[Announce] Poschengband 3.4.0 Released

[HugoVirtuoso]

Did someone just say...Rockets?!

[chris]

I was planning to wait a bit before releasing in hopes of having more changes to offer, but decided to release a bit early due to some critical bug fixes.

Version 3.4.1 is now available. This release features:

* Faster Stat Gain
* A more challenging Water Elemental (Corrosion now eats anything unless it has resist acid ... even artifacts!)
* A new player monster race: The Centipede.
* Revamps to many egos (Sunlight, Death and Daemon weapons) and some new ones too (Dwarvish rings of power, slightly corrupted by Sauron, of course).

Many minor changes as well:
* Hydras get amulets for quest rewards instead of rings. Hydras can now dig a bit.
* Maulers no longer can get Nyoi-bou
* Arena and Corpse rewards are now "mass produced".
* Monster players receive a "special" feeling when their racial boss is around.
* Gloves of the Giant help when wielding heavy weapons.
* Cursed items are now considerably more rare.
* Attack dragons can browse ('b') certain powers to see their damage effect.
* Monsters that drop items and treasure now drop more items and less treasure (was 50/50).

Some bugs were fixed as well:
* Rings with extra attacks now work for innate attacks
* Standard artifact shooters now get the correct multiplier from a_info.txt (e.g. Ballista, Robin Hood).
* Fixed infinite loop bug with Rings of the Nazgul deep in the dungeon.
* Fixed memory out of bounds for warriors, samurai and paladin.

As usual, source code and a diff of changes are available.

[AnonymousHero]

I think it just became official... I don't think I will ever play this variant again! Destroying artifacts is just sacrilege

[Arjen]

I think it just became official... I don't think I will ever play this variant again! Destroying artifacts is just sacrilege

You already could destroy Artifacts as death sword and runeknight But the changes sound interesting.

[mewmew]

centipede sounds fun :3

also you could destroy artifacts before, you could mundanify them too
that change makes water elementals quite challenging though

[Tilurian]

If my chracters carry their healing and *healing* potions with them then these potions get broken and the character eventually dies due to a lack of rapid healing
And if they don't carry these potions then they eventually die due to a lack of rapid healing
I am never able to get get the triple resists fast enough to prevent potion breaking
Is there a way out of this dilemma

[mewmew]

Carry few of them. You should have some other means to heal too, staves of healing etc, use those if possible. Healing potions are not for casual usage, may be you went too deep too early too.

[Nivim]

My solution is to avoid or kill things before they get a chance to break anything; going around without at least base resist is still bad, though.

[chris]

The more you carry, the more will break. Each object in a stack has a percentage chance to break (which is low, like 3%). And of course the game checks every object in every stack for breakage.

I used to think Berserkers could handle breakage by carrying more, or by carrying large stacks of junk potions (e.g. water), but the game doesn't work that way. As suggested, carrying 2 or 3 healing should suffice for all but the end game.

[clouded]

Magic device skill is one of the most important things in the game for any character without healing or haste spells. I never carry potions of !healing before the final fight or if I'm hunting particular charge drainers (Gothmog). Get a big stack of healing staves.

[youtoo]

what are some recommended race/class combos? I have only really played vampire/ninjas. there are so many to choose from i cant figure out good combos.

[youtoo]

@Chris: can you post new released on roguebasin? its where I normally check for releases. I just happened to come to the forums to notice you have released in the last month.

[chris]

what are some recommended race/class combos? I have only really played vampire/ninjas. there are so many to choose from i cant figure out good combos.

I like monster races at the moment. If you know the bestiary well, then you could try a Possessor. Otherwise, Hounds are versatile, if a bit weak; dragons are very strong but start a bit slow; trolls are a pure melee play, but giants have a smidgen of distance attacks; but beholders are my all time favorite. I'm really overdue for another beholder!

For normal player race/class combos, there are just so many to do the question justice. It depends what style you like:

Rogues have good stealth and mediocre magic. High Elf is everybody's favorite choice.

Samurai have strong and flavorful melee and are a Hengband classic. I like Nibelungs.

Maulers and Bloodknights are strong melee characters with a few abilities. Pick a race with decent device skills.

Cavalry and Beastmasters can ride monsters as pets which is good fun.

Martial arts are among my favorites: Try a Hobbit monk!

In general, if you are looking for stuff to try, you can just search the Poschengband ladder here on oook for ideas. Have fun!

As for Roguebasin, I pretty much almost release nightlies rather than storing up lots of stuff for a classic release. Or at least I used to work that way. In short, I've done more than 100 releases (including Chengband) and I wouldn't want to announce them all

[AnonymousHero]

what are some recommended race/class combos? I have only really played vampire/ninjas. there are so many to choose from i cant figure out good combos.

GOLEM! (The normal "player race" not the "monster" variant. I hope they're still in, I haven't played in a while and Chris mentioned that he might remove them following the addition of the "monster" variant of golems.)

I found them great fun since they have great immunities and not that much downside come late game. (Sure, a lot of downside at the start, but when you get going...)

[HugoVirtuoso]

Want something *fun*...try the Chaos-Warrior.