News - November 1998

November, 27th 1998

• DOS version of ZAngband 2.2.2 fixed
  The DOS version had a strange and nasty bug causing the startup of the game to fail. The bugfixed DOS version should fix this problem. A big thank you to Mark Howson for compiling this "hot fix". I'm sorry for the inconvinience.

• ZAngband 2.2.2 released
  My new version of ZAngband is now available as: source code, DOS version, and Windows version as self-extracting archive for easy installation

  Changes since version 2.2.1:

  • Fixed a bug that could crash the game when entering any area around the town 'Angwil'.
  • Fixed the 'wilderness mode' prompt.
  • Allowed the dropping of items and running in forests.
  • Pressing ESCAPE at the prompt for your bet in the gambling house works now correctly.
  • Fixed a graphics glitch with beam spells and permanent walls.
  • 'Word of recall' works now also outside of the towns.
  • Golems, Zombies, Vampires, ... no longer can get food in the inns.
  • You have now to pay for rumors in the inn.
  • Dworkin Barimen has now a chance to drop the Jewel of Judgement.
  • You can no longer kick aquatic monsters in the ankle.
  • Removed a duplicated 'You have completed your quest!' when summoning and killing a monster in an already completed quest.
  • Killing monsters with the explosion of a thrown potion gives now experience.
  • Fixed the 'You see (nothing).' message that can appear in an obscure constellation involving a skeleton quaffing a potion of detonation.
  • Ctrl-N switches now to the next song in the DOS version.
  • Made changing the screen-resolution of the DOS version easier.
  • Set the default state of the first two terminal windows to 'Display messages' and 'Display inven/equip'.
  • Set the default state for the list and look commands to expanded mode.
  • 'Trap Creation' only affects floor grids now.
  • Added 4 new quests designed by Topi Ylinen.
  • Added 5 new quests designed by Jeff Coleburn.
  • Changed some other quests slightly.
  • Added the Rod of Pesticide (fast charging, activates for a low damage poison cloud).
  • Changed the behavior of earthquake/destruction spells in quests. In random quests these spells try to teleport away quest monsters, before the area caves in, in predefined quests these spells do nothing.
  • Changed the (Mass-)Genocide spells to prevent them from working in predefined quests.
  • Fixed the pluralization of various monster names.
  • Bloodletters of Khorne may now drop magical blades of chaos.
  • Added an draft of the new ZAngband-FAQ.
  • Various other bugfixes.

• ZAngband 2.2.1 bugfix
  There is a serious bug in ZAngband 2.2.1 causing crashes when entering any wilderness area around the town "Angwil". I've created a patch to fix the problem. Just unzip the archive over an existing installation of ZAngband 2.2.1 and replace the old files with the new files from this archive. The patch should work on any system.
• More Variants Madness
  Gwidon S. Naskrent's GSNAngband, Angband variant number 23, is based on ZAngband 2.2.0 and adds the following features:
  • Returning to the Tolkien world, removing all Amber elements and personages. Dunedain replaced the Amberites, and Straight Road replaces the Pattern (fits perfectly, if you know what I mean).
  • Gods (or should I say Valar...) substantially improved, less deadly and less fickle than in Kamband (no sacred/hated monsters, though).
  • Sanity
  • Weird attacks, more powerful than in Kamband, but available only via weapon or gloves.
  • Rogues can steal - effectiveness depends on player's level Luck (remains stable now, luck handling has to be improved).
  At the moment only a DOS version is available, and the link to it seems to be *slow*.

• ZAngband 2.2.1
  My bugfixed version of ZAngband is now available as: source code, DOS version, and Windows version as self-extracting archive for easy installation

  Changes since version 2.2.0:

  • Changed the scores file back to the old pre-2.2.0 file-format.
    Score-files from version 2.2.0 won't work! The installation will overwrite the 'lib/apex/scores.raw' file by default, so if you want to keep your old scores file then make a backup before installing.
  • Added friendly monsters.
  • Added a 'no wilderness' mode for slower systems. The mode can be selected when starting a new character and when importing a 2.1.1c or older savefile. A special town with quests and buildings has been added for this mode.
  • Bloodletters of Khorne drop now a Blade of Chaos when killed.
  • Pink horrors split into two Blue Horrors when killed.
  • Allowed easy addition of new monsters to r_info.txt.
  • Various optimizations to improve game speed.
  • Added a cold aura to some monsters.
  • Added an option to switch on 'hard quests' on character birth and when importing old savefiles.
  • Fixed a bug in the 'Reset Recall' spell.
  • Fixed problems with the 'Vault' quest.
  • Added a home to the town Telmora.
  • Changed the 'look' command to ignore boring terrains.
  • Changed the damage when walking over shallow lava.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed creation of townspeople in the dungeon.
  • Changed the behaviour of the 'magic mapping' spell.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed monsters to ignore 'glyphs of warding' and 'exploding runes'.
  • Golems, Zombies, Vampires, ... no longer can get food in the inns.
  • Fixed bugs in the 'absorb light' mutation.
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the creation of 'conneced stairs' and caused lookups when killing the last quest-monster.
  • Fixed a bug that hangs the game when displaying the contents of your houses after quitting or dying.
  • Various changes in the monster definitions.
  • Fixed the k_info.txt entry of the Trifurcate Spear.
  • Removed some disturbing messages.
  • The quests from the magic towers are now only available for members of the towers realm.
  • 'Detect treasure' no longer detects monsters represented with an '*'.
  • Prevented the use of 'Alter Reality' in quests.
  • Changed the description of ~ in the 'identify symbol' command.
  • Changed some of the 8x8 tiles.
  • Hagen has now a high chance to drop his spear.
  • Fixed the 'cursed items as quest rewards' bug.

  And a big Thank You to all the beta-testers! It's unbelieveable how fast debugging is when many people are reporting the bugs!

• Dr. Frankenstein
  I've written a "Monster Creator" in JavaScript for easier creation of new ZAngband monsters. It's not perfect, put a good tool for everybody who wants to mess with r_info.txt.
• KAngband bug-list
  Since Mark Howson has no own KAngband page yet, I added the list of known bugs in KAngband 2.8.3j to my Kangband page.

• PernAngband 2.9.9
  The variant madness is still not over, again a new variant appears. PernAngband is the name of the new creation by "Dark God". For details and downloads see my PernAngband Page.
• (J)Angband/64 beta 3 release 7
  And yet another release, this time by Jurriaan Kalkman. Version "beta3 release 7" of his variant JAngband is now available.
• Sangband 0.9.5 spell spoilers
  New spoilers for SAngband 0.9.5 spell effects are now available

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