Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Announcements => Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) => Topic started by: Slash on March 30, 2013, 03:46:42 AM
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Rodney continues development built upon the original 7drl (which is available from the website), seeking to make it an even more enjoyable experience while keeping the original spirit.
The latest version is available at http://games.slashware.net/rodney !
Your feedback is very appreciated!
Gameplay vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A68X2S8U1AA
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v13 changes - May 25 2013
* Change tileset randomly between floors
* Add golem
* Add doublespeed enemies
* Buff Enemy HPs
* New Spin Slash skill
* Enhance slash/backslash\ (150% damage)
* Enhance sweep (150% damage)
* Add Parry Skill
* Riposte Skill
* New buildup skill
* Courage / Heroism skills
* Wanderer / Explorer skills
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Darksight changed a lot. It's funny because for me at least the color outside of my sight range is much brighter than the color inside my sight range which is nearly black except for enemies and items. The stuff outside my view is green, but the stuff inside my view is very dark blue. Maybe this is supposed to be reversed? I think that having multiple levels of the powerups is a good direction to go in. I've thought about games using selected perks like this for leveling, but never realized that it would be cool to have multiple levels of the same basic perk.
I somehow ended up with the almighty "undefinedSplint mail" after using an excellent splint mail for some time. Actually, it was a splint mail that I equipped near the beginning, and I suspect the damage level may have wrapped around or something.
I like the new screen transitions. The game seems slightly harder in this version, or possibly I just had a run of bad luck. I was at 1 strength, took the destroy perk and ended up back at one strength within the same level, so that may have contributed.
I'm sad to see the town go despite it's problems. I know that everyone was confused and complained about it, but it was a good feature conceptually. It was a cool idea to have an area where fellow players could hang out and chat between games. Maybe there is some way to do this in a nonconfusing way. Maybe if it looked like a town with buildings and stairs down? It just seems like a cool idea, and it works well enough in MAngband. There has to be a way to do it.
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Can you please send me a screenshot of the color schema you are getting?
Nevermind, I changed it on v6, please take a look.
Thanks!
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Version 6 released!
5191 The enemy attack messages are in wrong order
5192 Weapons can be left useless before totally ruined
5195 Can use empty name
5196 Keyboard polling is too slow for name entry
5197 Color schema is weird
5198 undefined integrity level
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Here's a screenshot of the current color scheme and an undefined scale mail in the latest version:
(http://i597.photobucket.com/albums/tt55/_elig/RodneyScreen1.jpg)
Definitely an improvement over the previous green/nearly black color scheme.
I pressed refresh after loading it, so this should be the latest version, and the town was back so that seems like a different version. Anyway, this version seems easier than the previous version, or maybe I was just having a run of bad luck that time. Probably just bad luck. Still like those transition effects. I'll post more as I play it more.
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this is fixed now
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Pretty cool game.
It would be nice if you pushed the up arrow at the top item, it went all the way to the last item at the bottom and vice-versa.
Would be great to have a stand alone downloadable version. Preferably with fullscreen.
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Standalone version seems doable via unicodetiles.js qtwebtoolkit native app... Dunno if it has been done before though...
I might also release iPhone/android versions uson cocoonjs
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I want to play this game, but every time I push space or the up/down arrow keys my window scrolls up/down, and I constantly need to correct it. I can get around the arrow key problem by using the numeric keypad with num lock turned on, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about the space bar issue.
Could you allow the use of something like the enter key as an alternative to space bar, or allow the game to be played on a page with less vertical height, or something like that?
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Vanguard, I'm looking forward to prevent the default behavior for the arrow keys and space. What browser are you using?
In the meantime, you can use Ctrl for "action", does that work?
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I'm using firefox. Ctrl is seems to be working in most situations, but it doesn't do anything on the ability selection screen.
EDIT:
Ctrl doesn't work for equipping items either. It opens the equipment screen, but I need to push space to actually make use of the item.
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Version 7 released, Play now! http://games.slashware.net/rodney
* Ignore Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Tab
* Alternate action keys Enter, 'v'
* Block name entry while starting game
* Prevent spawning in corridors
* Add color to skill animations
* Add animation to all skills
* Split Destroy into three skills
* Make weapon damage independent of attack damage. Make some weapons more resistant than others
* Prevent very weird concurrency issue probably triggered by the fov calculations done before / while initializing the control arrays
Thank you for your feedback
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Just played. Got pretty deep. I seemed to be windshielding everyone until I found the Yetis.
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Just played. Got pretty deep. I seemed to be windshielding everyone until I found the Yetis.
Armor too strong probably?
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Armor too strong probably?
It seems that way to me. Late game enemies are still dangerous, but if you find some early banded or plate armor, you can shrug off everything in the first half of the game.
But I think the core problem is that the player's strength changes relatively little over the course of the game, while late game enemies are far more powerful than their early game counterparts. The only pre-centaur enemies that are dangerous enough to worry about are stat drainers. I think increasing the damage output of most low level monsters would be a good move.
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Right, I'll get into balancing it.
By the way, I'm on #rgrd at quakenet, in case someone wants to chat about this
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Alright, so I've tried out a few rounds of the version posted last night.
You've done a good job improving the early game. Low level enemies are much more threatening, and the game no longer has a boring phase where you don't need to think about what you're doing. I also like that perks are now granted on every other level. I found a bug where if you open and close your inventory, you can get a free perk. It seems to only occur once per playthrough, so it doesn't completely break the game.
The biggest balance issue right now seems to be item distribution, particularly potions. Healing potions are necessary, not optional, and strength/vitality potions are extremely powerful. A player who gets lucky with potions will have a extreme advantage, and a player who gets unlucky might lose the game even with perfect play. I recommend coming up with some system to even this out, such as generating one, and only one potion on each floor. That would make the game much more fair and also decrease the need to explore every room of every floor.
I also think that armor should decay by the same amount for all incoming attacks. Currently a nice set of armor can easily last for several floors in the early game, but only a few encounters in the late game. Taking a ton of damage from a high level enemy is punishment enough without having your armor broken, and the inability of low level enemies' inability to damage armor was a major factor in the ease of the early game in older versions.
Do special attacks stack? For instance, if I have both build up and corner, and I spend a turn resting and then on the next turn I strike an enemy against a wall, what happens?
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Last version works fine in FF. At least I didn't encountered any problems till I died on lvl21.
As for other changes...
It looks like the game generates much fewer items on first floors. I've got my very first source of light on level 7!
Not sure if it's good or bad. But there is definitely more tension on first levels.
And the change I REALLY REALLY HATE is base damage roll from 1 to str.
This really breaks the game! There are so many enemies that you want to be dead from 1 hit, or you are
screwed otherwise, that chance of not making any significant damage for several turns is fatal!
First 3 wrathes reduced my max hp by 20! And I was dealing double damage to each wrath.
Another suggestion - probably rust monster should not deal any damage to leather armor?
The leather doesn't rust, as far as I know. This will also increase value of otherwise almost useless item.
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The rest monster was hurting my leather? I didn't notice, I just put it on, thinking I knew the trick. Probably it's taking normal damage instead of extra damage?
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Armor is WAY too rare for how important it is. Late game enemies cannot be consistently OHKOed and do too much to simply take it on the chin. Early game enemies have a hard time standing up to a PC in armor, but extreme scarcity isn't a good solution.
And the change I REALLY REALLY HATE is base damage roll from 1 to str.
Whoah hold on. Are you saying that when I attack with 10 strength, the game treats me as though my strength is a random number between 1 and 10? That... is a serious problem if true.
Being able to reliably oneshot enemies is vital in Rodney (and I like that mechanic! It's unique). No health regeneration means minimal randomization is a must.
This really breaks the game! There are so many enemies that you want to be dead from 1 hit, or you are
screwed otherwise, that chance of not making any significant damage for several turns is fatal!
First 3 wrathes reduced my max hp by 20! And I was dealing double damage to each wrath.
Enemies with special effects on their attacks should have below average hp in general. The exceptions are rust monsters, which can be beaten by dropping your armor.
For the most part, enemy health balance in Rodney is good, but I'd say ants, wraiths et al. could do with a bit less health. The sweet spot is where an appropriately prepared player (a player with a decent weapon and adequate strength using a special attack) will always OHKO, while a player using a bad weapon or autoattacking will need two or more hits.
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Armor is WAY too rare for how important it is. Late game enemies cannot be consistently OHKOed and do too much to simply take it on the chin. Early game enemies have a hard time standing up to a PC in armor, but extreme scarcity isn't a good solution.
And the change I REALLY REALLY HATE is base damage roll from 1 to str.
Whoah hold on. Are you saying that when I attack with 10 strength, the game treats me as though my strength is a random number between 1 and 10? That... is a serious problem if true.
Yes. I peeked at the source code. In earlier version str was solid base damage, and random weapon damage was added to it. But base damage is a roll 1..str. Which can lead us to (1+1)*2=4 damage with special attack when wielding spear, for example.
Being able to reliably oneshot enemies is vital in Rodney (and I like that mechanic! It's unique). No health regeneration means minimal randomization is a must.
This really breaks the game! There are so many enemies that you want to be dead from 1 hit, or you are
screwed otherwise, that chance of not making any significant damage for several turns is fatal!
First 3 wrathes reduced my max hp by 20! And I was dealing double damage to each wrath.
Enemies with special effects on their attacks should have below average hp in general. The exceptions are rust monsters, which can be beaten by dropping your armor.
For the most part, enemy health balance in Rodney is good, but I'd say ants, wraiths et al. could do with a bit less health. The sweet spot is where an appropriately prepared player (a player with a decent weapon and adequate strength using a special attack) will always OHKO, while a player using a bad weapon or autoattacking will need two or more hits.
I second this :)
It's already challenging enough to try to always kill monsters with special attacks with own special moves.
And when there are many monsters around, it's a serious challenge.
The paralyzing eye with the ant around is already something to be feared.
Confusion from the umberhulk with the wrath around is more then enough of a possibility to loose max health.
Thank you for your attention and thank you for the game. I hope together we will find a challenging, but fair balance :)
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It looks like the game generates much fewer items on first floors. I've got my very first source of light on level 7!
Not sure if it's good or bad. But there is definitely more tension on first levels.
Yes, that was the idea... still need to balance it a bit.
And the change I REALLY REALLY HATE is base damage roll from 1 to str.
This really breaks the game! There are so many enemies that you want to be dead from 1 hit, or you are
screwed otherwise, that chance of not making any significant damage for several turns is fatal!
First 3 wrathes reduced my max hp by 20! And I was dealing double damage to each wrath.
I did that in order to make first enemies non-trivial to defeat. I'll look for an alternate solution
Another suggestion - probably rust monster should not deal any damage to leather armor?
The leather doesn't rust, as far as I know. This will also increase value of otherwise almost useless item.
Leather armor should not be damaged by Rust Monsters; if it's hapenning then it's a bug.
Thank you for your attention and thank you for the game. I hope together we will find a challenging, but fair balance :)
No, thank you for your interest! :)
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Armor is WAY too rare for how important it is. Late game enemies cannot be consistently OHKOed and do too much to simply take it on the chin. Early game enemies have a hard time standing up to a PC in armor, but extreme scarcity isn't a good solution.
While I'd like luck to be an important factor on winning (like in rogue), I don't want to be extremely unfair. I'll increase the odds.
Enemies with special effects on their attacks should have below average hp in general. The exceptions are rust monsters, which can be beaten by dropping your armor.
For the most part, enemy health balance in Rodney is good, but I'd say ants, wraiths et al. could do with a bit less health. The sweet spot is where an appropriately prepared player (a player with a decent weapon and adequate strength using a special attack) will always OHKO, while a player using a bad weapon or autoattacking will need two or more hits.
Sounds good
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I did that in order to make first enemies non-trivial to defeat. I'll look for an alternate solution
Personally, I think increasing the health of most low level enemies by a small amount would be a better way to achieve this. Some of them need it anyway. Orcs in particular seem fragile for the depths they appear in.
But since you said you want to keep a fair amount of randomization involved, what about this: the game rolls two numbers in between 1 and str and uses the average of the two for base damage. That way things are more reliable on average, but the possibility of extreme luck still exists.
Hopefully I haven't come across as too negative or bossy in this thread. I know that most of what I say is critical, but I do like your game. So thanks for your hard work!
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New version released, take a look! :)
Thanks for your feedback, keep it coming :D
http://games.slashware.net/rodney/
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My keyboard doesn't seem to do anything once I'm past the name entry screen. I haven't tried it since a few versions back, so it may not be a bug specific to this version. The moment it gets past the name entry, none of my keys do anything. Also, clicking on the buttons that say up/down/etc doesn't do anything for me either. I can however type things into the chat box and press enter just fine, but even trying to chose the default skill by pressing enter does nothing.
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I had the issue to but it seems to be fixed.
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Try to look for errors in javascript console. If the game stops react to keyboard, it's highly likely that it has crashed.
I was playing the game slightly zoomed in. And now it doesn't fit on one page. As a result the scroller appeared and pressing and holding down arrow now scrolls the content of the page.
Is it me, or stalkers started to do some really serious damage?
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I had my best run yet in this version. I think I got to floor 23. I found a suit of EXCELLENT PLATE MAIL early on, and assumed that would make me basically invincible, but some kind and helpful purple worms saw my confusion and explained to my why that was not the case.
Anyway, I've reached the conclusion that since the player's power changes relatively little over the course of the game, and enemy and item power change dramatically, the only way to achieve balance is to make the quality of generated items drastically better in the late game than the early game. That's not to say that every early item needs to be trash or that every late item needs to be amazing, but I think they should trend in that direction. The thing is, a nice set of banded mail will dominate the early game, but it's like, the bare minimum of what is acceptable in the late game.
I don't think reducing the quantity of items spawned in the early game would be a good solution, because a huge part of the strategy in Rodney is deciding whether you want to need that worn banded mail more than your excellent mace. Or whatever. And those kinds of decisions only come up if you find more useful items than you can carry.
I also did a run where I used only basic weapons and never upgraded my strength to try to gauge how much health early game enemies have.
In my opinion, hobgoblins, jackals, snakes, orcs, gnomes and zombies have a bit less health than they ought to.
I thought that kobolds, floating eyes, giant ants, leprechauns, and centaurs all had appropriate health for their threat levels and the depths in which they are encountered.
I didn't encounter any early game enemies which I thought had too much health.
Is it me, or stalkers started to do some really serious damage?
Yeah, they seem to be more dangerous than I remembered.
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The game is still running, the animation for the charge ability is still playing, but I can't select anything or even change the selection on the menu. I just tried it again, still nothing.
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Anyway, I've reached the conclusion that since the player's power changes relatively little over the course of the game, and enemy and item power change dramatically, the only way to achieve balance is to make the quality of generated items drastically better in the late game than the early game. That's not to say that every early item needs to be trash or that every late item needs to be amazing, but I think they should trend in that direction. The thing is, a nice set of banded mail will dominate the early game, but it's like, the bare minimum of what is acceptable in the late game.
That's just what I want the players to have to decide, do I spend inventory space with this suit of mail through the first levels just to survive on the later levels? since items are generated in quality and quantity regardless of the level depth, a lucky player might find something cool on the first levels, but that might at the same time be a curse of carrying something on his back (with a limited space for inventory) in exchange of risking it not to be generated again.
The again may be the items in general should be increased in power
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I was playing the game slightly zoomed in. And now it doesn't fit on one page. As a result the scroller appeared and pressing and holding down arrow now scrolls the content of the page.
What browser are you using? I had this happen to me but it should be fixed already
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I was playing the game slightly zoomed in. And now it doesn't fit on one page. As a result the scroller appeared and pressing and holding down arrow now scrolls the content of the page.
What browser are you using? I had this happen to me but it should be fixed already
Chrome on mac. In FF on windows it's the same. When you press and hold down arrow screen scrolls.
Also... I managed to pick two perks on first level! I pressed inventory and when I closed it with escape, perks choice popped up! And level was generated anew.
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That's just what I want the players to have to decide, do I spend inventory space with this suit of mail through the first levels just to survive on the later levels? since items are generated in quality and quantity regardless of the level depth, a lucky player might find something cool on the first levels, but that might at the same time be a curse of carrying something on his back (with a limited space for inventory) in exchange of risking it not to be generated again.
That's a great thing to shoot for. I'm totally with you on that.
But here's the thing - if a player has one longsword, they treasure it and only use it when they really need extra help. They have to make decisions on whether extra security in a single encounter is worth damaging their best weapon.
If a player finds four longswords, they just start using them because it's not like they'll be running out any time soon.
The early game is trivial if the player obtains a large number of powerful items. The late game is impossible unless they've obtained a large number of powerful items. So a good way to make both halves interesting is to improve the average item quality as the player goes deeper, while still occasionally generating really great early items.
It's not the only possible solution, but in my opinion, it's the simplest.
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New version released, now with graphics!!!
also Make the quality of generated items better in the late game than the early game
Take a look! http://games.slashware.net/rodney/
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Oh hey, those look really nice. I'm trying it now.
Edit:
Nooooo you fixed the free perk bug! My unfair advantage!
Gnomes don't seem to have a graphic tile. They're invisible unless you go into ASCII mode. Same goes for giant wolves.
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Wall height can hide things a bit, but very very nice.
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Thank you!
I fixed those, do you have any other comments?
For the moment I think I'll have to add more variety to the ambients. Thinking on adding a cave dungeon generator, and also special rooms.
Anyone beat the game already???
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I fixed those, do you have any other comments?
Invisible Stalkers seem excessively strong for how little you can do to protect yourself against them.
I'd like it if the game said how much extra damage each special attack inflicted and whether or not special attacks stack with each other.
Special rooms would be are a good idea. They could go a long way towards making the dungeon more interesting.
I haven't beaten the game yet, but I reached floor 24 today.
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Version 12 released!
* Show attack damage
* Nerf Invisible Stalker
* Add blood stains to graphics version
* Add attack and walk sound
* Show hits
* Enhance UI
* Fix invisible tiles for Giant Wolf and Claymore
http://games.slashware.net/rodney
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I freaking did it! I beat him!
I got INSANELY lucky with every type of item except for weapons, but those aren't nearly as important as potions and armor anyway.
Spoilers from here on.
http://i.imgur.com/FHOyyTx.png (http://i.imgur.com/FHOyyTx.png)
http://i.imgur.com/yDFcDCj.png (http://i.imgur.com/yDFcDCj.png)
So it seems that beating Rodney isn't the end? I took his amulet and put it on, but I couldn't tell what, if anything, it did. I got as deep as floor 28 before being surrounded and defeated by three demons.
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Congrats!! Any thought to enhance the game, to make it more fun?
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Keep on pushing, there's still lots to be done!
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Yeah, I've got a huge list of suggestions.
I'm going to divide it into multiple sections to make it a bit more readable.
Items
My opinion of the current state of the game is that it's doing pretty well. It generates a nice number of weapons, armor, and potions, such that you usually do get what you need, you usually don't get everything you want, and you have to make decisions about what to carry and what to abandon.
The biggest problem with items that I see is that the difference between terrible weapons and great weapons isn't very large. A late game character with a dagger can inflict about 40 damage a hit, while that same character with a claymore can do about 60. That difference is meaningful, but it isn't nearly so large as the difference between good armor and bad armor. I've got an idea on how to help with this in the special attacks section below.
Monsters
Enemies could use a bit more variety. Most of the early game enemies are interchangeable with each other, and are not very threatening. Enemies that stand out to me are poisonous masses for their strength damage effect, mimics for their... mimicry, and demons and purple worms for their extreme threat levels.
I think the majority of early game enemies could use a boost to their attack power. Everything before beasts inflicts relatively small amounts of damage and doesn't need to be taken seriously (except poisonous masses). But beyond that, I feel that a good enemy should have something that makes them stand out from other enemy types. It should be something that changes the way the player deals with them, but without being tedious or unfair. So here are a few enemy suggestions I've got:
One or two enemies that move at double speed. Rodney doesn't seem to have a speed system like Angband and ADOM do, but it should be easy enough to simulate it by letting certain enemies move twice when their turn comes up. It would be an interesting addition to the game because it would be much more difficult to set up special attacks, and it would also make the wall jump perk more useful, since it'd let the player move around just as quickly as their opponent to either escape or set up a special attack.
Quasits seem like a good fit for this trait. I think it would be fun to give it to demons or purple worms as well to make something really scary. Maybe lower their health to compensate. Demons and purple worms are good in that they're enemy types that requires a lot of care and attention to deal with, but they're also very similar to each other, and I think something like this would help them stand out.
Another enemy that would be interesting and easy to implement would be an enemy with extremely high health, but less attack power than other enemies. Like, something that shows up around the same floor as orcs and has 10x the hit points of an orc, but only inflicts 1/3 as much damage as an orc. Golems would be a good thematic fit. The idea is that this is an enemy the player is encouraged to avoid rather than fight. The low attack power means taking one or two hits isn't a big deal, but their high hp means that avoiding any damage while fighting is basically impossible. This type of enemy would make the wall jump perk more attractive, since it helps with escaping, and it would also encourage players to pick up perks like rage so that direct confrontation becomes a more attractive option. I know that bullet sponges in games are not very popular (and rightly so), but combat in Rodney is fast paced and aggressive enough that even an enemy with 10x the health of an orc could probably go down in 5 or 6 hits. That isn't too bad.
Perks and Special Attacks
I think the parts of the game that have the most potential for improvement are the perk and special attack systems. They're already good now, but I think with a few changes they could be even better. The biggest problem is that there isn't very much encouraging players to try totally different builds. Every character is going to want Butcher, Crush, Raze, and Packer, and Corner is as good as every other special attack combined.
Most game developers seem think the best way to balance a game is to homogenize everything. My preferred method is to make every ability so awesome that your player enjoys every ability that they have, and longs for every ability they don't have. So rather than nerfing corner (which would make the game nearly impossible), I'm going to suggest improvements to existing perks, as well as new perks that should make the game more interesting.
Build Up - increase the damage multiplier to 4x damage. Cause heavy damage to the user's weapon (say, the equivalent to 10 normal attacks worth of durability).
I'm making this suggestion for two reasons. First, Build Up is very similar to Corner, but generally Corner is more useful. Improving its damage multiplier is the easiest way to give it value, and the weapon damage penalty exists to keep the extra damage from being overpowered.
The other issue this would address is the problem of weapons being the least valuable equipment type. A player in leather armor is very vulnerable, while a player in plate armor is nearly invincible. But on the other hand, a character with a dagger will end up inflicting about 2/3 as much damage as a player with a claymore, so there isn't a big incentive to gather a ton of weapons like there is with armor and potions. With this ability, the player would be able to severely damage one of their weapons in exchange for a get out of jail free card. This would make inventory management more interesting, since a large supply of weapons would be just as useful as other item types.
If this change is made, it would be important to make sure that whenever the player takes an action that could count as two special abilities, Build Up does not trigger. Say you've got a player skipping a turn and then attacking a cornered enemy. You'd want Corner to trigger, not Build Up, so the player doesn't accidentally destroy their weapon.
Riposte - Skip a turn adjacent to an enemy. If the enemy attacks, the player counterattacks with a 4x damage multiplier. (Perhaps it should require Build Up as a prerequisite?)
Another high damage ability to challenge Corner's domination. This one requires the player to take damage in exchange for getting to make a powerful attack in return. I don't think the 4x multiplier would make it overpowered, because the only way to survive in Rodney is to win most fights without taking any damage at all. Riposte would require the player to take a hit. Its main uses would be against lone, durable enemies like purple worms, and in desperate situations where the player finds themselves trapped without an adequate weapon. Riposte would also be a good choice for players who want to fight rather than avoid the golem enemies I suggested earlier.
Defensive Fighting - An attack that inflicts normal damage, but the user receives half damage for one turn. (Triggered by being attacked while your back is up against a wall? Or what about moving away from an enemy for one turn, then attacking?)
This one is different from all the current special attacks in the game, but I think it would be a good addition. Right now, most of the your effort in Rodney is directed towards killing enemies before they can land a hit on you. This move would be suited to the situations where that isn't possible. Usually it'd be a better idea to use a high damage attack to get an instant kill. But even though Defensive Fighting wouldn't be useful in most situations, it would be really good in a few certain places. And that's the kind of ability I like in tactical games. Things like that increase depth.
Let's say your character is capable of inflicting 15 damage, and you've got an opponent that has 40 hp. By attacking normally, you will kill them in three hits and receive at least two hits in return. If you use Corner you can kill them in two hits and will only take one hit in return. Spamming Defensive Fighting would mean you need to land three hits and receive two half damage hits, so it's exactly as good as Corner. But if you use Defensive Fighting for the first attack, and Corner for the second attack, you can get a kill in two hits and only receive half of the damage of a normal attack in total.
Courage - recover 1 hit point for defeating an enemy
Heroism - recover between 1 and 5 health for defeating enemies, the amount is based on enemy strength (requires Courage)
Rodney reminds me of Flend's DDRogue and PrincessRL 7DRLs, and one of the coolest items in those games is the life-draining glove. There perks are intended to simulate that effect. They'd encourage the player to completely explore levels, and would be useful for someone who has been having bad luck with potion drops.
Wanderer - recover 10 hit points for entering a new floor
Explorer - recover 25 hit points for entering a new floor (requires Wanderer)
Another set of alternate recovery methods. I don't think either of these would be game changers, but they'd be nice additions to any build.
Sweep - Increase damage to 150% of a normal attack.
Attacking multiple enemies for normal damage isn't terribly useful. Right now sweep is the equivalent to fighting multiple enemies one at a time in a hallway, and while in most roguelikes that's a good idea, it isn't enough in Rodney where you really need to oneshot as many foes as possible. 150% is enough to make it rewarding in situations where you're trapped in an open room, while still being low enough that it doesn't overwhelm other abilities.
Spin Slash - Attacks all enemies adjacent to the player for 150% damage. (Requires Sweep, triggered by using a normal attack while adjacent to more than one enemy)
Right now Spin Slash is a pretty bad ability. It requires you to stand where two enemies can hit you, it only hits one of them at a time, the first hit does no extra damage, and even when you meet all of those requirements, it's still not very impressive. Changing it to an upgraded version of Sweep would make it much more useful, especially when the player is surrounded by enemies in an open room, which is the most dangerous situation in the game. This would be especially useful for when you go down a set of stairs and the game spawns you somewhere dangerous.
Dang, that was longer than I wanted it to be. Well, hopefully it will be useful to you.
Edit:
Oh yeah, I meant to suggest that Slash and Backslash also inflict 1.5x damage for the same reasons as with Sweep.
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After thinking about it a bit more, I'm going to change my suggestion for Build Up.
Build Up - 2x damage multiplier AND applies the weapon's damage twice (so a claymore's 4d4 effectively becomes 8d4). Cause heavy damage to the user's weapon (say, the equivalent to 10 normal attacks worth of durability).
The biggest problem with a 4x damage multiplier is that it would allow for 4x damage unarmed attacks, which would still be pretty powerful and would bypass the weapon durability requirement. The other problem is that a 4x multiplier means a dagger is just as good as a claymore since either one will oneshot everything. There'd be no reason to use it with a powerful weapon. With this version of the skill, the more valuable the weapon is, the better the attack's damage payoff gets.
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Thank you! we are developing these suggestions already ;)
I'm also going to add some variety to the levels.
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Version 13 released!!
This versions comes with a pack of new skills and some graphics enhancements. Take a look!
Gameplay video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A68X2S8U1AA
PLAY NOW! http://games.slashware.net/rodney/
CHANGES:
* Change tileset randomly between floors
* Add golem
* Add doublespeed enemies
* Buff Enemy HPs
* New Spin Slash skill
* Enhance slash/backslash\ (150% damage)
* Enhance sweep (150% damage)
* Add Parry Skill
* Riposte Skill
* New buildup skill
* Courage / Heroism skills
* Wanderer / Explorer skills
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Whoah, you did all of them! I'll definitely try this out.
Edit:
Alright, so here's what I think so far:
Most of the perks changes seem to be working pretty well. The only problem I see is that parry seems to be triggering on every attack I make, which is crazy strong. It'd be better to make it so it only works on non-special attacks. Letting it apply to only a single enemy per round was a good idea though.
I like the enemy changes. You were liberal with the double speed dudes, and it was a good call. They definitely feel more threatening than normal enemies. Early game enemy attack power is still too low.
Let's see... there's a bug where whenever something attacks, a _ mark appears in the spot where that happened. It's only visible in tiles mode. I don't know if it only happens in firefox or what, but you can see it in the first screenshot I posted on the last page.
And I don't think the leaderboard has been updating for some time now.
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yeah, the leaderboard was disabled for a while due to server transition but it should be working now.
I wish more people played this :P