Caves of Qud

[Vanguard]

This game is pretty cool.  The main quest ends halfway through, since the game isn't finished yet, but it's fun to go mess around just because you can.  I found a superboss called Chrome Pyramid living near the southeast corner of the map, and right now I'm trying to see if I can beat him.

What builds do you guys run?

I like to go with either combat-based mutants with flaming hands, or high ego and high willpower espers using pyrokinesis and cryokinesis.  Every character I make starts with 24 toughness, and I don't bother with true humans.  The utility of mutations is much stronger than a few attribute points.

[jim]

Although I am extremely enthusiastic about this game's development, I feel like there's a lot of work to be done. Character building is nonlinear and slow right now. By wandering around in circles across the overworld, a player can endlessly, incrementally strenghten their character and accumulate bigger guns, but there aren't enough items - nor is there a wide enough scope of item utility - to make this feel worthwhile and engaging. It's a laborious process with no sense of purpose or urgency.

That said, it's all about Praetorans.

EDIT: Also, hello, APOCALYPSE setting? Scarcity, people!

[Vanguard]

Yeah, there are things that need work, but I think even in its current state the game has all it needs to be interesting and enjoyable.  The combat is fun enough for me to go looking for trouble even without a set goal in mind.

It is kind of unusual how trivial it is to get enough food and water to survive indefinitely.  I think I'd rather have it be a minor concern than be a constant annoyance though.  Obviously the ideal would be for starvation/dehydration to be a threat that requires planning and management to deal with, but without becoming a constant source of irritation that just interferes with whatever the player actually wants to be doing.  If they can pull it off, that'd be great, but I don't mind the current system.

I used to like praetorians, but mutations are just too convenient for me to pass up.  For example, I think it's worth bringing a fire mutation for the utility alone.  The ability to burn barriers, clear water or slime, and create steam at will is great even without the sheer damage of pyrokinesis/burning hands.

It seems that ultimately weapons pass mutations in terms of sheer power though.  After finishing what there is of the game's main quest, I killed off the "impossible" difficulty robot in grit gate.  He dropped a plasma gun that could deal triple digit damage every turn, and consumed barely any energy.  No damage-based mutation can compete with that, and I think that Chrome Pyramid's gun might be even better.

Edit:

Does anyone know how the number of hit points gained upon leveling up is determined?  Toughness is clearly a major factor, but there seems to be some randomness involved as well.  I want to know if it's worth going all the way to 24 toughness on my characters.  Regardless of the actual equation, I'm pretty confident that it's the most important attribute for every character, and that you should not, under any circumstance, make a character with less than 18 toughness.

Edit 2:

My testing suggests that 24 toughness is pretty much always worthwhile.  The important thing about toughness is that it strongly influences how much hp you gain at each level up, so starting with a high score makes a huge difference, while raising it later on won't matter as much.

[unormal]

There were a few bugs in the retroactive application of toughness to HP and intelligence to skillpoints that I fixed in a recent version. So you should get the same eventual number of HP or SP when you reach a certain Int or Toughness, regardless of if you do it at character creation, or later via other means.

[Vanguard]

Welcome to the temple, unormal!

A while back I finished what exists of the main quest.  Is the part where you burn the plants supposed to be that tedious?  Is there some specific way to do that efficiently?

[unormal]

Welcome to the temple, unormal!

A while back I finished what exists of the main quest.  Is the part where you burn the plants supposed to be that tedious?  Is there some specific way to do that efficiently?

Thanks!

That quest is just tedious, and a sketch of what will be there in the future. One note is that normal plants count for the quest, you don't have to kill many of the hostile ones.

We've recently completed a total Golgotha redesign, and a bunch of other stuff, like global builders for the canyons (so they flow from zone to zone), and a fully designed 'tonic' system replacing the old, bad, stand-in autoinjectors. If you haven't played for awhile, there's quite a bit more stuff. You're always welcome back, love any feedback we can get.

 The main quest is only really 'done' in terms of having fully designed content through Golgotha, so anything after that consider a stand-in for designed content. We're working on a Bethesda design next.

[Archaalen]

My most common build lately has been a Chimera Nomad with Burrowing Claws, Electricity Generation, and one other mutation.  Nomad gives you a recycling suit, and along w/ burrowing claws you get a very good starting armor rating this way.  Electricity Generation is a good all-round offensive mutation, since it works against almost any opponent and is effective both against single bruiser enemies and swarms of smaller ones.

[UltimaRatioRegum]

My most common build lately has been a Chimera Nomad with Burrowing Claws, Electricity Generation, and one other mutation.  Nomad gives you a recycling suit, and along w/ burrowing claws you get a very good starting armor rating this way.  Electricity Generation is a good all-round offensive mutation, since it works against almost any opponent and is effective both against single bruiser enemies and swarms of smaller ones.

I particularly agree on Electricity Generation. I also really like all the defects, mutations, etc - I think they make an interesting variation to the usual 'intrinsic' idea in roguelikes...