Roguelike Radio podcast

[mushroom patch]

One of the reasons I like RLR is that when I listen dumbs talk about roguelikes and not-so-roguelikes it gives me determination to work harder on creating hardcore roguelikes - a determination that sadly dissolves in couple of minutes.

Yeah, it's hard to work up the determination needed to write games that you can't make a living on and that no one plays, especially when you can talk on forums as if you spend a lot of time on such games anyway.

[Krice]

Yeah, it's hard to work up the determination needed to write games that you can't make a living on and that no one plays, especially when you can talk on forums as if you spend a lot of time on such games anyway.

You have to remember that even as it is my determination greatly exceeds average. And also that the way I'm creating games is engine-based so it looks like nothing is happening. I know it's a difficult burden, often unbearable for most developers.

[Darren Grey]

New episode! And it's very timely - How to Make a Unique 7DRL:

http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2014/03/episode-86-how-to-make-unique-7drl.html

I'm joined by Eben Howard and Aaron Steed, who have both made excellent unusual roguelikes in the past.

[Darren Grey]

Another on topic episode - 7DRLs 2014!

http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2014/03/episode-87-7drls-2014.html

Over 36 games discussed because of their stand-out features!

[Darren Grey]

My, it's sure been a while... Here's an ep that's been in the wings for a while now - an interview with the Angband devteam:

http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2014/08/episode-89-interview-with-angband.html

[mushroom patch]

The discussion of autoexplore in angband was peculiar. The devs say that angband is about exploration, so you don't want autoexplore. They claim that their level generation is so awesome, there's no need for autoexplore. There's no need for autoexplore because there's no need for exploration. Clearing/exploring levels is naive play and largely a waste of time (except that some people like to do it -- whatever).

I was also surprised to hear the dev team re: the danger of diving. At least one of them seems to think there's a limit to how far you can dive without running into a situation that will kill you. This has not been my experience with recent versions. I recently kinged a character who got his first speed ring (which led quickly to a win thereafter) at dungeon level 72 and experience level 31. You really don't have to fight anything you don't want to in angband. Teleport level, teleport other, banishment, etc. make monsters other than hounds and a few others mostly irrelevant except as xp/loot bags if you have the means to kill them. It's essentially trivial to put together an acceptable armor set up because you don't need most of the resistances and you can take down Morgoth easily with a number of artifact weapons that collectively occur pretty frequently or with ego versions of the bigger melee weapons (and forget about randart games -- shields with +2 attacks o.0). There are lots of things to rethink in current angband.

[Bear]

Agreed, the way they nerfed hounds very fundamentally changed the game. 

Hounds were the unavoidable monster in earlier versions of the game.  They were why you would definitely die if you went too deep without resistances. 

With hounds at their much reduced numbers and probabilities, it's now possible to avoid everything really dangerous. 

[mushroom patch]

The way I remember older versions, the non-base resistances had a bigger impact on damage taken than they currently do, which is the reason you don't need the kind of equipment you did in old versions.

I've always been of the opinion that the main problem with angband is the availability of escapes involving teleportation out of line of sight, especially teleport level and teleport other. Teleport other is particularly crazy because it's easily available, it always works, it always teleports monsters so far away they won't come back, except Morgoth and a handful of others, and once they're away, they're as good as dead -- you just get what you're after and leave the level.

The game needs monsters and dungeon settings that prevent or hamper teleportation. Such things exist in some variants already, but I haven't seen it done really well.

[Krice]

I've always been of the opinion that the main problem with angband is the availability of escapes involving teleportation out of line of sight, especially teleport level and teleport other.

Things like that are there to "fix" the game balance. Roguelikes are full of escape methods.

[Brigand]

Is there a feed with the old Roguelike Radio podcasts available somewhere? I notice the one I subscribed to through iTunes only goes back to around episode 50. I suppose I could go to the website and pull them out of the embedded player in the blog posts - just wondering.

[Darren Grey]

Hmm, not sure what's up with iTunes. All of them are available through the RSS feed on the main site.

[Brigand]

Ok, ty, it's probably iTunes/my itunes.

[pwiecz]

The way I can see it there are only last 50 podcasts (back to 41st) in the RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/RoguelikeRadio)

[Brigand]

Yeah, that exactly how far back I can see. Maybe Apple has instituted a limit on number of podcasts in the feed, or how long they are retained - this doesn't appear to be the only podacst cut off after going so far back.

[Darren Grey]

Apparently it's an issue with the feed link from Google, which can't handle too many items. You can get the full feed here:

http://www.roguelikeradio.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=500

In other news, new episode! This time we talk about the first roguelikes we made:

http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2014/09/episode-91-our-first-roguelikes.html

And there's some bonus fun at the start