Z+Angband 0.3.0 beta released!

[Jude]

Ahhhhh.

With corpses, why stop at explosions? Ghouls can eat them for food...seems to be they should be able to get health from them too. Maybe there could be a mutation allowing you to do that also, or a death spell - destroy a corpse, get life back. I assume you can reanimate them with some high level death spell already...what other kinds of things could you do with dead bodies? Cut them up and make Frankenstein?

[buzzkill]

That message means that you just dealt 11 damage to something that had 3 hit points. You're probably getting those messages because you're playing a Human; humans get extra info in the game.

You do 11 (out of 3) damage is confusing.

A simple re-wording would eliminate this. Something like (in the case of death)...
"You hit for 11 damage." or "You deal 11 damage." or "You knock of 11 HP"
"You have killed the small kobold." or whatever message normally appears when you kill an enemy (You have slain it).

or if the enemy survives...
"You just knocked off 11 of the kobold's 22 HP."

or, less elegant, but simpler to implement (covering all cases)...
"You deal 11 damage to the small kobold who had 3 HP remaining."

[Mangojuice]

This just in: there needs to be a "Corpse Explosion" spell ala Diablo 2.

Also, what does Protection from Evil do?

Also, I'm getting messages "you do 11 (out of 3) damage", what do these mean?

Corpse explosion: this amuses me. I was thinking about adding some new mutations to the game, perhaps there. Sounds very particular.

Protection from Evil (the spell, or the object ability) makes evil things have to pass a saving throw in order to attack you in combat.

That message means that you just dealt 11 damage to something that had 3 hit points. You're probably getting those messages because you're playing a Human; humans get extra info in the game.

[Jude]

This just in: there needs to be a "Corpse Explosion" spell ala Diablo 2.

Also, what does Protection from Evil do?

Also, I'm getting messages "you do 11 (out of 3) damage", what do these mean?

[Mangojuice]

I tried to experiment a bit with power adjustment of spells in s_info.txt. Played a High Mage with Nature school of magic. So a +25% bonus in wilderness.

First, although (b)rowsing spell details gives correct info about power adjustment, numbers in book or in spell menu under '~' are completely wrong.

And, are you completely sure you won't ever add any extra bonuses later? At the moment power adjustment is a shortint overflowing at +128, so 75% isn't really that far below...

Largest possible bonus right now is:

+10% (overlapping realms)
+50% (maximum focus)
+29% (Life magic, healing)

= 113% (the bonuses are multiplicative).

You can also get a 5% bonus from being a Lich, but that makes it impossible to have overlapping realms and a maximal inherent bonus. You can also get a higher inherent bonus by being a priest or paladin, but then you can't focus spells.

So it fits, if barely.

As for the knowledge menu, yes, I notice the power level given does not take Nature's bonus into account, I will adjust that. Other bonuses seem to be correctly incorporated. What was the other way you said it was wrong? I get the right display when browsing or when selecting a spell to cast.

[Mangojuice]

All the healing potions have been improved so that they aren't junk any more. Just remember that CCW does NOT cure confusion! You need some other form of curing. Confusion is much nastier in Z.

!CCW, !CSW, !Healing do not cure confusion.

Look for !Curing. Also, mushrooms can cure status: ,CCW cures confusion and blinding, definitely an MVP item for me. ,ResistConfusion may be of interest too.

I think those are just amulets of adornment that have been renamed. They don't serve any useful purpose.

They make you feel youthful. Or at least, they say they do every once in a while. This has an actual effect, because it makes them possible to identify without actually ?Id'ing them.

[RogerN]

basically anything less than CCW was worthless and even that was crap after about dlvl 20. Have you been working on making the potions more worthwhile?

All the healing potions have been improved so that they aren't junk any more. Just remember that CCW does NOT cure confusion! You need some other form of curing. Confusion is much nastier in Z.

Also, Amulet of Immortality? You will never die of OLD AGE? Huh? Is that like a time-related attack that I don't know about?!

I think those are just amulets of adornment that have been renamed. They don't serve any useful purpose.

[Jude]

It worked! Of course, if I have to do that every time it'll discourage me from ever upgrading to the new version but I can just copy the pref file, right? Unless there's some major change made?


I've always wondered wtf some of the item names are. A lot of them are Japanese sounding things I never heard of, but some stuff just sounds like it was picked out an obscure medieval weaponry encyclopedia. Fauchard? Basillard? Main Gauche? What the crap? The descriptions are nice.

Edit: Holycrap the descriptions are VERY nice. It tells you how much HP each item restores! Also, Cure Light Wounds potion gives 35 hp? In my experience with older version of Zangband, it took a CCW to do that - basically anything less than CCW was worthless and even that was crap after about dlvl 20. Have you been working on making the potions more worthwhile?

Also, Amulet of Immortality? You will never die of OLD AGE? Huh? Is that like a time-related attack that I don't know about?!

[Arendil]

I tried to experiment a bit with power adjustment of spells in s_info.txt. Played a High Mage with Nature school of magic. So a +25% bonus in wilderness.

First, although (b)rowsing spell details gives correct info about power adjustment, numbers in book or in spell menu under '~' are completely wrong.

And, are you completely sure you won't ever add any extra bonuses later? At the moment power adjustment is a shortint overflowing at +128, so 75% isn't really that far below...

[Mangojuice]

Still not working :\

OK, let's try it the hard way.

In the game, go to '%' (interact with visuals), select 'h' ("Change feature attr/chars").

Press 'n' until "Terrain = 48, Name = granite wall" is displayed. (You can use 'N' to go backwards, if you go too far.) Then press 'c' until the number that changes changes to 127. (You can use 'C' to go backwards, if you go too far.)

Do the same for Terrains 50, 51, 52, 53, and 56-63. Then press ESC, to get back to the visuals menu, and press 'd' ("Dump feature attr/chars") to save what you just did in a pref file. Choose the default name, and the next time you play, you'll have to load it by doing '%' then 'a'.

If this doesn't work, please let me know what doesn't work about it.

Are the detailed descriptions of objects one of your inventions or were they already there? They're pretty sweet. (I.e., this scroll, when read, takes you from the surface to the deepest level visited etc.)

I did a lot of my own detailed descriptions, but many were already there.

One of the more fun but less noticed aspects of this variant are the descriptions of plain weapons and armor. A lot of them I recognized as names of weapons I'd come across somewhere else, but many I had only seen in Angband variants. There were actually a couple that made no sense; a "Bassilard" used to be some kind of polearm that did something like 1d15 damage. Turns out, a Bassilard is a type of dagger.

[Jude]

Ah. The problem is, the file is missing. I'm attaching it to this post. You have to rename it to "user-w2k.prf" from "user-w2k.txt" and put it in your lib/user directory, then load it.

Still not working :\

Are the detailed descriptions of objects one of your inventions or were they already there? They're pretty sweet. (I.e., this scroll, when read, takes you from the surface to the deepest level visited etc.)

[Mangojuice]

OK, I'm trying to get Z+ set up finally and I want to replace the # walls with blocks...the instructions on the website aren't making sense to me. It says


I do that, press enter for the defaul user pref file that's there ("user-w2k.prf") and it says "Could not load file."

I've looked around through all the lib folders and I can't figure out what to do.

Ah. The problem is, the file is missing. I'm attaching it to this post. You have to rename it to "user-w2k.prf" from "user-w2k.txt" and put it in your lib/user directory, then load it.

Personally, though, I recommend the graphics hack, it's much nicer if the 8x8 graphics tiles work for you. Remove the "graf-win.prf" file and rename "graf-winhack2.prf" to "graf-win.prf" (in the lib/pref directory), then switch to 8x8 graphics in the game. You'll get graphics for the walls but all else will still be text.

Also, is there a list of the updated spells for all the schools and tiers and stuff?

Finally, I notice monsters often leave corpses now. Is there a use for them?

There's no magic spoiler right now; you just have to explore it a bit. If you don't want to work within the normal game rules there are two things you can do.

There's a list of the names of spells you can access in lib/edit/s_info.txt, but that won't tell you what the spells actually do. Someone could put together a spoiler if they choose. In the worst case you can go into debug mode, give yourself the advanced spellbooks, give yourself 50th level, and browse the spells.

The "tier" of a spell is determined purely by the level you have to be to learn it; tier 1 is levels 1-10, tier 2 is 11-20, etc. You can downgrade slots to use them for lower tiers but you can't upgrade them.

Corpses don't do a lot, but (1) ghouls can eat them for food, and (2) sometimes they can be brought back from the dead. Rarely.

[buzzkill]

Finally, I notice monsters often leave corpses now. Is there a use for them?

It's rumored that certain races find fresh corpses to be a delicacy.

[Jude]

OK, I'm trying to get Z+ set up finally and I want to replace the # walls with blocks...the instructions on the website aren't making sense to me. It says

Use the '%' (interact with graphics) feature and choose "load a user pref file" -- the user pref file that is offered includes the block symbol for walls and permanent rock.

I do that, press enter for the defaul user pref file that's there ("user-w2k.prf") and it says "Could not load file."

I've looked around through all the lib folders and I can't figure out what to do.

Also, is there a list of the updated spells for all the schools and tiers and stuff?

Finally, I notice monsters often leave corpses now. Is there a use for them?

[RogerN]

Let me know what OS you use, too, just in case that matters.

This was on Windows XP.

Here's another one for you, although I'm not 100% certain that it's a bug... I just finished a level 47 quest which involved killing more than 50 dark elven warlocks, among other things. My reward from the town Keep? A whopping 367 gold. It was still a nice quest, of course, since the monsters dropped tons of great loot... but 367 gold is a bit of insult.

Possible integer overflow?