Back to Crystal Orb Adventures

080411

• Added skill-related special skills: vivacity, balanced, magical aptitude, fit, perceptive; can only be picked at level 1
• Adjusted object-related actions with respect to the new object/character selection menu.
• Other function cleanups with body_clear(), structure images, etc.
• Map costs are based on their size and encounter_level, rather than position in the world.
• In combat, doing nothing ("wait" or "." command) is considered "total defense" (+4 to defense)
• Truestrike fix
• Combat damage fix

;080407

• Locations: Old battlefields, temples, some castles and temples have moats, moorland
• Spells have ability prerequisites
• Expanded character and zone names
• Parties automatically disband if left with only one member.
• Added double-headed weapons; double sword, double scimitar, double axe, double hammer, double flail.
  • in addition, a quarterstaff is also used as a double weapon.
• Tweaks to encounter levels and background fluff.
• Graphics: Starting some specific monster graphics.
• find_char() and find_item() tweaks:
  • Player is asked which character/object he wants to perform an action with, when there are multiple valid characters.
  • This means that text matching can be simplified.

080401

• Spell tinkering; spells are either heightened or mastered depending on rune level, which has a different effect for each spell.
• Some code optimization for calculating loads.
  • Spells
• "Lift", "Lift II", "Lift III"; lightens load.
• "Heal Orb","Heal Orb II","Heal Orb III","Heal Orb IV"; heals wounds at range en mass.
• Formalized ep-for-mp substitution, some Fury fixes, removed Tireless Fury just because.
• Snowy hills.

080330

• Bugfixes: Weight bug with picking up bulk items such as coins. Fixed 'effects' bug in save file. Fixed a get-item-from-x bug. Various Track bugfixes.
  • Introduced climate; colder to the west, warmer to the east.
  • Tweaked special skill and weapon proficiency selection.
  • All character classes get 1d2 mp per level, and some special skills for fighters that use MP:
    • Fury, Fury II, Fury III, Tireless fury
• Added "broken", "masterwork" amd "dire" to expanded_object_name$()
• Items not stored or carried very slowly degrade over time, except for coins.
• Guildhall starts in centre of the overmap; the town could be anywhere; monster encounters increase in difficulty further from the centre.
• Limited the number of enemies encountered in a group
• Limited the amount of items carried by NPCs
• Known bug: Whilst resting, display sometimes shows other areas. Don't know why as the code specifically disallows it. Perhaps they are dreams?

080327

• Acrobatics and Overrun are now options when blocked by an enemy.
• Skills
  • Athletics skill; has chance of reducing difficulty of difficult terrain.
  • Acrobatics skill; allows attempt at tumbling past enemies
  • Sneak no longer uses an "average" check result (characters now have a skill roll assigned to them at the beginning of their round for skills that may be called multiple times per round.)
• Special skills
  • Power overrun, Dodge II, Mystic archery, Prone fighting, Unarmed expert, Atemi strike
• Some fixes with Dodge special skill, reaction attacks, sneak attacks.
• XP
  • XP is earned for sucessful tumbling, sneaking, overunning, tripping or disarming an enemy.
  • Show XP as it is earned. (I'd prefer it somewhere else on the screen, not sure where. Bottom-right might get overlayed by status screen.)
  • Less XP for using a magic item (compared to casting a spell)
• Magic
  • Perfect gems can be used for magic item creation.
  • Scroll fix; can be cast at targets now; usage is "read <scroll name> at <target>"
• Monsters can now appear in groups. Added "imp-devil" monster, fast regeneration quality
• Tidied up sidebar and object descriptions a bit.
• under/oversized items in inventory and shop list are marked as such.
• Fixes to text matching; matching was happening at 3 characters instead of 4. (e.g. "look gooseberry" was instead looking at "good-looking guard.")
  • item matching also checks for description modifiers, such as size and pluralization
• Can move and attack whilst prone with a penalty. Ranged weapons, apart from crossbows, cannot be fired whilst prone.
• Some tidyups and fixes for resistances (also caught one error with Dazzle Monster spell)
• Containers can be "transparent", showing what all its contents are with the "look" command; they do not need to be searched.
  • Char/obj relation tracks what has been spotted inside opaque containers. Found objects no longer dumped on floor
  • Use "get all from <container>" or "get <object> from <container>"
  • "get all from <container>" will also automatically search the container if it is opaque
  • Shopkeepers use action_get(), action_give() and action_drop() [into container] when selling, now.

080323

• Crafting; magic users can create scrolls, runestones and wands if they have the appropriate special skill
  • Crafting requires a base component (blank scroll, smooth pebble or piece of wood)
  • You add runes, then add enough spell components to cover the craft points required.
  • Surplus craft points are usually wasted. Scrolls use excess craft points to store more charges.
  • Spell ingredients include spell ink, holy basil, undead ash, giant's teeth and blood, and cave fungus
• Special Skills:
  • Prettier special skill selection screen, with help text.
  • Sneak damage I, II and III, Evasion, Craft wand, Craft runestone, Craft scroll
• Harvest tidied up; no longer requires you to specify creature; will look at dead or dying creatures in same spot first, then check other creatures in room, automatically moving to them and performing coup-de-grace as necessary.
• Objects:
  • Spell scrolls, only usable by spellcasters, or with a successful Thaumaturgy check
  • Silver coins weight less, at 100 coins to the pound. (Due to lack of larger denominations)
• Character creation:
  • Custom-made characters now start with some equipment, like random chars do
  • (original intention was to start with no equipment, but a lone adventurer needs all the help he can get.)
  • Spellcasters are more likely to be encountered with scrolls and wands.
• Misc
  • Small amount of XP for improving relationship with a character.
  • Fixes/tweaks to chatting
  • Unfriendly animals and magical beasts issue warning growls if something comes too near, and have a chance of becoming hostile. This is to make the nature talent special skill useful.

080320

• More specific storage structure descriptions.
• Chat: Improve relationship: Gives option of immediate retry. A few more chat lines.
• Some text fixes (damage description for example)
• Removed Bob as he was only there to test the party system.
• Skills:
  • "help <skill>" displays skill ranks and total skill level for that skill.
  • "look <monster>" will provide more information to PCs with the various knowledge skills.
• Spells:
  • spell focus and greater spell focus (from runes) also reduce mp and ep cost by 1 and 2 respectively.
  • Added "scan monster" spell; both scan spells make use of the new ID information, using caster_level as a ID skill bonus
  • Offensive spellcasting prompts an initiative check if target is not engaged in combat.
  • New spells; Acid Touch, Acid Cone I and II, Fire Cone II
• Objects:
  • Added some books; current books describe the different spell runes.
  • Added "dire" template to random weapon buffs.

080318

• Sorry, not a massive update. Got playing City of Heroes again.
  • Shops; extra handling for selling, splitting and joining bulk items.
  • Bulk items will not merge if they have different appraisal or ownership values.
  • Data; removed char/player field, as there is only ever one current player.
  • Disengagement fix for multiple-way battles
  • Fixed "get all"; character will now move to fetch items not in the same location.

080125

• quests:
  • "cull X monsters" quest from guildmaster
  • additional handling for employer not having enough money to pay character for quest (they will tell you in advance.)
  • bugfix: quest ID's are now saved and reloaded correctly.
  • unstarted quests are removed at midnight
• actions:
  • take action now accepts the form "ask <character> for <object>"
  • giving to, taking from or shopping with a character will disturb their rest.
  • inventory now listed in order of object type
• spells:
  • colourfied runes; rune power level is shown when selecting new runes
  • you can cast spells using energy points, when magic points have run out, on a 1 mp = 2 ep basis.
  • Experience points are only earnt for magic point usage.
• objects:
  • bows, arrows, crossbows, bolts
  • handling for bulk items (coins and ammo) - they now have weight in bulk.
  • objects shown in inventory are now colourfied, and show weight information
  • gemstones
• skills:
  • skill selection shows ability modifier
  • several skills to replace the harvesting/tracking aspect of survival for different classes of monster
  • initiative is now a skill (removed improved initiative feat)
  • Tracking special skill; needed to find most tracks.
• New feature:
  • tracks, which can be found using the search command and certain skills
• Minor tweaks/fixes for text matching, shop lists, combat strength mods with respect to bows/arrows

080111

• Unified functions for moving around in a location.
• Reaction attacks provoked by spellcasting, ranged attacks and unarmed attacks.
• If a sneaking character engages another, and is not spotted, victim does not become engaged.
• Sneaking characters move through a location at half speed.
• New spells;
  • identify, create animal, create monster, water walking, camouflage, camouflage II
  • resistance II, resistance III, ice orb III
  • Bless and Bless Water are now spells, rather than a feat (as there are more rune combinations to fill than there were before)
• Parties; basic system is in, with example character Bob as part of player's initial party.
  • Retainers may be found in taverns; chat to them to hire them.
  • Combat XP is shared amongst party members, except for retainers and summoned creatures.
  • Sneaking is not foiled by party members seeing you; party members will attempt to sneak if the leader is sneaking.
• Improved flexibility of char-to-char relation type
• Bugfix; availability for disabled creatures now correct.
• Formalized cone/breath attacks
• Objects now have ownership; "take <object> from <character>" to ask a character to give you an object.
  • If the object was only recently given or aquired, then a party member will pass the object over.
  • After one day, a character will take ownership of an otherwise unclaimed item.

71230

• Random and NPC spellcasters now correctly start with 3 runes.
• Random character's starting weapon select now examines free hands (for compatability with shields)
• AI considers wearing and wielding items.
• New rune for nature related spells
• New spells; Map, Charm Animal, Magic Stones, Journeying, Flame Weapon I and II, Magic Weapon I and II, Flame Strike, Detect Magic, Dispel Magic, Fire Orb II, Ice Orb II
• Objects:
  • Timed objects (magic stones, flame); preparing for enchanted weapons
  • Allow objects to have effects
  • Randomly created armour and weapons may be magical.
  • Added flail and heavy flail
• Combat:
  • Adjusted dramatic pauses in combat messages.
  • May now attack "arms" or "legs", rather than "limbs"
  • An "arm" strike may result in a disarm attempt, A "leg" strike may result in a trip
  • "expert disarm" and "expert trip" special skill
  • Friendly but law-abiding NPCs no longer aid player attack guards or other law-abiding characters
• Status:
  • "prone" status; entered when character is tripped, dead/dying, sleeping etc.
  • Moved inline encumberance description to status bar.
• Decided to only allow player to generate room contents, hopefully will speed the game a bit.
• Bugfix with rooms in savefile; monsters should spawn correctly now.
• Disabled save during engagements; this is a workaround for some oddities that occur when saving and loading during a fight.
• Player is given some options when a monster blocks them (currently just sneak or kill; acrobatics and overruns are in progress)

71210

• Removed 'greet' command, which is now done automatically when a character uses 'chat'
• 'chat' shows a menu of dialogue options; chat, improve relationship, ask for quest
• New special skill, natural talent, allows improve relationship with animals, using wrangling skill, and gives +2 to survival skill
• Added structure for quests and simple "deliver message" quest from Guildmaster.
  • 'quests' command used to list current quests
• Corrected treasure values for dungeon chests and barrels.
• Fixed some appraisal code; only one appraisal tool is used at once.
• Changing guildmaster class from Scout to Professional, so default relationship is Friendly.
• Bugfix: Speechcraft was set to Toughness; now correctly based on Personality

71209

• Objects:
  • Further clothing tweaks.
  • Object's hp re-evaluated after random adjustments (so art objects are no longer in 'broken' condition)
  • Fixed "proficiency" in wearing art objects; characters no longer "uncomfortable" wearing earrings, for example.
  • Allow weapons to have limited "uses"; this is 1 for most ray/orb spells
  • Weapons cause correct damage now.
• Actions:
  • "give" action; used automatically during trading.
  • When wearing armour, player is prompted if he wants to remove conflicting armour.
  • When wielding objects, player is promted to unwield current weapons if hands full.
• Locations:
  • Added caves to mountain areas; increased chance of locus areas appearing (taverns, castles, caves)
• Images:
  • Picture for disabled or dead creatures is rotated 90 degrees.
• Spells
  • Magic Orb, Blur, Shock Touch, Negative Touch, Weakness Orb, Ice Cone, Curse
  • "U" rune is now selectable.
• Effects: shaken, weakened; used by Curse and Weakness Orb spells

71204

• Further tweaks to starting clothes and equipment.
• Expanded description of wearable items when examined, and when looking at someone.

71203

• Professional, Soldier and Commoner NPC classes (although the player can select them at the moment, if he so wishes)
• Random clothing and misc. equipment for player and NPCs

71202

• Skills:
  • 1 xp for appraising new item or blessing.
  • Examining runestones only reveals the etched runes if the player's thaumaturgy skill is high enough.
• Spells and runes.
  • Spellcasters can now select which runes they gain (from a selection based on Thaumaturgy skill, class, and spellcasting type)
  • Expanded information in 'spells' command
  • If the total rune level is greater than the spell level, spell is cast with Spell Focus
  • If the total rune level is greater than twice the spell level, spellis cast with Greater Spell Focus
  • Classes no longer have favoured runes; (int / wis / per casttype still does)
  • Professions have rune requirements (so healer will always have 'h','e' runes)
  • Handling for melee touch spells, and combat spell effects
• Shops:
  • Prices haggled through appraisal now correct.
  • Column for price and weapon/armour type; type greyed out if character not proficient with that item
• NPCs and combat:
  • New 1/2 hit-die animal for woodland and mountains
  • Natural weapon; small bite fixed.
  • Healing and some other checks no longer performed on Dead/destroyed creatures
  • Unavailable hostile creatures no longer block player's movement.
  • 1, 2, 3 commands attempt to strike nearby helpless enemies if not engaged.
• Help:
  • "help commands" now lists commands in a double-column, so they all fit on the screen.
  • Adding dynamic help comments

70804

• Structure graphics spaced out a bit more; black border around viewscreen
• Objects:
  • Added art objects (and a shop in the town to sell them)
  • Added magnifying glass and scales (aids appraisals, see below)
  • Meat is now given value and quality proportional to level of creature it came from.
  • Meat in a shop now comes from a particular creature
  • Tavern added to SW corner of guild. Stock up on food before venturing out!
  • Added char-obj relationship, which stores percieved value from appraise, and ownership flag
  • Item stacking now works when selling an item too (or indeed, putting any object into any structure)
• New Special Skills:
  • "endurance": reduces ep cost for moving by 25%
  • "stouthearted": whilst 'dying', character is not rendered unavailable.
  • "bless" now effects characters (provides +1 to hit)
• Characters:
  • Bleeding is more rapid, but is stopped by any healing.
  • Bugfix with character name matching
  • Improved character chatting (as will be used to ask for quests)
  • Characters will avoid wandering away from their home zone.
    • This is so that quest targets such as "bandit last seen in zone X" will be easier to find
    • Will also keep exponential character bloat under control.
  • Fixed genders
  • NPCs are equipped with weapons appropriate to their weapon proficiencies.
• Spells:
  • 'Detect Effects' is now called 'Scan Creature', and also reveals a creature's name (if it has one)
• Map:
  • Rough terrain borders (hills for mountains, light wood for forest, shallow water for rivers and swamps)
  • Stretches twice as far to the east; zones larger; map costs adjusted.
  • 'map' action now accepts a zone name as a noun, which will highlight a particular zone.
• Skills:
  • Appraise now used to place value on items.
• Shops:
  • If shopkeepers are not sure of a value (using appraise), they will offer a generic value.
  • If the player knows the actual value of a item he is selling, the shopkeeper will take that into account.

v70725

• Maps and zones now generated fractally.
  • Cost of maps is based on the size of the area it maps, and how far south-east it is located.
• More graphics
• Sneak/stance/active feats shown in status bar
• Runestones and wands no longer have pre-listed spells; they are generated on-the-fly now.
  • They now are labelled by spell name rather than by runes.
• Shops are better at stacking similar items together.

v70718b

• Fixed an oopsie with magic rays
• Dropping a worn/wielded item now buffers the remove/drop sequence
• Unwielding a Ray causes it to dissipate.
• New command: 'spells', lists all known spells based on runes and thaumaturgy skill

v70718

• On collapsing, characters will drop all objects held in hands, not just weapons.
• No longer need to type in "*" for weapon feats (shortcut for 'weapon proficiency' is now 'w' instead of 'p')
• Feats now shown in sentence form, with weapon proficiencies / focus shown as an aggregate.
• Placed a level 4 mystic in the town temple.
• Increased combat XP by 2.5; i.e. victory against an equal opponent will now give 250 XP rather than 100.
• Structures and objects now have a position
• Characters can now only move one 'space' per turn within a room when not in combat
• If a command (such as greet or search) requires a character to move more than once, the command is buffered.
• Simple graphics for most objects.

v70713

• Basic graphical display. Time of day now saved.
  • Character sprites courtesy of Philipp Lenssen.
• New spells; Mend II, Restoration I, II, III; Heroism, some spells renamed and re-runed.
• Gave all spellcasters chance to learn any rune (with preference given to class runes)
• Fixed damage.
• Weapons in the guildhall and town are now spread over three shops.
• If energy points drop to -10 or below, character cannot do anything.

v70706

• Handling for creatures with no constitution score (undead and constructs)
  • Immunity to critical hits, automatically passes fortitude saves, poison immunity
• New spells
  • Delay Poison; also handle poison immunity for various special$
  • Cure Moderate Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds
• Hurt() nows takes damage type (cold, fire, acid, burning, touch, slash, pierce, bludgeon) and applies victims resistances; returns modified value
• Handling for attribute scores of -6 or less (helpless / coma / death)
• Status bar shows effects; updates after player action (so updates during resting, for example)

v70703

• set_profession() also assigns feats for weapons and armour that are part of the equipment pack
• New monster, hooded-devil, found in dungeons
• Tweaked NPC action considerations again
• Help command now gives player info on skills, abilities, etc.
• Bandits are back in.
• Basis for a sneaking system->
  • Activated with the sneak command. It is assumed there is always enough cover/concealment about to do this.
  • Always compared to other creatures Awareness skill at a flat rate (as may be called multiple times per tick)
  • If remains hidden, allows movement past creatures which would otherwise block.
  • NPCs will sneak if default_relation for class or profession is hostile, and has reasonable sneak level.
  • Moving whilst sneaking takes longer and costs more ep.
  • Starting combat whilst sneaking should give a suprise attack.
• Ditched the whole 'combat chain' thing.
• Rest command; any keyword after "rest" will start a two-hour rest rather than 1/2 hour.
• When a uncivil creature (like an animal) attempts to harvest, they may try and eat the corpse directly.
• Added 'left' and 'right' commands; this is ostensibly for NPCs to move away from the edge of a location, but player can use it too.

v70628

• Fixed bug with set_profession() in create_char(), which made creatures not appear correctly.
• replaced preferred_terrain with a simple char/terrain encounter system
• Fixed crash issue with harvesting; also, harvested items are now automatically picked up.
• Lowered amount of money carried by everyone (assumes some spent on existing equipment etc)

v70624

• Bugfix: Embarrasing mistake in which all attacks were 'touch' attacks.
• New: Objects now have a 'material' (and hafted weapons have a 'haft material').
  • 'quality' replaced with 'hit points', which is mostly based on an item's weight
  • Weapons, shield and armour have a chance of degredation whenever they strike, parry etc.
• New: Added hills and mountains, dungeons underneath castles.
• New monster: Added spell-ogres; allowed create_char to set profession, since profession determines starting equipment for spell-ogre
  • Therefore: create_and_give() function resizes weapons, armour and shields to match character
    • Items that are too large or too small cannot be wielded or worn
  • Spells now have a category to aid NPC spell selection
• New Special Skill = Combat expertise (use 'expertise' command to chance stance)
• Change: Hard Attack is now Power Attack (use 'power' command to change stance)
• New: Terrain can cost different amounts of energy points and travel time
  • Hills and woods cost x1.5, rivers and mountains cost x2.0

v70618

• New equipment:
  • Hand-and-a-half weapons (warmace, bastard sword, maul)
  • Shields
  • Armour is now classed as either light, medium or heavy
• New commands:
  • 'switch/shift/hands' Changes between one-handed and two-handed use of hand-and-a-half weapons
• New Special Skills:
  • 'Extra weapon training' allows use of hand-and-a-half weapons in one hand without penalty
  • Light, medium and heavy armour proficiency
  • Shield proficiency
• Combat changes:
  • Characters automatically switch to ranged stance it they are using a ranged-only weapon (such as a held spell)
  • Paralysis now announced when it occurs.
• Spell changes:
  • Can 'hold the charge' for some spells (ray of frost, acid splash, scorching rays, acid arrow) if cast when not in combat, and not directed at anyone
    • When this happens, the spell is wielded as though it is a weapon, although free hands are not required. Casting another spell dissipates it.
• Shop changes:
  • Items in shop are now colour-coded (same colours also used in 'equipped' list in status bar)
  • Guild shops are now Adventurer's Supplies (light armour, maps and tools) and Armour and Shields (medium and heavy armour, shields)
• New monsters: Populated rivers with Gilled-gluppers and slime-lizards
• Misc:
  • When creating a character, can get help on the different classes ('help warlock', for example).
  • Most game content is now generated on-the-fly (either by the player or by any moving character). This has rather sped the game up.
  • Fixed grammar when describing adjacent areas.

v70614

• New feat and command: 'bless', available to divine spellcasters
  • Command uses up one 'sprig of holy basil' (which can be found in piles of rocks)
  • Blessing an orb of water turns it into an orb of holy water, a throwing weapon that hurts undead (i.e. flesh-rippers)
    • New weapon flags to allow this: 'v' (vial/splash) and 'P' (positive energy)
• Shops:
  • Shops may stock groups of item types - example includes the new Temple Supplies Cabinet which has both O_RUNESTONE and holy-only O_RESOURCE items
  • All guild shops have value of 400; towns have 800. This should give a better spread of available items
  • Game now handles multiple shops in one location (which I had to address because the game generated a tavern inside an adventurer's shop)
• Character creation fixes:
  • Now correctly improves stats based on class
  • No long applies 'immediate Special Skills' (such as bonus hit points) twice
  • Humans (including player) get a bonus Special Skill on creation
• Armour:
  • Adding chainmail, spinted armour, half-plate and full-plate armours.
  • Flags For light/medium/heavy armour.
  • Masterwork armour.
  • Armour Check Penalty calculations in (although there are no skills that use it yet)
  • Headgear will now protect head (rather than hands).
• Misc:
  • Colourfied 'score/stats' command.
  • Fixed equipment assigment when setting profession (so NPCs have their equipment again)
  • Skills and skilltypes now saved in save file

v70611

• Changes to classes:
  • Different classes have different 'caution' values, effecting attack and retreat considerations
  • Different classes have different kill types; for example Undead creatures are destroyed at 0 hit points (leaving behind Undead Ash)
• Dying creatures now bleed.
• Minor bugfixes (free hands calculation, effects clearing in delete_char() )
• Caster level is 1/2 class levels + rune power
• Fanged snappers are now young or adult (young snappers being for 1st lev chars to kill)
• Changes to create_char():
  • Now only humans get random stat increase; but NPC humans now have birth-star.
  • When creating a character, player may type in name of class to select it

v70608

• Increased cost of maps
• Guild has a random position in the northwest area
• Added town to midregion; shops have higher value than the guild, but no training areas.
• Hostile creatures can block movement in certain directions
• Corrected search/get message for coins
• Player starts with maximum hit points and better attributes.

v70604

• Reduced mp cost of spells
• Added wands and dual-wand feat.
• Masterwork weapons.
• Tweaked shops.
• Fixed crashy bug in find_relation()

v70602:

• Structures:
  • Added 'big pile of rocks' to wilderness, 'chest' to castles and 'barrel' to taverns
  • Most container structures will be filled with a random selection of stuff.
• Poor quality weapons -1 to hit; broken weapons -4 to hit.
• Healing kit available, improves chances of healing whilst resting
• Equipped items appear in status bar
• Beginning to colour messages (Red for combat messages, for example)
• 'Defeated' flag on chars to avoid possible deafeat-heal-defeat abuse. Reset daily.
• Kira ditched in favour of the option of starting with a random character.

v70531:

• AI no longer attempts to chat or greet resting characters.
• Tweaked the way AI considers actions
• Added the basis for item quality; items are good, average, poor or broken condition.
• Added spells: Mending (m), Charm Person (ae), Web (re), Sleep (wa)
• Stopped errors when typing in unknown commands
• Modified NPC descriptions slightly
• Fixed opportunity attacks; 'ready' attacks are not yet implemented.
• Withdrawing only disengages combat if an exit was found.

v70529:

• Throwing weapons are in:
  • The 'throw' or 'stance' command toggles melee / ranged stance.
    • Game will attempt to change to most appropriate stance when you wield a weapon.
  • New weapon type; thrown weapons (+)
  • New weapons; Throwing axes, javelins and darts. Spears, knifes and tridents can also be thrown.
• Shop fixes:
  • Items are now correctly removed from shops when purchased
  • Stopped crash when trying to sell something that doesn't exist.
  • Char will remove an worn/wielded item automatically before trying to sell it.
• When using 'map', chance of working out position based on survival skill
• Added 'compass' item to tool shop outside temple, which improves above ability.
• Exhausted at 1 ep (-3 strength and dexterity); Fatigued when below 1/2 ep (-1 str/dex)
• New spell: 'a' rune; "Detect Effects" on any character.

v70527:

• Class and profession both factor into initial relations (with, for example, vermin being more hostile.) As a result, there are more fights going off 'off-screen' with two drawbacks: Lag whilst doing long actions like moving location, and dead farmers everywhere from black-gobler attacks.
  
• Bugfix: AI no longer considers attacking a dead opponent.
• Bugfix: No longer crashes when attempting to move off-map.
• New command: 'Consider <target>' gives combat values for testing purposes
• New command: 'chat <target>' at the moment is just for flavour; in future will expand to allow NPC's to give interesting information.
• New command: 'teleport <id>' is just for testing perposes. It moves the player to a character <id> (where <id> is assigned during save)
• Eat and Drink are now actually the same command A_CONSUME
• Farmers no longer have two lots of equipment
• 'Help' list organizes commands into type (which I hope makes it easier to read)
• NPCs consider withdrawing from combat if under 50% hit points, or fighting a superior foe.

v70526:
Well it took me a year to think about it, and a day to do it:

• 'save' and 'quit' command do the same thing: Save your position and exit the game.
• On loading, the game will automatically load your saved position.
• The filename is 'orbsave.sav'; a backup of the last save is stored as 'orbsave.bak'

v60923:
Objects can now get lost in the terrain; search reveals (silver coin in bedroom to test this)
Character positions in room; chars are adjacent, short, medium, long.
close_distance invoked for greeting and shopping
close_distance and range checking in combat (reach weapons and magic rays, eg)
increase_distance for combat withdraw
Added attacks of opportunity for characters moving towards long-reach weapons. My gosh it seems to work!
Casting magic is no longer a free action
Fixed drop with reference to \hidden and \lost
Added some guards in the guild
Alert command; citizens call for the guards when attacked (although guards have yet to respond)
If moving closer due to out of range, will attempt to move and attack. Attacks are now either single or full attacks.

v60730:
Last version before I move house back to Doncaster!
NPCs (including Kira) are generated with skills and feats.
Auto-skill selection available.
The 'healer' profession will heal anyone who they are indifferent (or better) with, rather than friendly-or-better.
A few other minor edits.

v60727:
Added: Walls to divide map locations (in a castle, for example)
Added: Meat from harvesting animals
Eating and drinking now uses up energy points, but adds a 'digesting' effect that slowly restores energy.
Waiting no longer rapidly restores energy points; character Toughness now effects restore rate
Survival skill now used when harvesting corpses
Bugfix: Shops: Items in shops now have correct flags.
-> Haggling is now speechcraft vs speechcraft;
-> relationship remembers if haggle was successful
-> Fixed bug where shop items were generated 3 times.
-> Shopkeeper coinage now adjusted correctly when buying/selling; won't buy if not enough coins
-> Shop restocks at midnight + haggle flag reset
Bugfix: Runestones now work
Change: When adding skillpoints, a skill is made a core skill before assigning points. This means you can immediately add 4 points to a skill and it will make it a core skill.
Added: Zoning; locations now have a zone (currently with a germanic naming theme); this will be used later for crime/law.

v60717:
Bugfix: NPCs like shopkeepers and farmers can now be female (and also have a wider range of descriptors)
Bugfix: Magic rays now created properly
Bugfix: NPCs now correctly cast spells (although only the healer does this at the moment)
Bugfix: Proper item matching at shops (so you can actually buy a west map now and not end up with a northwest map)
Added: Door structures, which can be locked
Greeting is now a 'friendly action' and will attempt to make the relationship friendly
Added: Speechcraft and Savvy skills are now used for automatically haggling at stores (in a basic fashion)

v60715:
Not added much because I'm preparing to move house at the end of this month.
And I got distracted making Doom levels.
Anyway:
Added containers (e.g. the cupboard in the starting bedroom) which can be searched to reveal their contents.
Containers can be locked (i.e. store counters)
You can now look at structures to reveal how they are used (structures are immovable things like cupboards and shop counters)
Shopkeepers are now generated, carrying a key for their shop counter.
(To do: 'give' and 'take' commands so the whole shop process is broken down into an automatic, realistic step-by-step procedure)
Random names for human characters.

v60530:
Added 'magic ray' as a weapon type and set up attack routines to handle such spells.
(Also this means you can specialise in magic rays just like the other weapon types)
Spellcasters are now asked if they use Int, Wis or Per as their magic stat.
None-core skills are now blue in the skill list if the player has skill points in them.
Added a 'Whole Bunch' (tm) of spells, rearranged runes and spell mana-cost (still to be finalised)
Improved the 'look' command a bit (for example, you get a bit more info about armour and weapons)

v60521:
Worked on skill list (though skills don't do anything yet)
Changed stamina points (sp) to energy points (ep) so I don't confuse them with skill points (er, sp)
Added iterative attacks (for characters with high base attack)
Added special skills: improved dual-weapon fighting, improved dual-weapon defense, greater dual-weapon fighting, greater dual-weapon defense
Fixed crashing bug with some natural attacks
Improved victory XP to satisfactory level (though may have problem with player knocking a monster out, healing it, then killing again. Should this count for XP again?)
Hit location changes chance of causing critical hit, rather than directly modifying damage.
Rearranged some combat code; dual-weapon penalties are now correct.
Added special skill: hard attack. (action '4' in combat). More damage for a hit penalty (except with light weapons)

v60517:
Hit locations (1,2,3) now work.
New special skills: dodge, greater weapon focus, greater weapon mastery, improved critical, dual-weapon defense, bonus healing
Tidied up 'missed attack' messages and Fixed bug in which close-combat attacks always hit.
Structure for normal skills (survival, healing etc) is in, although none of them do anything at the moment.
TO DO FOR NEXT RELEASE: combat xp for defeating enemy. Differentiate 'sleep' from 'rest' to increase heal rate.
Implement basic skill useage, in particular 'heal' skill.

v60516:
Added 'bed' structure, appears in dorm and farmhouses; makes resting more efficient
Added 'run','sprint','go','walk' actions; running or sprinting gets you there faster at the expense of stamina
Added more weapons and 'basic' flag for knifes, clubs and staves (anyone can use them proficiently)
Shops are now stocked automatically.
Finetuned weapon damage whilst also making it more random
Added 'fluff' type to add descriptions to locations (e.g. rocks, trees; at some point you will be able to 'harvest' them)
Added river terrain
Expanded playing area.
Map sections now automatically scale to whatever playing area size is being used. There are now 9 map sections.
Monsters and characters now have a favoured terrain that they prefer to move into when wandering.
'harvest' now automatically delivers a coup-de-grace
fixed: characters are identified better, e.g. 'kill gobler' will now work on black-goblers
fixed: stunned monsters no longer stuck in loop
fixed: time related stuff

v60508:
Added effects: poison, stunning, resting
Black-Goblers now come in a variety of sizes; normal sized gobler should be easier for 1st level character to beat.
Black-Goblers can now poison if they hit; resisted by a characters fortitude; it can reduce the victims agility.
Added time. Most actions use up one 'tick'. Moving location uses up five ticks. Resting uses up ten ticks.
A side-bar now displays your characters details and the time of day.
Characters now have a adjective/noun description and an actual name; e.g. When you first meet Himiko, you see her has a 'wise woman' until you discover her name.
New spell: 'cast w' = create water = makes a bottle of water which can be drank to recover stamina.
New commands:
'rest'; rests for 10 ticks (do this repeatedly to recover lost hit points or attributes)
'greet'; use to learn the name of a friendly stranger.
'drink'; to drink bottles of water.

1/5/06:
Some internal restructuring for various things - input handling, spell handling and a new Type for character effects (poisons, stunning etc)
Experience for fighting starts very low in the first turn of combat, and increases until maximal in turn 5.
This way not much experience is earnt if you are immediately killed or have to run away, or if you are so powerful you kill the enemy in a few turns.
Basically not much new to see here as a player, and still not much 'game' stuff in yet, I'm afraid.

25/4/06:
Added some axes to the weapon shop, and lots of armour to the adventurers shop.
Added maps; you start off with a local map and can buy more from the shop.
'map' command will bring it up. A 'compass' item will be put in the game - when you buy it, it tracks your position on the map.
Added some more classes. I originally didn't want to add more than the original Crystal Orb classes, but, well, then it seemed appropriate to do so.
You get more experience for fighting tougher opponents; note that you get XP for fighting, not for killing.
You could level up quickly by repeatedly fighting the guild leader, getting killed, recalling and repeating.
You can now gain XP by casting spells.

24/4/06:
You can now level up. Once you reach 1000 XP, go find one of the three training areas in the guild, and use the 'train' command. If you don't already have a level in that field of training, you will be asked to select one.
Otherwise you advance in your previously chosen class.
Critical hits are in.
You gain experience points for creating hides and chitin.
Improved Initiative special skill.
Two spells, to give spellcasters something to do:
'cast a>' is a Mind Strike, which will stun weaker opponents.
'cast f>' is a Fireball, which is a fireball.

23/4/06: Character creation is a little better; You can skip it entirely and go straight into the game as Kira.
Otherwise you pick a class, name, gender, birthsign, weapon proficiencies and a special skill.
To stop it from getting too complicated, you aren't asked to generate attributes like Strength, Personality etc.
Instead these are generated automatically based on what class and birthsign you picked.
In the game, the 'stats' command will show you this.
The birthsigns are taken from folklore all around the world! I hope you find them interesting.
You can now also specify 'all' or 'everything' when using 'get', 'drop', 'wield', 'wear' etc.
You can try this out in the new starting room (your dormitory) since you wake up naked.

22/4/06: The basis for character creation is in.
On startup, you are asked what class you want to be.
Magicians and Philosophers are 'spellcasters'; they get one weapon proficiency but access to spells.
Mystics and Fools are 'experts' or jack-of-all-trades; they get two weapon proficiencies (and more skill points, when I program them in)
Adventurers and Mercenaries are 'warriors'; they get four weapon proficiencies. They will also gain 'Special Skills' faster than anyone else.
The class names, like monster names, are taken from the original Crystal Orb.
Apologies in advance for the clumsy Special Skill / Weapon Proficiency selection.
To select one from the menu, you have to type in its two-letter code or write out the whole name.
Weapon proficiencies are selected one at a time.
Other than healing, no spells have yet been put in, so don't expect spellcasters to be able to do anything.
Combat descriptions are a little more interesting still, with dodging, parrying and so forth.

You may also notice that the screen clears when you move to a new location, which will look wierd because the text stays at the bottom.
This is because I haven't worked out how to reset the text cursor in Blitz.

21/4/06: Been working on the type structure for special abilities and classes. Not much new from the players point of view, but combat
descriptions are a little more interesting. This version released so you can test for errors etc.

17/4/06: Buy and sell items at the adventurer's shop (South and Enter from start)
'list' shows what items are for sale there.

16/4/06: New command 'harvest' allows you to to create a hide from an animal corpse.
You must first create a corpse by 'killing' a dying creature, which will deliver a coup-de-grace.
Kira is temporarily starting as a level 4 fighter, so she can practice this.
XP is in, although you can't 'level up' yet.

15/4/06: Internal structure for spellcasting is now in, as demonstrated by the temple cleric. If you die and recall, she will be ready there to heal you.
Unless you attack her, of course.
Spellcasting will be rune based; F=fire, W=water, A=air, E=earth, >=other, <=self
For example, 'cast w>' will be 'heal other'. 'w' on it's on will be heal self. 'w<' will be something like 'increase willpower' or something.
'f' = light, 'f>' = fireball, 'f<' = increase strength
Then various spells for combinations like 'ea' or 'fw>' etc.

14/4/06: Rudimentary combat is now in; it should work for unarmed, single and dual weapon attacks.
If you are killed or knocked unconscious, the 'recall' command will take you back to the Temple with 1 hit point.
(I've yet to add a healer here)
Duncan will probably kill Kira in combat; but there are some 'fanged-snappers' in the wilderness to fight.

10/4/06: Added a bit of colour to different terrain types. A few castles to 'explore'.
Added some farmland and farmhouses. You can now look at objects for a brief description/weight/value.
Added encumberance levels (Statue in guildhouse added to test this.)

Although it's just text at the moment, it shouldn't be too hard to add some simple graphics later (like the other Crystal Orb games)
Possibly something like the side-view in the Speccy adventure 'Valhalla'.