Downloads

• Source code
• Windows
• OS X (10.5+)

Background

Soon before the release of 3.5.0, a community discussion had led to Nick McConnell becoming maintainer, with the intent of co-ordinating a major rewrite of the codebase and a mantra of "no gameplay changes until after the restructure". After a lengthy period of beta-testing, Angband 4.0.0 was released on Monday 29 June 2015.

Summary of Changes

Core-UI split

• split the game into core and UI, and stop anything in the core from depending on anything in the UI

Modifiability

• put many of the game constants in a text file rather than being compiled in, so they are user alterable
• text data files cleaned up and documented
• help file for modifying added - lib/help/modifying.txt

Dungeon generation

• allow saving of dungeon levels and the town
• allow generation of dungeon levels piece by piece
• generalise level generation algorithms
• allow more control over monster generation for thematic purposes
• allow regions where restrictions apply (eg no ESP or no mapping)
• there is a 'squares' array containing the terrain, locality info, traps, objects, flow info and monster on each grid

Player knowledge

• duplicate the dungeon level "cave" struct, so that there is a reality version and a player version

Objects

• replace pvals (aside from fuel, food etc) by an array of values
• separate resistances, immunities etc from flags to allow for more values of resistance
• separate brands and slays from flags to allow more variablilty
• remove hard-coding of object tvals and svals, so objects can be safely added and moved around in object.txt
• handle special artifacts straight from artifact.txt, so an unrecognised object kind (like Phial) automatically has a new object kind defined for it
• put artifact activations in a text file
• put objects in linked lists tied to the grid, store, monster or player that holds them, rather than indexed in a level-wide list

Inventory, quiver, equipment

• make ordering of the inventory and quiver a UI construct only
• use a Poschengband-style equipment template to specify equipment slots (so there is a standard player body, but more could be added)

Monster memory

• make this a separate file, with full memory obtainable by copying monster.txt

Terrain/traps

• multiple gameplay-identical terrain types now handled by temporary flags during generation
• a full terrain flag system to allow easier addition/removal of terrain types
• make traps separate entities, not terrain
• make locked/jammed doors just closed doors with a trap
• remove code reliance on the numerical value of terrain types

Squelch->Ignoring

• remove all references to 'squelch', replace with 'ignore'
• add ignore by ego type
• emphasise the philosophy that the items are still there, just ignored

ID

• have a separate field for every learnable property of an item
• remove the IDENT_* flags

Effects

• have all effects performed by a single function, and definable from text files

Monster attacks

• put elemental spell effects back in the projection code rather than the spellcasting code
• put blow effects into seprate handler functions

Player spells

• generalise to make it easier to introduce new realms, classes, etc
• have all spell info defined by a text data file

Projection

• have separate functions to handle effects on terrain, objects, player, monsters
• clarify different types of projection
• allow for cone-shaped breaths
• allow for a wider variety of effects (eg player/monsters pushed by force)

Stats, power, etc

• refine and generalise stats where possible
• attempt to clarify all the (frankly) fudge factors so they can more easily be seen and adjusted

General code stuff

• rename files to be more sensible, or create new ones where needed
• update debug commands to reflect the current game
• move data into list-*.h files or edit files where appropriate
• remove archaic stuff
• document!