Rogue - let's beat it

[Goran the Balkanian]

Ok guys, does anyone play this game still in 2014? It is so hard to find some help and players who actually beat the game, even more players who actually play this game actively. I know, it is the holy grail of roguelikes. But can it be beaten? I believe it could be.
This is my post on reddit (which has pretty large roguelike community) about my tactics, I didnt finished it, but when I finish it I will paste it here.
http://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes/comments/2kr5tv/made_it_to_level_17_on_rogue_so_far/
My name is Thund7 on Reddit. I hope this tips will help someone.

[ant]

there are many versions so that would be an important factor to know.

i play the versions i have installed here from time to time for testing them out and to make sure they work as expected for the version of rogomatic that i am working on.

some versions are much easier than others. 

[Goran the Balkanian]

I am playing Rogue version 5.4 I think, and from some other differences where I have played other Rogues like Version 1 and 3 it is pretty hard.
Right now my best score is level 24, killed by a Dragon, pretty proud of it (level 24, not a Dragon

So common guys, nobody is playing here Rogue anymore? Or nobody wants to talk about it?

[ant]

it's not a graphical real time shooter with explosions and other excitement.  times have changed, games have gotten really good.

i was at an arcade the other day and was rather amazed by the visual quality of some of the games (i'd not been in one for many years).

rogue 5.4.4 that i have been debugging is very tough to beat.  and for most rogues in general there's none of this multiple lives stuff.  when you're dead, you're dead...

at the lower levels some important things that may save you are teleportation or polymorph staffs or wands, extra healing potions and knowing when to just run and dive for a trap.

my focus has shifted quite a bit since i started working on the rogomatic code.  rogue is still fun, but now it is more of a part of the whole puzzle that i work on to debug for rogomatic.  once in a while i do find a bug in rogue so any fixes i find might be useful to others.

a line count of about 18,000 lines of C for each of rogue and rogomatic makes it a tiny program compared to some other games.

anyways, i'm pretty sure i severely limit the audience of the code i distribute simply because i don't do any version for MS nor do i distribute binaries of any kind.  yet the rogue part should be fairly easy.

[RiC David]

I'd really really like to play an updated UI/controls version of Rogue, basically the Brogue engine running Rogue would be perfect.

What really drags the experience down is missile weapons, if I'm not mistaken you need to wield a bow the same way you would a melee weapon and then 'throw' arrows. There's no way to switch between two weapon set ups (as in Crawl and, I think, Nethack) so using any combination of ranged and melee is cumbersome and irritating.

All around there's just no streamlining of anything whatsoever, it's keystroke galore and after being spoiled by games like Brogue and even games like ADOM (the equipment screen is tidy even if it has the whole unnecessary "you can't equip/wear this until you remove that" system), Rogue just comes with way too much faffing about.

I'll probably try to get into it some day because Brogue is by far my favourite and all the other classic roguelikes go in a different 'character customisation' direction and play more like other RPGs than the original Rogue formula. I'm surprised there's been nothing for mobile phones because the game would be perfect for the medium.

[Squeeealer]

I am playing Rogue on Roku.  The About page says it was based on Rogue 5.4.4

I am enjoying it, but I regularly have questions that I need help answering.  I'm not sure this thread gets enough attention to get my answers... but here are a few:

1.  When you read a scroll of uncurse (someone watching over you) does it uncurse all cursed items that are equipped?  Like if you knew one of your scrolls was for uncurse, could you equip all your cursed items and uncurse them at once?

2.  If a -3 cursed armor is uncursed, is it still -3 or does it go to zero?

3.  What do the traps do?  Like strange mist?  What about the one that says "mysterious trap?"  I just stepped on one today and it said it turned my pack purple...wtf?

4.  In a recent run I was on the verge of death sandwiched between a Quagga and a Centaur.  Out of desperation I read a random scroll.  I think it was the scroll that says "you hear maniacal laughter in the distance," but this time it said, "you hear a distant cry of despair."  Did the game know I was about to die?  By the way, I was not high on "everything is so cosmic."

5.  Does the potion of poison (you feel sick) cure "everything is so cosmic?"  It seems to work for me.

6.  What cures blindness?

7.  Are there glitches in this game?  I'm wanting to know if one I experienced is a common issue or if it's just my Roku version.  I was super excited because I about had a treasure room cleared of monsters (Centaurs, Quaggas, Nymphs, etc).  A Quagga knocked me down to 1 HP, but I wasn't worried.  On my move I went to quaff a potion of extra healing (I had identified it earlier).  As soon as I selected Quaff it the screen briefly flashed "which ... would you like to quaff?" and then immediately out of the game to the start screen.  I did not even get a tombstone screen.  SO BUMMED as I'd had an excellent run to that point and was poised to make it a few more floors, at least.  This is the second time I have experienced this.

Any help appreciated.

One of these days I'm going to try the Scare Monster trick, but when you play with a Roku remote I don't think there's a good way to repeatedly rest until more monsters come out.

Thanks, Goran, for the reedit link.  I enjoyed reading the Rogue conversation.

[ant]

yes, there are still bugs in various versions.  i've tried to debug some of the things found in mine (5.4.4), but the code is not easy to read or trace at times...  i've run into some bugs recently that i've given up on finding for now (too little time until the gardening season is over).

i am working on rogomatic code too so that gives me insight into some things when i read one and then the other...

as for cursed items and equipping before reading uncurse scroll, you can only use one weapon and one armor and two rings so that limits your uncurse to four items.  when you uncurse the item does not go to zero, it's still bad armor, but the uncurse lets you take it off to get into something better.  the whole curse thing is that you get stuck with something that is glued to you and you are forced to cope with it.

my armor strategy is to wear the best i have until i get up to where the aquators are at, and then switch to the second best armor or leather armor (which is better than nothing) then when i get a chance to check scrolls i put the best armor back on and read them hoping to find a protect armor or enchant armor.

the mysterious trap is purely annoyance IMO, i don't see it doing much of anything for damage.  i think it was put in to annoy the rogomatic coders as some other changes seem to be geared towards that too (make it harder to know what is going on because there may not be a message in reaction to reading a scroll or zapping).  my own answer to this was to go and add more messages for those cases in rogue so that rogomatic could know what was going on.  source code... 

strange mist is just a sleep trap, it holds you in place for a bit.  hope you aren't being chased by a difficult monster at that time and really low on HP.

the various messages (cry of despair) usually mean something, but in some versions they can mean more than one thing, which is frustrating.  i've changed the version i mess with to make all messages unique, so that if you see it you know what it means.  otherwise it's just too hard to keep track of all the things going on in rogomatic if the messages might mean one thing or another and you have to wait to be sure (or get an identify scroll)...

potion of healing should cure blindness and potion of extra healing.  some versions will give you a one point HP bump if you quaff an extra healing potion when at max HP already.

as for your glitch, i'm wondering if you hit the Q instead of the q (Q is quit and some versions won't ask you if you want to quit for sure)?  well anyways, yes, crashes and strange stuff do happen.  hard to replicate some bugs.

[hollyluya]

I play TileRogue.  I don't know if it's easier or different, but I've beat it a few times.  Is TileRogue one of the versions you play?

[Samildanach]

I play TileRogue.  I don't know if it's easier or different, but I've beat it a few times.  Is TileRogue one of the versions you play?

Hmm, I've never heard of TileRogue before. It seems as though it should be functionally the same game as the original Rogue.

[getter77]

Part of the many fine, mysterious works of Donnie Russell II's:

https://sites.google.com/site/donnierussellii/home

[Slash]

One does not simply beat rogue.

[Squeeealer]

I think I have an interesting glitch on my Roku port and I'm curious if anyone else has experienced it.

When I diagonally attack an enemy, it seems to be far more effective.  Like a greater chance of hitting, and greater chance of hitting for a critical amount.  BUT there's a big but.  If you diagonally attack an enemy who has an effect, a glitch occurs and you get screwed.  For example, I diagonally attacked a Leprechaun, and without a message saying whether I had hit him or not, it just immediately says your purse feels lighter.  I diagonally attacked a Nymph, and without saying whether I had hit her or not, it just immediately says she stole from me (my wand of light - damn her!).  I diagonally attacked a Rattlesnake, and it went into a weird repeated cycle of saying it hit me AND that I feel weaker.  Eventually it did finally release me, but I got hammered.

Thanks for posting that link.  I watched the videos for Rogue and TileRogue and I noticed what makes my version really hard is that there isn't just an identify scroll.  On my version they are all specific to only a certain kind of item.  Like identify scroll scroll, identify armor scroll, etc.

It's also way faster to play on pc than it is with my Roku remote.

[Squeeealer]

Oops, nevermind 

Apparently I have a function called Fight which means fight until you are about to die, and Fight to the Death.  So... now I understand.

Also, I was very confused about what sleep was.  Since I've only ever fallen asleep when all alone, I thought that waking up from sleep happened almost instantly.  But in a recent run a sleep trap was right at a doorway. A Troll was chasing me and when I hit that trap I found out the hard way that you are actually asleep for much longer when something is attacking you. Needless to say, I died.

I'm beginning to understand now just how important Strength is. I used to think that Aquators alone were the scourge of this game, but Rattlesnakes are right up there. At least you have a chance in hell at finding a restore strength potion. When I am able to keep my Strength intact my runs go into the mid-to-late teens, even when I have terrible armor.

[Squeeealer]

I have more questions, guys...

What is the purpose of the potion that makes you float.  Is that somehow beneficial?

What is happening when I use a wand and it says I feel a tingling sensation?  It must be different than when my nose tingles because it does not help me find food, so something else must be going on.

What is happening when I read a scroll and it says I feel a strange sense of loss?

Does reading a scroll take a turn?

If I have a scroll of monster confusion, how/when do I use it?

Any chance any of you have played or would consider playing Rogue on Roku?  It's only 99 cents.  I want to know why I can't get very far - what about this version is harder than others... or is it just me?

[AgingMinotaur]

I can probably help with a few of your questions …

What is the purpose of the potion that makes you float.  Is that somehow beneficial?

Not quite sure, but this might be a potion of levitation, that lets you pass over traps unharmed.

What is happening when I read a scroll and it says I feel a strange sense of loss?

That sounds like a scroll of scare monster, a very powerful item that's used in an unconventional way. See here a spoily page that describes how to use it, among other things (scroll down a bit to get to the relevant bits).

Does reading a scroll take a turn?

Yes.

If I have a scroll of monster confusion, how/when do I use it?

Read it; the next monster you hit, becomes confused.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

As always,
Minotauros