Although when I ran into Fafhrd and Grey Mouser there, I really thought they were going to be friendly and we could have joined forces. :p (Nice to see the Leiber reference)
They
are friendly. Unfortunately, they're also under the enslaving influence of the mindslug. But they won't be when it dies (hint, hint
).
It would be nice if there were more combat actions like different moves. Like roll, side-step, bash, slash, overhead swing, thrust, back-step, etc. I think this would make combat more interesting and add more flavor to it to make it more engrossing.
The basic idea is that there is a simple set of combat moves (based on the two tactical decisions "attack or concentrate?" and "defend or concentrate?"), and then the powers, grenades, scrolls, other items, room features, enemy's abilities, and so on, add the needed diversity and flavour. A tried-and-true recipe, of course: in most roguelikes, you'll have the basic decision between "attack enemy" and "move one square away from enemy", and then it's all the skills and items and terrain features and other monsters that make this interesting.
That said, I'm open to any and all concrete ideas.
It would be nice if there was an option to turn off the roll results during combat. It's a bit distracting and takes away from the immersion in my opinion. I much prefer flavorful descriptions of whether the strike landed or missed instead.
I thought about that for a long time (the option is actually standard in my ATTACK combat system, but I specifically turned it off for Kerkerkruip), and decided against it. There is so much important information in those numbers, that playing without them is like playing the game blindfolded. ("Why does the mummified priest keep hitting me? Oh wait, it's getting a bonus from those unholy runes on the walls of this room!") While I find -- and I believe others as well -- that they stop being distracting after you've played a few games. You can just have eyes skip over them whenever you're not interested in the details, but it'll all be there when you are.
Had a couple more plays. I see now that there are eventually more move options, but it seems as though there is only ever one extra option besides the basic ones.
Ah, no! Understanding how powers work is crucial to winning the game, so let me explain. The dungeon always contains two level 1 monsters, two level 2 monsters, a level 3 monster, a level 4 monster, and the final boss Malygris, who is level 5. (Some of these monsters may be groups of monsters, and there can also be level 0 monsters like undead.) Whenever you kill a monster, you will get a power related to that monster; and you will lose all powers of
the same or a lower level. But you will keep all powers of a higher level.
Example: you kill the blood ape (level 1), and now have a level 1 power. You then kill the demon of rage (level 2); you'll get his level 2 power, but you'll lose the ape's power. You then kill Miranda (level 1); you will get her power, and because the demon of rage's power has a power level higher than 1, you'll get to keep that as well. So you now have two powers.
So if you managed to kill, in that order, a level 4, level 3, level 2 and level 1 monster, you'd end up with four powers.
(And it's not just the powers in the sense of the special abilities that work that way, but also the attack, defence and health bonuses you receive from destroying enemies.)
So it is always good to kill high level monsters first! But, unfortunately, it is also most difficult to kill high level monsters first.
As much as I have tried to, it seems none of the characters will actually talk to me and only end up attacking me.
Yeah, there's not a lot of talk. Though there are several ways to gain allies.
What's with the branches that kept growing, thorns, then fruit, then brambles, then another type of fruit, etc? Couldn't really figure out what was going on with that as I was fighting a druidess. Could I have picked the fruit?
Nope, you can't pick the fruit. The druidess has a special power to summon brambles, which then randomly grow thorns and fruit. She can launch these whenever she wants to. If you manage to kill her, you will get this same power -- the power to summon brambles, and launch whatever thorns and fruit happen to grow on them. There is a wide variety of fruits, ranging from the slightly to the very useful, but, alas, nature is unpredictable.
If I can't use the ment during combat, how long will it last if I take it in an empty room before I find someone I need to fight?
I'd have to look at the source code, but it is a random number around 15 turns, I think. (Defensive turns don't count.) Long enough that you have a fair chance to finish the fight before it wears off, but short enough that you're not guaranteed to finish the fight.
