[ann] T-Engine4 / ToME4 beta21 "World Wide Tome II" unleashed!

[DarkGod]

As promised here comes T-Engine4 and ToME4 beta21 ! See http://te4.org/

Many things in this release, making life easier, balancing, online 
profile, ....

I am sorry this release too a bit longer than planned and has less stuff 
than planned, the profile & smooth shadow took longer than expected, but 
then, they are neat! :)

Please note: if you do not use an online profile the game will forget 
your achievements and unlocks. This can be fixed by renaming your home/T-
Engine/4.0/profiles/default/ directory to home/T-Engine/4.0/profiles/
offline/

Don't forget to help ToME by with donations( http://te4.org/donate ) !
 
Release highlights:
    * Many fixes
    * New starting zones and town for the Dwarves (more races to follow)
    * Smooth FOV shadow: instead of a blocky rectangular look, the seen-
>unseen transitions will be .. smooth
    * Reworked the online profile system. The game now connects to a 
specific server, this will someday enable some very fun stuff, and for 
now this adds an ingame chat
    * Many balancing moves (Cursed should feel less godlike at high 
level, alchemist got more burst damage, Vim using classes get much easier 
time managing Vim)
    * New dialogs UI
    * Upgraded tactical AI. Things are gettign quite smart, your summons 
will try to avoid breathing on you, your foes will assert your weak 
resistances and use that to their advantage, ...
    * The Sher'Tul fortress gained a new function!
    * Many many many more lore to be found and flesh up the world of Eyal. 
Total lore now counts over 28 thousands words!
    * Armour and APR working changed

Expanded changelist:
    * Replaces Wildfire's Combust and Dancing Fires with Burning Wake and 
Cleansing Flames
    * Rod of Recall is not an arcane item anymore
    * Elves should get escort quests again
    * The (many) lore of Reknor now correctly generates, go read it!
    * Talent levelup screen separates next level info more clearly
    * Upon arrival in the Eidolon plane player ressources are filled up 
(or down acordingly)
    * Mindslayer auras do not work on the worldmap
    * Left click talent does not work on the worldmap
    * The orc prides can scale to higher level
    * Resting when all ressources are at maximun will trigger resting for 
cooldowns
    * Vaults will block detection again
    * Zigur will not offer the antimagic quest when it is already done
    * Refusing antimagic quest will not prevent changing your mind later
    * New game icon
    * The Orb auto ids blue items too
    * Bill can not be cut off from the level
    * Escort portals should be again visible in ascii mode
    * Scatter Shot can not bypass stun immunity
    * Vor Armoury will not kill its own wyrms
    * The lumberjacks are back in the lumberjack town
    * Added Zigur lore
    * Automated error reporting within the game (module independant)
    * Staff of Absorption is now two handed
    * Kinetic Aura spikes are now beams, and Thermal Aura spikes are now 
cones
    * All auras can be deactivated without triggering a spike by 
targeting yourself
    * Boosted Conduit damage multiplier given by additional talent points
    * Increased crit boost from Perfect Control
    * Telekinetic Smash applies Conduit damage if Conduit is sustained.
    * Will and cunning affect damage and accuracy of Telekinetic Smash
    * No more than two shields and two auras can be sustained at once.
    * Highly Trained Mind info text changed
    * Conduit only affects the telekinetically wielded weapon
    * Leeches talents get reduced cooldowns with additional talent points.
    * Mindslayers get less health per level
    * Reshaping talents nerfed
    * Shattering Charge automatically spikes Kinetic Shield
    * Nerfed shield spikes and shield efficiency.
    * Clarified shield talent info texts.
    * Matter is Energy regens energy every turn for X turns
    * Mindhook now cancels and explains why if you use it on a target out 
of range
    * Corona will deactivate when it tries to fire a bolt without enough 
energy
    * Sapphires now have the correct tile
    * Fix inscriptions on the online chardumps
    * Zigur shops now only sell items powered by nature or craftmanship
    * Zigur shops now sell much better loot
    * Stores now stock much better quality loot and will update with the 
player level (within limits of the towns)
    * Shaloren start with runes instead of infusions
    * Enabled selling again, gems still sell at a high price, other stuff 
less (as before)
    * Most stores have much better stuff to buy
    * Reduced drops
    * Derth has been transformed!
    * Running will not pop up the annoying dialog anymore
    * NPCs that can not breath under water will not be generated under 
water
    * Two handed weapons say so in their descriptions
    * Most town stores respect their town factions now
    * New *awesome* farportal tiles
    * Temporal Wardens now start with the bow tree instead of utility 
archery
    * Replaced Avoid Fate with a new talent Foresight
    * Moved Perfect Aim to the Temporal Archery tree and replaced it with 
Daja Vu
    * Moved Celerity to the Speed Control tree
    * Moved Entropic Field to the energy tree
    * Dimensional Step now gains more range with talent points
    * Phase Shot is now a single target temporal shot that bypasses 
terrain and other obstacles
    * Quantum Feed and Strength of Purpose now add some Physical and 
Spell saves
    * Damage Smearing duration increased
    * Echos from the Past now does much less Echo damage and some base 
Temporal damage and has a larger cone starting out
    * Jumpgate now has a range attached to it rather then working 
everywhere on the level
    * Balanced range and cooldown on several Paradox Mage spells
    * Increased the duration on Time Skip slightly
    * Particles scale correctly with map size
    * New smooth FOV shading (aka fog of war). Instead of being squares 
it will smooth transitions between seens and unseen tiles (only works 
with opengl framebuffers enabled)
    * Cuirass of the Thronesmen now has a fatigue value
    * Summertide Phial also lites the player's tile
    * Some zones now have a (purely cosmetic) day/night cycle
    * The game now starts at 11h instead of midnight
    * Onetime worldmap encounters can not be dismissed by a missclick
    * Double greater egos have their own special color (because player 
love colored loot!)
    * Armour and Defense are shown into actor tooltips
    * Channel Staff does fire damage with fire staves
    * New melee oriented Temporal Warden tree: Spacetime Folding
    * Several Chronomancy abilities are now sustains
    * Anomalies can no longer occurr in the Eidolon Plane
    * Time Skip and Borrowed Time swapped positions in the Time Travel 
tree
    * Corona should no longer hit the player
    * Retribution description clearer
    * Price of ego ammo is now more correctly aligned with other egos
    * Cant nager npcs by not doing them any damage
    * Deep Wound correctly gives credit to the attacker
    * Fixed Disruption Shield while silenced
    * Fixed summon control ending while the player is dead
    * Tidal Wave can not be recast before it ends
    * Fix Smoke Bomb when cast on the player
    * Arcane Combat and Shadow Combat will not trigger if not enough mana, 
this preventing disabled other spells because of those
    * Archers and Slingers now have the passtive combat training by 
default and the activet one can be learnt
    * Dual Arrows cost 0 stamina
    * Aim, Rapid Shot, Heave and Slow Motion sustain cost reduced
    * Critical Shot replaced by Relaxed Shot, which replenishes stamina
    * Halflings are really not all nice people, they can now be corrupters
    * All Summoner's summons now inherit APR, stun/blind/pin/confusion 
immunity
    * All Summoner's summons now are not limited to 100/stats
    * Summoner's Jelly now absorbs 10% of all incomming damage and uses 
it to replenish it's master's equilibrium
    * Summoner's Helly summon cost reduced
    * Fix arena zone music
    * Optimized low level lua IO code (which was my mistake), it should 
load faster now
    * Tweaked garbage collector settings, it should be better for people 
who had huge lag spikes
    * Alchemist Infusion talents now also turn all fire damage done into 
their elements, thus making Fire Alchemy much more viable
    * Unnatural Body: fixed (not percentage based) life gain, 50% global 
healing penalty
    * Seethe: gives more hate, shorter cooldown
    * Dominate: Increased odds of success
    * Life Leech: fixed (not percentage based) life gain, maximum total 
life gain per turn
    * Rampage: Shortened duration
    * Doomed: Increased damage for many talents to speed the pace of the 
game.
    * UI elements have faint animations
    * Nagas got new tiles
    * Profile system changed. There is now two profiles "offline" and 
"online". If the game module validates then data is saved into the 
"online" profile, if a connection is available (and account logged in), 
it will sync with the server. Otherwise data gets put into the "offline" 
profile. Things like unlocks and achievements will be loaded from both 
profiles when module is invalid and only from the "online" profile when 
it is valid. This means that is you have no internet connection you will 
play from the "offline" profile. If you have a connection you will play 
from the online profile, even if you are not logged in. (and it will sync 
later if you do). Data from "tained" module versions will never "bleed" 
online but data from online will always "bleed" offline, so you get the 
best of both worlds. This might sound a bit complex but it should Just 
Work(tm)
    * Changed the main game fonts, test them out!
    * Unique tile for the Spellblaze Crystal boss
    * Can not loose double resonating diamonds
    * Linaniil can not appear in the ID
    * Eruan got nice palmtrees tiles
    * Renamed duplicate technique trees
    * Items without resistances wont sometimes show a resist line
    * Added 25 new room shapes by burb lulls
    * Switched Shield Wall and Repulsion
    * Shield Wall now reduces damage done by 20% instead of reducing 
attack/damage by flat values, making it more usefull at lower levels
    * Armour values are no more flat reductions of damage, instead armor 
deducts a % of the incomming damage, this means that super high armour 
values can not cheese out some npcs but no npc can cheese out the player 
either
    * APR follows the same idea as armour
    * Backup guardian are correctly scaled in insane mode
    * Fix critical power modifiers
    * Vim now automatically increases when a foe is killed by 1+WIL/10; 
making Willpower useful for Corrupters
    * Anorithils escorts teach the Light tree instead of Hymns
    * Bathe in Light now also lites up the affected area
    * Chant of Light increases lite radius
    * Reduce bonus from hymn of perseverance
    * Massive talents update to include more tactical info for the AI, 
big thanks to Yufra
    * Engine change: friendlyfire is now selffire, and friendlyfire 
defines if your *allies* are hit
    * Tactical AI using NPCs will be less likely to keep hiding in 
corridors, they'll get into LOS to try to pound you (but then you can 
thus pound them too)
    * Tactical AI now has parameters to avoid friendly fire
    * Imporved the effect of Blood Sacrifice
    * Switched Drain and Blood Sacrifice
    * Killing a creature with a vim using talent will refund that 
talent's cost
    * Corruptors now start with Drain instead of Blood Sacrifice and 
Blood Spray instead of Blood Grasp
    * Added new lore: scintillaing caves, a tale of zigur, and a complete 
history of the orc race (found in the Prides)
    * Added lore to the Maze; archmages, take heed of the warning!
    * New lore to Kor'Pul
    * New lore: Spellhunter's guide
    * Melee attacks are now routed throught a talent (invisible to 
players) so that the tactical AI can prioritize it correctly
    * Tactical AI using party members can be given talent priorities to 
use (or disabled from using some talents completly)
    * New lore, myth of creation for humans & elves (only the respective 
race can find it)
    * Added many new artifacts, some specific for antimagic users
    * New bow artifact
    * Undeads can not be Wilders
    * Nature's Call summoned bear now has a tile
    * Rogues now start with Trap Mastery
    * Players with Trap Mastery would do well to investigate the maze, 
they might find something interresting down there
    * The Sher'Tul Fortress gained a new function: talk to the shadow 
butler and gain the Transmogrification Chest which is both a way to power 
the fortress for further functions and a way to turn unwanted items into 
gold without having to come back to a shop.
    * Added special lore inside the Infinite Dungeon campaign
    * Actor:takeHit() also returns damage actualy taken
    * Rearranged the Mental Discipline tree
    * Buffed Highly Trained Mind
    * Made Mindslayer auras less costly to sustain
    * Use on_pre_use for disallowing Mindslayer shields and auras
    * Shields now apply their reduction to incoming damage before resists
    * Mindhook cooldown reduced, and reduces further with talent level
    * Telos's Staff Crystal has wielder properties that match its imbue 
properties
    * Disruption Shield can never be negative
    * Stores refill after killing a boss
    * Removed old unused NumberBox TextBox Button ButtonList classes
    * Dialogs UI update
    * Lore found is displayed in a parchment like dialog, sometimes with 
bloodstains!
    * Merged the two parts of the troll and necromancer poems into one
    * New dwarven starting zones and town
    * Right click on the minimap will now scroll the map
    * Gaining the achievement for Wildfire, Storm, Ice and Stone talents 
while playing an archmage will teach them to the current archamge
    * New lore to the Rhaloren Camp and the Sandworm lair
    * New lore: myth of creation by the halflings (only findable by 
halflings)
    * New lore: correspondance between two .. great .. adventurers
    * The fall of Zigur quest now rewards Hexes instead of Vim tree
    * New lore: how to become a Necromancer
    * When ran for the first time the game will maximze as much as 
possible instead of using 800x600
    * Store UI now uses teh same method as inventory: double columns with 
tooltips
    * Actors now start with 150 Paradox so new players have more leeway 
before they start blowing themselves up
    * Failure, Backfire, and Anomalies don't start happening until 200, 
300 and 400 paradox
    * Added gamelog messages for when paradox thresholds are crossed.
    * The Dark Crypt counter now is 20 turns instead of 30 but each time 
an acolyte is killed the counter will go up
    * Antimagic users rejoince! Movement infusions have been buffed, they 
now provide a "Lightning Speed"-like effect, granting very high movement 
speed for a few turns and thus can be used as escape mechanism
    * Currently equiped comparaison tooltip working again
    * New lore to the ancient elven ruins
    * Fix the extra project tile bug and updates a few talents that were 
using canProject incorrectly
    * Adds support for damagetype/resistance checks to the tactical AI
    * Added cut_immune to ghosts
    * Fix some FOV errors in cones
    * New tiles for some artifacts
    * Fixed tannen tower, I think
    * Explosion Expert now increases the damage done by the bomb if the 
affected zone is less than the theorical possible zone. AKA: firing it in 
small rooms or cooridors will make BIG BOOMS !
    * Breaths and cone attacks can be targetted at any angle now
    * Online profile system updated, the game is now connected to a 
special server
    * Profile update now allows for inter-user chats, check out the new 
user chat pane, press ctrl+space to switch and space to talk
    * Replacing inscriptions will keep existing keybind
    * Ignore escape in text/numberboxes

Have fun!