[Announce] PosChengband 1.0.0

[ThunderToads]

Always liked Heng and Cheng, PosCheng is looking like the best version so far.


I've noticed that having the Temperance virtue has a huge effect on your alignment just for going hungry a little. If you only eat when you're hungry, you'll quickly end up Lawful no matter what else you do. This is a little weird in and of itself, but it's a special pain for characters using an 'evil' magic school where spell failure rate is affected by alignment.

Also Giants throwing rocks! The damage they do seems high for their depth.

The Knights of the Round Table are nasty too, but in a good way - they made for some interesting mid-game battles.

[wobbly]

Am I not understanding some advantage of potions of boldness over heroism?

boldness - removes fear, costs 297 gold
heroism - removes fear, causes heroism, heals for 10, costs 51 gold

[wobbly]

A small annoyance, your starting equipment doesn't start fully identified

[HugoVirtuoso]

Ugh ... apologies as I really do need to do more playtesting before releasing. Trolls work, but are a bit too weak to start, so here is 1.0.16:

* Trolls start more quickly. Their starting club is now only 10 lbs, they get a bite attack, and they also start with a ring of damage +7. So, they kick butt early on
* Trolls now get a small AC bonus.
* (Defender) weapons are now bipolar. Sometimes they cover resist base. Sometimes, they offer multiple high resistances.
* Slaying weapons are now (Armageddon). Instead of only offering poison brands, they now may offer any elemental brand.
* Weapons of sharpness are now more useful.
* Added Rings of Extra Might (for shooting).

I knew something wasn't right...The 1.0.15 Troll subraces were indeed too weak in their primitive forms, imo.

Thanks for giving the Trolls the much necessary upgrade to make them actually fun to start with.

[chris]

I just uploaded 1.0.15 here.

This release adds trolls ...

Ugh ... apologies as I really do need to do more playtesting before releasing. Trolls work, but are a bit too weak to start, so here is 1.0.16:

* Trolls start more quickly. Their starting club is now only 10 lbs, they get a bite attack, and they also start with a ring of damage +7. So, they kick butt early on
* Trolls now get a small AC bonus.
* (Defender) weapons are now bipolar. Sometimes they cover resist base. Sometimes, they offer multiple high resistances.
* Slaying weapons are now (Armageddon). Instead of only offering poison brands, they now may offer any elemental brand.
* Weapons of sharpness are now more useful.
* Added Rings of Extra Might (for shooting).

[chris]

I found a reproducible bug in the newest version (1.0.15).

Bug: ALL Monster Troll subraces start as Forest Troll in Outpost.

e.g., I pick Ettin, Spirit Troll, etc. When the game starts in Outpost, I'm a Forest Troll, regardless of subrace (e.g., Troll King, Ettin, etc), subclass (e.g., Mighty, Combat, etc), gender, and autoroller options. What's going on?

This bug affects all Troll monster subraces.

This is by design. Trolls evolve Forest->Stone->[Fire | Ice | Algroth->Aklash]->Olog->[Ettin | Storm Troll | Spirit Troll | Troll King]. In other words, only that last evolution differs among the various kinds of trolls.

[HugoVirtuoso]

I found a reproducible bug in the newest version (1.0.15).

Bug: ALL Monster Troll subraces start as Forest Troll in Outpost.

e.g., I pick Ettin, Spirit Troll, etc. When the game starts in Outpost, I'm a Forest Troll, regardless of subrace (e.g., Troll King, Ettin, etc), subclass (e.g., Mighty, Combat, etc), gender, and autoroller options. What's going on?

This bug affects all Troll monster subraces.

[chris]

I just uploaded 1.0.15 here.

This release adds trolls to the list of player monster races. Another strong melee race, trolls have amazing powers of regeneration. In addition, players may choose from the following subtypes:
* Ettin: Two headed trolls that get extra amulet and helmet slots.
* Storm Troll: A fast troll with access to elemental attack spells.
* Spirit Troll: A passwall troll.
* Troll King: A fast troll with an extra damage bonus in melee.
The boss monster for trolls is Ulik the Troll, of course!

Also, I toned down Death Scythes a bit, but they are still best avoided.

Jellies have been redone. Please do not upgrade existing jellies from older releases!
* Jellies can now read scrolls (Suspend you disbelief ... Nobody has ever heard a jelly, so its hard to understand how they do it). Of course, their device skills are really bad.
* Jellies lose 2 equipment slots and 1 max attack.
* Jellies lose 10% of their hp.

[chris]

I like tables! Thanks for sharing. How do the melee numbers relate to the + to hit on my weapons?

Pluses to hit from weapons and stats count for 3 points each. So your effective skill is something like

chance = fighting_skill + to_h_bonuses * 3

And then to hit a monster requires:

randint0(chance) >= ac*3/4

Also, the second number in the table is applied every 10 levels while the first number is granted up front. For example, if you are CL34 with fighting skills of "70+30", your skill is 70 + 30*34/10 = 70 + 102 = 172.

[Djabanete]

I like tables! Thanks for sharing. How do the melee numbers relate to the + to hit on my weapons?

[chris]

1.0.14 release here:

* Cyberdemon playtest changes.
* All monster races have had their skills redone. Skills are generally class based while monster races are race based, so I recoded the skill system to accommodate the monster races. In the process, I think many monster races had too much fighting prowess, so they have been suitably adjusted. Here is a table of current racial skills (Feel free to comment):

--- Table 2 - Monster Skill Bonus Table ---

                      Dsrm   Dvce   Save   Stlh  Srch  Prcp  Melee  Bows
Jelly                 25+12  18+7   37+11   8+0  14+0   7+0  70+30  30+7 
Spider                25+8   40+15  38+10   6+0  20+0  15+0  56+18  30+7 
Great Hell Wyrm       28+8   35+9   38+10   2+0  25+0  26+0  70+20  30+7 
Great Ice Wyrm        28+8   35+9   38+10   2+0  25+0  26+0  70+20  30+7 
Great Storm Wyrm      28+8   35+9   38+10   2+0  25+0  26+0  70+20  30+7 
Great Bile Wyrm       28+8   35+9   38+10   2+0  25+0  26+0  70+20  30+7 
Great Venom Wyrm      28+8   35+9   38+10   2+0  25+0  26+0  70+20  30+7 
Spectral Wyrm         28+8   35+10  38+11   4+0  25+0  26+0  50+15  30+7 
Great Wyrm of Law     28+8   40+11  40+11   2+0  25+0  26+0  55+15  30+7 
Great Wyrm of Chaos   28+8   40+11  40+11   2+0  25+0  26+0  55+15  30+7 
Great Wyrm of Balance 28+8   35+10  35+10   2+0  25+0  26+0  50+15  30+7 
Ethereal Dragon       28+8   35+10  37+11   4+0  25+0  26+0  52+15  30+7 
Great Crystal Drake   28+8   35+7   40+12   1+0  25+0  26+0  70+22  30+7 
Ancient Bronze Dragon 28+8   35+10  38+11   3+0  25+0  26+0  55+15  30+7 
Ancient Gold Dragon   28+8   35+9   38+11   2+0  25+0  26+0  55+20  30+7 
Steel Dragon          28+8   18+7   40+15   0+0  10+0   7+0  75+30  30+7 
Lich                  30+7   45+15  38+12   5+0  20+0  30+0  34+6   20+7 
Xorn                  25+12  20+8   31+10   1+0  14+0   5+0  56+20  30+7 
Angel                 25+7   35+13  40+15   3+0  18+0  12+0  48+18  35+13
Hound                 25+8   20+8   31+10   4+1  20+0  15+0  56+20  30+7 
Fire Giant            25+10  18+7   30+10  -1+0  13+0   7+0  75+34  55+31
Frost Giant           25+10  18+7   30+10  -1+0  13+0   7+0  75+34  55+31
Storm Giant           25+10  18+7   30+10  -1+0  13+0   7+0  70+30  55+30
Greater Titan         25+11  20+8   32+10  -1+0  15+0  10+0  75+35  50+30
Beholder              30+10  50+20  47+15   7+1  20+20 20+20 34+12  20+7 
Greater Balrog        20+12  35+11  40+15  -2+0  10+0   7+0  75+35  30+7 
Marilith              20+12  35+11  36+10   1+0  16+0  10+0  56+20  35+11
Bloodthirster         20+12  20+8   40+10  -1+0  13+0   7+0  70+32  30+7 
Cyberdemon            20+12  18+6   31+9   -1+0  13+0   7+0  75+35  30+7 
Hydra                 25+12  21+10  35+10   1+0  10+0   7+0  62+25  30+7 
Leprechaun            30+12  45+18  38+11  12+2  24+0  16+0  48+13  60+28

[chris]

This might have been fixed in a more recent version, but in 1.0.8, Stone Giants don't lose skin when you Stone to Mud them. (I assume this crept in when you completely redesigned the Giants, a change that I really liked, by the way.)

Actually, this is from Hengband. Stone Giants live in mountains. They are not made of stone!

If you'd like them to be hurt by stone to mud, you may add the HURT_ROCK flag in r_info.txt.

[Djabanete]

This might have been fixed in a more recent version, but in 1.0.8, Stone Giants don't lose skin when you Stone to Mud them. (I assume this crept in when you completely redesigned the Giants, a change that I really liked, by the way.)

[chris]

1.0.13 has been uploaded here.

* This release fleshes out the Demon monster race adding new 3 new forms: Tanar'ri, Cyberdemon, and Servant of Khorne.

* Brought back offensive scrolls (cf the Speed Reader demigod power for a combo).

* Added a new uber-rare, uber-powerful amulet type.

* Added rods of escaping.

* The Trump Card now activates for teleport every turn.

* The Armageddon Stone now activates for destruction (Perhaps jellies now have a chance?)

[chris]

Good Lord! Where was I when I needed that

You just got unlucky, I guess! Or did you never even try Dispel Evil? I tend to ignore that spell as it isn't very useful ...