Stone Soup 0.29.0 (20220823)
Highlights
New Meteoran species - powerful, but with heavy time pressure.
Ranged weapons have been extensively redesigned and streamlined.
Necromancy and Kikubaaqudgha have been overhauled and powered up.
Many backgrounds have extra consumables to handle early tricky situations.
The Abyss is deeper and more rewarding.
Branches, Environment
The Abyss has been reworked.
Piety and experience are once again awarded in the Abyss. When the abyssal rune generates, it's announced and appears on the map. New decorative 'runelight' features now indicate the rune is close by. The Abyss is now 7 levels deep, with the depths beyond A:5 continuously swarming the player with dangerous foes. When entering the abyss by any means, the player is sent at least as deep as their previous deepest abyss depth.
Dungeon shafts try not to send the player directly into monsters' sight.
All descents of new stairs and hatches are now fast, not just one per floor.
The Lair is now 5 levels long (was 6).
Zombies and skeletons are removed from normal Dungeon spawns.
Temple sizes now range from 6 to 21 altars, with a small chance of rare temples with 0, 1, or 22 temple-god altars.
The Zot clock now only instantly kills the player if they're extremely badly drained. Otherwise, it applies very heavy draining and refreshes the clock.
'Hell effect' events fire on entering floors, instead of on a timer.
Character
New species: Meteoran, stars fallen to earth in human form. Features:
Strong attributes and very strong skill aptitudes.
Exploration healing, regaining HP and MP when viewing new territory.
Passive mapping of the dungeon around them.
Hunted by darkness: only 600 turns per floor until Zot catches them (instead of the usual 6,000).
Many backgrounds start with new consumable items:
All 'mage' backgrounds now start with a potion of magic.
Gladiators add a single throwing weapon (javelin, large rock, or boomerang) to their starting kit.
Monks start with a potion of ambrosia.
Hunters gain a scroll of immolation.
Brigands get an additional poisoned & curare dart.
Chaos Knights start with a piece from Xom's chessboard.
Artificers trade their chesspiece for five iceblast charges.
Wanderers get an additional random potion or scroll.
Abyssal Knights start with more piety and standing on the abyss exit.
Transmuters start with a potion of lignification.
Warpers start with two more dispersal boomerangs (a total of 7).
Enchanters start with a second potion of invisibility.
Ranged weapon skills and starts are streamlined (see also "Items" below):
The Bows, Crossbows, and Slings skills are combined into a single Ranged Combat skill. Most species have aptitudes equal to their best previous ranged aptitude.
Hunters always start with a shortbow, and no longer have a short sword. They have higher dexterity and lower strength and intelligence.
Arcane Marksmen always start with a +1 sling.
Necromancers start with the new spell Necrotize instead of Animate Skeleton and Pain.
Some species were tweaked:
Merfolk polearms aptitude is decreased to +3, and long blades aptitude increased to +2.
Mummy necromancy enhancers now arrive at XL 3 and 13.
Demonspawn demonic touch damage is doubled.
Formicids' base dexterity is increased by 3.
Formicids can again wield giant (spiked) clubs.
Palentongas' base strength is increased by 2, and their roll attack noise is reduced by two-thirds.
Spriggans can no longer wield triple crossbows.
Some mutations were tweaked:
Positive stat mutations now give +4 to the primary stat and -1 to the other two, instead of only giving +2 to the primary.
The -Scroll and -Potion mutations are now regular 2-tier mutations in the bad mutation pool. The Ru sacrifice corresponds to the 2nd tier.
Teleportitis and Berserkitis are reduced to 2-tier mutations
Deep Dwarves are removed.
Gods
Kikubaaqudgha is overhauled:
Corpse Delivery is removed and replaced with Unearth Wretches, which summons paralysed, 1 HP, 0 Will monsters that die in a few turns. Necromantic fodder...
Torment no longer requires a corpse sacrifice.
The pain brand can be applied to ranged weapons.
Lugonu's Bend Space is adjusted. It no longer does damage, and makes a better effort to blink monsters away from the destination.
Uskayaw grants piety for damaging enemy summons.
Ru's Sacrifice Experience now only takes one XL (was two).
Various Ru sacrifices (including Experience) have their piety values tweaked.
Interface and Options
Common menu navigation commands are mapped via CMD_MENU_... commands, and can be rebound by bindkey options (local tiles/console only)
Keycodes for rebinding keys are now the same across all builds.
Keybinds, macros, and keymaps now accept human-readable key names for many special keys (e.g. "F1", "NP." for numpad ., etc.)
Numpad keys can now be bound separately in all builds.
Improvements to specific menus:
The Fire menu now allows selecting any item with a targeter. This includes items that don't show the targeter by default but do have a useful targeter, such as scrolls of fear.
In menus for equipping and using items, a toggle allows switching between item type.
In most menus that list items, or allow describing a menu entry, entries can be described without changing the menu mode by using the ' key, or by right clicking (tiles only).
Item type hotkeys in the inventory now scroll, instead of select.
The * menu for Firing is now used to select items to toss away.
The branch overview menu now shows zot clock values when they are low.
tile_sidebar_pixels option: allows resizing local tiles sidebar icons.
Items
Ranged weapons are streamlined (see also "Character" above):
Launchers no longer use ammunition.
Launcher attack delay is increased by armour penalties.
Fustibali are removed. Hunting slings are renamed to slings.
Launchers have had their stats adjusted across the board. In particular, hand crossbows are made much rarer and more powerful.
Launchers all use the Ranged Combat skill.
Launcher, long blade, and short blade damage scale with Dex instead of Str.
New concept: "alternate items". Some item types are grouped into 'sets', and only one type from each 'set' can generate in a game. Background starting items ignore this.
New item: scroll of butterflies, which summons a large cloud of butterflies. Alternates with scrolls of fog.
New wand: Light. Fires a damaging bolt of blinding light, blinding on hit. Alternates with acid and quicksilver.
New wand: Quicksilver: Fires a quicksilver bolt, dispelling magical effects from targets it hits. Alternates with acid and light.
New wand: Roots: Fires a 3x3 ball of roots, constricting enemies in the radius. Alternates with iceblast.
Wands of paralysis now alternate with wands of charming.
New item: scroll of poison. When read the scroll of poison fills every unoccupied space on the screen with poison clouds for 10-20 turns.
New unrands:
The +8 trishula "Condemnation" {holy, Anguish Fly rN+}. Inflicts 4-8 turns of Anguish on those hit, making them take damage when dealing it.
The +3 mountain boots {steadfast, rC+}. Prevents the player from being involuntarily moved by physical means (trampling, shafts, harpoons, etc.).
New unrand: the +5 lochaber axe, which cleaves through all foes in reaching range. Uses the higher of the player's Polearms and Axes skill.
Items can have vault-redefined skins. Yuif now has hammers again (renamed maces). Sigmund and Reapers' scythes are now renamed halberds.
+MP items remove MP when they are taken off.
Stones always mulch when thrown.
Unrandart tweaks:
the Glaive of the Guard is reduced to +5.
the arbalest "Damnation"'s explosions now do 2d14 damage (was 3d14).
Gyre & Gimble are increased to +12.
The Woodcutter's axe is now a battleaxe.
the amulet of Vitality now gives two pips each of Regen and RegenMP, and is now evil.
Scrolls of holy word are removed.
Monsters
New uniques:
Amaemon the Diabolical Poisoner, a poison-themed demonspawn unique appearing with a band of orange demons in mid-D, early Lair, and Orc:1.
Lodul the Thundrous, an ironbound thunderhulk sent to patrol outside the Vaults. Appears in late D with a band of fellow ogres.
Zenata, Seeker of Sheza. Summons dancing weapons and casts Resonance Strike, doing extra damage when constructs are adjacent to the target. Wields a valuable weapon. Appears searching Vaults:1-4, Elf, and Crypt.
Parghit the Mighty, an "alt-timeline" version of Pargi with extremely high regeneration and enchanted golden dragon scales. Appears in late Depths and Zot.
Josephina the Ice-Lich, an "alt-timeline" version of Josephine with Seracfall and a band of simulacra along side Ghostly Fireball. Appears in Depths, Zot, and Crypt.
Grunn the Punished, an "alt-timeline" undead version of Grum, with a pack of doom hounds. Appears in Depths, Crypt, and Zot.
Vv the Exile, an fire/ice spellcaster with Creeping Frost, Eruption, and Pyroclastic Surge. Appears in Depths, Crypt, and Zot.
Monster move energy is no longer randomized.
Monsters gain a 1/3 chance to gain a free attack on a player moving away from them. Wu Jian martial attacks & rampaging give immunity, and monsters that don't move fast enough to follow you can't attack.
New monster: starflower, a stationary plant with harpoon shot and reaching distortion melee. Found guarding valuable places in the abyss.
Gnoll shamans are renamed gnoll bouda, and have a new spell set.
Animated Armour now flies.
Monster wand power is reduced.
Spells
Necromancy reworked:
New Spell: Necrotize (L1 Necromancy). Necrotize deals damage identically to the old Pain spell, but additionally gives the monster a short-lived status that causes it to animate as a skeleton on death (if it has a skeleton).
Animate Dead reworked: for a duration after being cast, the dead have a power-dependent chance of rising as allied zombies. The zombies are permanent until the player leaves the level or re-casts Animate Dead.
Simulacrum is now a smite-targeted spell that gives an irresistable status. Monsters that die with this status spawn a power-dependent number of simulacra.
Corpse Rot is now Level 4 Necromancy/Poison/Air. For a duration after being cast, dead monsters have a chance of producing deadly miasma.
Death Channel cannot be re-cast while active.
Sandblast no longer uses stones as ammo. Instead, it takes half again as long to cast as a normal spell. Its range and accuracy are increased.
Airstrike's damage bonus from empty space around the target is doubled.
Irradiate now causes dangerous contamination in 3-4 casts (was 4-5).
Flame Wave and Sticky Flame now do roughly 25% more damage.
Ozocubu's Refrigeration and Freezing Ramparts now check AC, but do more damage. Refrigeration also now does reduced damage to creatures adjacent to others, but no longer applies -Potion to the caster.
Hex miscasts now only slow the player, instead of also cancelling effects.
Removed: Animate Skeleton, Pain, Excruciating Wounds.
Tiles
Some mutations now have associated art.
Many more status effects (e.g. Dazed, rF-) now have associated icons.
Monsters with Reflect (e.g. from a shield) now display an icon.
All species now have new statue form tiles.
Many new alternate tiles for Djinni and Nagas.
The Lernaean Hydra now has unique tiles when skeletonized.
Borgnjor's Mausoleum and Tukima's Studio have new environmental art.
Runed door tiles have been reworked for greater visibility.
