Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Game Discussion => Early Dev => Topic started by: gwathlobal on January 07, 2017, 01:51:29 PM
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Hey, guys!
I have written a coffeebreak roguelike inspired by as 7DRL entry "City of the Condemned" by Tapio (http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=City_of_the_Condemned).
This is basically a remake of City of the Condemned with some added features (real pathfinding, a more realistic fov and blood). The game is written in Common Lisp using SDL.
(https://sites.google.com/site/gwathlobal2/cotd_screen.png)
Github page: https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD
Latest release with Windows binary: https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/latest
The Legions of Hell invaded the City with the intention to slay its inhabitants. The Heavenly Forces had to intervene. Now both sides are bent to fight each other until none of the opponents remain. Choose your side and join the fray!
The actions takes place in a large overland City, where Angels and Demons fight each other in its streets and mankind is trapped in their way.
- You can side either with Angels or with Demons. Though mankind is allied with angels, it is mainly stuck in the conflict between the parties.
- You are not alone and should not be able to overcome all obstacles by yourself, some enemies will require aid of your allies.
- Your enemies are able to hide their true appearence, so observe and learn their tactics to avoid nasty surprises. Demons are able to possess humans, while Angels can conseal their divinity.
- "Friendly fire" is allowed, so do not get in the way of your more powerfull allies.
- Your resource is power. You can stockpile it to get a "level up" or spend it on your abilities.
- You gain power proportional to the strength of killed enemies. Angels also gain power by blessing humans, while demons gain power by killing them (and each other).
- Angels can heal themselves while Demons can summon allies to their position.
- You win either by killing each member of the opposing faction or leveling up beyond Archangel or Archdemon status.
The game is known to freeze sometimes for several seconds after you make a move, especially in the beginning. This is due to pathfinding calculations happening for more than 100 actors. Once their numbers naturally dwindle, these delays become unnoticeable.
Any thoughts, suggestions and critique are welcome :)
UPD. Updated version to v1.0.1, the links stay the same.
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City of the Condemned was damn good 7drl! It's nice to see remake, I'm really curious. Your list of changes seems neat, but, to be honest, screenshot looks a bit messy...
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And by "messy" you mean that the tiles are too small?
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OK, I played a bit. Yeah, the screen is too small, but it isn't most important issue about display. Original CotC, even if screen is small (it relies on curses library, so player can adjust font size by terminal preferences) everything looks clear. The problem of CotD's display is that you are using in the same time small font and pretty detailed (sort of) charset.
The beginning movement lag is barely acceptable. After about a dozen turns the lag vanishes. But still, it's annoying. You wrote that it's caused by pathfinding algorithm - maybe it's possible to optimize it?
Also, if you decided to cut keybinding info from the main screen, you could add it under '?' key. Even if controls are trivial.
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Thanks for the reply.
Updated to v1.0.1, the link stays the same.
Added access to help via '?' from the level screen.
Added bigger tiles, please see if its better now.
Also, I think I managed to fix the lag in the beginning. It was a stupid oversight in my part with line-of-sight code.
And added some new tiles to the generator for flavour reasons.
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Hah, it's much better experience now :) Congrats for quick fix. How could I switch between tilesets? +-, [ctrl]+-, [shift]+- doesn't work, but I see both small and big tiles in data folder.
If I could suggest one another improvement - using SDL with bitmaps has own flaws (like lack of built-in cofigurables for - exactly - tiles size / resolution). I'd encourage to add multiple fonts, from really small 8x8 to really large, like 32x32 (if square) or, for example, 17x36, and make possible to choose font even out of game (like, in cfg file).
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> How could I switch between tilesets? +-, [ctrl]+-, [shift]+- doesn't work, but I see both small and big tiles in data folder.
Right now, you can't, I'm afraid. I indeed have a plan to make it possible but that requires some more work.
As for font changes, the idea is also cool, I think I'll add it alongside the tile switch option, but that will require a bit of a rewrite know. Too many things depend on the current fixed font size, it seems.
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Released version 1.0.2
Changelog
- Added new buildings to the city generator: Warehouse, Library
- Added option to choose tiles to options.cfg
- Added options.cfg where you can specify various game options. For now, you can only choose the size of tiles
- Removed ability to attack members of you own faction (except demons). You can still attack allied faction though.
- Introduced new terrain types: Cabinet, Crate, Bookshelf. Added it to appropriate buildings.
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.2 (https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.2)
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Released version 1.0.3
Changelog
- Linux 32-bit binary packages added
- Added Soldiers to the city. Soldiers arrive to help humans towards the end of the battle, are opposed to both angels and demons and will shoot them if they see their true form
- Added Satanists to the city. They are allied with demons and are able to call them for free and curse enemies with inaccuracy
- Added a new command 'm' to view the full message log
- Priests can now pray. Prayers may sometimes lead to smiting all enemies in priest's sight for minor damage or granting all allies divine protection. Divine protection prevents the next attack or harmful effect from application
- Upgraded city generation and added variety to some bulding types
- The City now has maximum 1 church, 1 warehouse, 1 prison, 1 library and 1 satanist's lair
- Fixed bug with the time label becoming red while it's still player's turn
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.3
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I'll check it later. It's not just remake anymore :)
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Released version 1.0.4
Changelog
- Made help articles be read from files
- Added snow terrain
- Added an option to go to the main menu from the game-over screen
- Added rivers to the city generator
- Added indication of the general direction to the nearest angel/demon
- Added sea ports to the city generator
- Added an option to customize the current scenario by choosing city layout, weather and player faction
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.4
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I really like it! As a demon is cool to hide, strike humans and become a demon! I've not found an easy way to defeat angels and this is cool to! A lot of re-playability here!
From the demons side, I like that imps act more wisely and avoid to kill people around when angels reveals.. it's not the right way to stay alive long :D
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Thanks for your comment! Happy that you liked the game :)
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Released version 1.0.5
Changelog
- Made the military a playable faction
- Added sergeants to the military. They are armed with six-round revolvers, that deal less damaged than a rifle but do not need to reload every turn
- Added chaplains to the military. They are armed with six-round revolvers and are able lead troops, pray to reveal angels and demons around them and grant divine protection to allies
- Ranged combat accuracy is now affected by distance. The farther the target - the less likely you are able to hit it
- Added forest cities to the city generator
- Added island cities to the city generator
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.5
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Released version 1.0.6
Changelog
- Angels can now chop off body parts when they kill somebody (they are armed with swords after all)
- Characters leave corpses upon dying, for purely cosmetic reasons
- Added "Shift + Q" command to exit the current game and return to the main menu
- Added dots showing where the bullets hit
- Added damage types to weapons and damage resistances to armor
- Added bullet dispersion over distance
- Added machine-gunners to the Military. They shoot the whole magazine in one round
- Introduced cooldown abilities. The first cooldown ability "Charge" added to archdemons
- Added "Fear" ability to demons and archdemons
- Added "Blindness" ability to archangels
- Added barricaded cities to the city generator
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.6
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Released version 1.0.7
Changelog
- Momentum added! When you have the Momentum ability, that means that you gain speed when moving in a direction and are able to cover several tiles within one turn but you can not drastically change your direction when at high speed (unlike normal movement when you can make all kind of turns and backpedal at any time). If you bump into an obstacle, your speed drops to zero. If you bump into another unit, your speed drops to zero but you will try to push this unit (similar to the Charge ability).
- Horses are added to the game. They are allied with all non-demon factions and have momentum. Horses can be found in the stables.
- Fiends added to the game. They are demonic beasts who will attack everybody (even demons). They also have momentum.
- Horseback riding added! Military units are able to use horses as mounts. When riding a mount, your mount moves independently of your actions, you can only give directions to it. This means that once you've gained speed, the mount will be moving in the chosen direction on its own, while you can shoot the enemies as you pass them by. Mounts may also be used as meatshields as enemies have 50% chance to hit your mount instead of you.
- All demons are able to mount fiends.
- Added scouts to the military. They are armed with rifles, are able to reveal a single enemy and start riding a horse.
- You may now start as a scout. Scouts gain no followers but compensate that with their unsurpassed speed.
- Added stables to the buildings of the city.
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.7
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Released version 1.0.8
Changelog
- Added Gargantaur to the list of monsters. This is a huge outsider beast (occupies 3x3 tiles) that is impervious to most attacks, can attack minds of enemies, as well as heal and teleport itself. While it is classified as an angelic being, do not get it wrong - it will attack anything in sight. Being huge, it has a "face" so unlike smaller beings it will need to really turn around to change the direction of its movement.
- Angels are now able to mount Gargantaurs at the cost of half of their HP. Apart from increasing their defense (the Gargantaur's 3x3 size means that it will take all melee hits first), this gives them an ability to invoke Gargantaur's mind burn.
Screenshot of an angel riding a Gargantaur:
http://i.imgur.com/aJ8g6Rb.png
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.8
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Released version 1.0.9
Changelog
- The 3rd dimension was added to the map! Buildings now have several floors, mobs can go up and down the slopes.
- Gravity added! You can step off the ledges and fall down. You can drop one Z level without any consequences but any distance greater than that and you will take increasing falling damage.
- Mobs will now recognize the gravity and will short-cut off the ledges if they see they won't take any damage without finding the nearest slope down.
- Added mansions to the building types.
- Removed support for small tiles.
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.9
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Released version 1.1.0
Changelog
- Added stealth to the game! Remaining in shadows will render you invisible to your enemies while moving through illuminated terrain (and moving in general) will expose you.
- To counter stealth, Citizens of the City carry lanterns and Angels radiate light (note that Demons do not have a portable light source). Moreover, stationary light sources were added to the houses and some streets.
- Outdoor lighting depends on the time of day - at midnight you will need to rely on lamps, while at day time the sun will not let anybody hide outside buildings.
- Time of day now changes dynamically as the time passes.
- Added scenario options regarding the starting time of the day - you may start at night, at noon, in the morning or in the evening.
- Added hearing to the game! Characters' actions will generate sounds that others can hear and learn the general direction to the sound's origin. Most creatures will try to investigate what or who produced the sound if they have no other pressing matters.
- Added the Thief to the game.
- Added Death from Above ability to the Thief. This allows the Thief to jump onto an enemy from an upper Z level and make a devastating blow.
- Added Climbing ability to the Thief. It allows the Thief to go up and down along the Z level when clinging to walls.
- Added trees spanning across several Z levels.
- Added inventories to characters. You are now able to pick up, carry and drop items.
Screenshots
Thief on the ledge - http://i.imgur.com/hey7iXm.gif
Death from above - http://i.imgur.com/4kOwZlJ.gif
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.0.9
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Released version 1.1.1
Changelog
- Water is now traversable, albeit more slowly than normal terrain. You can swim through it horizontally as well as up and down, but beware of the lack of oxygen. This will kill you quickly. Angels and Demons do not need to breathe.
- All Angels, Demons, and humans now have an ability to switch on and off stationary lights if they happen to be near one.
- Added doors to the buildings of the city. All humanoids are able to open and close them.
- Added ability to open/close windows to the Thief.
- You can bump into doors, windows, and lanterns to active the respective ability (if you have one).
- Made Satanists' lair less conspicuous.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.1.1
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I haven't played the original 7DRL, but this game of yours is great!
I quite often die with my angels when I try to slay a demon and get jumped by several summoned ones, or archdemons. :/
I like playing demons - just find somepeople to slaughter and gain power, then find an angel, summon help, wait for the summoned demons to kill the angel, or try to get the last hit yourself, then attack the demons weakned by the fight. :P Only thing is I wish I didn't automatically try to possess the first human I attack - it's often better to kill it and gain the power than possess it and have it revolt at bad times.
Thieves are cool now I can sneak through windows and avoid everyone much more effectively.
I once managed to kite an archdemon to death with a scout on horseback. I felt so proud of my guy. :)
I wish Satanists could raise all the dead humans as zombies, if they survive long enough. Thus you could have to prioritize finding and killing them if you don't want the endgame to become a chatoic battle with a new threat.
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I haven't played the original 7DRL, but this game of yours is great!
Thanks for the kind words! I'm happy that you liked the game :)
I quite often die with my angels when I try to slay a demon and get jumped by several summoned ones, or archdemons. :/
Yeah, the time has come for some rebalancing, I think.
Only thing is I wish I didn't automatically try to possess the first human I attack - it's often better to kill it and gain the power than possess it and have it revolt at bad times.
I will make the possession ability toggleable in the next version, then.
I wish Satanists could raise all the dead humans as zombies, if they survive long enough. Thus you could have to prioritize finding and killing them if you don't want the endgame to become a chatoic battle with a new threat.
I had some thoughts of making a necrodemon that could animate the dead, but giving this ability to Satanists makes perfect sense. I think I will also make them playable now that they will have a distinct gameplay. Thanks for the idea!
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Released version 1.1.2
Changelog
- All Angels now have a shared mind - each of them sees what others see.
- Satanists are now a playable faction. Their goal is to assist their demon masters and destroy all angelic forces.
- Satanists are now able to reanimate corpses. The less severed body parts the corpse has - the stronger it will be after the reanimation. Reanimated corpses are slow-moving, have very little HP and will burn to ashes when killed by Angels.
- Demons' ability to possess is now toggleable, so that you can kill humans instead of always possessing them first if you wish so.
- Demons now have an ability to sacrifice their host on demand to gain power and health (as if they killed them in combat).
- Added a bank building to the city.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.1.2
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I like the game more and more. :) So please forgive me for the barrage of thoughts and ideas below. ;)
That new angel power is quite useful! Could we maybe get a PgDn/PgUp scrolling for the "seen monsters" sidebar, so we can more easily check how many monsters do we actually see through the shared mind?
What about archangels getting wings, so they can fly around the town? Having a map with z-levels is very cool, but unfortunately only thieves really use it to a greater extent. It would also make archangels feel very different from archdemons. Speaking of archdemons, maybe they could get a new active ability Breathe Hellfire? Not that they would be too weak, but giving them a ranged attack would again make them feel unique. It's not really common for me to get up to arch-anything, so if both archangels and archdemons had a special ability, it would make it quite a nice reward for getting there.
I like the new Satanists, their abilities definitely make them play uniquely. However, what if they also got an ability similar to teh "follow me" order of chaplains, that would only apply to undead? That way you could actually lead a force of zombies against the angels, not only sit back and try to bolster demonic forces.
Speaking of undead, would it be too much of a hassle to split the demons counter and add a new one for only undead? My last game I won as a Satanist, I had a total of 100 demons... I was creating undead like crazy, plus I haven't actually seen a living demon for most of the game, so I would like to know if any demons survived, or if the angels were overwhelmed by my zombies. :D
The new ability to sacrifice a host makes hosts actually have much more use, IMO!
Maybe soldiers could get a very limited amount of consumables, so that they have a resource to use in need, just as angels and demons have power? Something like starting with a medikit, or several grenades that damage everything in a 3x3x3 globe. It could also be fun to try to assassinate soldiers with a thief to get to their medikits. :) Of course, supernatural creatures would not be able to use medikits. :)
BTW, is it guaranteed that the map will contain the required 1500$ for the thief? On some smaller maps, I don't know where else to look to find enough. :) What if all humans dropped a small amounts of cash, so the thief is pushed a bit into exploring the battlefield and looting the dead? And if a Satanist sees him there, the thief could get a nasty surprise. :D
Finally, what if the end game screen always shown how many (and maybe which) creatures the player killed? To compare with the creatures that earned a title. Some new titles would also be fun:
The Necromancer: who raised the most zombies, so that the player can see how good he was in comparsion :)
The Evil Spirit: most possessions, now that it's quite possible and useful to possess multiple times
The Scrooge: most gold collected (because I sometimes collect it even when I'm not a thief, why would you leave money lying around, right?)
Once again, thank you for the game. :)
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I like the game more and more. :) So please forgive me for the barrage of thoughts and ideas below. ;)
That new angel power is quite useful! Could we maybe get a PgDn/PgUp scrolling for the "seen monsters" sidebar, so we can more easily check how many monsters do we actually see through the shared mind?
What about archangels getting wings, so they can fly around the town? Having a map with z-levels is very cool, but unfortunately only thieves really use it to a greater extent. It would also make archangels feel very different from archdemons. Speaking of archdemons, maybe they could get a new active ability Breathe Hellfire? Not that they would be too weak, but giving them a ranged attack would again make them feel unique. It's not really common for me to get up to arch-anything, so if both archangels and archdemons had a special ability, it would make it quite a nice reward for getting there.
Yeah, flying is indeed a thing, shame I did not think of it myself :)
However, for the next release I plan to make angels transform into archangels for a period of time (like Demon Hunters in WoW now). For lore reasons mainly - now that they are a communion, not a hierarchy, it seems logical to me that they should have only one unit. And if they need to engage a tough enemy they will have to transform, get a strength boost and delay their winning through ascension. I hope this will further differentiate Angels' gameplay from Demons.
Archdemons getting a ranged attack is also good, I'll try to incorporate your ideas into the release after the next one.
PgUp/PgDn are now reserved as a substitute for numpad's NE and SE diagonal movement, but I see what you are pointing at, I'll think what I can do to better present shared mind.
I like the new Satanists, their abilities definitely make them play uniquely. However, what if they also got an ability similar to teh "follow me" order of chaplains, that would only apply to undead? That way you could actually lead a force of zombies against the angels, not only sit back and try to bolster demonic forces.
I thought of it and decided against it. As a Satanist, you have a free summoning ability so that should be your idea of controlling the horde. However, I might add something like "control undead" to make an undead unit permanently follow you, maybe additionally applying a boost to it.
Speaking of undead, would it be too much of a hassle to split the demons counter and add a new one for only undead? My last game I won as a Satanist, I had a total of 100 demons... I was creating undead like crazy, plus I haven't actually seen a living demon for most of the game, so I would like to know if any demons survived, or if the angels were overwhelmed by my zombies. :D
Yeah, that is totally fine. I'll add an additional undead-only counter while the demon counter will track both of them.
Maybe soldiers could get a very limited amount of consumables, so that they have a resource to use in need, just as angels and demons have power? Something like starting with a medikit, or several grenades that damage everything in a 3x3x3 globe. It could also be fun to try to assassinate soldiers with a thief to get to their medikits. :) Of course, supernatural creatures would not be able to use medikits. :)
Good idea, but I believe I'll manage to implement it in 2 releases only.
BTW, is it guaranteed that the map will contain the required 1500$ for the thief? On some smaller maps, I don't know where else to look to find enough. :) What if all humans dropped a small amounts of cash, so the thief is pushed a bit into exploring the battlefield and looting the dead? And if a Satanist sees him there, the thief could get a nasty surprise. :D
Right now the money is not guaranteed. A bank (which is a guaranteed building) has from $250 to $1250, while every house has from $50 to $100. So in the worst case scenario, when RNGod really hates you, you need 25 houses (apart from the bank). The map size is 100x100, a house is 10x10, on an island map 30 tiles are substracted from borders to place water, so that leaves 70x70 which has room for 49 houses. Given the probabilities to place a house (as opposed to all other buildings), I would say that there might be extremely rare cases when there is not enough money on the map for you to win. I'll look into it.
As for pocket money - that may be likely, yes.
Finally, what if the end game screen always shown how many (and maybe which) creatures the player killed? To compare with the creatures that earned a title. Some new titles would also be fun:
The Necromancer: who raised the most zombies, so that the player can see how good he was in comparsion :)
The Evil Spirit: most possessions, now that it's quite possible and useful to possess multiple times
The Scrooge: most gold collected (because I sometimes collect it even when I'm not a thief, why would you leave money lying around, right?)
Once again, thank you for the game. :)
Yeah, this is cool, though I think I will also need to add names to Satanists (and the Thief maybe) for some achievements to be interesting. Otherwise, it will always be Player vs a nameless Satanist/Thief.
Thanks for playing :)
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I like lots of these ideas :) I have one, additional: could you provide support for bigger font? Simple enlargement font file doesn't work. My eyesight isn't very good, unfortunately, and possibility to use bigger fonts would be helpful.
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You mean the option of a 8x13 font you have now is not enough?
I'll think what I can do about it but it seems that would require the usage of SDL_ttf so unfortunately, that's not the nearest future.
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Huh, I didn't figure out that it's possible to enlarge font size from default 6x13 to 8x13 by option file - I was sure that in-game font relies on font_large.png only. Yeah, 8x13 options seems be good enough for me. Thanks for that.
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Released version 1.1.3
Changelog
- Windows now are not clear glass, so you will not see as far as you usually do when looking through windows. Leaves also obstruct your vision somewhat.
- Undead now have their own counter.
- Added smoke bombs to the Thief. Smoke will obstruct visibility and can help you escape.
- Added an ability to ignite grass and furniture on fire to the Angels. Fire damages those standing in it and produces smoke.
- Added ability to temporarily transform into Avatars of Brilliance (former Archangels) to Angels.
- Added the Scrooge achievement - for those who hold the most gold at the end of the game.
- Added the Evil Spirit achievement - for those who had the most possessions during the game.
- Added the Necromancer achievement - for those who made the highest number of reanimations during the game.
- Gold coins worth 1500$ are now guaranteed on the map.
- Satanists now have unique names.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.1.3
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Released version 1.1.4
Changelog
- Avatars of Brilliance are now able to fly for the duration of the transformation.
- Archdemons now have a ranged attack that inflicts minor damage and pulls enemies to the ground.
- Satanists can now empower an undead unit and make it permanently follow them.
- The Military now have medkit items to heal their wounds.
- The Thief's ability Smoke bomb is now converted into an item with the same effect. The Thief starts with three of them.
- Most citizens now have a small number of coins in their pockets.
- You can now see which creatures you can see properly and which through a shared mind, as well as iterate through visible creatures in look mode.
- Added wind to the map that affects the direction in which smoke moves.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.1.4
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Released version 1.2.0
- Added high scores.
- Added Wisps to the map. These are flying angelic beings that are able to navigate using their hearing.
- Sound sources can now be seen on the map.
- All menu options now have letter shortcuts.
- Lit and shadowed tiles are now displayed on the screen.
- The player is now able to set his or her name.
- Fixed a bug with severed body parts animation showing when the player should not be able to see it.
- Fixed a bug with num lock interfering with arrow keys.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.2.0
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This is beautiful!
I love the empowered zombies as a Satanist. Avatars and Archdemons are just cool. :D Also I'm starting to play the thief a bit more like a robber. :P I'm rather curious about the new playable priests. :)
By the way, shouldn't angels be able to conCeal their divinity, rather than conseal it? And a minor convenience request - many roguelikes use [g] or [,] for pick up command, could we have those as alternate keys? Similarly, maybe [.] as alt key for waiting a turn?
May I also have one more suggestion, this time for a new playable creature - a ghost? (Sorry in advance for the wall of text.)
You once were a normal citizen of the City, that is until you were abducted by the cabal of Satanists that used you as a human sacrifice to open the gates of Hell, which in turn prompted the Heaven to respond with an angelic interference and started all this. Not that it matters for you now, because you are dead. However, you are a restless dead, not at peace with your murderers.
Your goal is to kill all Satanists, no other creatures matter. There is a catch, though - you are a weak apparition of fragile ectoplasm and will be killed easily in a fair fight. Alternately, you have to kill all Satanists and then reunite with your dead body on a Satanistic altar in their hideout.
You only have 1 HP, thus dying from any damage taken. You can detect living (like detect evil/good), their life is a beacon to you. Coincidentally, Satanists are living humans. :D You also have good advantage in mobility - you are intangible, thus phasing through walls, doors etc. You also make no noise. You cannot move through solid ground or into water, because the natural world rejects you undead nature.
You could have some active abilities: Levitate, that allows you to temporarily phase through ceilings and roofs, or moving through open air; and Invisibility, making you imperceptible for a short time. Plus one more active ability described below.
Being intangible, you have good dodge chance and good armor against flesh and fire, but no armor against iron, which hits true against all undead. I'm not sure what vorpal damage is exactly, but I suppose it's magical, so you probably don't have armor against vorpal, but your attack (ghost touch) could deal vorpal damage (no other damage type really feels appropriate for ghosts, and unless there will be some new shadow/dark/drain/cold damage one day, vorpal fits ghostly touches the best, IMO).
Most creatures are hostile to you - angels see you as an abomination, demons as prey, humans and beasts fear you and will try to destroy you, Satanists know you are coming for them. Only undead ignore you - you are one of them. Which is very nice for you, because the zombie hordes of Satanists will ignore you even as you try to kill their masters.
Now, you would still not be able to do anything with only 1 HP without your main ability - Possess. You can possess humans and corpses, a bit like demons can. Unlike demons, though, your host works as full armor for you, taking damage instead of you for as long as you are possessing them. (This could be something like riding the host with 100% chance of enemies hitting the host and not you.) While possessing a host, you use their attacks instead of your ghost touch. Your possession is also a ranged ability, thus it's advisable to possess the first thing you see, unless you wish to be one-shotted.
You cannot use Levitate and Invisibility while possessing (nor can you phase through walls, of course), but you can use Possess and you gain an ability to Release Control. You can body-hop by possessing one target, then waiting out the cooldown and possessing a new target directly from the old host, without loosing your meatshield. You cannot possess angels, demons, zombies made by Satanists (their demonic magic prevents your intrusion), or lesser creatures (even though possessing a horse or a gargantaur sounds cool :P).
When possessing a human, they have the normal chance to rebel against your influence, making you stumble. Your possession ability also has a chance to fail against the willpower of your target, forcing you to wait for its cooldown. However, angels and humans will not be hostile to you, as they only see the human host (your human soul possessing a human body fools the true sight of angels, unlike demonic soul in human body). Zombies will become hostile to you as long as you possess a living body.
When possessing a corpse, you will raise it as a special zombie. Your zombie body will not rebel against you, as you are the only thing holding it standing, plus your possession will never fail on a corpse. Demons and even Satanists will not be hostile towards you, fooled into thinking you are one of their ranks. If you release control, the body will immediately collapse into a corpse, as you didn't truly animate it. However, angelic attacks are devastating against undead - if your zombie body is slain by an angel, it turns to dust - and you with it. Thus either have your zombie body killed by something else, or use human hosts around angels.
All in all, the idea is of playing a body switcher, changing bodies into those more advantageous at the moment, trying not to be caught without a body. With phasing, invisibility and levitation, there will be still some temptation to use your very fragile ghostly form, though. ;)
Thank you once again for this game. :D
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By the way, shouldn't angels be able to conCeal their divinity, rather than conseal it?
Yeah, time for a facepalm.jpg picture :-[. This has been in front of my eyes for half a year and I have not noticed it. Thanks, will fix the spelling.
And a minor convenience request - many roguelikes use [g] or [,] for pick up command, could we have those as alternate keys? Similarly, maybe [.] as alt key for waiting a turn?
Sure, will be in the next release.
May I also have one more suggestion, this time for a new playable creature - a ghost?
Ok, I like the gameplay idea of a possessor, will try to incorporate it into a release after this one.
The only problem I see with this is that all satanists will likely die without any effort on the player's part, just because the RNG dropped you on the other side of the map while putting them near a couple of angels. Maybe it is better just to find their lair while being in possession of some body and kind of perform a ritual of rebirth or something, or vice versa - a ritual that will put the ghost to rest.
For now, in the upcoming release, I plan to add two more factions beside priests - the shadow demons and the trinity isolationists. Stay tuned ;)
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conseal
BTW, smoke bombs are also consealing you. ;)
The only problem I see with this is that all satanists will likely die without any effort on the player's part, just because the RNG dropped you on the other side of the map while putting them near a couple of angels. Maybe it is better just to find their lair while being in possession of some body and kind of perform a ritual of rebirth or something, or vice versa - a ritual that will put the ghost to rest.
I like the mental picture of a ghost performing an exorcism over his own dead body to lay himself to rest. :D What if you needed to find the church, evade the priest and get a holy book, then find the lair of the Satanists and read the book over your body? Your need for a body would come mostly from being unable to carry the book as an intangible ghost (plus, it's a meatshield).
Maybe the "kill all Satanists" objective could only be one of the prerequisites for a ghost win? If angels help you, good for you. :P The game is about relying on your allies anyway. Only after you sever your ties of hate on this world can you successfully exorcise yourself. :D
For now, in the upcoming release, I plan to add two more factions beside priests - the shadow demons and the trinity isolationists. Stay tuned ;)
I saw the shadow imps. Teleporting sounds nice. :)
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Could we please have the actual rank/form of the player at the end of the game shown in the high scores, instead of the starting form?
(https://s26.postimg.org/56fledp3d/Cot_D.png)
Here, Xorel died as an imp, after being chased by angels all over the map and not killing anything for the whole game. Lyceodamus, though, survived as an archdemon, singlehandedly killing three angels and a gargauntaur, actually winning the game for demons. It would be great to be able to distinguish this in the high scores. :)
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Yep, sure thing.
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As I'm playing more, I have some more thoughts: ;)
Could we have some way to easily distinguish the player from other creatures with the same glyph? It happens mostly with angels, but generally when you get into a fray of creatures with the same glyph, you can easily loose track where exactly you are, especially when dodging messes up with you position. And you don't want to loose turns to missteps in combat because you thought you were the other "a". Maybe the player could eb underscored (if that's an option with the tileset)? Or have some light background color?
As a scout, you best option is to always shoot your rifle - it does so much damage that even in melee, it's better to reload and shoot than get two melee attacks. As scout seems to be intended as a ranged fighter, maybe he could be encouraged more into never getting into melee? It hard to use a rifle in melee, so the scout could be unable to shoot at adjacent targets. You could either bash melee opponents, or run and shoot them when you get away.
I love the new mind-linked angels with fire abilities and their avatar, but I'm still loosing pretty often with them. That's not to say that angels are weak - they are pretty tough to kill, with their healing and powerful attacks. The avatar's flying is cool, but unfortunately very limited by the short duration of your transformation. Would it be too much if all angels could fly in their revealed forms? They can only attack in melee, so it would be more of a movement/escape option, plus because they would be revealed, they would need to be careful about enemy snipers (both archdemons and human army). It would still give them something to counteract being swarmed by demon summons and zombies. :)
Maybe the angels could also get a Resurrection ability (cost cca 5 power) that would bring corpses of angels (and all other things) back to life? That's a tradeoff of getting one ally back in exchange for some power you will need to defeat archdemons. You could of course bring back humans who died innocent, but why? There's no advantage to do so. :P
Falling into water could grant temporary "wet" status that would increase you fire resistance to 25% (or so). That would stack with natural resistance, so angels could get pretty much invulnerable to fire by jumping into a river. :) If there ever is a rain, it could wet everyone not inside a house.
I'm really looking forward to the next release. Those mimic angels sound wierdly interesting. :D
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As I'm playing more, I have some more thoughts: ;)
Could we have some way to easily distinguish the player from other creatures with the same glyph? It happens mostly with angels, but generally when you get into a fray of creatures with the same glyph, you can easily loose track where exactly you are, especially when dodging messes up with you position. And you don't want to loose turns to missteps in combat because you thought you were the other "a". Maybe the player could eb underscored (if that's an option with the tileset)? Or have some light background color?
Glad you pointed that out, that will give me the necessary push to implement this feature ;D I have the same problems myself, but always postponed the solution.
As a scout, you best option is to always shoot your rifle - it does so much damage that even in melee, it's better to reload and shoot than get two melee attacks. As scout seems to be intended as a ranged fighter, maybe he could be encouraged more into never getting into melee? It hard to use a rifle in melee, so the scout could be unable to shoot at adjacent targets. You could either bash melee opponents, or run and shoot them when you get away.
Well, I think that right now the scout is discouraged from getting into melee by the fact that he can be possessed and this is instant game over (on top of that he is rather frail and if he loses the horse he is toast). I do not actually want to add what I believe rather arbitrary rules like you can not shoot into adjacent tiles while riding a horse.
I love the new mind-linked angels with fire abilities and their avatar, but I'm still loosing pretty often with them. That's not to say that angels are weak - they are pretty tough to kill, with their healing and powerful attacks. The avatar's flying is cool, but unfortunately very limited by the short duration of your transformation. Would it be too much if all angels could fly in their revealed forms? They can only attack in melee, so it would be more of a movement/escape option, plus because they would be revealed, they would need to be careful about enemy snipers (both archdemons and human army). It would still give them something to counteract being swarmed by demon summons and zombies. :)
Well, giving angels permanent flying is not that easy, I am afraid.
Firstly, right now mobs can not attack you if you are standing/flying on top of them, while you can :) It is hard to abuse it at the moment, as you can fly for 5 turns max but with permanent flying, this strategy will be a guaranteed win. So I need to teach mobs to be aware of the creatures above them.
Secondly, permanent flying may or may not cause degradation of performance (which I can't say is stellar already :D) due to pathfinding.
What is the problem, as I understand it, is the lack of any escape options when you are swarmed. I'll think what I can do here without touching pathfinding. If I do not come up with anything good, that permanent flying will be the last resort :)
Maybe the angels could also get a Resurrection ability (cost cca 5 power) that would bring corpses of angels (and all other things) back to life? That's a tradeoff of getting one ally back in exchange for some power you will need to defeat archdemons. You could of course bring back humans who died innocent, but why? There's no advantage to do so. :P
Yeah, that's a cool ability, thank you, will certainly add it, may be even in the next release.
Falling into water could grant temporary "wet" status that would increase you fire resistance to 25% (or so). That would stack with natural resistance, so angels could get pretty much invulnerable to fire by jumping into a river. :) If there ever is a rain, it could wet everyone not inside a house.
Great, wrote that down into my to-do list.
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Released version 1.2.1
- Added Trinity mimics as a playable faction. Trinity mimics are three mind-linked angels - the Star singer, Star gazer, and Star mender. Each has a separate set of abilities and all of them can merge with each other. The player controls each mimic individually.
- Added Righteous fury ability to the Star singer. Righteous fury is a berserk-like ability that lets you attack harder and faster but at a cost of slowing you afterwards.
- Added Pain link ability to the Star signer. Pain link makes the target deal increased damage to the caster but decreased damage to everyone else.
- Added Heal other ability to the Star mender. This ability allows healing not only yourself but your allies as well.
- Added Soul reinforcement ability to the Star mender. Soul reinforcement prevents a fatal blow that would otherwise kill the target.
- Added Silence ability to the Star gazer. Silence prevents the target from casting.
- Added Confuse ability to the Star gazer. Confused targets sometimes move in a random direction instead of an intended action.
- Added Pandemonium Shades as a playable faction. Shadow creatures are unable to possess humans but get a number of shadow-related abilities. You start as a shadow imp.
- Added Umbral aura to shadow devils. This makes shadow devils be not light, but darkness sources.
- Added Extinguish light to shadow demons and shadow devils. This ranged ability will switch off a stationary light or cause an enemy to stop emitting light for short period.
- Added Shadow step to all shadow creatures. Shadow step is a short-range teleport that works only if the source and destination tiles are not lit.
- Added the Church as a playable faction. You start as a priest in a church and your aim is to destroy all demons.
- Added Smite to priests. Smite is a single target damage ability that gets better the more humans are around the caster.
- Added Slow to priests. Slow is a single target ability that causes the enemy to take more time when attempting any action.
- Added Prayer of wrath to the priests. This ability grants a fire-based melee attack to those who follow you.
- You can now wait a turn using [.], and pick items using [g] and [,].
- The game now logs your current title instead of your initial title into a high score entry.
- The player is now highlighted on the map.
- Dropping in water gives you a 'wet' effect, which means 25% of increased fire resistance.
- Added rainy weather. Being caught in the rain will make characters wet, extinguish fires and clear blood.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.2.1
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That ARRP goodness~ 8)
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That ARRP goodness~ 8)
Pure coincidence ::)
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Wow, that's a quick and big update! :D Be warned, I'm going to write a very long rant below. :)
Trinity mimics are very interesting and very weird. :D I will have to play with them more to get the hang of that turn-jumping between your bodies. It's really strange to constantly jump between your bodies (and I love that you are now highlighted, that would be very hard to play otherwise), but I like the synergy of your bodies and how they can fight together in an organised assault!
I like the shadow teleportation, but I feel it's a bit underpowered right now - it is great for quick movement, but it would work very much better as a way to suddenly appear next to your enemies, or run away in a pinch. That's currently very hard, though, because of the light nearly all creatures emit. You can still jump towards your enemies by extingushing them first, but that costs power. Teleporting away is out of question - it would cost you two turns (first extinguish, then teleport) and you can't loose two turns by the time you will have the need of an emergency teleport.
Maybe your extingushing ability could cost no power (balanced by either longer cooldown, or shorter duration)? That would make at least ambushing from afar much more interesting option, plus would give more incentive to use extinguishing on even lamps and such, like a good shadow demon should. :)
And/or, and this would be IMHO very cool, but probably hard to implement and compute, all creatures could have dynamic shadows - depending on the position of nearby light sources, all creatures could have an adjacent shadowed tile. This would allow all shadow demons to jump next to or run away from any fight by standing in this shwadowed tile, making positioning matter more and making their teleport machanic more prominent.
I haven't played as a priest much, but I like how powerful can theri abilities get in the right situation - I had one smite me for 10 damage when I was playing as a demon. :D
I'm going to be incredibly nitpicky and say that you have inconsistent capitalization. :) Chrome angels and trinity mimics have their first word capitalized on title screen, but both on highscore screen, while both types of imps have a reversed problem. ;)
I may have missed something, but when I started to get randomly wet, I was quite sure I'm standing in rain - but it would be nice to have some notification. Maybe there could be a "Rain" status next to the wind direction?
Speaking of wind, what if flying creatures had a small chance to be blown by the wind, moving in its direction? No reason for this change except that it would make the wind tiny bit more relevant.
One thing I always long for as a thief is a way to cross from one roof to another faster than by climbing all the way down to the street and back up again. The City is dangerous enough for one fragile theif even without having to run through blood-smeared streets. :P The thief is already quite acrobatic character with his or her climbing and Death from Above, what if they could also sprint and jump? (Ninja thieves!)
Sprinting could be an active ability that would speed you up for several turns, with cooldown long enough for you to catch your breath. ;) Sprinting should be mutually exclusive with climbing - you wouldn't be able to activate sprinting in climbing mode, so no sprint-climbing walls for you, but you can still use sprinting in a pinch when caught next to dangerous enemies in the streets. The no-climbing rule for sprinting would also give the thief an incentive to not be in climbing mode all the time and ignore that you can switch it off. ;)
Jumping could also be active ability with a cooldown, this one compatible with climbing, so the thief could jump from the side of one building to another wall nearby. Alternately, you could sprint before jumping, increasing the range of your jumps (but with no climbing). Maybe you could also jump over some obstacles (furniture, the hedge fences), or by jumping into a window, you would shatter it and jump through (and maybe take damage). All jumping would generate quite some noise, though. Maybe horses could also jump, increasing their jump range by their momentum.
Could we maybe get the end-game screen with achievements and score saved as a .txt log? It would make hunting for the most achievements much more exciting and easier to share. :D
And I have one more proposal for a playable faction: You could join the Criminals as the Cambion.
You hate your heritage. You were born of an unholy union - and it left its marks on your poor parent forever. No matter what you did, you always ended on the slippery slope. But you are still human at the heart, a bad human, but human non the less. And when the infernal and celestial forces clash and threaten you world, you cannot stand idle. You didn't ask for your powers, you don't want them - but you can make the best of them now. You just want your world back to normal - maybe it's dark, unjust and unforgiving world, but at least it's normal. And if you have to walk over rivers of blood to bring the world back to normal - so be it.
Normally, you are a human criminal. You are as weak as any other human, with no special weapon, and all factions are hostile to you (demons because you are human, angels and humans because you are criminal). However, your half-blooded demonic nature gives you several gruesome powers that should allow you to achieve your goal - slay all supernatural creatures.
You are Unholy and cannot be possessed. You can sense good and see even disguised demons, just as other demons can. You also have two active abilities that give you advantages necessary to survive - Cannibalize and Demon Rage.
Cannibalize lets you heal and gain power. You can use it to devour any corpse, healing 1 HP and gaining 1 power from it. With the amount of corpses left in the City, this gives you much healing and power, but with low HP and no armor, you will need it.
Demon Rage gives you a fighting chance against angels and demons, because your fists won't do. It costs 2 power and for a short time, boosts your speed, dodge chance and armor, plus growing you a pair of demonic claws. Thus, you gain a weapon on par with claws of demons (or slightly more powerful, because you are on your own), but maybe you claws could deal high flesh damage instead of vorpal. Maybe your claws could also cause several turns of bleeding.
Thus, you have to balance your playstyle around being very fragile most of the time, with short bursts of fighting rage and healing from corpses in between. If your claws also caused bleeding, it might be interesting to try to deal as much damage during your rage as possible, then retreat and let the bleeding do the rest of the work.
Cambions should start inside the police station, in one of the cells with other criminals.
Finally, it might be only mine love for descriptions, but maybe there could be inventory descriptions for even other items than the ones with active use? Right now, you can pick up coins and corpses which will have no description - what if they had a short quote for a description?
Eg. for coins:
"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?" – Ayn Rand
And for corpses:
"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
or
"Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter." - Albert Camus, The Stranger
And one more question: Do you have any plans about making the attacks, defense and maybe light radius of creatures into actual inventory items (eg. a rifle, an army uniform, a torch or a lamp), or will they stay as abstractions as is?
Thank you for reading through so long posts as mine. ;)
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Wow, that's a quick and big update! :D Be warned, I'm going to write a very long rant below. :)
Whoa, another bunch of cool ideas and I only started to implement the previous ones! I'm afraid I am losing this race ;D
Trinity mimics are very interesting and very weird. :D I will have to play with them more to get the hang of that turn-jumping between your bodies. It's really strange to constantly jump between your bodies (and I love that you are now highlighted, that would be very hard to play otherwise), but I like the synergy of your bodies and how they can fight together in an organised assault!
I was actually drawing ideas from MMOs. You basically have a DD-tank with a taunt, a support with debuffs and a healer with buffs. Merging bodies was added to be able to travel quickly because otherwise, it took thrice the time.
I like the shadow teleportation, but I feel it's a bit underpowered right now - it is great for quick movement, but it would work very much better as a way to suddenly appear next to your enemies, or run away in a pinch. That's currently very hard, though, because of the light nearly all creatures emit. You can still jump towards your enemies by extingushing them first, but that costs power. Teleporting away is out of question - it would cost you two turns (first extinguish, then teleport) and you can't loose two turns by the time you will have the need of an emergency teleport.
Maybe your extingushing ability could cost no power (balanced by either longer cooldown, or shorter duration)? That would make at least ambushing from afar much more interesting option, plus would give more incentive to use extinguishing on even lamps and such, like a good shadow demon should. :)
And/or, and this would be IMHO very cool, but probably hard to implement and compute, all creatures could have dynamic shadows - depending on the position of nearby light sources, all creatures could have an adjacent shadowed tile. This would allow all shadow demons to jump next to or run away from any fight by standing in this shwadowed tile, making positioning matter more and making their teleport machanic more prominent.
Ok, I see the problem and will start with the last suggestion. Quite surprisingly dynamic shadows would not at all strain performance, I think (only if those are creatures not terrain that could cast them). But I right now I have no idea how to present this shadow to the player.
I am rather reluctant to ease the restrictions on the shadow step like making it require only one shadowed tile to work - the destination or the origin. For lore reasons and because this could easily lead to instakills when you are playing against shadow demons. You get ambushed from the shadows and the remaining half of the enemy's turn is used to summon help, then an archdemon jumps in next to you and it is still not your turn so he attacks and you are dead. I've seen a lot of this with crimson demons already.
Extinguish costing no power is also something I do not want to introduce because you already have a free shadow step, and I want demonic and angelic abilities to cost power.
Maybe I just add another free ability like "Cast shadow" that will actually create a shadowed tile with zero brightness next to creature for some turns (basically what you are suggesting with dynamic shadows but as an active ability).
I'm going to be incredibly nitpicky and say that you have inconsistent capitalization. :) Chrome angels and trinity mimics have their first word capitalized on title screen, but both on highscore screen, while both types of imps have a reversed problem. ;)
Ha, ok, I'll look into it.
I may have missed something, but when I started to get randomly wet, I was quite sure I'm standing in rain - but it would be nice to have some notification. Maybe there could be a "Rain" status next to the wind direction?
Speaking of wind, what if flying creatures had a small chance to be blown by the wind, moving in its direction? No reason for this change except that it would make the wind tiny bit more relevant.
The first one is easy, will do in the next release. But I am afraid the second one is unlikely to make it for technical reasons mainly.
One thing I always long for as a thief is a way to cross from one roof to another faster than by climbing all the way down to the street and back up again. The City is dangerous enough for one fragile theif even without having to run through blood-smeared streets. :P The thief is already quite acrobatic character with his or her climbing and Death from Above, what if they could also sprint and jump? (Ninja thieves!)
Sprinting could be an active ability that would speed you up for several turns, with cooldown long enough for you to catch your breath. ;) Sprinting should be mutually exclusive with climbing - you wouldn't be able to activate sprinting in climbing mode, so no sprint-climbing walls for you, but you can still use sprinting in a pinch when caught next to dangerous enemies in the streets. The no-climbing rule for sprinting would also give the thief an incentive to not be in climbing mode all the time and ignore that you can switch it off. ;)
Jumping could also be active ability with a cooldown, this one compatible with climbing, so the thief could jump from the side of one building to another wall nearby. Alternately, you could sprint before jumping, increasing the range of your jumps (but with no climbing). Maybe you could also jump over some obstacles (furniture, the hedge fences), or by jumping into a window, you would shatter it and jump through (and maybe take damage). All jumping would generate quite some noise, though. Maybe horses could also jump, increasing their jump range by their momentum.
Yeah, I thought myself about jumps (though not about sprinting). Not sure I'll be able to implement all the interactions with windows and such, but jumping will certainly be done at some point. Sprinting also seems fun though I wonder if it will make the thief nigh invincible. Right now no melee can get him, with these changes he will have even less incentive to get down to the ground and if he does his superior speed will save him in the pinch. But we shall see :)
Could we maybe get the end-game screen with achievements and score saved as a .txt log? It would make hunting for the most achievements much more exciting and easier to share. :D
Sure, quality of life changes always come first :)
And I have one more proposal for a playable faction: You could join the Criminals as the Cambion.
Your writing is awesome! I am not sure I want half-breeds in the lore, but from the gameplay perspective, this sounds pretty solid. There are too many corpses in the city so we need more characters that can make use of them.
Finally, it might be only mine love for descriptions, but maybe there could be inventory descriptions for even other items than the ones with active use? Right now, you can pick up coins and corpses which will have no description - what if they had a short quote for a description?
Yeah, that has to be implemented at some point :) Though I do not have a lot of items now so I thought of postponing it to a later date.
And one more question: Do you have any plans about making the attacks, defense and maybe light radius of creatures into actual inventory items (eg. a rifle, an army uniform, a torch or a lamp), or will they stay as abstractions as is?
Someday for sure, when the game is more fleshed out and there is a kind of campaign mode, where the city is subdivided into districts, and the battle we have now is only a battle for a single district so you can carry over experience and items from one level to another. Oh, the glorious distant future... ::)
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Whoa, another bunch of cool ideas and I only started to implement the previous ones! I'm afraid I am losing this race ;D
Ideas are easy, it's the developers who are hard-working heroes. ;)
Yeah, I thought myself about jumps (though not about sprinting). Not sure I'll be able to implement all the interactions with windows and such, but jumping will certainly be done at some point. Sprinting also seems fun though I wonder if it will make the thief nigh invincible. Right now no melee can get him, with these changes he will have even less incentive to get down to the ground and if he does his superior speed will save him in the pinch. But we shall see :)
I actually die to demons and such only rarely with my thieves, mostly when they corner me in a house with no nearby escape route. Climbing really is powerful. :) However, as it takes me some time to carefully creep around collecting the gold, the arriving army is generally the thing that kills me - one mistake has you spotted and shot, even if you try to disappear in smoke. Even if I could sprint, I think I would be dying to soldiers. :D
Your writing is awesome! I am not sure I want half-breeds in the lore, but from the gameplay perspective, this sounds pretty solid. There are too many corpses in the city so we need more characters that can make use of them.
That was my original line of thoughts - some creature lured there by the scent of so many corpses, something like a ghoul. And devouring corpses would work pretty well as a grisly way of gaining power, IMHO. :)
Someday for sure, when the game is more fleshed out and there is a kind of campaign mode, where the city is subdivided into districts, and the battle we have now is only a battle for a single district so you can carry over experience and items from one level to another. Oh, the glorious distant future... ::)
That sounds cool. I guess I'll wait and see in a few years. :P
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Released version 1.2.2
- Added a new playable creature - the Eater of the dead. It has two unique abilities - Cannibalize, that lets you devour a corpse to gain HP and power and increase your maximum HP, and Primordial power, that increases your damage, armor, and evasion.
- Added the Cast shadows ability to all shadow demons. This ability causes a character to cast unnatural shadows that you can use to shadow step to and from.
- Added the Bend space ability to all crimson demons. This ability lets you teleport to a random location a short distance away.
- Added the Jump ability to the thief. This ability allows you to move 2 tiles away from you and cling to a wall next to the destination tile.
- Added the Sprint ability to the thief. This ability allows you to temporarily increase your movement speed.
- Added the Ressurection ability to all angels. This ability allows you to resurrect other fallen angels and humans.
- Added the Split soul ability to the chrome angels. This ability lets the user create an image of themselves that the user can later teleport to.
- Added morgue files to characters.
- Added graveyards to the building list.
- Added a new church layout.
- Added flavor signs to some buildings.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.2.2
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I managed to fall through solid ground:
(https://s26.postimg.org/lik8n3wy1/cotd1.jpg)
(https://s26.postimg.org/3tshvhl6x/cotd2.jpg)
I was trying to get into the underground vault of the Bank, but one of the policemen spotted me and gave a chase. I tried to jump over a table, but crashing into it, I fell down through the ground to z-level -2 (or which is the lowest) and got stuck there, able to look around and use abilities, but unable to actually move or escape.
That's what you get for being a greedy theif, I guess. Being buried alive under the Bank. :P
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Haha, how does that even happen in an ASCII game.
I've fallen thru small holes in 3D ground meshes.
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I managed to fall through solid ground:
I was trying to get into the underground vault of the Bank, but one of the policemen spotted me and gave a chase. I tried to jump over a table, but crashing into it, I fell down through the ground to z-level -2 (or which is the lowest) and got stuck there, able to look around and use abilities, but unable to actually move or escape.
That's what you get for being a greedy theif, I guess. Being buried alive under the Bank. :P
Yeah, there is a bug in the jump function. Whenever you hit a solid obstacle (tables are solid obstacles, by the way, and you can not jump over them, though it is an interesting possibility), you will fall to Z level 0. Jump is safe when its range is not enough for you to hit anything.
Will fix that in the next version, thanks for the report :)
PS. Oh, and try not to jump into other characters , this will trigger the same problem ;)
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Released version 1.2.3
- Added Malseraph's puppets as a playable faction. Malseraph's puppets are demons who worship Malseraph, the Demon God of Acting, Gambling and Violent Changes. They lack the possession ability but make up for it with the powers of their god.
- By themselves, Malseraph's puppets have the Irradiate and Fission abilities. Irradiate applies a special status to the target, while Fission is used to cause damage to those with this status and clear it from them.
- Malseraph is the master of cards and likes to be entertained. Malseraph likes disguises, polymorphs, and dangerous situations.
- When Malseraph is in the good mood, it will draw cards with beneficial effects from its decks and can even grant some of the decks to you. When it is in the bad mood, it will use its more malicious cards against you to spice things up.
- There are two types of decks that Malseraph can give - decks of war and decks of escape. Each deck consists of a number cards that a character can draw. You can not see what card you draw and what cards remain in the deck. Drawing a card immediately invokes its effect.
- Added Constriction ability to the Eater of the dead. This ability lets you grab targets and continue to deal damage to them automatically while all participants remain in place.
- Citizens of the City may now drop civilian costumes, which can be used to make disguises by the thief. The disguise (usable by humans and Malseraph's puppets only) makes you look as an ordinary man or woman to everybody else.
- Fixed the bug with jumping when you would fall through the ground if you hit an obstacle during the jump.
- You can now jump over small obstacles like beds, tables, barricades, and bushes.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.2.3
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Released version 1.2.4
- Added signal flares to Scouts. Signal flares prompt the artillery that the military has deployed outside the City to strike at the location of the flare. This strike deals significant iron and fire damage around the location where the strike lands.
- The Eater of the dead can now mutate and grow various organs that can help it in its quest to destroy the outsiders.
- For offensive mutations, the Eater of the dead can choose from clawed tentacles (an increased melee attack), acid spite (an additional ranged attack) or corrosive bile (a cooldown ability similar to an artillery strike).
- For defensive mutations, the Eater of the dead can choose from chitinous plating (a passive direct resistance increase), metabolic boost (an active ability that grants increased speed and dodging) or retracting spines (an active ability that gives increased percentage resistances and inflicts damage to melee attackers).
- For spawning mutation, the Eater of the dead has either spawning sacs or an ovipositor. The spawning sacs can spawn locusts which are rather weak creatures that can attack in melee but die off naturally after a number of turns. The ovipositor spawns scarabs which are living bombs that roll to the target and explode dealing acid damage to everybody around. You can further enhance your spawns by giving locusts an acid bite and making them tougher or making scarabs roll faster and spawning more of them.
- From the very start, to boost its combat prowess the Eater of the dead now has an adrenal gland. When the Eater attacks someone, the gland secrets adrenaline which makes all melee and range attacks faster.
- The Eater of the dead can create parasites that can be thrown onto enemies. A parasited character will always reveal its location to the Eater.
- The Eater of the dead can cure mutations that you do not find helpful.
- When the Eater of the dead devours corpses, it has a chance to get abilities depending on the type of the corpse.
- The Eater of the dead can no longer use primordial power.
- The Eater of the dead starts with 2 power that you can immediately use on mutations.
- If an ability requires the player to select a target, the game will initially focus the applicable target (instead of always focusing hostile characters).
- Irradiation has a small chance to mutate you giving you a minor negative effect.
- Malseraph can sometimes cure malmutations of its followers.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.2.4
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Released version 1.2.5
- Introduced a new playable character - the Lost soul. It is a very fragile (1 HP) non-corporeal being that can possess humans and dead bodies. Unlike demons, its possession ability is improved - it gains all the abilities of the victims and uses their HP instead of its own. When the victim dies, it just leaves the body ready to jump into another target in range.
- When in ghost form the Lost soul can turn completely invisible and escape any dangerous situation, as well as pass through walls and floors.
- The aim of the Lost soul is to find the Book of Rituals stored in the library and use it on the sacrificial circle on the lowest floor of the satanists' lair.
- Added a second tier of defensive mutations for the Eater of the dead. These are thick carapace (even more passive damage resistance), acidic tips (extended spines start to deal acid damage) and jump (gain an ability to jump similar to the thief).
- Added a second tier of offensive mutations for the Eater of the dead. These are piercing needles (constricted target have reduced dodge), increased acid strength (acid spit also reduces flesh and acid resistances) and increased cerebellum (corrosive bile always lands to the destination target).
- Added survival mutations to the Eater of the dead like hooks & sucker cups (lets you climb walls) and facade readjustment (lets you disguise yourself as a human).
- Spawning mutations are rearranged for the Eater of the dead. The ovipositor is now the prerequisite for all spawning mutations. Then you can branch into locusts or scarabs. Parasites are now dependent on the ovipositor as well. All spawning is no longer immediate - first, you need to lay eggs and wait before they grow.
- The Eater of the dead can gain an ability to spawn seeker larvae. These small creatures are harmless but eat corpses and transfer their power to you.
- The Eater of the dead can gain an ability to spawn spore colonies. These are immobile creatures that spit acid at their enemies in sight.
- Fixed the bug when you could throw the parasite through solid objects.
- Added a card that could polymorph enemies into trees. Trees are immobile and do negligible damage but have superior defenses.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.2.5
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So, a year has passed since the day I released the first version of the game.
Well, why not sum up the results?
The first version was very slow (due to stupidly inefficient LOS algorithms) and basically added nothing new to its spiritual predecessor - City of the Condemned (http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=City_of_the_Condemned) (and even removed some elements of the gameplay). This was actually my third attempt to make a roguelike :) The first two being traditional dungeon crawlers died under their own weight and scope without getting out of '@ moves on the screen' stage.
So, the first lesson for me - try to make something small and working as soon as you can that you can later use to expand and extend.
And so I did, rather quickly fixing the performance issues and trying to release a new version at least every month.
The second thing I've learned was that my interface preferences were really weird :) - I preferred tiles and fonts to be as small as possible while numerous people pointed out that that was very inconvenient and put excessive strain on their eyes.
Meanwhile, brilliant performance did not last for long ;D as at some point I decided to add the 3rd dimension to my game. I have not seen many roguelikes toying with the honest 3rd dimension the way Dwarf Fortress does so I believed that this feature (along with mounted combat and multi-tiled monsters) would add something special to my game. I must say that I am still undecided if that was a good move as it brought visible slowdown. Most likely it's just me not knowing how to cook 3D properly but the delay of about 200 ms to 1 sec between player turns is rather painful at the moment.
Then red_kangoroo gave me a lot of cool ideas about factions and features that I was happy to implement. Additionally, I was influenced by other games I've played and seen, transplanting some bits from them into my game. That took me the remainder of the year, and here I am - the game now has 12 playable characters with (I hope) unique and interesting playstyles.
While the core idea is basically the same as in City of the Condemned (a deathmatch with several teams on the map), I think the games now differ enough to say that City of the Damned is no longer a remake ;D
To keep up with the schedule I am releasing version 1.2.6 with a number of bugfixes and some new features that should spice up a (rather repetitive) satanist gameplay.
- With the demons invading, strange glyphs start to appear on the walls. The satanists are now able to decipher these demonic runes and use this knowledge to harness even more power.
- Demon word: Flesh lets a satanist turn a zombie into a full-fledged imp that can later progress and evolve as demons usually do.
- Demon word: Plague lets a satanist spread virulent soul sickness that will deal damage over time.
- Demon word: Power lets a satanist temporarily gain the power of an Archdemon.
- Demon word: Darkness turns off the sun for a period of time.
- Demon word: Invasion places an enchantment on the map that constantly reanimates corpses.
- Demon word: Knockback pushes all characters around the satanist away.
- Satanists now inflict vorpal damage instead of fire damage.
- Ghosts leave no footprints on snow and generate no sounds while moving.
- Blessings and divine shield now offer complete protection from ghost's possession.
- Empowered undead now have normal movement speed and can keep up with the satanists when following them.
- Fixed the bug with the game freezing after completion of the Increase acid strength mutation.
- Fixed the bug when you could target characters unseen by you with abilities.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.2.6
As for the plans for the next year, I'd like to move from a coffeebreak roguelike into something more longlasting.
I actually like the idea of session games (which most MMOs nowadays turn to) - your game sessions are kept rather quick (15 - 30 minutes max) so you quickly get that feeling of satisfaction and completeness, however you can repeat these sessions any number of times you want advancing your metaprogression in the game.
This is what I'd like to see in my game and, luckily, the structure of it perfectly allows for it.
So, the first step will be mixing in new game modes and objectives (like capture the flag and capture the point) to diversify the old bland deathmatch. This by itself will be an ambitious task as while I do not doubt the players' ability to complete any custom objective I can throw at them ;D, teaching the AI to do the same won't be that easy.
Secondly, I intend to implement a kind of campaign mode the inspiration of which I take from the game called Pathologic. There will be a city divided into districts, missions will be generated in these districts (demons invading, angels trying to close the gates to another dimension from where the demons come, soldiers taking a captured district back) and the whole 'overland' map of the city will be changing mission after mission as districts fall under control of various factions.
So the game session will be the same as now - complete the mission on the district map, while the metaprogression will be to free (or conquer, or whatever) the whole city by taking and winning missions.
At least, that is the plan. We'll see how it goes ;)
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Your game is already one of my favourite new roguelikes - innovative, fresh and exciting. To hear you plan a meta-layer, like a campaign/strategy to tie the missions together is basically mind-reading - just what I always wished was possible while playing this sweet-but-short game.
It would push it into the big leagues, no doubt :)
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(...) your game sessions are kept rather quick (15 - 30 minutes max) so you quickly get that feeling of satisfaction and completeness, however you can repeat these sessions any number of times you want(...)
Huh, it's what I'm looking for in roguelikes for a long time. The major ones takes too much time for my actual job situation, and lots of coffebreaks are great for a short time, but often even the good ones are too bland / shallow for playing them over and over. Although... About what kind of metaprogression are you thinking?
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Well, I think the idea is to take the structure of the games like XCOM and Mordheim where you basically have two games - the local one when you take missions and the global one which serves basically to structure the chain of local missions where you try to achieve some overarching goal.
I think the same mechanics will be useful here as well. Of course, the campaign will likely take as long as major roguelikes do, but I do not think that can be helped.
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Sounds cool, especially if finishing missions would mean something more substantial than just gathering resources :) But any way you want to go, I'll keep fingers cross for you ;)
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Ok, after several months of reworking the internals I am ready to present the first step towards the campaign mode.
Released version 1.3.0
- The concept of missions was introduced. The previous scenario where the demons wanted to kill all angels in the city became the 'Demonic attack' mission.
- A new mission was added - Demonic raid. The demons opened the portals in order to gather flesh from the city. Their goal for this mission is to kill citizens, pick up their corpses and throw them into portals, while the military and the angels want to stop and destroy demons. (screen (https://i.imgur.com/QykTz04.gif))
- If you die, this is no longer the end of the world. The battle will go on until one of the sides wins. You might even get resurrected by your allies and continue fighting as if nothing happened. (screen (https://i.imgur.com/lVrI3T3.gif))
- You can no longer win the game by ascending beyond Angel or Archdemon/Shadow Devil.
- As a Scout, you can no longer lose the game by getting possessed. Though you will lose the control over your character until you get purged (or the end of the mission).
- You will now be able to customize the factions you want to see in a scenario.
- AI will bump into friendly mobs much less often and will try to navigate around them to get to its target.
- Added a journal where you can see objectives for the current mission and your relations with other factions. The journal is displayed using the 'j' button. (screen (https://i.imgur.com/CY2Cebc.png))
- Defending military will be stationed inside the city.
- Possessable creatures will try to get away from you if you are the one that can possess them.
- Characters with ranged weapons will try to step out of melee combat.
- Ghosts can now sense the direction to the sacrificial circle and the Book of Rituals.
- Abilities on cooldown will be displayed in the status string. (screen (http://i.imgur.com/hF3FJG3.gif))
- The game over screen now also shows the comparative statistics between the character who earned the title and the player. (screen (https://i.imgur.com/OmJEQDK.png))
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.3.0
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Released version 1.3.1
- A new mission was added - Demonic thievery. The demons opened portals in order to steal a holy relic from the church and return it to their dimension. The military and the angels want to stop and destroy them.
- A new mission was added - Demonic conquest. The demons opened portals in order to conquer the district by placing and charging sigils in it. The military and the angels want to stop and destroy them.
- Fixed the bug with player's choosing the resurrect ability that could freeze the game.
- Fixed warehouses being mixed with barricades when military defenders are present in a seaport.
- Strings in the message log are of different colors now depending on the type of the message (instead of white used everywhere previously).
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.3.1
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Released version 1.3.2
- Added a set of abandoned districts (which were left by the civilians).
- Added a set of corrupted districts (which were captured by the demons).
- Added a new mission - Military conquest. The mission takes place in the abandoned and corrupted districts. The military and the angels try to destroy demonic sigils, while the demons try to protect them.
- Added a new mission - Military raid. The mission takes place in the abandoned districts. The military and the angels try to wipe out all demons from the district.
- Added a new mission - Celestial purge. The mission takes place in the corrupted districts. The angels try to destroy demonic sigils, while the demons try to protect them.
- Added a new mission - Celestial retrieval. The mission takes place in the corrupted districts. The angels try to recapture the stolen relic, while the demons want to stop and destroy them.
- Demon conquest mission now also takes place in the abandoned and corrupted districts.
- Demon raid mission now also takes place in the abandoned districts.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.3.2
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Released version 1.3.3
- Added a new terrain tile to the corrupted districts - dreadtubes. If you step on them, there is a 20% chance for them to fear you and all mobs around you.
- Added a new terrain tile to the corrupted districts - sludgeshrooms. If you step on them, there is a 20% chance for them to release spores that will deal anyone inside them 1-2 acid damage.
- Added a new terrain tile to the corrupted districts - razorthorns. If you step on them, they will deal 1 acid damage to you.
- Fixed a typo in the "Does not breathe" ability.
- You will see mob names when 'l'ooking at them.
- The Military raid and Military conquest missions will no longer have angels from the very start, angels can only start delayed in these missions now.
- Imps and Shadow imps will start with 2 power points during the Military raid and Military conquest missions.
- Angels will no longer try to conceal divinity when there is an enemy next to them.
- Humans will try to swim up if they feel a lack of oxygen.
- Added an option to replay the previous mission type with the same player faction.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.3.3
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Released version 1.3.4
- Added a new primordial playable character - Skinchanger. The Skinchanger can shift between three archetypes: a melee warrior, a ranged shooter and a quick flyer. Some additional mutations can be received to improve on the strengths of each archetype.
- Fixed Resurrection not spending Power points after usage.
- Rearranged the Satanists' lair to reduce the chance of 'traffic jams'.
- When angels conceal their divinity in abandoned and corrupted districts, they now look like soldiers.
- Angels can now bless humans without revealing themselves. Also, angels will not reveal themselves unless they are about to attack an enemy in melee.
- Fixed the bug where demonic sigils could spawn on sludgeshrooms and die on their own.
- For the Celestial retrieval mission, some demons will start inside the corrupted shrine to protect the relic.
- NPCs with Sense good and Sense evil will make use of these abilities to no wander randomly but to places where they feel that the enemy is.
- Added a district with a lake to the map layouts.
- Added a district with a lake and a river to the map layouts.
- Added a seaport district with a river to the map layouts.
- Added some performance optimizations.
- Chrome angels are now armed with holy fists and can no longer sever body parts.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v1.3.4
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After a 2 year hiatus I am ready to present a new version 2.0.0.
(https://i.imgur.com/eX7Og2r.gif)
- Added campaigns as a whole new mode for the game. A city map is generated for the campaign where the missions take place. Each side of the conflict (angels, demons, and the military) have their own goals in the campaign. Each campaign day the player shall be presented with several available missions. The player can take one and play it as a usual game scenario. Or the player can choose to pass the day without taking a mission. Either way, all missions where the did no actively participate will be resolved automatically and the mission outcome will directly affect the campaign map.
- Added saving and loading of campaigns and standalone scenarios.
- A new type of mission added: Satanist elimination. The military tries to eradicate the satanists' lair and kill all satanists in the district.
- A new type of mission added: Celestial sabotage. The mission takes place in a hell dimension where the angels try to destroy dimensional engines that give demons the ability to open portals to Earth
- A new type of mission added: Military sabotage. The mission takes place in a hell dimension where the military tries to destroy stockpiles of raw flesh that the demons have stolen from Earth
- A new type of level map: hell jungle. Similar to the corrupted districts (the ground is covered with creep and demonic outgrowth is here and there) except it is even more otherworldly and sinister.
- The player shall now see what is happening on the upper or lower Z level whenever something interesting is nearby.
- Added a new terrain tile to the corrupted districts - glowshrooms. Glowshrooms emit faint light and illuminate everything around them.
- Message log can be now quickly skimmed using Shift+Up/Down.
- Added craters from artillery fire to abandoned and corrupted districts.
- Added a new terrain tile to the corrupted districts and hell maps - glowing creep. If somebody steps on this tile, it will give irradiation to this character.
- Added an ability to purge demonic runes to angels. Purging runes provides 4 power to the angel.
- The following abilities:
mount a horse, fiend, or Gargantaur,
merge trinity mimics
decipher runes
will now show up only when the corresponding target is next to you to avoid confusion.
- Malseraph's Puppet irradiation strength will now depend on his favor with Malseraph.
- Malseraph's Puppet gets an ability to draw breath and exhale irradiation around them on the next turn.
- Made an option to hide messages that are visible through Angel's 'Singlemind' ability.
- Restructured the main menu: moved all quick scenario options into a submenu.
- Highscores shall be reset in the new version.
- Fixed the bug when merged angels did not merge their power values.
- Fixed the bug when slowed characters did not have their speed returned to normal.
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v2.0.0
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Just a small update fixing a couple of bugs.
- Fixed the bug with crashing at the start of a mission in a hell dimension.
- Fixed the issue when Satanist Elimination missions could end because of the Primordials instant win. Now, the Primordials goal for this mission shall be eating a certain number of corpses.
- Fixed the bug when a new demon name was not announced when an imp evolved into a demon.
- In Demonic Raid and Demonic Thievery missions, the direction to the nearest portal shall be indicated when playing for demons and satanists.
- During Satanist Elimination missions, satanists shall flee from enemies so that they do not get killed too quickly.
- You can press 'u' to bring up a menu of usable items (and use them from this menu, instead of going to inventory).
Download
https://github.com/gwathlobal/CotD/releases/tag/v2.0.1
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Is this still on?
I'd say I have one issue with this game - the scenarios end too quickly for some factions to achieve something. I, for example, do not see a way how I can win anything as a Thief - even if I don't die (or, in fact, run into anything hostile), it's very likely the scenario is going to end before I can even get close to the amount of loot prescribed. I just walk around, and bang, game over, because a faction achieved victory I really don't care about.