The Codex of Roguelikes

[Catacombs]

Now this is horrible: when you 'save game and quit', restart the game and continue, you canNOT save and quit again!
I let my PC go into hybernation for 2 days now, just to save the state...

You can only save once per dungeon level.

Can you please add unlimited saving? I have a young child and sometimes need to just leave the PC at any time.

How is this acceptable?

 

[pat]

I've been releasing weekly builds consistently (https://patjw.itch.io/theredprison) and development is moving along well but because I'm probably annoying everyone by expecting users to download a new version every week, I'm also releasing it for free as an Early Access title on Steam to take advantage of the auto-updates.

Unlocks in about two weeks at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1074040

 

[Elephantman]

^ change the font dude, who are you trying to impress with that vertical spacing?

 

[pat]

What do you mean? I know square fonts often lead to complaints that text is hard to read - is that what you’re saying?

That font and font size are actually exactly the same as Incursion’s but I probably bombard the player with more of a wall of text than that game. The graphical library I use allows for multiple fonts onscreen at once so it’s probably possible to use a non-square font for messages and the like I guess.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

I must admit Pat, I struggled a bit with it. I agree the spacing of the font makes reading a bit difficult. Also I couldn't figure out how to move my warrior. Overall it was all a bit much for me, not so much that I should be doing speed to play this, but its a bit hectic and stressful with the presentation.

 

[pat]

yeah right, I'll take that on board and I'll have a think about adding an extra font for the various messages. To move, it should just be the keypad or vi-keys, I'm sorry that wasn't clear.

 

[pat]

I added an extra 8x16 font for testing and here's a rough version of what it looks like. Definitely easier to read but I don't think I like the mixing of font sizes which will probably be inevitable for a few reasons.

EDIT: And it's done across the board in the game!

 

[Joonas]

Now this is horrible: when you 'save game and quit', restart the game and continue, you canNOT save and quit again!
I let my PC go into hybernation for 2 days now, just to save the state...

You can only save once per dungeon level.

Can you please add unlimited saving? I have a young child and sometimes need to just leave the PC at any time.

How is this acceptable?

Zorbus release 11 is out. Some of the biggest changes lately:

• Removed the limit of saving the game only once per dungeon level. You still can't save the game on the endgame level though.
• Pressing A in the autopilot mode cycles through unexplored areas. T cycles through known traps. Autopilot is stopped when a secret door or a trap is found.
• Pressing E autopilots you to the nearest unexplored location directly without going into autopilot mode. The autopilot takes you just to the unexplored tile and does not explore further. As your line of sight and possible lightsource reveals new areas you can press E again to move to one of these. You will be missing a lot of secret doors if you constantly use this command as autopilot does not walk near all walls. It's best to be used in short bursts of movement or for backtracking or finalizing the level exploration.
• You can loot items from explored floor tiles and checked containers by pressing SPACE. By selecting an item from the list and pressing SPACE or ENTER you will be autopiloted to the item and the item will be picked up. If an item is in a container it will be listed only if you have at least once checked the contents of the container.
• Containers are marked with green corner lines if you haven't yet explored their contents.

http://www.zorbus.net

 

[Catacombs]

Nice work, pat. I am curious to know the language you used to write this game. Was it C++?

 

[pat]

It’s written entirely in Python. That causes a few minor performance issues but I find it really powerful and fast to work with.

 

[eXalted]

Sil-Q 1.4.2 released.

Why I didn't know about this fork earlier?!

Changelog - https://github.com/sil-quirk/sil-q/blob/master/lib/docs/changes.txt

 

[Elephantman]

Spoiler

ZORBUS obituary (release 10)


.d88888b. 888 888 8888888888 8888888b. .d8888b. .d88888b. 8888888b.
d88P" "Y88b 888 888 888 888 Y88b d88P Y88b d88P" "Y88b 888 "Y88b
888 888 888 888 888 888 888 888 888 888 888 888 888
888 888 Y88b d88P 8888888 888 d88P 888 888 888 888 888
888 888 Y88b d88P 888 8888888P" 888 88888 888 888 888 888
888 888 Y88o88P 888 888 T88b 888 888 888 888 888 888
Y88b. .d88P Y888P 888 888 T88b Y88b d88P Y88b. .d88P 888 .d88P
"Y88888P" Y8P 8888888888 888 T88b "Y8888P88 "Y88888P" 8888888P"

ABZEN
Human female, level 24

Became the Overgod! (the ultimate ending)


Health 101
Stamina 219


ABILITIES (base / current / modifier)

Body 8 8 -1
Motion 9 9 -1
Mind 18 20 +5
Spirit 19 19 +4


SKILLS (base / current)

Disable 0 -1
Dodge 0 -1
Magic 11 18
Melee 0 -1
Ranged 0 -1
Search 0 5
Stealth 0 -1


RESISTANCES

Blunt 6
Pierce 6
Slash 6
Mental 0
Energy 15
Fire 5
Cold 104
Lightning 5
Acid 104
Sonic 0
Poison 0
Holy 0
Necrotic 0


STATES

Restoring Stamina
Immunity to web
Immunity to slime


TALENTS (uses)

Level 01: Animal Friend 0
Level 01: Natural Leader 0
Level 01: Summon Animals 143
Level 02: Animate Dead 281
Level 03: Possession 144
Level 04: Summon Spiders 41
Level 05: Acid Cloud 379
Level 07: Chain Lightning 477
Level 07: Summon Elemental 16
Level 10: Summon Celestial 7
Level 11: True Seeing 325
Level 23: Banishment 0
Level 23: Camouflage 6
Level 23: Great Body I 0
Level 23: Great Body II 0
Level 23: Great Mind I 0
Level 23: Great Mind II 0
Level 23: Great Motion I 0
Level 23: Great Motion II 0
Level 23: Great Spirit I 0
Level 23: Great Spirit II 0
Level 23: Simulacrum 0
Level 23: Stoneskin 1
Level 23: Wail of the Banshee 1
Level 23: Web 2
Level 24: Blink 0


EQUIPMENT

Head Headband of Intellect +2
Back Cloak of Protection
Body Robe of the Archmagi
Waist -
Feet Boots of Mobility
Forearms -
Hands -
Neck Amulet of Life Saving
Finger Ring of Acid Immunity
Finger Ring of Cold Immunity
Eyes Goggles of Night
Lightsource -
Set 1, main-hand Unholy Rapier of Fire +5
Set 1, off-hand -
Set 2, main-hand Sling +4
Set 2, off-hand -
Quiver 12 x Unholy Bullet of Cold +3


INVENTORY

Cosmic Essence
Divine Essence
Divine Essence
Divine Essence
Divine Essence
Divine Essence
Divine Essence
Divine Essence
Divine Essence
Drow key
Golden key
Lantern
Portal key
Potion of Blink
Potion of Cloning
Potion of Heroism (3)
Potion of Invulnerability (4)
Potion of Regeneration (2)
Potion of Speed (2)
Potion of Superior Endurance (9)
Potion of Superior Healing (4)
Radiant key
Ring of Holiness
Ring of Restoration
Ring of Rogues +4
Wand of Banishment
Wand of Holy Burst


DEVICE USES

Elixir of Body 2
Elixir of Experience 1
Elixir of Motion 2
Elixir of Spirit 1
Panther Figurine 3
Potion of Antidote 2
Potion of Blink 12
Potion of Bull's Strength 19
Potion of Cat's Grace 18
Potion of Cloning 1
Potion of Endurance 4
Potion of Extra Endurance 13
Potion of Extra Healing 20
Potion of Healing 3
Potion of Heroism 13
Potion of Mobility 6
Potion of Regeneration 5
Potion of Speed 4
Potion of Superior Endurance 11
Potion of Superior Healing 16
Scroll of Activate Golem 7
Scroll of Enchant Armor 2
Silver Horn 1
Spider Figurine 3
Tankard 6
Wand of Charming 1
Wand of Holy Burst 4


CREATURES DEFEATED 156

Adamantium golem 1
Air elemental 1
...
Wyvern 5
Yuan-ti 2


MAPS EXPLORED / HIDDEN AREAS DISCOVERED

Level 1 97% 1 of 3 33%
Level 2 97% 7 of 8 87%
Level 3 96% 9 of 12 75%
Level 4 99% 7 of 8 87%
Level 5 98% 19 of 21 90%
Level 6 99% 14 of 17 82%
Level 7 100% 7 of 8 87%
Level 8 100% 17 of 17 100%
Level 9 100% 9 of 9 100%
Level 10 100% 9 of 9 100%


HISTORY
...
2019-05-13 15:24 1007 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 100/100 Arrived at the Zorbus.
2019-05-13 15:24 1007 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 100/100 Encountered the robed figure.
2019-05-13 15:30 1013 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 100/100 Defeated Noekeke.
2019-05-13 15:31 1013 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 099/100 Companion clone of Abzen killed by a planetar.
2019-05-13 15:32 1015 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 080/100 Companion storm giant killed by a planetar.
2019-05-13 15:36 1018 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 043/100 Defeated Nolrad.
2019-05-13 15:41 1024 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 095/100 Defeated Ciwnhma.
2019-05-13 15:46 1029 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 042/100 Defeated Ruwebor.
2019-05-13 15:52 1034 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 036/100 Defeated Tyo.
2019-05-13 15:58 1040 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 042/100 Defeated Granom.
2019-05-13 16:00 1042 minutes zorbus xl 23 hp 083/100 Defeated Hebrotrs.
2019-05-13 16:01 1043 minutes zorbus xl 24 hp 083/101 Reached experience level 24.
2019-05-13 16:05 1047 minutes zorbus xl 24 hp 101/101 Defeated Bupsik.
2019-05-13 16:11 1053 minutes zorbus xl 24 hp 101/101 Defeated Gambinax the Overgod.
2019-05-13 16:11 1054 minutes zorbus xl 24 hp 101/101 Consumed the cosmic essence.
2019-05-13 16:11 1054 minutes zorbus xl 24 hp 101/101 Became the Overgod!

 

[Elephantman]

Zorbus was cute, bit boring towards the the end. But the first 5, 6, 7.. levels were fun enough. Its not replayable. Not enough content. Random notes:

Negatives first:
I. Play a wizard... max mind/spirit, which gives you a talent point at every levelup, which is huge.
Wizards can become better rogues with stealth spell and a search spell and a knock spell... And they can become as tankier than fighters with stoneskin...
You cant use weapons but you def dont need them or want them really...
There is no food required and no time pressure around so you can rest until mana is recovered at hearts will as much as you want.
At level 10, you can kill gods.
The other classes need some mind for talents too and spirit as well to get some stamina to use their talents. And then they need body and motion stats as well, so they dont synergyze. But the wizard is just perfect synergy. The wizard needs a little bit of body so that he gets out of instagib territory faster than level 5...
The other classes suck.

II. Acid cloud as way OP, though it looks expensive at first. I took it cause I figured I could bottleneck enemies and abuse it. I was half right. It is actually far more destructive.
If you put it on top of enemies, they have to move out of it! Which makes them lose their turn to just moving. So even gods simply die running from acid cloud. Very few (none?) resists are in teh dungeon vs acid. Black dragon only? Its gamebreaking... One enemy gods has it as well, but by that time, you will have a ring of acid immunity...

III. Meaningful leveling stops around level 10+. You max magic for the available spells and thats it. level 10 happens around dungeon6? if you earlygame as summoner like I did.

IV. Loot is rare. I never found a girdle for example. There is 1? mage armor that is not robe+x

V. Flat dmg resists render low dmg melee weapons useless. Though I havent played melee, it looks likt that. You will need to go 2hander.

VI. My spell use was basically Acid Cloud and Chain Lightnign through most of the game. Playing pure summoner is shit. Dont pick "spiders", "elemental". Summon animals scales with magic and will be even useful vs gods...
PROTIP!!!11: if you come down stairs with a celestial and see an enemy closeby, dont cast Acid Cloud on the enemy!! The celestial will come down after you, enter acid cloud accidently, turn hostile and instagib you! Killng hours of progess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Level 01: Summon Animals 143
Level 02: Animate Dead 281
Level 03: Possession 144
Level 04: Summon Spiders 41
Level 05: Acid Cloud 379
Level 07: Chain Lightning 477
Level 07: Summon Elemental 16
Level 10: Summon Celestial 7
Level 11: True Seeing 325

VII. Stores have fuck all to sell. I had 10k in the bank after bying all the superiour potions for the final showdown.

Bug? In the log the nr of potions used is not counted for me only AND creatures killed is not counted for my allies, we killed more than it shows.

All the BEST GEAR, keys etc, is in hidden places! You have to touch all the fucking walls with True Sight on, its very tedious even when exploring new territory and in very large levels.

Cute:
I. Its cute, bunch of nods
II. killing 2 of the gods was harder than the overgod
III. you can posses people and force them to drop their gear and their STRONGEST POTIONS, warrior :>>>>
IV. Cannot abuse summoning which was my blind exploit attempt. You lose like 80% of your XP to them if they do damage for you.
V. Lighting is interesting, if you play a rogue. But why would you...
VI. Finding secrets, traps, and disarming traps gives yuge xp



My run went like this:
max magic/spirit, dump rest!
get animals and undead on the very first level, they carry you till level 5 easy
on level 5 it gets tougher and i learned how lighting works and was now running around in darkness to avoid tough enemies
on level 5 i get acid and realize just how fucking much xp i lost! before, i was gaining 1 char level per dungeon level, with acid, i gained like 3 levels per dungeon level! ie you have to kill the enemies yourself with direct damage to get max xp!
on level 6 i get true sight and go back to dungeon 3 and find all the keys, secrets, etc, level up a bunch, get my body up a bit and gain massive hp, go like from 25 to 45, by now i am practically unkillable if i use potions
rest ist just spamming acid cloud and runnig back to stairs...


It was entertaining through most of it. Wont play again, I've seen everything. The finale had some tension to it when it started but even gods die in 11 acid clouds...

 

[Elephantman]

Another great thing: Zorbus is basically a fully functioning, complete, surprisingly bugfree (probably because its delphi/pascal) product.

Imho, there are some alliance bugs around that involve possesing enemies and attacking their allies or my summons or whatever with them. I couldnt repro. Sometimes my summons would turn hostile in combat and I dont think its spirit failure.

Once, I enter the store and their bouncers suddenly go hostile to my gorrilla? I cant remember, I remember I shit my pants cause I would not make it out alive there... But they just killed the monkey and undead. But only once, never happened again. I was scared though.

 

[Joonas]

Thanks for the feedback, Elephantman.
You're probably the third person to complete the game. I'll have to adjust the endgame difficulty and many other things. One person who also completed the game suggested removing the possibility of going back up.

 

[eXalted]

Zorbus release 11 is out.

Started playing it. My first playthrough:

Entered the second room and saw a switch.
Toggled switch - summoned ghoul and novice adventurer.
"Is this guy a friend? Lemme move closer."
You were hit by adventurer. You were hit by ghoul. You are dead.

10/10 will play again.

Actually, I really like the look and UI. I'm intrigued, will play more.

 

[Covenant]

As I'm apparently not a learning animal, I attempted to win Incursion again. My last attempt failed because the game started crashing whenever I tried to descend to level 8 (after having gone down there and reascended at an earlier point). I'd never heard of that happening to anyone else. What are the odds, eh?

I've long had the ambition of beating every major roguelike out there, and I'm probably fairly close to completing that goal, depending on what you class as major roguelike. There are a few left to go - IVAN, Caves of Qud, Cogmind (which is going to be a struggle because whenever I've tried it in the past I just cannot stand it, it's so fiddly and boring), and not least the original Rogue - but I've always felt pretty confident I could get to the finish line. Until now.

The game was pretty simple by and large, playing as a Ranger with a couple of levels in Rogue. I stayed at level 5 for ages while I took every non-evil god up to favour level 3, as the bonuses you get by doing this are insanely good. Then I switched to Asherath, jumped up to char level 10 (taking the Intensive Study - Caster Level feat twice so I could cast Haste and a good selection of buffs like Cat's Grace, Bear Endurance, Barkskin, etc) and dove down to dungeon level 10. The lower levels were, as ever, hellish, purely because of the huge groups of monsters constantly fighting each other and spamming messages. I didn't have to worry about anything hitting me because I had something like 40 defence and 15+ in all armour categories. Will and Reflex saves were nearly 20 each, so the only real danger I faced was dying to something stupid like a nymph's Unearthly Beauty. Thankfully things that need a Fort save seem to be pretty rare in Incursion.

The keep on the last level was a novelty but also a slog, because of the insane numbers of goblins, giants and ogres. None of them gave me any bother apart from Shadowdancers summoning shadows faster than I could kill them, but with 250% movement speed (Athletics + Haste) I could always run away and then come back. I was using a light flail of disruption + 5, which had the added bonus of stunning things constantly, and even the viziers and mind flayer mages died in two or three rounds each. Nothing could get a spell off, as I was too fast and accurate (30+ Dex yo). Murgash nearly put up a fight with his +5 unholy scimitar of withering - he actually managed to hit me and get through my armour - but he still died in like four rounds before I was even at 2/3rds health.

Huzzah, congraturations, game over, a winner is you, right? Nah, you gotta go back to the top. Alright, let me just pick up all Murgash's shit and his corpse and be on my way. Cue tortuously trying to find the upstairs on every level, because on my descent I mainly just descended through chasms. Cue spamming dimension door potions just to avoid huge groups of mobs that lag the game to death.

So I finally get to level 7's up stairs, go to climb them... and crash. Oh no.

Oh no, no, no.

I reload the backup I made from right after killing Murgash and ascend again, taking a different route, only to crash again when trying to ascend to level 6. I can immediately see that I'm screwed. There's no Word of Recall, no Shafts, no way for me to skip level 6 and get back to the higher levels of the dungeon and finally see that coveted ending screen. Despite completing the objective and being effectively immortal, I can't actually win the game. It's fucked me over again.

And that's why I know I'll never technically beat every major roguelike. Incursion's beaten me, instead. I'm not putting myself through this shit again. I've completed my share of difficult feats in roguelikes. Beating DC:SS with a Formicid Berserker (Formicids cannot go berserk) was a favourite. But this is my Waterloo. Julian Mensch's incomplete coding has succeeded where Argoniel and Elandar, Fey's Final Puzzle, and the Serpent of Chaos all failed.

To any young people just starting to get into roguelikes, I can only hope I serve as a warning. Some day someone may come along flashing their cool, retro roguelike. 'It's based on D&D', they'll say. 'All the feats and magic items you know and love'. 'Build your character any way you like', they'll bend down and whisper into your ear from behind like they're Joe Biden and you're a ten-year-old girl.

Don't listen. You're chasing an impossible dream, and it costs you more than it ever gives you. Just say no.

 

[Fenix]

Yeah, another example is ProspetorRL... cool game, but crashes are unevitable.

 

[Joonas]

Zorbus release 16 is out: http://www.zorbus.net

Zorbus is a traditional, turn-based, D&D-inspired fantasy roguelike.

Screenshots: http://www.zorbus.net/gameplay.html

Difficulty has been balanced (endgame is more difficult, spells toned down, ranged combat more viable option).

The game now has these playable races: centaur, dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-orc, human.

More special room content and more monsters.

The game now has UI-features like:
autopilot to nearest unexplored map tile
autopilot to nearest downstairs
list all level items of explored areas of the current map, autopilot to wanted item and pick it up

Full changelog: http://www.zorbus.net/Zorbus.txt

 

[Catacombs]

Zorbus release 16 is out: http://www.zorbus.net

Zorbus is a traditional, turn-based, D&D-inspired fantasy roguelike.

Screenshots: http://www.zorbus.net/gameplay.html

Difficulty has been balanced (endgame is more difficult, spells toned down, ranged combat more viable option).

The game now has these playable races: centaur, dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-orc, human.

More special room content and more monsters.

The game now has UI-features like:
autopilot to nearest unexplored map tile
autopilot to nearest downstairs
list all level items of explored areas of the current map, autopilot to wanted item and pick it up

Full changelog: http://www.zorbus.net/Zorbus.txt

Looks fun. Too bad it isn't available on Linux (without Wine).

 

[Epyon]

Hey everyone! DoomRL/Jupiter Hell developer here!
We're currently running a free, pre-release weekend demo for Jupiter Hell if you want to check it out!
The setup is a bit wonky, because Steam doesn't know how to run free weekends on an unreleased game.

 

[Jack Dandy]

I wish I had a normal PC around at the moment, damn.

 

[Fenix]

Hey! Wait! Is is still available to play now JUPITER HELL?

Also - have someone played it here on Codex?

 

[Blaine]

The demo seems to have vanished, and the game's not yet available for purchase.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

I played it. It was okay.