Question.

What is the diffrences between all the IVAN Versions? I'm talkin about IVANT and LIVAN and such.

Technically they're mods. Versions would mean that they're steps on the ladder the original devteam was going up on the way to a finished product, sort of like how Version .25 is less developed than Version .50, or how CVS IVAN is more developed than .50 IVAN. This may seem odd or unintuitive to a person who's new to tracking this sort of thing and is experiencing this as their first roguelike (which you may or may not be, but it sounds like you may be new to this sort of thing), but basically roguelike designers don't generally have the luxury that major company game makers have of putting forth the publicity necessary to ensure that when the game is done, it actually has an audience who will buy it (though even then, especially in the case of PC games, there will very likely be patches that change the version of the game from 1.00 to, say, 1.02 or 1.03). Most roguelike developers, instead, go ahead and make their games bit by bit, releasing semi-finished products and then taking in suggestions and bug reports, which allow the designers to both fix their game and possibly improve it in ways they weren't originally thinking of. Since the developers of roguelikes also generally live off of or persist in developing roguelikes instead of getting a normal day job, this also serves as a quick way to tell whether the game in question is a good one or not; no donations = no interest, and they need to find something else to work on (although some might decide to stop entirely if the no donations situation persists).

Mods, on the other hand, are the work of fans of the game who have taken the original game files and, being unaffiliated with the original game designers, modified them in certain ways. In this particular case, the confusion is understandable as development on the original game has come to a complete and (sadly, despite Kahvi's earlier assertion that he might be able to work something out with holykiwi) utter halt, leaving mods to be the only actual new content relevant to IVAN.

As for what's different about them? Why not try downloading them and playing for yourself? There's also bound to be version documents that will tell you a lot about the particular changes that have been made.

IVANT has 5 UT levels instead of 3, 12 GC levels instead of 8, and adds a whole new dragon-themed area. There's also a shop in the UT and a new artifact weapon.

LIVAN adds a ton of new items and a new town, among other things. I never really played it.

Yeah...I guess I should just try them. Though I heard on another thread that LIVAN crashes alot. Is this true? I don't think it'd be worth if that is the case.


Also, I'm somewhat new to rogue-likes. I've played some others a tiny bit. Like ADOM, Omega a little bit, DOOMRL, etc. DOOMRL is a pretty good one too... It's kinda like IVAN, I think, in that you're pretty much gonna die sooner or later. At least...I'VE never gotten to the end . Not that i've played it enough or anything. Anyways I'm gonna try some of the different IVANs later.

What is this IVAN CVS you speak of, how much do you know about its improvements, and do you know where it can be obtained?

I just have classic 0.50. I see IVANX, but it sounds like that also adds other features that may or may not have been intended.

Thank you for any information you (or others) provide.

AFAIK the correct term for LIVAN, IVANX and IVAN3D is variants, not mods; IVANT is a mod as it only modifies script files; and IVAN CVS is an unofficial development version or something like that.

Ivan CVS is the current version from the official development repository, it contains everything that has been already implemented by devs after the last official release (or implemented by someone else and accepted by devs). To get it you would need to use a CVS client and a compiler. Maybe you could also get a precompiled version from somewhere. You can also try IVAN3D, which only differs from CVS in having some changes to interface (you can play it normally, you don't need to use the 3D mode).

IvanX includes things both from LIVAN and IVAN3D (I don't know whether it includes IVANT) and some new things , I suppose it is an interesting variant, but I have not played it yet, so I am not sure. You can also try IVANT (although I've heard that it is less balanced).

IVANT is probably my favorite. It doesn't really do anything except make the game longer.

I liked IVANT until I realised how frustrating it is to go back through the tunnel without levitation