Messages

61

Classic Roguelikes / Re: Never beat Crawl? Enter here! :-)

« on: October 15, 2009, 07:32:24 AM »

Be very, very careful when entering the Orcish Mines. You'll get ganged up on a lot, so make sure you have teleportation or controlled blink, preferably berserk, might or haste, and several potions of heal wounds. Remember that orc priests can kill you in just a couple of turns if you have 72 HP.

My advice would be to get poison resistance if possible, locate the Lair, and clear it. Once you've done that, you'll have gained enough experience to clear the Orcish mines more easily.

(Edit: As a MiBe you have berserk ability from Trog, of course, so forget about haste and might. I'd try to raise AC and SH though; find plated armour and a shield, cloak, and gloves, and enchant them if you can. I'd also try to (pseudo-)identify those wands; some of them are great for crowd control. The book you're carrying would make a nice orc roaster, too. Your ring of see invisible can be helpful against orc wizards.)

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Never beat Crawl? Enter here! :-)

« on: October 14, 2009, 12:07:17 PM »

I don't think that's a good way to go for too long. Your max HP will increase at level-up if you have higher fighting skill, but massive HP alone won't get you there in the long run. I'm no expert, but I prefer generalising in the early game and specialising in the late game.

For instance, regardless of race, I always put some XP in traps & doors (disarming harmless traps so I won't blunder into nastier traps lateron) and throwing darts (so I stand a chance against NPCs with strong melee attacks, without having to drain all my wands or mana). I find it very helpful, although I guess it depends on playing style.

But who knows, results could be spectacular for races with good fighting aptitude. If you try this, could you keep track of your PC's max HP and fighting skill at each level-up, and post it?

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Never beat Crawl? Enter here! :-)

« on: October 12, 2009, 03:02:07 PM »

I don't understand the food-issue.. Why don't you just chop up some corpse (one that is not poisonous) right before/right after you get hungry? 'C'hop up those corpses, use a sharp weapon! My experience with vampires is that.. they suck!

Food shouldn't be an issue in the early game. In some locations in the later game, like labyrinths and branches populated with monsters that don't leave edible corpses, it can be. If you stockpile and stash food in the early game, and eat corpses whenever possible, you'll avoid food problems in the late game.

Is it just me, or is combat in this game ridiculously random?  Like sometimes I'll hit a guy once and he'll die, and sometimes I'll swing at a guy of the same type 10 times, hitting twice for about one hit point's worth of damage each.

Combat isn't all that random in my experience. It's exceptional that the RNG appears to roll against you for a longer period. Usually there's a reason. You may be wearing an uncursed unidentified amulet of inaccuracy, or just switched to a heavier armour type, which makes it much harder to hit things. Or your opponent is lucky enough to be wearing en enchanted piece of armour.


Edit:

I'll return for advice as soon as I've managed to get another one killed (i.e., soon).

I said soon, not immediately.

McNugget the L10 Mountain Dwarf Fighter, Elder of Okawaru, was unlucky enough to go down the stairs to D:11, only to be immediately surrounded by a colourful band of orcs. Bravely, he fled upstairs, hoping to lure the orcs into passageway, and finish them one by one. Great was his terror when, back on D:10, he faced the mocking grin of a newly spawned hungry ghost, blocking the only way out. An orc, an orc fighter, and an orc priest happily proceeded to beat him to a pulp. He read a teleport scroll, quickly downed his last potion of heal wounds, and uttered an intensely profane curse word at the orc priest, before being smitten by Beogh...

Useful items were kind of scarce this time. The only good item I found was a +2 chain mail with 2 levels of fire resistance, which I plucked off a dead unique (probably Edmund on D:6). The only artefact I found was a randart -4 large shield with -5 Int, which is a good joke (unless you're a troll, in which case it's a moderately funny instakill).

I guess the lesson I've learned from this is to be careful around staircases when surrounded. I might've made it if I immediately teleported on D:11 in stead of fleeing upstairs. Only after reading the morgue file I realized I could've escaped on D:10, just by zapping my recharged wand of digging.

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Never beat Crawl? Enter here! :-)

« on: October 12, 2009, 07:52:34 AM »

I'm with you Omnivorous. I've beaten Crawl only once, in v4b26. That was a long time ago, and hardly qualifies for the Stone Soup versions. After a long hiatus, I picked up Stone Soup somewhere around the release of v0.5.0.

My characters usually die early (overconfidently entering the Orcish Mines or the Snake Pit) or somewhere around character level 15-17, carrying one or two runes. Recently I've taken up the plan to play only Mountain Dwarf Fighters (with Axes, worshipping Okawaru) because it's said this is the most powerful combination to play.

I'll return for advice as soon as I've managed to get another one killed (i.e., soon).

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Other Announcements / Re: A simple roguelike?

« on: October 02, 2009, 10:30:50 AM »

Stone Soup has a very steep learning curve? It has a tutorial mode and a DWIM key for exploration. What more do you want?

Of course players shouldn't expect to win the game in under four years of trying, but that's not a learning curve, that's a stubbornness curve.

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Other Announcements / Re: Help finding an old game

« on: October 02, 2009, 08:40:28 AM »

Vista sure doesn't like this game! I'll need to move it over to my XP comp in order to relive the glory days.

Have you tried running it in DosBox?

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Specific Question for Crawl

« on: September 30, 2009, 09:21:49 PM »

* Slaps Omnivorous.

Didn't I tell you to pay attention to Corremns warning, dammit?


About that mighty scythe of yours... I just started a Troll Berserker run and happened to come across the artefact Scythe of Curses. It has base damage 14, and +11, +11 bonuses. It also appears to have the very exceptional property of occasionally cursing a random item in your inventory. Could that be it?

Also, unless a pack of abominations invited you to a footie match at the Swamp, I assume you mean you found your first Rune ever. Nevertheless, good job.

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: Specific Question for Crawl

« on: September 30, 2009, 09:25:06 AM »

Armour skill reduces the evasion penalty of heavy armour types, and increases the AC bonus of all armour types. As far as I know there's nothing more to it.

Cursing works as Corremn explained. It applies only to worn/wielded items and makes you unable to remove them until they're uncursed. Cursing doesn't affect bonuses or any other properties. They don't apply to your character, or potions, or scrolls, as they do in ADOM. I haven't heard of an item being able to curse other items either, although some items may recurse themselves if you uncurse and re-equip them, and mummies may cast spells that curse random items in your inventory.

Does the artefact have a description that says it curses other items? And are you sure that the scythe you found had +15 bonus? As far as I remember, most weapons can be enchanted up to +9. If this one has +15, and you have some polearms skill, I'd go back for it.

Also, please heed Corremns advice about the Elven Halls and clear the Swamp first. Unless you have warding, magic resistance and controlled teleport.

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Other Announcements / Re: Difficulty

« on: September 24, 2009, 07:09:11 AM »

This is an awesome idea, first.

It was just a joke aimed at Krice's remark about gardening and fishing, of course. But I can see his point. I often enjoy mundane or trivial tasks in RLs, too. Like herb gardening in ADOM or collecting slime molds in Angband. The way Dwarf Fortress allows you to shape your surroundings or do random things for their own sake is an excellent example.

Also, I've been considering a type of roguelike in which death doesn't affect the contents of a special "bank account". This would make death not really death, while maintaining a certain element of risk. Also, has anyone ever implemented MMORPG like death in roguelikes? There are many different ways in the MMORPG industry of dealing with player death, and any of them could easily be applied to roguelikes...

I once thought of your 'bank account' suggestion as having a starting village, much like the one in Angband. Every player character's corpse is buried in the village's graveyard, which serves as a score list. All items from the dead character's inventory can be bought from the village shop from that point on. Or the player could choose to play the child of the deceased character, who inherits some their late parent's possessions at the start of the game. I don't know if it would work in practice, but I like the idea.

MMORPG death as in WoW-style death doesn't appeal to me at all. If a game treats you fairly, death is usually the ultimate consequence of taking too much risk. If the game allows you to prevent death by developing your playing skills, I think permadeath increases the excitement of escaping from threatening situations. Permadeath makes me care for the character I'm playing, much more than if I'm given the opportunity to return to a previously saved game or a checkpoint.

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Other Announcements / Re: Difficulty

« on: September 23, 2009, 12:14:49 PM »

You notice a dandelion.
You pick the dandelion.
The dandelion dies.
A tiny ant comes into view.
The tiny ant crawls onto you. (x3)
You cut back the rose bush.
Your (+3, +1) Gloves of Gardening resist.
Now wielding an irredescent fishing rod.
It sticks to your hands!
Identified the (-5, -4) Fishing Rod of the Ancients.
Really drink from the pool? (Y/n)
A brown frog appears.
The brown frog hits you.
Ouch! That really hurt!
You die...

71

Programming / Re: My random dungen generator

« on: September 18, 2009, 09:14:41 AM »

Great looking maps, Corremn. Are you using fixed size or dynamic room templates? I like the bending corridors, too.

Krice is right though, the circular room in the bottom right is disconnected. I'd also avoid adjacent doors (appearing twice in the second level).

Unfortunately, 22 seconds for generation isn't acceptable for a game. If you can't get it below five seconds on a substandard CPU, consider pre-generation of the entire dungeon at game start and reading levels from file as required.

I'd be very interested in the source code (or pseudocode), if you're willing to share it.

72

Classic Roguelikes / Re: ADOM - tips & strategies

« on: August 18, 2009, 07:58:26 AM »

What's the "probable source of Literacy"?  Are there a lot of Dark Sages to eat in there?

Yep. They occasionally pop up between ID:10 - 15. They're not very common though. I used to train Food Preservation early to increase the odds of a Dark Sage leaving a corpse.

However, it is fun to play as a Troll Bard, since you'll usually be literate already and you get a bear to do your killing for you in the Small Cave (since their xp doesn't cause the monster's level to rise).

I never played a bard of any race, but this is a silly enough reason to give it a try.

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Classic Roguelikes / Re: ADOM - tips & strategies

« on: August 17, 2009, 08:38:37 AM »

I used to play lots of trolls; they're the easiest race to play in the early game. Their high food consumption and low intelligence/experience gain is a problem, but not before the middle game. The Small Cave isn't too hard if you avoid unnecessary killing, but this doesn't get you any experience. The Puppy Cave can be dangerous to any low level character, even a troll. If you don't like Infinite Dungeon grinding, try taking the Yrrigs quest first. The Village Dungeon is a safe place to level up and get Healing, before going to the Small Cave or the Puppy Cave. An advantage to grinding the Infinite Dungeon though, is that there's a probable source of Literacy. The upper levels of the Caverns of Chaos are also good for initial levelling, but I've lost more than a few low level characters to wilderness encounters on the way there.

The lesson I've learned from playing trolls is not to play trolls, if you want to get anywhere near the late game. They're great for getting the hang of survival, and for the occasional reckless beastfighter hooliganism.

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Other Announcements / Re: Roguelike with a "world"?

« on: April 14, 2009, 01:22:48 PM »

You've tried ADOM, right? It has a world map with cities, dungeons, NPCs and side quests. The map is static, but it should keep you busy for a while.

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Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Realtime Roguelike

« on: June 16, 2008, 09:04:35 PM »

There are some realtime roguelikes around. Recently, I've seen Chronicles of Doryen and Doryen Arena. Dwarf Fortress is realtime in fortress mode, I've never played adventure mode though. There's also an older 'stepwise realtime' roguelike, written in VB6; I think it was called QRogue, but I'm not sure.

Personally I don't think that a roguelike should be turn-based per se. I do prefer turn-based, because it allows me to think about my next move. A realtime roguelike would have to have simpler controls and gameplay than a turn-based roguelike. Inventory management or spellcasting would have to allow quick access, or should be dropped altogether. I don't see why a real-time game would force players to use a mouse, though; using a keyboard is usually quicker.

Offering players a choice between realtime and turn-based is a nice thing to do, but I think it would be very hard to make a game that is both playable in realtime and challenging in turn-based mode. You might consider a trade-off; the game runs in realtime while you're safe, and switches to turn-based as soon as a NPC is in sight.

A multiplayer roguelike would be downright awesome. As far as I'm concerned, this would be the one justification for creating a realtime roguelike. It would have to offer competitive gameplay besides coop though.

Finally, if at all you care about the size of your target audience, go with the realtime idea, and drop roguelikes altogether.