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CHANGES.TXT
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1991-12-21
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8KB
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215 lines
The revision history prior to version 1.21 has been removed. I
rather doubt there was much interest in it, anyway.
------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.21
-----------------------
The program would sometimes redraw the whole "overhead view", and
sometimes even the whole screen, even if it changed the contents of
only one visible square (for example, during takes, drops, and after
attacks which kill the target). It doesn't do this any more.
When a player died, any spells affecting him were carried over into
his next 'incarnation'. This is no longer the case.
Registered users can now set the number of experience points it takes
to train; this can have a dramatic effect on game-play.
The upgrade program now does a certain amount of error-checking, even
if it doesn't need to update the database formats.
Line-noise won't cause so much 'gibbering' as it used to.
When a player dies, he now has the option of exiting the game,
instead of being 'auto-reincarnated'.
------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.22
------------------------
Went back to an older version of CKIT. The latest seemed to cause
certain problems with the display, and to gradually corrupt the
database. (We went forward again with a corrected CKIT in 1.24).
The game in now customized via a "CONFIG.WA" file, rather than by the
increasingly-cumbersome command-line parameters. See CONFIG.TXT for
details.
The character's name and symbol are no longer forced to be
upper-case. The user's name, however, always will be.
The game now uses DOOR.SYS instead of GENERIC.SYS. Unlike
GENERIC.SYS, the game doesn't auto-generate one if it needs to;
you'll need to keep DOOR.SYS around if you ever want to run locally.
------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.23
------------------------
Strictly bug-fixes, for things that turned up in beta-testing. The
exact bugs fixed are too obscure to be interesting, and they
naturally affected no-one but my beleagured beta-site.
------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.24
------------------------
I changed the '?' command -- it now shows a quick on-line help
screen. The old stuff is available via a new '.' command.
There's also a 'G' (get) command -- it seems that the old method of
picking up objects by using the number of an empty slot was
counter-intuitive to many people. (The old way still works, though.)
There was a bug -- if a player name, symbol or message had a '%'
character in it, problems could result. Shouldn't be a problem
anymore.
There's now an AUTOSAVE configuration parameter. Check it out in
CONFIG.TXT. (It became set 'ON' by default in version 1.27).
A recoverable error in off-line daily-maintenance will no longer keep
the system 'stuck' waiting for input.
------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.25
------------------------
The 'rankings' report was added. It is generated by the daily
maintenance, so you can't see it until one has been run. It is
generated into a file named 'RANKINGS.TXT' (a simple ASCII file). It
can be seen by the players via the 'R' subcommand of the '.' menu.
The players can now set individual page-lengths, as long as they stay
above 19. This is available via the 'L' subcommand of the '.' menu.
Minor bug: a skull or skeleton, if spells were cast on it, would
never lose them. Didn't have much effect on game-play.
Major bug: a monster would keep hacking at a player's corpse, which
can and did cause all sorts of problems. Shouldn't happen anymore.
---------------------------------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.26 (second general release!)
---------------------------------------------------
The sysop can now specify a number of AP as a 'starting bonus' for
new players, via the STARTBONUS configuration option.
On their first turn in the game, players can't attack other players.
This is to keep the STARTBONUS from completely dominating the game.
(This kludge was replaced by having the users get a free 1-day
'PEACE' spell in version 1.27).
There's an "AUTOVALIDATE" configuration option, that forces database
validation whenever someone enters the game.
Players who want to use their keypads for movement can now do so by
entering the '.' menu and selecting the new option 'Numlock'. This
changes the meaning of the numbers to be directions. To use objects,
they must use Shift + the number of the object.
------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.27
------------------------
Extended the database-validation to seek out and resolve more errors,
without terminating the game. A few bugs were also cleared up.
The UPGRADE and DAY programs have now been rolled into one program,
named WA-UTIL. This was done mostly to reduce the size of the zip
file.
There's now a feature in the Help screen (accessed via the '.') that
tells the players the game's settings.
Magic items are now dropped during maintenance, if you're registered
and if you set the MAGICPROB configuration parameter.
The user's screen has been reorganized, and the layout of the screen
now varies considerably with the user's SIGHT and FARSIGHT status.
The overall effect is to make more screen-space available.
The 'ugly screen' option has been moved -- it is now in the 'Help'
menu. Further, the ugly-screen option is now the default for new
players.
Added the 'PEACE' spell, and made all new wizards get a free day of
it.
The REGISTER.ME file is now a full-fledged form for sysops to send
in.
------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.28
------------------------
Players can now step over small obstructions.
A new type of item: Scrolls, which can, like items, be enchanted or
not. A scroll can hold any spell, any number of times. They are
slightly unstable, though.
The game now does its own semaphoring -- you can alter your batch
file so that it doesn't do it manually any more.
There was a bug in AP calculation: if a creature or player got more
than 255 AP, the value 'wrapped around' and could come up quite low.
This doesn't happen any more; the value is capped at 250.
I've added a certain element of team play to the game, via
'Fraternities'. There's a short discussion of them in WIZARD.TXT.
They are only available to registered sysops. Fraternity membership
can be disallowed by using the 'FRATERNITY' configuration parameter.
If you use WA-UTIL to perform daily maintenance off-line, and you do
it at some hour besides midnight, you've probably noticed that a user
who logs in between midnight and the your nightly routine occurs
triggers the maintenance routine. You can now circumvent this by
changing telling the game to perform maintenace only after some
specific time. See CONFIG.TXT for details of the MIDNIGHT parameter.
The was a nasty bug: if a player was controlling a creature, and that
creature was slain during a counter-attack, the player died abruptly
and the system errored out. Doesn't happen any more.
When an error occurs, the obnoxious red screen no longer appears.
The "notify your sysop" message is still displayed, though.
All new players default to assuming 'NUMLOCK ON'. They can still
change it to 'NUMLOCK OFF' if they like.
---------------------------------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.29 (never generally released)
---------------------------------------------------
Added the FLAME BURST and FIREBALL spells -- but only for registered
sysops.
The DART, BOLT, and LIGHTNING spells are now more powerful, to
compete with crossbows.
Fraternities are now listed in the rankings.
The captain of a frat can now assign a password, which will be
required for all new members to join.
Version 1.28 introduced a bug in the determination of new days, which
could cause daily maintenance to fail to fire off properly. That
should be all straightened out now.
---------------------------------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.30 (never generally released)
---------------------------------------------------
Shifted to a new version even though 1.29 was never generally
released. This is simply because the way frats are now handled
internally required some database manipulation.
------------------------
CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.31
------------------------
Added several new monsters, along with their weapons.