Zorbus (D&D-inspired roguelike)

[Joonas]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to address some of the mentioned things in the near future.

It'd be nice to be able to take advantage of the full screen in full screen mode(right now it's 60/65%.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this. You can adjust the shown map size from settings, view width in tiles / view height in tiles. You can also press CTRL + BACKSPACE to toggle between full sized / minimal map size. If you mean the left and right panels, those can not be removed. ALT + ENTER toggles fullscreen.

Being able to scroll descriptions when using bigger fonts, because some of it can't be read, mind description comes to mind.

This is a bit hard with the current implementation. You can try to find a compromise with the interface zoom, used font / font size, and game screen size.

A table/way to get ability/talent gain per level outside of the leveling screen?

I'll try to add this somewhere.

Sometimes, you get the direction of some spotted hostiles but often on autopilot mode, you only get "companion sees hostiles creatures! Stopped autopilot" and no red arrow giving up the hostiles position.

Yeah, I'll try to think of something. If you can't see a companion, then the upper right companion list has an arrow pointing at the direction where the companion is. If the arrow is red, then the companion is near hostiles, but the arrow points at the companion direction, not at the hostile creature. And there's no arrow if you can see the companion.

Filter the Level's loot (spacebar) adding a rarity filter (green first) or hiding common equipment and ammunition, like hide everything under +2.

Did you try just writing "0" as a filter, which filters unique / sellable. You can also write for example "2+" to show only items with at least +2 enchantment.

Path-finding in narrow corridors, no matter the following or regroup order, half the crew takes another path possibly triggering roaming hostiles.

This has been very difficult to perfect, but I'll take yet another look at it.

Interaction with teleporters. As a mage, if you have an AoE spell (mostly, not the basic missile spell) in the last used slot, you can't interract with teleporters (only checked with emporium's one) and not even with containers (didn't find a shortcut for this) so i have to hit the golem with missile in order to be able to use the mouse again to interract with the environment.

This I couldn't reproduce. If I have for example "Acid Cloud" in last used talent slot, I can still interact with containers and teleporters.

Can i get beyond 1 talent/level ?(beside talent potions)

No, one per level is max.

Does the clone potion consumes 5% hp & stamina?

No.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this. You can adjust the shown map size from settings, view width in tiles / view height in tiles. You can also press CTRL + BACKSPACE to toggle between full sized / minimal map size. If you mean the left and right panels, those can not be removed. ALT + ENTER toggles fullscreen.

You mean CTRL + the <--- key? doesn't seem to do anything, i always have a wide black frame all around while playing with a wide screen (16/9 screen in 1920x1080).

This I couldn't reproduce. If I have for example "Acid Cloud" in last used talent slot, I can still interact with containers and teleporters.

I just noticed yesterday it seems to be an exclusive "Frost Ray" issue, it works fine with fireball for example but Frost Ray is a pain, luckily, companions always summon things and i can shoot a missile at their summons or i use the golem when i have one.

Same for the red arrows next to the companion's health, although, sometimes, they passed by and stopped and the hostile is still nowhere to be seen but usually, it means you just need to backtrack a little.

Spoiler

Carillo/Zorbus rest time
It takes forever to rest in those places, it can take a long time anywhere but it seems to take way longer in there, particularly in the Zorbus.
Not just in turns, in actual time, I didn't time it but 1/2 minutes perhaps with low HP/stam bars.

Dragon in the Carillo:
Another issue, if you charm a dragon with the orb of dragonkind and the charm breaks for no reason in the Carillo, it's a real mess, i tried to charm him right away with the spell and it was probably my mistake, all the recruitable NPC n ot in the party turned hostile and from there, i tried to charm everyone but reached my spirit/charisma limit...

About that, i really like how the Carillo's NPC react to the dragon's presence or how the northern bodyguard has funny lines, always keeping an eye on you or challenging you.

Level 9 Prison
I know they have great stats and they have "normal" skill/traits level but the giants from this prison are all level 1 and it comes with low health and stamina so they're useless.

Recruitable NPC
I don't know if it's random but i didn't find any rogue or archer up until i got one archer in the level 9 prison, a bit too late, unfortunately.

Zorbus
The female "demi-god" Archer from the main room (bottom left of the circle) is buggy/cheated as she wouldn't die, i killed her 20 times or so, using up half my potions and she always respawn on the other side of the screen with 1 HP or so...

And another question: Is having below 0 skill modifier have any impact?
I didn't equip my giant boots of domination, just in case, i like the idea of these boots, i can hear the boots clinging on the dungeons floor and the giant, full helm and plate armor on wielding a greatsword getting watched from the shadows.

 

[Joonas]

You mean CTRL + the <--- key? doesn't seem to do anything, i always have a wide black frame all around while playing with a wide screen (16/9 screen in 1920x1080).

Oops, meant ALT + BACKSPACE. And you can adjust the screen size (view width & height in tiles) from the settings.

And another question: Is having below 0 skill modifier have any impact?

Yes, skill checks are d20 + skill total vs difficulty.

The game simulates every round when resting, so it might get very slow in the endgame when you have plenty of Health and need to rest for hundreds of rounds.

Locations of recruitable creatures are random. There are no rogue recruitables by design, as that could render the Disable-skill useless.

Certain powerful creatures have the Die Hard talent / item, but if you can make them wither, then they won't regenerate and Die Hard doesn't function for the effect duration. Wither is available as ammunition, flasks, and as a level-wide effect of an orb.

I'll check the other things as well.

EDIT:
Right mouse button uses the last used talent, but you can left click teleporters and containers. Works with Frost Ray as last used talent, too.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Oops, meant ALT + BACKSPACE. And you can adjust the screen size (view width & height in tiles) from the settings.

Edit: My bad, it works with ALT, it's a game changer!
Thanks for your patience.

Certain powerful creatures have the Die Hard talent / item, but if you can make them wither, then they won't regenerate and Die Hard doesn't function for the effect duration. Wither is available as ammunition, flasks, and as a level-wide effect of an orb.

Well, i killed her and the clocked figure, i guess i'm an overgod now, it was tough to take them both at once but luckily, i slaughtered all of the other ones and the chained god killed the slime so it was me, my bddies and all the new gods against these two.
Withered and anchored worked, duidn't use it previously because it really looked like a bug.

Actually, i find die hard quite overpowered as it is, even with 0 stamina (possibly 1, i don't know) dies hard makes someone immortal as long as he's not anchored and withered.
It should at least require 1 stamina point per level or 4-8 stamina to work its magic.

The chained god is now roaming the Zorbus freely, i could barely damage it, seems like he has 15-30 points of resistance for every element but i didn't try holy, it might be the right one.

The last fight was quite something, had to blink away 4/5 times and I lost half my crew and the friendly gods in the process, luckily, they did half the job and at some point, my attacks started to seriously damage him...

EDIT:
Right mouse button uses the last used talent, but you can left click teleporters and containers. Works with Frost Ray as last used talent, too.

Doesn't for me, try clicking a closed chest for example.
Or maybe it comes from the settings?


About character creation :

It'd be nice to get :

• A button to store/recall one roll
• An option to switch two rolls

Either of these options or both or a mutually exclusive option in the settings to get one of them.

New features/options?
Unlockables after defeating some gods or creatures from the Zorbus.

• Playing a slime (not the regular ones but more like the slime god)
• Playing a Lich
• Maybe some penalties to check to get better character creation rolls
• Or the opposite, some bonus like elemental resistances but lower character rolls

 

[Joonas]

Actually, i find die hard quite overpowered as it is, even with 0 stamina (possibly 1, i don't know) dies hard makes someone immortal as long as he's not anchored and withered.
It should at least require 1 stamina point per level or 4-8 stamina to work its magic.

Die Hard talent requires at least 1 point of Stamina to function. Items with a Die Hard effect always work, but crumble to dust after the use. Many of the gods have fast Stamina regeneration, so they very like survive unless you use withering in some form. You can give withering (and anchoring) ammunition to companions as well.

Actually, i find die hard quite overpowered as it is, even with 0 stamina (possibly 1, i don't know) dies hard makes someone immortal as long as he's not anchored and withered.The chained god is now roaming the Zorbus freely, i could barely damage it, seems like he has 15-30 points of resistance for every element but i didn't try holy, it might be the right one.

Remember to search for the Cosmic Essence item on the floor to become the Overgod, if you haven't already, and you have the game still running.

Doesn't for me, try clicking a closed chest for example.
Or maybe it comes from the settings?

You might have the setting "toggle furniture with control + direction" on?

 

[Darth Canoli]

You might have the setting "toggle furniture with control + direction" on?

I did, and right click on furniture/chest worked until the Frost Ray is the last spell used.

I did used the clocked figure special essence and had the overgod ending, not showing up in the leaderboard though even if i had over 800k xp.
I also didn't check the two options which prevent you to get to the leaderboard (enemies don't blink and don't regen), unless there is more of them, maybe those options should be in red, unless there is a warning if you check them.

Not that i care much about the leaderboard, it's just some feedback.

Archers
I started an archer and obstacles/enemies/companions obstructing your line of fire is a pain, archers can be powerful later on but still, turning this into to hit penalties would be nice, like -4 per obstacle with a perk to remove the penalties or reduce them to -1 or -2 per obstacle.

 

[Joonas]

That setting probably caused the mouse thing. Right clicking shouldn't in fact work at all on furniture if I can remember right.

If a character shows as savescummed (save file backupped, and reloaded after death), then it doesn't appear on the leaderboard. Every setting that prevents leaderboard uploading is mention in the setting descriptions.

The obstacle dodging shooting is a nice idea, I'll think about some implementation.

 

[Darth Canoli]

That setting probably caused the mouse thing. Right clicking shouldn't in fact work at all on furniture if I can remember right.

But it's great that it does.

Guilty, I'm not starting over and over again, as a mage there is just too many perks to pick so health surge, requiring two + enough body points is impossible to get when it matters.
What about the character creation rolls?

Did you just unrandomize the ability elixir? Fuck, i shouldn't have updated! That's a low blow...

It's a shame, the only motivation after completing it is trying to make an overpowered specialized build, what about removing abitily elixirs but getting one ability point every 5 levels?
Or a special shop selling one elixir once in a while but you get to pick the ability and it's twice as expensive?

 

[Darth Canoli]

I just completed the game again and became the overgod once more, no death this time and i got way better items.

At some point, in the zorbus, i didn't think i'd have the patience to kill all the gods and then to kill the cloaked figure but after killing 3 or 4 of them, i freed the chained god and he severely injured 3 of the remaining ones so i killed 2 more, freed the mage and worked my way up.

I even killed the Flying Baby Atropal with holy burst and only one blink potion.
Last time, I had to flee multiple times and let the slime god do the job.

The last boss killed 1 of my mages, my cloud giant, a hippo fighter and my 2 golems and also the prisoner mage.


Joonas
Great combat, a real TB party based Zorbus 2 with full party control would be really nice for a RPG with a limited party and some handcrafted combat goodness.

Also, if you have more than 9 "companions" only 10 show up on the right window so you can't give any order to the 10th one.
I had 7 companions, 2 golems and a clone and the clone didn't show up in the list.

 

[Darth Canoli]

After completing the game twice and digesting it, here's a short review.

I played a mage twice, because there's more tactical options, the second one was more focused and even more optimized and i had way too much feat points (started with 18 int mind, 3 feats at level 1 and one per level up as opposed to every other level with 16 and ebvery 3 levels with 14 and so on...) even though you need a lot of feats as a mage.

Graphics
Well, i'm no graphic whore so check for yourself, i find them minimalist but good, it's no pixel broth, it's well made overall and serviceable.

Sound
I can't remember the music but the sound effects are quite good.

Combat
As a mage, it's really tactical because you have no defense for the first half or even 2/3 of the game and that's if you can spare skill points for dodge + dodge equipment and the evasion feat.
Aside from that, you have to identify the enemies weaknesses and use the right spells because even if you can rest to restore HP/MP, roaming monsters can surprise you and then call for reinforcements.
So, MP management is important, early on, potions are expensive and running out of spells could lead to a certain death.

Also, if you make too much noise; and you will if you don't invest in stealth and/or go with a party; you'll attract nearby groups and either get wrecked or not depending on your group, your strategy and you eventually overpowered build.

Spoiler

(chain lightning and holy AOE + full mind/ spirit and 14/16 some body for the extra HP)

Exploration and itemization
It's good, could be a little more crazy, like a unique sword teleporting you near an enemy in sight when killing one but still, vampire, throwing weapons returning when thrown, elemental damage, the basics are here.
There's also some nice armors and equipment.

The exploration is rewarding too with a lot of secrets leading to great items (most of the time), even some neutral monsters/ghosts you can wreck or not, some allies to recruit, some wild monsters to tame with the right feat...

Bestiary
It's huge and then when you think you've seen it all, you get some more, spectators, dragons, wraith, liches, demons, griffins, mushrooms ... Even Direphants ...
Also, the NPC you can recruit come in all forms and shapes, way more than the available races, even some strange ones, at least 5 extra races you can't use for your main char.

Conclusion
Really good, i'm not a big rogue-like fan but it's more of a RPG than modern RPG, it's probably why i like it, great ambient, good combat for a rogue-like with many feat and skills, some D&D spells, a huge bestiary 10 dungeon levels + and extra one, many secrets, even in strange places.
What's not to like?

Spoiler

And a leaderboard for the competitive ones, i rank on the 6th position, you can call me Rhialto the Marvelous Overgod...

 

[Joonas]

After completing the game twice and digesting it, here's a short review.

Big thanks for this!