Introduction
Caves of Qud is a bizzaro quasi-post-apocalyptic sci-fi Roguelike with tons to explore, lots of "simulation-like" interactivity (such as destructible terrain), funky graphics (comes with a tileset, but there's a pure ASCII option), and a gracious plenitude of chargen options. The official description and Steam reviews of the game can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/333640/
I'm relatively new to CoQ, so I'm not best qualified to explain all of the game's features. I spent several hours RTFM, tailoring keybindings to my liking, and doing a few playthroughs of the starting area to learn the very basic ropes of the game. That said, I can already tell that this is potentially massive incline.
Chapter 1: Chargen
CoQ has been in development for nearly a decade, but that's nothing compared to your typical Roguelike.
I know what sort of character I want to begin with: a big, dumb brick with a big sword and big armor, affording us half a hope of surviving acute ignorance and stupidity. To that end I'll select True Kin, who're pure Aryan humans with no nasty mutations. They receive bonus attributes and stats, bonus skill points per level, very nice starting equipment and consumables, and the ability to flip robots the bird.
True Kin attributes begin at 12 apiece (compared to 10 apiece for mutants, meaning True Kin attributes can go 2 higher before the point-buy cost doubles) with 40 points to spend.
I already know which Arcology and Caste I'll be choosing for my True Kin (although you don't), so I'll spend my points thusly. We're already getting pretty big and stupid! I don't want any attribute maluses, so I eliminate those too. (Willpower will get +1 in a moment.) Characters receive 4 x raw INT skill points per level, +20 per level for True Kin, so I'll place the leftover point there since the point-buy cost of Strength and Toughness have doubled.
Onto Arcology and Caste selection. You'll note that each Arcology has its own element and theme, and they also have short backstories that can be found in-game and in other sources. Since we're pretty stupid, we'll choose the Arcology with the name that's easiest to pronounce. Luckily, the Praetorian Caste is perfectly suited to a big, dumb sword guy.
Looking dumb! The game spits out a letter code that anyone can use to replicate our chargen, and we can also save it to disk for reuse... or Tweet it, apparently. Progress! CoQ is partly procedurally generated, so there's also the option to enter a specific world seed instead of having one randomly selected.
The final step is to choose a name.
Finally, here are some sample screens from the "Mutated Human" category, because you didn't get to see them and you might be curious. Basically, you've got wacky Power Rangers monster physical mutations ("Chimera" Morphotype), and then mental mutations ("Esper" Morphotype) that totally aren't magic spells. You can optionally specialize in Esper or Chimera so that if you choose random mutations on level-up, you receive only one kind or the other. You can also select up to 4 points' worth of optional defects that grant that many more points to spend on the good stuff.
Note that the dry, friendly tone I've used throughout chargen will probably degenerate into shitposting once the game is properly underway, mainly because that's more entertaining but also for purposes of self-aggrandizement and Brofist-harvesting.
Caves of Qud is a bizzaro quasi-post-apocalyptic sci-fi Roguelike with tons to explore, lots of "simulation-like" interactivity (such as destructible terrain), funky graphics (comes with a tileset, but there's a pure ASCII option), and a gracious plenitude of chargen options. The official description and Steam reviews of the game can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/333640/
I'm relatively new to CoQ, so I'm not best qualified to explain all of the game's features. I spent several hours RTFM, tailoring keybindings to my liking, and doing a few playthroughs of the starting area to learn the very basic ropes of the game. That said, I can already tell that this is potentially massive incline.
Chapter 1: Chargen
CoQ has been in development for nearly a decade, but that's nothing compared to your typical Roguelike.
I know what sort of character I want to begin with: a big, dumb brick with a big sword and big armor, affording us half a hope of surviving acute ignorance and stupidity. To that end I'll select True Kin, who're pure Aryan humans with no nasty mutations. They receive bonus attributes and stats, bonus skill points per level, very nice starting equipment and consumables, and the ability to flip robots the bird.
True Kin attributes begin at 12 apiece (compared to 10 apiece for mutants, meaning True Kin attributes can go 2 higher before the point-buy cost doubles) with 40 points to spend.
I already know which Arcology and Caste I'll be choosing for my True Kin (although you don't), so I'll spend my points thusly. We're already getting pretty big and stupid! I don't want any attribute maluses, so I eliminate those too. (Willpower will get +1 in a moment.) Characters receive 4 x raw INT skill points per level, +20 per level for True Kin, so I'll place the leftover point there since the point-buy cost of Strength and Toughness have doubled.
Onto Arcology and Caste selection. You'll note that each Arcology has its own element and theme, and they also have short backstories that can be found in-game and in other sources. Since we're pretty stupid, we'll choose the Arcology with the name that's easiest to pronounce. Luckily, the Praetorian Caste is perfectly suited to a big, dumb sword guy.
Looking dumb! The game spits out a letter code that anyone can use to replicate our chargen, and we can also save it to disk for reuse... or Tweet it, apparently. Progress! CoQ is partly procedurally generated, so there's also the option to enter a specific world seed instead of having one randomly selected.
The final step is to choose a name.
Finally, here are some sample screens from the "Mutated Human" category, because you didn't get to see them and you might be curious. Basically, you've got wacky Power Rangers monster physical mutations ("Chimera" Morphotype), and then mental mutations ("Esper" Morphotype) that totally aren't magic spells. You can optionally specialize in Esper or Chimera so that if you choose random mutations on level-up, you receive only one kind or the other. You can also select up to 4 points' worth of optional defects that grant that many more points to spend on the good stuff.
Note that the dry, friendly tone I've used throughout chargen will probably degenerate into shitposting once the game is properly underway, mainly because that's more entertaining but also for purposes of self-aggrandizement and Brofist-harvesting.
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