Messages

271

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana - Release 9

« on: October 13, 2011, 07:05:19 AM »

Release 9.1 (October 13, 2011)
Fixes & changes
*Fixed a faulty message when throwing potions on monsters ("it had no apparent effect..." even when the effect was obvious. Only the message was wrong though, not the actual identification)
*You lost iron spikes if you tried to jam an open door

272

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Infra Arcana - Release 9

« on: October 12, 2011, 08:50:13 PM »

Release 9 (October 12, 2011)

http://infraarcana.wikispaces.com/Downloads


Highlights:
More elaborate skill system, potion throwing, some cool monsters, kicking, doors can be jammed with spikes...


New features
*Linux version
*Modified and expanded skill system:
~Some skills have been split (e.g. Firearms->Shotguns, Pistols, Automatics)
~You assign points instead of ranks
~The skills are ordered in groups (e.g. Stealth = Sneaking and Backstabbing)
~Putting points in one skill gives half the amount to all other skills in the same group
*New skills:
~Lore(Alchemy) - Used for identifying potions.
~Lore(Language) - Used for identifying scrolls.
*2 new unique monsters
*4 new common monsters
*Some more monster spells
*Doors can be jammed with iron spikes (j)
*Kick attack (k)
*Some attacks causes knock-back
*You can throw potions
*New symbol for walls (full square)
*Option for wall symbol (full square or '#')
*Option to skip intro-level
*Option for if 'Close', 'Bash', etc should always ask for direction
*Melee attack for fire hounds
*Command to "un-wield" missile weapons (M)

Fixes & changes
*The command to show the message log is now 'L' (used to be 'M')
*Cultists can drop scrolls and potions
*Potions and scrolls can spawn stacked
*Fixed a problem with save files messing up identified potions
*Messages in pop-up boxes are duplicated to the message history screen
*HP is raised more when gaining new levels, and starts a bit higher
*Disease lowers you to 3/4 HP instead of 1/2 HP
*Not all room entrances have doors
*Much lower masochism bonus (you could grind xp endlessly)
*Claustrophobia can not happen next to chasms
*The stairs could be hidden by certain things created by the special rooms
*More convenient configuration file (easier to choose font image)
*New AI for Fungi from Yuggoth (to avoid an exploit)
*The map is regenerated if too small
*Prevented chasms from making unreachable "islands"
*Fixed some code that may have made the game less stable

273

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana release 8

« on: October 12, 2011, 06:26:41 AM »

It seems like the game gets easier and easier as you progress, since there aren't really any new/difficult enemies.

That is exactly the case. The difficulty peaks somewhere around dungeon level 10 in your version I think.

Might have to reduce ammo drops?

Yeah I suspect that it's too much now.

Also, it wasn't just the green potion. *No* potions are identifying. I've drank lots of the same potions of different colors and still can't ID any of them. Did you find the same thing happening?

I found the error!   
It was a mistake in the save file code.

274

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana release 8

« on: October 10, 2011, 08:08:16 AM »

That's really cool. What game was it? Is there some way I can see it in action?

275

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana release 8

« on: October 09, 2011, 04:16:21 PM »

Interesting post Bear, it actually makes me want to make even more use of the bot instead of deter me from it.

I just implemented knock-back from certain weapons. It was very handy to write the basic stuff, then send a bot out with a knock-back weapon while I continued to write some UI stuff etc. Then I could do a few short tests to see the results myself, while knowing that the bot had killed hundreds of monsters without crashing the game.

I think I will add some random picking up of items, wandering around to kill all monsters, using scrolls and potions etc, to exercise  more of the code.

276

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana release 8

« on: October 09, 2011, 07:39:58 AM »

There're 999 levels?!

I just set it up so they could go infinitely deep. Ran two again yesterday that got to somewhere like 4000 levels each.

And I thought my hour of play yesterday was getting me pretty far at D13!

That is good!

The setting became a bit repetitive and boring by d8~9, and finally changed to slimy green walls by 12, though the new walls were pretty much the only improvement, so the novelty will wear off quickly, I'm sure. As I mentioned before, I'd like to see more completely different environments, like underground forests, and anything else you can think up.

There are cave levels after the slimy-wall levels.
I'm definitely gonna add the giant underground forest levels at some point!

The swamp/acid/water rooms don't really add much flavor, and seem like they're there just to be there. They look cool and all (at least the acid), but don't really mean much for gameplay (at least not that I've discovered yet).

Well the water is slower to wade through, and the mud much more so. Also, certain monsters have native rooms that populate the room if the dungeon level is deep enough for the monster level. In your version, nothing is native to the water/mud rooms, but in next version they will be home for certain fish-like creatures.

I noticed some potions don't self-identify. Had 2 green potions -> drank one -> is potion of toughness -> other one still called "green potion" -> drink it and it's a potion of toughness, too, of course.

Weird. I have not encountered this myself. Looking it up.

277

Classic Roguelikes / Re: How to be a Major Roguelike?

« on: October 08, 2011, 05:51:56 PM »

They can't be major roguelikes, because they are not roguelikes at all.

Maybe Spelunky only has some roguelike elements, but why won't you qualify DoomRL as a roguelike?

I'd like to know this as well. Not saying I disagree, just curious.

Let's see what high value factors of the Berlin interpretation says-

Random environment generation - Very primitive, but yes.
Permadeath - Yes.
Turn-based - Yes.
Grid-based - Yes.
Non-modal - Mostly yes.
Complexity - Not sure...
Resource management - Yes.
Hack'n'slash - Yes.
Exploration and discovery - Almost none as far as I remember (aside from exploring the levels).

So it may be missing two critical components, depending how you look at it. And of course you don't have to agree with this definition of a RL either.

278

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana release 8

« on: October 08, 2011, 01:56:03 PM »

Well, I made a bot that plays the game by simulating keyboard presses.

It walks towards the stairs and travels down, killing monsters in its way (the player is immortal when the bot plays). It can bash stuck doors, and if "Terrified" it will wait until the condition is cured.

I ran 5 of those simultaneously, and they each got to dungeon level 999 without any freezes or crashes.

So in total, five thousand dungeon levels traveled through without problems. I would say the game is pretty stable after all.

Maybe I'll run a 9 hour stress test while I'm at work some day after the weekend.

Edit: Turns out the bot did a good job at finding another bug. It had stopped generating keyboard events (letting me take over instead). When I explored the level at which it had stopped, I saw that the stairs were placed on a little unreachable island in a chasm. Now I can prevent this from happening.

One thing I can also use it for, is to make it refuse to step on the stairs if the rendered symbol is not ">".  Should be great for debugging cases where dungeon features and landscape are generated over the stairs.

279

Temple of the Roguelike / Re: All hail getter77, moderator of the boards!

« on: October 07, 2011, 01:49:55 PM »

Hear, hear!

280

Other Announcements / Re: Roguelike Radio podcast

« on: October 07, 2011, 09:35:52 AM »

I think the show is great, no changes necessary. Just hope you keep it up.
Maybe some sort of summary at the end, what you think the game's strong points and weak points are.

281

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana release 8

« on: October 06, 2011, 07:44:11 AM »

That really sucks:  
It has happened to me as well a few times lately (in other places). I'll see if I can fix it.

Edit: Thanks to the power of Valgrind, I stomped out a few bugs in the code. One of them may have caused the infinite loop.

I played for about an hour now - No freezes or crashes encountered.

282

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: X@COM Tech Demo (ARRP 2011)

« on: October 03, 2011, 05:20:55 AM »

I could eventually make some kind of complete installer, but for now it's just a tech demo--if it works it works

You could compile the release version in GCC using Code::Blocks, to get rid of dependency on the MSVC stuff.

283

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana release 8

« on: October 02, 2011, 04:01:48 PM »

Thank you so much for all the praise guys.

I've played several times now, and *every single time* I meet Keziah, and *every single time* I get blasted by spell after spell... slowed, diseased, blinded, you name it, while her rat bites the crap out of me. Each time I use different tactics--last time I emptied an entire shotgun on her to no avail--yet each time I die all the same. WTF?

Unique monsters spawn until you kill them. Her earliest dungeon level is 3, so from there on she will keep showing up until you deal with her. For example, she can spawn on lvl3, but you miss her and go to lvl 4, she spawns there again and you miss her again, go to lvl 5, this time she doesn't spawn, but on lvl 6 she spawns again and you kill her, thus getting rid of her permanently.

This is because there are so few unique monsters so far, so I wanted to make sure the player encountered them. I'm currently adding more though, so I may change it so they can only spawn once.

However there is one thing I like about the current method; Revenge. You can flee, and attack later when you're stronger.

Concerning difficulty; Sometimes she seems trivial to me. I usually kill her and the rat quickly with dynamite. She can also be beat by reading certain scrolls, especially blind and paralyze. Of course this requires some luck in finding those. Potions of agility (or whatever I call them, they give you perfect dodge) are also handy. Maybe she should spawn a level later to give more chances to collect these things.

Whahaha fuckin' awesome I went to an altar, read a forbidden scroll and hundreds of critters appeared around me.. then drank a potion and became blind! but then dynamite and molotov cocktails everywhere yeeeah!

Awesome story .

when items/corpses go in acid, they shoud instantly dissolve otherwise it's impossible to recognize acid squares anymore

Good idea.

stopping those zombies to arise a million times

They can only rise once. I've even made them always blow up when they're killed the second time.

when the healing process is interrupted by an event, the "esc" key should like "n" (I know I'm lazy)

Not lazy. Good idea . Space should also cancel it

the disease condition is heavily negative, maybe it should be lightened a little (making it less probable to happen, or quickier to heal) (just a bit)

What I like about the disease is that you gain a certain respect for rats .
I will definetly keep the long duration, because it makes sense, and it also becomes important to find a potion that heals it. I may change it to 2/3hp instead of 1/2hp though, since it's very punishing now.

Btw, next version will have an option to skip this level. It's great to just jump right into the dungeon when you're tired of the forest level.

Why?

Well I got sick of it when I play-tested. Feels like the real game only begins after it.

With that said, I'm very satisfied with the look and feel of the forest, as an introductory and theme-setting level. So I'll keep it, and let the default option be to not skip it. The option is just there if you want to jump in faster.

Interesting point about how even a single outdoor area can enhance the feel of a dungeon crawling game. I probably knew this subconsciously when I made the level .

but having an entire underground forest level would be nice.

Oooh. Very cool idea. There could also be forests of gigantic mushrooms (or "cyclopean" to use a Lovecraftian term) deep under ground, where the cave levels start.

284

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Infra Arcana release 8

« on: September 30, 2011, 01:45:32 PM »

It definitely feels more balanced for the most part.

Good thing that it's moving in that direction.

can potions be thrown?

Planned. Hopefully for next release.

Do the wolves respwn on the first (graveyard) level? The last game I played I thought I might try to grind on them a little bit, but they didn't seem to respawn.

They don't respawn, and for that exact reason. :-)

Btw, next version will have an option to skip this level. It's great to just jump right into the dungeon when you're tired of the forest level.

Is it win-able yet?

No. I think this is meaningless until there is an even distribution of new monsters. This is my current focus.

How many levels are you planning on making the goal and will you have to return to the surface?

Around 30 levels. Not sure about returning to surface, but probably.

*If there is only one adjacent door, the 'close' command does not ask for direction

I think it should be the same for bashing.

Ah, yes indeed.

285

Programming / Re: Keeping room lists after dungeon generation

« on: September 29, 2011, 06:56:32 AM »

But over and above pathfinding, I'm wondering about "room effects".

I do it in Infra Arcana. Each turn a room handler asks every room "is the player inside your room now?", and if so "run your event stuff".
The room list is also used for turning common rooms into special decorated rooms. Without this list this would need more code and be slower to execute.