The Codex of Roguelikes

[getter77]

Dredmor reviving back up somehow isn't the only surprise after more than a decade:

https://roguebasin.com/index.php/Triangle_Wizard_2

 

[Arthandas]

Dredmor reviving back up

What?

 

[getter77]

Dredmor reviving back up

What?

As per a few posts back, Dredmor is getting some kind of new development after all these years as they lost all their old mailing lists upon getting things going anew(there was a pop up on their old website, then people started digging on the Steam community page, then the twitter account came alive again, etc)---nobody knows if it'll be a new expansion or something else entirely, nor who all is on the team beyond nvining given pretty well everybody scattered to the winds after CE.

 

[Theodora]

A sequel to Rift Wizard (a very neat little coffebreak roguelike based around building spells, essentially) was announced yesterday, due to launch in Early Access around January:

Greetings Wizards. Been a while, hasn't it?

A while ago I decided to stop updating Rift Wizard 1 to devote my full energies to Rift Wizard 2.

I did this because I wanted to try some things that would be
wildly
inappropriate for a patch- things that, in my opinion, have the potential to improve the game quite a bit.

RW2 started as a direct fork of RW1, but unlike in a patch, I had absolute creative freedom to go in any direction I pleased. I tried quite a few things. Some worked, some didn't. Those that worked, well, they are Rift Wizard 2. Its been a blast, and its nearly time to start sharing it with a wider audience.

The most significant new feature in Rift Wizard 2 is equipment. Random drops are a part of most roguelikes. Rift Wizard 1 plays around a bit with random drops in the form of shrines, but mostly emphasizes the non-random SP buyable skills, spells and upgrades. Rift Wizard 2 replaces shrines with equipment. You can hold a staff, wear a robe a hat and boots, and have any number of miscellaneous trinkets active. One article of equipment tends to be less powerful than a shrine, but applies to more than one spell, and can stack with other equipment.

Its much easier to design equipment than it is to design shrines, and thus, RW2 already has more equipment than RW1 had shrines. Equipment adds a flavor of chaos and randomness to the game that RW1 lacked, and gives each run a sense of uniqueness and gravity- permadeath + random drops is a powerful combination.

RW2 also contains many
large
balance changes. Potions are reduced in quantity, but a free refill is given at the end of each level. Spells can be upgraded only once (though generally with more powerful individual upgrades than they had in RW1). Realms 1-5 only grant 2SP, with realms 10+ granting 4+. Damage redeals no longer bypass resistances. Levels are bigger (well actually, the levels now scale with your monitor resolution, but the main supported size is bigger- 33x33 instead of 28x28). The game ends at level 21 instead of level 25.

One big balance goal of RW2 was to reduce the incentives pushing the player towards picking one 'carry' spell and ignoring everything else. I think the most fun situations in RW are the ones where the player has many viable choices about what to do with their turn, and this is much more common in runs where the player has 5-10 spells than 1-3.

Rift Wizard 2 also contains many new challenges to face. The old hand crafted variant system is replaced with a procedural one, many new enemy wizards are added, and the monster list is in the process of being revised.

Ultimately, Rift Wizard 2 is quite similar in many ways to Rift Wizard 1. Yet it is also quite different. Rift Wizard 2 embraces randomness to a degree that Rift Wizard 1 did not. It has higher variance between runs, meaning winning once is probably easier, but streaking is probably harder. Following guides and forcing builds is much, much harder. But the fundamental game is the same: spend SP to upgrade your wizard and guide said wizard turn by turn through a series of randomly generated levels.

Rift Wizard 2 will enter early access in January, which I expect to last a year, mostly devoted to content creation and balance.

Check out the screenshots and trailer (and follow/wishlist the game!) here.

 

[Dadd]

Bouncy sprites need to go.

 

[pakoito]

A sequel to Rift Wizard (a very neat little coffebreak roguelike based around building spells, essentially) was announced yesterday, due to launch in Early Access around January:

Greetings Wizards. Been a while, hasn't it?

A while ago I decided to stop updating Rift Wizard 1 to devote my full energies to Rift Wizard 2.

I did this because I wanted to try some things that would be
wildly
inappropriate for a patch- things that, in my opinion, have the potential to improve the game quite a bit.

RW2 started as a direct fork of RW1, but unlike in a patch, I had absolute creative freedom to go in any direction I pleased. I tried quite a few things. Some worked, some didn't. Those that worked, well, they are Rift Wizard 2. Its been a blast, and its nearly time to start sharing it with a wider audience.

The most significant new feature in Rift Wizard 2 is equipment. Random drops are a part of most roguelikes. Rift Wizard 1 plays around a bit with random drops in the form of shrines, but mostly emphasizes the non-random SP buyable skills, spells and upgrades. Rift Wizard 2 replaces shrines with equipment. You can hold a staff, wear a robe a hat and boots, and have any number of miscellaneous trinkets active. One article of equipment tends to be less powerful than a shrine, but applies to more than one spell, and can stack with other equipment.

Its much easier to design equipment than it is to design shrines, and thus, RW2 already has more equipment than RW1 had shrines. Equipment adds a flavor of chaos and randomness to the game that RW1 lacked, and gives each run a sense of uniqueness and gravity- permadeath + random drops is a powerful combination.

RW2 also contains many
large
balance changes. Potions are reduced in quantity, but a free refill is given at the end of each level. Spells can be upgraded only once (though generally with more powerful individual upgrades than they had in RW1). Realms 1-5 only grant 2SP, with realms 10+ granting 4+. Damage redeals no longer bypass resistances. Levels are bigger (well actually, the levels now scale with your monitor resolution, but the main supported size is bigger- 33x33 instead of 28x28). The game ends at level 21 instead of level 25.

One big balance goal of RW2 was to reduce the incentives pushing the player towards picking one 'carry' spell and ignoring everything else. I think the most fun situations in RW are the ones where the player has many viable choices about what to do with their turn, and this is much more common in runs where the player has 5-10 spells than 1-3.

Rift Wizard 2 also contains many new challenges to face. The old hand crafted variant system is replaced with a procedural one, many new enemy wizards are added, and the monster list is in the process of being revised.

Ultimately, Rift Wizard 2 is quite similar in many ways to Rift Wizard 1. Yet it is also quite different. Rift Wizard 2 embraces randomness to a degree that Rift Wizard 1 did not. It has higher variance between runs, meaning winning once is probably easier, but streaking is probably harder. Following guides and forcing builds is much, much harder. But the fundamental game is the same: spend SP to upgrade your wizard and guide said wizard turn by turn through a series of randomly generated levels.

Rift Wizard 2 will enter early access in January, which I expect to last a year, mostly devoted to content creation and balance.

Check out the screenshots and trailer (and follow/wishlist the game!) here.

Wasn't low-variability build tinkering the forte of Rift Wizard. Rando runs is every other roguelike/lite.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Wasn't low-variability build tinkering the forte of Rift Wizard. Rando runs is every other roguelike/lite.

Eh, the shrines enabled enough stuff that it was fairly high variability anyways. Not to mention being forced to take specific spells to handle whatever random levels got handed to you; sometimes you have to abandon that tried and true build for a few floors because everything is immune to lightning for whatever reason. At least, that was my experience playing through the challenge modes. I suppose on the default setting the game is generally easy enough to allow doing the same shit every time, provided that shit has enough wiggle room. Anyways, looking forward to it, Rift Wizard is a ton of fun.



Just wanted to mention Pokemon Emerald Rogue in here as I'd imagine there's not a ton of overlap between people checking this thread and the one asking about the best pokemon game. Emerald Rogue is a romhack that basically overhauls the game entirely into a battle gauntlet with branching paths with some limited info about the nodes, akin to Slay the Spire. Pokemon and items available on any given run are randomized, you have to recruit your team along the way, aside from your starter, which is reset at the start of each run. There's some meta progression stuff, but also some difficulty options including disabling the meta progression stuff if that doesn't float your boat. Altogether it's a great game; it really distills the gameplay down to effective team building and risk management in a chaotic situation. Ironically it actually reminds me a lot of Nethack, which had the same kind of wild variance between runs due to not having reliable sources of most types of equipment and tools beyond your starting class. Where Nethack might dump wands of lightning, boots of speed or a scroll of genocide in your lap, Pokemon might give you glass cannons, defensive walls, speedy tricksters, tons of money for customizing movesets or a legendary pokemon to add to your team, and playing around those advantages makes or breaks the run.

 

[Theodora]

Damn, that actually sounds pretty neat. I haven't played Pokemon since I was a kid -- just not autistic enough for it or something -- but that sounds great. Definitely going to at least try it once I get my Steam Deck back.

If anyone else is curious, and lazy:
https://visualboyadvance.org/gba-roms/pokemon-emerald-rogue/
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=479406

 

[Dadd]

Is there a way to reduce the size of CDDA save files?

 

[Serus]

Anyone played Cataclysm lately? Mostly Bright Nights, i had enough with this autistic, schizophrenic nonsense of what DDA has become. At least for now.
A bunch of questions:
- How are zombie hordes (wander spawns) work nowadays? Has been any changes done in DDA or BN in the past few years? Do you play with them on?
- I see that in BN the option "random NPC" is set to false by default and there aren't any sub-options - like how often random NPCs should spawn. I clearly remember that, at some point, you could set up how often random NPCs appear in DDA. I remember using them - but only with a very low chance of appearing, this way there was, very rarely, chance for surprise to be had but no big change for how the game played. Do people play with them nowadays at all?

 

[Serus]

Is there a way to reduce the size of CDDA save files?

Stop playing past the point where you become a walking god of postapocalypse and start a new game. Only early and sometimes mid game pose any challenge in Cataclysm anyway. That's the only help i can provide.

 

[Dadd]

- I see that in BN the option "random NPC" is set to false by default and there aren't any sub-options - like how often random NPCs should spawn. I clearly remember that, at some point, you could set up how often random NPCs appear in DDA. I remember using them - but only with a very low chance of appearing, this way there was, very rarely, chance for surprise to be had but no big change for how the game played. Do people play with them nowadays at all?

Some people play with them enabled. They're usually free meat and items when you get strong enough to deal with them.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

- How are zombie hordes (wander spawns) work nowadays? Has been any changes done in DDA or BN in the past few years? Do you play with them on?

Horde feature has been something that's not "core" in CDDA waaay even before BN is a thing. The game balance and all is not really balanced about having them on. BN is also developed much more to be in vein of "traditional roguelike" with win condition so horde is not really the main focus of BN either.

I don't play with them on. There are times that I do run with them on I guess, but in general, I find them more annoying than fun. That being said horde is probably one reason to actually make fortified bases with traps and all because otherwise you will very rarely get a home invasion.

I see that in BN the option "random NPC" is set to false by default and there aren't any sub-options - like how often random NPCs should spawn. I clearly remember that, at some point, you could set up how often random NPCs appear in DDA. I remember using them - but only with a very low chance of appearing, this way there was, very rarely, chance for surprise to be had but no big change for how the game played. Do people play with them nowadays at all?

There are indeed options to manage their spawn. And I usually play with them on yeah, it's a speck of fun random RNG in a run to see some bullshit NPC. Make the world feels more alive too.

 

[Dadd]

I'd been playing with random NPCs on for a few months, but turned them off last week as I got tired of their stupid dialogue and how they often can't survive more than a few minutes in areas they spawn.

Wandering hordes no longer move through walls in DDA, as far as I know. I've been playing with them on for a few months, and never encountered this problem. Haven't played BN with wandering hordes on.

 

[Serus]

Thank you guys. So no (big) changes in code for wander spawns and CaclysmBN for some reason removed the ability to set random npcs' amount/density. Probably can be easily changed in .json files but i'm not gonna bother.
This is one of the better threads on Codex. Inclined genre and helpful people. Who would have though it possible.

 

[Serus]

Anyone noticed in Cataclysm (BN) when you take "Quick" trait that gives you 10% speed bonus. It later shows on your character sheet (@) as "mutation + 10%". In DDA it always showed simply as "Quick + 10%". No practical difference i suppose. I don't know why but it bothers me. Probably some compulsion of mine.

 

[Dadd]

Anyone noticed in Cataclysm (BN) when you take "Quick" trait that gives you 10% speed bonus. It later shows on your character sheet (@) as "mutation + 10%". In DDA it always showed simply as "Quick + 10%". No practical difference i suppose. I don't know why but it bothers me. Probably some compulsion of mine.

I find labelling traits you take during character creation as "mutations" a little out of place. They should be called "traits", since there are specific things you need to do in-game to get mutations after character creation, like getting exposed to radiation or taking mutagens.

 

[Kabas]

I've been enjoying Path of Achra for quite a bit. It satisfies my specific desire for some buildporn.

Dumuzi who gifts you with heavy armors and prayers that scale with armor rating was actually a very terrible choice of god for my lightning bladedancer character who deals damage by being constantly on the move.
Still managed to pull a win.

Last boss literally died of thousand lightning charged cuts in a single turn the moment he stepped into my sword range.

It appears the difficulty of the world is gradually increasing as you're accumulating wins. Next run promises to be more challenging.

 

[std::namespace]

I've been enjoying Path of Achra for quite a bit. It satisfies my specific desire for some buildporn.

Dumuzi who gifts you with heavy armors and prayers that scale with armor rating was actually a very terrible choice of god for my lightning bladedancer character who deals damage by being constantly on the move.
Still managed to pull a win.

Last boss literally died of thousand lightning charged cuts in a single turn the moment he stepped into my sword range.

It appears the difficulty of the world is gradually increasing as you're accumulating wins. Next run promises to be more challenging.

they want money for this?
does it do anything interesting?

 

[Kabas]

does it do anything interesting?

You get plenty of abilities and elements to choose from in order to build your character. The only directly toggleable ones you have are the three prayers from your chosen god, the rest of them are passives of sorts that are triggered by certain actions like "deal fire damage on attack/hit", "upon applying fire damage heal yourself and apply scorch", "upon standing still teleport to a nearest enemy and blast everything with astral damage" or my favourite "upon entering a level summon a thing"

After investing enough into certain elements or specific skills you can then choose a prestige class that complements your chosen abilities with extra stuff.

The game is mostly about trying to figure out an effective combo. Agile bladedancer who attacks with lightning worked well enough for me but currently i am struggling with making the ascetic who always stands still and doesn't rely on summons work.
It's one of those coffee break roguelikes so it's also pretty short.

 

[Arthandas]

The only directly toggleable ones you have are the three prayers from your chosen god, the rest of them are passives

The fact that everything is a passive is retarded. I presume playing a spellcaster is like a turn based Vampire Survivors.

 

[Kabas]

For casters you get skills like "on stand still deal fire damage to everything in 2 tile radius" or "upon getting hit/standing still shoot a frost beam in the direction of enemy farthest from you"

 

[Dadd]

The fact that everything is a passive is retarded.

This is how I felt while playing the game. Also the game can play itself way too often if you put it on auto-explore or whatever it's called in-game.

Relevant quote by the dev on reddit:

I feel I must self-promote here, as my design goal for Path of Achra was to emphasize the fluidity of DCSS "o-tabbing" (auto attack / explore) and the build-making of Rift Wizard. Runs last around 10-60 minutes. The Steam demo is the full game. It's also free to play on itch / in browser

What's so enjoyable about auto-explore that it's worth making it a design goal for a game?

 

[Kabas]

What's so enjoyable about auto-explore that it's worth making it a design goal for a game?

The same appeal as ARPG genre i think.
It satisfies the desire to play something brainless(gameplay) yet simultaneously not(character building and finding synergies)

 

[Kabas]

I was so close to the final boss, damn it! Couldn't even attempt to escape the level as each of my steps triggered a teleportation near this fella.
Anyway, the second circle of degradation difficulty is noticeably harder compared to the "intended difficulty" of the first circle of humilty. Still not beaten it.
Astral element is one of the most fun one especially with the freshly added Starjumper prestige class which is all about teleporting.
The unfortunate side effect of relying on teleporting skills is that there is a chance of teleporting near the enemy you don't want to be near tho.
Through trial and error i found so far:
-More than 1 point in Astrophyte summon is detrimental as they start filling up the screen thus making it difficult to jump around. One point is more than enough considering the amount of teleporting i am doing. They're good as a meat shields, next time should invest into summon buffing skill probably.
-I should definitely replace astrohunting skill with something else from other element for my bread and butter damage skill. I really don't like the "teleport near the enemy" part as i am building my character to be more caster-like
-Teleport mastery is great for survival.
-Qamar Ascetic works well enough as a race/class combination.
-Fawdaa prayers might seem redundant with Qamar race but he is actually pretty great. His prayers are better left unused so that you can trigger divine intervention which protects you from death at the cost of a fully charged prayer. They're are in turn are very easy to charge with all that teleporting you do.
-Tried plenty of other character builds, summoners are a bit too slow for my tastes but maybe i just built them wrong. Assassin is fun.
I already wasted 15 hours of my life on this game and i am not going to calm down until i beat the second circle of degradation at least.