Topics

616

Other Announcements / Retail Roguelike(ish) Price Watch

« on: September 02, 2009, 11:08:14 PM »

Our first champions:

http://www.impulsedriven.com/fsp2    Flatspace 2!  I've been hoping so very much for this to pop up on discount and it surely has.  You can also apparently order it direct for a bit more onsite more directly and they'll also throw in a free arena shooter cooked up for a limited time.  http://www.lostinflatspace.com/

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Chronic_Reality/SW/SW_page.html   Scallywag!  From now until Sept 30th, you can grab the game for $22 down from $30.  Hint Hint...it is advised to do this so as to maximize enjoyment I aim to wreak with RAGE in the not distant future.

Both games have demos so have at it while the having is good.  The Flatspace 2 Impulse deal might last thru the weekend, or today might be the last of it, nobody knows at the moment!

:just finally got Flatspace 2 as a bright spot to my day via the Impulse deal:


Edit:  Impulse deals are up through Labor day it seems.  So, there's a few days to think on it.

617

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Spelunky hits 1.0

« on: September 02, 2009, 01:00:38 PM »

Spelunky finally hits 1.0!

+ Added: [SECRET]

= Mantrap's appetite increased.
= Piranha's appetite increased.
= Dice now reveal whether they've been thrown or not.
= Opening a chest or crate won't cause the player to attack.
= Mummies shouldn't bleed.

- Fixed fatal error: flies hitting a damsel caused a crash.
? Fixed fatal error: game could hang when enemies collided with one another.
? Fixed fatal error: sticky bombs could cause a crash when stuck to dead enemy.
? Code from ChevyRay might fix up the graphics glitch with the "black boxes."
- Fixed bug: lava deaths weren't counting toward your score.
- Fixed bug: Machete and mattock had no back swing when facing right.
- Fixed bug: When an item was held but put away and the player ledge flipped or
got thrown, the item would disappear.
- Fixed bug: when a rope burned away under a player, the player would continue
to hang.
- Fixed various bugs related to monsters getting stuck in walls.
- Fixed bug: if blocks were placed directly in front of arrow traps in the level
editor, it would cause glitches.
- Fixed bug: the player would float in air after teleporting off a ladder.
- Fixed bug: items could get stuck in the corners of walls.
- Fixed bug: shopkeeper could still kill you through 1-tile thick walls.
- Fixed bug: damsel could be shot while exiting the level.
- Fixed bug: monkeys could throw damsels while they were exiting.
- Fixed bug: monkeys could throw damsels into the ceiling, killing them.
- Fixed bug: monkeys had a 100% chance of tripping the player.
- Fixed bug: if a monkey tripped the player during a ledge flip or while the
player was exiting a level, the player would be stunned permanently.
- Fixed bug: push blocks were generated next to lava pits, causing problems.
- Fixed bug: destroying spear traps next to lakes would not cause them to drain.
- Fixed bug: spear traps could get generated in trees in area 4.
- Fixed bug: flare crates should disappear in the water.
- Fixed typo: kissing parlor shopkeeper would state incorrect price when trying
to buy damsel (rather than kiss) without enough money.
- Fixed bug: "I HEAR SNAKES..." message appearing in Tutorial.
- Fixed typo: Tutorial sign recommends holding down to run, even though this is
now turned off by default.
- Fixed typo: "KEEP THE YOURSELF"
- Fixed bug: muting/unmuting in area 3 will make area 1 music play.
- Loot shouldn't overflow over the text during transitions.
- Fixed bug: resetting scores doesn't hide the bonus room descriptions until you
leave the room.

http://www.spelunkyworld.com/original.html

618

Temple of the Roguelike / Livening up Roguetemple

« on: September 02, 2009, 02:30:21 AM »

I'm not at all lucid at the moment due to nothing good afoot, but still.

As suggested by Elig upon a proper thread derailment, let this topic be centered upon strategies by which to hopefully increase the amoung of people regularly checking and interacting within and about Roguetemple---providing the ideas actually work and/or are feasible.  I'll keep updating the OP as new random things get thought up by folk already here and as things get accomplished.  For starters:

-A Roguetemple Youtube channel to serve as an aggregate effort for video Let's Play's, walkthroughs, review, monthlyish news roundups, and whatever else concerning Roguelikes as a whole.  Any various people that would cook up good stuff would then have the password and such to be able to post it all up in one organized place to build something of a brand in Roguetemple's comprehensiveness.  Likewise some manner of streaming channel on the likes of http://www.livestream.com/ for matters of coordination of certain kinds of events, workshops, and thus undone team projects---just seems too handy to not take advantage of exploring.

-A MUCH stronger effort to reach out to/latch onto the various Retail Roguelikes as they happen and as they come along----especially the Japanese Mystery/Fushigi Dungeon franchise of games.  There tend to be tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people that purchase these games the world over and enjoy then thoroughly...so getting Roguetemple into the stream of awareness as a place they could see discussions and/or content related to it that would hit word of mouth and Google searches would surely be a good thing.   These games have a history of serving as a gateway to PC fare Roguelikes, providing people actually get pointed along in those directions lest they just stay in the Mysteries.  In general, to not attempt to give a general good faith effort to raise up retail projects is self-destructive and smacks of utter foolishness in terms of undercutting further advances with the scope of Roguelikes.  Possibly look into setting up an affiliate system in regards to any online retailers that carry Roguelikes----something along the lines of how RPGCodex has the like with GoG.com.

-Try to grab more interviews with Roguelike developers and other people relative to the Roguelike process and related tangents.   These anecdotes and illuminatory pieces are in tremendous need of 1. Existing 2. Being archived good and proper for future reference years down the line.  John Harris is only one man afterall.

-Screenshots of all games possible, ideally in a variety of situations within each respective game.  Even the ASCII folk have need of seeing the letters and symbols.

-Contests along similar, yet perhaps more comprehensive themes, in line with the 7DRL, Crawl, and Nethack affairs that happen here and there with each year.

-Localized and Personalized resources onsite in regards to helping people write Roguelikes of their own...lots of them.  The mystery needs to be in the play experience, not the makeup of bars to entry---walls to be knocked down to hurdles and steps.

-As mentioned before, for as many new and ongoing Roguelikes as possible to include good old www.roguetemple.com somewhere within their splash screen or shortly thereafter so as to inform the myriad, currently nameless and faceless players the world over of the site's existence and hopefully allow them to connect the dots and venture to this place.  In turn, of course, Roguetemple must be a fit residence/stopover for said title.

-Webchats or some other thing where there can be a general meeting time and place to pop into without having to mess with IRC and have a realtime conversation with other people regarding Roguelikes in general.  Possibly try to attract noticeable guests to attend for some such times.

-If anybody happens to be a Goon, to keep them fully abreast of the latest releases and developments for their various megathreads, especially one biggie they have for Roguelikes in general that seems to have a tendency to generate mega-threads for specific games.  In some ways I can easily see how they'd have a much more robust discussion environ than here at Roguetemple and the Google Groups, but in other ways I feel that's just damn insane considering said kind of discussion is pretty well the central core of the latter.

-Profuse crosslinking and crosspromotion onsite with all manner of Roguelikes from the ever popular to the ones languishing in the darker part of the shadows.

-Providing it pans out the way it is being framed in the coming months, investigate the new aspect for Stardock's Impulse Reactor Phase IV which, among other aspects, seems to have doors open for hobbyist game free dispersal and perhaps sale...seemingly to a more flexible degree than Valve's Steam.  Likewise, there should probably be an effort to get at least some of the older, "done" Roguelikes up on GoG.com's free game section.  I doubt they've people beating their doors down at this point to get up there---thus I would reckon better odds of a more favorable response and likewise more visibility for the world of Roguelikes in general as many of the lapsed customers on there may very likely be well out of the loop.

Well, there's the top of my head roughly.  There must be more and/or better yet still...

Such as:

-Analysis and cataloging of the various topics of implementation relative to Roguelikes, ie Religions, ID games, etc.

619

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Meta Collider Beta 8 released

« on: August 29, 2009, 03:33:31 AM »

http://metacollider.sourceforge.net/

FOR BETA8:
+skills, instead of affecting entelechy directly like items, now
affect condition and have only a chance of affecting entelechy
+expanded the help file to include some helpful tips and information
on combat
+implemented an algorithm for finding the optimum font size at
different resolutions
+dungeon generator is now somewhat more repetitive
+getting overrun by chaos is now more likely
+made some balancing adjustments to skills and NPCs
+combat messages now display current condition when the player takes
damage
+increased number of groups at depth 10
+fixed a bug with entelechy change messages displaying improperly on
level change
+changed qualifications for the hopeful destiny state
+added an introduction to the game in the readme file
+changed some messages

And his well wrought call for some assistance/people to enjoy:

"I've been away for a while, but I've made a pretty decent update now
and posted it to my sourceforge site. I guess my sourceforge site has
been linking to a really old, buggy version for who knows how long,
but I blame sourceforge for that. The newest version is beta 8, and
it's stable as far as I know.

I changed the skill system to make skills more useful. I also added
some tips to the help section. Press '?' and 'j' in the game to check
those out, they're really useful. It's now easier to change the
resolution, which I recommend if you're using a resolution bigger than
800x600, or you can play in fullscreen mode. Also, the dungeon
generator is improved. Some balancing changes have been made.

I just beat the game for the first time, without savescumming, so I
know it's possible. It's difficult but doable.

As always, I am eager to hear from people that are playing the game.
Please send me an email if you have any questions, comments, or
suggestions, I'd be happy to answer them. What's your favorite
roguelike? Where are you from? Do you have any ideas for things that
should be added and would go really well in the game? What's the
farthest depth you've gotten to? "

Yet another Roguelike making a go at a nonstandard system...so I suspect well worth looking into for a change of pace on the old brain cells.  Also quite awhile since the last update, so like Wayfarer before it very good to see.

620

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Wayfarer: Updated Executable

« on: August 29, 2009, 03:29:29 AM »

http://benhem.com/games/wayfarer/

8.28.09: Inventory mode should be clearer, and contextual help is improved slightly. Updated alternate version. The download for Windows should now work.

Lots of potential and good things going for this game, elated to see something pop out of the fog for it again after quite awhile now.

621

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Treachery exists

« on: August 11, 2009, 11:24:58 PM »

http://www.treachery.ru/   Treachery

Well well, seems what we have here is something roughly comparable to other alpha-in-dev project Peleron's Brilliant Rebirth---as well as apparently free project consulting via his personal website attached.   As does it have the nifty feature of playing online via silverlight as well as offline otherwise.

I wonder...

622

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Triangle Wizard has a new trailer

« on: August 11, 2009, 02:28:34 PM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE0HfFBdbZY  I'd say it is an improvement compared to the old one---definitely been lots of changes since those days.  Might be my imagination but it has a bit of lagginess to it...probably on account of fraps versus some other capturing program.

623

Other Announcements / Interview on the upcoming 100 Rogues for iPhone

« on: August 05, 2009, 08:55:25 PM »

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/08/column_play_qa_with_keith_burg.php#more

As usual, Harris does a good job.

Unsurprisingly, I hope for an eventual PC port.

624

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Triangle Wizard R 6.03 released

« on: August 01, 2009, 11:40:52 PM »

Patch R 6.03 notes:

-Bosses now always drop items.
-Added the 'of betrayal' item suffix.
-Spectre spell delay now does regenerate but at a slower rate.
-Added about 40 new unique items.
-Changing items now consumes stamina and requires the stamina bar to be full (thus you can no longer switch items constantly in combat).

http://trianglewizard.webs.com/index.htm

625

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Dungeon Adventure- the 133rd K.R.A.G

« on: July 29, 2009, 10:57:39 PM »

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=309917

Seems to be an ongoing Roguelike'ish wrangling within Civ 4, seemingly under the auspices of this Fall from Heaven 2 mod that's making good progress.

I really should get around to looking into Civ 4 and this Fall from Heaven chatter I see now and then here and there...

626

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / UnReal World: Stuff happening!

« on: July 25, 2009, 08:05:12 PM »

http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html   Been quite awhile since anything on this longstanding game, but apparently a bit over a month back it gained some juicy update bits that are in the works.  Check the site for the actual color coding since, well,....

"The biggest and the most time-consuming changes in the version in development are about the maps of the game. There's a whole new random world generator and also zoomed-in map generation is going to be pretty much overhauled. Some other interesting new features have been also mentioned in the list below, but the minor changes and squashed bugs will stay unlisted.
...and here we go:

* A new random world generator.
- the world is six times bigger than previously having a bunch of whole new terrain types
- all the cultures can be found on the very same map
- the land of the Njerpez is also there!
(...and this is only a scratch of this HUGE addition put in brief)

* A working character migration from the previous version also bringing your homestead on the new map.

* Zoomed-in map generation overhaul.
- there will be more diversity, more detail and more beautiful graphic presentation

* A working terrain height curves on zoomed-in maps resulting in crags, cliffs and hills of different height etc. giving a new graphical and tactical approach to zoomed-in traveling, hunting and combat.

* NPC combat AI and maneuvers improved including archery for NPCs

* People do pay more attention to your behaviour at their territory; making fires and setting traps all around the village won't be overlooked no more.

* Tracks on zoomed-in maps.
- animals do leave tracks on zoomed-in maps also for you to spot and follow
- this may sound like a simple addition but just wait for the effect to wake up in the morning to find some bear tracks circling around your animal pen"

627

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Plague 3.36 released

« on: July 23, 2009, 09:10:35 PM »

http://plague-like.blogspot.com/

"Plague is a real-time top down "rogue-like" arena shooter pitting human survivors against the Zombie Horde, inspired by the games XCOM, Syndicate and Gauntlet."


"Changes:

    * Flamethrower (oh so much fun)
    * city type level generation
    * random level type
    * level generation paramerisations randomly picked to increase level unpredictability
    * Changed collision checking to be event based (speed op)
    * Removed various bugs (sorry, cant remember, too tired)

Todo in the near future:

    * cave system type level generation
    * RL_bullet bug - sometimes explodes straight away as it collides with RL (need to add a min safety dist check)
    * tile based background
    * doors
    * add more survivors, less weapons and make them start at random locations
    * check shadowing algorithm for bugs (sim removal sometimes removes too much shadow)
    * human corpses
    * zombies drag corpses back to hives
    * refactor level generation as a state machine to control level generation outcomes"

Very nifty stuff at this point with more to come in due time from the looks of it!

628

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Triangle Wizard R 6.02 released

« on: July 22, 2009, 11:42:21 AM »

Patch R 6.02 Notes:

-Manipulate Device spell can now correctly be targeted.
-Added message about maximum item carry capacity to F1 screen.
-The Tournament can now be won. In addition several awards can be won by the player.
-Fixed a few typos.
-Small chance that players start with a family heirloom (rare item).
-Added several new item suffixes and prefixes.
-Rare items now allow several more prefixes and suffixes.
-Fixed a bug where rare items wouldn't work with all prefixes and suffixes.
-The Rebellion can now be won by either side and there is an item reward unique for both outcomes.
-You can now give spare items to your summons/allies by pressing Page Up on them. Each may only equip a single item at the time though!
-Uniques generated with a random item now have that item equipped (if possible and when it isn't a use once item).
-Boss monsters now all drop items, and have a higher chance of dropping rare or unique items than normal monsters.
-Characters killed by the use/misuse of magical items now have a unique cause of death instead of suicide.
-Creature info now displays if a creature carries an item.

http://trianglewizard.webs.com/index.htm

Definitely a game changer in terms of the items and how the Tournament plays out...apparently this Rebellion bit too but I never happened to reach it.   

629

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / 3069 v2.0 released

« on: July 21, 2009, 07:02:33 PM »

v2.0 (Major Release):
* Many graphical improvements and additions, including particle effects, lighting, texturing and anti-aliasing
* Torches and orbs glow light, and you can now sneak in the shadows at night
* Night options (e.g. always/never/cycle nighttime)
* New "protect item" job -- everyone is after you, can you survive?
* Changed the storyline to more accurately portray my original intention
* Strong attackers can now destroy trees and walls to get to you!
* Now your player slides along walls to make moving in tight quarters easier
* Increased the size of Information Window
* Now the Earth's Crystal's direction will be revealed at the completion of every job
* Item's tab will now be properly named "Store" or "Pile", depending on what you are looking at
* Item's tab now displays number of items listed
* Added an option on the game's menu to show/hide the messages window
* Now every zone that could have a zone entrance, does
* Labels now exist for common armor types listed on the Item's tab
* Now the last window position is saved and restored upon restarting 3069
* BALANCING: Slightly reduced the sell-back rate on items
* BALANCING: Programming is now more difficult to accomplish successfully
* BUG FIXED: Messages being lost when closing the messages window
* BUG FIXED: Killing/damaging yourself in a liquid caused faction changes
* BUG FIXED: Could not teleport into liquids
* BUG FIXED: Could walk through walls/trees next to liquids
* BUG FIXED: Jobs had level 0 targets
* BUG FIXED: You could not destroy terrain job targets in a town
* BUG FIXED: Target was not refreshed when dropping an item
* BUG FIXED: Invisibility was unreliable when attacking a friendly target
* BUG FIXED: Could not pickup items that were on a just destroyed/mined target
* BUG FIXED: Job item was not detected as a job item if you were holding it when reloading 3069
* BUG FIXED: Some mixed ETU's recharge cost were negative
* BUG FIXED: Cave passages were being replaced by ruins and floors
* BUG FIXED: Liquids were being generated and spread on zone borders without slowing effects

Who doesn't love a substantial update?

http://sites.google.com/site/free3069/Story

630

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Adjust thy eyes: Egoboo 2.7.4 stable is released upon the world

« on: July 21, 2009, 02:05:32 AM »

http://egoboo.sourceforge.net/

This has been an insanely long time coming.  This would be like a v2.0 of SoulFu popping up someday.

"Changelog
Version 2.7.4 (19.07.2009)
- New Feature: New menu section for Game Options where you can change the game difficulty.
- New Feature: New town module! Visit Sandweg city in the deserts and taste the juicy Kabobs!
- New Feature: Another new music track for Sandweg by Edward Blakely!
- New Feautre: 4 new divine spell runes.
- New Feature: Added a new secret class into the game - The Tourist Starter!
- New Feature: The first Hero class has been added - The Archmage! The Hero class system
allows characters to evolve into a new specialized class after beating a quest.
- Update: Improved model for the Katana weapon.
- Update: Spell Books are priced individually now. Rarer and better spell books are more
expensive than common and low-level books.
- Update: Finally a new updated Game Manual.
- Update: Added new Medkit item to the Archaeologist Starter.
- Update: Rust Eaters now deal extra damage to characters wearing metal armor.
- Update: A new NPC added to Bishopia.
- Update: Confusion effects no longer stack, instead now only the longer effect is applied.
- Update: Life and Mana potions can now be Enchanted into super potions.
- Update: Poison bottles can now be thrown with the Poison Use skill.
- Update: New sound effect for speed potions.
- Update: Truesight now allows characters to read scriptures and even use scrolls.
- Update: Minotores now have grab, drop and parry animations.
- Update: Various new and improved title images.
- Update: Added some more extensive debugging and graphics initialization routines.
- Update: Major updates to the lightning engine.
- Update: Rings now sparkle so that they are more visible.
- Update: Improved Linux and Macintosh compatability.
- Update: Some various rebalancing.
- Update: Improved the Hell Rover AI and added some new animations.
- Bugfix: Scrolls, books and torches now properly ignite in contact with fire.
- Bugfix: Fixed endless particle spawning bug in Catacombs 1.
- Bugfix: Fixed backstabs not being properly triggered.
- Bugfix: Fixed numerous bugs in the K'nife's Heist sidequest module.
- Bugfix: You can no longer put random items in a detection passage to keep doors open.
- Bugfix: Fixed regeneration spell giving mana when sustained instead of costing.
- Bugfix: Changed the bounding box for various objects so that is matches it's size.
- Bugfix: Fixed Bargel still using old version of Burning Hands spell
- Bugfix: Fixed some bugs in the Book of Rot spell.
- Bugfix: Added a fix to ensure that shop items are never Kursed.
- Bugfix: Particle reflections work properly again.
- Bugfix: Jungle warriors are now properly afraid of water.
- Bugfix: Invisible chests in the Shadow Palace should no longer be visible.
- Bugfix: Fixed bug that halved the mana cost for deflecting projectiles.
- Bugfix: Switches can no longer be killed.
- Bugfix: Egoboo should no longer crash in 24-bit color mode.
- Bugfix: Fixed some minor particle rendering bugs.
- Bugfix: Significant tweaks to improve the physics engine.
- Bugfix: Land Mines should work properly again.
- Bugfix: Fixed numerous bugs in the final boss fight.
- Bugfix: Ghouls should no longer return from the dead when already alive.
- Bugfix: Fixed impassable passage in Catacombs 1.
- Bugfix: Fixed a serious bug that caused the quest system to fail.
- Bugfix: Fixed bug that made the Global Object Repository to fail on Windows.
- Bugfix: Minor graphics fixes.
- Bugfix: Fixed the Unlock spell having unlimited range.
- Bugfix: Mosquitoes should now properly increase size when filled with blood.
- Bugfix: Intelligence and wisdom bonus effect to spells should now work properly again.
- Bugfix: The Giant Scorpion boss music should now play properly.
- Bugfix: Mephits stop flying when killed now.
- Bugfix: Fixed experience bonus from high intelligence and wisdom not working.
- Bugfix: Beneficial spells can now properly target allies.
- Bugfix: Enchantments that give Kurse Seeing should properly work now.
- Bugfix: Looped sounds should now work again.
- Bugfix: Fixed some buggy spawning points.
- Note: The Worldmap module was removed until it is in a more finished state. "

The "real" changlog is freaking massive in terms of the mini-devs up to this stable point....I'll just link it.

http://egoboo.sourceforge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1

90MB file dl....what crazy times we live in.