Powder Release 104: now with fire arrows

Jeff Lait‘s homebrew game Powder (previous release here) for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS is now even more playable, with the addition of fire arrows. Now that we mention it: are there any dungeon-crawling game that makes use of arrows and other similar projectiles, without fire arrows? In any case, the homebrew developer finally corrects the oversight. Check out the changelog in the full article.

Download: Powder Release 104 for the DS
Download: Powder Release 104 for the PSP

Jeff Lait‘s roguelike homebrew game Powder for the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS has been updated once again, and this time the changes include the addition of fire arrows (by popular demand), and the nerfing of iron golems. This also includes several bug fixes, such as fixing the genders of dungeon-folk. Yep, no cross-dressing characters this time around.

As for the complete changelog, here it is:

• A method to fashion arrows from trees. (Adam Boyd)
• When fire, acid, and venom balls explode it is prefixed by a definite article.
• Living frosts have a higher hit die (but same hit points) which should make them more effective in combat by increasing their chance of hitting things.
• Constructs, such as iron golems, no longer regenerate naturally. Note that undead are powered by unlife so still do regenerate.
• New item: fire arrows. (sf, R. Dan Henry, Beefhaze)
• Knock is now a ranged spell and can close doors as well as open them. (Brendan)
• [SDL] If you were near the very top or very left of the map, the on screen keyboard would draw with the letters not lined up with the key wells. (Eilu)
• Gold beetles are now properly aggressive when hostile.
• [DS] A VBlank wait is added to the sleep routine so even less power should be consumed when the lid is closed. (Robert)
• intervene has an r. (Oohara Yuuma)
• Two new rooms.
• The golden tridude is as big as they come, not as bit as they come. (Eilu)
• Those in wizard mode can create any room template.
• If you are wearing a non-ring that grants missing finger, you are now allowed to still equip a ring provided you have zero rings equipped.
• After answering the question too many times I’ve broken down and flagged most items as not being equippable as a stack. So, no more wielding two warhammers in one hand. Thrown weapons can be equipped as a stack to allow you to get more mileage out of enchant weapon scrolls. (Ben Shadwick, Bill, TemporalParadox, many more)
• Failure to swap with creatures in pits or underwater properly uses the creatures pronoun. (Eilu)
• When I added the ability to chose your gender, I accidentally had your choice also affected the gender of every creature in the dungeon. This has now been fixed so creatures will now have their correct gender assigned. (Eilu)
• Character dump tells you if Wizard mode is activated.
• Character dump tells you how many times you’ve save scummed.
• Character dump includes your score on death or victory.
• Changed the scoring method for ascensions to penalize based on how long it took you to win. The goal is to save the world, not just self-improvement.
• Your last gender selection is saved with your last name so the new game gender choice will match the new game name choice.
• Thrown artifact weapons were always [-2] to hit. Now all artifacts properly inherit their base item’s to hit bonus and can have an additional bonus due to being artifacts.
• Flaming swords no longer have a [+1] bonus to hit. They are cool enough without such a thing.
• Display of weapon damage will no longer show 2+1 for a 2d1+1 weapon and instead show merely 3.

Like Powder’s previous releases, the game comes in two flavors, one for the Sony PlayStation Portable and the other for the Nintendo DS. Make sure you grab the version compatible with your handheld, and refer to the readme files included in the download. Enjoy!

Download: Powder Release 104 for the DS
Download: Powder Release 104 for the PSP