Hi, crawlers! Summer’s in full swing (or winter, for those of you in the southern hemisphere), so here’s the latest changes from trunk:

Potions, scrolls and books can all now be used from the floor, instead of needing to be picked up first. Scrolls of Identify can also be used on floor items.

It’s no longer possible to drown from Flight expiring. Instead, if your flight runs out when over deep water (if you can’t swim) or lava, you’ll enter ‘emergency flight mode’ and take heavy drain until you reach solid ground again. (This includes Flight from monster-cast Tornado.) It’s still possible to drown if a flying transformation (e.g. dragon form) expires… for now.

In tiles, monster attitudes (e.g. friendly, neutral, etc) are now displayed by coloured circles behind the monster, instead of small icons in the corner of their tile. Should be helpful for ally play, hopefully!

Lair is now six floors (-2), and Slime is now five (-1).

Gods: To minimize Okawaru-related confusion, Ukayaw is now known as Uskayaw. U’s Line Pass always confuses its victims, but for a shorter duration than before. Hepliaklqana’s slow-on-transference ability has been repeatedly fixed and should hopefully work now. Fingers crossed. H’s hexer ‘specialization’ choice has been moved from level 15 to level 21; instead of choosing between Metabolic Englaciation and Paralyse, Paralyse is a gimme, and the choice is between Englaciation and Mass Confusion. H’s battlemage melee damage has been dramatically increased, and their level 15 specialization choice is now between Bolt of Magma and Force Lance (formerly Iceblast). But that’s probably going get replaced too, so don’t put too much effort into remembering it. Misc ancestor changes: ancestor kills now give full XP (like spectral weapon), but their AC has been reduced somewhat. Nemelex Xobeh’s abilities now use invocations, not evocations. Dithmenos’s Shadow Step can no longer be used on allies, or when you’re a tree.

Vampire players can now berserk and transform when merely satiated, without needing to be Full.

Demonic guardians (from the demonspawn mutation) can no longer be angered by the player.

New monster: meliai, bee priestesses based on obscure Greek mythology. They smite, they sting, they come in packs of three… what more could you want?

Asterion’s spectral weapon has been replaced by a Greater Servant of Makhleb.

Norris is gone, but Xtahua swiped his Paralyse before he left.

Various uniques have had their genders adjusted.

Salamander stormcallers have called their last; they are no more.

Boxes of beasts & sacks of spiders no longer have charges, but instead have a fixed 25% chance of disintegrating after each use. They now stack.

Elemental evokers have been differentiated a little more; the lamp of fire and fan of gales no longer create elementals when used, the phial of floods does less impact damage, and the stone of tremors has been removed.

Amulets of harm now increase damage dealt by 30% and damage taken by 20%, instead of increasing both by 25%.

Rods can now be gained from misc acquirement, instead of from staff acquirement; accordingly, staff acquirement is no longer available for Troggites.

Player-created non-opaque clouds now vanish instantly outside LOS, instead of just dissipating four times faster.

Olgreb’s Toxic Radiance does a little less damage, but no longer poisons the caster.

Removed cards: Dowsing, Exile, Feast, Focus, Helix, Mercenary and Xom.

Removed decks: changes, defense, summoning, wonders, and oddities (the one that you had a 1% chance of drawing from when using any deck). Decks can now only be found by worshiping Nemelex, or possibly from rare vaults.

The monster spell Control Winds (on wind drakes, spriggan air mages, and the Cloud Mage) has blown right outta town.

The evasion ego, and the randart blowguns that used it, are both no more.

Xom will no longer vitrify your surroundings. :(

Distortion weapons no longer banish individual kraken tentacles.

Ghosts of dead trees no longer get bonus AC.

Happy crawling!