[Announce] Poschengband 2.0.0 Released

[chris]

Let's call it a beta release! It is available here in the hopes that I can get some playtesting help.

This release finally puts the Pos in PosChengband. That's right, we finally have a Possessor! How does it work?

First, the possessor is a monster race and is available under the Monsters menu during racial selection. When you choose this option, you don't get to select a class (just like with all the other monsters).

Next, you begin life as a "soul" which is really nothing but a pathetic ghost in search of a body. You can't wield anything other than a light source, and you have no physical attacks. But don't fear, you have a nice wand of magic missile to play with, fully charged.

So your first order of business will be to procure a corpse. Most human type monsters drop them and are good starting choices. You might mosey on out to the wilderness surround Outpost for example and snag a Novice something or other. Corpses are not guaranteed to drop, but they are quite a bit more likely to show up when you are in your native ghostly form. So don't get greedy using up all your missiles on something too big as you might not get a corpse!

Once you have one, use the racial power of Possession to inhabit the body. At that point, you won't be so weak and can probably wear some gear as well.

At any rate, that's how to start. I haven't done a whole lot of playtesting yet. Also, I moved the body type information to an external file (b_info.txt) which required me to change all of the existing monster races. Hopefully, I didn't break anything obvious.

Oh, one final note: Uniques no longer drop 100% of the time. And I guess I should also mention that corpses now have realistic weights, at least when you are playing a possessor.

[Derakon]

Congrats on the release! I can believe this was a lot of work.

[chris]

Thanks ... It is cheating a bit to take a beta and call it a 2.0 "release"

Some more on Possessor mechanics:
When you possess something, you gain stats and skills based on that form. Obviously, you get resistances and abilities too, but you don't always get the monster's armor class (e.g. a novice warrior is wearing armor and does not have intrinsic tough skin!).

If you gain spells, then your spell stat will vary depending on the form (e.g. priests use wisdom, mages use intelligence, etc).

If you gain intrinsic powers, then these are usually breath weapons and generally run off constitution. There are some exceptions, like throwing boulders which runs off Strength. Remember, intrinsic racial powers ('U' command) can be used when berserk or in the presence of anti-magic. Their costs can be paid for with hp if your sp run out, etc.

Possessor's still need to gain levels just like everybody else. Racial powers and spells generally have minimum casting levels and fail rates too.

Your current form limits how much experience you may gain. Everybody can get to CL15, but generally the rule is you may advance to the monsters level + 5. So, you really can't stay as a baby white dragon forever as you just will stop gaining levels pretty soon. And you won't ever "evolve" the way monster races do. No, you need to find another corpse!

You can *identify* a corpse and it will tell you some info. You can probe a monster and learn more!

Edit: Innate attacks can be blocked by equipment. So, if your form has a "Hit" attack or a "Touch" attack, then you need at least one empty hand to use it. Innate attacks are generally what is specified in r_info ... They don't progress the way they do for other player monster races.

[Nick]

Wow, excellent.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Totally ingenious way to incorprate Possessors.

[Nick]

Initial playtesting makes me grateful for quickstart

[Derakon]

Initial playtesting makes me grateful for quickstart

I'm reminded of the recommended start for ToME2 Alchemists: make a Potion of Detonations, head into the wilderness, and try to blow up a 4-headed hydra.

I don't suppose you have any idea how hard it is to compile for OSX? I'm tempted to give it a play in my Copious Spare Time.

[chris]

I'm reminded of the recommended start for ToME2 Alchemists: make a Potion of Detonations, head into the wilderness, and try to blow up a 4-headed hydra.

I don't suppose you have any idea how hard it is to compile for OSX? I'm tempted to give it a play in my Copious Spare Time.

Instructions here. Except you want this source and you can ignore the stuff about malloc.h (hopefully). And I think XQuartz or X11 needs to be installed first so the lib files and headers can be found.

HTH

[HugoVirtuoso]

Are version 1.0.37 savefiles compatible with 2.0.0? Let's say I want to upgrade one of my Angels (well, after the competition is over) to version 2.0.0, just for version namesake.

[chris]

Are version 1.0.37 savefiles compatible with 2.0.0? Let's say I want to upgrade one of my Angels (well, after the competition is over) to version 2.0.0, just for version namesake.

Yes, it should work. However, whenever upgrading versions it is always highly recommended that you first backup your savefile just in case!

[Derakon]

Ahh, gotta use the Linux/X11 build. Oh well. I can confirm that it builds with no source modifications though. Rolled up a Possessor, stole a Novice Mindcrafter (scoring points for villainy and heroism at the same time, the virtue system is weird), went into the thieves quest, discovered that I couldn't actually use any of my psychic powers, and promptly died. Might have done better had I remembered the wand in my inventory, but oh well.

It's a real kick in the nostalgia, going back to the old Zangband wilderness.

[Arjen]

Where is the "like" button?

*Downloading*

[Arjen]

Running around with a Killer Slicer Beetle corpse, he is better than I thought he would be, no speed, but nice AC and damage.

But while bathing in corpses I was wondering if you should be able to create an auto destroy line which destroys all corpses below a certain monsterlvl. I wouldn't mind if all orc corpses would be auto-destroyed as the piles a pretty high. It's not like I want a weak orc corpse.

*edit*

I think I found a bug, I only can't see it

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=14828

[chris]

But while bathing in corpses I was wondering if you should be able to create an auto destroy line which destroys all corpses below a certain monsterlvl. I wouldn't mind if all orc corpses would be auto-destroyed as the piles a pretty high. It's not like I want a weak orc corpse.

*edit*

I think I found a bug, I only can't see it

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=14828

The best I could come up with (for version 2.0.1) is:
?:[EQU $RACE Possessor]
~more level than 11 corpse
?:1

The autopicker is a bit of vodoo ... The ~ character is an action that means leave the object, but don't display it in map mode (You can display it in map mode by pressing 'N' though). The "more level than N" is an affix that says the object's level must be greater than the number you type (2 digits max). The "corpse" means the object must have the word corpse in it. The autopicker has a keyword for corpses (viz., "corpses or skeletons") but you don't want that as you can't possess skeletons!

To make this work, though, I had to remove the leave_special code.

The game distributes with a default pickup pref line of:
?:[EQU $RACE Possessor]
~corpse
?:1

You should edit this as you begin to become annoyed by huge mounds of low level, stinking, rotting, smelly corpses! Again, this hasn't been released just yet ...

Your bug is not a bug, but a feature. Your max experience is determined by your current body, so that, for example, you can't level up a Novice Warrior to the point where it is clearly not a novice anymore

EDIT: leave_special needs to remain in force, or else new possessor savefiles will automatically destroy corpses *by default*. Needless to say, this would be both confusing and annoying to new players!

[Arjen]

Ow, so you have to ditch corpses after a while, even if they are still stronger than the other monsters? Sucks Luckily I kept a Death Knight corpse.