### This is a set of proposed changes to the info.txt files for ### ### the standard game of Angband. These changes have been ### ### collected and play-tested extensively by Jonathan Ellis. ### ### This is a revised copy, and supersedes the current file ### ### known as "283edits.zip", which is currently in the Variant ### ### directory of the official export.andrew.cmu.edu/angband site. ### ### It also supersedes the recently uploaded file known as ### ### "283editB.zip", currently in the Incoming directory. This had ### ### a bug which I had not checked: a single extraneous space in ### ### the wrong place rendered the entire k_info.txt file unusable. ### ### Sorry about the mess. (-JLE) ### ### Future versions of these revisions will be known in the ### ### same format: the version number, followed by "edit", followed ### ### by a letter indicating which version of the edits it is. ### ### Thus, the next version is most likely to be "285editA.zip" ### ### with an accompanying text file. ### ### ***NOTE TO BEN HARRISON*** ### ### ### ### The accompanying zip file (known as "283editC.zip")should ### ### be considered a Patch, not a Variant, and should be moved to ### ### the Patches directory. When moving the zip file and this text ### ### file out of the Incoming directory, please place it in the ### ### Patches directory, and delete "283edits.zip" from the Variant ### ### directory where it is incorrectly placed, and "283editB.zip" ### ### from the Incoming directory. ### ### Here follows a brief summary of the changes which have been made. ### CHANGES TO A_INFO.TXT # The Rings of Power are now considerably more powerful. Previously, # only the One was seriously worth wearing - none of the three Elven # rings was likely to be chosen over, say, a Ring of Speed (+15), unless # the player had found one of the speed artifacts - Ringil, Cubragol or # Feanor. This is clearly an absurd situation. Anyway, the Rings of Power # are rare enough already that they deserve extra power to justify the # rarity. # For the same reason, some of the other artifacts have been given # small speed bonuses: this should reduce the dependence on wearing two # Rings of Speed anyway. (And provide some use for some of the earlier # artifacts, many of which are useless.) None of the speed bonuses is # greater than +3, but a few of them together will add up to not needing # that second speed ring. # A few more high resists have also been sprinkled around, again in # order to give just a little bit more use to some otherwise useless # stuff. # Some more weapons have extra blows. These are mostly the heavy-damage # ones, the weapons which provide little in the way of stat bonuses or # resistances. This should help the (underpowered) warrior class out a # little: mages and priests have more stats to look after, and fewer hit # points, so they need stat bonuses and resistances more. Warriors, on # the other hand, don't need to worry so much about the mental stats and # already have high constitution (and thus the hit points to survive more # unresisted attacks), so they can wield the big-hitting weapons that # mages dare not wield because they need the resistances and stat # bonuses. # Some, but *not* all, of the artifacts which provide resist chaos # now explicitly provide resist confusion as well. Others do not. # This is in anticipation of a separation of chaos and confusion # resistances in future versions of the game (this has not yet occurred # in the current stable version of Angband 2.8.3 or Robert Ruehlmann's # own revised version of Angband 2.8.3h.) # In replacement of this, some other artifacts now resist confusion # that previously did not. This is as a direct replacement for those # artifacts which may no longer resist confusion in later versions of # the game. # A full list of the changes is available within the a_info.txt file. _______________________________________________________________________ ### CHANGES TO E_INFO.TXT # These changes are mostly cosmetic: the weapon brands are changed to # make their names slightly more obvious. (Flame, Frost, Acid, Lightning.) # Likewise, the arrow "Hurt" brands have become "Slay": there is no # point in the different name when the same flag is used. Bows of # "Velocity" are now "Power": because Velocity means Speed where I come # from, and there is no _speed_ (velocity) bonus on this bow type but a # great increase in damaging _power_. # One of the major changes: Armor of Elvenkind and Robes of Permanence # now resist poison in addition to the random high. Armor and Shields of # Resistance do *not*: poison resistance is confined to the two rarest # types of ego-armor - this should not be too unbalancing to the game, # and should help to lower the possibility of sudden undetectable # instant death from off-screen monsters. # In the interests of making the game a little more winnable without # artifacts, I have introduced an item from OAngband: the Helmet of # Serenity - it provides resistance to Confusion and Sound. The helmet # of Infravision is gone to make room for it - in future, infravision # is available through helms of Seeing. # For the same reason, Cloaks of Protection - normally useless - have # been given resist shards (again, I got this idea from OAngband.) As # shards is one of the least necessary of the high resists, I do not # think this will upset game balance. _______________________________________________________________________ ### CHANGES TO F_INFO.TXT # None. _______________________________________________________________________ ### CHANGES TO K_INFO.TXT # Rings of Speed are now level 70 instead of 80, and Poison Resistance # now belongs to level 40 instead of 60. # Power Dragon Scale Mail has been restored to its former glory, and is # just slightly more common. 100/32 is still incredibly rare, and I have # never seen it yet with three winners... # The completely useless Ring of Searching has been replaced by a much # deeper and rarer Ring of Sustaining (sustain all stats.) # Rings and Amulets which add to one stat only now sustain that stat # as well. They are rarer, and deeper in the dungeon. # Amulets of the Magi give bonuses and sustains to int and wis. However, # they are now *much* rarer than they were, and deeper in the dungeon. # Rings of Woe and Amulets of Doom are now HEAVY_CURSED! _________________________________________________________________________ ### CHANGES TO R_INFO.TXT # Jabberwocks are back! A multi-hued "H", instead of the Chaos Beetle. # The "Pink" monsters have gone back to "red". Where there is conflict # between two red monsters, one draining strength and the other attacking # using fire, the fiery one has become a "fire" monster. # From ZAngband: Smeagol now has 400 hp and a 90% chance to DROP_GREAT. # Dragon melee attacks upgraded a fair amount - but not too much. # Two new uniques from Tolkien: Eol the Dark Elf and his vile son, # Maeglin the Traitor of Gondolin. I have made Eol a kind of souped-up # dark elven sorcerer, and Maeglin a hard-hitting warrior who can summon # Morgoth's most powerful minions - and was also a miner, hence he digs # through walls. These two have come straight from KAngband. # Two uniques have gone, to make room for Eol and Maeglin: they are # Tiamat and Cerberus. Tiamat's role as the greatest of dragonkind goes # to a far more powerful Ancalagon The Black (Ancalagon's old place in # the monster list goes to a more powerful Glaurung, and Glaurung's old # place has gone to Eol.) Cerberus has had his powers combined with # another canine creature who guards the gates of hell - Carcharoth. His # place in the list has gone to Maeglin. # One new non-unique has appeared: the Greater Balrog. Notwithstanding # any claims from unpublished material about the numbers of existing # greater balrogs, there is no limit on their numbers except that of # rarity. A non-unique monster has gone to make way for them: the group # form of Hell Hounds. (Single Hell Hounds still exist.) # The tribal creatures - Trolls, Ogres, Orcs - now all have tribal # chieftains. Ogre Chieftains are chieftain-shamans (formerly Ogre # Shamans), and depths have been swapped about a bit to make Lokkak the # deepest-appearing Ogre - and the only Ogre Chieftain to rely on brute # force to retain his post as leader, having subordinate shamans who # escort him. Eldraks have become Troll Chieftains, and depths have again # been swapped about to make Rogrog appear deepest of all the Trolls. Of # course, Orcs already have Orc Captains. # Some non-unique monsters have escorts. These are: Orc Captains, Master # Yeeks, and the new monsters Ogre Chieftains, Troll Chieftains and # Greater Balrogs. # Various swaps have been made: Lugdush and Ugluk (Ugluk was, after all, # Lugdush's superior among Saruman's troops), Vecna and Feagwath (Vecna # is an AD&D creature who made even the gods fear him, whereas Feagwath # is merely just another powerful undead sorcerer.) # Some colours have been changed to make uniques stand out. (For # instance, Mughash is now red.) # A few more monsters have the DROP_GREAT flag, all uniques. They are # the Witch-King, Glaurung, Saruman, Vecna and Mim. # The Witch-King and the Balrog of Moria have lost their non-canonical # names, and are simply "The Witch-King of Angmar" and "The Balrog of # Moria" rather than "Murazor" and "Muar". Beware: the Balrog of Moria # also has his original speed of "very fast" returned to him from the old # game of Moria - rather than the comparatively puny "fast" he used to be # stuck with. # There have been various other minor changes, mostly cosmetic (no more # hounds with three bites and only one claw attack, or left-handed # dragons with one claw more powerful than the other: and nastier # monsters such as acidic cytoplasms are no longer worth less xp than # less horrible monsters such as gelatinous cubes.) A few descriptions # have also been changed, mostly in accord with known facts about the # monster - Gothmog's contribution to the deaths of three High Kings of # the Noldor, Ugluk's links with Saruman, Shagrat and Gorbag's links to # Cirith Ungol and Minas Morgul respectively, etc. ________________________________________________________________________ ### CHANGES TO V_INFO.TXT # All lesser vaults now have at least four guaranteed "good" objects # in. They are, however, guarded by out-of-depth monsters. (I have added # the "9" symbol in a couple of places - always the most hard-to-get-to # places in the vault. # Likewise, several "8" symbols have been added to Greater Vaults, to # indicate guaranteed "great" objects - each guarded by a monster who # could be up to 40 levels out of depth. You pays your money and takes # your chance: Vaults should have something guaranteed to be out of # the ordinary, I don't like the concept of even being able to *have* a # vault with nothing out of depth or good in it. Vaults are special...