Angband 4.0.5 released

[Nick]

Angband 4.0.5 is now available for Windows and OS X, and as source. Rephial will update soon.

This will be the last of the 4.0.x series unless some game-breaking bug emerges. Thanks to the devteam and all the wonderful people here for their contributions to this release.

Changes:

• Randart diggers always have a digging bonus
• Some improvements to town generation
• Improvements to probing and monster lore
• Improvements to OS X port, including making Command-n bring up window n
• Improvements to object and monster lists
• Make the store names uniform

Bugfixes:

• Stop properties of examined items from affecting the real player state
• Make the slay cache work
• Prevent attempting to buy when the pack is full
• Fix bug which allowed repeating a purchase after leaving a store
• Make sure chests are ignored correctly
• Fix some message issues
• Fix some monster friends
• Make Windows sound work properly
• Remove flicker in center_player option
• Remove duplicate labels in death info
• Remove help about bashing and jamming doors
• Code improvements to directory paths
• Fix bug where two players temporarily appeared on panel change while running
• Fix subwindow map drawing
• Plug some memory leaks
• Grammatical correction to tombstone
• Stop monster/player/object tiles from disappearing when targeting

[Carnivean]

4.1

• Traps - basic principle is less traps, less dangerous, harder to avoid. No more specific trap locations in vaults. Magical trap detection and specific searching for traps to be removed. The player will have one chance to detect nearby traps, dependent only on perception/searching skill. The player will also get a saving throw against the effects of traps. Consider allowing objects in trapped grids and/or trapped objects.
  
• ID - ID for consumables will work as currently. For wearables, each potential property (“rune”) will be immediately recognised once it has been seen once in any game (similar to how flavours are learned). How exactly this works for artifacts, ego items, jewellery, and to-hit/to/dam/to-ac bonuses is still to be fully worked out.
  
• Player knowledge - split the player’s knowledge of the current level from the game’s knowledge, allowing things like doors opening out of sight, but the player still seeing them as shut.
  
• Dungeon generation - lots more vaults and room types. New (fairly rare) level types in the same vein as caverns and labyrinths. More use of areas (from rooms to whole levels) containing monsters all fitting some theme. Consider reduction in size of levels, but making them more dense and interesting.
  
• Monster AI - monster pathfinding will be improved, so they’re not as easy to trick. Maybe some of the stuff under 4.2 gets done here.
  
• Monster breaths - to become cone shaped spreading out from the monster, as in Oangband. Force will push players and monsters, distinguishing it from plasma.
  
• Terrain - all rubble to become passable, but blocking line of sight. Lava will probably at some point become passable, but damaging to walk through.
  
• Calculations - there are lots of individual calculations, particularly related to randarts and object and monster power, which might be adjusted for reasons of balance, accuracy or simplicity.
  
• Theme - look at being a little more thematically consistent (along the lines of Angels -> Ainur).

4.0.5 out and 4/9 of the way to 4.1. Truly amazing work Nick.

[Nick]

Rephial is now updated.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I haven't played yet, was taking on the insane April Fool's challenge of Derakon's Rocketband. I didn't see it on the list, maybe it was already fixed, but was Door Creation corrected? The last I remember, when cast it was not only creating doors around the caster, but also beneath the caster's feet, which I believe is a bud. It's certainly a change from the former behavior of door creation.

Thanks for all your hard work on this Nick. I've enjoyed relentlessly testing each new version.

[Nick]

I didn't see it on the list, maybe it was already fixed, but was Door Creation corrected? The last I remember, when cast it was not only creating doors around the caster, but also beneath the caster's feet, which I believe is a bud. It's certainly a change from the former behavior of door creation.

Yes, it did get fixed, but I failed to include it in the list.

[getter77]

Congrats on landing another release to finish out the v4.0.X line---onward boldly to glory in the next big release era to come!