higher your willpower, the longer you are likely to control a creature (modified by their level). You cannot dominate immobile creatures (such as a mechanical turret) or a boss creature.
Balance change - Boss creatures can no longer be generated flying. This is simply to reduce annoyance.
Screen Lock - I have set the game to run at a fixed resolution above a certain point, meaning a fix screen size. This improves the graphics, and removes some of the odd image compression that was occuring. However, some people may play at less than the recommended 1280x1024. In this case, the main screen will get shrunk down to a viewable size. The graphics may suffer a little compression, but the game will be unaffected and still totally playable.
Message log has been improved. More messages are stored, allowing you to review more than 3x as many messages as before. In addition, the message log is now an actual text file you can copy and paste, rather than the old version which was displayed on the screen in a similar manner to the graphics. Finally, a scroll bar has been added to facilitate the greater numbenr of displayed messages. Also, the message log has been changed so that repeated messages don't get entered over and over - instead, a single line is appended with a counter for how many times you've received the message.
Next version (assuming I can track down that nasty bug) - Offhand items.
Note (and plea for help!!) 2 players have reported Overflow errors occuring around level 5. I spent a huge chunk of my free time this weekend trying to track down the source of this bug, but so far I have been unable to replicate it. I have refined some code that 'might' be the cause, but it's really a shot in the dark, as, as I said before, I can't seem to recreate the overflow. If you have this error again, please shoot me a note with what level you were on, what you were doing, and anything interesting going on (like if you were dominating any creatures, or enchanting armor, etc).
Also note that the graphics are best at 1280x1024 or above, though playable at smaller dimensions.
Thanks a ton!
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v1.2.22
New Skill - Reflect - The tier three 'good' cleric skill line now terminates in an upgrade to Divine Armor (and still activates by pressing <d>.) In addition to an improvement to the damage mitigation of Divine Armor, the skill now provides a chance for spells directed at you to be reflected back at the attacker.
New Skill - Root Shot - Archers (non-evil rogues) need a way to keep their enemies at bay, to allow their pet to do it's work, and to make up for inferior damage mitigation (no shield). The tier three neutral rogue line (archer) now ends in Root Shot (activate with <o>). This attack has a good chance (better than even odds, modified by your dexterity) to entangle an opponent, holding them in place for a short time whiel you deal with other attackers, or fill it full of arrows.
Rogues can now disarm certain types of traps - more with the right tools!
Skill buff - Ice Armor now provides resistance to frost while active.
Improved Save Functionality - If you find a town teleporter during your travels, when you return from a save file, it will still be there. In addition, the exit will be automatically revealed on exits you have previously explored. (The code is in place to completely uncover the map when needed - should I add this to save games as well for previously explored levels??)
Bug fix - Clearing rubble no longer gives a conflicting message.
Bug fix - The message for damage reduction due to ice armor/divine armor now is displayed in a more appropriate order.
Bug fix - Resolved some errors with enchanting armor (via scroll or enchanter).
Bug fix - Store identify bug resolved (I hope?)
Bug fix - Refinements to reflect.
Poison (yet again) reworked. This time (finally) the way poison works is completely consistent amongst friends, enemies, and players.
New monster abilities and monsters. (Had to make more use of public domain tiles than I originally wanted to, but it lets me put out content a lot faster, and the tiles are really quite good. These public domain tiles can be located at http://rltiles.sourceforge.net/) Around 20-25 new monsters/monster images. Most are lower depth.
Toned down spawn rates.
New trap type.
Slight refinement to graphics in an attempt to fix scaling issues on lower resolutions.
Final score implemented (will be included a high score save list in next version, debating what to save atm.)
Next version notes - Considering some sort of physical barrier skill for evil clerics - a la bone wall. Also, I am going to add some more functionality to the save files - while dungeon levels per se will not be saved, town portals will be so you don't have to slog through earlier levels continually.
Thanks, Tormod!
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v1.2.13
Sorry about the long delay. I had a computer meltdown last week, and, after several attempts to fix it, realized it was the motherboard, and had to suck it up and buy a brand-new computer. With Vista. Ugh.... Anyways, on to the notes.
Save functionality - I have promised a save feature for the game for a long time (and been urged to include it by several people), and even hinted at it with greyed out Save and Load buttons on a couple of screens. I have resisted putting it in so far for 2 reasons: 1) The file structure was constantly in flux as new features were being added, and 2) the impact to difficulty made me wary of implementing it.
Reason 1 has largely been addressed. While the game is probably around 75% complete (closer to 90% in terms of game mechanics), the file structure looks like it has finally settled in, and I won't be making any more drastic changes - solid enough for save files. However, reason 2 worries me a little bit. If you are able to save and reload at will, the difficulty factor drops in orders of magnitude. Killed by a nasty Dweller?? No problem, reload!! Instead, I have a small workaround...
So, in order to show good faith that I am working on a solution, you can back up your characters. When in town, hit the Save Game button, and your character, stats, experience, equipment, gold, and skills will be saved.
Please note that when you Save your character, the game immediately ends - saving the game keeps your character for later when you return. Similarly, when you load a character, the save file is destroyed (you can of course resave and come back later - the point is that there are not multiple backups out there). This feature currently is meant so you can pause and come back later - not to reload when you die.
HOWEVER, this touches on the other problem, and PLEASE sound in if you have an opinion. Save game files, destroyed upon load or not, can EASILY be edited by an experienced person. In addition, I am an amateur programmer, and not really sure how to encrypt a save file (or even simply save and retrieve in Hex), so all my save files (and data files) are plain ASCII text files. Not really very secure, and what's to stop you from simply giving yourself 50 strength if you want it??
I've gotta mull over this a bit and make a decision soon. In the meantime, I've thrown you a small bone - you can (for now) permanently back up that character you've been playing!
More to come.
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