Hi crawlers – here are some more changes as we wind down 0.14 development:

• MR-granting items now grant fixed increments of magic resistance (see the % screen – there are numbers involved behind the scenes but those exact values aren’t important).
• Orbs of destruction don’t explode if they collide with another orb of destruction before travelling more than a short distance (so feel free to abuse those high powered decks of destruction).
• The colours of the species/background menu selector have been changed again.
• The amount of poisoning dealt by poisonous monster attacks has been adjusted slightly (less for early game enemies, more for late game enemies).
• Josephine has a new spell set (and rN+++).
• Formicid self-shafting is no longer noisy.
• All tiered demon enemies can now open doors.

Look forward to news about the release of 0.14 soon, and happy crawling!

Hi crawlers – here’s another round of last minute tune-ups to 0.14:

• Formicids can no longer wield giant (spiked) clubs and have slightly adjusted aptitudes.
• Throwing nets no longer degrade; instead they mulch similar to other projectiles.
• Fighters start with a potion of might.
• Swinging a chaos weapon no longer polymorphs or shafts the attacker.
• The shopping interface has been simplified.
• Spells can be memorised even at 100% failure rate.
• Picking up runes in Pandemonium increases the chances of exits being generated.

Here’s to a 0.14 release in the near future – and happy crawling!

Hi crawlers! Here’s what I’m hoping will be the last major round of changes before 0.14 gets prepared for release:

• All panlords now see invisible.
• Player merfolk can now be mesmerised by mermaids and sirens.
• Plain formicids no longer generate as enemies.
• Formicid venom mages lose Stone Arrow and gain Localized Ignite Poison.
• Artificers and Wanderers do not start with knowledge of scrolls/potions they don’t actually possess.
• Chaos champions lose Rearrange the Pieces and gain Random Bolt (per the rod of destruction).
• Spriggan enemies in general now merely have fast movement speed instead of fast speed in general, more damage and less EV.
• The movement behaviour of sirens has been adjusted to make them less likely to be completely out of reach of the player.
• Spriggan air mages have Haste (replacing Shock).
• Spriggan druids’ Druid’s Call now calls 2-3 creatures out of LOS nearby and does not invisibly might creatures; instead, nearby creatures are healed and frenzied on their death. Stone Arrow also replaces Sunray in their spell set.
• Shock serpents no longer have a lightning torrent attack.
• Boggarts are more durable.
• Rakshasas gain a monster spell “Phantom Mirror”, which summons a clone of a nearby allied monster with half the hit points with a 50% chance of swapping the clone for the original; this replaces their previous self-cloning abilities. Rakshasas can now also cast Iskenderun’s Mystic Blast and will summon two clones of themselves at 50% HP as a one-time effect.
• Giant orange brains now have Mass Confusion instead of Confuse.
• The main Dungeon is now 15 levels, and the Depths five; the entrance to Vaults is now on D:13-14.
• The duration of Sentinel’s Mark has been reduced by 25%.
• The Enchantress now appears as a normal unique in Depths.

Look forward to more news about the 0.14 release soon, and happy crawling!

Hey crawlers – since a pretty significant number of changes have just landed, here’s an update sooner than usual!

• The ring of Shadows now has a small umbra in lieu of EV+4 and AC-4.
• Racial armour has been removed (thus there is no racial equipment left).
• Nemelex’s deck gifts are now independent of sacrifice type.
• New summoning spells:
  • Summon Mana Viper (L5 Summoning/Hexes); it appears in the Book of Beasts.
  • Monstrous Menagerie (L6 Summoning), which summons a manticore, some harpies, a lindwurm, or a sphinx (at high spellpower); it appears in the book of Beasts and the book of Summonings (replacing Summon Ugly Thing).
  • Forceful Dismissal (L6 Summoning), which ends all player summons and damages enemies next to them; it appears in the Grand Grimoire.
  • Aura of Abjuration (L6 Summoning), a less powerful but per-turn mass abjuration effect; it replaces Mass Abjuration in the Grand Grimoire.
  • Spellforged Servitor (L7 Conjuration/Summoning), which summons a servitor with a subset of the player’s most destructive conjurations; it replaces Fireball in the book of Wizardry.
  • Dragon’s Call (L9 Summoning), which for its duration of effect summons dragons near targets at the end of LOS (at the full spell cost per summon); replaces Summon Dragon in the Book of the Dragon.
• Removed spells: Summon Ugly Thing, Demonic Horde, Mass Abjuration, Summon Dragon.
• Poison damage is now deterministic.
• Fighters and Gladiators now start with better weapons.

Most of these changes are now live on the servers, so happy crawling!

Hi crawlers! Here are the latest things to look forward to in your next trunk game:

• Djinn have poofed.
• Agate snails, giant centipedes, ancient bears, and rotting devils have been removed
• The timeout of conjured ball lightnings has been reduced considerably.
• Clouds once again can be cast to hit squares out of the player’s LOS; instead, player-created clouds now timeout considerably faster when out of LOS.
• Glaciate, a level 9 Conjuration/Ice spell replacing Ice Storm which blasts targets in a cone-shaped area of effect for large damage, creates freezing clouds, encases targets in ice (slowing them for three turns), and occasionally freezes targets killed by it into a block of ice.
• New unrands:
  • The +7,+7 lajatang of Order {silver, rMut}.
  • The +7,+7 great mace “Firestarter” {flame, rF++}; it fills its victims with an inner flame.
• Autosacrifice now works with Fedhas.
• Sparkling and blood fountains can no longer be quaffed from.
• Eyeballs cannot use their abilities through translucent walls.
• Substantial edits to wizard labs.
• Substantial revisions to rods:
  • The rod of frigid destruction has been transformed into the rod of clouds – evokable to produce a cone of clouds in front of the player, with duration and type varying with evocation power.
  • The rod of demonology has been transformed into the rod of shadows – evoke to get shadow creatures, the toughness of whom depends on our evocation power.
  • Rods of venom are no more.
• The arena_delay option, which controls animation speed of some effects (and the speed of action in arena itself), is now available outside of arena as view_delay.
• A substantial overhaul of item values (courtesy of minmay).
• Wand shops have been merged into gadget shops, which now also sell rods.
• Potions of blood and curse scrolls no longer randomly generate.
• Enchant weapon scrolls now ask for a target (like brand weapon).
• The Horn of Geryon now summons 1-4 hell beasts (hostility dependent on evocations skill), and recharges with experience as with the elemental evokers.
• Formicids no longer have innate rPois-, and now gain levels more slowly but gain more HP and MP per level.
• The monster lists for the Dungeon, Vaults, and Depths have been adjusted.
• All scrolls now identify immediately on reading them.
• Curse scrolls now always prompt for a target (as the player is unlikely to see them outside worshipping Ashenzari).
• Zin warns the player of shapeshifters.
• Monster (molten) gargoyles now generate with mace-type weapons and can cast conjurations.

Have fun with these, and happy crawling!