============================================================================ = Gumband 2.1.2a: Changes from ZAngband 2.1.1c = Last Update: 25-Dec-2000 = ============================================================================ Send any and all complaints (or praise ;) to gumby@gwar.net ============================================================================ PLEASE NOTE: There are 3 files in this distribution. I had to do this in order to transport the files on floppy to a place I could upload them from. The files currently are: gumband-212a.txt - This description file. gumband-212a-dos.zip - DOS executable only, no lib. gumband-212a-src.zip - Source code only, no lib. gumband-212a-lib.zip - the lib/ directory. You'll *need* this to go with either of the other two archives, since they are not stand-alone. If ever I get full 'Net access again, I'll go back to the 'natural' two- archive system. :) ============================================================================ ALSO NOTE: Preserving savefile compatability is *NOT* important to me. I *highly* suggest you finish up your current character with your current version before moving to this one. Frankly, I'm almost certain that 2.1.1 savefiles will break in 2.1.2 - sorry. See '01)' for the reason... ============================================================================ I've been asked what I hoped to accomplish with this variant, other than as an excercise and learning experience in programming. Well, I thought I'd try and take it in a more Moorcockian direction, since I'm a fan of his works. I know nothing of Zelazny's Amber series, so I couldn't extend that. I plan eventually to remove all of the Amber stuff and replace it with Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff, plus other strange things that may seem silly and frivolous to some. :) ============================================================================ I've only ever compiled this under MS-DOS with DJGPP. Your milage may vary for other platforms and compilers... :) If you've had problems compiling ZAngband v2.1.1c, then you'll probably have problems compiling Gumband. ============================================================================ Thanks to Bablos for compiling the Amiga version. ============================================================================ I've compiled the MS-DOS version with main-ibm.c, so there are no sounds or graphics. The standard sound and graphics files are included in the 'lib' archive so that those who download the source can use them. I have also not done, nor do I plan to, anything about giving graphics assignments to any new monsters (those beyond #583, and those that have been altered, in r_info.txt), so anyone who compiles with graphics will have to do so themselves. I dislike graphics and sounds in Roguelike games, so I will not do anything to support them. ============================================================================ Thanks to all the folks in #angband and rec.games.roguelike.angband who've put up with me, and even helped me in many cases, while I was plundering their knowledge of C for this little project. :) So, if you've responded to any of my posts dealing with Gumband, or C programming in general, consider yourself thanked. :) [individual thanks will be down there in the entries that apply] ============================================================================ There have been other minor changes than those listed here that aren't worth individual mentions. Most changes to the monster, object and artifact lists won't be included here. This file's getting too big. :) ============================================================================ 01) Replaced Sauron, Oberon, the Serpent of Chaos with the three Sword Rulers (Arioch, Xiombarg and Mabelrode), all of which are Questors. 02) If you're a Chaos Warrior and you kill your patron (one of those three above), then you've been a naughty boy (or girl) and deserve the thumping you'll get from the 3-5 TY Curses you'll get. :) 03) Removed Amberites as a monster type. I'll replace the race someday, but that's a *much* more difficult task to do well. I've only replaced a few of the Amberites in r_info.txt, but they'll all be going once I figure out who their replacements will be... Oh, the blood curse is gone, too. YAY! :) BUG: For some reason, there's a blank monster shown as the first and only entry when I CTRL-A to look at the entire monster memory from the '/' prompt... :( It so far only appears to happen when you've got the know all monster info cheat on. It doesn't seem to hurt anything, but it's very annoying. :( 04) Removed the auto-roller delay during character creation. 05) Got Dismiss Pets to, finally, work from racial/mutation activation menu. Once I download Zceband 2.1.1's source again, I'll look into adding the pet menu & AI from it and ZAng22x [I have little hope in that direction, tho. It looks to be a task that's *WAY* beyond my current abilities. :] BUG: I still can't figure out why "b) dismiss pets" is being displayed as "b) ", ie, blanked out... 06) The dart trap which slows is now the gas trap which polymorphs. Don't worry, it only has a 50% chance of activating if you don't resist Chaos (which gives you immunity to the trap). And, like summoning runes, they go away after the first activation (whether you mutate or not). Still, watching out for purple ^s on dungeon level 5 (the shallowest they can appear) or deeper is a *very* good idea. :) 07) Stores now have a 1 in 15 chance of shuffling each day (originally a 1 in 21 chance). The {on sale} discount has been reduced to 35% since sales are that much more common. The purses of the General Store and Black Market owners have been altered slightly. 08) Dungeon generation has been altered slightly: Small levels are now more common (50% chance instead of 33%). Destroyed levels are less common (3.3% chance instead of 5.5%). 'Unusual' rooms are now more common (a level/175 chance instead of level/194). Empty 'Arena' levels are now less likely to be darkened (10% chance instead of 20%). 09) Changed 'info_size' and 'text_size' in 'struct header' to u32b from u16b. It might break things. If so, my apologies. :) Did this so I can add monsters beyond #583... 10) Creatures with the HURT_FIRE and HURT_COLD flags now take +50% damage from those types of attacks. 11) New summoning types for monsters: S_HELLBLADES, S_ANIMAL, S_ELEMENTAL, and S_SCUMDOG (GWAR). Thanks to Eric Bock and Antimatter (of #angband) for how to go about doing this... ELEMENTAL and SCUMDOG also have their own monster-type flags. 12) Changed the maximum number of random monster quests to 75 (up from 40). Probably munchkinish, but what the hell. :) Doesn't seem to break savefile compatability... 13) High resistances for players use the formula "dam = (dam * 2) / 3;", ie, 67% (approx) of the unresisted damage. This is the average amount of damage from the old resistance formula of "dam *= 6; dam /= (randint(6) + 6);". I just didn't like resisting the attacks so randomly... Note that the damage caps for those 'high' types of monster breaths will be set at 600 in compensation - which means about 400 damage when resisted. :) 14) Monsters use "dam /= 3;" for most of their resistances, mostly so that Nature spellcasters can have a chance if they don't happen to have a bow... 15) The damage from most objects, spells and racial/mutation activations have been increased by 50% or so. IMHO, they're usually so weak that there's no incentive to use the offensive abilities of these objects, except for the occasional blast with a ball-spell against weak breeders or group monsters. BUG: The damage displayed in character dumps and suchlike may be a bit inaccurate, but it's not a priority to fix. 16) Chaotic weapons now deal extra damage (x2 base) against creatures that resist and/or breathe chaos. Go read Moorcock's Elric series to see my reasoning. Most creatures who either have 'chaos' as part of their name, or else breathe it, along with a few others, now explicitly resist (or are vulnerable to it, depending on the method of Chaos delivery) chaos via the new RES_CHAO flag. 17) Stores now tend to create better items as the character gains in level. The 'level' for normal stores is increased by (plev / 5), while the Black Market increases by ((plev - 5) / 3). 18) The chance of 'inflating' an object's level during its creation has been changed to a 1/15 (6.6%) chance, up from the normal 1/20 (5%). Probably considered a bit munchkinish, but it means there's slightly fewer items created as you get deeper that you'd discard immediately... 19) Worn items can be be stolen, but thieves won't go near cursed items, regardless of whether it's worn or in your pack. Doesn't seem to happen all that often, tho, especially with only about a half-dozen or so item-thieves in the game... 20) Changed the table for Dexterity vs. theft attacks. You now don't get full immunity from theft until your Dex is at 18/200. 21) Defined the various Chaos Patrons (eg, "#define PATRON_ARIOCH 7") like in Zceband 2.1.1 (Eric Bock's version). Actually, directly stole the #defines and suchlike from there. Thanks, Eric. :) It certainly makes life easier... 22) Most of the mutations from Eric Bock's Zceband 2.1.1 have been cheer- fully stolen by me for use here. :) Hope ya don't mind, Eric. :) 23) Because it's hard to get mutations with characters who aren't Beastmen or Chaos Warriors, I've added a Potion of Mutation. And don't complain about getting crappy mutations from it - that's what Potions of New Life (which are more common and cheaper than in Z211c) are for. :) BUG: There are too many potions in the game at the moment, so Potions of Mutation can't be generated via debug mode's item creation menus. It's not a priority to fix, however. -*-*-*- Altered Races and Classes -*-*-*- [birth.c - choices of realms, starting equipment xtra1.c - melee and missile attacks, intrinsics granting(?) tables.c - class definitions files.c - intrinsics display information cmd2.c - racial activations spells2.c - racial activations part 2] Amberites: Now have Slow Digestion so that their Regeneration isn't as much a penalty. Chaos Warriors: Gain bonus abilities based on their patron. Bonus melee attack at level 25. Bonus missile shot at level 35. +1 to hit and to damage every 10 levels. Elves: Now gain Detect Animals at level 10. Golems: XP required now at +150% (up from +100%). They now have 13 hit dice (up from 12 HD). Magic Devices skill now at +5 (up from -5). [being magical devices themselves, Golems have an instinctive understanding of these things] They now resist Shards and Nexus. They no longer get intrinsic See Invisible, Free Action or their level 35 Hold Life. Half-Elves: Now gain Detect Animals at level 15. Half-Trolls: All Half-Trolls, not just Warriors, get Slow Digestion with their level 15 Regeneration. Humans: Now gain Self Knowledge at level 15. Mindcrafters: XP required is now +30%, up from +25%. Various changes to their powers, noted in the Altered Spells section. Monks: The 'Monk Hack' has been enabled, allowing the intrinsic speed of Monks to be cumulative with that of Klackons and Sprites. [config.h] With the amount of speed in ZAngband, I fail to see how this would be unbalancing. Nibelungs: Their racial activation information has been corrected. Paladins: Bonus melee attack at level 25. Bonus missile shot at level 35. +1 to hit and to damage every 10 levels. Rangers: Bonus melee attack at level 25. Bonus shots with Short and Long Bows at levels 15, 30 and 45, instead of just at levels 20 and 40. +1 to hit and to damage every 10 levels. Nature magic only, no secondary realm. Begins with Short Bow instead of second spellbook. Rogues: All Rogues now start with a Dagger of Poisoning, not just those who choose the Death magical realm. Sprites: Sprites now gain their 'sleeping dust' activation at level 8, with no change in cost. Warrior-Magi: Bonus melee attacks at levels 25 and 50. 6 blows with same weight and multiplier restrictions as Warriors. Bonus missile shot at level 35. +1 to hit and to damage every 5 levels. Arcane magic only, no secondary realm. Begins with Hard Leather Armour instead of second spellbook. Yeeks: Their racial activation, Scare Monster, has been moved to level 5 and now has a cost of 10. (it now might actually be useful) -*-*-*- Altered Spells -*-*-*- [cmd5.c - spell definitions object2.c - spell display information tables.c - spell costs and names] The biggest change of all to a spell effect: Invulnerability does *NOT* prevent all damage, nor does it have a chance of being penetrated. Instead, Invulnerability reduces *all* damage to 1/9th of normal (cumulative with resistances and such, if I'm reading things right). Hate me yet? :) Arcane magic is now limited to Warrior-Magi and High Magi, which is good because... Arcane magic has been fairly heavily re-written and is, I personally think, too good now to be paired with another realm. The new spell list is: Book 1 Book 3 ------ ------ Zap Teleport Detect Invisibility Stone to Mud Detect Monsters Ray of Light Blink Satisfy Hunger Light Area Magic Mapping Trap/Door Destruction Recharging Stinking Cloud Remove Curse Cure Light Wounds Cure Critical Wounds Book 2 Book 4 ------ ------ Detect Doors/Traps Elemental Protection (resist Fire/Cold/Elec/Acid) Phlogiston Prismatic Bolt (fires a random elemental bolt) Confuse Monster Identify Sleep Monster Teleport Away Detect Objects/Treasure Elemental Ball Cure Poison Detection See Invisible Word of Recall Cure Medium Wounds Clairvoyance Mindcraft has been altered as follows: Precognition now detects doors and stairs at level 5, with detect traps bumped to level 10, and full detection moves to level 35, up from 30. Psychometry now gives Identify at level 30 and *Identify* at level 45. Minor Displacement has moved Dimension Door (targeted, short-ranged teleportation) to level 30 (from level 25). Major Displacement now gives Teleport Other at level 50, instead of its original 'Banish' (teleport away all creatures in line of sight) effect. Replaced the Trump spell 'Reset Recall' with 'Minor Divination' which detects traps, doors, stairs and normal monsters. The cost and fail rate for Minor Divination are the same as they were for Reset Recall, so there's no cheap and easy early detection for Trump users. Chaos' 'Mana Burst' now has a plev% chance of being a ball of *real* mana (GF_MANA instead of the normal GF_MISSILE), which means that this spell can no longer be safely used to clear out pits. :) Chaos' 'Touch of Confusion' has become 'Demon Detection'. Since any sort of detection is out of character for Chaos, I've left the cost, level and fail rate unchanged. Demons are an appropriate detection type, IMHO. Nature no longer detects general creatures, only animals. This affects Detect Creatures (which becomes 'Animal Detection') and Nature Awareness. The various branding spells can now be used on non-stacked items in the inventory and on the floor. Everyone knows that Holy Fire destroys only cursed objects. Hellfire, considering its origin, delights in taking the opposite approach. :) [ie, destroys non-cursed items. Cruel, I know. :]