0.17

Stone Soup 0.17 (up to 0.17-a0-1649-g91c94ae)

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Branches, Environment

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* Snake, Shoals, Swamp and Spider are now all 4 levels long, down from 5.

* Levels no longer have -cTele.

* Shadow Traps have been removed.

* Slime wall damage no longer varies by depth.

* AC now applies before resists for cloud damage.

* Ghostly flame clouds have been renamed to spectral mist clouds.

* New altar type: 'ecumenical altars', which allow the player to worship a

  random god.

* New WizLab: Lehudib's Moon Base, where the player can fight the legendary

  Moon Troll.

* Tukima's Studio and Eringya's Formal Garden WizLabs have been removed.

Character

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* All races have had their evocations aptitudes reduced by one point.

* MP scaling has been reworked & simplified; MP aptitudes have been adjusted.

* Heavy armour no longer penalizes unarmed combat & throwing speeds.

* Rot is now healed first, instead of last; effectively, rotting reduces the

  effectiveness of healing until cured. The Rot status is also gone, with rot

  taking place immediately.

* Stat loss is no longer regenerated over time; instead, it's restored by XP.

* The deterioration mutation is now only 2 levels, and has a chance of causing

  stat loss whenever the player takes damage, rather than over time.

* Being at 0 in a stat no longer causes direct damage to the player.

* Undead stat gain: Mummies get one of Str, Int, or Dex every 5 levels, and

  Vampires get either Int or Dex every 5 levels.

* Vampires can now drink from anything that has blood, regardless of their

  chunk type.

* Headbutt aux attacks no longer apply a small stun and the hooves aux kicks no

  longer bypass AC.

* Unarmed attacks no longer have a speed penalty when attacking with a shield.

* Cleaving attacks now function even under confusion.

* Control-attacking & manipulating doors are no longer permitted under

  confusion.

* Confusion will never cause you to stumble into deep water/lava.

* Corrosion can affect characters not using weapons or armour, and applies -4

  to both armour and slaying (instead of -5/-3).

* Multi-turn actions, other than climbing/descending stairs, no longer reduce

  EV by 5 for their duration.

* Poison-immune characters (e.g. gargoyles, mummies) no longer take poison

  damage.

* Draconian Fighters no longer start with extra equipment.

* Teleportitis only triggers when it would land the player in LOS of

  enemies. It triggers slightly more frequently as a result, but no longer

  triggers in Labyrinths or the Abyss.

* The 'spiny' mutation is now dramatically stronger.

* Powered by Death is now triggered by kills, instead of corpses.

* Black Mark no longer gives vampirism; its other effects are now stronger.

* Clawed attacks no longer have bleeding-over-time damage effects.

Geometry

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* All range-based mechanics now treat diagonals identically to orthogonal

  directions. Line of sight, spell range, and other effects are now visually

  'square'. Many of those, including line of sight, are now slightly shorter.

Gods

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* Gozag:

  - The fee for entry has been reduced, especially early on.

  - Gold distraction is now an effect centered on the player that's refreshed

    whenever they find (make) new corpse-gold, rather than being centered on

    the gold piles themselves.

  - The cost of Potion Petition is more variable and higher initially, but no

    longer increases with use.

  - Friendly bribed allies are now permanently allied, but restricted to the

    branch from which they came.

  - Corpseless monsters now drop gold.

  - Gold that lands in deep water/lava teleports into the player's pockets.

  - Amulets of faith no longer have any effect.

  - Bribes now work on any intelligent monster in the branch, with bribe

    susceptibility based on HD and a scaling factor by branch. Unique Hell or

    Pan lords can't be bribed.

* Ru:

  - New sacrifice: Sacrifice Eye, similar to the effect of amulets of

    inaccuracy (and stacking with the amulet).

  - New sacrifice: Sacrifice Resistance, providing rC- rF-.

* Beogh's smite damage now scales better with invocations.

* Okawaru's Finesse no longer gives contamination.

* Lugonu and Trog no longer accept corpse sacrifices.

* The Shining One no longer blesses allies' weapons and armour; their angel

  summoning ability is now slightly cheaper.

* Cheibriados' slouch damage is now based on monster movement speed.

* Ashenzari now gives the Scrying ability at 1* piety, boosts skills at 2*, and

  grants SInv at 3*.

* Zin's Vitalization no longer provides nutrition, and now has a small MP cost.

* Jiyva's Slime Prayer now lasts longer and has a small MP cost.

* Sif no longer requires worshippers to know spells.

Items

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* New items:

  - Maxwell's Etheric Cage, a helmet giving rElec, +4 MP and a large boost to

    MP regen, at the cost of causing intermittent light contamination.

* Poisonous chunks and rot chunks have been merged into 'inedible' chunks,

  which are only edible by ghouls. Some monsters have had their meat cleaned.

* Unrandart changes:

  - The Cloak of Starlight is now +2 and gives Stlth--.

  - The fencer's gloves now give a bonus to Short and Long Blades skills.

  - The Sceptre of Torment is now a staff.

* The box of beasts now produces a new type of variable creature, 'mutant

  beasts', instead of chimeras.

* The Orb of Zot now turns all controlled blinks into uncontrolled blinks while

  carried.

* Warding now applies to ranged attacks.

* Troll leather armour now provides regeneration to trolls.

* Staves of summoning no longer have a chance of abjuring on hit.

* Staves of power now give a flat +15 mp, rather than scaling with your MP; they

  no longer store MP when swapping.

* For the player and for monsters, curare needles no longer have an effect that

  prevents the use of abilities relying on breath.

* Scrolls of Holy Word now apply the Daze status effect instead of stunning

  enemies.

* "Sustain abilities" has been renamed to "sustain attributes".

* The Storm card no longer summons twisters.

* The Placid Magic card is no more.

* The Sack of Spiders makes more appropriate types of spiders at lower and

  higher levels of Evocations and fewer orb spiders overall.

* The Rod of Clouds makes acid clouds more often and storm clouds less often.

* Removed items:

  - The Cloak of Flash.

  - Potions of decay.

  - Potions of restore abilities.

  - Rings of teleport control.

  - The Book of Control.

Monsters

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* New monsters:

  - Salamander stormcallers, appearing in the late Dungeon and the Vaults. They

    chant for a few turns before calling down a Fire Storm on their victims.

  - Entropy weavers, appearing in Spider, Vaults, and Depths. They chant for a

    few turns before corroding their victims' equipment terribly.

* XP and placement for many uniques has been adjusted; in general, uniques have

  been removed from depths at which they're no longer threatening, and their XP

  has increased considerably.

* Jellies no longer eat items the player has seen.

* Monsters will now pick up all scrolls & potions, not just ones they use.

* Poison now has a 1/3 chance of affecting rPois+ monsters (up from 0/3).

* All nonliving monsters now have rPois+++.

* rElec++ has been removed; monsters that previously had it now either have

  rElec+ or full immunity.

* Non-magic-immune monsters are now always confuseable.

* Unrelated monsters can now swap with each other.

* Ghouls no longer cause rot with their attacks.

* Monsters no longer eat corpses.

* Revenants no longer ignore silence.

* Phantasmal warriors' attacks no longer pierce shields & armour.

* Death knights now have agony & haunt in addition to pain mirror.

* Worms are less vulnerable to some forms of kiting, having more regen in

  exchange for less max hp.

* Air elementals can no longer 'submerge' in air.

* Fire elementals no longer fly (though they can still cross lava). They can

  now enter shallow water.

* Queen ants are now faster.

* Liches and Ancient Liches can no longer cast Shadow Creatures.

* Many monsters have lost the 'teleport self' spell: (ancient) liches, wizards,

  giant orange brains, hellwings, smoke demons, ogre magi, Mara, and Boris.

* Various 'high-intelligence' monsters no longer have immunity to drowning

  while confused.

* Basic mummies no longer have death curses.

* Alligators now come in pairs.

* Jorgrun is no longer a deep dwarf, and now regenerates normally.

* Deep dwarf ghosts now regenerate normally.

* Hell beasts no longer have randomized speeds.

* Salamander mystics, firebrands, and stormcallers now all have normal land

  move speed and fast swimming speed.

* Polyphemus can throw his yaks at the player.

* Blocks of ice are now susceptible to LRD and Shatter.

* Demonspawn warmongers now have Haste Other instead of Grand Avatar, and can

  spawn with a shield.

* Demonspawn bloodsaints no longer have ephemeral infusion nor damage

  themselves when casting Legendary Destruction.

* Monsters can no longer have the Inner Flame spell.

* Hellwings no longer have the Teleport Other spell.

* Monsters can no longer have Animate Dead nor Simulacrum spells.

* Monsters that worship Dith or Yred (including allies of the player) are

  immune to the umbra accuracy reduction.

* Removed monsters:

  - Unborn.

  - Ravens.

  - Giant mites.

  - Baby alligators.

  - Boring beetles.

  - Goliath beetles.

  - Wandering mushrooms only generate through Fedhas or the monster Summon

    Mushrooms spell.

Spells

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* Enslavement is replaced by Tukima's Dance in the Enchanter starting book, and

  by Gell's Gravitas in the Arcane Marksman starting book. Tukima's Dance no

  longer appears in the Book of Enchantments.

* Ignite Poison is now level 3 Fire/Poison/Transmutations; it no longer ignites

  items or poisonous creatures, only poisoned creatures and clouds, but does

  dramatically more damage to the former, especially at low power.

* Gell's Gravitas is now level 3 and smite-targeted, but no longer confuses

  enemies.

* Summon Guardian Golem is now level 3.

* Aura of Abjuration is now level 5, and has been moved from the Grand Grimoire

  to the book of Summonings.

* Monstrous Menagerie has been moved from the books of Summonings and Beasts to

  the Grand Grimoire.

* Summon Mana Viper has been moved from the book of Hinderance to the book of

  Summonings.

* Sticks to Snakes no longer requires wielding arrows.

* Apporting the Orb of Zot now causes the orb run to begin.

* Cigotuvi's Embrace is now stronger with small numbers of corpses, and

  considerably weaker with huge numbers.

* Freeze no longer has a stun effect.

* Death's Door sets player exhaustion when canceled with Borgnjor's

  Revivification.

* Ozocubu's Armour and Stoneskin no longer give additional bonuses to Ice Form

  and Statue Form, respectively.

* Casting Malign Gateway no longer drains player Int.

* Casting Haunt no longer cause sickness.

* High level spellbooks no longer restrict learning from them based on skill

  levels.

* Corpse Rot now affects all corpses in LOS.

* Darkness is now level 6.

* Removed spells:

  - Abjuration.

  - Control Teleport.

  - Enslavement.

  - Flight.

  - Sure Blade.

  - Singularity.

Interface

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* The level map viewer (X) now allows you to examine monsters, items & features

  (with 'v'), just as the normal examine mode does.

* The inventory descriptions for weapons & shields now shows the skill required

  to reach minimum attack delay / remove attack delay penalty, respectively.

Technical

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* Support compilation under Cygwin