Infra Arcana - An H.P. Lovecraft/Horror based Roguelike

[non]

Got him!

Congratulations. But what version are you playing? That doesn't look like 19.2.

 

[Bocian]

Congratulations. But what version are you playing? That doesn't look like 19.2.

19.0, I wasn't aware a new version was released. Downloaded it now.

 

[non]

19.0, I wasn't aware a new version was released. Downloaded it now.

Two new "minor versions", but they have tons of improvements.

 

[buffalo bill]

non Any idea of the ETA for the next version? I've been putting off playing any more until it's released.

 

[non]

non Any idea of the ETA for the next version? I've been putting off playing any more until it's released.

I will probably put something up that I'll call v20.0 within a couple of months.

However I can highly recommend the latest builds (based on the 'master' branch of the repo). They are very much playable, and WAY ahead of v19.2. Here's what I say about them on the IA web page:

These are the most recent builds. For a list of changes included, see the continuously updated changelog, or the commit history on the master branch of the IA repo (new builds are usually available within an hour from when a commit appears on GitLab). These builds are reasonably bug-free, balanced, and tested, but there might be occasional issues.

Persistent download links:

Windows
https://gitlab.com/martin-tornqvist/ia/-/jobs/artifacts/master/download?job=build-windows

Linux
https://gitlab.com/martin-tornqvist/ia/-/jobs/artifacts/master/download?job=build-linux

Although I understand if you want an actual release with a version number.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Any plans on releasing this game on steam or other shops?

 

[non]

Any plans on releasing this game on steam or other shops?

Yeah a steam version is in the back of my head (partly because I started using it more myself only about a year ago, and I can see the point of wanting to have the game in your collection there). Although before going commercial I would have to do more cleaning, like making sure all sound effects, fonts, monster names and descriptions etc are okay to use. I didn't know or care enough about this stuff in the beginning, so there's a bunch of stuff needs to be replaced/renamed. I've made a lot of progress with that recently, but it's really boring work so I only tend to do it sporadically.

 

[buffalo bill]

I think there is a bug in the current build that won't let me finish the game, unless there has been a change to what you have to do on level 32. When I get to the shining trapezohedron, normally I can end the game by bumping it. Now, my character can walk onto it, and I don't think there is a way to trigger the endgame slide. I admit I may be missing something, but never had this issue before.

Spoiler

 

[non]

I think there is a bug in the current build that won't let me finish the game, unless there has been a change to what you have to do on level 32. When I get to the shining trapezohedron, normally I can end the game by bumping it. Now, my character can walk onto it, and I don't think there is a way to trigger the endgame slide. I admit I may be missing something, but never had this issue before. [/spoiler]

I'm pretty sure you've always had to "pick it up" (with "g")?

 

[buffalo bill]

That worked, but I don't recall ever having to do that before. I admit that I may be remembering incorrectly.

Also:

Spoiler

 

[non]

That's not very nice . I'll fix it.

 

[non]

non Any idea of the ETA for the next version? I've been putting off playing any more until it's released.

v20.0 is finally out now!

Downloads:
https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/downloads

Changelog:
https://gitlab.com/martin-tornqvist/ia/raw/v20.0/installed_files/release_history.txt

--------------------------------------------------------------
v20.0 (December 17, 2019)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Gameplay
* Maps can have different size, the standard map size is bigger than before
* Some maps built from templates (such as the "Egypt" level) are randomly flipped and rotated for more variety
* Added more special levels
* The intro map is much smaller
* Trees appearing beneath the first few levels are now "giant fungi" instead
* Added swimming
* Added "Temple Gongs" - striking a Gong gives a significant bonus and penalty
* Removed passive shock for carrying or wearing certain items - unique items may instead have a curse on them
* Spotting hidden doors or traps now gives a small amount of XP (except when traps are revealed by triggering them)
* The blessed/cursed status effects no longer affect spell casting, and instead give +/- 10% to to melee hit chance, ranged hit chance, evasion, stealth, and searching - their descriptions now also say explicitly what they do (instead of "is generally more lucky")
* Fountains now have different names and colors when tried, and they are no longer guaranteed to dry up immediately if bad
* The Occultist traits to improve spells (such as Lesser/Greater Invocation, Summoning, etc) have been removed - instead there are now multiple Occultist domains to choose from at character creation, which get free upgrades at certain levels for spells belonging to their respective domains
* Dispelling magic traps grants spirit points
* When carrying Manuscripts, the player eventually gets a "feeling" for which spell domain it belongs to (similarly to Potions)
* Added more spells
* The spell "Animate Weapons" has been changed to "Spectral Weapons" - instead of animating weapons on the floor, it summons a living copy of melee weapon in your inventory (which will simply disappear after a while, without dropping any weapons on the floor)
* The spell "Enfeeble" now only causes Weakening (instead of a bunch of different things)
* The "Searching" spell lasts multiple turns, but detects in a smaller area (and never across the whole map)
* Spells cast from manuscripts are always cast at least at "expert" level
* Casting spells while adjacent to an altar allows casting at one skill level higher (stacks with casting from manuscripts)
* The Staff of the Pharaohs gives a passive ability to convert mummies, instead of granting a spell to summon mummies
* The Spirit Dagger now does extra damage based on the attacker's current spirit, and drains spirit from the attacker on succesful attacks (instead of giving spirit to the attacker)
* Added a new "Strange Device"
* Added trait "Ruthless", which is an upgrade of "Vicious" with even more backstab damage
* Removed some player traits
* Added more monsters, and removed some redundant monsters
* Deep Ones can throw a net which entangles the victim (instead of throwing a spear)
* Deep Ones usually spawn in much smaller numbers than before
* Deep Ones are not delayed when moving through liquids
* Spiders become aware of the player when the player gets stuck in a spider web
* Spiders can use pathfinding to move to their target
* When Ghosts attack, it says they are "reaching" for the player instead of "clawing" - the old "reach" effect which they did in addition to their normal attack has been removed
* Strange Colors only cause confusion while the player is adjacent to them
* Death Fiends now do a more sensible amount of damage (and the part of their description which said their attack "means almost certain death" has been removed)
* Ravens only have 50% chance to cause blindness on a melee hit (instead of 100% chance)
* Locusts no longer "breed"
* Some monsters are now rarer than others (previously all monsters which could spawn on a certain level had equal chance of spawning)
* Many monster descriptions have been completely rewritten (thanks Renan Nunes!)
* The time system is more predictable and simple - creatures can only have 50%/100%/200%/300% speed (never something like 110%), and all types of actions take the same time to perform for a creature (no +10% melee attack speed for example)
* Traps are always triggered when bumped, and always removed when disarmed
* Updated trap placement - magic traps cannot be placed in blocking positions (since only Occultists can disarm them), traps tend to be more spread out in a room instead of clustered together, traps can be placed in corridors, and generally fewer traps are placed on the map overall
* Added more trap types
* When a creature opens a door, the door cannot be closed until this creature's next turn starts (i.e. you cannot shut a door in the face of a monster who just opened it)
* Improved check for if phobia of open places should trigger (for example it no longer triggers while standing in smoke)
* Completely removed the concept of dice rolls from the game, weapon damage is now specified as a range (e.g. 1-4) instead of dice rolls and sides (e.g. 1d4)
* Removed the phobias for open/confined places (they were too annoying from a gameplay perspective)
* Messages are now printed when monsters fight each other

User interface
* The interface has a new layout, and there is a scrolling viewport centered on the player
* The tiles are 24x24 pixels, instead of 16x24
* The font size is no longer locked to the tile size (for example a smaller font can be used)
* The window can be resized
* Added option for input mode - default keys (numpad/arrows) or vi-mode (h j k l y u b n)
* Improved the game key bindings
* Dropping items is now done from a separate inventory screen, accessed by pressing "d" (which is a more conventional method than the old way of pressing shift+enter)
* Removed PgUp/PgDn/Home/End as alternative keys for diagonal movement
* ">" and "<" can also be used in inventory screens to jump between pages (in addition to page up/page down)
* All menus can now be scrolled with vi keys ("j"/"k"), and the currently marked menu entry can be selected with "l" (these three keys never occur as letter indexes in menus)
* "Auto moving" is used by holding shift and pressing direction keys, instead of repeatedly pressing "e" + direction (auto moving is not supported when using the arrow keys, where shift is used to move diagonally upwards instead)
* Added a minimap, accessed with "m"
* Holding shift while moving markers (e.g. "look" or "aim") jumps five steps
* Equippable items (armor, weapons, head-wear) can now be equipped by selecting them directly in the backpack, automatically swapping out any existing item in the target equipment slot (which of course takes more turns to perform)
* The "throw item" command ("t") always opens a menu to select throwing item, where the last thrown item is shown at the top with the "t" key assigned - in the throwing menu, this key is never assigned to any other item than the "last thrown item" (so you can for example safely spam throwing knives by repeatedly pressing the "t" key, without worrying about suddenly throwing another item)
* Removed the (ugly) hit chance tables from the monster description pages - only player melee hit chance is shown now, which is part of the description text instead
* The generated part of monster descriptions is printed in a separate paragraph, to make it easier to distinguish from the static handwritten part
* Reworked the tile for Deep Ones
* The player is asked for confirmation before stepping into fire or traps, or before moving into deep liquid while holding a lit explosive (which will extinguish it)
* The player is asked for confirmation when picking traits on gaining new character levels (but not when creating a new character)
* Added an option to always warn when a new monster is seen (and no other monster was already seen)
* While aiming firearms or thrown weapons, the game no longer prints info about map features, items, etc in the aiming location (only info about any monster seen there)
* Many types of messages are no longer added to the message history, such as messages printed when moving around the marker ("[f] to fire") or when asking for a direction ("Which direction? [space, esc] to cancel") - this keeps the message history more clean and focused on game events
* Many properties now have longer and more descriptive names on the map screen (e.g. "Fear Res." instead of rFear", or "LIFE SAPPED(4)" instead of "HP(4)")
* Added an option for if ambient sounds should be preloaded at game startup (otherwise each sound is loaded the first time it's played)
* Added option to skip the intro level popup message
* Added more sound effects

Misc
* Save files are no longer erased when loading a saved game (only when dying, winning the game, or when actively quitting), this allows players to resume from a previous save file if the game has crashed
* The game is auto-saved on each descent to a new dungeon level, so in the case of a crash, only the progress on the current dungeon level is lost
* Switched license to GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later, and added a reference to this license at the top of each Infra Arcana source code file, and a reference from the main menu
* User data (such as save file and highscore list) is no longer stored in the game directory, instead the user data location is based on SDL_GetPrefPath() and the current version/checksum of the game (e.g. "~/.local/share/infra_arcana/873f2d0e/") - the Infra Arcana game directory is now treated as read-only.
* Added in-game hints for some basic concepts such as treating infections or unloading firearms

 

[Matador]

I have tried some builds from time to time, and I found the game to be harder than when I beat it in 19.2. Gotta sharp my skills and learn the new stuff!

Congrats on the release, your game is fantastic. Only for the new map generation the update is huge.

 

[non]

I have tried some builds from time to time, and I found the game to be harder than when I beat it in 19.2. Gotta sharp my skills and learn the new stuff!

Congrats on the release, your game is fantastic. Only for the new map generation the update is huge.

Thank you!

Yeah I think just making the maps larger and quadratic immediately made the maps much nicer. And then there's hand designed room templates, and randomized rotating and shifting of designed levels, etc.

 

[eXalted]

v20.0 is finally out now!

I was watching some Lovecraft stuff yesterday and I was going to delve again today in the game and now there is this. Thanks![/QUOTE]

 

[PrettyDeadman]

On closing the doors in monster face:
make monster attack the door if player closes it in their face. Uf attack is powerful enough the door is destroyed, player takes damage and is pushed back.
Just an idea.

 

[janior]

does wiki for this game exist?

 

[non]

does wiki for this game exist?

No, the game is designed to not require a wiki. All information should be in the user interface and manual.

Is there any information in particular that you think is missing?

 

[buffalo bill]

does wiki for this game exist?

No, the game is designed to not require a wiki. All information should be in the user interface and manual.

Is there any information in particular that you think is missing?

Trait progression trees, unless you want those to be something the player has to find out by playing.

 

[non]

Trait progression trees, unless you want those to be something the player has to find out by playing.

Did you see that you can press tab in the trait selection menu to view traits you haven't unlocked yet?

 

[buffalo bill]

Trait progression trees, unless you want those to be something the player has to find out by playing.

Did you see that you can press tab in the trait selection menu to view traits you haven't unlocked yet?

Wah!!

I've been going by an outdated, years-old japanese jpeg all this time!

my god I am such an idiot for not seeing the info on the top of that screen

 

[janior]

does wiki for this game exist?

No, the game is designed to not require a wiki. All information should be in the user interface and manual.

Is there any information in particular that you think is missing?

yeah, what the potions you find do? or if you can attack a ghost(?) or whatever it is, usually they pop out of tombs but i cant seem to identify them. The only way found to deal with those is to shut the door.

 

[non]

yeah, what the potions you find do? or if you can attack a ghost(?) or whatever it is, usually they pop out of tombs but i cant seem to identify them. The only way found to deal with those is to shut the door.

Regarding the potions, there are in-game descriptions of every item, that you can view by selecting them in your inventory (scrolling to that item). This info is supposed to be sufficient by itself. For potions, you have to identify them to learn what they do, or hold on to them for a while to learn if they are benign or malign (their unidentified description should hint about this).

Regarding the ghosts, in that case yes I can see how it could be hard or impossible to know if you are supposed to attack them. But you can, they are just very hard to hit. The best strategy is usually to get away from the area they roam in.

Discovering and learning about the monsters is supposed to be part of the game though.

 

[mankind]

This new user data system doesn't work on my win7 x64. Btw the game is really great.

 

[non]

This new user data system doesn't work on my win7 x64. Btw the game is really great.

I wonder what the problem could be? The directory is not writable? Maybe the game needs to detect this and fall back to writing in the game directory instead?