61
7DRLs / Re: [7DRL 2018][Success] POLYBOT-7
« on: August 20, 2018, 08:32:03 AM »
I watched the 1-purge run win, was very entertaining. Impressive 7DRL! Well done. Great gameplay.
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62
Design / Re: Thoughts on this identification system idea?
« on: August 18, 2018, 05:33:26 AM »
Neat idea.
Having some potions coming out as already identified, and the unidentified ones having one possible outcome out of 4 specific randomly determined ones.
Having some potions coming out as already identified, and the unidentified ones having one possible outcome out of 4 specific randomly determined ones.
63
Design / Re: Corridors considered harmful
« on: August 18, 2018, 05:23:02 AM »
Interesting opinion.
I have to admit Nethack's heavy use of corridors is one of the reasons I always preferred Adom to it (which is basically Nethack with a moustache as they say).
Corridors force indeed bidimensional tedious uninteresting play, and should be kept at the bare minimum.
I'd just put some perhaps in fixed content, but wouldn't make it possible for the map generator to place them randomly on any map.
I have to admit Nethack's heavy use of corridors is one of the reasons I always preferred Adom to it (which is basically Nethack with a moustache as they say).
Corridors force indeed bidimensional tedious uninteresting play, and should be kept at the bare minimum.
I'd just put some perhaps in fixed content, but wouldn't make it possible for the map generator to place them randomly on any map.
64
Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Caves of Qud (now at Early Access Feature Friday #131) $
« on: August 17, 2018, 11:36:12 PM »
I used to play this until May 2017, then stopped. Decided to reinstall steam and played CoQ intensively for the last few days.
Here are my impression on what has been done in those 15 months of development:
What I liked:
- Weeps don't produce unlimited pools of liquid anymore (but unfortunately occasionally large weeps can still be found), high ego espers have been made more challenging to play with but in a very interesting original way without being nerfed, and other balancing has been done; this show the devs gave importance to the players' feedback and as a result the metagame has changed making things interesting again.
- The introduction of cybernetics makes true kins more interesting to play and adds further depth and fun to the game.
- The cooking system makes food not anymore an inbuilt anti-farming component, but to be fair it never was in this game (such as in many others.. actually there's only a few games such as DCSS which kinda achieve that purpose with food) as now anyone can always find food just camping anywhere, and the point of advanced food becomes gaining various bonuses. Fun and different nevertheless, positive implementation.
- Being able to chose the starting village is also a nice addition; Joppa is beautiful but everything gets tiring after a while.
- The soundtrack! Was already fantastic, and new awesome tracks have been added. Big, big, big factor in enhancing the mystique and atmosphere of this game.
What I didn't like:
- Minor things such as the inventory necessarily remaining always full of junk which can be sold for more than 4$ per unit of weight (thus better value to weight than water, and players will be carrying those items in the hope of finding merchants with a good enough item to buy such as an encyclopedia of 15 different books, clocks, pelts, hearts, useless cybernetics and weapons, etc).
- Mainly this: after15 monhts I didn't play this, it's a shame to see no visible work has been done on the fixed quests and the right area of the map still feeling very unfinished. The mutation "confusion" still says it's not yet fully implemented (yet it seems to work), and there's still no way to win the game. All of this make it feel like one is playing for the sake of testing, which I don't like. What I did enjoy the most was indeed trying to score as many points as I could with the daily and weekly challenges, but still not ideal that after the main quests have been done, there's no incentive nor direction to progress.
Summary:
I hope the development will go on and focus on removing that feeling of "unfinishedness". Adding a final battle and a couple of endings within a final quest would be good. All of the polishing can be done later.
This still remains one of my favourite roguelikes but I am now uninstalling will play CoQ again in 2019.
Here are my impression on what has been done in those 15 months of development:
What I liked:
- Weeps don't produce unlimited pools of liquid anymore (but unfortunately occasionally large weeps can still be found), high ego espers have been made more challenging to play with but in a very interesting original way without being nerfed, and other balancing has been done; this show the devs gave importance to the players' feedback and as a result the metagame has changed making things interesting again.
- The introduction of cybernetics makes true kins more interesting to play and adds further depth and fun to the game.
- The cooking system makes food not anymore an inbuilt anti-farming component, but to be fair it never was in this game (such as in many others.. actually there's only a few games such as DCSS which kinda achieve that purpose with food) as now anyone can always find food just camping anywhere, and the point of advanced food becomes gaining various bonuses. Fun and different nevertheless, positive implementation.
- Being able to chose the starting village is also a nice addition; Joppa is beautiful but everything gets tiring after a while.
- The soundtrack! Was already fantastic, and new awesome tracks have been added. Big, big, big factor in enhancing the mystique and atmosphere of this game.
What I didn't like:
- Minor things such as the inventory necessarily remaining always full of junk which can be sold for more than 4$ per unit of weight (thus better value to weight than water, and players will be carrying those items in the hope of finding merchants with a good enough item to buy such as an encyclopedia of 15 different books, clocks, pelts, hearts, useless cybernetics and weapons, etc).
- Mainly this: after15 monhts I didn't play this, it's a shame to see no visible work has been done on the fixed quests and the right area of the map still feeling very unfinished. The mutation "confusion" still says it's not yet fully implemented (yet it seems to work), and there's still no way to win the game. All of this make it feel like one is playing for the sake of testing, which I don't like. What I did enjoy the most was indeed trying to score as many points as I could with the daily and weekly challenges, but still not ideal that after the main quests have been done, there's no incentive nor direction to progress.
Summary:
I hope the development will go on and focus on removing that feeling of "unfinishedness". Adding a final battle and a couple of endings within a final quest would be good. All of the polishing can be done later.
This still remains one of my favourite roguelikes but I am now uninstalling will play CoQ again in 2019.
65
Design / Re: Major sins in game designs. The ones which ruin million $ games.
« on: August 14, 2018, 04:32:45 AM »
Another thing which isn't really about poor design per se but I still don't really like: when the game holds the player's hand too much.
E.g. deus ex, baldur's gate, all those games with limited dialogue options that make it trivial to go through the main mission.
Wizardry 8 here does an excellent job: the player can actually write freely to NPC the topics he would like to know more about, and the whole world feels like having much more secrets this way. The draw back is that most players today would resort to crappy online ad-ridden spoiler things, which also has to be counted in for what concenrs the user experience, so all in all I would say I am not completely certain about this point and how to make moder player re-experience that kind of 90s sensation when playing games where there was no access to spoilers and one had to figure out things by himself. Took me several months how to figure out the goddamn 9 platforms room in EOB2, but hey it was so incredibly rewarding to manage to go through that level it actually felt like I lived that adventure myself. With spawning gargoyles immune to nonmagical weapons, gelatinous cubes devouring party's items, entry door sealed with no possible return to the forest, and on top of that magically induced nightmares which made it impossible for the party to rest and regain hp and spells. A+ hardcore oldschool experience.
E.g. deus ex, baldur's gate, all those games with limited dialogue options that make it trivial to go through the main mission.
Wizardry 8 here does an excellent job: the player can actually write freely to NPC the topics he would like to know more about, and the whole world feels like having much more secrets this way. The draw back is that most players today would resort to crappy online ad-ridden spoiler things, which also has to be counted in for what concenrs the user experience, so all in all I would say I am not completely certain about this point and how to make moder player re-experience that kind of 90s sensation when playing games where there was no access to spoilers and one had to figure out things by himself. Took me several months how to figure out the goddamn 9 platforms room in EOB2, but hey it was so incredibly rewarding to manage to go through that level it actually felt like I lived that adventure myself. With spawning gargoyles immune to nonmagical weapons, gelatinous cubes devouring party's items, entry door sealed with no possible return to the forest, and on top of that magically induced nightmares which made it impossible for the party to rest and regain hp and spells. A+ hardcore oldschool experience.
66
Design / Major sins in game designs. The ones which ruin million $ games.
« on: August 14, 2018, 04:08:59 AM »
I don't write enough in this sub-board but it is actually my favourite one.
I'd like to hear your views about those game design sins which we find too often in games, and actually frequently oin those "top notch" ones which roll millions in costs and profits.
I'll start with two of those which I despise the most, both of which come from poor game balancing.
I. Level scaling.
Example: Wizardry 8, Witcher 3
The whole thrill of levelling up gets diluted, and monsters which are supposed to be lower threats become unrealistically tough (e.g. kicking dragons asses and then being knocked out by a city guard on witcher 3).
Some ideas on how to fix:
1. instead of making the same enemy stronger as the game progresses, it's better to increase its quantity, or to make bigger enemies appear
2. make low threat enemies still potentially annoying (e.g. paralizing/confusing/leveldecreasing/statdecreasing/itemdestroying/itemcursing attacks); this way less powerful enemies can still and always remain threats.
3. Increase the breadth of variety of possible enemies which can spawn randomly. Yes, hobgoblins still can spawn when you are high level and this is great because by them being now no-challenge you actually feel high level. But their likelyhood to appear is decreased, whereas now that you reached level 37 there is a possibility you will encounter high level bandits, or swamp dragons, etc.
II. Level restrictions on equippable items
Example: Witcher 3, Diablo.
Such restriction can come in 2 ways. Either enemies just don't drop out of depth stuff, or you do find it but it's unequippable until you reach a certain level.
Again, something like this completely removes the thrill of winning against an out of depth enemy to find out of depth loot, and makes the whole game feel like a book or a movie rather than an interactive challenge.
Possible ideas on how to fix:
1. Equipment can become cursed, corroded, or can be destroyed or stolen or lose enchantments (e.g. Nethack).
2. Make battles non trivial even with superb equipment. Make multiple aspects of the "perfect build" to be needed, and no no-brainers.
I'll come out with more, feel free to add.
I'd like to hear your views about those game design sins which we find too often in games, and actually frequently oin those "top notch" ones which roll millions in costs and profits.
I'll start with two of those which I despise the most, both of which come from poor game balancing.
I. Level scaling.
Example: Wizardry 8, Witcher 3
The whole thrill of levelling up gets diluted, and monsters which are supposed to be lower threats become unrealistically tough (e.g. kicking dragons asses and then being knocked out by a city guard on witcher 3).
Some ideas on how to fix:
1. instead of making the same enemy stronger as the game progresses, it's better to increase its quantity, or to make bigger enemies appear
2. make low threat enemies still potentially annoying (e.g. paralizing/confusing/leveldecreasing/statdecreasing/itemdestroying/itemcursing attacks); this way less powerful enemies can still and always remain threats.
3. Increase the breadth of variety of possible enemies which can spawn randomly. Yes, hobgoblins still can spawn when you are high level and this is great because by them being now no-challenge you actually feel high level. But their likelyhood to appear is decreased, whereas now that you reached level 37 there is a possibility you will encounter high level bandits, or swamp dragons, etc.
II. Level restrictions on equippable items
Example: Witcher 3, Diablo.
Such restriction can come in 2 ways. Either enemies just don't drop out of depth stuff, or you do find it but it's unequippable until you reach a certain level.
Again, something like this completely removes the thrill of winning against an out of depth enemy to find out of depth loot, and makes the whole game feel like a book or a movie rather than an interactive challenge.
Possible ideas on how to fix:
1. Equipment can become cursed, corroded, or can be destroyed or stolen or lose enchantments (e.g. Nethack).
2. Make battles non trivial even with superb equipment. Make multiple aspects of the "perfect build" to be needed, and no no-brainers.
I'll come out with more, feel free to add.
67
Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Cogmind (now at Beta 6)
« on: August 04, 2018, 11:49:43 AM »
I'll wait for the linux steam version.
By the way.. wow.. just watching a youtube video on the gameplay, I must say I am highly impressed; the aesthetics are impressive, very well polished roguelike with great depth of play. Congratulations and thanks for this gem.
By the way.. wow.. just watching a youtube video on the gameplay, I must say I am highly impressed; the aesthetics are impressive, very well polished roguelike with great depth of play. Congratulations and thanks for this gem.
68
Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Cogmind (now at Beta 6)
« on: August 04, 2018, 05:54:10 AM »
I really wish I could play this with steam/linux.
69
Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Caves of Qud (now at Early Access Feature Friday #131) $
« on: August 03, 2018, 02:02:18 PM »
Thank you getter and great to see you are still around :-)
Yes, just noticed how active the developers have been.. really looking forward to play this again.
Yes, just noticed how active the developers have been.. really looking forward to play this again.
Not at all, just go to the Steam page in the OP and behold a ton of updates there in the Recent News/Updates section as I've been operating at a severely reduced capacity of late.
70
Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Origin of the term - 'Roguelite'
« on: August 03, 2018, 07:48:23 AM »
I hate that word.
"RogueLite"
It's like eating soy ice cream, or unsalted stale french fries.
It's a dead end, just grabs a few components of roguelikeness and puts them into some "indie" thing which is going to be left underdeveloped and does not offer any deep gameplay.
At least that's the feeling I get every time I read that a game is a "roguelite" ha.
"RogueLite"
It's like eating soy ice cream, or unsalted stale french fries.
It's a dead end, just grabs a few components of roguelikeness and puts them into some "indie" thing which is going to be left underdeveloped and does not offer any deep gameplay.
At least that's the feeling I get every time I read that a game is a "roguelite" ha.
71
Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / You Di3D: possible new Ethereum smart contract based roguelike
« on: August 03, 2018, 07:36:25 AM »
Not sure if anyone here has ever played Ethereum smart contract based games (like the infamous horrendous cryptokitties), but they are now getting popular as most of them offer players a way to earn some money (how many players can actually make it is another matter..).
There's a team of smart contract devs called Team Justo which recently released Fomo3D, sort of a pyramid / gambling / lottery thing which attracted several million $ of capitals in a few days.
Their new project apparently is going to be a roguelike called YouDie3D, still based on ethereum and smart contracts.
Team Justo is gaining worldwide attention with their games, and thus roguelikes will also get more.. possibly.
I'll update this thread once they release the game.
There's a team of smart contract devs called Team Justo which recently released Fomo3D, sort of a pyramid / gambling / lottery thing which attracted several million $ of capitals in a few days.
Their new project apparently is going to be a roguelike called YouDie3D, still based on ethereum and smart contracts.
Team Justo is gaining worldwide attention with their games, and thus roguelikes will also get more.. possibly.
I'll update this thread once they release the game.
72
Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Caves of Qud (now at Early Access Feature Friday #131) $
« on: August 03, 2018, 07:32:06 AM »
Hi Jim, I hope you are doing well 
That's great news to hear that they found a way to balance the game and I finally decided to reinstall the game and play it again. There must be heaps of other changes since I last played it, so I will eventually write about my experience with it.
I agree with you, would be better if water was more scarce and those water generating monsters (forgot the name) were made extremely rare to find. Let's see what they came out with regarding food.
Haven't seen this thread updated in a while though, did the devs stopped updating the game?
That's great news to hear that they found a way to balance the game and I finally decided to reinstall the game and play it again. There must be heaps of other changes since I last played it, so I will eventually write about my experience with it.
I agree with you, would be better if water was more scarce and those water generating monsters (forgot the name) were made extremely rare to find. Let's see what they came out with regarding food.
Haven't seen this thread updated in a while though, did the devs stopped updating the game?
Hey Skeletor
They "balanced" Espers some time ago by creating otherworldly threats that are hungry for Espers. The more powerful a psychic you are, the more frequent and deadly their incursions. Upon defeating one of these threats, your character has a chance to gain a point of ego - which ratchets up your power and the danger. It's a great mechanic, less a nerf and more separating the progression of Espers from that of normies, which feels appropriate for intensely powerful psychics. Not sure that this predates October but there you are.
Water is very available. Personally I wish it were a bit more rare, and that merchants carried less of it around, but oh well. They've also drastically changed the way food works. Rather than having to carry around food, you instead "make camp" and can cook meals, either using ingredients or by referencing learned recipes. There's even a cooking skill tree now.
73
Non Traditional Roguelikes (Action / Realtime) / Re: Immortal Redneck - Roguelike First Person Shooter
« on: August 03, 2018, 07:28:35 AM »
It showed up on steam when I searched for "roguelikes". What are the roguelike elements in it?
74
Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Cogmind (now at Beta 6)
« on: May 21, 2018, 06:36:36 PM »
That animated gif on the OP almost has an hypnotizing effect on me. Sort of reminds me of the good times with Hard Nova in the 90s and that cartoon Starchaser The Legend of Orin. Looking forward for the release of the linux native version.
75
Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Lethal Running - about a deadly game show in a futuristic dystopian society
« on: May 18, 2018, 06:14:27 PM »
Cool!