News - October 1998

October, 29th 1998

• ZAngband 2.2.0 Review
  Topi Ylinen wrote a review of the new version and I added it to the ZAngband page. If you think the review might be biased, then send me your own review! I also need reviews of all the other variants, so feel free to send me these as well!
• ZAngband 2.2.0 Amiga port
  Mark Howson has compiled ZAngband for Amigas with 68020 or better processor and PPC based Amigas. The PPC version includes only the executeable, so you should install the 68020+ version first.

• ZAngband 2.2.0 bug-list
  The first bug-reports are already coming in and I've updated my list of known bugs in ZAngband 2.2.0. None of the bugs seems to be "serious" so far.
• E-Mail flood
  I get a lot of e-mail every week and it costs me much time to answer all messages. At the moment over 200 unanswered e-mails are waiting for me, and everytime I look at my mailbox the list gets longer. I have so many of patches, ideas and questions waiting for me to take a look at, that I see no chance to answer them all and still continue work on ZAngband and Thangorodrim. I'm simply losing the battle against the flood. So I decided to stop trying to answer every single message and change the following things in the way I handle messages:
  • Every ZAngband bug report gets added to the list of known bugs immediately. The first one who reports a new bug will get mentioned on the page and in the ZAngband credits file (I hope the file won't get too large).
  • Everybody with an install, compile, ... questions will be pointed to rec.games.roguelike.angband or to the appropriate section of Thangorodrim and I'll try to add the answers from the newsgroup to the help pages.
  • The ideas section will be closed down. Please post all new ideas to rec.games.roguelike.angband. The newsgroup is the better place to discuss the pro and contra of new ideas. (But please try to keep the discussion polite. Some of the recent threads in the newsgroup went straight into the killfile of my newsreader.)
  • Questions about when the next version will be ready won't get answered. It is ready when it's ready.
  I hope these steps will give me more time to develop ZAngband and Thangorodrim.

• ZAngband 2.2.0
  Finally it's ready. 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 2.1.1c:

  • Added 279 new monsters and the corresponding 8x8 sized tiles designed and drawed by Topi Ylinen.
  • Added 46 new items (weapons, armor, and ammo) designed by Leigh Silas Hanrihan.
  • Added exploding, aquatic, swimming, and flying monsters.
  • Added new monster melee attacks (time, explode, and disease).
  • Added Ken Wigles KAngband style town, quests and terrains.
  • Changed quest system to allow more flexibility and multi-level quests.
  • Added big wilderness outside the towns with a modified fractal terrain generator from KAmband.
  • New initialization code for quests, towns, buildings and wilderness.
  • Removed the 64 kByte limits for monsters, items, artifacts, and vaults.
  • Moved the definition of the limits for the number of monsters, items, vaults, ... to an external data-file.
  • Added Keldon Jones patch to allow automatic recreation of the raw-files.
  • Added "equippy chars" in the inventory, equipment list and in shops.
  • Fixed the definitions of the new tiles for the Half-Ogres and Dark-Elfes.
  • Added support for the S-Lang scripting language, based on Scott Bigham's S-Lang patch.
  • Added Greg Wooledge's patch that adds the "flag grid" to ZAngband char dumps and shows immunities in the "flag grid".
  • The Windows version no longer requires "LibPath" to be set correctly. This allows installation in any directory without changes to the ini-file.
  • Allowed random selection of race, class, realms, ... at character birth with the * key.
  • Added the Easy-Patch by Tim Baker and changed it to be an option.
  • Added 52 new mutations created by Jeff Duprey.
  • Changed the pet AI to make the pets more useful.
  • Added new sound-events.
  • Only uniques will now resist disintegration effects.
  • Warrior-Mages can now choose Sorcery.
  • Many other changes and bugfixes.

  A big Thank You to all the people who supported me while developing "it"!

• OAngband 0.3.0
  Leon Marrick released the source code and the DOS version of OAngband. Infos about this version can be found on my OAngband Page.
• KAmband 1.6
  And yet another variant update: The source code of version 1.6 of Ivan Tkatchev's KAmband and an unofficial patch for the source code are available. A list of new features can be found on my KAmband Page.
• JAngband/64 beta 3 release 6
  Believe it or not, there are even more new versions: Jurriaan Kalkman released a new version of JAngband/64, for the list of new features please look at the Official JAngband/64 home page.
• KAngband ports
  The 2.8.3j version has been compiled by Darin Takemoto for the Mac (68020 or better). And Tim Baker created KAngbandTk 2.8.3r2 for Windows with some nice new interface changes.
• MAngband Windows port
  Client, Console and Server for Windows 95/98/NT as source code and binaries are all available in one archive by Tim Baker.

• KAngband Dos and Windows
  As I promised yesterday, here are the compiled MS-DOS and Win95/98/NT versions of KAngband.
• MAngband 0.5.4 released
  A new version of the multiplayer variant is available.

• Long live KAngband!
  Mark Howson has taken over the job of maintaining KAngband and he introduces himself with an update!
• KAngband 2.8.3j
  A new version with some bugfixes is available as source code and Amiga version. I'll try to provide the DOS and Windows versions tomorrow.

  Fixed bugs in the new version:

  • Can now wield item from floor to complete a quest.
  • Screen not always refreshed in casino; fixed.
  • Roguelike commands wouldn't work in new buildings. Hopefully fixed.
  • Extra shopkeepers added (previously, Black Market and Bookstore had the same owners (with the same greed levels...))
  • Fixed/added a few prototypes. Some functions called with too many arguments, etc.
  • Few other minor alterations.

• "Real Life" hits Ken Wigle
  Ken Wigle, the creator and maintainer of KAngband, stopped all KAngband development. To save this *GREAT* variant a new maintainer is needed! I think it may be the best to just quote the whole message I've received today:

  Rob, Good to see some of the new changes you have made in Zang. You are doing exactly the things that I dreamed about in Angband development. Am glad you started working with the terrains by having monsters that interact with the terrains as well as player interactions. I'm especially glad to see all this since I have had to stop all work on Kangband. Real-life is becoming more important to me now. I have a job that I love and end up working more on job-related items in my free time (precious as that free time is (-:) Also have big plans on remodeling my house. I guess kangband may die unless someone takes it over... Could you post a message asking for a new developer? If they want to continue it, they can just take the current source and exe release that is already out there and work to their hearts content. Otherwise, everyone can enjoy the work you are doing. I take solace in the fact that maybe somehow I helped push forward the development of the wilderness, town, and terrains. At least that is what I will remember unless someone tells me differently. (-: Will also remember all the great comments and kindness from all the players. Who knows? Maybe a few years from now I will connect and pick up where the future variants leave off, using their code as a base of operations... There is a part of me that will definitely miss this hobby. Thanks Rob, Ken Wigle

  I think we should all wish Ken *Good Luck* and thank him for his great work and for the thousands of hours of fun while playing KAngband! He has done a *GREAT* job and his influence can now be found in many Angband variants.

  Thanks Ken!

• Save KAngband!
  I think I'll release KAngband 2.8.3j with the remaining bugs fixed (the four bugs mentioned on Ken's page are all found and fixed in my personal version of KAngband). This will be a proper base for a new maintainer to take over the project.

  Parts of the KAngband code will be certainly included into ZAngband. Buildings, quests and terrains are already added, and the Illusionist and Druid classes will follow.

  But this doesn't mean that I'll take over the job as KAngband maintainer. Programming ZAngband is more than enough for me. So if you don't want KAngband to vanish then we *NEED* a new maintainer!

  I think posting to rec.games.roguelike.angband would be the best way to announce if YOU want to take over maintainance and development of KAngband.

• ZAngband 2.1.4 beta for DOS
  The DOS version of the new beta is now available.

  Some warnings before you download it: it's still a beta version, so use it at your own risk (as with all versions). Savefiles from beta versions may not load correctly with the official 2.2.0 version. The new monsters and weapons have no graphical tiles yet, so they will be displayed with ASCII symbols.

• ZAngband 2.1.4 beta
  A new beta version is available and I hope it will be the final beta before the official ZAngband 2.2.0 arrives.

  New features in 2.1.4 beta:

  • Warrior-Mages can now choose Sorcery.
  • Added 279 new monsters designed by Topi Ylinen. (If you import an old savefile then the monster memory will be set back and all uniques are marked as alive.)
  • Added 46 new items (weapons, armor, and ammo) designed by Hisamatsu Iuchi.
  • Added exploding, aquatic, swimming, and flying monsters.
  • The player can now always cross lava and water, but will get burned or drowned.
  • Added new monster melee attacks (time, explode, and disease).
  • Added new sound-events.
  • Added more quests.
  • Many other changes and bugfixes.
  Some warnings before you download it: it's still a beta version, so use it at your own risk (as with all versions). Savefiles from beta versions may not load correctly with the official 2.2.0 version. The new monsters and weapons have no graphical tiles yet, so they will be displayed with ASCII symbols. Don't use the Arena ... or you may get stuck!!! There is a minor bug in the "Druid Shop" quest that produces two druids. On to the fun part: the source code, and windows version are available. I'll try to upload a DOS version tomorrow.

• S-Lang scripting language for Amiga
  Good news from Mark Howson, he sucessfully ported S-Lang to the Amiga. I hope to get infos about the Macs soon.
• ZAngband Documentation
  I started to write some documentation for the design of the new ZAngband towns, buildings and quests. The first results are the following two guides:
  • How to design buildings for the new ZAngband town
  • How to design levels (quest and town levels) for the new Zangband
  I've also written a Building Creator in Javascript that makes design of new buildings much easier.

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