Messages

46

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: August 18, 2019, 04:33:19 PM »

Release 21

• Leaderboard now has a section for non-winning characters of at least experience level 2. Only the highest level character per player and per game release gets added to this list.  This option is on by default and can be changed from the settings.
• Removed weight from coins and ammunition.
• Small stealth / visibility tweaks.
• Small AI tweaks.
• Max range of ranged attacks set to 10. Max range of talents set to 8.
• Shopkeepers can no longer be lured with items from their shop area.

I hope that last one fixes this:

2.Once a shopkeeper just walked out of his shop, I noticed his items were no longer for sale. Not sure what made him do this. It happened again with a recent character when I was luring a quaist into the bar to be killed.

Some tips to new players:

• Don't try to kill everything! Bears, lions, tigers and other big animals are deadly for low-level characters.
• Instead of the dumb brute try the "intelligent warrior"-type by having a Mind-score of at least 12 or even 14. You get more skill- and talent-points per level. Humans get extra points at 1st level.

http://www.zorbus.net

Leaderboard at http://wins.zorbus.net

Some behind-the-screens screenshots at http://www.zorbus.net/bts/

47

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: August 10, 2019, 09:03:36 PM »

1.While I was killing all of the final bosses using the above method, I found another strange bug.
I was putting everything into defeating the final-final boss from the dark, but then for some reason it became friendly.
And I couldn't finish it off due to the sheer tedium of going through the friendly confirmation. So I guess it wins this time.

Classic variable overflow: Creature's emotion (hate/love) against other creature is stored in a 16 bit signed integer. Negative values are hate and if it goes below -32768 the value wraps to positive and hate becomes love. Fixed.

2.The encumbrance notification on the left side of the screen sometimes does not update until you switch your weapon.

Couldn't reproduce/fix this yet. Let me know if you manage to narrow down the situation when this happens.

(Release 19)
https://pastebin.com/raw/ML678356

By looking at the commands you've used:
- Fire ranged                             1468
- Ranged / reach attack marked target        8
you haven't used the [R] command almost at all but mostly fired with [F].

Release 20

• Fixed some endgame related bugs.
• If you have an everlasting arrow/bullet equipped, ammunition of equal or lower enchantment won't be autopicked.
• Inventory: You can adjust the amount of a selected item by 10 with CONTROL + movement key left/right. You can adjust the amount of a selected item by 50 with ALT + movement key left/right.
• Summoning animation is now repeated 2 times instead of 3, making it a bit faster.

48

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: August 08, 2019, 11:39:45 AM »

The upload to leaderboard worked, it just isn't updated in realtime.

The leaderboard can be seen here (can also be launched from the game's main menu):
http://wins.zorbus.net

It's nice to see the leaderboard opened. Not so nice that the game still has exploits in the end game.

Everlasting arrow / disable auto-pick for equal/lower enchantment:
Yes, have to add this. In some cases you might want to hoard ammunition for current / future companions.

No point of raising an ability score just to an odd number unless you have a +1 item for that ability.

49

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: August 04, 2019, 07:19:44 PM »

Release 19   (04-Aug-2019)

• Fixed a bug in calculating skill maximum values during level-ups: ability-modifier was not added. (skill maximum = level + ability-modifier)
• Sound effects are now compressed making the download and memory usage smaller.
• Manual updated.
• In-game help Zorbupedia can be opened from the game menu. It explains some of the statistics (health, stamina, ability scores etc.).

With the sound effects compressed, the download size is now under 30 megabytes.

50

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: August 02, 2019, 02:07:22 PM »

Release 18   (02-Aug-2019)

This release is noticeably bigger than before (almost 170 megabytes) and the reason is...

• Sound effects! Roguelikes don't usually shine in this area but try this one out. The sounds really make the dungeon feel like a living thing. Most creatures have custom sounds and the speech bubbles work well with the sound effects. There are also some short ambient pieces playing when you for example discover a hidden treasure chamber or a tomb etc. Splatting those kobols and goblins is just so more satisfying with a proper sound effect.
  Hopefully the sounds work on all configurations. I could only test with Windows 10 on a real hardware. I tried with Windows 7 and Ubuntu with Wine in VirtualBox and sadly the sounds lagged there. Sound effects won't work on Windows XP.
  Sound effects are on by default and can be disabled from the settings.
• Online leaderboard. When you ascend, your character information is sent to a server and added to a leaderboard. Again, I'm hopeful that this works. At least it worked on all configurations (WinXP, Win7, Ubuntu Wine) when tested in VirtualBox. This option is on by default and can be disabled from the settings.
• The leaderboard can be accessed from the main menu, from the homepage or going directly to http://wins.zorbus.net.
• You can start the game with a randomly generated character. This option is added to the birth screen where you decide whether to make a new character or use a pregenerated one. You can press R when the menu selector is on the random character to roll a new one until satisfied and then press ENTER to start the game.
• When looting things you usually pick up stuff by pressing ENTER. You can now directly equip stuff from the loot screen by pressing CONTROL + ENTER on an item. Same rules apply as for normal equpping meaning that you can't equip armor if there are hostile creatures seen.
• Changed the key for switching inventory list type from F12 to CONTROL + TAB. Many probably haven't used this but with it you can switch between equipment/backpack-view and backpack/ground-view without exiting the inventory. F12 is now used to toggle item compare mode.
• You can now exchange items with your companions and edit their equipment. This is launched through the talking dialog by pressing CONTROL + direction towards the companion. If hostile creatures are seen then the options are not shown. The above mentioned inventory switch command is useful here as you can for example first give some items to a companion,  then switch the view and equip them without first exiting the inventory screen.
• Magical enchantments in armor and weapons no longer increase critical defense modifier / critical attack modifier.
• Settings menu updated with stuff related to sound effects and leaderboard. You can also set a default name for your character or change the text font / size. (Previously you had to manually edit Settings.txt to adjust these).
• Obituaries have some new statistics like the current pantheon before you entered the endgame and again after you have ascended. Now shows your starting abilities / skills as level 0. Wand of Knock usages are now listed.

51

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: July 15, 2019, 07:57:53 PM »

Youtuber pieceoftheuniverse playing Zorbus release 13:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHhFKKyvmqo

Sadly he doesn't grasp how to switch weapons or how to use ranged weapons.

52

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: July 15, 2019, 06:14:43 AM »

That's just amazing.

Level 1 character, 15 health points and in 32 minutes to demigod ending. Bravo!

53

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: June 29, 2019, 03:24:53 PM »

Release 17

• Pressing F now targets/cycles creatures that are not yet at hostility level high enough to attack the player but not friendly either.
• Option not to render the screen on every step when continuously walking / autopiloting / autoexploring. The default option is not to render. The game feels a lot snappier this way.
• Pathfind / autoexplore shows dots marking the path that the player took. Green dots if the target was reached and red dots if the autopilot was interrupted (hostile creature seen, trap / secret door detected).
• Option to exit lists (inventory etc.) with movement key up when the selector is at top position (not shown). Might be more convenient to browse containers, especially if there's nothing you want to get from the container.
• Settings-menu now has descriptions of the options.
• Obituary is more detailed. Shows the commands used count, creatures you damaged but someone else killed (damaged to 50% or lower of their health), latest log messages etc.
• New ingame art by Tony Forsman showing an adventurer standing before the portal to Zorbus.

54

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: June 21, 2019, 11:02:14 PM »

Release 16

• Adjustments to playable races.
• Tamed animals get their Health, Stamina and skills boosted when your character levels up.
• New room content and monsters.
• New item: Flask of Poison. Can be used to coat the active melee weapon or active ammunition with poison. Poison coating on a melee weapon wears off after 10-20 hits. Change to a weapon set that contains a ranged weapon if you want to coat ammunition. One flask is enough for coating 20 arrows / bullets. If you have more ammunition equipped then the rest of the ammunition is put in backpack.
• Some typos fixed.

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S


Don't know if anyone has noticed but if you manage to get your character to the Zorbus level and ascend to a demigod/god then the character data is saved. A new character that enters the endgame level should see the old character there with the name slightly changed. Now if you challenge any of the gods then the old character will help you in the combat. You can try talking to your former character (well, you just get one reply but anyway).

The plan is to set the ultimate ending difficulty so high that you need to ascend a few characters to demigods/gods before having a chance against the ultimate boss. The "ascended characters" save file is deleted if you challenge the ultimate boss so you'll get just one try.


S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S ===== S P O I L E R S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S

2.The wording is strange when an enemy tries to hit you but misses. It's something like "The Orc bashes you with the hammer but misses"

You mean this should be something like "tries to bash you with the hammer but misses"?

Thanks for those pastebins.

55

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: June 10, 2019, 05:33:37 PM »

Couple of small cosmetic bugs:
- The spiked shield has the description for the bladed shield.  I did see this in update 14 so maybe it's fixed now.
- I started a half orc when 15 came out and when npcs refer to me by race, the string is "half_orc" which I figure isn't supposed to have the underscore.

Do you have some kind of bug tracker users could submit to or is this thread the best option?

Thanks, I will fix those in the next release. No bug tracker so this thread can be used for that.

56

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: June 09, 2019, 08:26:07 PM »

Release 15

Character creation changes:

• Ability modifiers from race are added to the base value after adjusting / rolling.
• If you roll the abilities randomly you can not adjust them.
• New playable races: centaur, half-orc, halfling, gnome.
• Small changes to the old races.
• Some of the playable races start with talents. Smaller races have a smaller health dice and movement is a bit slower.

Changed a bit how restraining map effects (web, slime) work:

• Magic- and Ranged-skills have negative modifiers when a creature is in the effect of Web.
• Made the effects little weaker so that it's easier to struggle free. You can try to move or melee attack to get free. The check is a Body-ability check against the effect strength.
• AI also tries to get free by moving if it can not teleport away.
• You can not displace a creature when you or it is restrained.

Store changes:

• Item selling price is automatically lowered if a shopkeeper doesn't have enough coins.
• Shopkeepers slowly "regain" coins when you are not on the store level.
• You can autopilot to store teleporters in the dungeon by pressing (A)utopilot and then (S).

4.The new rooms in the tavern are a neat addition, as are the chests full of loot. However, they can be easily looted at the very start of the game. All you have to do is wait in the guys room next to the chest until he falls asleep. At that point you can do whatever you want.

Now they don't fall asleep.

1.The glaive has the description of the bardiche
2.Strengthened shots says your "body-modifier added to ranged attacks", but added to which aspect? I think it means ranged attacks work more like melee attacks in damage, but I don't know. This could use some clarification.

Fixed the descriptions. With Strengthened Shots Body-modifier is added to ranged damage.

3.If a zombie or skeleton comes out of an opened grave, shouldn't that mean that there would not be a corpse in the grave after?

Yes, have to fix this at some point. Currently it's also possible that several bones are created in the same grave.

2.Once a shopkeeper just walked out of his shop, I noticed his items were no longer for sale. Not sure what made him do this. It happened again with a recent character when I was luring a quaist into the bar to be killed. I swung by the shopkeepers shop and he was out again, wandering around the center room. He did not get hostile with the quaist, but it was when

Could not reproduce this no matter how I tried.

Now that Disable-skill use doesn't give that much XP, do you still think that the option "auto use key on lock" is needed?

57

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: June 02, 2019, 07:21:30 PM »

Hoopak!  Ah, some Gold Box nostalgia right there of a most particular sort~   

First time I heard of a hoopak was when I played Champions of Krynn, so yes, it's from the Gold Box games / Dragonlance. The death animation in Zorbus is also a tribute to that game serie.

58

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: June 01, 2019, 06:59:52 PM »

http://www.zorbus.net

Release 14

• You can now enchant ranged weapons with elemental damage - scrolls. Randomly generated ranged weapons with elemental damage can also be found.
• Some named ranged weapons added.
• A new weapon, the hoopak, added. The hoopak is a staff topped with a fork and a sling on one end and a sharp spike on the other. It can be used both as a melee weapon and a ranged / reach weapon. It uses sling bullets as ammunition.
• Help text added to the inventory screen.
• You don't have to pick up a book to read it but can press CTRL + ENTER in the loot screen to read the it. Book reading supports PAGE UP / PAGE DOWN / HOME and END keys.
• Added more of Zyalin's art to loading screen, main menu and manual.

Zyalin's ingame art:
http://www.zorbus.net/art.html

Zyalin's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/zyalin_art/

59

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: May 26, 2019, 11:17:18 AM »

(Bugs)
1.I once accidentally wandered into a myconids poison cloud while non-hostile, and it became hostile and attacked.

I can't reproduce this but I remember this happening to me as well. Stepping on a friendly creature's harmful effect does not raise its aggro-level itself so there's something more involved. Do you remember if you had allies or summons at that point?

60

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Zorbus

« on: May 25, 2019, 09:05:07 PM »

Theoretical question though. What if the creature heals in the meantime?

Doesn't affect the XP.

Ranged-characters are having trouble holding my interest. The fire-power is so weak for ranged weapons I just end up using melee even with lower skill.
Feels like that route is not too fleshed out yet. Like ranged combat is primarily intended to be used as a supplement to melee combat rather than on it's own.

This is true. I added the Strengthened Shots -talent to boost the ranged damage and upped the "elemental ranged damage" -talent a bit but even that might not be enough. Not sure if pure ranged characters will ever be viable.

I will probably keep playing with melee or magic characters for a while, though I think I prefer melee even if weaker because magic is always the same process.
(i.e. I will always start with energy bolt, then blink, then acid cloud, then holy burst, then wail, etc) A few of the spells really outshine the crowd.

More meaningful spells are needed but I'm badly out of ideas.

1.You don't start out with enough ammo to get very far with a ranged character for some builds.
 Quickly you will run out of shots and be brought to throwing daggers or whatever you can find.

I added two new ammunition types in release 13: everlasting arrows and bullets. If you have one in the quiver it will last forever. 

3.The starting ability priorities (i.e +2 body,-2 motion) of any race seem to make no difference. Any build can be made with any race.
 Race only seems to be functionally seperated by posession of dark-vision vs the extra talent of humans as far as I can tell.

True. It's now mostly cosmetic if you don't count darkvision. At some point I'll need to add some new races.

4.I've noticed there is really not much variety in ranged weapons. There is the short-bow, sling, and long-bow.
 Compare that to the many spells and copious melee weapons in the game. There are also no ranged artifacts as of yet (that I have found).

There's at least one named bow but sure, more is needed. Crossbows, blowguns or something more exotic? Having many ammunition types created randomly might lead to running out of ammo if you're using just one type of ranged weapon.