Knights Downloads

Knights: Version 22 (30-Dec-2012)

Download Windows installer (1.7M)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1.3M)
Download the server for Windows (0.9M); only needed if you want to run your own server)

Gameplay changes

• [#164] When observing, you can now cycle each observer window independently (the left/right keys cycle the left window, and the up/down keys cycle the right window).
• [#165] Fixed a number of bugs with players being eliminated from the game. Also, eliminated players are no longer shown as "blank screens" when observing; instead, the cursor keys just skip over eliminated players entirely.
• [#214] Fixed a bug where observers would get stuck on the quest selection screen, if they joined mid-way through a game and the server had certain Lua mods installed.

Lua scripting changes

• [#203] Added a new feature, "use_strict", that helps to detect certain common errors in Lua scripts. The errors checked for include forgetting a "module prefix" (e.g. writing "all_wands" instead of "C.all_wands") and mis-spellings of variable names. Note this feature has to be turned on explicitly before it can be used. See this wiki page for full details.
• [#204] Added kts.GetPlayerName.
• [#211] Added kts.GetRandomPos.
• [#212] Modified kts.AddMonster so that it does not place monsters on "ai_avoid" tiles.
• [#215] Added kts.GetRespawnFunction and kts.GetRespawnType.
• [#219] Added new MonsterType properties "on_attack", "on_damage", "on_death" and "on_move", and removed "sound".
• [#220] The "dofile namespace proposal" previously applied to both "dofile" and "require" in Knights. It now only applies to "dofile". (In practice, this probably makes no difference to most people, unless you are messing about with environment metatables and so forth.)

Miscellaneous

• [#206] Updated Linux building instructions.

Older Releases

Knights: Version 21 (10-Sep-2012)

Download Windows installer (1.8M)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1.4M)
Download the server for Windows (0.9M; only needed if you want to run your own server)

Lua Scripting

[#70, #94, #162, #183] A brand new Lua scripting system has been implemented. This makes it possible to make all kinds of gameplay additions and modifications to Knights.

The Lua API is documented on the wiki here, and you can ask questions and see what others are doing on the Knights forum.

The Lua scripting system is still evolving, so if you would like to see new features implemented, please make a suggestion on the forums.

New tutorial

[#80] The Tutorial has been completely revised. Instead of a randomly generated map, there is now a fixed map which walks you through the various gameplay features. Hopefully this makes the Tutorial a bit more accessible to new players.

Gameplay changes

[#197] The following changes have been made to bring the gameplay closer to the original Knights:

• The chance of getting a healing potion has been reduced from 60% to 40%.
• The chance of getting the "Sense Items" scroll effect now increases steadily as the game goes on.
• Creatures hit by crossbow bolts are now stunned for a short time (assuming they survived being hit by the bolt).

Other changes

• [#193] (Windows) Fixed bug with full screen mode: if the display resolution changed while Knights was running, the new resolution was not being detected until Knights was restarted.
• [#184] (Windows) Unicode path names are supported in the knights_config.txt file. This fixes a bug where settings weren't saved properly if your Windows user name contained non-ASCII characters.
• [#190] Fixed incorrect starting point for "Run for the Freedom" when playing in single-player mode.
• [#201] Fixed bug: Quest requirements box was blank for observers.
• [#186] "Gems Required" message now displayed when striking book with wand.
• [#188] The "Time Limit" quest setting can no longer be edited by observers.

Knights: Version 20 (7-Jul-2012)

Download Windows installer (1.8M)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1.3M)
Download the server for Windows (0.9M; only needed if you want to run your own server)

New features

• [#160] Team games can now be played for any quest type, not just Duel to the Death. (The House Colours determine whether a game is a team game or not; if two or more knights share a colour, then they play on the same team.) Also, five new House Colours were added.
• [#170] Invisible knights are now shown with a transparency effect. Also, invisible knights can now be seen by other players on the same team.
• [#28] Added a Quest Requirements display to the in-game screen. (This can be minimized, if you wish, by clicking on its title bar.)
• [#159] The ` key (this is above TAB on most keyboards) can now be used as a shortcut to start typing a team chat message. Also, the chat keys can now be re-defined on the Options screen.
• [#57] On Windows, Knights now uses DirectX 11 for drawing (if available). This results in lower CPU usage and (potentially) smoother animation. If DirectX is not available, or is not up to date enough, then SDL is used as a fallback (the Options screen will tell you whether this happened on your system).

Bug fixes

• [#155, #179] Fixed some dungeon generator bugs, including: switches in gnome room not always working; switches firing bolts out of the wrong square or in the wrong direction; inaccessible areas in some Ring dungeons.
• [#175] When swinging an axe at the special pentagram, the axe was being swung, instead of thrown as usual. This has been fixed.
• [#158] Fixed bug where you could sometimes walk through a flying axe or bolt if you were moving straight towards it.
• [#167] If you set a trap on a chest that already had a dart trap, then the dart was firing out from the wrong square. Now fixed.
• [#160] In Duel to the Death quests, if the black team used a wand of securing, the entry point was marked by a dark grey rectangle on a black background, which was very difficult to see. This has been changed to light grey.
• [#119] Following some changes to the mini-map code (a couple of releases ago), the "closed gate" tiles had started appearing as walls on the mini-map. This has now been reverted.
• [#100] Fixed bug where sounds were sometimes not played correctly (for example, if a knight in an adjacent room opened a door into your room, then the "door opening" sound was not being played.)
• [#172] The in-game player list is now sorted so that players on the same team are grouped together.
• [#151] The "team chat is available" message is no longer shown if you are the only player on your team.
• [#77] Chat from the quest selection screen is now carried through into the game.

Other changes

• [#152] Zombies can no longer instantly respawn after they die. There is now a minimum time of five seconds after a zombie dies before it can respawn.
• [#20] Added one more guarded exit room (with three locked doors instead of the usual two).
• [#169] Knights now opens in windowed mode by default. (Full screen mode can be selected from the Options screen, as usual.)
• [#130] Traceback added to Lua error messages. This should make it easier to debug any Lua related problems in the future.
• [#171] "Frags" renamed to "points" in Deathmatch mode.
• [#163] Pressing Enter with nothing typed will now exit chat mode (instead of doing nothing).

Knights Map Editor: Version 2 (8-Jan-2012)

Download zip file for Windows (1.5M)
Download source code (58K)

This allows you to design your own room layouts for Knights. It is currently a work in progress. Note you will need to do some additional setup before you can run the map editor: see Map Editor Instructions.

Knights: Version 019 (8-Jan-2012)

Download Windows installer (1.6M)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1.3M)
Download the server for Windows (0.9M; only needed if you want to run your own server)

New features

• [#131] New "Deathmatch" quest type. Knights compete to score the highest number of frags before the time runs out.
• [#135] New entry point setting: "Different every time", in which your entry point is randomized every time you respawn.
• [#41] The dungeon generator can now randomly reflect and/or rotate the predefined rooms. This introduces a bit more variety into the generated dungeons.
• Several improvements to "Team Duel to the Death" mode:
  • [#128] Friendly fire is now disabled for team games. Note this applies to direct weapon hits (e.g. sword hits or thrown daggers), but not "indirect" hits (e.g. if you press a switch which fires a bolt into a team mate, then they will still be harmed).
  • [#122] Team chat is now available.
  • [#123] More than two teams can take part.
  • [#121] Fixed bug where knights could not use an entry point if it had been secured by another knight on the same team.
  • [#126] You can now map a room if a team mate is in it.
• [#47] A message is displayed if the dungeon type had to be expanded (this can happen e.g. if you choose a "Tiny" dungeon for a very large quest).

Bug fixes and other improvements

• [#139] Fixed bug where zombies were walking down pits, and also vampire bats were not being generated from pit tiles when they were supposed to.
• [#140] Increased the range of the zombie-raising effect that occurs when the Necronomicon is first picked up.
• [#127] It is now possible to throw axes over barrels.
• [#143] Fixed "Stack overflow error" that was happening in the room with eight pentagrams around a crystal ball.
• [#132] Fixed bug where daggers would sometimes drop onto the wrong square after being thrown.
• [#118] Prevented game from crashing if full screen mode fails to open for any reason. The game now falls back to windowed mode if full screen mode is unavailable. (Reported by Stugol.)
• [#44] Fixed bug where pressing up/down keys in dropdowns moves up/down by 2 items, not 1.
• [#120] Fixed incorrect display of "Please press key for X" on the change controls screen.

Server side changes

• [#46] The command line server no longer depends on SDL.
• [#116] Server config file now supports "OldMOTDFile" once again.

Internal code changes

• [#138, #141, #144] Monster code has been refactored. This makes it possible to define new monsters from the text config files, and paves the way for Loki's "ogre quest" to be added in the future.

Knights: Version 018 (17-Sep-2011)

Download Windows installer (1.5M)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1.2M)
Download the server for Windows (0.9M; only needed if you want to run your own server)

New features

• [#29] Added "Random Quest" button.

Bug fixes and other improvements

• [#3] Fixed bug: "Stuck" red dots appear on mini map.
• [#67] Entry/exit squares are no longer shown as "floor" on the mini map.
• [#4] Fixed bug: Gems can be dropped "through" a closed door.
• [#115] Fixed bug: Incorrect items would sometimes appear on the screen when observing a game.
• [#76] Removed the "Entry Point" setting for single player mode.
• [#36] Reduced message spam when a player is eliminated (in duel to the death quests).
• [#71] Timestamps are no longer printed if a message line is completely blank.
• [#113] Fixed build error with latest gcc version: "ptrdiff_t does not name a type".
• [#109] Changed the way broadcast messages are handled; this means the Windows Firewall dialog will no longer appear when you are joining a game (although it will still appear if you want to host a game).
• [#42] Upgraded to the latest version of ENet.

Server-side changes

• [#114] The server now flushes its log files after each log message. This means that messages will show up in the log files more promptly.

Knights: Version 017 (2-Aug-2011)

Download Windows installer (1.5M)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1.2M)
Download the server for Windows (0.9M; only needed if you want to run your own server)

• [#107] Fixed crash when the time limit runs out.
• [#108] Fixed server crash when observers join the game.

Knights: Version 016 (19-Feb-2011)

Download Windows installer (1.5M)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1.2M)
Download the server for Windows (0.9M; only needed if you want to run your own server)

• [#102] A new control system has been added. This uses a combination of keyboard and mouse controls. For details, see the manual, or have a quick look at the Tutorial which covers the new control system.
  • Also, you now have to press TAB before typing a chat message in-game. This is to free up the keyboard keys (in particular WASD) for use with the new control system.
• [#99] Added BinaryLog and Replay options to the server. This allows games to be saved to a file, and replayed. Unfortunately it does not work that well at the moment, so it is mostly useful for debugging purposes.
  • All games played on the official Knights server are now being recorded using this feature. If someone reports a bug, I will go back through the logs and try to work out what happened. Hopefully this should make it much easier to track down obscure bugs in the future.
• [#96] Fixed a bug when running your own server. The bug was that first game would start OK, but there would be an error message when trying to join the second or subsequent game.
• [#98] Fixed wrong message when player quits (it used to say "<Name> is no longer observing this game" when it should have said "<Name> has left the game").

Knights: Version 015 (05-Aug-2010)

Download Windows installer (1477K)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1174K)
Download the server for Windows (839K; only needed if you want to run your own server)

• [#2] Potions and scrolls now respawn after a certain time. This is controlled by the new "Stuff Respawning" option, which can be set to Slow, Medium, Fast or None.
• [#21] Added a "Team Duel to the Death" quest type.
• [#79] Single player games can now be played on the server.
• [#11] A speech bubble icon now appears above a knight's head while they are typing a chat message.
• [#68] Your knight's position will now appear on the mini-map even when you are in an unmapped room (although not after a teleport).
• [#89] The Knights window now pops to the front if you get disconnected.
• [#75] Changed the Total Random exit so that it is never the same as someone's entry point.
• [#93] Initial support for Lua scripting has been added. (Nothing interesting can be done with this yet, but the foundations are now in place for allowing Lua-based mods to be made in future versions.)

Knights: Version 014 (10-Mar-2010)

Download Windows installer (1420K)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1044K)
Download the server for Windows (735K; only needed if you want to run your own server)

This is a minor release, mainly to support the new map editor.

• [#72] Fixed bug where the menu screen gets into an infinite loop with lots of "quest changing" messages being printed.
• [#86] Added some command line options to Knights. Type "knights --help" for details.
• [#82] Fixed Boost linker option in Makefile. If you had an error "cannot find -lboost_thread" or similar when compiling Knights on Linux, this should now be fixed.
• [#83, #87] Made some changes to the Knights config file formats, for compatibility with the new map editor.

Knights Map Editor: Version 001 (10-Mar-2010)

Download zip file for Windows (5035K)

Initial release of the Map Editor. This is very much a beta release. Currently this is Windows only, and there are no instructions yet, although I will try to make a blog post soon with some basic information...

Knights: Version 013 (7-Feb-2010)

Download Windows installer (1419K)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1043K)
Download the server for Windows (734K; only needed if you want to run your own server)

This release includes new tutorial and single player modes, as well as several bug fixes. Full change log:

• [#33] Fixed "disappearing stuff" bug. If quest-critical items are destroyed (for example by dropping them down a pit) they will now automatically be respawned.
• [#1] Added Tutorial mode.
• [#52] Added Single Player mode.
• [#56] Added optional time limit setting.
• [#38] Closed gates (portcullises) now block bolts twice as often than they did before. This makes one of the gnome book rooms somewhat easier to complete.
• [#5, #59] Daggers now do slightly less damage than they did before. Also, you now cannot throw daggers while holding a weapon (other than the standard sword).
• [#24] Fixed bug where you cannot respawn when someone is standing on your entry point. If your entry point is blocked, you now respawn on the nearest available square.
• [#8] It is no longer possible to place a bear trap directly underneath another knight or zombie.
• [#10] The game now automatically goes into observer mode when you are dead / eliminated.
• [#17] Added time stamps for chat and system messages.
• [#58] Added a "welcome" screen that appears the first time you start Knights.
• [#18] Fixed bug when the game was started when the house colour dropdown was open.
• [#25] Fixed bug where the game didn't start if all players except one were "ready", then the final player left the game.
• [#64] Fixed error 'display number out of range' when joining game as observer.
• [#7] The Winner/Loser screen now indicates who has and has not yet clicked mouse to continue.
• [#22] "Ready to Start" is deactivated when a quest setting is changed.
• [#26] The names of observers are now shown on the in-game player list.
• [#37] Book/wand information added to the quest description window.
• [#55] Quest duration (mins/secs) is shown after the quest ends.
• [#12] Chat text is no longer lost when going from in-game screen to quest selection screen.
• [#13] Can no longer send empty chat messages on the Quest Selection screen.
• [#66] Fixed bug when using mouse wheel or arrow keys to change quest settings.

Version 012 (25-Nov-2009)

Download Windows installer (1395K)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (1020K)
Download the server for Windows (707K; only needed if you want to run your own server)

This is the first release to include Multiplayer support (i.e., more than two knights in the dungeon at the same time).

New Features

• Knights can now be played with more than two players at a time. This is supported in both LAN and Server modes.
• In-game screen layout changed. A player list has been added (containing player names and house colours, numbers of deaths and kills, and ping times), and the chat window has been moved to the right-hand side.
• Observer mode improvements. In multiplayer games, you can now observe different players by pressing the left/right arrow keys. There is also now an "Observe" button on the Quest Selection screen.
• Wand of Securing changed. The "stun" effect has been removed and instead the wand does a small amount of damage when used in combat (similar to the sword, but slightly weaker).
• The maximum number of wands in a quest is now eight, instead of two. (The ability to have more than two wands is useful for multiplayer quests.)
• When a poison chest gets you, a message "Poison" is flashed up on the screen (this should hopefully make it clearer to new players why they sometimes die when they open chests!).
• Player names are now displayed above enemy knights so you can see who you are fighting against.
• On the Quest Selection screen, a message is now displayed whenever the quest settings are changed, indicating who made the change. (This is useful for multiplayer games.)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where you could hit your own crossbow bolts.
• Fixed "writeUshort: out of range" bug.
• Fixed bug with bogus "this player has been eliminated" messages at the start of the game.
• Fixed bug where certain scrolls would not be disappear after use.
• Sometimes parrying was occurring when it shouldn't (for example, sometimes two knights would be hitting each other and always parrying the blows so no damage would ever occur). Parrying now occurs only when the knight is not moving or otherwise acting (as it was in the original Knights).
• Fixed: Bear traps sometimes weren't making the "clang" sound. (This was happening when the knight actually died from the trap, instead of just being wounded from it.)
• Dungeon generator failures now put you back onto the quest selection screen (with an error message being displayed there) rather than disconnecting everyone.
• Fixed bug where numbers of players/observers, and/or game status, were sometimes not updating correctly on the lobby screen.
• Disabled Other's Entry exit points for >2 players, and Close to Other / Away from Other entry points for >4 players, as the dungeon generator cannot currently handle these cases.
• You can now press ESC to get out of the Winner/Loser screen. (Previously there was no way to get out of that screen if someone decided not to click their mouse for any reason!)

Version 011 (23-Sep-2009)

Download Windows installer (1380K)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (992K)
Download the server for Windows (710K; only needed if you want to run your own server)

This is largely a "cleanup" release, although there are two important new features: firstly, the lobby window now pops to the front when somebody connects to the server, and secondly, "observer" support is now fully working for internet games. Also, the Knights licence has now been changed to the GPL.

Full details:

• Knights is now released under the GNU GPL (version 3 or later). This should clarify the licensing situation and allow Knights to be included in Linux distributions. Thanks to Kalle Marjola for changing the licence of the original game and thus making this possible.
• While waiting in the lobby, the Knights window will now pop to the front as soon as somebody connects to the server. (Windows only.) Hopefully this will encourage more people to connect to the server and wait for others to show up.
• "Observer" support is now fully working – games on the server can now be watched as they are being played.
• Pressing ESC now asks for confirmation instead of quitting immediately. ESC also now brings up the quest information (replacing the TAB key used in previous versions.)
• Controls can now be set separately for split screen and network games. In the latter, it is no longer allowed to set "alphabetic" keys as knight controls. This is to prevent conflicts between knight control keys and keys used for typing chat messages.
• Fixed a bug where your knight's location appeared on the minimap even when you were in an unmapped room. (This bug was introduced in 009.)
• The player name (used on the "Connect to Server" screen) is now saved between sessions.
• Chat messages are no longer cleared from the screen when the game ends.
• Dungeon generator improvement. The dungeon generator now makes sure that all locked doors can be opened, i.e. it makes sure that the keys and lock picks are not all behind locked doors. (Actually, I never got this fully working, so it is still theoretically possible for "unsolvable" dungeons to be generated, although this should be much rarer than it was before. Even if it does happen, the game will start dropping lockpicks randomly into the dungeon after a few minutes, which should make all dungeons completable... if you wait long enough.)
• Bug fix: In split screen mode, quitting while the game was paused failed (the next game started with a black screen).
• Added "OldMOTDFile" setting in the server config file.

Version 010 (5-Jul-2009)

Download Windows installer (1370K)
Download the Knights server for Windows (694K; only needed if you want to run your own server)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (967K)

• Fixed bug where controls would sometimes not work properly when playing online.
• Fixed error "writeUbyte: out of range" when non-ASCII characters were typed into the chat box.
• It's now possible to join a game that already has two players in it. You won't be able to play or watch the game, but you will be able to chat with the existing players.

Version 009 (15-Jun-2009)

Download Windows installer (1367K)
Download the server program for Windows (693K; only needed if you want to run your own Knights server)
Download source code for Linux and Windows (964K)

• Improved support for Internet games. Players can now click "Connect to Server" from the main menu and be presented with a list of all currently available Knights servers. Players can also run their own servers if they wish. Servers can be password protected.
• Chat feature added for LAN and Internet games.
• New graphics option "Allow non integer scaling" added to options screen.
• Quest descriptions added to the quest selection screen.
• Knight House Colours can be selected (only available in network games currently).
• The bear trap sound can now be heard from outside the current room.
• Zombies no longer make the "click" sound when they step on pentagrams.
• Keys, lock picks and gems can no longer be generated inside barrels.
• Various other minor changes (see CHANGELOG.txt in the distribution for full details).

Version 008 (30-Dec-2008)

Download Windows installer (1168K)
Download source code (828K)

• Added auto-discovery of LAN games. IP addresses of all found LAN games will appear automatically in the Join Game window.
• Fixed various crashes / errors in the network game mode.
• Game can now be paused by pressing TAB in-game. This will also display the current quest. The game also pauses automatically when minimized. (Note: pausing is not available in network games.)
• In network games, can now press Escape to quit on both machines (previously this only worked on the host).
• "Number of Keys" option changed to be more like the original Knights. If you ask for less than 3 keys you will now find that only a fraction of iron doors are locked (previously all iron doors would have been locked, albeit with a reduced number of keys).
• Winner and Loser images are now displayed after the game ends.
• Build process changed. The Windows build is now done with Visual Studio. The Linux build now has a streamlined Makefile (make && make install should work for most users).
• Code fixed to be compatible with the latest version of Boost (1.37.0).
• On Windows, unhandled exceptions now cause an error dialog to appear, rather than just terminating the program.
• When using lock picks, the menu is now automatically closed after the door is unlocked. This allows you to react quicker if there are monsters on the other side of the door.
• Two or three other minor bugs fixed.

Version 007 (13-Jul-2008)

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Download source code (680K)

• Brand new GUI system for title screens, menus etc.
• Added Options screen. This can be used to customize the keyboard controls, toggle full screen / windowed mode, and tweak graphics settings. Options are saved when the game exits.
• Fixed bug where vampire bats were respawning too quickly.
• Fixed bug where your home would randomly change after using the wand of securing.
• Fixed bug where guarded exit would sometimes (rarely) not work properly.

Version 006 (23-Mar-2008)

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Download source code (566K)

• Forgot to include an essential DLL in the previous Windows installer download, so the game would not run! Now fixed.
• Some improvements to network game mode.

Version 005 (30-Dec-2007)

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Download source code (706K)

• Added graphics rescaling. You can now resize or maximize the game window, and the graphics will be rescaled accordingly.
• Changed the font.
• Fixed crash when playing network games.
• Various gameplay tweaks and bug fixes.

Version 004 (19-Sep-2007)

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Download source code (695K)

• Starting Gear now works.
• Fixed crash in Linux version.
• Some changes to controls, e.g. you can now start attacking while you are still moving.
• Performance improvements – game should perform better if limited CPU time is available.
• Wand of open ways now works correctly.
• Various other minor bug fixes and improvements.

Version 003 (25-Mar-2007)

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Download source code (634K)

Bug fix release.

• Fixed a bug introduced in the previous release which stopped the destroy book with wand quest from working.
• Improved the knight movement system slightly (in particular the "turning around while halfway between squares" rules).
• Knights now no longer drop their crossbows after firing.
• You can no longer open treasure chests from behind.
• Some minor graphical improvements (e.g. vampire bat corpses are no longer drawn over treasure chests or open pits).
• Fixed: securing homes did not quite work correctly in some cases.
• Fixed: game would not start if dungeon was too small. (The dungeon size is now automatically increased if necessary.)
• Zombies can no longer set off pentagrams.
• Fixed a couple of other minor bugs.

Version 002 (28-Jan-2007)

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Download source code (631K)

• Added sound effects!
• Fixed bug where you would sometimes drop your current weapon when trying to pick up an item.
• Vampire bats no longer set off pressure plates.
• Switches that open/close iron doors now work properly (and no longer flash up a LOCKED message).
• Added the ability to turn around halfway through a move. (Note that this makes it rather easy to escape from falling down pits... I will fix this in a future release.)
• A couple of other minor bug fixes.

Version 001 (30-Dec-2006)

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Download source code (570K)

• Initial release.