Announce: FayAngband 1.0

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Hello all,

I've reanimated an old favorite, EyAngband! Since I'm not Eytan Zweig, I'm calling this attempt FayAngband. I've chosen Fay as a prefix because faeries have a very important role in EyAngband.

I've had three major design goals:

1. FayAngband should not reward slow playing. Instead, it should reward good tactics, and taking calculated risks.
2. Make the gameplay faster. Remove unnecessary tedium.
3. Characters should be different from each other. All character classes should have their distinct personality, and all stats should be important for all classes.

All the features I wanted are already in place, and I've been playtesting this for some months. So I'm brave enough to give version number 1.0.

A quick list of changes:

• Radically different stairs
• More pressure to dive
• Mapping skill
• Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma rebalanced
• Perception governs trap detection, trap detection spells removed
• Identify is less important
• Critical hits are more interesting
• Rebalanced character classes
• Throwing fixed and rebalanced
• Arcane spellcasters specialize in Fire or Frost

You can download the game here.

Read about the major new features here.

At the moment, there are only two executables, for 64-bit Linux and for DOS. The DOS-version should also work on Windows. Could some kind soul please help me build the Windows version? It should compile just like the latest version of EyAngband.

I've never before coded anything in C. Mostly I just copied and pasted stuff from other places. The code might be ugly in some places. But hey, it works!

Big thanks for all the Angband coders for making the code so readable and easy to understand. Most of all, thanks to Eytan Zweig. EyAngband is a wonderful variant, and easy to build on.

Mikko Lehtinen
www.mikkolehtinen.net in English / in Finnish

[takkaria]

Exciting, I'll have to give it a play and try to put together an OS X compile.

[fph]

Linux 32 bit (Ubuntu 10.04LTS) build

[Therem Harth]

This sounds awesome. I must try it!

[Nick]

Excellent. I particularly like the fact the we now have FAngband, FAangband and FayAngband, and I eagerly await FaylAngband.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Linux 32 bit (Ubuntu 10.04LTS) build

Thank you! I added the 32-bit Linux version to the web site.

This works fine on Knoppix live-cd, which is essentially 32-bit Debian Squeeze.

Mikko

[SaThaRiel]

Thanks a lot - i really like EyAngband which sadly is inactive since years.

ArchLinux build script for FayAngband 1.0 was just uploaded (i386/x86_64) Keep it running.

[ewan]

Looking forward to an OS X build

[Mikko Lehtinen]

ArchLinux build script for FayAngband 1.0 was just uploaded (i386/x86_64) Keep it running.

Wow, cool! Fay is doing really well on the Linux front.

[getter77]

Always nice to see a meaty looking lively variant. Looking forward to an eventual solid Windows version and I encourage you to get a page going and keep it generally updated on Roguebasin the way DaJAngband has for the most part.

[nppangband]

Hello all,

I've reanimated an old favorite, EyAngband!

At the moment, there are only two executables, for 64-bit Linux and for DOS. The DOS-version should also work on Windows. Could some kind soul please help me build the Windows version?

I compiled a windows build. I started a character and opened up the town. All of the walls were invisible. The last EY build was pre-windows Vista. Does anyone remember the fix for this?

Here is a list of compiler warnings I got using cygwin to compile:

config.h:360:20: warning: no newline at end of file
cmd-book.c: In function `print_spells':
cmd-book.c:442: warning: 'basenm' might be used uninitialized in this function
cmd-book.c: In function `get_spell':
cmd-book.c:719: warning: 'redraw' might be used uninitialized in this function
cmd-book.c: In function `get_tune':
cmd-book.c:895: warning: 'redraw' might be used uninitialized in this function
cmd-book.c: In function `do_cmd_magic':
cmd-book.c:1432: warning: 'i' might be used uninitialized in this function
cmd-book.c:1958: warning: 'flg' might be used uninitialized in this function
cmd-item.c: In function `do_cmd_mix':
cmd-item.c:2251: warning: 'k_idx' might be used uninitialized in this function
cmd-item.c:2260: warning: 'k_ptr' might be used uninitialized in this function
cmd-misc.c: In function `do_cmd_open_aux':
cmd-misc.c:344: warning: 'tval' might be used uninitialized in this function
generate.c: In function `generate_hole':
generate.c:931: warning: 'xx' might be used uninitialized in this function
generate.c:931: warning: 'yy' might be used uninitialized in this function
init1.c: In function `parse_f_info':
init1.c:1500: warning: operation on `f_ptr' may be undefined
main-win.c: In function `Term_pict_win':
main-win.c:2308: warning: unused variable `td'
monster2.c: In function `place_monster_one':
monster2.c:1521: warning: 'u_ptr' might be used uninitialized in this function
monster2.c: In function `place_monster_aux':
monster2.c:2051: warning: 'u_ptr' might be used uninitialized in this function
object2.c: In function `alchemy_describe':
object2.c:4144: warning: 'k_ptr' might be used uninitialized in this function
powers.c: In function `do_power':
powers.c:2768: warning: unused variable `chance'
powers.c:2972: warning: unused variable `chance'
powers.c:3128: warning: implicit declaration of function `phlogiston'
powers.c:2555: warning: 'breath' might be used uninitialized in this function
powers.c:2556: warning: 'typ' might be used uninitialized in this function
powers.c:2556: warning: 'power' might be used uninitialized in this function
quest.c: In function `display_guild':
quest.c:455: warning: 'tval' might be used uninitialized in this function
squelch.c:809:2: warning: no newline at end of file
wizard.c: In function `wiz_display_item':
wizard.c:198: warning: 'home' might be used uninitialized in this function
wizard.c:198: warning: 'chance1' might be used uninitialized in this function
wizard.c:198: warning: 'chance2' might be used uninitialized in this function

Once the walls thing is worked out, do you want me to e-mail you the zip file?

[Max Stats]

I compiled a windows build. I started a character and opened up the town. All of the walls were invisible.

A town full of buildings with invisible walls? Sounds like a peeping tom's dream.

[Nick]

I compiled a windows build. I started a character and opened up the town. All of the walls were invisible. The last EY build was pre-windows Vista. Does anyone remember the fix for this?

Use the new Angband fonts (largely the old NPP fonts ) and set the default font not to be 8x13 (which will make windows try to use it's own font). There may be some fixes needed to the wall terrain in font-win.prf as well.

[Therem Harth]

I have to say, this variant is really great. And also hard! The new stair system in particular makes the game much more fun, and would probably make a good option in Vanilla.

Now for some bugs and annoyances...

- The powder vial of energy doesn't seem to do anything at all.

- Things seem to breath on me from out of my field of vision quite often. In fact, everything seems to breath a lot in general until I'm within melee distance. Not sure if that's deliberate though.

- Also, spell range is huge - critters breath and cast spells from offscreen even when I keep the map centered.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I have to say, this variant is really great. And also hard! The new stair system in particular makes the game much more fun, and would probably make a good option in Vanilla.

I'm glad you like it! The stair system is really the defining feature of FayAngband.

And yes, the game is hard. It's like Iron Man but with stores and small levels. I haven't got very far myself, and I'm not sure whether the game is balanced at deeper levels. Small levels full of monsters might easily get out of hand. (Escape to town if you can!)

At first I tried the new stair system with normal-sized levels, but it didn't work out too well. The player had to spend too much time clearing huge levels, and gained too much experience in the process. It was boring. Luckily EyAngband had an option for small levels.

I think the latest EyAngband was a bit too easy before my changes. Eytan had just introduced loads of new features, including a brand new monster list (!) and a new combat system. And now I have made another sweeping change.

So IMO this variant doesn't need any new features, at least in the near future. It's time to start the slow cycle of playtesting and balancing. Luckily this means I get to play a lot!

I'm very interested in hearing opinions about game balance and difficulty level. Hard is ok, frustratingly hard is bad.

Now for some bugs and annoyances...

- The powder vial of energy doesn't seem to do anything at all.

- Things seem to breath on me from out of my field of vision quite often. In fact, everything seems to breath a lot in general until I'm within melee distance. Not sure if that's deliberate though.

- Also, spell range is huge - critters breath and cast spells from offscreen even when I keep the map centered.

I haven't touched the monster range. I'll see whether I can fix this. The game is hard enough without this feature.

Powder Vial of Energy is my fault, and probably easy to fix.

You'll have to wait for a new version, though. I'm very busy for some weeks.

Mikko