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 This is used in the savefile routines to check for out-of-date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