[Update] Mines of Elderlore 1.0 beta *2* released

[Altefcat]

Here is the first beta release of the final 1.0 version.

Source is at:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elderlore/moe_source.1.0b1.zip

Windows binary is at:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elderlore/moe_windows.1.0b1.zip

Here is the readme.txt file :

Code: [Select]

################################################################################
#                                                                              #
#                              MINES of ELDERLORE                              #
#                                                                              #
# An Ascii roguelike with :                                                    #
# * Permanent levels                                                           #
# * Simple and easy gameplay                                                   #
# * High scores that you can compare with others                               #
# http://landsof.elderlore.com                                                 #
#                                                                              #
# Released under the GNU General Public License                                #
#                                                                              #
################################################################################


Here is the first beta release of the final 1.0 version of Mines of Elderlore.

This version is released for feedback and debugging.

1. INSTALL
==========
1.1 From the source file
------------------------
You need Python and the Numeric module to launch the game from its source file.
Once Python and Numeric installed, you can download this file:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elderlore/moe_source.1.0b1.zip
and extract it to a folder. Launch it under a terminal window with the command
"python moe.py".

If you change the terminal size, the game will adjust accordingly to maximize
the display area. The minimal size for the game to play is 80 columns by 25
rows.

1.2 From the Windows binary
---------------------------
The game has been ported under Windows by using Wcurses. To play Mines of
Elderlore under Windows, download this file:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/elderlore/moe_windows.1.0b1.zip
 and extract it to a folder. Launch it by double-clicking on "moe.exe".

The display size of the game is fixed at 80 columns by 25 rows, and cannot be
changed.

2. PLAY
=======
2.1 The game
------------
You are a young hero and to prove your strength, you decide to clean the mines
nearby your native village. Only armed with your training sword, you enter a
maze of rooms and corridors.

This game is a roguelike. It is turn-based, and once your character dies there
is no loading back. By moving in the four directions, you attack monsters, open
doors, collect equipment or use stairs. Your goal is to survive long enough in
the mines, progressing by killing monsters and descending as deep as you can.

A score is given when the player dies, that equals his XP points. If he is a
winner, his score will appear on the top of the other scores, different winner
scores being sorted by the number of rounds they took.

Each weapon is different, and provide different gameplay. Be creative ! I hope
you will enjoy this little game. And remember, if you search deep enough, you
may find your true nemesis.

2.2 The screen
--------------
The following symbols are displayed on the screen:

## : walls
.. : floor you can see
++ : a door; bump into it to open it
<< : descending stairs
>> : ascending stairs
M~ : monster sleeping; it will awake at your approach
Mn : monster level n
!  : a health potion; (d)rink it to recover all your Health Points
*  : a magic mushroom; when you (r)est, you can eat them to recover HP. Don't
let monsters eat them !
/n : a sword of level n
Pn : an axe of level n
|n : a spear of level n
Tn : a warhammer of level n
&/ : you with your weapon ! (a sword)

The top of the screen displays some usefull information for the player :
Lvl 1 | HP 10/10 | XP 000 (030 for lvl 2) | !01 | *00 | 000 | M 00/40/120

- Lvl 1 : your current level
- HP 10/10 : your current Health Points amount and your max Health Points amount
- XP 000 (030 for lvl 2) : your experience points, and the number you need to
reach next level (you start at level 1)
- !01 : the health potions you own (you start with one health potion)
- *00 : the mushrooms you own (you start with no mushroom)
- 000 : the rounds (each action equals one round)
- M 00/40/120 : your current mood state, followed by the frenzy threshold (40)
and the berzerk threshold (120).

2.3 The keys
------------
Here are the keys you can use in the game:

- h, F2, F3, F4 : help in-game
- keyboard arrows : move and attack North, South, East and West
- space : wait for a round
- d : drink a health potion
- r : rest to recover HP by eating mushroom
- e : rest and eat one mushroom
- 1 : equip your best sword
- 2 : equip your best axe
- 3 : equip your best spear
- 4 : equip your best warhammer
- i : list your weapons and their quality.
- esc : save and close the game.

3. ABOUT
========
3.1 What's new
--------------
Version 1.0:
- new key 'h', 'F2', 'F3' and 'F4' for in-game help
- frenzy and berzerk player state
- bumping in a wall, displaying inventory or hitting a wrong key does not cost
a round anymore
- you can charge with swords
- you can push and knock with warhammers
- you can whirlwind with axes
- chaining monsters with special attacks enhance damage
- if wounded, a monster is healed when eating a mushroom; if at full HP, it
gains a level
- 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, or
"moe.exe movies\movie_name.moe" under Windows command line
- a morgue file is created for each different dungeon, filled with records from
dead players

Version 0.9:
- new colors on the screen :
    * monsters are magenta
    * potions and mushrooms are green
    * player is white when healhty, yellow when hp < 2/3 hpmax, and red when
    hp < hpmax/3
    * stairs are yellow
    * weapons are blue, and bold if usefull   
- new colors in messages
- some balancing in player advancement and monster damage
- Now there is a winning case; if you succeed, the least rounds it took you,
the better.
- messages are displayed on the right for better reading.


3.2 History
-----------
The code is only one file: http://landsof.elderlore.com/files/moe/moe.py. It is
all GNU / GPL v2, so I hope it will be of some help for anyone interested.

It runs well under Ubuntu with Python and Numeric, and under Windows. When
launched for the first time (with 'python moe.py' from the source file, or by
double-clicking on 'moe.exe' under windows), it will create an 'moe.ini' file
containing different parameters that you can change at will.

After the first play, an 'moe.sav' file is created to keep your progress.
Launch again the game and it will continue where you previously stopped.

A board of scores and ranks is keeped, and since every dungeon is the same for
everyone, it should be easy to compare performance each other. If you want to
explore another dungeon, just change the 'name' value in 'moe.ini'. If you set
this 'name' value to 'random', a new different dungeon will be generated each
time, with a customed name.


Each game is intended to be fast and fun, so don't be shy, give it a try !

[Adral]

Congratulations on the release!

I'll try to get some time to play it and comment it as soon as possible! Fun game indeed!

[Adral]

Some comments:

* I really like the new counters for the different "states of mind" of the character, they keep you towards exploring and killing.
* I still have to fiddle with weapons more to get the feel of each one.
* The movies idea is genius, but it really should *at least* have an "exit playback" key . Preferably, it should have things like going forward, backward, altering playback speed, etc etc., but I think the exiting key is really needed here!

I hope I can play some more and try out the new weapon abilities. I'll keep you posted.

EDIT: I had an interface idea: when "frenzy", the "mind status" bar could change color (ie. orange), and when berserk, change yet again (ie. red) so everything is more visible at a glance!

[Altefcat]

Some comments:

* I really like the new counters for the different "states of mind" of the character, they keep you towards exploring and killing.
* I still have to fiddle with weapons more to get the feel of each one.

I don't know if I should describe a little how to use weapons in the readme file, what do you think ?

* The movies idea is genius, but it really should *at least* have an "exit playback" key . Preferably, it should have things like going forward, backward, altering playback speed, etc etc., but I think the exiting key is really needed here!

Yes I know, but that's a little hard technically speaking  , as those movies are only a serial of keypressed and random generator seeds, so I need to play it from the beginning. As a temporary workaround, you can use CTRL+Z to exit...

I hope I can play some more and try out the new weapon abilities. I'll keep you posted.

EDIT: I had an interface idea: when "frenzy", the "mind status" bar could change color (ie. orange), and when berserk, change yet again (ie. red) so everything is more visible at a glance!

Good idea, I'll add yellow to the frenzy state, and magenta to berzerk. I think I could add colors to HP too.

[Altefcat]

I've thinked about this movie stuff, and I might have a solution.

First the original idea of those "keymovies", as he call them, come from Kornel Kisielewicz, the great dev of DoomRL, DiabloRL, and some others : http://blog.chaosforge.org/?p=25

So the problem is, this keymovie is only composed of random seeds and keys, so it's very light but not very convenient : to display what happens at round 10, you have to simulate the keys pressed from 1 to 9 before knowing how round 10 looks like.

So a solution could be to play first all the movie in memory and memorize the state of each round of the game. Then display those buffered rounds. The buffering stage would be quite fast, since nothing would be displayed on screen.

With such a hack, it would be possible to go forward, backward at will.

[Adral]

Some comments:

* I really like the new counters for the different "states of mind" of the character, they keep you towards exploring and killing.
* I still have to fiddle with weapons more to get the feel of each one.

I don't know if I should describe a little how to use weapons in the readme file, what do you think ?

I think it would be a nice idea

* The movies idea is genius, but it really should *at least* have an "exit playback" key . Preferably, it should have things like going forward, backward, altering playback speed, etc etc., but I think the exiting key is really needed here!

Yes I know, but that's a little hard technically speaking  , as those movies are only a serial of keypressed and random generator seeds, so I need to play it from the beginning. As a temporary workaround, you can use CTRL+Z to exit...

Hm... Is it possible to alter time between keypresses? That way you could see the game in fast, medium or slow speeds or something like that.

I hope I can play some more and try out the new weapon abilities. I'll keep you posted.

EDIT: I had an interface idea: when "frenzy", the "mind status" bar could change color (ie. orange), and when berserk, change yet again (ie. red) so everything is more visible at a glance!

Good idea, I'll add yellow to the frenzy state, and magenta to berzerk. I think I could add colors to HP too.

I thought HP was already coloured... Anyway, everything that helps on seeing info at a glance is a nice idea in my opinion.

[Altefcat]

Here is an extract of the game manual about how to use the weapons. As english is not my native language, there may be some mistakes, sorry about that !

Code: [Select]

2.4 The weapons : basics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Weapons are of 4 different kinds : swords, axes, spears and warhammers. They can
be of different quality : basic ones for training, or made of iron, steel,
mithril, adamant or vorpal.

Every weapon, when used against a monster, provides the same basic damage, based
on your level and the weapon quality.

2.5 The weapons : advanced
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every weapon has a special ability that you can use to multiply your
strikes, causing devastating wounds if you are a true master of arms !

2.5.1 Sword charge
------------------
You can charge with swords to increase the damage you inflict. To do so, you
need to move in one direction for several turns with your sword, then hit a
monster in the same direction.

Sword charges, when succeeded, are indicated by the yellow blod message :
"Sword charge #n!" where n is the charge amount.

2.5.2 Axe whirlwind
-------------------
If you kill a monster with your axe, you will initiate a whirlwind attack, and
attack every monster around you, the first at 2x damage, the second 4x, and so
on.

Axe whirlwinds, when succeeded, are indicated by the yellow bold message :
"Axe whirl #n!" where n is the damage multiplier.

2.5.3 Spear charge
------------------
If you kill a monster with a spear, you will charge in the same round on the
monster killed position, and if there is a monster next in the same direction,
you will attack it with double damage. If you kill the second monster, you will
charge and attack with 4x damage, and so on until there are no more monsters
aligned.

Spear charges, when succeeded, are indicated by the yellow bold message :
"Spear charge #n!" where n is the damage multiplier.

2.5.4 Warhammer charge
----------------------
When you hit a monster with your warhammer, there is a chance that you succeed a
warhammer charge (based on monster level and you warhammer quality). If you do
so, you will move one step ahead, and the monster will be pushed several steps
backwards. If the monster hits something or somebody while being pushed back, it
will be knocked for several rounds.

Warhammer charges, when succeeded, are indicated by the yellow bold message :
"Warhammer charge #n!" where n is the number of cells the monster is pushed
back.

[Altefcat]

Beta 2 is on SourceForge :
    * Beta 2 source files
    * Beta 2 windows binary files

Some bugs have been erased, and I've changed the second part of the game to make it more interesting. If you manage to reach the Balrog levels, you'll see why !
 
Happy gaming ;-)
 
Version 1.0 beta 2:
- sword charge is now effective only if the player hits the monster in the same direction of his charge
- inventory now displays the player active weapon min and max damage
- mushrooms cannot be dropped on stairs anymore
- player can rest and eat mushrooms while in berzerk mood
- weapon flavor names have been changed
- monsters are now different kinds of demons
- the status bar displays HP and mood in different colors 
- player can get higher than level 10
- monsters can move in 8 directions from level 6
- M9 can summon a friend when fully healed and eating a mushroom
- readme.txt file updated

[beam]

This is a cool game. Like I said before, the double-tile display both looks and plays good. The only problem I have is that the game's levels are deterministic, but the monster drops aren't. You can either have a good or bad game. Plus, it seems like each level has to have the rooms cleared in a certain order, and the game becomes more trial and error than anything.

[Altefcat]

If you set the name value to random in the file 'moe.ini', you will have a different dungeon each time. Perhaps I should set this by default ?

Monsters always drop a number of mushrooms equal to their level plus one, if there is enough space around them. Only the place where they are dropped is random. But it's true that player and monster damages are random.

About the trial and error, you may be right that dungeons can be more or less difficult, but you can really adopt different stategies. For instance, if you get frenzy at level 1, you'll get a 2 pts bonus, and you will be assured to kill every M1 in one shot.

And if you know where the good weapons are, you can rush to them in berzerk mode. In the source files of beta 2, I left a movie file where I use this kind of strategy in the Moria mines, get the spear and do some spear charge and monster chain killing at deepness 3.

[Adral]

This is a cool game. Like I said before, the double-tile display both looks and plays good. The only problem I have is that the game's levels are deterministic, but the monster drops aren't. You can either have a good or bad game. Plus, it seems like each level has to have the rooms cleared in a certain order, and the game becomes more trial and error than anything.

What Altefcat said: if you reallywant to have all your mushrooms, you'd better fight the monsters on a empty space! If you kill them on the corridors, you'll most likely lose some mushrooms.

Also, random damages each time make the game less trial and error. If you knew what damage you'd do on a certain turn if you did a certain combination of keys when you started, then the game is about retrying and doing silly dances to alter the seed until you always do maximum damage.

Anyway, I'll download the new version now and see what's up!

[Adral]

Hmm... There's something strange. Apparently, my Moria map and my girlfriend's are different. I use Kubuntu 64-bit and she uses Windows. Maybe it has something to do with that?

I thought maps would be the same, given that you should be able to trade videos and all between different people...

[Altefcat]

Do you have the same moe.ini parameters on the two computers ? Width and height change the dungeon name also. A good test would be to remove (rename) 'moe.ini' and 'moe.sav' and launch the game on both sides to see if the generated dungeons are different.