Changelog

                        SpliceHack -- Changelog

                    Version 0.6.0 - Diversity and Danger

Tiles
- SpliceHack is now 100% tiles-compatible, and tested as such! Rejoice!

Nonbinary Characters
- Characters can now be nonbinary! For now, this is largely cosmetic, as the
  game treats them like female characters. This will change in the future once
  there is feedback on what differences should exist.
- As a side-effect, many roles are renamed for nonbinary characters, such as
  "Caveperson" and "Magister."

Patches Introduced
- SLASH'EM techniques have been implemented.
- Updated XNetHack object materials patch.
- Livelogging of players killing their own pet (XNetHack).
- SGrunt's intelligent pets patch has been implemented and updated for 3.6.
  - This means that casting monster spells when polymorphed is possible.
  - Monsters will use ranged weapons, attacks, and spells to attack one another.

Balance Changes
- Scroll writing costs have been adjusted in order to cut down on abuse of
  scrolls of knowledge and time. Previous strategies with a magic marker
  involved writing a half-dozen scrolls of knowledge, identifying everything
  one would need for the rest of the game, and then writing a ton of time
  scrolls to breeze through Astral. Scrolls of time are as expensive to write
  as genocide, while scrolls of knowledge cannot be written at all.
- Ported FIQHack's XP Curve, which mean leveling up happens more often in the
  endgame.
- Monster application of figurines now functions more similarly to how the
  player applies figurines, meaning that the monsters generated are not always
  aggressive.
- Helms of Opaque Thoughts now block mind flayer attacks to the head.
- Rings of Memory prevent forgetting spells over time.
- Will-o'-wisps nerfed again.
- Gnolls use '9' instead of 'G' to avoid minesflayer-like incidents.
- Barghests have a luck-stealing gaze.
- Amalgamations and Bad Clones much less common.
- Ancient Brain is now more useful to eat.
- Spectres only generate when the player is level 15 or above now.
- Reflective monsters do not chug potions of reflection.
- Hurtling into a wall no longer paralyzes you for the duration of your would-be
  hurtle. This prevents wind monsters from being able to stunlock enemies
  against walls.

Role and Race Changes
- Cartomancers play completely differently now. They can identify the rarity of
  various cards, and when they play a card in range of the monster that monster
  has a chance to respond with a card of their own. Cartomancers also have
  access to several new techniques. Hopefully, all of this should combine to
  make them a more interesting role to play.
- Dragonmasters have access to completely new techniques. Their quest has been
  modified, with the nemesis actually riding the dragon. They also actually have
  a decent selection of skills now.
- Master Kaen can block the pummel technique of a monk.
- Merfolk are a much stronger race than before, since they get access to one of
  the most powerful techniques in the game. As a tradeoff, levels often generate
  with rivers in them.
- The role selection for infernals and merfolk has changed.
- The lycanthrope race functions very similarly to SLASH'EM's werewolf race now.

Dungeon Changes
- Gehennom is now extremely compact, and the second fake wizard's tower has
  been removed.
- The main branch of the dungeon is ten levels longer, and you can encounter a
  big room up to three times.
- The first level of Vlad's tower includes a massive courtyard and is guarded by
  Alucard.
- The void has been reinstated and completely reworked. It still contains a void
  dragon and dangerous monsters, but now holds portals to many different points
  across the dungeon. You cannot use this in order to bypass the ascension run,
  so don't even think about it.

New Monsters
- Ported shambling horrors from Unnethack. Given the numerous damage types in
  SpliceHack, they can end up being absolutely ridiculous.
- Various Fantastical Plants (characterized by high magic resistance, low speed,
  and vulnerability to drain):
  - Walking Oak
  - Walking Birch
  - Walking Willow
  - Creeping Kudzu
  - Giant Sundew
  - Wander Cactus
  - Crazy Cactus
- Lots of Bears:
  - Bear
  - Drop Bear
  - Hellbear
  - Werebear
- Ported a large number of monsters from SLASH'EM:
  - Assassin Bug
  - Spitting Beetle
  - Glowing Eye
  - Bloodshot Eye
  - Blinking Eye
  - Deep One
  - Deeper One
  - Deepest One
  - Acid Worm
  - Ogre Mage
  - Wax Golem
  - Quickling
  - Genetic Engineer
  - Hellbat
  - Hellrat
  - Hellcat
- Ported some monsters from the biodiversity patch:
  - Umbral Hulk
  - Hunger Hulk
  - Nosferatu
- Many all-new miscellaneous monsters
  - Yuki-Onna
  - Substance Warper
  - Alucard
  - Anubite
  - Mad Alchemist
  - Herald Archon
  - Avenger Archon
  - Brood Wasp
  - Baby Brood Wasp
  - Korrupt Kop
  - Boar
  - Brown Mold Warrior
  - Yellow Mold Warrior
  - Green Mold Warrior
  - Red Mold Warrior
  - Nonbinary player monsters (various)

New Objects
- Aligned scrolls have been replaced with scrolls of air, warp weapon, and warp
  material, all of which are infinitely more interesting and more useful.
- Medical Kits and associated items from SLASH'EM. Pills cannot grant wishes, so
  don't even think about it.
- Potions of blood and vampire blood from SLASH'EM. Non-vampires can chuck blood
  at you, if they somehow manage to get ahold of it.

Miscellaneous Changes
- Powerful unique monsters now get fullscreen entrance messages.
- Refactored demon glyph colors so they are easier to tell apart.
- Additional tips, t-shirts, epitaphs, and the like.
- Monsters use many more items, such as potions of blood, booze, and expensive
  cameras.
- Weapons can be named after players on the high score list.
- Several YAFMs.
- Scrolls of knowledge yield much more intelligible messages.
- Farlook now gives better information about amalgamations and bad clones.
- Monsters that eat objects can now gain intrinsics. This makes Tasmanian devils
  potentially very dangerous, if they get their hands on the right corpses.
- Added various monster sounds.
- Tourist player monsters spawn with expensive cameras, and knights are
  automatically mounted on ponies.
- Drinking alcohol is tracked throughout the game.
- Pets avoid eating chameleons.
- Pets avoid attacking porcupines.

Bug Fixes
- Quilled monsters actually work. Apparently they have been bugged since the
  initial release of SpliceHack.
- Monster roaring works as intended.
- Sphere spells function when unskilled.
- Fixed many crashes related to monsters riding monsters.
- Various fixes to cartomancer language.
- Dragonmasters no longer get crashes when their steeds attempt to free them
  from a monster's stomach.
- Black Market guards no longer swarm the player infinitely.
- Refactored One-Eyed Sam's equipment so she is actually as dangerous as
  intended.
- Fixed many improper weapon damage bonuses.
- Fixed segfault when attacked by a leprechaun.
- Fixed ooze dragons and razor dragons dropping the wrong scales.
- Malcanthet no longer spontaneously renames herself.
- Too many others to count.


                    Version 0.5.0 - Balance and the Bizarre

Patches Introduced
- SpliceHack now uses xnethack's object materials patch.
- SpliceHack uses xnethack's randomly named weapons, originally ported from
  NetHack Fourk. SpliceHack's version functions differently, however, and
  generates a different set of names.

Balance Changes
- Nerfed lamassu damage output.
- Nerfed amalgamations slightly. Additionally, amalgamations now use a
  completely different and much better naming system that fits in the game
  more naturally.
- Disabled dungeon crumbling feature. This may be reinstated upon feedback.
- The demon lords that appear due to performing the ritual are no longer
  covetous, preventing the player from being mobbed and randomly killed during
  the ascension.
- Nerfed psionic attacks so that they no longer confuse the player.
- The lord of the foocubi is now renamed to Malcanthet, and has been heavily
  nerfed.

Role and Race Changes
- Infernals use their own race tag, which changes their class selection
  slightly.
- Silver items generate more often for infernal characters, making the role
  much more harrowing to play.
- Infernals are now fire resistant instead of having infravision.
- Pirates no longer always get a message about rising as skeletal pirates.
- Cartomancers use a refactored language system.

Dungeon Changes
- New branch: Ice wastes. A creepy level covered in ice and snow, with an orb
  of permafrost at the end. This level is important in that it also has a
  guaranteed pair of earmuffs, so it is much easier to find something for
  sonic resistance during a run.
- New branch: Mysterious laboratory. This laboratory is run by mind flayers, and
  they are not thrilled to be interrupted. The level contains numerous
  spellbooks as loot.

New Monsters (12)
- Failure Eidolon, a unique monster appearing in the ice wastes. It can
  teleport the player.
- Ancient Brain, a unique monster appearing in the laboratory. It cannot move,
  but can fire psychic rays and cast spells.
- Nuckelavee, a new type of demon with poison breath.
- Cheshire cats. They are very rare and only spawn in Gehennom. They have
  displacement, and making them invisible gives YAFM.
- Ported SLASH'EM's Zouthern animals, of which there are eight. Some of these
  animals have had their damage output nerfed from SLASH'EM in order to match
  the balance of SpliceHack.
- Animated statues have been completely removed and replaced with chess rooks,
  which like grid bugs can only move in straight lines.

New Objects (3)
- Orb of permafrost, an orb that causes an icy explosion when thrown.
- Spellbooks of flame sphere and freeze sphere, which function nearly
  identically to SLASH'EM. These necessitated changing the AI for explosive pets
  slightly.

Miscelaneous Changes
- All monsters can potentially gain intrinsics by eating, not just pets. This
  makes gelationous cubes and tasmanian devils slightly more dangerous since
  they consume everything in their path.
- Monsters can now use magic flutes and rarely drums of earthquake.
- Updated the database with many new monsters.
- YAFM when a tornado engulfs a Cartomancer (Luxidream).
- Pets now produce a message when they level up.
- Ants now have a special sound when #chatted with.
- Added a few more monsters to summon nasties.
- Monsters that can jump now notify you when you polymorph into them.
- Changed the piece of cloth into a dusty cloak (xnethack).
- Looking at a monster no longer displays whether they are armored, but does
  tell you the material of their weapon.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed doors being rendered in the wrong color.
- Updated to current version of vanilla NetHack.
- Fixed health food stores causing segfaults (msearle5).
- Monsters with steeds and ridden monsters no longer follow you to other levels,
  thus preventing a number of segfaults and bugs.
- Spellcasters with no arms no longer point at you before cursing.
- Fixed some monster sound bugs.
- Monsters now actually attempt to throw their throwing axes.
- Fixed legendary lichen corpses being treated differently than lichens.
- Fixed silver haters being gifted silver artifacts.
- Fixed silver haters starting the game with silver items. The items in their
  inventory are set to iron instead of silver, regardless of the type. This is
  a kludge.
- Fixed overly powerful reaver, and a few erroneous damage values for weapons.
- Fixed a lot of black market related bugs, including continual guards and
  thiefbane not being wielded. This means that One-Eyed Sam now wears a cloak
  of reflection and hex dragon scale mail.
- Fixed amalgamations bugging out when engulfing.

Known Bugs
- Pets can be taken into the Black Market, but not out of it.
- Some races are improperly tagged.

                    Version 0.4.0 - QOL and Life Improvement

Major Patches
- Implemented a heavily modified version of the descriptive hit messages patch
  by L, and combined it with SpliceHack's existing monk hit messages.
- Changes from NetHack 3.6.2B were pulled into the game.
- Chris's Pirate patch was implemented, thus adding the pirate role to the game.
  Updating this to be compatible with 3.6.1 took quite a bit of work, so for
  those trying to add it to 3.6.1 I would recommend looking at what I did here.
- Added the Black Market from Unnethack/SLASHEM, using the code in Unnethack.
  The market functions largely the same as the one in SLASHEM, although there
  are a few small differences due to porting the code from 3.4.3 to 3.6.x
  (see below).
- Implemented an altered version of the colored walls and floors patch by L.
  Only walls are colored, and the Valley of the Dead is not in grayscale. In
  addition, some branches have new wall colors.

QOL Changes
- Dropped the quest entry requirement to level 10.
- Ported paranoid trap and swim confirmation from xnethack.
- Ported peaceful monster displacement from xnethack.
- Ported NAO 3.4.3's hilite_hidden_stairs option to 3.6.x and SpliceHack.
  Defaults to true.
- Artifact wishing is based on the number of artifacts wished for, not
  generated, preventing the increased  number of artifacts from nerfing artifact
  wishing.
- The vibrating square can now be teleported onto directly (YANI by Mandevil)
- New messages when monsters pursue you up or down dungeon levels (YANI by
  aosdict)
- There are now messages for triggering teleport and level teleport traps.
- Void level disabled (for now).
- Looking at monsters provides additional information, such as whether they can
  jump or be domesticated.

Balance Changes
- Nerfed Lord of the Foocubi and Will-o'-the-wisps after player feedback.
- Nerfed mind flayer telepath damage.
- Only dragons can randomly roar now, as opposed to any monster with MS_ROAR.
- Reduced the number of marids and giant eels on the plane of water.
- Monsters can only get wishes from smoky potions now, not wands of
  wishing. Wishes for wands of death and archon figurines were removed.
- Several artifacts were buffed. The most noticeable buff is to dismounter,
  which now does extra damage and throws a rider from their horse, making them
  automatically stunned. This is particularly useful against the new riders.
- Luckless Folly now must be wished for, and will probably be added as a prize
  for a branch at some point.
- Amalgamtions now grab totally random monsters to make a part of themselves.
  For balance purposes, their speed has been massively nerfed. Regardless,
  tangle with them at your own peril.

New Monsters (21, but only 8 spawn randomly)
- Ported Gnolls, Gnoll Shamans, and Gnoll Chieftains from SLASH'EM.
- Added Lampades, high-level nymphs appearing in Gehennom.
- Added Pack Lords, which transform into Alpha Werewolves. Alpha Werewolves
  transmit regular lycanthropy, and can (rarely) summon normal werewolves.
- Added ratmen and mutated ratmen. Both are low-level monsters that spawn
  randomly.
- Headless horseman, a demon that spawns riding a nightmare.
- A pale horse, white horse, and black horse, which only appear on the Astral
  Plane and are ridden by their respective Riders.
- The pirate patch adds damned pirates, skeletal pirates, parrots, Mayor
  Cumberbund, Blackbeard's Ghost, pirates, pirate brothers, and planar pirates.
  These are not usually encountered unless one is a pirate.
- One-Eyed Sam the Arms Dealer runs the Black Market.

New Objects (4)
- Ring of Blood Magic: If you do not have enough energy to cast a spell, you
  cast it anyway, but lose hit points equal to the excess energy. Casting
  healing spells using blood magic will deal extra damage to you in order to
  prevent skill farming.
- Ring of Psychic Resistance: One of the few ways in the game to become
  resistant to psionic attacks.
- Ring of Memory: Blocks the forgetting of items, spells, and objects.
  Essentially amnesia resistance.
- Scrolls of Knowledge: Essentially scrolls of reverse identify, like those
  that appear in Nethack, the Next Generation. Reading one will allow you to
  identify any item in the game by prompt.

New Artifacts (4)
- Chest of Proteus: The pirate quest artifact. Catches curses and occasionally
  polymorphs the items placed inside it. The polypiler's dream.
- Reaver: An artifact scimitar. The crowning gift for pirates.
- Marauder's Map: An artifact scroll of magic mapping. Sacrifice gift for
  pirates. Can also be invoked to detect artifacts.
- Thiefbane: Wielded by One-Eyed Sam. Identical to Thiefbane in Unnethack.

New Features
- Pets can gain intrinsics through corpses in the same way that the player can.
- Water walking has been implemented for monsters, and functions exactly how one
  would expect.
- Displacement has been implemented for monsters. A displaced monster has a 1/4
  chance of being someplace else when it is melee-d, and then surprising you.
  Displacement can be bypassed using see invisible or telepathy. This feature is
  subject to change on player feedback.
- Monsters can jump. This essentially allows them to do a short range teleport
  to the player if there is an available jumping path.
- All monsters can now gain displacement, water walking, and jumping from
  appropriate items.
- Monsters are now capable of riding steeds. Currently only headless horsemen
  and the Riders ride steeds. Each of the riders is mounted on an appropriate
  high-level horse.

Role and Race Changes
- Improved Cartomancer energy levels, which were very low due to a missing case
  in a switch statement.
- Cartomancer basement is now a mines level.
- Easter egg for Cartomancers that read credit cards.
- Chromatic dragons are treated as domestic for Dragonmasters, meaning (among
  other things) that they can be tamed.
- Dragonmasters slowly regenerate energy when standing next to pet dragons.
  Additionally, pet dragons will attempt to help a dragonmaster who is slimed,
  asleep, or stuck.
- As noted above, the pirate role is now available.

Miscelaneous Changes and Bug Fixes
- Fixed the alignment of monsters being compared incorrectly when seeing whether
  they would sacrifice something on an altar.
- Fixed a segfault relating to monsters being gifted a nonexistent item from an
  altar.
- Fixed monsters not picking up corpses to sacrifice. All of these fixes make
  monster sacrifice on altars much more likely to occur, especially in minetown.
- Landsharks are no longer slithy.
- Martial artists and martial masters use monk hit messages.
- Landsharks and Jumping Spiders are capable of jumping. Polymorphing into
  either of these monsters will grant the ability to jump.
- Completely reworked Mephisto's lair.
- The Grim Reaper is now drain resistant.
- Earmuffs are now referred to as "a pair of earmuffs" instead of "earmuff,"
  fixing one of the longest running bugs in SpliceHack.
- Game pluralizes "worm that walks" as "worms that walk," as opposed to the
  Gollum-esque "worms that walkses."
- Psychic and sonic resistance now appear in the enlightenment menu.
- Permanent versus temporary hallucination is now displayed correctly based on
  roleplay options.
- Added a few random god names.
- Added new sounds for pirates, all zombies, cows, and giant flies.
- Due to the way that shopkeepers changed from 3.4.3 to 3.6.x, simply using
  PM_ONE_EYED_SAM results in (at best), "One-Eyed Sam the One-Eyed Sam", and
  segfaults due to shopkeeper struct initialization at worst. Thus, she now
  uses the Arms Dealer monster entry.
- Domestic birds can now fly, as they were supposed to be able to.
- Riders now carry their appropriate implements, and resurrect with special
  messages.
- Merfolk are generated hostile now, so killing them no longer counts as
  murder.
- Mind flayer telepaths are now treated as mind flayers.
- Magma elementals no longer say that they dissolved into magma without
  actually dissolving into magma.
- Silver dragons and baby silver dragons no longer quaff potions of reflection.
- Desert jinn no longer leave corpses.
- Fixed a bug where enlightenment could not be duplicated by a wand of wonder.
- Fixed amalgamations rarely randomly segfaulting on initialization.

Known Bugs
- Currently, it is possible to take your pet into the black market, but not
  back out. I know why this bug exists but have not been able to solve it.