Sil 1.2.1

[half]

Sil 1.2.1 is now available.

Headline features:

* Quite a lot of changes and fixes for a 9-day release
* Fixed various bugs from 1.2.1 -- some very important
* Fixed quite a few older bugs too

Full Changelist:

- monster songs
	- made Morgoth's Song of Piercing a bit easier to resist (+5 bonus)
	- fixed Morgoth's Song score to 20
		- it no longer increases by 5 when his crown comes off like his Will does
	- the Song of Silence now reduces monsters' Song Score by a quarter of the Player's Song Score

- abilities
	- reworked some of the pre-requisites for the Will Abilities
		- notably Hardiness is less essential and Constitution is a bit harder to get
	- added Parry as an alternate pre-req for Two Weapon Fighting
	- increased the Song skill requirement for the point of Grace from 13 to 15

- smithing
	- you can now try out creating any item without the required smithing abilities
		- things that you can't do without an additional ability are shown in red
	- there are no known bugs with smithing remaining
	- modified the stat costs for horns (used to all cost grace)

- dungeon generation
	- significantly more flexibility in vault generation
		- vaults can now appear rotated as well as reflected
		- vaults now can have flags for extra traps, webs, rotation, debugging
	- improved trap placement
		- now much more likely to appear in interesting places
		- so it can now be worth actually searching for them in some cases
	- chasms can no longer be generated before 150 ft 
		- (to make sure you can get to the guaranteed forge!)
	- halved the chance of locked doors
		- now 8% of all doors are locked, 4% are jammed

- dungeon features
	- chasms
		- staffs of freedom and song of freedom can now close chasms
			- but the difficulty is extremely high: 
				- 20 + number of adjacent chasm squares for the staff
				- 25 + number of adjacent chasm squares for the song
			- it therefore tends to close in from the edges
	- secret doors
		- tunnelling into them now gives you a (random) closed door instead of a broken door
		- to avoid it sometimes being better to not find a secret door than to find it
	- broken doors
		- changed their symbol to '.', so they are more distinct from open doors and less confusing

- objects
	- made herbs of restoration a bit more common early

- artefacts
	- made the new mithril artefacts (Starlight and Silverhand) more rare (as originally intended)

- bugfixes
	- fixed two smithing bugs
		- one had to do with re-choosing an enchantment after modifying the numbers
		- one had to do with abilities disappearing or duplicating on artefacts
	- fixed a terrible bug with the monster ability 'Exchange Places' 
		- which could cause you to be sent out of the dungeon if you killed the cat warrior who was exchanging
	- removed one of the messages when automatically picking up a thrown/fired item
	- fixed a bug where cancelling some but not all free attacks with a '!a' weapon didn't use up any time
	- fixed a bug where Woven Themes was having the effect of the removed ability Unwavering Voice
	- players were (again) getting the Opportunist free attack when an enemy was pushed with Knock Back
	- no longer takes any time to tunnel if you aren't going to be successful
		- i.e. it is more like realising you can't, than like trying and failing
	- fleeing monsters can no longer get free attacks of any kind
	- monsters that are frozen by song of mastery no longer get free attacks of any kind
	- can now automatically identify the Ring of Barahir (and perhaps others) by the Ability it grants

[Psi]

Well done for getting it out so quickly!

[Infinitum]

Nice, albeit the red in the smithing menu is a bit.. garish? It looked better darkened out imo. Not so sure about the chasm closing from a flavor standpoint, seems like it'll make Leaping even more situational than it currently is (thanks to mattocks of belegost).

[Philip]

Leaping is incredibly useful if you want to run away from a monster and don't want to be followed. I'd say it's still useful.

[Infinitum]

Well yes, but it's still a pretty unreliable escape since not all floors have chasms (and even then you can opt to just jump down it as a last ditch effort). I mean I can see taking it if it's the only way to survive short term, but not really build for it, no.

[meneldil]

	- chasms can no longer be generated before 150 ft 
		- (to make sure you can get to the guaranteed forge!)

Just so you know, I encountered a chasm at 100ft in a mini-vault, though it didn't impede my movement around the level. I don't know if this is intended!

[half]

Nice, albeit the red in the smithing menu is a bit.. garish? It looked better darkened out imo. Not so sure about the chasm closing from a flavor standpoint, seems like it'll make Leaping even more situational than it currently is (thanks to mattocks of belegost).

I think it is worth distinguishing the places where you are lacking an ability from other deficits (such as skill points). We already use 3 or 4 shades of grey in the menu, so needed something else, and something that says -- you can't actually do this.

The chasm closing with Freedom effects is at very high skill levels. You may never see it happen unless you build for it. You will typically need Will 14 to even have a 1% chance of doing it per charge/turn, or Song 19 to have a 1% chance per turn.

[half]

Just so you know, I encountered a chasm at 100ft in a mini-vault, though it didn't impede my movement around the level. I don't know if this is intended!

They can appear in the 'interesting rooms' as this never blocks progress (at least the ones that can occur at 100 ft).

[jujuben]

There seems to be a font problem with the Windows build. I'm currently running Win 8, and when I first opened 1.2.1, I got all the normal windows, but all blank black screens. Menus still worked, and changing the font from the default 10x20 to 12x20B seemed to work, but the blank black screen was not at all what I expected.

[half]

Leaping is incredibly useful if you want to run away from a monster and don't want to be followed. I'd say it's still useful.

I agree. I think it is a very powerful ability. However, it has a high cost (particularly the pre-requisite which isn't useful immediately) and it isn't clear if it is worth that cost. My plan is to wait and see what the community settles on. I wouldn't dismiss it for a while though. I know of several very powerful uses, but don't want to spoil them.

For what its worth, the aim is to make it good enough that something like 1 in 3 characters get Leaping. If more than half of characters got it, we'd try to make it worse.

[half]

There seems to be a font problem with the Windows build. I'm currently running Win 8, and when I first opened 1.2.1, I got all the normal windows, but all blank black screens. Menus still worked, and changing the font from the default 10x20 to 12x20B seemed to work, but the blank black screen was not at all what I expected.

I think this is a perennial bug in the Windows version when launching a new version for the first time, and that the problem goes away if you restart. Let us know.

[half]

Well yes, but it's still a pretty unreliable escape since not all floors have chasms

It is definitely an unreliable escape (they all are in Sil), but the question is how reliable. My guess is that it is worse as an escape than Sprinting or Exchange Places. However we don't want to make abilities as good as Sprinting (it is a bit overpowered) and Leaping does more than just escapes.

[Fendell Orcbane]

I agree. I think it is a very powerful ability. However, it has a high cost (particularly the pre-requisite which isn't useful immediately) and it isn't clear if it is worth that cost. My plan is to wait and see what the community settles on. I wouldn't dismiss it for a while though. I know of several very powerful uses, but don't want to spoil them.

For what its worth, the aim is to make it good enough that something like 1 in 3 characters get Leaping. If more than half of characters got it, we'd try to make it worse.

Leaping is FUN. And isn't that why we play these games in the first place? I say it should stay. Also its great for avoiding pits and false floors. I like it.

[taptap]

There is one type of chasm vault where you can't access the center with the supposedly most interesting loot. (You can't leave it other than by chasm anyway, but maybe allow a way to leap there? Or am I just too dumb to figure out the right order of leaps?)

And yes, leaping is cool, it generates stories. I mean, look at these cats when they can't get you. (Not sure I like the freedom effect chasm closing, I really lack the imagination to imagine this with a subtle effect like other Sil magic, it is hard in the "CGI magic" area.)

[Scatha]

(Not sure I like the freedom effect chasm closing, I really lack the imagination to imagine this with a subtle effect like other Sil magic, it is hard in the "CGI magic" area.)

It is rather at the visible and striking end, but we do see that for the very powerful. It was this passage that inspired the song effect:

There wide her arms did Lúthien throw,
and called aloud with voice as clear
as still at whiles may mortal hear
long elvish trumpets o'er the hill
echo, when all the world is still.
The dawn peered over mountains wan,
their grey heads silent looked thereon.
The hill trembled; the citadel
crumbled, and all its towers fell;
the rocks yawned and the bridge broke,
and Sirion spumed in sudden smoke.

What Lúthien is doing here is probably greater than any song could manage, because she is undoing an old magic rather than working a new one of her own, but I think it serves as proof of concept.