CastlevaniaRL

[Vanguard]

So in light of the announcement that development of this game is picking back up, who's playing it?  What do you think of the different classes?

Of the classes, it seems to me that the Vampire Killer starts out strong, and falters as the game progresses, and the Vanquisher Wizard starts out pretty fragile, but picks up steam as the game progresses.

The Darkness Renegade seems pretty viable, but I almost always go with human characters given the option, so I haven't tried it a whole lot.  Same with the Man-Beast.  I don't really like managing pets, so I've never tried the Souls' Master.

The Knight seems fairly strong, but the lack of special skills makes him less interesting to me.  His attributes and equipment options are good, and the shield guard skill is useful, so I bet that if you could get around the lack of a healing skill, the Knight would be pretty viable.

[Rya.Reisender]

I didn't manage to understand this game and nobody replied to my questions so I eventually gave up. I can only beat 1-2 monsters and then I die and couldn't figure out how to recover or run away.

[Slash]

What questions did you ask, and where?

[Vanguard]

I didn't manage to understand this game and nobody replied to my questions so I eventually gave up. I can only beat 1-2 monsters and then I die and couldn't figure out how to recover or run away.

The most important thing to realize in CastlevaniaRL that's different from other roguelikes is that with most weapons (all of the good ones, really) you can attack from more than one tile away.  Press 'a' to initiate an attack and then select a direction.

You also don't heal naturally, just like how you don't typically regenerate in Castlevania.  Some characters can self-heal with their abilities, but they use hearts to cast them (hearts aren't health - they're like MP, and once again, this is how Castlevania does it), and your hearts don't regenerate either.

Your first goal upon starting the game should be to get to the town as quickly as possible, where you can rest and recover.  Go north one map from where you start, and then the town will be one map to the west, although the exact location of the town's entrance will be decided by the RNG.  Talk to the priest in the west side of town for full, free healing (only during the day).  At night you'll get bats and zombies in the town, but they're not that strong, and if you wait in the pond in the center of town, they won't be able to hit you.

Once you're healed and stocked up, Dracula's Castle is on the east edge of the forest, opposite the town.  That should be enough knowledge to get you started.

[Ken Oh]

Hey, I'm really enjoying this. I've been in a Castlevania mood lately (must be the Halloween season) and I recently found out that hitting space continues after you feel more skilled with a weapon (I thought it was a game freeze), so I'm going to play the heck out of this game.

Curseman, thanks for pointing out the priest. I figured there would be someone in there like that but I never found him.

There's two questions I have now:
-When I'm in the castle, moving in hallways, I can't see but one tile in front of me. The result is constantly getting hit first by enemies. I've tried slashing into the darkness but that doesn't really help. Is this really how it's supposed to be? How should I deal with it?

-Any way to attack while in water? Doesn't look like I need to, but I could use it if there is.

[Vanguard]

When I'm in the castle, moving in hallways, I can't see but one tile in front of me. The result is constantly getting hit first by enemies. I've tried slashing into the darkness but that doesn't really help. Is this really how it's supposed to be? How should I deal with it?

No idea what this is.  Do you mean that as you enter a new area, you immediately get hit backwards into the previous one before you can see what hit you?  Because that happens every once in a while.  If it's not that (which it doesn't sound like it is) then I dunno.

-Any way to attack while in water? Doesn't look like I need to, but I could use it if there is.

Afaik you can only attack underwater via skills and attack items.

[Rya.Reisender]

@Ken Oh
Hey Ken Oh, are you the Ken Oh from the Wesnoth forums? I'm like 80% sure you are.

@Curseman
I'm pretty sure what Ken Oh means is that his view range is only 1 tile so he can't use ranged attacks.

Also thanks for the introduction into the game. I never ever managed to reach a town so far. Guess my tactic was wrong because generally in roguelikes the first thing I do is to kill all monsters on the map... and without recovery that seems impossible in CastlevaniaRL.

@Slash
http://www.roguetemple.com/forums/index.php?topic=443.msg3605#msg3605

[Ken Oh]

Rya, that's pretty funny. I noticed your name but didn't say anything. Yes, I'm from Wesnoth (don't tell these guys about Wesband just yet...I want to refine it a little further).

Curseman, this is what I'm talking about: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/776904/cvrl1.png

I just don't know how to not get torn up while going down hallways. I just had a hallway where I ran into a spear knight, a skeleton, a zombie and a bat, each hitting me before I could see them. It took me from nearly full HP to nearly empty.

EDIT: Heh, I guess it's not such a big deal if you don't go up into that tower. I just played until Medusa and didn't have too many problems, as I didn't get into tight hallways. On the other hand, it looks like my save is gone. I'm going to have to test this out and get back here about this.

EDIT #2: It seems to be saving alright now. Don't know what happened to the other character. I have nothing real to report about it either.

[Vanguard]

Curseman, this is what I'm talking about: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/776904/cvrl1.png

Ohhh, okay, I didn't know that's what you were talking about.

Your attacks should still work, but that's obviously not so helpful since you can't see what you're hitting, or even if you're hitting anything.  My recommendation is to try and resolve as many of your fights in rooms instead of hallways as you can, and move through them quickly and not bothering with random, blind attacks into the unseen.

At any rate, if that area's giving you trouble you should just skip past it for at least a while (which it looks like you're doing).  You can beat the game without ever going there, but you may still want to - you can find spellbooks there, and at the end there's a mysterious item I haven't found the use for yet.

[Fenrir]

(don't tell these guys about Wesband just yet...I want to refine it a little further).

I've played that; Wesband is awesome!

[Karzack]

(don't tell these guys about Wesband just yet...I want to refine it a little further).

I've played that; Wesband is awesome!

This looks pretty good.  Sorry, I'm not trying to derail the topic.  I just had to make a quick comment on Westband.

[Slash]

Will make torches light dark creepy corridors.

Also, wesband needs a roguebasin page

[Fenrir]

Is there any way to get help for the poor fellow I leave in the ruined building at the very beginning? It seems that he just gets left there.

[Slash]

No way to help him right now...

although you may kill him and leverage his suffering

[Ken Oh]

OK, here are my notes.

Bugs-
-The midi in the boss stages gets messed up for me. It will play regularly once but then the second run through only has a voice or two. It alternates each play-through from normal to broken.
-The console gets a little error message about an undirectioned attack whenever I attack outside of the 8 cardinal directions. I assume that's known (I guess it has something to do with no slash image being displayed), but I thought I'd mention it.
-This isn't really a bug, but I found out why my one save didn't keep. I thought I could force quit after I hit space when I saved. It turns out that it's not safe to quit right then. I think you should put a "Saving" notice up during that time.

Whining-
-Got 2 Werebane daggers in one game from rescues. I didn't even want daggers.
-I really wish a lot of the game was more explicit.
--Can anyone use any armor and weapon? I saw mentions in the guide about what classes like but I never saw anything to indicate penalties or hard restrictions.
--I wish damages were displayed.
--I don't understand what is good about thinks like daggers and hand rings.
--What is Soul Power exactly and how exactly does it effect spells (strength, duration?)
--What is Invocation? Every time I get a level of it I can't tell a difference in anything.
--It would be nice to see what exactly upgrades do before you buy them, not just after. (i.e. Will evade give me 5, 10, 15, 20?)
--Not sure what the difference between Adv Morphing and regular morphing is, even though I've gotten it.
-Not being able to attack a unit with unarmed if it's on top of you sucks.
-I just figured out today that NUM5 is the wait key. Before that, I was hitting G.
-I still don't know how to get that overworld map to show (the gfx/barrett-map.gif one)
-Starting new games can be a pain. I don't want a Renegade with a bow and I don't want a Wizard with hand rings.

Finally, I was hoping to play through the game until the end before giving feedback but I don't think that's going to happen. I've been playing Dark Renegade and getting past a certain point is really, really hard. I go from fighting medusa heads to having troubles clearing the area with the salem witches to not lasting 5 steps into the next area. That might not be such a big deal, but the time it takes all morning to rescue a few of those people. Am I missing an easier way to do that?