3 This is a list of the fixes/enhancements made to larn V11.0 in Version 12.0.
4 (Version numbers consist of 2 parts: ver.subver. When the save file format
5 changes, ver must be bumped. This is why the next release of Larn is 12.0
6 and not 11.1. This is used in the savefile routines to check for out-of-date
7 save files). This list was mainly meant to be a record of what changed,
8 for my own sanity. It's included for your benefit (Warning: SPOILER!):
10 0. lprintf() in fileio.c (now called io.c) has been changed to use varargs
11 so that its variable number of arguments usage is now portable. Pyramids
12 primarily had this problem.
14 1. Panic handler was added to signal.c. This routine catches fatal errors
15 like segmentation faults, bus errors, illegal instructions, etc., and
16 trys to performs a savegame() before dumping core. This helps prevent
17 the loss of a good game due to a game malfunction. Also, the name of the
18 signal received is printed, instead of just its number.
20 2. The version number of the program is now selectable from the Makefile.
21 see the symbols VER and SUBVER.
23 3. When at an altar, pray and donate 3000000000 gp. and ye used to receive
24 a whopping amount of gold due to a wraparound problem with the signed
25 ints. This has been fixed by using unsigned longs when asking for money
28 4. It was possible that when compiled with work hours checking, checkpointing
29 enabled, and having "play-day-play" in the .larnopts file a segmentation
30 fault would occur at its first attempt to do a checkpoint. This was due
31 to an improperly declared savefilename array in tok.c. This has been fixed.
33 5. on level H, casting a missile weapon (mle cld ssp bal lit) off the edge of
34 the level would mess up the display, as it didn't know when to stop. This
35 is needless to say, fixed. Absolute bounds are now in effect for missile
36 type spells, see godirect() in monster.c.
38 6. The create monster routine will now create monsters in random positions
39 around the player. Before, the 1st one would always be created to the
42 7. If you vpr or lit at a throne, it would summon a gnome king that you
43 would have to deal with. However, as each throne has only one king with it,
44 successive vpr's should not create more gnome kings. Presently, successive
45 vpr's will create more kings. This has been fixed.
47 8. The mechanism to manage spheres of annihilation has been reworked to provide
48 a cleaner design and to eliminate some possible problems.
50 9. The spell gen (genocide monsters) has been implemented.
52 10. When dropping a ring of strength and having been weakened to STR=3 the
53 player might end up with a negative strength. Strength is now stored
54 in 2 variables, real strength, and strength bonuses. Only real strength
55 can now be weakened down to a minimum of 3, so unless you have a ring of
56 strength -3 or less, strengths below 3 should not occur.
58 11. larn -h will now print out a list of all available command line options.
60 12. larn -o<optsfile> now lets you specify a .larnopts file on the command
61 line. This was necessary as part of the solution to number 14 below.
63 13. The "savefile:" statement has been aded to the .larnopts format to allow
64 specifying the savefilename (full path) for the savegame operation.
65 This too was needed as part of # 14 below.
67 14. A player id facility has been added to larn. The complaint was that
68 the game used the userid to order the scoreboard, thus only one scoreboard
69 entry was allowed for each userid. If the compile time symbol UIDSCORE
70 is defined at compilation time (see Makefile), this will still be true.
71 However, if this define is omitted, the game will create and manage a
72 file called ".playerids" where names are taken from the specified
73 .larnopts file (now a command line option) and assigned a unique playerid.
74 playerid's will now be used to govern scoreboard entry posting. This
75 feature makes it easy for one person to have many characters, each
76 appearing on the scoreboard. Be kind to your fellow players!
77 The philosophy of one score per player gives more players the opportunity
78 to bask in glory for all to see!
80 15. It is no longer required that the player be WIZID to create the scoreboard
81 or to examine the logfile. Anyone with the correct wizard's password can
82 now use these command line options (password is only needed to create/clear
83 the scoreboard). If you want to prevent players from zeroing the
84 scoreboard, change the wizard's password. (in config.c) By the way, wizards
85 may be alot of fun, but they are prevented from being placed on any
86 scoreboard. (for clarification)
88 16. Monsters now have intelligence, that is some of them. This determines if
89 the monster moves using the previously stupid movement method, or by using
90 the new IMM (intelligent monster movement) algorithm. With IMM, monsters
91 will move around corners, avoid pits, traps, etc. With increasing levels
92 of difficulty, more monsters will be using IMM. Beware of IMM when
93 aggravated! Those little beasties can really find you!
95 17. Added the scroll of life protection.
97 18. Larn now consults the file ".holiday" to check for holidays if the TIMECHECK
98 option (no playing during working hours) is enabled. Before, larn knew
99 nothing about holidays. It should now let people play if it is a holiday.
100 The format for a .holiday entry is: "mmm dd yyyy comments . . .".
102 19. In nap() and napms() it is possible that with nap(0) or napms(0) there
103 would be an infinite loop and the game would hang. The case of nap(0)
106 20. The granularity of gold piles has been increased. iarg[] has been changed
107 from char's to short's, so instead of 255 x 10^n granularity we now have
108 32767 x 10^n granularity. This also means more than 255000 gp can be
109 dropped in one place. Not realistic, but it prevents a worthless
110 annoyance. Who said games were supposed to be realistic?
112 21. Termcap capability has been added to larn. If the symbol VT100 is defined
113 in the makefile, the game will be compiled to use only VT100 compatible
114 terminals (Much more efficient). If the symbol VT100 is omitted, the game
115 will be compiled to use the termcap entry for whatever terminal you are
116 using. This involves an extra layer of output interpretation, as every
117 byte sent to the terminal must be inspected for control tokens.
118 Only 3 termcap entries need be found for the game to be functional:
119 CM (cursor movement), CE (clear to end of line), and CL (clear screen).
120 For a better display, the following are optional: AL (insert line), DL
121 (delete line), SO (Standout begin), SE (Standout end), and CD (clear to end
122 of screen). The .larn.help file was left as is, with VT100 escape
123 sequences in it. If the termcap version of larn reads it, it is translated
124 for the desired terminal type. The .mail60* files have been removed, and
125 their text is now included in bill.c so it can be used with any terminal.
126 Note: If compiled for termcap, and using a VT100, the display will act
127 a little different. This is because the VT100 does not have insert line/
128 delete line codes, and the scrolling region must be simulated with vertical
129 wraparound instead of scrolling. Thanks goes to Michiel Huisjes for the
130 original termcap patch.
132 22. When playing as wizard, if you go down stairs on 10 or V3, or up stairs
133 on H, 1, or V1, etc. you would be placed in a phantom zone where the display
134 was really weird ([-1] subscripting), and would eventually lead to a
135 segmentation fault. Stairs and volcano shafts now check for the level
136 they are being used on.
138 23. In response to some sites having only unsigned chars (flame the
139 manufacturer), the chars that were used to store positive and negative
140 numbers have been changed to shorts. This includes diroffx[], diroffy[],
141 iarg[][][], ivenarg[], and some others. I believe the changes are correct,
142 but I have none of these machines to try it out on. (Volunteers?)
144 24. The function fullhit(n) in monster.c was supposed to return the damage
145 done by n full hits on a monster. It only returned the damage for ONE hit,
146 thus severely limiting the usefulness of the web and sle spells.
148 25. Someone said that they were getting segmentation faults when they were
149 reading scrolls as the wizard. I couldn't find the problem, which may
150 have had something to do with the signed char problem mentioned above.
151 However, I've added a check in read_scroll() and quaff_potion() to trap
152 any scroll or potion types that are not in the game.
154 26. "vt125" has been added to the acceptable terminal list
155 (checked only if compiled with -DVT100).
157 27. In savegame() and restoregame(), there was a 6 hardwired into the i/o
158 statements which assumed the size of struct cel was 6. On some machines
159 this caused the rightmost part of each level to not be saved in a savefile.
160 These 6's have been replaced with sizeof(struct cel), and should now be
163 28. The option "no-beep" has been added to the .larnopts file. When specified,
164 beeping is inhibited at the terminal.
166 29. When becoming wizard, no longer to you wear the ring of protection, and
167 null scrolls and potions are no longer created.
169 30. Many spelling errors have been fixed, both in player messages, and in the
170 code itself. A thanks goes to Mars Gralia who sent me a detailed list of
173 31. When a player wins a game, if getlogin() fails, a segmentation fault will
174 result, because the NULL returned from getlogin() is used as a pointer.
175 This call has been replaced (now using loginname already determined).
176 Also, the mail creation upon winning has been rewritten, mainly to allow
177 termcapping of the text.
179 32. The Larn Revenue Service will now always appear on level H. Before, it
180 was only created if the player had outstanding taxes. In that multiple
181 save files per player are now more possible, this was seen as incorrect.
183 33. Input buffer flushing is now in effect. If the input char queue exceeds
184 5 bytes, the excess is discarded. Also, if the player hits or gets hit
185 all input bytes are flushed (within 1). This relieves the situation
186 where many moves have been typed ahead of the display and the player keeps
187 getting hit while the queue of moves is processed.
189 34. When a savefile has been altered, a warning message is displayed to the
190 effect that you've cheated, and you will not be placed on the normal
191 scoreboard. If you then save the game, and start 'er up again, memory
192 of the cheating was lost. This has been fixed, by letting the scoreboard
193 routines consult the cheating flag. Also, the I node number of the
194 savefile is written into the savefile, so cp'ing, etc., will avail the
195 cheater not. If high security is needed, the game should be run suid.
196 This suid mode has not been made the default because most installations
197 do not want to install it that way.
199 35. The sources have been run through lint, and most of lint's complaints have
200 been taken care of. An attempt was made to adjust the code for 16 bit int
201 machines. Many casts to long have been put in. I don't know if it will
202 run on a 16 bitter, but it should be closer to that end.
204 36. When larn starts up, if it can't find the scoreboard, it will now make a
205 blank one instead of complaining that there is no scoreboard. It is not
206 necessary to do "larn -c" to initially create the scoreboard.
208 37. When listing out the logfile (larn -l), the error message "error reading
209 from input file" has been fixed. Also, the date & time of a player's
210 demise is now included in the logfile.
212 38. When casting web or sle into a mirror, the game will no longer bash the
213 player. Instead, the player will either fall asleep or get stuck in his
216 39. Items like cookies, books, chests, swords of slashing, and Bessmann's
217 flailing hammer can now be sold at the trading post.