Hi crawlers! Things have been pretty quiet until the last few days; lots of behind-the-scenes work, not much exciting to report. That’s happily over now, though, so here’s the latest changes in trunk!

  • Big ranged weapon changes! The second half of the Great Ranged-Combat Rebalance:
    • Slings have been split into two types: hunting slings, which replace the old basic sling type, and a new rare ‘greatsling’ type. Both have had their damage increased considerably.
    • Crossbows have also been split up into multiple weapons. The hand crossbow returns as a starting weapon for crossbow hunters; “crossbows” have been renamed to arbalests, and adjusted to fill a mid/late-game role. There are rumors of a third, rare & powerful crossbow type…
    • Bows have had their delay increased somewhat; shortbows now have slightly lower base damage, longbows somewhat higher.
    • Various unrands have been adjusted as appropriate. Punk is now a +7 greatsling; Hellfire is now an arbalest; Sniper is a “heavy crossbow”, with a base delay of 27.
  • Scrolls of vulnerability have been split in half. Status effect removal has been moved onto a new item type, “potions of cancellation”, which replace potions of paralysis. Scrolls of vulnerability now only have the “halve magic resistance on all visible creatures” effect.
  • Mimics are now somewhat more polite; they will no longer mimic doors, statues, fountains, or hatches.
  • The hoof mutation no longer gives extra damage or a stealth penalty when covered by boots.
  • Ashenzari now considers Felids fully bound when all three jewellery slots are cursed.
  • Undead monsters will now fall to pieces in deep water, instead of hiding invisibly.
  • Big fish, sharks, and lava worms have swum off to the great aquarium in the sky.
  • Potions of strong poison have taken the poison pill; they are no more.
  • Flying creatures no longer have a 2/3 chance to dodge throwing nets.
  • Brown (contaminated) chunks are gone, replaced with normal chunks.
  • Qazlal no longer provides a permanent resistance gift at 6* piety.
  • Pigs now have trotters.

Happy crawling!