I finally won my own game .... at least nearly.
Mario Donick
upcoming release of the 7th beta; the last release sadly has a bug which
makes many doors disappear...). Since 2006, when the first alphas of
LambdaRogue were created, this has been the most exciting and the
longest LR-game so far.
I think if I had not decided to remove and re-edit so many parts of the
game, this would never had happened. Now, where LR has only random
levels, no plot anymore, where items and enemies have been re-created
and re-balanced from scratch and where the whole thing is cut down to
only 10 dungeon levels, its better than I could ever dream of
- because its manageable (both for the programmer and the player).
I also threw away the whole sci-fi-cyberpunk-post-war-setting, which is
also visible in the graphical tiles. Now it's in a somehow
cliché-fantasy-state, but although it may have lost its (perhaps) unique
atmosphere, the game is more coherent and feels more like a roguelike
than ever.
Well, although I died after this rather long time, it does not feel like
wasted time, and it showed me many aspects which are fine and many
aspects where I still have to optimize. I emphasize to say this, because
it had never been that way. I often played LR and had fun, but I also
often died far too early which made it (except by cheating) impossible
to observe the thing as whole. It is this feeling that made me to write
this post (which is really more a diary entry than anything useful for
you ;-) )
So as outcome of the last hours and after reflecting on the whole thing
in this post I have the following points to note (mainly for myself):
Concerning the current state of 0.2.1, I LIKE:
- the overall feeling and handling of the game
- new weapons which are less than before, but have a clear identity
- random levels with random towns
- improved graphics (with walls which look like walls and items which
don't hang in a dark rectangle any longer)
I STILL DISLIKE:
- the dungeons are rather large, and lots of the time the player has
to walk through empty rooms and corridors. Besides the altars, the
doors and the chests, there have to be more possibilities to interact
with or at least to be affected by.
- armour, helmets etc. are rather uninspired - helmets, hats, hard
helmets, leather suits, hard leather suits and so on ... while I
thought about names and values of weapons very long, 0.2.1 still
has the old armour. This has really to be changed.
- The unique items the player gets after killing an unique monster have
to be re-created, too. They are still in the way they were useful
for the older LR versions and don't fit into the "new" world.
- The same goes for rare items.
- There is a strange behavior when an enemy moves through air that has
been contaminated with an ice aura chant. There must be a wrong or
uninitialized string somewhere, but I've got no idea where it could
be.
- I have to create 24 quests and to re-edit the existing 3 "kill the
unique monster of this town level"-quests before releasing 0.2.1.
- I have to write a small intro and outro text. No story or plot, just
a small description to situate the player in it's role and the world.
I think I will release 0.2.1 soon, after the most annoying DISLIKEs have
been gone.
Thank you again r.g.r.d, you all made me to come back to LR and to
improve it in many ways. :-)
Mario Donick
Character dump for Thagor, the male soldier, believer in Ares
----------------------------------------------------------------------
LambdaRogue version: v0.2.1 (beta 7)
Thagor was the oldest child of a thief and his creative concubine.
Thagor's eyes were black and the thin hair was brown.
HP: 0/94
PP: 7/7
Killed by a Dwarvenfall on dungeon level 10.
Time and date: 240-15-1718
Thagor was active for a total of 15884 turns.
In this time, Thagor achieved a score of 9351 points.
Primary skills
Fight : 6
View : 4
Chant : 1
Move : 6
Burgle : 3
Swim : 1
Secondary skills
Sword : 4
Axe : 7
Lance : 1
Fire-arm : 3
Tool : 3
Trade : 3
Experience : 2347
Character Lvl.: 6
Thagor has solved 1 quest(s).
Current quest: Kill Dwarvenfall (@)
Solved quests:
Kill the widow (W)!
Although Thagor prayed 68 and saved 1 time(s), Thagor is dead.
Inventory:
----------
Credits: 95
Aspirin x18
holy potion x3
berdysch x1 [one wielded]
red ring x1 [one on left hand]
V.I.P. card x1
plate mail x1 [one worn on body]
carbon helmet x1 [one on head]
silver ring x1 [one on right hand]
molotov cocktail x2
antidot x1
steel ring x1
burger x1
leather cap x1
Monsters killed:
----------------
1 caveworm(s)
1 Widow(s)
1 herring(s)
1 pike(s)
6 rat(s)
12 sick rat(s)
7 preacher(s)
13 cavebat(s)
11 small snake(s)
14 antbee(s)
4 mindhunter(s)
8 lost priestess(s)
12 snake(s)
6 dark preacher(s)
2 sandman(s)
14 ghost(s)
15 nightmare(s)
6 worm mother(s)
heckr...@yahoo.com
> Over the last 6 hours, I played a game of LambdaRogue 0.2.1 (the
> upcoming release of the 7th beta; the last release sadly has a bug which
> makes many doors disappear...). Since 2006, when the first alphas of
> LambdaRogue were created, this has been the most exciting and the
> longest LR-game so far.
>
> I think if I had not decided to remove and re-edit so many parts of the
> game, this would never had happened. Now, where LR has only random
> levels, no plot anymore, where items and enemies have been re-created
> and re-balanced from scratch and where the whole thing is cut down to
> only 10 dungeon levels, its better than I could ever dream of
>
> also visible in the graphical tiles. Now it's in a somehow
> cliché-fantasy-state, but although it may have lost its (perhaps) unique
> atmosphere, the game is more coherent and feels more like a roguelike
> than ever.
Awww, I'm kinda sad to hear that it lost the cyberpunk setting. The
alternate setting, and the large class set, was what made it most
appealing to me. I honestly didn't play it that much, the gameplay
wasn't quite as engaging as the character creation.
To hear that you're dropping the cool setting and flavor of the game
for a plotless fantasy setting is, well, cliche.
Break the mold! Make something new! There's really no need to re-make
nethack or crawl or ADOM unless you do something different.
-HeckRuler
Mario Donick
>> I also threw away the whole sci-fi-cyberpunk-post-war-setting, which is
>> also visible in the graphical tiles. Now it's in a somehow
>> cliché-fantasy-state, but although it may have lost its (perhaps) unique
>> atmosphere, the game is more coherent and feels more like a roguelike
>> than ever.
>
> Awww, I'm kinda sad to hear that it lost the cyberpunk setting. The
> alternate setting, and the large class set, was what made it most
> appealing to me. I honestly didn't play it that much, the gameplay
> wasn't quite as engaging as the character creation.
Glad to hear that you liked the old RL. I also did. However, you name
it: "the gameplay wasn't quite as engaging as the character creation".
That's exactly the point. The game itself did not fulfill the
expectations made by the character generation. Five classes (the
religions) and nine professions had to be given life. Each combination
had to make sense and had to have unique features. It was simply too
much for me to handle and I couldn't concentrate on work everything out.
> To hear that you're dropping the cool setting and flavor of the game
> for a plotless fantasy setting is, well, cliche.
I did not say it will stay cliché. However, the process of bringing LR
back to a point where I can control it needed to cut it the way I did.
The alternative had been, for me, to abandon the whole thing.
> Break the mold! Make something new! There's really no need to re-make
> nethack or crawl or ADOM unless you do something different.
I can assure you that LR will never be (and indeed is not at the moment)
a "kill Saurun" or "find the amulet of Yendor" thing (although, I must
admit, such quests have to be done for victory since the first betas).
When I said "threw away the story/plot", I did not mean to throw away
the whole concept of it. The people are still living under the surface
after they surrended in the war against the Drekh'Nar, and this
background will be recognisable throughout the game better than before.
Of course, if you prefer sci-fi/cyberpunk as setting more than a
medieval world where people think of their industrialized past only as
legends or read from it in old books, you'll probably dislike the "new" LR.
Thanks for the feedback :)
Mario Donick
heckr...@yahoo.com
ve).
And such is the way of the developer. If this is the way forward, then
it must be. Hitting a roadblock of any kind can hurt or kill a
project. Getting through them is what's important.
Good luck to ye,
-HeckRuler