Messages

46

Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Is England world's biggest open-air museum?

« on: December 03, 2013, 10:12:27 PM »

The problem is that there is lot of talk about "integration" but I think it's not something that will happen or that it's easily achieved. We already have a great example of ethnic group that really did not integrate well: romanis. They still pretty much live their ancient culture and refuse to integrate. Such strong culture background should be carefully remembered when talking about integration that possibly will never happen. I think this is also the reason why there has been problems with different ethnic/cultural groups. If you put two of those in the same country it's either bad or very bad idea.

Krice, what if you were a member of a cultural group like the ones you described and you wanted to move to Finland to start a better life?  Wouldn't you want to be given a chance?  I mean, you say that Finland is the greatest country in the world.  So, doesn't it make sense to you that people would want to move there?

Just out of curiousity, do you know any Romanis personally?  Or have you had some sort of bad experience an individual from that group in the past that colors your views of them?

Again, I know the US has it's share of immigration problems, so I'm certainly not trying to say that we are somehow "better" than Finland.  I'm just trying to better understand your personal perspective on these issues.

47

Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Is England world's biggest open-air museum?

« on: December 03, 2013, 05:39:33 AM »

Thanks for taking the time to explain that, Aging Minotaur.

For instance, it becomes somehow a self fulfilling prophesy that schools with many immigrant children are badly integrated, with more violent/uneasy kids and a lower academic level than schools in whiter, posher areas.

Yes, that makes a lot of sense, actually.

48

Player's Plaza / Re: Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - The Ancient Cave

« on: December 01, 2013, 08:25:59 AM »

Hello,

With some exceptions, I have been playing The Ancient Cave sidequest in Lufia II via Gift Mode almost exclusively for about 13 years now.  I want to see what else is out there that is easy to access (like on a console). I am hoping for recommendations, especially from those familiar with The Ancient Cave.

What I like about the AC:

1.  Console game
2.  Turn-based
3.  Death takes away everything
4.  Classic RPG theme (I'm not into aliens, zombies, apocalyptic themes, etc)
5.  Uses tiles - strategy of learning enemy sprite movements and getting surprise attacks when possible
6.  Large amount of cool stuff to find in treasure chests - the sheer randomness of finding a rarity

What I also like about the AC is that it's easy to create new challenges for myself.  After beating the AC for the first time, I started challenging myself with the following in chronological order:

- all party combinations
- start from scratch (no use of the Blue Chest treasures that can be brought in from previous runs)
- 3-character, and then 2-character combinations (and some solo runs)
- KEE (kill every enemy)
- KEENID (kill every enemy, no use of instant death)

Oh, and I have one more question, just out of curiosity.  Even if it didn't conform to all your specifications, would you be open to a game were hope itself didn't exist, at least until you discovered it?  If so, I have suggestion for you.

49

Player's Plaza / Re: Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - The Ancient Cave

« on: December 01, 2013, 08:19:20 AM »

According to Auron 402's FAQ on gamefaqs, you are quite renowned at navigating the ancient cave.  He says this, regarding you:

   Squeealer, who is definitely the most crazed Ancient Cave aficionado that I
   have ever encountered.  Squeealer has become so proficient at navigating the
   many perils of the Ancient Cave that just to keep things interesting, he not
   only refuses to use accumulated Blue Chest items, but he also sends Maxim in
   to the Cave ALONE!  I have probably learned more from him about the workings
   of the Ancient Cave than I have from anyone else, and I really enjoy being
   able to talk to someone who understands my fascination with the AC.  His
   very informative FAQ can now be found here on GameFAQs at 
   http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/588451/43439
   Thanks for everything!

I'm very impressed.  And since you've been exploring the AC for 13 years(!!!???) now, perhaps this thread should really be about what advice would give to future roguelike game makers.  Given all your experience, how would you recommend they proceed in creating a roguelike?

50

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: December 01, 2013, 07:06:36 AM »

And even within the RPG genre we obviously can all see the value in permadeath because otherwise we wouldn't be posting on the roguelike forums.

There is value in it, I definitely agree.

But...Do you think that, say, Zelda, or Dragon Quest would be better with its presence?  Just curious.  Because I thought that you were arguing that games today were deviating from the precedent set by those earlier games?

EDIT: I'm certainly open to that argument, incidentally, I'm just curious as to where exactly you would take it.

51

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: December 01, 2013, 06:10:08 AM »

It's so strange to me that this isn't the norm anymore.

Hmmm.  It suddenly strikes me that the original Zelda or Dragon Warrior are games that "you couldn't lose", at least by this definition.  And they are pretty fundamental defining in the adventure/RPG genre, wouldn't you say, Vanguard? 

In fact, based on what you are saying, it seems like (console and many computer) RPG's have been "unlose-able" from the beginning.  "Perma-death" seems like an addition to an already existant genre, more than anything else.

52

Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Is England world's biggest open-air museum?

« on: December 01, 2013, 05:50:46 AM »

It may be less blatant in Sweden, where antiracist sentiments are strong in media and to a certain extent in mainstream politics (even though the police practice racial profiling and monitors Swedish gypsies as a "suspect group"). In Denmark and Norway, however, xonophobia has run rampant for about a decade.

That's really sad, Minotauros.  And yes, I do realize that xenophobia is very much a reality in the USA also.  However, xenophobia is still tragic, no matter where it is occurring.  What do you think is the driving factor behind it in Scandinavian countries?

53

Early Dev / Re: The Veins of the Earth development feedback 12/11/2013, v.0.11.0 beta 3.4)

« on: December 01, 2013, 03:18:40 AM »

Version 0.12.0 ('There's a lot of monsters out there") is out, just in time for the modules contest!

I expanded some descriptions to clear up some misunderstandings and added the feat description tooltips.

A message after eating is a very good idea, to come whenever there's a next release! This month has been really hectic, with a record-breaking number of commits in order to make it as enjoyable as possible for the players...

It looks really good so far.  I'm glad that you added paladins.  I know you said before that there isn't enough to distinguish them from other classes like clerics, but I still think they're pretty cool.

It looks like the modules contest something that we could vote in maybe after December the first?  I would be happy to support VotE if that's the case.

EDIT: Never mind, I found where to vote.  I think maybe that section wasn't up yet when I originally posted this.

54

Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Is England world's biggest open-air museum?

« on: November 29, 2013, 02:14:48 AM »

By pretending it doesn't exist, as Krice so elegantly demonstrated in his latest comments I say this being born and raised in Norway, which is one of the world's "most democratic" countries by any standard.

So, what country in that area (Sweden, Norway, Finland) is the most welcoming to outsiders and the easiest to integrate into, language and culture wise? 

55

Design / Re: An old wild west roguelike? Ideas.

« on: November 29, 2013, 12:38:42 AM »

You might have a look at this tutorial, which seems to cover the basics pretty thoroughly.

As CrowderTrousers said, the CLI (that you get from just typing "python" (or what the executable may be called) in a terminal) is good for quick experiments. But you should save your script as a text file, which you can then execute with "python \path\to\file.py". If a copy of the libtcodpy module is located in the same directory as your script, it should be imported normally. Hope that helps.

As always,
Minotauros

Thanks again, AgingMinotaur.  I'll check out the link, and I'll try to apply what you are saying.

56

Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Is England world's biggest open-air museum?

« on: November 28, 2013, 02:47:56 AM »

Probably yes, but it's also a matter of how criminal they can get before they are removed by the system.

So, what how do they accomplish that in other countries?  Removing corrupt officials, I mean.  I'm also curious how they prevent people with money from buying power.

57

Programming / Re: Realism in Roguelikes

« on: November 28, 2013, 01:19:43 AM »

I just wanted to say one more time that if anyone is interested in discussing hunger/thirst/temperature management/realistic injury modeling I'd still like to hear what you girls/guys have to say.

Otherwise I won't post in this thread again.

58

Early Dev / Re: The Veins of the Earth development feedback 12/11/2013, v.0.11.0 beta 3.4)

« on: November 28, 2013, 12:33:01 AM »

It seems like you did add a number of explanations since the last time I played.  Or maybe I somehow missed them before?  I do feel like the explanations help a lot, either way.  I like how you can mouse over a lot of values on the character sheet and it breaks down how they are calculated. 

And now you can even name the PC.  That's cool.
 
There are a couple of things I noticed.  The step in character creation where feats are chosen seems to display them in an odd way.  Feat names, even ones that should be two words, are truncated to one word.  So, “blood vengeance” just shows up as “blood”. 

There’s no message letting you know that you are even choosing feats, as far as I can tell.  It seems like there should be some sort of message telling the player “choose a feat from the list” or whatever.  It seems like feat descriptions here would be nice so that the player knows what they are choosing, also.

I noticed there are feat and skill descriptions in the level up screen, but not on the character sheet.  Shouldn’t it be possible to view them from the character sheet also? 

Also, have you thought about displaying some sort of message after the PC eats, like, “you ate ‘x’, it was a great meal”?  Right now you just get the message “you have no more x”, which doesn’t really make it clear that the PC actually ate an item that they “used” from the inventory.  Maybe it would also be clearer what was going on if eatable items had an “eat” option, rather than just a “use” one?  It also seems like an “eat” command that takes you to a menu displaying just the PC’s food might be nice (like in ADOM).

Anyway, great job so far.  I’m looking forward to the next update.

59

Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Is England world's biggest open-air museum?

« on: November 27, 2013, 06:02:42 AM »

For the newer guys that don't know about Krice, he does this once in awhile.

Whether he's joking or not is the fun part.

The US is a plutocracy, a type of oligarchy.

I realize this is probably a dumb question, but don't a relatively homogenous group of people with money and power consistently maintain political control in all countries?

I do think krice is a cool girl/guy, and I'm not trying to pick on her/him.   However, what she/he is saying is just kind of disappointing and depressing to me.  I have always wanted to move to her/his area of the world one day, because I thought people there were the most open minded and caring of anyone on the planet.  And they still may be, I am just kind of surprised by krice's statements that seem to indicate, well, the opposite of that.

60

Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Is England world's biggest open-air museum?

« on: November 26, 2013, 11:26:44 PM »

there hasn't been a cultural shift yet.

Hasn't been in England either. When they are going to change that? And what if African countries don't want to become civilized?

I'm beginning to think this topic wasn't made as a joke.  And that worries me.