WazHack is a procedurally-generated dungeon game. This is not a twicher - you can spend all the time you need contemplating what to do in any situation - and with over 250 different types of items to be found, there is no shortage of solutions to problems. With over 100 different types of monsters, there is no shortage of problems either. But this is no puzzler - you will have to fight your adrenalin and use your sword or staff as much as your inventory. It's not a game of plodding to the end and winning (though it is winnable), it's about experiencing the attempt... and learning lessons that will help your next valiant attempt!
WazHack is my attempt to create a roguelike that is graphically modern, while keeping all the traditional goodness of NetHack and its ancestors. It uses a 3D web-plugin and incremental download, so it starts up very quickly, but here is a screen shot anyway: http://wazhack.com/images/wh-screenshot-2.jpgProbably the first thing you'll notice is that I have turned the world sideways. If you think about it though, it's topologically quite similar to a traditional roguelike map, but it allows for better visibility than the "Falcon's Eye" or "Diablo" style. You'll also find Levitation and Jumping are far more interesting!WazHack is, of course, turn based and permadeath.Don't worry, the Skull Tutor shuts up pretty quickly, he's just thereto get you going.I hope NetHack players find it familiar - for now, I have deliberately kept to the traditional items, monsters, ... and consequences, of NetHack, except where I feel it forces spoilage or when it is just too unrealistic, and I hope you may even find some of my "fixes" appealing. For example: - You can feel the relative weights of objects - Creatures actually have different sizes (see: ogre) - You cannot die by eating too much food (you will probably still die though, choking is pretty bad) - Dogs can't climb ladders (or can they....)Some changes are purely to make the game more fun or to suit theradically different visual style, for example: - Wand zapping and bouncing is way more fun with 360 degree freedom - Blindness is more 'poor vision' - the screen does not just go blank - Lamps and keys activate as needed, saving oil and sanity - Most anachronisms are gone, but there are new homages andsubtletiesYou'll find plenty of things "missing". This is just the first version. The only one I'll explicitly mention is that sorry, for now, there is no god.You'll also find plenty of little additions. I'm not going to list those at all, and there are plenty more to come (I spend many, many hours a week onWazHack). With time, WazHack will continue to diverge from NetHack, as it should. But next to add is the Gnomish Mines, though you will hardlyrecognize it if my plans play out.There are bugs. Some are in the Unity3D engine I'm using (eg. resizing the display while in-game), others are all my fault. You can report bugs directly in the game (for now, it's just email).This is not my first attempt to ruin NetHack. I'm also to blame for the "default tile set". I know many people prefer TTY graphics (though I never played with fancy *colored* characters before doing the tiled version!). This time however, I released myself from the challenge of building upon the NetHack source code - WazHack is a retelling, not a fork or a variant.For now, I can logistically only support it on Windows. However, it should work on MacOSX, and eventually on Google NaCl (so, Linux, for example).I'm announcing first to this group because I have always cared about NetHack. So please, play WazHack and tell me, from a NetHack player'sperspective,have I done it honor or ill so far?-- Waz (a.k.a. Warwick Allison)
Whoa! You exceeded my Google App Engine free quota on the first day of the beta1 release.Beta 2 is now up on wazhack.com, with loads of bug fixes, and some gentle game-balancing.Once you get deep in the dungeon now, you'll meet someone. He will offer you membership in The Hackers Guild. Take the offer, it's only two bucks during the beta. Or join from the Game Options menu. Thanks!Thanks also for everyone posting articles, videos, and pictures. Every single one has been truly hilarious (I watched the whole of Etalyx's video, laughing all the time, and not just because he spent 5 levels accidentally fighting barehanded).I hope no-one is bothered by a $2 price tag. It's about as low as I can go without giving everything to PayPal.The best thing about this new WazHackers Guild is that now you can play as any character name you like and it will be linked to your guild membership on the global high scores! Anyone on the top-ten today, feel free to email me (waz at this domain), and I'll link your old games up to your Guild account (no cheating, any disputes and I'll pull out my fiery greatsword again! ;-)I'm off to work on beta3 now - another bug report is already sitting in my mailbox!
Potions can now be thrown - so now you can toss a potion of paralysis at a big fat ogre to stop him - and the horde behind him! Or try one of the other potions you thought where only useful for flushing in a fountain and blessing in a temple. To get into the groove, play this video close-up of potions smashing - just some fun I was having while I fine-tuned it.Hunters have gotten a clean-up with better bow animations and throwing in general. Arrows bundle together like coins do, and they are a bit easier to see. And remember: double-F to pick up quickly - keep your arrows, they are still in short supply.You can now see your character dice rolls while you're still choosing your character, so you can just keep clicking until you get what you want (no, you will never get all 18s!).There are also more new items to find and use, but I wont list them - I want to try to add cool new stuff faster than you can find it!All sorts of weird bugs have been fixed. Seen a dwarf suddenly go bald? Fixed. Wondered why a dwarf wearing a -2 cloak seemed immune to magic? Fixed. Nymphs and Leprechauns don't know when the ladders ends? Fixed.Seen that a Valkyrie had a better armour class by stripping down to her dainties? Fixed. Sorry.Half the bugs were reported by players - thanks! Especially to the Guild Members who keep the server running!
The big new feature of this release is the Talent System, which lets you improve your character in many different dimensions as you level up. I looked over all the wishes that the Guild Members have voted up in the Wish Council, and I found a great use for almost all the good ones.The Talents are: -Anatomy - you extract more food from monsters you kill. -Battle Magery - metal gear has a reduced affect on spell casting. -Dual Wielding - allows you to usefully wield multiple weapons. -First Aid - allows you to heal faster. -Magic Precision - gives you more critical hits with your magic. -Shield Parry - protects you against receiving critical hits. -Weapon Knowledge - gives you knowledge, ultimately a Dwarf's knowledge, of weapons. -Weapon Precision - gives you more critical hits with weapons, even more for two-handed weapons.As you can see, each talent helps in different ways, and which ones you choose will depend on your playing style and what your immediate problems are. If you find that food is the biggest problem you have, get a little Anatomy. If you can never work out which weapon to use, go for Weapon Knowledge. Or if you just plain die a lot from being slowly beaten down, go for First Aid. Some talents are useful generally, while others more so if you want to go for a specific type of character (such as a Battle Mage).There are 3 levels to each Talent, with the top level being extra potent. For example, if you have Dual Wielding Level 3, you can wield two weapons and each one attacks 60% faster. Of course, you need two good single-handed weapons and no shield, but wow, do you feel like a ninja!Weapon Knowledge will reveal information about your weapons. This can save you a lot of Identify scrolls and helps you ensure you're fighting with your best weapon. Note that weapon knowledge does not take into account your current skills, merely the intrinsic quality and enchantment of the weapons.Regardless of your Weapon Knowledge, unique "artifact" weapons now reveal their might as soon as you wield them. A few shopkeepers sent in bitter complaints about that change.Critical Hits were in the earlier betas, but they were just a guaranteed hit based on a 1 in 20 chance (a "natural 20" on a d20). Now they also do double damage. Watch out though: monsters get them just as much as you do (but they can't get Talents to help them).Performance of the default "Good" graphics setting has been tuned to work well on lower-end machines, but if you have a more powerful machine, be sure to turn up the graphics to "Fantastic" in Options -> Graphics.There are many other improvements in beta 4 (like more arrows... but watch out: monsters can use them now too). I hope you enjoy the update - keep sending me bug reports, no matter how minor.As always, you can play WazHack online at wazhack.com. If you've played very recently, you may need to use Ctrl-Reload to clear your browser cache.
For years I've said it's impossible to add multiplayer to a roguelike and it still be a roguelike.A critical factor separates roguelikes from other genre. It is not a grid of ASCII graphics (WazHack proved that on day 1), nor is it a wealth of different items and creatures.It is the way time passes only as the player plays.It is this factor of roguelikes - giving the player time to consider their actions - that makes the wealth of items useful. For most non-roguelikes, the main items I seem to use is a pile of hot-keyed health potions (think Torchlight: the almost roguelike).So consider a multiplayer roguelike. How can multiple players be in the same dungeon with time passing in fits and spurts as each player alternates between running around or staring at their inventory? It would be infuriating waiting for other players to ponder their options. Other games have all "solved" this by putting everyone on the same realtime treadmill. But I say the game is then no longer a roguelike, but just a twitcher with far too many options to be playable. Is there another way?You be the judge, but I think I've found the solution with WazHack beta 5.Full details are in the help, but basically, co-op players all play the same random dungeon, and encounter the same creatures, but they work completely independently: all players have to kill the kobold in their instance of the dungeon, and they each get all the different loot in their particular instance.How is that multiplayer?Well, again: you've got to play it. The fun really starts when you are trading equipment to help each other out, using voice chat (eg. Skype or Mumble) to warn of nasties and collaborate on developing a balanced "party" of players (one wizard who knows the Identify spell is a powerful ally - give him your spare healing potion!)Item identification is also shared. If everyone has a scroll labelled BAYOWOKI, only one player needs to read it!That's all "co-op" mode. There is also a "competition" mode, where everyone also finds the same loot in each room and from room creatures they kill, but there is no trading. Who can get the furthest?So that's WazHack multiplayer mode. Check it out. To convince you, there is now a 3-pack of accounts for just $5.This is just the first iteration of multiplayer, and I'm sure there are bugs and sorely needed features. Be sure to report any bugs you find, and post suggestions. One item already on my to-do list is a mage staff that can store spells (and hence be lent to other party members!).As always, this release include a host of bug fixes. I'm keeping a record of you white-hat hackers who send me bug reports of a "cheat" that makes the game too easy. You'll all get a special badge or achievement or such some day! My policy is to leave crazy wins/scores in the list until I ship a fix for the reported bug.
There are two major additions. The first is obvious from the title screen (but there are also more advanced ones to be found. Clue: don't sell your best gem...).The second new feature is mounted creatures - like a goblin riding a giant rat! There are only two mounted creatures this release, just to test it out, but I'll be adding more, including the ability for the player to ride mounts. Not much point riding a rothé, since they can't climb ladders, but don't worry, I have some ideas....A few things have been rebalanced in this release: wands of polymorph have a shorter range and usually less charges; the dual wielded talent is also toned down a little (see the new percentages).As always, more bug fixes - keep sending in the great reports! Mostly minor stuff now - is the beta nearly complete?No more spoilers - go play! Remember to reload if you have played recently: check that you get the beta 6 title screen.Some changes were added to the live beta5 version that I'll particularly mention: pet inventory management is now much easier: they will not pick up anything, and will not drop anything you give them until they are burdened. They'll also use weapon and armour (previously they usually just dropped them), assuming your pet is a creature that can use them.Blessed identify scrolls will never identify everything when playing co-op multiplayer, so don't bother with trading loads of stuff back and forth.
The dungeon now has a branch! Some fellows seem to have gotten lost while building Hadrian's Wall - they set up camp in the Dungeons of WazHack and have completely missed the fall of the Roman Empire.The new branch is around 1000 feet (so sorry, guild members only).There are also 4 new Talents to tweak your character with - Commerce (better prices), Wizardry (faster mana regeneration), Beast Mastery (create tame monsters), and Dweomery (rhymes with "memory" and detects blessings, curses, and enchantments). Now you have 12 ... the choice is getting harder!Fire isn't quite as deadly now - it doesn't spread from item to item quite so savagely. More foods give fire resistance too.There are a few new items - an amulet, a scroll, plus the items you'll only find in the side branch.The rest I'll leave you to discover!Stop press: this http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ErWqAswmsvQ made me laugh, so I added Knock/Wizard Lock unlocking/locking of chests.
No, beta 8 is not set in Antarctica, although it is midwinter here in Australia.For the last month I have been working on making the UI feel better when used only with the mouse. I usually play with WASD but I've forced myself to play with only the mouse to get a feel for what it's like and fix any quirks. If' you've tried using the mouse previously, have a feel of it now and tell me if I've missed anything. There are lots of little things - from how chests open, to single-item pickups, attacking, etc.By popular demand, you can now edit your stats during character creation. The range of possible stats had to change to make this reasonable: previously a wider range was possible, just very unlikely, now it's more constrained for each class. The effect of CHA on commerce has been amplified a bit - so be careful choosing big muscles over a good personality. Personally, I still think it's more fun to play a random roll.Mostly for the last month I have been working on something else for WazHack. Sorry, I don't mean to be mysterious, I just hate vaporware announcements. I do want to assure you that yes, I'm still very much alive and hacking, and to let you all try out the feel of mouse-only play.In devising a fun title screen, I thought of how what you see in this release is just the tip of the iceberg of what I have been working on. As usual, I got carried away having fun expressing that. I liked the iceberg texture so much that I changed how the Cold wand/spell works: it now freezes the target in ice. Hitting a frozen creature either shatters and kills them (a favourite trope of mine) or does nothing (except critical hits - these work as normal); the chance of shattering is unrelated to the creature's current HP but rather to their max HP (i.e. to their hit dice and hence level). Their armour shatters with them, but other items are dropped (assuming they didn't freeze and shatter when you first zapped them).
By popular demand, you can now set a Nickname for your Guild account, so you no longer need to reveal your email address to play multiplayer! Go to your account to set it up.I'm sorry this feature took so long - I've been looking at integrating with Desura, and I wanted to know more about their user system before making changes to my custom user database server. I'm still working on the Desura packaging, but I know enough, so here is Beta9 for your enjoyment.BTW, it also looks like I will be able to hand out Desura keys to all Beta Guild members - thanks for all your support so far!Similar to my warning when Multiplayer was first added, changes like this are inherently hard to test (everyone's network is different), so be sure to let me know if you have problems with multiplayer (or anything else of course).
-fixed archers "machine gunning", even when frozen. -fixed artifact sparkles when invisible. -fixed cloth-related crash bug (disable non-player cloth to work around Unity bug in SkinnedCloth). -fixed helmets from corpses sometimes floating. -fixed icons when Alt-tabbing. -fixed initial stat bests. -fixed pie grouping in inventory. -fixed score variance between game and server. -fixed sometimes hallucination causing invisibility.-Web and standalone client players and now play multiplayer together.
Got a question: What's the difference between Sorcerer and Wizard actually?
