We are proud to announce the release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.12: “High Vaultage”! This latest version contains many new and overhauled features, including revamped Vaults and Abyss branches, a new weapon effect for axes allowing them to cleave through multiple enemies at once, and much more!
Head over to the Downloads page to get 0.12, or see the How to play Online page for a list of available servers.
There will be a tournament from May 11-27 to celebrate the release. All 0.12 games played on one of the online servers (CAO, CDO or CSZO) will count for scoring. See the 0.12 tournament website for the rules and start forming clans!
Some of 0.12′s highlights include:
- Places: The Vaults branch is now 5 levels deep, with a revamped layout and new guardians. The Abyss consists of 5 (still infinite) levels of increasing danger, with the rune found only on the deeper levels, and contains many new monsters. There are many new layouts and vaults in other branches. Secret doors have been removed. Three Sprint maps have been added: “Thunderdome” by evilmike, and “The Pits” and “Arena of Blood” both by st.
- Monsters: In the Vaults, vault sentinels alert monsters to your location, ironbrand convokers recall monsters from elsewhere directly to you, vault wardens seal nearby doors, and ironheart preservers reduce the damage that their allies take. The Abyss is inhabited by a variety of new eldritch horrors: ancient zymes, tentacled starspawn, lurking horrors, starcursed masses, wretched stars, apocalypse crabs, thrashing horrors and spatial maelstroms. Two uniques have been added: Jorgrun, a deep dwarf earth elementalist, and Lamia, queen of the nagas. Other new monsters include moths of suppression (with an aura that suppresses the effects of magical equipment) and deep troll shamans and earth mages. Ant larvae, bumblebees, rock trolls and wood golems are no more.
- Spells: Many non-elemental conjurations have been added: Force Lance (causes low-range knockback), Dazzling Spray (blinds multiple enemies), Iskenderun’s Battlesphere (creates an autonomous globe that attacks alongside your other conjurations) and Fulminant Prism (creates a smite-targeted time bomb). Another new spell, Disjunction (blinks away all nearby enemies for a duration), can be found in high-level translocation books. Fulsome Distillation, Evaporate, Cigotuvi’s Degeneration, See Invisible and Insulation have been removed. Venom Bolt, Bolt of Magma, Teleport Other and Dispersal have been made more effective.
- Characters: Conjurers now start with a spellbook containing the new non-elemental conjurations. Summoned allies now only attack while both the summon and the target are in line-of-sight. Levitation and controlled flight no longer exist – all sources of flight are controlled instead. Stalkers have evaporated.
- Items: Axes cleave through multiple targets when attacking, but have slightly reduced damage. One-handed maces and flails have been improved. The wand of polymorph other is now the wand of polymorph, and causes random transformations instead of mutations in players (with a number of new bad forms: tree, wisp, porcupine and fungus).
- Gods: Vehumet now gifts destructive spells one at a time, starting with low-level spells at low piety and ending with multiple high-level spells. Vehumet no longer supports summoners. Worshippers of Yredelemnul and Beogh can recall their allies from different floors, and Beogh allies gain experience when the player gets kills. Xom has a number of new available actions, and some negative effects are toned down or removed.
See the changelog for a summary of other major changes. Thanks to Stone Soup’s many contributors, and enjoy playing 0.12!
1. Comment by David
2/May/2013 at 03:05
Months of checking in daily… thank you all!
2. Comment by Lyraley
2/May/2013 at 05:34
so exciting! best gift for my upcoming birthday!
3. Comment by Annonith
2/May/2013 at 07:35
Thank Xom for the changes for wand of polymorph. Nothing pisses you off more like getting teleportisis on D1 from random goblin.
Also you forgot to mention most important new thing: ability to zoom tiles! Woohoo no more eyestrain everybody :D
4. Comment by Grimm
2/May/2013 at 10:05
David: RSS, yo.
5. Comment by Cedor
2/May/2013 at 10:14
RSS provides a good surprise today. Yay! Good job guys.
6. Comment by Izverg
2/May/2013 at 11:50
“Secret doors have been removed.”
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!
7. Comment by Cylon B
2/May/2013 at 14:26
I dislike the change with the summoned allies not fighting when you’re not there. :(
8. Comment by ZaplinG
2/May/2013 at 20:44
Some times allies HAVE to fight offscreen, especially when you are playing as a HoPr. It was much better to just yell ‘s’top attacking when you didn’t want them to fight. Don’t like this change.
I do like that they gain exp on your kills. It will help immensely in the later levels of the dungeon where unupgraded orcs get 1 shot.
9. Comment by DracoOmega
2/May/2013 at 23:12
It should be noted that this affects summons only, and not permanent allies. So you needn’t worry about this when it comes to your orcs; they will continue to fight, even if you cannot see them (and this should be easy to notice when you get message for gaining experience due to them)
10. Comment by Anonymous
2/May/2013 at 23:39
Does this mean the trunk page will finally start getting updated again after a month of having to use RSS?
11. Comment by Kirbypowered
3/May/2013 at 02:56
Oh boy! I can’t wait to see what wonderful new things Xom will inflict on my characters now. Lots of cool stuff for me to die before ever getting to see, too. XP
12. Comment by SayWhat
3/May/2013 at 04:45
Removing secret doors? Seriously? I enjoy this game but this group makes some bizzaro decisions sometimes. Why not remove food next or whatever features falls out of favor with the theory purists here…
13. Comment by Sam Hulick
3/May/2013 at 05:12
Whoa, did somebody say you can now zoom in?? How is this done? I’m on Mac OS.
14. Comment by twelwe
3/May/2013 at 07:13
my birthday is in december. thanks for doing this
15. Comment by dpd
3/May/2013 at 17:20
Does this summoning change affect monsters summoned by permanent allies? E.g. ice beasts from ice statues in zot defence?
Also, good call on secret doors. Should only be used rarely if at all, so they’re actually secret.
16. Comment by SayWhat
4/May/2013 at 01:20
“Also, good call on secret doors. Should only be used rarely if at all, so they’re secret”
Not sure if that statement makes sense. If they are used not at all, how are they secret? They are nothing.
If they are used rarely but meaningfully, I would see the change as good as well. Make them rare but meaningful. But that is not what they did apparently. They just punted and got rid of a potentially fun feature.
17. Comment by asdfasdfasdf
4/May/2013 at 05:07
What even was the reasoning for removing hidden doors?
18. Comment by gnsh
4/May/2013 at 05:28
I love these new changes. I had both Lamia and Jorgrun generated in my first ever 3-rune win and new Vaults almost gave me a heart attack (which is a good thing). Keep up the good work fellas.
19. Comment by SayWhat
4/May/2013 at 16:55
“What even was the reasoning for removing hidden doors?”
I haven’t read the reasoning but I’m sure it was argued from some “Stone Soup theory” point of view. I wish the approach the devs took was less to remove features incompatible with “Stone Soup theory” but rather modify those features to fit with “Stone Soup theory.” This restrictive theory prevents features based on light sources, secret doors, and when they got rid of dwarves as examples.
I still think Stone Soup is a top 3 roguelike and best in class in some areas, but some fundamental missing features keeps it from #1 to me. If the devs can’t see meaningful choices and tradeoffs with light sources I think they just give up too easy on making some features fit with their theory…
20. Comment by ihlosi
4/May/2013 at 17:44
Fulsome distillation is gone? That’s a major hit to Nemelex Xobeh worshippers …
21. Comment by ihlosi
4/May/2013 at 18:12
SayWhat: “I still think Stone Soup is a top 3 roguelike …”
Could you name the other two? Due to DCSS, I haven’t really paid attention to the rest of the roguelike world for quite a while.
22. Comment by SayWhat
4/May/2013 at 18:50
I think you should check out Tales of Maj’Eyal (ToME 4) if you haven’t yet. Hopefully I haven’t violated forum rules for saying that, as I am a big fan of DCSS, but to be honest it is no secret as ToME 4 has won ASCII Dreams roguelike of the year last couple years. Note that DCSS won that award 3 years ago but has fallen slightly since then. ToME 4 is more innovative but less balanced than DCSS in my opinion. DCSS I actually play more frequently as it is a quicker play-thru and a better eSport in a sense, but I admire ToME 4 a bit more in what it is trying to do and the chances it is taking and broader features it supports…
23. Comment by ZionRavescene
4/May/2013 at 20:22
Count me as one who is glad to see secret doors gone. This is definitely a case of perceived loss (and irrational loss aversion), not actual loss.
Also, I’ve played ToME 4, and it is a good game, definitely worth checking out. However–like most games–it leaves me wishing it had a lot of the usability features DCSS has, so I keep coming back here.
24. Comment by Firnod
4/May/2013 at 22:50
My most played roguelikes when i’m not playing DCSS are ToME4 (brillant in its gameplay) DoomRL (amazing in delivering turn based “action”), UnrealWorld (great survival elements) that are all in their own RL genre and none of them play the same.
Can’t say one is better than another then as they’re really different and fantastic to play.
25. Comment by deathrot
5/May/2013 at 01:45
Thanks for improving on the abyss. It went from dreadfully boring, to impossible to navigate in the more recent version (0.11). The new version is still a place I try to avoid, and probably more dangerous, but not mind-numbing like before. All of which are really good things IMHO.
26. Comment by SuperTaster
5/May/2013 at 02:07
Any word on permabuffs? Or are those put by the wayside?
27. Comment by anon
5/May/2013 at 17:55
I don’t give a fuck about secret doors but I thought evaporate and fulsome distillation were pretty cool. I don’t get why they were removed.
“Stay behind your words, use your real name or nickname.”
This is creepy btw.
28. Comment by Pereza0
5/May/2013 at 22:38
Yeah, they were ok, but the player was still going to use the pretty much in the same manner than other existing spells, mainly mephitic cloud, except it had a sort of tedious potion luggage mini-game.
Having all those effects available so quickly might have been a bit too much for a level 2 spell.
Still, I will miss having passwall early on as a stabber background, it was really fun to use.
29. Comment by ihlosi
5/May/2013 at 23:30
Yes, spells requiring some sort of “ammunition” make for interesting tactics and logistics.
However, fulsome distillation had other uses than just providing ammo for evaporate. Gone are the days of easy decks of wonder from Nemelex, I guess it’s only decks of summoning and destruction now.
30. Comment by dpd
6/May/2013 at 06:07
About whether the sentence “[Secret doors] should be used rarely if at all, so they’re secret,” makes sense, an equivalent statement would be “If they’re used at all, secret doors should be rare, so they’re secret.” This sets up an alternative: Either don’t use secret doors or use them only rarely.
Of course, in practice secret doors are wildly overused in roguelikes and in order to play effectively, you have to know they’re everywhere and spend a lot of time searching for them, which is where they run afoul of “stone soup theory,” I suppose.
31. Comment by unkind
6/May/2013 at 06:21
How do you zoom in? The main reason I don’t like this game so much is i can’t see hardly anything. Someone please explain how to zoom in!
32. Comment by greattornick
7/May/2013 at 10:12
I don’t really care about secret doors, after playing hundreds of hours I could tell where they were upon entering every vault, so it was just tedious to wait for them to be revealed.
I personally think that foulsome distillation and evaporate were unbalanced in the early game and useless in the mid to late game thanks to the risk of not knowing which cloud would be generated if not using a potion of poison or confusion.
All the other features are pure gold to me, and I just have one question, is it possible to donate?
33. Comment by ressique
7/May/2013 at 18:47
If i download the OsX version it the game won’t launch. Is someone able to help me?
34. Comment by Iocane
9/May/2013 at 05:42
I’m sad to see evaporate go. The lack of a 2 manna fireball makes vampires a little less fun.
35. Comment by knaveightt
9/May/2013 at 06:05
Jorgrun gave me a run for my money… a run which landed me in the morgues lol. Great challenges, great version if you ask me. Sure, it’s a little sad to see evaporate go but the new conjurations are pretty exciting when used wisely :)
36. Comment by plaintextman
9/May/2013 at 14:31
Loving the new version. I didn’t expect too much to have changed in the area up to the Lair, but I’ve already been pleasantly surprised by all the little (and level-sized) new vaults and structures. Eager to see what the Vaults and Abyss are now like. The only thing I’m a little sad to see go is Evaporate, but it’s not the worst thing to lose either.
Hm, going to have to adapt my Naga fighter mage build a little (fun!). Fortunately no major changes, except for bummer -1 to spellcasting and the sweet +1 to Inv. I hoped you guys would be nicer and give me back my early-game constriction, but oh well :-P
37. Comment by MarvinPA
9/May/2013 at 15:25
“Fortunately no major changes, except for bummer -1 to spellcasting and the sweet +1 to Inv.”
It’s not mentioned in the short highlights but this isn’t actually a change – before 0.12, every species had a hidden penalty to spellcasting and a hidden bonus to invocations (and some other skills) – the hidden adjustments are now gone, with the aptitudes being tweaked such that in practice it’s just the same as before.
38. Comment by plaintextman
9/May/2013 at 16:54
Oh, thanks for mentioning that, MarvinPA. I only now noticed it in the log “* Removed the hidden special cost of Spellcasting, Stealth, Evocations and Invocations. Aptitudes adjusted.” I’m still not clear on whether this means that at +0 aptitude all skills train at the same rate given equal XP, but it seems to be the case.
39. Comment by vanilla fan
10/May/2013 at 16:32
Another version, another mixed feelings about changes. Just remove the demonspawn, randarts, Yredelemnul’s pain mirror and blow up airmage already, i’ll leave SS without any regrets
40. Comment by Jor Ign
11/May/2013 at 05:33
The change with the summoners(my favorite background) pretty much killed the game for me.
I will play the older versions I guess…
41. Comment by wrackwurt
13/May/2013 at 22:13
I’m neutral on secret doors and Summoners, and I will definitely miss Fulsome Distillation and Evaporate (maybe they could return with an Alchemist class someday?), but I really like the new Conjurer. The new spells are fun and I like the thematic separation from Fire and Ice mages.
42. Comment by dialectric
16/May/2013 at 20:54
Secret doors provide a reason for training traps. Without them, there is no reason for most players to train traps. Like unarmed combat for non-punch attacks, I think leaving doors in provides a wider range of reasonable skill advance options. As an alternative to taking them out completely, maybe they should be revealed automatically on traps 5 or so.
43. Comment by Malin
21/May/2013 at 20:33
I like those changes,through secret doors(secret locations) is a must-be feature in dungeon-crawl IMO.Still hope that nagas will be returned to their former selves-specificaly having constriction from the start.
As of “Top RL” discussion-for me it is:
1.DCSS
2.DoomRL
3.Nethack(played for years,did not win a single time.The reason for it to be the last on the list-is that if you want sure win-you must do a lot of tedious mechanics scumming and grinding,and if you’re on the “light side” then god help you…)
44. Comment by James
22/May/2013 at 12:05
Hooray for new sprint maps!
45. Comment by Miau
24/May/2013 at 14:07
Well, my favourite building was FeSu, you just killed that option. A FeSu can’t survive mid-game now, and this is a fact. Not talking about late-game… Just impossible.
46. Comment by Annonith
25/May/2013 at 21:00
A little late but since some people asked how to zoom here it is for future reference: in init.txt fiddle with tile_cell_pixels and tile_filter_scaling