Background

2.5.3 was released on 10th January 1994, as part of Charles Swiger's quickfire 2.5 series of releases. This was the first release Charles considered stable, rather than beta-quality.

Changelist

Features

• Improved on the line of sight/in_bounds code to make it faster.
• Tweaked the recall monster code some.
• Added support for HPUX thanks to Chris Ang.
• Sped up the code some (by macroizing some stuff).
• Switched description of "the Ring of Power" to "the One Ring".
• Added support for Ultrix thanks to Eugene Hung.
• Moved the gender code into the creaturelist array and reordered the descriptions so that desclist[i] = c_list[i], this was a pain, but I caught a few more inconsistencies doing so.
• Anduril is now "The Longsword 'Anduril'", thanks J.Kewley.
• Added an option "plain_descriptions" so that items will be displayed without their 'flavor' if that's what the user prefers.
• Modified object creation so that it makes objects at the average of the dun_level and the creature's level.
• Added flag for haggling rather than a compile-time define.
• Touched up a few artifacts (Beleg C. -> Belthronding), Sting vs. Weapon of Westernesse, made artifacts display a little more info (searching, infra)
• Moved Master Mystics to dun_level 50.
• Redid some of the object description code to give more informative messages and to avoid some braindamage.
• Added option to display weight for equipment list (seperate from inven list) because new descriptions can be longer and will overrun the available space.
• Made monsters resist damage from weapons a little better.
• Large kobolds resist poison too.
• Made pits not activate the "special" message but vaults will.
• Improved HPUX support (thanks to Chris Ang)

Bugfixes

• Fixed a typo giving Bladeturner +305 to AC (thanks DGK).
• Fixed some code that fails on K&R compilers, and reorganized the static prototypes so they'll do some good for non-ANSI compilers.
• Fixed 'screen too small for moria' message to read 'Angband'.
• Turned down the delays a little.
• Worked around the 'infamous monster heal bug', when restoring savefiles.
• Fixed a few more monster descriptions (made worm mass descriptions consistent).
• Fixed 'Set of Cestus' to 'Set of Cesti'.
• Reindented the whole set of source code; use 4-2 indenting & a 90 col editor reindentation has revealed some questionable syntax RE: '=&' vs '= &' which may have caused some subtle bugs.
• Fixed monsters running away due to '= -' versus '-='.
• Fixed up some of the library files.
• Fixed some bugs in the util.c for supporting microsleep on those machines that need it.
• Fixed possibly letting character go up and down stairs first 100 turns and get feelings each time.
• Made see invisible never auto-detect, as this is not worth fixing right.
• Fixed keypad wizard commands (made 'em the save as the rogue wizard commands).
• Fixed a few more '= -' expressions.
• Fixed a bug in the wizard level identify code.
• Fixed Makefile bug ".o.c" versus ".c.o".
• Fixed unique deaths not being recalled if you can't see them when they die.
• Patched a few more non-ANSI-compiler problems, & min/max.
• Fixed teleporting leaving lighted area with wide-area light.
• Fixed a possible lighting bug (casting light spell with light item), and made unlighting a little more impressive.
• Fixed overlong inscriptions (thanks grabiner@zariski.harvard.edu).
• Fixed minor misspellings.
• Tried to fix up some minor lighting errors; also touched up a monster or two.
• Fixed object descriptions displaying the p1 value inappropriately (+x).
• Removed LINT_ARG define so that we always get function prototypes.
• Tweaked the Makefile some more (make clean does better now).
• Removed need for -fwritable-strings [TL].
• Added const char * declarations all over the place (very painful); note that the player ghost violate the const char * of the monster list.
• Fixed fleeing monsters trying to run through doors.
• Made wide-area light light up "knight-move" (L's) squares.
• Error in "if (tptr->name2 = SNATTACKS)" fixed (BIG thanks to jk@cs.man.ac.uk).