Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Announcements => Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) => Topic started by: NON on July 09, 2011, 11:51:52 AM
-
Hello!
Version 3 of my horror/Lovecraft roguelike "Infra Arcana" is finished. I am very pleased with the recent changes, and it feels like an actual game now. :)
Game site
https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/home
Changelog for Release 3
New features:
*More monsters
*Pump-action shotgun
*Monsters spawn while you are on the level
*Hit points are restored only when climbing the stairs (except for rare methods such as scrolls and potions)
*Melee weapons are classed as light, medium and heavy. When attacking there is a chance for a bonus depending on class. With light you get a free turn, heavy do maximum damage. Medium weapons get no bonus
*Varying damage (pluses) on spawned melee weapons
*When looking at melee weapons on the floor, their +damage is seen (if they have it)
*Firearms have effective range limits (half damage beyond it), the line drawn while aiming is green inside the limit and yellow beyond it
*When holding lit dynamite, the messages tells how many turns are left on the fuse
*Explosions leave smoke
*More pre-defined rooms
Fixes:
*Much balancing of weapons and monsters
*Changed the names of some weapons
*Fixed a bug with machine gun weapons (killing a monster caused the following bullets to hit the floor where he stood. Now machine guns are more effective against rows of monsters)
*Shotgun shells spawned on the floor can be more than one shell
*Fixed a graphical bug with gas traps
*Fixed a graphical bug with smoke
*Teleport traps are added to the "remembered" map when you are moved
*Reduced spam from Cultist anger phrases
*Death occurs on 0hp instead of -1
*Confusion is less random
*Some small improvements to the interface
-
Nice to see such good pace of progress.
Though, why do only medium weapons not have a chance for a class special? I would have guessed they might have a a 50/50 chance of triggering free actions/heavy damage but to a lesser degree than the light/heavy. It would seem like as it stands people would only go for light/heavy weapons to take advantage of the specials. Or are the medium's the best source for consistent damage to strike the balance then?
-
Though, why do only medium weapons not have a chance for a class special? I would have guessed they might have a a 50/50 chance of triggering free actions/heavy damage but to a lesser degree than the light/heavy. It would seem like as it stands people would only go for light/heavy weapons to take advantage of the specials. Or are the medium's the best source for consistent damage to strike the balance then?
Exactly. My intention was this:
*Light weapons have weak damage, but great hit chance and a chance for a free turn to compensate.
*Medium weapons have decent damage and hit chance.
*Heavy weapons have bad hit chance, but great damage and do maximum damage more often to compensate.
So light and heavy are more "wild" weapons, while medium is more reliable.
I thought about the 50/50 chance for medium weapons too, but this is what I ended up with. Might do it differently in the future though.
-
Cool, I have been enjoying Release 2 last week, has quite a good feel to the game and actually feels quite complete. I will have to give R3 a try. I quite liked the healing of R2, I am surprised you changed it. I assumed there was a balance between food and resting too much.
Good to see more Lovecraftian games.
-
Cool, I have been enjoying Release 2 last week, has quite a good feel to the game and actually feels quite complete.
I'm glad to hear.
I quite liked the healing of R2, I am surprised you changed it. I assumed there was a balance between food and resting too much.
What I like about heal-when-using-stairs is that it creates interesting choices (risk exploring more at low HP, or play it safe and descend, but miss out on loot and experience?).
But so far I've only had positive feedback on the press-'h'-to-heal method. I may change it back. It sure was GREAT from a balance perspective, since I could assume that the player started every encounter at full health.
-
What I like about heal-when-using-stairs is that it creates interesting choices (risk exploring more at low HP, or play it safe and descend, but miss out on loot and experience?).
Well hell, I use the same method in SewerJacks so you have precedence, I dont know if it works but no ones complained about it :)
I find I have a few early deaths because I pushed the envelope too far. Oh well I just have to adjust my play style. I found Release 2 more challenging, the reanimated types were a real pain! In the good sense, but I do like to see they turn in to chunks more often now, which is actually satifying.
Also I would like to see less traditional fantasy flavour gone and replace it with more lovecraftian ones. E.g replace plate mail with iron-shod jacket and scrolls with tattered notes, or whatever. I also liked the cultist spam in R2 as it gave me warning, I dont get any warning now. But their guns seem a little weak so that is ok.
Also I would love to have some sort of death summary and mortem file.
Good job.
-
I found Release 2 more challenging, the reanimated types were a real pain! In the good sense
They have lost some edge! I will bring them up to earlier dungeon levels again (and maybe toughen them up)! It was much better when they were terrifying ;D
Also I would like to see less traditional fantasy flavour gone and replace it with more lovecraftian ones. E.g replace plate mail with iron-shod jacket
The "Steel plate armor" is actually not supposed to be a medieval plate mail armor, but rather like a 19th century ballistic suit (see Ned Kelly's Ploughboard Ballistic Suit). But "Iron-shod jacket" would be less open to misinterpretation so maybe I'll go with that.
and scrolls with tattered notes, or whatever.
Hm, not sure what they would be called in the inventory
"Read what (a-a)?
[a] Note of teleportation"
???
Maybe like this-
Unidentified: "A note titled X" (were X is random gibberish)
Identified: "Incantation of teleportation"
I also liked the cultist spam in R2 as it gave me warning, I dont get any warning now.
Hm, all I did was to set a certain chance of not shouting a phrase. In R2 it was 100% chance so it was like you shoot, hear shouting, shoot, hear shouting, shoot, shouting...
But their guns seem a little weak so that is ok.
The machine gun seems especially weak, because it's (I think) 1d4 dmg times 5 bullets. If you have any protection at all it will take away a minimum of 1 damage. So it's like 0-2 dmg each, and usually only 1-3 bullets hit. I need to do something about this, maybe 5x(1d2+2)dmg instead of 5x(1d4).
Also I would love to have some sort of death summary and mortem file.
Alright. Maybe it's time to also get to name the character. :)
-
Ok so I've made some of the changes mentioned above, and switched back to heal-by-spending-turns. I've also increased the monster spawn rate and made hunger a bigger threat.
This is definitely more awesome/brutal :)
I think I'll do a small unannounced release tomorrow.
-
Cool sounds like you are doing a great job.
I will hold any more comments until the next version... Dont rush it though, your releases are quite stable so thats something to keep doing.
Also remember to not sweat the small stuff. With each release make sure you have a plan, dont get caught up with too much detail. Its important to always feel that you are moving forward. (Not that I see any problems in your work :)
P.s The only reason why I like your game so much is that finally someone is writing a game that is on my list of games I will never get around to do. Not counting my failed Lovecraftian game "The Night the Rogue Maid went down". The first and last roguelike to take place on a off shore oil rig. :)
-
There, R4 uploaded.
Get it here:
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
It's a quick update, but I think the changes to the map alone is worth it. :)
The changelog:
New features:
*One unique monster
Fixes:
*Much better map (no dead end corridors)
*Changed healing back so you spend a number of turns to apply first aid (instead of healing at stairs)
*+2HP at level up instead of +1
*Better dodge chance from Agility
*Monsters spawn faster, prepare to get overrun if you dwell on the level :-)
*All monsters of the "Reanimated" variety spawn a level earlier.
*Raised the damage of the Tommy Gun (when cultists fired it, it often barely hurt you)
*Cultists fire their weapons more often
*All monsters have slightly higher hit chance
*Fixed a bug that caused enemies to spawn inside your field of view
*Fixed a minor problem with the field of view (too many wall cells were revealed in some circumstances)
*Cultist anger phrases were too infrequent in the previous version
*Reading scrolls now causes your turn to end
-
This is really cool. I love the theme and gameplay mechanics.
One small feature request. It would be very cool if it was possible to use the arrow keys and the enter or space key to navigate and make selections in the menu screens. Like the intro screen, picking stats/traits, inventory, equipping, using items, etc.
I bet this game would also be great with sound fx and music. Maybe a very creepy horror ambient music and sounds? It would add to the atmosphere and would be nice bonus to see after the main parts of the game are polished/done. The Quake and Hellraiser soundtracks go nicely with it.
Would also be nice to name the character and have a mortem and high score screen.
Maybe a little flavour from the original Quake too? It was somewhat inspired by Lovecraft. Maybe some of the enemies like the Vore/Shalrath, Scrag, Fiend, Shambler, or the Polyp/Spawn that always gets forgotten? The nail gun weapons would be fun to see in a roguelike too. Don't know if it would fit the setting exactly, but it might. The ring of Shadows might make a cool item. Just throwing it out there.
-
This is really cool. I love the theme and gameplay mechanics.
Always great to hear. :)
One small feature request. It would be very cool if it was possible to use the arrow keys and the enter or space key to navigate and make selections in the menu screens. Like the intro screen, picking stats/traits, inventory, equipping, using items, etc.
That... is not a small feature request. :P
I'll write it down as a to-do for the future. Not for next version but maybe sometime. :)
I bet this game would also be great with sound fx...
I just recently discovered that there is an abundance of free, high quality sounds out there. So I'm looking into including that.
... and music. Maybe a very creepy horror ambient music and sounds? It would add to the atmosphere and would be nice bonus to see after the main parts of the game are polished/done. The Quake and Hellraiser soundtracks go nicely with it.
I think sounds would be fine to add from a data base. But music on the other hand should be original I think. I agree that it could add much to the game, but I'd need to find someone to compose a bunch of tracks. Now I have actually been messing around a lot with composing midi tracks in Guitar Pro over the last 5-6 years. So there is a tiny chance I could do it myself. It would probably be some non-melodic ambient stuff though (simplest to do + doesn't get as repetitive).
Would also be nice to name the character and have a mortem and high score screen.
As suggested by Corremn above. I've been avoiding it because the balance and content still changes a lot. I mean I think the strongest enemy so far is only level 9, so it doesn't get much more difficult if you survive the first third or so of the dungeon. But name/mortem needs to be added anyway so I should probably get to it.
Maybe a little flavour from the original Quake too? It was somewhat inspired by Lovecraft. Maybe some of the enemies like the Vore/Shalrath, Scrag, Fiend, Shambler, or the Polyp/Spawn that always gets forgotten? The nail gun weapons would be fun to see in a roguelike too. Don't know if it would fit the setting exactly, but it might. The ring of Shadows might make a cool item. Just throwing it out there.
I have already planned Dimensional Shambler, Flying Polyp, and lots of other things. I don't know about Quake original monsters... maybe if I run out of other ideas.
-
This is really cool. I love the theme and gameplay mechanics.
Always great to hear. :)
One small feature request. It would be very cool if it was possible to use the arrow keys and the enter or space key to navigate and make selections in the menu screens. Like the intro screen, picking stats/traits, inventory, equipping, using items, etc.
That... is not a small feature request. :P
I'll write it down as a to-do for the future. Not for next version but maybe sometime. :)
... and music. Maybe a very creepy horror ambient music and sounds? It would add to the atmosphere and would be nice bonus to see after the main parts of the game are polished/done. The Quake and Hellraiser soundtracks go nicely with it.
I think sounds would be fine to add from a data base. But music on the other hand should be original I think. I agree that it could add much to the game, but I'd need to find someone to compose a bunch of tracks. Now I have actually been messing around a lot with composing midi tracks in Guitar Pro over the last 5-6 years. So there is a tiny chance I could do it myself. It would probably be some non-melodic ambient stuff though (simplest to do + doesn't get as repetitive).
Didn't mean to imply that I thought the menu interface request would be easy to implement.
Just to be clear, I wasn't implying that you use the Quake and Hellraiser soundtracks to include with the game. I agree that they would have to be original tracks and be interesting enough to listen to frequently. I also write music myself and do so in Midi. I have a couple short tracks I'm not using, but not sure if they would fit. Two of the tracks I think would because they are more subtle, but one is longer and more interesting, but not so horror-themed.
-
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
New features:
*Monster spell casting
*New monsters
*Throwing weapons
*Postmortem information
*A command to print the postmortem info to a memorial file
*Player can name the character
*New status effects: Diseased, Slowed
*Some rats and clawing zombies are diseased (attack causes disease). Ghouls always cause disease
*Some Cultist Acolytes can cast a few spells (very rare). Some Mi-Go (Fungi) can cast spells (somewhat rare)
Fixes:
*Fixed a bug that caused unique monsters to sometimes spawn more than once
*The minimum value for any skill roll was 5%, causing hidden things to be found much too easily even without "Alertness". This value is now 1%
*Monsters give less xp (to compensate for spawning)
*The "Melee" and "Firearms" skills now only gives better chance to hit
*Safeguard against accidental quitting
-
I think this game has very good potential. I like it.
Nice work mister!
-
Extremely cool.
Some thoughts/comments:
I especially like the idea of the height mechanic, although I'm not totally sure what the difference is between firing a shot at a shorter enemy versus a taller one is command-wise.
I really like the tombstone screen.
Kinda weird how the program seems to close then open when returning to the main menu after dying.
How do I throw missiles? I had throwing knives, but every time I used the throw command, I got a message saying I have nothing to throw. They can't seem to be equipped either. Is this not fully implemented yet or am I missing something?
Some commands like bashing doors or closing them can't be cancelled using the esc key like other commands.
A yes/no confirmation before lighting dynamite would be extremely helpful. or an option to extinguish it right after you light it in case you did it by accident. Like I did.
Vilomaxus and the Fungi handed my butt to me. Almost unfairly so. They kept diseasing me from a distance. Btw, how does a fungi wave it's hand and have an alien electric gun? Is that supposed to be like the Tesla Cannon/THunderbolt from Blood/Quake?
The reanimating corpses are very annoying, but very cool. I especially like how you can hear them "thud" against doors you close in front of them. Haven't tried it yet, but can they be completely stopped by making them blow up or dismembered somehow? I think that would make sense that they keep getting up if shot or stabbed, but can be stopped for good if they are blown up or somehow completely dismembered by a heavy duty bladed weapon.
I really like the healing mechanic where you have to find somewhere safe to try and heel instead of just healing every few turns like most other roguelikes.
Is there an arm-mounted chainsaw somewhere? That would be awesome! Any kind of chainsaw?
Nice selection of skills to choose from.
Any chance of making a power-up, scroll, skill, etc. or some sort of way to dual-wield a melee weapon and a firearm so you don't have to switch weapons so often? Not as a standard permanent ability, but some way to earn it?
It would be nice if there was also a command to exit the game from the Tombstone screen instead of having to return to the main menu to do so.
Maybe the Necronomicon could be used kinda like the Tome of Power from Heretic/Hexen II? a Temporary buff to your weapons.
Is saving implemented yet and I'm just missing it?
Is there a way to change the default player name or make it start blank so you don't have to delete "player1" everytime you start a game?
Any chance of adding the page up/down and home/end keys as an alternate diagonal movement? I play on a laptop so I have no number pad and it's kinda annoying to use the number row at the top of the keys for diagonal movement.
Think it would also be possible to make it possible to navigate the menus using the arrow keys and enter to select the option/item/etc like in doomrl? I often play with a gamepad using xpadder, and this is a very nice addition. At least for me.
This is a very nice blend of themes that makes it stand out on it's own as a roguelike. I can't wait to see how it progresses. Thanks for a very cool addition to roguelikes.
-
Ah nice, a huge wall of feedback. ;D
Ok one thing at a time-
I especially like the idea of the height mechanic, although I'm not totally sure what the difference is between firing a shot at a shorter enemy versus a taller one is command-wise.
Command-wise it only depends on where you aim. The rules are there only because a rat shouldn't block your shot when you aim at a person.
Kinda weird how the program seems to close then open when returning to the main menu after dying.
Yeah this is only due to lazy programming. It shuts down and restarts almost the entire program, because then I need to worry less about things left over from the previous session. I intend to improve this situation sometime.
How do I throw missiles? I had throwing knives, but every time I used the throw command, I got a message saying I have nothing to throw. They can't seem to be equipped either. Is this not fully implemented yet or am I missing something?
It seems to work for me. The throw command is 't', and missiles are equipped in the "missiles" slot. They should be equipped in that slot when the game starts.
Ah maybe you pressed the command to EQUIP missiles ('m'). Then it would say "You have nothing to use as a thrown weapon". Which means there is nothing in the inventory to equip.
t = throw equipped missile
m = equip missile
Some commands like bashing doors or closing them can't be cancelled using the esc key like other commands.
Good call, I'll fix that for next release.
A yes/no confirmation before lighting dynamite would be extremely helpful. or an option to extinguish it right after you light it in case you did it by accident. Like I did.
I've been meaning to add more dynamite/bomb-type weapons (like Molotov cocktails). So then you'd get a query which dynamite/bomb you want to ready. That will work as a confirmation query.
Vilomaxus and the Fungi handed my butt to me. Almost unfairly so. They kept diseasing me from a distance.
Vilomaxus? What? Who? :)
Well, I balance the game after my own play testing, and I don't think they are that much of a problem. They always fall for the old 'wait-around-the-corner-with-a-shotgun' trick. ;)
Btw, how does a fungi wave it's hand and have an alien electric gun? Is that supposed to be like the Tesla Cannon/THunderbolt from Blood/Quake?
I don't know if you've read Lovecraft. Those are extremely evolved fungi. As it says in their in-game description they look like crustaceans and have wings, several limbs and a tail. The electric gun is one invention of this great scientific race. Yes, the gun could look like the one from Quake.
The reanimating corpses are very annoying, but very cool.
Hm, "annoying" isn't good.
Haven't tried it yet, but can they be completely stopped by making them blow up or dismembered somehow? I think that would make sense that they keep getting up if shot or stabbed, but can be stopped for good if they are blown up or somehow completely dismembered by a heavy duty bladed weapon.
I've had others comment on this. But the zombies can actually only rise once. Kill them twice and they lie down forever. I've been thinking about making them always blow apart the second time you kill them, so that there is no corpse left to worry about. I'll make it so for next release.
I really like the healing mechanic where you have to find somewhere safe to try and heel instead of just healing every few turns like most other roguelikes.
Good!
Is there an arm-mounted chainsaw somewhere? That would be awesome! Any kind of chainsaw?
Evil Dead eh? ;) Maybe some day.
Any chance of making a power-up, scroll, skill, etc. or some sort of way to dual-wield a melee weapon and a firearm so you don't have to switch weapons so often? Not as a standard permanent ability, but some way to earn it?
I've been doing some planning for dual wielding, and it would be nice to have. But there's a bunch of other stuff that must be done first.
It would be nice if there was also a command to exit the game from the Tombstone screen instead of having to return to the main menu to do so.
Adding it.
Maybe the Necronomicon could be used kinda like the Tome of Power from Heretic/Hexen II? a Temporary buff to your weapons.
I intend to use it (and other tomes) for learning spells.
Is saving implemented yet and I'm just missing it?
No it's not there yet.
Is there a way to change the default player name or make it start blank so you don't have to delete "player1" everytime you start a game?
I could add a setting for this in the config file.
Any chance of adding the page up/down and home/end keys as an alternate diagonal movement? I play on a laptop so I have no number pad and it's kinda annoying to use the number row at the top of the keys for diagonal movement.
Yeah that should be easy to add. Something that could also be used:
shift + left = up left
shift + right = up right
ctrl + left = down left
ctrl + right = down right.
What do you think of that?
Think it would also be possible to make it possible to navigate the menus using the arrow keys and enter to select the option/item/etc
I'll see if I can add it.
-
I especially like the idea of the height mechanic, although I'm not totally sure what the difference is between firing a shot at a shorter enemy versus a taller one is command-wise.
Command-wise it only depends on where you aim. The rules are there only because a rat shouldn't block your shot when you aim at a person.
---***Ok. I figured it was something like that. So if there is a rat in front of a zombie, I cn fire a shot over the rat and at the zombie? Cool.***---
How do I throw missiles? I had throwing knives, but every time I used the throw command, I got a message saying I have nothing to throw. They can't seem to be equipped either. Is this not fully implemented yet or am I missing something?
It seems to work for me. The throw command is 't', and missiles are equipped in the "missiles" slot. They should be equipped in that slot when the game starts.
Ah maybe you pressed the command to EQUIP missiles ('m'). Then it would say "You have nothing to use as a thrown weapon". Which means there is nothing in the inventory to equip.
t = throw equipped missile
m = equip missile
---***lol. That's exactly what I was doing. Hitting "m" instead of "t". I was playing with a gamepad so I confused which button I had assigned to m/t.***---
Vilomaxus and the Fungi handed my butt to me. Almost unfairly so. They kept diseasing me from a distance.
Vilomaxus? What? Who? :)
Well, I balance the game after my own play testing, and I don't think they are that much of a problem. They always fall for the old 'wait-around-the-corner-with-a-shotgun' trick. ;)
---***My first time getting that far and I rushed down and was only at xp level 2, no shotgun, and several of the fungi. I don't really think it was unfair. Just learning the game afterall.***---
Btw, how does a fungi wave it's hand and have an alien electric gun? Is that supposed to be like the Tesla Cannon/THunderbolt from Blood/Quake?
I don't know if you've read Lovecraft. Those are extremely evolved fungi. As it says in their in-game description they look like crustaceans and have wings, several limbs and a tail. The electric gun is one invention of this great scientific race.
---***I'm aware of lovecraft and am familiar with works inspired by him. Also aware of some of his mythos, but unfortunately have not read anything of his yet. I was going to buy a compilation of his works the other day that I had been eyeballing at the bookstore for months, but it was gone. :( ***---
The reanimating corpses are very annoying, but very cool.
Hm, "annoying" isn't good.
---***I like them. More like a pain in the butt, but good challenge. I didn't really mean annoying as in they shouldn't be there. I really like them. They are kinda hard to deal with a hoard of them on the very first level though.***---
Any chance of adding the page up/down and home/end keys as an alternate diagonal movement? I play on a laptop so I have no number pad and it's kinda annoying to use the number row at the top of the keys for diagonal movement.
Yeah that should be easy to add. Something that could also be used:
shift + left = up left
shift + right = up right
ctrl + left = down left
ctrl + right = down right.
What do you think of that?
---***That's a really cool and interesting idea. I'm surprised no one else has ever thought of something similar for rl players without a numpad.***---
Think it would also be possible to make it possible to navigate the menus using the arrow keys and enter to select the option/item/etc
I'll see if I can add it.
[/quote]
---***You would be my hero if you did!***---
-
Oh my my this is sounding like a monster game O_O
...They did the mash! X_D
I'm going to download it right away!
-
Oh, by the way: here's the skinny on the Mi-Go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-go
Enjoy!
-
Just curious, ever think about adding some hellraiser/hellbound heart inspired creatures to the game? I always thought some clive barker inspired cenobite-like creatures and/or elements would be cool in a roguelike. Maybe even the LeMarchand box as a rare item.
-
Just curious, ever think about adding some hellraiser/hellbound heart inspired creatures to the game? I always thought some clive barker inspired cenobite-like creatures and/or elements would be cool in a roguelike. Maybe even the LeMarchand box as a rare item.
I have thought about it. You could have chains flying out of the walls and hooking on to you. It would take quite a bit of special code to simulate the chains though (unless you do it the super easy way - immediately restrict movement in all directions).
Btw, Legend, I've made it so you can navigate all the menus with the movement keys + enter.
-
Oh yes. 8)
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com
Release 6 (August 5, 2011)
New features
*Insanity
*High Score
*New explosive weapon: Molotov Cocktail
*New thrown weapon: Rocks
*Explosions destroy walls and doors (destroyed walls may leave rocks)
*Pressing the wait command gives status "Still" for one turn. This gives slightly better hit chance with firearms and thrown weapons.
*A wait command can also be made with the period (.) key (as well as the '5'-key)
*Menus can be navigated using the movement keys and enter (as well as typing a letter)
*Alternative commands for diagonal movement (PgUp/Home/End/PgDwn -- or -- arrow keys + shift/ctrl)
*New status effect: Fainted
*One new monster
*The tombstone screen has a command to quit the game
Fixes
*The game restarts smoother (doesn't restart the renderer when going to main menu)
*Zombies leave no corpse the second time they are killed
*The pre-set player name is empty instead of "Player"
*While paralysed, the character info did not show damage taken until the player could move (now it updates for each hit)
*Cancellation commands in some places where they were missing
*Rewrote level up-bonus description text
-
R6 Windows download link just takes it back to the main page.
Edit: Well, that was a quick fix! :D Nicely done! 8)
-
Yeah they reported input problems on the bay12 forums.
The trouble only happened on US (or non-Swedish at least) keyboards.
I worked like a maniac there for a couple of minutes to resolve it. Browsing the code, googling, searching old threads feverishly. ;D
I hope everything works now, sorry for the trouble.
-
Awesome! That's so cool that you added the menu navigations. Thanks a ton. I know I'm probably the only one it really matters to.
Just wish I hadn't found it just now. I have to go to sleep and get up in about five hours to work a 12 hour shift. But I wanna play! lol.
The chain idea in the version 5 post sounds cool. Anything Hellraiser influenced is cool to me.
Maybe the Scarrow from Clive Barkers Undying would fit in the game too. It has a very lovecraft look to it and is interesting because it can appear out of the floor and can blind the player. Not sure how difficult that would be to code, but still think it would fit.
It would be kinda cool if thrown rocks could be used to distract enemies to go in another direction as long as you are not in their line of sight already. It would give it a little survival Horror feel.
Would a blunderbuss fit the time period?
-
Awesome! That's so cool that you added the menu navigations. Thanks a ton. I know I'm probably the only one it really matters to.
Well I find more joy doing something for one person who thanks me for it, than a hundred people who play silently.
Just wish I hadn't found it just now. I have to go to sleep and get up in about five hours to work a 12 hour shift. But I wanna play! lol.
Hehe "Just one quick game, it'll only take a couple of minutes".
The chain idea in the version 5 post sounds cool. Anything Hellraiser influenced is cool to me.
If I ever add it, I would certainly not spoil it in the change log or anywhere else tough. ;)
Maybe the Scarrow from Clive Barkers Undying would fit in the game too. It has a very lovecraft look to it and is interesting because it can appear out of the floor and can blind the player. Not sure how difficult that would be to code, but still think it would fit.
Oh yeah Undying is awesome. It's kind of a stretch to use creatures from it in IA though, but the traits you describe would be piece of cake.
It would be kinda cool if thrown rocks could be used to distract enemies to go in another direction as long as you are not in their line of sight already. It would give it a little survival Horror feel.
That's outside the capabilities of the engine at the moment. 99% of the time you'd simply slaughter them, so the benefit/work-ratio to implement it isn't very good.
Would a blunderbuss fit the time period?
It's an old place so they could have them lying around. But wouldn't it be extremely weak compared to the Tommy gun and shotgun? It would need to have terrible damage and aim? :)
-
Would a blunderbuss fit the time period?
It's an old place so they could have them lying around. But wouldn't it be extremely weak compared to the Tommy gun and shotgun? It would need to have terrible damage and aim?
You're right. For some reason I just thought one would be cool since you hardly ever see one in any game and it has one of those Dr Suess odd horror feel to it. For me anyways. Maybe it could be weaker, but have a larger spread than the shotgun. It might be stronger than the pistol/handheld guns? Not sure what kind of ammo it uses though. I remember thinking it was cool in the Deathtrap Dungeon game from Eidos. Just threw it out there.
***EDIT***
Maybe if the chains and hooks don't make it in as a trap, maybe they could be a weapon? Kinda like a long range melee weapon like a chain whip (with a hook at the end). And it could snag enemies from further away and bring them closer. There was something similar in the Blood 2 expansion pack.
Maybe the ball/sphere from Fantasm might make a cool cameo too as either an enemy or item/weapon.
******2nd EDIT*****
I haven't gotten very far yet so I don't know if it's in there already, but maybe a spiked mace or flail would be a cool melee weapon? I think it would be fitting with theme of the game.
-
I finally got a chance to sit down and play some more. Very cool. I loved throwing a moltov coctail in a room full of spiders over the top of them and into the middle and watching them all catch fire.
I noticed dynamite doesn't seem to blow up the trees in the intro level. Some variation to the church lay out would be cool. Can you do anything to/at the altar? What about the graves?
I discovered the green spiders. Guess there's no need for the Scarrow idea I had since they blinded the hell out of me. lol. Might be cool if the spiders had more interesting descriptive names instead of just white/black/green/etc. Unless the effect of different colored spiders was randomized each game like potions in Rogue. I've never seen random enemy effects in a roguelike before.
I read some comments on another board about your game and I think I have to agree with toning down the respawning a little. I rarely make it past the first level of the dungeon because I just keep getting swamped by creatures and no way to find a safe place to heal since I can't get away from them and find a door that isn't broken to close. Plus I have very little equipment and have only gotten as high as level 3 once while still on the first level.
I noticed that I can't seem to move from enemies while they are attacking me. Particularly trying to move diagonally away from them or between to enemies. I can never seem to move diagonally between them.
Maybe some other traits that could be picked would be specific melee weapon proficiency like bladed, blunt, pointed, etc.
Can't wait for potions.
I never get a throwing knife back if it lands on something else like a doorway or a corps etc. At least not that I've noticed.
Haven't been able to find anything by searching yet. Is there anything to find implemented yet?
Could you please elaborate on the effects of insanity? I can't seem to figure out what it does.
That's all I can think of for now. Very fun game.
-
Well, at the risk of sounding like an idiot... NON is there anyway to save a game yet? Can't seem to figure out how.
-
Well, at the risk of sounding like an idiot... NON is there anyway to save a game yet? Can't seem to figure out how.
Sorry, there is no save function yet (it would of course be listed in the "commands" section of the manual).
-
I noticed dynamite doesn't seem to blow up the trees in the intro level.
Yes I know, it's a limitation I did to make certain things easier for me, and I'm totally fine with this. The forest is such a small part anyway.
Some variation to the church lay out would be cool.
That could be nice.
Can you do anything to/at the altar?
Short answer: No. Long answer: Well, stuff like prayer or sacrifice means having some sort of religion-system. This is something I certainly want to add in some manner, but now is not the time.
What about the graves?
I originally imagined zombies crawling up from them. But I think that would get very repetitive and predictable. I have some other ideas for zombie surprises though.
Might be cool if the spiders had more interesting descriptive names instead of just white/black/green/etc. Unless the effect of different colored spiders was randomized each game like potions in Rogue. I've never seen random enemy effects in a roguelike before.
Yeah I should do a little spider research some day, to make the names more interesting.
Random traits and attack effects was something I actually intended at first, but I guess I moved on to something else.
I read some comments on another board about your game and I think I have to agree with toning down the respawning a little. I rarely make it past the first level of the dungeon because I just keep getting swamped by creatures and no way to find a safe place to heal since I can't get away from them and find a door that isn't broken to close. Plus I have very little equipment and have only gotten as high as level 3 once while still on the first level.
Hehe, you're a Codexer? Do you post there? Or did you just stumble upon the thread?
I can agree that the spawn rate is a bit much.
I'll ask the same question here as there;
Is it the initial amount of monsters, or the rate at which they spawn during exploration that you find too high (or both?)
I noticed that I can't seem to move from enemies while they are attacking me. Particularly trying to move diagonally away from them or between to enemies. I can never seem to move diagonally between them.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you saying that the game literally refuses to let you take a step away from them? I'm a little confused and worried. :P
Maybe some other traits that could be picked would be specific melee weapon proficiency like bladed, blunt, pointed, etc.
Yes that post concerning more and smaller bonuses was interesting. I'll have to sketch up a revised bonus list when I find the time.
Can't wait for potions.
Me neither.
I never get a throwing knife back if it lands on something else like a doorway or a corps etc. At least not that I've noticed.
I don't think I've seen this happen. Testing it later.
Haven't been able to find anything by searching yet. Is there anything to find implemented yet?
The search button is more like a wait button (that's all it does, you wait for 10 turns). But the character searches for traps and hidden doors every turn just like when you walk around normally.
So its primary use is when you have good reason to think there is a hidden door in a certain spot, you can press 's' instead of '5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5'.
It's also good for waiting out things like blindness, or waiting for a corpse to rise again.
Could you please elaborate on the effects of insanity? I can't seem to figure out what it does.
I could to that, but first let me ask you, did you read the "Insanity" section in the manual?
-
I noticed dynamite doesn't seem to blow up the trees in the intro level.
Yes I know, it's a limitation I did to make certain things easier for me, and I'm totally fine with this. The forest is such a small part anyway.
Was mostly just an observation. Not like the player needs to blow up trees.
Can you do anything to/at the altar?
Short answer: No. Long answer: Well, stuff like prayer or sacrifice means having some sort of religion-system. This is something I certainly want to add in some manner, but now is not the time.
There could be other things to do at alters or any kind of dungeon feature like simply searching it, trying to knock it over, push it, examine it. Things like that.
I read some comments on another board about your game and I think I have to agree with toning down the respawning a little. I rarely make it past the first level of the dungeon because I just keep getting swamped by creatures and no way to find a safe place to heal since I can't get away from them and find a door that isn't broken to close. Plus I have very little equipment and have only gotten as high as level 3 once while still on the first level.
Hehe, you're a Codexer? Do you post there? Or did you just stumble upon the thread?
I can agree that the spawn rate is a bit much.
I'll ask the same question here as there;
Is it the initial amount of monsters, or the rate at which they spawn during exploration that you find too high (or both?)
Just stumbled there.
Kinda hard to say really. There is no way for me to know how many monsters started on the level. I wasn't even aware they were respawning until someone else mentioned it in that thread. I just thought there were tons of enemies.
Sometimes it seems like a level is almost empty then, "bam". I'm getting swamped. Especially with the zombies popping back up while other enemies are at my throat.
Or I just barely manage to explore the whole level without dying and make my way back to stairs and I get ambushed by several creepies when I turn a corner.
I noticed that I can't seem to move from enemies while they are attacking me. Particularly trying to move diagonally away from them or between to enemies. I can never seem to move diagonally between them.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you saying that the game literally refuses to let you take a step away from them? I'm a little confused and worried. :P
I'll be getting attacked by enemies and try to make my next move a step away from them. My player doesn't move, I get the action messages about how the whatever enemy hit or missed me, and my guy still hasn't moved but it's my turn again. Very occasionally he does move though. But this is only when I am getting attacked by several enemies at once. Like 3 to 5, but not completely surrounded like there wasn't a space to move.
@Z <- this is what I mean by moving between them. I want to go down-right diagonally. Never lets me.
r
Maybe some other traits that could be picked would be specific melee weapon proficiency like bladed, blunt, pointed, etc.
Yes that post concerning more and smaller bonuses was interesting. I'll have to sketch up a revised bonus list when I find the time.
I'd like to see a few more, but not too many really. Personally, I think DoomRL and some of the more major ones have a little too many to pick from and it gets a little bogged down.
Could you please elaborate on the effects of insanity? I can't seem to figure out what it does.
I could to that, but first let me ask you, did you read the "Insanity" section in the manual?
Lol. Of course I didn't. Sorry about that. Guess I just assumed there was nothing new in there that I needed to know for some reason.
After reading it, it made me think that maybe by examining things like the Altars and seeing blood, strange designs, etc, it could also effect the player's sanity. Or they could find something useful. Would give searching/examining them a risk/reward factor. You could also add things like painting, torture chambers/instruments etc.
Been playing a bit more and Two things seem a little unfair.
Mainly, such a limited inventory. It seems a little too small. Not counting the slots for rings, worn armor, held weapons, etc, the player only has 15 slots for items. This makes it very tough to manage. Especially the ammo ( what little I have found btw). I think at least the ammo should be stackable to an extent. I ended up with 4 clips of bullets. One had 7, the others 4, 3 and 3. The same bullets. THere should have been someway to have them all fit in a single clip or if the max clip size is 7, then they should have fit into about 2 and 1/2 clips instead of 4. I think there should definitely be at least about 20 inventory slots and tweak the way ammo is stacked a little.
There seems to be a little bit too little ammo for the amount of enemies popping up early on. I'm not saying make it tons. Just a little more so there is still a good danger of running out and having to make shots count.
Another feature request I had was for a prepared weapon slot and a command to switch between the prepared and wielded ones. Or at least just a key that lets you swap out your currently wielded weapon for the last one you had equipped. I find myself constantly switching between a firearm (when I have the ammo :p )and melee weapon most the time to conserve ammo 9and this would come in very handy.
Thanks again for the menu interface tweak. Having a blast playing with a gamepad. Gonna try to fit in one or two more games real quick before sleep. Have only gotten to level 3 so far and most cause I was running for my life lol.
p.s. it would be nice if the intro back story was presented on the tittle screen or as a menu option to read it.
***EDIT***
About the too many monsters/respawning too much. I just opened a door and got mauled by 6 reanimating corpses on the very first level! Fought hard and put them all down I think at least once, but only had 2 hp at that point.
Also, I like the way healing works, but it might be kinda nice if you get at least partially healed if you are applying first aid and get interrupted. Or maybe some sort of small semi-rare healing item for when you are in tight situations and the time for first aid is simply not an option.
***Edit 2 (about 2 minutes after the last one)***
Just got devoured by a pack 9 wolves in the forest before even stepping foot in the church. The one that dealt the killing blow actually came out of the church just as I saw the entrance.
-
I'll be getting attacked by enemies and try to make my next move a step away from them. My player doesn't move, I get the action messages about how the whatever enemy hit or missed me, and my guy still hasn't moved but it's my turn again. Very occasionally he does move though. But this is only when I am getting attacked by several enemies at once. Like 3 to 5, but not completely surrounded like there wasn't a space to move.
I did some testing, and everything seemed to work fine. I got myself almost surrounded, and I could move between and around the group in every way. I did it both with the numpad and the new shift/ctrl+arrow keys movement.
Does the problem occur only when you use a game pad?
I just opened a door and got mauled by 6 reanimating corpses on the very first level
Perhaps their group sizes should be restricted on the first level or two.
On the other hand, I personally enjoy knowing that even on the first level, there is a risk of facing an overwhelming force behind any door.
Same thing goes for the wolves. Most games you're just fine. Then there is that off game where they come at you from everywhere and tear you to pieces (or you actually handle the situation and start with a big xp advantage). :)
About the inventory; It would perhaps be nice to have more space.
But come on? Three half-empty pistol clips? Just throw it away or use it quick. :)
a command to switch between the prepared and wielded ones.
Will do.
I suppose people want DoomRL semantics, so I'll put 'z' as "swap to prepared weapon", and 'Z' for "select prepared weapon".
it might be kinda nice if you get at least partially healed if you are applying first aid and get interrupted.
Yeah I've thought about this too. It's rather annoying when something finds you and you have 6 turns left. I suppose you could be half-restored after half the healing time.
Or maybe some sort of small semi-rare healing item for when you are in tight situations and the time for first aid is simply not an option.
There are scrolls of healing. :)
-
I did some testing, and everything seemed to work fine. I got myself almost surrounded, and I could move between and around the group in every way. I did it both with the numpad and the new shift/ctrl+arrow keys movement.
Does the problem occur only when you use a game pad?
Yeah, I am using the gamepad. But the program I use emulates the key strokes and I never had the problem before.
Either the several enemies hitting me when I try to move is making my movement get cancelled somehow or I may just not be paying enough attention or interpreting what's happening wrong and it's kinda all in my head. Which could very well be it.
[About the inventory; It would perhaps be nice to have more space.
But come on? Three half-empty pistol clips? Just throw it away or use it quick. /quote]
Lol. You really expect me to throw away/waste ammo when it seems kinda scarce as is. I tend to save my bullets for zombies and occultists. I use melee on the rats and spiders.
I got confused for a bit on how reloading works. I assumed it would take whatever bullets I had in a spare clip and add it to my current one. Not switch the clips out entirely. I tend to reload after a gun fight even if I have bullets left and would end up with a clip of 1 bullet in my inventory. This confused me at first. It is much more realistic though. It would still be nice if the clips could stack a little. Or some sort of back pack/ammo belt item that would let you hold more inventory/ammo. I never really liked how DoomRL handled this since you can only get the backpack by going to a specific level every time.
Maybe it could be some sort of trait/skill? For each level of it you can carry a few more items or ammo? I think that would be interesting.
Will do.
I suppose people want DoomRL semantics, so I'll put 'z' as "swap to prepared weapon", and 'Z' for "select prepared weapon".
I suppose DoomRL may have gotten some used to the idea. I think nethack and crawl actually have a swap weapons key too (Haven't played those two in a little bit). One key to switch between the current weapon and the last wielded weapon would be enough I think and set it apart a little.
There are scrolls of healing.
Guess I just haven't found one yet or haven't read it when I had it.
Just curious if there was a sythe weapon in the game? Seems like it would fit. SPiked Mace? :p
Just wanted to say that I enjoy your game very much and I think that although it may have a tiny bit of similarity with DoomRL (and some of my input/feedback may have been influenced by it as well), it is definitely it's own entire game. I wouldn't even really compare the two. Just wanted to say so since you seem a little concerned about people thinking of Infra Arcana as a DoomRL clone or wanting it to be just like DoomRL.
-
or I may just not be paying enough attention or interpreting what's happening wrong and it's kinda all in my head.
This sometimes happens to me. It's pretty common to hit a move button, then think that you issued a move command, when you actually just confirmed a [MORE] prompt.
I'm thinking of having [MORE] prompts only be confirmed by the space button. This would be nice in certain instances, like when you step on a teleport trap. As it is now I tend to walk a few steps before I realize what happened. There could be an option in the config file to make any button confirm the prompt.
Maybe it could be some sort of trait/skill? For each level of it you can carry a few more items or ammo? I think that would be interesting.
I'm in the process of comming up with more bonuses at the moment, so this is a welcome idea. There could be a bonus called "Carrying" (just one rank), with Toughness rank 1 as a prerequisite.
Just curious if there was a sythe weapon in the game? Seems like it would fit. SPiked Mace?
No such things yet. I agree that they could fit, but the melee weapons that are there now needs to be differentiated more first. No sense in adding another one that differs only in name, damage, and hit difficulty.
Just wanted to say that I enjoy your game very much and I think that although it may have a tiny bit of similarity with DoomRL (and some of my input/feedback may have been influenced by it as well), it is definitely it's own entire game.
Thank you. And you can bet it will stand out more as time passes, and all the weird shit I have planned gets added. :)
-
This sometimes happens to me. It's pretty common to hit a move button, then think that you issued a move command, when you actually just confirmed a [MORE] prompt.
I'm thinking of having [MORE] prompts only be confirmed by the space button. This would be nice in certain instances, like when you step on a teleport trap. As it is now I tend to walk a few steps before I realize what happened. There could be an option in the config file to make any button confirm the prompt.
That is probably exactly what is happening. Although, personally, I hate the "press space to continue [MORE]" prompt like in Rogue. If it does get added, I for one would definitely prefer it as a configurable option.
I'm in the process of comming up with more bonuses at the moment, so this is a welcome idea. There could be a bonus called "Carrying" (just one rank), with Toughness rank 1 as a prerequisite.
Personally, I think it would be better with more than one rank and without a prerequisite. Or at least preferably without a prerequisite. If it is a one time bonus with a prerequisite, I think it should add a fairly significant amount of carrying capacity added. Otherwise, it could be a bonus that you could add multiple ranks to, but each rank only adds a little extra space. Something like 2 slots per rank.
I think this method would be a little more interesting and make the players choice of what to boost more meaningful. Whether they could really use at least just a little more space and go for it again next level, or hold off and boost their strength or agility instead. I know if it was a single rank one time bonus, I would always pick it first or second. This would make it kinda boring and might as well just be automatically added inventory space instead of a selectable bonus. I think so anyways.
No such things yet. I agree that they could fit, but the melee weapons that are there now needs to be differentiated more first. No sense in adding another one that differs only in name, damage, and hit difficulty.
Maybe mace could replace the club? Club seems a little boring. To me anyways. Good point about waiting until they can all differ in more significant and meaningful ways.
When you do start adding more traits, I hope there aren't going to be too many with prerequisites or ones that cut off the possibility of getting certain other traits. That's something that doomrl does that always kinda annoyed me. It forces the player to play a certain way once they start heading down a certain path with what traits they pick. I like the idea of being able to level them up any way I choose in any order. You don't see that too often in Roguelikes. Although a couple prerequisites would make a little sense, just hope they aren't too high and I definitely don't like the idea of being restricted from getting a particular skill because I also wanted another. My $0.2 on it.
-
I was just thinking. If you do plan on adding Dungeon features. Maybe some of them could be movable ones like book cases, barrels, statues, etc. The player could push them in front of door ways to block them. This would help to keep the reanimated corpses and such from breaking through the doorway. Or at least keep them out longer, hopefully long enough to get a heal in. The trade off could be that the player has a chance of spraining themselves when they do so.
I think this would add to the atmosphere of the game. Kinda like in Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth where you had to escape the enemies by running and blocking the doors with book cases and such.
Statues would have a greater chance of spraining the player. Barrels would be the weakest and also possible contain items. Similar to chests.
-
It's all good ideas
I'm about to implement some things to make the game more sneak-and-evade-oriented:
*Sneak skill - There is a certain chance that a monster do not become aware of you even if it has line of sight. This is re-rolled each turn until it becomes aware.
*Listening skill - You listen for footsteps or other idle monster sounds. This can give clues to what's behind a door for example. Maybe it can also print an 'X' on the map in the direction of the sound.
*Backstabbing (or something equivalent) - Attacking a monster in melee when it is not aware of you may give bonus to hit chance and damage.
To emphasize this new aspect even further, I am very tempted to change the way you gain new levels. The idea is to get rid of xp; instead you gain a level when you go to the next dungeon level.
This would mean that the player is rewarded as much for evading a monster as for killing it. You could build a sneaky character without feeling cheated of xp.
-
It's all good ideas
I'm about to implement some things to make the game more sneak-and-evade-oriented:
*Sneak skill - There is a certain chance that a monster do not become aware of you even if it has line of sight. This is re-rolled each turn until it becomes aware.
*Listening skill - You listen for footsteps or other idle monster sounds. This can give clues to what's behind a door for example. Maybe it can also print an 'X' on the map in the direction of the sound.
*Backstabbing (or something equivalent) - Attacking a monster in melee when it is not aware of you may give bonus to hit chance and damage.
To emphasize this new aspect even further, I am very tempted to change the way you gain new levels. The idea is to get rid of xp; instead you gain a level when you go to the next dungeon level.
This would mean that the player is rewarded as much for evading a monster as for killing it. You could build a sneaky character without feeling cheated of xp.
That sounds very interesting. I've wondered before if a roguelike could work by simply gaining a level/new trait every time they enter a new dungeon level. I think there's definitely a possibility of this working. Not sure how receptive the majority of the community would be to it though.
It would definitely eliminate grinding for the most part I think.
On the other hand though, it means every time you enter the fifth level, you will have 5 traits. Every time. It also kinda eliminates some of the risk/reward factor for actively engaging the enemies and trying to explore the entire level.
Kinda hard to say if I'm personally for it or against it. Maybe when you release the new version, you could release two versions? Both versions would be exactly the same in all other changes/additions that you make to the game but one would use the current experience system and the other would use this new idea of gaining a level every time you finish a floor. I think if you do this, you are more likely to get constructive feedback on it since players can compare the two systems side by side.
-
MageGuild deals with this, IIRC, with scouring the level for a power-choice granting item or so combined with descension as the way to go as just killing enemies won't grant you XP levels and whatnot.
Perhaps a mix in order? Certain power trees come from combat, some from treasure finding/exploration/general dungeoneering from a given level, and some from descent outright---mix and match as you choose/can afford to in the random world/emergencies.
-
MageGuild deals with this, IIRC, with scouring the level for a power-choice granting item or so combined with descension as the way to go as just killing enemies won't grant you XP levels and whatnot.
Perhaps a mix in order? Certain power trees come from combat, some from treasure finding/exploration/general dungeoneering from a given level, and some from descent outright---mix and match as you choose/can afford to in the random world/emergencies.
That does sound like a reasonable idea.
-
It also kinda eliminates some of the risk/reward factor for actively engaging the enemies and trying to explore the entire level.
Yeah that could be a problem. It would encourage fast diving. Sure there are items to get from exploring, but maybe always descending when finding the stairs would be the superior "strategy". That is something I really want to avoid.
EDIT: This can be solved by making it extremely hard for a player with poor items to win. A spontaneous idea is a monster that's practically impossible to beat, so you are forced to solve the situation by for example using some item granting invisibility. Maybe not a perfect idea, just something to show that exploration can be encouraged or even forced.
Perhaps a mix in order? Certain power trees come from combat, some from treasure finding/exploration/general dungeoneering from a given level, and some from descent outright
Then people going heavy on sneaking would get descension bonuses, while fighters would get descension+fighting bonuses. Sneaking characters would still miss out.
-
There could be scale involved on descension. Perhaps, within a steep/likely more risky X number of turns you get double the bonus(or more/different, you get the idea) upon descent whereas only a basic gain if you first spent many a turn fighting/exploring and cleared the level. "Got lucky and found the stairs down early with some Bonus Time to spare...do I risk exploring for a bit more Combat Exp and Loot/Exploration EXP and hope to make it back in time/survive or take my newfound spiffy Super Descender Bonus and rely on it to better handle the next floor?" Could probably add a similar foil on the "Fighting tree" as well with a guarantee of one powerful "awake" monster per floor(maybe tied to having killed a certain percentage of the initial spawn?) that would only have you getting an especially good Fighting tree boost from that floor upon actually surviving killing it.
Ultimately, full clear folk would be Well balanced and perhaps have solid resources, but the especially dedicated to Killing, Diving, etc would have unique special abilities to show for it and complement their respective approaches. Those that go for weird mixes of the lot of approaches, whether intentional or simply reacting to prior intentions going horribly awry, would probably wind up rather eclectic indeed.
-
EDIT: This can be solved by making it extremely hard for a player with poor items to win. A spontaneous idea is a monster that's practically impossible to beat, so you are forced to solve the situation by for example using some item granting invisibility. Maybe not a perfect idea, just something to show that exploration can be encouraged or even forced.
I don't particularly like this idea myself. One of the best things about roguelikes is that the player has quite a bit of freedom and is free to act almost any way they wish. Forcing them to play a certain way would take away from that. Plus it would eventually become stale if the player had to find that one certain item on each and every level then fight the super monster on each level too.
Then people going heavy on sneaking would get descension bonuses, while fighters would get descension+fighting bonuses. Sneaking characters would still miss out.
I imagine sneaking characters could still get combat bonuses. Especially if they are going to have some sort of back stabbing mechanic.
This would mean that the player is rewarded as much for evading a monster as for killing it. You could build a sneaky character without feeling cheated of xp.
Maybe you could add a way for a sneaky character to gain xp from successfully using their sneaking skills when they manage to sneak past monsters without getting noticed? Like say if they manage to make it all the way past the monsters line of sight without getting noticed. Perhaps they could only be done successfully once or twice so it can't be abused for xp either?
Although I do love the idea of trying to innovate and come up with a different alternative to the usual xp systems, I think some of the ideas may be going a little into left field and becoming a bit over complicated. And may result in forcing the players to play a specific way. I don't think the player should be forced in this way at all. No offense.
Personally, I think the way the xp system works right now is good. It's simple and rewarding.
-
The more I play this game the more I fell in love with it...
I like the atmosphere, easy controlls (throw dynamite, knifes, fire weapon etc.) and it feels well made.
I really hope you keep up the development to improve current features and add new ones later on.
Good work Sir!
-
Thanks! Release 7 is coming this week...
-
Thanks! Release 7 is coming this week...
Sweet!
Hope it's by friday so I don't have to wait through my work week to try it out. :p
-
The version is finished now. Manual is updated, game folder created, et c. Just need some more testing. I'll release it within 24 hours from this post, unless a natural disaster happens or something. :)
-
Well, I missed the ARRP-weekend by a few days but here it is.
Release 8.
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
Highlights are potions and special rooms. Insanity is also more intuitive now I think.
New features
*Potions (14 types)
*6 new scrolls (some old scroll effects are now potions instead)
*Special rooms with descriptions and various effects
*Some rooms give temporary shock (restored when leaving)
*New trap: Spider web
*Flying creatures actually fly (can fly over chasms, acid, etc)
*New terrain types:
~Water (slower walk speed, dodge penalty)
~Blood (slower walk speed, doge penalty, causes shock)
~Acid (does damage)
~Mud (much slower walk speed, heavy dodge penalty)
~Chasm (only flying creatures can pass)
~And a few more...
*New symbol for gravestones
*New symbol for impassable rubble
Fixes & changes
*"SAN" (sanity) changed to "INS" (insanity) in the interface. Counts up from 0%. The values are called "insanity" and "shock" (or stress)
*Insanity increases when shock reaches 100% (instead of randomly happening when shock is high)
*The backstabbing skill gives highest dmg +50/100/150% extra dmg (was +50/100/150% added to rolled dmg)
*The XP info in the interface is of the format LVL: [level] NXT: [xp remaining for next lvl]
*Disease last much longer (but there are two types of potions that removes disease)
*Sadism does not decrease shock for killing LVL 1 creatures (rats, spiders...)
*A bug caused monsters to cast spells even while unaware
*Smoke was not erased when switching level
*Unseen cells are darker than in previous versions, and very slightly coloured blue
*The line under unaware monsters is blue instead of white
*When reading a scroll of summoning, the scroll identity is always revealed
*Fixed a typo when reading scrolls
-
Gave it a try. Quite nice! Seeing quite a bit of DoomRL influence here, which I like, and a smack of ADOM too I think?
The game's been pretty tough on me so far though. That's not a problem, but replaying the early levels would go by a lot more quickly and be less frustrating with a few interface niceties:
- If there's only a single door to 'c'lose, it should be automatically chosen (at least that's what I prefer - some people are weird and prefer that that shouldn't happen for some reason)
- Since the monsters tend to move about and not line up in corridors a lot, it would be nice to have something like Crawl's tab to hit the nearest monster
- 'w'alk from ADOM or, if you're feeling ambitious, aut'o'search from Crawl would be a really nice addition
- Also, this is just aesthetical, but I prefer FOV to be more permissive (at least enough so that you see the walls of a corridor you're in)
I kind of want to say that a few more starting HP would be nice, but that's probably just my newbieness-to-this-game talking. But I could stop being a newbie a lot faster with those interface features! :)
Oh, and one more thing: Permissive aiming (http://doryen.eptalys.net/forum/index.php?topic=1260.0). How about it? I really don't want to go into that room with the tommy gun-wielding guy when I know I could just kill him from the door like in DoomRL... except I can't since the aiming line goes through a wall :(
-
The game's been pretty tough on me so far though. That's not a problem,
Yeah I wanted it to be challenging from level 1, instead of having to play for 20 minutes before actually having to think about the moves.
If there's only a single door to 'c'lose, it should be automatically chosen
I read a debate on this at RGRD, and I'm leaning towards explicit commands myself, rather than the game interpreting what you want. But in this case it's probably a good idea since you do a lot of door closing. I'll try it.
Since the monsters tend to move about and not line up in corridors a lot, it would be nice to have something like Crawl's tab to hit the nearest monster
I wasn't aware of this feature, so I started up DCSS now, and wow that's a neat feature! I'll definitely implement this. But how do you handle cases where the player is next to several monsters? Does it choose one randomly, or just ignore the command?
'w'alk from ADOM or, if you're feeling ambitious, aut'o'search from Crawl would be a really nice addition
Maybe the walk command. But not auto explore, the map is too small so it's not as worthwhile.
Also, this is just aesthetical, but I prefer FOV to be more permissive (at least enough so that you see the walls of a corridor you're in)
Yes I've heard this elsewhere. I agree that it's too unpermissive and I'm looking into changing the line drawing/LOS algorithm.
Oh, and one more thing: Permissive aiming. How about it? I really don't want to go into that room with the tommy gun-wielding guy when I know I could just kill him from the door like in DoomRL... except I can't since the aiming line goes through a wall
I don't know what you mean by this (and the thread doesn't make it clearer either). Do you mean you can see the guy but not shoot him? That should never happen since the FOV and the aiming-line uses the same line algorithm.
-
Great to see another release on this! Just think of it as being very early for ARRP 2012, though I would like to imagine we'll be well into the r double-digits by that time... :P
-
Well, obviously DoomRL is DoomRL and Infra Arcana is a different game, and honestly it's probably best for aiming and vision to be exactly as permissive. But as it is, DoomRL has more permissive aiming than vision, meaning that for instance:
######
.....A
@#####
... here you can not see the A, but you *can* shoot at it. In that game it can be an essential tactic. But I don't know if I really want a mechanic like that to spread to other games...
-
Ah, no that feels very much like a distinctive DoomRL mechanic.
In IA you wait around the corner with an axe. It's easy to lure them out. :)
-
Sweet. I was going to get in some old fashioned Doom and/or Minecraft, but think I'm going to sink my teeth into this instead. Looking forward to playing around with the potions and scrolls more.
I agree that AI would be better without the permissive aiming that doomrl has.
I also agree with the comment about FOV.
-
8)
New line-drawing algo implemented (Bresenhams), plus a little FOV-hack.
The result is very nice!
+More permissive FOV.
+Corridors light up when you enter them.
+You can easily see corners.
+Projectiles have a much nicer and smother travelling path.
Edit: Nvm, Bresenhams caused some undesired behaviour (intrinsic to the algorithm). I still kept the hack though which works very nicely. Corridors and corners light up much better than before.
-
You might want to try Shadowcasting for FOV. There are some good guides on RogueBasin.
For door auto-opening you can set it as a config option. For auto-attack I suggest you have an order of preference (E, NE, N, NW, ...) when fighting numerous enemies so the player at least knows what to expect.
-
For door auto-opening you can set it as a config option.
Good idea.
For auto-attack I suggest you have an order of preference (E, NE, N, NW, ...) when fighting numerous enemies so the player at least knows what to expect.
I'm going fix targeting for ranged weapons, so that your target is the last monster fired at. Auto-melee should attack your current target if adjacent, otherwise attack something else and set that monster as target. The order of preference here is a good idea when there is no adjacent target.
-
I've added most of the interface improvements suggested here, and I liked them so much that I did a quick release:
Release 8.1 (September 24, 2011)
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
New features
*2 new unique monsters
*The tab key performs a melee attack vs an adjacent monster
Fixes & changes
*The FoV is more permissive with walls (especially corridors and corners)
*Default aim position is at last monster attacked
*If there is only one adjacent door, the 'close' command does not ask for direction
-
Awesome!
-
Been getting a decent mount of games in. It definitely feels more balanced for the most part.
One thing I've been noticing though is that the occultists seem to be dealing way more damage with their firepower than I am. I just got blown away from full health of 15 to zero in two shots from an occultist tommy gun. At least one other time something similar occurred when the occultist was wielding a colt.
Acid is a bitch when it likes to block my way. I like it though.
Haven't tried it yet, but can potions be thrown? Seems a little too unfair to have potions like blindness that can't be somehow used to your advantage after you have identified them by drinking.
Do the wolves respwn on the first (graveyard) level? The last game I played I thought I might try to grind on them a little bit, but they didn't seem to respawn.
Is it win-able yet? How many levels are you planning on making the goal and will you have to return to the surface?
*If there is only one adjacent door, the 'close' command does not ask for direction
I think it should be the same for bashing.
-
It definitely feels more balanced for the most part.
Good thing that it's moving in that direction.
can potions be thrown?
Planned. Hopefully for next release.
Do the wolves respwn on the first (graveyard) level? The last game I played I thought I might try to grind on them a little bit, but they didn't seem to respawn.
They don't respawn, and for that exact reason. :-)
Btw, next version will have an option to skip this level. It's great to just jump right into the dungeon when you're tired of the forest level.
Is it win-able yet?
No. I think this is meaningless until there is an even distribution of new monsters. This is my current focus.
How many levels are you planning on making the goal and will you have to return to the surface?
Around 30 levels. Not sure about returning to surface, but probably.
*If there is only one adjacent door, the 'close' command does not ask for direction
I think it should be the same for bashing.
Ah, yes indeed.
-
You've got a great game here NON. However: I've played several times now, and *every single time* I meet Keziah, and *every single time* I get blasted by spell after spell... slowed, diseased, blinded, you name it, while her rat bites the crap out of me. Each time I use different tactics--last time I emptied an entire shotgun on her to no avail--yet each time I die all the same. WTF?!
Maybe I'm just too weak when I meet her? She's always showing up on dungeon 3.
I must admit I didn't meet her in one game, but that's because I quit on dungeon 2 since there seemed to be no exit from the level. Something tells me that's not supposed to happen, but maybe I overlooked it... The level was suspiciously small, though; only about 60% of map size and no unexplored corridors/doors.
-
Very, very nice game and ambientation!
Whahaha fuckin' awesome I went to an altar, read a forbidden scroll and hundreds of critters appeared around me.. then drank a potion and became blind (maybe beacuse of a spider who knows)! but then dynamite and molotov cocktails everywhere yeeeah!
I like the upper-case/lower-case thing, good idea.
I'm really liking this game, can't stop playing it.
Best score so far: 941, burned to ashes by a hellhound on level 6 IIRC.
Definitively one of the best and most promising new roguelikes around.
Some little suggestions:
- when items/corpses go in acid, they shoud instantly dissolve otherwise it's impossible to recognize acid squares anymore (and it's also nice stopping those zombies to arise a million times)
- when the healing process is interrupted by an event, the "esc" and "space" keys should work like "n" (I know I'm lazy), it's very unlikely that someone would want to stay there until 10 or 50 turns have passed if there's an enemy nearby; the default thing should be to stop the player to search/heal unless he willingly press "y"
- the disease condition is heavily negative, maybe it should be lightened a little (making it less probable to happen, or quickier to heal, or reducing hpmax by less than the actual 50%)
-
Btw, next version will have an option to skip this level. It's great to just jump right into the dungeon when you're tired of the forest level.
Why? Not boring at all, it's quick and already challenging, I'd say it's one of the best introduction levels I've ever seen.. and imaging a blood thirsty hungry traveller killing wolves with an hatchet in an unconsacrated cathedrals is fantastic.
Furthermore, can't say why, games with at least an "oper air" level have a quid that underground-only games don't have. Like the forest in Eye of the Beholder 2; it's basically like every other dungeon, and after you enter the temple the game is always in closed environments, but it makes things feel different. Arx Fatalis would have been a lot better if only it had some above-ground levels. I don't even know if it does, because after playing some days I just couldn't play it anymore, fuck that. It feel like you're forever trapped in a situation with no beginning and no end. I don't know if this has to do with some kind of repressed unconscious claustrophobia I have, but game with at least one open air level (possibly in the beginning) make me feel like the main character has a story, has travelled to go there and wants to go deeper because otherwise he could travel back to home.
Even the little drawing of a forest in "a quest too far" is better than nothing hahah.
Am I the only one feeling this?
-
Nope, variety is good. Besides, outdoor doings were a huge part of Blood.
-
I love the way the way forest looks. Almost wish there was more of it in the game--perhaps expand on the size of some of the underground forest rooms? I guess you don't want any given room to be too large, but having an entire underground forest level would be nice.
The above-ground area doesn't usually take more than a few seconds to run through if you're in a hurry.
-
Thank you so much for all the praise guys. :)
I've played several times now, and *every single time* I meet Keziah, and *every single time* I get blasted by spell after spell... slowed, diseased, blinded, you name it, while her rat bites the crap out of me. Each time I use different tactics--last time I emptied an entire shotgun on her to no avail--yet each time I die all the same. WTF?
Unique monsters spawn until you kill them. Her earliest dungeon level is 3, so from there on she will keep showing up until you deal with her. For example, she can spawn on lvl3, but you miss her and go to lvl 4, she spawns there again and you miss her again, go to lvl 5, this time she doesn't spawn, but on lvl 6 she spawns again and you kill her, thus getting rid of her permanently.
This is because there are so few unique monsters so far, so I wanted to make sure the player encountered them. I'm currently adding more though, so I may change it so they can only spawn once.
However there is one thing I like about the current method; Revenge. You can flee, and attack later when you're stronger.
Concerning difficulty; Sometimes she seems trivial to me. I usually kill her and the rat quickly with dynamite. She can also be beat by reading certain scrolls, especially blind and paralyze. Of course this requires some luck in finding those. Potions of agility (or whatever I call them, they give you perfect dodge) are also handy. Maybe she should spawn a level later to give more chances to collect these things.
Whahaha fuckin' awesome I went to an altar, read a forbidden scroll and hundreds of critters appeared around me.. then drank a potion and became blind! but then dynamite and molotov cocktails everywhere yeeeah!
Awesome story :D.
when items/corpses go in acid, they shoud instantly dissolve otherwise it's impossible to recognize acid squares anymore
Good idea.
stopping those zombies to arise a million times
They can only rise once. I've even made them always blow up when they're killed the second time.
when the healing process is interrupted by an event, the "esc" key should like "n" (I know I'm lazy)
Not lazy. Good idea :). Space should also cancel it
the disease condition is heavily negative, maybe it should be lightened a little (making it less probable to happen, or quickier to heal) (just a bit)
What I like about the disease is that you gain a certain respect for rats :).
I will definetly keep the long duration, because it makes sense, and it also becomes important to find a potion that heals it. I may change it to 2/3hp instead of 1/2hp though, since it's very punishing now.
Btw, next version will have an option to skip this level. It's great to just jump right into the dungeon when you're tired of the forest level.
Why?
Well I got sick of it when I play-tested. Feels like the real game only begins after it.
With that said, I'm very satisfied with the look and feel of the forest, as an introductory and theme-setting level. So I'll keep it, and let the default option be to not skip it. The option is just there if you want to jump in faster.
Interesting point about how even a single outdoor area can enhance the feel of a dungeon crawling game. I probably knew this subconsciously when I made the level :).
but having an entire underground forest level would be nice.
Oooh. Very cool idea. There could also be forests of gigantic mushrooms (or "cyclopean" to use a Lovecraftian term) deep under ground, where the cave levels start.
-
So I have a bad habit of hoarding any items that seem powerful, then end up never using them before I die because I didn't use them; so now that I've gotten over that, disposing of Keziah ended up being a bit easier with a stick of dynamite and a clip of Colt ammo.
Things were looking up: Found about 20 Colts and raised firing skill 3 levels, blasted my way through the dungeon levels, and then made through most of 6 before Major Clapham Lee appeared, called forth his Tomb-Legions, and the game went into an infinite loop.
Now tell me: How am I supposed to defend against an infinite loop ;)
-
That really sucks: :(
It has happened to me as well a few times lately (in other places). I'll see if I can fix it.
Edit: Thanks to the power of Valgrind, I stomped out a few bugs in the code. One of them may have caused the infinite loop.
I played for about an hour now - No freezes or crashes encountered.
-
Well, I made a bot that plays the game by simulating keyboard presses.
It walks towards the stairs and travels down, killing monsters in its way (the player is immortal when the bot plays). It can bash stuck doors, and if "Terrified" it will wait until the condition is cured.
I ran 5 of those simultaneously, and they each got to dungeon level 999 without any freezes or crashes.
So in total, five thousand dungeon levels traveled through without problems. I would say the game is pretty stable after all.
Maybe I'll run a 9 hour stress test while I'm at work some day after the weekend. :)
Edit: Turns out the bot did a good job at finding another bug. It had stopped generating keyboard events (letting me take over instead). When I explored the level at which it had stopped, I saw that the stairs were placed on a little unreachable island in a chasm. Now I can prevent this from happening.
One thing I can also use it for, is to make it refuse to step on the stairs if the rendered symbol is not ">". Should be great for debugging cases where dungeon features and landscape are generated over the stairs.
-
Bots're great for debugging, also quite useful for balancing. I like to send them through again and again, and have them output reconfigurable html charts showing how many of each kind of enemy was met, strengths of items found. The charts can average the values from thousands of runs to be even more helpful.
got to dungeon level 999
There're 999 levels?!
And I thought my hour of play yesterday was getting me pretty far at D13! :-[
Finally had enough time to play more seriously. Started up my Diablo 2 soundtracks for ambience--very appropriate, highly recommended.
The setting became a bit repetitive and boring by d8~9, and finally changed to slimy green walls by 12, though the new walls were pretty much the only improvement, so the novelty will wear off quickly, I'm sure. As I mentioned before, I'd like to see more completely different environments, like underground forests, and anything else you can think up.
The swamp/acid/water rooms don't really add much flavor, and seem like they're there just to be there. They look cool and all (at least the acid), but don't really mean much for gameplay (at least not that I've discovered yet).
That said, my character's still not dead yet, so maybe I'll find more interesting environments later (hopefully before level 999 ::)). He seems pretty much unstoppable right now with a pack full of Tesla cannons, maxed firearms, maxed toughness (30 HP), and maxed fortitude. I just run through blasting away with Tesla cannons.
I read a scroll at an altar and it said "a powerful creature appears somewhere," but after a thorough search of the level, I didn't come across anything except a ghoul, which by then was old news. And I was walking around with 2 fully loaded Tesla cannons on fast swap expecting to meet some deadly demon! Aw...
Unfortunately my character is named "WTF", which came to be after the previous two properly named characters *both* died to a long succession of dogs before even entering the cathedral! ::)
I noticed some potions don't self-identify. Had 2 green potions -> drank one -> is potion of toughness -> other one still called "green potion" -> drink it and it's a potion of toughness, too, of course.
-
There're 999 levels?!
I just set it up so they could go infinitely deep. Ran two again yesterday that got to somewhere like 4000 levels each.
And I thought my hour of play yesterday was getting me pretty far at D13!
That is good! :)
The setting became a bit repetitive and boring by d8~9, and finally changed to slimy green walls by 12, though the new walls were pretty much the only improvement, so the novelty will wear off quickly, I'm sure. As I mentioned before, I'd like to see more completely different environments, like underground forests, and anything else you can think up.
There are cave levels after the slimy-wall levels.
I'm definitely gonna add the giant underground forest levels at some point!
The swamp/acid/water rooms don't really add much flavor, and seem like they're there just to be there. They look cool and all (at least the acid), but don't really mean much for gameplay (at least not that I've discovered yet).
Well the water is slower to wade through, and the mud much more so. Also, certain monsters have native rooms that populate the room if the dungeon level is deep enough for the monster level. In your version, nothing is native to the water/mud rooms, but in next version they will be home for certain fish-like creatures.
I noticed some potions don't self-identify. Had 2 green potions -> drank one -> is potion of toughness -> other one still called "green potion" -> drink it and it's a potion of toughness, too, of course.
Weird. I have not encountered this myself. Looking it up.
-
Well the water is slower to wade through, and the mud much more so. Also, certain monsters have native rooms that populate the room if the dungeon level is deep enough for the monster level. In your version, nothing is native to the water/mud rooms, but in next version they will be home for certain fish-like creatures.
Yeah, I figured there was more to come with those, but their current effects are pretty meaningless since 1) You can almost always circumvent them, and 2) You pretty much never encounter enemies in those rooms at all. I suppose the latter is because they're not populated by these creatures of which you speak.
-
I think a bot that plays the game is a really good testing infrastructure. Definitely not the easiest to implement, but good.
Every thing that's different between the 'bot and the player character is a class of bugs you can't find, though. Because your 'bot is immortal, you probably can't find bugs relating to taking damage, dying, and the highscores board with it. Because a different 'bot plays the game in a way other than simulating keypresses, it probably can't find bugs relating to getting input. Because a third 'bot plays the game without ever using the 'record/playback macro' facility, it can't find bugs relating to that. And so on.
And then there's even more subtle bugs that users find via typos and/or plain stupid moves, which the bot won't ever find if it's playing 'intelligently' all the time.
An ideal QA bot uses *every* part of the game, exercises *every* part of the code that relates to the user, and every once in a while, makes a stupid or random move just to see what happens.
-
Interesting post Bear, it actually makes me want to make even more use of the bot instead of deter me from it. :)
I just implemented knock-back from certain weapons. It was very handy to write the basic stuff, then send a bot out with a knock-back weapon while I continued to write some UI stuff etc. Then I could do a few short tests to see the results myself, while knowing that the bot had killed hundreds of monsters without crashing the game.
I think I will add some random picking up of items, wandering around to kill all monsters, using scrolls and potions etc, to exercise more of the code.
-
The bot from my last game had at its disposal every single command the player could perform, and used them all (plus randomness dependent on behavioral variables). Took forever to write (years, in fact :o), but 1) it found pretty much every single bug and 2) once you're done with it, a little more tweaking and you have a brilliant NPC, or competition for the player! :)
-
That's really cool. What game was it? Is there some way I can see it in action?
-
I'm trying to distance myself from that game as much as possible these months :-X, hence the heavy focus and pretty rapid progress on my new project. I'll tell you if/when I change my mind about bringing it up, sorry...
Until then I'll be enjoying working on X@COM and playing IA!
-
Had a little time to advance yesterday--"WTF" is now on D16 :D
It seems like the game gets easier and easier as you progress, since there aren't really any new/difficult enemies. I don't even have to worry about health (34 HP), and I still always have a pack full of Tesla ammo and kill everything before it even gets close. Once past the first few levels, these later ones seem trivial, which I suspect is because you haven't added all the challenges that will appear deeper in the dungeon? Might have to reduce ammo drops? I imagined the intent was that I'd run low on ammo at times and be forced to hack away with my Machete +5, or run.
Also, it wasn't just the green potion. *No* potions are identifying. I've drank lots of the same potions of different colors and still can't ID any of them. Did you find the same thing happening?
-
It seems like the game gets easier and easier as you progress, since there aren't really any new/difficult enemies.
That is exactly the case. The difficulty peaks somewhere around dungeon level 10 in your version I think.
Might have to reduce ammo drops?
Yeah I suspect that it's too much now.
Also, it wasn't just the green potion. *No* potions are identifying. I've drank lots of the same potions of different colors and still can't ID any of them. Did you find the same thing happening?
I found the error! :) :(
It was a mistake in the save file code.
-
Release 9 (October 12, 2011)
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
Highlights:
More elaborate skill system, potion throwing, some cool monsters, kicking, doors can be jammed with spikes...
New features
*Linux version
*Modified and expanded skill system:
~Some skills have been split (e.g. Firearms->Shotguns, Pistols, Automatics)
~You assign points instead of ranks
~The skills are ordered in groups (e.g. Stealth = Sneaking and Backstabbing)
~Putting points in one skill gives half the amount to all other skills in the same group
*New skills:
~Lore(Alchemy) - Used for identifying potions.
~Lore(Language) - Used for identifying scrolls.
*2 new unique monsters
*4 new common monsters
*Some more monster spells
*Doors can be jammed with iron spikes (j)
*Kick attack (k)
*Some attacks causes knock-back
*You can throw potions
*New symbol for walls (full square)
*Option for wall symbol (full square or '#')
*Option to skip intro-level
*Option for if 'Close', 'Bash', etc should always ask for direction
*Melee attack for fire hounds
*Command to "un-wield" missile weapons (M)
Fixes & changes
*The command to show the message log is now 'L' (used to be 'M')
*Cultists can drop scrolls and potions
*Potions and scrolls can spawn stacked
*Fixed a problem with save files messing up identified potions
*Messages in pop-up boxes are duplicated to the message history screen
*HP is raised more when gaining new levels, and starts a bit higher
*Disease lowers you to 3/4 HP instead of 1/2 HP
*Not all room entrances have doors
*Much lower masochism bonus (you could grind xp endlessly)
*Claustrophobia can not happen next to chasms
*The stairs could be hidden by certain things created by the special rooms
*More convenient configuration file (easier to choose font image)
*New AI for Fungi from Yuggoth (to avoid an exploit)
*The map is regenerated if too small
*Prevented chasms from making unreachable "islands"
*Fixed some code that may have made the game less stable
-
Fantastic! Niftier skills systems make everything better alongside a host of other gains. The future for this shines ever brighter. 8)
-
Wonderful news! Thank you NON!
-
Release 9.1 (October 13, 2011)
Fixes & changes
*Fixed a faulty message when throwing potions on monsters ("it had no apparent effect..." even when the effect was obvious. Only the message was wrong though, not the actual identification)
*You lost iron spikes if you tried to jam an open door
-
BLUNT
Hammer
Club
Sledge hammer
HEDGED
Dagger
Machete
Axe
Hatchet
Pitchfork
.. right?
-
Correct
-
What happens when you put spikes on a door? Monsters still manage to open it. Do they get some damages? are multiple spikes more effective?
Can armors be damaged/destroyed?
I like this new skill system.
-
What happens when you put spikes on a door?
Closed doors turns to stuck. Stuck doors gets more difficult to bash down.
Try it yourself. Set 3 spikes in a door and try to bash it down. Should be significantly harder than an ordinary stuck door.
Monsters still manage to open it.
Yes. With 3 spikes they only have have 1% chance to bash it down. But some monsters are very persistent, so if they try for many turns the odds are still pretty high.
Can armors be damaged/destroyed?
No, it's on the to-do list. Armors still totally sucks. :P
I like this new skill system.
Nice. So do I.
-
When "s"earching repeatedly, often I get killed by random acolytes shooting like crazy at me because I was just holding down the key.. I guess it would be better if, when attacked, the game would accept only a "y" to proceed with another 10 turns search.
-
New minor release. Some fixes + added a bigger font.
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
Release 9.2 (October 16, 2011)
New features
*A new font image added (11x19), edit config.txt to use it
Fixes & changes
*You can no longer wait ('s') while you see an enemy
*Missiles always landed at the end of their path (even if it hit a monster along the way)
*Fixed some grammatical errors
*Added a missing message (related to jamming doors)
-
Finally got a few plays of the latest version in. Very cool.
Cool to see the door jamming make it's way in the game.
Did Major clapham-lee continuously summon a rainbow of zombies at me?
The solid wall variation looks pretty good like angband walls although I still prefer #.
Not too fond of the cocoon symbol. A plain ascii alternative would be cool too.
The new skill system works pretty cool. I like it. It would be nice to be able to view the player skills during the game other than just when picking new ones at level up.
Seems like insanity is taking it's toll faster in this version.
Haven't really found the use of Kicking yet.
I really liked the event where the wall crumbled suddenly before my eyes.
While in spider lairs, I often get caught in spider webs that seem to just appear in places I move when there wasn't one there before I stepped into the spot.
-
Did Major clapham-lee continuously summon a rainbow of zombies at me?
He just summons them once (unless you flee and meet him again on another level).
The solid wall variation looks pretty good like angband walls although I still prefer #.
There's an option in config.txt to switch symbol, but you probably saw that.
Not too fond of the cocoon symbol. A plain ascii alternative would be cool too.
I'm thinking about doing a console version sometime, so providing ASCII alternatives to the custom-drawn symbols would be good in preparation of that.
It would be nice to be able to view the player skills during the game other than just when picking new ones at level up.
I agree, and I've been wanting a skill screen command too, just haven't done it yet. There also needs to be a screen for mental disorders you have, and one for knowledge (identified scrolls, potions and other objects).
Haven't really found the use of Kicking yet.
It has many uses! It's good in combination with pistols or throwing weapons since you can kick them away when they get close. It's sometimes good for crowd control to fight one monster at a time. You can also use it for kicking a monster that you think you can't beat out of a door, then quickly closing that door and jamming it with spikes. When using it on tiny creatures it turns into a stomp which has extra hit chance. The kick is particularly useful when there's a chasm on the level. ;)
While in spider lairs, I often get caught in spider webs that seem to just appear in places I move when there wasn't one there before I stepped into the spot.
That's because the spiderwebs are traps- some of them are invisible (but spiderwebs are much easier to spot than other traps).
-
Quote
Did Major clapham-lee continuously summon a rainbow of zombies at me?
He just summons them once (unless you flee and meet him again on another level).
-Seemed like he summoned quite a few zombies the one time then. I want to say about 10. Little rough for dlvl 4.
Yeah I know you can change the wall type in the config file.
I think it would be nice to have a single key stroke to bring up the player information and use the left/right arrow keys to cycle between the different info screens like skills, mental disorders, and knowledge.
I figured the invisible webs were like traps.
The way you describe kicking, sounds like an awesome feature that adds a whole lot of strategy nd depth to the combat. Definitely gonna give it a try. Just curious, If I can kick an enemy into a chasm, will I get experience for it?
Need effect for the pits.
-
-Seemed like he summoned quite a few zombies the one time then. I want to say about 10. Little rough for dlvl 4.
Yeah it can be a very nasty encounter. I think that by that level there ought to be something that you are unlikely to beat by just hacking at it, instead you have to use items.
I think it would be nice to have a single key stroke to bring up the player information and use the left/right arrow keys to cycle between the different info screens like skills, mental disorders, and knowledge.
Hey that's a good idea. I'll probably have '@' for character info, then you can access all those screens from there. Less keyboard commands for the player to learn.
Just curious, If I can kick an enemy into a chasm, will I get experience for it?
Yes.
Another note on kicking, sometimes they get paralyzed for a turn (or two?) when you kick them. So you can kick someone and then run up and slice them with your machete. I'm not sure it's a particularly good strategy, but it's a cool scenario I think, from a role-playing/cinematic point of view. :)
Need effect for the pits.
Pits will be traps in next version. Probably quite dangerous too, "You fall down a pit! You break your neck! You are dead." Makes the spot traps skill a little more valuable.
-
Pits will be traps in next version. Probably quite dangerous too, "You fall down a pit! You break your neck! You are dead." Makes the spot traps skill a little more valuable.
If falling into a pit means instant death, then they should not be hidden, invisible, or unavoidable in anyway I think. This would just be too unfair and annoying. Unavoidable instant death is never very well received in any game.
If a pit dropped you down to the next level while taking damage and confusion from the fall, this would be more acceptable if pits were to be somehow unavoidable.
***EDIT***
"you finnish applying first aid" . Should be "finish"
I miss the trait that let you switch weapons without taking time. :(
It would also be nice if the player could use "esc" and "enter/space" keys as an equivalent to no/yes respectively.
-
"you finnish applying first aid" . Should be "finish"
Corrected. Thx.
I miss the trait that let you switch weapons without taking time.
I wasn't aware that anyone picked it. :)
It would also be nice if the player could use "esc" and "enter/space" keys as an equivalent to no/yes respectively.
I agree on esc and enter, but I'm not sure if space should be considered a "yes" or a "no". In most places in the game it's a cancellation command (abort wield, bash, close, kick... close various screens), so it seems more intuitive to me that space = no.
-
I miss the trait that let you switch weapons without taking time.
I wasn't aware that anyone picked it. :)
Haven't gotten a chance to try out R9 yet, but I found it quite useful when I was playing before. Good if you rely heavily on firearms and are afraid of running out of ammo in the middle of a long firefight--just hold two loaded weapons :)
-
I miss the trait that let you switch weapons without taking time.
I wasn't aware that anyone picked it.
I used it quite often. Usually as my second or third trait. I liked to scout around with melee weapons then switch to ranged when an occultist came into vision or if I was low on health while fighting melee then switch to a shotgun to finish an enemy off close range.
Since the skill/trait system has changed, maybe how good or poor each one is should be randomized at the beginning of the game?
-
Since the skill/trait system has changed, maybe how good or poor each one is should be randomized at the beginning of the game?
I want to add something to the character creation process that affects your starting skills. I was thinking of letting the player pick a background. Examples might be:
Soldier = All firearms, Fortitude
Policeman = All melee, Dodge, Toughness
Archaeologist = Spot doors, Spot traps, Language, Composure
Criminal = Sneaking, Backstabbing, All melee, Pistols, Lock pick, Disarm traps
Oculist/Sorcerer - Magic-oriented skills, Language, Alchemy, Fortitude
But I'm not sure if it's a good idea. When I play I mostly focus on melee and dodge, but I don't want to be a policeman every time. Otherwise I think it's a nice idea, since it highlights different styles (firearms, melee, exploring, stealth, magic...).
Another option is that the player answers questions (like in ADOM), and maybe each question increases one skill and decreases another. I'm not too excited about this idea though, since it seems like a really convoluted way of picking starting stats, especially once you learn what each question affects.
The randomization of the skills may work. There could be a character description text generated based on the randomized values (and also with some useless but fun stuff like hair color completely randomized).
-
Randomization might be the best and simplest way.
Although I do like the background idea. Just don't like the policeman background for some reason. Maybe Detective instead. You might give each background one special ability as well to make the decision more meaningful.
Maybe even have the background picked at random?
Answering the same set of questions at the beginning of each game would become tiresome. I never liked this mechanic personally in other games like Ultima and Dark Heart of Uukrul and a few others.
Don't think hair color needs to be to be in there. I personally prefer to leave details like that to my imagination to decide. Although I wouldn't be totally against it.
-
Another option is that the player answers questions (like in ADOM), and maybe each question increases one skill and decreases another. I'm not too excited about this idea though, since it seems like a really convoluted way of picking starting stats, especially once you learn what each question affects.
Those systems always seem a bit contrived, thus defeating their purpose.
-
Just gave it another go, after 7 releases or something. All your progress is really showing, its really looking good. More atmosphere, items, monsters, and GUI aspects are great. Keep it up.
-
Now that was a welcome comment. :)
Incidentally, I recently tried release 1 for fun/nostalgia. Felt very rough and simple, but quite fun in its simpleness. Crazy unbalanced though.
Release 10 will be awesome. :)
-
Are you planning something special for release 10? Will it be a major milestone in development? I might hold off playing until then :)
-
Well for one thing you will actually be able to win the game.
Armor is finally done right (it was just a placeholder before).
You can study scrolls and learn to cast them at any time, so there's a whole new "wizard"-type of character build to pursue.
Besides that there's a bunch of smaller additions and fixes which are really nice.
-
This is by far the biggest update yet. Finally, at the tenth release, there is actually a trapezohedron that you can go down and find to win the game. :)
Download here (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
Release 10 (November 19, 2011)
*The game is winnable
*New armor system:
~Armors provide different amount of protection from different damage types (physical, fire, electricity, etc)
~Armors can be damaged, which makes it less effective
~Armors are named "Name [D%, AP]", where D=Durability, AP=Damage reduction (vs physical)
~Armor stats are shown in the character info lines
*New armor type: Asbestos suit (very good against certain damage types, bad against physical)
*New magic system:
~Scrolls (now called manuscripts) can be studied to be identified or memorized (to cast them at any time)
~Chance to identify or memorize depends on the language ability
~Casting spells from memory drains Spirit Points, it can also cause miscasts with negative effects
~The 'R'-key is used for studying texts, 'x' for casting from memory, and 'X' for casting from manuscripts
*The melee abilities are merged into one again, and vice versa for firearms (the split didn't add anything to the game)
*New abilities:
~Spirit - increases max Spirit Points
~Arcana - gives better chances to cast spells from memory without failure
~Technique (melee) - Chance to get free turn (light weapons), full damage (heavy), or random bonus (medium)
~Reloading - Chance to get a free turn when reloading firearms
*7 new monsters
*6 new potions
*"Treasure rooms" with armor and ammo, or scrolls and potions, that are usually secret.
*First aid can not be started if a monster is seen, and is automatically aborted if one appears
*Special rooms occur less often
*Less pop-up descriptions when entering special rooms (I found them extremely repetitive once you know them)
*Mi-Go electric guns cause paralysis
*Added missing messages for wielding and wearing things
*Attacking an unaware monster in melee makes it aware even if you miss
*The Incinerator's dmg description is "?" (less misleading than showing the projectile impact damage)
*Removed some stuff from the character info lines to make room for new things
*Pools no longer slows you down (it didn't work very well)
-
Wonderful news.. thank you NON!
-
Fantastic and congrats! 8)
-
Thank you. And no release is complete without discovering a nasty bug afterwards. >:(
Version 10.1 uploaded:
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
-
Thank you. And no release is complete without discovering a nasty bug afterwards. >:(
Or 2 :)
Congrats, greate progress. I have not got too far in yet, but loving what I see.
Unfortuanately I got a crash in my first game.
Quaffing an unknown potion that seared my intestines :-\ This probably killed me, but I dont really know.
(I attempted to add a picture but I am getting wierd errors)
-
Alright, thanks for the mail you sent. I'll see if there's any problems with that particular potion.
Ok I can reproduce the bug. It crashes every time I die due to potion of scorching. I'll fix it later today.
-
Ok I uploaded 10.2
I changed it so you can't go below 1 hp from drinking that potion.
-
Digging some of the new additions.
The ghost kinda scared me when I first encountered it. It was right next to me and I didn't know what to do because I wasn't sure if bullets or a melee weapon was going to just go right threw it and I'd be screwed without some sort of magical attack.
Th ooze takes quite a bit of lead to put down. I still hate that damn Major.
A lock pick item as an alternative to bashing stuck/locked doors would be nice so they could be opened without being broken.
I miss being able to see what exact weapon I am wielding in the player status area at the bottom of the screen.
Haven't had any luck memorizing a spell yet.
Disease seems to last quite a while.
The level layouts are nicer and less repetitive now since the special rooms occur a little less often.
The game overall seems a bit more balanced.
I'm still keeping an eye out for some sort of hellraiser inspired chain weapon or trap or cenobite like monster. :p
I drank two different potions and when I drank them, they both just said that they had no effect on me. After the first one, I assumed it was some sort of potion of disease since I was already diseased and it would have made sense for it to have no effect. Why did the other potion have no effect? Because of a resistance or are there dummy potions too?
-
The ghost kinda scared me when I first encountered it. It was right next to me and I didn't know what to do because I wasn't sure if bullets or a melee weapon was going to just go right threw it and I'd be screwed without some sort of magical attack.
I think I'm going to make it so physical attacks have 50% chance of passing through it.
Th ooze takes quite a bit of lead to put down.
Yeah they have a huge amount of HP for their level. It's probably a good idea not to waste ammo on them.
A lock pick item as an alternative to bashing stuck/locked doors would be nice so they could be opened without being broken.
I intend to add more door statuses, types and materials. Lock picks will be used on locked doors but not on stuck.
I miss being able to see what exact weapon I am wielding in the player status area at the bottom of the screen.
So do I, but it simply doesn't fit.
Haven't had any luck memorizing a spell yet.
The related skills may increase too slowly. I will boost them for next release.
Disease seems to last quite a while.
I like it that way. It makes it different from the other statuses. You'll have to find a way to heal it, or be stuck with it for a long time. (And a disease is not something which should just last a short moment)
The level layouts are nicer and less repetitive now since the special rooms occur a little less often.
Good to hear. It was ridiculous in the previous version where there were like 2 ritual chambers and a chasm on every level. :P
The game overall seems a bit more balanced.
Great.
I'm still keeping an eye out for some sort of hellraiser inspired chain weapon or trap or cenobite like monster. :p
I have soon reached a phase where I add strange artifacts and tomes (studying magic was a one step towards this). I could add such a weapon if I can figure out exactly how it should be implemented, both in terms of code and game play mechanics.
I drank two different potions and when I drank them, they both just said that they had no effect on me. After the first one, I assumed it was some sort of potion of disease since I was already diseased and it would have made sense for it to have no effect. Why did the other potion have no effect? Because of a resistance or are there dummy potions too?
If the potion has a negative effect and you resist it, it is still identified. There are no dummy potion, all of them have potential effects. If nothing happens however, the potion is not identified (resisting a negative effect counts as something happening), so for example drinking a potion of cure phobias without having phobias will not reveal the potion. (This sucks for the player since that potion is valuable to have. Having the alchemy skill can prevent potion wasting).
-
I think I'm going to make it so physical attacks have 50% chance of passing through it.
Noooooooo!
Actually, that is a good idea since it will help make the ghost more unique instead of just cannon (machete) fodder. Although 50% seems a little steep. Maybe 25%? Especially since when I first encountered one, it was on the 2nd level and had no type of magical attack to hit it with.
-
Yeah I've should have written X% chance, since all creature/item/ability attribute values tend to be way off from fun/sensible game play on the first guess.
-
Yeah I've should have written X% chance, since all creature/item/ability attribute values tend to be way off from fun/sensible game play on the first guess.
Kinda noticed in the earlier builds. :p
Although I can't say that I would mind if the Major spawned a few less zombies. :D Just a couple less. Iv'e yet to escape/defeat him.
-
Was just thinking that if you do ever decide to add a "sawtooth" (quake inspired nail gun) weapon, you could use the door nails/spikes as ammo.
Is there eventually going to be weapon/armor identification too? All weapons state if they are "+1" so far. Not that I really mind, but just curious. Can't say I would be looking forward to any curses that would come with a weapon/armor identification element.
-
Was just thinking that if you do ever decide to add a "sawtooth" (quake inspired nail gun) weapon, you could use the door nails/spikes as ammo.
Nice idea. Multiple use of items is good.
Is there eventually going to be weapon/armor identification too? All weapons state if they are "+1" so far. Not that I really mind, but just curious
The pluses on weapons are not supposed to be enchantments, it's just the quality and condition of the weapon. Same with armor, the character can see at a glance how torn it is, there is nothing magical or hidden about it.
There will be item identifiaction though, in the form of learning about weird/alien artifacts before you can use them.
Cursed/normal/blessed is something I'm undecided about. I don't think those will be things that items can be, but I haven't thought much about it.
-
Flares could be another possible multi-use item. They could be used to toss into dark rooms to light the whole room up for a certain number of turns. They would be thrown in the same manner as the dynamite, cocktails, and potions, only not be damaging to enemies except for maybe small creatures like spiders and rats.
They could also be used as ammo for a flare gun like in Blood. It would work similar to the Molotov cocktail, only longer range and would only initially light one enemy on fire. Possibly any other enemies that are directly next to the one it hits.
-
Neat ideas, and pretty easy to do.
I think the flare should burrow inside and cause fire damage each turn, and if the target dies during this time, a fire explosion is made from the victim. This would be tactically interesting. If you shoot the zombie with a flare it might run up to you and explode, but you may also take out all his buddies if you time it right.
-
Neat ideas, and pretty easy to do.
I think the flare should burrow inside and cause fire damage each turn, and if the target dies during this time, a fire explosion is made from the victim. This would be tactically interesting. If you shoot the zombie with a flare it might run up to you and explode, but you may also take out all his buddies if you time it right.
That does sound tactically interesting. It should have quite a long range though so the player can use it most effectively. Would it explode only when they die by taking enough damage with it? Or after a certain number of turns?
If it's when they die, then it makes it interesting to shoot one with the flare, then switch to another weapon like a shotgun, to try and make him die quicker so he explodes further away and hopefully next to other enemies. This would especially be useful if the fast switching of prepared weapons skill was brought back in some way or another.
Spiked mace?
-
Easiest would be if they exploded when they died with a flare in them.
This would especially be useful if the fast switching of prepared weapons skill was brought back in some way or another.
That does sound fun, to have better chance with this tactic by getting that trait.
I wonder how the trait would be brought in though. Maybe you get it for free if both firearms and melee goes above a certain value.
-
I wonder how the trait would be brought in though. Maybe you get it for free if both firearms and melee goes above a certain value.
Perhaps that could be a good way. Or it could be a one time selectable trait like before?
Fitting with the way the skills work now, maybe it could be it's own trait that decreases the amount of time it takes to switch weapons, and when you get good enough (put enough points into it) you will be able to switch weapons without taking up a turn at all.
Or, if there is no real timing system in the game, each point put into the trait, makes it so there is a possibility of switching weapons without taking a turn? The more points you have in the trait, the more likely the free turn may occur until you have maxed it out and you always get to switch without taking a turn. I think this way might work best if it's not a one time trait or a freebie when firearms + melee reach a certain point like you suggested.
Maybe a spiked mace could be a weapon that when it hits a "living" enemy, gives it a bleeding effect which slowly drains it of life? Kinda like the flares but to a lesser extent, no explosion, and is melee. And maybe a better chance at a critical hit when sneaking? Just an idea for another weapon that can stand out a bit. Or a spiked mace launcher? :P that would be a brutal and gory death.
-
I do have such a time system now, that could make the round take 42% less time or something. But I'm about to change this for a more predictable system (one monster may for example have 3 moves for every 5 you have, a nice steady ratio). I don't like the way it is now, it's too chaotic, and that eliminates a big tactical aspect of the game. I'd rather have the player look at the patterns and be able to plan their moves.
Or it could be a one time selectable trait like before?
I could just throw it in as its own category I guess, an ability that goes from 0 to 100% in one pick, but it feels ugly. Hm, maybe I should go back to having abilities be measured in ranks again, it's easier to add little fun traits like this then...
Maybe a spiked mace could be a weapon that when it hits a "living" enemy, gives it a bleeding effect which slowly drains it of life?
Man you've been advocating the mace for months, now I'll have to add it soon. ;D
-
I do have such a time system now, that could make the round take 42% less time or something. But I'm about to change this for a more predictable system (one monster may for example have 3 moves for every 5 you have, a nice steady ratio). I don't like the way it is now, it's too chaotic, and that eliminates a big tactical aspect of the game. I'd rather have the player look at the patterns and be able to plan their moves.
I think the new way you are about to change it too sounds good.
I could just throw it in as its own category I guess, an ability that goes from 0 to 100% in one pick, but it feels ugly. Hm, maybe I should go back to having abilities be measured in ranks again, it's easier to add little fun traits like this then...
I did like the ranks system, And I do like being able to have traits like this. The recent system has grown on me a bit though. Kinda hard to say which I like better personally so far. If it does remain the same, then I think the "each point put into the trait, makes it so there is a possibility of switching weapons without taking a turn? The more points you have in the trait, the more likely the free turn may occur until you have maxed it out and you always get to switch without taking a turn. " might work with the way you are about to change the timing.
Man you've been advocating the mace for months, now I'll have to add it soon.
I think it's been a while since I mentioned it last. :p And yes you should. :D
For some reason I just think the spiked mace and the sawtooth/nail gun would go really nicely with your game. The nail gun could possibly knock enemies back to the wall and pin them too it temporarily. Or have a chance of doing that. Or just rip them to shreds with rusty nails. ;D
They fit with the somewhat bizarre and strange/mystical horror feel of the game in my opinion. The flare gun is sounding fun too.
This game and hydra slayer are the only two roguelikes I liked enough to want to take such an interest in and give my opinions/ideas for. (the guys over at doomrl either ignored me or flamed me so I gave up trying. )
anyways, mace or no mace, nail gun or no nail gun, I will keep playing Infra Arcana and love doing so.
p.s. I do still really want the spiked mace and nail gun. :p
p.p.s. my birthday is March 1st
Thanks for considering and responding to my input btw.
-
If it does remain the same, then I think the "each point put into the trait, makes it so there is a possibility of switching weapons without taking a turn?
That would be consistent with how the reloading trait and swift strikes work, which is good.
Hmm... what I could do is group all firearms and melee traits under "Weapons", and also have the swapping trait under that category. That makes more sense to me than to have a weird extra category that weapon swapping would go in. Also, If they are all grouped under "Weapons", then swapping would benefit passively if you pick either melee or firearms which seems reasonable.
For some reason I just think the spiked mace and the sawtooth/nail gun would go really nicely with your game.
On the topic of the nail gun; I was sold on it when you came up with the idea of using the iron spikes as ammo (I'm also going to make the spikes a thrown weapons, so many possibilities for one item :o). I need an explanation for the name "sawtooth" though, I don't get it.
The nail gun could possibly knock enemies back to the wall and pin them too it temporarily.
I was already thinking that. It seems like a requirement for it to be worth implementing at all, otherwise it'd just be another firearm. If it has knock-back though, it should be a one-shot weapon. A machine gun with knock-back could knock them away 10 cells.
The flare gun is sounding fun too.
It sounds hilarious.
anyways, mace or no mace, nail gun or no nail gun, I will keep playing Infra Arcana and love doing so.
:D
Thanks for considering and responding to my input btw.
Well I think it makes the game richer if ideas are coming from more than one person. Plus it challenges me to adapt and improve the code to accommodate far goals, instead of just picking the lowest hanging fruit all the time.
-
Hmm... what I could do is group all firearms and melee traits under "Weapons", and also have the swapping trait under that category. That makes more sense to me than to have a weird extra category that weapon swapping would go in. Also, If they are all grouped under "Weapons", then swapping would benefit passively if you pick either melee or firearms which seems reasonable.
You could do that and it sounds interesting and makes sense. Alternately, if you still want to keep firearms and melee separate, it might make sense to put the swapping of weapons into the agility section?
I need an explanation for the name "sawtooth"
Just a kinda abstract name I think that sounded a bit better than simply "nail gun." I thought of it as kinda like the nails being the teeth on a saw that rips through the enemies. "Perforator might work too. I always like to picture it as an archaic sort of firearm technology.
If it has knock-back though, it should be a one-shot weapon. A machine gun with knock-back could knock them away 10 cells.
I think the nail gun as a rapid-fire weapon makes sense to nail an enemy to the wall a bit more than single shot since it would most likely take multiple nails to pin someone to a wall. Maybe the enemy would have to be at least one space away from the wall but no further? That way it would add more strategy to the weapon and keep it from being too powerful? Or both? One as an alt-fire?
I was also thinking about being able to throw the nails as well.
-
Meh, I'm going back to ranks for skills. I'm tired of trying to puzzle out which traits belong in what categories.
Hypothetical thought process: "Should weapon swapping be in 'Weapons' or in in 'Agility'? Probably weapons. But Swapping should increase faster than the aiming skills, so they can't go together ... bla bla".
And I don't see the point any more in restricting the player from picking two traits from the same category.
And the percentage values that don't even mean anything - Firearms skill level at 60%... 60% of what?
-
The tile set looks pretty cool. Is it going to be purely black and white or will it be color too like the ascii? Is ascii still going to be an option?
-
The tile set looks pretty cool. Is it going to be purely black and white or will it be color too like the ascii?
It will be colored just like the ascii.
Is ascii still going to be an option?
Of course.
-
Yeah I won't even bother pretending there won't be a "11.1" fix soon. :P
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
Anyway, now it has a gorgeous tile set thanks to Oryx.
New stuff:
*Tile set
*New font (16x24)
*New time system (easier to predict how much the monsters will move between your turns)
*New item: Flares - can be used to light up dark rooms
*The skill system uses ranks again (instead of percentages)
*Renamed the "Reloading" trait to "Weapon handling" and included chance for instant wield or swap
*Merged the traits "Spot traps" and "Spot secret doors" into "Spot constructions"
*New ability: "Spot items" - you find more items
*Merged the traits "Evade melee" and "Evade traps" into "Dodge"
*Removed the "Alchemy" trait and included potion identifying in "Arcana" instead
*Removed the trait "Composure" and included shock resistance in "Fortitude" instead
*Better formula for chances to study scrolls (smoother increase)
*Fixed a bug that caused the 'get' command to crash the game after loading a save file
*Decreased the HP of all monsters
-
Hahaha----excellent! 8)
I hope to see more projects bang out a nice, timely release during the duration of the big yearly ASCII Dreams Roguelike Poll to keep it lively and everybody guessing right up to the finish line. ;)
I recommend putting some fresh screenshots on the Roguebasin page and the game's homepage for best effect.
-
The tiles look pretty nice. I especially liked how the character tile changed depending on whether I was wielding a melee weapon or a firearm.
The flare worked nicely.
Died by getting swarmed as usual. :p
When I did, the info screen did not show all of the map that I had uncovered. Only a tiny bit where I died. Also, the info showed the map in ascii instead of tiles.
I got pus'd on!
***EDIT***
Found a bug.
When playing with font 3 (16x24) in ascii mode with solid walls, the walls do not appear. There is just black space. The tombstones in the cemetery don't appear either.
-
Oh yeah, I didn't make special symbols, since I intend(ed) to go pure ascii for that mode (that is, I would also erase all special symbols from the other fonts as well). I want to be able to run it in a console eventually, if it's not too much work to adapt input/rendering for it. So that font can be considered not supported for ascii mode.
Hm, the problem is if someone else tries to switch from tiles to ascii without changing the font...
The flare worked nicely.
Yeah it's actually useful. Especially in the "wall-crumble" rooms.
When I did, the info screen did not show all of the map that I had uncovered.
Noticed it too. This coupled with the font problem may be reason enough for a 11.1.
-
11.1 uploaded
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
*Added a Flare Gun
*There was some problems with the map in the postmortem screen
*The 16x24 font is unfinished for ascii mode, removed that option from the config file
-
The 16x24 font is unfinished for ascii mode, removed that option from the config file
:( I rather liked that font. My peepers ain't so great, so the bigger the font, the easier to read. The font worked fine with ascii walls.
Can't wait to try the flare gun.
-
If you want you can just add/draw the special tiles yourself on the 16x24 font sheet (just look at another font sheet to see their positions), then set 3 as the font option (it's still available even though it's not listed). ;D
Or just use nr 3 anyway as it is. You won't see a few things, like graves, though. :)
-
If you want you can just add/draw the special tiles yourself on the 16x24 font sheet (just look at another font sheet to see their positions), then set 3 as the font option (it's still available even though it's not listed). ;D
Or just use nr 3 anyway as it is. You won't see a few things, like graves, though. :)
Will that font come back officially in a later version after it's fixed?
I tend to get swarmed a lot and it's usually how I end up dying. Maybe some sort of 360 attack/spell would be nice to have. As a spell it could be either an attack or something like in Hexen where it just pushes the enemies back away from you so hopefully you could make an escape.
As an attack, maybe it could be some sort of special move that has a possibility of happening when swarmed. Something that has a better chance depending on how many points you have put into the melee skills?
-
Buggy bug bug! Version 11.0
A phantom turned up on the 12th level, with a blue underscore. As I went to hit it I moved into the square it occupied!
Then I moved off and 'l'ooked at it. It showed the "this is a specter press 'l' for more info" and my stats at the bottom but the map screen was totally black!
Then I pressed ESC and the map screen stayed blank, I did see the blue '_' move around a bit. Note that I had no effects affecting me. E.g no blinding etc.
Hmm disconcerting. I saved the game and quit. Thankfully upon loading I got my map back. However I did notice I was not in the same place anymore which was weird and the map seemed different, a large room with single blocks everywhere.
Then I got attacked by two mummies, since there was really nowhere to hide, I whipped out my incinerator, and consequently missed, it traveled to the edge of the screen and exploded.
Then the map went blank again, I pressed a move button and the game silently crashed. D'oh.
"No save games found." D'oh x2 Got me thinking I probably should of backed my game file up after the first weirdness.
Anyway some other points;
- Flares do nothing to shock percent in dark rooms.
- Is it my imagination but do monsters not step on corpses.
- I would like a character screen: shows skills, phobias etc. 'C' or '@'
- Also I would like a Items Identified screen which shows all the current potions etc that I have identified. ( I could of sworn I swallowed the same bad unidentified potion twice.)
Starting to get the hang of this game, I find that the biggest issue is the insanity factor not the monsters. Quite often I die because I was not really paying attention rather than a dangerous situation. maybe if you threw in a monster that did larger damage earlier on it might be more scarier. But that said that insanity seems to do the job enough, there is a balance between exploring and descending which I quite like.
-
A phantom turned up on the 12th level, with a blue underscore. As I went to hit it I moved into the square it occupied!
Do you know what cell the monster was on? Was it a wall or some other cell which blocks the player? If so I have a rough idea what the problem is.
However I did notice I was not in the same place anymore
You know that when you save you also travel down the stair?
the map seemed different, a large room with single blocks everywhere. Then I got attacked by two mummies
Congratulations on getting that far. :)
Flares do nothing to shock percent in dark rooms.
This is known, and something I intended to implement the right way later.
Is it my imagination but do monsters not step on corpses.
Possible. The methods for checking if a cell is blocked was recently rewritten, so I could have missed checking if the creature is dead.
I would like a character screen: shows skills, phobias etc. 'C' or '@'
Also I would like a Items Identified screen which shows all the current potions etc that I have identified.
They are both on the to-do list.
( I could of sworn I swallowed the same bad unidentified potion twice.)
It could have been potion of corruption and potion of searing (or whatever it's called). The first decreases your max HP, and the other only does damage. They are easy to confuse. In fact I think the latter is redundant, I might remove it.
maybe if you threw in a monster that did larger damage earlier on it might be more scarier
I'm not really attempting to make a scary game. I've never felt fear in a game myself (and I've played Undying, Penumbra, etc), so it's seems like a futile attempt. Same thing when I read Lovecraft. What I get from his stories instead is a sense of wonder. It's rather this sense that is the long-term goal for the game, coupled with the black humour from the Evil Dead series et al. Your character is supposed to be a mix between your typical Lovecraft protagonist + Ash from Evil Dead + Caleb from Blood. :)
-
I have not been able to reproduce the step-into-monster bug. I tried it many times both when it stood on floor and on a blocking feature, and when it was aware and not. I just do a melee attack as it should be.
Btw, a hint for using the incinerator; Don't aim at the monster you're trying to hit, aim next to them at the floor. ;)
-
uote
Flares do nothing to shock percent in dark rooms.
This is known, and something I intended to implement the right way later.
I think you should still be shocked the same amount if you enter the room first. It should only lower it if you throw the flare in the room before you actually enter it. Like throwing it from the doorway or just outside it.
It could have been potion of corruption and potion of searing (or whatever it's called). The first decreases your max HP, and the other only does damage. They are easy to confuse. In fact I think the latter is redundant, I might remove it.
I don't think it seems too redundant. One is more sever than the other. If I had to pick one to check, it would be the first one. :P
I'm not really attempting to make a scary game. I've never felt fear in a game myself (and I've played Undying, Penumbra, etc), so it's seems like a futile attempt. Same thing when I read Lovecraft. What I get from his stories instead is a sense of wonder. It's rather this sense that is the long-term goal for the game, coupled with the black humour from the Evil Dead series et al. Your character is supposed to be a mix between your typical Lovecraft protagonist + Ash from Evil Dead + Caleb from Blood.
I think you've done a very good job conveying these feelings in the game. I don't think higher damage enemies earlier on is really needed. I rarely make it past level 4 myself. Sometimes 5.
-
What I mean implementing the dark rooms "the right way", is to have darkness cause shock instead of the room.
I think you've done a very good job conveying these feelings in the game.
Thanks man. It'll get a lot crazier though if I ever find time to implement everything I want.
Will that font come back officially in a later version after it's fixed?
Sure. I found some more nasty stuff today so a version 11.2 is totally needed, I'll fix the 16x24 font for ascii then as well.
-
The specter was near the top of the screen, I believe one square away from the topmost wall, remember it had not seen me yet. I attempted to bump it and I went into it. I walked off it and there it was. If it happens again I will
The only thing I can think of is there might be a memory problem somewhere generated from a c array, if you are writing in C/C++ that is. I.e. the specter was not really in that dungeon cell but by some bug the graphics engine thought it was, so when I attacked it the combat engine determined that there was no monster there.
Possibly it was not even on that level, but for some reason was shown on that level??
Just throwing ideas out there.
maybe if you threw in a monster that did larger damage earlier on it might be more scarier
I'm not really attempting to make a scary game. I've never felt fear in a game myself (and I've played Undying, Penumbra, etc), so it's seems like a futile attempt. Same thing when I read Lovecraft. What I get from his stories instead is a sense of wonder. It's rather this sense that is the long-term goal for the game, coupled with the black humour from the Evil Dead series et al. Your character is supposed to be a mix between your typical Lovecraft protagonist + Ash from Evil Dead + Caleb from Blood. :)
The atmosphere is great, exploration and a sense of wonder, good good good.
Ok let me reiterate, I meant more difficult, not scarier. How can an ascii game be scary, although they can raise the heart beat sometimes :) I really meant that I find the combat a little too easy, and when I die, I die because of lack of attention rather than not having the necessary skills to avoid death. Lack of attention happens because I dont think anything around me can kill me, because they do so little damage. My suggestion was to up the damage or some "scarier" monsters so I was more wary of encounters.
I never seem to use ranged combat, I hardly ever use explosives except for fun. I just thought maybe you can inject some heart stopping moments in the early levels, or force a reason for me to use ranged combat, but if other people find it too difficult then maybe it is fine the way it is. I guess roguelikes don't have to be impossible. Come to think of it I enjoyed DoomRL more when I could win it with out problems. :)
I find the same problem in ADOM, where I am killing hundreds of wolves and then I dont see that werewolf amongst them and I die, because I get complacent easy. Games like doomrl and crawl you never get complacent. Complacency in crawl is a death sentence.
Cheers.
-
The only thing I can think of is there might be a memory problem somewhere generated from a c array, if you are writing in C/C++ that is. I.e. the specter was not really in that dungeon cell but by some bug the graphics engine thought it was, so when I attacked it the combat engine determined that there was no monster there.
Yeah it's C++, but actors are stored in a vector, and the actors store their own coordinate.
Possibly it was not even on that level, but for some reason was shown on that level??
All actors except the player gets deleted when leaving the level.
I need to get my bot up and running again. Letting it go through few thousand levels might show something. :)
Ok let me reiterate [..]
You know what, this is absolutely right. When I begun this project I played a lot of Angband and Adom, and one thing I found annoying in those games were the way they lulled you into complacency. Here's a post I made on RPGCodex on April 4th 2010:
I'm having a hard time grasping the pacing in ADOM (and probably RL:s in general) - the game spams you with 500 messages from unimportant guaranteed-win fights, and then suddenly some shit goes wrong that you don't notice and you die.
When I begun my own project, I swore that the game would be tough from the start and that all fights should be a risk. But it's not so much so today. I think it's because you have a lot more HP in the later versions. Or maybe it's the free (except for sanity loss) healing...
*EDIT*
One good thing about the increased HP pool is that you can have some interesting scenarios that doesn't really occur with a small HP pool. For example, you are in a big fight and lose HP gradually, then you start to realize that you won't make it and you're going to die if you don't do something different quickly.
*EDIT 2*
One solution may be to DECREASE the damage of monsters in general, while INCREASING the damage from monsters with strong attacks. This will differentiate the monsters more, and you can have both the scenario where your HP is slowly chipped away, and monsters that you are terrified of getting near (the axe-zombie would be such a monster).
-
A question from elsewhere:
Infra Arcana window size is like twice as long (but not tall) as my desktop resolution and I have no idea how to resize it.
What's up with that?
-
That right there is why I need to make a console version...
But damn, that person must be running on a really low resolution. The width is only 1280 pixels in tile mode. I thought everyone had at least that by now. :P
*EDIT*
If you are in contact with that person, please tell him/her to play in ascii mode (if they don't find ascii repulsive), and set a smaller font in config.txt.
-
Right on, message relayed.
-
personally, I think the game difficulty is good as is so far. Definitely kicks my ass. I manage to die on the graveyard level from time to time. I don't see any of the enemies really being like any kind of cannon-fodder.
At the same time, my views and skills will be different. I'm a long time roguelike player. Been playing for probably close to 15 years. But I'm also a more casual player. The hardcore roguelike fans are bound to find the game easier than I do.
-
Eh, I still have a teeny 800x600 laptop. I keep it because it's a good ultra-portable wi-fi device with epic (9hours plus) battery life. I use it like an e-reader tablet and to take notes in meetings. It has an (approximately half-size) keyboard I can touch-type on (if I'm careful) and it can run 32-bit versions of all my regular desktop software. I often play a game on it to pass the time while on public transit or wherever, or take it camping to write with, or whatever. It fits in my coat pocket.
And, even on machines with lots of pixels, they don't all arrange them the same way. A "portrait aspect" screen on my wife's main desktop machine is about twice as many pixels high as it is wide. She uses it to do page layout for magazine articles, and having the same aspect ratio as the printed page is a win for her.
So, yeah, if you want lots of people to be able to play it, you have to be able to handle different resolutions.
-
@ corremn
I was just made aware of a certain unintended behaviour related to saving, that explains some of the confusion earlier.
I really need start testing for more days before releasing... :(
-
@ corremn
I really need start testing for more days before releasing... :(
Dont sweat it, with your rate of progress, features your game is quite stable. I have played about 20 games and apart from the non-existant specter/blank screen bug, I have had a smooth experience. You have to build your fanbase and quick releases with extra content/features seem to be working so far :)
You are increadibly lucky you have a player base that relays errors back to you. One of my games have had 2000+ downloads and I have had not one bug report. (and trust me there were plenty)
-
@ Legend
Do you use the tab key to melee attack enemies? I think that key helps a lot in playing efficient and casual at the same time. It decreases the number of times that you accidentally let monsters get extra hits, and you can think less about which direction to press every time to attack, and more about actual tactics. In some fights you can just hold down the tab button, which is MUCH better than holding the direction key towards the monsters.
-
This is game is really a blast. Love those graphics too, very cool. I've been dying lately from a combination of near insanity and being torn apart by masses of worms... Keep it up NON, really enjoying it.
-
I think this game really rocks. The latest updates has polished it's already shiny surface even more 8)
Personally I don't really like the tiles but I don't mind...as long as ascii-option is avaible ;D
Great work!
-
I rarely use the tab key because I was under the impression that it simply decided to attack on of the monsters adjacent to you. I figured I was better off picking which monster I would attack by doing it myself.
Got my vote for RL of the year btw.
-
as long as ascii-option is avaible ;D
It will always be.
torn apart by masses of worms...
They are currently overpowered to hell, partly because they can spawn more from their corpses. I've fixed this in the code so in 11.2 their spawn rate will be somewhat more modest.
I rarely use the tab key because I was under the impression that it simply decided to attack on of the monsters adjacent to you. I figured I was better off picking which monster I would attack by doing it myself.
It uses the targeting system. If you have no target (or if the target is out of melee range), it selects one to be the new target. If you already have a target (the last enemy you attacked), it attacks that. But yeah if you want full control which monster to attack at any moment then direction keys is where it's at.
-
v11.2 is released.
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
Updates:
*The 16x24 font is fully available in ASCII mode
*Fixed a bug that prevented monsters from stepping on corpses
*Fixed a bug that allowed saving anywhere
*Removed spirit points (sanity is now the only "resource" needed to cast spells)
*The ghosts touch attack now causes slowness instead of draining spirit points
*Ghosts can no longer use their touch attack while unaware of the player
*Worm masses can no longer spawn worms from their corpses
*Lowered the effects of Dodging, Fortitude and Toughness
*Chances for scrolls and potions spawning is a bit higher
*Slightly reduced the damage from spear traps
-
Woo hoo for release brisk goodness. ;D
-
*Lowered the effects of Dodging, Fortitude and Toughness
:(
-
NON, whenever I reload I only seem to sometimes completely fill up the number of bullets I have, sometimes I end up with less. Whats up with this?
-
Tested it. I could reproduce a similar problem (a very minor problem). Could you be more specific? Did you wield a pistol with a full clip when saving? Did you have non-full clips in the inventory?
*EDIT*
I first thought you meant when you load a game. You probably meant when you reload firearms.
I have never encountered a problem with this myself. My guess is you reload to a non-full clip. When you reload a gun using clips, the clip in the gun is put in the inventory, and the clip with most ammo in it is loaded in the gun. So if you have 3/7 bullets in the gun and a clip with 5/7 bullets in the inventory, and nothing more, you reload with the 5/7 clip.
-
Not sure, as soon as I get home I'll check it out. I do remember that it seemed to only occur when using the Colt pistol.
-
See the edit in my previous post.
-
Yup, load weapons thats what I meant.
EDIT: Yeah, actually I felt that's what was happening.
-
starting to miss the 2 hp minimum increase when the player levels up.
What's a good tactic against the ooze? Shotgun is not very good I found out.
-
I pummel them with throwing knives or rocks, or hit-and-back in melee. It's probably best not to waste high-damage/rare ammo on them since they are a relatively low threat, just a big bag of HP.
-
I also love the fact they can "ooze" under doors. I assume thats a feature not a bug? Something to steal for my games though :)
-
Yeah it's a feature, but I don't think they do it in 11.x. It got lost in a refactoring - I need to put it back again.
-
Yeah it's a feature, but I don't think they do it in 11.x. It got lost in a refactoring - I need to put it back again.
Well I think it is cool. Not sure if I could hit it though if it was sitting on a door. Maybe it would make more sense if it moves from one side to the other without sitting on the door tile.
Little things like this make the RL genre so cool, too bad most "little features" dont really get noticed.
-
Not sure if I could hit it though if it was sitting on a door.
It's just a matter of checking for monsters in the target cell before checking the feature in it, which I think was already fixed for v11.
Little things like this make the RL genre so cool
My sentiment exactly! It's the sum of neat little details that lifts the experience above just an analytical challenge. This is what I call "complexity" in the good sense (as opposed to bad "complexity" such as obtuse user interface).
-
the discussion page on your page seems to have vanished. On purpose?
-
We're looking to focus the next episode of Roguelike Radio on Infra Arcana. Anyone with experience of the game (that includes you, NON) interested in taking part? It'll be at 8:30pm GMT on Monday 6th Feb (though we can be flexible).
-
We're looking to focus the next episode of Roguelike Radio on Infra Arcana. Anyone with experience of the game (that includes you, NON) interested in taking part? It'll be at 8:30pm GMT on Monday 6th Feb (though we can be flexible).
Awwww... I'd love to take part since I have been playing quite frequently since it first popped up and offered a few of the ideas that made it into the game. Unfortunately, I have no mic or webcam for my laptop to participate. :( :( :( It would be great if NON takes part. You might want to email him since I don't think he has been on the forum too frequently lately.
***EDIT***
Now that I think of it, my buddy has a webcam and/or mic I think. Maybe I can use his. How could I take part and what are the requirements?
-
Yeah, I have nothing but good things to say about this game, however I don't do so well at 6am ;D
-
Now that I think of it, my buddy has a webcam and/or mic I think. Maybe I can use his. How could I take part and what are the requirements?
My Skype username is darrenjohngrey. Add me and we can do a call with a sound check some time to see if it's viable.
-
Hello again guys
Yes it's been a while since I posted here. I have been less involved with Roguelike-ing lately, and the game has been put on hold since December. I put a lot of effort in it last year with big and frequent updates. For the most part it has been great fun, but lately it has begun to feel more like doing a second job. Speaking of which, I actually got a job in software engineering thanks to this game, which is pretty awesome and more than I thought I would ever get from it. The problem is that it doesn't work out for me to program the whole day, then go home and program the game in the evening. I find it unhealthy, both physically and mentally.
I may continue some day - and I hope I do - since I have so many ideas I want to make real. There are some short-term stuff that needs fixing as well, like the bugs mentioned in this thread. But at the moment I just don't have the motivation. I'm simply burnt out. Working on this game is now not a source of joy, but a source of stress, and that's pretty terrible for a hobby. If someone told me they want to take over the development, I would gladly hand over the source code.
With that said, I would still love to participate in a radio show about the game. I'm happy and proud with how the game itself has turned out.
*EDIT*
the discussion page on your page seems to have vanished. On purpose?
No it's still there. It's just that Wikispaces changed the layout (for worse). The discussion page can be found in the top-right corner (the icon is two overlapping quote bubbles)
Standing on a corpse does not allow it to rise again. - Not sure if this is intended behavior but I exploit it a lot.
It's a feature. A little silly, but I think it's strategically fun. Sometimes you have to consider standing in a worse position to keep a zombie down during a fight.
Also, you almost won the game. Those Hunting Horrors are almost impossible to beat by normal means, but they only exist for the last two levels. Too bad you didn't use that descent scroll. :)
-
Congrats on the new employment NON, just keep at things however you do and strive to stay healthy and enjoy things---I get the feeling that one way or another Infra Arcana still has a bright time of it ahead, just perhaps not on such a breakneck pace. :)
-
Congratulations on the new job.
Sorry to hear the game has become like a job for you. I have been through similar things with music and board game designs. It sucks when you get that feeling.
Hope you get to come back to it someday. But either way, it's a great game as is. Although I was hoping for a nail gun for my birthday :( And/or spiked mace.
Good luck on the new job man. Hope it brings great things for you.
-
Infra Arcana episode is up:
http://roguelikeradio.blogspot.com/2012/02/episode-22-infra-arcana.html
Thanks to both Legend and NON for taking part - was great speaking with you both :)
-
It was a good show.
-
Iä! Shub-Niggurath! Looking forward to listening to this one!
-
Hm, this episode and the new "Let's plays" on youtube is sparking some new interest...
-
Hm, this episode and the new "Let's plays" on youtube is sparking some new interest...
Deserved attention, I'd say. 8)
-
One of the things I like about the podcast is it helps focus a bit of attention on some worthy roguelikes.
-
Hm, this episode and the new "Let's plays" on youtube is sparking some new interest...
You mean interest by others to play it? Or interest by you continue development?
Either way, definitely good to hear.
-
I meant the latter.
-
Ah yeah :D
Download:
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
What's new:
*New map generator
*A character screen (@) with info about skills and mental conditions
*Reworked skill system - merging, balancing, grouping
*New skill: Mobility (occasionally get free turn when moving)
*Some monsters can use the sneaking and backstabbing skills
*Monsters can sometimes spawn on an earlier depth than normal
*3 new monsters
*A couple more spells that monsters can cast
*New weapon: Spike Gun
*Merged wear and wield command
*It is now possible to use ranged weapons while Terrified (with a hit penalty). It also gives a dodge bonus now
*Reworked magic system. Spells can now be identified/memorized when cast from a manuscript (removed studying)
*New status effects: Blessed/Cursed (bonus/penalty to all rolls)
*Darkness gives shock instead of the room (so lighting up a dark area with a flare removes the shock)
*HP bonus per level is fixed instead of random
*Armor durability % is no longer shown in the interface (only the protection value)
*Replaced graves in the dungeon with tombs
*Hunting horrors (deepest monsters) are somewhat weaker
*Fixed a bug that prevented hit chance bonus vs unaware monsters
*Removed and merged some redundant scrolls and potions
*Quaffing a potion of stealth also causes all monsters to forget you
*Fixed a bug that allowed explosion graphics to be rendered in unseen cells
*The number of dungeon levels has been reduced from 30 to 25
-
Now that's how you start a Sunday! 8)
Fantastic to see this updating again, congrats and thanks for all the hard work NON! ;D
-
Thanks for the praise
-
Awesome news!
Thanks a bunch, been waiting awhile for this ;D
-
v12.1
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
*Linux version
*The game should use a lot less CPU power
*Smoother rendering in certain cases (e.g. no flickering when blinded)
*Blue colors are brighter for better visibility
-
After my broken hand heels up, I'm gonna put some serious play time in. Gonna be a little while though unfortunately. :(
Been so busy dealing with that, I haven't even tried the official v12 yet.
-
v12.2
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
*Game crashed when loading a game while "blessed" or "cursed"
-
After my broken hand heels up, I'm gonna put some serious play time in. Gonna be a little while though unfortunately. :(
Been so busy dealing with that, I haven't even tried the official v12 yet.
Ouch. Hope you get well.
-
;D
>> Download page << (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
Changes
*The narrative is in first person perspective
*Added new 16x24 font (typewriter)
*Nicer looking main menu
*Removed the "Arcana" skill, and added a different system for casting chance
*Items have weights, and there is a carry limit
*Improved hit chances of heavy weapons to compensate for their weight
*Thrown items makes sounds when hitting hard surfaces
*Increased number of different items that can be carried
*Special rooms does not cause shock, this is instead tied to the map features
*Fortitude reduces shock by a fixed percent (instead of randomly blocking it completely)
*The turn number is displayed in the interface
*The player character is colored magenta when shock gets high
*The player character is colored dark red when HP gets low
*Reduced number of skill ranks in general, each lvl grants one skill pick
*Improved Healing (rank 2 heals disease, rank 3 regenerates hp over time)
*Better rules for if player with phobia is considered to be in open or cramped spaces
*Merged potion of reflexes and potion of aiming into one, and renamed it "Potion of the Cobra"
*Teleport traps displays a popup instead of log text (it was difficult to react)
*Open doors in ASCII mode uses ´ symbol (to differentiate from missile weapons)
*Damage per turn from burning is reduced
*Fixed: Explosions crashed the game in certain situations
*Fixed: Status effect countdown did not occur on some turns
*Fixed: "High ceiling rooms" could spawn monsters outside the room
*Fixed: Armor durability and clip ammo count were not stored in save files
-
Such a nice surprise---cheers for making it to the party! 8)
-
Iä! The stars are right, heh? ;D Going to play a lot of IA in the next days.
-
Iä! The stars are right, heh? ;D Going to play a lot of IA in the next days.
Yes, at last they aligned to spawn another incarnation.
But apparently there are some hangups going on, so there will be a 13.1.
Would still be awesome to get some feedback on this release though, so I can include more fixes/balancing in 13.1.
-
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads)
Release 13.1 (September 20, 2012)
*The Incinerator is a medium weight weapon
*The Toughness ability also gives a hit point bonus
*Lowered starting hit points from 16 to 14
*Fixed: There was a situation that put the game in an infinite loop (not responding)
*Fixed: The player color updates immediately after healing (instead of the turn after)
-
\o/ Awesome.
-
I really like the new main menu.
The first person perspective of the text works pretty nice and makes it more immersive.
A crumbling wall of zombies was a dirty trick.
Overall, it seems tougher than the last build since I am back to rarely getting past level 2, and often getting eaten by wolves on the intro level, but it does seem balanced out so far.
Nice additions.
-
Logan
*Advanced to character level 5
*Gained 830 experience points
*Explored to the depth of dungeon level 5
*Was 31% insane
Cause of death:
*Drenched in slime
The last messages:
I throw a lit Molotov Cocktail. The Reanimated Corpse is burning.
I hear agonised screaming.(NE)
It spews pus on me!!!
I miss.
I strike The Clear Ooze with a Pitchfork! The Clear Ooze misses me!
It spews pus on me!!!
The final moment:
**************#####********#####################################################
* ######## #... #/.....Z......?................................}....#
* #..r..Z# #...#### #...Z..............######....s......................#
* #.Z....# #...#...# #..........#.......#................................#
* ..r...# #...#...# #..Z.Z.............#}.........................#######
* #.ZZ..r# #...#...# #######......#######..........................# *
* #Z.....# #+###...# #.# #########................................#### *
* #Z....r###.# #...# ####.# #.d.....d...............................#E...# *
* #.ZZ.r.#... #...# #....# #..............................########.#....# *
*##########+#.####.###+#####################################|...|.".#....# *
*#....................................}..........#...........sZZ."...."Z#....# *
*#................-..............................'.###########.,;,..Z.#....# *
*#...............................................### #."....".###### *
*#..................P............................# #|&'.....# *
*############'#############################.## #'####### *
* #.###### ###.###############o##.# *
* #####.......# #...............{?@o?..# *
* ########.......#########################.###'##################### *
* #......>..............#...+.#..........................#########....########*
* #..#.#.#.#.#.........#.##.#...+....####+#..`,.........#.......#....#......#*
* #.......................# #.#...#....#....#.............#.......#....#......#*
* #..............########## #.#####....#....#,.`....&.....#&......#....#......#*
* ################ #.Z..Z.........#.............####.##....#####.##*
* #......Z...#{...#........('.................o.....#*
* ################################################*
********************************************************************************
This game is just brutal. A bloody war waged with a genuine sense of desparation and often panic. The color coding on the player is a nice touch.
The new high score table is very nice.
The encumbrance gets to be a bit much. I think it could be tweaked better.
There is no real way that I can see to tell if you are carrying too much until you actually pick something up that completely stops you from moving. I think this was my downfall since I could only ever carry one or two weapons plus ammo at once and often had to ditch my armor. .
To me, it seems like encumbrance should work in the following way:
How many items you carry and how heavy they each are will go towards your encumbrance limit. When you eventually obtain enough/heavy enough items, you will become encumbered.
Being encumbered should give you a penalty to your dodging and possibly your aiming. I don't think it should make you completely immobile though.
Maybe a warning when you are about to pick up an item that would make you encumbered? Like "I don't think I can carry any more. Do I really need this right now?"
Gaining levels in toughness could increase your ability to carry more/heavier items?
It would also be nice if was a way to gauge how encumbered the player is.
-
This game is just brutal. A bloody war waged with a genuine sense of desparation and often panic.
;D
The color coding on the player is a nice touch
Glad to hear
There is no real way that I can see to tell if you are carrying too much until you actually pick something up that completely stops you from moving.
It would also be nice if was a way to gauge how encumbered the player is.
It sounds a bit like you didn't see the "ENC" info in the interface, it shows your encumbrance percent.
Being encumbered should give you a penalty to your dodging and possibly your aiming.
I like the current hard carrying limit. A soft limit (stat penalty) is less obvious to the player.
Maybe a warning when you are about to pick up an item that would make you encumbered?
That's a good idea.
Gaining levels in toughness could increase your ability to carry more/heavier items?
Yes, planned.
-
Quote
Being encumbered should give you a penalty to your dodging and possibly your aiming.
I like the current hard carrying limit. A soft limit (stat penalty) is less obvious to the player.
There could still be a hard limit to how much you could carry.
I was just thinking that a dodge/aim penalty instead of becoming completely immobile.
Or maybe instead of becoming completely immobile, the player could still move at a slower pace. Like it would take two or 3 key presses to move instead of just one?
Suddenly not being able to move at all just seems a little too unfair in my opinion.
Yeah, sorry. I did miss the Enc stat..
-
A new release of IA. That's the weekend gone then :D
-
A new release of IA. That's the weekend gone then :D
I like the sound of that ;D
-
After months of work, finally, it is here:
Infra Arcana v14.0
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com)
New content and features
* Changed API from SDL to SFML - The game should run much smoother on most systems
* New inventory system which is easier to use, and requires much fewer keyboard commands to learn
* Inventory items are color coded and sorted according to item type and name
* New skill system - Instead of ranks there are separate abilities, each with their own name. Some abilities have prerequisites
* In-game options menu
* Some features in the game can be examined (by pressing [a]), to be interacted with in various ways - this includes tombs, cocoons, chests and cabinets
* Added a new trait called “Mythos knowledge” (MTH) - this determines your insight about the mystical and hidden forces - increases damage dealt to all bizarre, alien, mystical and shocking creatures - raises spell casting chance - at a certain level of MTH, you gain a powerful spell
* Monsters can trigger traps, and you can kick monsters into traps
* New spell casting system
* Changed the way monsters cause shock. Previously you would take a big hit on the first turn that you see the monster, then smaller hits for each turn. Now the shock taken starts at 0 instead, and increases slowly. This gives more opportunity to retreat, or to take down the monsters swiftly before taking too much shock.
* The player character and monsters have a life bar (only visible while wounded)
* The searching skill (now called “Observant”) no longer increases your chance of finding a secret door, instead if gives a chance to mark walls (you find a clue about a secret passage)
* Added “Strange devices” - a new item type which causes various positive effects to occur while active, but may malfunction or break
* Added “Electric Lantern” - lights up darkness while activate, but may flicker, malfunction or break
* Added “Potion of Sorcery” - sets casting chance for all learned spells to 100%
* Added “Potion of Knowledge” - increases Mythos knowledge
* Added “Manuscript of Azathoth’s Blast” - damages and paralyzes all visible creatures
* Added “Manuscript of Identify” - identifies a random unknown item in your inventory
* Added “Manuscript of Opening” - opens all doors, chests etc around you
* Changed “Potion of Clairvoyance” to a manuscript, and gave it a new effect
* Merged all manuscripts that casts negative status effects into “Manuscript of Enfeeble Enemies”
* Added an alarm trap
* Added a monster summoning trap
* Added status effect “Weak” - melee attacks does minimum damage, decreased carry weight limit, cannot bash doors, lower physical status resistance, and other effects
* Improved postmortem/memorial information - Removed the decorative graveyard from the intro level, instead there are gravestones scattered along the path to the church. These graves represent the top highscore entries, and have inscriptions that can be read using the [l]ook command. Added date and time to the highscore entries and graves. Postmortem info is always kept (in text files with character name and timestamp)
* Iron spikes can also be used as (bad) thrown weapons
* Flares light up a circular area of darkness (the flare’s field of view), instead of lighting up the whole room
* Carrying a lit flare lights up darkness around you, and you can walk around and fight while holding it
* Burning monsters lights up a small area of darkness around them
* Most non-human monsters can now see in darkness
* If becoming paralyzed while holding a lit Dynamite, Molotov cocktail or Flare, it will be dropped (if it’s a Molotov, it will explode when it hits the ground)
* Ranged weapons spawned on the floor have random amounts of ammo loaded, instead of always full
* Hitting a monster with a medium or heavy melee weapon now makes noise (alerting other monsters)
* Reloading while blind or terrified risks fumbling and wasting the turn
* If healing is aborted, you are partially healed (if a minimum number of turns have passed)
* Added phrases for many monsters (“I hear the flapping of great wings”, “I hear a gurgling noise”, etc)
* If you wield a machete and step into a spider web, you will instantly cut down the web
* A monster shot with a flare will take damage each turn, and may eventually catch fire (instead of exploding in flames on death)
* Rewritten shotgun code - Now, if the shot hits a human sized creature and the shot is lethal, it may also hit a second creature standing directly behind the first
* After a certain dungeon level, dart and spear traps can be poisoned
* Attacking unarmed causes a punch-attack
Graphics
* Nicer looking main menu, with a new logo (thanks to Agata Skrzypczyk)
* The Windows version has an icon (thanks to Agata Skrzypczyk)
* Added “clean” 16x24 font for tiles and ASCII mode, and made it default
* The typewriter font is fully available for ASCII mode
* Shadows have a new tile, and there are new tiles for new features, items and monsters (thanks to Christopher Barrett, aka Oryx)
* Added a new cave wall tile and general trap tile (thanks to Christopher Barrett, aka Oryx)
* Added new magical trap tile (thanks to Agata Skrzypczyk)
* The popup boxes have new border graphics (thanks to Christopher Barrett, aka Oryx), and the box and text layout is much nicer looking
* Unaware monsters have blue backgrounds instead of a blue underscore
* Added a secondary wall tile occasionally used as alternative (purely aesthetical)
* Added an atmospheric fade effect to the field of view - further cells are rendered darker (monsters are always drawn at full brightness though)
Balancing
* Made changes to the AI to make it act less irrational and more aggressive, in particular it won’t run back and forth between melee attacks or pass attack opportunities as much as in the previous version
* Made non-player aware monsters skip every second turn (they don’t move at full speed if nothing exciting is happening), this makes stealth tactics more powerful, and it looks cool when they discover you and start moving fast
* Becoming aware of the player by looking counts as an action for monsters (to give the monsters some reaction time instead of attacking instantly), though you may still be gunned down instantly if you alert the monsters beforehand (e.g. by making noise)
* Melee-attacking a creature who is unaware, fainted, paralyzed, or stuck has a very high hit chance bonus - melee-attacking a creature who is blind, confused, slowed or burning has a moderate hit chance bonus
* While paralyzed, additional paralyzing effects are prevented (creatures with such an attack could very easily paralyze you permanently)
* Knockback causes confusion
* Sadistic/Masochistic obsessions makes shock unable to go below a certain percent (instead of increasing the shock rate)
* Taking damage causes a small amount of shock (if not masochistic)
* The Incinerator (Napalm launcher) now use clips (3 rounds) instead of single shots
Usability
* Added titles to most popups
* Character info screen gives more info - combat stats, resistances, item knowledge
* Reading/drinking an unknown manuscript/potion and failing to identify it adds {tried} to the name
* The name of your currently wielded weapon and missile weapon is shown in the interface
* Melee damage is no longer shown in the interface for ranged weapons, and vice versa
* When [l]ooking at a weapon on the ground, damage, hit chance and loaded ammo is displayed
* Phobia effects no longer occur while healing (it could cause huge number of queries for canceling healing)
* Messages about status effects ending no longer queries for canceling healing
* Unload command also works for picking up ammo (convenient when you want to get all the ammo dropped from a monster, but not the gun)
* Merged bash and kick to one command
* Esc and space also works as “no” for all y/n prompts
* Esc works as alternative quit command (same as [Q])
* Attacking a monster in melee with a ranged weapon causes a warning prompt (can be turned off in the options menu)
* Armor disappears when dropping to 0 protection value
* Disease temporarily lowers your maximum HP, instead of making you rapidly lose HP down to a certain limit (with the old method it was always possible to heal yourself, even though it was useless)
* Removed some useless attack messages (“I fumble”, “It was a great hit!!!”)
Miscellaneous
* Removed kill count info from the look screen, and added it to the postmortem info instead, as well as showing the total number of kills
* Removed support for multiple save files
* Switched colors of gas traps and teleport traps, gas traps are now magenta and teleport traps are cyan
Bug fixes
* Nuclear batteries occasionally spawned with the wrong weight (reported by Surrealistik)
* Turn number is now stored in the save file
Screenshots
Beginning
(http://s14.postimg.org/w6v795gl9/IA_Screenshot_01_beginning.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/w6v795gl9/)
First encounter
(http://s22.postimg.org/52bl4xvtp/IA_Screenshot_02_first_encounter.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/52bl4xvtp/)
Insanity effects
(http://s8.postimg.org/a2exdkp81/IA_Screenshot_03_insanity_effects.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/a2exdkp81/)
ASCII mode
(http://s18.postimg.org/i5b7w3mad/IA_Screenshot_04_ascii_mode.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/i5b7w3mad/)
About the game
Infra Arcana is a Roguelike set in the early 20th century. The goal is to explore the lair of a dreaded cult called The Church of Starry Wisdom. Buried deep beneath their hallowed grounds lies an artefact called The Shining Trapezohedron - a window to all secrets of the universe. Your ultimate goal is to unearth this artefact.
The theme and inspiration for this game comes mainly from the horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft. The game also draws flavor from various B-horror movies, as well as the first-person shooter PC game Blood.
As a Roguelike - the game adheres to the virtues of the genre, such as high replay value and challenging tactical game play.
Game features
* Atmospheric monsters and dungeons: A variety of wicked and twisted nightmares taken straight from the works of H. P. Lovecraft and other weird fiction.
* Insanity system: As you dive deeper into hallowed grounds of the cult you become more shocked and insane. The game features various mental effects such as, phobias, obsessions, nervous babbling and finally, death from insanity.
*Experiencing mythos: As you become more familiar with sinister secrets of the cults you become stronger and more tied to the strange world of the gloomy dungeons.
* Well balanced skill system: You will be able to change your character throughout the gameplay to better react to the dangerous environment: starting as a wizard may lead you to becoming a soldier.
* 1st person narration: Seeing every event from the character’s perspective allows you to better feel the atmosphere.
* Coffeebreak style: You can dive instantly into the action without hours of preparing. Your increasing insanity and madness of the place will push you forward towards your ultimate goal.
-
The heartiest of congrats on this hard wrought work----one of the best feeling and far reaching changelogs I can recall seeing in quite a long time. 8)
Let the bright future commence from here!
-
Awesome, I need to get back into this :)
-
Oh damn! Calling in sick to work now.
-
Woot!
Was actually gonna email you earlier right before I saw this post.
Gonna give it a go as soon as the hockey game is over.
can't wait to see the strange devices.
***EDIT***
Sharks win and we're going to the playoffs AND new IA! Gonna be a good night tater.
***EDIT 2****
Just started it up. No fullscreen?! :(
******EDIT 3***
After 7 games of getting taken down on either the prologue level, or level 1, and the Major AND Dean Halsey pops up at the beginning of level 2 the first time I get that far? :(
****EDIT 4**
Possible bug: Is the Major supposed to respawn? I killed him (barely) then some time later on the same level, he came back in a totally different area of the map after I (again, barely) took out Dean Halsey..
Some notes:
*I threw a stick of dynamite, then I grew more insane, and gained a spell somehow all within the same turn. Mostly wondering how I gained the spell (Thaumatergic Alteration) Was it a result of my insanity? I was only at character level 2 and never chose any mythos knowledge skills.
*The game has gotten much more intense it seems. Has the respawn rate gone up? I killed over a hundred enemies within the first two levels.
*I like the new skill system so far. The only thing I slightly dislike about it is that there is no longer a clear visible sense of where I have already put skill into while on the skill page like there was before with the point system. I hope that made sense.
*I seem to be going insane fairly quicker than before.
*The lighting system is very nice.
*At least one or two larger font options would be very nice and much appreciated. Especially if compatible with the times mode. I tried checking out the tile mode, but it was much to small for me to really make anything out without straining..
*Some "level feelings/descriptions" would be a nice touch when you first enter a level. They wouldn't really need to mean anything, but would just add even more to the great atmosfear of the game.
*I really like the high scores on the headstones in the prologue level.
*So far, I have not found any ammo and only one weapon and a couple scrolls on any given level.
*when you open a cabinet, it would be nice if it told you what you found. It simply told me I found something and then that I felt something at my feet. Then I had to step back and look at it to find out what it was.
*Haven't found one yet, but, can I fall into a pit? :)
*might I find a spike mace somewhere? :P
If there is a fullscreen mode, how can I activate it? If there isn't, could you please add it? :D
*It would be nice if you could also use/activate items from the Inventory screen. It would be even more streamlined and almost perfect if this was added. (please forgive me if you can already, but I tried, but couldn't figure out how to if it is).
*I like how kick and bash were integrated into a single command. But, when trying to kick/bash something, the prompt says "kick or bash in what direction" or something like that. I think it would be better if it simple asked which direction instead of saying "kick or bash". I mention this because it kinda breaks the immersion in my opinion. Would also be a nice touch if maybe the response message was randomized to be either "I kick..." or "I bash..."
* I noticed in the change log about shotguns. They have a chance of hitting an enemy behind the target if human size. Does it also work for enemies that would be next to the target? I think it may make sense if it did. Basically, withing the 8 surrounding spaces of the target.
*the life bars are a nice touch.
*On the fence a little about the blue background for oblivious enemies instead of the underscore. It is much better from a functional standpoint. Aesthetically though, I like the underscore better. Also, it made it a little harder to tell if they were unaware with the underscore which I think kinda made sense since you don't really know whether they are aware of you or not realistically. Although, I'm sure the switch was probably a result of the health bars.
*It would be nice if some of the decorations had descriptions. Especially the alters. Maybe they could have books on them or a chance of finding scrolls on them. And What's a brazier? I have a rouch idea, but the first thing that comes to mind is something preferably leopard print and that will be coming off soon bu unhooking a clasp in the front or back. I prefer front btw.
* I like "escape to Reality" for Quit on the main menu. :P
*I think it would be nice if pressing the space bar could also function as the "Wait" command.
*The new title screen is very nice. I think it would be cool if the shifting text in the background could have a blue tint to it though with the red text for the title and selections. Or maybe green. Although, I liked the blue color for the title with the selections in red from the old version when in ascii mode better than the red for the title, in which case, blue for the shifting text wouldn't be the best idea :P.
Sorry for the long post with seemingly random observations/requests. I am feeling rather magenta and it seems babbling has set in.
Please bear in mind, that I am writing this after 17 games and have only gotten as far as level 2. So some of my observations could very well be inaccurate.
Now I'm off to get a handfull more games in while watching the original Hellraiser and perhaps a bit of whiskey to set the mood.
Thanks again for the great game Martin.
-
Just started it up. No fullscreen?! :(
Actually there never really was a proper fullscreen support in IA. In previous versions, the option was there and you could try it, but if it worked it was just a happy accident. But on many systems I tried it on, the map got stretched in an ugly way, or ended up partly outside the screen.
When I switched API from SDL to SFML (something I'm now starting to regret more and more...), the "experimental" fullscreen support behaved much less nice when it failed (game freezing).
But proper fullscreen support is on the to-do list. Perhaps for v14.1.
-
But proper fullscreen support is on the to-do list. Perhaps for v14.1.
Yay!!!!!!!
Fullscreen is a big deal for me personally and often is a make or break thing for me when playing a game unfortunately. Mostly because of a combination of lack of immersion and visibility when not being able to play fullscreen or at the very least, being able to maximize the window to completely fill my screen. Fullscreen is definitely preferred though.
Actually there never really was a proper fullscreen support in IA. In previous versions, the option was there and you could try it, but if it worked it was just a happy accident. But on many systems I tried it on, the map got stretched in an ugly way, or ended up partly outside the screen.
A happy coincident for me. :) I suppose it did get stretched a bit, but I never found it ugly and it was actually easier to see. I never ended up with anything outside the screen. Running a laptop with win xp sp3.
***p.s. I noticed you posted your fullscreen reply while I was making my last edit, so you may wanna look up to see my comments.
-
A lot of comments, nice :D
Okay here we go...
Possible bug: Is the Major supposed to respawn? I killed him (barely) then some time later on the same level, he came back in a totally different area of the map after I (again, barely) took out Dean Halsey..
Are you sure you killed him completely? If he leaves a corpse he can rise again just like the reanimated corpses. Anyway, I'll keep an eye open for it.
*EDIT* Also, maybe he stepped on a teleport trap.
*I threw a stick of dynamite, then I grew more insane, and gained a spell somehow all within the same turn. Mostly wondering how I gained the spell (Thaumatergic Alteration) Was it a result of my insanity? I was only at character level 2 and never chose any mythos knowledge skills.
Read the chapter on Mythos knowledge in the manual.
*The game has gotten much more intense it seems. Has the respawn rate gone up? I killed over a hundred enemies within the first two levels.
Possibly. But I never felt that it's excessive.
*I like the new skill system so far. The only thing I slightly dislike about it is that there is no longer a clear visible sense of where I have already put skill into while on the skill page like there was before with the point system. I hope that made sense.
Yeah I see what you mean. I'll see if I can make it show previous picks somehow.
*I seem to be going insane fairly quicker than before.
Perhaps because shock is raised when taking damage now.
*At least one or two larger font options would be very nice and much appreciated. Especially if compatible with the times mode. I tried checking out the tile mode, but it was much to small for me to really make anything out without straining..
I thought the current one's were pretty huge. But I was thinking about making an option to scale the graphics to 2x size (perhaps even more).
*Some "level feelings/descriptions" would be a nice touch when you first enter a level. They wouldn't really need to mean anything, but would just add even more to the great atmosfear of the game.
A cool idea for v15.
*when you open a cabinet, it would be nice if it told you what you found. It simply told me I found something and then that I felt something at my feet. Then I had to step back and look at it to find out what it was.
I'll think about it.
*Haven't found one yet, but, can I fall into a pit? :)
No pits at the moment, but they will be back in a future version.
*might I find a spike mace somewhere? :P
Nope ;-)
*It would be nice if you could also use/activate items from the Inventory screen. It would be even more streamlined and almost perfect if this was added. (please forgive me if you can already, but I tried, but couldn't figure out how to if it is).
No you can't do that now. I'll consider it.
*I like how kick and bash were integrated into a single command. But, when trying to kick/bash something, the prompt says "kick or bash in what direction" or something like that. I think it would be better if it simple asked which direction instead of saying "kick or bash". I mention this because it kinda breaks the immersion in my opinion.
Hm yeah I agree. That's not a very atmospheric message.
Would also be a nice touch if maybe the response message was randomized to be either "I kick..." or "I bash..."
Maybe.
* I noticed in the change log about shotguns. They have a chance of hitting an enemy behind the target if human size. Does it also work for enemies that would be next to the target? I think it may make sense if it did. Basically, withing the 8 surrounding spaces of the target.
Only if directly behind.
*One the fence a little about the blue background for oblivious enemies instead of the underscore. It is much better from a functional standpoint. Aesthetically though, I like the underscore better. Also, it made it a little harder to tell if they were unaware with the underscore which I think kinda made sense since you don't really know whether they are aware of you or not realistically.
Making it hard to perceive as a design choice moves the skill check from the game-character to the player, which I'm strongly against.
Although, I'm sure the switch was probably a result of the health bars.
Yes.
*It would be nice if some of the decorations had descriptions. Especially the alters. Maybe they could have books on them or a chance of finding scrolls on them.
It will be expanded in future versions.
And What's a brazier? I have a rouch idea, but the first thing that comes to mind is something preferably leopard print and that will be coming off soon bu unhooking a clasp in the front or back. I prefer front btw.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazier)
*I think it would be nice if pressing the space bar could also function as the "Wait" command.
Hm....
*The new title screen is very nice. I think it would be cool if the shifting text in the background could have a blue tint to it though. Or maybe green.
I'll experiment with it.
Sorry for the long post with seemingly random observations/requests. I am feeling rather magenta and it seems babbling has set in.
Hahaha :D
Please bear in mind, that I am writing this after 17 games and have only gotten as far as level 2. So some of my observations could very well be inaccurate.
Fight harder, practice :)
-
Woot!
***EDIT 2****
Just started it up. No fullscreen?! :(
Oh noes Legend! I swear I make sure everything I do has fullscreen and easy peasy gamepadable control scheme if I can.
-
I'm having some trouble running it on Linux. As far as I can tell, the problem starts at something called GLEW (IA uses version 1.6, and libglew version is 1.7 in Debian testing). I also tried to make it from the sources, but then this happens:
/usr/bin/ld: warning: libGLEW.so.1.6, needed by API/SFML/lib_linux_shared/libsfml-graphics.so, not found (try using -rpath or -rpath-link)
API/SFML/lib_linux_shared/libsfml-graphics.so: undefined reference to `__glewUniform1fARB'
[ snip lots of similar messages ]
API/SFML/lib_linux_shared/libsfml-graphics.so: undefined reference to `__glewGetHandleARB'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [bin] Error 1
Other than that, looking forward to trying the new version. By the way, NON, do you remember these? http://spelgalten.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/silhuett_dod2_3.jpg Oryx's silhouette tiles just make me think of them (Nisse's, on the left, of course, not the ones lifted from MERP ::))
As always,
Minotauros
-
Curse you Tornqvist!
I stayed up way too late playing this.
Couple more things:
*I forget, are ozzes supposed to be able to go through walls? I was positioned at a corner in a doorway adjacent to a flooded room with Oozes. The Oozes would position themselves inside the corner wall and attack me. I believe it was one of the alternate wall tiles in ascii mode. Seen them go into walls a few more times.
*found several manuscripts inside flooded rooms. Just seems a bit unlikely that any manuscript that I found on the floor of a flooded room would really be usable/readable.
*I can't seem to get through a single level without getting my insanity up to 100% while on the level even while choosing shock reducing skills. I think maybe it could be reduced a smidge at least during the early levels.
*Would be nice if the post mortem showed you your selected skills as well.
*Do oozes heal themselves? It seems like they do.
*Regarding the shotguns, I think it would make sense if they hit for some partial damage to enemies adjacent to the target. Not just behind. Especially smaller enemies like spiders and rats. Seems like the spread of a shotgun would be able to hit more than one if grouped together rather than one shell for a single spider.
-
I'm having some trouble running it on Linux. As far as I can tell, the problem starts at something called GLEW (IA uses version 1.6, and libglew version is 1.7 in Debian testing). I also tried to make it from the sources, but then this happens:
...
Do you start the game from the file "ia", or from the file "bin"? You should run it from "ia".
"ia" is supposed to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to temporarily include the stuff in the API folder. If this is the file you are running, then I guess this is the wrong environment variable to set on your system?
Do you know if LD_LIBRARY_PATH is used, or if it's something else?
I'm currently looking at going back to SDL. SFML gave too much trouble. This dependency to an obsolete library for example ::)
NON, do you remember these? http://spelgalten.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/silhuett_dod2_3.jpg Oryx's silhouette tiles just make me think of them (Nisse's, on the left, of course, not the ones lifted from MERP ::))
As always,
Minotauros
Hm, no I don't think I've seen those before. But they sure remind me of IA :)
-
Curse you Tornqvist!
I stayed up way too late playing this.
Har har har! 'Twas my goal all along! ;D
*I forget, are ozzes supposed to be able to go through walls? I was positioned at a corner in a doorway adjacent to a flooded room with Oozes. The Oozes would position themselves inside the corner wall and attack me. I believe it was one of the alternate wall tiles in ascii mode. Seen them go into walls a few more times.
They can move past doors and debris (they are oozes, so they can just move below the door, or between the rocks), but not through solid walls.
*found several manuscripts inside flooded rooms. Just seems a bit unlikely that any manuscript that I found on the floor of a flooded room would really be usable/readable.
Such an attention to detail :)
Okay, sure, that seems reasonable that water should destroy manuscripts. I'll put it on to-do.
*I can't seem to get through a single level without getting my insanity up to 100% while on the level even while choosing shock reducing skills. I think maybe it could be reduced a smidge at least during the early levels.
Descending earlier doesn't help?
Try to only keep monsters inside your field of view for very short times. Especially things like fleeing with a shocking monster chasing just behind you can be devastating to your mind.
*Would be nice if the post mortem showed you your selected skills as well.
Sure.
*Do oozes heal themselves? It seems like they do.
Yep. I think this was more fun than the enormous amount of HP they had before.
*Regarding the shotguns, I think it would make sense if they hit for some partial damage to enemies adjacent to the target. Not just behind. Especially smaller enemies like spiders. Seems like the spread of a shotgun would be able to hit more than one if grouped together rather than one shell for a single spider.
I'll consider it.
-
Quote from: Legend
*I forget, are ozzes supposed to be able to go through walls? I was positioned at a corner in a doorway adjacent to a flooded room with Oozes. The Oozes would position themselves inside the corner wall and attack me. I believe it was one of the alternate wall tiles in ascii mode. Seen them go into walls a few more times.
They can move past doors and debris (they are oozes, so they can just move below the door, or between the rocks), but not through solid walls.
So they are supposed to be able to actually move onto the same space as a wall? Like they are clinging to it? Cause that's what they appear to be doing. Just checking in case it's a bug.
-
Trying to run:
~/data/spill/infra_arcana/ia_v14.0$ ./ia
./bin: error while loading shared libraries: libGLEW.so.1.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Sorry to say, I'm not very familiar with using system variables to do stuff, so can't really tell you if LD_LIBRARY_PATH is the right one to use. Maybe you can simply provide libGLEW.so.1.6 in API/SFML/lib_linux_shared/ for all I know?
NON, do you remember these? http://spelgalten.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/silhuett_dod2_3.jpg Oryx's silhouette tiles just make me think of them (Nisse's, on the left, of course, not the ones lifted from MERP ::))
Hm, no I don't think I've seen those before. But they sure remind me of IA :)
Ah, well, they were part of a pack distributed with early editions of Drakar och Demoner, so I've fond memories of them, and thought, well, you never know ;)
As always,
Minotauros
-
So they are supposed to be able to actually move onto the same space as a wall? Like they are clinging to it? Cause that's what they appear to be doing. Just checking in case it's a bug.
They can move through walls and rubble/debris (not normal walls), just like a flying creature can move "through" (over) a chasm.
Not "clinging too it". Just imagine a big pile of rocks - the ooze is occupying the space around/between the rocks, like if you fill a glass with ice cubes and pour syrup or something in it :)
It's definitely not a bug.
-
Trying to run:
~/data/spill/infra_arcana/ia_v14.0$ ./ia
./bin: error while loading shared libraries: libGLEW.so.1.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Sorry to say, I'm not very familiar with using system variables to do stuff, so can't really tell you if LD_LIBRARY_PATH is the right one to use. Maybe you can simply provide libGLEW.so.1.6 in API/SFML/lib_linux_shared/ for all I know?
I'm pretty sure I tried this. Well, I've started the switch back to SDL anyway. I've had enough with SFML :P
In the meantime, could you please try to either-
1) run the game in Wine, or
2) install libglew1.6:
http://pkgs.org/ubuntu-12.04/ubuntu-main-i386/libglew1.6_1.6.0-4_i386.deb.html
?
-
I'll try it in wine. In the meantime, installing the Ubuntu deb actually works. Of course, that solution is pure lunacy, but hey, why not? Now and then, the screen gets weirdly colored, as if an aurora borealis descended upon the dungeon, I don't know if this is just insanity growing nearer, or just a bug. (I'm running asci mode, because of small screen.)
Apart from that, looking good so far 8)
As always,
Minotauros
-
Wooo! ;D So glad to see this game get updated! Gotta say I'm outta practice, I keep getting ripped apart in the first four levels...
EDIT: This just occurred to me, NON is there anyway we could have configurable key bindings at some point in the future?
-
is there anyway we could have configurable key bindings at some point in the future?
Wouldn't be too hard I suppose. Could happen some day.
I'm curious, what do you want to change the keys to?
-
Now and then, the screen gets weirdly colored, as if an aurora borealis descended upon the dungeon
Haha what is this now!? Never heard anyone had this problem before. It's not intended.
-
I'm curious, what do you want to change the keys to?
Nothing big, I find pressing 'v' for the equipment and such to be awkward.
-
Nothing big, I find pressing 'v' for the equipment and such to be awkward.
How would you have it instead? Who knows, maybe I'll find your way better.
-
How would you have it instead? Who knows, maybe I'll find your way better.
A more classic style:
'w' equipping and unequipping armor, gear and weapons.
'i' for inventory management
That sort of thing.
-
A more classic style:
'w' equipping and unequipping armor, gear and weapons.
'i' for inventory management
So that would be:
'w' - handle equipment (currently 'v')
'i' - browse backpack (same as the current command)
'e' - use items (same as current command)
?
Actually 'w' instead of 'v' does sound more intuitive! :)
-
I recall "w" being the wield/wear command before this current version. Threw my off a little when I realized that it was now "v". Although, personally, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. using "L" for message history too.
I suppose switching it back to "w" would make a bit more sense. On the other hand, if sticking with the first letter of the command convention, using the "h" key would make even more sense. But really, it's all kinda arbitrary I think.
It would be nice to be able to view your equipped items in the same screen as your inventory and vice versa. Or at least be able to quickly switch between them with one key. I noticed you can switch to inventory from the equipment screen but not the other way around. Mostly to be able to compare equipped items compared to the one's you are holding. I know the current weapon is easy enough since it is displayed on the main screen, but the prepared weapon for instance, is not visible.
On a side note, it would be nice if the manual was included as a txt file as well.
-
So that would be:
'w' - handle equipment (currently 'v')
'i' - browse backpack (same as the current command)
'e' - use items (same as current command)
?
Actually 'w' instead of 'v' does sound more intuitive! :)
Exactly! However, like Legend said its really not a big deal. Learning new key bindings is second nature to most of us now.
-
Now and then, the screen gets weirdly colored, as if an aurora borealis descended upon the dungeon
Haha what is this now!? Never heard anyone had this problem before. It's not intended.
Here's a screenshot: http://postimg.org/image/r5xoma3ph/
The strange effect just occurs at random intervals (not often enough to actually annoy me) and goes away as soon as I press a key. I've seen red and green so far :)
As always,
Minotauros
-
Here's a screenshot: http://postimg.org/image/r5xoma3ph/
The strange effect just occurs at random intervals (not often enough to actually annoy me) and goes away as soon as I press a key. I've seen red and green so far :)
I have never seen anything like it in my life :D
Oh well, this will soon not matter more. The change back to SDL (software rendering) is almost complete.
-
Now and then, the screen gets weirdly colored, as if an aurora borealis descended upon the dungeon
Haha what is this now!? Never heard anyone had this problem before. It's not intended.
Here's a screenshot: http://postimg.org/image/r5xoma3ph/
The strange effect just occurs at random intervals (not often enough to actually annoy me) and goes away as soon as I press a key. I've seen red and green so far :)
As always,
Minotauros
That actually looks kinda cool. Sure it's not an insanity effect? :p I'd call it a feature. :D
-
Infra Arcana v14.1
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads
Miscellaneous
* Using SDL for rendering/input again (it seems more compatible with a wider range of systems)
* Dark areas now have less permissive field of view for spotting walls, previously it was easy to explore the walls in dark areas, whereas now you need to be adjacent to it - for a more atmospheric and oppressive feeling
* “Slimy” walls are now “Moss-grown” walls instead
* Added 15 more quotes to the main menu
New content and features
* Hit chance with ranged weapons is now affected by the size, speed and proximity of the target creature
* While aiming, you are informed what you are looking at, and hit chances are shown when aiming at monsters
* Monsters now avoid shooting each other (though there is still a small chance that it happens)
Balancing
* You no longer pick an ability when creating a new character
* The monster spawn rate on explored levels (spawning due to passage of time) is now lower
* The “Self-aware” bonus now has “Observant” as an additional prerequisite
* You now gain the mythos spell at 15% MTH instead of 10%
* Raised max character level from 21 to 30
* Greatly reduced duration of confusion caused by knockback
* Oozes now regenerate HP each standard turn instead of on their own turn (since these monsters are very slow, their regeneration occurred in bursts, which seemed erratic and unpredictable)
* Clear Oozes are somewhat easier to spot
Usability
* Floor cells lit by an Electric lantern, flare, burning creature, etc are now marked with yellow color
* The menu for picking a new ability also shows previously picked abilities
* The postmortem info shows gained abilities
* Renamed the manual to a .txt file, and removed all special formatting symbols from it - it should now be conveniently readable externally
* Changed texts in some screens (e.g. “Enter character name” -> “What is your name?”)
* Changed equipment screen command (wear, wield) from ‘v’ to ‘w’ (more traditional/intuitive key)
* Added a small delay per turn when waiting/healing/fainted/paralyzed
* Changed the “Kick/bash in what direction?” message to simply “Which direction?”, and vice versa for other actions
* Options for setting keyboard repeat delay and interval
Graphics
* Made layout changes to the main menu
* Made some changes to the wall tiles
* Changed the general color theme in the game - the “blood red” style has been changed to a teal style (inspired by how certain old black and white movies were tinted, e.g. Nosferatu)
* Added option to scale the font to 2x size (so you can for example use the small DOS-like font scaled up to a nice readable size) - if tiles mode is enabled, the scaled font must match the tile size
* Fullscreen can be toggled in the options menu, or by pressing alt-enter (fullscreen mode is highly experimental, it may or may not work for you)
Bug fixes
* Corrected a spelling error in an ability description
* Corrected a misplaced word in a monster description
-
Congrats on the release as the saga of SDL and SFML continues on into the horizon! :P
-
Congrats on the release as the saga of SDL and SFML continues on into the horizon! :P
Hehe, well I have little good to say about SFML ::). Whether it's because I did a crappy implementation, or there are fundamental problems with it, I will never know.
I consider it a failed experiment, and now I'll stay with good old SDL.
-
Just went to give it a try and encountered an odd bug.
I started up a new game with tiles on, 8x12, x2, and fullscreen. I started the game up, the tiles were still a bit too small for me to see so I quit out to the main menu and went to the options menu and turned tile mode off. Then when I tried to change the font size, the program automatically closed and now I can't seem to start it again. Using winxp sp3.
Balancing
* You no longer pick an ability when creating a new character
:(
New title screen looks really good.
Edit: I managed to get the game to start again by deleting the config file. I can change the font size when I start the game with no issues, but if I quit to the main menu after starting a game and try to change it, it crashes again and I have to delete the config file in order to start it again.
Edit 2: Tried a few things. same thing also happens if my character dies and I return to the main menu. Seems to specifically be an issue when turning off tile mode, being in full screen, and then changing the font from 8x12 to anything else.
-
I started up a new game with tiles on, 8x12, x2, and fullscreen. I started the game up, the tiles were still a bit too small for me to see so I quit out to the main menu and went to the options menu. When I turned tiles off, the program automatically closed and now I can't seem to start it again. Using winxp sp3.
Delete the file "config" in your game folder, and it will reset to default next time you start the game.
-
I started up a new game with tiles on, 8x12, x2, and fullscreen. I started the game up, the tiles were still a bit too small for me to see so I quit out to the main menu and went to the options menu. When I turned tiles off, the program automatically closed and now I can't seem to start it again. Using winxp sp3.
Delete the file "config" in your game folder, and it will reset to default next time you start the game.
I was in the middle of editing my post when you replied. Check out the edits above for more specifics on the issue.
-
Edit: I managed to get the game to start again by deleting the config file. I can change the font size when I start the game with no issues, but if I quit to the main menu after starting a game and try to change it, it crashes again and I have to delete the config file in order to start it again.
Edit 2: Tried a few things. same thing also happens if my character dies and I return to the main menu. Seems to specifically be an issue when turning off tile mode, being in full screen, and then changing the font from 8x12 to anything else.
It seems to me that it happens every time I have the following settings:
* Fullscreen
* 2x scaling
* Any font bigger than the 8x12 DOS-like font
If I set those options, it crashes for me. The order I set them in doesn't matter.
So it seems to have something to do with trying to set too big screen size.
Well, if you run ASCII mode in fullscreen, the 2x scaling is useless, since the screen will get stretched anyway. So don't use this combination of options.
If you don't use 2x scaling, do you see any problems then?
-
Played around with different combinations, and it seems that you are right. As long as x2 scaling is always off, I don't seem to have any issues. Also, changing the scaling does not seem to be even possible in tile mode.
The tiles also seem to always be the same size no matter whether I'm using 8x12 or the 16x24 ones. Any way to make the tiles larger on screen?
-
Also, changing the scaling does not seem to be even possible in tile mode.
It's because the font dimensions must match the tile dimensions, so that means either using the 16x24 fonts unscaled, or the 8x12 font scaled to 16x24. The game only allows you to set a valid match.
The tiles also seem to always be the same size no matter whether I'm using 8x12 or the 16x24 ones. Any way to make the tiles larger on screen?
No, the 2x scaling is just for the font.
If the tiles were scaled like that, they'd be 32x48 pixels, which means the game screen would be 2560 pixels wide :D
Though it could be solved with a scrolling viewport, I intend to try this for next release. Hopefully I can make it so the user can resize the window with the mouse, and for fullscreen the game picking correct size.
I also want to have a font that is not tied to the tile dimensions. I don't like the gigantic font you need to use with the tiles at the moment. Would be neat with a small font, to fit more text in the message log for example.
-
v15.0 is released!
infraarcana.wikispaces.com/ (http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/)
The highlight is that sound effects are now added to the game, but there's many other interesting updates as well.
Changes:
* Added sound effects (for weapons, monsters, etc) and atmospheric ambient background sounds. Audio can be enabled/disabled in the options menu.
* The track “Madness” by Musica Cthulhiana (from the album “Fragment”) is used as intro music in the main menu
* Reworked the status effects system, and changed/added many effects. Internally, status effects are now called “Properties”. They can describe both a creature’s temporary conditions (confused, burning, diseased...) and permanent attributes (natural fire resistance, light sensitivity...). It is now also possible for items to apply properties on the wearer. Properties may prevent damage (e.g. fire resistance will prevent all fire damage).
* Removed the physical/mental status resistances (measured in percent). The reason is that they felt too dependant on luck - you could for example get confused many times even with high resistance. Now there are instead binary resistances (you are either completely immune, or completely susceptible), such as resistance to fear, confusion, sleep, etc. The “shock resistance” percentage is still kept however, since this simply reduces shock by a certain percent (no luck involved).
* Changed the spell casting system to use a mana-like resource called “Spirit”, instead of the previous chance-based system. The reason for this is similar to the reason for removing physical/mental status resistances (mentioned above) - it was too unpredictable and luck dependant. Now it should be easier to make tactical decisions about spell casting.
* Being Confused now prevents spell casting
* All creatures have a certain amount of Spirit. If a creature’s Spirit is depleted, it dies (monsters may sometimes attempt to cast a spell that could kill it, if it “feels desperate”).
* Removed “Potion of the Cobra” (gave perfect aiming and dodging)
* Added “Potion of Frenzy” - Gives the property “Frenzied”: Perfect melee aiming, cannot cast spells or read, resistance to confusion/sleep/fear/weakening, attempting to walk in any direction will cause you to step towards nearest visible monster, becomes weakened when effect ends.
* Added “Potion of Spirit” - Restores spirit
* Added “Potion of Fire Resistance”
* Added “Potion of Insulation” - Electricity resistance
* Added “Potion of Antidote” - Cures poisoning
* Removed “Manuscript of Identify”
* Renamed “Potion of Knowledge” to “Potion of Insight” - It now identifies a random carried item, as well as increasing Mythos knowledge like in previous versions
* Changed “Manuscript of Descent” to a potion
* Added “Manuscript of Sacrifice Life Force” - Convert remaining Hit Points to Spirit points
* Added “Manuscript of Sacrifice Spirit” - Convert remaining Spirit points to Hit Points
* The spell that you gain after reaching a certain level of Mythos knowledge (“Thaumaturgic Alteration”), now chooses effect automatically (instead of player selecting the effect from a menu), this can include a random manuscript-spell, or a special effect if the circumstances allow it.
* Renamed the spell “Azathoths Blast” to “Azathoths Wrath”
* Added armor “Asbestos Suit” - Wearing this gives you resistance to fire/acid/electricity. It has 1 armor point (physical damage protection and durability of the armor)
* Added armor “Heavy Coat” - Wearing this gives you resistance to cold. It has 1 armor point
* Bloated Corpse spit attack now does acid damage
* Added a few cold based monsters that does cold damage
* Hit points now automatically regenerates over time, although you can receive wounds that need many turns of active healing (similar to how HP were healed in previous versions, but more elaborate - see below). Each wound reduces your fighting abilities (especially melee) and your HP regeneration rate. If you have more than four wounds, you die.
* Added item “Medical Bag”. This has a number of different uses, the main purpose is to heal wounds.
* The [h]eal command has been removed, instead you use the Medical Bag.
* When attacking ethereal monsters (e.g. Ghosts-type monsters), the attack will often fail to hit (“My attack passes right through the Ghost!”). In case of ranged attacks, the projectile will often pass through the monster and continue on its path, even if aiming succeeded.
* Shadow-type monsters are now light sensitive - they are harmed each turn a light shines on them (e.g. from a lantern, flare, or burning creature).
* Reworked leveling system: You now pick all your character’s traits and skills at the start of the game instead of when gaining levels. Gaining a level now increases your hit points, and for some levels also attack skills, dodging, spirit points and mythos knowledge.
* Merged/changed/added some traits and skills
* The formulas determining XP needed per level, and XP given per monster are completely remade.
* A monster’s chance of spotting you is now affected by distance.
* Added fountains that you can drink from for various effects
* Some dungeon features can now spawn more freely on the map, as well as in themed rooms. Some room themes are also made less obvious now, and their label has been removed from the bottom of the screen. The reason for this is that in the previous version some themed rooms got very repetitive (e.g. too many levels had identical human quarters with a chest, cabinet, and some Cultists).
* Added a simple animated effect for summoned monsters and for creatures hit by spells
* You no longer automatically reload your weapon when attempting to fire an empty gun (though there is a setting in the options menu to enable this again). The reason is that it was too easy to reload by accident.
* Fixed a typo that said “Press ‘v’” when you tried to throw a missile with empty missile slot. Changed it to say “Press ‘w’”, which is the actual command to equip items.
* Fixed a bug that prevented you from using melee attacks on a turn that you had a free move from the “Dextrous” bonus, and walked in liquid
* Fixed a bug where carrying multiple electric lanterns prevented you from using any other than the top one
Enjoy!
-
Fantastic to see the new release at long last---you've certainly put forth some massive changes and improvements! 8)
The future for this is looking all the more captivating and mysterious in the best sorts of ways----definitely keep at it.
-
Awesome.
-
Suggestion/Question?
-Perhaps an option to Mute audio would be a better solution than just disabling it outright in terms of it needing to reload the entire batch from a full-on to off.
-Font scale 2x option only seems to work with one font? Can't even toggle the rest.
-
-Perhaps an option to Mute audio would be a better solution than just disabling it outright in terms of it needing to reload the entire batch from a full-on to off.
An in-game button to mute the audio would be good. Although I think an option to unload it completely is nice too, if you want the game to be more lightweight and not allocate memory for the audio.
-Font scale 2x option only seems to work with one font? Can't even toggle the rest.
The thing with the font scaling is that if you play in tile mode, the font size needs to match the tile size. So yeah, the only font you can scale up then is the 8x16 dos-like font, to be displayed in 16x24 so you can use it in tiles mode. If you play in ASCII mode, any font can be scaled.
-
Threads merged and moved into announcements.
-
Finally got around to the new version. Very nice.
I like the title music and the sound effects are nice. Although missing melee attack sound effects. at least for sledgehammer. A simple swipe sound would be enough for all melee weapons. Or maybe more thuddy sounding ones for blunt weapons and the swipe for edged ones.
Would be nice if there was music in the game levels or an ambient track (the changelog says there is one, but I'm really not noticing anything).
I kinda miss the old healing system. The new one is interesting, but I rarely had wounds and never got an infection. I did get diseased though and could never figure how to undo it.
I like the new starting traits but was hoping to be able to build the character each level like before.
Is it possible to play with the tiles in 8x12 mode?
Also, is it possible to have the nice tiles version title screen while actually playing in ascii mode?
Anyways, Very nice release. I look forward to the next one as usual.
EDIT*
HOw exactly does the current experience/trait system work? I didn't see it explained in the manual. I understand the perks of what you pick at the beginning of the game, but when the character levels up, does eveything just upgrade randomly, or at set intervals, or according to what you use the most, etc?
Edit*
Bug? Noticed that the ambient tracks do indeed play but don't loop. So they just seem to play once, but not again. I also noticed that The title music only played the first time I started the game and has not played again since whenever I start the game.
p.s. will I ever see a spike mace? :P
-
Finally got around to the new version. Very nice.
Thumbs up.
I like the title music and the sound effects are nice. Although missing melee attack sound effects. at least for sledgehammer. A simple swipe sound would be enough for all melee weapons. Or maybe more thuddy sounding ones for blunt weapons and the swipe for edged ones.
Then you'll be happy to hear there will be melee attack sounds in the next version!
Would be nice if there was music in the game levels or an ambient track (the changelog says there is one, but I'm really not noticing anything).
I don't think I'm gonna put music in the game, as that might get repetitive, and it would be hard to find a decent number of consistently sounding tracks.
But - there *are* ambient noise in the current version already. There's 30 ambient sound effects. Most of them are around a minute, a few are even 2-4 minutes, and a few are just a couple seconds. At certain points (e.g. when descending the stairs)the game rolls the dice to decide if an ambient sound should be player. It also plays them at a random volume, but with preference towards low volumes, so usually it will be a bit subtle. My recommendation is to raise the volume of your computer to the maximum level for which the door smashing, shooting etc is the loudest you are comfortable with. Then you will hear even the subtle ambient sounds - especially if you use headphones.
I kinda miss the old healing system. The new one is interesting, but I rarely had wounds and never got an infection. I did get diseased though and could never figure how to undo it.
I think the old system was pretty annoying. Every minor scratch you took forced you to consider if it was worth healing or not (which was a hard decision, and not in a fun way IMO). Especially things like sprains from bashing doors was a big annoyance to me.
Wounds won't happen so much when fighting weak monsters on the early levels, but it plays a bigger role after the first couple levels.
Infections are very common when I play at least, you can get them from the clawing corpses and rats for example. I like the infection mechanic too, because it puts pressure on you to finish the fight quickly and find a safe place.
I like the new starting traits but was hoping to be able to build the character each level like before.
Yeah I missed building a character over the course of the game too. So I added back the old traits again - from the changelog:
"The traits system has been changed back to how it was in v14 (i.e. you pick traits when gaining levels) - many traits have been added in addition to the old ones."
"You now select a background when starting a new game, the choices are “Occultist” (magic), “Rogue” (stealth), and “Soldier” (fighter/firearms) - Your background determines which trait(s) and items you start with, there are also special background-specific abilities, and some traits have background prerequisites."
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hK73-apyw5XbK9QjKyCMIj_w12RFxfPlmv0ipL4qAL0/
Is it possible to play with the tiles in 8x12 mode?
No, the tiles must be 16x24.
Also, is it possible to have the nice tiles version title screen while actually playing in ascii mode?
No it's not possible. And allowing this would be a problem, since the main menu logo would be bigger than the window for the smallest fonts.
Anyways, Very nice release. I look forward to the next one as usual.
Me too, the next one will be a much more polished and fun game.
EDIT*
HOw exactly does the current experience/trait system work? I didn't see it explained in the manual. I understand the perks of what you pick at the beginning of the game, but when the character levels up, does eveything just upgrade randomly, or at set intervals, or according to what you use the most, etc?
IIRC you gain HP each level. Every third level you gain additional bonuses, such as increased attack skills. In the next version you will pick traits again when gaining levels (probably every second level).
Edit*
Bug? Noticed that the ambient tracks do indeed play but don't loop. So they just seem to play once, but not again. I also noticed that The title music only played the first time I started the game and has not played again since whenever I start the game.
The ambient sounds are not supposed to loop. They are just supposed to play occasionally to intensify the atmosphere. I think it would be repetitive and distracting if they played all the time.
p.s. will I ever see a spike mace? :P
Okay then! :D
-
I think the old system was pretty annoying. Every minor scratch you took forced you to consider if it was worth healing or not (which was a hard decision, and not in a fun way IMO). Especially things like sprains from bashing doors was a big annoyance to me.
Wounds won't happen so much when fighting weak monsters on the early levels, but it plays a bigger role after the first couple levels.
Infections are very common when I play at least, you can get them from the clawing corpses and rats for example. I like the infection mechanic too, because it puts pressure on you to finish the fight quickly and find a safe place.
What the? You removed that awesome healing system?
-
What the? You removed that awesome healing system?
The new healing system is effectively just a more detailed version of the old system. You still have to find a secluded place and spend many turns to heal. The difference is that now you don't have to do it for every little paper cut. In the new version, wounds are a serious problem, but losing a few HP is not something that requires active treatment.
A wound is caused if you take more than 4 damage from a single attack.
Because of this, you will never take a wound from fighting rats for example. And I think that is as it should be. In previous versions, fighting rats were damn annoying to me, because they always managed to gnaw of a couple of HP, and I could never resist the urge to heal it even if it was a strategically bad choice. So even the most trivial encounters felt like a big speed bump to me.
Now, rats can be mowed down without slowing you down so much. Except if you get infected of course, but that's ok.
-
For perk/leveling concerns: I humbly beseech you to mess around with Triangle Wizard as it does much with it and surely has stuff that can be built upon/stolen wholesale as far as methods and implications. 8)
-
Now, rats can be mowed down without slowing you down so much. Except if you get infected of course, but that's ok.
I probably shouldn't say anything until I try the new version, but imo enemies you can mow down without thinking shouldn't be in the game at all.
-
Now, rats can be mowed down without slowing you down so much. Except if you get infected of course, but that's ok.
I probably shouldn't say anything until I try the new version, but imo enemies you can mow down without thinking shouldn't be in the game at all.
It's not like you fight thousands of them like in Angband. And like I said, there is the infection mechanic, which makes them non-trivial.
-
I know the tiles must currently be in 16x24 font. But I meant would it ever be possible that they could work in 8x12 font or to make them display larger in the future? They look really nice and I would like to play with them, but I simply can't play with them cause the 16x24 font appears far too small to really recognize thing (for me and my shoddy eyes anyways). I can only play in 8x12 font cause the characters actually appear larger.
I see your point with the music. I think the ambient sounds could play at slightly more often intervals. I could have sworn there was intro title music that played the first time II fired up the game, but for some reason has not played since.
-
I know the tiles must currently be in 16x24 font. But I meant would it ever be possible that they could work in 8x12 font or to make them display larger in the future? They look really nice and I would like to play with them, but I simply can't play with them cause the 16x24 font appears far too small to really recognize thing (for me and my shoddy eyes anyways). I can only play in 8x12 font cause the characters actually appear larger.
I'm not sure what you mean. You want to scale them down to 8x12, then scale that up again (losing a lot of detail)?
I did an attempt one time to scale up the tiles to double size, and implemented scrolling. But with the map being much wider than tall, it turned out that the map (mostly) just scrolled in the horizontal direction - I thought it looked a bit ridiculous.
I see your point with the music. I think the ambient sounds could play at slightly more often intervals. I could have sworn there was intro title music that played the first time II fired up the game, but for some reason has not played since.
The intro music should play every time you start the game. Although I think if you go into the options menu and disable sounds, then enable them again, when you go back to the main menu the music will not play - but it will play again if you restart the game.
-
I know the tiles must currently be in 16x24 font. But I meant would it ever be possible that they could work in 8x12 font or to make them display larger in the future? They look really nice and I would like to play with them, but I simply can't play with them cause the 16x24 font appears far too small to really recognize thing (for me and my shoddy eyes anyways). I can only play in 8x12 font cause the characters actually appear larger.
I'm not sure what you mean. You want to scale them down to 8x12, then scale that up again (losing a lot of detail)?
I did an attempt one time to scale up the tiles to double size, and implemented scrolling. But with the map being much wider than tall, it turned out that the map (mostly) just scrolled in the horizontal direction - I thought it looked a bit ridiculous.
Baswically, I just wanted to use tiles but have them display more like the 8x12 font so that they are larger and easier to see. As it is, I just really can't use the tiles cause they simply appear too small and I can't distinguish anything. Even the ascii mode with 16x24 is too small for me to tell most things apart. 8x12 is really the only way I can play and see comfortably. (I have fairly poor eye sight in case I hadn't explained).
The scrolling doesn't sound too ridiculous. You mean the map simply scrolled horizontally more than it did vertically? If you have a test build of that, I would be happy to check it out.
-
I see. It seems the only solution then would be to provide an option for tiles scaled to 32x48. I might give this a shot again after next release is out. It's too big project to do for now though. At the moment I'm only implementing minor things and doing balancing, trying to finish the next version soon.
-
A few things.
I encountered this in one of my plays that I started in a room with deep mud. Zombies seemed to appear out of nowhere right next tom as if they came out of the mud. Is this intentional? I never made it out of that first room.
Zombies seem to always get back up after getting taken down the first time unless they are blown up. It would be nice if there was a chance at least that they would stay dead after the first time. I recall in Blood that they did tend to get back up, but not all the time. Otherwise, it would be nice if dynamite was a little more common to find.
Is there a way to remove the mouse cursor from the screen?
-
I encountered this in one of my plays that I started in a room with deep mud. Zombies seemed to appear out of nowhere right next tom as if they came out of the mud. Is this intentional?
I did discover and fix a bug that could cause the player to descend too close to monsters. It seems this problem already existed in v15 then. It should be fixed in next version anyway.
Zombies seem to always get back up after getting taken down the first time unless they are blown up. It would be nice if there was a chance at least that they would stay dead after the first time. I recall in Blood that they did tend to get back up, but not all the time.
Currently, on the develop branch, I have made it so you can (b)ash corpses lying on the ground (you have 1/3 chance to succeed IIRC). This can be used for preventing zombies from rising again. What do you think of this feature? I haven't fully decided yet if I should include it in the release or not.
However, you can prevent them from rising again when you kill them the first time - if you deal enough damage. Sledgehammer and pitchfork tends to do that, probably also the pistol, and definitely shotguns. I'm pretty sure the axe and machete should do it occasionally too, but it could be rare.
Is there a way to remove the mouse cursor from the screen?
Not at the moment. I'll see if there's some SDL call to remove it. Otherwise you could just hide it in a corner?
-
Zombies seem to always get back up after getting taken down the first time unless they are blown up. It would be nice if there was a chance at least that they would stay dead after the first time. I recall in Blood that they did tend to get back up, but not all the time.
Currently, on the develop branch, I have made it so you can (b)ash corpses lying on the ground (you have 1/3 chance to succeed IIRC). This can be used for preventing zombies from rising again. What do you think of this feature? I haven't fully decided yet if I should include it in the release or not.
However, you can prevent them from rising again when you kill them the first time - if you deal enough damage. Sledgehammer and pitchfork tends to do that, probably also the pistol, and definitely shotguns. I'm pretty sure the axe and machete should do it occasionally too, but it could be rare.
Being able to bash the corpses on the ground to keep them from rising would definitely be a nice addition. Although, 2/3 or 1/2 chance to succeed might be a little more fair. Mostly considering that the player will likely be dealing with more than one zombie at a time so they will most likely take some hits while trying to bash the corpse on the ground. Would also need a way to confirm that you succeeded.
As for the weapons, are you saying that it currently works that way, or just in the dev branch? Cause after I noticed that they never seem to stay down at all, I stood and waited by everyone I took down, and every single one got back up. Even by shotgun blasts.
Shotguns and dynamite definitely make the most sense for this to happen. Sledge hammers as well. I think the axe and machete also make sense cause the player could decapitate the zombie and would be most likely out of the melee weapons to work. And a spiked mace of course could be used for a quick bash to the head. :D I could see it being the most effective melee weapon for keeping zombies down in the first kill because of the accuracy and nature of the blunt damage to the head.
I can see the spike gun having a chance of working as I imagine the spikes being rather large and being able to take out it's brain or head off if it got shot in the face.
Knifes, daggers, and in my opinion. the pitchfork would be least likely to put them down in one hit. I can see a pistol working assuming the player made a head-shot.
A way to keep a zombie down after the first kill would definitely be a nice addition. The major majority of my player deaths have been by becoming zombie kibble to a swarm of zombies. They are huge bullet sponges when ammo is pretty scarce already and can sometimes slow the game a little cause on the rare occasion I manage to kill a lone zombie or a small amount all go down in quick succession, I always end up waiting around the corpses so I can kill them again just so they down't sneak up on me down the hall.
p.s. It would be nice if it were possible to throw potions without having to equip them first. Like maybe when you select them with the (e) command, the game could prompt you if you wanted to drink it or throw it. Or if when using the (t)hrow command, the game could prompt you if you want to throw your equipped throwing weapon or a potion if you have any.
-
Would also need a way to confirm that you succeeded.
Yeah there's a text message, plus the corpse gets gibed.
As for the weapons, are you saying that it currently works that way, or just in the dev branch? Cause after I noticed that they never seem to stay down at all, I stood and waited by everyone I took down, and every single one got back up. Even by shotgun blasts.
It has worked that way since forever, if you kill them with enough damage they don't leave a corpse. They only rise again if they leave a corpse of course. How much damage is needed is determined by their max hp. IIRC the rule is something like if the damage from the killing blow is greater than MAX_HP / 3, they are gibed.
Try attacking low HP monsters like spiders and rats for example. They rarely/never(?) leave corpses since you deal a lot of damage compared to their max HP.
A way to keep a zombie down after the first kill would definitely be a nice addition.
Yes I'm considering having some melee trait have that effect (for melee attacks only then).
It would be nice if it were possible to throw potions without having to equip them first.
Yes it's a planned feature to be able to throw any item. Not for next version though.
-
Uploaded a release candidate of v16.0:
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/share/view/66492190
Regarding features, this version is complete, and the proper release will be very close or identical to this. There may be some minor adjusting and bug fixing before the actual release though. Would appreciate feedback on difficulty and gameplay.
-
Quick npte after (very) first play. Melee sounds only play when the enemy is killed by a melee weapon. Not hit.
-
Quick npte after (very) first play.
Npte? What's that?
Melee sounds only play when the enemy is killed by a melee weapon. Not hit.
I'm gonna have to disagree with this one. Melee attack hits always plays for me, not just on kills.
Edit: Or was that a suggestion that I should change it so it only plays sounds when killing?
-
Just thought I'd drop in to say that "npte" was almost certainly meant to say "note". You've probably realised that by now but just in case..
-
Just thought I'd drop in to say that "npte" was almost certainly meant to say "note". You've probably realised that by now but just in case..
*smacks forehead*
No I didn't realize it, I was too sleepy yesterday. I thought it was some abbreviation from the military or something. Kinda like ASAP, SNAFU or FUBAR :P
-
I must have been one hit killing the enemies then. I suppose I was expecting a "miss" sound as well.
ANd yes. it was meant to be "note" :P
I also found a little graphical glitch.
(http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/Brewtal_Legend/iaglitch.png) (http://s597.photobucket.com/user/Brewtal_Legend/media/iaglitch.png.html)
You can see what looks like a magenta "!!" where the character @ should be surrounded by the zombies and rats and ooze. Next to the zombie corpse.
A light player footstep sound would be nice too.
Also, in the future. Maybe a way for the player to customize what sounds are played.
Quick npte after (very) first play.
Npte? What's that?
Melee sounds only play when the enemy is killed by a melee weapon. Not hit.
I'm gonna have to disagree with this one. Melee attack hits always plays for me, not just on kills.
Edit: Or was that a suggestion that I should change it so it only plays sounds when killing?
-
I also found a little graphical glitch.
You can see what looks like a magenta "!!" where the character @ should be surrounded by the zombies and rats and ooze. Next to the zombie corpse.
It's not a glitch, it's a feature:
To make it easier to notice when shocking events happen, exclamation marks (“!”) are now drawn on the player character if enough shock is received during a turn (up to three marks can be drawn)
Perhaps I should make an option to disable it. Some people could consider it annoying and ugly.
Maybe a way for the player to customize what sounds are played.
If you don't want a certain sound to play, I'm pretty sure you can just remove it from the audio folder or rename it. You could also easily replace a sound with a different one.
-
I also found a little graphical glitch.
You can see what looks like a magenta "!!" where the character @ should be surrounded by the zombies and rats and ooze. Next to the zombie corpse.
It's not a glitch, it's a feature:
To make it easier to notice when shocking events happen, exclamation marks (“!”) are now drawn on the player character if enough shock is received during a turn (up to three marks can be drawn)
Perhaps I should make an option to disable it. Some people could consider it annoying and ugly.
Maybe a way for the player to customize what sounds are played.
If you don't want a certain sound to play, I'm pretty sure you can just remove it from the audio folder or rename it. You could also easily replace a sound with a different one.
Instead of the "!" for showing the shock, maybe it would be better to highlite the player instead. Like when the enemies don't notice you. I think that would be more effective. Drawing the "!" was making me lose track of my character in that particular instance where I was surrounded.
I think a Miss sound would be nice for melee combat. When firing, you always hear something. In melee, you only hear something when it hits. I think that is what was throwing me off by assuming that the sound simply didn't play. I was taking audio cures for feedback more than reading the messages.
Also, a pain sound for the enemies when they get hit would be nice. I think a light footstep sound for the player as they move would add a bit to the lonely and desolate atmosphere. And maybe an additional sound of the player breathing at random intervals when the area is fairly calm or the player is wounded.
-
Instead of the "!" for showing the shock, maybe it would be better to highlite the player instead. Like when the enemies don't notice you.
I could try something like that.
I think a Miss sound would be nice for melee combat.
Some *swosh* sounds should be easy to find. Will try it. I'm a bit concerned it will be too much sound spam though, especially when surrounded. Perhaps only the players attacks should make miss-sounds?
Also, a pain sound for the enemies when they get hit would be nice.
That sounds like a big project. All the different types of monsters would need separate sounds. It's hard enough to provide the sounds they make when alerted.
I think a light footstep sound for the player as they move would add a bit to the lonely and desolate atmosphere.
I could try it. Though I did have a sound for walking in liquid for a while, but I thought it was too spammy. It was particularly bad when you held down a key and the sound repeated every 60ms.
And maybe an additional sound of the player breathing at random intervals when the area is fairly calm or the player is wounded.
Could be cool. There could be a timer to keep track of how long since you last spotted a monster. If it's more than X turns and/or more than Y seconds some nervous breathing, heart beating or something is played.
-
For the pain sounds for the enemies, maybe they could just be a variation of the alerted sound (assuming you can do sound editing)? I don't think every single enemy needs a completely unique sound for it. Some kinds could be grouped together maybe. The ooze could just have a different "squishy/Gurgle sound. Rats and spiders could probably share the same kind of squeal type of sound. Zombies could just use their same alerted sound just maybe pitched a little different.
Death sounds could simply be a thud for all humanoid type enemies and a squish/splat sound for spiders/ooze/rats/other squishy enemies.
I agree that only the player should make a miss sound. As for the enemies attacking, the only thing you really need is a player pain sound when hit and gunshot/ projectile sounds from enemies.
A walking through liquid sound seems cool. For that, to reduce the spamminess, maybe have it play every other step or every third step the player takes in liquid?
Your idea for implementing the breathing sounds good. Maybe it could even be tied into how much shock you've taken/ sanity has been lost. I often find myself taking too much shock and losing sanity cause I'm not always looking down at the meter. An audio indicator would be a nice touch.
I'm making the sound suggestions cause once they have been added, sound feedback goes a long way I think in immersion and playability.
-
I just started playing this today in earnest. A lot of fun!
-
I just started playing this today in earnest. A lot of fun!
Good to hear :)
Keep your eyes open for a new, vastly improved version soon.
-
Version 16.0 is released!
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads
Gameplay
* You now pick traits when gaining character levels (as it was in v14) instead of only at the start. Many new traits have been added. You pick a trait each level, but the XP rate is roughly halved compared to older versions, and your character is limited to 10 levels.
* You now select a background when starting a game, the choices are “Occultist” (magic), “Rogue” (stealth), and “War Veteran” (fighter/firearms) - Your background determines which traits and items you start with, there are also special background-specific abilities, and some traits have background prerequisites.
* You now gain half a monsters worth of experience when spotting it, and the other half when killing it (killing a monster without spotting it gives the full worth)
* You can now “become aware” of a monster by hearing or seeing it - this “awareness” will last for a few turns and cause the monster to be marked on the map with an exclamation mark (“!”) while it is not in your view. This represents the player character listening more closely for footsteps and other small clues, and estimating where the monster could go. This feature is intended to help avoid situations like walking around a corner to get instantly killed by a shotgun blast - now you should have more opportunity to make better decisions about such things.
* Objects on the map are no longer interacted with through popup menus (which were considered slow and boring). Instead you use the standard keyboard commands listed in the manual - such as 'd' for disarming traps, or 'q' for bashing something. The examine command 'a' is now merely used for searching an object (for traps). Bumping an object will attempt to use it in the normal way (opening a chest, drinking from a fountain, descending the stairs, reading the inscriptions on the graves in the forest level, etc).
* Bashing now works in a more general way. You can attempt to find secret doors by bashing on any wall. You can destroy corpses by bashing them. Bashing/kicking now always consumes a turn, whether you hit something or not (“I kick the air!”). When attempting to kick in a cell with an unseen monster (due to blindness or monster hiding), it will behave in the same way as normal melee attacks (“I kick it”) - this fixes a bug where an attempt to kick an unseen monster had no effect
* Reworked Strange Devices. Now instead of keeping them enabled for random occasional effects, you activate them for an instant effect. They can be activated multiple times, although their condition may degrade, and they can malfunction or break. The effects of some of the Devices have been reworked as well. The result of these changes is that the Devices should now be more effective and fun to use. Also, they are more common now, and you can even find them on the first dungeon level.
* Your insanity no longer rises immediately when shock is at 100% or more, instead you now first have three turns with warning messages - during these turns you have a chance to reduce shock below 100% (e.g. by turning on a light in a dark room, drinking a Potion of Fortitude, descending the stairs, or stepping away from a ghoulish statue)
* Added sound effects for melee attacks, spellcasting, dying, and opening tombs - also added more ambient sounds
* The game now prompts for confirmation when attempting to cast an intrinsic spell which could potentially deplete your Spirit
* Greatly reduced duration of Weakening
* Greatly reduced duration of Disease when received from fountains, tombs, and spells (disease will only last a very long time when received from infections)
* You are now immune to Infection while Diseased (being Infected and Diseased at the same time was redundant and annoying)
* Added “Manuscript of Darkbolt”, this is similar to “Azathoths Wrath”, but targets only one monster and costs less spirit to cast intrinsically - selecting the background “Occultist” guarantees starting with this spell
* Added spell “Mi-Go hypnosis”, available for all monsters (but not the player) - all Mi-Go (Fungi from Yuggoth) know this spell - when this is cast, there is a chance that you will faint for a few turns
* Added a spell available only for monsters, which causes the player to burn for a few turns
* Changed “Manuscript of Clairvoyance” to a Potion, and instead of continuously revealing monsters and dungeon layout around you, it now instantly reveals the layout of the whole level (including items, but not monsters)
* Added “Manuscript of Detect Monsters”, which marks all unseen monsters on the map with an exclamation mark for a number of turns (no shock taken from these detected monsters)
* Added “Manuscript of Elemental Resistance”, which gives you temporary resistance to fire, cold, and electricity
* Manuscript of Pestilence no longer spawns dozens of monsters - it is now a more reasonable number
* Quaffing Potions of Health/Spirit when already at max HP/SPI no longer raises your max values, instead they can now temporarily raise your current HP/SPI above the max values
* Reduced the number of vertical map cells
* Added two common monsters (Flying Polyps, Chthonians), and one unique monster
* Added Golden Fountains, which are guaranteed to have a positive effect
* Hearing sounds no longer aborts multi-turn actions (such as healing)
* Reduced the propagation range of sounds (especially loud sounds like pistol fire)
* Added natural fear and confusion resistance for various monsters (e.g. Ooze-types, Spirit-types)
* Knockback no longer cause confusion
* Added a message that tells you when a monster spots you and becomes aware of you
* More sensible rules for where stairs can spawn, and where player descends on the next level
* Reduced number of turns waited when pressing 's' from 10 to 5
* Removed the message “was that supposed to do something?” when reading scrolls with no apparent effect
* The trait “Observant” no longer makes you find clues about hidden doors (was represented by a yellow wall) - instead this trait simply raises your chance of finding doors, and allows you to spot them from two cells away (another trait “Perceptive” raises the distance to three cells)
* Mummies now generally spawn alone instead of in groups
* Removed “Mythos knowledge”, and removed the spell you gained at a certain level of MTH
* You can now disarm traps by pressing 'd' and choosing a direction (works both for traps on the ground and on chests)
* When the electric lantern is flickering, it now merely reduces the lit area to 3x3 cells, it can still also malfunction and fail to give any light, or break completely
* When encumbered there is now an interval between 100-125% where you are able to move at half speed - at 125% and above you are completely immobile
* Added messages when your Spirit is being drained (e.g. by Ghosts)
* The postmortem information no longer lists number of kills for each type of monster, instead it only lists unique monsters killed, and the total number of monsters
* Masochistic Obsession no longer restores shock when player is damaged, it now merely removes the shock normally taken when damaged (and raises minimum shock to 35%)
Interface
* The game now supports Vi-keys
* You can no longer select things in menus by pressing letter keys
* To make it easier to notice when shocking events happen, exclamation marks (“!”) are now drawn on the player character if enough shock is received during a turn (up to three marks can be drawn)
* There is now two lines for displaying messages - significantly reducing the number of “--More--” prompts.
* Some important messages are now colored orange, and some of these messages always trigger a “--More--” prompt (for example spotting traps and monsters), making them easier to notice and react to
* Item symbols are now drawn in the inventory screen and the wielding info at the bottom of the screen
* Changed the appearance of the main menu and character creation screens
* Removed the option to scale the font to 2x size
* Added a 16x24 DOS font
* Added option for how tiles mode should render walls - full square or pseudo-3D
* The game now handles delays in a nicer way. Previously, a delay would freeze the whole program. So for example while a projectile was travelling, the game could appear frozen (especially noticeable if setting a long delay). Now user input is read during delays so the game is not freezing - you can move the screen, alt-tab back and forth, minimize etc.
* The screen is now redrawn when toggling fullscreen (previously the screen would be black until you entered a command)
* Popup windows with multiple choices (e.g. the medical bag menu) can be closed with space or escape
* The options menu is now accessible from within an ongoing game
* Pressing 'x' re-casts previous spell, and pressing 'X' (uppercase) opens the list of all memorized spells
* Added an in-game menu opened with 'Esc', where you can select Options, Manual, Quit, or Cancel
* Removed commands '>' (descend stairs) and 'S' (save and quit) - instead you now bump the stairs, which opens a menu asking if you want to Descend, Save and quit, or Cancel
* Changed command for viewing descriptions to 'v' instead of 'l' (lowercase L)
* Changed command for bashing/kicking to 'q' instead of 'b'
* Changed command for unloading/picking up ammo to 'G' instead of 'u'
* Changed the message log command to 'm' instead of 'L'
* When reloading, the amount of ammo loaded in the weapon is now printed in the log
* Some special ranged weapons now only show “*” (asterisk) as damage info (e.g. the Incinerator, which previously displayed “1d3” as damage - this only represented the “impact damage” of the shell, and did not include the explosion - the asterisk used now should give a clearer indication that the weapon will do damage in a special way)
Bug fixes
* Fixed many bugs related to saving/loading (e.g. crashing, losing memorized spells)
* Fixed many bugs related to properties (especially concerning properties which were supposed to be permanent, but would time out - e.g. confusion resistance gained from picking the trait “Self-aware”)
* Corrected various spelling mistakes
* Fixed a bug that prevented Ooze-type monsters from passing through closed doors (they should be able to do this)
* Fixed a bug that prevented using Page Up/Page Down/Home/End for diagonal movement
-
Quite some varied gains and progress there---well done. 8)
-
For some reason, I can never seem to bash a corpse in order to make it stay dead. Even after trying to bash the same corpse multiple times.
-
Doesn't seem to be any way to Esc out of the choose a character Menu back to the starting screen either---can't exit the game until you actually get ingame.
-
For some reason, I can never seem to bash a corpse in order to make it stay dead. Even after trying to bash the same corpse multiple times.
Do you mean literally never...? Or just rarely?
It's a plain 1/3 chance per try to destroy it.
Corpses can be stacked in the same cell, so perhaps you bashed one or several corpses without noticing the messages about this?
-
Doesn't seem to be any way to Esc out of the choose a character Menu back to the starting screen either---can't exit the game until you actually get ingame.
Could be something to add in the future. You started a new game and then changed your mind? :P
-
For some reason, I can never seem to bash a corpse in order to make it stay dead. Even after trying to bash the same corpse multiple times.
Eh, I tried it now. Works perfectly fine. I was in a fight with 5 zombies, and I managed to bash 3 or 4 of them easily.
-
How am I supposed to do to avoid being wounded? What purpose do wounds serve?
-
How am I supposed to do to avoid being wounded? What purpose do wounds serve?
This is explained well in the manual:
The state of your physical health is described in two ways:
(1) Hit Points (HP)
This represents minor wounds like bruises and sprains, and also general combat morale, fatigue, stance, etc. If your HP reaches 0, it means you received a killing blow, or the circumstances are such that you can no longer fight back (you are fallen, pinned or exhausted). Hit Points usually regenerates automatically over time.
(2) Wounds
This represents more serious long-term damage, and is shown as a property at the bottom of the screen. Wounds are received when you take a high amount of damage in one hit. Each wound reduces your fighting abilities and HP regeneration rate. If you have more than four wounds, you are dead.
There is an item called a "Medical Bag", which has a certain number of "supplies". It can be used in the following ways:
* Sanitize infection
When bitten or clawed by certain monsters, you can become infected. Use this option to handle the infection before it becomes a disease.
* Take morphine
This is used as a painkiller, and will restore your Hit Points. It is not good for the mind however.
* Treat wound
This will heal a wound, although it requires many uninterrupted turns, and drains many supplies.
-
For some reason, I can never seem to bash a corpse in order to make it stay dead. Even after trying to bash the same corpse multiple times.
Do you mean literally never...? Or just rarely?
It's a plain 1/3 chance per try to destroy it.
Corpses can be stacked in the same cell, so perhaps you bashed one or several corpses without noticing the messages about this?
Ok. For some reason it was never working last night, but happening this morning. Although it doesn't seem like a 1/3 chance. Seems a lot more rare than that. I could bash a corpse 3 or more times in a row and it still doesn't get destroyed.
The "!" that appears over the player for shock in 16x24 dos font is ineffective and annoying. They do not appear in the the proper font size and look like little glitches. I think a highlited background would be the most effective way of doing this. At least for the ascii mode.
I like the quotes on the main menu page, but kinda miss the old title screen with all the changing letters.
Another nice release NON.
-
I'm getting a malware warning from Chrome. Disregard?
-
I'm getting a malware warning from Chrome. Disregard?
Disregard it. It's fine.
-
I noticed that there seems to be a lot more traps than before and are almost always grouped together in close proximity to each other in groups of at least three. Was this intentional? It's not that bad, but does get quite annoying.
-
This is explained well in the manual
Yeah I saw that, what I'm asking is, what steps can I take to avoid being wounded? What decisions are there to be made regarding wounds? It feels I'm being penalized at random and the correct choice is always to use a medkit if I have one.
-
I noticed that there seems to be a lot more traps than before and are almost always grouped together in close proximity to each other in groups of at least three. Was this intentional? It's not that bad, but does get quite annoying.
It's intentional. I think that in previous versions, and in many other Roguelikes, traps are a bit lacking. This is because there is no strategy in searching for them. You either spot it or not depending on luck, and there's not really anything you can do differently. In this version, since they are usually clustered, if you find one trap you know you should move carefully.
-
This is explained well in the manual
Yeah I saw that, what I'm asking is, what steps can I take to avoid being wounded? What decisions are there to be made regarding wounds? It feels I'm being penalized at random and the correct choice is always to use a medkit if I have one.
Avoid getting shot, avoid melee with heavy hitting monsters (especially axe zombies).
Yes, there is no choice. If you're wounded, you should definitely heal it asap. The challenge is to find a secluded place and make sure you're not interrupted.
-
Really digging this -- I played a little tiny bit on the last version but I've already put more time into this one. I don't think I've felt more consistently threatened in a roguelike, which is great, I hate it when you're only in danger 5% of the time.
Is there a technical reason that there's no Mac build, or is it just something you can't be bothered with?
-
Lol. He'll likely answer you but it is almost certainly a technical issue. Cross platform to mac is hard in most cases.
-
Is there a technical reason that there's no Mac build, or is it just something you can't be bothered with?
Lol. He'll likely answer you but it is almost certainly a technical issue. Cross platform to mac is hard in most cases.
The reason that I've not provided a build for it just that I don't have access to a Mac. But - it's very likely that you can easily build your own. Check out this info from Github:
Some people have successfully built IA on OSX by using the Linux Makefile as it is. Although building on OSX is not “officially supported”, the goal is to keep the project as portable as possible. It should require little extra effort (or no extra effort at all) to build IA on OSX. So go ahead and try ;) Please tell of your problems or success at the IA webpage, or email me (Martin) - see contact.txt in the game folder (or assets/contact.txt in the IA repository).
https://github.com/InfraArcana/ia#osx
You can download the source and Makefile here:
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads
Direct link:
https://github.com/InfraArcana/ia/archive/v16.0.zip
-
I've uploaded some videos of me playing IA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7avZ-o4h0k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c52Qvx_wF08
(No sound)
-
Is there a technical reason that there's no Mac build, or is it just something you can't be bothered with?
It works pretty well in WINE.
-
Woo, always glad to see this game get updated -congrats NON on another release.
However I'd like to express one small complaint: Any reason why you decided to go with only 3 presets for character creation? I rather enjoyed creating my own doomed character each time -anyhow it won't stop me from playing just my two cents!
-
However I'd like to express one small complaint: Any reason why you decided to go with only 3 presets for character creation? I rather enjoyed creating my own doomed character each time -anyhow it won't stop me from playing just my two cents!
Well most people (including myself) really enjoy picking traits as the game is progressing. I will likely add more backgrounds though (Doctor/Psychic/Scientist are some candidates). I'm also considering having some optional background traits Fallout 2-style. These would be optional (you don't have to pick one), and each one would have both positive and negative consequences. This could be something like "Small frame", which makes you harder to hit with ranged weapons, but your melee attacks do -1 damage.
-
A few comments/questions/requests...
I think that zombies are not being being destroyed by tnt when out of view.
Also, a key binding for the lantern would be really nice. Either that or one that reuses the previously used item such as the lantern, tnt, cocktails, etc. Maybe simply "E"? I use the lantern quite often and am frequently turning it off and on to conserve battery life. Having to navigate the menu so often get's a little annoying.
I'm seeing a bit of redundancy in the inventory menu and the use items menu. Seems inventory is only good for seeing my non equipped items and dropping them. It would be nice if I could also use items from that same menu.
For Potions, maybe a quick pop-up that asks the player whether they wish to drink or throw it in order to make throwing them less cumbersome?
A sound for lighting/sizzle for the tnt/cocktail would be a nice touch. And a splat/squish/gib sound for destroying corpses by bashing.
Sorry if it was discussed before, but is there any way to restore sanity?
Maybe a small amount of anti venom in the medical bag? Poison almost always gets me down very close to death and I've had to quaff several vitality potions to try and wait it out.
Could multiple medical bags be combined (supplies from one transfered over to the other) so you only have to carry one bag?
Is it currently possible to set sounds for all enemies/actions or just the ones you actually have sounds for currently? I wanted to try and set sounds for rats, spiders, other enemies etc. A config file to do so and .wav support would be nice for sound effects to make for easier customizing. I wanted to try and add some sounds from Blood for my personal use.
The corpse bashing is still confusing me. If there is a 1/3 chance of destroying a zombie corpse by bashing it, wouldn't that mean that it would take 3 tries at most to destroy it. I know it has taken more than 3 times before for a single corpse.
A shield item that could provide a small amount of protection and assist in bashing?
I miss the old title screen.
Where's my spiked mace? :(
Also, for some reason, when I run the game, my display shifts to the right slightly so a few lines on the side get cut off. Not sure if this is due to the game or my monitor. I tried fiddling with the monitor but no luck. The only rl/program I have the issue with. Running in fullscreen 16x24 dos ascii mode btw. Monitor is 1280x768 resolution.
-
I think that zombies are not being being destroyed by tnt when out of view.
I'll look into it.
Also, a key binding for the lantern would be really nice. Either that or one that reuses the previously used item such as the lantern, tnt, cocktails, etc. Maybe simply "E"?
Something like that would be nice. Although I'm not sure about 'E' immediately using the last used item. I'd never dare use it in case I accidentally light a dynamite, or quaff some harmful potion (or waste a good one). It would need a confirmation query then "Turn on Electric Lantern? y/n", or "Drink Potion of Vitality? y/n". This could be somewhat faster than pressing 'e' and navigating to the lantern in the menu though. Another option as you suggested is that 'E' is only used for toggling the lantern. It's probably the most commonly used item, so it would make sense in that way. If you have multiple lanterns I suppose it would toggle the first one in the list.
I'm seeing a bit of redundancy in the inventory menu and the use items menu. Seems inventory is only good for seeing my non equipped items and dropping them. It would be nice if I could also use items from that same menu.
That could work. Hm, I wonder if the 'e' menu could even be removed completely then? In that case, 'e' could be used to toggle the lantern. I'm not sure about removing it though. I think it's nice to have a filtered list of only things you can activate somehow, especially in a tough situation. Then I always press 'e' and see very clearly what my options are.
I'm also thinking that if the 'e' menu is kept, and if I implement item usage through the 'i' menu, it would seem a bit weird. The only purpose of the 'e' menu would be to filter the list. It would be more redundant than the current system.
UI design is really damn hard...
For Potions, maybe a quick pop-up that asks the player whether they wish to drink or throw it in order to make throwing them less cumbersome?
I intend to implement throwing any single item without equiping it in the throwing slot somehow. All item types should them be throwable as well, so you could for example throw a Sledgehammer or Iron Suit. Perhaps you could press 't' while browsing items in the 'w', 'e' or 'i'?
(I will still keep the missiles slot for regularly thrown stuff like throwing knives of course).
A sound for lighting/sizzle for the tnt/cocktail would be a nice touch. And a splat/squish/gib sound for destroying corpses by bashing.
That would be good. I've written it down.
Sorry if it was discussed before, but is there any way to restore sanity?
You can only restore shock not insanity. Maybe (probably) in the future.
Maybe a small amount of anti venom in the medical bag? Poison almost always gets me down very close to death and I've had to quaff several vitality potions to try and wait it out.
Quaff several vitality potions? For one poisoning? The vitality potion should heal the poison, and restore your HP completely. So you should only need to drink one.
There are already antidote potions, so it would be strange and redundant to also include it in the medical bag. But perhaps there could be something that slows the poison, or shortens the duration? Some sort of syringe?
Could multiple medical bags be combined (supplies from one transfered over to the other) so you only have to carry one bag?
Good idea. I should make it so that when you pick up one bag, it will just increase the supplies in the currently carried one. Although I will some day (not too far) implement item descruction, such as scrolls burning up when you're on fire, or potions shattering from cold, or items being dropped (and disappearing) when you're swimming or climbing. It would be infuriating if you have gathered a huge medical bag with like 120 supplies, and it gets destroyed/lost. I suppose a solution could be that instead of the whole thing being destroyed/lost, you lose X number of supplies.
Is it currently possible to set sounds for all enemies/actions or just the ones you actually have sounds for currently? I wanted to try and set sounds for rats, spiders, other enemies etc. A config file to do so and .wav support would be nice for sound effects to make for easier customizing. I wanted to try and add some sounds from Blood for my personal use.
At the moment you can only replace the sounds already in place. Although maybe this could be externalized to make it more customizable. See my comments in this thread:
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/share/view/67239996
The corpse bashing is still confusing me. If there is a 1/3 chance of destroying a zombie corpse by bashing it, wouldn't that mean that it would take 3 tries at most to destroy it. I know it has taken more than 3 times before for a single corpse.
That's not how probability works. If you toss a coin, is it 100% guaranteed to land on heads within two tries? I have sometimes tossed a coin and it lands on heads 10 times in a row. It's the same thing in IA - for 1/3 chance, it will ocassionally happen that it takes even 20 tries. Normally it will take around three tries though.
A shield item that could provide a small amount of protection and assist in bashing?
A shield doesn't seem to fit with the time period.
Where's my spiked mace? :(
Well I decided that it doesn't really fit in the game (see above comment) - at least for now. However, I do have some vague plans to introduce old medieval-era stuff, which could have been lying around in the dungeon for hundreds of years. Although the question would arise why this stuff is not rusted after lying on the floor of a damp dungeon for a thousand years? A sword can't possibly be usable in this condition, after all this time? It would have to be magic weapons.
Also, for some reason, when I run the game, my display shifts to the right slightly so a few lines on the side get cut off. Not sure if this is due to the game or my monitor. I tried fiddling with the monitor but no luck. The only rl/program I have the issue with. Running in fullscreen 16x24 dos ascii mode btw. Monitor is 1280x768 resolution.
Well, as you know, we discussed it here (I'm just linking for others to see):
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/share/view/67239996
-
I was thinking about a new wound system. Started a new thread for it here:
http://forums.roguetemple.com/index.php?topic=4092.0
-
Well I decided that it doesn't really fit in the game (see above comment) - at least for now. However, I do have some vague plans to introduce old medieval-era stuff, which could have been lying around in the dungeon for hundreds of years. Although the question would arise why this stuff is not rusted after lying on the floor of a damp dungeon for a thousand years? A sword can't possibly be usable in this condition, after all this time? It would have to be magic weapons.
I could still see it being plausible. Without having to be magic items. I assume that the cult has been around for centuries in one form or another so they would acquire and preserve the tools and treasures that they have obtained over the years. This would explain the lack of/minimal amount of rust. I can see the shield being useful and plausible as something that was most likely kept around. In-game it could add to bashing doors/knocking back enemies with a slight amount of protection, but also making two handed firearms less accurate. The player would have to wield it in their prepared weapon slot to make use of it.
The Spiked mace for knockback of enemies and bashing corpses/automatically bashing corpses on the first hit. Just make them more rare to balance it out. I also think it fits the theme, brutal and gruesome nature of the game. And it is a bit more eerie and unsettling item than say a sword.
Quote from: Legend
Also, a key binding for the lantern would be really nice. Either that or one that reuses the previously used item such as the lantern, tnt, cocktails, etc. Maybe simply "E"?
Something like that would be nice. Although I'm not sure about 'E' immediately using the last used item. I'd never dare use it in case I accidentally light a dynamite, or quaff some harmful potion (or waste a good one). It would need a confirmation query then "Turn on Electric Lantern? y/n", or "Drink Potion of Vitality? y/n". This could be somewhat faster than pressing 'e' and navigating to the lantern in the menu though. Another option as you suggested is that 'E' is only used for toggling the lantern. It's probably the most commonly used item, so it would make sense in that way. If you have multiple lanterns I suppose it would toggle the first one in the list.
Quote from: Legend
I'm seeing a bit of redundancy in the inventory menu and the use items menu. Seems inventory is only good for seeing my non equipped items and dropping them. It would be nice if I could also use items from that same menu.
That could work. Hm, I wonder if the 'e' menu could even be removed completely then? In that case, 'e' could be used to toggle the lantern. I'm not sure about removing it though. I think it's nice to have a filtered list of only things you can activate somehow, especially in a tough situation. Then I always press 'e' and see very clearly what my options are.
I'm also thinking that if the 'e' menu is kept, and if I implement item usage through the 'i' menu, it would seem a bit weird. The only purpose of the 'e' menu would be to filter the list. It would be more redundant than the current system.
I agree about how it is kinda nice to see the filtered inventory list. Perhaps combining them into a single screen and adding hot keys in the inventory screen to filter? Or by simply dividing the inventory screen into sections for thown items, scrolls, potions, weapons/armor, etc?
Ultimately, I don't think the "e" menu needs to be removed. The redundancy of the "e" menu and the inventory isn't really a big deal. However, it would be nice if the inventory menu could also be used to use items instead of just viewing them and dropping. It could even be a solution for the potions. If the player wants to drink a potion, they select it from the Inventory menu. If they intend to throw the potion, they could use it from the "e" menu like cocktails and tnt.
Some sort of quick key for the lantern would definitely be great. No matter what key it is assigned to. I think I agree with you on not having a "last used" item button. It could very well end up causing many (possibly fatal) player mistakes.
As for the clustered traps I mentioned earlier, I agree that they definitely are a more fun/interesting/varied way of handling them. I think it is one of the best ways I have seen traps implemented in any rl. Although, and the reason I brought it up in the first place, the only exception is when they are in corridors. While I can see it being plausible that several traps are setup down a straight line in a hallway, it is just annoying in this particular circumstance from a gameplay perspective. They are practically unavoidable and can often cause death. It would be nice if the clustered traps could be the same as they are now but with the exception of if it is a corridor, that only a single trap would be generated. Or maybe two at the max.
I have encountered as many as 4 in a hallway which I walked into each one cause they were not detected. The thought/practice of having to search each step in a hallway for multiple traps is simply not fun. Out in the open is different because I can either search, go back the way I came, or take my chance in a different direction. In a hallway you are often left with absolutely having to press on in the same direction you started in order to get to the next section of the level. Even at end/beginning of a corridor of the rooms leading into/out of it is reasonable. Just not right in the middle along the hallway.
-
Next version will be more about adding new content (in terms of items and environment), so it's a better time to add some weapon like that. There will probably be some magic/ritual daggers and stuff like that too.
The Spiked mace for knockback of enemies and bashing corpses/automatically bashing corpses on the first hit. Just make them more rare to balance it out. I also think it fits the theme, brutal and gruesome nature of the game. And it is a bit more eerie and unsettling item than say a sword.
Sounds like cool properties for that weapon.
While I can see it being plausible that several traps are setup down a straight line in a hallway, it is just annoying in this particular circumstance from a gameplay perspective. They are practically unavoidable and can often cause death.
Have you tried 'd'isarming them?
It would be nice if the clustered traps could be the same as they are now but with the exception of if it is a corridor, that only a single trap would be generated. Or maybe two at the max.
I can agree with this. And it should be easy to just add a check to see if the original trap is created in a choke point, then don't spawn any extra traps around it.
-
Not really clamoring for more D&D-style content myself, but you can't go wrong with ritual daggers. Did you know that the first chainsaws were invented in the mid-20s?
-
Is there a technical reason that there's no Mac build, or is it just something you can't be bothered with?
It works pretty well in WINE.
Playing in WINE, I have found that the "Ressurect" menu option works pretty literally: it lets me continue with my last dead character. I guess something is not being deleted properly? If I forget that I died last session I save scum on accident.
-
Playing in WINE, I have found that the "Ressurect" menu option works pretty literally: it lets me continue with my last dead character. I guess something is not being deleted properly? If I forget that I died last session I save scum on accident.
I can't reproduce that on Linux. Something weird is going on - not sure if it could be WINE related. Additional information about when/how it did happen (if you remember) probably would help NON.
I wouldn't be surprised by existence of such issue, when it comes to version 15.0. There were numerous issues related to saving in that version. Since then it did get decent amount of testing and NON created test coverage for that code. Finding issue related to saving seems less likely now, still it is possible that something slipped by.
Personally I don't use saving, since IA a short/fast game anyway.
-
I have a Mac partition and a Windows partition. I encountered the issue using wine to play the copy of the game that I had in the Windows partition. I downloaded a second copy to the Mac partition and I don't encounter the same issue using it.
Can't get the make file to build it either, somesuch thing about not finding some SDL file that appears to actually be there.
How far deep does the dungeon go, anyhow? I hit level 19 (with tremendous luck), it was looking pretty end game-y before I died horribly. If that's only the halfway mark I should probably abandon hope.
-
How far deep does the dungeon go, anyhow? I hit level 19 (with tremendous luck), it was looking pretty end game-y before I died horribly. If that's only the halfway mark I should probably abandon hope.
100 levels(30 levels :P)
-
Can't get the make file to build it either, somesuch thing about not finding some SDL file that appears to actually be there.
You need SDL, SDL_mixer, SDL_image libraries. Best way to get them on Mac OSX is via Homebrew or Macports. People reported that other than that it compiles out-of-box on Mac OSX. You can find more details here (use "Show more replies" link to see whole thread) : http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/share/view/65547238
-
Can't get the make file to build it either, somesuch thing about not finding some SDL file that appears to actually be there.
You need SDL, SDL_mixer, SDL_image libraries. Best way to get them on Mac OSX is via Homebrew or Macports. People reported that other than that it compiles out-of-box on Mac OSX. You can find more details here (use "Show more replies" link to see whole thread) : http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/share/view/65547238
Installed the SDL libraries through Homebrew yet "include/Engine.h:7:10: fatal error: 'SDL.h' file not found", meh. Trying to get it to work as an XCode project now, it's... spitting up fewer errors than when I started, I feel confident.
Does IA log errors anywhere useful? Was having a perfectly nice time shooting a tesla cannon at deep ones when suddenly FATAL ERROR, and in such a nice run too. Probably will put me off the game for a bit.
-
Installed the SDL libraries through Homebrew yet "include/Engine.h:7:10: fatal error: 'SDL.h' file not found", meh. Trying to get it to work as an XCode project now, it's... spitting up fewer errors than when I started, I feel confident.
What version of SDL you installed? SDL2 won't work - in many ways it is different library. You need SDL from 1.2.* series.
Makefile is looking for "sdl-config" binary provided by SDL, you can check if it is in your PATH by running "sdl-config --cflags". Output should point to location of headers. Maybe it is just matter of adding "sdl-config" location to your PATH.
Does IA log errors anywhere useful? Was having a perfectly nice time shooting a tesla cannon at deep ones when suddenly FATAL ERROR, and in such a nice run too. Probably will put me off the game for a bit.
You can build debug version from source that provides more information e.g. "make BUILD=debug" (prints to shell). As much I don't want to say it, it could be a problem with WINE. With native version you could try to obtain core dump - won't explain details about that.
What you can do: provide as much detail about situation before crash. That could help replicate the situation.
-
Infra Arcana v17.0 is released!
http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads
Gameplay
* Monsters can now be allied to the player
* Added spell/manuscript "Summon Creature"
* The "Pestilence" spell now summons allied critters, and can be learned by both the player and monsters
* Renamed "Sentry Device" to "Blaster Device", and added a new "Sentry Drone Device" which will hover around you when activated and attack your enemies
* Added (rare) magic Amulets and Rings
* Added spell (and manuscript) of "Light" (illuminates the area around the caster for a number of turns)
* Added forest rooms
* Removed the old way of making cave like rooms, and added a new improved cave room
* Some of the old rooms are now occasionally cave shaped (e.g. flooded rooms and spider rooms)
* Added in-game descriptions for all items and spells
* Some items now causes ability penalties while used (e.g. the Iron Suite makes it more difficult to dodge) - all penalties are mentioned in the item descriptions
* A vast majority of the common fountains are now "refreshing" (restores HP, SPI and shock), many of the beneficial properties (RFire, RFear, etc) granted from fountains lasts twice as long. Golden fountains are much rarer than before and gives three effects (always beneficial).
* Some map features can catch fire, which can spread to adjacent cells over time
* Smoke causes blinding and choking
* Added Gas mask (the war veteran starts with one)
* Added Smoke grenades (the war veteran starts with some)
* Removed wounds - instead passive HP regeneration is now much slower, the Medical Bag can be used for restoring HP at a quick rate.
* Your inventory is no longer limited by the number of items (only by weight)
* Items can now exist on revealed traps (in previous versions, revealing a trap would "push" away any item to an adjacent cell, which was very annoying if you intended to pick up the item) - traps covered by an item are drawn with a background color corresponding to the trap type.
* You now start with a fixed number of items (instead of a random range), and your starting items depend more on the chosen background (e.g. the Rogue always starts with a +1 Dagger).
* Added trait "Summoner" - Reduced cost for summoning spells, and lower risk that called creatures are hostile
* Added trait "Vicious" - +50% backstab damage
* Added trait "Bane of the Undead" - +2 melee/ranged attack damage against undead monsters, attacks against ethereal undead monsters (e.g. Ghosts) never pass through them (although you can still miss in the ordinary way)
* Added trait "Unbreakable" - This is a continuation of "Tough"/"Rugged" (HP bonus, carry weight bonus, etc)
* The Electric Lantern now lasts a specific number of turns (displayed in the item name) instead of having a random chance per turn to break (but it can still randomly malfunction).
* Kicking a statue can cause it to topple over, damaging any monster behind it
* Doors no longer have a "broken" state - instead, breaking them simply converts them to "rubble"
* Brown Jenkin now does more melee damage, has very high sneak skills, and knows the teleport spell
* Added a bunch of new monsters
* The Mi-go Electric gun is now a "real" weapon that the Mi-go can drop, and can be used by the player - the Tesla Cannon has been removed (redundant). The "yellow cultists" now use the Mi-go Electric gun.
* Added Mi-go Biological Armor - this can be used by the player
* Monsters now drop all their items when they die (in previous versions, each item had 50% chance to be destroyed)
* Reworked how you interact with lootable features (chests etc). This is now a lot quicker - there is no need to search repeatedly with (that command has been removed) - you use to disarm/search for chest traps and check if the chest is locked, and you are either able to spot the trap or not (based on Observant/Perceptive traits) - searching repeatedly makes no difference. Attempting to disarm a known chest trap only either succeeds or triggers the trap, there is never any need to disarm repeatedly.
* When picking up Electric Lanterns or Medical Bags, those items are now combined with existing Lanterns/Medical Bags instead of adding a separate item in the inventory
* Removed insanity as a factor in score (it is now purely based on XP and dungeon level reached)
* Graves are no longer placed in the forest intro level for winning characters
* Firearms and thrown weapons have limited effective ranges, beyond which their damage is halved. When selecting target, the marker is colored orange beyond the effective range.
* Added phobia for darkness
Interface
* Added a quick move command , to automatically move in some direction until interrupted
* Removed the Inventory menu and the Use menu - instead you now view and handle your inventory from a single menu, accessed with .
* Removed the examine command
* Added a shortcut key to quickly activate the two most common items - Medical bag and Electric Lantern. When you press the game asks if you want to use Medical Bag or Electric Lantern (perhaps in the future, shortcuts like these could be customized by the player).
* You no longer choose Medical Bag actions through a popup menu, instead it first sanitizes an infection if you have one, otherwise it restores HP.
* The "--More--" prompts now only accepts space or esc to proceed, this prompt is also added to more messages, for example triggering or avoiding traps - making it much easier to notice
* Changed the general color theme of the game's interface
* When viewing map cells with , information is printed for everything in that cell (not just the "top" thing) - e.g.: "I see here: A dart trap. A murky potion"
* Monster corpses are now included when viewing map cells with
* Monster corpses are now referred to in more interesting ways, e.g. "A lifeless gruesome corpse" instead of "A body of a Reanimated Corpse"
* Monster corpses are now rendered in the same color as the living monster, making them easier to distinguish
* Adjacent dark cells are now rendered darker than normal cells to make it easier to notice darkness
* Walls now draw the front wall tile instead of the top tile if the cell below is unexplored
* Fountains are now either blue (common) or yellow (golden), then turns to gray when they are dried up
* Added more sound effects
* Number of turns left on the Electric Lantern is printed in the map screen interface (e.g. "L:498") - the number is printed with yellow color when the Lantern is lit
* Removed the status line at the bottom of the map that said "It is dark here" / "The darkness is lit up" (etc)
* Lit cells are no longer colored completely yellow - instead they are just colored slightly brighter (with more weight on yellow)
* The game no longer prints hit chance percent when aiming at ethereal monsters (this number was misleading)
* The graves in the intro level forest now also display the background of the characters
* Throwing explosives in tiles mode now draws the items tile instead of its ASCII character
* The game no longer draws/delays at each intermediate cell when creatures are knocked back (or pulled by a Vortex), only when the creature reach the "destination" cell - this feels more intuitive and responsive.
Bug fixes
* Fixed a bug that prevented backstabs from giving hit chance bonus in many cases
* Fixed a crash that occurred if enter was pressed while equipping a slot with no available items
* Fixed a crash that occurred if shift + enter (drop item) was pressed while a slot with no item was selected
* Fixed a bug that caused properties to "stick" on an item if it was dropped while wearing it (if the item was picked up again, the properties were enabled on the player even when the item was just carried in the backpack)
* Thrown objects may now pass through ethereal monsters (in the previous version, this rule mistakenly only applied to firearms and melee attacks)
* The Electric Lantern on/off state is now stored when saving the game
* Flying monsters can no longer be killed by kicking them into chasms
* The audio player now attempts to find a free channel, instead of just picking the next channel (this could stop other sounds, which frequently happened with long tracks like the ambient background noises)
-
Fantastic to see such a big release for this here in the new year! 8)
-
After a long, screwed up day at work, I checked out the temple only to hop-e to see an update to Infra arcana. Dream come true and nice ending to a bad day.
Keep up the good work.
p.s. Will I finally find a spiked mace?
p.p.s. My birthday is coming up you know. :P
-
Sounds cool, downloading now
-
Seems like a pretty good update so far. The new slow healing is much nicer than the old wounds system.
-
I've been playing this for a while now and I'm having a good time with it. Almost everything about the game is solid. The tiles look really nice and the spooky sound effects help with the atmosphere a lot. I like that there aren't many pointless or weak items. Basically everything is either useful or dangerous, and the fact that the player's stats barely go up means you really appreciate small advantages. The combat system is a little too simple and a little too random for my liking, but I appreciate how quick and deadly it is. Haven't won yet, but I will.
The rogue class seems enormously superior to the others. Am I building my characters wrong or are the classes really that unbalanced? I want to be a weird crazy wizard but I can't make it work
-
p.s. Will I finally find a spiked mace?
Some day... :-[
I've been playing this for a while now and I'm having a good time with it. Almost everything about the game is solid. The tiles look really nice and the spooky sound effects help with the atmosphere a lot. I like that there aren't many pointless or weak items. Basically everything is either useful or dangerous, and the fact that the player's stats barely go up means you really appreciate small advantages.
Great to hear!
The rogue class seems enormously superior to the others. Am I building my characters wrong or are the classes really that unbalanced? I want to be a weird crazy wizard but I can't make it work
In the previous version Occultist was considered the strongest class. It should be just as strong now, I haven't changed anything about it. But Rogue on the other hand is much stronger now, mainly due to a fixed backstabbing bug, and perhaps also because a prerequisite was removed from the "Imperceptible" trait.
Someone made this image about the Occultist, I love it ;D
http://s3.postimg.org/5ypn5ngvn/h_Qphyyg.png (http://s3.postimg.org/5ypn5ngvn/h_Qphyyg.png)
-
Someone made this image about the Occultist, I love it ;D
http://s3.postimg.org/5ypn5ngvn/h_Qphyyg.png (http://s3.postimg.org/5ypn5ngvn/h_Qphyyg.png)
That exact picture persuaded me to play occultist. I feel like the rogue's cloud minds power and the occultist's darkbolt are comparably powerful, I'd give rogue the edge if I had to pick. But in addition to that, the rogue starts out with good stats, a solid weapon, an amazing -50% to passive shock, and two useful perks. The occultist has a penalty to their health and their one starting perk is the bare minimum for making their abilities work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong and occultist gunner builds or whatever are amazing, but it feels to me like rogues are way ahead.
-
The occultist has a penalty to their health and their one starting perk is the bare minimum for making their abilities work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong and occultist gunner builds or whatever are amazing, but it feels to me like rogues are way ahead.
I think good timing of Darkbolt in combination with melee attacks is very effective. You shouldn't just spam Darkbolt. Utilize the paralyzing effect to the max by alternating between casting and melee attacks (you get huge melee hit chance bonus vs paralyzed targets).
You can also kill Ghost type monsters much easier with the Occultist than the other classes.
-
I finally beat this game. 10445 points.
I can hardly imagine getting through the final sprint through the last 10 or so floors without the rogue's ability. I thought I was gonna die or go insane on the final boss, but luckily I discovered his crippling weakness to lightning in time.
-
I finally beat this game. 10445 points.
I can hardly imagine getting through the final sprint through the last 10 or so floors without the rogue's ability. I thought I was gonna die or go insane on the final boss, but luckily I discovered his crippling weakness to lightning in time.
Congratulations!
Now do it with the other classes too! ;)
-
Aside from hopes for a spiked mace echoed throughout eternity, given any thought to taking a hammer and chisel to the FATE point system from Arcanum to roughly adapt for Infra Arcana as a balance/flavour-aiding tool? For whatever reason, it really just jumps out as thematically a better fit for IA than just about anything else that comes to mind in the Roguelike world.
-
Aside from hopes for a spiked mace echoed throughout eternity, given any thought to taking a hammer and chisel to the FATE point system from Arcanum to roughly adapt for Infra Arcana as a balance/flavour-aiding tool? For whatever reason, it really just jumps out as thematically a better fit for IA than just about anything else that comes to mind in the Roguelike world.
Oh wow, this is crazy, I was just thinking about something like this today!
I don't remember what the fate points does in Arcanum though, haven't played that for many years. But what I was thinking about was something like "Fate cards" you could play to alter the world, or change events. It would be inspired by tarot cards, like you could play "The Sun" to remove all darkness from the level, restore your shock, and cure all negative mental effects. Or you play "The Moon" to visit a dream world. Or "The Hermit" to remove all monsters from the level.
It's hard to think of good effects though - it must not be just another consumable like potions and scrolls - it must really feel different. Sure, you could have a card like "Strength" that restored your HP. But that would just be a health potion with a different name. Not very impressive.
If this was a board game, an obvious use would be to play these cards to re-roll failed dice rolls. But in a game like this the interface doesn't allow it - you can't ask after every failed attack or failed dodge "Would you like to play a Fate card and re-roll this attack? (y/n)".
What did you have in mind with the Arcanum fate points?
Edit: After some brief reading, it seems like the effect of Fate points in Arcanum is to guarantee that your next action is successful with the best possible effect. I guess that could be worked into the game, you use a point (which does not spend a turn) and then perform some action with the best possible effect. Sometimes there could also be "upgraded" effects that you'd never see otherwise. For example if you drink a potion of insight on the turn that you use a fate point, all your items are identified, not just one random item. Or if you shoot at monsters standing on a line, the bullet continues and kills the next monster too (although this can already happen with the shotgun if they are adjacent). Also bad stuff could happen for your enemies during this turn, like their guns explode when they attempt to fire them, or they fumble and drop their weapons, etc.
Edit 2: The second system sounds more interesting (or at least easier to make more interesting). It sounds fun as a player to discover and learn what kind of effects can happen when a fate point is active.
-
Go for it!
As always,
Minotauros
-
Yeah, sounds like you are onto the thought process I had in general from what I've seen of the game and how things play out---the trouble with Arcanum was mainly that it was the only game to make use of it in terms of rules as far as how it might fare in general application. So much of the game was a glorious mess of systems held together with Troika-styled duct tape, but the FATE points were the diamond in the rough.
You can leverage it to not only wrangle critical successes, but also critical fumbles, on top of miscellaneous other effects environmental and otherwise. The best part of the canvas that is IA, is that unlike Arcanum where you actually usually never managed to earn very many fate points despite it being a very lengthy game since most times they had to shoehorn it into narrative quest chains at best, here you can readily drip them out tied to successful descents, discoveries, special situations survived, interactions with the perks with each class, implications of actually trying to stockpile them to further influence just what becomes possible/varied challenge mode themes---it just goes on and on with potential while serving as a useful foil against balance troubles. Coming up with an airtight Roguelike system/apparatus is nigh unto impossible much the same as tabletop games generally hinge on a competent DM, so having a legitimate/fun means to fudge your way beyond rough spots and yet more tools to improvise as the game continues to grow and evolve without it turning into inventory consumable bloat is good times.
-
Congratulations!
Now do it with the other classes too! ;)
Maybe some other time.
One thing I noticed about IA's leveling system is that there are a lot of abilities that would be fun to have but that I would never take. You only get a few level ups over the course of the game, and most need to go towards keeping your character's main abilities up to date. I'm glad that rogues start with observant, it's a nice quality of life bonus, but I would never use a level up on it unless I was going for treasure hunter. My characters inevitably wind up hopelessly incompetent at all but one or two things, and it doesn't ruin the game but it could be a lot more enjoyable than it is.
You should bundle more of those less necessary abilities together with something else. I like what you did with tough/rugged/unbreakable. A bonus to breaking chests and opening tombs is not worth spending a level on, but since it comes bundled with more health and more carrying capacity it's a viable option and it feels good to get that little quality of life bonus without gimping my character.
-
Oh yeah, and I remember that some enemies could see through my cloud mind ability unless I used it outside of their line of sight. I think leng spiders were one of them. Do they have great perception scores or immunity to cloud minds or what? Is there extended documentation anywhere?
-
Oh yeah, and I remember that some enemies could see through my cloud mind ability unless I used it outside of their line of sight. I think leng spiders were one of them. Do they have great perception scores or immunity to cloud minds or what?
The Cloud Minds ability is not an ongoing effect, it just makes all monsters forget about you. There is nothing stopping them from discovering you again the next turn, if they succeed the roll. I tested it right now with Leng spiders just to make sure there wasn't a bug, and I could stand in its field of view for hundreds of turns without being detected. If anything it seems almost too powerful.
Perhaps you had your Lantern on? Standing in light makes it a bit harder to hide (you can also light up cells to more easily detect hidden monsters, it's a good idea to activate lantern when there's Clear Oozes around). Or maybe you wore armor? Iron Suit now makes it much harder to hide (as per the item description), the Asbestos Suit and Heavy Coat also decrease your ability to sneak (but not nearly as much as the Iron Suit).
All monsters have equal chance of detecting you, but fast monsters is harder to hide from simply because they act more often than you (so they get many checks).
Is there extended documentation anywhere?
Nope.
-
The Cloud Minds ability is not an ongoing effect, it just makes all monsters forget about you. There is nothing stopping them from discovering you again the next turn, if they succeed the roll. I tested it right now with Leng spiders just to make sure there wasn't a bug, and I could stand in its field of view for hundreds of turns without being detected. If anything it seems almost too powerful.
Oh yeah it definitely isn't underpowered, I just didn't understand what was happening. I probably left my lantern on like you said
-
One thing I noticed about IA's leveling system is that there are a lot of abilities that would be fun to have but that I would never take. You only get a few level ups over the course of the game, and most need to go towards keeping your character's main abilities up to date. I'm glad that rogues start with observant, it's a nice quality of life bonus, but I would never use a level up on it unless I was going for treasure hunter. My characters inevitably wind up hopelessly incompetent at all but one or two things, and it doesn't ruin the game but it could be a lot more enjoyable than it is.
You should bundle more of those less necessary abilities together with something else. I like what you did with tough/rugged/unbreakable. A bonus to breaking chests and opening tombs is not worth spending a level on, but since it comes bundled with more health and more carrying capacity it's a viable option and it feels good to get that little quality of life bonus without gimping my character.
I know exactly what you mean. The goal is that each trait should be a significant and tangible improvement, but some of them are probably too much "luxury traits" since you have to pick whatever maximizes your change to just stay alive from moment to moment.
However, there are some nice traits which can only be unlocked by picking less obvious traits (e.g. Self aware is extremely useful for both Rogue and Occultist, but the path there is perhaps not what you'd immediately consider choosing).
-
any chance there is a usable 12x24 or 14x24 dos font around? the 16x24 dos font won't fit properly on my screen monitor unfortunately. :(
-
Why does it seem like I become diseased at random without having an encounter with anything? I will just be walking then notified that I'm diseased. Has happened twice so far.
-
Untreated infections become diseases
-
I made a couple new 12x24 fonts in case anyone was interested.
12x24 bold:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/Brewtal_Legend/12x24.png (http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/Brewtal_Legend/12x24.png)
12x24 typewriter:
http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt51/Brewtal_Legend/12x24TW.png
I did both with just ms paint and resizing some of the existing ones. Just kinda thickening up the original 12x24 plus making most characters look closer top the 16x24 dos font. so it's kind a mish-mash of the two.
The typrewriter font was just re-scaled then edited slightly. I intend to make a bold 12x24 typewriter font too. Just gotta make sure I do it in the same kinda creepy and distorted way of the original while still making it more visible.
Anywho, hope someone enjoys and gets some use out of them.
-
v18.0! 8) Handier site also: https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/home
Gameplay
* Added more monsters
* Added invisibility property
* Ghost-type monsters and Polyps are invisible.
* New Potions: Invisibility and See Invisible (can see all invisible and sneaking monsters, prevents blindness)
* Bumping an unseen monster (sneaking or invisible) that you are unaware of no longer performs a melee attack, instead it prints a message such as �There is someone here!�, and makes you aware of the monster (you see it as a �!� on the map)
* New background: Ghoul
* New property: Infravision (the Ghoul background starts with this, and many monsters has it), which allows you to see infra-visible creatures in the dark
* Made several changes to how traps work - most importantly, when they activate there is usually a delay of a couple of turns from when they activate until the effect occurs - this means that you can (sometimes) avoid the effect by moving away from the trap
* Added command [R] for organizing Colt magazines (the game will reload your wielded or readied Colt, or move single rounds between magazines, whichever is better)
* Added command [N] to make noise (for luring monsters)
* Monsters fighting each other now generates sounds (�I hear fighting.�)
* Unequipping any item spends a turn
* Critical misses for melee attacks (1% chance normally) now cause various bad things to happen, such as becoming exhausted, or dropping the weapon
* Disarming traps gives a small amount of XP
* Potions of Fortitude no longer cures all insanity symptoms (phobias, etc), instead they only heal one random symptom
* There is now a delay when quaffing Potion of Descent until the effect happens
* Changed Potion of Antidote to Potion of Curing, which acts like a light version of Potion of Healing
* All Potions are now guaranteed to identify when you drink them
* Added new item class �Rods� - these are similar to Devices, except they never break or malfunction, and instead have a cooldown time before they can be used again
* The Wound system (which was removed in v17) is now back again - when you take heavy damage in one hit you receive a Wound - each wound reduces your fighting abilities, maximum HP, and HP regeneration rate - wounds can be healed with the Medical Bag
* Chests are never made of iron until at least dungeon level 3
* Added more traits
* The Melee Fighter skills now also gives extra damage (in addition to better hit chances), Master Marksman (the final Marksman skill) gives extra ranged damage
* The Mobile trait now only makes every third step a free action (instead of every second step)
* Walking in liquids stops Burning
* You can no longer read scrolls in darkness
* Items which in the previous version raised your shock when carried/equiped (such as Jewelry or the Mi-go armor) now raise your insanity instead (as long as you keep the item).
* Removed cold damage, and all items/monsters related to it
* Removed Potion of Frenzy
* Added Frenzy as an insanity symptom
* Braziers light up cells around them, and can be kicked over to do fire damage in a small area (similar to a small molotov explosion)
* The Spirit traits now also gives spell resistance - a harmful spell cast on you will be blocked, then it takes a certain number of turns to regain spell resistance
* Any melee weapon can now be thrown
* New spell: Animate Weapons - causes melee weapons to rise into the air and protect you (after a while they will drop to the ground and become normal weapons again)
* Added more Insanity symptoms
Interface
* Migrated to SDL2 (fullscreen mode may work better for you now, if you had problems with this before)
* In window mode, the window is created centered on the screen
* In some menus, options can now be selected directly with letter keys
* Page Up / Page Down can now be used in menus to jump to the top/bottom (if menu fits on screen), or to the previous/next screen (if menu takes up multiple screens)
* The [a] command is no longer a shortcut for Medical Bag and Electric Lantern, instead it opens a filtered inventory view only showing items which can be Applied (read, quaffed, activated, ignited, etc)
* Changed Inventory key to instead of [w]
* [w] is now used for kicking/bashing instead of [q] (*Wham*)
* Intrinsic properties that lasts indefinitely are now spelled with upper case (e.g. you can be �DISEASED� or �Diseased�), to clarify that waiting will not end the effect
* Added an option for using symbols such as a heart for Hit Points, and a brain for Insanity in the interface (the old text based way is the default option)
* Reworked background and trait picking screens
* Removed the [D] command for jamming doors - instead using the �Close� command [c] on an already closed door will now attempt to jam it
* Removed uppercase [X] command, and instead made lowercase - bring up the spell selection menu (instead of re-casting previous spell)
* Added another typewriter font
* There is now a log of �historic events� (such as identifying a potion, or killing a unique monster) viewable from the character info screen or from the game info screen after the game is over
* If you are Dexterous, the turncount is marked green on turns where you will get a free step
* The monster description pages shows more information (e.g. how many turns they will remember you, how frightening they are, and also their current properties such as terrified, burning, flying, etc)
* Added more sound effects (events and ambient sounds)
* While aiming aiming, the marker shows if the path goes through any seen blocking cells
Bug fixes
* Fixed a bug that could crash the game, especially during map generation (thanks �stevebob�!)
* Fixed a bug that caused the player�s dodge chance to be calculated the wrong way when Ghosts attempted to �touch� you
* If you ignited an explosive (Dynamite, Molotov, Flare, Smoke grenade) while already holding another, the first one would just be erased - now the game prevents you from igniting a new explosive instead
* Fixed a bug that prevented Flare Guns from burning the target
* Fixed a bug where bumping a hidden door would print a different message than bumping a wall (and thus indicating the presence of the door)
-
Black Mamba's who slither up through the cracks of the floors?
Crawling intestines that spew forth from a reanimated corpse?!
Got binded by a raven pecking at my eyes!!!
A croc headed mummy?!?
A severed hand trying to strangle me?!?
Spitting cobras that blind me?!?!
And just what in hell came out of that coffin which I could not identify, hitting me with an ethereal scythe, backed me into a corner, surrounded by worm masses and zombies spewing out their intestines and severed hands, slowing me down, and literally terrified me to death!?!?!?!
You sir, are devious!
Loving the new update!
Ash
* Explored to the depth of dungeon level 3
* Was 15% insane
* Killed 87 monsters
* Gained 301 experience points
* Gained a score of 332
Traits gained:
Adept Melee Fighter, Adept Marksman, Dexterous, Lithe, Tough
Unique monsters killed:
* None
History of Ash
0: Started journey.
323: Identified a Potion of Confusion.
325: Identified a Potion of Curing.
483: Started babbling incoherently.
Last messages:
I am terrified! The Worm Mass misses me. It misses me.
I am too terrified to engage in close combat!
The Worm Mass bites me.
It reaches for me... I dodge! It reaches for me...
Everything around me seems to speed up. I am no longer terrified!
I dodge an attack from The Worm Mass. I dodge an attack from it.
I swiftly swap to my prepared weapon (a Dagger).
My attack passes right through it! The Worm Mass bites me.
It reaches for me... Everything around me seems to speed up.
My attack passes right through it! It reaches for me...
Everything around me seems to speed up.
It slices me with an ethereal sickle. My spirit is drained! I am terrified!
I dodge an attack from The Worm Mass.(x2) It misses me.
I am too terrified to engage in close combat!
The way is blocked.
I hear a click...
An alarm sounds!
I am no longer terrified! It slices me with an ethereal sickle.
My spirit is drained! All my spirit is depleted, I am devoid of life!
I am dead!
The final moment:
##########
#########,'....,.#
######################## #...,...'',,#.#.'#
#@w-?}w'.............;;# #,#######.'``.''`#
#/]-)##############,;.'# #.# #.,`.`&..#
####'## ##'### ##########.# #####'####'#
#[}# # # #....;.'.#.# #.....# #.#
##)# # # ######...#.,`.#.# #.##### #.#
. # ,....'........#.# #.# #.#
.. #+########.#.,.,..#.# #.# #.#
.. #.&......,.# #.# #.#
.. #####'###### #.# #.#
. #..# #.# #.#######
### #.## #.# #.......#
#'###### #.# #######'###########
#...,..######.##########....}&.'.......#
#...#,.'.................#.0;|.#...#.#.#
#......###################.....#.......#
#......# #.....#.......#
######## ###############
I did notice something that I thought was a little funny. I was trying to fend off a rediculous amount of black ooze by throwing cocktails and tnt at them. There was a couple cocktail pickups next to the ooze. after throwing two cocktails of my own and a tnt bundle, the two cocktails were still right there to be picked up. I assumed that they would have been destroyed and\or made the fire spread more.
I think maybe those black ooze should maybe appear a little bit later in the game? They are quite devastating in the first couple levels. Especially when combined with worm masses. both of which keep multiplying.
The ghoul is pretty fun to play as. Though, I would think that if I ate a zombie corpse, it would vanish and not come back to life. But when I eat one, the corpse does not disappear and will still rise.
My custom distorted font that I used to use, doesn't seem to look quite right anymore when I tried using it with the new version for some reason. :(
http://forums.roguetemple.com/index.php?topic=4803.0 (http://forums.roguetemple.com/index.php?topic=4803.0)
I miss the cool ascii tree/moon/tombstone kiil screen!
-
Haha great post Legend 8)
Sorry about late reply.
I did notice something that I thought was a little funny. I was trying to fend off a rediculous amount of black ooze by throwing cocktails and tnt at them. There was a couple cocktail pickups next to the ooze. after throwing two cocktails of my own and a tnt bundle, the two cocktails were still right there to be picked up. I assumed that they would have been destroyed and\or made the fire spread more.
Yes it's a little weird. But this is just because there is no item destruction at all for items on the floor. I mean, every item should get destroyed by a dynamite explosion, and dynamite getting hit by a Molotov's explosion should also ignite it. It's just something that the game doesn't simulate at all. I might open that door some day, but for now floor items are simply invulnerable.
I think maybe those black ooze should maybe appear a little bit later in the game? They are quite devastating in the first couple levels. Especially when combined with worm masses. both of which keep multiplying.
Possibly yes. Although they are super slow, so there's ways to run from them or deal with them. Concerning the worms - the split rate of those should definitely be lowered. Others have raised this issue too. Ooze do not multiply btw.
The ghoul is pretty fun to play as. Though, I would think that if I ate a zombie corpse, it would vanish and not come back to life. But when I eat one, the corpse does not disappear and will still rise.
They do disappear if you eat all of it, but if you just take a few bites they can still get up. Yes realistically they should probably have reduced health or something when they get up after you have taken bites from them - but at the moment, the game just considers them to be either completely intact or completely destroyed.
I miss the cool ascii tree/moon/tombstone kiil screen!
Hm, yeah. Actually, I think I'll put it back for ASCII mode. It just looks wierd in tiles mode.
-
v18.1
Gameplay
* Worms Masses may now only split once (i.e. the split worms may not also split themselves), they do not split if they are killed with enough damage, they are not allowed to attack immediately after being split, and the confusion effect from Mind Worm bites has a much shorter duration. However, Worms now move at normal speed (instead of slow).
* Gas Mask and Asbestos Suit now protects against blindness from Ravens, Spitting Cobras, and Dust Vortexes
* Vortex monsters no longer �explode� when they die
* Oozes can no longer regenerate HP while burning
* There is now much smaller chance of gaining multiple phobias, and you can never become both sadistic and masochistic at the same time
* Picking the Fearless trait immediately ends all active phobias
* When bashing or eating multiple corpses in the same cell, Zombie-type monsters are now prioritized (since you want to destroy them as soon as possible before they rise)
* You can now also kick in your own cell (�w�, then �5� or �.�) - to destroy corpses you�re standing on
* You are no longer �telepathically�aware of where all allied monsters are - if they are out of sight or invisible, you can lose awareness of them
* You can now only accidentally drop your melee weapon during combat if you are Cursed
Interface
* Spells in the casting menu now appear in the order that you learned the spells (instead of alphabetically)
* On turns that you can walk for free due to Dextrous, the �T� is now colored green instead of the number (to be less distracting)
* Removed the �icon mode� which used a heart, brain, stopwatch etc as symbols in the user interface
* The message �I stop waiting� is no longer printed when fainting or paralyzed
Bug fixes
* Fixed some bugs in the monster movement AI (it wasn�t anything critical, but it made them act a bit weird in a few specific situations)
* Fixed a faulty message when pressing �t� with no item selected for throwing (the message adviced to press �w� to wield a throwing weapon, but the actual key should be �i�)
* Property messages such as �...is paralyzed� is no longer allowed for dead monsters
-
Very good to see NON keeps working on this gem, one of the best roguelikes around.
-
^^^^^ Agreed ;D
-
v18.2
Gameplay
* All backgrounds (classes) now have ranged attack bonus vs unaware targets (not just Rogues)
* Ghoul characters are no longer shocked by Ghoul statues
* You no longer drop your items when you die
* Removed the "R" command to rearrange rounds between pistol magazines - this is now instead done when you wait (with "5", "s", or ".")
* Spider webs are now destroyed when the creature held is teleported away or knocked back
* Fire Hound bites now also causes Burning (like their ranged attacks)
* Slightly reduced the number of Medical Bag supplies
* Critically failing a melee attack can no longer result in dropping the weapon
Interface
* When picking traits, the game now shows all traits and their prerequisites (no information is hidden)
* When aiming explosives, the explosion size is marked on the map
* Added option for confirming "-More-" prompts with any key (off by default)
* Messages are no longer written in all capitals while Frenzied
* New menu color scheme
* Removed some redundant messages to reduce clutter ("I pause for a while...", "I stop waiting.")
* Added a section in the manual about inventory handling
Bug fixes
* Fixed a bug that caused monsters with Fear Resistance to end all player phobias when they spawned (this was mistakenly reported to the insanity system as a "player gaining permanent rFear" event)
* Fixed some buggy item drop code (which may have caused crashes)
* Fixed some minor bugs in the map generator (the map generator can also do a few new things now, although it's probably subtle)
* Fixed some errors in Manuscript names (underscores had snuck into a few names for some reason)
* Fixed a bug that (in some rare specific cases) allowed monsters to move into the position already occupied by another monster
* Fixed a bug were teleporting or being knocked back while held by a spider web, caused the web to be able to hold any creature that walked into it, regardless of monster type (e.g. ethereal monsters or spiders could then also be held)
-
I gotta say that I am extremely happy to see Infra Arcana still being worked on. Especially when it seemed that NON was going to shelve it a while back. This is an extremely interesting, intricate, and tough roguelike that takes the best elements from some classics, a couple newer ones, and it's own innovative aspects to boot with a great yet under-used theme in roguelikes.
It is still my most played and enjoyed roguelike today since I first discovered it.\
I think this game is a prime candidate for a second visit on roguelike radio since it has taken many changes, strides, and advancements since the initial roguelike radio episode on it.
Thank you very much for the new release NON.
(P.S. I'm sorry, but I have to... Spiked Mace?)
-
I gotta say that I am extremely happy to see Infra Arcana still being worked on. Especially when it seemed that NON was going to shelve it a while back.
Almost half a decade ago ;D (if you refer to the Roguelike radio interview)
This is an extremely interesting, intricate, and tough roguelike that takes the best elements from some classics, a couple newer ones, and it's own innovative aspects to boot with a great yet under-used theme in roguelikes.
It is still my most played and enjoyed roguelike today since I first discovered it.\
Thank you very much for the new release NON.
Thank you so much!
(P.S. I'm sorry, but I have to... Spiked Mace?)
Alright, alright. I'm making a note of this for next version right *now* ;)
-
(P.S. I'm sorry, but I have to... Spiked Mace?)
Alright, alright. I'm making a note of this for next version right *now* ;)
Don't tease me NON.
A spiked mace could possibly be a good weapon that would automatically bash reanimated corpses when it deals the killing blow so that they stay down. Maybe make it a little slower weapon with only average damage to compensate for it's benefit. It could also stun other normal enemies or maybe a bonus to squash smaller enemies like the spiders and rats. Something to make it a good weapon to switch to at the right time, but not one you would use as your main weapon. Also only found in the dungeon. Player shouldn't start with it.
-
Don't tease me NON.
Hey Legend, I've got something for you ;) (I don't know why this took me several years to add...)
(https://s17.postimg.org/8ip924d33/Screenshot_2017-06-18_19-35-09.png)
(https://s17.postimg.org/62nfo9v0f/Screenshot_2017-06-18_19-35-39.png)
(https://s17.postimg.org/6tg5u1xdr/Screenshot_2017-06-18_19-37-27.png)
-
:o Can't wait to start bashing zombies and cultists into a pulpy mess. ;D
-
Nice~ 8)
-
v19.0! 8)
Gameplay
* You no longer gain XP from killing monsters - instead XP is raised by activities related to exploration and discovery, such as identifying items, drinking from some types of fountains, reading inscriptions on "monoliths", or seeing a new type of monster for the first time
* Fewer monsters are spawned on the map overall, and many monster types now tend to spawn in smaller groups, but are individually stronger - they also generally follow and remember you for a shorter time than before
* Monsters may become "suspicious" (typically with a message about them looking "wary" or "disturbed"), which gives them an increased chance of detecting you - they may still detect you immediately, but the chance for this is slightly lower than before
* Added metal doors - can only be opened with levers
* Added bookshelves - can contain Manuscripts
* Added barred gates - doors that can be seen and shot through
* Added gratings - walls that can seen and shot through
* Added "pylons" - can be activated with a lever for various effects (most commonly burning the area around them)
* Added hanging vines - can be walked through, but blocks line of sight
* Added rusty chains - makes a noise when someone walks through them
* Items are more likely to spawn behind hidden/stuck/metal doors, and in areas away from the path to the stairs
* Added a bunch of unique artifacts, and removed the old (relatively bland) randomized amulets
* If you are Observant, you now get "level feelings" when there are unique monsters or artifacts (when entering a new level, or when monsters appear on the map), such as "I feel like I should examine this place thoroughly"
* Standing in lit cells (e.g. lit by the Electric Lantern) now temporarily reduces your shock
* Some rooms are generated from handmade templates (loaded from a text file)
* The game now models creature speeds in a new (probably more common and intuitive) way - creature speeds are expressed as percentages, e.g. 50%, 100%, or 300%, and different actions can have different speeds
* Many bonuses such as "occasionally performing a certain action instantly", now simply gives a speed bonus instead (to a specific action, or to all actions)
* Dodging also applies to ranged attacks
* The spells Slow, Paralyze, and Terrify Enemies have been merged into "Enfeeble Enemies"
* The spells Detect Monsters, Detect Traps, and Detect Items have been merged into "Searching" (which also detects doors)
* Burning features only hurt creatures on the same cell (not adjacent to it)
* "Cloud Minds" is a Rod instead of a spell (the Rogue starts with this item, intead of the spell)
* Spells have "skill level" percentages, which determines the strength of the spell (and can also add additional spell effects) - the skill levels are primarily increased by casting from Manuscripts
* All backgrounds can learn spells, but the Occultist gains proficiency much faster (and as before, starts with a few spells and has access to unique spell casting traits)
* Different monsters have different spell skill levels - spells cast by more powerful monsters will typically hurt more, last longer, summon nastier monsters, etc
* Monster spells have individual cooldown counters (instead of random chances to be cast) - so a monster cannot for example spam Darkbolt several turns in a row
* The Warlock trait gives a chance to cast damage dealing spell multiple times (instead of the old "Charged" mechanic)
* Added trait "Electrically Inclined" - gives bonus to using Rods, Devices, Electric Lanterns, and electricity weapons
* Added trait "Silent" - all melee attacks are silent, opening and closing doors does not alert monsters
* Added trait "Magically Gifted" - +20% skill with all spells
* The traits "Tough" and "Rugged" also grants 1 armor point each
* The War Veteran background also starts with the "Healer" trait
* The Occultist starts with fixed (non-random) items and spells
* When quaffing Potion of Insight, you can manually choose which item to identify
* Potion of Insight always gives some XP, in addition to identifying an item (to avoid making them worthless if all items are identified)
* All Manuscripts are guaranteed to be identified when read (previously this only applied to potions)
* You search for secret doors and traps a bit further away, and your chance of finding them is affected by distance - for adjacent cells there is now a higher chance of detection than before (to avoid requiring hundreds of turns to detect an obvious hidden door)
* Traps are always immediately revealed when triggered by the player
* Some melee weapons can be used for breaching doors or destroying corpses more effectively with [w] (check the item descriptions)
* Chests can no longer be trapped (it was awkward to deal with, and didn't really bring anything to the game) - chests are now interacted with merely by bumping them (if they are not locked), kicking them, or using an Opening spell
* Rogues remain aware of monsters much longer than the other Backgrounds, and the other Backgrounds remain aware for a shorter duration than before
* Removed the random "I have a bad feeling about this..." shock events
* The Iron Suit and Asbestos Suit no longer gives penalties to aiming or spotting hidden monsters and objects
* Removed all negative effects from critically failing melee attacks (such as "I am exhausted"), except for a small chance of the weapon breaking - which can only happen while cursed
* Added more monsters
* Zombie-type monsters occasionally drop "Zombie Dust" when they are destroyed - can be thrown at living, non-undead monsters to paralyze them
* Added property "Deaf", deafening traps, and a deafening spell (for monsters)
* When attacking invisible monsters who are immune to the attack, a message is printed to indicate this (previously it was only printed for seen monsters)
* Added Spiked Maces - a weapon with a weight between medium and heavy, and with a chance to stun the victim
* The Mi-go Electric Gun no longer uses ammo, and costs Spirit Points to fire
Interface
* The throwing slot has been removed - instead you change which item to use for throwing by pressing [T] (which can be a wielded item or an item in the backpack) - pressing [t] throws the currently selected item (this also has gameplay effects, since you don't have to spend turns to equip different items to throw them)
* While holding lit explosives, the explosive is shown in the status lines instead of the selected throwing item (with yellow text)
* All active properties are printed with descriptions on the - character decsription page, and when [v]iewing monsters
* When picking a trait, instead of showing all available and blocked traits in the same list, the trait selection screen now has two modes (toggled with [TAB]) - the first mode shows available traits, and the second shows traits for which the prerequisites are not yet fulfilled
* Reduced "more" prompt message spam from traps (less interruption)
* Addded option to enable/disable fading rendering brightness with distance from player
* Added an option to ask for confirmation before lighting explosives
* Added a low HP warning
* Removed the "q" command - Ghoul characters now feed on corpses when "waiting" on them instead
* The map shown on the postmortem info screen is drawn with tiles (if that mode is enabled), and in color
* Added "New journey" option to postmortem menu, to immediately start a new game
* When [v]iewing the map, the game also prints messages for cells with detected unseen monsters ("There is a creature here")
* When [v]iewing detailed monster descriptions, the game prints hit chances for melee, ranged, and throwing attacks for the player and the monster - with the calculations of the total hit chances shown
* Weapons now merely display their own hit chance modifier (e.g. +5% or -10%), instead of your skill plus the weapon modifier (the old way was misleading, since more factors are involved when calculating actual hit chances during attacks)
* Removed the "Combat skills" section of the character description page
* Messages are printed when stepping on corpses
* Sound effects are played when browsing menus
* When entering player name, the previously used name is filled in as a default name
* The player symbol is colored yellow when carrying a lit Electric Lantern
Bug fixes
* Fixed a bug where dropping the Staff of the Pharaohs would cause the spell to be permanently lost, even if the staff was picked up again
* Fixed a bug that prevented hit chance bonus against unaware targets for ranged attacks
-
v19.0! 8)
Thanks getter77, I was just gonna write this myself ;D
Download link:
https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/downloads
-
I saw the announcement and got super excited after a long day at work.
But there doesn't seem to be a win 32 binary :'(
Any chance to get a 32-bit version that will run on win xp for your biggest fan???
-
This update made playing occultist much harder. I can't even survive the first level with him.
-
But there doesn't seem to be a win 32 binary :'(
Any chance to get a 32-bit version that will run on win xp for your biggest fan???
Sure I can.
Just a question though, did you try playing the "64 bit" Windows version?
I'm suspecting that it was actually built with a 32bit compiler, and is in fact a 32bit binary.
Could you try running it please?
Edit: Tried it myself on a 32bit Windows installation - it did not start.
Edit: Someone reported that they could in fact play the "64bit version" on their 32bit Windows XP machine. I'm really confused now.
Edit: OK the reason it won't start on my 32bit Windows XP is probably that it's running Service Pack 2. I'm now 99% certain that the "64bit" IA release is actually entirely a 32bit release. If this is the case, I just need to rename it and upload it again. Please try running the current version Legend! :D ... also, are you running SP3?
-
OK so I don't think the problem has anything to do with SP versions anymore.
I think the problem I'm having is because I'm trying to run it on a virtual machine, and that hardware acceleration is not supported.
I re-uploaded the IA Windows version now, renamed as "x86" instead, since that's clearly what it is.
Would still be great if you could download and try it out on your 32bit machine Legend.
-
Hey NON. I didn't get to try the version I originally saw which said it was 64 bit. But just downloaded and tried the x86 version that is now on the page and it seems to work fine. Thanks. And yeah, I have xp sp3.
-
Hey NON. I didn't get to try the version I originally saw which said it was 64 bit. But just downloaded and tried the x86 version that is now on the page and it seems to work fine. Thanks. And yeah, I have xp sp3.
Excellent!
The version you downloaded now is exactly the same build. All I did was to rename the folder and zip file to "x86" instead (since it actually already was).
-
I'm having a blast with the new build. The fewer, yet stronger enemies makes each level pretty tense and un-nerving. The chains scared the bejezus out of me when I first stepped into them!
I can't quite grasp the new xp mechanics though. I tend to skip the intro level now since killing the wolves reaps no real benefit anymore that I can see. It takes quite a while to level up for me. I can't seem to figure out how to optimize experience gain other than reading every manuscript and coming across the free xp monoliths. I tend to mostly avoid enemies now. I've only reached xp level 2 so far once. Made it to dungeon level 6 so far as my best.
I still suck at the game though. :P
Yet to find the mace so far. Can't wait for when I do though!
p.s. I miss the tombstone, tree, moon, spider web ascii end screen.
-
Infra Arcana v19.1 released
Downloads:
https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/downloads
Changelog:
Gameplay
* Spells have basic/expert/master tiers instead of a skill percentage - higher tiers can be achieved by picking traits for various spell domains (e.g. "Lesser Invocation" to cast all attack spells at expert level)
* Reworked the spell skill bonuses for all spells
* Lowered the spirit cost for many spells
* The Occultist receives halved shock for casting spells (not just from using strange items)
* Spellcasting is now generally more powerful than before, and scales to be more useful by mid/late game
* Darkbolt and Azathoth's Wrath do random damage within a range, instead of a fixed number
* Being Blessed/Cursed affects the shock cost of casting spells, instead of the spirit cost
* The spell "Healing" is now also available for the player
* The potion "See Invisible" is now a spell instead
* Added spell "Transmutation" (convert items)
* Added spell "Subdue Weapons" - learned simultaneously as "Animate Weapons" (very cheap spell which drops all visible Animated Weapons)
* Added spell "Spell Shield" - grants spell resistance until a spell is blocked (same effect as the spirit traits)
* Removed Potion of Clairvoyance
* The Potion of Invisibility effect ends when attacking or casting spells, and has much shorter duration
* Removed the "Sacrifice Life"/"Spirit" spells
* The spell "Summon Creature" picks more sensible monsters when cast by the player (e.g. a Wolf will not appear when cast at Master level)
* Improved AI of player allied monsters - they are now much more active in pursuing enemies
* Added trait "Stout Spirit" (before "Strong"/"Mighty Spirit")
* Added trait "Absorption" for Occultists - blocking a spell restores 1d6 Spirit
* Added trait "Resistant" - halved damage from fire and electricity
* Mind Eaters (now called Mind Leeches) can no longer paralyze the player
* The "snake emerge" and "wall crumbling" events are much rarer
* "Snake pit" rooms now contains much fewer monsters (instead of filling the whole room)
* Oozes have much shorter awareness duration and tend to spawn in smaller groups
* Keziah Mason starts together with Brown Jenkin, instead of spending a turn to summon it when she sees the player
* Monsters now attempt to detect the player by vision on standard turns, instead of on their own turns (to prevent very fast monsters from detecting the player too easily)
* Ravens, Bats, and Vampire Bats no longer actively moves towards the player, but will attack if adjacent
* Byakhees are slower
* Ghoul characters have +10% speed and +1 natural Armor Point
* "Infravision" has been changed to the ability to see in darkness instead (this means Ghoul characters can fully see in dark rooms)
* Adjusted Potion of Poison duration so that it's guaranteed to be non-lethal for any non-diseased player character with full hit points
* Poison damage is slower, but poisoning generally lasts longer
* XP gained from Monoliths increased from 15% to 20%
* Rod of Cloud Minds (which the Rogue starts with) now only requires 90 turns to recharge (or 45 with the Electrically Inclined trait)
* Unidentified Rods do not display their recharge countdown - attempting to use an unidentified Rod before it's recharged wastes a turn (with the same message as if the effect is unknown), but does not reset the countdown
* Removed the damage bonuses from the Marksman traits (it made ranged combat very overpowered)
* Removed Armor Points bonus from Tough/Rugged traits
* Added trait "Thick Skinned", which gives +1 Armor Point
* Each melee trait gives +5% chance to evade melee attacks
* The War Veteran starts with a Flak Jacket instead of a Leather Jacket
* The base chances for bashing doors open and pushing lids are higher
* Throwing knives do 2d3 damage (avg 4.0) instead of 1d6 (avg 3.5), and have +10% hit chance
* Rocks no longer have a hit chance bonus, and do less damage
* Increased backstab bonus for Daggers and for the Vicious trait
* The Imperceptible trait is only available for Rogues
* The Mi-go Electric Gun runs on Hit Points instead of Spirit, and does less damage
* The "auto move" command ("e") now also stops before hanging vines
* Greatly reduced the ability penalties for wearing Iron Suit, and slightly reduced the penalties for the other armors
* Putting on, taking off, or dropping armor now takes multiple turns
* Properties applied from monster attacks (such as paralyzation or blindness) have a certain percent chance to get applied - many attacks still have 100% chance to apply their effect, but some now have a lower chance (such as paralyzation from White Spider bites)
* Paralyzation can be re-applied while already active
* Paralyzed actors always have 100% speed, so that very fast monsters (such as Bats) does not immediately start moving again
* Much higher chances that monsters become "wary" first, instead of immediately detecting the player
* When monsters detect the player due to sounds, they pause for one turn (just like they already did when detecing by vision)
* Burning no longer completely prevents reading manuscripts or casting spells - instead there is a 50% chance to fail (wasting the manuscript or spirit upon failure)
* Removed the regeneration aspect from the Orb of Life
* The Horn of Banishment now also works on Major Clapham Lee's summoned "Tomb Legions"
* Gas masks now also protects against gas explosion traps
* Insanity increments are higher than before, and randomized
* Shock from carrying disturbing items reduced to 0.05% shock per turn (from 0.1%)
* The Rogue background receives -25% passive shock (instead of -50%)
* Reduced the penalty for each wound to -5% melee hit chance (instead of -10%), -5% dodging (instead of -10%), and no penalty to ranged attacks (instead of -5%)
* The Survivalist trait completely removes the penalties to hit chance and dodging from wounds
* Being Frenzied allows waiting in place (with "5" or ".")
* Added some new mid/late game monsters
* Weakening now causes halved melee damage, instead of minimum melee damage
* Removed the Wolves from the intro level
* The Rejuvenator Device causes heavy shock when used
* Good properties no longer interrupt player actions when they are applied (e.g. using medical equipment is not interrupted by regaining spell resistance)
Interface
* Weapon names show average damage instead of dice rolls - melee weapons also show their "plus" damage bonus (not including any damage bonus from traits), e.g. "Machete 9.0 {+2} +0%" - the exact dice rolls can be seen in the detailed item description when viewing the item in the inventory
* Brighter interface color scheme (some menus could be difficult to read before)
* The descriptions for armors and gas masks includes their exact ability penalty values
* Multiple monsters had a red "E" as symbol when playing in text mode, they now use different colors from each other
* "Ornate Tombs" are now colored cyan instead (they were hard to distinguish from normal tombs)
* When viewing monster descriptions ("v"), the monster's hit chances and properties are no longer displayed (only the player's chance to hit the monster)
* Fixed Fire Hound projectile animation in tiles mode (a small "blast" tile instead of a bunch of forward slashes)
* When walking through water or mud, more descriptive messages are printed ("I wade slowly through the knee high water") instead of "splash" or "glop" - this is to emphasise that they cost an extra turn to move through
* When not wearing armor, the armor icon is drawn slightly darker than before
* Ravens are brighter (they could be hard to see)
* The high score list now also shows player background
* A game summary text file is always stored after the game (there is no menu option for this)
* You now also go to the postmortem menu after winning the game, and a game summary file is written
* When browsing high scores, selecting an entry shows the game summary for that entry
* The game no longer pre-loads the ambient sound effects (they are now only loaded on demand) - vastly reducing the program load time (should be nearly instant on most systems) and initial memory usage
* Seeing fire on the map now interrupts actions such as waiting or using medical equipment
Bug fixes
* On some machines, the random number generator would have a fixed seed (apparently, the C++ std::random_device can silently fall back on this method if it cannot find a source of randomness...), resulting in deterministic map generation, etc - the RNG is now seeded with the current time instead
* Fixed a bug which prevented accessing the manual ("Tome of Wisdom") from the esc-menu during a game
* Fixed a bug which removed the Sentry Drone monster from the game - preventing both usage of the Sentry Drone device, and hostile Sentry Drones from spawning on the map
* When Mi-go commanders dropped their armor on death, this was treated as if the player tried to unequip the armor
* The "wall collapse" event could crash the game in some situations
* The descriptions of "fast" monsters said that they appear to move "slowly"
* Fixed some typos
-
Nice---another fairly potent update and so soon! That good momentum~ 8)
-
I finally found one! I love my spike mace. Thanks NON!
-
Gameplay now is very hardcore.
-
Gameplay now is very hardcore.
Yeah it is. I've always found it tough myself though.
I think part of it is due to the new experience system. I like it though, because it is less grindy. It adds a lot of tension and atmosphere in that there are fewer, yet tougher monsters and heavily encourages exploration.
I also like that monsters are fought primarily for the hopes of looting something useful, or because they are blocking your path to exploration, rather than simply for xp. It's more realistic too and fits with the theme better I think.
-
There's a new let's play of the most recent version up on youtube by rogueliker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS3SVkyKk_I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS3SVkyKk_I)
He misses the wolves. :(
-
p.s. I miss the tombstone, tree, moon, spider web ascii end screen.
Hey Legend!
(http://i.imgur.com/7caz604.png)
-
Infra Arcana v19.2 released.
Downloads:
https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/downloads
Changelog:
Gameplay
* All items which gave XP on identification now instead gives XP when that item is found for the first time (except "Strange Devices") - the reason for this is to reduce the pressure to identify consumables as soon as possible, and also to have a more "natural" continuous stream of XP, rather than occasional bursts
* When carrying a Potion, the player eventually gets a "feeling" for if the Potion is benign or malign
* Increased minimum distance from player when spawning monsters (when entering a new map, or spawning over time)
* Hounds can no longer bash doors
* Reduced group sizes of Hounds
* Hound bites cause physical damage instead of elemental
* Leech type monsters apply indefinite properties (which can be cured) instead of directly affecting stats
* Slightly fewer monsters are spawned on the map
* Monsters can no longer cast "See Invisible"
* Some monsters now have more specialized spell selections (too many monsters could cast too many different spells)
* Monsters spawned from summoning spells only remains temporarily
* Summoning spells no longer have a risk to spawn hostile creatures
* Monsters cannot summon other monsters near the player from a distance (summoned monsters always appear as near the summoner as possible)
* The "Transmute" spell costs much less spirit to cast
* The spells "Summon Creature" and "Summon Mummy Servant" costs one less spirit to cast
* Animated weapons are stronger, but are permanently destroyed when "killed"
* When cast intrinsically (i.e. not from Manuscripts), some spells can be cast without making noise (this is specified in the spell descriptions)
* The Horn of Banishment now also works on Khephren's summoned Locusts, and on monsters spawned from traps
* Monsters spawned from traps now wait a bit before acting
* Using Rods causes less shock than before
* Removed the "Demolition Expert" trait
* Removed the "Observant" trait (the effects are Rogue background bonuses instead)
* The "Vigilant" trait grants awareness of all monsters within three steps - even if they are invisible, around the corner, or behind a door, etc (instead of only preventing backstabs)
* The "Silent" trait also prevents alerting monsters when wading through liquid
* With the "Rapid Recoverer" trait, Hit Point regeneration is 1 HP every 2nd turn (previously it only regenerated 1 HP every 5th turn)
* The "Survivalist" trait no longer has "Tough" as prerequisite
* The "Self-aware" trait has "Cool-headed" as prerequisite instead of "Observant"
* Melee traits no longer improves chance to evade melee attacks
* Room templates (loaded from file) are now considered unique, each type may only appear once per game
* Fountains with bad effects always dry up on the first quaff
* Added map feature "Alchemist's workbench", similar to bookshelf but may contain potions
* Some monsters such as Molds or common Rats have negative dodging ability (i.e. they are extra easy to hit)
* Leng Spiders have a ranged attack
* Polyp monsters can be knocked back (e.g. by kicking)
* Invisible monsters causes shock (with a fixed amount), provided that the monster cannot be seen, and the player is aware of the monster ("!" sign on the map), and their map cell is seen
* The Spirit Dagger does 300% extra backstab damage (just like normal daggers)
* While the player is using the Medical Bag, infections cannot turn into disease, and the infection turn count is frozen
* Updated the score formula to include turn count (lower turn counts give higher scores), also a winning game now guarantees higher score than a non-winning game
* Removed the Rod of Purge Invisible
* The Shockwave Device is a Rod instead
* The Horn of Deafening is a Strange Device instead
* Nicer tombs are guaranteed to contain better items (and common tomes MAY contain better items)
* Pitchforks gives +15% chance to evade melee attacks
* Sledgehammers no longer knocks the victim back
* Monsters become unaware after the player teleports, if they cannot see the player at the new position
* Ghoul characters can use their claws for destroying corpses (and cannot get sprains from this)
* The Ghoul traits "Foul" and "Toxic" also gives +1 claw damage
* Ghouls do not have access to any ranged weapon traits
* Removed armor bonus for Ghoul characters
* Ghoul characters never gets sprains from breaking down doors, destroying corpses, etc
* Removed the "flickering" effect of the Electric Lantern
* Shock is completely restored when taking a sanity hit
* The Incinerator is always aimed at the floor of the selected cell (no need for players to select a floor cell adjacent to the monster they are attacking)
Interface
* Monsters are drawn with magenta background when they have temporary negative properties (such as paralyzation)
* When viewing monster descriptions, temporary negative properties are listed
* Added information on high scores and memorial files in the manual
* Each section of the manual is shown on a separate screen, accessed from a menu
* The "auto move" feature stops at junctions etc (instead of after a fixed amount of steps)
* When selecting "New Journey" from the main menu, and a saved game exists, the game asks if you really want to start a new game
* Added option for disabling ambient sound effects
* Added option to ask for confirmation before drinking malign potions
* When playing in text mode, the old ascii art graveyard is shown in the postmortem menu screen again
Bug fixes
* Fixed a crash bug for the Incinerator weapon (the game could crash when the projectile reached its max range)
* Energy Vortexes were not resistant to electricity
* In the game summary, insanity symptoms were written in the wrong format (e.g. "Phobia of spiders", instead of "Had a phobia of spiders")
* Monsters no longer spawn over time on special levels (e.g. the "Egypt" level)
-
Yay!
Thanks NON. Died got in 5 games so far tonight. I still suck, but still having fun dying. :)
EDIT*
I have to say that IA is one of few roguelike games, when played in ascii, that really gives the feel of a dungeon. There is a variety in each dungeon level that makes each one genuinely eerie and foreboding. The variances in color, wall types, decorations, there is even the floors that just adds such a nice flourish to the games atmosphere.
-
Anyone got news of NON?
Hopefully he will continue to work on this great game.
I was trying to run it on my Linux Mint Cinnamon.. double clicking on the ia file nothing happens though.
Any advice?
Right clicking on it I don't get the "run on terminal" option.
-
Next release could be awhile yet, yet will be loaded:
https://www.reddit.com/r/InfraArcana/comments/8s9fag/thoughts_about_the_new_gui_redesign/?st=jnsv317f&sh=b658206b
-
Next release could be awhile yet, yet will be loaded:
https://www.reddit.com/r/InfraArcana/comments/8s9fag/thoughts_about_the_new_gui_redesign/?st=jnsv317f&sh=b658206b
That's good to hear getter.
*update*
I tried right clicking into the folder.. can do "run into terminal" from there. Typed "./ia" but got this error:
"./ia: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL2-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"
What a pain in the ass is linux.
* update #2*
Just accepted I have to play the windows version via Wine emulator.
-
I really like the clever use of minimalistic graphics and sound.. minimal indeed, but contributes immensly to the atmosphere of the game. Infra Arcana has much more immersiveness than several mainstream million dollar games.
Very nice classes and skills system as well; each class requires a different approach to the game and makes it a new overall experience. (However for the sake of plot it's a bit weird to think about a ghoul getting phobias and finding psychological comfort by holding a flare and things like that - also why the heck was a ghoul venturing there)
I also like that the game is now quite hard. There's almost no zero-challenge enemy.. minimal backtracking, and the new xp system is clever, fun, and ensures there's no grinding. Reasonably good also for how much the mechanics are made clear to the player (damage input per weapon, chance to hit modifier.. and also chance to hit per single enemy, however it's a bit tedious to check as one needs to press a few keys).
As Legends said, the game rewards exploration rather than mindless killing of enemies. So many times however I found the stairs early but died in the process of exploring the dungeon a bit more before descending. Possibly the game rewards equally exploration and getting the hell out of there as soon as the stairs are found..!
Absolutely excellent game, and a pure roguelike.
-
By the way.. did anyone understood if there's any use for statues and altars?
I kind of like it though that there's no wiki whatsoever.
These days I've been experimenting different Ghoul builds.. so far I quite like the standar progression melee fighter + ravenous + foul + toxic.. after which I usually go for vigilant as an incredible amount of my ghouls die by invisible stuff.
Frenzy is crucial.. with it in corridors most enemies are tasty snacks.. another very nice perk of it is that phobias stop being such a hindrance since the frenzy status automatically removes terrified (and also weakness). Seeing in the dark is also neat as. And no diseases also super good. Wounds and low hp can be fixed by feeding off opponents, dead or alive (with ravenous + claws). With all of this melee fighting, armour is usually what makes the difference. Friendly worms are an excellent perk as well when running away from invisible stuff (those things kill at least 1/3 of my characters), spirit/life leeches and in corridors when not frenzied. Saving potions of blindness once identified can be a lifesaver to get out of unconvenient situation while frenzied.
@NON:
On the next update, please make it that on level up, the ENTER key has to be pressed in order for the trait to be picked. Otherwise when someone is playing fast they might accidentally get the wrong trait.
-
v20 8)
Gameplay
* Maps can have different size, the standard map size is bigger than before
* Some maps built from templates (such as the "Egypt" level) are randomly flipped and rotated for more variety
* Added more special levels
* The intro map is much smaller
* Trees appearing beneath the first few levels are now "giant fungi" instead
* Added swimming
* Added "Temple Gongs" - striking a Gong gives a significant bonus and penalty
* Removed passive shock for carrying or wearing certain items - unique items may instead have a curse on them
* Spotting hidden doors or traps now gives a small amount of XP (except when traps are revealed by triggering them)
* The blessed/cursed status effects no longer affect spell casting, and instead give +/- 10% to to melee hit chance, ranged hit chance, evasion, stealth, and searching - their descriptions now also say explicitly what they do (instead of "is generally more lucky")
* Fountains now have different names and colors when tried, and they are no longer guaranteed to dry up immediately if bad
* The Occultist traits to improve spells (such as Lesser/Greater Invocation, Summoning, etc) have been removed - instead there are now multiple Occultist domains to choose from at character creation, which get free upgrades at certain levels for spells belonging to their respective domains
* Dispelling magic traps grants spirit points
* When carrying Manuscripts, the player eventually gets a "feeling" for which spell domain it belongs to (similarly to Potions)
* Added more spells
* The spell "Animate Weapons" has been changed to "Spectral Weapons" - instead of animating weapons on the floor, it summons a living copy of melee weapon in your inventory (which will simply disappear after a while, without dropping any weapons on the floor)
* The spell "Enfeeble" now only causes Weakening (instead of a bunch of different things)
* The "Searching" spell lasts multiple turns, but detects in a smaller area (and never across the whole map)
* Spells cast from manuscripts are always cast at least at "expert" level
* Casting spells while adjacent to an altar allows casting at one skill level higher (stacks with casting from manuscripts)
* The Staff of the Pharaohs gives a passive ability to convert mummies, instead of granting a spell to summon mummies
* The Spirit Dagger now does extra damage based on the attacker's current spirit, and drains spirit from the attacker on succesful attacks (instead of giving spirit to the attacker)
* Added a new "Strange Device"
* Added trait "Ruthless", which is an upgrade of "Vicious" with even more backstab damage
* Removed some player traits
* Added more monsters, and removed some redundant monsters
* Deep Ones can throw a net which entangles the victim (instead of throwing a spear)
* Deep Ones usually spawn in much smaller numbers than before
* Deep Ones are not delayed when moving through liquids
* Spiders become aware of the player when the player gets stuck in a spider web
* Spiders can use pathfinding to move to their target
* When Ghosts attack, it says they are "reaching" for the player instead of "clawing" - the old "reach" effect which they did in addition to their normal attack has been removed
* Strange Colors only cause confusion while the player is adjacent to them
* Death Fiends now do a more sensible amount of damage (and the part of their description which said their attack "means almost certain death" has been removed)
* Ravens only have 50% chance to cause blindness on a melee hit (instead of 100% chance)
* Locusts no longer "breed"
* Some monsters are now rarer than others (previously all monsters which could spawn on a certain level had equal chance of spawning)
* Many monster descriptions have been completely rewritten (thanks Renan Nunes!)
* The time system is more predictable and simple - creatures can only have 50%/100%/200%/300% speed (never something like 110%), and all types of actions take the same time to perform for a creature (no +10% melee attack speed for example)
* Traps are always triggered when bumped, and always removed when disarmed
* Updated trap placement - magic traps cannot be placed in blocking positions (since only Occultists can disarm them), traps tend to be more spread out in a room instead of clustered together, traps can be placed in corridors, and generally fewer traps are placed on the map overall
* Added more trap types
* When a creature opens a door, the door cannot be closed until this creature's next turn starts (i.e. you cannot shut a door in the face of a monster who just opened it)
* Improved check for if phobia of open places should trigger (for example it no longer triggers while standing in smoke)
* Completely removed the concept of dice rolls from the game, weapon damage is now specified as a range (e.g. 1-4) instead of dice rolls and sides (e.g. 1d4)
* Removed the phobias for open/confined places (they were too annoying from a gameplay perspective)
* Messages are now printed when monsters fight each other
User interface
* The interface has a new layout, and there is a scrolling viewport centered on the player
* The tiles are 24x24 pixels, instead of 16x24
* The font size is no longer locked to the tile size (for example a smaller font can be used)
* The window can be resized
* Added option for input mode - default keys (numpad/arrows) or vi-mode (h j k l y u b n)
* Improved the game key bindings
* Dropping items is now done from a separate inventory screen, accessed by pressing "d" (which is a more conventional method than the old way of pressing shift+enter)
* Removed PgUp/PgDn/Home/End as alternative keys for diagonal movement
* ">" and "<" can also be used in inventory screens to jump between pages (in addition to page up/page down)
* All menus can now be scrolled with vi keys ("j"/"k"), and the currently marked menu entry can be selected with "l" (these three keys never occur as letter indexes in menus)
* "Auto moving" is used by holding shift and pressing direction keys, instead of repeatedly pressing "e" + direction (auto moving is not supported when using the arrow keys, where shift is used to move diagonally upwards instead)
* Added a minimap, accessed with "m"
* Holding shift while moving markers (e.g. "look" or "aim") jumps five steps
* Equippable items (armor, weapons, head-wear) can now be equipped by selecting them directly in the backpack, automatically swapping out any existing item in the target equipment slot (which of course takes more turns to perform)
* The "throw item" command ("t") always opens a menu to select throwing item, where the last thrown item is shown at the top with the "t" key assigned - in the throwing menu, this key is never assigned to any other item than the "last thrown item" (so you can for example safely spam throwing knives by repeatedly pressing the "t" key, without worrying about suddenly throwing another item)
* Removed the (ugly) hit chance tables from the monster description pages - only player melee hit chance is shown now, which is part of the description text instead
* The generated part of monster descriptions is printed in a separate paragraph, to make it easier to distinguish from the static handwritten part
* Reworked the tile for Deep Ones
* The player is asked for confirmation before stepping into fire or traps, or before moving into deep liquid while holding a lit explosive (which will extinguish it)
* The player is asked for confirmation when picking traits on gaining new character levels (but not when creating a new character)
* Added an option to always warn when a new monster is seen (and no other monster was already seen)
* While aiming firearms or thrown weapons, the game no longer prints info about map features, items, etc in the aiming location (only info about any monster seen there)
* Many types of messages are no longer added to the message history, such as messages printed when moving around the marker ("[f] to fire") or when asking for a direction ("Which direction? [space, esc] to cancel") - this keeps the message history more clean and focused on game events
* Many properties now have longer and more descriptive names on the map screen (e.g. "Fear Res." instead of rFear", or "LIFE SAPPED(4)" instead of "HP(4)")
* Added an option for if ambient sounds should be preloaded at game startup (otherwise each sound is loaded the first time it's played)
* Added option to skip the intro level popup message
* Added more sound effects
Misc
* Save files are no longer erased when loading a saved game (only when dying, winning the game, or when actively quitting), this allows players to resume from a previous save file if the game has crashed
* The game is auto-saved on each descent to a new dungeon level, so in the case of a crash, only the progress on the current dungeon level is lost
* Switched license to GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later, and added a reference to this license at the top of each Infra Arcana source code file, and a reference from the main menu
* User data (such as save file and highscore list) is no longer stored in the game directory, instead the user data location is based on SDL_GetPrefPath() and the current version/checksum of the game (e.g. "~/.local/share/infra_arcana/873f2d0e/") - the Infra Arcana game directory is now treated as read-only.
* Added in-game hints for some basic concepts such as treating infections or unloading firearms
-
So is there no more 32-bit version?
-
Wow, what a meaty update.
-
v21
# Gameplay changes
##############################
# Backgrounds and traits
- Added a new background (class) "Exorcist"
- Reworked the "Resistant trait", it now gives +25% chance to resist paralysis, burning, and poison, and the duration of those effects is halved (also Tough and Rugged each give +10% chance to resist)
- Added trait "Crippling Strikes" - melee attacks have 60% chance to Weaken the target for 2-3 turns
- Added trait "Meditative" - applies a status effect which allows the next spell to be cast without spending a turn, and with the cost reduced by 1 spirit point - after casting a spell this state is reapplied again after some time has passed
- Clairvoyant Occultists also starts with the Premonition spell
- The Tough and Rugged traits give +6 hit points each, instead of +4
- Ghoul characters start with +8 hit points, instead of +6
- The Ghoul ability "Frenzy" no longer costs spirit to use
- The Ghoul trait "Toxic" has 75% chance to apply poison, instead of 25%
# Monsters
- Added more monsters
- Some monsters have a smell that can be detected by the player
- Monsters no longer become aware of the player from negative properties (burning, etc) or from taking damage (they are alerted by direct attacks or by attack noises) - so now it is possible to for example throw a Molotov Cocktail at a monster, and escape with Cloud Minds while it is burning
- Small crawling creatures (rats, snakes, crawling hands, etc) can pass through some terrain types such as gates and piles of debris
- Cultist have a different tile depending on their wielded firearm, and their description states what weapon they are wielding
- Cultists have a kick attack
- Worm Masses and Mind Worms are now blind, slow (instead of normal speed), have much more hit points, are unsettling (causes shock to see), take much less damage from piercing attacks (such as pistol shots or dagger strikes), and have a very limited hearing range
- Worm Masses and Mind Worms can no longer split while burning
- Added completely new descriptions for all Ooze monsters, removed Black Ooze, changed Putrid Ooze to be weaker and spawn earlier, renamed Clear Ooze to Lurking Ooze
- Removed the spawn level part of monster descriptions ("they usually dwell beneath level...")
- Monster descriptions display more information, such as resistances, if it has the ability to see in darkness, or the chance to stay hidden from the monster
- A generated description is now printed for all monsters - previously some monsters (such as Crawling Intestines) used to have the generated part of their description completely disabled
- Ghoul monsters become allied to a player Ghoul when they see the player, instead of starting allied on the map (to avoid the player missing out on joining the Ghouls in combat and just finding the remains of a battle)
# Items
- Added weapons "S&W Revolver" and "Winchester Rifle"
- Removed the Flare Gun
- Added miscellaneous rare items and artifacts
- Completely reworked and renamed the Spirit Dagger
- The Electric Gun also disables passive hit point regeneration for a number of turns
- The Talisman of Resurrection also teleports the player when activated, to avoid leaving the player in the same situation that killed them to begin with
- The Vitality potion can no longer increase hit points above maximum, but instead it applies a status effect that increases hit point regeneration, and gives a small chance per turn to heal a wound
- The Staff of the Pharaohs also has a chance to apply Doom on hit (a stronger version of Cursed)
# Spells
- Casting spells can occasionally trigger random chaotic side effects, typically affecting the surrounding area (for example walls may appear or disappear, statues knocked over, etc)
- Added spell "Erudition" - the next spell is cast at a higher skill level
- Changed the "Opening" spell to "Control Object", which can do more things (e.g. open/close/jam/strike doors, or strike statues/braziers, etc)
- Changed the Azathoth's Wrath spell to Azathoth's Gaze, which causes small damage and fainting (instead of acting like a "mass Darkbolt")
- Removed the Searching spell - instead this is a permanent ability for the Clairvoyant Occultist (upgraded at levels 4 and 8)
- Added Curse as a spell available to monsters (Floating Skulls cast this now instead of applying the property directly, and mummies cast Curse instead of applying it on melee attacks, for example) - also added a stronger version of Cursed called "Doomed" which is applied instead when Curse is cast at master level
- The Teleport spell has a distance limit, which is increased with higher skill levels - also reduced the spirit cost of the spell
- The Summoning spell is no longer available to player characters (only to monsters)
- Added a message when spells are upgraded (e.g. by a Gong)
# Status effects
- Reworked the "Frenzied" property - instead of changing the player's movement direction on a move command, moves away from monsters are now simply prevented (not an action)
- The Cursed status effect also causes 5% chance to fail spell casting
- Being blind no longer immediately raises shock by 30% - instead the shock ramps up each turn up to 30%
- Players can melee attack monsters while nailed by a Spike Gun (but still not while entangled)
# Terrain objects
- Removed deep liquid and swimming
- Pylons now have different appearances, and it's possible to permanently identify their effects - also Pylons are now activated by touching them
- Hidden doors are always detected from adjacent positions (except if blind or confused)
- Standing next to a door will immediately reveal if it's stuck - if so it will change name and appearance
- Forcing a metal door open (e.g. with a Rod of Opening or the Control Object spell) also toggles all connected switches (this would previously leave the switches "inverted", so that it was hard to know if pulling the switch would open or close a door)
- A lot more terrain objects can be destroyed or lit on fire (for example altars or monoliths are destroyed by explosions, and wooden chests or bookshelves can be lit on fire)
- The stairs position is always lit, to make it less tedious to discover in huge dark rooms
- Statues no longer block line of sight, making them much easier to kick into monsters.
- The stealth penalty in lit positions is much higher than before (see also bug fixes below concerning stealth and darkness)
# Map generation
- The standard map generator can also split rooms, for more map variety
- Added more room templates
- The map generator no longer tries to reveal doors on the path to the stairs (i.e. the stairs may be behind hidden doors)
- Winning characters show up as statues inside the church building on the intro level, instead of graves outside the church
# Other
- Improved the player character memory of explored map positions - it is now possible to view the names of terrain and items on previously explored positions, items seen on the floor in dark rooms are remembered on the map, and bumping terrain like fountains and doors while blind instantly updates their visual status
- Removed the "masochistic obsession" insanity effect
##############################
# User interface changes
##############################
# Convenience / quality of life features
- Bumping a stuck door now automatically tries to bash it (no need to press "w" first)
- Added a warning when the player attempts to fire/throw outside the effective range, informing the player that the attack will do 50% damage
- Added an option to warn when throwing "valuable" items - i.e. potions or equipped items (enabled by default)
- When standing in a dark position, "DARK AREA" is displayed in the status lines
# User input
- All menus have shortcut keys (either with "(Y)es (N)o" style, or "a) b) c) ...")
- The "i" key is skipped as a letter index in the inventory (and drop menu), instead this key can be used for closing the inventory menu again (to allow more convenient toggling of the menu and to help prevent key press mistakes)
- Added "l" or "e" as a shortcut command for toggling the Electric Lantern
- Added "," (comma) as an alternative pick up command
- "C" is the standard key for the character info screen, with "@" as alternative key
- In the options menu, left and right can also be used to change option values
# Graphics
- Added the ability for displaying idle animations while the game is waiting for input, currently this is used for flickering the player color when holding an activated Electric Lantern, or randomizing the color of burning tiles or tiles corrupted by Strange Colors - and also for auto-scrolling item descriptions in the (rare) case that they do not fit in the window
- Instead of the "stretched" fullscreen mode option, there is now an option for attempting to scale the graphics to 2x size when running fullscreen (if the graphics can be scaled depends on the user's resolution, and the current font)
- All fonts have been replaced with new ones (the reason for this is that the origins and license information of the previous ones was unknown - now this information is clearly listed in a font license text file distributed with the game)
- Added a tile for unarmed player
- Added tiles for Cultists wielding different firearms (see gameplay changes above)
- Removed the options to draw the walls as filled rectangles in tiles mode
# Design
- Changed the appearance of popups
- Many screens such as the background/trait screens and character info screen use a nicer positioning for drawing, and they handle window resizing better
- Added more elaborate border graphics (used for example around the player information panel), instead of only simple lines (these graphics existed in older versions of the game)
- Using coloring more for the player stats to convey information (such as drawing the current hit points paler the closer to zero they are, or drawing the weapon info as yellow if ammo is depleted)
- The infection status effect is drawn with orange color instead of the usual red, to make it more noticeable and to hint that it will get worse and not better over time - also added a warning message when infection nearly triggers DISEASE
- The message log uses three lines instead of two (thus causing much fewer "more" prompts)
- General messages for events outside of the player performing an action are drawn gray instead of white, and a newline is always forced after a player action
- Removed the "game over" menu - instead the game summary is first shown, then the high scores, then you return to the main menu
- Added an option to toggle if the view should always be centered on the player, only move when near the edge of the screen (default is to always center)
# Sound
- Added more sound effects
- Removed the generic spell sound effect
- Added a master volume percent option
##############################
# Fixes
##############################
- Fixed a bug that prevented messages for Rogues sensing artifacts on the dungeon floor (there were only messages for sensing artifacts in item containers, such as tombs)
- Darkness did not give a stealth bonus
- The effect of the Silent trait was inverted for melee attacks - i.e. attacks were noisy with the Silent trait picked, and vice versa
- The Asbestos Suite was not protecting against gas explosions (from gas traps)
- Energy Vortex attacks has a paralyzing effect as they were supposed to have, instead of burning
- Fixed problem with popups not being re-drawn correctly when alt-tabbing back to the game
- And much more...
-
v22
# Gameplay
##############################
# Backgrounds and traits
- Added a new background (class) "Flagellant"
# Spells
- Added a new spell domain "Blood" (with some new spells).
- Spells are no longer removed from the spell list when forgotten due to triggering magic traps or using gongs, instead they are marked as "forgotten". Forgotten spells can be recalled by using a "hazy mirror" (new terrain object), or by casting the spell from a manuscript.
- A few particularly powerful spells are "tenebrous", such spells are immediately "forgotten" when they are cast from memory, and cannot be cast until recalled again (by using a mirror, or casting the spell from a manuscript).
# Status effects
- Status effects that will end immediately after the next action are shown as e.g. "Premonition (ending)" in the gui, so that it is possible to know whether it will last until the next player turn or not (previously seeing an active status effect listed could be misleading since it could end before any monster acts).
- The Cursed status effect no longer causes a chance to fail spell casting (but "Doomed" still causes a chance to fail).
- The "Regenerating" status effect no longer heals wounds (it caused bad gameplay design combined with certain Flagellant mechanics).
- Frenzied monsters are now drawn with a red background, and this status is shown in the monster description page.
# Items
- Changed Potion of Invisibility into a "tenebrous" spell instead.
# Melee combat
- It is now possible to aim melee weapons with the "f" key to choose a position to attack.
- Some weapons have "long reach" (has a range of 2 instead of 1), attacking positions further away can be done by pressing "f".
- Pitchforks and the Staff of the Pharaohs now have long reach (pitchforks no longer give a bonus to evasion). A new unique weapon for the Flagellant also has long reach.
- Weapons no longer have a chance to break when the player does a melee attack while cursed.
# Traps
- Traps are always destroyed after they are triggered (i.e. they can only ever be triggered once).
- It is no longer possible to disarm a trap that has started triggering ("I hear a click...").
- Magic traps (strange shape on the ground) may now spawn anywhere, previously they were not allowed to spawn next to blocking terrain, which made these trap types rare to encounter.
- Magic traps are always revealed, i.e. there is no need to detect them.
- When a magic trap triggers there is now a sound, and a flash of light on the map.
- Added item "Bone Charm" that grants spell resistance for a few turns when activated, and dispels all seen magic traps.
- Occultist characters no longer have the ability to dispel magic traps, instead they start with a number of Bone Charms.
- All magic traps now have an effect when triggered by a monster (previously most of them would not do anything at all).
- Added more magic trap types.
- Dart traps, spear traps, and alarm traps now always trigger instantly when a creature steps on them.
- Alarm traps now emit a sound with "global" range, instead of just a "loud" sound (although creatures with short hearing range such as Worm Masses still need to be very near to hear the sound).
- Removed all gas trap types (confusion gas etc)
# Terrain objects
- Instead of metal/doors levers there are now warded doors that can be unwarded by crystals. The difference is that warded doors can be opened at any time like regular doors, but if the player does so without unwarding it first they will receive a penalty, and miss out on a reward (XP bonus for using the crystal).
- Metal doors can now be opened and closed regularly (there are no levers). This is an advantage for the player, as metal doors can never be bashed open.
- Reverted Pylons to make them always active again (they start permanently activated, instead of being activated
by bumping them).
- There is now a chance to get stuck in mud (to differentiate it more from water).
# Monsters
- Added more monsters
- Ravens have a melee attack cooldown time to make them less deadly
# Other
- Added a command in the trait selection menu to show information about the current game, such as character information or inventory (intended to help in choosing trait to pick).
- In the character info screen, knowledge about rods and devices is now also shown (not just potions and manuscripts), and there is information about how much shock the player has received from different sources (seeing monsters, using items, etc).
- In the game over summary screen there is now also information about item knowledge, inventory, and shock received from different sources.
- Current turn number is now displayed in the gui.
- Fountains and Monoliths are now marked on the minimap.
##############################
# User interface
##############################
# Graphics
- Hardware acceleration is now used for rendering (if possible), also added an option to force software rendering.
- It is now possible to set video scaling higher than 2x (3x and 4x are possible as well).
- On first startup, the game tries to set an appropriate video scale factor based on the user resolution.
# Window handling
- Video scaling is now also possible in windowed mode.
- The game no longer tries to determine if the window is large enough, any size is allowed even if all text will not fit.
# Design
- Changed the tile set size to 20x0 (from 24x24), most of the tiles are simply cropped since they had a lot of redundant black space around them, and a few tiles have been slightly reworked.
- Added a tiny 7x13 font, intended for use with scaled up graphics.
- By default, the game runs in fullscreen, using the 7x13 font, and tries to set an appropriate video scale factor (e.g. 2x for 1920x1080).
- Added a flashing animation when a creature is hit by a melee attack.
- When the game asks for a number (e.g. number of items to drop) this is now done in a popup screen instead.
- When entering text or numbers, the underscore cursor is blinking
- The explosion area hint when aiming explosives is drawn as a blended overlay instead.
- Chasms are now drawn with a dark blue checkered rectangle instead of a blue dot (if using tiles).
- Changed color of grates to gray, to clarify that they are made of metal (and not wood)
- Improved the tiles for stairs down (thanks to Andy Walker) and magic traps.
- Added more sound effects (thanks Andy Walker for various gate sounds, item container opening sounds, and a horn sound).
- Added sound effects for opening/closing/bashing metal doors.
# Convenience / quality of life features
- Made some improvements to how the game represents multiple things in the same position, mainly that a different background color is used when there are multiple corpses, or when a corpse is hidden under an item.
- The warning when aiming firearms outside effective range is now printed (with warning color) inline with the aiming info, instead of a y/n question when firing the weapon.
- Split the options menu into several sub-menus (Video, Audio, Input, Gameplay).
- Made some changes to reduce the risk of registering key presses when the game window regains focus (e.g. accidentally doing a melee attack due to the game registering a tab press when alt-tabbing back to the game)
- The user data location is now printed in the main options menu.
- By default, selecting a menu entry with a letter key only jumps to that location, and a second press (or enter) is required to select it. This behavior only happens in menus that have descriptions for the different entries. Added an option to always immediately select entries when pressing letter keys (the old way).
- When carry weight is high enough that becoming weakened would cause the weight to go over 100% (i.e. at 85%) the current carry weight percentage is drawn with (tinted) yellow color, orange at 100% or above (staggering), and red at 125% and above (immobile).
##############################
# Modability
##############################
- Monster definitions are now to a large extent data driven - it is now possible to add new monsters purely by updating monsters.xml (removed monster ID enum values from the source code).
##############################
# Fixes
##############################
- Fixed a problem with the game time system, that caused slow creatures to act slightly more often and fast/very fast creatures to act slightly less often than they were supposed to (especially noticeable when kiting a slow monster, since it would occasionally get unexpected extra moves).
- Attacking a monster that is delayed by moving into liquid no longer allows them to act immediately.
- The names of some ambient sound clip files were calculated incorrectly, resulting in a few ambient sounds not being loaded/used.
- Kicking locked wooden chests would print the message "I kick the locked wooden chest! I kick the lid. The lock resists." - removed the redundant part "I kick the lid".
- Kicking chests caused extra rolls for sprains in some cases (so the risk of a sprain was doubled, and player could get double sprains).
- Fixed a bug where the player killing themselves with an Incinerator would freeze the game.
- The gas mask duration was not stored when saving the game (it was reset to the default length when loading a save file).
- And many more minor bug fixes...
-
v22.1.0
# Gameplay
##############################
# Backgrounds (classes)
- The Flagellant "moribund" status (low health bonuses) is now applied for a certain duration when taking damage that reduces health to 6 hit points or below (previously it was always active while hit points were below the limit, and ended immediately when restored above the limit). The reason for this change is to allow the player to utilize the effect for a bit even if hit points are immediately restored above the limit (e.g. when using the Shed Impurity spell, see below).
- Flagellants also start with a potion of vitality.
- For Flagellant characters, the number of turns spent is adjusted to a lower value (55% of the original value) when calculating score (Flagellants tend to spend a lot more turns, especially since they must wait every time they walk, so this is a compensation for a more comparable score).
# Traits
- The Galvanization trait only applies regeneration if hit points are lost from casting the spell (mostly/only applicable to the Shed Impurity spell, see below).
- Added unique Flagellant trait "Memento Mori", which raises the threshold of the moribund status to 8 hit points, and increases the duration of the effect by 50%.
- Renamed the "Death Sense" Flagellant trait to "Fervor".
- Treasure Hunter increases items spawned on each floor by 1, instead of 1-2. See also general change to number of items spawned below.
- Improved the Survivalist trait: "You cannot become diseased, only half your wounds count, rounded down (i.e. number of wounds are halved when calculating combat, hit point and regeneration penalties, slower walking speed happens at 6 wounds instead of 3, and you die from 10 wounds instead of 5)".
- Healer is no longer a prerequisite for Survivalist.
# Map generation
- Added a new special level
- When the monsters on the "end level" (no spoilers) becomes aware of the player, a message is printed (to reduce the need for meta knowledge).
- On the Egypt level, when the player is within a certain distance of Khephren, all monsters on the map become aware of the player. A message is printed when this happens.
# Terrain objects
- Hazy Mirrors are now colored gray on the minimap when they have been activated.
- Hazy Mirrors are now also detected by the magic searching effect (the Clairvoyant ability).
# Spells
- Added spell "Shed Impurity" - a unique spell for the Flagellant background, that they start with. The spell lowers hit points to the limit where the Flagellant receives bonuses for having low hit points, and if enough hit points are lost, then some status effects such as poisoning are cured.
- Added a new spell that heals other creatures, available only to monsters.
- The Transmutation spell is now "tenebrous" (temporarily forgotten when cast).
- Reduced the duration of the blindness effect that Light spell causes at higher levels, and increased the spell cost from 2-4 spirit to 3-5.
- Changed Control Object max distance from 2/4/6 to 3/4/5 (for basic/exptert/master).
# Items
- Reworked the Incinerator, it is now called the "Morphic Blaster", and is a Mi-Go weapon that works more like the Electric Gun.
- Potion of Descent can now be used on all levels until "the end" (no spoilers), previously it only worked until a few levels before the end of the game.
- Reduced the weight of spike guns.
- Added a new artifact.
# Monsters
- A few monsters wait for a turn when they see the player and are aware of the player. This only happens once, until the monster loses awareness again. It is intended to avoid some unfair instant deaths by allowing the player a chance to act first (for example Cultists and White Spiders have this behavior).
- White Spider attacks have 20% chance to paralyze instead of 50%.
- Reduced hit points of Ghosts (mainly to allow Flagellant players a better chance to counter them with the Thorns spell)
- Pickman spawn from level 10 instead of 6, and is somewhat rarer.
- Pickman starts with 2-3 Ghouls instead of 4-5.
- Byakhee spawn from level 8 instead of 6, and can only spawn in groups from level 10.
- Mummies can now speak a phrase when they become aware, to alert other monsters.
- When Major Clapham-Lee "calls forth his Tomb-Legions", the summoned monsters now wait a turn instead of acting immediately.
- Tentacle Clusters can spawn randomly on the map (not just from spell side effects etc), although somewhat rarely
- Many updates to the "hound" monsters (Fire Hound, Energy Hound): added more types, added sound effects, changed a lot of their stats.
- Monsters that "breed" (i.e. mold) will not spawn new monsters if the group size is above a certain limit.
- Added more monsters
# Misc balancing
- Reduced XP gained from seeing "terrifying" monsters from 10 to 8, and reduced XP for "mind shattering" monsters from 20 to 15 (rationale: there are more monsters now).
- On average, one less item is spawned on each floor in the mid game (10-19), this is intended to avoid players winning with a huge amount of items in the inventory, without making the early game harder or making exploration less rewarding in the late game. See also Treasure Hunter change above.
# Other changes
- In the game over summary screen, all items are shown with their identified names in the inventory section.
- In the item knowledge section of the character screen ("C" or "@"), the real names of all identifiable items in the game are shown, so it is now possible to know exactly which effects an unidentified benign potion may possibly have, for example.
- Removed the item knowledge section of the game over summary screen.
- Added hint popups with info about status effects, shock level, kicking braziers, and kicking statues.
- The "stagger" messages are now more specific, and describe why the player is staggering ("My wounds cause me to stagger.", or "I stagger under the weight of my carried load.").
- A warning is printed when going over 100% carry weight.
- "Shock" is referred to as "mental shock" when picking background and traits, since it could be confused with some type of shock damage (and this is probably often the first time a new player encounters this term in the game).
- Added info about kick hit chance in the monster descriptions.
##############################
# User interface
##############################
# Graphics
- Added unique player tiles for each weapon that the player can wield (39 new tiles in total), thanks YARD and Hal from the IA Discord channel!
# Sound
- Added a sound effect for walls collapsing ("Suddenly, the walls collapse!").
##############################
# Fixes
##############################
- Fixed a bug where creatures (e.g. the player) could get knocked into impassable terrain (such as walls), if they had physical damage resistance.
- Fixed a bug that caused interruptions of longer player actions (handling armor or using the medical bag). The problem was that status effects that interrupt the player (fainting, burning, entangled, stuck, etc) would interrupt regardless of which creature it was applied to. The effect of this was probably most often noticeable when monsters outside view got stuck in mud.
- Viewing information about known spells while picking a new trait was handled poorly if the player did not know any spells.
- In the inventory section of the game over summary screen, only the plain, single item, names were used (e.g. "Throwing Knife"). Now plural names are used correctly (e.g. "6 Throwing Knives").
- Shock from casting domainless spells (Exorcist unique spells) was not included when showing cost from casting learned spells in the character screen and game over summary screen.
- When monsters opened a door, the opened door was always updated in the player memory even if they did not see the door being opened.
- Fixed some cases where redundant sound messages were printed when handling doors ("I hear a door open. I see a door opening.")
- When kicking statues while blind, the sound message would never be printed ("I hear a crash.").
- The Purge spell description now also includes mirrors in the list of objects it can destroy (it could already destroy them but it was not described).
- Crimson Passage also gave a free move when it ended due to hit points being too low (now it only gives a free move if it is possible to "pay" the hit point cost).
- And more bug fixes...