Do you Roguelike?

Post by **WhiteShark** » February 10th, 2023, 14:31

Looking for some advice on Infra Arcana. I've had several runs end now around depth 4-5 to some invisible enemy, maybe shadow spiders. They seem to move at the same speed as the player character and I have had no success trying to lose them by wandering around. Fighting them is suicide because my hit chance is nil. As far as I can tell that only leaves fire, either from a brazier or a molotov but those aren't always available. What do?

My best run so far made it to depth 12 as a Rogue, and I think a large part of that was taking the extra stealth perk so most things never saw me. My last few runs I've been trying the Occultist, reasoning that their better spellcasting and spirit pool will be very useful later on, but these accursed spiders (probably) keep ending my dreams of wizardry.

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » February 12th, 2023, 13:18

Shadow of the Wyrm is worth playing.
https://www.shadowofthewyrm.org/

It's another one of those roguelikes with actual worldbuilding & NPCs.

Fedora Master · Post by **Fedora Master** » February 12th, 2023, 13:22

I will have you know I'm in the top...300? on my Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup server. Back when it was still semi-playable.

Post by **WhiteShark** » February 12th, 2023, 13:56

Fedora Master wrote: ↑ February 12th, 2023, 13:22
I will have you know I'm in the top...300? on my Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup server. Back when it was still semi-playable.

Which one? I want to check out your stats. Here's mine: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/playe ... shark.html
It looks my account is still #329 on Akrasiac: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/best- ... score.html

Fedora Master · Post by **Fedora Master** » February 12th, 2023, 14:33

WhiteShark wrote: ↑ February 12th, 2023, 13:56

Fedora Master wrote: ↑ February 12th, 2023, 13:22
I will have you know I'm in the top...300? on my Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup server. Back when it was still semi-playable.
Which one? I want to check out your stats. Here's mine: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/playe ... shark.html
It looks my account is still #329 on Akrasiac: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/best- ... score.html

https://underhound.eu/crawl/morgue/D1HalberdGnoll/

Suissant · Post by **Suissant** » February 13th, 2023, 02:56

I also played a lot of DCSS 10 years or so ago and it was a lot of fun. Reading you guys saying that they removed a lot of the things that did made it fun for me made me sad. I'll try Infra Arcana since so many people are mentioning it here.

Rigwort · Post by **Rigwort** » March 4th, 2023, 22:52

I've been looking around a lot and wondered if there is anything close to an HQ consensus on when DCSS started to decline? Every time it's brought up it's mentioned that it sucks now and I would like to play a version that sucks a bit less? I have played it's current form and by the races menu I could see how the pursuit of "uniqueness" might've soured the game some.

Ranselknulf · Post by **Ranselknulf** » March 4th, 2023, 22:58

Post by **WhiteShark** » March 4th, 2023, 23:40

Rigwort wrote: ↑ March 4th, 2023, 22:52
I've been looking around a lot and wondered if there is anything close to an HQ consensus on when DCSS started to decline? Every time it's brought up it's mentioned that it sucks now and I would like to play a version that sucks a bit less? I have played it's current form and by the races menu I could see how the pursuit of "uniqueness" might've soured the game some.

It's hard to say definitively because not all the changes were bad. Patch 0.26 which removed hunger, corpses, and chunks is probably the one that made me wonder if I was even still playing the same game, but for some the straw that broke the camel's back probably came earlier.

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » March 5th, 2023, 04:32

Cogmind Beta 12 released
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... 3763113498

Dead · Post by **Dead** » October 6th, 2023, 05:21

Ratcatcher wrote: ↑ February 5th, 2023, 21:40
I always wanted to try Infra Arcana but learning new roguelike is somewhat hard for me nowadays, I lack the focus due to my gaming time being constantly interrupted.

Infra Arcana is relatively short and easy to learn. A new version that made the game a bit less RNG-reliant was released a couple of weeks ago. It would be a good version to start with.

Element · Post by **Element** » October 6th, 2023, 16:02

Have only really played Caves of Qud in the genre. Did not really like it that much. Have yet to check out the B N version of CDDA, which I've heard many good things about.

Emphyrio · Post by **Emphyrio** » October 6th, 2023, 16:19

Incognito wrote: ↑ February 9th, 2023, 11:58
Started playing Curse of the Dead Gods but haven't put many hours into it yet.

It gets too repetitive. When I realized that later levels are just the first level but with an extra section at the end I dropped it.

Dead · Post by **Dead** » October 6th, 2023, 19:23

agentorange · Post by **agentorange** » October 8th, 2023, 04:02

that doesn't seem like a rogue-like

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » October 8th, 2023, 04:13

agentorange wrote: ↑ October 8th, 2023, 04:02
that doesn't seem like a rogue-like

Quasimorph is a mix of classic turn-based roguelike RPG with an unique extraction twist:
If you die, you lose everything you took on the mission.
If you survive, you keep everything you looted.
No exceptions. No excuses. No mercy.

That's an actual 'roguelite', but the terms have been so watered down that… whatever.

Tweed · Post by **Tweed** » October 8th, 2023, 04:21

I didn't know X-COM was a roguelike.

Dead · Post by **Dead** » October 8th, 2023, 07:30

It's a roguelike-like.

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » October 8th, 2023, 07:36

Dead wrote: ↑ October 8th, 2023, 07:30
It's a roguelike-like.

urge to add a button expressing hatred rising

Post by **WhiteShark** » October 30th, 2023, 07:19

Coaching @Kalarion and @madbringer got me in the mood to play DCSS again. Made a Deep Elf Hedge Wizard (used to just be called Wizard) on trunk in the main fork. Promptly died on D2 to Crazy Yiuf, who somehow closed a 1 space gap and hit me on the same turn. I guess they made him fast. Ah, Crawl.

Acrux · Post by **Acrux** » October 30th, 2023, 10:23

Which build did you play? I haven't played DCSS in years and I've heard it's gone very downhill. If it wasn't the latest release, do you have one you recommend?

Post by **WhiteShark** » October 30th, 2023, 10:56

Acrux wrote: ↑ October 30th, 2023, 10:23
Which build did you play? I haven't played DCSS in years and I've heard it's gone very downhill. If it wasn't the latest release, do you have one you recommend?

I played on trunk, which is the term for the build that has the latest changes and isn't official yet. It's the stuff planned for .31. As far as the development direction, it's a mixed bag. There are some good ideas like all the new spells and evokable items, but they have a philosophy of nerfing dominant strategies in annoying ways. Here's one I just discovered: they've made it so cloud effects you've created disappear if you lose line of sight to them, so you can no longer cast Freezing Cloud on an enemy and then walk around a corner and let it kill him offscreen.

Anyway, as for which version to play, they all have their pros and cons. If you want a more classic experience, .25 is the last version that had hunger and food. I think I originally started all the way back on .8 or .9. I wouldn't recommend playing any version prior to .13 at the earliest; before that, there were hidden traps randomly scattered throughout every level that could only be detected by a roll on your Traps & Doors skill. I have definitely lost more than one character to a random blade trap hitting me for several tens of damage. .14 was the last version with Nemelex's old deck mechanics; I have a friend who is obsessed with cards and he would always worship Nemelex, sacrifice a bunch of items for Decks of Wonders, and draw for Experience cards. That's probably worth experiencing at least once if you haven't already.

@Dead was recently trying bcrawl, which is a reputed fork. That may be worth checking out.

madbringer · Post by **madbringer** » October 30th, 2023, 13:32

WhiteShark wrote: ↑ October 30th, 2023, 07:19
Coaching @Kalarion and @madbringer got me in the mood to play DCSS again. Made a Deep Elf Hedge Wizard (used to just be called Wizard) on trunk in the main fork. Promptly died on D2 to Crazy Yiuf, who somehow closed a 1 space gap and hit me on the same turn. I guess they made him fast. Ah, Crawl.

That motherfucker. Yiuf killed a good quarter of my runs with his fuckstick. He seems to roll the nastiest effect possible every turn.

This very morning he poisoned, sleeped and muted my poor fire mage. Then he bonked me twice and rip.

madbringer · Post by **madbringer** » October 30th, 2023, 23:00

Hnnng.

Post by **WhiteShark** » October 30th, 2023, 23:45

Ok, played a much longer lived character last night and discovered another horrifying change: walking away from a monster in melee gives it an automatic free attack in addition to its regular move. In other words, once something is in melee with you, it's suicide to walk away normally. This is an absolutely radical change: it means no pillar dancing and no hoping for a random gap to open up so you can safely escape up stairs or close a door.

"Fine," I thought, "I guess that just means I'll have to use Blink more often." NOPE! Now Blink applies a short debuff that prevents further Blinks until it wears off. The life of a caster is so hard now, bros...

madbringer wrote: ↑ October 30th, 2023, 23:00
Hnnng.

Hope you clawed them all to death, as is good and proper for a troll.

Dead · Post by **Dead** » October 31st, 2023, 01:25

I can't say how different bcrawl is from the main fork as I don't have much experience with the main fork, but bcrawl has been fun for me so far. As far as I know, bcrawl does not have the annoying changes made to the main fork, like monsters getting free attacks when you walk away.

madbringer · Post by **madbringer** » October 31st, 2023, 05:49

WhiteShark wrote: ↑ October 30th, 2023, 23:45
Hope you clawed them all to death, as is good and proper for a troll.

Hell yeah. I almost feel bad playing troll berserker using unarmed, it feels op.

Dead · Post by **Dead** » November 7th, 2023, 13:09

Is Gozag worth taking for a necromancer? Buying potions immediately seems potentially good.

Post by **WhiteShark** » November 7th, 2023, 13:13

Dead wrote: ↑ November 7th, 2023, 13:09
Is Gozag worth taking for a necromancer? Buying potions immediately seems potentially good.

Last time I was seriously playing, Gozag was good for pretty much everyone. Gold piles distracting monsters is good, buying potion effects is good, the other stuff is good, and having tons of money for shops is good. IIRC the best Ziggurat clearing builds went with Gozag because it let them buy potion effects while in lichform, which prevents normal quaffing.

Dead · Post by **Dead** » November 7th, 2023, 14:41

Gozag is turning all the corpses into gold

WhiteShark wrote: ↑ February 10th, 2023, 14:31
Looking for some advice on Infra Arcana. I've had several runs end now around depth 4-5 to some invisible enemy, maybe shadow spiders. They seem to move at the same speed as the player character and I have had no success trying to lose them by wandering around. Fighting them is suicide because my hit chance is nil. As far as I can tell that only leaves fire, either from a brazier or a molotov but those aren't always available. What do?

Old post but if anyone is having this problem, shadow spiders take damage each turn if they are close to a light source - braziers, the light spell, the lantern. Try to avoid getting surrounded. Polyps don't attack you unless you make them aware of your presence by making sounds (maybe enemies who become aware of you can alert nearby polyps also, but I haven't tested this).