Brogue-AUDIO (1.7.4)

[Vanguard]

Yeah I really like the new tunneling staff.  It's fun to push monsters into chasms and lava pits.

Getting strength from wands of empowerment is too obvious and easy.  Empowering minions is probably still the stronger effect, but to really make that work you've got to carry all your wands around until you find a good minion and then burn a bunch of scrolls of enchantment.  The strength thing is less effort and works with any build.  I like that you've added a use for them in non-minion builds but right now it doesn't involve any interesting decisions.  You just get a bunch of extra strength.

What if self-empowerment was a temporary thing instead?  Like you got a long lasting haste and shield effect from it or something like that?

[RiC David]

Okay that's my sound set finished. With maybe one or two exceptions, that's every sound changed. I love this set, it puts satisfying retro Zelda sound effects over atmospheric real sounds and makes the game feel far more alive.

dropbox.com/s/iexljtxpu280a7f/BrogueRiC.rar

(note that this doesn't include the music tracks)

Most of the sounds are from various Zelda games, the environment sounds are from various sources - mostly high(er) quality nature recordings found on YouTube, a few of them are far longer than they need to be but the whole thing uncompressed is about 90mb which probably doesn't matter much these days but they could be clipped down if necessary. It's a 40mb rar file so lean by 2014 standards (the inventory management subgame of 90s computing isn't something I miss).

-

As I'm currently trying to gain slow but well earned progress at Brogue (I think level 11 is my personal best), I won't be trying out anything that will make it any easier right now but I'm really interested in your progress and experimentation though so I'll watch this space.

[LazyCat]

Okay that's my sound set finished. With maybe one or two exceptions, that's every sound changed. I love this set, it puts satisfying retro Zelda sound effects over atmospheric real sounds and makes the game feel far more alive.

dropbox.com/s/iexljtxpu280a7f/BrogueRiC.rar

(note that this doesn't include the music tracks)

Most of the sounds are from various Zelda games, the environment sounds are from various sources - mostly high(er) quality nature recordings found on YouTube, a few of them are far longer than they need to be but the whole thing uncompressed is about 90mb which probably doesn't matter much these days but they could be clipped down if necessary. It's a 40mb rar file so lean by 2014 standards (the inventory management subgame of 90s computing isn't something I miss).

If I had those effects at the time I would have used some, but without background music to me it just feels empty. 

As I'm currently trying to gain slow but well earned progress at Brogue (I think level 11 is my personal best), I won't be trying out anything that will make it any easier right now but I'm really interested in your progress and experimentation though so I'll watch this space.

I'm not sure about easier, what only really matters is what's better. But to answer that question you should indeed first get yourself more familiar with the original.

[LazyCat]

Yeah I really like the new tunneling staff.  It's fun to push monsters into chasms and lava pits.

Getting strength from wands of empowerment is too obvious and easy.  Empowering minions is probably still the stronger effect, but to really make that work you've got to carry all your wands around until you find a good minion and then burn a bunch of scrolls of enchantment.  The strength thing is less effort and works with any build.  I like that you've added a use for them in non-minion builds but right now it doesn't involve any interesting decisions.  You just get a bunch of extra strength.

What if self-empowerment was a temporary thing instead?  Like you got a long lasting haste and shield effect from it or something like that?

I'm not trying to change Brogue, just to tweak it. Rather than introducing new things and mechanics, I'm only trying to make more use of what's already in there.

[RiC David]

If I had those effects at the time I would have used some, but without background music to me it just feels empty. 

See I'm the opposite. Well not the direct oposite, I don't find it feels too full but I find it gets too repetitive and flavours the game too much with the constant melodies. I like that you can spend ages between turns on roguelikes without anything marking the passage of time and if there's music then I either keep switching it off and on again or I get tired of hearing it. I would be fine with Steve Roach style ambient music (if it fit the game) but then that's essentially just more atmospheric sound. The perfect 'musical' track for me, if I ever want it, is this:

http://youtu.be/pa3CISn1uow

Track 10 from the Dungeon Keeper 2 soundtrack - not really musical as such but constant dungeon ambiance with a few chords playing hear and there. I could be mistaken but I think this track at one point includes torture rack sounds in the background which is a perfect fit in Brogue of course.

[LazyCat]

You are not the only one, other people wanted to disable music as well. I don't understand, it's like eating a cucumber without any salt... it's crazy!

[LazyCat]

Release 9b is out, first post updated with the download link.

* polymorph now reflects too, scroll of remove curse will return you back to human form
When polymorphed to some other creature you keep your inventory and can use all the items like before, but your health, attack and defence are modified. You don't get spell casting abilities of the creature, but you obtain traits like flying, fire immunity or invisibility. If you turn yourself into a jelly you will get cloned upon being hit, or if you are a zombie you will let out a cloud of gas, or if you are a vampire you get extra speed and transference.

* stealth and sneaking
It sounded nice but it wasn't really much help without the stealth ring, and with it there was little difference. Now when in sneaking mode monsters have less chance to see you. This makes a difference and I'd say it's balanced to fit the game perfectly as moving slowly seem quite adequate penalty for gaining that extra stealth. It's actually useful for only rare occasions and is the last thing you want to be relying on, but it's a nice feature to have, it just fits.

[LazyCat]

Release 9c is out, first post updated with the download link. Final touches, balancing and polishes before the final release, which I proclaim to be unofficial Brogue 1.7.3 sequel. Executable of classic Brogue 1.7.3 + audio only, without gameplay changes, is included in the download.

[LazyCat]

Release 9e is out, first post updated with the download link. Audio-only mod that comes included with the latest "full-mod" release is now fully compatible with Brogue 1.7.3. Few bug-fixes were reverted to ensure there is absolutely no game-play differences, and so that it loads and produces identical save games and recordings. Brogue-AUDIO, the full mod, is complete, waiting for maybe a bug report or some feedback to make last tweaks before the final release. For anyone who manages to get the Amulet in the full mod (latest release v9e), please post your save game from 26th floor.

[Vanguard]

* stealth and sneaking
It sounded nice but it wasn't really much help without the stealth ring, and with it there was little difference. Now when in sneaking mode monsters have less chance to see you.

What's the new chance?

[Vanguard]

When I press enter to look at things, the cursor disappears after about 1/3 of a second.  It reappears and then disappears again every time I move it.

When I use a wand of empowerment on myself, the game says "you look stronger."  "You feel stronger" would work better in the case of players reflecting the wand off of something other than a mirror.

e:

Stone altars are cool.

Javelins and darts can be used to cheat stone altars.

Autoexplore doesn't seem to pick up seeds.

[LazyCat]

What's the new chance?

For sleeping monsters, 25% per turn when walking and 5% per turn when sneaking, but since you have to take two turns to sneak that's 10% per tile. (Currently testing 30%/10%)

So when you have to walk three tiles to step next to a sleeping monster, if you just walk there in three turns there will be 75% chance in total the monster will wake up. But if you sneak, that is pause on every tile, and move there in six turns, the chance to alert the monster will come down to 30% in total.

For wandering monsters, 40% per turn when walking and 20% per turn when sneaking/waiting.


Originally in Brogue 1.7.3 monsters have 25% to see you no matter what you do or whether they are sleeping or wandering.

[LazyCat]

When I press enter to look at things, the cursor disappears after about 1/3 of a second.  It reappears and then disappears again every time I move it.

I see, thanks.

When I use a wand of empowerment on myself, the game says "you look stronger."  "You feel stronger" would work better in the case of players reflecting the wand off of something other than a mirror.

I think that's the original message for drinking strength potion and I'm just using that same function which prints that message.

Stone altars are cool.
Javelins and darts can be used to cheat stone altars.

Both strange seed and stone altars are inspired by Pixel Dungeon, a broguelike for Android. -- Not sure if you know, you can also use duplicate items in recent releases. You can't profit much with darts, at best you'll get a dagger. You could gamble javelins, but unless you also mix in some high level weapon chances are you'll end up with something worse. Items created by stone altars can sometimes be cursed or enchanted, like those you can randomly find in the dungeon.

[Vanguard]

Oh!  I didn't know the quality of the final item was based on its components.  That's interesting.

I had two scrolls of remove curse and I tried to throw one at a trap, but my dude threw both of them instead.  I don't know if that's unique to this version or if it also happens in vanilla Brogue, but either way it shouldn't happen.

For sleeping monsters, 25% per turn when walking and 5% per turn when sneaking, but since you have to take two turns to sneak that's 10% per tile. (Currently testing 30%/10%)

Just fyi the odds of something happening with two 5% chances is a bit less than one 10% chance.

e:

Bog monsters can grab the player's legs diagonally when adjacent to a wall so that they can't attack or be attacked by the player.

[LazyCat]

Oh!  I didn't know the quality of the final item was based on its components.  That's interesting.

Just because of darts and javelins. For weapons and armor maximum level of resulting item is (item_A + item_B) / 2 + 1.

I had two scrolls of remove curse and I tried to throw one at a trap, but my dude threw both of them instead.  I don't know if that's unique to this version or if it also happens in vanilla Brogue, but either way it shouldn't happen.

I think you probably threw some other scroll by mistake.

Just fyi the odds of something happening with two 5% chances is a bit less than one 10% chance.

Do you have some equation for how that works? Is there Wikipedia page on the subject? I'm not sure what even look for.