The Codex of Roguelikes

[Fenix]

So he worked on weakest part of a game - lolarchers, and lolantimagic, along with lolrogue.
Good job!

 

[Palikka]

Cogmind is now in Greenlight
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=863069096

 

[Fenix]

Question about Elona+ - how about gear that allow to stop leveling?
Worth it to use or not?
Used it, because I thought that encounter level depends on your lvl, but looks like it is not.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Encounters of what kind? Bandits tend to be based on your cargo (and probably something else too), and I think dungeons available are based on level. Missions are based on your fame.

 

[Fenix]

Wilderness outside of towns.
Rogue's ambush based on fame too.

E.g. in beginning I never saw hounds of various kinds, baptists, skelets etc but on lvl 14 now I meet them regularly.

 

[Emmanuel2]

Question about Elona+ - how about gear that allow to stop leveling?
Worth it to use or not?
Used it, because I thought that encounter level depends on your lvl, but looks like it is not.

Encounters of what kind? Bandits tend to be based on your cargo (and probably something else too), and I think dungeons available are based on level. Missions are based on your fame.

I've asked a question whether or not I should stop levelling so fast (I could make it from 136 to 200+ in maybe 3-4 hours because required exp caps at 10mil or 100mil, I forgot), the answer was that levels only serve to make you stronger and nothing else. Stopping it would make you weaker since more HP and Mana = more time for training against 20k++ HP mobs.

Rogue's strength scale with your level, their appearance chance are based on your current cargo weight and fame. Other than that and maybe tax, you don't really anything to worry about.

Dungeons are based on whatever the highest level dungeon you've cleared. As an example, the highest danger level I cleared was around 400+ and then the overworld started spawning 450+ to my dismay.

 

[Fenix]

I'm on lvl 14 now, 100 hours of gameplay. Too slow I know.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Sounds about where I generally get when I play. Usually I get frustrated trying to do too many things at once at that point (farm, museum, shop, dungeons, arenas) and go play something else after I die to some bullshit in a dungeon I don't even understand that one shot me or something. Interesting to know about the cap on required exp, that explains a lot, especially if it also applies to skill levels. Always seemed impossible to me for people to have the kinds of stats they claimed to get without cheating. I assumed the requirements just kept climbing infinitely.

 

[Emmanuel2]

I'm on lvl 14 now, 100 hours of gameplay. Too slow I know.

You're doing fine, it took me 100+ hours too to clear act 1 back then around 3-4 years ago when it was still a notch easier than what we have today.

Sounds about where I generally get when I play. Usually I get frustrated trying to do too many things at once at that point (farm, museum, shop, dungeons, arenas) and go play something else after I die to some bullshit in a dungeon I don't even understand that one shot me or something. Interesting to know about the cap on required exp, that explains a lot, especially if it also applies to skill levels. Always seemed impossible to me for people to have the kinds of stats they claimed to get without cheating. I assumed the requirements just kept climbing infinitely.

Yeah, basically why most people reroll a ton.There's just so many things you can do/explore/train that it feels like you're never going to see all of it in a reasonable amount of time.

Skill levels work differently from actual character level. They cap at level 2000 but the way you get experience is different and actually scales with your prowess unlike character levels where killing monsters give a static amount of exp IIRC.

It's a basic 0.000 to 1.000 experience but some of the requirements are:

• Combat Skills like Tactics/Marksman basically requires you to deal a minimum % amount of of enemy's health as damage to that specific enemy.

• Combat Proficiency skills require you to hit stuff that are tougher and has higher evade. You won't gain experience from hitting a rookie if you're a professional, from a master if you're a grand master, etc. however hitting a grade 1 GM would still net you experience if you're a grade 5 GM. I still gain a very, very small amount of exp when fighting a Five head god at Martial Arts 300+.

• Evasion/Greater Evasion require you to find something that can actually hit you a good number of times. Evading some of their attacks raises your evasion.

• Control magic requires you to be in the presence of pets.

A handy doc for determining whether or not you'll get skill exp. I don't know the exp requirement for a level up but since you gain 1 level in Healing whenever you get that regeneration dream I'd assume it's 1000.

 

[Fenix]

Sounds about where I generally get when I play. Usually I get frustrated trying to do too many things at once at that point (farm, museum, shop, dungeons, arenas)

Me too, except I never had farm, museums before.
Just bought Cyber House, and have deeds of 2 farms, and starage house.
I firmly intend to play at least Act 1, and possibly more because I see no other games around.

Emmanuel2 thanks as usual for precise information. )

 

[Fenix]

Elona+ (here and further Elona) - how I can specify when Give weapon to a pet, that it will use Two Hand style?
It is hand 1 or hand 2? Can't find this info on wiki.

Also - want to run a shop, and on SHop page doesn't specified that you need register, and about strong box only told in Shopkeeper's Guide.
Description says it need to keep money, SG says it need for keeping there sellable items.
???

 

[Emmanuel2]

Elona+ (here and further Elona) - how I can specify when Give weapon to a pet, that it will use Two Hand style?
It is hand 1 or hand 2? Can't find this info on wiki.

Also - want to run a shop, and on SHop page doesn't specified that you need register, and about strong box only told in Shopkeeper's Guide.
Description says it need to keep money, SG says it need for keeping there sellable items.
???

If your pet has nothing on his hand slots, giving it a weapon will automatically make it two-hand the weapon. IIRC whatever works for your character works for your pet aswell in terms of equipment rules.

I never tried running a shop for this playthroug so I can't help you there, but generally the guide books in the game are very helpful. There should be a register and strongbox there, if not, just buy one from the embassy.

 

[Palikka]

Melee multiwielding! Major plot events! Mouse UI++! Adjustable difficulty! Alpha 14 is here! The second half of that "new narrative" introduced with Alpha 13 is now in place, and we're getting awfully close to 1.0. Only one more map remains... (plus a bunch of other non-content-related prep work.)

http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=737.0

Spoiler

More Melee?!

Melee combat has always been an outlier in Cogmind, with its slow but high-damage low-coverage weapons with special side effects to both balance it against, and differentiate it, from ranged combat. For a long while it's served as a reliable backup when cornered and dying, often driving epic comebacks, and from there it gradually gained enough benefits to evolve into a potential play style of its own.

Well, now it's finally about to enter the mainstream--as one of Alpha 14's flagship features, you can now attach as many melee weapons as you want! Five katanas? Do it. Greatsword followed up by hammers and flails? Check.

Now for balance purposes you naturally can't always outright attack with all your melee weapons at once. Although only one primary melee weapon can be active at a time (as it's always been), other attached but inactive melee weapons have a chance to carry out "follow-up attacks" alongside the primary weapon. In tactical HUD mode, that chance is shown next to each applicable melee weapon. Follow-up attacks are more likely when the primary weapon is slower than a given backup melee weapon.

Multiple follow-up attacks by different melee weapons are possible in the same action. Each weapon is checked separately, and once confirmed any follow-up attack has a +10% to hit the target and only requires half of its normal time delay to attack. Momentum bonuses that apply to the primary weapon all apply to follow-up attacks as well, so charging with all those spears and lances can very well pulverize even a Behemoth in one go.

Even better, if the target is destroyed by an earlier attack, there is a 50% chance to switch to another target in range for any remaining follow-up attacks. Multiwielders surrounded by a patrol in close quarters are going to quite deadly.

In addition to the existing selection of melee utilities, Nanoactuators etc. for speed and Melee Analysis Suites for accuracy, Actuator Arrays increase the chance of follow-ups from all secondary melee weapons. Analysis Suites now also increase the chance of being able to switch to a second target in the same attack, so multiwielders are definitely going to want to have some of these--facing off against Duelists will be a new melee goal . The benefits of all nanoactuators also apply to every follow-up attack.

I'm sure we'll be seeing some new builds and strategies emerge. Whether or not they'll be OP has yet to be seen, but after toying around with it I can confirm it's fun

To go with this new melee update, impact weapons no longer totally suck! Sure they were always pretty scary in enemy hands due to their tendency to smash processors, but they were never a first choice for Cogmind. Impact damage that destroys a part now also generates a sudden EM spike, of course causing system corruption (there was already a precedent for this mechanic in the lore with Compactors). This effect is also filtered through any EM resistances the victim may have. As this is a change to the damage type itself, an important non-weapon side effect worth mentioning: cave-ins deal impact damage and will therefore be even more deadly! Like other EM-based effects, however, Cogmind is less susceptible to the corruption than other robots.

Difficulty

Cogmind core game balance is in a pretty good place. Those familiar with a majority of the mechanics and content, and who have developed effective strategies based on that knowledge, can reliably reach the late game and/or win, but not without a challenge.

That said, there are also people who don't want to play on that level, and for that we have new difficulty options! I shared the thinking behind these new features, as well as details of their implementation, in a recent blog post you can check out here.

Essentially there are two easier difficulty modes below the default, the first summed up as "I can deal with this, just give me a little help" and the second "You've got the wrong robot, I'm just here to shoot things!" For details on the changes each mode makes to the experience, check out the dedicated new section in the manual (as always, accessible both in and out of game).

I'm hoping that anyone who needs/wants the easier settings will provide feedback here (or via whatever channel is most convenient for you). These options are not intended for myself nor many of the other regular players, so we're not the best judges of whether they're achieving their goal until we see how those who do need react to it. Of course, simply continuing to upload score sheets as many of you have been doing will also be a big help, as there are now separate leaderboards for each mode and we can watch how that shapes up.

(Note that difficulty levels will add a new column of data to your long-term scorehistory.txt file, but because that file is not rebuilt from scratch each time, you won't see the new header.)

For those of you looking to increase the difficulty, there are options for that, too! But they're not explicit difficulty settings. Instead we have challenge modes, a way to make some aspect of a run more difficult in exchange for some amount of extra points. This feature will eventually be accessible via an in-game menu, but that will come when more options have been added (the current set is a small-scale experiment). For now challenge modes can only be activated via user/cogmind.cfg:
challengeUnstableEvolution: You have no control over which slots you evolve; each of your evolutions is randomized, though the chance of evolving a power slot is weighted lower while utility slots are weighted higher.
challengeScavenger: There are no part stockpiles in the main complex, and any lone items strewn about are damaged. Everything else must be salvaged from other robots, stolen from haulers, or fabricated.
Multiple challenge modes can be active simultaneously. If you have more ideas for challenge modes you can contribute to the discussion here.

Also regarding greater difficulty levels, those players hitting the maximum alert level and then proceeding to farm for points will have a new mechanic to contend with: High Security. We'll see if it's enough to stop the dedicated combat hackers devoted to taking over the entire complex (zxc's epic 26-hour farm to end all farms will go down in Cogmind history--276,549 points! (warning: score sheet contains spoilers, especially the bonus breakdown))

QoL

Keyboard input has gotten a lot of love and extra features for several releases now, but seeing as a majority of players stick to the mouse, it's about time for improvements on that front! Lots and lots of improvements...
Now when attempting to pick up on object via left-click while Cogmind's inventory is full (a fairly common situation!), it will automatically apply smart inventory management rules. This originally required a ctrl-click, but now there's no keyboard involved, at least in this case.
Empty slots are also clickable, bringing up a list of all applicable parts for that slot to choose from (this was also originally only possible via ctrl-click).
Mouse users also get new "[CYCLE]" buttons for propulsion and weapons to simultaneously toggle all their states (this feature, even more helpful for keyboard players, has been available for a while via the ; and ' keys). The buttons only appear in tactical HUD mode.
It's kind of annoying trying to see what's going on during an attack when clicking on things and there's a cursor in the way, especially at smaller tile sizes, so by default the cursor is now hidden for the duration of your attacks. If you'd prefer it stay visible, you can change this setting in cogmind.cfg via cursorVisibleDuringAttack. There is also a second related option, cursorAlwaysHiddenWhenInputBlocked, which can be activated to hide the cursor any time input is blocked, most notably when others are attacking as well (but I didn't want to take the default that far).
It's now possible to actually pick up traps without the keyboard! I hadn't realized that when you were standing on a trap item, you may want to actually pick it up. That was only possible via keyboard since clicking on yourself when standing over a trap installed it! Right-clicks now install the trap underfoot, whereas left-clicks will pick them up as with interaction with other items. (However, this does mean that trap info is unavailable purely via mouse if you're standing directly on top of an extracted trap, but that's much less important than being able to pick it up and move it in the first place.)
The right-click on walls to enter targeting mode option (cogmind.cfg: rmbWallsToTarget) is now on by default. Any mouse users migrating an old cfg file are encouraged to activate it, as it's quite useful when you want to shoot a machine or wall while there are no robots around and you're too lazy to hit the 'f' key
While mouse users have access to smooth map panning, it has always required holding the shift key. There is now a new option: just right-click on a spot outside your field of vision and the map will pan over to recenter on that location.
Did I tell you Cogmind's mouse input just got even better?

Another QoL note: Cogmind will now silently autosave for you once every five minutes, but only if you're idle for a few seconds (so it shouldn't interrupt anything you're doing). You can change the interval in cogmind.cfg via autosaveInterval. Setting it to 0 turns the feature off, though as usual it will continue to autosave on reaching each new map.

Still Hacking Away

Unlike our last release, hacking has not undergone any major shifts, but there are a number of little changes here and there to be aware of:
Reason #6 to carry some kind of Datajack: they now allow faster rewiring, a 50% chance compared to the standard 10% no-Datajack chance. Even better, that means Remote Datajacks can be used to rewire without being adjacent to the target. By extension this also provides a way to instantly reboot disrupted allies from a distance.
Terminal trace feedback now works properly, meaning it can fry hackware (though defensive hackware will be able to prevent it), another reason to seriously consider whether a trace is worth it when relying on hackware benefits.
Terminal traces at Materials depths are no longer certain of triggering an investigation! The chance gradually increases as you approach the Factory, where it then becomes 100%. This should somewhat cut down on the amount of seemingly endless patrols that especially new players face in the low depths, while giving a little extra incentive to experienced players to go for extra info without caring about being traced.
I've added a some sfx to reinforce that a robot hack was repelled by a programmer, or failed to penetrate in the first place (there's also a new log message for the latter). This should make it easier to figure out what's going on during combat hacking. Programmer repelling is also checked for before even opening the hacking menu, since choosing an option is pointless if a Programmer is just going to block it!
For the professional hackers out there doing Garrison Access redirects, know that they will no longer work forever.

A Bug and a Secret

First of all, sorry to the handful of you who experienced crashes, a few of you repeatedly. It turns out that Alpha 13's targeting overhaul introduced a bug which you'd think was kinda rare, but ended up hitting a few people: "using 'f' to enter targeting mode with only a melee weapon active while adjacent to unarmed robot in sight of armed robot." Most bugs are pretty easy to track down with a simple report, but this one was pretty convoluted, so thanks to GJ for help in discovering the exact circumstances. If your game crashed, that was probably it and it's been fixed.

Now this other UI bug... was actually pretty fun, but no one knew about it! And it's been there for years. I only discovered it by accident as I was spending a lot of time working with guided weapons to fix up their waypoint system. Cogmind technically allows you to change your volley composition while you're in targeting mode, making it possible to easily compare resource costs, recoil vs. accuracy, and other factors. It turns out that if you are targeting with a guided weapon, set a few waypoints, activate other weapons then deactivate the guided weapon, you can fire the entire volley along the same path, non-guided weapons and all! Pretty hilarious to watch any old weapon turn the corner there--I was floored when I hit fire (completely by accident) and saw everything take off.

No one would really think to do this, and it's discovery was mostly prevented by the fact that attempting to fire a full volley including a guided weapon would still only fire the guided weapon, as expected. Turning off the guided weapon after setting the waypoints was crucial.

Anyway, the implications of being able to fire entire volleys around corners and other obstacles was pretty interesting . You could even create your own guided Remote Datajack and hack robots around corners as early as the mid-game, rebooting patrol/investigation leaders and stopping the whole group in their tracks. This also confirms that "guided" plasma cannons sure do look cool, so that should eventually become a feature (well, as of this release there is one thing...)

Remember to migrate from an earlier release by simply copying over your /user/ directory to the new game directory.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Streets of Rogue will come to Steam early access March 10.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/512900/

 

[Serus]

My last game of CataclysmDDA:
- started as a military recruit in Helicopter Crash scenario (good starting gear including M16A1 with 30 bullets but starts wounded)
- i'm in middle of nowhere, not surprisingly as i changed the spacing between cities from default 4 to 6
- first structure encountered - a lone gas station, not bad... but it isn't completely empty...
- a JABBERWOCK ! Ok... few bursts mostly at point blank range and he is gone. 12 bullets gone, was lucky, only a scratch.
- a few moments later i enter a tiny village found near (onlt ~4 houses) and run into... a ZOMBIE HULK* !... not wanting to push my luck i ran as fast as i could...
- into a road blockade close by with a TURRET (i haven't checked ahead - stupid me - because i was running from the hulk :D)...
RIP brave recruit of non-existing army.
Brilliant.

*they are very rare at the start and finding one in a tiny town was a major case of bad rng.
Jabberwocks aren't very common and both in the first 10 minutes of the game was really weird but that's why i like the military recruit start, an automatic rifle can save your like early in a case like this and solid armor (winter army cloths actually) + combat knife are good enough for regular zombies. I could have survived - just not stupidly running blind was enough to survive but without the gun i wouldn't survive a Jabberwock so early (i think they are fast enough to make outrunning one risky/impossible).

 

[RKade8583]

Inaugural post. I've been playing and loving (and hating) ADOM for 19 years now. I love roguelikes/lites and enjoy Obsidian RPGs... when they're bug-free enough for me to. Just got redpilled on InXile (heartbreaker.)

My question is, what's a good complete roguelike? I need a new dungeon crawler in between bouts of TOME and ADOM. Font scaling (or just decent-sized font) is a big plus.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/rkade8583/

 

[Fenix]

Well, Transcendence is a real-time, but still roguelike in a spirit, got update yesterday, finished game.
Elona+ isn't fhinished, but you have content for houndreds of hours.

 

[RKade8583]

I tried Elona and didn't overly like it for some reason and my eye problems won't let me play Transcendence... or Rimworld (for much the same reason, low contrast and font weirdness.)

The problem with having high standards and having played sooo many roguelikes/lites over time is eventually, you've played 'em all.

 

[Fenix]

I tried Elona and didn't overly like it for some reason

Me too at first. But later lityle by little you will love it.
What you don't like in it (except weird Japanise graffix\tileset that I really don't like but stopped noticing it)?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=745.0

Cogmind was Greenlit on February 28th, the same day of its first update since putting it up for voting two weeks before (possibly somewhat related

). A big thanks to everyone who voted, helping Cogmind take the first big step towards introduction to a wider audience!

So of course the next big question is when will Cogmind actually come to Steam?

Well, Alpha 14 just went out, and following that we still have one more major release to do, the final content update that will add in the last map we need to be considered "story complete" (a map which only a small handful of people are even aware is a place...). My thoughts in recent months have generally assumed I'd call that the great 1.0 milestone, launching on Steam as a "full game"... and then just keep on working from there. While Cogmind has been fun and polished for a long while now, there are certainly more optional maps I'd like to add, as well as plenty of other mechanics and more add-on content/features. But when I first went to write this announcement about Greenlight, the additional realities and implications of a full launch suddenly hit me, and the alternative I'd never really taken seriously started to seem like a good idea in some respects: Steam EA.

So I took a little while to think on it, and believe it's best to not immediately declare 1.0 at that milestone, but rather put Cogmind in Early Access and gradually work towards it, in the process adding some of these "post-1.0" ideas I've been wanting to get to.

Keep in mind that this decision has no negative impact on long-term development. My planned feature list is unchanged (heck I've no doubt it'll keep growing), it is essentially a change in name only, one that seems more in line with signaling that "there's even more to come!" In the short term, the good news for everyone here would be that this means Cogmind will come to Steam sooner

.

I'll admit that from a business angle this is possibly a poorer route when compared to a concerted push for 1.0, but it's actually better for development, and I've always been about doing whatever's best for the game and its players. I'll be able to continue working on updates while gradually tending to the other aspects involved with an eventual full Steam launch, rather than having to pause progress for a while in order to sort all that out at once before 1.0.

TL;DR: Let's not call the huge milestone "1.0," but instead do Steam EA and just keep running with more features, which we were going to do anyway. Might as well clearly signal that there's lots more to come by calling it Early Access, even if by pretty much anyone's standards Cogmind long ago ceased to be an "alpha" or "EA" game.

On the subject of versions, although I've been using the Alpha designation for public releases, Cogmind technically has pure version numbers, every single one starting with 0.10 (plus the date of the release), essentially meaning "Numbers? Bah! This is just the foundation on which all future releases are built--1.0 is a myth." Roguelikes especially are known to have plenty of room to evolve new features like that

. Would the EA versions maybe be called something else to differentiate them from what came before? Maybe switch from, say, Alpha 16 to "Release 17," picking up wherever we leave off?

Anyway, what exactly does "come to Steam sooner" mean? Some time in Q2 seems reasonable. I still have to work on setting up the necessary business arrangements (ugh), and that involves factors I'm quite unfamiliar with, making it hard to be specific. Development-wise, any time after Alpha 15 is fair game, so it'll mostly be a case of seeing how the non-game situation develops.

And the full release after that? Whenever it seems convenient, really. I'll want to wait until the right launch window, which could play a significant role, but none of that has any bearing on what's most important: more features and polish

 

[V_K]

My question is, what's a good complete roguelike? I need a new dungeon crawler in between bouts of TOME and ADOM.

I think the general consensus here is that Infra Arcana is quite good.
Or you could try Legerdemaine for something with more story, it's delightfully weird.

 

[RKade8583]

I'm not finding anything on Legerdemaine in regards to a game. I'll give Infa Arcana a go. Thanks

 

[V_K]

I'm not finding anything on Legerdemaine in regards to a game. I'll give Infa Arcana a go. Thanks

Sorry, it's spelled without an "e". Here: http://roguelikefiction.com/?page_id=6

 

[KevinV12000]

Hey guys - For years now, decades even, I've had a game of Angband going on the ol' work computer, in case phone conferences go on too long, etc. We have a new system at work and of course all these .exe files are VERBOTEN. Jawohl, ja ja ja.

SO - Any good rogue-likes that are browser based?

Help an old gamer out here folks.

 

[index.php]

Hey guys - For years now, decades even, I've had a game of Angband going on the ol' work computer, in case phone conferences go on too long, etc. We have a new system at work and of course all these .exe files are VERBOTEN. Jawohl, ja ja ja.

SO - Any good rogue-likes that are browser based?

Help an old gamer out here folks.

DCSS is probably your best bet - https://crawl.develz.org/