24.Jul.2022, version 1.06b -------------------------- * Fixed a bug where the game crashed after purchasing too many arrows from a sage 29.Sep.2021, version 1.06 ---------------------- * You can no longer die from diving into an ice pool. The sudden death wasn't much fun. * When looking at monsters, changed the "e" to examine into "l" since the default look key is also l * The monster examination view shows the current floor's danger rating below the monster's danger * Hits that merely scratch don't drench clothes with blood or cause bleeding * Minor improvements to some first timer tutorial texts * Fixed menu colors during berserking * You no longer auto pickup items or wring wet clothes when you're paralyzed/sleeping/confused * Added gender selection to character creation, which affects mortems and high scores * Added specific descriptions of what the skills do, e.g. brutal strike increases damage by 50% * Improved a few skills, mainly related to critical hit chance or the skill's drawbacks * Capped piercing strike/shot's max effect to half of the original armor of the monster 29.Aug.2014, version 1.05 ------------------------- The Big Changes: ---------------- * The total number of floors in the dungeon has been dropped from 50 to 35! This makes the game feel faster and less grindy. This has affected a large number of features, so the balance may be different now, though I've tried to rebalance and bug fix these changes as much as possible * Clothes have their own prefix now: wet. The clothes you're wearing can get wet from a number of sources, and some of the clothes you loot are wet already. It takes time or special arrangements to dry out wet clothes. Naturally wet clothes don't protect you as well against the coldness Playability improvements: ------------------------- * Added a short tutorial, which is shown the first time you start a new game, after dungeon generation. The tutorial replaces READ_THIS_FIRST.txt, and the troubleshooting section is now on the game's site * You can now examine identified potions/wands/accessories and prefixed pieces of equipment in the inventory screen to get an explanation what the magical effect does * You can use enter to confirm selections in most situations now. Enter selects the default command in menus with multiple options, for example in the inventory screen enter is use * Numerous small usability and learnability improvements, unworthy of this list * Clarified the meanings of many messages and added more informational texts * Some descriptive texts were also changed completely to add more consistency * When you stumble on an item in the snow, it now says what the found item is in the message * The help screen is a lot clearer now * The message buffer is longer now and can be scrolled up and down * The load game screen doesn't quit anymore when you mistype the save file's name * The statbar arrow indicator A: was changed to Arw: and it's only displayed while using a bow * The active fighting style is displayed on the statbar now * Changing fighting styles is faster now as you don't need to cycle through all of them anymore * Some default keybindings were changed to make playing and using commands faster * You can see your progress towards the Goddess now as a percent when you sacrifice items * You can now see your piety toward the Goddess as a percentage in the character screen * You can now see your ailments in the character info screen * You can now see your regeneration stats in the character info screen * You can now see your thrown weapon damage in the character info screen * There's now a third page in the character info screen: A floor memory of sages, smiths and altars * In the level up screen, you can now open the skill learning menu to check the skill requirements * You can now sort skills in the learning menu by attainability, level requirement or default order * Changed the color highlighting in the learning menu depending on what requirements aren't met * Added tier classifications for the strike/shot skills in their descriptions * The maximum durability of an item is shown next to its current one in inventory and equipment screens * Item weights are shown in the inventory screen now. Beware, they're rather abstract * You can now ready and swap shields with one-handed weapons * You can now examine monsters when you look at them. This shows a stats screen for the monster New content: ------------ * All the bosses got an alternative special power and an alternative floor design now. In both cases only one of the two possible picks is used per game. This means 2*2=4 possible combinations per boss * There are now two possible endings. The better ending is naturally harder to achieve * Added a new dungeon feature: a strange hovering light. Go find out what happens if you touch it * Added a new dungeon feature: a mask waiting just for you to touch it. Go find out what happens then * Added 3 new equipment prefixes and modified one of the existing prefixes * Added 2 new special floor effects * Added 4 new random events * Added 2 new traps * Added 3 new monster specials * Added a new potion, wand, ring and an amulet. The wand is definitely my new favorite item! * Added 4 new skills: *Taunt, which changes ranged monsters temporarily into melee monsters *Warrior's rending strike, which makes the struck target take bleeding damage over 6 turns *Archer's rending shot, which makes the shot target take bleeding damage over 6 turns *Ranger's rending throw, which makes the thrown target take bleeding damage over 6 turns * The 3 training specific skills above are now the starting skills, replacing the stat boost skills * The stat boost skills are now easier to learn for characters with the corresponding training Bug fixes: ---------- * Fixed knockback to work even when the target can't move the maximum push range * Fixed a bug where you could swap weapons into a non-weapon item (trouswords!) * Fixed line of sight refreshing when a monster knocks you back * Fixed cosmetic bugs where the dungeon wasn't redrawn correctly after menu exits * Fixed some possible infinite loop situations in the dungeon generation * Fixed possible crash locations in random events * Empty wands remember they're empty when dropped now Other changes: -------------- * A bit of routine balancing here and there, as well as tiny changes to certain effects * A lot of minor polishing like fixing typos and cosmetic bugs * Added articles to item names where they were missing and fixed the grammar of plural item names * Revised some item names to make them clearer and a little more realistic * Revised monster names, symbols and specialties to make them more serious and balanced * Monsters are now either living or not, and only the living bleed and can be *killed* * Renamed the fumble ailment to clumsy * Changed the too-religious-sounding shrine feature into a "spirit veil" to reduce player confusion * You can now sell stuff to smiths too * Smiths have a new service now: they can destroy your cursed equipment for a price * Now a sage OR an altar is guaranteed in every dungeon branch * The maximum depth between new sages/altars/smiths is now 14 floors * The Goddess no longer accepts ammunition as a sacrifice * All characters start with a few throwing weapons now. The number depends on your training * The dungeon is now colder even early on, but you start with some firemead * Rebalanced skill requirements and SP costs, generally making them lower * The aggressive fighting style is now weaker for ranged and thrown attacks * The bosses are a bit more aware of stair dancing techniques now * Sleep traps are more potent now * Frostbite isn't as damaging anymore, and it can be healed with food * Greatly reduced freezing/boiling damage and removed regeneration while in these conditions * Dungeon features are more positive in their effects now * Added more gold loot to dungeon generation * Changed the structure of post-mortem file names and added a bit more info to the post-mortems * You can now generate characters randomly * Updated the manual and took some useless sections out * The last boss hits a lot harder now * All the monsters have descriptions now, shown in the examination screen 25.Aug.2010, version 1.04 ------------------------- Bigger changes/more important stuff to know: -------------------------------------------- * Added 50(!) brand new, handcrafted "bonus" floors! One is always chosen randomly from the pool some floors before every boss, so if you get to the final boss, you'll have found 5 of these. They hold useful treasures if you manage to get that far, deeply out of depth items and sometimes much needed Sages etc. But those treasures are guarded by powerful monsters and sometimes a very evil level design. You may need to use potions/wands to get around the guards, but the rewards usually help greatly with the coming boss battle. I hope you have fun exploring these and perhaps trying to find some of the hidden treasure stashes too, but be careful, some of them are real death traps if you aren't careful. * Gaining a level takes you to a new screen now with a new character advancement option that you can use to further specialize yourself, or perhaps balance out your weaknesses. Also, now you gain random extra stats only every other level. * Added an advanced start option in the character creation. Players who feel the first 10 floors are too easy can skip them with this option, but their starting items are worse than what you'd have if you'd played through from the beginning. For example you don't have any magical items. * Changed the targeting system when shooting/throwing: Now if you have a target already, you shoot at it without going through the targeting interface, if you don't, you naturally go through it still. There's a new command 'f' to change the target if you already have one, but don't want to shoot at it. * A cursed piece of armor prevents you from equipping/unequipping the piece of clothing underneath now, and to compensate the evilness of this, all cursed pieces of equipment degrade at a much faster rate * Rebalanced all monster damages. Buffed the damage a bit in floors 1-20, nerfed in 20-40 and in 40-50 it didn't change much, taking into account the nerfs to player's stat calculations. Now you can actually die earlier too if you get into a bad situation, and the difficulty spike after the 20th floor isn't as sharp. * A new command: Cycle quick skill (key A). It changes your quick skill to the next known skill without opening the skill menu, thus using combo skills (like piercing+double strike) is faster. * When praying, you now first sense whether you'd get an answer from the Goddess by praying, and if you would, you can choose to pray or not to pray. You can check your relation with the Goddess this way as you travel deeper (you need more sacrifices deeper) without an altar and without using up your possible prayer. You can also now choose whether you'd like a full heal or full uncursing of your equipment during the prayer. * You can now choose your starting weapons, each training has two choices * Added a new dungeon feature. It looks like a red + and isn't dangerous * Added another prepared skill slot for buffs. For example Wild Regeneration and Inhuman Reflexes use this slot. So now you can dodge with Inhuman Reflexes and use offensive skills at the same time Smaller changes/less important stuff to know: --------------------------------------------- * Fixed a bug with weapon swapping that allowed a shield+2 handed combo * Fixed a small bug that showed sages that weren't there when looking * Improved the monster AI in certain situations * Changed prepaid resurrection's cost calculation. It depends on max depth now, not character level * Changed the derivation of some stats (like dodge); level means less now, the main stats more * Added diminishing returns to certain key stats * Buffed all monsters' dodge * Added new higher level skills: -Desperate strike/shot, more damage+hit while low on health -Mad strike/shot, hits twice with a higher crit chance, but may confuse you -Wild rage, increases damage, dodge and to hit, but drains SP and temperature drops/raises faster -Passive thrown weapon expertise, increases thrown damage *At the same time changed all old passive skills' level requirements to 12 * Added a few new monster abilities, and changed the squeezing special, which I wasn't satisfied with * Also changed and added existing abilities to other monsters * The maximum number of smiths per floor is now 1. The same applies to altars * Items with unknown BCU status are shown as gray in pick up screen too * Nerfed how much level affects certain things like to hit and armor to balance out other additions * Nerfed the damage bonuses from str and dex if they exceed 20 * You can no longer use skills while confused * Stat screens *should* (the code is a mess) show the effects of ailments/rings/tactics/etc. now * Buffed the wild regeneration skill's amount of healing * Buffed vampiric strike/shot's amount of healing; it's now 10% of your max HP * Also decreased vampiric strike/shot's SP cost and stat requirements a bit * Decreased multi strike/shot's SP cost a lot * HP/SP growth per level gets smaller the higher your max HP/SP is to nerf 300 hp dwarves * Blood flows when you hit monsters critically * Changed the first boss floor slightly * Monsters that cause frostbite take more damage from fiery attacks now, and resist cold * Freezing/boiling is a bit more forgiving now, no more instant -1000 hp * The Inhuman Reflexes skill costs only 10 SP now, earlier being 15 SP * Balanced Piercing strike/shot again with increased requirements and SP cost * Slightly nerfed Brutal strike/shot, but decreased its SP cost to 13 * Decreased Double strike/shot's SP cost to 13 too to balance it with Brutal * Dropped the Knockback skill's SP cost and requirements * Also dropped the Dash skill's SP cost to 10 and changed Wild Regeneration's requirements a bit * Max hp is shown correctly in the mortem when the player dies with a frostbite * The number of found altars/sages/smiths is shown in the mortem now * Prepared weapons are shown correctly in the mortem too. Polished the mortem a bit * Added more stat info to the mortem as well * The quick skill is now automatically set to your starting skill at start * Added a message for dodging attacks. Previously dodges were reported as misses * Added a message for weak attacks, you/monsters 'scratch' the target when dealing low damage * Trying to move somewhere makes you now struggle away from immobilization too * Changed some texts so that they would make more sense * Added a new potion * Added 2 new weapon/armor prefixes * Added another page to the stat screen with more info there * Changed the stat screen's way of showing damage. Now it's the actual damage range, excluding tactics * Changed the random number generator * Split ring of increase lethality into two: ring of damage and accuracy * Split ring of increase defense into two: ring of evasion and protection * Made the ice pools deeper (7, 10, 13 foot instead of 4, 6, 8). Only the flavor text was changed * 1H/2H (one handed/two handed) is shown for weapons in the inventory screen too * The game warns you when your equipment are about to break down (durability = 1) * You can see the % you're carrying of your maximum capacity in the player stat screen now * Increased prepaid resurrection's cost slightly, reduced potion identify's and arrows' cost * Sages sell food now. Note: it's more cost effective to buy heating instead of the portable food * When looting an item from a frozen corpse, the game now informs you the item's name * Quick move follows corridors now even when there are turns if there's only one possible direction * Stairs are now drawn in brown if you have found a sage/smith/altar in the floor they lead into. This makes finding the sages/smiths/altars easier later * You can now change pages in inventory and skill screens by pressing up/down if the currently selected item/skill is on top or bottom of the list * When moving deeper, you are now informed if you haven't sacrificed enough to get an answer there even though it was enough on the previous floor * And a lot of the usual small polishing that doesn't deserve its own entry After the beta: --------------- * Changed the fluff texts of advanced start to something more atmospheric * Slowed regeneration slightly * Added timestamps to mortems * Added the base bonus modifiers of weapons/pieces of armor and clothing to the equipment screen * Fixed a small bug in quick running * The skill learning screen shows skill descriptions and requirements next to the selected skill now * You can now quick move using shift+direction (normally would be 'w'+direction), but this currently works only with the default *numpad* directions. For example shift+numpad 6 = quick move east. This also might not work on all Linux terminals. 27.Jun.2008, version 1.03 ------------------------- * A lot of general balancing and polishing * First Macintosh version -- Thanks to Dana Larose! * Limited the first boss' special skill to prevent monster farming with it * The monster respawn rate decreases as you go deeper now * Also slightly decreased the number of monsters on deeper floors * Added a chance to get 2x experience from monsters to compensate the previous two changes * Two new distinct dungeon generators, a cavernous and a corridor heavy generator * Also changed the way different dungeon generators are used * Monsters in the cave are a bit weaker to make fighting multiple monsters easier * And the superiors are a bit easier on deeper floors * Characters with an archer's training can now destroy iceblocks by shooting them with a bow * Greatly decreased the cost of arrows. Also, arrows and thrown weapons last longer now * Targeting yourself and pressing shoot quits the targeting mode (bow and throwing weapons) * Removed the arrow effect when the player shoots, the targeting cursor flash engulfed it anyway * An accessory's B/C/U status now indicates its effect, uncursed being neutral (good and bad) * Equipment screen's star (*) recognizes B/C/U statuses now * Sages got a new service: Prepaid Resurrection. If you die after buying it, you'll get resurrected * Two new dungeon features + a random event. Try to be careful with the one you can use or ignore * Simple different, though uncommon, rooms for two of the generators * More informative and partly redone character creation screens * Special skill descriptions are now also in-game, not only in the manual * You can loot frozen corpses by pressing the pick up command now * After 9th level up you gain random extra attributes only every second level (L11, L13, L15, L17) * The deeper bosses are a bit harder again, the first one a bit easier * Nerfed the starting skills yet again, hopefully for the last time * Balanced Piercing strike/shot. The reduction is smaller now, but works 100% on bosses too * Also fixed Piercing strike/shot's reduction on the monster's arrow armor * Hp/sp increase was tweaked. You get more hp/sp on level up if you pick vitality/stamina now * Yell is a lot more useful now. It drops the iceblocks around you to block corridors * Reduced the cost of Sage's identify with potions * Sages describe identified items too from now on * Added a small graphical effect when the player hits successfully in melee * Warriors start with an added shield and the 2h weapon now to promote 1h+shield style a bit * Fixed a crash bug when the primary or secondary weapon breaks under certain circumstances * Fixed a most damnable bug, occuring when the player is paralyzed and the message buffer full * Fixed a crash bug when the player equips something from the second page of listed equipments * Added a guaranteed altar to 9th floor if there were no sages and altars before that floor * Frostbite decreases your hp too, not only maximum hp * Having fever drops your damage very slightly now * From now on you're always 'Hot' if you have fever * A new item type: craftable material, used with the new dungeon feature deep smith * A new Sage-like dungeon feature, the deep smith. They can repair your equipment, exchange materials into different ones and craft weapons and pieces of armor from the material that you have to supply to him to craft. All of these cost a varying amount of gold. You can decide the size of the payment yourself when you want an item crafted or repaired. The crafted item's quality and the amount of repairing done depends on the payment. * Changed some default keys: Look=L (old=l), use skills=d (old=k), learn skills=D (old=L), message buffer=M (old=m) and pick up=g (old=,) [I realized how much easier it is to have g as pick up when I'm pressing w all the time and g is near w]. You can change the keybindings if you don't like the changes, of course. * If auto pick up is on, you run out of thrown weapons and then auto pick them up, the game automatically equips the last thrown weapon you used if no thrown weapon is equipped * Added 5 new passive skills with level 9 requirement. Although the requirements are high, you shouldn't forget these skills as they are very powerful and bring balance to the end game * Modified the warmth reduction system yet again; the smallest possible loss is higher now (and clothes can't fully prevent this), but it's a bit warmer deeper down now 13.Jul.2007, version 1.02 ------------------------- * The usual tiny polishing everywhere * A few small balance changes * Some of the new unidentified rings were black, bug fixed * Ranged attacks didn't wake the player, bug fixed * More blood! * Improved the dungeon generation a little bit * You get the note when you've sacrificed enough in the screen too using the quick command now * All item and monster names are now written in lowercase * Greatly increased the effect of cold and warm hits * Changed archer's starting stats a bit: more stamina, less agility * Rewrote the skills section in the manual * Color coded combat messages * A new command: Use quick skill (default key a). You can set a quick skill in the skill menu * Changed some texts to create a bit more serious atmosphere * Added two more levels of Goddess' favor * You don't always get fever when you get sickness anymore (and vice versa) * You start with one skill point now * Now all the bosses have their unique special skills, be careful! * An auto pick up for gold and ammunition. You can toggle it for ammunition (O), for gold it's always on * Piercing strike/shot reduces armor permanently now * The game informs you if you can learn a skill after gaining a level * Added a useful function to the bloody wand * When someone shoots, an arrow symbol (/) is drawn on the target to "warn" about the ranged threat * Added an event to campfires * More scroll effects * New random events * New special described floors * New prefixes for items * New potions, removed useless ones and changed one potion's effect when it's identified * Added 2 new accessories and removed a few useless/negative ones to make accessories better overall * Added 2 new wands and changed the effect of digging when you target yourself with it * A new trap and modified a few of the existing ones * A lot of new special things for monsters (changed some names). Removed petrification * Some additional info to the mortems * Increased the chance of getting a positive effect from an ice mirror slightly * A small change in the sage generation * Some changes to a few boss levels * Retuned some monster special skills * Fixed a bug concerning the last boss. It's a bit deadlier now * Improved the wand of item creation's functionality * Resting (default key 5) regenerates SP faster * Changed some monster names to match the theme better * Changed Crimson strike/shot to Stunning strike/shot * Monsters got their first ailment, stun (same as paralyze for the player) * Shrines can't curse your items anymore, they can only unbless them * Changed the pick up menu a bit when there are many items on the ground * Praying with full HP, no ailments and no temperature problems uncurses your equipment now * You can now burn clothes and arrows by dropping them on a campfire. This extends the burning time * The starting skills cost less in SP now and give a slightly smaller bonus * Items with unknown blessed/cursed/uncursed status are now gray in the inventory screen * Improved the quick move command. It stops in clear intersections now, try to get used to it * Destroying iceblocks is a bit easier now. There's the special floor though... * The monsters' regen speed is slower now. 1H weapons were sometimes too weak because of this * The player starts with no money again. I'm not sure why I added that anyway * The game warns you now if you hit a monster in melee without a melee weapon * New ailments: -Slow. Decreases movement speed. -Fumble. Decreases chance to hit. -Immobilized. The player can't move at all, but can shoot and hit nearby monsters -Frostbite. Temporarily decreases max HP. Temperature acts as a resistance against frostbite; if your temperature is high, the chance of getting a frostbite is lower. Also, you will recover from a frostbite quicker if your temperature is high. * Improved the sorting algorithm again, now identified items appear before unidentified ones * The player's color indicates his warmth status, no more random colors * The A: (the amount of arrows) on the bottom line is now green when you're using a bow * Sages can be teleported using wands. Also sages don't spawn on items anymore * Sages can be seen even if they're out of sight now (if you've found the sage first) * Changed wand of identification to greater identification. Now it briefly explains the item's effect on you, too. Also, you can use it on prefixed items to reveal their effect. * Lowered the stat requirements and SP costs plus increased the effects of skills. Also decreased some of the level requirements. The skills should be more viable now. Check the new requirements! * Now you can see the * (which means that you have something better to equip) even if you are already wearing something. It's blind to prefixes and B/C/U statuses. * You can now ready weapons in the equipment screen and then press S to swap the current and readied weapons. Playing hybrid rangers should be easier with this. It doesn't use a turn. * Changed the warmth system a bit. Clothes can increase your warmth in ONE situation anymore: if you're in a warm level (=you would regenerate warmth even without clothes). From now on you lose warmth even if you have the best clothes on the first floor. This is closer to my original vision of warmth. A fix update soon after the initial release: + Fixed dual wielding; the second weapon didn't hit if the first one did. + Fixed Wraith's damage and hp + Minor additions to the manual + Changed how the starting skills' sp cost is shown in the skill menu 5.Aug.2006, version 1.01 ------------------------- * Many tiny changes and fixes that are not worth mentioning * Again changed some texts and tried to make them a bit clearer * The changed keybindings work with the wand zap directions now * You can see the experience % of your progress to the next level now * Improved the @ screen's armor/weapon/cloth value calculations * Fixed the fighting styles. They didn't... uhm... work * You can't bind one symbol to many commands anymore and the game will tell you that * Changed the item randomizer slightly, you can see higher level items earlier now * Tried to balance some small rolls in the dungeon generator * You can't create a charater with a saved character's name anymore * The savefiles are a bit smaller now * The player starts with 50 gold pieces from now on * Increased and balanced the starting stats of the races * Slightly adjusted the special skills * The inventory's sorting algorithm handles potions, wands and accessories a bit better * Something fun happens when you kill a boss * The starting skill has a maximum bonus and it doesn't drain all your SP now * Added some more info to the mortems again * In the equip screen, you can see a * next to the None if you have something to equip * Changed the layout of the first boss level * The game should be a bit easier and more balanced now * Added some shiny ASCII effects * Temporarily boosted stats are now shown as purple * Added some new random special levels * Added a new edible item, which is quite random at times, you have been warned * Balanced the bosses a bit more. They've undergone some dramatic changes * Changed some monsters to improve the atmosphere * Added some new unidentified items * There are now two types of weapons: crude and normal ones. You'll find crude ones earlier, but they're worse than the normal weapons. This balances the game a bit * The game uses 80x25 console size again. Windows users should use the shortcut if they have the bad colors! The game doesn't force you, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't! 20.Jun.2006, version 1.00 ------------------------- * Fixed a few bugs * Some minor balancing * Tiny polishing here and there * Wrote a bit more stuff for manual and READ_THIS_FIRST * Improved one of the dungeon generators a bit * Improved the blood spilling algorithm * The clothes can break now, too * The ` key works like ESC and z from now on too * The dungeon is a bit larger now * All the symbols are now pure ASCII * Changed some texts in-game, they should be a bit clearer now * Adjusted the colors, they're a bit cooler now * Added starting skills for all classes, plus one extra skill: disarm traps * The game uses Curses now * First Linux version * Improved the inventory a bit * I had to change some inventory screen keys, +/- = page down/up (next/previous page) * Wands can be identified by zapping only if there is a visible effect * From now on, you'll drink tea, not eat it * There is a folder for mortems now * Added some more info to the mortems * Added user configurable keybindings * Added a few monsters and the monster randomizer is now a bit more unpredictable * I'm sure I forgot something, because I started writing this after implementing stuff 21.May.2006, version 0.99 ------------------------- * First version