The Codex of Roguelikes

[Krice]

I've been thinking about creating a list of roguelikes which would also force me to keep in touch of newest games. I would only include freeware / open source games and certainly list only roguelike games. Also keep variants out of the list, because then it would be 90% of Angband variants and 10% for the rest of roguelikes. One problem I have already found out is that some older games can no longer be found... or at least from any website I would download anything.

 

[PapaPetro]

I've been thinking about creating a list of roguelikes which would also force me to keep in touch of newest games. I would only include freeware / open source games and certainly list only roguelike games. Also keep variants out of the list, because then it would be 90% of Angband variants and 10% for the rest of roguelikes. One problem I have already found out is that some older games can no longer be found... or at least from any website I would download anything.

roguebasin.com
Good place to start.

This category-sitelist of games might help:
https://roguebasin.com/index.php/Category:Roguelike_games

Here's the searchable database for it:
https://forums.roguetemple.com//irldb/

 

[Tweed]

I had the same question and I was told "Bright Nights", apparently?

Isn't that a mod? I'd rather get a vanilla experience, just without all the stupid shit they added recently. I played one of the latest experimental builds a while back and saw that they added the option to switch your character gender in the menu at any point in the game. Only a matter of time before it's got customizable pronouns and we're all playing Solasta.

It's a fork and it's gained a load of momentum along with new developers ever since the original game went on Steam. It's the best way to play though it is a bit behind on some of the general content.

 

[xuerebx]

I had the same question and I was told "Bright Nights", apparently?

Anything but version 0.G
I eventually liked Nested Containers since it allowed you to drop cargo before a fight and it made inventory management generally more exciting (was much better than the alternative of pushing a shopping cart around everywhere).
But the continued gutting of CBMs/Bionics and Science-Fiction in favor of "Realism" was silly given the initial lore/premise in a Zombie/Lovecraftian survival Apocalypse.
Also not a fan of the implementation of Proficiencies and Weariness with regards to crafting; it's unfun and an artificial annoyance to slow down the game. They should've just focused on adding more/harder content instead (like expand the crafting/tech tree to include futuristic stuff you could craft to combat futuristic enemies, like better Power Armor, custom CBMs and crafted beam weapons).

Sometimes I go back and play 0.C back when you could craft a Pneumatic Rifle. That was fun.
Also the Magiclysm mod is pretty cool and adds some spice/options/threats to any version. Though it continually suffers from balance issues (e.g. getting instantly mauled by a super fast Owlbear or Troll; or taking down this bitch with 5600 HP (Distance + A LOT of .50 cal ammo)).
I love the Translocator Gate that allows you to teleport between multiple places/bases. Way better than the Fast Travel feature they implemented in the Overworld Map and well worth the effort to eventually build that network of tele-gates.
Also I feel less compulsion to use Debug menu teleporting to conserve my real life time.

Since I haven't played it yet I'm not sure if you're referring to the regular CDDA or BN? I'm assuming you're referring to previous versions of the former.

I had the same question and I was told "Bright Nights", apparently?

Isn't that a mod? I'd rather get a vanilla experience, just without all the stupid shit they added recently. I played one of the latest experimental builds a while back and saw that they added the option to switch your character gender in the menu at any point in the game. Only a matter of time before it's got customizable pronouns and we're all playing Solasta.

Like Tweed above me said it's a fork. I wasn't too interested in CDDA because many features seem tedious, but apparently BN is a fork which keeps the good, fun stuff.

 

[PapaPetro]

former

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Bright Nights is pretty cool so far. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[fuzz]

There's also CTISH, a rage-fork from a long time contributor, born after a merge request containing QoL was rejected.
https://github.com/Cataclysm-TISH-team/Cataclysm-TISH/

This fork is based on the following principles:

1. I believe that game is made for players, and thus it's the players who should be the final judges. I'm the creator of the fork, but I very rarely play the game myself recently, so I might be not aware about how the game 'feels' nowadays, and if players tell that this or that feature harms the game, I should be listening to them and - ideally - change that feature to reduce frustration.
2. No tyranny. Try to find consensus. If it's not possible, use rule of majority. Every voice counts and matters.
3. Don't reject PRs with little or no justification at all, except for explicitly trollish. If PR had to be rejected, a justification should be made. Discussion is the priority. In disputes, the truth is born.
4. I reject the false dichotomy "realism or fun" or "verisimilitude or fun". I think both of these concepts can successfully coexist in the game, with one little detail. I don't think the game is particularly 'fun', so I'd replace 'fun' here with 'interest'. Thereby, the game can be both realistic/plausible and interesting. That being said, firstly this is a game, not a simulator, and firstly it should be interesting to play. So interest has the priority over everything else.
5. I consider this game as a sandbox, where players can do everything they want, limited only by technical constraints, not by some developer's design vision. The game being an RPG, or roguelike, or survival horror, or simulator - it's all secondary.
6. The premise is that no changes - either from devs or from contributors - are made with evil intent in mind. If some change breaks the balance or somehow bring frustration, it's because the change had unwanted consequences, not because it was intended. We can and should discuss this change and try to reach consensus on how to fix it, not say "Nope, working as intended".
7. Fix, not remove. If some feature is working like it was designed, isn't breaking balance and isn't causing serious bugs or crashes, but for some reasons some people think it should be removed, then it's better to try to fix or rework it. In the end, if nothing helps, try to mod the feature out. Removal should be the last option to consider.
8. Mods are welcome. Mods doesn't need to provide some sort of "curated experience" to be added to the repo. "At least one player needs the mod" is a sufficient reason.

sauce: https://old.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda/comments/129mdxn/cataclysm_there_is_still_hope/

 

[LarryTyphoid]

There's also CTISH, a rage-fork from a long time contributor, born after a merge request containing QoL was rejected.

I prefer TISH's direction to the game from what I read there, but I'll have to play both before I can compare it to BN.

 

[PapaPetro]

There's also CTISH, a rage-fork from a long time contributor, born after a merge request containing QoL was rejected.
https://github.com/Cataclysm-TISH-team/Cataclysm-TISH/

This fork is based on the following principles:

1. I believe that game is made for players, and thus it's the players who should be the final judges. I'm the creator of the fork, but I very rarely play the game myself recently, so I might be not aware about how the game 'feels' nowadays, and if players tell that this or that feature harms the game, I should be listening to them and - ideally - change that feature to reduce frustration.
2. No tyranny. Try to find consensus. If it's not possible, use rule of majority. Every voice counts and matters.
3. Don't reject PRs with little or no justification at all, except for explicitly trollish. If PR had to be rejected, a justification should be made. Discussion is the priority. In disputes, the truth is born.
4. I reject the false dichotomy "realism or fun" or "verisimilitude or fun". I think both of these concepts can successfully coexist in the game, with one little detail. I don't think the game is particularly 'fun', so I'd replace 'fun' here with 'interest'. Thereby, the game can be both realistic/plausible and interesting. That being said, firstly this is a game, not a simulator, and firstly it should be interesting to play. So interest has the priority over everything else.
5. I consider this game as a sandbox, where players can do everything they want, limited only by technical constraints, not by some developer's design vision. The game being an RPG, or roguelike, or survival horror, or simulator - it's all secondary.
6. The premise is that no changes - either from devs or from contributors - are made with evil intent in mind. If some change breaks the balance or somehow bring frustration, it's because the change had unwanted consequences, not because it was intended. We can and should discuss this change and try to reach consensus on how to fix it, not say "Nope, working as intended".
7. Fix, not remove. If some feature is working like it was designed, isn't breaking balance and isn't causing serious bugs or crashes, but for some reasons some people think it should be removed, then it's better to try to fix or rework it. In the end, if nothing helps, try to mod the feature out. Removal should be the last option to consider.
8. Mods are welcome. Mods doesn't need to provide some sort of "curated experience" to be added to the repo. "At least one player needs the mod" is a sufficient reason.

sauce: https://old.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda/comments/129mdxn/cataclysm_there_is_still_hope/

what a fucken shitshow.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

born after a merge request containing QoL was rejected.

It's funny because it's not just because it was rejected. The project lead literally just said "Nope." with no further elaboration.

 

[sser]

Really bugs me how Steam allows devs to shit up the tags.

Roguelike already got rinsed by a bunch of very much not at all roguelike games because I guess "Roguelite" wasn't good enough.

So then they put in "Traditional Roguelikes", except all these devs keep using that, too.

And it's not just annoying to me as a customer, but that's really some bullshit for the devs. If you're making a legitimate old school roguelike, you kinda need as much awareness thrown your way as possible. Getting washed out in a pile of real-time or card-based nonsense has got to be extremely frustrating.

 

[xuerebx]

Roguelike tag means nothing on steam, but "traditional roguelike" has always been spot on when I checked. Bummer if it's also being diluted...

 

[Arthandas]

Really bugs me how Steam allows devs to shit up the tags.

That's not how it works. Devs have zero control over the tags.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

ASCII Cataclysm with a soundpack installed is probably one of the most tense and immersive experiences in a game for me. The ambiance really fuels your imagination for the visuals, and all the fucked-up monsters are a lot scarier in your head than when you see a goofy sprite for them in a tileset.

 

[PapaPetro]

That's not how it works. Devs have zero control over the tags.

I can see why business-wise.
Every dev would be incentivize to metagame the tagging system to maximize revenue over honesty; making the tagging system arbitrary and meaningless.

 

[Arthandas]

making the tagging system arbitrary and meaningless.

It already is, because it's user assigned and apparently everything is an RPG or a Roguelike.

 

[PapaPetro]

It already is, because it's user assigned and apparently everything is an RPG or a Roguelike.

That's not how it works. Devs have zero control over the tags.

So which is it?
You got me confused here.

 

[Arthandas]

So which is it?
You got me confused here.

"Tags can be applied to a game by the developer, by players with non-limited accounts, and by Steam moderators. This allows the community to help mark up games with the terms, themes, and genres that help describe the game to others."

I was wrong, I though devs can't control the tags but they actually can if they want to. Still, most tags seem to be applied by the users.

 

[koyota]

Today's video is about the origin of redacted.

In the video Tim Cain describes DMIng and all the different way his players ended up dying, re-rolling characters and getting back into the same world.
Made me want to play this concept.

Are there any open-world or more Traditional RPG games designed around this concept? (Non Procedurally generated / Non Dungeon Crawler, Create a new character and enter into the same world)
I`m probably overlooking really obvious examples.

The closest I can think of is Weird West, where you are set-up to play a bunch of different characters in different chapters, all in the same world.
Everything that you interacted or changed in the world as one Character, effects the world for all the other characters.

 

[PapaPetro]

So which is it?
You got me confused here.

"Tags can be applied to a game by the developer, by players with non-limited accounts, and by Steam moderators. This allows the community to help mark up games with the terms, themes, and genres that help describe the game to others."

I was wrong, I though devs can't control the tags but they actually can if they want to. Still, most tags seem to be applied by the users.

So it looks like we're back to this problem:

Every dev would be incentivize to metagame the tagging system to maximize revenue over honesty; making the tagging system arbitrary and meaningless.

Now they have to contend with the will of the users and moderators.
Not sure if this natural contention/dialectic between these three stakeholders will be accurate though...

 

[PapaPetro]

Someone smarter than me complete this game (in many senses of the word):

https://github.com/pakoito/incursion-roguelike

 

[pakoito]

Someone smarter than me complete this game (in many senses of the word):

https://github.com/pakoito/incursion-roguelike

I enjoy flattery as much as the next guy, but it's not my game. I cloned their repository 10 years ago, the real development happens in https://bitbucket.org/rmtew/incursion-roguelike/issues?status=new&status=open

 

[PapaPetro]

Someone smarter than me complete this game (in many senses of the word):

https://github.com/pakoito/incursion-roguelike

I enjoy flattery as much as the next guy, but it's not my game. I cloned their repository 10 years ago, the real development happens in https://bitbucket.org/rmtew/incursion-roguelike/issues?status=new&status=open

There's gotta be at least someone here in the Dex that is willing to resurrect this timeless masterpiece. Will get a lot of godlike clout for the (collaborative) effort.

 

[Covenant]

Someone smarter than me complete this game (in many senses of the word):

https://github.com/pakoito/incursion-roguelike

I enjoy flattery as much as the next guy, but it's not my game. I cloned their repository 10 years ago, the real development happens in https://bitbucket.org/rmtew/incursion-roguelike/issues?status=new&status=open

There's gotta be at least someone here in the Dex that is willing to resurrect this timeless masterpiece. Will get a lot of godlike clout for the (collaborative) effort.

Oh yeah, I'm sure that guy is gonna be drowning in trim.

 

[PapaPetro]

Someone smarter than me complete this game (in many senses of the word):

https://github.com/pakoito/incursion-roguelike

I enjoy flattery as much as the next guy, but it's not my game. I cloned their repository 10 years ago, the real development happens in https://bitbucket.org/rmtew/incursion-roguelike/issues?status=new&status=open

There's gotta be at least someone here in the Dex that is willing to resurrect this timeless masterpiece. Will get a lot of godlike clout for the (collaborative) effort.

Oh yeah, I'm sure that guy is gonna be drowning in trim.