Mines of Elderlore 0.9

[Altefcat]

Hello everyone,

I have improved, balanced and debugged the 7drl I've been working on last week, and I have put it on sourceforge with a windows binary.

The files are here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=184938&package_id=263211

Any feedback is welcomed. The Windows binary uses Wcurses, and I don't know (yet) how to resize the term window. So if you have the choice, I recommand launching the game under some free OS like Ubuntu. If you do so, you'll need Python, Numeric and curses to launch it.

[Adral]

I gave you some feedback on the 0.8 version here.

Anyway, I like the new message bar, much more intuitive. Also, having colours makes the game even easier to look at.

I think the game now lacks:
* A proper documentation/help system.
* More monsters variety, with different strengths and weaknesses for each kind of weapon.
* An option to have a totally random game each time (maybe by putting "Random" as the dungeon name).

Anyway, great game, I am really enjoying it for quick plays. Keep it up!

[Altefcat]

Wow, great feedback Adral, I did not read the previous one, but I am really glad you like it.

I have started adding some in game help, I think it will be ready for the 1.0 release.

I am a little afraid to change monsters right now, I've had a hard time balancing the game between player xp, monster hp and damage, and so on. Well, I need to think about it.

About the random name, actually it should work that way, if you name the dungeon "random", a different one should be produced each time. But I don't know why, it does not seem to work... I'm looking what's wrong.

So what's your best score with the default "Moria" dungeon ? Any ** WINNER ** yet ? (I am far from winning myself, I only went to level 4...)

[Adral]

I got my high score yesterday, I think I had 291 points. I am still trying to get better, though!

I really like the way different weapons act, it adds a great tactical depth, but I really don't understand what is supposedly so great about axes, can you please enlighten me?

About monsters, keep them as they are now for a little while then

Also I encountered a bug: turncount doesn't display correctly. When it starts getting into the hundreds, the last digits are moved to the next line.

Keep up the good work!

[Altefcat]

Not bad ! The good thing with permanent levels is that you can remind where are good weapons, so that next time you can try to quick dive to where they are.

The axe is supposed to do greater damage than any other weapon (well, except a special weapon...), but cannot be used if you get hit on the previous round. It adds 2 x level to the standard damage.

Maybe it's not enough damage for the axe; weapons still need tweaking I think. I am not sure if the hammer is balanced or not, I've not tested it a lot yet. And I'd like to have a weapon that can push monsters back.

I've added the following improvments; they'll be release with 1.0 :
- in-game help
- no more round when bumping wall or displaying inventory
- if 'random' is set in 'moe.ini' file, a random dungeon is created with a smart name

The top line is shorter now, the bug while displaying number of rounds should not be there anymore.

[Adral]

New record!

Code: [Select]

Moria (40, 40) ranks :
----------------------
1 : Score 587 - Tue Feb 19 21:04:36 2008
I could have survived if only I had taken one more potion instead of attacking...

Maybe next time!

I have a suggestion, though: is it possible to have the deepest level attained on the high score too? Maybe also the character level. Also, it could be fun to have a morgue.txt which kept track of current high scores without having to lose the game to see them!

[Altefcat]

Damn, you beat me ! Ok, let me try it again...

In the meantime here is release 10 with updated scores and morgue files (there should be one morgue file per dungeon).

I've started adding combos; only with spear right now, you get an XP bonus when you kill several monsters in a row (2 x XP on second kill, 4x on third, 8x on 4th, and so on). Other combos will follow, like whirlwind with swords.

In-game help will be improved with different colors, that's a first try.

I'll also try to have some replay file, that record a game and plays it afterward. That has been used in Doom Roguelike I think, I've red something like that on the doom blog. The (brilliant) idea behind is to record the random key and the sequel of key pressed, and pass it to the game input. On the output should come the game displayed.

Anyway release 10 is on SourceForge : https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=184938&package_id=263211

[Adral]

Damn, you beat me ! Ok, let me try it again...

In the meantime here is release 10 with updated scores and morgue files (there should be one morgue file per dungeon).

I've started adding combos; only with spear right now, you get an XP bonus when you kill several monsters in a row (2 x XP on second kill, 4x on third, 8x on 4th, and so on). Other combos will follow, like whirlwind with swords.

In-game help will be improved with different colors, that's a first try.

I'll also try to have some replay file, that record a game and plays it afterward. That has been used in Doom Roguelike I think, I've red something like that on the doom blog. The (brilliant) idea behind is to record the random key and the sequel of key pressed, and pass it to the game input. On the output should come the game displayed.

Anyway release 10 is on SourceForge : https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=184938&package_id=263211

Excellent!

I like the idea of combos a lot! Let's see how it plays out...

(Very) Minor bugs I found:

* Press 'h' for help is split in 2 lines. Maybe it should be on the second line...
* I have found a minor typo, on the 'h'elp screen it says "But beware !" but it should be "But beware!"
* The score is too large and splits in 2 lines, maybe just put: Max Depth X, Char. lvl Y... what do you think?

I'm playing in a 80x25 console, by the way...

Anyway, thanks for the release!

This game needs more love. I'm looking forward to seeing those combos and all those nice new features. And I'll be sure to beat my current high score... Also, my girlfriend is interested in the game, which means it is simple and fun, so congratulations.

[Altefcat]

I've solved the bugs and another one in the morgue file (there was an end of line missing). I'll try to publish it tomorrow. Thanks a lot for the feedback, it pushes me ahead ! 

This 7DRL made me consider differentely roguelikes programming.When you remove graphics, sounds and all that multimedia stuff, you can program very fast ! And also, I think it's a good way to try new ideas and see how they can be done. Once MoE is stabilized, I'll probably add it to Lands of Elderlore.

And I might try some day to code a "Cities of Elderlore", with some simple gameplay, and persistant procedural content in a huge medieval city. That might be fun ! (and besides, I need to test how to build great cities before adding them to LoE).

[Altefcat]

Here is a new release :
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elderlore/moe14b.zip

I let you discover how to deal with the weapons  , there are some changes. Other new stuff :
- player keeps memory of visited dungeons by ancestors
- a movie of every finished game is recorded in the 'movie' folder; to play it back, type "python moe.py movies/movie_name.moe" in shell

I'll try to add some translated content with gettext and then I'll release version 1.0. If you have any bug or suggestion to feedback, I'll gladly here them ! 

Edit : I forgot to roll back some debugging parameters yesterday; it should be ok now. I've updated moe14.zip to moe14b.zip.

[Adral]

I doesn't work :-/. I get this:

Code: [Select]

[1204]adral@adral-desktop:~/sda4/Juegos/roguelikes/moe/moe14$ python moe.py
  File "moe.py", line 1290
    else:
       ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

[Altefcat]

Sorry for the bug; this latest release should be ok (I hope):
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elderlore/moe14c.zip

It includes a berzerk mode upper right of the screen (M current mood/frenzy threshold/berzerk threshold). When you kill monsters or suffer wounds, your mood increases until you get frenzy and then berzerk. You do more damage while frenzy and even more while berzerk, and axes can be used with no restrictions. But if you are berzerk, you cannot quaff a potion or rest until you calm down to the frenzy state.

This still needs some balancing, and when gettext will be implemented to offer other languages, version 1.0 will be there. Maybe tomorrow !

[Adral]

I found a bug!

Code: [Select]

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "moe.py", line 1701, in <module>
    move = player.move(new_pos)
  File "moe.py", line 1400, in move
    random.shuffle(DIRS8)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/random.py", line 262, in shuffle
    x[i], x[j] = x[j], x[i]
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment
Also, the new berserk key isn't anywhere on the help.

About the new features, the possibility to support different languages sounds very cool! Also, I did some "sword charges", but I still have to investigate further to know how can I do them to benefit from them

Thanks for the release!

[Altefcat]

I found it too  , it will be corrected in the next release.

There is no key for the berzerk state, it's just a state the player adopts automatically when doing enough 'gore' actions and when acting 'on the edge'. Here is how it is counted :
- a round : -1 point
- killing a monster* : 10 points
- being hit* : 5 pts
- resting* : -20 pts
- healing* by quaffing a potion : -40 pts
The amounts with * are increased by 2 when hp < 2/3 hpmax, and by 4 when hp < hpmax / 3.

When this amount reaches the first threshold (adjusted to 40 on a 40x40 map), the player gets frenzy. When frenzy, the player can use axes with no penalty, and have a damage bonus with every weapon.

At the second threshold (120 right now), the player becomes berzerk. The damage bonus is even greater, but there is a price to pay : you cannot rest or heal ! If you need to, the only way is to wait until your points amount decrease under 120.

So a good strategy is to try to stay in the frenzy state by rushing dungeons and quick diving. Another one is to be  cautious and advance at a pace, but sometimes you'll miss that extra damage bonus.

Edit : here is the next version.
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elderlore/moe15.zip
It does not have localization yet, it's gonna be a little harder that it first seemed. Except this, it has some more balancing.