Zorbus (D&D-inspired roguelike)

[Lagi]

but in Zorbus potions are based on Heretic the Serpent Riders, so all is halal

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Joonas]

Damn, I honestly didn't know that potion colors were standardized, but a quick Google image search proves that they very much are. I guess I've mostly played games that don't have icons for items or have just been ignorant. Actually, a young workmate (~25 yo) saw a screenshot of the game and said "the potion colors are wrong", but I probably just snorted and cleaned my monocle. I think at least some of the Baldur's Gate healing potions were blue?

 

[Abu Antar]

Damn, I honestly didn't know that potion colors were standardized, but a quick Google image search proves that they very much are. I guess I've mostly played games that don't have icons for items or have just been ignorant. Actually, a young workmate (~25 yo) saw a screenshot of the game and said "the potion colors are wrong", but I probably just snorted and cleaned my monocle. I think at least some of the Baldur's Gate healing potions were blue?

Indeed, they were.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[The Red Knight]

Albion has green, turquoise and blue healing potions (and red/violet/blue potions, that are dark orange, purple and navy blue respectively, for mana). Amulets & Armor it's purple/turquoise/grey. Earlier Vogel's games have weaker healing potions red and stronger turquoise (and the visually-related Realmz uses the reverse), though I think he later switched to using the round, orange mana potion icon for healing? NWN2 and Icewind Dale were blue too. Same for KotC2. And I recall seeing them blue in other games but don't remember where. Morrowind's color-coding was quality-related and on the greenish-blue side (but I think it was just the color of the bottle and not of the liquid?). Plus watery-purifying-good magic tends to be green/blue and fiery-evil-damaging magic red, if you want to attach some magical meaning to them.

Red=healing, blue=mana always felt boring/hack&slashy to me (and probably is some cargo cult involving diablo or wow). I'd say green potions alternating between healing, poison, antidote, stamina, regen, shield, and a myriad of other things in games that do rely on twitchy potion gulping, is the actual mildly annoying thing (with basic healing items you see/use them often enough that it doesn't matter how much they differ from what similar games may have used).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Albion has green, turquoise and blue healing potions (and red/violet/blue potions, that are dark orange, purple and navy blue respectively, for mana). Amulets & Armor it's purple/turquoise/grey. Earlier Vogel's games have weaker healing potions red and stronger turquoise (and the visually-related Realmz uses the reverse), though I think he later switched to using the round, orange mana potion icon for healing? NWN2 and Icewind Dale were blue too. Same for KotC2. And I recall seeing them blue in other games but don't remember where. Morrowind's color-coding was quality-related and on the greenish-blue side (but I think it was just the color of the bottle and not of the liquid?). Plus watery-purifying-good magic tends to be green/blue and fiery-evil-damaging magic red, if you want to attach some magical meaning to them.

Red=healing, blue=mana always felt boring/hack&slashy to me (and probably is some cargo cult involving diablo or wow). I'd say green potions alternating between healing, poison, antidote, stamina, regen, shield, and a myriad of other things in games that do rely on twitchy potion gulping, is the actual mildly annoying thing (with basic healing items you see/use them often enough that it doesn't matter how much they differ from what similar games may have used).

the standard has spoken

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

GLORIOUS CLASSLESS ROGUELIKE.

Thanks Joonas

Could be longer though...

 

[Lagi]

Joonas blue colored health potions are just wrong...

agree, its time to abandon alcoholism. Let healing potions be an expensive precious, and minor healing be cover by some mundane item.

 

[Joonas]

A tournament with Amazon eGift Card prizes is active from Friday 27-Nov-2020 to Thursday 31-Dec-2020.

For the rules and leaderboard check http://tournament.zorbus.net.


Release 43 (27-Nov-2020)

• A tournament version of the game is included (Zorbus_Tournament.exe). You can not save the game in this version. The "hostile creatures never flee" setting can not be used in this version.
• When you are about to use a Flask of Poison or a Flask of Slime, the item description shows which item it will affect.
• The wiggle effect of partially seen multi-tile creatures was bugged. Fixed. (thanks to lemon10 for reporting)
• If a default character name is set in settings, it is now used for archetype characters as well.
• As usual, small tweaks here and there.

http://www.zorbus.net

 

[Joonas]

Release 44

I guess the game got a bunch of new players since I got quite a lot of feedback.

• Target mode renamed to examine mode.
• New setting: Furniture animations. Teleporters, lightsources and crystal formations are animated. On by default, can be disabled from the settings.
• In the autopilot-screen (P command) you can move the target cursor by 10 tiles with CTRL + arrows / numpad. Same works in the examine mode. (thanks to ZXC for the idea)
• Recruitable creatures no longer pick up devices (potions, wands, etc.). You can still give them devices, but can not transfer devices from them to you, so you can no longer recruit creatures just to get their potions. Companions may also have equipment that can not be removed.
• Changed weapon autoequip so that only thrown weapons are re-equipped (if you're still unarmed). Thrown weapons are also autopicked if no hostile creatures are seen. The notoriously buggy autoequip is hopefully finally fixed. (thanks Masterox and others before for reporting)
• Keyboard help screen is color coded: movement, combat, resting, items. The screen is quite crowded and couldn't really fit any description for the colors.
• Keybindings menu has presets for DCSS-style keybindings. Might need more tweaking.
• If mouse is disabled but mouse tooltips are enabled in the settings, you can now see tooltips of items / talents in the panels of the main game view. This makes it possible to quickly see descriptions of items / talents without risking accidentally using them. (thanks to ZXC for the idea)
• Mouse hovering over the current weapon set in the main game view shows the same extended info as the equipment screen.
• Fixed the behaviour of creatures animated / summoned by a charmed creature so that when the charm is broken they stay friendly with the animator / summoner. (thanks to Adam Skinner for reporting)
• Dismiss no longer affects multi-tile creatures. Some creatures are now immune to dismiss. (thanks to Adam Skinner for reporting)
• Fixed a bug related to Arrow of Dismiss / Bullet of Dismiss.
• Fixed a bug with the ability point-buy method in character creation. (thanks to Pieter Kirkham for reporting)
• Fixed a bug where CTRL or ALT + NUMPAD 4 / 6 didn't adjust item amount in inventory. CTRL pressed adjusts the amount by 10, ALT pressed adjusts the amount by 50. (thanks to Adam Skinner for reporting)
• Fixed several bugs related to multi-monitor setups. The game now remembers which monitor it was played on. (thanks to ZXC for help)
• Removed the penalty to Search-skill check from having your lantern turned off when using autoexplore to detect secret doors. (thanks to ZXC for reporting)
• Several typos fixed. (thanks to Tone and YARD, noticed them while watching / reading their let's play of the game)

 

[Lagi]

is it me, or this game getting harder with each release? Damn first goblin behave smarter than me. This game for sure showing the power of friendship.

stilll no ratlings... they should spread disease, would be very funny to bite opponent run away, and wait for them to die out of fever.

 

[Joonas]

After all this waiting, it's out! It's finally out! Yeah, probably the worst day ever to release a game update...

• Autoexplore now picks up items that you would normally autopick, first from the current area that you're in, then after nothing to explore is found on the dungeon level, any remaining items from the whole level.
• As the autoexplore in the game works in bursts, area by area, it may look like it skips nearby items, but those items are then likely located on a different area number.
• If you press CTRL + ENTER in the level loot list when the selector is on the top position, it will automatically pick all items from the explored areas on the level that would normally be autopicked. Pressing CTRL + ENTER on an item in the lists picks up all items of the same type (only works with ammunition, devices, keys, trapkits and coins).
• Negative modifiers from equipment to Search-skill are not taken into account when autoexplore is used to detect secret doors. So you don't have to unequip your helmet even if it has a negative Search-modifier. This only applies to searching with autoexplore, not to normal searching during movement.
• You'll get no experience points from animated or summoned creatures that are created after initial level creation. These can be identified from blue Health bars if the setting "Blue Health bars" is checked.
• The inventory encumbrance bar now has slots for better encumbrance level visualization.
• Items show the price that they can be sold for. Items that can be sold are in green in loot lists.
• Buy / sell price adjustments now use modifier from the base, unadjusted Spirit-value.
• You can no longer transfer books or scrolls to companions.
• If you have an everlasting ammunition in your possession, same type of ammunition of equal or lower enchantment won't be autopicked. Branded and coated ammunition will always be autopicked. If the setting "Pick all ammunition" is disabled, then only ammunition for your currently equipped weapon will be automatically picked up.
• Changed a bit how Elixir of Experience works: now you get the needed for next level minus needed for current level xp added to your current xp amount. Previously it just set xp to needed for next level amount.
• Trapkits are now autopicked.
• Current dungeon level is shown in the corner of the minimap.
• Added color group descriptions to the keyboard help image.
• Keybindings menu now has some help text. Binding conflicts (same binding used twice) are in red. Changed the DCSS preset a bit as it had some conflicts.
• Obituary files now have more detailed dungeon level statistics (kills, xp total, xp from combat / skill use / exploration / other).
• Talent descriptions now list their speed.
• You can autopilot to containers which are mimics. Note that if some destination seems unreachable in autopilot mode, try moving the cursor around a bit.
• Fixed a bug where some creatures (guardian ghosts etc.) would forget their hostility against the player.
• Hopefully finally fixed a visual glitch where a map cloud effect like web or slime could stay on the map forever.
• Fixed a bug where enchantment chance to succeed was negative with some items. If chance is 0%, enchantment is automatically aborted. (thanks to ZXC for reporting)
• Fixed a bug where last log lines in obituary files would be wrong when "Log new messages on top" setting was no checked. (thanks to ZXC for reporting)
• If your base Mind-ability increases, the talent counter will be recalculated properly. Previously it was reset when you got a talent-point.
• Fixed a bug where taking the Lone Wolf talent didn't set the talent counter properly at the start of the game. (thanks to ZXC for reporting)
• Fixed a bug where using hoopak and the Dualshot-talent at an enemy in reach attack range resulted in a reach attack instead of two ranged attacks. There's still the problem that you can not make a normal ranged attack at that range, it always makes a reach attack. Sometimes you might want to make a ranged attack in that situation with special ammunition. (thanks to Cookedpoo for reporting)
• Fixed a bug where you could not reach attack using the mouse. (thanks to Cookedpoo for reporting)
• Fixed descriptions of the Silver Spoon talent and the Wand of Fireball. (thanks to Tone for reporting)
• Manual updated with some clarifications (experience, critical hits).
• Several typos fixed.

Some videos made by Tone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caLMlfWsmms&ab_channel=tonehack
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/826908423

 

[Joonas]

Release 46 (18-Dec-2020)

• After character death, a new statistics table and maps of visited dungeon levels are shown. The maps show unexplored areas in blue. The statistics table shows "actions/s" which is a sum of keypresses and mouseclicks per second. You can switch between the tables with up/down or mousewheel. In the "game over"-dialog there's also a new button for opening the character obituary file (opens in system default text editor).
• New setting: Never blink. If on, creatures other than you or your companions never blink (teleport away). Off by default. Character obituary will not be sent to the leaderboard if this setting is on or turned on during a game.
• Autoexplore now picks up items that you have thrown. (thanks to Boomaye for reporting)
• Autoexplore now picks up items from nearby areas if the tile they're on is explored and near enough to current location.
• Autoexplore should now find a path to secret doors that are blocked by immobile creatures such as fungi or plants.
• If one of your companions has a higher Search-skill than you then it is used with autoexplore to detect secret doors. You can give equipment to companions to boost their Search.
• When you examine a creature the description now says if there is no XP awarded from killing it.
• You can press W in the autopilot screen to cycle between wells, thrones and switches.
• You get XP from killing a creature after its charm effect has ended (if the creature awarded XP in the first place). (thanks to Cookedpoo for reporting)
• Fixed a bug where the max distance for a ranged weapon was calculated wrong. (thanks to Cookedpoo and Boomaye for reporting)
• Fixed a bug where autopickup didn't pick up items with no weight when you were encumbered. (thanks to ZXC for reporting)
• You can only have one clone (or simulacrum) at a time, a second clone will go berserk and attack you. Some update broke this, the clone would not turn hostile. (thanks to Dynast for reporting) Added warning about several clones to elixir and talent descriptions.
• Fixed a bug where some unlikely creatures (golems, statues, etc.) were stealthy in darkness. (noticed from Tone's stream)
• Creatures that follow you to another dungeon level are now ready to act faster after arriving. (thanks to Boomaye for mentioning) Their distance to you determines in what order they arrive on the new level. Companions still follow you from anywhere on the level, but that might change in the future.
• Companions now react faster to creatures who slowly turn hostile against you. (thanks to Cookedpoo for reporting)
• Shop restocking is now tied to several values, not just game rounds spent away from the shop level. (noticed from Tone's stream)
• Skill tooltips in character sheet show the related key ability. Same for Zorbupedia skill descriptions. (noticed from Tone's stream)
• In the level loot list, the "0" filter now also shows weapons with at least 3 enchantments.
• Holy-damage now affects only evil-aligned creatures.
• Fixed a bug where 1.5 x negative Body-modifier was added to damage with two-handed and versatile weapons (negative modifier should be added as is).
• The visited dungeon levels table in the obituary files now show actions (keypresses / mouseclicks) per second per dungeon level.
• Added some clarifications to skill descriptions.
• Added examples of weapon combinations / sets to the manual. Also basic explanation of how the action queue in the game works.
• There's now support for smaller patches that only replace the executable files. These patches are much smaller to download (below 5 megabytes). Autoupdate informs if a patch is available. Save files should be combatible but I wouldn't risk it so it's best to update only after you don't have any unfinished games.

 

[Danker37]

Can I enchant a weapon if I don't have the necessary Body points to equip it? If not, it would be nice to. Lovin the game!

 

[Joonas]

Release 47 released.
http://www.zorbus.net

Changelog:
http://www.zorbus.net/Zorbus.txt

 

[Lagi]

It feels like dance floor, when all characters on screen wiggle in sync, but your game is greatest of them all, cant await to wake up tomorrow to play it.

 

[Aemar]

You can disable that ''dance'' effect.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Release 47 released.
http://www.zorbus.net

Changelog:
http://www.zorbus.net/Zorbus.txt

Great game, didn't play the latest builds but still, the upgrade list is impressive.

You'd make quite a lot of extra bucks if you released it on steam.

 

[Lagi]

You can disable that ''dance'' effect.

I want the actors to wiggle but not synchronize. If there were random frame skip at the start of monster on map placement, then it would look more natural.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

You can disable that ''dance'' effect.

But we want more dance effect! Hell, they need to start a dance off on a great quest to rip up the dance floor and see who's the best.

4000 sound effects! Damn. I must say, that really was a surprise over a year ago how many there were but now, lordy!

 

[Lagi]

there is some good improvements to UI, but i cannot tell what change since the last time I play. I just have all information easier available. Pressing F12 to compare items is a finger exercise, but ok.

naming gold as Zorbings currency is odd. It should be just gold.

I try sneaking, and its fun. When i turn off the light (lantern), i barely can see the map - "I" as a human in front my monitor, not the tiefling dude i control.

the amount of sounds increases, and its all sounds much better. I discover the r'each attack with spears which is sweet. The weapon swap melee/range take longer i think. I nerf range combat a lot. But the problem was/is that melee character didnt have anything working for them.

rules seems superb balanced. Each points matters, you can create unusual (i mean dump Strength) character and he will works.

I love that this rougelike, is party base - unless im playing it wrong, but i never survive long alone.

I cant believe you dont make it a steam game yet.

 

[Joonas]

I try sneaking, and its fun. When i turn off the light (lantern), i barely can see the map - "I" as a human in front my monitor, not the tiefling dude i control.

Check "Brighter darkvision" from the settings, under "Graphics". You can filter settings by writing a keyword so just write for example "darkvision" to get quickly there.

 

[Fluent]

without giving spoilers, how many hours in general does it take to beat this game? everything sounds fantastic but i'm curious about game length. thanks! <3

 

[Joonas]

Leaderboard for the older releases:
http://wins.zorbus.net/r46/

If you scroll down, there's a table "Fastest ascensions".

Ranging from just 23 minutes (! .. older version, but still...) to 33 hours, but maybe about 5 hours in general for the minimal ascension.