Angband 4.0.0

Background

Soon before the release of 3.5.0, a community discussion had led to Nick McConnell becoming maintainer, with the intent of coordinating a major rewrite of the codebase and a mantra of "no gameplay changes until after the restructure". After a lengthy period of beta-testing, Angband 4.0.0 was released on Monday 29 June 2015.

Summary of Changes

Core-UI split

   split the game into core and UI, and stop anything in the core from depending on anything in the UI

Modifiability

   put many of the game constants in a text file rather than being compiled in, so they are user alterable
   text data files cleaned up and documented
   help file for modifying added - lib/help/modifying.txt

Dungeon generation

   allow saving of dungeon levels and the town
   allow generation of dungeon levels piece by piece
   generalise level generation algorithms
   allow more control over monster generation for thematic purposes
   allow regions where restrictions apply (eg no ESP or no mapping)
   there is a 'squares' array containing the terrain, locality info, traps, objects, flow info and monster on each grid

Player knowledge

   duplicate the dungeon level "cave" struct, so that there is a reality version and a player version

Objects

   replace pvals (aside from fuel, food etc) by an array of values
   separate resistances, immunities etc from flags to allow for more values of resistance
   separate brands and slays from flags to allow more variability
   remove hard-coding of object tvals and svals, so objects can be safely added and moved around in object.txt
   handle special artifacts straight from artifact.txt, so an unrecognised object kind (like Phial) automatically has a new object kind defined for it
   put artifact activations in a text file
   put objects in linked lists tied to the grid, store, monster or player that holds them, rather than indexed in a level-wide list

Inventory, quiver, equipment

   make ordering of the inventory and quiver a UI construct only
   use a Poschengband-style equipment template to specify equipment slots (so there is a standard player body, but more could be added)

Monster memory

   make this a separate file, with full memory obtainable by copying monster.txt

Terrain/traps

   multiple gameplay-identical terrain types now handled by temporary flags during generation
   a full terrain flag system to allow easier addition/removal of terrain types
   make traps separate entities, not terrain
   make locked/jammed doors just closed doors with a trap
   remove code reliance on the numerical value of terrain types

Squelch->Ignoring

   remove all references to 'squelch', replace with 'ignore'
   add ignore by ego type
   emphasise the philosophy that the items are still there, just ignored

ID

   have a separate field for every learnable property of an item
   remove the IDENT_* flags

Effects

   have all effects performed by a single function, and definable from text files

Monster attacks

   put elemental spell effects back in the projection code rather than the spellcasting code
   put blow effects into separate handler functions

Player spells

   generalise to make it easier to introduce new realms, classes, etc
   have all spell info defined by a text data file

Projection

   have separate functions to handle effects on terrain, objects, player, monsters
   clarify different types of projection
   allow for cone-shaped breaths
   allow for a wider variety of effects (eg player/monsters pushed by force)

Stats, power, etc

   refine and generalise stats where possible
   attempt to clarify all the (frankly) fudge factors so they can more easily be seen and adjusted

General code stuff

   rename files to be more sensible, or create new ones where needed
   update debug commands to reflect the current game
   move data into list-*.h files or edit files where appropriate
   remove archaic stuff
   document!