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1 This is a list of the fixes/enhancements made to larn V11.0 in Version 12.0.
2 (Version numbers consist of 2 parts: ver.subver. When the save file format
3 changes, ver must be bumped. This is why the next release of Larn is 12.0
4 and not 11.1. This is used in the savefile routines to check for out-of-date
5 save files). This list was mainly meant to be a record of what changed,
6 for my own sanity. It's included for your benefit (Warning: SPOILER!):
8 0. lprintf() in fileio.c (now called io.c) has been changed to use varargs
9 so that its variable number of arguments usage is now portable. Pyramids
10 primarily had this problem.
12 1. Panic handler was added to signal.c. This routine catches fatal errors
13 like segmentation faults, bus errors, illegal instructions, etc., and
14 trys to performs a savegame() before dumping core. This helps prevent
15 the loss of a good game due to a game malfunction. Also, the name of the
16 signal received is printed, instead of just its number.
18 2. The version number of the program is now selectable from the Makefile.
19 see the symbols VER and SUBVER.
21 3. When at an altar, pray and donate 3000000000 gp. and ye used to receive
22 a whopping amount of gold due to a wraparound problem with the signed
23 ints. This has been fixed by using unsigned longs when asking for money
24 amounts.
26 4. It was possible that when compiled with work hours checking, checkpointing
27 enabled, and having "play-day-play" in the .larnopts file a segmentation
28 fault would occur at its first attempt to do a checkpoint. This was due
29 to an improperly declared savefilename array in tok.c. This has been fixed.
31 5. on level H, casting a missile weapon (mle cld ssp bal lit) off the edge of
32 the level would mess up the display, as it didn't know when to stop. This
33 is needless to say, fixed. Absolute bounds are now in effect for missile
34 type spells, see godirect() in monster.c.
36 6. The create monster routine will now create monsters in random positions
37 around the player. Before, the 1st one would always be created to the
38 upper left.
40 7. If you vpr or lit at a throne, it would summon a gnome king that you
41 would have to deal with. However, as each throne has only one king with it,
42 successive vpr's should not create more gnome kings. Presently, successive
43 vpr's will create more kings. This has been fixed.
45 8. The mechanism to manage spheres of annihilation has been reworked to provide
46 a cleaner design and to eliminate some possible problems.
48 9. The spell gen (genocide monsters) has been implemented.
50 10. When dropping a ring of strength and having been weakened to STR=3 the
51 player might end up with a negative strength. Strength is now stored
52 in 2 variables, real strength, and strength bonuses. Only real strength
53 can now be weakened down to a minimum of 3, so unless you have a ring of
54 strength -3 or less, strengths below 3 should not occur.
56 11. larn -h will now print out a list of all available command line options.
58 12. larn -o<optsfile> now lets you specify a .larnopts file on the command
59 line. This was necessary as part of the solution to number 14 below.
61 13. The "savefile:" statement has been aded to the .larnopts format to allow
62 specifying the savefilename (full path) for the savegame operation.
63 This too was needed as part of # 14 below.
65 14. A player id facility has been added to larn. The complaint was that
66 the game used the userid to order the scoreboard, thus only one scoreboard
67 entry was allowed for each userid. If the compile time symbol UIDSCORE
68 is defined at compilation time (see Makefile), this will still be true.
69 However, if this define is omitted, the game will create and manage a
70 file called ".playerids" where names are taken from the specified
71 .larnopts file (now a command line option) and assigned a unique playerid.
72 playerid's will now be used to govern scoreboard entry posting. This
73 feature makes it easy for one person to have many characters, each
74 appearing on the scoreboard. Be kind to your fellow players!
75 The philosophy of one score per player gives more players the opportunity
76 to bask in glory for all to see!
78 15. It is no longer required that the player be WIZID to create the scoreboard
79 or to examine the logfile. Anyone with the correct wizard's password can
80 now use these command line options (password is only needed to create/clear
81 the scoreboard). If you want to prevent players from zeroing the
82 scoreboard, change the wizard's password. (in config.c) By the way, wizards
83 may be alot of fun, but they are prevented from being placed on any
84 scoreboard. (for clarification)
86 16. Monsters now have intelligence, that is some of them. This determines if
87 the monster moves using the previously stupid movement method, or by using
88 the new IMM (intelligent monster movement) algorithm. With IMM, monsters
89 will move around corners, avoid pits, traps, etc. With increasing levels
90 of difficulty, more monsters will be using IMM. Beware of IMM when
91 aggravated! Those little beasties can really find you!
93 17. Added the scroll of life protection.
95 18. Larn now consults the file ".holiday" to check for holidays if the TIMECHECK
96 option (no playing during working hours) is enabled. Before, larn knew
97 nothing about holidays. It should now let people play if it is a holiday.
98 The format for a .holiday entry is: "mmm dd yyyy comments . . .".
100 19. In nap() and napms() it is possible that with nap(0) or napms(0) there
101 would be an infinite loop and the game would hang. The case of nap(0)
102 is now looked for.
104 20. The granularity of gold piles has been increased. iarg[] has been changed
105 from char's to short's, so instead of 255 x 10^n granularity we now have
106 32767 x 10^n granularity. This also means more than 255000 gp can be
107 dropped in one place. Not realistic, but it prevents a worthless
108 annoyance. Who said games were supposed to be realistic?
110 21. Termcap capability has been added to larn. If the symbol VT100 is defined
111 in the makefile, the game will be compiled to use only VT100 compatible
112 terminals (Much more efficient). If the symbol VT100 is omitted, the game
113 will be compiled to use the termcap entry for whatever terminal you are
114 using. This involves an extra layer of output interpretation, as every
115 byte sent to the terminal must be inspected for control tokens.
116 Only 3 termcap entries need be found for the game to be functional:
117 CM (cursor movement), CE (clear to end of line), and CL (clear screen).
118 For a better display, the following are optional: AL (insert line), DL
119 (delete line), SO (Standout begin), SE (Standout end), and CD (clear to end
120 of screen). The .larn.help file was left as is, with VT100 escape
121 sequences in it. If the termcap version of larn reads it, it is translated
122 for the desired terminal type. The .mail60* files have been removed, and
123 their text is now included in bill.c so it can be used with any terminal.
124 Note: If compiled for termcap, and using a VT100, the display will act
125 a little different. This is because the VT100 does not have insert line/
126 delete line codes, and the scrolling region must be simulated with vertical
127 wraparound instead of scrolling. Thanks goes to Michiel Huisjes for the
128 original termcap patch.
130 22. When playing as wizard, if you go down stairs on 10 or V3, or up stairs
131 on H, 1, or V1, etc. you would be placed in a phantom zone where the display
132 was really weird ([-1] subscripting), and would eventually lead to a
133 segmentation fault. Stairs and volcano shafts now check for the level
134 they are being used on.
136 23. In response to some sites having only unsigned chars (flame the
137 manufacturer), the chars that were used to store positive and negative
138 numbers have been changed to shorts. This includes diroffx[], diroffy[],
139 iarg[][][], ivenarg[], and some others. I believe the changes are correct,
140 but I have none of these machines to try it out on. (Volunteers?)
142 24. The function fullhit(n) in monster.c was supposed to return the damage
143 done by n full hits on a monster. It only returned the damage for ONE hit,
144 thus severely limiting the usefulness of the web and sle spells.
146 25. Someone said that they were getting segmentation faults when they were
147 reading scrolls as the wizard. I couldn't find the problem, which may
148 have had something to do with the signed char problem mentioned above.
149 However, I've added a check in read_scroll() and quaff_potion() to trap
150 any scroll or potion types that are not in the game.
152 26. "vt125" has been added to the acceptable terminal list
153 (checked only if compiled with -DVT100).
155 27. In savegame() and restoregame(), there was a 6 hardwired into the i/o
156 statements which assumed the size of struct cel was 6. On some machines
157 this caused the rightmost part of each level to not be saved in a savefile.
158 These 6's have been replaced with sizeof(struct cel), and should now be
159 portable.
161 28. The option "no-beep" has been added to the .larnopts file. When specified,
162 beeping is inhibited at the terminal.
164 29. When becoming wizard, no longer to you wear the ring of protection, and
165 null scrolls and potions are no longer created.
167 30. Many spelling errors have been fixed, both in player messages, and in the
168 code itself. A thanks goes to Mars Gralia who sent me a detailed list of
169 the mistakes.
171 31. When a player wins a game, if getlogin() fails, a segmentation fault will
172 result, because the NULL returned from getlogin() is used as a pointer.
173 This call has been replaced (now using loginname already determined).
174 Also, the mail creation upon winning has been rewritten, mainly to allow
175 termcapping of the text.
177 32. The Larn Revenue Service will now always appear on level H. Before, it
178 was only created if the player had outstanding taxes. In that multiple
179 save files per player are now more possible, this was seen as incorrect.
181 33. Input buffer flushing is now in effect. If the input char queue exceeds
182 5 bytes, the excess is discarded. Also, if the player hits or gets hit
183 all input bytes are flushed (within 1). This relieves the situation
184 where many moves have been typed ahead of the display and the player keeps
185 getting hit while the queue of moves is processed.
187 34. When a savefile has been altered, a warning message is displayed to the
188 effect that you've cheated, and you will not be placed on the normal
189 scoreboard. If you then save the game, and start 'er up again, memory
190 of the cheating was lost. This has been fixed, by letting the scoreboard
191 routines consult the cheating flag. Also, the I node number of the
192 savefile is written into the savefile, so cp'ing, etc., will avail the
193 cheater not. If high security is needed, the game should be run suid.
194 This suid mode has not been made the default because most installations
195 do not want to install it that way.
197 35. The sources have been run through lint, and most of lint's complaints have
198 been taken care of. An attempt was made to adjust the code for 16 bit int
199 machines. Many casts to long have been put in. I don't know if it will
200 run on a 16 bitter, but it should be closer to that end.
202 36. When larn starts up, if it can't find the scoreboard, it will now make a
203 blank one instead of complaining that there is no scoreboard. It is not
204 necessary to do "larn -c" to initially create the scoreboard.
206 37. When listing out the logfile (larn -l), the error message "error reading
207 from input file" has been fixed. Also, the date & time of a player's
208 demise is now included in the logfile.
210 38. When casting web or sle into a mirror, the game will no longer bash the
211 player. Instead, the player will either fall asleep or get stuck in his
212 web.
214 39. Items like cookies, books, chests, swords of slashing, and Bessmann's
215 flailing hammer can now be sold at the trading post.