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.