Archive for May, 2013:

Monday, May 27th, 2013 04:17

0.12 Tournament Results

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The 0.12 tournament is over. During the last 16 days, players could compete for tournament points and banners by playing 0.12 games on any of the three public servers. On the final day of the tournament, there were an amazing 83 wins, crushing the previous record of 48 wins in one day on the public servers.

The winning player was jeanjacques, with 6566 points. Jeanjacques not only won 17 games and achieved the most points, but he also achieved all 18 tier III banners and had the fastest three wins! In second place was elliptic, with 6532 points and 19 wins. In third place was Tolias, with 5097 points and 15 wins, including a 6-game streak, the third-longest (behind elliptic and Implojin with 9-game streaks). 4thArraOfDagon had the three highest scores, all three of them Fire Elementalists of Vehumet.

The clan competition was won by Take It Easy (17364 points). Unlucky Tengu (17071 points) and unemployed unpersons (16648 points) were second and third respectively. It was a very tight team competition, with AWBW Rising (16067 points) also close in fourth place. There were 127 clans in all.

Here are some assorted statistics on the tournament games (with quits removed), compared with the 0.11 tournament (in parentheses):

Players with at least one game: 1735 (1545)
Players with at least one game to reach XL 9: 1066 (979)
Players who got a rune: 478 (400)
Players who won a game: 279 (214)
Total wins: 637 (473)
Win %: 1.40% (1.18%)
Total player time: 28022 hrs (24287 hrs)
Avg player time: 16.2 hrs (15.7 hrs)
Proportion of players using webtiles: 71.7% (71.3%)
Proportion of winners using webtiles: 63.3% (59.0%)
6 comments!
Friday, May 10th, 2013 20:16

Server default settings

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We’ve changed some of the default interface settings for servers (not for desktop versions), so now:

travel_delay = -1
explore_delay = -1
rest_delay = -1
show_travel_trail = true

The second-to-last setting (rest_delay) is a new setting that was also added so resting/healing now happens instantly (this only makes a difference in webtiles, since in console the stats area always updates).

These settings will make online play better by default for webtiles users who are being particularly affected by lag. The game is much quicker and more fun to play without waiting for autoexplore/travel/rest. Additionally this should reduce overall server load which will hopefully be significant during the tournament!

Webtiles players should also be aware that there was recently a change to the way webtiles data packets are batched, which should also result in a significant speed gain for laggy connections (much less round trips are being made overall).

See the options guide for more details on these options, and please comment here if you have any issues or questions with the new settings.

3 comments!
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 03:24

0.12 Tournament Reminder

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This is a reminder that the 0.12 tournament will begin in just a few days. From 0:00 May 11 (midnight UTC) through 24:00 May 26 (May 27 midnight UTC), any 0.12 game played on CAO, CDO, or CSZO will count for the tournament.

The rules page contains all the details about how to score points and earn banners in the tournament. As usual, clans (teams of up to six players) can be formed and changed until one week into the tournament, so don’t panic if you aren’t on one yet! (Being on a clan isn’t necessary to participate in the tournament, but it can be a lot of fun.)

Once the tournament has started, the tournament leaderboard will contain the current results.

6 comments!
Thursday, May 2nd, 2013 01:16

Crawl 0.12: “High Vaultage”

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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!

46 comments!