Zaiband: an Angband variant

Zaiband is an Angband variant. In particular, it is a roguelike -- a game whose interface is (mostly) console-oriented, and for which graphics are strictly optional.

The source code license, while not "free enough" for hosting on conventional open-source websites, does mandate that the game have no monetary cost.

Comments, etc., about Zaiband should be directed at one of rec.games.roguelike.angband, or the quasiofficial forums.

• The latest Windows binary (3.0.9 alpha, ~2,350K), compiled with MingW32, as a ZIP archive. Tested on Windows 2000, but should work on Windows 95 or higher. This does require write access to the directory it is installed in, to work.
• The source code for the latest Windows binary (3.0.9 alpha, ~3,195K), as a ZIP archive.

The binary distribution includes sound, the 16x16 tileset, and the 32x32 tileset.

The source archive should be decompressed into the same directory as the binary archive.

• Known-good makefiles: Makefile.cyg, Makefile.win, Makefile.con. Others are imported straight from V SVN without testing, and will need tweaking to handle C++.
• Known-good main__.c files: main-win.c, main-gcu.c . Others are imported straight from V SVN without testing.
• Zaiband does use C++ features (in particular, function overloading and member functions of structs); it will not compile as C.
• See changes.txt for which changes have not been merged in from V SVN.
• Generally, the visible changes I'm interested in merging are either "smarter monsters", or unifed mechanics. The handling of noise also could use revamping.

• Zaiband 3.0.9 Alpha: July 3, 2008. High points from the changes.txt file:
  • The Black Market has what you need, when you need it (as long as it is affordable). At least, for:
    • ?Word of Recall
    • !Restore [stat]
    • !Restore Experience
    This availability boost should require the affected items to not be available in any other store (including the home), and for @ to have nothing relevant.
  • The Black Market will no longer taunt you with unaffordable Rings of Speed at CL 1. In fact, no store should taunt you with truly unaffordable items (as of the time of store maintenance). The only exception will be to prevent infinite looping of the store maintenance backend. [In particular, the Magic Shop may taunt you with unaffordable items before your first trip.]
  • Stores should have fewer boring armors and weapons now, assuming that they can get interesting ones in. Note that other than missiles, multiple instances of the exact same kind of armor or weapon are boring. You will only see one of each kind in stock, regardless of how many are actually in stock.
  • I couldn't think of a good reason in-character reason why summon traps should look identical to teleport traps when visible. They no longer do (but still have the same descriptive text).
  • !Experience adjusted to restore experience first, to match the Gain [stat] potions
  • cost rebalancing: first pass at resolving inadequate value of enchantment pluses.
  • monster pathfinding now has limited awareness of cover and concealment
  • non-stupid monsters that both have los on you, and los on a sleeping monster, will try to wake the sleeping monster automatically (doesn't cost a turn)
  • Energy recovery is now a public stat (you can see the monster's energy recovery when you target them...and vice versa). When there is a ratio, yours is on the left.
  • Points-based generation has been revamped. Any stat combination from autorolling or classical generation is now possible, and no others. Gold from points-based generation is exactly equivalent to that from either autorolling or classical generation. Starting point is all optimistic median stats; you can reduce stats below their starting values if necessary.
  • option defaults changed:
    • flow_by_sound/flow_by_small/view_yellow_lite/view_bright_lite/view_granite_lite/view_special_lite/smart_monsters/smart_packs on
    • run_ignore_stairs, run_ignore_doors, ring_bell off
    • now birth: auto_scum, flow_by_sound, flow_by_smell, smart_monsters, smart_packs, smart_learn, smart_cheat, dungeon_align, dungeon_stair.
    Have these the way you want them before importing.
  • JamesDoyle/Oook forums: a number of spelling tweaks to the artifact descriptions.
  • from V SVN:
    • all monsters that have great drops have good drops.
    • extra color names
    • character dump logic fix
    • experience for monster kill, and native depth, obvious
    • arrows, missiles, and boulders can miss now. Using Zaiband's ranged attack penalties.
    • selling in stores forced to start on character inventory
    • Starting torches are implicitly store-bought (but 3500 turns)
• Zaiband 3.0.8 Alpha: March 30, 2008. (Source, ~3,342K; Win32, ~2,469K.) High points from the changes.txt file:
  • Line of sight/fire should be fully working now. I adapted Tyrecius' Permissive Field of View to V projection (relies on rational tangents as proxy for angles)
  • Inspired by V SVN: launchers are also checked for multipliers. Unlike V, launcher multipliers are cumulative with those from ammunition. Bard gets KILL_DRAGON for mythos reasons.
  • Inspired by Un, SSCrawl: player birth catches basic equipment holes. If you don't start with gloves, it's because they hurt your spellcasting.
  • The sidebar needed some documentation; it's in the dungeon section of the help files. It has been moderately rearranged.
  • Monster recall has been changed: certain attacks that are *very* dangerous are now obvious, to prevent no-warning deaths for new players.
  • Monster AI has been adjusted.
  • The player is no longer the only noise source capable of waking up monsters.
  • Energy has been changed around somewhat. Most importantly, diagonal moves now take 1.5 times as long as non-diagonal moves.
  • Psuedo-id has been adjusted; average psuedo-id is actually immediate identify now. Also, merely looking at an item in a store makes you fully aware of it.
• Zaiband 3.0.7: November 5, 2007. (Source, ~1,071K; Win32, ~1,142K.) High points from the changes.txt file:
  • Trap generation is somewhat more intelligent.
  • Autoinscriptions that block actions only work once, no matter how many of them there are. !* is still cumulative with action-specific blocks.
  • Projection paths (arrows, bolt spells, etc.) have been adjusted. Knight-move ambush still works, but the hockey puck corridor won't. The easier trick shots are automatically handled. There probably are a few bugs where invisible squares can be hit by careful choice of position targeting, but I haven't checked for them carefully.
  • The reasonable bolt and summons checks in monster AI have been disconnected from the smart_monsters option.
  • Discounts have been eliminated.
• Zaiband 3.0.6: March 4, 2007. (Source, ~1,112K) High points from the changes.txt file:
  • Hit dice sorted in decreasing order.
  • The reduction of probability of hitting with a ranged attack is more geometric.
  • Awake, immobile, stupid monsters (jellies and molds, mostly) will destroy/ruin items under them.
  • Monsters that attack to eat food, will eat food off the floor.

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