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The Codex of Roguelikes

Jack Dandy

Arcane
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
3,039
Location
Israel
Divinity: Original Sin 2
I made it to the 18th floor in Brogue.
I have a posse of 2 trolls, an ogre, and a centaur.
I have an acid-protected +5 rapier, and a vampiric ring.

I'm too afraid to continue.
 
Last edited:

eXalted

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
1,213
The last game that I reached 20+ Depth and saw that I will die any moment I went kamikaze and started jumping into the pits so I can geto to the amulet as fast as I can and...


.... died, don't know if this is a viable strategy. Anyone?
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,982
Well, you have to get back out with it too, so no, not really. Though I did beeline for the stairs when I found them after a certain point (around when liches show up I guess?) Though the next time I beat it I want to dive past the amulet and get a really OP character going, one that can regen health or staves in a single turn or something.

Leading allies doesn't seem viable to me in the lng run since they can get negated, at which point they're basically worthless.
 

Jack Dandy

Arcane
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
3,039
Location
Israel
Divinity: Original Sin 2
I made it to floor 20. Opened a door, was greeted by a dragon. Doused me with flame, I was left near dead.
Gulped a fire immunity potion. Thought I was so clever!

He just chomped me in half on the spot. fml
 

Zdzisiu

Arcane
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
3,489
Caves of Qud is now up on Steam as an Early Access title, if anyone's interested.
It used to be free right? I remember playing it way back, and it seemed interesting but not really fleshed out. I will check this EA thing.
 

Backstabber

Educated
Joined
Apr 18, 2014
Messages
51
Caves of Qud is now up on Steam as an Early Access title, if anyone's interested.
It used to be free right? I remember playing it way back, and it seemed interesting but not really fleshed out. I will check this EA thing.

The free version is still available from the developer's site. The new EA version has a bunch of new stuff like a tileset, improved UI, and a bunch of new quest stuff.
 

Backstabber

Educated
Joined
Apr 18, 2014
Messages
51
Just saw that. Torn between buying and not buying as EVERY time I buy a game it ends up on GOG [...]

If you prefer buying DRM-Free games, you should be fine with the Steam version, since the developers have confirmed that it's DRM-Free (You can put the game folder in a USB stick and run it in another computer if you want).

This is also a useful resource: http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games
 

JudasIscariot

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
2,001
Location
IV Republic of Polandia
Serpent in the Staglands Codex USB, 2014
Just saw that. Torn between buying and not buying as EVERY time I buy a game it ends up on GOG [...]

If you prefer buying DRM-Free games, you should be fine with the Steam version, since the developers have confirmed that it's DRM-Free (You can put the game folder in a USB stick and run it in another computer if you want).

This is also a useful resource: http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games

I saw that on r/roguelikes but still...Early Access. I'll wait until it's finished.
 

getter77

Augur
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
861
Location
GA, USA
Caves of Qud has had quite a lot of meat on the bones for quite some years now, even before the goodly assortment of gains unto today's Early Access release. Given the particular development life the game has had until now, I'd be hard pressed to reckon another "Early Access" title that has launched in such a relatively sophisticated state. Still, the game will only get better from here and it isn't like the price is going to go up---so whatever works. We all win by virtue of the game finally having active development momentum again alongside Sproggiwood!
 

eXalted

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
1,213
Lists like these are cool to be used as a reference because I like to read about the game from the official site before playing it. And make sure that I have the latest version.
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2012
Messages
997
Location
Dreams, where I'm a viking.
Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
I've been playing a bit of Sil recently. So far its pretty fun. It's based on Angband but seems pretty heavily modified. It's focused on being faithful to the setting of the First Age of Middle earth, so your PC choices are basically varieties of Noldor, Sindar and first age human houses. Magic has also been done to be consistent with what you see in Tolkien's works. Seems like a pretty deep crafting aspect to the game, but I haven't been playing long enough to go into it too much.

get it at http://www.amirrorclear.net/flowers/game/sil/

Sil
  • [Tileset/Ascii] Heavily modified Angband focusing on tactical combat and faithfulness to First Age of Middle Earth setting.
 

eXalted

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
1,213
Exactly what I'm playing right now. I recently discovered it. Love the tactical aspect of the battles and the lo-fi mafic system.
 
Joined
Aug 28, 2012
Messages
997
Location
Dreams, where I'm a viking.
Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera
Exactly what I'm playing right now. I recently discovered it. Love the tactical aspect of the battles and the lo-fi mafic system.

Yeah, me too. I haven't played it enough to really tell if the magic system will get boring/overly simple once I've played it for a while though. For now though it feels nicely done, with good power/cost tradeoffs and well balanced so its a tool to supplement melee combat rather than supersede it.
 

getter77

Augur
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
861
Location
GA, USA
The optimistic streak in me hopes Portralis will emerge from the...suspended...state is has been in for the last great while still. The dev's last comment from last year gives at least some modicum of hope compared to, say, the original dev of Incursion pretty well stepping down entirely.
 

Jack Dandy

Arcane
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
3,039
Location
Israel
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Current run is looking pretty fucking good.

I zapped an Ogre Shaman with a wand of domination. I now have my very own machete rape gang.
xr2UZ0A.png
I also have a +7 Rapier of Speed, which I naturally nicknamed "Silver Chariot".
 

eXalted

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
1,213
That was one of my stupidest deaths. I had a LARGE army and tried to do some damage to an Ogre Shaman so I can dominate him/her... and was killed
 

Jack Dandy

Arcane
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
3,039
Location
Israel
Divinity: Original Sin 2
The great thing is, she spawns her OWN army! She always keeps up to 4 ogres around my back. Put a nice Empowerment spell on her to keep her around , too.

Wands can really be handy.
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
Patron
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
15,048
Location
In quarantine
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Ultima Ratio Regum developer on modern graphical vs. classic ASCII roguelikes:

In the opinion of this roguelike developer, some other factors have been lost in the transition to modern roguelikes. ASCII roguelikes are not just the reticent and uncommunicative infants of the roguelike world that have now been superseded by the fully-graphical adults; they offer two things that modern roguelikes generally shy away from. First, although modern roguelikes do remain highly challenging, most players would agree that classic roguelikes are significantly tougher (in part simply due to the longer expected playthroughs). They treat the player with even more respect than their modern cousins, posing challenges and complexity that might seem unassailable at first; in turn, they don’t offer metagame unlocks, expecting players to be confident enough in their abilities that they don’t need intermittent rewards to remain interested. Secondly, classic roguelikes contain a range of detailed religious systems, where the player is able to interact with various deities, with a “second game” of keeping on the right side of your deity (and using the powers they see fit to give you) overlaid onto the player’s existing trek through the dungeon. In this regard modern roguelikes are, so to speak, slightly more “materialist”—although they add a metagame between playthroughs, they eschew any other factors within a given playthrough beyond the player’s character (or ship).

As you may have noted as we come to the end of this pondering of roguelike history, I’ve used the terms “classic” and “modern” roguelikes in this article, rather than any of the three I listed nearer the start to describe the moderns. I use these terms instead because both of those words are comparatively free of any superior or inferior relative value judgements (since both “modern” and “classic” are often used as terms denoting something positive, desirable or preferable). By contrast, I would argue that roguelite implies something trifling and trivial, roguelikelike implies a lack of purity (and therefore inferiority, or something watered down), whilst procedural death labyrinth (although amusing and strikingly accurate) seems to distance itself somewhat from its own history in Rogue and its descendants, rather than proudly flying the banner of its ASCII ancestors. Speaking as the developer of a new “classic” roguelike—i.e. one which adheres to an ASCII (or in my case, ANSI, but who’s counting?) interface and many of the conventions of older roguelikes, and lacks any kind of inter-playthrough metagame—I prefer this divide instead. Many classic roguelike players (myself included) embrace the widening of our favorite genre to new audiences, but there is a risk of viewing classic roguelikes in a chronological “progress” narrative (i.e. that modern roguelikes are improved and refined versions of the older, cruder games). It is surely much better to see procedural death labyrinths as growth outwards towards greater variety, not as moving forwards towards greater optimization and improvement, and to remind players that the classics have a lot to offer in their own right: and may even yield some unexpected advantages for a player who then returns to the FTL and Isaacs of this world.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/07/before-spelunky-and-ftl-there-was-only-ascii.html
 

Zdzisiu

Arcane
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
3,489
Ultima Ratio Regum developer on modern graphical vs. classic ASCII roguelikes:

In the opinion of this roguelike developer, some other factors have been lost in the transition to modern roguelikes. ASCII roguelikes are not just the reticent and uncommunicative infants of the roguelike world that have now been superseded by the fully-graphical adults; they offer two things that modern roguelikes generally shy away from. First, although modern roguelikes do remain highly challenging, most players would agree that classic roguelikes are significantly tougher (in part simply due to the longer expected playthroughs). They treat the player with even more respect than their modern cousins, posing challenges and complexity that might seem unassailable at first; in turn, they don’t offer metagame unlocks, expecting players to be confident enough in their abilities that they don’t need intermittent rewards to remain interested. Secondly, classic roguelikes contain a range of detailed religious systems, where the player is able to interact with various deities, with a “second game” of keeping on the right side of your deity (and using the powers they see fit to give you) overlaid onto the player’s existing trek through the dungeon. In this regard modern roguelikes are, so to speak, slightly more “materialist”—although they add a metagame between playthroughs, they eschew any other factors within a given playthrough beyond the player’s character (or ship).

As you may have noted as we come to the end of this pondering of roguelike history, I’ve used the terms “classic” and “modern” roguelikes in this article, rather than any of the three I listed nearer the start to describe the moderns. I use these terms instead because both of those words are comparatively free of any superior or inferior relative value judgements (since both “modern” and “classic” are often used as terms denoting something positive, desirable or preferable). By contrast, I would argue that roguelite implies something trifling and trivial, roguelikelike implies a lack of purity (and therefore inferiority, or something watered down), whilst procedural death labyrinth (although amusing and strikingly accurate) seems to distance itself somewhat from its own history in Rogue and its descendants, rather than proudly flying the banner of its ASCII ancestors. Speaking as the developer of a new “classic” roguelike—i.e. one which adheres to an ASCII (or in my case, ANSI, but who’s counting?) interface and many of the conventions of older roguelikes, and lacks any kind of inter-playthrough metagame—I prefer this divide instead. Many classic roguelike players (myself included) embrace the widening of our favorite genre to new audiences, but there is a risk of viewing classic roguelikes in a chronological “progress” narrative (i.e. that modern roguelikes are improved and refined versions of the older, cruder games). It is surely much better to see procedural death labyrinths as growth outwards towards greater variety, not as moving forwards towards greater optimization and improvement, and to remind players that the classics have a lot to offer in their own right: and may even yield some unexpected advantages for a player who then returns to the FTL and Isaacs of this world.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/07/before-spelunky-and-ftl-there-was-only-ascii.html
Weird way to construct an argument. What he discusses is not the difference between graphical and ASCII roquelikes but the difference between the old, classic ones and the new impostors from the hipster generation. He is correct in identifying that the old roguelikes were harder, usually longer and more complex in their systems (That may perhaps be the result of having more time and resources to spend since they needed no "graphics"). He also seems to have a problem in that he fears that people may think that the old roguelikes are just inferior to the new, (and if new, then better, right?) improved ones. But that is a moot point. People will play what they find entertaining for them, for some it will be the modern roguelikes, for others the classic ones (Not necessarly in ASCII only, as the case of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup with tiles clearly proves). It seems like he tries to convince people that the old roguelikes are also worthy or something. Its unnecessary, people who have at least half a brain and some curiosity will find them and check them on their own, and the generation that only plays modern roguelites for crybabies wont ever be persuaded to try anything older than a year or two anyway.
 

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