Angband 4.2.0

[Nick]

I wonder would savefile from http://rephial.org/nightlies/
10 Aug 2019 at 02:15 UTC, revision ed04859f2
...compatible with 4.2.0? Or it's better to start a new char?

That savefile should be fine.

[tangar]

Gratoz!!

I wonder would savefile from http://rephial.org/nightlies/
10 Aug 2019 at 02:15 UTC, revision ed04859f2
...compatible with 4.2.0? Or it's better to start a new char?

[Diego Gonzalez]

Congratulations!!! Well done Nick and people! I really enjoy how the game evolved through the years.

[MattB]

Much congratz, and much thanks also for getting this out.
I look forward to diving in..

[Nick]

Angband 4.2.0 is now available for Windows, macOS and as source. It can be downloaded from rephial.org, and played at angband.live.

This version is mainly a major overhaul of classes and the monster list.

As for the last two 4.x.0 releases, there are too many individual changes to list, so what follows is a summary.

Classes
-------
Two new realms of magic have been added, nature and shadow, to the existing divine and arcane realms.

• Nature realm relies on harnessing the power of the earth, and is opposite to the arcane realm, which uses craft and cunning.
• Divine realm uses harmony and light, and is opposite to the shadow realm which aligns with darkness, power and sacrifice.
• Rangers now use nature magic, like the new Druid class
• Necromancers are the major shadow caster class
• Blackguards are fighters enhanced by shadow magic
• Pure casters (mages, priests, druids, necromancers) use five books (down from nine)
• Hybrid casters (rogues, paladins, rangers, blackguards) use two or three books
• Classes no longer have different rates of gaining experience

Monsters
--------
Each base monster type has had its game niche reconsidered, and there has been a general push to use Tolkien-inspired monsters where appropriate. Some of the major changes include:

• Ainur - most of these now align with one of the great Valar, and have corresponding powers
• Dragons - these have mostly been made stronger and deeper
• Humanoids - dark elves have been replaced with dwarves, gnomes with Drúedain
• Hydras - each hydra type is like the previous type with a new head and attack added
• People - the association of some of these with player classes has been expanded to include the new classes
• Snakes - some of these are now dangerous
• Spiders - more dangerous and deeper, with unique abilities
• Trees/Ents - these are new, tough to kill enemies
• Wights/Wraiths - wights are all now shallower than wraiths, and the Ringwraiths are much deeper

Game Mechanics
--------------
In the course of the class and monster changes, many new mechanics have been introduced, with some of the major ones being:

• Player and monster shapechanges
• Variable light and darkness are created by monsters, player gear and player spells, and the player has a meter to measure the light level on their square
• Mages can drain mana from magic devices
• Rogues can steal from monsters
• Temporary brands and slays (Priests, Paladins, Blackguards)
• Necromancers can see in the dark, and can cast less well in light
• Healing of hitpoints every turn for a time (Druids)
• Control of a monster, including making it attack other monsters (Necromancers)
• Shield bashes (Warriors, Paladins, Blackguards)
• Decoys which monsters will attack instead of the player (Rangers)
• Blackguards can go into a state of bloodlust which improves their combat at a price
• Monsters can whip or spit on the player from nearby
• Monster groups act more as a group, with leaders and sometimes bodyguards
• Innate spells (e.g. breaths) and cast spells (e.g. bolts) have separate frequencies
• Deeper in the dungeon shallow monsters are less likely to appear
• Monsters can teleport to the player
• Spiders can weave webs
• Monsters can have innate darkness around them
• Traps added that trigger on leaving their square
• Ringwraiths can inflict the Black Breath
• Monster spells can have different levels depending on monster spell power
• The player now has a hunger meter, and food is more important
• As with classes, all races gain experience at the same rate, except for humans who are faster, and high-elves who are slower
• The Temple has been replaced with a Bookseller who sells books of all realms

Code Improvements
-----------------
There have also been some improvements to the codebase, both visible and invisible to the player. The main ones are:

• Addition of an SDL2 front end
• Change to mostly using a single grid rather than x and y coordinates in much of the code
• More readability of datafiles
• Some font improvements
• Some new tiles
• A new online (rather than in-game) help system
• A new experimental (and so far unbalanced) birth option for percentage damage
• An option to start a new game after dying instead of closing the game and re-opening
• Many fixes to bugs and memory leaks

All this has been achieved through an amazing joint community effort, with code provided by

• Alex Mooney
• Anna Sidwell (takkaria)
• Bardur Arantsson
• bron
• Dag Arneson (sanedragon)
• Derakon
• Elly Fong-Jones (elly)
• fizzix (Aaron Bader)
• fruviad
• John Weismiller (emar)
• Kusunose Toru
• Mikolaj Konarski
• Paul Johnson
• PowerWyrm
• Ryan Schmidt
• Stefan Strogin
• Vic K
• wkmanire
• wobbly

and bug reports, change suggestions and contributions to discussion which has influenced this version by

• Adam
• AnonymousHero
• Antoine
• Aszazin
• Atriel
• bio_hazard
• bunnies
• Carg
• Carnivean
• cccfire
• Chud
• ClaytonAguiar
• Clearshade
• clouded
• Cold_Heart
• Combatereak
• Darin
• debo (cyberdemons pls)
• desstorm
• Diego Gonzalez
• Djbanete
• dos350
• Dragget
• Ed_47569
• Egavactip
• emulord
• EpicMan
• Estie
• Estragon
• Evilpotatoe
• Flambard
• fph
• Gauss
• Geoff Hill (yes, that one)
• geoff_tewierik
• gglibertine
• Glorfindel
• Goaticus
• Grotug
• gtrudeau88
• Gwarl
• half
• HallucinationMushroom
• Holy_Rage
• Hounded
• Hrrunstar
• Huqhox
• Ingwe Ingweron
• Jeff Greene (nppangband)
• jevansau
• jml34
• Jungle_Boy
• kandrc
• kaypy
• khearn
• Kinematics
• luneya
• Mark
• MattB
• misanthropope
• MITZE
• Mondkalb
• Monkey Face
• Moving Pictures
• mrfy
• Muscleguy
• MWGE
• Narry
• Netbrian
• NightLizard
• Nomad
• olivertheorem
• Once
• Pahasusi
• Patashu
• Pete Mack
• Philip
• Pondlife
• Quirk
• Raerick
• Raxmei
• Rydel
• Scatha
• schatz
• shirish
• Sideways
• Sky
• spara
• Sparrow the Dunadan
• Sphara
• swaggert
• tangar
• the Invisible Stalker
• Therem Harth
• Thraalbee
• Tibarius
• Timo Pietilä
• TJA
• TJS
• topazg
• Vivit
• Voovus
• Vorczar
• Werbaer
• Whelk
• Wiwaxia
• Youssarian
• Zikke
• Zirael

as well as, I am sure, other people I missed. Thank you all. I hope this version is as much fun to play as it was to prepare.