Squirm A.0.3.1

[AgingMinotaur]

Friends,

After long and many delays, a new version of Squirm is now out the door. At this point, the engine is almost at the point I had hoped for it to be for the ARRP Various vicissitudes, both technical and personal, set me back with regards to game development.

This update is not very content heavy (although the overworld level should be of more interest now), but fixes several bugs. I think now that most or all show stopping bugs (crashing bugs as well as bugs that result in unwinnable game positions) should have been squashed. I hope to add more content for the next release (whenever that may be )

For those interested, the changelog can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/squirm/wiki/Changes

Downloads here: http://code.google.com/p/squirm/downloads/list

A.0.3.1 is currently only downloadable as sources. I'll whip together a Windows binary later tonight or during the weekend.

As always,
Minotauros

[AgingMinotaur]

I have now uploaded a binary for Windows[1].

As always,
Minotauros

[1] In the process I discovered that unpacking the zip archive really does take a long time under Windows. Mario was not exaggerating when he pointed this out in an earlier thread. Sorry about that, O slaves of a corporate lifestyle. This will be fixed in the next release (I just need to put all tiles in a single file, instead of having a separate file for each tile).

[dephbokks]

I checked your game out yesterday. Pretty cool so far. I am having some trouble surviving for long; I played about 10 games. I like the descriptions and writing style though. It puts the player in a good frame of mind.

I had some trouble from accidentally hitting the shopkeepers, and sometimes the game interpreted my intended single key stroke as a double keystroke, causing me to move multiple squares, but perhaps I have clumsy fingers. One question about items though. If you have a weapon/armor/whatever how do you equip it so it's in use? When hitting 'E' to go into equipment. What's the significance of the letters? I understand A - 'in hand', but do B, C, and D signify in use, i.e. wielded for the case of a weapon or worn for the case of armor? And everything else under 'Carrying' is just carried in your pack, ie not readied?

It seems most characters do not start with a weapon, so I think this explains my difficulty in surviving. Anyway, interesting game so far. I will definitely keep an eye on this.

By the way, I used Windows Vista, and I already had python/pygame so everything runs smoothly. Also, I saw that you had all the tiles in separate files and I was thinking how is this all managed!??!!? Seems like putting it all in one file will make things easier. In case you are considering doing is manually, you can use Image Magick to batch process loads of images; I often use this tool to create sprite sheets and it works fast and correctly. Something to consider if you did not already have a solution.

[AgingMinotaur]

Thanks for your comments dephbokks. Glad to hear it works well on Vista. I'd be very interested in knowing if anyone has tried this in OS X ...

I had some trouble from accidentally hitting the shopkeepers, and sometimes the game interpreted my intended single key stroke as a double keystroke, causing me to move multiple squares, but perhaps I have clumsy fingers.

I'm sure I would like even people with clumsy fingers to be able to play the game, whether or not you have them. For what is's worth, you can set keyboard responsiveness in the configuration options (press "E" in the main menu), if the game is too fast or slow. You can also disable bump-to-attack. This is definitely stuff that needs fine-tuning, though. I've actually been considering turning off bumping by default, for several reasons, but I think it would be a quite impopular choice with people who have already played alot of roguelikes. That could surely be discussed in another thread.

One question about items though. If you have a weapon/armor/whatever how do you equip it so it's in use? When hitting 'E' to go into equipment. What's the significance of the letters? I understand A - 'in hand', but do B, C, and D signify in use, i.e. wielded for the case of a weapon or worn for the case of armor? And everything else under 'Carrying' is just carried in your pack, ie not readied?

I'll try to make this more clear in-game, and write some helpful help about it. B, C, and D signify "worn". This is where you put armor, shoes, thimbles, etc. to make them effective. E and onwards are in your backpack, as you suggest. Pressing A-D if the slot is occupied, unwields/unwears. If the slot is empty, it promts to wear/wield something from the backpack. Pressing E and onwards tries to use the item from the backpack. Generally, red items (weapons) will be wielded in your A slot, blue items (wearables) go in your B-D slots, and yellow items have some special effect (mushrooms are eaten, bottles are opened, etc).

Also, I saw that you had all the tiles in separate files and I was thinking how is this all managed!??!!? Seems like putting it all in one file will make things easier. [...] Image Magick [...]

In fact, I have decided to do just that, and I'll surely be using Image Magick. After all, that's how I've managed to keep track of such a large bunch of tiny files so far

You're not the first to mention that the opening game is quite hard, so that's definitely something I should work on. Ironically, the fact that you start out with meager resources (few and low skills, little equipment) often means you need to be extra careful in the opening game, and explot subtleties in the game in a more clever way. Personally, when going with random characters ("S" in the start menu), I get maybe one in a dozen who simply cannot survive the hostile environment s/he is hurled into. "Here I am, having no fighting experience and wearing nothing but a wig, and there comes running a bandersnatch."

The "C" command in the main menu lets you create a character, in which case you can go for some useful traits. "Martial artist" is a good place to start. Try a monkish type, I'd say skimp on Ghost and equipment, go for a mix of speed, martial arts, and learning. If you gain weapon skills later, you can switch to a weapon, but my first win was with a martial arts type (in the end the Martial arts skill was at 5, with an effective speed of 6 and a pretty high Dodge. I chose to wear a leather apron over a pachyderm armor of protection, since the apron had no speed penalty).

As always,
Minotauros

[AgingMinotaur]

Name: Squirm A.0.3.2
Summary: Coffeebreak fantasy roguelike
Platforms: Windows (binary), Python
Download: http://code.google.com/p/squirm/downloads/list
Homepage: http://code.google.com/p/squirm/

Here's a slightly sad release announcement for Squirm. Anyone who might've had this project in the back of their minds, will have noticed that it's been having a long nap. I'm now officially abandoning it, and just putting out the game in its current form.

It's not a very meaty update. Compared to A.0.3.1, this version should be slightly less buggy and more balanced. I also added an infrastructure for special skills/feats, as well as two such skill trees. Comments on the interface etc. are still welcome, as I plan to tear out some working parts of the engine for an upcoming project (still in the brainstorming phase).

Here's the changelog:

* Fix: Now tries to scatter dropped items if impossible to put on own position in grid.
* Fix: Squashed more bugs pertaining to map connectivity! (Argh! They just keep coming!)
* Fix: Bug in test_ecat() (kits.py and beings.py) messing with AI. Encounters like "Monster caretaker" should now work properly.
* Fix: Consoles less brutal when clearing lines, to avoid them blitting big black blots over neighboring consoles.
* Fix: Some strange placements of beings are now prohibited: furniture in front of doors, land beings spawned in water, etc.
* Fix: All tiles are now kept in one image file, making custom tilesets plausible, and reducing time needed to unzip on "inferior" OSes.
* Fix: Kipperbanes now drop loot (corpses) correctly.
* Fix: Game now finishes properly if pc dies/wins from within the equipment menu (eg. eating poison).
* Feature: Tile set and font size are now separate config options, so you can have eg. small tiles and large fonts.
* Feature: Started adding infrastructure for "shticks" (special skills), and some sample shticks.
* Tweak: Pc now starts out with slightly higher skill values, and nudged merit/foible ratio in pc's advantage.
* Tweak: Cobblers now ameliorate shoes even if in inventory, rather than giving a new pair.
* Tweak: Bumping turned off by default.
* Tweak: Examine command "X" now callable from skills and equipment menus.
* Tweak: Small tweaks and fixes to content. Filled in some details and tweaked some bugs for the bathing knight, etc.
* Content: Added trick to disarm adders.
* Content: Started working on shticks Fine hand (thief skills) and Alchemy.

As always,
Minotauros

[getter77]

Good deal, here's hoping you can harvest lots to carry forward so you don't have to reinvent the wheel and can get a nice boost of momentum for the next project!