=== Detailed Summary of Oangband Changes ===

     This file tells of whence come Oangband, the philosophy driving it, and 
lists all significant changes.  For a more rigorous treatment, consult the file 
lib/file/"O-diffs.txt", and for the final word browse the *_info.txt files and 
the code itself.


=== The Conception: ===

     As many another variant author will tell you, I started coding because of 
my love for Angband, and my disatisfaction with several of its features.  For
some time now, I have been disenchanted with:
 - the entire system of physical combat.  After posting my proposed alterations,
I decided that I couldn't rest until I had gone toe to toe with the code.
 - how the game changes as one moves deeper into the dungeon, primarily gaining 
stats, resistance requirements, and magical item damages.  Some items seem
to almost have remained unchanged since the days of Moria, dispite a far deeper
dungeon, and far higher monster HPs.

All other changes, however crucial to one's enjoyment of this variant, and even 
central to the Oangband experience, are "icing on the cake".

     While mentally envisioning the Oangband-yet-to-be, I decided a little 
discipline was in order.  Savefiles would be (mostly) compatable, as though you
were switching from one version of Standard Angband to another; even the code
for reading old savefiles has been kept.  Tolkien would remain the primary in-
spiration (albeit not the only one).  Ben's coding standards would, as much as
my severely limited skill allows, be mine, and I would strive to retain the 
solidity, flexibility, clarity, efficiency, and reliability of his code.


=== A List of the Changes ===

-help files substantially revised and even completely rewritten in some cases.
 Even for Angband vets, a certain amount of information may be worth looking at.
-A new system of physical combat.  See the help file on attacking and defending.
-Reworked the damage done by all forms of attack, and monster HPs and AC.
-Added two new spell realms, greatly revised the two existing ones, added a
 bunch of new spells, made mages more interested in magical items, toned down 
 some unbalancing spells and no doubt added others.  See the help files on 
 character birth and attacking and defending.
-Almost every kind of object and ego-item has new members, in particular spell-
 books, wands, staffs, and rods.  More ways to get some resists, but a lot more
 competition for equipment slots.  kill_dragon and extra_blows removed.
-Changes in about a third of all artifacts, and about six new ones.  Previously
 no-brainer artifact choices are now less so.  A new artifact that allows warri-
 ors to ID items at will (for a price, of course...).
-Random artifacts.
-a_info.txt now allows artifact activations to be customized.  There are roughly
 one hundred possible activations to choose from.
-Far and away more interesting chests.
-New vaults.  All major kinds of object types, most monster races, and plenty 
 else can now be placed in specific locations in vaults.  Some of Zangband's 
 monster pits and nests.  Open arena levels.  More new types of dungeon rooms 
 than you can shake a stick at.
-New terrain:  Trees, lava, water, and more differenciated rubble.
-speaking uniques.
-one-slot wand and rod stacking.
-Rogues may set traps and steal, but no shopkeeper trusts them very much.
-player ghosts, named after your own dead characters and some of the great    Angband/Oangband Heros to whom this game owes its being.
-monsters and objects previously at about level 15 to level 60 now appear as 
 much as 10 levels further down.  More deep non-uniques.
-the ability to ascend or descend more than one level at a time using stairs.
-dragons are noticably tougher and more magical.  Mature dragons are now smart,
 Ancient Dragons have a fair number of HPs, and Wyrms are even more of a death 
 sentence if you don't resist (and preferrably double-resist) their element.
-High-level undead have a new attack, the Black Breath.  See the help file on
 attacking and defending.
-High-level demons are even better at summoning other demons.  Although an in-
 dividual demon is nothing to write home about, get careless and a horde will
 burn you to ashes.
-new store in town.  The burg looks lopsided now - I will eventually fix this.
-changed the character symbol for spikes and junk to "`", to make chests and 
 light sources look more interesting.
-a fair number of new and revised monsters, too many to easily list.
-added DSB's rod sorting patch.
-added Tim Baker's easy patch (option to activate it is off by default).
-Keldon's monster AI (with some small tweaks to ameliorate a couple of perceived 
 problems).
-females start with more money.  Slight sex differences will eventually be 
 implemented (females die less easily than do males, but males are stronger).
-any artifact can be created in wizard mode (0, enter the index of the artifact
 as a command count, type ctrl-a, then r).  Damage messages when spells
 hurt monsters added, fixed a bug in the indexing of objects that prevented the
 creation of certain potions and scrolls, fixed a bug that crippled the wizard 
 command alter_character ('e'), make it possible for wizards to teleport to 
 any passible grid on screen, possibly other changes.
-spiking and "g"etting an object only takes 2/5ths of a normal turn.
-Sangband-inspired shapechanges.
-player level is now more important in determining the damage of spells and 
 prayers, and it now effects many magical items as well.
-cuts are slightly harder to heal, as is poison.
-tweaks in a number of stat bonuses (and penalties).
-It is now somewhat harder for many classes to use spells instead of disarming, 
 searching, and unlocking.
-traps are considerably more varied, may often be nastier, are less easy to 
 disarm, cannot be destroyed easily, are segregated by dungeon level, and are 
 slightly rarer.
-Magical healing and recovery is at a premium. Some spell realms allow 
 rapid regeneration-style spells that can really make a difference when 
 preparing for the next round of a long fight, but are useless in battle.
-Because of reduced monster HPs, dragon scale mail activations are formidable.
 naturally, I have toned them down just a tad...
-some rings and amulets now activate.
-drain-exp is more of a problem.
-some minor visual tweaks (see the diff file for exact info).
-a few creatures can fire more powerful arrows.
-Trolls can throw boulders.
-protection from evil is slightly upgraded, but high-level monsters have an 
 improved chace to break through regardless.
-chaos is now more deadly, but resistance to it is more effective.
-resist nexus sometimes prevents involuntary teleportation when gravity strikes.
-+to_hit is now called Skill, and +to_dam is now called Deadliness.
-many of the formulas for adding value to items have been altered.
-weapons and ammo have a revised formula for upgrading their damage dice.
-the concept of a "good" object is now considerably expanded.
-objects are less often destroyed by elemental attacks, but those same attacks 
 can occasionally reduce player stats.
-mages have new execptions made in their favor when recharging and using staffs,
 wands, and rods.
-the Black Market will occasionally sell piles of wands, staffs, and rods, so 
 keep a lookout for that stack of four rods of frost bolts.
-No more perfect protection from theft.  No more perfect protection from falls.
-players get no fewer than two blows with a weapon they can handle, and no more
 than four.
-elemental attacks are now not much less likely to hit than straight damage, and
 are reduced less by resistances.
-restored the 2.8.2-style display of stats from internal figures.  Anything over 
 18/219 is once again "18/***".
-far more monsters are smart.
-light radius is now able to be more than three.
-class and races have new bonuses and penalties to melee and shooting Skill, 
 based on weapon weight and type, and player level.
-gloves with a plus to DEX are no longer suitable for mages and necros.
-resist chaos no longer grants resist confusion.
-Berserk is very useful in melee, but ruins archery and magical skill.
-a more liberal distribution of extra shots.
-***Invulnerablilty is dead!  I spit on its grave!***
-made the spell and store indexes more general and expandable.
-Since hydras no longer exist, Mummies are once more 'M's.
-monsters can now drop chests.  Be stingy about allocating this flag!
-it is now possible to see the contents of your home through the check knowledge 
 command.
-mana penalties for over-heavy armour is now of serious concern to high-level 
 spellcasters.
-frightening, slowing, sleeping, and confusing monsters are now more important 
 in combat, especially against foes that seem too tough to handle at first.
-throwing weapons exist.
-rogues and assassins get sneak attacks, bonuses with light weapons, know how 
 to fight quietly, etc., but do not have as many HPs as did Angband Rogues.
-A new conception of noise and stealth.  More inuitive code, and it is now poss-
 ible for various activities to raise (bashing, combat) or lower (resting) the 
 chance for monsters to awake.  Monsters in LOS are often disturbed by extra
 noise.
-Zangband-style autosave.
-A more flexible implementation of extra might, and the removal of hard-coded
 launcher multipliers.  Extra might and extra shots no longer use pvals, which
 allows artifact launchers to be far more interesting.
-fewer objects are generated more than 1500' below their standard depth, and 
 far fewer more than 2000'.
-out of depth monsters will appear slightly more often.
-inexpensive food and mushrooms are often generated in quantities of 2 to 6.
-warriors regenerate intrinsically at level 40.
-shopkeepers with low purses more frequently sell items at a discount.
-Bunch of minor changes, some of which are in the O-diffs file, some of which 
 I made and then forgot about.
