Yesterday, a slightly controversial commit got pushed:

    Commit: #f2529f3

    Rune lock.

    You need a rune to go to D:15. Downstairs of D:14 could be recoloured
    or replaced by a portal (maybe more consistent with D:27 zot portal).

This is a mandatory Vow of Courage I banner. The idea is quite old and was pushed after the 0.13 tournament so as to have as much time for testing as possible. You can read discussions about it on a old dev wiki page, or in several forum threads: here (locked), here (locked), here and here.

If the rune lock is considered to be good enough to stay for the next release, there will definitely be follow-up changes, cosmetic ones (locked staircase appearance, dungeon appearance before and after the lock) and balancing ones (unique generation springs to mind).

Very recently, something happened in the Crawl world. All the mountain dwarves are gone. Part of the player base revolted, so here are some words to explain the inexplicable.

For quite a while it was realised that MD, HO and Mi are too close to each other than is good for well-differentiated variety. In other words, developers agreed that cutting a species of the three would be an improvement. This was not urgent; that’s why it isn’t announced on the 0.10 development plan or anywhere else. However, it is also not a big change, so when we got the details ready in a session or two, we commenced with the wipeout.

First, theme. Hill Orcs are sacrosanct by Beogh’s protection. Even if you don’t like the orc god, there is no way we would get rid of HO as a player species. Choosing between MD and Mi, the lot hit the former. The reasons are less forcing than with HO, but are reasons nonetheless: Mi has a monster equivalent whereas MD has not (the monster dwarves are deep dwarves, akin to deep elves being the monster elves). Mi has an ancient mythos behind it (Minos, Crete, the labyrinth) as well as a portal vault in the game. MD on the other hand is the archetypical Tolkien-style dwarf, which in my book is a severe demerit.

Second, aptitudes. Removing a species does not happen in empty space. It might have impact on nearby species, and it certainly did so here. A table of the old and new aptitudes for Mi, HO and old MD is at the end of this text. The summary is this: new Minotaurs approached MD in certain areas (e.g. Armour is 2, also Stabbing, Traps & Doors, Evocations). Hill Orcs got additional magical competence.

Third, to dispel a myth. We didn’t use winning rates, or number of games played in order to make a decision.

Fourth, history. Over the course of DCSS, the following species had to resign: HD, GE, El, Gn, OM (Hill Dwarf, Grey Elf, Elf, Gnome, Ogre Mage). Of these, OM merged with Og into a more interesting species; the others left for the same reason MD goes now: lack of differentiation. On the other hand, some species were added over the years: Vp, DD, Fe (Vampire, Deep Dwarf, Felid). 0.10 will probably feature Octopodes. None of these are defined by aptitudes alone (but note that new Ogre is an exception!), which makes for additional complexity but also diversity. Note that species tweaking goes beyond adding and removing: Draconians and Demonspawns were changed (and will probably see further changes), and with some luck and effort, 0.10 will see more interesting Demigods.

An empty entry means no change from the old version of the species.

        Arm Ddg Sth Stb Shd T&D   Inv Evo        HP  MP   Exp
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mi old   +1  +1  -2   0  +1  -1    -1  -3        +1  -2   140
Mi new   +2          -1  +2   0        -1                 130
MD       +3  -1  -3  -2  +2  +1     0  +1        +1  -1   130
HO old   +1  -2  -2  +2  +1   0     0   0        +1  -1   100
HO new                             +2                 0      

        Fgt SBl LBl M&F Axs Pla Stv  UC   Thr Slg Bws Crb
----------------------------------------------------------
Mi old   +2  +2  +2  +2  +2  +2  +2  +1    +1  +1  +1  +1
Mi new       +1                             0
MD       +2  +1   0  +2  +2  -1  -1   0    -1  -1  -2  +1
HO old   +2   0  +1  +1  +2  +1  -1  +1     0  -1  -1  -1
HO new                                                   

        Spc Coj Hex Cha Sum Nec Trl Trm   Fir Ice Air Ear Poi
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mi old   -3  -3  -3  -3  -3  -3  -3  -3    -3  -3  -3  -3  -3
Mi new           -4  -4              -2                -2
HO old   -3   0   0  -1   0   0  -2  -3     0   0  -2   0  -1
HO new   -2                                +1  -1                  +3 Int, -1 Str
MD       -3  -1  -2  -2  -2  -3  -2  -1    +2  -2  -2  +2  -2

There is a new thread in the Tavern, dealing with Implementables. It’s a good place to indicate what features you’d like to see – of the list of current Implementables on Mantis, but you can also lobby for other features beyond that.

Implementable voting

0.8 will feature a new god, called Ashenzari. The goals when designing the god were twofold:

• Provide (some) divinations, as the spell school got axed in 0.7.
• An introverted/laidback god: many deities ask for a lot attention by the player, e.g. praying, sacrificing, training Invocations. There was demand for a god who is not like that.

The current incarnation meets both goals. Here is a list of properties: More: Read the rest of this entry…

We’re getting closer to the next release, DCSS 0.7. It is partially a consolidation release (more below). Also, it will go public sufficiently early, so that there’s enough time to fix bugs before August, the time for the annual tournament. If you are curious, you can play the most current version on CDO, as usual. We appreciate feedback of any form.

The consolidation aspect of 0.7:
* Monster double actions due to energy randomisation always include a move. The double action was a source of a lot of controversy. In 0.7, an adjacent monster won’t hit you twice, although a monster a step away might still approach and hit you in a single turn.
* Make heavy armour guaranteed damage reduction percentage independent of armour skill. This makes heavier armours a bit better again, after the severe but long overdue nerf in 0.6.

In other news, there have been a lot of improvements to Tiles, Tutorials (tutorial and hints mode are now distinct) and the interface in general. Crawl will also officially feature Chapayev’s awesome Sprint variant.

Gameplay-wise, the biggest changes are these:
* Demonspawns will feature less lottery; all mutations grow to the full; also, mutations are meaningful, in particular, many of them are specific to the species.
* Zin has finally seen the light help: Recite is less risky, hence more useful. Also, there’s a new ability, which allows to imprison intelligent monsters.

Feedback on DS, Fi and Zinners are appreciated. We won’t re-design these on short notice, with release being so close. But comments on how far you get (and got in older versions) would help to see gauge we stand with the new AC/DS/Zin.

Some more changes which will be of interest:
* Aptitudes now on a scale +5 to -5.
* Remove Death Knights and Thieves.
* Show effective weapon speed in ‘@’ character info.
* Walls in the Slime Pits are acidic.
* Changed shop distribution between branches.
* Removed instant stat death.