Zorbus (D&D-inspired roguelike)

[Aemar]

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

Took me like 5-6 hours to reach the final level, twice so far.

Bro, get your game on Steam and start working on those extra levels.

 

[rojay]

Joonas, I discovered this game the other day and first of all: it's really great. Are there licensing issues that prevent you from offering it on Steam or otherwise for purchase? I haven't had time to play very much and I suck, but I'm enjoying it.

 

[Cryomancer]

Looked in manual and site but could't find. Which spells are in game?

 

[Joonas]

Joonas, I discovered this game the other day and first of all: it's really great. Are there licensing issues that prevent you from offering it on Steam or otherwise for purchase?

There are some issues related to Steam:

• I'm using BASS.dll for audio output. The commercial license costs 950 euros.
• The tileset is a mix of tiles from various sources and authors, mostly royalty free, but still, a custom tileset would be better.
• D&D-lore. There are lots of references, nods and tributes to D&D-lore which should probably be cleaned out? Some monsters (beholder, mindflayer?) and characters are probably copyrighted as well, those would need to be renamed and changed a bit. No one probably cares about a niche game in a niche genre, but...

If someone really wants to pay for the game, it can done via itch.io:
https://zorbus.itch.io/zorbus

 

[Joonas]

Looked in manual and site but could't find. Which spells are in game?

Spells (talents) have kept changing a lot during development so I haven't added them to the manual yet. List of talents can currently be seen in game, when creating/leveling a character you'll see the talents-list in the talents screen, or by browsing the zorbupedia which has the talent-list at the end. Zorbupedia can be opened during character creation and from game menu during game play. I need to add a button for it to the main menu.

 

[RPK]

Joonas, I discovered this game the other day and first of all: it's really great. Are there licensing issues that prevent you from offering it on Steam or otherwise for purchase?

There are some issues related to Steam:

• I'm using BASS.dll for audio output. The commercial license costs 950 euros.
• The tileset is a mix of tiles from various sources and authors, mostly royalty free, but still, a custom tileset would be better.
• D&D-lore. There are lots of references, nods and tributes to D&D-lore which should probably be cleaned out? Some monsters (beholder, mindflayer?) and characters are probably copyrighted as well, those would need to be renamed and changed a bit. No one probably cares about a niche game in a niche genre, but...

If someone really wants to pay for the game, it can done via itch.io:
https://zorbus.itch.io/zorbus

There are just a handful of monsters that are not included in the SRD. Beholders and mindflayers are some of them. For beholders, just called them "gazers" or "eye tyrants" and you're good. Not sure about mindflayers. those are a little more specific, I think. here's the list of what's considered copyrighted monsters.

https://www.d20srd.org/faq.htm

Characters are definitely a no-no (even spell names like "Melf's Acid Arrow" are just "Acid Arrow" in the SRD") and just because it's not on steam doesn't mean you're ok. You're just flying under the radar at this point.

 

[Joonas]

There are just a handful of monsters that are not included in the SRD. Beholders and mindflayers are some of them. For beholders, just called them "gazers" or "eye tyrants" and you're good. Not sure about mindflayers. those are a little more specific, I think. here's the list of what's considered copyrighted monsters.

https://www.d20srd.org/faq.htm

Characters are definitely a no-no (even spell names like "Melf's Acid Arrow" are just "Acid Arrow" in the SRD") and just because it's not on steam doesn't mean you're ok. You're just flying under the radar at this point.

Thanks. I'll just forget about Steam. Yeah, I know it doesn't make it any more okay for a free game to use those. Traditional roguelikes are filled with (A)D&D / Tolkien -stuff.

Curiously, Nethack has for example umber hulks and mindflayers, and there's an odd, commercial version of the game in Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/837200/NetHack_Legacy/

Not sure if they've removed anything, but I doubt.

 

[RPK]

There are just a handful of monsters that are not included in the SRD. Beholders and mindflayers are some of them. For beholders, just called them "gazers" or "eye tyrants" and you're good. Not sure about mindflayers. those are a little more specific, I think. here's the list of what's considered copyrighted monsters.

https://www.d20srd.org/faq.htm

Characters are definitely a no-no (even spell names like "Melf's Acid Arrow" are just "Acid Arrow" in the SRD") and just because it's not on steam doesn't mean you're ok. You're just flying under the radar at this point.

Thanks. I'll just forget about Steam. Yeah, I know it doesn't make it any more okay for a free game to use those. Traditional roguelikes are filled with (A)D&D / Tolkien -stuff.

Curiously, Nethack has for example umber hulks and mindflayers, and there's an odd, commercial version of the game in Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/837200/NetHack_Legacy/

Not sure if they've removed anything, but I doubt.

yeah, using the D&D name is definitely not allowed under the SRD :D You'll notice that games that actually stick to the rules set forth in the SRD say it "Uses the rules of the most popular roleplaying game in the world".

 

[Joonas]

Release 48 (29-May-2021)

• Added navimap and map preview to the level loot screen. It now shows a path to the item. (thanks to Cadex Emu for the idea)
• New companion behavior: Regroup. When in this behavior, companions try to stay close to you, melee attack only nearby creatures, use ranged attacks or talents against distant creatures, and blink away only if surrounded. In the default follow-behavior, companions move around more, and when fleeing try to move to a nearby area or blink away.
  • Related new setting: "Companion auto regroup-behavior", on by default. Companions will automatically enter regroup-behavior from follow-behavior when they need to flee, trying to move towards you. Does not affect animated, summoned or charmed companions.
  • Related new setting: "Companion auto follow-behavior", on by default. Companions will automatically enter follow-behavior from regroup-behavior when in full Health, in at least half Stamina, and no hostile creatures have been seen for some time. This affects only companions that have automatically entered the regroup-behavior (see the setting above).
• Companion list is now shown also on top of the "items on ground" list in the right sidepanel (thanks to Cadex Emu for the idea). Valuable (sellable) items are now on top of the list.
• Added a new command: "(Toggle) mundane ground items in sidepanel" with default binding (CTRL) + (BACKSPACE). Toggles showing mundane (non-sellable) ground items in the sidepanel. If mundane items are not shown in the panel, they're listed in the log, ensuring that quickslots stay visible.
• Continuous resting won't start if you're poisoned.
• Summoning traps set by the player should now be more useful as the summoned creature now attacks also other creatures that hate the player instead of just the trap springer.
• Disabling your own traps is now always successful (and you get the trapkit back).
• Creature wiggle is now asynchronous by default, controlled by "Wiggle synchronous" in the settings. (thanks to Lagi for the idea)
• Hopefully at least reduced the low health / poisoned flashing frame flickering that happened when you used mouse / controller.
• Hopefully fixed a controller error. (thanks to Renan for reporting)
• Fixed controller sensitivity when entering side panel.
• Added a note to (F)ire-mode's help-text: "A friendly creature needs to be manually targeted". So if you want to make a shoot or reach attack against a friendly creature, you need to manually target it. Cycling targets does not select friendly creatures.
• Replaced Homepage-button with a Zorbupedia-button in the main menu.
• Zorbupedia talent list is sorted to boost/combat/spell/utility-talents.
• Added better explanation for (CTRL) + (TAB) to the help text in the inventory-list. The command changes the inventory list type: When looting stuff from the ground or from a container, use it to switch to your equipment & backpack, and vice versa. When exchanging items to a companion, use it to get to your or your companion's equipment & backpack (depending on which side is active).
• Also remember: (F11) to switch companion in inventory-lists. (CTRL) + (E) to enter exchange-mode from your equipment & backpack -list. You can enter exchange-mode with a controller by pressing right thumbstick in personal inventory.
• Several typos and errors in item/creature descriptions fixed. (thanks to Cadex Emu for reporting)

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Lol. I just DL'd v47.

 

[felipepepe]

I haven't heard about this before release 47, it's a really fun roguelike with a nice UI, thanks so much for your work

 

[Joonas]

Release 49 (05-Jun-2021)

• Added some post-processing to the field of view -algorithm for better corner wall exploration.
• Made some optimizations to autoexplore.
• Fixed a bug where some throwable weapons without reach (hand axe, dagger, etc.) still could be thrown with the (R)-command when distance was 2, even if not of returning-type.
• Distances to items in blocked areas are listed in red in level loot list. Blocked areas also drawn in red in the minimap of that screen.
• Autotargeting for ranged attacks and talents (the red and yellow corners around creatures) tries first to target a non-summoned creature.
• New setting: "Autoammo uses anchoring & withering", on by default. If this setting is enabled, autoammo uses anchoring and withering ammunition automatically. Anchoring is used against creatures that can blink away with a talent (usually spellcasters). Withering is used only against unique creatures.
• Companions now use anchoring and withering ammunition automatically. So you can now give anchoring ammo to companions who will then shoot them at those annoying blinking spellcasters.
• Companions won't go to blocked areas to pick up items.
• Creatures summoned from traps set by the player won't get angry at player's companions.
• Traps won't be created on containers that are automatically opened / peeked (empty barrels and cauldrons, or barrels and cauldrons with only bones or corpses in them).

http://www.zorbus.net

 

[Brickfrog]

Downloaded this game like 10 days ago and I'm already two versions behind lol.

 

[Joonas]

Release 50 (25-Jun-2021)

• An alternate grid path for ranged targeting is now calculated and used if the first path is blocked. Also affects reach attacks and Charge-talent. Ranged attacks should now be symmetric, meaning that if creature A can target creature B, B can also target A. There are still some cases where you can see a creature but can't target it. Ranged attacks use Bresenham's line drawing routine to traverse grids, while the field of view algorithm does not.
• New command: Continuous autoexplore, default key (CTRL) + (E). Keeps exploring until a hostile creature is seen, something is detected, a trap is sprung, or until the whole dungeon level is explored. Can not be used when in low Health (controlled with "Health flash percentage threshold" from the settings).
• New command: Autopilot to next unlooted container, default key (CTRL) + (C). You can now autopilot to next unlooted container directly from the main game mode.
• Autopilot-screen shows the contents of peeked containers when the cursor is on them.
• Lidless / opened containers are automatically marked as peeked when an area is fully explored, unless the area has creatures that get gradually more hostile. Peeked means that you know the contents of the container.
• Hopefully fixed a bug where the autopilot-screen displayed wrong amount of unlooted containers. (thanks to Mkok for mentioning)
• Fixed a bug where encumbrance wasn't recalculated in all cases where items were picked up. (thanks to Nopenope for mentioning)
• Die Hard talent now heals the same amount as Health Surge. (thanks to Mkok for mentioning)
• Limited the amount of simultaneous similar sound effects when looting or dropping big amount of items, and in some other cases as well.

http://www.zorbus.net

 

[Joonas]

Release 51 (24-Jul-2021)

• Not so much new stuff in this release, but had to make a full release after some structural changes to data files.
• Fixed a bug where alternate paths to target were not properly calculated at distance 2 (affected reach attacks among others).
• Resting does not start if creatures that get gradually hostile are seen.
• You can now drop items from your or your companion's inventory when exchanging items.
• Creatures with lightsources waiting in ambush no longer lit wall tiles until the ambush is sprung.
• Lots of small tweaks.

http://www.zorbus.net

 

[Joonas]

Release 52 (06-Sep-2021)

• Fixed a bug where animated skeletons would needlessly pick up several armors and shields. (thanks to Faeren for reporting)
• Level-wide anchor/wither-effects are removed when you go to another dungeon level / Carillo. (thanks to nopenope for reporting)
• Golems and clones are no longer counted as real recruits when maximum number of recruits based on Spirit-ability is determined. (thanks to nopenope for suggesting)
• Holy Burst talent is disabled in quickslots and talents list if there are no evil creatures seen. Same for the wand.
• Some devices, mostly wands, are disabled in quickslots and inventory if they can't be used (for example, a wand might affect seen hostiles, but is disabled if none is seen).
• Health bars under creatures are now framed with black, making them stand out more. (thanks to Namsan for suggesting)
• New setting: White Health bars under friendly creatures. If enabled, Health bars under friendly creatures are white instead of green. Might help to distinguish friendly creatures from hostile creatures if you are suffering from red-green color blindness. (thanks to Namsan for suggesting)
• Clicking left mouse button on a distant hostile creature no longer throws a throwable weapon unless it's of returning-type.
• Clicking left mouse button on a distant hostile creature now respects the "Attack marked auto swaps to shooting set" setting, meaning that if the setting is enabled, and passive weapon set has a shooting weapon, then weapon set is swapped.
• Fixed several characters in in-game books and help texts, that caused odd characters in some non-English Windows-versions. (thanks to Namsan for reporting)

http://building.zorbus.net has a roguelike development related "book" in PDF-format called "Building Zorbus one brick at a time".

Big thanks to Maximum Break (Gidon) and Another Dying (Jay) for making YouTube let's play videos of the game!
Another Dying: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt8DIPRtpvB6Na5aBXH6ZIbMb0XDG6xdg
Maximum Break: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7yHTTOjLsXkZn7t5Qsuc3wcGXT8vjHii

 

[Aemar]

Looking good! What are your future plans regarding your game? Any major updates coming along or you'll just keep working on adding quality of life improvements and ironing out bugs instead?

 

[Joonas]

Looking good! What are your future plans regarding your game? Any major updates coming along or you'll just keep working on adding quality of life improvements and ironing out bugs instead?

Not sure actually. Probably no major updates in the near future. There has been some talk here and elsewhere about alternative routes through the dungeon, or some 1 level demiplanes and such, but haven't yet found motivation to work on those. I'd like those areas to have custom content, and not just more of the same. But yeah, at least quality of life -stuff and bugfixes every now and then.

 

[Lagi]

i gave to pdf
only becaues i split tea on my keyboard, when i read the reviews

Spoiler

what a simpleton i am to find it funny

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

This game has such awesome crunchy sound FX. I was going to buy ultimate adom and compare but I know i'd be mocking ADOM. Time do dl the zorbus update.

BTW, I have to ask but is this monster in the game?

Spoiler

I haven't ran into one .... yet.

 

[Joonas]

BTW, I have to ask but is this monster in the game?

Spoiler

I haven't ran into one .... yet.

Hah, how have I missed that! Have to include that, thanks!

 

[Joonas]

Release 53 (19-Sep-2021)

• New talent: Expert Trapper.
  • Normally you can set traps to nearby tiles only, but with this talent you can set traps traps on tiles up to distance 3. Setting a trap never fails and takes only half the time it would normally take to set. Traps set by you are harder to avoid, and possible damage or duration is increased by 50%. You will also gain a +4 bonus to Disable-checks when disabling traps.
• New talent: Expert Enchanter.
  • Normally you can safely enchant an item with 3 enchantments, and every enchantment point above 3 decreases the enchantment chance by 15 percentage points. Plusses, extra elemental damage points, holy-/returning-/vampiric-properties, and on-hit effects count as enchantments. With this talent you can enchant items safely without any restrictions.
  • Tieflings get this talent automatically.
• New item: Scroll of Disjunction.
  • This scroll separates enchantments from the main-hand weapon of the active weapon set into separate enchantment scrolls. Even if the weapon has several plusses, only one Scroll of Enchant Weapon is created. Sentient weapons are not affected.
• New item: Elixir of Ability.
  • Increases a random ability score. Only available in shops, restocked every now and then.
• Non-unique armor, shields, and weapons in shops are a bit cheaper now.
• Fixed a bug where companions would just drop a better item after you gave it to them through item exchange.
  • Reminder: Companions won't change equipped items that are set by the player in companions' equipment lists. Ammunition is an exception.
• Trap tweaks.
  • Fixed a bug where no dialog was opened when you walked on a known floor trap that was on a tile with an opened door.
  • You can now safely walk on floor traps set by you (the dialog is still opened).
  • Reminder: in some situations you may want to intentionally spring a known trap, for example Animate, Confusion, Dismiss, Summon, or Anchoring traps. If you spring your own Animate or Summon trap, then the created creatures will be friendly towards you, and attack creatures that are hostile towards you. Animated creatures without a master will eventually turn hostile against everyone.
• Fixed some grammar mistakes and typos.

http://www.zorbus.net

 

[Darth Canoli]

I thought i'd give the latest build a spin since i haven't played Zorbus in ages and i have to say i'm impressed, i know it's just a rogue-like/dungeon crawler but it feels way better than recent "ful fledge RPG", it's, by far, my favorite recent games alongside KotC 2 and Colony Ship (which isn't complete yet).

Joonas
Some feedback:

Spoiler

Some possible improvements:

• It'd be nice to be able to take advantage of the full screen in full screen mode(right now it's 60/65%.
• Being able to scroll descriptions when using bigger fonts, because some of it can't be read, mind description comes to mind.
• A table/way to get ability/talent gain per level outside of the leveling screen?
• 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.
• In the log (both minimized and expanded), color "You" (in green?) because i'm always checking if the main character made the kill to compare xp gains (noob mistake, didn't pick the leader perk at level 1 )
• Filter the Level's loot (spacebar) adding a rarity filter (green first) or hiding common equipment and ammunition, like hide everything under +2.
  
• Path-finding in narrow corridors, no matter the following or regroup order, half the crew takes another path possibly triggering roaming hostiles.
• 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.

Also, eventually, an adventure mode, like ToME does, with a limited amount of lives, possibly one extra and +1 from heroic deeds.
The very early game can be tough (as a mage, at least).

And two questions:

• Can i get beyond 1 talent/level ?(beside talent potions)
• Does the clone potion consumes 5% hp & stamina?

I might write a short review soon, it's an amazing game, great job, it's my favorite rogue-like. Great exploration, right amount of skills, a lot of customization, good itemization, monster variety ...
You should buy the assets you need and put in on steam, i'm sure it's worth the investment.

 

[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.