[Announce] Cthangband 5.0.0 Released

[Dean Anderson]

I'm curious to try out this variant. But I have some questions

Is there a way that I can get the multi-window stuff going like the more recent code bases (on windows)?

Not on my pre-compiled Windows Console version (the Windows console doesn't support multiple windows from the same app), but I've not done anything to nobble the multi-window code; so if someone compiles the source on a different platform then multi-window should work fine.

Is there an option to always expand the Wield menu? (i.e. auto-hit * after w)

No. None of the menus auto-expand. I suppose it could go in as an additional option.

Is there a way to restart with the same character (i'm dying a lot after a very short amount of time while I get used to the system / variant)

Ye Olde Save Scumming - make a back-up copy the save file after creating the character, and then after you've died replace the original with the back-up.

Is there a point buy system instead of ye olde annoying auto-roller ?

There's some legacy point buy code in the source, but it's currently disabled.

Edit: uh... tried a chaos warrior, killed Grip, god awarded me with insta-death. Is the rest of the variant as silly as insta-deaths without any player control?

No, it isn't. Well, it has it's silly moments; but you shouldn't get that sort of insta-death (which is inherited from Zangband, not something I added) unless you're playing a chaos warrior or chaos mage. Those two classes are designed to be "live fast, die young" in that they get random bonuses and penalties. The bonuses can be great, but the penalties can kill you. The other classes are more serious.

[jevansau]

Hi Dean,

I do have the "No query to destroy known worthless items" option set, and my experience was that it was happy to consider Terror Mask a worthless item. The second time I got it, I carefully avoided moving back onto it.

[QUOTE=Dean Anderson;101583]I'm not sure what you mean. Cthangband doesn't have squelching. It does allow you to destroy items, but artefacts are immune to that. So either way you shouldn't have been able to destroy the Terror Mask.



Thanks for the detailed explanation of speed. I guess this makes movement speed much less valuable - perhaps this should be allowed for in pricing and randart generation.

I can attach the save file if you would like to have a look through it.

[Dean Anderson]

I do have the "No query to destroy known worthless items" option set, and my experience was that it was happy to consider Terror Mask a worthless item. The second time I got it, I carefully avoided moving back onto it.

I've had another look in the code and it only prevents artefacts from being destroyed if Preserve Mode is off (because with Preserve Mode off there's no chance of finding a new copy if you destroy the wrong thing).

So that looks like it's working as intended:

With Preserve Mode on...
...an artefact won't be generated if there's already a copy in existence (in your inventory, on the floor, in a shop or your home).
...the generation of an artefact will increase the "feeling" of the level.
...you can destroy artefacts.
...artefacts that you destroy (or that are nuked when the level is destroyed, because you dropped them or never found them) may be found again later.

With Preserve Mode off...
...artefacts won't be generated if they've already been generated once during the current game; regardless of whether or not your character ever actually saw the artefact.
...the generation of an artefact will give the level a "special" feeling, rather than merely increasing it, to decrease the chance of you leaving the level without realising it was there (although pits and vaults might give a false positive "special" feeling).
...you can't destroy artefacts (but you can drop them).
...artefacts that are nuked when the level is destroyed because you dropped them or never found them won't be found again later.
Thanks for the detailed explanation of speed. I guess this makes movement speed much less valuable - perhaps this should be allowed for in pricing and randart generation.

I can attach the save file if you would like to have a look through it.

Yes please. Hopefully I can see what's gone wrong with the guardian code.

[jevansau]

Sorry, failed to survive a 20 bone golems quest in the Necropolis.

[caruso]

That's strange. All the towns except Nir and Kadath have a bookstore, and the code explicitly disallows either of those two when picking a random starting town. Do you remember which town you started in?

I'm almost sure it was Dylath Leen. In any case, it was a town with at least three black markets, and I just could not find a library there while playing a high mage necromancer. By the way, I don't understand why arcane spellcasters should be forced to return to a town with a library, or at least back to the surface, to learn new spells

The run command - pressing '.' followed by a direction - should still work. It's just the shortcut of using <shift><direction> that doesn't. That's a known issue with the Windows Console code.

Ahhh... thanks, that's much better! I think that should go to the readme file. Also, sometimes there appears a fixme error message if I try shift-<dir>. Perhaps it should advise the player to use .<dir>.

Feature requests

• when looking through your 'i'nventory, selecting an item should give infos about it, like on which depth you found it (useful for classes with slow pseudo-id) and how much damage they cause (in case of offensive wands or weapons)
• dynamic level feelings
• new command: "list objects [on the level]". IIRC it is either '[' or ']' in Vanilla and some variants
• option to display the boundary of Detect Traps spells
• an option to disturb the player when crossing said boundary

Tweaks

• the eXamine command in shops should be more verbose - for example, what does a potion of Heroism do, apart from providing temporary rFear?
• when targeting a monster, make the game automatically choose the nearest monster (without automatically firing)
• add the "repeat" command to the in-game command list, (perhaps replacing "show last message") so that you need less macros - or no macros at all, which may be helpful for new Angband players
• indicate the radius of detection spells by a flash animation
• when browsing a spell book, give the radius of each spell already tried that affects an area
• when switching to the rogue command set, make the in-game command list change accordingly
• when trying to close a broken door, the game should tell you right away that the door is broken instead of prompting for a direction

[Nick]

Yes, it's been a while since the last release - fifteen years to be precise - but here is Cthangband 5.0.0!

Windows Console Version (this is an installer).
Source Code (this is a zip file).

If anyone maintains libraries of Angband variants, feel free to upload these and re-host them there. For my part, I've not yet put up a page on my website for Cthangband 5.0.0 yet. But the above links will remain valid when I do.

Did anyone get copies of these? I failed to, and the links have now expired.

[HallucinationMushroom]

The wayback machine worked for me on this one. There is a snapshot on Sept. 19th that allowed me to download both files.

Edit: I used this as the website, I meant to add it. Need coffee.

http://www.gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/cthangband.html

https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/cthangband.html

[Nick]

Awesome, thank you