Hydra Slayer (now at 16.1), NotEye (now at 8.1)

[Z]

A new version again, with the following features:

• a new race, Halfling Twins
• now zombies (and twin) follow to the next level
• ability to start a new game from the end menu
• changed the formulas for the trollish club
• zombies are now actually named "zombies"
• second boss is now slightly more challenging (guaranteed to have a prime number of heads)
• fixes with ettin intelligence
• troll club color is now displayed
• changed representations of equipment, so that they will be more unambiguous
• updated the NotEye configuration to include the new weapons etc
• improvements to stats: boss level (only items used before slaying the boss are counted), wounds counted for second boss, weapon source "from Ettin on level XX")

The new race (you play two weaker characters instead of one) seems harder than the old ones, although I expected it to be a bit easier.

[Legend]

The twin halflings are a very cool addition and give a nice variation on play.

Definitely like being able to go back to the main menu after dying. Although it's kinda awkward having to press "q" to get to the death menu after dying. Often times, I don't realize I'm dead because the screen doesn't automatically go to the death menu.

Still hoping for a yes/no confirmation on the inventory screen. Most roguelikes I have played use the inventory screen to just view your items or have an additional command to use the items from the inventory. Admittedly, simply pressing the letter of the item to use it does speed up play, but on a few occasions, I have wasted items by accidentally pressing a key I didn't mean to or forgetting to press "h" before pressing the letter to get info on the item. 

Still getting the hang of how the game works. Still not sure on everything. I never was that great with math.

Weapons with a B# makes the hydras grow heads?

S# means it stuns enemies.  What's the benefit of stunning a hydra if you don't have any runes of decapitation besides just keeping them immobile for a few turns?

M# is a missile weapon that has to be thrown or fired?

How do the bucklers/shields work exactly?

Having to drop your weapon to remove mushrooms is kinda annoying.

Kinda frustrating to have to switch between weapons when using the bow since you can't move while wielding the bow.

A very fun and different kind of roguelike. I like the abstract style of it.

[Z]

A new small update is out (9.1).

• a new rare weapon type
• fixed some typos and improved some texts
• fixes with twins: less vulnerable on stairs; fixed a bug with hydras pursuing twins incorrectly

Legend:
As for stunning, a hydra that has all its heads stunned does nothing, and a partially stunned hydra does less damage. Stunning is caused by S-weapons, shields, elven bows, and some rare weapons. If you want to see the benefit, you can compare two weapon sets using potions of knowledge. It depends on the hydra, but if you have a large stunner, it will often recommend using it. I have placed a shield spoiler here. If you are annoyed by having to switch off the bow (or missile) to move, you can press "T" to use the manual fire mode.

[Legend]

Thanks for the shield spoiler. It was very helpful.

I was wondering if you intend to make it possible to return to the previous level? I left some weapons on a level and went down to the next, thinking I could return to the previous level to pick up the weapons again if I needed them. I found out the hard way that it's not possible and those weapons were then lost. Instead, I was just resented with the Quit/save Menu.

I was hoping, that maybe in a future version of the game, the player may be able to travel back to previously visited levels.  On the other hand, I can somewhat see how this may create a slight balance issue. Perhaps if the player was only allowed to go back a single level and if a smaller amount of hydras respawn when entering a previously visited level? That way if the player wanted to try and stash weapons like I intended to, there would be a risk in retrieving them and since you could only go back a single level, you can only keep as many weapons there as you could carry. And if you left something on say level 3, you clear level 4. You can go back to level 3 to pick up the weapons if you wanted, but once you enter level 5, you can no longer revisit level 3, only level 4 and so on.

Just an idea/request.

[Z]

No, you are supposed to carry only the limited number of weapons to the next level (unless a Troll). I think that's the same as in e.g. Rogue and DoomRL (and also Moria variants). Allowing returning would cause imbalance and provoke boring gameplay (going to an old level to get the weapon which is exactly what you need now), and require a bit of programming and bigger size of savefile. I hate Moria/Angband variants for the limited equipment, which makes no sense IMO, but "go down and never look back" system as in DoomRL (and Hydra Slayer) is very good IMO. Some kind of a limited option of retrieving the old weapons could be possible (probably via a new type of scroll, respawning hydras is illogical because you were supposed to kill all hydras on level, and restricting returning to the previous level would not solve the problem and cause the new ones IMO), but I don't think it's worth the trouble.

I have been playtesting the Halfling race, and it seems that they are a bit harder in the small game, but in the big game the balance seems OK, although they are much more time consuming than other races. Version 9.2 is out, with the following improvements (to the Halfling race):

• more stats for the Halflings
• special hydras in the big game will attack both twins at once (cunningly spliting their heads)
• some fixes with Ambidexterity
• twin FOV no longer gets mirrored for no reason
• halflings now have a vulnerability rule for Ettins

And using ambidexterity+knowledge/growth no longer causes your weapon stats to skyrocket.

EDIT: some more testing revealed that this race seems too easy. Changes in version 9.3:

• potions no longer affect both twins (and they now have to drink Ambi in pairs)
• if a hydra is under double attack, it chooses whom to attack yet more intelligently
• wounds from the second boss now appear in the log
• fixed two bugs with drinking Potion of Life when the twin is dead
• fixed a bug with a missing message when trying to go down after the twin's death

[cephalopoid]

I love how you keep updating the game. I should look into playing another round soon.

One thing I've wondered, by the way, was that, suppose you have two shields of the same color as the hydra, and the hydra only has 1 head. Would you heal?

[Z]

Thanks! No, having access to unlimited healing would be unbalancing, so the game should take care of this special case and the damage is reduced to 0, not to -1 (Although maybe it would make sense to allow such healing, but only for a limited number of times.)

[cephalopoid]

Thanks! No, having access to unlimited healing would be unbalancing, so the game should take care of this special case and the damage is reduced to 0, not to -1 (Although maybe it would make sense to allow such healing, but only for a limited number of times.)

Well, we might wonder how blocking a biting attack can heal you.
One scenario could be that because of the hydra bashing his head against your shield it bleeds, making it fit into your story of how drinking the beasts blood heals you. A limit could be reasoned by saying that hydra's aren't too stupid to keep hurting themselves or something. So that would heal you with one hp once for any hydra you'd get the chance to pull this off with. Considering the limited availability of shields, I can imagine doing this wouldn't be worth the while even for a troll, though.

[Legend]

I was wondering if it would be possible to make it so the inventory screen could be navigated by using the arrow keys as well as the letter keys. Kinda like doomrl. So the player could use the up and down arrows to select the item to use. Personally, this is my preferred method of selecting items from an inventory screen. It also helps since I like playing roguelikes with a gamepad using xpadder. 

[Z]

Sure, no reason not to add such a feature . I suppose it would be also helpful to have e.g. [] keys cycle weapons? I'll add these in the next version anyway. Thanks!

[Z]

So... version 10.0 is out, with the following features:

• Monsters and weapons now have long descriptions, which you can see from the 'f' screen, or for the current weapon by pressing 'v'.
• Two new nasty type of hydras, and a nasty variation for each of 10 basic types.
• One new weapon type.
• Direction keys can be now used for selection in some menus (inventory, troll inventory, race selection).
• Confirmation has been added when using an inventory item. (I sometimes press the wrong key, so I think a confirmation brings more good than harm.)
• You can now switch weapons by pressing '[' and ']'.
• Regrowth increased slightly in some cases (if hydra A is susceptible to weapon B, then hydra B is more resistant to weapon A).
• Shields now give extra resistance not when the color is matched, but when the shield resists the hydra color (e.g. flaming shield gives resistance to ice hydra attack). (Special shields work like they did.)
• Limited healing ability from shields (based on the discussion above).
• Bug fixes: ambiattack+decomposer, and ambiattack+twin.
• 0-headed vampires should no longer appear.
  

I hope there are no bugs

[sbluen]

I'm sorry to say it, but there are bugs. Trying to examine a vampire crashes the game. I'm not sure about the other types of hydras.

[Z]

Fixed this. Also arch-hydras no longer aid their enemies.

[Legend]

Took me a second to realize that only the letter in the inventory was being highlighted when using the arrow keys to select an item. Was expecting the whole item name to be highlighted. Works wonderfully though. Thanks.

The twin halflings are a bit confusing to use. Is there a way to name them both?

What is the TON button in the hall of fame screen?

Under the achievements screen, it says that I have managed to collapse 1000000 hydras in a single game and I managed to 1000000 hydras with a single power swipe. I don't know exactly what collapsing a hydra means, but I'm pretty sure I haven't done it to 1000000 hydras.

Are there any other ways to heal the player like a potion, scroll, or rune? Some other way besides just killing the hydras? If there is I must not have come across it yet.

Great game.

[Z]

The twin halflings are a bit confusing to use. Is there a way to name them both?

No, but it's a good idea for the next version.

What is the TON button in the hall of fame screen?

It just says that you can scroll the Hall of Fame by pressing keys T, O, and N. I was probably just too lazy to use arrows and PgUp/PgDn/Home/End there. Another change for the next version.

Under the achievements screen, it says that I have managed to collapse 1000000 hydras in a single game and I managed to 1000000 hydras with a single power swipe. I don't know exactly what collapsing a hydra means, but I'm pretty sure I haven't done it to 1000000 hydras.

I think I see the cause of this bug, so it should be fixed in the new version (also I have an idea for a new special enemy, and I see that I have forgotten to update the version number inside the game).

Are there any other ways to heal the player like a potion, scroll, or rune? Some other way besides just killing the hydras? If there is I must not have come across it yet.

Yes, there is a very rare Potion of Life (which appears at fixed locations in the game). But hydra blood needs to be your main source of healing. Contrary to most other roguelikes, in Hydra Slayer HP is your main resource that cannot be replenished easily, and to win, you need to consistently follow a good strategy which makes you take less wounds fighting Hydras than you get from slaying and Potions of Life. On the other hand, most mistakes in Hydra Slayer do not kill the slayer, but just have a high cost in HP (well, unless if you make a mistake while at low HP of course, then they kill the slayer), which makes it less forgiving than other roguelikes (while e.g. in ChessRogue and Darren Grey's games you have only 1 HP and one small mistake is enough for game over). (But there is one mistake whose HP cost is so high that it can kill you.)

Great game.

Thanks!