Final NPPMoria and NPPAngband 7.0.0 released!

[nppangband]

The final NPPAngband 7.0.0 and NPPMoria 7.0.0 have been released.
NPPMoria is a re-creation of David Grabner's UMoria 5.5.2. By using NPPAngband as a starting port, essentially UMoria 5.5.2 was re-created with about 20 years worth of UI improvements. For those not familiar with the Angband UI, this includes:

Current ports for Windows, MAC, and Linux OSs.
Color (much easier to notice Ancient Chromatic Dragons)
Targeting (no longer have to line up with a monster to cast a spell or fire an attow at it)
3 complete tilesets (8x8, 16x16, and 32x32)
Much more advanced monster AIMouse support (a player could play practically the entire game without touching a keyboard if they chose to)
Bigscreen mode (not limited to 80x24)
Multiple windows (can display information in separate windows such as the character screen, list of visible monsters, etc)
Detailed help files
Much more legible source code, and edit files for most sets of game information (monster list, object list, player classes, races, etc)
Ability to choose from multiple fonts.
Ability to use macros
Dozens of minor improvements


NPPAngband and NPPMoria share the same cource code repository (99 % of the source code is be identical for both games). For anyone compiling themselves, the variable "game_mode" can be set to 1 to automatically play NPPAngband, 2 to play NPPMoria. If it is left at zero, the game starts with a menu prompting the player to choose between the two games).

For NPPAngband, version 7.0.0 contains only minor differences, some code cleanup and about a half-dozen bug fixes from NPP 6.1.2. Changelist below:

Add moria game mode, based on UMoria 5.5.2.
Added opportunity to do a shield bash on a monster as in Moria.
Reduced frequency of ghost challenges.
Multiple sidebar and ui improvements by 'kaypy'.
Code cleanup provided by dlevin.Reduced alertness for several Ainu uniques.
Bugfix: Fix inconcistency when describing damage from ammo.
Bugfix: Fix display of equipment flags on equipment screen.
Bugfix: Fix bug in calculating monster speed variances (found by kaypy).
Bugfix: Commands could sucessfully be repeated while confused.
Bugfix: Fix multiple missing 'break' statements (found by "runningaway").
Bugfix: When using the look command, the cursor did not display when animate flicker option was on.

The links are:

Souce Code:

http://download.nppangband.org/npp-7.0.0-src.zip

NPPAngband Windows Binary:

http://download.nppangband.org/nppangband-7.0.0-win.zip

NPPAngband Moria Binary:

http://download.nppangband.org/nppmoria-7.0.0-win.zip

(MAC disc images coming soon. Both games can be quickly compiled for the mac using XCode, and at a command line typing: "make -f makefile.osx")

Github respository:https://github.com/nppangband/NPPAngband

[clouded]

It seems like the Angband or Moria choice is no longer available once I restart after my first character dies, it goes straight to the "Do you want to retry this character" screen. Using ./nppangband.exe -sang (or -smor) does not work either. Deleting my savefile lets me have the choice again, is there something I'm doing wrong?

By the way, a friend I told about this questions the authenticity of "Ancient Chromatic Dragon"

[DaviddesJ]

The most powerful dragon in Umoria 5.x was "Ancient MultiHued Dragon".

[nppangband]

By the way, a friend I told about this questions the authenticity of "Ancient Chromatic Dragon"

The most powerful dragon in Umoria 5.x was "Ancient MultiHued Dragon".

I changed it because I started Moria a little further back than that. I started playing on a unix version around '88. It was the actual Robert Alan Koeneke version playable on a VAX with a black market, medusas that stone the player, so one failed saving throw was insta-death in their presence, and the dungeon went down to 10000'. The actual balrog was at 10000', with "shadow-balrogs" before then. This was the version that you had to do the "grape-jelly trick" to max your hit points. I did not attempt to re-create that version (I believe the source for this version is long-lost, and was written in a different language), but I did keep "Chromatic", just for my own nostalgic purposes. I think it sounds so much better than Multi-hued. The only other feature of this game that I kept was that, unlike Umoria 5.5.2, priests and mages can have a 0% failure rate. I remember being incredibly frustrated by that change.

Aside from that, there are only a couple things different from Umoria. I did add one artifact (the phial), and Smeagol (I figure in LOTR they both went into the mines of Moria), and I have the NPP-style chests with only the best items in the game.

[nppangband]

It seems like the Angband or Moria choice is no longer available once I restart after my first character dies, it goes straight to the "Do you want to retry this character" screen. Using ./nppangband.exe -sang (or -smor) does not work either. Deleting my savefile lets me have the choice again, is there something I'm doing wrong?

Is this on Linux? I admit I did not think about the fact that there is only one savefile, and it auto-loads.

I will work something out. In the meantime, I think deleting the savefile might be the only way to switch between games (besides having two folders for each game).

[DaviddesJ]

I will work something out. In the meantime, I think deleting the savefile might be the only way to switch between games (besides having two folders for each game).

You should certainly be able to use "-ufoo" as a workaround to specify a different savefile (choose one that doesn't exist).

[Nick]

The current plan is to have a competition for NPPMoria after the current comp finishes - any suggestion for race/class?

[HugoVirtuoso]

The current plan is to have a competition for NPPMoria after the current comp finishes - any suggestion for race/class?

I'd nominate the Elven Ranger for the NPPMoria competition.

[nppangband]

Good suggestion. Either an elven ranger or mage.

[getter77]

Congrats on the release! What does the future hold for the next grand leg of all things NPP? The whole Moria thing was a bit of a surprise this time around after all...

[nppangband]

Congrats on the release! What does the future hold for the next grand leg of all things NPP? The whole Moria thing was a bit of a surprise this time around after all...

Thanks. I have wanted to do that moria module for years. I am glad I finally got around to it. I guess if I had half a brain I could have done a kickstart fundraiser first, but I just did it for fun.

As for what is next......I have no idea. I am torn between several ideas.....such as building an entirely new front-end for the game, since the angband basically runs on it's own home-brewed 20 year old game library. I also want to work on the monster AI and some other minor things. I am just going to wait and see what I am inspired to do.

[getter77]

A spiffy new front-end would probably be a good thing indeed as far as entreating new players into the mix and drawing attention alongside any other nifty bits. I'd guess the current, though still developing, gold standard for such things would be Necklace of the Eye. http://www.roguetemple.com/z/noteye.php

[half]

As for what is next......I have no idea. I am torn between several ideas.....such as building an entirely new front-end for the game, since the angband basically runs on it's own home-brewed 20 year old game library. I also want to work on the monster AI and some other minor things. I am just going to wait and see what I am inspired to do.

I encourage you to have a look at Sil if you haven't before. It branched off from an early version of NPP and benefitted from your work incorporating the 4GAI. I've improved the AI in numerous ways, and some of these should be relatively easy to take to NPP. There are also many other features you might want. You are free to take anything you like, with or without modification.

Playing the tutorial and/or reading the manual could be the fastest ways to get an idea of the kinds of features/changes if you are pressed for time.

[Magnate]

Thanks. I have wanted to do that moria module for years. I am glad I finally got around to it. I guess if I had half a brain I could have done a kickstart fundraiser first, but I just did it for fun.

As for what is next......I have no idea. I am torn between several ideas.....such as building an entirely new front-end for the game, since the angband basically runs on it's own home-brewed 20 year old game library. I also want to work on the monster AI and some other minor things. I am just going to wait and see what I am inspired to do.

Huge congrats on both 7.0 and the Moria reimplementation. I'm really looking forward to trying both.

As for future pastimes, have you considered

(i) a Frog-Knows module, akin to the Moria module? Having done it once it might not be too much work to implement this, and it would provide a vital resource for settling arguments with Timo. (You'd have to downgrade the UI a little to recreate the real FK experience, of course!)

(ii) NPPPyrel?

[Derakon]

Much as I'd love to see Pyrel get some variants, there are some issues to settle first. I'm still nominally working on getting save/load times down to something acceptable, dungeon generation is slow, and there's lots of little details that need to be done (e.g. no status effect that does anything besides adjust your stats actually works). Unfortunately all of my coding juice has been sucked up by work lately, so I haven't had any to pour on Pyrel. That's how programming works, right?

Congrats on the release!