Messages

16

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.3

« on: November 22, 2010, 03:49:38 PM »

He can reload but there was probably a behavior that had priority over reloading, like fleeing or fighting.

17

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.3

« on: November 22, 2010, 11:00:21 AM »

Give order then cancel current order.

18

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.2

« on: November 14, 2010, 09:07:37 AM »

Alpha 4.3 out.

19

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.2

« on: October 09, 2010, 02:23:41 PM »

Alpha 4.2 released.

20

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.11

« on: September 12, 2010, 01:18:26 PM »

You can use directives.
Tell me to not sleep by default.
Then when you find a proper place, tell them they are allowed to sleep.
They will sleep if they need to.

21

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.11

« on: September 05, 2010, 12:31:55 PM »

I think the "/lvl" in the description of "Tough" should be dropped. It increases HP only once, not every level afterwards.

Mmh. It should be +3 HP / lvl and works fine, I'll check that.

Have you considered releasing the source code?

Maybe later.

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Roguedjack, is there any chance will be able to create key bindings for picking things up and dropping them. I'd love to stop using the mouse if I could.

I'll see if there is enough unbound keys left

22

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.11

« on: September 04, 2010, 02:13:34 PM »

So they started throwing grenades.

I'm happy to see someone witnessing the AI using grenades. 

spoiler stuff

I hate this kind of stuff too...
But in a roguelike I think its ok!
Only the player experience with the game, rather than the character experience, can save you from this (eg: knowing when they come and what item to get). Modern games tend to spoon feed you everything with big warning signs and big arrows pointing to stuff. You're not exploring the game, you're just following tracks setup by the game designers. It is considered good game design because they think the player is a pet that needs constant reward and an easy life. Stuff like the spoilers are so considered bad design because they frustrate the player who don't want to have is game ended at seemingly random moments and don't want to invest time in finding a solution for the next games.
Well anyway, sorry for the rant, not directed at you. And thanks for keeping playing after the initial shock 

All in all, I think the core gameplay is quite solid and the list of upcoming features looks interesting. I occasionally feel like the balance is a bit off. For example, the female character just seems far, far superior. But I haven't played enough yet to come up with suggestions.

Its hard to balance the game for the player, as for instance any item modified with the player in mind is also used by baddies or goodies NPCs as well. Make a gun stronger makes the game easier for the player and the civilians... but also harder as some baddies will use them vs the player   

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Suggestions

• Make Esc the universal exit key like in most other programs.
• Make the 'modes' toggleable so that the same key can also be used to quit the mode.
• I think the requirement to unequip an item before dropping it is detrimental to usability.
• I feel you should be able to break furniture for makeshift weapons.

I'll look into these.

23

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.1

« on: September 02, 2010, 03:18:30 PM »

Can grenades bounce to unintended places? I was wondering because it seems like people run extremely far away when a grenade is thrown. Even when civs start outside the blast radius they continue to run far from it. Is this just done for realism or is it part of the "too cautious" situation.

They don't bounce. Explosions are tricky due to chain reactions and people being able to throw back grenades, so the AI just run away as far as they can. A more clever behavior would requiere more CPU (eg: consider bomb blast radius, consider chain reactions, consider possibility of throwing back).

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On the topic of vending machines, maybe they should be equipped with alarms and take several hits to access, trading the player's security for food?

That's a possibility. I'm not decided on how to implement VM yet.

I would like to suggest a new item:  Bedrolls, which allows the player to carry a portable bed, which allows for a wider range of safehouses the player can establish, especially if they are recruiting NPCs and want them to guard certain areas but want good sleeping accommodations.

I prefer making use of the Hardy skill.

Come to think of it, I have a suggestion about the AI.  I am not sure if it is reasonable, but maybe allied NPCs could secure the building they are living in and sleep in shifts, which they adjust according to their group's size and how many are in the building.  This theoretically should help with making them reasonably rested if trouble comes knocking or if they go on a expedition.

Group behavior is kinda hard to do, and not very reliable or useful imho in an environement changing so fast.
Still, one thing I could improve is to make follower and leader NPCs behavior more dependant on each other (eg: follower and leader takes turn in sleeping/guarding as you describe).

24

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.11

« on: August 31, 2010, 03:32:52 PM »

4.11 out. Fix the damn bug and a couple of stuff.

25

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.1

« on: August 30, 2010, 03:46:27 PM »

I like your game, but why are commercial stores so easily convertible to fortresses? Shouldn't they have more windows (especially storefront windows) and such?

There could be also include back-exit firedoors (building codes and regulations?). And maybe there could be an alarm system whenever a door or window is smashed.

There could also be banks, which include an easily barricadable vault.

Right now I make simple layouts to test the gameplay effects (eg: a shop with no window plays very differentlyfrom a house with lots of openings etc...) and get the basics done. I'll add more content for new versions, this includes different floorplans (eg: different shop layout, window or not....) for buildings and new buildings.
The Bank Building sounds good, I'll add it to the FAQ.

One request, a difficulty option that allows true Ironman Roguelike, deleting your save after death and

Might add it. For now just don't load 

Two, can you tell us what causes the crash so we can avoid it? At least until the next release. I hate having to reload a save that's a hundred+ turns back because I neglected to save.

NPCs can get stuck into an infinite sequence of Equip-Unequip actions (cf the blog and the video).
There is no garuanteed trick you can do to avoid it. It is provoked by NPCs on their own.
Your only chance to influence that is to reload the game and try a different action sequence (eg: move north instead of south...) than the one that lead to the bug.
I know its frustrating (enraging for me to have overlooked that bug), I'll release bugfix version 4.11 very soon.

26

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.1

« on: August 29, 2010, 03:32:15 PM »

I've actually never witnessed an NPC throwing a grenade. My personal preference is to have grenades be slightly more powerful, but also rarer. I was surprised at how many I could find in people's homes and equally surprised when it would take three to kill the average zombie.

Its difficult to balance item quantity and distribution for the player, since other NPCs will take them too contrary to standard Roguelikes.
NPCs do throw grenades, but it is very rare since they are very cautious (perhaps a bit too cautious).

With the leader thing I certainly don't expect any chain of command type stuff and it's fine the way it is. However, I don't think leadership should even be an option for followers when they level up. All it does is serve to confuse newbies and make them waste points in it.

Noobs are noobs 

Another interface type irritation was how limited the range for telling allies to build fortifications. It'd really be nice to be able to tell your ally to board up the window on the other side of the room so I could work on the other windows.

Right now for orders you can only select locations that are visible by both you and your followers. I understand it is frustrating. I'll improve that when I finally do proper pathfinding for followers -one of the thing I keep delaying 

Any future plans on letting us tell a follower to just drop a single item? I had many a drop all just to get one or two things.

That one as well 

Unrelated note, is medic an entirely self only skill or is there a way to benefit teammates with it?

Medic will allow actors to use meds items on other (hence the hospital will be good to recruit doctors etc...)

I also noticed it was very hard to get teammates to use beds even when they were empty only a couple of feet away. Any tricks besides pulling the beds around until they decide to hop on one?

They use beds if it is within their view and they want to sleep. Remember other actors have FoV too like the player.

Now that civilians can kill any thoughts about a game setting allowing for civ killing? You could probably balance it out with some sort of infamy system that makes cops and military target you.

Planned.

Sorry for not mentioning this early, but great job. It's not often I can play a roguelike for eight hours straight and besides a few minor things, there's not much more I think the game really needs (core gameplay is solid). The AI felt pretty good and I mostly liked the way that companions were controlled. Definitely in my top favorite roguelikes now.

Thanks 

(about difficulty after XXX happens)

This is WAD, a moment you can use to breathe a bit.
I try to make the game difficulty dynamic rather than linear and too predictible.
The difficulty should go up again soon 

Also, that save I sent you (adamcaverhill) would crash in a few turns regardless of actions. It might be worth noting that I have some pretty hefty simulation options turned up.

I looked at the save and it did produce the bug. Thanks for helping.

27

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.1

« on: August 28, 2010, 02:39:22 PM »

Thanks for the comments.

Just played to about day 30 and cleared out a char base. Kind of a disappointing end there. It should spawn a rocket launcher or some other fun toy so the developer message isn't so crushingly sad.

Quite a let down I know. Makes me laugh in some perverse way 
I planned to continue the char base plot for 4.1 for had not the time.

I also noticed only a single cell phone in 30 days and absolutely zero crossbows. Considering how common cell phones are that was a huge surprise.I don't think the precision rifle does enough damage to make up for the low clip size. I feel like grenades could also use a damage buff as well.

Phones & Crossbows : RNG God is tricky. Also remember NPC take items as you do, you can try to find them by trading.
Precision Rifle: BO are carrying those and they are your enemies, I'm not sure other players would be ok with make them even deadlier 
Grenades : There will be more powerful explosives later. More powerful grenades is risky with NPCs throwing them too.

As a side note, there will never be a powerful weapon to easily kill a bunch of enemies. I don't want to turn the game into a kill fest. The player is just another survivor in the game world.

I'd  like to suggest a new tile/object: Vending Machine. You can break them and get some food, but it makes a lot of noise. It would be a good way to add a small amount of food to places like the subway or possibly even the sewer maintenance rooms. As it is now I avoid both places entirely since they don't seem worth going to.

Was thinking about adding them too, with chocolate bars/coke food items.
I don't use the subway either. I'll enrich the locations/floorplans later.

Unless I missed it, I'd really like to see a "Set directives for all followers" option as it was really annoying to always set them.

Good idea.

Does getting leadership on your followers even do anything?

While they are followers, no. If you were expecting a chain of command with leaders leading other leaders, no. It cause all sorts of problems gameplay-wise and AI-wise.

Is there a way to go up or downtsairs when a player or object is blocking the other side?

No, but possibilities to do that will come in later versions.

Also, your link to your blog in the OP is busted.

Thanks, fixed.

28

Early Dev / Re: Serial Killer Roguelike

« on: August 27, 2010, 02:56:18 PM »

Looking good!

29

Early Dev / Re: Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.1

« on: August 27, 2010, 02:24:31 PM »

Alpha 4.1 up.

I have wanted to play this roguelike for a while. Please tell me you are adding mac support as I wouldn't like to never get to play this epic roguelike :C.

Sorry the game is done with DirectX and .NET so no mac support. 

30

Early Dev / Rogue Survivor Alpha 4.3

« on: July 18, 2010, 04:34:02 PM »

Rogue Survivor

alpha 4.3

Alpha 4.3 includes a configuration program to run the game on all Window system.
If the game crashes at startup, run the configuration program.
See changelog.


Theme & Setting
Graphical zombie apocalypse urban survival game.

Screenshots & Videos
Youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/roguedjack.
Blog: http://roguesurvivor.blogspot.com

Environment
Windows, .NET.
Don't be afraid of ".NET". If you have Windows, you probably already have those installed.

Game Objective
Survive as long as you can, do achievements, score points.

Download & Requierements
Alpha 4.3

With installer recommended
http://www.mediafire.com/?6f1gj5lwslb4361

Without installer (zip)
http://www.mediafire.com/?qumdorjeanqpg1g

If you have problems, follow the technical help provided in the readme.

Instructions
readme.txt provided.
Remember to uninstall your previous version first!

Change log

ALPHA 4.3 CHANGES
-----------------
Mostly a HUGE bug fix and a couple of new sweet features.
Everyone who got crashes should be able to play the game and get sound now!
Fix the crash bug for Win7 and some other configs!
Config program to choose between different Video and Sound engines!


FIXED BUGS
- Some people couldn't run the game at all because of Managed DirectX crashing.
- No music on some computers.
- Modding some items stacklimit down to 1 crashes a new game.
- Rapid Fire taking two turns.

CONFIG
- Run "RSConfig".
- Video :
  - Managed DirectX : default, but might crash on some computers.
  - GDI+            : slower and a bit less good looking, but safer.
- Audio :
  - Managed DirectX : default, plays the mp3 files, but might crash or get no sound on some computers.
  - SFML 1.6        : plays the ogg files.
  - No Sound        : if all else fails, at least it won't crash...
 
MODDING
- Pills stacking limit can now be changed properly.
- All melee weapons can now be made stackable, except uniques.

GAMEPLAY
Pushing
- New Action : Shove people around - kick survivors out of your base or rush through zombies.
Weather
- Rain has a chance to put out fires (eg: burning cars).

INTERFACE & MANUAL
- Updated manual.

GRAPHICS & MUSIC
- Musics in ogg format for SFML audio support.

KNOWN BUGS AND GLITCHES
- Asymetric FoV along walls.
- GDI+ : some differences from default Managed DirectX rendering.

Have fun!
And remember, die with a smile!