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1

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana, a horror/Lovecraft roguelike (now at v22.1.0!).

« on: September 25, 2023, 11:40:38 AM »

v22.1.0

# Gameplay
##############################
# Backgrounds (classes)
- The Flagellant "moribund" status (low health bonuses) is now applied for a certain duration when taking damage that reduces health to 6 hit points or below (previously it was always active while hit points were below the limit, and ended immediately when restored above the limit). The reason for this change is to allow the player to utilize the effect for a bit even if hit points are immediately restored above the limit (e.g. when using the Shed Impurity spell, see below).
- Flagellants also start with a potion of vitality.
- For Flagellant characters, the number of turns spent is adjusted to a lower value (55% of the original value) when calculating score (Flagellants tend to spend a lot more turns, especially since they must wait every time they walk, so this is a compensation for a more comparable score).

# Traits
- The Galvanization trait only applies regeneration if hit points are lost from casting the spell (mostly/only applicable to the Shed Impurity spell, see below).
- Added unique Flagellant trait "Memento Mori", which raises the threshold of the moribund status to 8 hit points, and increases the duration of the effect by 50%.
- Renamed the "Death Sense" Flagellant trait to "Fervor".
- Treasure Hunter increases items spawned on each floor by 1, instead of 1-2. See also general change to number of items spawned below.
- Improved the Survivalist trait: "You cannot become diseased, only half your wounds count, rounded down (i.e. number of wounds are halved when calculating combat, hit point and regeneration penalties, slower walking speed happens at 6 wounds instead of 3, and you die from 10 wounds instead of 5)".
- Healer is no longer a prerequisite for Survivalist.

# Map generation
- Added a new special level
- When the monsters on the "end level" (no spoilers) becomes aware of the player, a message is printed (to reduce the need for meta knowledge).
- On the Egypt level, when the player is within a certain distance of Khephren, all monsters on the map become aware of the player. A message is printed when this happens.

# Terrain objects
- Hazy Mirrors are now colored gray on the minimap when they have been activated.
- Hazy Mirrors are now also detected by the magic searching effect (the Clairvoyant ability).

# Spells
- Added spell "Shed Impurity" - a unique spell for the Flagellant background, that they start with. The spell lowers hit points to the limit where the Flagellant receives bonuses for having low hit points, and if enough hit points are lost, then some status effects such as poisoning are cured.
- Added a new spell that heals other creatures, available only to monsters.
- The Transmutation spell is now "tenebrous" (temporarily forgotten when cast).
- Reduced the duration of the blindness effect that Light spell causes at higher levels, and increased the spell cost from 2-4 spirit to 3-5.
- Changed Control Object max distance from 2/4/6 to 3/4/5 (for basic/exptert/master).

# Items
- Reworked the Incinerator, it is now called the "Morphic Blaster", and is a Mi-Go weapon that works more like the Electric Gun.
- Potion of Descent can now be used on all levels until "the end" (no spoilers), previously it only worked until a few levels before the end of the game.
- Reduced the weight of spike guns.
- Added a new artifact.

# Monsters
- A few monsters wait for a turn when they see the player and are aware of the player. This only happens once, until the monster loses awareness again. It is intended to avoid some unfair instant deaths by allowing the player a chance to act first (for example Cultists and White Spiders have this behavior).
- White Spider attacks have 20% chance to paralyze instead of 50%.
- Reduced hit points of Ghosts (mainly to allow Flagellant players a better chance to counter them with the Thorns spell)
- Pickman spawn from level 10 instead of 6, and is somewhat rarer.
- Pickman starts with 2-3 Ghouls instead of 4-5.
- Byakhee spawn from level 8 instead of 6, and can only spawn in groups from level 10.
- Mummies can now speak a phrase when they become aware, to alert other monsters.
- When Major Clapham-Lee "calls forth his Tomb-Legions", the summoned monsters now wait a turn instead of acting immediately.
- Tentacle Clusters can spawn randomly on the map (not just from spell side effects etc), although somewhat rarely
- Many updates to the "hound" monsters (Fire Hound, Energy Hound): added more types, added sound effects, changed a lot of their stats.
- Monsters that "breed" (i.e. mold) will not spawn new monsters if the group size is above a certain limit.
- Added more monsters

# Misc balancing
- Reduced XP gained from seeing "terrifying" monsters from 10 to 8, and reduced XP for "mind shattering" monsters from 20 to 15 (rationale: there are more monsters now).
- On average, one less item is spawned on each floor in the mid game (10-19), this is intended to avoid players winning with a huge amount of items in the inventory, without making the early game harder or making exploration less rewarding in the late game. See also Treasure Hunter change above.

# Other changes
- In the game over summary screen, all items are shown with their identified names in the inventory section.
- In the item knowledge section of the character screen ("C" or "@"), the real names of all identifiable items in the game are shown, so it is now possible to know exactly which effects an unidentified benign potion may possibly have, for example.
- Removed the item knowledge section of the game over summary screen.
- Added hint popups with info about status effects, shock level, kicking braziers, and kicking statues.
- The "stagger" messages are now more specific, and describe why the player is staggering ("My wounds cause me to stagger.", or "I stagger under the weight of my carried load.").
- A warning is printed when going over 100% carry weight.
- "Shock" is referred to as "mental shock" when picking background and traits, since it could be confused with some type of shock damage (and this is probably often the first time a new player encounters this term in the game).
- Added info about kick hit chance in the monster descriptions.

##############################
# User interface
##############################
# Graphics
- Added unique player tiles for each weapon that the player can wield (39 new tiles in total), thanks YARD and Hal from the IA Discord channel!

# Sound
- Added a sound effect for walls collapsing ("Suddenly, the walls collapse!").

##############################
# Fixes
##############################
- Fixed a bug where creatures (e.g. the player) could get knocked into impassable terrain (such as walls), if they had physical damage resistance.
- Fixed a bug that caused interruptions of longer player actions (handling armor or using the medical bag). The problem was that status effects that interrupt the player (fainting, burning, entangled, stuck, etc) would interrupt regardless of which creature it was applied to. The effect of this was probably most often noticeable when monsters outside view got stuck in mud.
- Viewing information about known spells while picking a new trait was handled poorly if the player did not know any spells.
- In the inventory section of the game over summary screen, only the plain, single item, names were used (e.g. "Throwing Knife"). Now plural names are used correctly (e.g. "6 Throwing Knives").
- Shock from casting domainless spells (Exorcist unique spells) was not included when showing cost from casting learned spells in the character screen and game over summary screen.
- When monsters opened a door, the opened door was always updated in the player memory even if they did not see the door being opened.
- Fixed some cases where redundant sound messages were printed when handling doors ("I hear a door open. I see a door opening.")
- When kicking statues while blind, the sound message would never be printed ("I hear a crash.").
- The Purge spell description now also includes mirrors in the list of objects it can destroy (it could already destroy them but it was not described).
- Crimson Passage also gave a free move when it ended due to hit points being too low (now it only gives a free move if it is possible to "pay" the hit point cost).
- And more bug fixes...

2

Non Traditional Roguelikes (Action / Real-time) / Triangle Wizard (now at R 18.02)

« on: September 20, 2023, 12:14:00 PM »

https://www.trianglewizard.com/

Several things to report in this update:

- Process on Triangle Wizard 2 has been steady, looking good for an October 27th release!

- The old website will no longer be updated. Apparently it has not disappeared as I initially assumed, so I'll leave it up for now point to this new website.

- During the development of Triangle Wizard 2 I have been reading the code of the original game quite extensively, which have led to a number of small bug fixes. These have now been bundled in a new version for the original game! The download link can be found in the download section, please let me know if the link breaks!

Release notes for R 18.02:

-Priests of Stoutheart no longer lose maximum health upon leveling up (only the curse of Stourheart now does this).

-Holy water reduces death damage to creatures immersed in it.

-Unholy water reduces holy damage to creatures immersed in it.

-Light of the Avariel now correctly increases Solar Flare's light radius instead of reducing it.

-Solar Flare always caused stun. Fixed.

-Giant Frogs can now correctly breathe underwater.

-Reduced health of Giant Spiders.

-Voidmancer now does corruption damage instead of hypnotic damage.

-Rainbow Apprentice now does hypnotic damage instead of corruption damage.

-Fixed various typos and small bugs.

3

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Path of Achra "Lapis Gate"

« on: August 05, 2023, 11:43:02 AM »

Lapis Gate

This update implements some specifically requested features while going over some content and adding some too (trying to always add content (at least more prestige classes) every update as a rule). Wanted to add a unique ability-having starting item to all the classes to make them at least equivalent in that way too, so that's been done. Really appreciating the bug reports and deeply enjoying the many win and death screens. Thank you! As always this update does about half of what I wanted (this mentality is what slows it down to being with) but more is coming, steadily, down the path...

General

    starting items with abilities now have a purplish icon in the start menu
    you can now right click / hold down right click to automove in-game (in menus it still just closes the window)
    Familiars no longer take summons slots
    now also shows the sprite of each item to be found in the next land
    Achra now always provides at least 2 lands to choose from for your path (not enough items to do this in the Void yet)
    Added uncommon Lapis Gate, Brass Temple and Jeweled Crypt lands, lots of treasure, single floor, dangerous enemies from the void (tangential result: more total items are in the world)
    you can now view all powers and prestige classes in a window accessible from the start menu

Hero

    Ihra reworked, now simply limits enemy Hits to 75% of max life
    Druid summons are now all types of snake, staff deals 50 poison damage to closest enemy on summon
    Warlock Staff now summons 3 Bleeding Dead on entrance
    Mubarizun Hood grants evasion on attack
    Zealot now has a Hood and an AOE cudgel, Hood summons Fanatic familiars on entrance based on fully charged prayers
    Abdi's turban now cleanses Sickness, Corrosion and Doom on prayer
    Amir's pilum now increases the attack of all allies by 10 on-attack
    Gala now has a shield, staff deals Psychic damage to attackers equal to 5% of the attackers' max life
    the starting options in general need a larger pass and perhaps further expansion...

Powers

    Immolation removed, damage bonus from scorch added to Pyromancy
    Obedient Ice removed, damage bonus added to Cryomancy, Cryomancy no longer does damage but repeats Freeze application per level (like Morbumancy), cost reduced
    Morbumancy now applies fixed 10 sickness, still repeats per level, cost reduced
    Training reworked as Heavyweight, now only adds armor, adds some encumbrance, and deals encumbrance*level blunt damage to an adjacent unit on shrug off
    Guard reworked, now only adds block and provides +% block from wielded weapons, performs a 50 damage hit against an adjacent enemy on block, per level
    Master Doom now grants +1 armor per Doom stack

Prestige Classes

    Alizeh reworked, no longer deals on entrance damage, now deals lightning / astral damage to 2 random enemies on step
    Ice Shah reworked, now summon 8 Living Ice on prayer, deal 200 Ice damage when an ally hits an enemy, apply 2 entangle when you deal Ice damage
    Angiok now instead deals Ice damage in a path on apply freeze, WIL * 10
    Mind Knight now gains +1% block chance per Willpower
    added Mesmer, applies extra Repulsion, applies Repulsion on stand still and on dodge, Repulsion grants +10 dodge per stack and deals its damage in a path
    added Flame Knight, deals +20% fire damage per STR if two-handing, deals fire damage on adjacent attack, gaint Inflame on shrug off, Inflame grants +10 armor per stack
    added Gallus, deals Blunt damage in a 4 tile range on game turn and shrug off equal to encumbrance, +50 encumbrance
    added Destroyer, deals Astral and Death damage in a 10 tile range on game turn, gains Meditate on kill

Items

    Zasadzka Claw now performs an hit for every enemy
    Kaza Whip now performs a hit for every ally
    Mask of Blood now instead applies Bleed to the damaging enemy equal to your DEX
    the robes (dream etc) now correctly only remove their effects at 50 or more damage
    more changes to come for other low-powered treasures

Enemies

    added Firebird, an emanation of the goddess Pheonix, roams the void
    added Hamidrake, and acid drake of the green tower, early taste of corrosion
    added Robak, writhes through the tall shadows of the Obelisk

4

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Pathos: Nethack Codex now: Google Play, Apple iTunes Windows Store/Desktop v7.1

« on: July 08, 2023, 11:54:57 AM »

v7.1

Hail Adventurers,

The major feature of this release are spills which are temporary environmental effects. The types of spills are blaze, freeze, electricity and steam. Spills are created from a number of sources including spells, items, entities, traps and barrels. A spill occurs in a square for a short period of time and applies continuous effects. Elemental effects also have interactions such as water on lava creates steam.

Adamantine material has been introduced. The new adamantine weapons and armour are expensive to buy but they can be enchanted up to +7. There's also the adamantine golem which has huge defence and life but no attacks; it follows you around just to obstruct your path.

The shroud tile is now drawn to indicate when there are more squares to explore. This is a subtle but important change because it resolves a graphical ambiguity: is this a dead-end or is this a corridor that hasn't been completely explored?

Staff weapons have been rebalanced to give a defensive bonus. Sabres now deal double damage while mounted, with respect to them being traditionally a cavalry weapon. All animated features are now mountable (eg. bed, fountain, etc). And last but not least, throwing a fish at a seal will charm them

There are many other quality of life improvements, rebalanced mechanics and updated tiles which are detailed in the in-game Help > Updates screen.

Summary of major changes since the previous public release:

    new mechanic: spills.
    new artifacts: Brumstyk, Miserus.
    new material: adamantine.
    new items: sabre, battle staff, adamantine plate mail, 12 adamantine weapons.
    new entities: adamantine golem.
    new settings: instruct each character, disable mask animations, disable swipe gestures.
    shroud tile drawn to indicate unexplored squares.

5

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Path of Achra "mind knight"

« on: June 16, 2023, 10:24:40 AM »

mind knight

Apologies for the long delay! Things are back in the saddle --- here's an update of accreted features / bugfixes from all the awesome launch month feedback (notably, a rudimentary search bar where you can type in keywords and it will filter your powers / prestige classes)

There are also new enemies and several "reactive" enemy traits distributed amongst existing enemies, along with rebalancing of some game mechanics and a general rework of items that redeal one damage type as another

General

    can now search for text (such as "on hit" / "fire" / "summon" etc) to highlight relevant powers in the powers and Prestige Class menus (this will later be expanded to the start menu)
    added "wide log" option, creates a larger left-aligned message log at the bottom of the screen
    repeated messages condensed to x2 / x3 etc if identical to previous
    "attack" and "hit" messages added to the log, to better show the sequence of combat events
    the Log screen now shows current highest damage and total game turns
    game now tracks total game turns, shows up in the score screen, will add an achievement for this once a better idea of "fast" is determined
    added a flashing animation to enemies in higher cycles that have received a Hit bonus
    the player gains an initial HP bonus based on the cycle # (to somewhat alleviate the level 1 unfairness of higher cycles)
    total cycles increased to 24
    several new background colors added
    fixed the infamous Fire Healing exponential Scorch application bug



Effects

    meditate now grants +10 damage but loses 50% stacks on step
    charge, Anoint and Evasion now lose 50% stacks on stand still
    inflame now loses 50% stacks on being hit
    stasis now loses 1 stack on being attacked
    the log will now display a message if you reduce the stacks of an effect on yourself, and if you remove an effect
    dream is now removed from summons when they step / attack (granted through Paragon)
    batform no longer raises Hit
    snakeform healing reduced to 1 per stack



Hero

    added the "Familiar" trait to certain summons, makes them not limited by Willpower
    if armor is penetrated, the initial damage roll is limited to 90% of max life
    STR % damage reduction removed (it never actually worked), doubled % Hit scaling
    arba vinespawns now summon adjacent to the player
    the Tugar now has the new Impact trait and is considered a "familiar"
    skeleton no longer weak to Astral, and gained 25% pierce and slash resist (one day it will have a more interesting trait)
    ihra given 25% psychic and astral resist



Powers

    added Gore Tide,Blood, deal blood damage every game turn in a 3 tile range, damage scales with missing life and skill level
    added Ice Familiar, Ice, summons a Grika familiar on entrance, Grika heals and gains Hit when you apply Freeze, all allies gain armor when you apply freeze, Grika performs extra attacks when you stand still
    added Asi Malak, Astral, increase attack range when two-handing, deal Astral damage to random enemies on hit
    Master Scorch no longer removes Scorch from self, Scorch applied to self when attacked now scales with skill level
    Electromancy now gives -1 inflex
    Puglism cost increased to 3, Hit damage no longer scales with skill level
    Psychomorphism now causes you to deal 25 Psychic damage to yourself when a non-psychomorph ally dies
    Blood Link now causes you to deal 25 Blood damage to yourself when a Hemogoblin ally dies
    Plaguedrinking no longer removes sickness from the target
    The Grave Idol now has maximum range and is counted as a "familiar," and the power itself causes all allies to gain HIT when either an enemy or ally dies
    Mass mind and frostpulse costs both changed to 3
    Astrostoicism cost changed to 2
    perhaps other cost tweaks I forgot to record



Prestige Classes

    normalized prestige class requirements to 20 points
    Oozemancy reworked, Oozes now become "familiars" (unlimited by WIL)
    Shapeshifter now deals Poison damage
    Ice Shah now summons Living Ice next to you
    Venite now correctly adds 3 attacks instead of 1
    added Arsonist, Fire + Life, deal fire damage in a path on summon and on kill, summon 10 Roots on entrance
    added Exultite, Fire + Blood, deals damage every game turn to adjacent units, increases with Inflame stacks, gains Inflame stacks when damaging allies
    added Mind Knight, Martial + Psychic, apply Repulsion to self when attacked by an adjacent enemy, IF two-handing gain Hit and Dodge from Willpower



Items

    changed the "rumors" of more items to be more descriptive
    various items can now have the "shield" attribute (specific to the item, similar to area attack), which grants +75% block chance if wielded in off-hand
    added Blight Sabre (slash to death)
    added Veni Spear (pierce to poison)
    added Anga Cudgel (blunt to ice)
    added Nadra Kamarband (poison to death)
    Bone sword now redeals Slash to Blood
    Bone Skirt now redeals Blood to Death
    Blight Sarabara now redeals Death to Astral
    Mindhunter Sash now redeals Psychic to Blood
    Brazen Eye now does Blood instead of Blunt damage
    Bramble Sash changed to Hemlock Sash, now redeals Poison to Blood
    Tikaani Sash now redeals Ice to Psychic
    Jade Shield / Spear bonus per-effect increased to +100
    Khedira and Death Staff damage now scale flatly with number of allies
    Blight Helm now applies Doom to an adjacent unit when you take non-physical damage
    Shaakara now applies Doom when you apply Bleed



Enemies

    added Inflaming aura, applies inflame to self and allies on game turn
    added Charging aura, same except with charge
    added Death Curse, applies Doom to killer
    added Tracking, applies Inflame to self when the player moves
    added Gati, applies Repulsion to self when the player moves / stands still
    added Prescience, applies Meditate to self when the player stands still
    added Warding, applies Meditate to self when the player summons
    added Impact, deals damage on attack based on a % of total Hit
    aforementioned traits added to a lot of existing enemies
    added another ruler of the Obelisk
    added Kolec, void, spike-themed, big aoe
    added Gora, void, very fast and deals high slash + blood
    added Void Wasp, very fast and quickly applies Freeze
    added Malaga, blood elemental serpent that teleports and applies bleed
    added Pentot, astral swordsman that teleports and force-teleports the player
    added Agni Idol, motionless shrine, deals delayed fire damage and force-teleports the player
    added Ferod, a lower-level enemy that applies entangle with hits

6

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana, a horror/Lovecraft roguelike (now at v22!).

« on: May 09, 2023, 10:42:33 AM »

v22

# Gameplay
##############################
# Backgrounds and traits
- Added a new background (class) "Flagellant"

# Spells
- Added a new spell domain "Blood" (with some new spells).
- Spells are no longer removed from the spell list when forgotten due to triggering magic traps or using gongs, instead they are marked as "forgotten". Forgotten spells can be recalled by using a "hazy mirror" (new terrain object), or by casting the spell from a manuscript.
- A few particularly powerful spells are "tenebrous", such spells are immediately "forgotten" when they are cast from memory, and cannot be cast until recalled again (by using a mirror, or casting the spell from a manuscript).

# Status effects
- Status effects that will end immediately after the next action are shown as e.g. "Premonition (ending)" in the gui, so that it is possible to know whether it will last until the next player turn or not (previously seeing an active status effect listed could be misleading since it could end before any monster acts).
- The Cursed status effect no longer causes a chance to fail spell casting (but "Doomed" still causes a chance to fail).
- The "Regenerating" status effect no longer heals wounds (it caused bad gameplay design combined with certain Flagellant mechanics).
- Frenzied monsters are now drawn with a red background, and this status is shown in the monster description page.

# Items
- Changed Potion of Invisibility into a "tenebrous" spell instead.

# Melee combat
- It is now possible to aim melee weapons with the "f" key to choose a position to attack.
- Some weapons have "long reach" (has a range of 2 instead of 1), attacking positions further away can be done by pressing "f".
- Pitchforks and the Staff of the Pharaohs now have long reach (pitchforks no longer give a bonus to evasion). A new unique weapon for the Flagellant also has long reach.
- Weapons no longer have a chance to break when the player does a melee attack while cursed.

# Traps
- Traps are always destroyed after they are triggered (i.e. they can only ever be triggered once).
- It is no longer possible to disarm a trap that has started triggering ("I hear a click...").
- Magic traps (strange shape on the ground) may now spawn anywhere, previously they were not allowed to spawn next to blocking terrain, which made these trap types rare to encounter.
- Magic traps are always revealed, i.e. there is no need to detect them.
- When a magic trap triggers there is now a sound, and a flash of light on the map.
- Added item "Bone Charm" that grants spell resistance for a few turns when activated, and dispels all seen magic traps.
- Occultist characters no longer have the ability to dispel magic traps, instead they start with a number of Bone Charms.
- All magic traps now have an effect when triggered by a monster (previously most of them would not do anything at all).
- Added more magic trap types.
- Dart traps, spear traps, and alarm traps now always trigger instantly when a creature steps on them.
- Alarm traps now emit a sound with "global" range, instead of just a "loud" sound (although creatures with short hearing range such as Worm Masses still need to be very near to hear the sound).
- Removed all gas trap types (confusion gas etc)

# Terrain objects
- Instead of metal/doors levers there are now warded doors that can be unwarded by crystals. The difference is that warded doors can be opened at any time like regular doors, but if the player does so without unwarding it first they will receive a penalty, and miss out on a reward (XP bonus for using the crystal).
- Metal doors can now be opened and closed regularly (there are no levers). This is an advantage for the player, as metal doors can never be bashed open.
- Reverted Pylons to make them always active again (they start permanently activated, instead of being activated
by bumping them).
- There is now a chance to get stuck in mud (to differentiate it more from water).

# Monsters
- Added more monsters
- Ravens have a melee attack cooldown time to make them less deadly

# Other
- Added a command in the trait selection menu to show information about the current game, such as character information or inventory (intended to help in choosing trait to pick).
- In the character info screen, knowledge about rods and devices is now also shown (not just potions and manuscripts), and there is information about how much shock the player has received from different sources (seeing monsters, using items, etc).
- In the game over summary screen there is now also information about item knowledge, inventory, and shock received from different sources.
- Current turn number is now displayed in the gui.
- Fountains and Monoliths are now marked on the minimap.

##############################
# User interface
##############################
# Graphics
- Hardware acceleration is now used for rendering (if possible), also added an option to force software rendering.
- It is now possible to set video scaling higher than 2x (3x and 4x are possible as well).
- On first startup, the game tries to set an appropriate video scale factor based on the user resolution.

# Window handling
- Video scaling is now also possible in windowed mode.
- The game no longer tries to determine if the window is large enough, any size is allowed even if all text will not fit.

# Design
- Changed the tile set size to 20x0 (from 24x24), most of the tiles are simply cropped since they had a lot of redundant black space around them, and a few tiles have been slightly reworked.
- Added a tiny 7x13 font, intended for use with scaled up graphics.
- By default, the game runs in fullscreen, using the 7x13 font, and tries to set an appropriate video scale factor (e.g. 2x for 1920x1080).
- Added a flashing animation when a creature is hit by a melee attack.
- When the game asks for a number (e.g. number of items to drop) this is now done in a popup screen instead.
- When entering text or numbers, the underscore cursor is blinking
- The explosion area hint when aiming explosives is drawn as a blended overlay instead.
- Chasms are now drawn with a dark blue checkered rectangle instead of a blue dot (if using tiles).
- Changed color of grates to gray, to clarify that they are made of metal (and not wood)
- Improved the tiles for stairs down (thanks to Andy Walker) and magic traps.
- Added more sound effects (thanks Andy Walker for various gate sounds, item container opening sounds, and a horn sound).
- Added sound effects for opening/closing/bashing metal doors.

# Convenience / quality of life features
- Made some improvements to how the game represents multiple things in the same position, mainly that a different background color is used when there are multiple corpses, or when a corpse is hidden under an item.
- The warning when aiming firearms outside effective range is now printed (with warning color) inline with the aiming info, instead of a y/n question when firing the weapon.
- Split the options menu into several sub-menus (Video, Audio, Input, Gameplay).
- Made some changes to reduce the risk of registering key presses when the game window regains focus (e.g. accidentally doing a melee attack due to the game registering a tab press when alt-tabbing back to the game)
- The user data location is now printed in the main options menu.
- By default, selecting a menu entry with a letter key only jumps to that location, and a second press (or enter) is required to select it. This behavior only happens in menus that have descriptions for the different entries. Added an option to always immediately select entries when pressing letter keys (the old way).
- When carry weight is high enough that becoming weakened would cause the weight to go over 100% (i.e. at 85%) the current carry weight percentage is drawn with (tinted) yellow color, orange at 100% or above (staggering), and red at 125% and above (immobile).

##############################
# Modability
##############################
- Monster definitions are now to a large extent data driven - it is now possible to add new monsters purely by updating monsters.xml (removed monster ID enum values from the source code).

##############################
# Fixes
##############################
- Fixed a problem with the game time system, that caused slow creatures to act slightly more often and fast/very fast creatures to act slightly less often than they were supposed to (especially noticeable when kiting a slow monster, since it would occasionally get unexpected extra moves).
- Attacking a monster that is delayed by moving into liquid no longer allows them to act immediately.
- The names of some ambient sound clip files were calculated incorrectly, resulting in a few ambient sounds not being loaded/used.
- Kicking locked wooden chests would print the message "I kick the locked wooden chest! I kick the lid. The lock resists." - removed the redundant part "I kick the lid".
- Kicking chests caused extra rolls for sprains in some cases (so the risk of a sprain was doubled, and player could get double sprains).
- Fixed a bug where the player killing themselves with an Incinerator would freeze the game.
- The gas mask duration was not stored when saving the game (it was reset to the default length when loading a save file).
- And many more minor bug fixes...

7

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Path of Achra "Lapis Gate"

« on: May 02, 2023, 10:47:30 AM »

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2128270/Path_of_Achra/

Path of Achra is a bleak, dark fantasy traditional roguelike, with a focus on streamlined controls and rapid hero customization. A "broken build sandbox." Fight through the deadly lands of Achra to reach the horrors of the Obelisk, and discover what lies beyond...

Before you lies the Path of Achra...

Inspired by Tales of Maj Eyal, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and Rift Wizard, it is the ongoing passion project of a solo developer, who humbly thanks you for visiting

Merge culture, class and religion to establish a starting hero, unlock more options as you play, with 1000+ potential combinations

Customize your hero with 50+ elementally-aligned powers such as Pyrokinesis, Necromancy, Blood Retort, Obedient Ice...

Discover and freely equip unique weapons and armor with impactful abilities

Explosive synergies await...

A "broken build sandbox" - create devastating combos by combining triggered effects. Shoot bolts of lightning when you pierce enemies with vines, teleport while emitting psychic beams, etc...

If you wish, summon armies of powerful allies

Swiftly play through levels with automove commands. With caution! Enemies can be brutal...

Seek the mysterious Obelisk, as the world floods behind you...

Hello! What a delight it is to be here. Thank you for checking out the ongoing work of this solo developer.

This is the first version of early access - it represents the beginning of a path. For the demo players, there are new things to play with and combine, and many more to come. To the rest, welcome!

These notes will go over what is immediately new:

Steam

    Cloud saves
    Steam achievements for beating different stages of the game, high instances of damage, and unlocking prestige classes - more to come

General

    The initial "healing" prayer for several religions dramatically increased
    Added unique items to the Void: Toothed Sword, Lapis Glaive, Jade Helm, Thunderblade, and more (repeated items will now never happen)
    Strength now increases total Armor by 2% per point
    Dexterity now increases Armor and Block by 5 per point
    Enemies and allies now all have a different fixed % chance to recover from each harmful effect every game turn

Hero

    Culture

    Volkite, increase armor and retaliate with Fire damage through Encumbrance
    Ihra, gain extra scaling with Strength, Dex and Wil, but gain Encumbrance from increased Life
    Tengu, fragile, apply Charge when attacking
    Alhaja, extra prayer chargers, perform max damage Hits when praying

    Class

    Abdi, performs extra Hits when attacking for each fully charged prayer, starts with a ranged area-of-effect Varichakram
    Warlock, applies Inflame and deals Fire damage to the closest enemy on prayer and whenever an ally dies

    Prestige Class

    Mindpiercer, deal Willpower-based Pierce damage whenever you deal Psychic damage
    Blood Mage, apply Bleed in an area every turn, when you stand still, and when you damage yourself

Powers

    Martial

    Barbarism now increases your Hit by a %
    Stand Ground, convert standing still into extra attacks and Poise
    War Chant, summons axe-wielding Thralls, applies Poise to an area every turn

    Fire

    removed Order of Fire
    Master Scorch, protect yourself from Scorch's damage, convert it into area fire damage

    Lightning

    Chamakana, perform extra hits when dealing Lightning damage to full-life enemies
    Stormcalling, summon Ball Lightnings when attacking
    Sparkform, enter the level as an embodiment of Lightning damage

    Poison

    Plaguedrinking, apply Sickness to adjacent enemies, remove Sickness from enemies with attacks and heal off of the duration

    Death

    Hungry Grave, summon a motionless Grave Idol with a ranged area Death attack, gains hit and life when allies die

    Ice

    Order of Ice removed
    Frostpulse, deal Ice damage in an increasing area every turn based on your Encumbrance

    Astral

    Innervation now renders allies immune to damage dealt by you
    Astrostoicism, gain Meditate and teleport enemies when they hit you
    Shimmergang, summon swift Astrophytes when you teleport
    Star Cult, summon Star Priests, deal Astral damage to enemies whenever an ally attacks

    Psychic

    Mass Mind, deal Psychic damage to enemies in an increasing area every turn based on the number of summoned allies
    Psychic Retort, perform hits and gain Repulsion when enemies hit you

    Blood

    Blood Link, continuously summon Hemogoblins, heal yourself whenever an ally is healed

8

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Amulet of Iovar v1.0

« on: May 01, 2023, 10:45:04 AM »

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2346540/Amulet_of_Iovar/   Win 10+ (?)

Amulet of Iovar is an oldschool roguelike inspired by Nethack. Delve deep into the Dungeon of Iovar, steal the amulet of the divine and ascend to godhood!

For eons, the ancient wizard Iovar has sought godhood. In his never-ending quest, he's built a huge dungeon full of critters big and small. Now, hes finally crafted an amulet worthy of gods.
You, along with many others, have heard of Iovars mission. Time has come, as you and a colorful cast of critters strike to steal godhood from under Iovars nose. Delve deep into the Dungeon of Iovar, and prove godhood is rightfully yours!
Features

    Fully randomly generated dungeon using Wave Function Collapse algorithm
    8 Classes to play
    90+ Monsters to fight, including 6 powerful bosses
    30+ Weapons to wield
    60+ Armor pieces to wear
    200+ Items to use
    Cast spells by mixing and matching different spell elements and types
    Manage your hunger and weight
    Use potions, scrolls, wands and other items
    Enchant gear for additional strength
    Unlock information about items and critters with Tomes of knowledge

9

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Caverns of Xaskazien II Ver. 1.12.43 released!

« on: April 11, 2023, 11:00:13 AM »

Congrats on a wildly potent update. 

10

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Pathos: Nethack Codex now: Google Play, Apple iTunes Windows Store/Desktop v7.0!

« on: February 28, 2023, 11:55:27 AM »

I am pleased to announce that full source code for the official content and modules is now available on GitHub:

https://github.com/callanh/pathos-official

You are welcome to fork this repository and to start a new variant of Pathos! All game assets such as images, sounds and translation files reside in the public repository. The content definitions and module generations are declared as C# code. This code is built into an assembly so it can be executed by the Pathos game engine. The game installation files include automated tools to generate the asset pipeline.

Anyway, enough about modding, this release introduces three new player races:

    Kobold. Unfairly characterised as cowardly and weak, these diminutive reptilian creatures overcome their physical limitations by employing vicious and cunning strategies.
    Plasmoid. Amorphous beings who have no typical shape but often take on a translucent humanoid form. While unmistakable for anything other than a plasma-like ooze, this form enables the use of clothing and tools.
    Tortle. Tortoise-like nomadic survivalists who leave their birthplace, from the moment they can walk, to travel the world with the comfort and protection of home on their backs.

As well as three new player specials:

    Drunkard. The habitually drunk make for brazen yet slightly unsteady adventurers; just don't ask them to recite the alphabet backwards.
    Glass. Sculptured from living glass that reflects energy and refracts light, you are a perfect but delicate emulation of your natural counterpart.
    Quantum. Uncertain of your position, you are accustomed to being anywhere and everywhere all at once.

Tiles now support multiple frames of animation. New animated tiles include fountains, altars, water and lava. Animated gif files are supported only in the Windows Desktop version and are best used for custom portraits.

Polymorph has been significantly rebalanced. Characters now keep their current experience level, instead of taking on the level of the entity. This means your life/mana is rolled based on the polymorphed entity but at your current level. If you are lower level than your polymorphed entity, this will reduce your natural defence and damage as well. This change is intended to make it fairer when a low level character is polymorphed into something overly powerful.

There are numerous quality of life improvements, rebalanced mechanics and updated tiles which are detailed in the in-game Help > Updates screen.

11

Player's Plaza / Re: Looking for the next Roguelike

« on: September 15, 2022, 10:45:38 AM »

Triangle Wizard and Catacomb kids might stoke your intrigues with the former and further develop your appetites whetted by the latter.

12

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Rayel

« on: September 08, 2022, 10:54:50 AM »

Congrats on the new least on project life---keep at it as ever same as in the early days~   

13

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Grog 1.0.0 released!

« on: May 25, 2022, 10:49:50 AM »

Welcome back. 

14

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Pathos: Nethack Codex now: Google Play, Apple iTunes Windows Store/Desktop v6.8!

« on: March 20, 2022, 11:21:37 AM »

v6.8

Hail Adventurers,

This release features the Underdeep expansion of the Mines branch which was designed and contributed by the much talented /u/wyrdean. These seven, handcrafted levels are some of the largest Pathos has seen to date, and are chock full of secrets to explore. The deeper you go, the more you find, until you stumble across the secret remnants of the dwarven civilization, buried deep under the mushroom forest.

There has been an overhaul of elemental magic for consistency across the five elements (earth/flame/frost/shock/water). There are now five elemental sphere spells which introduced the earth sphere and water sphere. Representing each element, there are three elemental mercenaries (eg. flame binder, flame seeker, flame maker). New elemental specials were added as well, so you can play as a human frost knight or an demon flame wizard, etc.

In addition to the five elemental specials, there is a new psychic special. This special grants the gifts of telepathy, clairvoyance and telekinesis but is offset by the burden of hunger. Telekinesis is a new talent that can be used to remotely pickup items, push boulders, knockback entities, remotely trigger traps and open/close doors.

For quality of life, there is now a continue button that appears at the bottom of the screen. This can be tapped to resume your last target. For example, if you use the map to travel to the stairs but were interrupted by hostiles on the way. You can dispatch your enemy and then tap on the continue button to resume your path to the stairs.

While only cosmetic, there is now a shroud effect on squares that are not lit. Previously, it was not clearly distinguished if a square was lit or unlit. Dark areas now feel grungy and dim.

Sonyvanda is now the default tileset (selected when Pathos is first installed). There has been lots of updates to the Sonyvanda tiles, notably for blobs, fungus, jellies and puddings. While there is still plenty of love and support for the other tilesets, Sonyvanda has become the most popular.

For the PC players, please note that Windows Desktop version upgraded from .NET Framework v4.5 to .NET Framework 4.8.

Major changes since the last public release:

    new branch: Underdeep, seven new levels under the Mines.

    new property: telekinesis.

    new specials: psychic, earth, flame, frost, shock, water.

    new entities: cave bear, treant, earth sphere, water sphere, 15 elemental mercenaries.

    new items: kanabo, mithril plate mail, ring of telekinesis.

    new artifact: Deagle.

    new spells: crushing sphere, soaking sphere, telekinesis.

    new barrier: shroom.

    new ground: chasm, moss, sand, metal floor.

    new zoo: spider nest.

    unlit squares are now rendered with a shroud tile.

    'continue' button to resume your last interrupted target.

    filter by item type when trading and sharing.

    slower/faster animation setting.

    new animations for light/darkness and detection magic.

15

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana, a horror/Lovecraft roguelike (now at v21!).

« on: March 15, 2022, 11:21:45 AM »

v21

# Gameplay changes
##############################
# Backgrounds and traits
- Added a new background (class) "Exorcist"
- Reworked the "Resistant trait", it now gives +25% chance to resist paralysis, burning, and poison, and the duration of those effects is halved (also Tough and Rugged each give +10% chance to resist)
- Added trait "Crippling Strikes" - melee attacks have 60% chance to Weaken the target for 2-3 turns
- Added trait "Meditative" - applies a status effect which allows the next spell to be cast without spending a turn, and with the cost reduced by 1 spirit point - after casting a spell this state is reapplied again after some time has passed
- Clairvoyant Occultists also starts with the Premonition spell
- The Tough and Rugged traits give +6 hit points each, instead of +4
- Ghoul characters start with +8 hit points, instead of +6
- The Ghoul ability "Frenzy" no longer costs spirit to use
- The Ghoul trait "Toxic" has 75% chance to apply poison, instead of 25%

# Monsters
- Added more monsters
- Some monsters have a smell that can be detected by the player
- Monsters no longer become aware of the player from negative properties (burning, etc) or from taking damage (they are alerted by direct attacks or by attack noises) - so now it is possible to for example throw a Molotov Cocktail at a monster, and escape with Cloud Minds while it is burning
- Small crawling creatures (rats, snakes, crawling hands, etc) can pass through some terrain types such as gates and piles of debris
- Cultist have a different tile depending on their wielded firearm, and their description states what weapon they are wielding
- Cultists have a kick attack
- Worm Masses and Mind Worms are now blind, slow (instead of normal speed), have much more hit points, are unsettling (causes shock to see), take much less damage from piercing attacks (such as pistol shots or dagger strikes), and have a very limited hearing range
- Worm Masses and Mind Worms can no longer split while burning
- Added completely new descriptions for all Ooze monsters, removed Black Ooze, changed Putrid Ooze to be weaker and spawn earlier, renamed Clear Ooze to Lurking Ooze
- Removed the spawn level part of monster descriptions ("they usually dwell beneath level...")
- Monster descriptions display more information, such as resistances, if it has the ability to see in darkness, or the chance to stay hidden from the monster
- A generated description is now printed for all monsters - previously some monsters (such as Crawling Intestines) used to have the generated part of their description completely disabled
- Ghoul monsters become allied to a player Ghoul when they see the player, instead of starting allied on the map (to avoid the player missing out on joining the Ghouls in combat and just finding the remains of a battle)

# Items
- Added weapons "S&W Revolver" and "Winchester Rifle"
- Removed the Flare Gun
- Added miscellaneous rare items and artifacts
- Completely reworked and renamed the Spirit Dagger
- The Electric Gun also disables passive hit point regeneration for a number of turns
- The Talisman of Resurrection also teleports the player when activated, to avoid leaving the player in the same situation that killed them to begin with
- The Vitality potion can no longer increase hit points above maximum, but instead it applies a status effect that increases hit point regeneration, and gives a small chance per turn to heal a wound
- The Staff of the Pharaohs also has a chance to apply Doom on hit (a stronger version of Cursed)

# Spells
- Casting spells can occasionally trigger random chaotic side effects, typically affecting the surrounding area (for example walls may appear or disappear, statues knocked over, etc)
- Added spell "Erudition" - the next spell is cast at a higher skill level
- Changed the "Opening" spell to "Control Object", which can do more things (e.g. open/close/jam/strike doors, or strike statues/braziers, etc)
- Changed the Azathoth's Wrath spell to Azathoth's Gaze, which causes small damage and fainting (instead of acting like a "mass Darkbolt")
- Removed the Searching spell - instead this is a permanent ability for the Clairvoyant Occultist (upgraded at levels 4 and
- Added Curse as a spell available to monsters (Floating Skulls cast this now instead of applying the property directly, and mummies cast Curse instead of applying it on melee attacks, for example) - also added a stronger version of Cursed called "Doomed" which is applied instead when Curse is cast at master level
- The Teleport spell has a distance limit, which is increased with higher skill levels - also reduced the spirit cost of the spell
- The Summoning spell is no longer available to player characters (only to monsters)
- Added a message when spells are upgraded (e.g. by a Gong)

# Status effects
- Reworked the "Frenzied" property - instead of changing the player's movement direction on a move command, moves away from monsters are now simply prevented (not an action)
- The Cursed status effect also causes 5% chance to fail spell casting
- Being blind no longer immediately raises shock by 30% - instead the shock ramps up each turn up to 30%
- Players can melee attack monsters while nailed by a Spike Gun (but still not while entangled)

# Terrain objects
- Removed deep liquid and swimming
- Pylons now have different appearances, and it's possible to permanently identify their effects - also Pylons are now activated by touching them
- Hidden doors are always detected from adjacent positions (except if blind or confused)
- Standing next to a door will immediately reveal if it's stuck - if so it will change name and appearance
- Forcing a metal door open (e.g. with a Rod of Opening or the Control Object spell) also toggles all connected switches (this would previously leave the switches "inverted", so that it was hard to know if pulling the switch would open or close a door)
- A lot more terrain objects can be destroyed or lit on fire (for example altars or monoliths are destroyed by explosions, and wooden chests or bookshelves can be lit on fire)
- The stairs position is always lit, to make it less tedious to discover in huge dark rooms
- Statues no longer block line of sight, making them much easier to kick into monsters.
- The stealth penalty in lit positions is much higher than before (see also bug fixes below concerning stealth and darkness)

# Map generation
- The standard map generator can also split rooms, for more map variety
- Added more room templates
- The map generator no longer tries to reveal doors on the path to the stairs (i.e. the stairs may be behind hidden doors)
- Winning characters show up as statues inside the church building on the intro level, instead of graves outside the church

# Other
- Improved the player character memory of explored map positions - it is now possible to view the names of terrain and items on previously explored positions, items seen on the floor in dark rooms are remembered on the map, and bumping terrain like fountains and doors while blind instantly updates their visual status
- Removed the "masochistic obsession" insanity effect

##############################
# User interface changes
##############################
# Convenience / quality of life features
- Bumping a stuck door now automatically tries to bash it (no need to press "w" first)
- Added a warning when the player attempts to fire/throw outside the effective range, informing the player that the attack will do 50% damage
- Added an option to warn when throwing "valuable" items - i.e. potions or equipped items (enabled by default)
- When standing in a dark position, "DARK AREA" is displayed in the status lines

# User input
- All menus have shortcut keys (either with "(Y)es (N)o" style, or "a) b) c) ...")
- The "i" key is skipped as a letter index in the inventory (and drop menu), instead this key can be used for closing the inventory menu again (to allow more convenient toggling of the menu and to help prevent key press mistakes)
- Added "l" or "e" as a shortcut command for toggling the Electric Lantern
- Added "," (comma) as an alternative pick up command
- "C" is the standard key for the character info screen, with "@" as alternative key
- In the options menu, left and right can also be used to change option values

# Graphics
- Added the ability for displaying idle animations while the game is waiting for input, currently this is used for flickering the player color when holding an activated Electric Lantern, or randomizing the color of burning tiles or tiles corrupted by Strange Colors - and also for auto-scrolling item descriptions in the (rare) case that they do not fit in the window
- Instead of the "stretched" fullscreen mode option, there is now an option for attempting to scale the graphics to 2x size when running fullscreen (if the graphics can be scaled depends on the user's resolution, and the current font)
- All fonts have been replaced with new ones (the reason for this is that the origins and license information of the previous ones was unknown - now this information is clearly listed in a font license text file distributed with the game)
- Added a tile for unarmed player
- Added tiles for Cultists wielding different firearms (see gameplay changes above)
- Removed the options to draw the walls as filled rectangles in tiles mode

# Design
- Changed the appearance of popups
- Many screens such as the background/trait screens and character info screen use a nicer positioning for drawing, and they handle window resizing better
- Added more elaborate border graphics (used for example around the player information panel), instead of only simple lines (these graphics existed in older versions of the game)
- Using coloring more for the player stats to convey information (such as drawing the current hit points paler the closer to zero they are, or drawing the weapon info as yellow if ammo is depleted)
- The infection status effect is drawn with orange color instead of the usual red, to make it more noticeable and to hint that it will get worse and not better over time - also added a warning message when infection nearly triggers DISEASE
- The message log uses three lines instead of two (thus causing much fewer "more" prompts)
- General messages for events outside of the player performing an action are drawn gray instead of white, and a newline is always forced after a player action
- Removed the "game over" menu - instead the game summary is first shown, then the high scores, then you return to the main menu
- Added an option to toggle if the view should always be centered on the player, only move when near the edge of the screen (default is to always center)

# Sound
- Added more sound effects
- Removed the generic spell sound effect
- Added a master volume percent option

##############################
# Fixes
##############################
- Fixed a bug that prevented messages for Rogues sensing artifacts on the dungeon floor (there were only messages for sensing artifacts in item containers, such as tombs)
- Darkness did not give a stealth bonus
- The effect of the Silent trait was inverted for melee attacks  - i.e. attacks were noisy with the Silent trait picked, and vice versa
- The Asbestos Suite was not protecting against gas explosions (from gas traps)
- Energy Vortex attacks has a paralyzing effect as they were supposed to have, instead of burning
- Fixed problem with popups not being re-drawn correctly when alt-tabbing back to the game
- And much more...