Sewerjacks - the Bloodbowl roguelike.
Since I was having this conversation with Legend (I hope you dont mind me posting it here, let me know ASAP), I decided to put it here incase others have had any issues.
An issues regarding using fullscreen in ASCII mode popped up. On some machines running the ascii.bat will not work with full screen. I have no idea why, but apparently running it from a bat file and running it from a windows short-cut do different things, even though they both call "Sewerjacks -ascii". I will drop the .bat file support for all my games now.
Just had a couple run throughs. I think I see what you meant by static lighting. Unless you plan on making it dynamic somehow in the ascii, I don't think it's that bad. It adds a little character to the levels.
Static lighting in the ascii levels was a thought I had but never really followed through with it, I wanted a flickering atmostphere but I kinda dropped ascii development.
I noticed that in ascii mode, the status bar along the right side of the screen and the right side of the dungeon overlap each other. As in the dungeon shows under the stats like my ally and whether I can blitz. Pretty mucky looking and hard to read. As for overlapping bar in ASCII, I just noticed that my self, I added it to my to-do list.
The level generation seems to be a little different between the ascii and the tile modes. Level generation between ASCII and tiles is the same. Sometimes you get a run of similar looking levels. This is just a random artefact. I think anyway
Is there a way to make the mouse pointer disappear? Kinda annoying when there is no use for the mouse. Mouse control is half implemented, but should not be used for ascii. Noted.
It would be nice if there was a message displaying what item you are standing on instead of having to step off of it and use the "l"ook command. I also noticed that messages do not show up when walking on a item. I guess I play in tiles mode and I can easily see what the item is. Problem noted.
When I use the "o'rder ally command, if I don't press something after a couple seconds, it automatically cancels the command somehow without me pressing anything. Never noticed that the order command time outs. The text might disappear if you move the mouse though. I will check this.
It would also be nice if when the player uses the "o"rder command, the options are a selectable list like the main menu is being able to use the arrows and enter keys to make my selection. I have considered a selectable list for the order menu. I might add that as an option. Good idea.
Having a hard time using grabs, throws, and kicks since the enemy is almost always "active" whenever I am close enough to kick, throw, or grab. Getting the enemy stunned or prone and being able to take advantage of it, can be increased by a number of ways. 1/ Having allies to attack/throw at the enemy, 2/ by being faster than the enemy to attack them before the recover (or use blitz), 3/ pushing enemies into walls to immediately follow up with a kick. 4/ by having mighty hit or strong throw to increase chance of stuns/knockdowns.
Some skills, like dirty player, make kicks much more effective. Grabs are most effective when surrounded by enemies and you need to escape, or when you want to position an enemy closer to a wall. Works well with blitz.
Not sure what you mean by throw. Throwing takes more time than other actions, so you wont be able to make use of the enemy being knocked down (agility speeds up throw actions). But it makes it easier to 'blitz attack' an enemy thrower.
What's the dice do?The dice are a 'secret'. Well not really, there is always another 'item' generated with the dice somewhere on the level. The two are combined some how....
It would be nice if there was a message notifying me that a creature is an ally. I kept trying to attack a goblin and wondering why i just kept switching places with it. Maybe if they had the underscore highlight? About ally recognition, in tile mode evil and good creatures have red or blue armour respectively. I guess I need to add this to ascii mode. In the mean time your allies are listed on the side under your stats.
Anyways. Just some initial thoughts. Very interesting game. I also look forward to the warhammer roguelike.
So do I
Just some more comments/questions.
Been playing orc/goblin. Are rats suppose to ignore me cause I'm an orc/goblin? Their state is still hostile, but they ignore me and just swap places with me instead of letting me attack them.
Ok, Sewerjacks was originally written to play good races only and evil races, e.g. orcs/goblins were put in for fun. Rats are evil and therefore dont attack evil characters. I do plan on changing this, so they only are peaceful to other 'rat' creatures.
What's the summoning circle do?Summoning circles can be 'p'icked up to activate it. They allow random summoning of an ally or enemy depending on the colour of the circle. I should rename the two summoning circles to make it easier to tell the difference.
What does it mean under the exrtaordinary skills section that
"These skills are not available for upgrades"?Exrtaordinary skills are only for special and unique characters. And yes if you progress further in the game you will actually unlock extra races/classes. Look out for notes that give you clues on special characters. E.g entering in 'Ratboy' or 'Gandalf' will give you a unique or unlocked character.
A race/class section in the manual would be very helpful. There is very little info on them in the character select screen. Ok, but there are so many races. But I guess info on the starting races is fair enough.
It would be nice to have a command to go back to the main menu from the mortem screen after the player dies instead of having to exit the program and start it again from windows after dying. Yes going back to the menu screen is something I should do. Thanks. I noticed that Infra Arcanum does this and it works very well. Its on the list!
I've yet to find a weapon. Only instablitz, charm, pogo stick, dice, and health.
The deeper you go the more regular weapons show up. I guess you have not defeated a goblin fanatic or loony yet, as they drop there weapons. Remember to kick more when you have a pogo stick:)
Anyway thanks a lot for playing and the feedback. Some good stuff there, especially that you have reminded me to actually support ASCII again. I was about to drop it!!
Cheers.