KeeperRL (formerly Zagadka)

[miki151]

Playing around with the Oryx tiles...

[Zireael]

I love Alpha 4. If only the game didn't have the propensity to spawn up stairs close to down stairs or even dungeon heart...

[miki151]

Noted. The up and down stairs are always in the same cavern to force the player to dig to them. I've guaranteed (I think) that the heart and stairs are never in the same open area, but I'll make sure there is a minimum distance too.

[miki151]

There is an intermediate version that allows switching between tiles and ASCII, fixes a few bugs, and adds experimental mouse support to adventure mode.

http://students.mimuw.edu.pl/~makbet/keeperRL_alpha4.zip

[miki151]

I've uploaded another "intermediate" version.

The keeper mode is now similar to old versions of Dwarf Fortress - you dig into the side of the mountain. The village is on the same level, not too far away. You start by walking around and when you find a suitable spot to dig, you 'U'npossess, and start digging. First you need to place a throne for yourself, after that the game goes similar as before. The minions come from outside.

I've added a few quests in adventure mode. 'C'hat to the village leaders. There are some new magical items and effects.

The download address is same as in the previous post.

[miki151]

I'd love to get some feedback on the playability of this version, and if it's not good then how I can improve it. I haven't got any detailed feedback for a long time, and it's not good if you're coding alone. Thanks 

[dscreamer]

I've never tried this game before, so I thought I'd play a few games and share my thoughts:
(starting in Adventure mode)
-The intro gives a good idea of what to do. The commands all have sensible keybindings.
-I'm not a big fan of the font. Some of the letters (and especially numbers) seem too large, and the font design doesn't seem right for a game.
-Pushing past townsfolk instead of attacking them is a nice feature to have. (I was surprised when I killed a chicken instead of pushing past - I think this might be a bug because it only happens while I'm standing in a door.)
-Scorpions are almost invisible. This might be intentional.
-So far, I've been to 2 or 3 towns to get quests, and I definitely want to explore more and see what's out there. Nice job capturing the feeling of some previous RPGs.
-It would be nice to be able to move to the bottom of the inventory easily by pressing Up while already at the top.
-The ADOM-like equipment slots are nice.
-The list of visible items on the side can sometimes grow too large and overlap the "wielding" line.
-When you leave a shop without paying, the shopkeeper is kind enough to remind you that you've forgotten to pay instead of attacking you. Thanks for that.
-The way vultures work is cool.
-Randomly placing the images on the start screen is cool.
-The wound system wasn't quite clear to me. Can you only be Normal, Wounded, or Critically Wounded? I took a few steps while Critically Wounded and bled out. I guess I should have used a first aid kit immediately.
-There are some spelling errors, like choped -> chopped, peseant -> peasant, and snorring -> snoring.

Overall, I'm glad I decided to play this game - I had fun! (I played several more times while typing this.) It's off to a good start.

[miki151]

Thanks for the comments!

- I'll think about the font again, although I always thought it's pretty good. I think I've been using it from day 1 of this game.
- The version is missing some textures, so scorpions and the dragon are not visible.
- I'll try to add some extra messages about the wound system. Generally as you said, if you're down to critically you can bleed out.
- Thanks for pointing out the spelling errors.

I'm doing some big changes to the keeper mode gameplay now, so if you'd like to try it out too, I can upload another version in a few days (or you can compile it by yourself from github).

[miki151]

Here is another one. I'm getting closer to a next release. The dungeon management is now more complex, you now summon or create some minions by hand, and there are appropriate skills for that, for example necromancy, golem animation, etc. The Keeper can now cast spells and thus can be a strong fighter, it's fun to control him and take your minions to a battle.

You are now encouraged to leave the dungeon and do some killing through the need for "mana". This mechanic is to be improved, I'd like to hear suggestions. The more aggressive you are, the quicker you will be attacked by the heroes.

The adventure mode had little updates this time.

http://students.mimuw.edu.pl/~makbet/keeperRL_alpha4.zip

[Vanguard]

Alright I spent a little bit of time on this and here are my impressions:

The title screen should include an explanation of the difference between keeper and adventure modes.
Keeper mode seems pretty cool, but it doesn't explain itself very well.  A good start would be to tell the player they need to use the mouse when they switch over to build mode.  A countdown until the next invasion timer might be nice too.
The inventory button should still do something if you aren't carrying anything, even a simple "You aren't carrying anything!" message lets the player know that the game received their input.
The numeric keypad should allow diagonal movement when num lock is off.
For some reason clicking around on the main menu closes the game?
The ability to fast travel down roads is a nice feature.
You could fit the list of commands on one screen without scrolling if you used your space more efficiently.
The tiles you're using look super nice.
The font you're using looks bad.

Welp, that's everything.  See you later.

[miki151]

Some negative, but constructive feedback, thanks.

The title screen should include an explanation of the difference between keeper and adventure modes.

Good idea.

Keeper mode seems pretty cool, but it doesn't explain itself very well.  A good start would be to tell the player they need to use the mouse when they switch over to build mode.  A countdown until the next invasion timer might be nice too.

Yes, I plan to add more help messages later on. The invasion times depend on your actions, and in the future I plan to make it much more dynamic. In general I want to encourage the player to take initiative instead of only fortifying himself. So far I've found out that open battles are most fun.

The inventory button should still do something if you aren't carrying anything, even a simple "You aren't carrying anything!" message lets the player know that the game received their input.
The numeric keypad should allow diagonal movement when num lock is off.
For some reason clicking around on the main menu closes the game?

Noted.

The font you're using looks bad.

Do you mean the text or the characters in ASCII mode?
I've just changed the text font last night, and don't know which one that version used. In any case, since I don't know anything about fonts, would you recommend any that you think is good?

[Vanguard]

I mean the text used to display messages.  I didn't try ASCII mode.

I don't know exactly how to describe what's wrong with it or how to fix it.  It just looks bad to me.  It looks like a default font that was chosen with no regard for how it fit in with the game's aesthetics.

[guest509]

I took your advice over in the Troll thread. This game has really progressed. I died on level 2 to a Goblin. Thought I had him beat so didn't check HP. Will keep playing.

Had some issues with inventory, when I went to drop something it did not show what I had equipped, having different inventory lists like that depending on the command can be confusing. A minor GUI thing.

I'll keep playing.

EDIT: I did adventure mode.

[guest509]

Playing Dungeon Keeper Mode now. Not sure what to do but it seems very interesting.

[guest509]

Is there any way to restart when you die? Besides having to close and run the game again?