Incline NEO Scavenger: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival RPG

[LusciousPear]

FYI -- you can read the game files pretty easily. If you're exhausted of death, it's fun to go in and pick up plot details.

 

[Infinitron]

GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html

Conclusion

I don't play roguelike games very often. My preference is to play games with enveloping stories and memorable characters and meaningful dialogue, and that's not what roguelikes usually try to deliver. NEO Scavenger starts out looking like it might be something new, an RPG with a fixed campaign and an otherwise random world, but all-too-quickly the campaign flatlines, and all you're left with are the random elements, which aren't strong enough to make up an entire game on their own.

Still, NEO Scavenger has the kernel of a game inside, it's still being updated, and it's not very expensive. It also has a demo, so you can try it out for little or no cost and see if the random elements work better for you than they did for me. But my take is, if you're going to try out a budget title, and if you want something reasonably new, then you're much better off going with Legend of Grimrock II or even Lords of Xulima than NEO Scavenger.

CARTEEEEEEEEEER

 

[Overboard]

GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html

Conclusion

I don't play roguelike games very often. My preference is to play games with enveloping stories and memorable characters and meaningful dialogue, and that's not what roguelikes usually try to deliver. NEO Scavenger starts out looking like it might be something new, an RPG with a fixed campaign and an otherwise random world, but all-too-quickly the campaign flatlines, and all you're left with are the random elements, which aren't strong enough to make up an entire game on their own.

Still, NEO Scavenger has the kernel of a game inside, it's still being updated, and it's not very expensive. It also has a demo, so you can try it out for little or no cost and see if the random elements work better for you than they did for me. But my take is, if you're going to try out a budget title, and if you want something reasonably new, then you're much better off going with Legend of Grimrock II or even Lords of Xulima than NEO Scavenger.

CARTEEEEEEEEEER

Well, when I'm buying a car, I don't ask my 3 year old niece for her opinion.

 

[Karwelas]

GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html

Conclusion

I don't play roguelike games very often. My preference is to play games with enveloping stories and memorable characters and meaningful dialogue, and that's not what roguelikes usually try to deliver. NEO Scavenger starts out looking like it might be something new, an RPG with a fixed campaign and an otherwise random world, but all-too-quickly the campaign flatlines, and all you're left with are the random elements, which aren't strong enough to make up an entire game on their own.

Still, NEO Scavenger has the kernel of a game inside, it's still being updated, and it's not very expensive. It also has a demo, so you can try it out for little or no cost and see if the random elements work better for you than they did for me. But my take is, if you're going to try out a budget title, and if you want something reasonably new, then you're much better off going with Legend of Grimrock II or even Lords of Xulima than NEO Scavenger.

CARTEEEEEEEEEER

The only reviews I trust are Codex reviews. Why? Becouse this is one of the last places where fagboys invade every review/rating and bump every shitty AAA game up.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

The only reviews I trust are Codex reviews.

Did you trust the Bioshock Infinite review?

Spoiler

Actually agree with you though

 

[PocketMine]

GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html



CARTEEEEEEEEEER

I like this part of review:


Technical

I spent about 30 hours playing NEO Scavenger, and I didn't notice any bugs or broken abilities. - Read I spent about 30 hours dying didnt get far enough to explore ZomZom's, ATN and DMC

However, the game does have one serious technical issue -- the saves. Most roguelikes only allow one save per character, where the game controls when the saves are made. NEO Scavenger is sort of like that, except it only allows one save for the entire game. So you can't have two people with active games going at the same time, and if you manage to "win," then the winning save is erased the next time you start up a new character. That's just blechy. - Even after spending 30 hours i didnt notice game runs in Flashplayer.

 

[Mustawd]

GameBanshee review: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/115035-neo-scavenger-review/all-pages.html

Conclusion

I don't play roguelike games very often. My preference is to play games with enveloping stories and memorable characters and meaningful dialogue, and that's not what roguelikes usually try to deliver. NEO Scavenger starts out looking like it might be something new, an RPG with a fixed campaign and an otherwise random world, but all-too-quickly the campaign flatlines, and all you're left with are the random elements, which aren't strong enough to make up an entire game on their own.

Still, NEO Scavenger has the kernel of a game inside, it's still being updated, and it's not very expensive. It also has a demo, so you can try it out for little or no cost and see if the random elements work better for you than they did for me. But my take is, if you're going to try out a budget title, and if you want something reasonably new, then you're much better off going with Legend of Grimrock II or even Lords of Xulima than NEO Scavenger.

CARTEEEEEEEEEER

Plays a rouguelike..complains that it has too much randomness.


Is this dude for real?

 

[potatojohn]

I'm implementing an open source neo-scavenger-like (http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...r-looking-for-foss-collaborators.96672/page-3).

I was wondering if someone could clarify how timekeeping works in NS. The player gets 5 actions/moves, and then the enemies move once? One hex? Or is there something more subtle going on?

Is this important for the experience?

How would you feel about roguelike timekeeping (enemies have a chance to act for every player action)?

 

[Perkel]

I'm implementing an open source neo-scavenger-like (http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...r-looking-for-foss-collaborators.96672/page-3).

I was wondering if someone could clarify how timekeeping works in NS. The player gets 5 actions/moves, and then the enemies move once? One hex? Or is there something more subtle going on?

Is this important for the experience?

How would you feel about roguelike timekeeping (enemies have a chance to act for every player action)?

enemies do move when you move and when you end turn they seem also to move a little. Don't know how it work exactly. Dogmen seems to move after end of turn more than once. Hell if i remember right i saw once dogmen to move like 3 times.

 

[dcfedor]

I'm always suspicious when a review says something like "the story just ends suddenly." While it's possible they reached the end of the story, my first suspicion is that they reached the DMC and don't know what to do next. It's where NEO Scavenger's breadcrumbs stop and the player is expected to follow-up on clues next. I guess another valid interpretation is that the clues, or maybe that the game relies on this gumshoe approach at all, are not well-advertised.

potatojohn, all AI has a number of moves per turn, like the player. (usually 2-5, depending on their conditions and equipment) When the player ends turn, each AI walks the map until it either reaches it's current objective, encounters another creature, or runs out of moves.

I did briefly introduce a rogue-like timekeeping scale, where each hex clicked resulted in each AI also moving one hex. However, I found that this conflicted with the terrain costs per-move, as well as restricted the differential movement rates of creature types. (E.g. creatures could not move faster than the player without multiple hex moves per turn, and slower creatures were limited to 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.)

I pretty quickly returned to the Civ-like movement rates, as that was a mechanic that I enjoyed more. (Civ's early game resource rush and explore phase is fun for me.)

 

[Perkel]

I'm always suspicious when a review says something like "the story just ends suddenly." While it's possible they reached the end of the story, my first suspicion is that they reached the DMC and don't know what to do next. It's where NEO Scavenger's breadcrumbs stop and the player is expected to follow-up on clues next. I guess another valid interpretation is that the clues, or maybe that the game relies on this gumshoe approach at all, are not well-advertised.

potatojohn, all AI has a number of moves per turn, like the player. (usually 2-5, depending on their conditions and equipment) When the player ends turn, each AI walks the map until it either reaches it's current objective, encounters another creature, or runs out of moves.

I did briefly introduce a rogue-like timekeeping scale, where each hex clicked resulted in each AI also moving one hex. However, I found that this conflicted with the terrain costs per-move, as well as restricted the differential movement rates of creature types. (E.g. creatures could not move faster than the player without multiple hex moves per turn, and slower creatures were limited to 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.)

I pretty quickly returned to the Civ-like movement rates, as that was a mechanic that I enjoyed more. (Civ's early game resource rush and explore phase is fun for me.)

then i assume that movement i noticed during my turn is simply hiding mechanic working ?

 

[e-mailio estevez]

My only real problem with this game is that it's always my first instinct to hit ESC to back out of a menu... but it just takes flash out of fullscreen mode.

 

[potatojohn]

potatojohn, all AI has a number of moves per turn, like the player. (usually 2-5, depending on their conditions and equipment) When the player ends turn, each AI walks the map until it either reaches it's current objective, encounters another creature, or runs out of moves.

I did briefly introduce a rogue-like timekeeping scale, where each hex clicked resulted in each AI also moving one hex. However, I found that this conflicted with the terrain costs per-move, as well as restricted the differential movement rates of creature types. (E.g. creatures could not move faster than the player without multiple hex moves per turn, and slower creatures were limited to 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.)

I pretty quickly returned to the Civ-like movement rates, as that was a mechanic that I enjoyed more. (Civ's early game resource rush and explore phase is fun for me.)

Interesting. I have many questions if you don't mind...

How does NS handle NPCs? Does it keep them alive all over the map or spawn them near the player/despawn far away? How many NPCs are alive on average on the map?

What capabilities/needs do NPCs have? Do they scavenge? Eat? Get sick? Do their encounters follow the same logic as the player-npc ones?

 

[dcfedor]

Perkel, correct. When you move in the game, your visibility goes up and detection ability goes down, plus any local lighting changes. This often results in once-visible targets disappearing as you lose track of them.

e-mailio estevez, indeed that is a frustration many share. It's a Flash thing, though I don't necessarily fault Adobe for it. Basically, it's a security feature to ensure that Flash apps cannot take-over your screen against your will. (More applicable to a website plugin than to stand-alone apps.)

potatojohn, the map starts empty, and creatures are spawned just beyond visual range every so often. Once spawned, they roam until they die. And due to the limited AI, they tend to die pretty quickly. They're good at fighting, looting, hoarding, running, and pack/solo behavior, but they don't really know how to eat, drink, scavenge, treat wounds, or stay warm. They can trigger encounters, but few of them actually do (mainly used for special NPC waypoints).

Basically, they do just enough to give the illusion that they're deep, as with many things in the game.

My original approach was to randomly populate the map and let them all wander each turn. However, performance and memory quickly became an issue with this approach. And since most would die before the player arrived anyway, I decided to tweak the local spawn rates to make it seem like they populated the map.

There are one or two creatures that are exceptions, but they're unique.

 

[Serus]

My only real problem with this game is that it's always my first instinct to hit ESC to back out of a menu... but it just takes flash out of fullscreen mode.

So much this. :D

 

[dcfedor]

Just finished reading that Game Banshee review, and I take back what I said. Sounds like Mr. Carter did see quite a few locales and the end-game. His complaint was more about the lack of definitive info after visiting those locations, which I can understand. The game is definitely not overt in its plot delivery, and merely suggests things instead of explaining them.

There are definitely players who like it subtle as it is, but Carter is also not alone in his sentiments, either. It'd be cool if the game left most people thinking plot "A" happened, but upon further reflection, hints would allow them to see other interpretations. I.e. players get as much depth out of it as they seek.

That's a tricky edge upon which to balance, though!

 

[I_am_Ian]

Anyone who can't recognize the brilliance of this game should be ignored.

 

[Absalom]

I prefer games keeping a sense of mystery about them instead of shoving their message down your throat until every banal detail is perfectly clear.

 

[Grimwulf]

Dear 'Dex, can you enlighten me on the topic of mods? Which ones are Tru, and which ones should be avoided? (vanilla is already a bit repetetive for me)

I've just started to play with Extended NeoScav 3.3, and so far I'm lovin' it. I bit worried about balance, tho. I've just made hand/feet/headwraps using nothing but dirty rags.

And the foot wraps don't even give me the blisters (I injured my foot before I made them).

So, anyone uses it? Can you tell me (without major spoilers pls) if it makes the experience too easy or what?

 

[Jaesun]

No mods are needed at all. Don't Play with any.

 

[agris]

I'm sorry Grimwulf, but that image deserves an anti-brofist. The mod you're playing with has an exceptionally high level of Modder Shit(tm) that is unneeded and detracts from the core gameplay.

 

[Tzaero]

Hell, just look at that shirt man. Would a sane modder add that.

 

[Jaesun]

Last time I looked at mods for this (and that was a while ago) every single one of them were:


Modders. Horrible creatures. Avoid whenever you can.

 

[Grimwulf]

Well, I didn't really read the features, hoping that blind playthrough would give one more vanilla-ish first-time experience. It seems to be the most popular.

Another question then: how do you go back to replaying anew, when you've completed the game? The game is roguelike, but it lacks ramdoness factor (all locations are more or less in the same place, and all events have the same outcome). I'm getting pretty sick of earlygame, and feel like I need some, you know. More content?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Different character builds is what I find enjoyable. Or doing sub-optimal things for shits and giggles like playing a cannibal. It's definitely not as replayable as a full roguelike and it's easier to "Win" (Barring guy with no shoes hitting you in the brain with a broken bottle) than most roguelikes which is why you have to play with some house rules if you wanna keep rolling.

Either that or take up modding and make (Or wait for) a non-retardo mod that doesn't fuck up the balance.