Hi, crawlers!

First, a request: if you can read Korean and are interested in us getting these fantastic Korean fan-made loading screens into the main game, please contact us! We’d really like to ask the original artists for permission to use their art in-game. This is now in progress; thanks to everyone who volunteered their help!

Second, here are the latest changes from trunk:

• We have two new devs: Brannock and CanOfWorms. Feel free to give them a hearty welcome!
• Monsters:
  • Monster renamings: giant newt -> frilled lizard, giant frogs -> bullfrogs, giant geckos -> leopard geckos, giant leeches -> tyrant leeches, giant eyeballs -> floating eyes, giant spores -> ballistomycete spores, giant orange brains -> glowing orange brains. Hill giants seem unaffected… for now.
  • Iron Giants now throw their allies at the player (as Robin/Polyphemus), instead of throwing the player at their allies..
  • Naga Ritualists’ Virulence spell no longer multiplies poison in the victim’s system; instead, it just applies rPois-.
  • Blink frogs and sixfirhies no longer heal when hit with distortion or electricity, respectively. Sixfirhies gain rElec+++ to make up for it. It’s the end of an era…
  • Tzitzimimeh’s melee attack no longer creates a ring of miasma clouds, but instead applies the rotting & slowing effect directly.
  • Mennas now has a guaranteed sacred weapon; more of a threat, or more of a temptation…?
  • Statues can be stabbed; obsidian and orange crystal statues gain sInv.
  • Turtles no longer withdraw into their shells at low HP.
  • Ragged Hierophants have been gently, lovingly nerfed.
  • Griffons have merged into hippogriffs, which is a little confusing, given that they’re originally both hybrids… anyway, hippogriffs are slightly tougher, and that’s that.
  • Say goodnight, Dan: boulder beetles attempted to squash a developer, but instead just rolled right out of crawl. They will be missed.
• Species:
  • Halflings and Kobolds have had their aptitudes and attributes adjusted, to make them more distinct. Kobolds gain better intelligence and spellcasting aptitudes, but are slightly worse at weapons; for Halflings, the reverse is true. As Halflings are now a diminutive race well suited to a heavy armour, “sword and board toon” playstyle, you may as well refer to them by the traditional name for that role: Hill Dwarves.
  • Spriggans have the same weapon restrictions as halflings and kobolds, instead of more restrictive ones. “Allows spriggans to wield triple crossbows, and makes morningstars, eveningstars, long swords, scimitars, demon blades, war axes, spears, demon tridents and greatslings one handed for them.” SpBe buff!
  • Vampires have only four distinct blood levels, instead of six: Near Bloodless is merged into Thirsty, and Alive is merged into Full.
  • Mottled draconian sticky flame is now range 3 (was range 1).
• Items:
  • The Ratskin Cloak has been buffed, from +1 to +2. This was actually an accident, but it seemed like more effort than it was worth to revert…
  • Punk’s freezing brand has been replaced with a new, unique ‘acid’ brand. Duck!
  • The *Confuse randart property is now *Slow.
  • Weapons of protection give a short-lived +7 AC on hit, instead of +5 AC passively.
  • Riposte’s trigger chance has decreased to 1/3, from 1/2.
• Interface:
  • New rcfile option: auto_butcher, which, when set, travels to & butchers edible corpses during autoexplore. Thanks to mgdelmonte for contributing it!
  • Average monster max HP is now displayed in monster descriptions, above AC and EV.
  • Stepping on manuals IDs them, without them needing to be picked up.
  • Spell noise is now visible in the I/Z casting interface.
  • Clicking on books through the local tiles UI allows you to memorize spells from a specific book, and is now available at zero Spellcasting skill. (Only nineties players will get this…)
  • Auto skill training should be a little smarter now.
• Branches & Environment:
  • The Desolation of Salt is no longer roughly guaranteed; it’ll appear in maybe ~15% of games, to keep from wearing its welcome out too quickly.
  • Beogh no longer smites creatures that destroy orcish idols.
  • The walls of Slime:5 now vanish entirely after the Royal Jelly dies, instead of simply turning to rock. Look sharp!
  • Ambient noise has been streamlined. It should be more relevant in Shoals and the Desolation, and it’s completely removed from Lair and Orc. Also, it no longer affects stealth, removing one of my favorite obscure special cases.
• A whole pile of new monster tiles, including skeletal warriors, trolls, efreets, and, in a bittersweet moment, executioners. Thanks to Roctavian for all his great work!
• Emergency flight is available from forms; if you would instantly die (from drowning/lava), you’ll enter emergency flight instead. It’s probably no longer possible to drown.
• Hexes are slightly less effective against creatures with exactly 0 MR.
• Mutations: rough black scales removed, large bone plates switched to give pure +SH, instead of a mix of +SH and +AC.
• Hepliaklqana wrath no longer suppresses XP-gated effects. This included elemental evokers, Abyss gate spawning, the Evolution mutation, and other gods’ wraths; the latter is some good tech to keep in mind, if you are for some reason playing on a month-old version of trunk.
• Using Step from Time near enemies with smite-targeted spells (entropy weavers, neqoxecs) will no longer result in the player being hit by those spells dozens of times.
• The game should no longer crash when entering Tomb:3.

Happy crawling!