************************************** History file for the Legend of Saladir ************************************** "Shoot the damn shopkeeper" release V0.34 --------------------------------------------- Changes - Monster AI updates. Most importantly, some monsters/creatures are now able to find a way from point A to point B. - Huge inventory system updates, unified LEVEL, MONSTER and PLAYER inventories. System supports container items (items which can contain items). - Inventory browser updates. Allows multiselection on some operations. - Keyboard command system redesigned, now supports key redefinitions (huge thanks to O. Salerma for a hint :) o many keyboard changes, check the list inside game (?, :?k) - Damage code re-implemented, supports material/element damage. (ie. fire damage, cold damage...) - New internal text viewer (replaces many old viewers) o help menu with '?' o manual directly with, ":?m" o list of keyboard commands with ":?k" o list of config variables with ":?v" o quest list with ":q" o message buffer with ":m" - Traps, doors and dungeon locations can be lethally wired. :-) - Secret doors/passages and a command for searching them - New skills o searching, search your surroundings for traps and other special stuff o command :s toggles a searchmode. o disarm trap will TRY to disarm the first known trap around you. - New equip slot: TOOL, can be used for ie. torches - Quest code got implemented. It's in very basic state but one test quest is working (it will be removed from the game later since it's just a joke) and it can also be completed. - Enchanted items (read. artifacts, ego items etc.) now possible. Item can modify every stat, give special conditions, element protection (fire, ice etc), etc. The system makes it possible for YOU to enchant items, maybe I will add a spell "Enchant Item" later. - Resistances, certain races are resistant to certain elements. like fire, electricity etc. - Items can provide element resistances. Resistances are handled per limb, like armor which protects only certain parts of the body. - Command ":q" lists all active quests. - New spells and scrolls - Push implemented. You can push items and boulders around. ('p') - At the same time, implemented "unpassable items", these act like walls. Some of these items can be pushed around, like boulders. - Ranged weapons, bows, throwing - Missiles equip automagically from your inventory after you've equipped the first item. This happens until you run out of your missiles of that type. - Selecting a missile attack target ('t') automatically targets monsters and next visible monster can be switched with 'n' during this targetting mode. - During nights, outworld map (and town) is dark. (still visible though) - New config option: AUTOPUSH When enabled (default) you'll automatigically try to push everything when you move. Try moving towards a large boulder. - New config option: EXTRALIGHT (default off) When enabled, all areas which are lit up by monsters will be displayed. Might be quite SLOW! - New config option: TARGETLINE When enabled, a targeting line will be displayed while selecting a target for missile/spell attacks. - New config option: DROPPILES When enabled, item piles will be dropped at once. - When a shopkeeper dies, it should now be possible to use items contained in his/her shop. (there was some code missing :) - Complete re-training of my friendly shopkeepers took in place. :) a) They no longer "stupidly" run around the door area when you're in the shop. b) You can exit the shop by moving diagonally. - Status code re-implemented. Now all creatures hold their special status conditions (ie. confusion, poisoned) in an linked list. Allows *very* easy additions of new condition types. One drawback is that this system is much slower. :) - Items can be sold anywhere inside the shop, not just near the keeper - Walk mode changes, works diagonally in rooms. - Line-of-Sight code replaced (again) with faster algorithm. It gives a better view area when you walk near corners. - Fixed one monster movement bug. Caused monsters to freeze when trying to move near level borders. - You can eat food from the ground, even there're multiple items at your location. - Town crash bug fixed, after visiting the Dungeons of Santhel the game crashed when leaving town to the wilderness area. - Terrible "Endless Abyss"-bugs fixed. - The item generator won't always create new items. - Weather effects show only when you're outside. :) - The game should not generate as much cursed items as before - Not as much corpses as before. - Darkness works better - Huge save routine updates Skill & Magic release V0.30. 19.04.1998 --------------------------------------- Changes/additions, in no particular order - Primitive scoreboard which will show personal best, alltime best and alltime worst scores - Some work done with the outworld map, it's still unfinished. - Shopkeeper knows about other creatures too - Class system dumped out. Monsters, however, are still tied to the old class system. - Some cloth items (shirt, pants etc.) - Scroll items. - Skill code, weapon skills, magic skills and some generic skills. - Skill list box for selection and "in-game" usage. Allows you to tag quick skills (10 quick skills) and browse the list of skills in your possession. - During character creation you receive a weapon related to your highest weapon skill. - Quick skills can be used with special commands :0 .. :9. - Some basic magic spells and scrolls that use them. - Spells in four gategories (more in the manual), Observation, Mysticism, Alteration and Destruction. For each of these "magic"-group there's a skill to learn. - Descriptions for currently existing skills and spells. - Tactics - Monsters can now equip some items. - Limits for backpack weight. (burden, strain and overload status) - Seasons and weather conditions (not much use yet) - Inventory system redesigned, in the code level all equipped items are held inside the owners main inventory. Equipped items can now be seen on the main inventory display. I changed the way Saladir handles equipped items because of spells like Identify/Curse/Uncurse etc. These spells must have access to all equipped items as well, (ie. to remove a cursed item which you "accidentally" equipped) the new system makes it possible. All items carried by you are held in one linked list, whether they are equipped items or not. It was a huge modification to the code because before all equipped items were kept in an separate array. - Due to the above inventory change, equipped gold, silver or copper coins (ie. money) are *NOT* calculated as your wealth. - Item status code changed, now items have counters telling how many times the item has been used. Some materials last longer some doesn't. - Food system is totally redesigned. - Maze type levels are now a bit different. - Cursed items can't be removed. - Optimizations again. I KNOW the game is *SLOW*, I have a "hungry" programming style. But this time I was able to make the dungeon routine significantly faster by just reorganizing my "pass_turn" routine. - Basic error handler for SIGSEGV, SIGINT and other alert signals. Error report is generated on fatal errors (if possible) - New platform: Linux (ELF binary) version, dynamic and static versions - Temporary files are now compressed to save (valuable?) disk space (It is a modified LZW compression based on the article in Dr.Dobbs Journal by Mark R. Nelson (1989)) - Walking to walls nomore causes damage, it was silly (althought realistic). - Repeat walking nomore opens doors automagically. - Repeat walking code got mutated a bit: (w-command) 1) it won't open doors automagically 2) you can walk on straight dungeon corridors with it and it will follow the passage if a direction changes 3) you can walk in rooms with repeat walk, But not yet diagonally. 4) repeat walk stops when there're fewer or more possible directions of movement than at the start point where you issued the command to walk repeatedly. 5) Remember these options: ITEMDISTURB, MONSTERDISTURB, DOORDISTURB, and STAIRDISTURB. They all modify the way repeat walking works. - You can't walk on water anymore. - Level editor has two new commands, one for making the whole map visible, one for hiding the whole map. (F7, F8) - Configurable autopickup (option AUTOPICKUP and PICKUPTYPES) - Doors can be set up to open automagically (AUTODOOR variable) - Character creation under hard construction, question based creation dumbed out (atleast for now, let's see how do you like the new system) - New option COLORMSG, if enabled you get those colored game messages, if disabled, all messages come in whiter shade of pale (white). - New option SHOWLIGHT, if enabled the engine will display the torch lit area in bright yellow color. - Configuration options are now stored in a file (saladir.cfg) which can be edited with any text editor. Bug fixes - (null) pointer bug from item status code removed caused crashes when item status went worse! - Couple of *BAD* algorithm bugs fixed. They caused segment violations. (Delete a node from linked list and then traverse to the next node in the list... need I say more? :) - Broken light items don't emit light anymore - Shopkeeper won't keep you responsible if someone else has attacked him - Items should now be usable after a successful steal You can't use unpaid items inside the shop, of course. :) - Lots and lots of other bugfixes. How can there be so many bugs anyway Shopping release V0.26 29.01.1998 --------------------------------- This version doesn't contain as much of new features as the couple last releases I've made. Main focus was on shopping and shops. Changes include: - Line of Sight code optimized a bit. I hope the towns are working faster! - You can buy and sell items in shops. - Shopkeepers will now guard the shop for thieves. - Armour, weapon, food and general stores are available. (also in dungeons!) - Money routines for handling the 3 types of money. - Rooms and shops are now saved in tempfiles. Update release V0.25 26.01.1998 -------------------------------- Changes include: - Some levels look better, generates some corridor types better. - Monsters have an ability to get past of player/other monsters in some situations. - Monsters are in the same 5-slot hitpoint system as the player! Not all monsters have all bodyparts! (ie. spiders doesn't have hands) - Attacking is handled (hopefully) a bit more nicely. - Some animals can open doors. - Food items added. - Towns, however they are pretty empty currently - Basic shop and shopkeeper code. - Flying creatures now have wings/vanes instead of hands and for now. They can't move if hitpoints in wings are fallen to zero. - Special plot/quest character can be created to predefined places or dungeons. - Few optimizations done with the line of sight routine! Bug fixes: - Doors cause walk mode to end (You can set that in options) - Stair generation bug fixed, generated WEIRD connections when a lair was generated to the level. - Monster regeneration bug fixed. - One bug causing random crashes (pagefaults) debugged out. Noticed bugs not corrected: - Shops do not work! Shopkeepers don't have eyes. :) - Town levels get up staircase generated (you can get to the wilderness from that) - Towns look dull and empty Urgent bugfix version V0.24 22.01.1998 --------------------------------------- These SHOULD be fixed now: - You can now fight when your legs are in bad condition. - Hp regeneration now generates damaged parts semi randomly. - Hp regeneration restores the damage condition of damaged bodyparts to OK when hitpoints raise above 0. - Configuration variable HEALTHALARM now acts as a percentage value for EACH bodypart which has hitpoints. When hp goes below this percentage of the maximum hitpoints of that part you will get a warning. - There were several output leaks in Equip screen when bodypart was damaged. - Items should be dropped correctly when hand damages. - Monsters should not be generated to players location. - Tempfiles should now be deleted when game exits. Version 0.23 22.01.1998 ------------------------ This version has a lot of new stuff and bugfixes. - Currently pretty limited, but working Monster inventories similar to the player inventory system. Currently they only pick the items up, and they can sense the level for items, think something about items value etc. - Level memory, already visited levels are remembered! including monsters, items and level for now - New speed system with SPEED attribute for each being! - Separate materials for armor and other stuff. - Terrain effects, like how terrain slows your movement down etc. Some terrain can even make your movement faster (like road) - Weapons get older in use, different behaviour with materials. - Levels are no more so populated with rare items. - New dungeon level types and room templates (ie Lairs/Zoos) - Random name generator. - 2 weapon combat (player only for now) - Armor now works see the next place - New hitpoints system, eventually this will be for all monsters also, but for now only player has this: Hitpoints are "divided" into five slots, Head, Left/Light hand, Body and Legs, body has always the greatest hitpoints. Player will die if the total hitpoints (all five slots calculated together) or HEAD or BODY will fall below or to zero. It's not very good at the moment but I will try to make it better. Regeneration is a bit dumb for now, but I will think of something. - Light items added, they can be used too. - Line-of-sight got some bugs bashed while I was making the darkness - effect. - New improved LOOK command (l). - Level advancing works somehow, currently it uses the experience system, but I will try to think something extra for that. (only hitpoints get upgraded from level advance for now) - Monster race descriptions for all races currently in the game. - Output has been tidyed up a bit again - Some new items and monsters - Dark rooms and darkness generally - More configuration options and other minor tidbits. - And finally, the save-feature is nearing completion :-) Version 0.20 - 16.01.1998 ------------------------- - Some of the new features added to this version are: - Online help - Female or male players and monsters - Equipping items - Gold, silver and copper coins - World time and calendar (including timers:) - Player and monster regeneration (hitpoints) - Piled items can be taken and dropped one by one - Game configuration options (not saved yet) - Food usage, starvation - Equipped weapons are used in battle now... - Dragonscale weapons are not possible anymore :-) + many bugfixes Version 0.17 - This was the first public release. - Nothing much to say, it's prehistoric