[PBR] New version 0.105 (pre-alpha) available!
Topi Ylinen
It's been around 2 years since I last released anything related to
Peleron. I have not buried PBR (Peleron's Brilliant Rebirth) --
it's just been real life taking its toll. Anyhow, now's the time
to announce a new pre-alpha version 0.105! (No, I didn't skip a
version number; 0.104 was just an "internal" release that was
never intended for public release.) Once you see the list of
changes since the last version, you will understand that I have
not been idle.
The game is available at the same address as before:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/topi_ylinen/peleron/
But note that my email address has changed. The uk2 address was
flooded with Russian spam and offered no effective ways to fight
it. :( Which is why I must ask you that you do not post my new
email address anywhere, especially not in plain text. (And please
don't bother sending me spam in Russian -- I don't read a word of
Russian.)
Version 0.105 pre-alpha introduces a second "testing" dungeon, the
Forge of Chaos, as a follow-up to the Master Dungeon. Like the
Master Dungeon, this one too is loosely inspired by another game,
almost fully predesigned and will probably be removed from the
final game -- but until then, explore it and (hopefully) have fun!
There are two ways to enter the Forge of Chaos:
1) Complete the Master Dungeon and find the super secret exit to
the Forge of Chaos. Problems:
- You have to complete the Master Dungeon first. (And you have to
do it in the current version of the game. The exit to the Forge of
Chaos is not generated in the older versions.)
- You have to *find* the super secret exit. It is on the level
with the exit teleporters but it is very hard to find. You will
probably find some other secret exit first. But once you find an
exit that will take you to the Underworld, you will know that you
have found the correct exit.
2) The Forge of Chaos is also available as a starting dungeon.
Main problem:
- The Forge of Chaos is very, very tough for level 1 characters!
It is *DEADLY*! The danger level of the dungeon is appropriately
labeled as "very high", and I really mean it. It is more than
likely that your entire party will be slaughtered within 10 - 20
turns from entering the dungeon. It is *theoretically* possible to
survive the early stages of the dungeon with a level 1 party (and
I have actually done that -- but then, I know how exactly to do
it). You will have to a) act quickly and time your actions well,
b) do not stop to pick up every item, c) if you see monsters that
are *way* too deadly for starting characters, do not attempt to
fight -- run, run, RUN! and, finally, d) have some luck! If you
manage to make it to a stairway down (rather than fall into pit),
you ought to be able to find some areas that can be explored with
a starting party. Build up your party experience (again, not an
easy task -- there are very few areas in the Forge that contain
beginner-level opponents; you will have to find one such area
first) and you could eventually become strong enough to return to
the entry area and collect the treasure there...if you can find
your way back. The dungeon is also a good deal more confusing and
convoluted than the Master Dungeon. Which is why you probably
should try to beat the Master Dungeon first anyway. Besides --
there is a very special prize at the end of the Forge that can be
reached only if you are carrying certain staff that you needed to
win the Master Dungeon.
Some other miscellaneous hints that you might find useful if you
decide to tackle the Forge of Chaos:
- MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL! Before entering the Forge of Chaos, make
an archived save with the CTRL + F -> 's'ave command (unless
playing in Ironman mode where alternate savefiles are disabled).
If something goes very wrong in the Forge of Chaos, you can load
the archived save and restart the Forge dungeon. You might also
consider making archived saves at critical decisions within the
Forge (you will learn what they are, e.g., before using an
important key). The Forge dungeon is very complex, and if you play
it wrong, you might miss an important object that you need to
complete the dungeon and then fall down into a pit trap and find
yourself on the wrong side of a locked door that you cannot open,
and are, therefore, unable to get the object anymore. Or you might
run out of keys that you need if you waste them on the wrong
locks. Incidents like these should be very rare and unlikely, but
the dungeon has not been extensively playtested (because of its
complexity -- I just completed it once to see that it could be
done, but with such a nonlinear dungeon, there are dozens and
dozens of different routes through the dungeon as well as some
randomness, all with different effects on the dungeon and your
progress, and it would take forever to test every one of them,
assuming that I could even *list* them all). It is, therefore,
possible that there might be a design issue that could allow your
party to be completely stuck and unable to complete the dungeon in
certain circumstances. And there *are* locks that will accept and
devour your precious keys even when you might actually wish to
save the keys for some more important locks that you will
encounter later. Therefore: If you have never used CTRL + F to
create alternate savefiles, now is a good time start doing so!
- Remember to use the 'CTRL' + <dir> (manipulate square), 's'earch
and e'x'amine commands actively, just like in the Master Dungeon.
- The same special rules apply as in the Master Dungeon. Teleport
spells and such will be blocked, so do not waste your time
attempting to cast them. Most doors require special objects and
cannot be picklocked. Most traps cannot be disarmed. Do not rely
too much on your magic to detect everything; some secrets are
cloaked against magical prying.
- If you enter the Forge of Chaos from the Master Dungeon, you
might wish to drop all keys that you found in the Master Dungeon
before you enter the Forge of Chaos. There are keys with the same
names in the Forge of Chaos, and the keys from the Master Dungeon
will not work there, so you will be extremely confused if you have
two Gold Keys (one found in the MD and the other found in the FoC)
and one of them will work and the other will not. There are many
doors in the Forge of Chaos that will ask you to choose a key. You
will just make things easier for yourself if you leave behind the
keys that you no longer need.
- You might find a special thieves' tool that will help you open a
number of locks without using any specific keys.
- Not every lock needs to be opened. Some are better left
unopened. Examine other options before wasting a precious key.
- Beware of hidden trapdoor traps! They will hurt you and almost
invariably hinder your progress.
Here is the complete list of changes since the last version:
VERSION 0.105 PRE-ALPHA
- Implemented faction effects. Basically this means that when you
do something that is particularly offensive to a particular group
of people (or creatures), all of them will get angry at your
party. For example, if you murder a Nobionian, the Nobionian town
guards will probably start attacking you. In the future, it will
also be possible to gain the friendship of certain otherwise
aggressive factions as quest rewards or whatever. To see your
current standing with the various factions, access the new
"Alliances" screen in Party info (shortcut "p a"). Note that
unless your party is fully Trachian, it will probably show that
Trachians are already hostile towards you. They are a nation of
very xenophobic racial supremacists.
- Feature enhancements to the talk engine. It is now possible to
parse specials (e.g., to give an object to the speaking PC) and to
check for special conditions.
- Slightly better random names for randomly generated unique
creatures.
- Started building a preliminary converter to facilitate the
loading of old savefiles in the future versions. Unfortunately,
this made it necessary to have a couple of changes in object
generation, meaning that the existing (old version) objects will
be somewhat broken; namely, they may not function correctly in
puzzles (how ironic can this get -- to write a savefile converter,
I had to break savefile compatability once again). You may have to
start a new game -- again. Sorry.
- Added lots of new base weapons. Also differentiated the weapon
type allocation "culturally", so you will find Katanas in Trachia,
Gladiuses (Gladii?) in Voldival, etc.
- Also added lots of new base armour/clothing types, likewise
culturally differentiated.
- Added some cultural differentiation to musical instruments.
- Added new object types: Wands, Staves, and Rods that replicate
spell effects. Wands have charges, rods have timeout values, and
staves exhaust the user's stamina (like Bard instruments). Wands
are the most common of these, and Staves are the rarest. The spell
selection varies slightly per object type, and the class/race
restrictions (if any) apply. The successful activation of these
objects relies on the character's Magic Device skill. If the
user's level is lower than the internal level of the object, the
activated spell effect power level will probably be rather low.
- Implemented the Recharging spell to allow for the recharging of
the aforementioned objects. It will either add charges (wands) or
reduce the timeout (rods). It should also work for certain other
timeout items that you might find (e.g., in the Master Dungeon),
but I haven't tested this. Note that if the caster's level is
lower than the internal level of the object, the spell will not be
very effective. Also note that there could be objects that cannot
be recharged at all.
- Added new Magic Box object type. These are small magical metal
boxes that duplicate spells effects when opened. Since they are
simple to operate, any character class can easily use them
(without making any Magic Device skill tests), but the magic is
gone and the Magic Box is destroyed once opened.
- Added 32 new runes for even more rune combinations (for
Runemasters). The rune combination table still has not been
updated, though. Only spells whose combinations have been defined
can be created with runes, so this means that most combinations
will still blast your party.
- Implemented spell ingredients code. Certain relatively powerful
spells require material components (ingredients) that are used up
when the spell is cast, in order to limit the use of such spells.
At the moment, very few spells require ingredients to cast.
However if you find that a spell -- any spell -- is unbalanced,
just tell me, and I'll try to rebalance it, possibly by adding
some required ingredient(s). Or by making it rarer, higher-level
and/or more expensive to cast.
- Except for Potions of Water, potion colours are now randomised.
The potion colours are also verbally indicated for unidentified
potions.
- Added potions of Gain [attribute] (attribute = one of
Str/Dex/Con/Spe/Rea/Inu/Pre). They will permanently add one point
to the character's ability score. They are high-level and very
rare objects, so don't be surprised if you do not find them in the
current low/medium-level dungeons that have been implemented so
far.
- Other new potion types: Potion of Restore [attribute], Potion of
Restore Experience, Potion of Restore Life, Potion of Restoration,
Potion of Water Breathing, Potion of *DEATH*.
- Implemented code that allows basic character classes to be
promoted to high-level 'advanced' character classes. Added an
advanced character class that is accessible if you complete both
the Master Dungeon and the Forge of Chaos (in this order!). The
new high-level class is a very powerful pure spellcaster
profession for any Neutral characters only, but I am not giving
away any more specific details here.
- Implemented encumbrance effects. A character can normally carry
1 kilogram (roughtly 2 lbs) of weight per Strength point without
any adverse effects. A character can carry up to twice that much
but suffers a -15 penalty to his or her Dexterity and Speed
scores. A character carrying more than twice his or her carrying
capacity suffers a -30 Dexterity and Speed penalties and is unable
to move. This means that your characters can no longer be used as
unlimited-carrying-capacity mules and you will have to choose
which items to keep. A character's Equipment and Inventory screens
will display the character's current carrying capacity and
indicate whether he or she is carrying too much (yellow = somewhat
encumbered, red = seriously encumbered). N.B: The combined weight
of a character's Inventory and Equipment is used to calculate
encumbrance, so a character can be encumbered even if the
Inventory screen displays that the character's backpack less than
his or her carrying capacity.
- Implemented the Wrestling skill (quick & dirty version) so the
Sumo class is not completely useless anymore. Basically you either
grab & hold creatures that are about the same size as you are
(rendering both combatants immobile for a number of turns) or
simply crush smaller opponents with your bulk. You cannot wrestle
an opponent that is much larger than you are or has no tangible
body!
- Implemented the Uncursing skill.
- Implemented Confusion and Insanity effects. Not thoroughly
tested yet.
- Implemented extended melee attacks for such long-reach weapons
as polearms. When wielding such weapons, your characters can
attack enemies from any formation position, and even one square
away. Note that if you are dual-wielding weapons, both your
weapons have to be extended or you will not be able to perform any
extended attacks at all (this is theoretical, though; AFAIK there
should be no 1-handed extended weapons in the game).
- Implemented day/night changes in outdoor environments. A day
consists of 12 (sunlit) + 12 (dark) hours, and each hour consists
of 500 turns, meaning that there are 12000 turns in a day. Once it
gets dark, you can rest 6000 turns if you do not like wandering
around in the dark.
- Also turned on daytime/nighttime tests in monster generation.
Walking about at night can produce slightly different monsters...
- Added some subtle determinism to map generation, in order to
make map generation scumming slightly less viable. This may
require some more playtesting.
- An enhancement to targeting: hit 'X' or 'Y' to enter the x & y
coordinates directly.
- Fixed a bug introduced in the previous version that made it
impossible to pickpocket stuff from friendly creatures.
- Better distance calculation for Pickpocketing. You can no longer
pickpocket creatures that are unreachable in melee due to the
party formation.
- Better handling of out-of-LoS explosions and such. They no
longer 'disturb' your party or cause a delay if you cannot see
them.
- Better handling of trapdoors. You will now be asked for
confirmation before jumping into known trapdoor traps.
- Fixed a silly bug (missing "return FALSE;") that made it
possible to turn *any* terrain into an open door if you cast Knock
at a monster.
- Fixed an oversight that prevented identical potions from
stacking.
- Fixed a bug that made it impossible to refuel completely empty
light items with Phlogiston or flasks of oil.
- Fixed a bug that caused the game to call certain kinds of
unidentified keys "an Key" rather than "a Key".
- Fixed a couple of missing spell effect values for magical bard
instruments.
- Fixed a potential memory leak in Map::AllocateObjects()
- Fixed a buffer overflow bug in skills.cpp. See bugs.txt for
details.
- Fixed a 'super-capitalism' bug that was giving you obscene
discounts if a shopkeeper was stocking multiple similar objects
(see bugs.txt).
- Fixed a parser bug that prevented day/night effects for certain
map types such as towns (see bugs.txt)
- Fixed a missing condition in Square::SetFeature() that could
cause the LoS skip updates when a single action both changed
square terrains and features or changed several features at once
(rare but possible)
- Fixed several bugs in PC armour calculation -- e.g., shields
never had any real effect on a PC's AC.
- Fixed a stupid oversight that made it impossible to assign
specific skills to monsters.
- Hopefully fixed a bug that made the H)url command target
previous targets even when they were no longer visible.
- Fixed bogus "does nothing to" messages in combat.
- Missile/thrown weapons were not doing any special damage (like
poison). Fixed.
- Fixed a minor bug that caused the game to ask for confirmation
twice and then not clean up the info line if you hurled objects at
friendly creatures.
- Fixed some bad logic in the combat code that was triggering
bogus "You hear noise." messages when a player character scored a
hit critical hit.
- Fixed a bug (that was introduced in the noise bug fix above!)
that would make the game crash if a player character scored a
critical hit when H)urling items at empty squares.
- Fixed a bug that caused monsters to attempt to breathe through
walls at their previous targets who were now hiding behind walls.
- Fixed a bug that caused immobile monsters (such as Black Flame
Elementals) to be unable to attack. See bugs.txt.
- Fixed a bug that was causing equipment-based
Constitution/hitpoint bonuses to current hitpoints (but not
maximum hitpoints) to be lost upon loading. (The call to the
::CalcEquipPoints() method was not optimally placed and caused
this problem if a character was fully healed and wearing something
that gave Constitution or hitpoint bonuses. I moved the method
call to a better place and it works now.)
- Fixed a bug that caused deflecting bolts and projectiles to
bounce back and forth in the same square until their TTL ran out.
- Creature colour now indicates if the creature has turned to
granite (i.e., petrified), gold, or crystal.
- Generic summoning spells will no longer summon preset non-random
unique creatures. Discovered this problem when my party
encountered several Lord Chaoses, who had been summoned by Summon
Daemonic Horde spells by enemy casters. (You do not want to hear
the details... things got ugly very quickly, and my party was
*literally* NUKED to kingdom come in no time.)
- The e'x'amine command, when targeting the party, asked which
party member you wanted to get information on, and then never
displayed it. Fixed.
- According to the actual rulebook of one commercial pen&paper
strategy game, "A dead character can take no action of any kind."
Apparently, the PBR philosophy differed here. Dead characters
could, among other things, posthumously identify objects and
creatures. Fixed (I hope).
- When a character dies, they will now drop their inventory &
carried objects. This should make it a bit easier for you if the
character with the important key dies. Also, fixed a bug that
could make this change hang the game if your party got killed by
materialising inside a solid wall.
- Implemented stat draining attacks.
- Moving in dark places is a bit more dangerous now. You will not
be asked for confirmation before stumbling into pits or other
hazardous terrains that you have not seen yet.
- Fixed a silly attribute bug which made it possible to shoot
arrows or cast spells through certain solid terrain features like
boulders and iron gates.
- Fixed the items carried by a special hidden monster in Mygdale.
- Various minor changes to Mygdale, including a new NPC.
- Unimplemented startup locations are marked as such in the
startup location selection screen. ("Unimplemented" in this
context means unplayable, i.e., there are no dungeons to explore
etc.) Selecting a random startup location ('*') will not pick an
unimplemented one.
- Started implementing the Voldival starting location (the
capital, Asorod). Much less than 50% of base city maps implemented
so far - Asorod is a *BIG* city. Marked as "unimplemented" due to
incompleteness.
- Added a new predesigned dungeon called the Forge of Chaos. It is
also available as a startup location, but it is strongly
recommended that you complete the Master Dungeon first and find
the super-secret exit to the Underworld to get to the Forge of
Chaos.
- A number of minor technical improvements to the Master Dungeon &
the related game engine features. For example, once you go through
an illusionary wall now, monsters will learn that it is an
illusion. (Previously there were some illusionary walls that they
would never go through.)
- There will no longer be subraces or uniques for the 'Phantom'
monster in the Master Dungeon. They are unpleasant enough as is.
(My party was slaughtered by a lone Phantom Cultist.)
- Detect Hidden now does what Detect Secrets used to do. Detect
Secrets replaced with Detect Traps.
- Implemented a huge amount of existing (previously unimplemented)
spells. I've tried to implement all common spells that your party
is likely learn early on in the game, plus most of the rare/high-
level spells, so there are not many unimplemented spells left.
Also, unimplemented spells are displayed as dark grey in the spell
selection display to help you avoid them. If you happen to pick or
find an unimplemented one and would like to be able to cast it
ASAP, just let me know, and I will do my best to implement it in
the next version. The following old, previously unimplemented
spells have been implemented now:
* Absolution
* Acid Breathing
* Angelic Incarnation
* Animation
* Banish
* Black Channels
* Blade Barrier
* Call Chaos
* Call Lightning
* Call the Void
* Camouflage
* Chain Lightning
* Chant
* Chaos
* Chaos Channels
* Chaos Flux
* Charisma (caster-only now)
* Charm Monster
* Charm Person
* Cloak of Fire
* Cloak of Frost
* Cloak of Lightning
* Confusion
* Controlled Teleport
* Cosmic Crush
* Create Slayer
* Cruel Unminding
* Create Vacuum
* Darkness Storm
* Dark Thoughts
* Death Cloud
* Death's Coil
* Death's Embrace
* Death Spell
* Destroy Magic
* Detection True
* Diabolical Contract (formerly Contract From Below)
* Divine Intervention
* Earth Gate
* Eye for an Eye
* Executioner's Song
* Explosive Rune
* Fight Fire with Fire
* Finger of Death
* Firebreathing
* Flame Blade
* Force Field
* Force of Will
* Fork
* Free Action (untested)
* Frenzy
* Genocide
* Giant Strength
* Gift of Fury
* Glasswall
* Golem Animation
* Gravebind
* Guardian Angel
* Gust of Wind
* Herbal Healing
* Heroic Defender
* Heroism
* Holy Orb (formerly Orb of Draining)
* Holy Word
* Ice Storm
* Illusionary Terrain
* Imprison
* Insanity
* Invoke Hammer
* Invulnerability
* Jolt
* Killing Joke
* Life Saving
* Magic Mapping
* Magic Resistance
* Mind Blank
* Onslaught
* Order
* Pacify
* Passwall
* Prayer
* Protect From Corrosion
* Protection from Evil
* Protection from Good
* Purify Soul
* Raise Volcano
* Ray of Sunlight
* Recharging
* Reconstruct
* Regeneration
* Rejuvenation (currently useless since there is nothing that can
age you in the game -- yet)
* Remove Curse
* Repulse
* Restoration
* Restore Sanity
* Rune of Warding
* Secret Summons
* Sense Unseen
* Shadow Magnet
* Shadow Walk
* Shuffle
* Spell of Mastery
* Stoneskin
* Stone to Flesh
* Stone to Mud
* Summon Angel
* Summon Daemonic Horde
* Summoning Barrier
* Summon Pit Fiend
* Summon Spirit of the Night
* Syphon Soul
* Telepathic Casting
* Telepathy
* Teleport Away
* Teleport Resistance
* Time Stop
* Time Walk
* Torture
* Transmute
* Tsunami
* Unholy Word
* Vampiric Drain
* Wall of Stone
* Warp Wood (currently useless against monsters -- but *they* can
use it against *you*!)
* Water Breathing
* Wish
* Wizard Lock
* Wraithverge
* Zombie Mastery
- Completed spell descriptions for the implemented spells to help
you decide which spells to pick.
- The following completely new spells have also been added. ALL of
these have been implemented, but some (notably the restoration
spells) are untested:
* Anarchy
* Anti-Magic
* Attraction
* Aura of Majesty
* Black Suicide
* Brightness
* Burning Change
* Cat's Paws
* Chaos Beam
* Chill (weaker version of Freeze)
* Clone Monster
* Confutatis Maledictis
* Counter Magic
* Dark Might
* Dimensional Maze
* Disjunction
* Dispel Enchantment
* Dispel Magic
* Dazzle
* Detect Invisible
* Detect Secret Doors
* Doom Mastery
* Ethereal Storm
* Exhaustion
* Flame Orb
* Gain Constitution (currently only used for the potion)
* Gain Dexterity (currently only used for the potion)
* Gain Experience (currently only used for the potion)
* Gain Intuition (currently only used for the potion)
* Gain Presence (currently only used for the potion)
* Gain Reason (currently only used for the potion)
* Gain Speed (currently only used for the potion)
* Gain Strength (currently only used for the potion)
* Healing True
* Heavenly Light
* Hellfire
* Holy Name
* Hypnotic Lure
* Illusionary Fire
* Know Alignment
* Know Alliance
* Know Demeanour
* Locate
* Magic Leak
* Magic Regeneration
* Magic Vampirism
* Mass Attraction
* Mass Halt
* Monster Magnet
* Nether Darkness
* Perfect Hatred
* Psychic Duel
* Omega Beam
* Omega Bolt
* Poison Orb
* Portal
* Rainbow Ray
* Restore Constitution
* Restore Dexterity
* Restore Experience
* Restore Intuition
* Restore Life
* Restore Presence
* Restore Reason
* Restore Resistances
* Restore Speed
* Restore Strength
* Revelation
* Sand Blast
* Spell Blasting
* Spell Lock
* Summon Air Djinn
* Summon Air Efreet
* Summon Death Djinn
* Summon Death Efreet
* Summon Earth Djinn
* Summon Earth Efreet
* Summon Fire Djinn
* Summon Fire Efreet
* Summon Undead
* Summon Water Djinn
* Summon Water Efreet
* Supercharge Object
* Suppress Magic
* Touch of Confusion
* Touch of Galoth
* True Aim
* War Bolt
* Warp Creature
Get the game here:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/topi_ylinen/peleron/
It's freeware!
--
The official PBR site:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/topi_ylinen/peleron/
Topi Ylinen
I tried to post an announcement there a couple of times but they
were just rejected with error code 441.
getter77
Congrats on the project...I had no idea it existed! I took the
liberty of making a post in the announcement section of www.roguetemple.com
Do come by and intro folk!
Otherwise, maybe it is the validation character thingie? I've had no
particular trouble submitting the past couple news items I could...
makkE
quite complex. Got to try it when I find the time.
Topi Ylinen
somehow. Can't understand why this happened, I hadn't made changes
to the related code in years.
Basically, the symptoms are: you have the correct key and try
to open a door but the game still says that you need a "specific
object".
I have fixed it now. The zip download now contains the fixed
code, so if you have already downloaded it, just download it
again & install. Everything else is as before, so you can just
copy your old data/save/ directory to continue playing with your
current party. The only real difference is that now your keys
actually can open the doors they are supposed to!
If you spot any other problems, please let me know immediately!
corremn
Ha I was just thinking of this project a few weeks ago and was
dissapointed on the progress. Well Done. Downloading now...