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The NetHack DevTeam is happy to announce the release of NetHack 3.6.2.

3.6.2 is a general patch release. It includes a large number of fixes to the 3.6.1 version, beyond the Windows issue fixed at the time of that release.

All of these fixes have been incrementally published on the public Git repository for the game.

The DevTeam had decided that 3.6.1 will be the final "official" 3.6.x version, barring some sort of major issue that requires a new release. Well, there seem to have been enough things happening that we decided to undecide that last decision and re-decide that 3.6.2 would take its place as the final release in this version.

Source for 3.6.x will continue, as always, to be maintained in our Git repositories, however, the team will be focusing on the next major release.

Another 3.6.x release and packaged set of binaries is not anticipated, but given previous experience, could happen depending on the amount of time between now and the next major release.

Here's a synopsis of some of the changes we've made in the last year (approximately) since the release of 3.6.1 in April 2018:

1. Gameplay changes

There fewer gameplay changes in 3.6.2 than in 3.6.0 or 3.6.1, but still over 500 items. Almost all can be considered to be bug fixes as this was not intended as a features release.

Here are a number of the changes - caution - there be potential spoilers here.

General Changes

Killing Vlad while he was in bat/fog cloud/wolf form gave poorly worded feedback when he reverted to vampire form

For starting inventory, don't give an orc hero lembas wafers or cram rations

Targeting with a polearm could give away location of hidden monster

Make stone-to-flesh behave the same on statues of petrified monsters as it does on random 'dungeon art' ones (revive at a nearby spot instead of becoming a corpse when there's already a monster at statue's location)

Eating rings while polymorphed didn't handle bonus/penalty for increase damage, increase accuracy, or protection correctly

When eating a tin of spinach, don't "feel like Popeye" if sustain-abilities prevents any strength gain

Verbal charm/seduce messages were given even when hero was deaf

Succubus/incubus seduction might result in loss of levitation which in turn could drop the hero onto a trap that transports him/her elsewhere; seduction was proceeding as if nothing unusual had happened

#turn command which aggravated monsters did so without using a turn not a pun)

Fixed hole/trapdoor passage inconsistency when polymorphed into a giant

Objects scattering during shop wall repair was skipped if a trap at the same spot was also being removed

Parchment and vellum are made from animal skin so change materia composition and color for spellbooks with those descriptions from paper to leather; eating those books now breaks vegetarian conduct

Fixed monsters not wielding digging implements

Give monsters who have had a worn item stolen or who have been life-saved (used up amulet) a chance to wear replacement gear on next move instead of having to wait until they pick something up

Cancelled shapeshifter is no longer able to change shape

Cancelled shapeshifter hit by polymorph magic will become uncancelled

Wishing for "orange" could yield orange or orange colored gem/potion/spellbook

Prevent a leash showing unseen monster as "attached to it"

The Drum of Earthquake was causing deafness but oddly enough only when used up

Shop messages referred to the shopkeep by name even when the shopkeep was not visible but some used pronoun "it" or "its" in same sentence; ditto for vault guards

Samurai seeing items at a distance could have them be described by their ordinary names rather than by their Japanese names

Floating eye is classified as a flyer but flying is blocked while levitating, so don't set intrinsic flying if hero is polymorphed into one

Elbereth hypocrisy penalty doesn't apply if attacking a monster which isn't frightened by the engraving

Elbereth; normal scuffing of engravings still applies

During creation, don't unset alternate weapon when a shield gets worn (was preventing Knight from having lance set up as uswapwep)

Poison gas (stinking cloud) wasn't being shown at drawbridge-up spot

Death from something other than loss of hit points could leave hero with non-zero HP at end of game (during "really die?" prompt, disclosure)

Added several special cases for genocide and/or wishing prompt: (cookie, pie, genie, watchmen)

Lightning strike from Mjollnir did not make any noise

Fixed odd wording "The boulder triggers and fills a pit"

Attempting to #ride a long worm's tail could trigger impossible "worm_cross checking for non-adjacent location?"

Clairvoyance would show trap instead of a monster on/in that trap, which was intentional, but when Clairvoyance finished the monster wasn't shown

Clairvoyance revealing underwater or under-lava objects left object displayed instead of restoring the water or lava

If a migrating monster was killed off because there was no room on the destination level it would leave a corpse even if it was a type which should never leave one (demon, golem, blob, etc.)

Attempting to untrap an adjacent trap while on the edge of--not in--a pit failed due to not being able to reach the floor

Magic trap's deafening roar effect wasn't waking nearby monsters

Stinking cloud placed near water could kill underwater creatures

Applying--rather than wielding--a cursed polearm or weapon-tool didn't report that it had become welded to hero's hand(s)

Dismount that killed steed because there was no room to put it on map blamed hero; change that to only blame hero if dismount is voluntary

If hero survives turning into slime (life-saving), survive as a green slime

Diluted potion of oil is less effective when filling lamps (adds less fuel) or burning (lasts less long) or exploding (inflicts less damage)

Vibrating square is not really a trap, so monsters don't need to avoid it

If hero kicks some embedded gold out of a wall while following vault guard away from vault, don't report "the guard _calms_down_and picks up the gold" unless he's on brink of going ballistic

Identifying or forgetting gem types now adjusts prices for gems already on shopping bill

When fire converts an ice location into a water location, dunk any monster on that spot immediately instead of waiting until its next move

Limit carrying heavy loads from water to land

Life-saving while weak/starving/fainting boosted nutrition without restoring lost point of strength, making temporary loss be permanent

Demons gated in other demons without any message

Various non-weapon attacks while polymorphed didn't inflict blessed or silver weapon damage when worn items contacted vulnerable target monsters

Hero poly'd into rope golem form could choke headless or non-breathing monsters

Hero poly'd into creature with hug attack could hug a long worm's tail which rendered the whole worm immobile

Teleporting out of a vault after guard appears could result in the guard being stranded in a one-square long temporary corridor adjacent to vault wall and periodically saying "Move along!"

When donning armor, defer flagging its +/- value--which can be deduced from the status line--as known until finished in case it gets stolen before then (player might still deduce the +/- value but hero won't learn it)

Valkyrie quest was supposed to have a 50:50 chance that northern drawbridge would be raised, but both were always lowered; chances now are: both lowered: 3/8, S down+N up: 3/8, N down+S up: 1/8, both raised: 1/8

If a mimic concealed itself as a corpse, it could pick a monster type which never leaves a corpse

NetHack Community Patches (or Variations) Included

Curses: The community patch for an optional curses window-port has been adopted. The curses window-port evolved from work originally done by Karl Garrison and has been in use in several NetHack variants and on nethack.alt.org and www.hardfought.org/nethack/ for a while.

It is available and tested for 3.6.2 for Windows console with PDCurses layered underneath, and for Mac OSX and Unix (using ncurses as the layer underneath). It may also work for MS-DOS with PDCurses, but that has not been tested.

For a complete, very granular, but not necessarily clear list of the changes incorporated in this release, please take a look at the file doc/fixes36.2 in the source distribution. This file has a full list of all changes to the game.

The text in this file is populated automatically for the development team's own use and is provided "as is", so please do not ask us to further explain the entries in that file.

Again, a warning that some entries may also be "spoilers", particularly in the "new features" sections, so read at your own risk.

2. Deprecations announced post NetHack 3.6.2

3.6.2 is essentially a maintenance release and as such doesn't change much in terms of what is or is not supported. However, there will be some significant changes to support in the next major release.

The following ports will be dropped from the next major release unless someone comes forward to maintain them. We have had some interest in at least one of these and would seriously consider help in any of them should someone come forward with a viable offer for support:

Amiga

Atari

Macintosh Classic

BeOS

OS/2

16-bit MS-DOS

Floppy disk support for all platforms

The Bitfield macro

K&R function definitions

If you are actively running NetHack on a system that cannot handle full ANSI C, please let us know some details and we _might_ be able to accommodate you.

3. Save File Portability:

Save files should be portable from version 3.6.1 to 3.6.2.

As with all releases of the game, we appreciate your feedback. Please submit any bugs using the problem report form.

Also, please check the "known bugs" list.

before you log a problem - somebody else may have already found it, after all.

Happy NetHacking!

For the DevTeam...

Mike Stephenson

Hosted courtesy of alt.org.