LGDB - Linux game database

If all things had run so well as I planned some weeks ago, there would already a 1.5.4 version of LambdaRogue, finalizing the current 1.5 branch of the game and freeing the way to 1.6. So where are we now and what are the reasons?

• I got a Mac. This, basically, was the moment where development of 1.5.4 stopped, because all time spent on LambdaRogue went into trying to get it compile and link using the Mac version of Lazarus/FreePascal. Compiling went well, but linking is a bit trickier and I have still not figured out how to do this.
• I will have a talk about roguelikes and esp. communication in the roguelike community during the F.R.O.G. gaming conference in Vienna, in September 2010. This requires some time for preparation.
• Several other reasons in private life and job.

So when can we expect LambdaRogue 1.5.4 with all it's nice improvements? Honestly ... I don't know. Perhaps I will stop my Mac efforts for now and get the Windows and Linux versions ready. Perhaps I'll try to offer a Mac version via WineBottler, which uses Wine to run the Windows binaries. WineBottler has the advantage that it bundles Wine and the actual program in one App, so users don't need to care about that Wine stuff. This is basically the way most Mac versions of commercial games are made, although there it's called Cider.

Hopefully it will be soon. Then the next question is: Am I able to get a 1.6 update out during the roguelike release party?

I will have a Mac soon, and I bought it mainly to be able to provide a Mac version of LambdaRogue, too (and because I always wanted to have one besides my Windows and my Linux computers). So, patch 1.5.4 will be available for all 3 major systems.

I want to share with you a player critique I got this night, as comment on an earlier blog entry. As this entry is very old, the critique might be overseen by others, and because I want to be as open as possible, I re-post the critique here (formatted bold) with my comments (in italics). Most of it, however, is already known and being worked on.

Doban wrote:

Graphics - the netbook mode doesn't work on my netbook since the window doesnt fit in my screen - you forget that you have title bars etc. even if I remove toolbars and hide the taskbar, still doesnt quite fit, and you dont allow window resizing.

This is a good point he mentions. The Netbook mode has been written and tested on my Netbook, in 2009 when it still ran Windows XP. The screen could display 1024x600 pixels, but the display driver for the Intel GMA could handle 1024x768 in fullscreen, so you could simply scroll with the mouse up and down. The Netbook mode was optimized for these fullscreen conditions. When I switched to Windows 7, I noticed that the scrolling was not possible anymore, so the Netbook mode is something that has to be rewritten anyway.

Inventory - the inventory limit is such a pain that I'm giving up. I got a dungeon key early on that I dont need yet, then some scraps of paper which I have no idea if I'll ever need or not (totally unfair to the player to give him that unless he has unlimited storage and can store the junk until he knows if its junk or a quest item), the I need food, cola, bow, arrows, sword (for when arrows run out), another key i'm unlikely to need for 10 levels etc. So I go into the dungeon, i only have 2 spare slots.

It was always my intention that the inventory is very limited, because players need to decide what to keep and what not to keep. The only thing unfair on the inventory itself so far is that equipped items are not stored in separate slots -- and this will be changed in 1.5.4 patch, as revealed some days ago.

So in 2 minutes I find 2 items of loot to sell, run out of space, and have go back up to trader via endless shoot-direction shoot-direction keypresses, sell, then back down again, find 2 more items, back up. This gets boring very quickly.

And arrows - having to stand and talk to the trader 25 times (even if you rest in between) to stock up on arrows and cola enough for a dungeon clearing session is such a boring pain. Either that, or the boring up-down-up-down every 3 minutes. 

1. You don't have to kill every monster. Especially the beginning of the game (of which you seem to talk) has rather few monsters which you can easily avoid.

2. You don't need to pick up everything. You need to find out what is worthy to keep for yourself, what is valuable enough to keep for selling and what to ignore. You don't need Cola, for example, if you're playing a character who doesn't use magic. If you ARE playing a magic character, you regain PP for example by sitting on a stool. There's also no need to keep different food items at the same time. Eat food once you have it and use only one slot for food. If you have meat and bread, you can even combine both to a sandwich, saving 1 slot.

3. Traders are not only in the 1st dungeon level, but also in 5, 10 and 15. It is already known that they should have at least a guaranteed supply of the most basic items (such as arrows, in your case). Being worked on, too. There will also be the possibility to create ammunition by combining raw materials.

4. Pressing shoot, then entering direction is perhaps not that conveniant as i.e. DoomRL does ranged battle (with target selecting), but I'm intentionally restricting shooting to the 8 directions. As you can't bump to shoot, two keypresses are needed. An alternative coming into mind is perhaps using a "long-range" mode, where every direction press automatically shoots, instead of moving. But then you had to change the mode everytime you want to move.

Overall, while most of Doban's points are correct and known, and many of them solved in 1.5.4. Even currently you can win the game (rather easily, in fact), once you become aware of the fact that getting loot and selling stuff is not as necessary as it may seem. The whole game mechanics are focused on resource management -- not on building up the richest or most powerful character you can get.

Hopefully within the next 7 days, I will release the final patch for the 1.5 branch. This patch will do the following:

• fix most of the bugs reported by several players in the last weeks
• improved late-midgame and endgame balancing
• improve the inventory: equipped items won't take up space in your inventory anymore, so you have up to 6 additional inventory slots for other items
• improve the interface of inventory, songbook and shops:
• screens are not closed automatically after an action anymore
• the inventory now displays equipped item on a ragdoll
• you can open your inventory from shops, to sell items without leaving the shop

Finally, it will add a new tactical element, and a surprise, preparing the enhancements I'm planning for version 1.6, which is to be released in September 2010, during the Annual Roguelike Release Party.

Paul "Krice" Pekkarinen has finally released Teemu 1.1. I have just played two rounds, died rather fast in both, but I'll continue to play, 'cause it was fun. With the new big font it's much better to read than Teemu 1.0. So download your copy from Teemu website.

I just wrote a very long, very well thought text about the first confirmed player victory ever, how motivating this is for a roguelike developer, and what knowledge I gained from this regarding endgame balancing. I pointed out several aspects. Then I accidently pressed a mouse button that made my browser (Chrome) go back to the previous page -- and to delete my whole text. :-(

Now I want at least to share the player's character dump, because it's a historic document.

Kachuchu, male, believer in Aphrodite

LambdaRogue version: 1.5.3

Kachuchu was the child of an archer and his creative concubine.

Kachuchu's eyes were silver and the dense hair was black.

HP: 1008/1008

PP: 81/82

Strength   : 100%/100%

Divine Rage: 32%/100%

Kachuchu has retired after a successful life on dungeon level 1 (the Temple of Enoa).

Date: 181-15-1725

Kachuchu was active for 50227 turns.

In this time, Kachuchu achieved a score of 10470 points.

Abilities

  Fight       : 42

  View        : 1

  Chant       : 2

  Move        : 6

  Steal       : 1

Skills

  Sword       : 3

  Axe         : 27

  Lance       : 4

  Fire-arm    : 3

  Tool        : 2

Talents

  Humility    : 1

  Trade       : 3

Melee/Long-range/Defense: 73/44/38

Experience    : 77233

Character Lvl.: 17

Profession: Soldier

- Centurio

Kachuchu has solved 19 quest(s).

Solved quests:

    Ahna asked you to bring her Yron's Book of Stars

    Shara is interested in old clothes and armour

    Marcus wants you to deter Thanan from opening a dark portal

    The bowyer Kandera wants you to hunt 12 holetoads

    Adam asked you to hunt 20 antbees to make travelling safer

    Lassa, the niece of Arwyn and daughter of Ragnar, has disappeared

    The postman asked you to deliver an important letter to Arwyn Kana

    Ct. Clavius offered you to judge R. Gardner, the murderer of Aneas

    Destroy the monster's hive in the Catacombs of Enoa

    Chan will combine the four Minor Books of Yron to the Book of Stars

    Princeps Ania ordered you to kill the mad weapon smith

    Nina yearns for a letter by Daniel who is working in the Caves

    Ragnar asked you to talk with Prof. Zimmerman about Lassa

    Lassa went to the Old Maze to search for an old crystal

    For writing to his wife Nina, Daniel needs some sheets of paper

    Dr. Maier offers a new drug in exchange for 15 dead flickers

    Rinahn wants you to take care of the insulting Krice

    Narmathal wishes that you find and kill Dwarvenfall

    The sword "Northdoom" is protected by a Drekh'Nar Ordinator

Although Kachuchu prayed 322 and saved 1 time(s), Kachuchu is dead.

Inventory:

----------

Credits: 21

Bronze Cuirass x1 [worn]

Insurance Card x1

Meteor x1

Vitari x10

Meat x10

Eris' Key x1

Crystal of "Revenge" x1

Great Helm of Thagor x1 [worn]

Penicillin x71

Phiol of Eternity x1

Fish x1

Ring of Agility x1 [wielded]

Heavy Army Boots x1 [worn]

Red Ring x1 [worn]

Waraxe x1 [wielded]

Monsters killed:

----------------

360 caveworm(s)

1 Thanan(s)

16 holetoad(s)

9 scorpio(s)

49 hellrat(s)

1 Weapon Smith(s)

221 sick rat(s)

219 preacher(s)

202 cavebat(s)

50 slowworm(s)

70 antbee(s)

297 mindhunter(s)

79 lost priestess(s)

775 snake(s)

85 dark preacher(s)

56 sandman(s)

2 Dwarvenfall(s)

226 ghost(s)

237 nightmare(s)

237 worm mother(s)

1 Lonely Librarian(s)

1 Canthra(s)

1 Eris(s)

1 Sleeper(s)

240 watchdog(s)

38 lavabee(s)

292 flicker(s)

35 evocator(s)

18 undead(s)

109 medusa(s)

1 Krice(s)

61 juno(s)

1 Ronda Gardner(s)

6 icewolf(s)

1 Ordinator(s)

1 rat king(s)

Last Messages:

--------------

Aphrodite sends her love to you, Kachuchu!

Tip: Try sacrificing items at altars.

You drink the Meteor.

Achievements:

-------------

3-14-1715 (turn 0): Begins a new journey.

11-14-1715 (turn 8): Accepted a quest by Shara.

24-14-1715 (turn 21): Accepted a quest by Ahna.

42-14-1715 (turn 39): Accepted a quest by Kandera.

49-14-1715 (turn 46): Accepted a quest by the Postman.

204-14-1715 (turn 201): Solved the Postman's quest.

20-15-1715 (turn 266): Accepted a quest by Adam.

55-15-1715 (turn 301): Solved Arwyn Kana's quest.

166-15-1715 (turn 412): Enters the Catacombs of Enoa.

214-15-1715 (turn 460): Accepted a quest by Augustus.

72-16-1715 (turn 567): Gained a character level (Now: 2)

169-16-1715 (turn 664): Accepted a quest by Ct. Clavius.

151-17-1715 (turn 895): Wiped out an entire level.

116-18-1715 (turn 1109): Gained a character level (Now: 3)

3-19-1715 (turn 1245): Defeated Ronda Gardner.

88-19-1715 (turn 1330): Solved Augustus's quest.

147-19-1715 (turn 1389): Solved Ct. Clavius's quest.

177-19-1715 (turn 1419): Enters the Sewers of Enoa.

37-20-1715 (turn 1528): Gained a character level (Now: 4)

94-20-1715 (turn 1585): Accepted a quest by Chan.

101-20-1715 (turn 1592): Accepted a quest by Tamara and Samuel.

51-3-1716 (turn 2289): Accepted a quest by Marcus.

174-6-1716 (turn 3159): Enters the Old Mine.

154-7-1716 (turn 3388): Gained a character level (Now: 5)

108-10-1716 (turn 4089): Solved Adam's quest.

166-10-1716 (turn 4147): Solved Kandera's quest.

155-12-1716 (turn 4634): Defeated rat king.

90-14-1716 (turn 5067): Enters the Lost Outpost.

147-14-1716 (turn 5124): Accepted a quest by Princeps Ania.

151-14-1716 (turn 5128): Accepted a quest by Nina.

207-14-1716 (turn 5184): Gained a character level (Now: 6)

222-15-1716 (turn 5448): Solved Ragnar Kana's quest.

245-16-1716 (turn 5720): Accepted a quest by Prof. Leo Zimmerman.

57-18-1716 (turn 6030): Defeated Weapon Smith.

74-18-1716 (turn 6047): Solved Princeps Ania's quest.

74-18-1716 (turn 6047): Promoted to the rank "Centurio".

132-19-1716 (turn 6354): Gained a character level (Now: 7)

156-20-1716 (turn 6627): Enters the Inner Dungeon.

37-1-1717 (turn 6757): Accepted a quest by Grenouille.

79-11-1717 (turn 9289): Gained a character level (Now: 8)

170-1-1718 (turn 11870): Gained a character level (Now: 9)

239-2-1718 (turn 12188): Wiped out an entire level.

245-4-1718 (turn 12692): Enters the Outer Dungeon.

9-5-1718 (turn 12705): Enters the Caves, level 1.

13-5-1718 (turn 12709): Accepted a quest by Daniel.

153-5-1718 (turn 12849): Accepted a quest by Marco.

62-6-1718 (turn 13007): Enters the Caves, level 2.

232-6-1718 (turn 13177): Solved Daniel's quest.

167-9-1718 (turn 13859): Solved Nina's quest.

119-11-1718 (turn 14309): Defeated Lonely Librarian.

92-14-1718 (turn 15029): Accepted a quest by Pythia.

4-17-1718 (turn 15688): Defeated Canthra.

4-17-1718 (turn 15688): Gained a character level (Now: 10)

198-17-1718 (turn 15882): Accepted a quest by Dr. Franz Maier.

45-2-1719 (turn 16974): Solved Shara's quest.

129-6-1719 (turn 18054): Wiped out an entire level.

82-7-1719 (turn 18256): Enters the Caves, level 3.

157-7-1719 (turn 18331): Enters the Caves, level 4.

96-9-1719 (turn 18768): Solved Dr. Franz Maier's quest.

51-11-1719 (turn 19221): Gained a character level (Now: 11)

204-20-1719 (turn 21615): Gained a character level (Now: 12)

74-7-1720 (turn 23228): Gained a character level (Now: 13)

193-9-1720 (turn 23845): Enters the Old Maze, level 1.

164-10-1720 (turn 24065): Enters the Old Maze, level 2.

144-14-1720 (turn 25041): Solved Prof. Leo Zimmerman's quest.

241-15-1720 (turn 25387): Enters the Ice Ruins of Noldarur.

102-16-1720 (turn 25497): Accepted a quest by the Guard of Time.

197-17-1720 (turn 25841): Defeated Ordinator.

20-18-1720 (turn 25913): Solved the Guard of Time's quest.

185-8-1721 (turn 28568): Enters the Ash Caves, level 1.

7-9-1721 (turn 28639): Enters the Ash Caves, level 2.

146-10-1721 (turn 29027): Gained a character level (Now: 14)

54-12-1721 (turn 29433): Defeated Sleeper.

37-14-1721 (turn 29914): Enters the New Maze, level 1.

18-18-1721 (turn 30891): Enters the New Maze, level 2.

54-18-1721 (turn 30927): Enters Krice's hideout.

56-18-1721 (turn 30929): Accepted a quest by Rinahn.

213-18-1721 (turn 31086): Defeated Krice.

65-19-1721 (turn 31187): Solved Rinahn's quest.

62-3-1722 (turn 32180): Enters the Dark Temple.

244-5-1722 (turn 32860): Accepted a quest by Narmathal.

228-7-1722 (turn 33342): Gained a character level (Now: 15)

128-8-1723 (turn 38471): Gained a character level (Now: 16)

235-2-1724 (turn 42064): Gained a character level (Now: 17)

33-7-1724 (turn 43107): Solved Narmathal's quest.

235-14-1724 (turn 45052): Solved Chan's quest.

204-15-1724 (turn 45270): Solved Ahna's quest.

56-16-1724 (turn 45371): Defeated Thanan.

179-16-1724 (turn 45494): Solved Marcus's quest.

123-4-1725 (turn 47430): Defeated Dwarvenfall.

100-5-1725 (turn 47656): Enters the Halls of Eris.

134-10-1725 (turn 48935): Defeated Eris.

181-15-1725 (turn 50227): Used "Meteor" potion. Created a way to the surface of Earth.

181-15-1725 (turn 50227): Completed the journey successfully.

Besides some other issues and bugs, there have been 3 quests which did not give the proper reward to the player, due to a bug in quests.txt.

I have uploaded a fixed quests.txt to Google Code. Download the file and put it into your "data" folder, overwriting the existing file. This file is for version 1.5.2 and 1.5.3.

During the last year, I managed to keep to a rather clear scheme considering the versions of LR: The Book of Stars. Here's how it works:

Branch.Major.Minor.Fix such as 1.5.3a

Branch is currently 1. And it will stay 1 forever, unless my plan from 2008 to create a completely object-oriented re-write from scratch will succeed (and I don't think that this will ever happen). Thus, Branch is basically without any significance at the moment.

Major is currently 5. This value is increased every time when new content is added to the game. By content I mean big questlines (such as the Interludes), new dungeons or dungeon levels (such as the Forgotten Realm), etc. Currently, I plan to have a 1.6 release ready for the roguelike release party someday in September 2010.

Minor is currently 3. This value is increased every time when smaller features are added (such as the defensive/offensive switch, or the nice, but gameplay-wise meaningless character portraits in 1.5.3), when a decent number of bugs get fixed or when balancing changes are made.

Fix is currently undefined. This alphabetic value is increased beginning from a to z, when a hotfix is released that is necessary to play the game. Usually, I try to avoid such situations, of course, but sometimes I'm to confused, or tired, or otherwise absent, that this gets necessary (for example, when I forget to remove the cheat keys in the game, or an important text file, or when a CTD would occur really often). The latest version with a fix was 1.5.1a.

I have just released patch 1.5.3, with some cool additions (both in terms of gameplay and eye-candy) and the usual bug fixes and balancing adjustments.

Read the official announcement with main features and install instructions here.

Later this day/night/whatever or tomorrow, patch 1.5.3 will be released. I implemented all missing character portraits, played several characters up to the midgame. All new features seem to work as intended and none of the existing features seems broken.

Now I'll apply the patch to a working 1.5.2 installation, to continue a saved 1.5.2 game with the new patch. We'll see what this may reveal. In general, however, I'm very content with the development the game has taken in the recent and the new patch(es). :-)

Here's another screenshot, showing the status tooltip (the mouse cursor hovering the status area is invisible in the screenshot), as well as a new door type, iron gates.

Click here for full view.

In the 17 days after the release of patch 1.5.2, I continously worked on the next update, 1.5.3. In addition to the already mentioned features (defensive/offensive mode, new item throwing/combining effects, character portraits, player graphics fitting to selected profession and sex, and better-looking FoV), I added a small interface enhancement in graphical mode: tooltips for the quickbar and the status area.

• Hover your mouse over the quickbar icons and see the types and effects of the assigned items or spells. You can also leftlick on an icon to use the assigned item or cast the spell.
• Hover your mouse over the status area and get more details on your character's status. Leftclick on the area to open the detailed status window.

I hope I'm able to release patch 1.5.3 within the next two weeks. I'll add some additional texts for enhancing the story/background of the game. These texts will be proofread by getter77. In the meantime, I'll implement all remaining character portraits, which is not complicated, but very tedious.

For those of you who like to have a boxed version of a roguelike ... well, either write me a postcard to get one (see the imprint on the home page or the in-game help files), or download, print and cut this nice DVD cover:

Download via Google Code (PDF, 18 MB)

In 2009, Felix Stark interviewed me for theasciidungeon.net , a roguelike blog with reviews etc. he had at this time and which was rather promising. Unfortunately, the site seems to be offline now, I can only access a Google cache from that site. The interview got never published, too. So I decided to use it for a blog entry, it might be interesting for some of you. Here we go (I changed some of my answers for this blog entry, to show the current state of development.)

1. Before you started LambdaRogue, why did you want to make a Roguelike?

When I was younger, I had an old home computer, built in former Eastern Germany. It was called KC85/3. I used to create applications and games for the KC for many years, written in BASIC, but as nearly nobody uses or owns such computers anymore (they disappeared as soon as the western C64 came to former GDR), this was only for my own enjoyment.

However, I think it was 1993 or 1994 when I created my first textbased RPG with a random map. It was no roguelike; the rooms were described using generic texts, like in interactive fiction, with an added generic (graphical) view from the player's perspective. It contained some treasure and some monsters.

When I got a real PC some years later, I started several attempts for creating an RPG again. None of them were finished. Then, in 2004, I found a strange, but nice-looking game called "Falcon's Eye" on the Linux distribution which I just played around with. I soon recognized that it was a Nethack interface, and this made me aware of roguelikes.

In 2005 I tried to create a graphical roguelike called "Avadan"; it was supposed to put the player in a space ship, flying from planet to planet, and every planet had a dungeon to explore. This game was programmed in Gambas, this "Visual Basic"-like programming environment for Linux.

Avadan never worked out, but roguelikes had catched me. In 2006 I wanted to learn C++ for Linux. I thought getting an @ walking on a screen would be a nice task. I actually managed this, but I soon decided that C++ is too complicated for me. I then found FreePascal, and with my Gambas knowledge on SDL programming I ported the "walking @" demo to FreePascal. This was in summer 2006, and with that evening (I even remember how the situation looked like) the project "fprl" was born (which simply means "FreePascal RogueLike", and LambdaRogue's main source file is still called fprl.pp.

2.What did you intend to accomplish when you started work on Lambdarogue? What was your final goal?

Goals changed. As I said, the first goal was to get the @ walking. Then I just wanted to create a roguelike and to share it with other roguelike fans. However, my old RPG ambitions were still alive -- I also wanted to create a roguelike to have a random world in which the stories I wanted to tell could take place. In the beginning, however, that story was very diffuse, the random generator was not good, the interface was clumsy and the game had neither FOV nor LOS. Basically, LambdaRogue was very alpha for 2 years. It got a great development push in 2008, though.

3. How close do you think you are to completing LambdaRogue?

Well. We are already in the 1.x branch, so I could stop development any time, because the basics are finished and work as intended. However, I like to add new stuff, so I think it will never be finished, really.

4. Recently you added status and hotkey displays to LR similar to an MMORPG, which seems to have received a mostly positive response. What made you make this change?

I don't know if it really received positive response -- I only know from 2 or 3 players that they like it, but much more people downloaded the game. So might be many who even hate it -- I don't know. :-)

However, I think MMORPGs often have very efficient and beautiful interfaces. Despite the fact that I like the look of colorful icons depicting magic etc., quickbars are simply easy. What could be an easier way of casting a spell or consuming an item than pressing one of the function keys?

5. LambdaRogue differs from most roguelikes in that it offers a complex and dynamic storyline, as well as many optional quests. Why did you decide on taking the game in this direction as opposed to the traditional RL style of having a single goal?

As I said: I wanted to tell a story, always, and I must admit that random maps are just a way to have a world without the need of creating every area from scratch. However, random maps are difficult, too. It took me until autumn 2008 until the random map generator was at least somewhat usable. The dungeons are still too less interactive and I'm working on it.

I understand, however, that some players don't care about the story and the texts. For these player esp. the beginning in the Temple with the need to actually accept the main quest, instead of directly being put in the dungeons might be annoying; it's rather unusual for roguelikes. So I added the possibility to skip the prologue in 1.5.1 patch.

6. What features would you, as a developer, like to see implemented in future roguelikes?

I like stories, so story-related roguelikes would be great for me. That's why I like Legerdemain. That game even has a printed cluebook you can order and that tells a well-written story.

Then I'd like to see easier interfaces -- and some games move in this direction: for example the menu that appears when you press Enter in recent Angband versions; it helps me a lot, 'cause I don't need to memorize the keys anymore.

Finally, I just wait for "the" next major roguelike, besides Nethack, Angband, Adom and Crawl/DCSS. Sometimes its a pity that most new roguelikes are either 7DRLs (or similar in scope), or become abandoned very soon. Besides Legerdemain, I hope for an Incursion update. JADE might be interesting, too.

7. Do you have any plans for future projects after LR, or side projects during it's continued production?

From time to time, I'd like to develop a turn based space strategy game (I had 2 attempts for this, already, both went rather far, but I don't get the AI right). But the spare time I have for programming, will always go into LambdaRogue, first.

Here are two screenshots, showing some new stuff in the next patch:

click here for original size 

As you can see, the character graphics on the dungeon map is now shown according to the selected profession and sex, i.e. usually the same guys/girls you can already see in the character portrait in the upper left corner, and the pictures in the status screen. Finally, your female enchanter won't look like a generic unisex soldier anymore (though, this is only true in big tile mode; small tiles keep the current character graphics).

click here for original size

Now, this is something I always, ever wanted to have in my games: portraits of NPC characters, which is, however, lots of work. Anyway, I've made some good progress. As you can see, I still use stock photos which I slightly alter with Photoshop. Selecting the proper photos takes the most part of the time, as the pictures have to fulfill certain requirements, especially fit to my imagination. Thankfully there are many talented stock artists over there at DeviantART, such as Marcus Ranum, who made the photo which I use to depict Ahna, the priestess of the Temple of Enoa (and patch 1.5.3 uses _lots_ of photos by him, thankfully Mr. Ranum allowed me to do this).

I'm rather happy that the 1.5.x branch of LR: The Book of Stars has reached 1.500 downloads today (Windows downloads, Linux downloads + Source, excluding patches). Although the number itself seems not very high, and although that number does not tell anything about people actually keeping and playing the game (here the number of downloaded patches is more interesting: 75 for 1.5.1, and 150 for 1.5.2) and , the number is still motivating: It's the highest number of downloads I achieved so far -- nearly 3 times as high as 1.4 and 1.3 branch.

Besides this, I'm ill since the Easter holidays, a cold, with some fever and such stuff. Still not really over. :/

It's very very early in the morning and patch 1.5.2 for LambdaRogue: The Book of Stars has been released.

The new version introduces ways of interaction to the game that have long been missed, namely item combining, and throwing. Additionally, balancing has been worked on again, to fill some, well, "difficulty gaps" in the mid-game.

To combine one item with another, simply drop both items at the same dungeon tile. The dropping order is irrelevant. Currently, there exist about 25 possible combinations, many of them involving usual comestibles. Future updates will bring additional variations. If items can't be combined, you'll receive the message that there is no space on the dungeon tile, as in previous releases.

To throw an item at a creature, press the newly introduced Throw-button, which is [T] by default. Then select an item and enter a direction. You can throw as far as your field of view goes. If your item hits a creature, the item falls to the ground. If your item hits a solid wall, it will be destroyed, so -- throw tactically. The inflicted damage depends on your strength, the type of item, possible long-range bonuses your equipment might have, and a little bit luck.

Existing save games of the 1.5 branch (1.5, 1.5.1 and 1.5.1a) are compatible with the new release. You can continue your current game and make use of the new possibilities. However, some items have slightly modified properties.

This patch is available both for Windows and Linux. 

• download patch 1.5.2 for Windows
• download patch 1.5.2 for i386 Linux

:-) 

As a player of LambdaRogue: The Book of Stars, you may have recognized the appearance of ghosts of your earlier characters, when examing crypts for treasure. But did you know that you can share your own ghosts with other players and import ghosts of others into your game? Actually, this is possible since 2007.

Ghosts are saved in bones.txt which is stored in the data-folder of your LambdaRogue-directory. You can give this file to another player and that player can merge it with its own bones.txt.

Although this could be done manually by opening both bones.txt in an editor and simply append the there exists a convenient option that can be called using the startup script (startlr.bat on Windows and startlr on Linux). Here's the trick:

1. Copy the bones.txt you got from another player into your LambdaRogue directory.
   
2. Open a console / terminal window and change to your LambdaRogue directory (using cd command).
3. On Windows, type startlr -merge-bones peter.txt to merge your current bones file with (e.g.) peter.txt. On Linux, type ./startlr --merge-bones peter.txt to do the same.
   

The startup script provides some other options, too. Here are some examples (here shown for Windows; on Linux all options begin with two dashes).

• type startlr -del-bones to delete your current bones file.
• type startlr -import-bones anne.txt to replace your current bones file with anne.txt
• type startlr -export-bones anne.txt to export your currents bone file to anne.txt

There exist also two options for managing character dumps:

• type startlr -show-dump Gandalf to show the character dump of  Gandalf (which is stored in "saves" folder automatically when created)
• type startlr -export-dump Gandalf peter.txt to export chardump of Gandalf to peter.txt

Of course, you could perform all these actions manually, but as these options exist since three years, I wanted to point them out once again. :)

You can upload your bones.txt to the LambdaRogue Forum (Google Group). There you can also post your character dumps to share it with other players.

Finally, and for the first time in these nearly four, long years of development, I've managed to finish at least a small user's guide, covering at least the basics of playing LambdaRogue: The Book of Stars. Hopefully this will help someone to get into the game without big problems.

Read the guide at http://lambdarogue.net/guide.html :)

As you might notice (if not, refresh the site), I have updated this website a bit, to give visitors more information about LambdaRogue: The Book of Stars -- what it actually is.

I also chose to use Alex M's suggestion for a possible new game name ("Per Libris Ad Astra") as some kind of slogan that enhances the actual name, which will stay "LambdaRogue: The Book of Stars".

The Explore section of this website has some information about certain interesting (special) places in the game's world. I think it's worth a read.

In the following days, I will also add a user manual and a FAQ to the site.