The Codex of Roguelikes

[caldera]

If anyone with Caves of Qud experience could help me that'd be nice. I'm having some major issues with Golgotha. The game seems to be well scaled and somewhat smooth if you just follow the Main Quest up until you need to go to Golgotha, then there's a huge difficulty spike. What am I supposed to do there? I always just die awfully. Sometimes I might make it through the electric conveyers and blobs but in the last floor I get wreckt by Putus Templars. Am I supposed to grind before going there or what?

Preferably you'd want to go there with some lvl's behind you, unless you have high level regeneration and good AoE to deal with hordes. Just do some side questing and gear hunting, general consensus is that you level up till around lvl 20 and then it's a piece of cake. Once you are down there just rush for the waydroid and warp out, ignoring the boss, if you prefer to play safe. Otherwise have some freeze grenades with you.

How are you building your character? How is the game at current state? I remember buying it a year ago and enjoying it a lot, but there's still a lot of content missing. I've also read some complaints about the speed at which they add the new content.

 

[Hobo Elf]

If anyone with Caves of Qud experience could help me that'd be nice. I'm having some major issues with Golgotha. The game seems to be well scaled and somewhat smooth if you just follow the Main Quest up until you need to go to Golgotha, then there's a huge difficulty spike. What am I supposed to do there? I always just die awfully. Sometimes I might make it through the electric conveyers and blobs but in the last floor I get wreckt by Putus Templars. Am I supposed to grind before going there or what?

Preferably you'd want to go there with some lvl's behind you, unless you have high level regeneration and good AoE to deal with hordes. Just do some side questing and gear hunting, general consensus is that you level up till around lvl 20 and then it's a piece of cake. Once you are down there just rush for the waydroid and warp out, ignoring the boss, if you prefer to play safe. Otherwise have some freeze grenades with you.

How are you building your character? How is the game at current state? I remember buying it a year ago and enjoying it a lot, but there's still a lot of content missing. I've also read some complaints about the speed at which they add the new content.

I was playing as a mind control Esper with two minions. Everyone keeps saying that Espers are so much better than Chimeras, but I don't see it. I've made a handful of Chimeras who focus on Short Blades and they just fucking wreck everything. I've yet to make a caster-based Esper work, even though it's supposedly the best kind of character. I've only owned the game for a few weeks so I can't comment on the rate that they add content quite yet. There's an update for the game every friday and they seem to be mostly focused on fixing the technical side of the game as well as always adding new tiles, but I've yet to see any new content added, like new quests or areas. Even then, I can't say that I haven't enjoyed the game. It's one of the best and most atmospheric roguelikes I've played. The only one I like more is Infra Arcana.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I think a full blown esper is OP as fuck, but it requires playing in a tedious way; using clairvoyance, teleportation and ranged attacks to kill everything without ever giving it a chance to reach you in your sealed hidey hole or from across the map or whatever. I'd never be able to play like that for the long term.

 

[Damned Registrations]

So I decided to give the new caves of Qud a whirl. Got my badass melee dude rolling, plowed through golgotha with no real trouble. But now I'm utterly fucked, because

Spoiler

golgotha diseases you, and there is no practical way to cure this once it sets in. Even if I were a tinker, by the time I reached the village my tongue was already gone so I used all my resources just to get the recipe book for the cure- and the parts I need include rare things like cider and honey. Since I'm not a fucking tinker anyways, I couldn't even attempt to make the cure if I had it. Basically the only way to avoid this shit is to never get diseased in the first place. Oh, and the only reason I knew where to find the cure recipe is because of the wiki, otherwise there's no way in hell I'd figure this out naturally.

Fucking spoiler dependent horseshit. Why would anyone think this is a good idea?

 

[Fowyr]

Just a little somewhat cheaty fun with Caves of Qud.
Delete "zonecache" directory while you are in wilderness. Not only you will free 100-200 mb, you will reset all locations (but not quests) as well.


ASCII version looks really better with "simple floor" or something option turned on.


EDIT: Filenames are various "joppaworld". It's surely consonant shift for two letters from "gamma".
"Joppa" itself is very similar to Russian "жёппа" from that joke:

- Why are you write "жёппа" (very distorted from original word) instead of "жопа" ("ass")?
- Because ot sounds more sophisticated!

 

[caldera]

Anybody else just prefers to random a character and go with the flow? I've been doing that a lot lately, I feel like I'm getting better at the game just by exploring some of the more unorthodox build combinations. For example, just rolled a dark elf bard in ADOM, I've never played with a bard character before, so taming half of the dungeon with music was pretty refreshing. That being said I also managed to starve at the bottom of the second dungeon, like a complete clown.

 

[rafaninja888]

Any new ones people can recommend?. Always was a fan of Nethack & ADOM...

 

[Snorkack]

Caves of Qud is still in EA and yet one of the best RLs I ever played. Try it!
Not really a new one, but Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup is my all-time favourite, if you haven't yet: play it! Also, the recent patch made the Abyss much less... abyssmal, meaning you can now literally fight your way out. The days of being starved to death because RNJesus decides against placing stairs out of the abyss are over.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Any new ones people can recommend?. Always was a fan of Nethack & ADOM...

I am quite fond of PosChengband myself

 

[Damned Registrations]

Still playing Qud. I'm not sure if I've just gotten significantly better or the balance has been improved a lot since last time I played, but it's grown on me a lot, and feels really fair now, generally speaking. Still some bullshit like being instagibbed by a unique when entering a new chunk (I think they ought to give you a 1 turn grace period to turn around in this case) and the thing I mentioned earlier (Which I think is actually not quite as bad as I had thought, apparently anyone can make the cure and you can find the recipe for it randomly, albeit rarely.)

My main gripe with it now is it is too easy to rob everyone blind and/or play as a murder hobo and make a ton of cash by gutting farmers. I've been trying to get a strong tinker build going but keep making stupid mistakes. Also my min/max nature is making it difficult early on, because the way prices scale severely punishes using ego as a dump stat. You literally get 50% more sale value just from the first two points above the bare minimum. But money eventually becomes plentiful, so I must munchkin. Maybe I'll make a more balanced character just to see some of the lower tier tinkering benefits. Guns are actually a lot better and more viable than I was expecting, the main problem is survivability I think. My current builds are very hard to kill, and losing even a couple points of defense could ruin that. Maybe better gear would compensate though...

 

[Fowyr]

Baetyl gave me quest to bring it six chitinous puma's corpses. Found several pumas, killed them and stashed two corpses in Joppa. As these corpses are really heavy - 200 - I started to drag one to baetyl. Of course, my char ate it on the way. Disable "auto eat" when you drag valuable thingies, guys.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Hell, just disable auto eat in general. Fucking retard character has auto-eaten yuckwheat and even urberries. While ignoring the dreadroot tubers of course.

Also, Baetyl's seem OP as fuck. Turned in 3 50' spools of red wire, he gave me 3 attribute points. Seriously? Holy fuck I need to farm these guys and become a god. I can see why everyone says espers are OP now if you can just crank your stats up like that in the long run anyways. The mental mutations are almost all the best shit, aside from maybe phasing, which is broken as fuck.

Multiple legs is also really really good in the long run I think. Scales very well.

 

[Fenix]

Hey guys! Because you sang praises to Caves of Qud, I start to play it (love Codex as usual).
I have some questions, like - what bullets mushket useing, what is that asterisk near Right Hand, and I fell in love with the farmer's daughter lol, my Will dropped till 7 I think, what to with it?
And if you can, give some general advices\tips. I started as True Kin Artifex, maxed Intellect and Agility, the rest was poured in Toughness.
And what is better - rifles or pistols (already bought Rifles anyway).

 

[jcd]

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

 

[Damned Registrations]

He's right on both counts. It's not a super deep or complex game, but it's very elegant, well balanced, and it certainly does have the best damned interface I've ever seen. The auto-explore/play feature is nice for the first few floors too, which generally require very little actual attention.

 

[Fenix]

So, I figured out that mushket fired with lead slugs, but still have no idea when my char's hm... infatuation? will stop, especially because I killed farmer's daughter on sight...

 

[Fowyr]

And if you can, give some general advices\tips. I started as True Kin Artifex, maxed Intellect and Agility, the rest was poured in Toughness.
And what is better - rifles or pistols (already bought Rifles anyway).

Rifles are very good. Get to Vital or Wounding fire next.
I was a very lucky bastard with starting plans, disassembled ubernostrum from first quest and assembled eigenrifle. Still use it for tight spots.
Butchery is very nice.

 

[Fenix]

After butchering I got raw meat, when I eat it, description says "it taste better with salt or cooked" something like that.
So is there a way to cook?

 

[Infinitum]

He's right on both counts. It's not a super deep or complex game, but it's very elegant, well balanced, and it certainly does have the best damned interface I've ever seen. The auto-explore/play feature is nice for the first few floors too, which generally require very little actual attention.

If it's anything like it was a few years back, auto-explore is a death trap from the word go. The food clock is too harsh to have the bot path you back and forth. I'd say its pretty complex since unlike most other roguelikes you can't plan out or practice a specific build (without replaying seeds) due to the advacement system being 100% tied to improving whatever items you find. I seem to recall low-depth play revolving a bit too much around herding allies for my taste as well, but then again I only ever managed a vanilla amulet escape so I digress. I fully agree on presentation; the game systems themselves are obscured and very much under the hood but it always shows concrete percentage chances of to-hit and projected damage (as a percentage). Purtiest non-graphics game ever to boot.

I recommend Sil btw; it has well thought out, extremely comprehensible and well documented mechanics for the most part, very good monster ai in comprison to most everything in the genre, a number of viable playstyles and rigidly adheres to its first-age-of-tolkien theme.

 

[you know what time it is]

After butchering I got raw meat, when I eat it, description says "it taste better with salt or cooked" something like that.
So is there a way to cook?

Was wondering the same, googled it earlier today and apparently no, not yet at least.

 

[Fowyr]

After butchering I got raw meat, when I eat it, description says "it taste better with salt or cooked" something like that.
So is there a way to cook?

Master butcher almost always can produce jerky instead of raw meat.

Also if you are really want some reverse engineer some device (say, you are deep in dungeon and overweight with chainguns and laser rifles) and don't shun save scumming, there is a trick. Probability of reverse engineering is determined by number of key presses in the inventory. So:
1) Close item groups to move desired item on first screen.
2) Save.
3) Load, enter inventory, press key to move to item, disassemble. If you got blueprint - save. Otherwise
4)Load, enter inventory, press key to move to item, press "look" on item, disassemble.
Repeat looking on item until you will get plan.

 

[Fenix]

Well, for me savescumming kill al the fun.
But thanks anyway.
Also, blueprint has command Learn - to learn how to produce it, and comand Build - never tried to use it, what it does?

 

[Fenix]

Also I lack command for drinking water and changing weapon with only one press of button.
Do I missed it or they don't exist yet?

 

[Fowyr]

Well, for me savescumming kill al the fun.
But thanks anyway.
Also, blueprint has command Learn - to learn how to produce it, and comand Build - never tried to use it, what it does?

It builds item without learning blueprint.

Also I lack command for drinking water and changing weapon with only one press of button.
Do I missed it or they don't exist yet?

With melee, throwing and missile slots you need to change weapons very rarely (only for Vibro Blade for armored enemies, for example).
To automatically drink a water turn it on in options.

 

[Fenix]

It builds item without learning blueprint.

Lol, what a fool I am. I learned sniper rifle instead of build it.

With melee, throwing and missile slots you need to change weapons very rarely (only for Vibro Blade for armored enemies, for example)

Nope, in some places you need pickaxe, so you change it back and forth, also when I do not have enough ammo I change wepon from pump shotgun to desert rifle, lead slugs tend to run out quickly.

To automatically drink a water turn it on in options.

There are better ways, I've found in-inventory commands:
Ctrl + A - eat
Ctrl + R - drink
Ctrl + P - apply