ADOM 1.2.0 Prerelease 16 is out!

[jt]

A few hours after Prerelease 15 the next Prerelease 16 is available. It fixes a serious bug while changing between maps. An update is very recommended!

[cromat]

Easter egg "gossip" SPOILER:
It is connected to Resurrection(adom resurrection->player resurrection)

You feel a great sense of some far distant but powerful community... given out of undying love.
Mystical energies rip through time and space hitting your body and returning the powerful spirits of life!

Have fun searching for circumstances!

[anon123]

Thanks for the fix! Are savegames compatible with pr15 by any chance? I had a really good Chaos Knight going. :)

[jt]

Yes, they should be compatible, but ADOM filters them out because the file header version doesn't match. Sorry. You can try to modify it though but I'm not sure right now if ADOM considers this as cheating.

[anon123]

Yes, I had to edit the fourth byte of the SVG, and that triggered out of luck mode. No worries though, I'll roll another character :)

[TDau]

Awesome release. Here are some comments about the graphics:
- the new tiles for the water dragon lair are magnificent
- I especially appreciate the (quoted from the changelog) "many monsters reworked to match descriptions"; when I read this, I went immediately to scour the monsters.html file, and, yay!, we now have the ant queen with wings, black-skinned dark elves and a small white cute dog which is really cute (big fan of the monster memory here)
- Andor Drakon is now my new favorite sprite (sorry Khelly)
- some other changes I like: now the bugbear looks more fearsome; so do the shadows and the chaos warriors; the new troll sprite is also better, it surprised me how adding some little details can make a great difference; the elementals are gorgeous and it's easier to tell them apart.

Also great additions on the musics front:
- while the "March of Triumph" is still my favorite, now "A former place of knowledge" holds the second place
- I don't know why, but listening both to "A former place of knowledge" and to "Path of the damned" (from 00:36 onward for the latter) makes me think of Miyazaki's films. These compositions have sort of a wistful nuance (well, for me at least).

Keep up the good work.

[Marek14]

Will the graphic eventually show in monster memory? Also, it might be nice if there was an option to see item graphic in the inventory. As it is, several items would be almost never seen; scroll of information and scroll of warning, for example, are always found together, so they would display as "heap".

I tried to maximize the window -- it's great, but the messages and stats font is quite obviously blocky when the scale is enlarged. At the very least, there should be no need to scroll the mouse-over row at the bottom if the window is big enough to comfortably display its whole length -- or even to split it in two rows.

I like the healthbar borders, one question: could those borders be equipped with additional functionality and look differently based on whether something is friendly, neutral or hostile?

[anon123]

Easter egg "gossip" SPOILER:
It is connected to Resurrection(adom resurrection->player resurrection)

You feel a great sense of some far distant but powerful community... given out of undying love.
Mystical energies rip through time and space hitting your body and returning the powerful spirits of life!

Have fun searching for circumstances!


I have a hunch you need to trigger that item's particular effect either on the anniversary of when the crowdfunding campaign was started or when it finished.


Also, it might be nice if there was an option to see item graphic in the inventory. As it is, several items would be almost never seen; scroll of information and scroll of warning, for example, are always found together, so they would display as "heap".

That would be good in ASCII mode too, show how the item looks on the floor next to its corresponding letter in the inventory screens.

[gosos]

if im reading this correctly, this mainly looks like a glitch fix release. i dont see any gameplay enhancements. or am i missing anything? still no use for all those statues yet, etc...

[jt]

Yes, this was a more GFX centric release. Thomas will come back to programming at the end of August (like he said in his blog post about Prerelease 15), so I'm sure the next release will include gameplay enhancements as well.

[Ravenmore]

Just curious if you guys find the heavier shadows below NPCs helpful? And has navigating the dungeons in tile mode become easier with time, or is it still kind of confusing?

We're also looking for feedback on the tactical mode, you can toggle it with F9->T. Should work OK-ish except for the world map. It's still an Alpha thing but it could be helpful even at this stage :)

[Saracen]

New minimap helps a lot with navigating. I have no problems with it on pre 16.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Just curious if you guys find the heavier shadows below NPCs helpful? And has navigating the dungeons in tile mode become easier with time, or is it still kind of confusing?
Yes. I didn't notice shadows specifically, but yesterday I played for around two hours and I didn't have a single problem with navigation (while in p14 I would sometimes bump into a wall due to thinking the character or a monster was one square up or down from where he really was), so I think the shadows or whatever other subtle changes you have made help a lot.

The improved minimap is really great, too. I'm much less worried about missing a small ring on the floor now, as I can take glimpses at it from time to time.

[Grey]

Improved shadows helps loads, especially with flying creatures.

[Marek14]

One idea: I noticed that mouse wheel seems to work as left/right arrow, which might even be unintended. Would it be possible to use it for zooming? As in switching the size of tiles on screen?

[KyoShinda]

One idea: I noticed that mouse wheel seems to work as left/right arrow, which might even be unintended. Would it be possible to use it for zooming? As in switching the size of tiles on screen?That always drives me nuts, I accidentally scroll the wheel a lot and lose some combat advantage from charging at mobs when I don't want to, I do think that some kind of zoom would be great.

Btw, are we allowed to make requests for creatures? Would we do that in features?

[Greyling]

I agree that the new minimap is great. I've never had any navigation problems, though.

Being me (and therefore very strange) I think it would be cool to reverse the role of the minimap and regular display. It seems like ASCII is best for getting a general view of things, and that the new graphics mainly serve to provide the details of the action occurring near the PC. But I doubt many other people would like that idea.


That always drives me nuts, I accidentally scroll the wheel a lot and lose some combat advantage from charging at mobs when I don't want to, I do think that some kind of zoom would be great.

Btw, are we allowed to make requests for creatures? Would we do that in features?


I think your idea of using the wheel to zoom is a good one, Kyoshinda. I would vote for it in an RFE, although I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement.

As far as adding creatures, I think there was some talk a while back about how the number might already be very near the maximum, but someone who knows what they are talking about better than me will have to confirm this. That comment did make me wonder how many creatures are in the game right now, and what the maximum would be, though. It seems like there are more than 128, and less than 512, so maybe there are close to 256 right now?

[anon123]

As far as adding creatures, I think there was some talk a while back about how the number might already be very near the maximum, but someone who knows what they are talking about better than me will have to confirm this. That comment did make me wonder how many creatures are in the game right now, and what the maximum would be, though. It seems like there are more than 128, and less than 512, so maybe there are close to 256 right now?

The DOS version displays how many items and monsters exist in the game, if you run it with a special command line parameter.

ADOM stores a ton of things as signed 32-bit integers, so I'm guessing the maximum amount of monsters that can be in the game is 231-1.

[Greyling]

The DOS version displays how many items and monsters exist in the game, if you run it with a special command line parameter.

ADOM stores a ton of things as signed 32-bit integers, so I'm guessing the maximum amount of monsters that can be in the game is 231-1.

Whoa. So, we're not even close to running out. Never mind, then.

[Marek14]

Greyling: Think of it like that: If we had an artist who'd be able to constantly produce images at rate of 1 per 10 seconds (completely unrealistic rate, of course), filling the available space would take him 272 years. Twice that number if we're talking of monsters AND items.

BTW, I was thinking about further differentiating of character pictures. The current system is very workable, so maybe differentiating further by adding/changing some minor details for various characters to the basic image? The basic options are:
1. color change of some existing part (easiest to do)
2. new item of clothing
3. change of the weapon in the image to something "expected" for the class (hardest to do)

My suggestions would be (I'm not sure yet what jobs are covered by Ranger picture so there might be mistakes):

Archer - warrior class with bow instead of sword
Assassin - ranger class with black hood added
Barbarian - hard to say, really
Bard - ranger class with lyre instead of sword
Beastfighter - warrior class with no weapon
Chaos Knight - warrior class with purple armor
Druids - wizard class with green robe
Duelist - warrior class with rapier instead of sword
Elementalist - wizard class with red robe, symbolizing the fire magic
Farmer - not sure
Fighter - basic warrior class
Healer - ranger class with white armor. Or wizard class with white robe
Merchant - ranger class with yellowish-gold armor
Mindcrafter - not sure
Monk - not sure
Necromancer - basic wizard class, as it has black robes suitable for a necromancer
Paladin - warrior class with white armor (or maybe even grey/black based on actual alignment?)
Priest - wizard class with silver robe
Ranger - basic ranger class
Thief - not sure
Weaponsmith - not sure
Wizard - wizard class with blue robe

Of course, maybe the PC image will be eventually composed "on the fly" from subimages so the PC will display, say, with individual hair and eye color...

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I think your idea of using the wheel to zoom is a good one, Kyoshinda. I would vote for it in an RFE, although I have no idea how difficult it would be to implement.
I also think it is a good idea, but even better with the following improvement: there is a de facto standard (followed by many programs such as web browsers or graphic editing programs) by which mouse wheel scrolls the view vertically, Shift + mouse wheel scrolls horizontally, and Ctrl + mouse wheel zooms in/out.

If mouse wheel controls are to be implemented, maybe they could support that too.

[KyoShinda]

When I take my armor off as a female high elf, why doesn't it show me in a sexy bikini? It's a bug@!!!!

[Marek14]

When I take my armor off as a female high elf, why doesn't it show me in a sexy bikini? It's a bug@!!!!

High Elves have no reason to wear swimsuits, as Swimming is not one of their racially given skills.

[Zeno]

Being me (and therefore very strange) I think it would be cool to reverse the role of the minimap and regular display. It seems like ASCII is best for getting a general view of things, and that the new graphics mainly serve to provide the details of the action occurring near the PC. But I doubt many other people would like that idea.

Good idea, actually. Reminds me of Ragnarok/Valhalla (which had an semi-ASCII map of the whole level, and a closeup of the area around PC).

As for the mousewheel, some people seem to like how you can run quickly using the mousewheel. But Ctrl for zooming sounds good, too :)

[KyoShinda]

I used to be able to dip a hole stack of lizard into holy water, then it was like 20, now it's like 6, not even worth it anymore. lol

[Stingray1]

Two or three combat sound effect would be very cool. 1. Hits(causing HP to drop) on both Player and non-player characters. 2. Deaths 3. Misses(attack not causing HP to drop).
I think it would really enhance the feeling when playing in the tileset mode. Comical sounds is perfect. "Ouch!", "Thudding sound", "miss". Miss sound effect might be too spammy though.

I realize this is probably not planned, just saying, if it is possible would enhance the experience a bit. For me anyway.

[KyoShinda]

Two or three combat sound effect would be very cool. 1. Hits(causing HP to drop) on both Player and non-player characters. 2. Deaths 3. Misses(attack not causing HP to drop).
I think it would really enhance the feeling when playing in the tileset mode. Comical sounds is perfect. "Ouch!", "Thudding sound", "miss". Miss sound effect might be too spammy though.

I realize this is probably not planned, just saying, if it is possible would enhance the experience a bit. For me anyway.----It would be pretty cool, but it would probably be best to limit them to quick things, like being hit as a little grunt, hitting a mob as a slashing leather sound or some kind of smash sound if it's blunt, miss could probably be a little wind sound but I agree the dodge sound would probably be a bad idea to add because it would get annoying quickly.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

It would be nice as long as they can be toggled off. Some sounds can get really annoying if you play a game for hours and hear them thousands of times.

[anon123]

Miss sound effect might be too spammy though.

I think misses and deaths would also be too spammy, considering how often melee combat takes place on ADOM. Holding down 4 or 6 to wipe a tension room of rats would be an avalanche of sounds. But crits, armor-piercing hits, or armor-piercing crits should each have a different sound, since they're important and don't happen all the time (in the case of claw bugs, I would only play the sound once per round of attacks).

[KyoShinda]

It would be funny if we had a new class that started you out as a writhing mass of chaos and if you stayed away from corruption too long you turned into a regular being and died from it, although that is pretty much a chaos knight. Do chaos knights die from getting 19 corruptions?

[Stingray1]

One of us, one of us. Oops.

OnE oF uS, oNe Of Us.

[gosos]

started a drakeling merchant. dropped my items on a neutral altar. all got B/U/C. my water was NOT blessed. is this a bug? if they are getting B/U/C then I should be good with the god right?

[Stingray1]

Nah, you always get B/U/C from your god.

[newbie]

Why does it only say I can Download #5 then? or is that just a failure to update the text?

[BlitzerkidSix]

Prerelease 5 is the latest public prerelease. Access to p16 is restricted to those who donated during the crowdfunding campaign. I believe you can still "buy into" prerelease access for $40USD.

[gosos]

there has not been a blog post in almost 2 months. any idea when thomas will be working on this again?

[Aerin]

I've been taking the lack of posting as a sign of working hard, either on ADOM itself or perhaps the pen and paper rpg. We still have quite a ways to go to get all the stuff from the campaign in the game.

[Mobius]

there has not been a blog post in almost 2 months. any idea when thomas will be working on this again?

JT has marked a few bugs as getting fixed. (Illiterate folks should not read statues) But nothing dramatic that I know about.

[jt]

We're working hard on finishing Prerelease 17 and plan to release it soon.

The list of bugfixes might not be that long, but a single feature (e.g.adding most of the SAGE features) can keep one busy for quite a while. We have also made several nice enhancements, so I think you won't be disappointed. :)

Thomas made some nice progress on the pen& paper RPG, but it's not finished yet.

[BlitzerkidSix]

Thanks for the update, Jochen. I'm trying to um... fix Dungeons & Dragons, more or less, and I'm excited to steal, I mean borrow, some of Thomas' ideas from the ADOM RPG.

[Mobius]

Thanks for the update, Jochen. I'm trying to um... fix Dungeons & Dragons, more or less, and I'm excited to steal, I mean borrow, some of Thomas' ideas from the ADOM RPG.

DnD has been fixed many times. It's up to version 5? by now I think.