Messages

61

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 31, 2016, 03:17:11 PM »

Vanguard - did you see the ending to my deep run yesterday? So painful. I had a lot going for me, but I needed one more trick up my sleeve...

I missed that one, but I do like to take a look when you've got a game going.  I like your lightning fast playing speed, and sometimes it's educational.

Too bad about your run, though.  This game is brutal.

You got any pro tips?  I recently learned that it's better to enter rooms vertically than horizontally.  Rooms tend to be wider than they are tall, so if you wait in the northern or southern doorway, it's more likely that an enemy will move into the spaces diagonal from your position, giving you an extra turn to react.

Whoa, I never really thought of it that way. That's important for Medusae, but that deep in the cave I don't know if I can split hairs over which room entrance I'm taking. Good stuff.

I haven't watched enough of your play yet to see if I have anything for ya. It looked like you are still finding your rhythm in searching rooms. As a time saver, I recommend the A button for repeating actions. It makes using a bow and arrows/projectiles much faster and less chance of keystroke errors.

62

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 31, 2016, 01:26:30 PM »

Vanguard - did you see the ending to my deep run yesterday? So painful. I had a lot going for me, but I needed one more trick up my sleeve...

It was Floor 21. I started in the bottom middle room and a Medusa was blocking my passage (I had a ring of stealth on). I wasted a lot of turns trying to find an alternate route until ultimately using a scroll of magic mapping, and found out that the stairs were in the adjacent room just beyond the Medusa. I thought I could beat her in hand-to-hand combat, and wanted to because I knew my wand of poly was almost out. I was barely right. With something like 12 HP left and no room to move away further I beat her with my last gasp. I hightailed it to the stairs only to find a Black Unicorn sitting on them. So then I screwed around until I had full HP, moved one space away and threw a random projectile at him. I was going to move up diagonally, then down diagonally, assume I survive the two hits, and I should have been able to go down the stairs at that point.

But when he moved one space toward me, another Medusa pops out of the hallway at the exact same time and I'm completely blocked. Out of desperation I am able to change the Black Unicorn to a Venus Flytrap, but when I use it on the Medusa it's out of charges. At this point I know it's over so I quaff a potion of monster detection. All the wasted moves has created a horde of horribles.

Looking back I don't really think there was anything I should have done differently, so at least I don't have that awful feeling of regret. Trying to find an alternate route before using up my precious scroll of magic mapping was the right move. And considering that between that scroll and the one charge of the poly, only a miracle would have made it a successful run. Hmm, but maybe not. With my ring of stealth and tons of charges on my two staves of light the key would be finding the stairs ASAP without monsters spawning. I just ran into terrible luck being forced to engage two major enemies because they were in exactly the wrong places.

This run did have a couple of firsts for me. For one, it was the first time I'd ever had a ring of stealth with enough food that I could just keep it on permanently. That was fun. It was also the first time that I had a ring of stealth on while navigating a treasure room. I still managed to bumble around and run into a Nymph who promptly stole my bow, but considering what else she could have taken I was lucky.

63

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Advanced Super Turbo Rogue Plus

« on: July 29, 2016, 06:36:33 PM »

LazyCat - it may be the wand of drain life that needs help.  I had the experience again today of trying to zap an enemy, but instead of letting me choose which direction to zap, it did so automatically as I clicked on the Zap button associated with that wand. Pretty sure my HP dropped from 38 to 19, so that's why I'm thinking drain life.

Is there a repeat function?  Like if I'm shooting a Leprechaun in a dark room, I cannot right-click on the L because I can no longer see him. I'm having to select arrows, choose shoot, then find the approximate space that will shoot the arrow in the direction of the L. Then repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

In general, I'm having trouble moving as precisely as I do with the keyboard. It can be hard to click on a specific "."  Also, I noticed when I want to move diagonally I can only do so one space at a time. If I click my destination it takes me the long way around. Not saying it should be changed, but it is a shortcoming. Precision is sometimes the difference between life and death, even when moving one space.

You sure you want all this critical feedback? 

64

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 29, 2016, 02:37:40 AM »

You can play very fast with the keyboard, maybe even faster than with the mouse version. Looks like you are playing now and playing quite quickly, so you may already have the hang of it.

CTRL+directional is the way to go. Using F to fight makes fights go much faster. I key an 8 before each search - helps searches go faster.

65

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 28, 2016, 10:47:50 PM »

Okay, so the fan translation rom is floating around out there?

66

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Advanced Super Turbo Rogue Plus

« on: July 28, 2016, 03:28:52 PM »

More notes:

When I key "e" to eat and then * to select an item to eat, either the game freezes or nothing happens.

Apparently there aren't specific scrolls of identify, but when I use the keyboard to read a scroll of identify, then select * to see the list of things I can identify, only potions appear on that list.  My other items did not.

My last run ended by a death to a Venus Flytrap. It took me from my max HP of 48 to -2. That was a little unusual. My equipment was decent with a long sword with one enchantment and an armor class 6. Since the Venus Flytrap was flawed somehow at one point in elwin's version, perhaps it just functions differently across different versions and I'm just not used to it.

I really like the "battle animation" when I use the F key to fight. It gives me a general idea of how many turns are occurring in a battle which I find to be useful information.

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 28, 2016, 03:16:56 PM »

I'm gonna take another crack at this.

I'm currently playing the IBM port of 1.1.  Is there any particular reason to prefer another version over this one?

By the way, Squeeealer, if you want to get into other games in the genre, I recommend Brogue, Sil, and the original Shiren the Wanderer.

Brogue, as you probably know, is essentially a more refined and complex version of Rogue.

Sil has what I consider to be the best tactical combat in the genre, as well as a solid and unique character building system.  It's based on JRR Tolkien's "The Silmarillion" and is very faithful to the source material.

Shiren the best consumable-based strategic gameplay I've ever seen.    Very high frequency of dangerous enemies, but it gives you the tools you need to deal with them.  Make sure to avoid the item warehouse, as it makes the game too easy.  The SNES version is slightly preferable over the DS port, but both are good.

Thanks!

I have been playing Brogue now for a little over a week. I am still learning and making tons of dumb mistakes. Part of it is that I'm stumped every time I encounter something new. Last night I finally put my efforts into an elite weapon (war hammer) and boy what an eye opener that was. But I still managed to screw it up and I died about Floor 13.

I bought Shiren for Wii last year and haven't played it yet. Is the SNES version in English? For some reason I thought it was Japanese language only.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Advanced Super Turbo Rogue Plus

« on: July 28, 2016, 01:11:09 PM »

I was sandwiched between a Bat and a Rattlesnake. I wanted to test my staff against the Rattlesnake. When I clicked on my staff and then clicked Zap, it zapped the Bat. What did I need to do to ensure it would go the direction I wanted it to?

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 28, 2016, 12:20:55 PM »

Died in a stupid way last night with a chance to go deep.  I had a two handed sword with two enchants and a STR of 18, slow monster, and light. Quagga took me from 50-something to 6. I was in a maze so I ran until I had 24 HP and tried again. Again he took me to 6. Checked my inventory and I had a bow equipped the whole time.  EFF.

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 27, 2016, 11:36:12 PM »

Question about the spear - is it supposed to be a more powerful projectile weapon than the others? Because I notice no difference and carrying one seems to take up precious inventory space. I just assumed since you only get one spear that was strongest.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate (now out)

« on: July 27, 2016, 10:02:31 PM »

How was Shiren the Wanderer for Wii received by the roguelike community?  I bought it on ebay last year, but still haven't played it.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Advanced Super Turbo Rogue Plus

« on: July 27, 2016, 10:01:14 PM »

Played some today. Because I'm so accustomed to using the keyboard, I found navigating with the mouse to be very cumbersome, but I can see how it would be helpful or more attractive to a newcomer.

I liked how you could throw projectiles with one single action instead of (what usually takes me) 3-4 actions.

I would like to see a "fight to the brink of death" command, or did I just miss it?

I like how items appear and are arranged. I found this whole system to be very useful.

I like how it says to shoot arrows. When I first started I was very confused about the fact that you "throw" arrows despite having the bow equipped. What would be incredible is if it would automatically equip the bow for you when you are shooting arrows and then automatically switch back to your last used weapon when you melee, but I realize that won't work (since equipping is an action in the melee example) and that in some desperate situations you actually need to throw an arrow without your bow.

When I was testing potions I quaffed a potion of monster detection. It prompted me with, "Heh." I thought that was weird. I started typing monster detect and keying the m made something pop up that said, "magick". I could at that point key in my label.

I quit using the mouse for moving around at some point, but used the mouse for occasional actions. On Floor 5 my game locked up. Not sure if the game had an issue or if my internet connection had a hiccup or what. I was using the keyboard to eat a ration.

I like that you were able to keep the action of moving onto an object without picking it up.

In general, the game just looked good. Crisp and clear.

73

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 27, 2016, 09:01:54 PM »

Had an odd run today that almost made the leaderboard.

I found something like five or six rings, but could only identify one of them. Fortunately, that one was a ring of regeneration. I bet one of them was a ring of stealth, and had I had that at the end I might have had a shot again.  I just didn't have the patience to test them all out, and it was really late (Troll territory) before I had a curselifter in my inventory that allowed me to see if any of them were cursed - none of them were.

I had a two handed sword (may have even found a total of three), but ZERO enchants. Also never found a scroll of monster confusion, a scroll of magic mapping, or a scroll of monster hold. I did have two scrolls of scare monster, and used those to advance in the later levels.

My armor situation was so frustrating. I found about 3 or 4 armor class 6s, but every time I encountered an Aquator it was in a hallway or in the dark and he got first move. I must have corroded about 8 different armors. Throughout the run my defense was atrocious and I took heaps of damage. I had my ring of regen to recover, but I had to burn my precious few charges of slow monster and polymorph due to a combo of low defense and relatively low attack power. Never did find waterproofing.

In the end I was dropped on Floor 24 (or 25?) right next to a dragon. I had nothing on hand I could beat him with. I tried to run but just ended up getting fried three consecutive times. Wish I could have saved one of those scrolls of scare monster - that would have been fun. And that was the point where had I had a ring of stealth it would have saved my life. I've found that on those late levels equipping the ring of stealth right before descending the stairs is a really good idea.

***Almost forgot - the most frustrating part of this run was how poor my... hit% (?) was. Against the tougher enemies I would miss over and over again. My experience level was about right and my strength was in the 15-17 range, so I don't know what the problem was.

74

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Brogue-AUDIO (1.7.4)

« on: July 19, 2016, 08:16:54 PM »

I was using Page Up/Down to adjust window size, but that would kill the audio. So I tried using ALT+Enter to maximize and that worked just fine and kept the audio. I'll have to see if it's easy to ESC out of that to check something, then go back to the game and re-maximize without affecting audio.

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Rogue - let's beat it

« on: July 19, 2016, 01:52:35 PM »

So after I wrote that response...

Well I'm a few days late...

But that's awesome!

Now that you've beat Rogue, what will be the fate of this thread? Will you tackle a separate game like nethack or a rogue derivative like Hexrogue? Or something else?

Thanks! Good question - not sure about this thread. At some points I felt like I was the only one posting heh. That also made me go back to page one. Some guy with only two posts is who started this thread. I only picked up on it about five months afterward. It was fun to see my first post asking questions about how the game works.

Yep! Per LazyCat's recommendation, I've already moved on to Brogue. So far it's capturing my attention, but it sounds like it won't take as long to beat as Rogue did. I have always wondered about Nethack, so that's also got to be a consideration.