Only a few months after 0.7.9, here comes NLarn 0.8 - and this time it's a big one. Where the last few releases polished the edges, this one reaches deep into how the game plays, how it looks to the world at large, and how you interact with it.

The single biggest change: NLarn now speaks French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, in addition to English. Getting a text adventure translated is no small feat, and I'm delighted that the caverns of Larn are now open to a much wider audience.

The dungeon itself feels a lot more alive. Monsters have learned new tricks: some now wield ranged weapons and will actively keep their distance while they still have ammunition, rather than obligingly walking into your blade. Summoned demons finally earn their keep and fight at your side instead of just tagging along, and hostile monsters will in turn go after your allies - be they charmed, summoned, or the townsfolk who've picked up a dropped weapon to help you fend off whatever you dragged into town (they'll return it once the danger has passed, don't worry). Monsters fleeing for their lives may now duck through doors and slam them shut behind them, so don't count on a doorway to corner a retreating enemy.

Combat and magic got some love too. Melee weapons can now be enchanted or poisoned, throwing weapons is finally possible, and cone of cold now travels and explodes like fireball instead of simply striking its target. A new spell, permanence, lets you permanently bind one of your known spells to a piece of equipment, at the cost of a level of that spell's own knowledge - and it's powerful enough that the cloak of invisibility and the boots of speed have been retired, their former magic now achievable with permanence on any armour you like. Drain life has been redesigned to hit every monster in range and answer to your standing with the gods, and your dealings at altars are now tracked as godly goodwill, which quietly colours how several spells behave.

And then there's the mouse. NLarn can now be played almost entirely without touching the keyboard: move and fire by clicking, cast spells by right-clicking, target with the mouse, manage your inventory with it, drag windows around, and scroll long lists with the wheel. It's the single largest overhaul the interface has seen since the auto-travel feature.

None of this would be complete without a proper balancing pass, and 0.8 delivers one of the biggest yet. Non-dexterous characters got a fairer shake in combat, stat-draining effects now wear off in half the time, and quite a few spells that had drifted wildly out of line over the years were reined back in - finger of death was, in the developer's own words, "utterly" unbalanced, cold resistance "extremely" so, polymorph "thoroughly", dehydration "very", magic fire "quite", and even magic missile a little. They should all feel much more reasonable now.

Games from 0.7.9 unfortunately cannot be loaded.

Download NLarn 0.8 from Sourceforge.

Changes:

• Translate the game to French, German, Portugese and Spanish
• Some monsters gained the ability to use ranged weapons and will try to maintain distance to the player while a ranged weapon is available
• Implement allied monsters: finally a summoned demon will fight opponents
• Town folks can now attack monsters lured into town
• Town folk will pick up weapons dropped by the player to fight monsters and return them once the danger is over
• Hostile monster will now attack the player's friends (i.e. charmed or summoned monsters and townsfolk)
• Melee weapons can be enchanted or poisoned
• Allow throwing of weapons
• Track godly goodwill (modified by player's behavior on altars)
• Cone of cold behaves like fireball
• Blast spells (fireball and now also cone of cold) will now explode when they hit something on their way to the target
• Some fleeing monsters will open doors and sometimes close doors behind them
• Redesign "Drain Life": affects multiple monsters in range and is backed by godly goodwill
• Modify Sonic Spear damage and take enemy's size into account
• Add the spell "permanence": permanently bind a known spell to a piece of armour, at the cost of one level of the caster's own knowledge of it
• Removed the cloak of invisibility and the boots of speed; the same effects can now be created on any armour with the permanence spell
• Monsters that interfere with an action are highlighted, i.e. when automatic movement stops, the monster that came into sight blinks
• Disable auto-pickup when under attack or hostiles are in sight
• Zombies can now cause sickness
• Add acid resistance to some monsters
• Turn the gelatinous cube into a passive monster
• Add orcish bows and arrows, slightly less powerfull than their non-orcish counterparts
• Adapt how statues react when being hit to the original Larn
• Mouse movement and firing without keyboard interaction
• Spell selection when right-clicking on the player
• Mouse support for the inventory
• The mouse can be used for targeting spells and ranged weapons
• Select and activate spells by mouse
• Scrollable windows can be scrolled with the mouse wheel or by clicking the arrows
• Allow dragging windows with the mouse

Balancing:

• Balanced combat for non-dexterous characters
• Balanced the osquip's damage
• Halved the number of turns for stat-draining effects
• Balanced stat-draining and poison attacks
• Finger of death was utterly unbalanced
• Cold resistance was extremely unbalanced
• Polymorph was thoroughly unbalanced
• Dehydration was very unbalanced
• Magic fire was quite unbalanced
• Magic missile was slightly unbalanced
• Decreased the probability of obtainable books being generated

Fixed bugs:

• Stack identical items after identification
• Regard wisdom when increasing or decreasing a random stat
• Take player's position into account when generating paths for friendlies
• Display the screen after each automativ movement step
• Don't show projectiles outside player's FOV