ADOM II 0.3.0 released! (Merry Christmas!)

I'm proud to announce the release of ADOM II 0.3.0. While this new version is not as complete as I wanted it to be (missing a general compiler, extensive testing and many details for new players) I didn't want to let it sit on my hard drive after neglecting it for almost three months (the ADOM crowd funding campaign cost more time than I expected ;-) ). So here we go with new stuff and changes...
There are three major new features in ADOM II 0.3.0:

• Missile combat has been added. Finally.
• The UI has been redesigned / improved. ADOM II from now on will try to be a lot more newbie friendly (see the screenshots below) and offer game variants that reduce complexity and difficulty. 0.3.0 is only the beginning in this respect - a lot more will be added during the next couple of releases in this regard. New commands (like the contextual command invoked by pressing SPACE) will help new players to find their way around the game a bit faster.
• Music and graphics have been added to a certain extent. Again a lot more will happen in this respect in future versions.

Here are some screenshots to give you a general idea:

The new starter screen for beginning players:

The new starter screen for expert players:

The default game start in tutorial mode:

The following list summarizes all the changes in ADOM II 0.3.0:

• Completely revised the startup sequence and the main screens to give ADOM II a beautiful modern look and feel, simplify the start of the game for beginners and provide a more graceful introduction to the game. The efforts started with 0.3.0 still need work during the 0.3.x line, though, as both the tutorial and the manual promised by the buttons still are missing.
• Implemented missile combat (which include an item type hierarchy for missile weapons and missiles, a target selection mode, various item compatibility tests, item breakage, lots of modifiers for missile combat, etc.).
• Added a lot of intelligence to monsters in the game: They now can pick up items, drink potions, read scrolls and optimize their equipment. Additionally the API for monster behavior now allows for trivial expansions - you just need to implement one class with a fixed package and it automatically will be included in game execution.
• Added a command to display the missile weapon statistics ('M' in ADOM Classic / Custom / JADE key bindings, \At in ADOM II key bindings - had to map 'Show game time' to '\Ap' [p for passed time] for that to happen).
• Changed SPACE to a contextual command, e.g. ADOM II tries to guess the best next course of action. This should allow you to press SPACE most of the time instead of having to learn other commands.
• Added audio support to ADOM. This is far from finished but there now are means to play both audio tracks and sound effects and a few already have been integrated into the game. Additionally all audio effects can be adjusted in volume separately, also allowing to turn them off.
• Added 3 new monsters. Equipped many old monsters with missile weapons.
• Added 22 new items.
• Added 4 new weapon skills for thrown weapons.
• Added 6 new construction plans.
• Added archers and assassins as a starting professions.
• Added the masonry skill.
• Added scent based tracking to improve efficiency the most common tracking case implementation.
• Added a context menu to both the start screen and the game screen.
• Added context menus to the main screens.
• Added colors to the wilderness encounter messages.
• Enhanced steel slightly over iron.
• Enhanced Fnuk and Joan a little bit.
• Finally implemented pocket picking in all its variants.
• Mud blocks now can be collected.
• Good and bad luck now have a much more noticeable influence on skill checks.
• The melee attack bonus progression by profession now has been separated from the missile attack bonus progression so that professions can be even more varied.
• Started improving color details for the ASCII representations of items. More work on that during the 0.3.x releases.
• Look mode starts now with the nearest being or interesting position preselected.
• Revised the way weapon experience is gained (issue 1129).
• Enhanced the handling of the 'Detect item status' kill.
• Added more color indicators to messages.
• Added weaponry to black orc brutes.
• The teleportation professional ability now is turn-based and no longer uses up power points.
• Enhanced look mode slightly.
• Enhanced the readability of messages asking the user to provide some input.
• Fixed a problem with the singular form of dry meat.
• Refactored the internal handlers for materials completely. Now it's actually easily possible to transform item materials (before it was a mess). Alchemy, we are coming!
• Gnoll warbands now occur only at higher levels.
• Increased the frequency of liquid summoning gems.
• Sped up character creation by selecting default skills.
• Skills now are much less readily available.
• Healing now is much slower while moving. Power point regeneration also is reduced while moving.
• Full screen mode now respects the variable locations for both the message display and the statistics display.
• Fixed a problem with the message display height.
• Fixed a problem with various maneuvers (they didn't modify any game rules).
• Fixed some internal problems with critical hit probability modifiers.
• Fixed a problem with (now two-handed) pick axes failing to be equippable in the tool slot.
• Fixed a typo with touch attacks (issue 1087).
• Fixed a problem with shield to-hot modifiers (issue 1127).
• Fixed the problem of not suffering heat damage while resting in the desert (issue 1132).
• Fixed a problem with thrown opponents not getting hostile (issue 1135).
• Fixed a problem with various items granting bonusses although there weren't equipped in the right location (issue 1139).
• Fixed various typos (issue 1140).
• Fixed a problem with higher tile movement costs not being taken into account during path finding (issue 1145).
• Fixed a problem with the look mode which allowed you to spot invisible monsters (issue 1157).
• Fixed a problem with the path finding algorithm which managed to cause traffic jams (issue 1162).
• Fixed a problem with the lack of weight adjustments for higher level materials (issue 1163).
• Fixed a problem with improper endings after winning the end game (issue 1166).
• Fixed the missing symbol for writhing masses of primal chaos (issue 1169).
• Fixed a problem with army encounters on dungeons (issue 1173).
• Fixed a step numbering problem during character generation (issue 1181).

You can download the latest release at the usual location.

I'm curious for feedback and will try to continue ADOM II development alongside ADOM development. ADOM has priority though as long as the promises from the crowd funding campaign have not been fulfilled.

Enjoy the game and if you like what you see there is still time to vote ADOM to be the Roguelike of the Year 2012 ;-)

Merry Christmas
Thomas Biskup
(and if you do not celebrate Christmas: Freedom, Peace, Love and Health to everyone out there!)