Cat-and-the-Hack Angband

Features

Here's how CatH differs from plain old Vanilla Angband:

• The critical hits system has been redone for most classes. While mages have the same ol' system as before, other classes can now get crits more frequently and with more power, depending on the weight of their weapons (the heavier the better). For warriors and paladins, this factor could now make large axes and such a more attractive proposition than the extra-blow generating whips and such that get used in Vanilla.
• Elemental rings, such as Rings of Flames or Vilia, now 'confer' powers to the weapon you're wielding. For example, if you have a normal short sword (+0, +0) and a Ring of Flames, you are effectively attacking with a Short Sword of Burning (+0, +0). Some other artifacts confer powers to weapons as well.
• Range weapons of ammunition have been added. They magically create a shot, arrow, or bolt when needed. Ammo created in this manner is enchanted to around (+5,+5), give or take, and disappears after use.
• Wood Elves have been added as a player race. They are highly specialized with the bow and have intrinsic extra might.
• A new race, the Lagdalen, has been added, with inherent speed and eventual free action at the cost of the ability to wear rings or gloves.
• Dark Avatars have been added as a player race, with incredible stats and resist nether, but with intrinsic drain experience.
• Players now have a chance to save their armor from being damaged from acid attacks, depending on their dexterity. However, if this succeeds, the player will take full damage (the player takes half damage if it hits the armor). Acid and fire attacks also have a small chance of disfiguring the player, reducing charisma.
• Wood Elves (and any new race with the INH_MIGHT flag) get an extra bonus point to extra might when they reach level 25 if they use a bow.
• Rogues who attack a sleeping creature deal out extra damage, depending on the kind of weapon they use (light blades do most damage).
• Attacking a sleeping monster will always hit, regardless of class. How could you miss?
• Autoscumming is now available on startup, and _not_ while the character is alive. In addition, there is now a "Nightmare mode" which quadruples the chance of a special room being generated.
• The monster health bar has been altered, ala GW-Angband. It now displays the status of the monster, whether asleep, afraid, or whatever.
• You are no longer limited to diving to level 127. If you have the patience, you can dive to level 9999, about 94 miles deep. The odds of finding good objects don't increase as you dive beyond 127 however unless you're in nightmare mode. The monsters do get tougher, however. At ten minutes a level, you'll spend over two months straight to reach the bottom.
• The Temple now stocks stat restore potions so you don't go to tears waiting for the stupid Alchemy to restock that Restore Strength you need so badly.
• Magic mushroom patches have been removed, because they are flat out the most irritating little (*#$#@s on the planet :) They have been replaced with touger archers. The graphics tiles have not been updated however, since I don't use them and am too lazy to redraw them. :)
• Colorized the monster recall window, so that certain numbers stand out a little better. Note in particular that a monster's depth is in red if it's out of your maximum depth, umber if it's at or before depth.
• Hitting "m" as a prayercaster will preform a prayer, and hitting "p" as a spellcaster will perform a spell.
• There is a "Quick mode" option for the autoroller, which gets rid of a delay in the autoroller loop to generate stats very quickly. You're still currently limited to one million rolls, however.
• The status info at the side of the dungeon view now displays how much experience is needed to get to the next character level.
• Various other undocumented surprises.