Hi all,

I've finished PrincessRL and it's available at:

http://flend.net/files/princessrl.zip

I'll post a followup with some explanation when I have more time.
Watch out though - the save function is a bit screwy so I'd suggest
playing in 1 sitting!

Cheers

-flend

On Mar 14, 11:59 pm, flend <flendn...@googlemail.com> wrote:

This is fantastic!  I played the original Princess Maker a fair bit
and this has a lot of the same charm.  I'm not sure I'm particularly
good at it (stat-juggling seems fairly tricky, unles the only option
is to just specialise in one of the three areas), but it's certainly
fun to charm ferrets and make them fight each other.  Will have to
play a bit more...

--
Darren Grey

On 14 Mar, 23:59, flend <flendn...@googlemail.com> wrote:

OK, chance to advertise / explain my game a bit.

The idea is to train your princess by attending classes and going on
adventures. You have one year until graduation where you will be
judged on your final statistics and the number of dungeons you cleared
out.

It features:

- a school and wilderness
- 7 dungeons of differing theme and difficulty
- 31 creatures types, with some 6 special abilities
- 10 special combat moves
- 9 spells
- 15 unique items
- 20 different ending careers for your Princess

It's based on the DDRogue engine, so you may see some similarities,
but the moves from DDRogue have been cleaned up and modified - I think
they are considerably more fun. I had a blast this afternoon with a
fully souped-up combat character with all the special moves bouncing
off walls, backstabbing and generally causing trouble.

Please give me a shout if you come across any bugs. I'll try to fix
the save game functionality after the competition.

Here are some spoilers / tips for any players:

- The easiest tactic is to specialise in 1 of the 3 main builds,
combat, magic or charm

- For combat characters you absolutely must get the 'glove' item from
the NE dungeon as soon as possible. The glove gives you a bonus after
completing any combat move. You need to play carefully, even with the
glove, since it's always easy to die.

- Combat moves have very significant bonuses. With the very limited
healing available you will want to use them as much as possible.

- The first couple of adventures might seem rather tough because you
have few abilities. Try to get at least one combat move (close
quarters or charge) or one spell (Magic Missile) in the first month.
Persevere, it gets easier :)

- Wall Leap is really good against missile enemies

- Look out for special move combos, especially Charge / Close Quarters
and Wall Leap / Vault / Backstab

- The best endings are for cross-class characters like Combat/Magic or
Magic/Charm. These characters have lower primary stats, so you have to
be inventive.

Cheers,

-flend

Excellent! I'll be playing this one all the way through when I get
more time.  I liked the combat move system in DDRogue and dig the way
it's been implemented here.  Looking forward to winning.  : D

-Ryan

That's an impressive game - there's lots to do, the fiction is strong
and different, and it's very polished.

- Geoffrey White aka Daisy the Princess

On Mar 14, 5:59 pm, flend <flendn...@googlemail.com> wrote:

This is great.

I am very very pleased with this game. DDRogue was one of my favorites
last year and this is one of my favorites this year. Keep up the
excellent work!

-Deej

I played this through once to its conclusion and I have say, great job!
    The game is enjoyable and the stat balancing challenging.  I do have
a quibble though.

The first time, I divided my attention between magic and charm.
Unfortunately this was a bad decision and led to me not being able to
clear the first dungeon until July.  Charm is simply too weak.  It's
unreliable and its range of 1 means that if a charm doesn't work (a
frequent occurence, even on very weak creatures) you are subjected to
attack.

I raised charm to 40+ but even then, sometimes I wouldn't be able to
charm a bat or a spider for many rounds, losing a large chunk of
hitpoints.  If charm isn't garuanteed against creatures much weaker than
you, then at least increase the range of it.  As it stands, charm is a
poor choice compared to magic or combat. It's especially tough in the
first dungeon, where you and your pet don't have a lot of space to move
around.  I frequently wound up bumping my pet off as I attempted to
retreat from numerous foes.

Another quibble is the pixie.  Fast, immune to spells and very difficult
to charm due to charm's limited range, it was my bane in the first dungeon.

Other than that, very nice work!  Definitely one of the better RL's in
this crop.

Cheers,

Ysgard

On 17 Mar, 18:37, Ysgard <ysg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for your feedback Ysgard. It's true that I didn't have a chance
to play the whole game through as a charm character, although I did
play test a few charm characters at high levels. It's also true that
the first few months are difficult - it generally took me 4 months to
clear the first dungeon, but by about month 8 I could reliably clear
both caves, and kill one unique in the forest & orc cave per dive. The
crypt is rather hard and very hard for charm characters, whereas the
demon cave is just put in as a challenge for high level characters,
particularly just combat (or magic or charm) types.

If I was you, I'd take the NE dungeon before the SE one. The NE one is
designed to be easier and has the glove which is an important
accessory for combat characters. The charm resistance of creatures in
the first cave is 10-30 so 40 charm should be OK. The charm resistance
in the second cave (the one with the pixies) is a bit higher. It
certainly pays to know what creatures to charm. Generally I reckon
charm 60-70 is enough to clear the orc cave. The forest is best done
with combat if you have Wall Leap (can learn at combat 40+).

The pixie is maybe a bit tough. I'd kind of forgotten that they can
crop up in the 2nd cave - they are really balanced for the forest.
They have few hp so maybe a charmed creature could deal with them.

I'm not sure about your 'bumping off' comment but I guess you mean
your pet returned to you as you were fleeing and got shot up by
missile troops. Can happen I guess. When a creature is charmed you
should switch position with it rather than attack it.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed your playthrough and thanks for your detailed
feedback. If you were to try again I'd play a combat-only or magic-
only build at first since those are easiest (and those are what I used
to balance in the little time I had).

Cheers,

flend

On Mar 17, 6:37 pm, Ysgard <ysg...@gmail.com> wrote:

I did find this bug in the end - didn't test a combat / charm
character enough in play testing! I've made a quick fix and updated
the zip. I've also uploaded an untested Linux version (requires mono,
based on the ddrogue linux version so should work). Both of these
changes were done after a hard day skiing and on my netbook, so
apologies for any unforeseen screw ups :)

-flend

On Mar 15, 2:23 pm, flend <flendn...@googlemail.com> wrote:

Hi

I keep getting stuck in the NE dungeon - surrounded by walls and can
only go back to the stairs up. WHat am I missing?

If only I could walk through diagonal gaps

A.

On Mar 29, 9:53 pm, Antoine <antoine.from.r...@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh! I get it. It's because I'm playing on a laptop with no numpad. Are
any other movement keys supported?

A.

Unfortunately I commented out the vi-keys just before release because
they could only be used for movement and not for charming direction
and stuff. If you like, I'll fix the implementation tonight and email
you an archive. I can't upload it right now since I don't have
internet access from home.

-flend

On Mar 30, 1:11 am, flend <flendn...@googlemail.com> wrote:

That would be fantastic. Ideal might be for you to update the download
so everyone can get it? But doesn't need to be tonight!

A.

This roguelike was mind-blowingly awesome. I suppose scope was a _tad_
less impressive after I went back and played DDRogue, but i still feel
qualified to say:

I have never had as much fun (with the dubious possible exception of
DF's adventurer wrestling) with a roguelike's combat, as I did with
PrincessRL.

- Dan Lower

On 30 Mar, 08:23, kkairos <kkai...@gmail.com> wrote:

Many thanks for the complement. I think WallLeap in PrincessRL makes
it so much better than DDRogue :) I just love throwing myself off the
wall at people. DDRogue also has a move-triggering bug that I fixed in
PRL. I'm half tempted to update DDRogue to the PrincessRL engine since
it would only take about an hour or so.

As a side note, I would be intrigued to know what endings people have
managed to get in PrincessRL (indeed if anyone has played it through
to the end). Has anyone actually rescued the Prince?

-flend

On 29 Mar, 21:51, Antoine <antoine.from.r...@gmail.com> wrote:

I've uploaded a new version (v1.03) with the vi keys enabled and some
bug fixes. Most significantly, I think saving and loading now works
reliably. Please let me know if you run into problems.

-flend

On Mar 30, 10:48 pm, flend <flendn...@googlemail.com> wrote:

I rescued the prince and became a great warrior.  The prince asked me
to marry him and I agreed, though against my father's wishes (damned
old coot).  The game does lose a little steam and variety towards the
end, and I felt like I didn't have a proper opportunity to explore the
later dungeons.  Perhaps I was being too slow and cautious early on
though.  The replay value from trying different abilities is very nice
- I look forward to trying a magic-based princess next.

Also, would be nice to know what some of the items do - several of
them aren't too obvious.

--
Darren Grey

I also rescued the Prince with the warrior-chick.

Endings gotten: Father's Girl, Sorceress, and Soldier (or the
equivalent)

On Mar 31, 8:23 am, kkairos <kkai...@gmail.com> wrote:

I just got the Sorceress ending - found it much easier I must say
(though acquiring the healing potion helped immensely).  Apparently I
explored 7 out of 6 dungeons  :P

--
Darren Grey

On Apr 2, 2:10 am, Darren Grey <darrenjohng...@gmail.com> wrote:

And just beat it with a very charming girl (though she knew a few
combat maneouvres too).  Potential spoilers below:

This turned out much easier than I thought - I was able to clear the
first dungeon on my second try.  Barely survived a few rounds in the
undead dungeon though, and for the first time I failed to rescue the
prince (again undead were a serious problem).  Managed to clear the
forest dungeon for the first time thanks to the strength of tamed
unicorns.  Got a bit further in the demon dungeon, but didn't
accomplish much.

Gotta try a jack of all trades now.  I've decided that classes aren't
really worth it, and stats train much better when adventuring  :)
After some initial pumping to get some necessary skills I'll only be
attending Athletics in future  :P

Quick question - are puckerberries meant to decrease your view range
in the last dungeon?

Items discovered so far:
-dagger (+damage)
-lantern (+view range)
-short sword (+damage)
-long sword (+damage)
-earrings (+charm?)
-orb of something (???)
-potion of healing (1 full heal per dungeon)
-sexy dress (+lots of charm)
-glove of power (+accuracy?)
-armour (+defence I presume)

I think the demon dungeon items are the only ones I've not seen.

Still not sure what exactly blackberries do either...

I really must commend you on the huge variety of items and enemies in
the game.  I'm amazed that you did this all in 7 days.  I thought
DDRogue was good - this is miles ahead of that  :)

--
Darren Grey

On 2 Apr, 04:22, Darren Grey <darrenjohng...@gmail.com> wrote:

Oh yeah there are 7 dungeons aren't there :) Should probably fix that.

Yup, me too. Pump charm for 2 months and you should be able to take
the 1st dungeon no probs.

Ack, unlucky monster gen rolls in the last dungeon, I guess.

I've pretty much cleared the demon dungeon with a very high level
charm princess with good items. I think it's about the only way to do
so. Combat and magic builds struggle.

Interesting interesting. When I was balancing the game my test builds
used classes and estimated +5 primary stat / adventure. I guess if
you're good you might be able to exceed that on adventures. Cross-
classes should be able to get +4 / +4 or similar if they play their
cards right.

I think the speed boost you get from Athletics is a bit too useful. I
once got +6 speed in January. If I ever do a balancing release I might
tone that down!

No, they're not. I thought I fixed that bug in v1.03 - please tell me
if that's not the case. Basically, they give you +1 sight radius. But
in the last dungeon you have sight radius 0, i.e. infinite. So by
eating them you go from 0 (infinite) to 1 (not infinite). I think they
should give you +2 or something anyway.

The effect of most items is apparent from the stat bar. Since the stat
bar is not visible in town, I can see how it's not obvious :) I wanted
to write some flavour text but it fell off the bottom of my priority
list.

+1

+2 base, modified by dungeon lighting

+2

+4

Something to do with charm, but not that. Actually pretty damn good.
Play around to find out :)

The one from the crypt? Useful for mage types only.

yup

There are 2 of these. +Charm and +AC.

Restore HP on kill by special move. Kind of essential for combat
types.

+ AC. 2 types in the game.

You also haven't mentioned a very useful mage item in the forest.

+ to damage for a bit. Should appear in the stats bar.

Thanks very much for the feedback. As you well know, it's great to
hear from people playing your game.

Incidentally, just for kicks, here are some of the possible endings,
graded by difficulty, so you can see how well you're doing:

Difficulty 1: Father's girl
Difficulty 2: Sorcerer, Socialite, Warrior
Difficulty 3: Great General, Social Goddess, Arch mage
Difficulty 4: 3 cross-class endings [my personal favourites]
Difficulty 5: Ultimate ending

Cheers,

-flend

On Apr 2, 9:24 am, flend <flendn...@googlemail.com> wrote:

Just had similar trouble with my attempt to get all stats high.
Worked reasonably well overall, but I didn't get magic missile till my
third spell, which meant my magic training was seriously hampered (and
which meant spending lots of time in magic class to try and pump it).
Ended up with combat trained the most, but not particularly high.  In
the last dungeon there were far too many imps, which combined with
other mobs made short work of me.

Ended up as just a Father's Girl  :(

Pretty much what I was getting, though sometimes I could get +9/+4/+3
if I had a long trip.  It's annoying if you die early on in a dungeon
- feels like a month wasted since you get minor stat increases.

Heh, I never got that lucky.  My speed gains were usually hampered by
attendance of other classes or resting.  Only my combat char managed
to get a decently high speed (20).

I'm pretty sure I had the same trouble with sight descreasing when I
used them in the last dungeon.  It was maybe due to the combined
effect of an imp spell.

Hrm, used them on my charm girl but couldn't see any difference...  Oh
well, will pay more attention next time.

My magic girl always had it equipped but I could never see a
difference.

Well, one pretty and one sexy - I presume sexy is better  :)

Yes, I figured this out on my last play-through.  Should have been
more obvious since I remember how useful the glove was in DDRogue  :P

I've gotten all the tier 1 and 2 endings now.  I presume the higher
ones relate to how many dungeons you clear, since I can't imagine my
stats being much higher...  Will have to play some more, obviously  :)

--
Darren Grey

On 2 Apr, 20:25, Darren Grey <darrenjohng...@gmail.com> wrote:

Kind of non-obvious I guess, it gives you +1 range on all your spells.
I figure that ought to be pretty useful.

I guess the game must be a bit hard if you've not managed to get
anything above tier 2. Tier 3 requires 4 cleared dungeons (which is
perhaps a bit difficult) and very high primary stat. Tier 4 requires 3
cleared dungeons and moderate-high stats in 2 categories. I was
assuming a good run through would clear both caves, forest and orc.

-flend

Nice game! :)

Question, though: are monsters supposed to be equipped with high-angle
mortars? Walls appear to be no barrier at all to monster projectiles.
--
\_\/_/ turbulence is certainty turbulence is friction between you and me
 \  /  every time we try to impose order we create chaos
  \/   -- Killing Joke, "Mathematics of Chaos"