Monsters & tileset revamp!

There are loads of new V monsters came from PWMA 1.4 and when I’ve merged it to Tangaria, I’ve decided that it’s time to make a complete overhaul of monsters:

• angels are back. Maia is still there but, they appear much rarer and in forms of ‘spirits’ – as something between wraith and elementals; while angels have a physical humanoid form. Except returning classic Angband regular angels (Angel, Archangel, Cherub, Seraph, Fallen angel, Archon) and bosses (Uriel, Azriel, Gabriel), I’ve added Michael, Raphael, Lucifer… and Lilith. Last two ones replaced PWMA Nether Realms bosses…
• ..speaking of which – Xakaze, Father of Abomination become the leader (72 lvl boss) of new ‘mutant‘ race family (includes mutant-monsters like a squire, paladin, fighter, warrior, mage, etc). These poor weird creatures trying to find their own place in the new world. Mutants ‘Resistance’ is not too powerful organization yet, but they are trying hard… to turn the world upside down.. some of them at least // there will be separate lore on the website about mutants and all new races. Also, Lilith and Lucifer are temporary bosses – right now I’m creating new lore concept, more info in next post.
  
• djinns (and female jinni) – they will become a new separate monsters ‘base’ family; for now, I’ve revamped some V maia to djinns. Soon player will be able to find djinn lamps which he could try to rub to get lucky.. or not.
• fey, pixies and fairies – another new monster family. Some of them live in mushrooms areas and even taught them to talk…
• As we got pixies – we will need unicorns (not a joke!). ZAngband (and TomeNET, which adapted some ZA monsters) already had Unicorn of Order; which I’ve added (as always, with the rework of its characteristics and lore). And we got some more beautiful unicorns (Shtukensia approves!). Better do not slay these innocent beasts – you could become unlucky, people say.
• several new variations of tree/ent monsters (V added some, which I multiplicated over levels – Strange dry tree, Young ent, young huorn, etc). Not all of these monsters should be killed when you meet them. Also, some of them got quite long branches, so it won’t be easy to avoid it without getting hurt even in quite wide corridors (should you search for another route?).
• Russian folk monsters: Baba Yaga, Chudo Yudo, elki-palki, Zmey Gorynich, One of Forty Thieves, Solovey the Robber, babay & babayka, kolobok, oprichnik, Konyok-Gorbunok, Moroz, Likho, Kaschey, Viy, Zhar-ptitsa. Some of them become bosses, some – regular monsters. Not everything strictly follows Russian lore, eg kolobok is end-game beholder (who he became? poor block). Also I’ve added some fiction Russian lore, eg Khattabych, the Djinn & Gyulchatai, the Jinni. Goal of this monsters to add some flavour, but at the same time not to spoil classic fantasy atmosphere – so I’ve assigned them to different depths to prevent player meeting them often (dozen ru-monsters out of 1185 total is nothing really).
• Hoard of new monsters, some of them (I didn’t had time to make a complete list): magpie, giant cockroach, satyr, golem skeleton, Mad king, iron pig, wisp, doppleganger, inquisitor, fire golem, little girl horror, vampire mistress, black hand, flying coffin, efreet, diablo (not an unique), flaming skull, boggart, glaz, orc necromancer, etc. Some stuff was just renamed, eg Tik’srvzllat → Merlin, Moltor, the Dwarven Archer → Robin, the Archer, etc
• readjusted new V monsters, eg tamer appears with a lot of tamed animals (as it should be IMHO); some just simply renamed, eg lord of Carn Dum → shadow priest; spider of Gorgoroth → frogger; werewolf of Sauron → volkodlak, etc
• assigned some new traits and spells (eg HEAL_KIN)
• New objects which could be found in the dungeon: barrels, crates, statues, altars, obelisks, etc. This is a highly experimental feature. Beware to swear near the altar of ancient god!
• Added all new PWMA aquatic monsters from past 1.4 dev update! Soon I’ll enhance them with some more stuff; for now I’ve added one more there: a mermaid.

• latest updated in V renamed/removed monsters – they are preserved in Tangaria. As V renamed/removed a lot of traditional (as I see it) stuff, I’ve reviewed all changes to monsters. Eg V renamed jackal to wild dogs; I’ve preserved old jackal (Mountain Gorge’s jackal) and also revamped it to new solo monster Jackal which could occasionally howl to alert monsters (I’ve added wild dogs too). Another example – as brown yeeks removed in V and there introduced terrified yeek – I’ve reworked old brown yeeks into brave yeeks, added new terrified yeek and also preserved traditional brown yeek as an open-world monster (Abandoned Outpost’s brown yeek). The same to other races. As it was a huge job and limited time (to implement everything on the server, so players will be able to test) to do with monsters – I’ve could forget to preserve some old monsters; I’ll make precise look at them a bit later; and restore everything I’ve lost).
• old monsters revamp, eg black orcs will use short-distance crossbows (it’s actually wipes, but let’s imagine that it’s crossbows hehe); nameless snakes become to viper, sleeping snake, anaconda (with preserving their original lore in world-monsters)

Please note that it’s kinda draft, first view on new monsters; they will be polished in time. Also some of these monster families (djinn, pixie, mutant, etc) will soon appear as new player races!

New end-game location added: Lukomorye where Merlin the Magician dwells… Tik’srvzllat become a common (non-unique) monster – you could meet several types of these. Please note that Merlin will be moved soon to yet another dimension; I’m reworking the lore right now.

Except monster rework, I’ve made tileset revamp – a lot of monsters got new appearance. I don’t make a list of new stuff, so just some stuff which I remember:

Nazguls:

Saruman, Sauron, and secret ones:

Ulfast, Ulwarth, Uldor, Ulfang, Lorgan, Brodda, Oprichnik, Lucifer:

Fury, succubus, 3x(unused), floating eye; Uriel, Angel of Fire; Azriel, Angel of Death; Gabriel, the Messenger; Michael, the Guardian; Raphael, the Healer:

Mad king, orc archer, blackguard, orc tracker, ruffian, blood falcon, giant pubic louse (sic!), scarecrow ghost:

(unused), Mermaid, Triton, (unused), Vodyanoy, Poseidon:

Efreet and elemental spirits:
↑ cloned a few more just in case, to have ‘fast’ stuff for a temporary replacement in future

(unused), ancient witch, young witch, witch, (NPC), southron assassin, southron archer, valkyrie:
↑ valkyria revamped from DCSS tileset. I’m planning to plunder DCSS tileset soon – there are loads of cool artwork and CC0 licence, yay!

Flying coffin, black hand, little girl horror, rainbow vortex, satyr, skeleton golem, iron pig, fire golem, vampire mistress, great water elemental, Nan, the Djinn, lamp (not in the game yet), Jinni, serpent of chaos:

↑ these monsters are far from perfect: it’s from what everything started.. in fact I didn’t plan at the beginning to do much revamp in tileset.. but I wasn’t able to stop hehe.

Sand giant, snow troll, Ulik the Troll, acid worm, The Sandworm Queen, chained ghost, rusty golem, dunadan of Angmar, orc necromancer, witcher (toss a coin!), Zhar-ptitsa (firebird; coloured by Shtukensia), Gandalf the Grey:

Khattabych, the Djinn (beautiful Gervais tile, was unused); Gyulchatai, the Jinni; Chudo Yudo, brave yeek, Fundin Bluecloak, Beorn, the Mountain Bear, Moroz (aka Gilim, the Giant of Eruman):

Also I’ve adjusted several new/old monsters to proper existing Gervais tiles.

As always, full tileset could be downloaded (.psd included): https://tangaria.com/tileset/

It’s not all new stuff. Play the game to find out more 🙂

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