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1

Other Announcements / Re: Acquiring feedback for your roguelike project

« on: August 29, 2010, 09:22:37 PM »

Say what you will about the theme, but what he showed was very solid (albeit fake).

The game concept was very original and well thought-out. First of all, it was, as others pointed out, not just another orc slasher. The focus was in the right places, with legal status and psychosis being conventions in the forefront. It was very intuitive and didn't seem to have any convoluted details.

The DF-like combat notations were awesome, and, thinking back now, that's where it really started looking too good to be true. His combat notes were quite a bit better than DF's, in that they looked like a human wrote them line by line.

Another reason why this got feedback where others don't? It had a great youtube video showcasing gameplay. I don't think enough can be said about how good the video made it look. In this context, as I'm making my own roguelike, it's a kick in the ass to make one myself.

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Early Dev / Re: Serial Killer Roguelike

« on: August 27, 2010, 05:25:47 PM »

Just my $.02, since I'm already registered here, this is looking tight and I hope to encourage you in making this. The DF-like battle notations are really awesome in this context.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Wesband

« on: November 03, 2009, 02:54:13 PM »

No, I gave him some random junk that I did not require for anything, and later noticed he had that. No details. I could try to recover the stuff (only kill and possibly release work, right?) and see if I can reproduce it...

Actually, don't worry about it if you don't know it right off the top of your head. The NPC code is getting nearly completely revamped. All NPCs (enemies, everything) will be constructed just like how PCs are. This will mean some weird things, like every humanoid will have a melee and ranged attack, even if it's just a 1-1 fist or thrown rock, but it can mean that any armor or weapons that the unit supposedly has will drop upon death. Plus, units can be tweaked to have more attributes or weapon skills.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: CastlevaniaRL

« on: November 03, 2009, 01:49:26 PM »

--What is Soul Power exactly and how exactly does it effect spells (strength, duration?)

It's just like attack power, but for special abilities.  It'll make your spells do more damage, and it should make recover heal more, and so forth.

This is what I'm talking about. Without damage value transparency, there's little-to-no feedback.

--What is Invocation? Every time I get a level of it I can't tell a difference in anything.

iirc, it controls the speed at which you use special abilities, and a lower value is better.  It works just like the combat and movement speed attributes do.

I'd totally rather have terms like Combat Speed and Casting Speed if that's what they do. I read in the manual "reduces the cost of your mystic skill moves" and I thought it mean it reduces the heart cost of the magic spells. (btw, it's looking like higher is better)

Have you ever gotten the Alucard Spear from a rescue?  It's pretty amazing.

I have. It was amazing. That was on that one save that I lost. I've gotten an Estoc which is pretty nice too.

It's looking like I'm getting a real crash from saving sometimes, and it outputs to the console. I'll try to get it again and post the dump here.

So, I decided to save scum when I got to the area after the salem witches. I just spend a half hour trying to get my lvl 13 Renegade through one room with no success. Sometimes I would do nothing but drink healing potions right in the doorway while I got knocked around and I would still lose more hitpoints than I would gain. If I can't cheat my way through the game, I don't see any reason to try to do it legitimately.

EDIT: Let me temper the post to say that I really do like the game. I just hope to provide some useful feedback.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: CastlevaniaRL

« on: November 02, 2009, 08:13:12 PM »

OK, here are my notes.

Bugs-
-The midi in the boss stages gets messed up for me. It will play regularly once but then the second run through only has a voice or two. It alternates each play-through from normal to broken.
-The console gets a little error message about an undirectioned attack whenever I attack outside of the 8 cardinal directions. I assume that's known (I guess it has something to do with no slash image being displayed), but I thought I'd mention it.
-This isn't really a bug, but I found out why my one save didn't keep. I thought I could force quit after I hit space when I saved. It turns out that it's not safe to quit right then. I think you should put a "Saving" notice up during that time.

Whining-
-Got 2 Werebane daggers in one game from rescues. I didn't even want daggers.
-I really wish a lot of the game was more explicit.
--Can anyone use any armor and weapon? I saw mentions in the guide about what classes like but I never saw anything to indicate penalties or hard restrictions.
--I wish damages were displayed.
--I don't understand what is good about thinks like daggers and hand rings.
--What is Soul Power exactly and how exactly does it effect spells (strength, duration?)
--What is Invocation? Every time I get a level of it I can't tell a difference in anything.
--It would be nice to see what exactly upgrades do before you buy them, not just after. (i.e. Will evade give me 5, 10, 15, 20?)
--Not sure what the difference between Adv Morphing and regular morphing is, even though I've gotten it.
-Not being able to attack a unit with unarmed if it's on top of you sucks.
-I just figured out today that NUM5 is the wait key. Before that, I was hitting G.
-I still don't know how to get that overworld map to show (the gfx/barrett-map.gif one)
-Starting new games can be a pain. I don't want a Renegade with a bow and I don't want a Wizard with hand rings.

Finally, I was hoping to play through the game until the end before giving feedback but I don't think that's going to happen. I've been playing Dark Renegade and getting past a certain point is really, really hard. I go from fighting medusa heads to having troubles clearing the area with the salem witches to not lasting 5 steps into the next area. That might not be such a big deal, but the time it takes all morning to rescue a few of those people. Am I missing an easier way to do that?

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Wesband

« on: November 02, 2009, 02:26:53 PM »

Yes, Rya, I got your message. Sorry, I didn't get back to you yet. I was going to take the time to try it out before I said anything.

- lot of empty space in dungeons which is boring to go throught.
- performance: gameplay is very slow. Computer turns take very long time.
- first monsters I have encountered, killed me almost on first turn, definitely on second.

1. Yeah, we're going to eventually scale the size of the levels to the number of players. As it is, you're working with levels which are big enough to hold 3 players' worth of content.

2. This is actually one of the most important things I'm working on. The problem now is how far away enemies attack each other and move around. What is going to happen is that the AI won't start considering these unit until the players are right on top of them. That is going to change the length of AI turns, plus it will also let players explore longer without having to end turns and wait for the AI to come to them.

3. I think Wesband is one of the easiest roguelikes I've ever played, and others have dismissed the game for being too easy. If I'm finally getting some "too difficult" feedback, then I guess I'm doing something right. Now is the time to start inching things backward a bit. But, you're right, clusters can be a bit unfair. I have a lot of ideas for "fairness code" that are on the to-do list.

Name: maybe something like Wesrogue? If Zangband is not that important after all?

I don't know. Is it? Is is more like Rogue and less like Zangband? This is the kind of feedback I'd like to get.

Gameplay: I have played it, reached level 20 something; very interesting things happen from time to time, but there is also quite a big amount of boring filler

Yeah, well, it's just very incomplete, as I think I've said.

I don't know why I cannot get the Fire Crossbow Shot...

Are you a Chaotic Human or an Orc? Of course, this is the kind of documentation that needs to be somewhere....

I once gave something to my Mage of Light and he got a 0-0 typeless attack (which I actually used - it could not be retaliated against, so I could use it to give my mage (and also the enemy) some minor experience) [note: it is not true that lawfulness is completely irrevelant]

True, and that's a bug I've been trying to squash for half of a year now. Any details on this?

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Wesband

« on: November 02, 2009, 03:01:05 AM »

Heh, OK. Thanks for splitting the topic. Sorry, I really didn't mean to derail.

I didn't come up with the name for Wesband. Dovolente, a Zangband enthusiast, gave it that name and we decided to collaborate on the project. While -band means Angband variant, Wes- is usually what goes with Wesnoth portmanteaus (Wesbowl, Wescamp, Wesball, Wesmere, WesCiv, etc.). But, thanks for the heads up about the name not being the best. That'll go into the 'to consider' pile.

I also don't consider myself an expert on Zangband. What stands out as different in it from some other roguelikes is the topside world and close attention to tactics. These are in Wesband (though the topside world is as-of-yet sparse). Wesband also used to have non-persistent dungeons, but, while they are somewhat of an annoyance in Zangband, they are a total friggin' nuisance for a multiplayer turn-based strat game. I really have to aim to make things as quick as feasible. A lighting system for vision can't really work in Wesnoth, due to core features (or limitations, you pick) of the game, so no real need to worry about that.

So, I'm not even sure if it should be Zangnoth even. You'll have to tell me what you think.

About playability...it should be playable. It's just really, really rough and has no endgame yet. The posts on the forums are just the people having problems. Translation is an issue that I can't really work around too much, and then there are always people who doing things wrong along (like manually downloading the content and putting it into the wrong folders).

What I wanted to polish things up before releasing it to the non-Wesnoth-initiated. Not that I don't like all the publicity I can get, it's just that Wesnoth players are more likely to have the kind of insights needed at this stage, plus I'm always hoping more WML coders will throw in with me (hint: WML isn't difficult, so anyone who wants to help has a place).

I did make a small press release for my friends which notes some Wesnoth paradigms that aren't obvious to an outsider: http://www.protozoic.com/2009/07/01/wesband/

I'm finishing up a grueling month of data-entry, with CastlevaniaRL being my current distraction. We're moving into a new phase of development where things will probably get more rough before they get better. However, when things start looking up, expect me to publicize as much as you'll let me.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: CastlevaniaRL

« on: October 28, 2009, 12:32:43 PM »

Rya, that's pretty funny. I noticed your name but didn't say anything. Yes, I'm from Wesnoth (don't tell these guys about Wesband just yet...I want to refine it a little further).

Curseman, this is what I'm talking about: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/776904/cvrl1.png

I just don't know how to not get torn up while going down hallways. I just had a hallway where I ran into a spear knight, a skeleton, a zombie and a bat, each hitting me before I could see them. It took me from nearly full HP to nearly empty.

EDIT: Heh, I guess it's not such a big deal if you don't go up into that tower. I just played until Medusa and didn't have too many problems, as I didn't get into tight hallways. On the other hand, it looks like my save is gone. I'm going to have to test this out and get back here about this.

EDIT #2: It seems to be saving alright now. Don't know what happened to the other character. I have nothing real to report about it either.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: CastlevaniaRL

« on: October 28, 2009, 04:02:20 AM »

Hey, I'm really enjoying this. I've been in a Castlevania mood lately (must be the Halloween season) and I recently found out that hitting space continues after you feel more skilled with a weapon (I thought it was a game freeze), so I'm going to play the heck out of this game.

Curseman, thanks for pointing out the priest. I figured there would be someone in there like that but I never found him.

There's two questions I have now:
-When I'm in the castle, moving in hallways, I can't see but one tile in front of me. The result is constantly getting hit first by enemies. I've tried slashing into the darkness but that doesn't really help. Is this really how it's supposed to be? How should I deal with it?

-Any way to attack while in water? Doesn't look like I need to, but I could use it if there is.