Greg Wooledge's Angband - GWAngband

Current stable version: 2.8.3v1 (released: 14th March 1998)

Current development version: 2.8.3v3 alpha (released: 19th June 1999)

Author: Greg Wooledge

Webpage: Greg's Angband Page

Based on: Angband 2.8.3

Downloads:

GWAngband 2.8.3v3
System / Comments	Compiled by	Size	Date
Source code (Mirror)	Greg Wooledge	879 kByte	19th June 1999
For compilation instructions see my Compile Page. You also may need the graphical tiles (488 kByte) for compiling versions with support for graphics.
Mac (68020+) (Mirror)	Prfnoff	677 kByte	22nd June 1998
Requires Stuffit Expander 4.5 or later to decompress.
Mac (PPC) (Mirror)	Prfnoff	682 kByte	22nd June 1998
Requires Stuffit Expander 4.5 or later to decompress.
Amiga (680x0) (Mirror)	Bablos	508 kByte	22nd June 1999
Supports 8x8 graphics tile set, sound using xtra/cfg/sound.cfg, and previous savefile loading via user/data-ami.prf.
RISC OS	Thomas Harris	636 kByte	23rd June 1998
Requires RISC OS 3 and at least 2 MB memory. For more information look at Thomas Harris' home page.
MS-DOS (386 or better) (Mirror)	Robert Rühlmann	1058 kByte	25th June 1999
Supports ASCII mode, 8x8 tiles, Adam Bolt's 16x16 tiles, info windows, sound, and music.
Windows 95/98/NT (Mirror)	Robert Rühlmann	975 kByte	25th June 1999
Supports ASCII mode, 8x8 tiles, Adam Bolt's 16x16 tiles, info windows, and sound.

Mini-Review (by Robert Rühlmann)

New in version 2.8.3v3

• Bug fix: the complex RNG is now initialized properly when a new character is started with the memories of a previous character. (This actually affected all cases where the game was loaded with an existing save file, though it was generally only noticeable at character birth.)
• Locked and jammed doors are now detected by door detection spells. When a secret door is revealed, sometimes a locked door is created rather than an unlocked door.
• Weapons of Quickness no longer say "+N attacks".
• The 10% energy cost reduction for each plus on a weapon or shooter of Quickness is computed more intuitively: +2 gives 20% and +3 gives 30%.
• The Angband wrapper functions my_fopen() and my_fclose() are used in randart.c instead of the ANSI standard fopen() and fclose(), for compatibility with certain platforms.
• The Makefile.dos has been updated to match Makefile.ibm and Makefile.std. (Other makefiles haven't been updated -- you may need to add randart.o or the equivalent to the list of object files, and/or add randart.c to the list of source files.)
• The Bless Weapon spell now gives a non-zero WIS bonus.
• The hit point bonus for CON scores in the 17 to 18/50 range has been smoothed a bit (though not as much as some people might have wanted).
• Targeting trappers and lurkers is possible again.
• When throwing a wand or rod from a stack, charges/timeout are now handled correctly (no more free recharging!).
• Merged Robert Ruehlmann's DOS port changes, which allow compile-time support for Adam Bolt's tileset and special effects. (Use Makefile.dos, requires the Allegro library.)
• Reorganized Mage spells again. Detect Evil is gone, but Enchant Armor and Enchant Weapon (Rogue/Ranger only) have been added to take up the slack. Many low-level spells now appear in earlier books (in particular, confuse monster and sleep monster), and some high-level spells have been moved to later books.
• Rings of poison resistance are now 2000' items to make up for the lack of an early poison resistance Mage spell. (But rarity is higher and price is a bit lower.)
• Wands of magic missile now do 3d4 damage.
• Scrolls of teleportation are a bit more expensive but have a small chance of appearing in the Alchemist's shop; the staves are a bit less expensive and appear at 750' instead of 1000'. (This helps make up for the fact that all spell-casters now get Teleport Self or the equivalent spell later than they did in Angband.)
• Characters now get more (and more useful) starting equipment.
• Silver jellies (which touch to absorb light) are no longer hurt by bright light.
• Some more vanilla Angband bug fixes have been included.

New in GW-Angband 2.8.3v2

• Player combat rules are significantly altered. Instead of getting a number of "blows per round" and a number of "shots per round", the player has an energy cost associated with each blow or shot. This number is based primarily on DEX, but modified by class, experience level and (for melee weapons only) the ratio of the player's STR over the weapon's weight.
• A new option -- maximum desired blows per attack -- allows characters to swing more than once per attack, to reduce tedium and give a greater degree of compatibility with Angband.
• "Extra Attacks" and "Extra Shots" weapons now give a 10% energy cost reduction (for each plus) -- which makes them *much* less powerful. They've now been renamed to "Quickness", and their monetary values have been reduced.
• Priest and paladin prayers have been rewritten to follow a scheme closer to that of the mage/ranger/rogue spells. Some spells (especially redundant ones) have been dropped, some new spells have been added, and some old spells have been improved. A few spells have been downgraded, too. (I won't bother listing them all here; see the help file spells.txt for details.)
• Leon Marrick's wand and rod stacking has been included. There are some minor differences between the Oangband and GW-Angband implementations, but most players probably won't notice them.
• Keldon Jones's improved monster AI (version 0.1.1) has been included. I simply couldn't stand watching the novice rangers act like Keystone Kops any longer.
• Tim Baker's easy patch (version 1.2) has been included.
• Eric Bock's scroll patch has been included.
• Stores will try to keep more items in stock. Word of Recall scrolls have returned to the Temple (though they're not as common there as they are at the Alchemist's).
• Chests produce less gold and more items; all chest items are at least "good".
• Paladins get a (level)% melee damage bonus vs. undead and demons (applied last).
• The "complex" random number generator has been replaced by a different algorithm (the Mersenne Twister). Note that this is one of two different RNGs used in Angband; the "simple" one has not changed, which means that the town level, the object "flavors", and the random artifacts (all of which use the "simple" RNG) should not be affected when importing saved games from older versions. I hope. :-)

  As a side effect of this change, the RNG state is no longer saved in the save file. This means that the "anti-save-file-scumming" protection of recent Angband versions will not occur. (There is some debate as to whether this is good or bad.)

  The Mersenne Twister source code is distributed under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License; see the file LGPL in this directory for details. Therefore, GW-Angband 2.8.3v2 is considered a "work that uses the Library" and is distributed under the terms of section 6 of the LGPL.

• The amount of mana a character can hold based on INT/WIS uses a smoother distribution curve. (No more sudden leap of power at 18/50.) Characters will get a little more mana at the high end of the scale.
• Rogues have been tweaked a bit, to be less pitiful with certain spells (and slightly worse at others). They now get Stinking Cloud, but at a fairly high level (at which point it's more of a utility spell than an attack spell).
• Certain potions and scrolls are now considered "good".
• An attempt has been made to increase the randomness of long-range teleport effects (to decrease the frequency of consecutive teleports "bouncing" the player between two or three different spots).
• The temple will now buy more kinds of objects from the player.
• Most attack wands and rods have had their damage ratings doubled.
• All the recharging spells/prayers vary in effectiveness with the player's level. (Scrolls are still constant.)
• Meteor Swarm has been fixed (I added a function which projects non-jumping ball effects, but that wasn't *quite* enough, so I added another function which projects mutiple non-jumping balls all at the same target).
• Potions of Restore Mana and Staves of the Magi are more rare. Staves of the Magi cannot be recharged.
• Some of the high-level Mage attack spells have been made cheaper (lower spell point cost). Genocide has been made more expensive. Ice Storm has been made slightly more powerful (to compete with Explosion). Lightning Bolt does a bit less damage, but always beams.
• All object-based sources of lightning bolts project beams instead of bolts (and damage has been slightly reduced to compensate).
• Giant salamanders are no longer worth more XP than baby red dragons.
• All dragons/drakes/wyrms (except baby dragons) have had their melee attack damage doubled.
• Creatures (including player characters) hit by gravity damage have a 50% chance of resisting the short-range teleport effect. (This reduces the abusiveness of certain tactics with the Rift spell.)
• Mages (and Rangers) get the Rune of Protection spell, in a dungeon book. However, the glyph feature isn't as powerful as in Angband -- it prevents monster movement, but not monster melee attacks (the mosnters may reach a claw/tentacle/etc. over the edge -- they just can't step through it).
• Some vanilla Angband bug fixes have been included.

© 1997/98 by Robert Rühlmann, rr9@thangorodrim.net