Fame 0.9.7 released!

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.

Fame now has music. That's right! Marcelo Fernandez has composed 4 beautiful tracks that can be enjoyed during the gameplay. See how it feels to travel the Creepy Forest with that "haunting" theme in your speakers...

I was quite upset that the system of feeding the hero, resting and related stuff did not really work, so there was a little revolution here. Now you don't lose "food points" while sleeping, food is generally more nutritious, energy restores itself faster, but corpses of killed monsters are no longer guaranteed to be generated (just like in many other roguelike games). It probably provides a more balanced system,but you can find it yourself!

Saved games from 0.8.4 up to 0.9.6 are still compatible with 0.9.7.

Quick summary:

• music
• ASCII mode inventory
• sleep / food / energy system redesigned
• "quick" quest messages

Detailed change log:

• music
• fully functional ASCII mode inventory
• aiming in ASCII mode
• new terrain type (burned ground)
• special rooms can be generated also in partially random dungeons
• messages appear during a dialog with NPC when an item is received/given or when a quest is completed
• items can be given to every monster or NPC
• hero is allowed to sleep if there are monsters in the location (unless they are really close)
• sleeping can be interrupted by an attack
• "sleep until healed" transformed into "sleep until fully recovered" (i.e. HP, focus & energy restored)
• energy is restored faster
• hunger does not increase when sleeping
• certain types of food (notably meat) are more nutritious
• corpses of killed monsters are no longer guaranteed
• monsters do not decide to attack the hero unless they have different align
• monsters stop fleeing as soon as they heal enough hit points
• monsters are able to use several additional potions
• potions of exchange and potions of gain have much more "noticeable" effects
• "empty" books and scrolls are no longer generated
• the Repair spell now repairs all of item's damage, but it costs 1 focus point for every damage point (can be reduced at higher spell levels)
• blessed or cursed status of an item affects its price when trading
• attacking a neutral monster alters hero's align only if the monster is not attacking someone
• Shonel will now tell item's story even if the item is already identified
• reading a spell book affects hero's intelligence much more
• much easier to successfully read a spell book with low Literacy skill
• "magical" clothes now have special features useful for spellcasters
• default durability of certain items (mostly scrolls) changed
• items with durability of 1 will have exactly 1 "hit point", independently of their material
• items lying on a special object (altar, stairs etc.) are always displayed on the side panel
• freezing traps are no longer generated
• arrows, belts and darts always made from 'other' material
• bottles cannot be blessed/cursed
• gold is always identified, except blessed/cursed status
• the exact value of required Strength is revealed if failed to wield an item
• the exact value of required Intelligence is revealed if failed to read a spellbook
• gems may be transformed only on aligned altars
• blessed water can be obtained by dropping a bottle of water on an aligned altar
• "do not show again" checkbox in the Tutorial not displayed if F1 had been pressed
• [dev] default location's terrain is used for 'Clear', instead of grass
• [dev] new command line option to launch editor with specified default terrain
• [dev] toolbar button for generating location in the editor
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when some monsters follow the hero to the next location and there is too little space for one of them
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when drinking a potion from the ground
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when pressing a key in the Keyboard Configuration window and there is no selection
• [bugfix] the problem with disappearing monsters during wilderness encounters ultimately solved
• [bugfix] in a newly started game scrolls are no longer initially identified
• [bugfix] bought items no longer replace first item in the sack (which usually happens to be gold)
• [bugfix] the inventory window no longer fails to properly update the scrollbar enabling to browse all looted items
• [bugfix] the game no longer crashes when entering a dungeon with monsters using ranged attacks
• [bugfix] item memory is now correctly updated when an item is picked up and nothing is left on the ground
• [bugfix] meat no longer transforms into goblin's meat after being cooked by Yveira
• [bugfix] Yldawin talk option is correctly unlocked after talking to Leran, so that the quest can be completed
• [bugfix] the "sleep until recovered" option no longer ignores the Esc key
• [bugfix] negative values are displayed correctly in the Item Details window
• [bugfix] the "Special Features" caption in the Item Details window no longer overlaps with item name
• [bugfix] corrected the 'Give' binding in built-in keyboard schemes (Fame, ADOM)
• [bugfix] the game no longer behaves strangely executing NPC scripts that have been modified in the current version
• [bugfix] script compilation errors are no longer ignored in the batch mode
• [bugfix] version is correctly updated in the game.ini file

Have fun!