Messages

46

Programming / Cross-platform C# Console output lib, just in time for the 7DRLC

« on: March 09, 2013, 02:18:34 AM »

I think this is relevant enough to post here (and I thought Development was a better fit than Announcements).

I've cleaned up the code I use for c# System.Console output. Like curses, its purpose is to prevent flickering and unnecessary redrawing. I've also used some trickery to get bright colors working correctly on native Linux terminals.

http://code.google.com/p/parabola-console-lib/

I hope someone will find this useful.

47

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Forays into Norrendrin 0.7.0 - major release!

« on: December 15, 2012, 08:42:18 PM »

0.6.3 was hard.
0.7.0 is harder.
Congratulations? Congratulations. Getting my ass kicked and coming back for more. The new monsters are really neat.
Are wargs possibly overpowered? Since it's usually they who end my characters.

Also, I once got an amulet that would save me from a single life-ending blow; not that useful unless you took an escape spell from a magic shrine.

Just a question,  but am I right in assuming you can only win by killing everything on the 20th floor? I magic mapped it the one time I made it there (those monsters were hard!), but I didn't see a chest or shiny trinket.

Wargs are slightly easier to kill in 0.7.0 than they were in 0.6.3, but they are still nasty!

What you say about the 20th floor was true in 0.6.3. That has been changed in 0.7.0 - since the game doesn't force you to kill monsters anywhere else, it didn't feel right to make the rogue clear the last level.

48

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Forays into Norrendrin 0.7.0 - major release!

« on: December 15, 2012, 07:26:09 PM »

Kind of difficult game. Enemies shooting arrows are annoying. And I could swear when I went after a shooter goblin there was some other creature hiding behind a column, ambushing me when I was concentrated on running after the goblin. Is AI really that advanced? There was also a hidden sliding wall with creature jumping out from it when I opened a door. I have to steal that idea.

The AI is probably not *that* advanced. It might have been wandering, or it might have been a stealthy monster that noticed you before you noticed it. (and feel free to steal the sliding walls)

Very appealing screenshots! Looks like a very tactical game with clear mechanics.

Thanks! Those screenshots were actually out of date, so you inspired me to update them to the current version.

49

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Forays into Norrendrin 0.7.0 - major release!

« on: December 14, 2012, 07:50:11 PM »

Unfortunately, it doesn't give any error description. It just says that it has encountered an error and has to close. 

The only possible fix I've seen is a suggestion to have an older version of .NET installed, in addition to 4.0.

50

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Forays into Norrendrin 0.7.0 - major release!

« on: December 14, 2012, 02:35:25 PM »

I believe it's 4.0. I tried installing 4.5 but it said that it wasn't compatable with my operating system.

I've confirmed that it is a 32 bit executable, and that version of .NET should be fine, so I'm running out of ideas. Did the error message give any information at all?

If not, I don't know what to try next, except maybe trying to compile it on that machine.

51

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Forays into Norrendrin 0.7.0 - major release!

« on: December 13, 2012, 01:24:17 PM »

Can't seem to get it to run. It joes goes straight to a windows error report. Using win xp

I don't have an XP machine to test on, but I'll see what can be done. What version of .NET do you have installed?

52

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Forays into Norrendrin 0.8.0 - major release!

« on: December 09, 2012, 09:47:38 PM »

Full terminal support! (If you're on linux, you will probably need Mono 2.10)

A twenty-level dungeon crawl with a skill and feat system, originally starting development in October 2011. The game features skills and feats which you gain from shrines that can be found within the dungeon. There is a high-score system which is based on dungeon depth comparisons. The game focuses on a clean user interface with many accessibility options.

Hey, everyone. I'm back to announce Forays 0.7.0, with big improvements to some very visible parts of the game.

There are 20 new monsters(for a total of 50), bringing more variety to the foes you'll face in the dungeon.

The dungeon has also been massively improved. There are seven level types(instead of just one), and you will encounter statues, pillars, and natural gas vents.

In addition, the difficulty curve has been improved greatly. Tutorial tips will provide useful information _when_ that information is useful, and early monsters now do a better job of introducing important game concepts.

Grab it now at  http://code.google.com/p/forays-into-norrendrin/downloads/list  .

53

Programming / Re: Programming habits, standards, and learning.

« on: October 25, 2012, 08:53:40 PM »

The standard comitee is utterly insane - they couldn't bother to make lists, vectors standard types, support multithreading or include optional garbage collection to the language. Instead they approve existing libraries like boost as standard - check the lambda library if you think about learning C++.
...
Of course every one of them has major repulsivenesses - thousand and one Scheme distros, Lua is 'only' a C glue language, ancient imperative artifacts in C, windows dependancy of C#
...

Unless you're already invested in Windows Forms or other Win-specific things, the Mono framework actually makes crossplatform C# rather painless. Of course, C# (and every other language) still isn't perfect, but I do think it's a good choice to learn with.

54

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Leading Angband Variant?

« on: October 19, 2012, 03:18:13 PM »

I'd like to nominate ToME 2. It, too, has an interesting static overworld with multiple cities, lots of dungeons, and a stronger Tolkien flavor than almost every other *band.

( http://www.furytech.net/tech/angband-mirror/tome/   has a download for 2.3.4, which is not *quite* the last version.)

55

Programming / Re: Lighting Issues

« on: September 26, 2012, 05:42:42 PM »

As for the walls, I had to make every wall adjacent to a "lit" floor space also be considered lit, and not actually cast light on the walls (which makes sense if you think about it: the wall is taking up the whole tile, and no light should be actually "entering" the tile, since it's all full of opaque wall).  Even without the lighting issues you are talking about, the player's field of view looked really ugly without doing it that way.  I ended up going back through the set of visible cells and adding all of the opaque cells adjacent to visible cells to the set of results, rather than trying to write it into the shadowcasting algorithm.

I do something very similar to what Leaf describes. A solid tile is lit (or not) depending on the light values of its 1 or 2 neighbors in the direction of the viewer. It works for me - good luck.

56

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Forays into Norrendrin 0.6.3 (fashionably in time for ARRP)

« on: September 18, 2012, 12:29:01 AM »

I didn't think this update would be ready within a day of the ARRP, but surprise!
A major change has appeared: Skills are now increased by finding shrines within the dungeon, rather than killing monsters. XP has been removed entirely, but you can now find items dropped by some enemies.

I've made all of the help and description screens present their information more clearly, especially the 'f'eat screen.

Enjoy!

Downloads:
http://forays-into-norrendrin.googlecode.com/files/forays_v063_win.zip
http://forays-into-norrendrin.googlecode.com/files/forays_v063_source.zip

57

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Forays into Norrendrin 0.6.2 - Improved UI!

« on: July 14, 2012, 03:44:24 PM »

YES!  I was hoping dev on this was ongoing as it sounded very promising back at the 0.6 release.   Thanks for all the hard work and keep at it!   

Your screenshots page is broken though and it would be ideal if the update would be reflected on the main page so more folks could discover it.

Thanks! I've fixed the screenshot link and updated the new releases on the front page.

58

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Forays into Norrendrin 0.6.2 - Improved UI!

« on: July 14, 2012, 05:42:18 AM »

Hello, everyone.  I've just released Forays 0.6.2. If you haven't played since 0.6.0, major changes are listed below.
If you haven't played at all: It's a 20-level dungeon crawl with skill-based advancement, rather than class- or item- based.

0.6.1 improved the list of spells, making them overall cooler and more useful, as well as replacing and improving a handful of feats, and adding a few new items.

0.6.2 focuses on the interface; adding automatic stair travel, the occasionally-controversial autoexplore, improved targeting, expansion of the message window, and a general reworking of the key commands for ease of use.

(On the horizon: light and shadow will play a much bigger role in exploration and combat, with new monsters and dungeon features to support this.)


As always, it's available for Windows and Linux(requiring Mono 2.10). Check it out here:
http://roguebasin.com/index.php/Forays_into_Norrendrin

59

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: No PCG (!?) Deterministic 24HRL: MUTANT ARISTOCRATS!

« on: April 17, 2012, 01:52:27 AM »

I agree with the view that it can be considered (and mistaken for) a roguelike on the first playthrough, and becomes something else on later playthroughs. My vote was for 'no, puzzle, but i'd call it RL at first'; however, I don't have a strong personal definition of 'puzzle'.

..but whatever else it may be, it's fun.