Fame / Blog: Recent posts

Quick summary:

• alternative (non-violent) methods of fighting monsters
• wandering tradesmen
• new starting item sets and hero portraits
• lot of ASCII mode improvements

Full change log:

• calming, scaring and hypnotizing monsters, available as skills and spells
• wandering tradesmen in the Dungeon Mode
• different monster species have different diet
• added new starting item sets
• added 6 new hero portraits
• random settlements now look slightly different for certain races
• monsters have much less chances to hit the hero standing on a tile with a portal
• added speed information to the 'Character' window
• added mode information to the 'Load Game' window
• ASCII mode:
• neighbor locations may be also displayed on the main screen if the current location is small enough
• added ASCII version of 'Load Game', 'Options', 'Hall of Fame', 'Credits'
• it is now possible to choose hero's gender during character creation
• 'Statistics' window allows to export character details to a file
• it is now possible to uncurse the current equipment
• it is now possible to switch drop destination (ground / chest) when the Inventory is accessed in the usual way, not just when looting a chest
• picking up divided stack of items from chests
• reviewed colors and characters of most items
• gas trap explosion has a specific color
• added messages indicating success or failure of cooking services from NPCs
• a progress bar is displayed on the loading screen
• added lines indicating that the hero can go to the neighbor location (and a tip for the middle mouse button, which is associated with that action)
• currently equipped tool may get damaged in combat
• no diary in the Dungeon mode
• [bugfix] no more random crashes when launching the game with '-new'
• [bugfix] the Shift key now works correctly in the Inventory (and possibly some other windows) on Linux
• [bugfix] random settlements can no longer be generated on the sea
• [bugfix] treasures generated in random settlements now have proper material set
• [bugfix] when starting a new game in the Dungeon mode and selecting an item set with an additional torch, the hero no longer has both torches lit at the start
• [bugfix] corrected experience points display
• [bugfix] corrected limb damage display
• [bugfix] if the Hero dies after loading game in the Dungeon mode, the mode no longer appears as 'Normal' in Hall of Fame
• [bugfix] the Inventory window closes after reading a spell scroll
• [bugfix] divided item stack now picks up correctly, used to pick up always the maximum number
• [bugfix] graphics driver in 'Options' has correct initial setting
• [bugfix] check buttons in the 'Character Creation' window remember their last setting after returning to the main menu
• [bugfix] editor: undo works properly when inserting a new door... read more

Quick summary:

• new quest: Seven Rings of Aggression
• hornets
• more detailed 'Character' window
• bug fixes

Full change log:

• new quest: Seven Rings of Aggression
• hornet hives may appear in dungeons
• hornet swarm encounter
• more decorations generated in mines
• Trade, Recipes and Alchemy/Construction in ASCII mode
• empty bottles can now be re-filled with water
• divine intervention is now more helpful, depending on the current threat
• it is no longer possible to sleep without any limit; additionally, more than 8 hours of sleep is punished
• low dexterity characters may accidentally drop a potion on ground (and destroy it)
• items granting vampirism now become cursed when wielded
• revised bonuses of unique items
• more details available in the 'Character' window
• in the ASCII mode Inventory the player is able to type number of items to drop, pick up etc.
• corpses of undead monsters other than skeletons can now be animated (if spell level greater than 30)
• monsters are a little bit more like the Hero when receiving damage (e.g. they can gain resistances to certain damage types)
• equipment damage is now displayed with levels (1-3)
• cooked / raw meat obtained through prayer no longer includes corpses that have any eating effects
• when the player invokes Butchery from the Inventory and there's no tool available, a message appears immediately (not after selecting a corpse)
• weapon damage no longer reported for potions (durability 1) held in hand
• the tool slot is now included in the post-mortem statistics
• tree tops of large trees (more than 1 tile) no longer obstruct FOV
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when exiting game in level 2 or lower of the Random Dungeon
• [bugfix] location editor no longer crashes at startup
• [bugfix] the 'Chatting' window in ASCII mode no longer crashes after pressing a non-digit key
• [bugfix] items and special objects no longer displayed in the extra info panel if a monster is present in the cell
• [bugfix] prayer has identical effect both in 'hungry' and 'starving' state
• [bugfix] misaligned captions for items in the 'extra info' panel
• [bugfix] thrown/shot/kicked items no longer have weird trajectory in the full screen mode
• [bugfix] red bar in the 'Spells' window no longer disappears when the spell is used too frequently
• [bugfix] blood stains are no longer blue in ASCII mode
• [bugfix] placeholder images of certain buttons on the 'extra info' panel replaced with slightly better ones
• [bugfix] no overlapping text in the 'Item Details' window (long bonus text)... read more

Last several months were a hard time for the project. I've totally lost motivation, but luckily that was just temporary. Now I'm slowly getting back to the development. Slowly. This explains why there are so few new features and content. More can be expected in the next release, which I'm planning right now.

See you soon!

Full change log:

• penalty for unexplored levels in the Random Dungeon
• hand to hand combat does significantly less damage on the low skill level
• separate messages for hand to hand combat
• anti-magical aura in certain locations
• more reliable merchant re-supplies
• additional decorations in some dungeon rooms
• lever rooms now come in "rotated" variants
• a warning message appears when visiting a wilderness location with hostile monsters
• more coherent and efficient error reporting
• [bugfix] Udalenxus's script fixed
• [bugfix] score is properly counted in the Dungeon Mode
• [bugfix] hero can still walk with broken right arm... read more

This is mainly a bug fixing release. Not that the previous version was very unstable, but I've found enough major issues to justify releasing it earlier without adding any new content.

Have a nice play!

Full change log:
• lever rooms now can occur in all dungeons
• ranged spells no longer can be auto-casted against a creature standing in an unrevealed cell
• a ranged spell has only 1/3 chance of hitting a creature standing in an unrevealed cell
• [bugfix] potential crash occuring randomly in when generating (almost) every dungeon location
• [bugfix] certain locations (Forest Dungeon level 4, Large Dungeon, Mine, Spider Cave, Thieves' Guild) no longer crash the game when accessed
• [bugfix] bandits in Totdnum are no longer neutral
• [bugfix] keyboard configuration: the message about key conflict lists the other binding, not the current one
• [bugfix] keyboard configuration: after canceling the configuration window and then showing it again, the original keyboard scheme is restored
• [bugfix] hiding the 'Look' frame, sucking blood from creatures and quitting the game works even if the command is assigned to a key other than the default one
• [bugfix] reading a spellbook identified earlier by a scroll of identify no longer produces a message 'revealing' the book's identity
• [bugfix] items and monsters are no longer generated on walls of a lever room
• [bugfix] correct message when the hero is sacrificed by somebody else... read more

This version took a little bit more to complete... It was originally scheduled for October. There were several causes for the delay, including a tremendous number of internal code changes that were necessary for proceding further, even if have little or no observable effect for a player. One of the biggest things I'm currently working on is bringing back the possibility of modding the game. This work spans over several releases (at least 8), but the flexibility it grants when it comes to strategic content decisions is definitely worth the effort. Another exciting feature is making monsters the same (or almost the same) as the Player Character. Easy to do when a game is written from the scratch, very challenging to introduce in an old game, but I love such nearly-impossible coding tasks :-).... read more

Despite extraordinarily high temperatures outside, I've been able to put together this release on time. The most eye-catching feature of 0.9.14 is surely the new Dungeon Mode. I'm not going to compete with Brogue or similar games - Fame is certainly story-oriented and it will remain such. The new mode is primarily for those who need a quick glance into the game and don't want to spend hours just looking for any dungeon filled with monsters. It was a relatively small change that may produce interesting results, so why not?... read more

The development slowly approaches the point where it makes sense to think more about the story as a whole. So far completing the game wasn't much more than a simple message box. This release introduces a special ending - you can become a Champion of deity you've chosen. What is more, the split of the storyline is already happening - currently "evil" characters will experience a slightly different ending. Eventually, in future versions, the gameplay should be totally different based on the choice you make... But that's future.... read more

This time I've spent a couple of months working on unfinished stuff from previous releases, as well as fixing bugs and preparing ground for future, hopefully more revolutionary versions. There are no new big features this time, but you may encounter some nice surprises if you dig into the game deep enough. The most important one is that you might come across a dragon again. Dragons were introduced in the game like 8 years ago, but later there were some location system changes and somehow dragons were 'missing in action' since then... Now, many releases later, it was insanely difficult to implement them back, because too much of the code has changed... I did it, though, and dragon code is once again working properly.... read more

The automatic exploration feature, also called "autoexplore," has always been sparkling a lot of discussion. Many love it. Some people claim that autoexplore is just a way to compensate for poor dungeon generation algorithms. Don't generate boring rooms and you won't need autoexplore, they say. The problem is that dungeons cannot consist solely of ultra-interesting stuff. That's not natural and probably not as cool as it sounds. Interesting stuff condendsed in a relatively small area is not that interesting anymore, that's one thing. The other is that different people have different opinion on what is interesting. You've probably already guessed it - I'm in the autoexplore camp.... read more

This version is all about balancing. In general, balancing is crucial to every game genre, but roguelike games are particularly difficult to balance because of their complexity. That's why balancing in such a game never ends. I've done a lot of balancing stuff in the past, but apparently that was not enough and I know that this is currently one of Fame's most serious issues. For instance: attributes. Playing as a spellcasting character (of course Fame does not have character classes, mind you, but it still offers a choice of method for killing foes and earning experience points) you could notice that your Intelligence practically never raises, while Strength does. This was very unusual for this kind of a character and was making it quite difficult... well, that's not the proper word, let's say "not enjoyable", to have a spellcasting character with low Intelligence. This has been solved successfully in 0.9.10, although some similar issues remain (for instance, the Appearance attribute is still totally meaningless). There's always too little time to fix everything, but I can see that there's constant improvement in this area and that's great.... read more

This version was once planned as the last one before 1.0, i.e. an "almost final" release. This won't happen, we're still far away from 1.0. There's much to change and even more to add. Things must be balanced. Lots of content must be added. So, future versions will be 0.9.10, 0.9.11 and so on, until the game is good enough to be called 1.0. Quite challenging, but we'll get there!

Working on the new World Map I've had some headache about the content that currently fills up the game's world. Not because there's so little content - I had known it before. It's because the current content is presented in a very poor way. A World Map is typically the most suitable thing for this role. In Fame 0.9.8 the World Map doesn't even show all the locations and it doesn't change much as the player explores the world. I also discovered that some locations are not given any unique name and most of the area is simply named "Unknown lands". ... read more

Fame is currently taking a big turn. A long time ago I have decided that there will be no experience points in the game. The reason for that is unknown, even to me. Perhaps I just wanted to be original. Recently I recognized that as a big mistake. Sure, you can have an RPG game without experience points and levels, why not, but you need to provide some other clue of progression for the player instead. This is insane, but I was completely unaware of this problem for nearly 15 years... Time has come to fix that. Version 0.9.8 introduces experience points.... read more

As you can see, I've drifted away from the "Release early, release often" philosophy, or rather I'm seeking for an optimal release frequency. My one-month cycle was not optimal as too much time was spent on preparing release notes, compiling the Linux version etc.

This version comes with many small changes, so let's focus on big ones. The inventory window is available in the ASCII mode and now it's - at last! - fully functional. This basically means that the whole thing had to be rewritten from the scratch, and that was a lot of work. You never know how complex your inventory is until you try to rewrite it. In fact you never want to do this, but if you want to handle both ASCII and tile modes in your game, you'll eventually have to. Mouse-driven GUI and keyboard-driven ASCII UI are totally different... Anyway, I'm very proud of the current design of the ASCII inventory in Fame. It's mostly based on ADOM's design, only a bit more complex. ADOM fans should find themselves pretty comfortable with it.... read more

In this version I wanted to implement full functionality of the Inventory window (the most complex window in the game!) in ASCII mode. However, I decided to release a bit earlier because of some bugfixes that should become available to you as soon as possible :-).

Important changes are coming. Preparing the ground, I have rewritten the align system from scratch. Now it is possible for the hero to become "evil" and even killing monsters (most of them) should not shift the character towards "good". This has little meaning as for now, but will become critical in one of the future versions.... read more

I have spent the last 2 months mainly on fixing bugs. Many "big ones", haunting the game for months (or even years) have been finally hunted down. The biggest success was fixing some "impossible" Linux bugs. Ironically, the Linux version is not ready yet for another reason.

Among new features the most important one is the auto-aiming feature. By pressing J you either cast the last offensive spell used or shoot your current ranged weapon (if any). The target is also selected automatically and it is usually the closest enemy or (if there are several enemies at equal distance) the most wounded one. The whole system is probably not perfect yet, but it already works pretty well, eliminating the constant need for aiming manually. Now you do the manual aiming only when you feel that the auto-aim would be inappropriate for some reason, which is very, very rare. I'm really satisfied with this one.... read more

It was an easy decision... Too many people just refuse to play anything that does not display ASCII, so a character mode has been finally introduced in Fame. I'm saying "finally", because - although never officially announced - I've been playing with that idea for several years. I have played ADOM (back in 1998 it did not have an ASCII mode) much more that any tile-based roguelike game... Technically, it was not very difficult to implement, at least the main game screen. Any other game window (and Fame has dozens of them) would need to use completely different user interface for the ASCII mode, so that for now it should actually be called "mixed mode" :-). And that's strange, but this new mode is not just an alternative output type. It completely diverts my way of thinking about the game and its development. I can't wait for the next release, which, of course, will be even better!... read more

I planned to release this version as far as in June, but there were too many important bugfixes, so I had to reschedule the project a bit.

Quick summary:

• monster herds
• alchemy improvements
• new items
• many critical bugfixes

Details:

• monster herds in dungeons
• 8 new items
• 5 new recipes (and some new potential ingredients)
• re-designed the Recipes window; now it displays ingredients and target items as icons and allows more complicated recipes
• added an indicator in the Construct/Alchemy window to help the player recognize which ingredients make any sense to mix up
• an appropriate message appears when attempting to use the Alchemy skill without an alchemy toolkit
• additional messages in the Alchemy/Construct window
• the Alchemy/Construct window does not close automatically
• common NPCs (bandits, citizens etc.) are no longer listed as "slain unique characters" in the statistics
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when reading the Scroll of Reveal Map
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when entering a location with some corpses close to rotting away
• [bugfix] Stats no longer decrease when the Character Information window is displayed
• [bugfix] in the "Family in trouble" encounter, the family is no longer hostile towards the Hero
• [bugfix] in the "Family in trouble" encounter, both the family and the attackers no longer stuck after killing one enemy
• [bugfix] special room generation no longer creates the same type of room every time
• [bugfix] it is no longer possible to go out of map in the south-western part of the Large Dungeon
• [bugfix] the second page of the Skills window works fine now
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when attempting to use the Alchemy skill
• [bugfix] monsters are no longer able to attack their opponents from a distance (unless they use ranged weapons or magic, of course)
• [bugfix] the Construct window no longer produces messages intended only for Alchemy
• [bugfix] clicking on the sack in the Alchemy/Construct window now correctly moves an item
• [bugfix][editor] special object panel no longer displays wrong property window... read more

Quick overview:

• special rooms in dungeons
• extra information on the screen
• some spells improved
• plant system improved

Detailed change log:

• generating special rooms in dungeons
• displaying information about nearby monsters, items and some special objects in a panel on the right
• the power of some spells (Fireball, Snowball, Small Fireball, Small Snowball, Holy Bolt, Magic Bolt, Delirium Tremens, Freeze) now actually depends on spell level
• the Polymorph spell will now create different types of monsters
• plants now grow or die less regularly
• player can now decide whether to pick up a plant or an item if they are on the same cell
• monsters encountered in the wilderness can chase hero to another location(s)
• traps explosions are centered around the creature that triggered the trap
• spellcasting NPCs can use scrolls they picked up
• default FOV radius increased
• added log messages for spell hits
• [editor] when a new location is created, the file name gets cleared
• [editor] a default location name is proposed in the save file dialog
• [editor] [bugfix] portal subtype is not always set to "staircase down" when inserting a new portal
• [bugfix] scrolls of the 10 new spells (from 0.9.1) are no longer incorrectly mapped to the Fireball spell
• [bugfix] reading a cursed scroll no longer displays the message intended only for books
• [bugfix] reading an unidentified scroll now correctly displays the "old" name and the "new" name
• [bugfix] gold obtained when trading now stacks properly with gold from other sources
• [bugfix] stepping on a dead plant does no longer produces a "You see: cactus" message
• [bugfix] the background of a question prompt displayed at the bottom now has correct coordinates in the immersion mode... read more

Quick overview:

• easier gameplay for spellcasting characters
• more spells and items for spellcasters
• improved immersion mode

Detailed change log:

• 10 new spells
• several new items
• casting a spell from a scroll requires Focus
• casting a spell from a scroll increases spell's experience (even allowing to learn the spell permanently in some cases)
• the Spells window is now able to display any number of spells
• scrolls chosen as starting items are initially identified
• changed one of the starting item sets: a spellbook instead of 5 scrolls of fireball
• chance for a successful reading of a "more common" spellbook is at least 30% despite the low Literacy skill level
• hero's picture in the Creation window is updated when the player changes a starting weapon skill to reflect starting equipment
• using Ctrl+click in the Inventory immediately updates item info displayed on the bottom
• immersion mode is now default
• no window title bar in the immersion mode (Windows)
• game display is properly centered in the immersion mode
• switching to the immersion mode using F11 works in the main menu
• [bugfix] rods no longer have "weird" target items (like armors etc.)
• [bugfix] scrolls no longer fail to disappear after being read from a looted chest
• [bugfix] gold received as a quest reward has a proper material
• [editor] setting item's material... read more

This is mainly a bugfix release, but as always there's a number of other improvements. Sorry for such a brief message, I'm having a "hot" period in my job ;-).

Quick overview:

• sounds
• better handling of torches
• bug fixes

Detailed change log:

• hero is able to hear sounds
• player is asked to light his torch when it is available, but not currently equipped and the Use command is issued
• torches are extinguished automatically when leaving a dark location
• version number is displayed for old saved games
• similar items are only listed once with the Detect Items spell, with the number of occurrences specified
• hero slows down when strained
• hero can die after consuming certain types of mushrooms
• [bugfix] the game no longer freezes when descending into the Basement Dungeon
• [bugfix] creatures other than traveling families can be encountered in the wilderness
• [bugfix] no longer possible to move while a modal window is displayed
• [bugfix] correct message when a hobgoblin steals an item from the hero (used to read "Hobgoblin steals 0 short swords"
• [bugfix] kicking a potion no longer produces 4 billion potions or an "invisible" potion
• [bugfix] reading the orcish report now gives a proper message
• [bugfix] reading an identified scroll does not result in a "turns out to be..." message
• [bugfix] the Inventory window closes after reading a book and most scrolls
• [bugfix] corrected "typos" in the Bestiary
• [bugfix] [editor] the portal window no longer causes a crash nor it lacks the "OK" button... read more

I was very lazy this time and spent whole weeks doing next to nothing. Especially in Fame. However, the version 0.8.9 has been finally done.

The biggest change is the new GUI skin. Some time ago I promised not to make many more GUI-related changes, but I just couldn't resist the temptation to remove that old, ugly stuff, particularly because my wife hated it. I hope you will like the new looks.

There are also some other improvements that should make gameplay more interesting. Monsters are now able to pick up items and use healing potions. Some can even steal items from the player. Some monsters (namely bats) can now fly over the water, while others can jump into it when burning.... read more

A weird thing has happened to me today.

I needed to find all occurrences of some word in the code, so I pressed Ctrl+Shift+F... This is my favorite feature of Visual Studio, I just couldn't live without it. It's fast, it's reliable, it's powerful. You can imagine how shocked I was when a message "Something evil has happened and this stuff won't work anymore for you!" (or something like that) appeared before my eyes.... read more

Once again I ignored my plans and schedules to make a more spontaneous release. I had received a lot of feedback, most of which was really worth considering.

Quick overview:

• improved monster encounters
• improved skills
• more accurate world map
• corrected key binding system
• many critical bug fixes

Detailed change log:

• battle encounters
• duration of various effects (burning, bleeding etc.) is not stacked in special attacks
• coordinates on World Map are calculated more accurately
• Founding skill is more player-friendly now
• a message appears in the log when the hero stands on a special object (staircase, door, sign etc.)
• monsters encountered in the wilderness surround the hero (their initial positions depend on FoV)
• monsters encountered in the wilderness disappear when the location is revisited after some time
• it is now possible to learn Cooking and Alchemy from NPCs
• if video mode initialization fails on Windows, the other driver is tried instead of just crashing
• it is no longer possible to: kick, talk, butcher, use tools, give items to NPCs, search for traps, set traps, loot, suck blood, swap position with a companion, close or lock doors while being paralyzed or frozen
• it is no longer possible to suck blood from ents
• the Shift modifier is always displayed in the key bindings table
• corrected key bindings for the "give" command (G in the ADOM scheme, Ctrl+G in the default scheme)
• added failure messages for Butchery and using tools
• minor language corrections
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when moving to SE from the corner of location
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when attempting to report Egifito's death
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when using the Founding skill
• [bugfix] merchants will no longer rip off the hero when he tries to sell something
• [bugfix] auto-complete in the Bestiary no longer shows incorrect results
• [bugfix] Backspace key in the Bestiary allows to dismiss the auto-complete result, too... read more

You probably noticed that there's not much content in Fame. I've spent some time thinking about the reason(s) and here's my conclusion: better tools are needed! The existing ones, especially the built-in location editor (the only tool available publicly, by the way) aren't very good and it's quite painful to create anything sensible using them. Thus I decided to improve the editor...

After nearly one month spent on this work I must say that the editor is a considerably better tool now. However, I wasn't able to improve the game itself. There are no new features this time, only some bugfixes (including a critical one) and one important change related to the skill system.... read more

This time user interface was not my primary concern (although you'll find some improvements in this area, too). Instead, I tried to focus on gameplay.

In previous versions feeding the hero was very easy. You could eat a corpse of almost any killed monster. Now corpses are inedible, but they can be transformed into pieces of meat (if you possess an appropriate skill and item(s)). Additionally you can cook the meat, so that it is more nutritious.... read more