also, for random encounters we prolly need some new unique monsters too. i'm mostly thinking about desert-themed ones: there definitely should be at least quicksand (not a monster, of course , and sandworms moving in the sand. tbh, i'd like to have totally unique mosters for encounters, to give the player some actual reason to not leave encounters immediately. preferably unique monsters with some unique traits, so playing random encounter level will require some change of tactics. i don't have anything more detailed on this yet, tho, just… random thoughts.

p.s.: btw, the car sprite we already have could be used for Fallout reference. of course, it doesn't look like Highwayman, but hey, this is another reality, we don't need to be precise to pull this joke.

yeah, considering that this will be a random encounder, and there's nothing much to do there actually, this is one of the places where appropriate music will Just Work, creating the atmosphere and mood. i tried to explain why k8I cannot play music, but it doesn't mean i don't want to have it at least in this particular place. (when i finally implement random encounters, thats it .

sadly, k8I don't have a music player. mostly for two reasons: 1) adding it will require a sound system rewrite (not that hard, but i'm soooo lazy), and 2) we'll need to have a sound font for midi playback, and good sound fonts are HUGE (and not all of them are free).

one day i'll throw away SDL Mixer, and replace it with OpenAL and custom sound loaders, but it won't be soon. mostly because i prefer to listen some speed/power metal anyway, so i don't need in-game music that much.

p.s.: command console is SO useful… even with a limited set of commands. how could i live without it all this time?!

and implemented The Most Useful Command Ever:

gimme nanofiber nanofiber "katana of sharpness +8"

this works. sometimes.

it is now possible to deactivate traps. currently it does the same Dex check as for activating a bear trap (for all kind of traps). failing to deactivate a bear trap hurts one of your arms, but mine and gastrap goes BOOM instead. so it's up to you to decide if it worth the risk.

also, flying over a trap doesn't prompt "you found a trap, press esc" anymore — it is useless, as the trap cannot be activated this way.

i wonder, what if we'll create some better life simulation? why different species never infight on their own? canines and felines, for example. canines might be attracted by spilled blood, and chase wounded monsters to finish them off. hungry kobolds could seek and kill hedgehogs to eat them. and so on. the game can detect such infights, and immediately spawn a replacement monster if infight happened out of player LOS, for example. this way we could keep the level population roughly the same as without infighting, but the player could find some interesting "encounter remains", or even try to use infighting for his own advantage. also, level population will adapt to player danger level slightly faster, lessen the effect of "go in naked" exploit even further. and it is more interesting to have the world living by its own rules anyway.

i might try to implement this later, just to see how it goes. it may need some balancing (as randomized hate/attack chances, for example), but i think that it is worth trying.

implemented in-game command console. now i only need to fill it with commands (yawnsome!).

also, added the link to the official Fossil repository to the first post. i'd recommend to clone it instead (or in addition to) git mirror. it may be down sometimes (as we get more problems with power here), but it will hold more info that git, because Fossil also has integrated wiki, bugtracker, and even forums (empty for now). all this is cloned along with the sources. there is not much content besides the source code there yet, but i'll eventually add more.

you can get Fossil binaries here (official site). for windows it is just one .exe, for GNU/Linux it is easily buildable (and will be one self-contained binary too).

updated attchments in the first post.

* fixed item prototype bug: all items were good with plants.
* fixed ESP check: the player could see only monsters with ESP, lol.
* full helmets makes you less susceptible to siren songs (any helmet/ring/amulet with sound resistance, actually).
there is also new `SirenSongResistance` property, which can be used in new items.
* several items connected to ESP grant some siren song resistance too.
* Rebel Camp will be revealed only after talking with Lord Regent.
it is still placed, so it is possible to find it by simply roaming around.
yet it will not clutter autotravel menu initially.
* made one secret door to Aslona Wizard not locked (it's annoying to always run to another one).
* throwing activated bear trap can catch the victim (the same as stepping into the trap).
* fixed liquid and gaseous golems (some wizards may summon them).
* "L"ook command will not tell you which scroll exactly you see. you need to pick it up for detailed info.

also, thank you all, i haven't expected that my SPOILER ALERT. Click here to see text. idea would be accepted so warmly. now i will definitely experiment with adding such mode someday. we may decide on exact triggering conditions (and effects) later, after i write all necessary support code. maybe even have several of those.

but for now, I NEED PROPER CONSOLE! it's time to stop trying to postpone writing console code. no more `fprintf` scattered around, it's ugly. i need a console to print into, and to control some game vars (which is at least partially done already: k8IVAN keeps all script defines in hashtable, and there are various debug defines there too). and i prolly should upload a new build before starting this.

it definitely needs a quest for water chip.