New Roguelike Thread

[Thomkal]

Started a new thread on roguelikes as the ones we have seem to devoted to individual games like CRAWL or Angband.

Was watching Yogscast videos on YouTube yesterday and came across them playing a new roguelike game called WazHack. I haven't played it yet, but it looks fun and thought my fellow roguelike users here would enjoy it:

WazHack

WazHack Part 1 - Ladder Level - YouTube

[Thomkal]

So I played the game a bit (you can play it right there at the site rather than buying it) Looks like a graphical version of Crawl somewhat-has a different skills system, and add talents-9 different abilities with 3 tiers to each-each time you level you get to choose one. Has four or five classes-I played the suggested newbie choice-the knight, so my talents were mostly combat based like Dual Wielding and Weapon Expertise.

All (?) characters start with a nameable cat or dog as a pet-they level up as well and seem to be quite useful with combat. Food is an issue you have to watch out for-both for you and your pet. Found just one ID scroll so far which just isn't enough. Your pet interestingly enough will growl at items you pick up that are cursed however to help there.

Still have died yet so that's always a good thing. All in all-not a bad roguelike I think and one very much still being improved/worked on.

[FrogMan]

I have it on iOS, played it for some time a long while ago...

FM

[Thomkal]

I'm really enjoying Sword of the Stars: The Pit, a Sci-Fi Roguelike I got during the GOG sale. It's on Steam too. My suggestion is that you get just the base game-not the Gold Edition or Mind Games-treat it just like if you were learning to play Angband-get used to the game with the base game, then move on to the variants. Play it on Easy and you can get very far with little trouble, which is somewhat unique for a roguelike.

If you play the base game, you start off as one of three classes searching for a cure to a planet wide health emergency in an alien facility called the Pit. Marine is probably the easiest to play with to start, but try the Scout and Engineer as well as they (especially the Engineer) open up the crafting part of the game and gives you better chances to open/repair/etc the various machines and other devices you will find around the Pit.

I would suggest you take a look at EthosLab Let's play of the game on You Tube to get a good feel for things before/while playing. Some areas, like crafting can get frustrating because you start out with no recipes and little idea exactly what you can build.

Etho Plays - SOTS The Pit: Episode 1 - YouTube

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I'm really enjoying Sword of the Stars: The Pit, a Sci-Fi Roguelike I got during the GOG sale. It's on Steam too. My suggestion is that you get just the base game-not the Gold Edition or Mind Games-treat it just like if you were learning to play Angband-get used to the game with the base game, then move on to the variants. Play it on Easy and you can get very far with little trouble, which is somewhat unique for a roguelike.

If you play the base game, you start off as one of three classes searching for a cure to a planet wide health emergency in an alien facility called the Pit. Marine is probably the easiest to play with to start, but try the Scout and Engineer as well as they (especially the Engineer) open up the crafting part of the game and gives you better chances to open/repair/etc the various machines and other devices you will find around the Pit.

I would suggest you take a look at EthosLab Let's play of the game on You Tube to get a good feel for things before/while playing. Some areas, like crafting can get frustrating because you start out with no recipes and little idea exactly what you can build.

Etho Plays - SOTS The Pit: Episode 1 - YouTube

I got The Pit, but I always have problems finding enough food. I have more than enough weapons, ammo and armor, but my guys are perpetually starving. Knowing that there's better than a 75% chance that my guy will starve to death isn't much fun. I know roguelikes are all about dying, but knowing that starvation is likely to be the method of death isn't a hoot.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

I got The Pit, but I always have problems finding enough food. I have more than enough weapons, ammo and armor, but my guys are perpetually starving. Knowing that there's better than a 75% chance that my guy will starve to death isn't much fun. I know roguelikes are all about dying, but knowing that starvation is likely to be the method of death isn't a hoot.

Yeah not a big fan generally of starvation mechanics in roguelikes, but on easy difficulty level starvation hasn't been too much of a concern for me yet. Try to find the recipe for Sotwichs (sp?) early on-that will help-and if you get lucky and find a purifier early on to take care of that rotten food you find a lot of in the early levels especially and you should be okay for a while. Of course you have to rely on luck to get these things which you have no control over.

Haven't tried it on Normal difficulty level yet, I assume starvation is more of a problem.

[Warhammer]

Another good one that is free is transcendence. It is almost a cross of Elite and a Roguelike. I've been up way to late the last few nights playing it.

[Thomkal]

Good news for us FTL fans: FTL: Advanced Edition has been announced, a free upgrade.

http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2013/12/20...utm_medium=emp

[PilotMan]

I came so close to winning FTL once......once.......on easy.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

I came so close to winning FTL once......once.......on easy.

Me too! Well I made it to the end boss at least...

[path12]

Has anyone played the latest version of ToME? Thoughts? I notice it is on Steam now, I downloaded it back in the spring but forgot about it and haven't gotten around to giving it a try yet.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by path12

Has anyone played the latest version of ToME? Thoughts? I notice it is on Steam now, I downloaded it back in the spring but forgot about it and haven't gotten around to giving it a try yet.

Check the Steam thread from about a week ago It's been a while since I played it so my memory is a bit foggy, but its very different than its angband ancestors.

Here's a Let's Play that started in May if you want to get a feel for it before buying:

Let's Play ToME - Tales of Maj'Eyal - Part 1 - YouTube

[Grover]

any Binding of Isaac fans?

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Me too! Well I made it to the end boss at least...

I beat it once. With the Slug Interceptor ship on Easy. Normal is so ridiculously hard.

[Berger]

Originally Posted by Grover

any Binding of Isaac fans?

Yes!!! Can't wait for Rebirth. I think I've actually put more hours into this outside of FOF than anything else.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by path12

Has anyone played the latest version of ToME? Thoughts? I notice it is on Steam now, I downloaded it back in the spring but forgot about it and haven't gotten around to giving it a try yet.

I play ToME somewhat religiously....I think it's great fun.

Here's two things I never thought I'd say: there's new versions of ADOM being released. With tileset. For a bit they were only available to kickstarter supporters, but the current version is available for everybody.

[Thomkal]

wow ADOM with tileset? Yet another thing I need to checkout.

I'd like to start a Gamers Week, heck Gamers Month, where the only thing required is to play games 24/7

[JAG]

Originally Posted by path12

Has anyone played the latest version of ToME? Thoughts? I notice it is on Steam now, I downloaded it back in the spring but forgot about it and haven't gotten around to giving it a try yet.

Funny you ask, as I was thinking about posting about it. I picked this up again a few weeks ago after not having played for about a year (not the steam version, 1.0.5). I picked up an add-on that allows you to play any race / character without going through the onerous unlocking process some have in place, so I'm playing a paradox mage, which has been tremendous fun and think there's a very good chance he's going to be my second winner (in normal / adventure mode). My next go-around, I may try either a fire mage or sleep-focused solipsist in nightmare.

[path12]

Started with a Dwarf Bulwark, got to level 5 but with no range attack I was no match for the first decent wizard to show up against me. Really like the tileset.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by path12

Started with a Dwarf Bulwark, got to level 5 but with no range attack I was no match for the first decent wizard to show up against me. Really like the tileset.

The fighter classes have access to a skill called 'rush' (or charge or something like that) that you can access by level 5 (or level 1 for that matter....it's the first skill I upgrade usually) which will allow you to close a distance of 3-5 tiles(dependent on skill level) in a single turn. You don't start out with any points in it, so you won't be able to use the skill until you invest at least a point in the skill tree.

Make sure to get used to using your skills early and often...if you ignore that stuff, and try and get by on vanilla attack and defense you're going to have a tough slog. With bulwarks rush in and charge big baddies, than block an attack to setup counters, and/or use one of your shield attacks to stun 'em for a turn or two, and hit 'em with further big guns while they're stunned, then rinse and repeat.

Likewise, healing skills/runes need to be practiced, as the mechanic is just slightly different from the usual idea of RPG healing potions/spells. As a bulwark you'll start with at least one regeneration rune, but it will regenerate 60hp over 5 turns (or something similar) rather than 60 points at one shot...so you have to 'pre-fire' your runes to some degree. I typically use regeneration runes when I'm at 80% of health, which is counter to typical RPG logic, because I want to keep my health near 100%, since my only source of healing is a slow regeneration with a cooldown period, health at 50% is time to RUN and get the hell out of combat, rather than time to start thinking about maybe taking a healing potion. It's kind of tough to adjust to, but later on you'll get access to runes/skills that heal you in a more traditional/immediate manner.

Hope some of that blabbering helps!

[Vince, Pt. II]

Yeah, I'm really enjoying ToME as well. My first character is an Archer who has been lucky as hell on drops, he's sitting at level 12 or so. Second is a Dwarven Bulwark. Love the rush in and block playstyle

[JAG]

Originally Posted by path12

Started with a Dwarf Bulwark, got to level 5 but with no range attack I was no match for the first decent wizard to show up against me. Really like the tileset.

That was my first character too, but probably my least successful for the reason you mentioned: I didn't feel like they had great skills to handle monsters with direct magic damage from range (mages, breathers). Like thesloppy said, Rush is a hugely important skill for fighters, there's also another one called "Step Up" that will hugely improve your mobility (gives you a huge boost of movement speed for a turn after you kill an enemy) and later in the game movement infusions can help too.

Another suggestion is to skip the Kor'Pul ruins at low levels (until L9-10 or so), because they have some monsters with dangerous range attacks. There are some other low level dungeons that have monsters less threatening for a bulwark.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

My first character is an Archer who has been lucky as hell on drops

The amount/variety of loot in ToME is what makes it so hard for me to go back to other roguelikes.....by the time I hit level 10 (excuse me, IF I make level 10) I've usually tossed aside two dozen named artifacts, and I've had times where I'm carrying around crap like 5 sets of different artifact gauntlets, because I'm not quite sure which one is the best, and/or think I might 'need' some random power they each convey, at some time.

[path12]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

The fighter classes have access to a skill called 'rush' (or charge or something like that) that you can access by level 5 (or level 1 for that matter....it's the first skill I upgrade usually) which will allow you to close a distance of 3-5 tiles(dependent on skill level) in a single turn. You don't start out with any points in it, so you won't be able to use the skill until you invest at least a point in the skill tree.

Make sure to get used to using your skills early and often...if you ignore that stuff, and try and get by on vanilla attack and defense you're going to have a tough slog. With bulwarks rush in and charge big baddies, than block an attack to setup counters, and/or use one of your shield attacks to stun 'em for a turn or two, and hit 'em with further big guns while they're stunned, then rinse and repeat.

Likewise, healing skills/runes need to be practiced, as the mechanic is just slightly different from the usual idea of RPG healing potions/spells. As a bulwark you'll start with at least one regeneration rune, but it will regenerate 60hp over 5 turns (or something similar) rather than 60 points at one shot...so you have to 'pre-fire' your runes to some degree. I typically use regeneration runes when I'm at 80% of health, which is counter to typical RPG logic, because I want to keep my health near 100%, since my only source of healing is a slow regeneration with a cooldown period, health at 50% is time to RUN and get the hell out of combat, rather than time to start thinking about maybe taking a healing potion. It's kind of tough to adjust to, but later on you'll get access to runes/skills that heal you in a more traditional/immediate manner.

Hope some of that blabbering helps!

All this is very helpful. I did have rush but was wary because some boss-type earlier had stunned me pretty easily and I had barely escaped from that so hesitated before getting close to another strong foe. Didn't help of course, he blasted me from afar.

I'm going to have lots of questions here, especially about skill trees. I only had two points in Rush, had been putting most into the quicker healing thing (forget what it was called offhand). Obvs going to need better tactics, my mind is still stuck on Angband. (could never get into DCSS)

[JAG]

As a bulwark, in my opinion, one of the first skills to raise is shield pummel. Early enemies and even many later enemies are vulnerable to being stunned and a higher level of shield pummel let's you keep enemies in continual stun lockdown (equal length stun to the skill cooldown). Stunned enemies do far less damage (giving you good counterattacks possibilities), move at slow speed so they can't run from you well, and their skills don't cooldown. So a point in rush then 4 points or so in pummel would be a decent starting skill point allocation. I think there's a skill called shield wall or something that is a sustained skill (cast it once and it's up passively until dispelled or your stamina gets really low) that buffs your armor and gives you stun+knockback resistance that would be useful to put early points in, as those are two effects you really want to avoid and more armor makes it easier for you to get counterattacks from enemies.

[Grover]

Rogue Legacy, a fun little hybrid platformer-roguelike is on sale for $4.94 on Steam. Highly recommended.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Grover

Rogue Legacy, a fun little hybrid platformer-roguelike is on sale for $4.94 on Steam. Highly recommended.

+1, controller highly recommended for it as well (I use my ps3 controller)

[PilotMan]

I FINALLY BEAT FTL ON EASY!!!!!

LOL.

It's just not fair,(that I get addicted to a) that game sucks. We were both killed with our last shots, so technically we won, but the spoils had to be enjoyed by someone else.

A win is a win dammit.

[Thomkal]

Congrats are in order...I think?

[Grover]

Fantastic, I ask you the question earlier today and you pull through with the win! Congrats!

I've only ever beaten it once and on easy to boot. I've had more fun unlocking the other ships than anything else.

[path12]

How do you give items to someone else? I've got some sort of partner here in the first dungeon and was wondering if I could get him some of the loot in order to get around the encumberance limit.

[Berger]

Has anyone on here played risk of rain or tried out the multiplayer? I finally got around to buying the game as I should have some time to play it now among everything else. I want to try out the multiplayer, so if anyone is down for that, hit me up and we can try it out.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Berger

Has anyone on here played risk of rain or tried out the multiplayer? I finally got around to buying the game as I should have some time to play it now among everything else. I want to try out the multiplayer, so if anyone is down for that, hit me up and we can try it out.

Risk of Rain is fantastic. I'd love to play some time.

[path12]

Had a dwarf alchemist up to L15 in ToME get killed last night. My fault for playing while still drunk from the football game. Grrr.

Alchemists are fantastic. Toss bombs all over the place and keep your golem strong. Great fun.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by path12

Had a dwarf alchemist up to L15 in ToME get killed last night. My fault for playing while still drunk from the football game. Grrr.

Alchemists are fantastic. Toss bombs all over the place and keep your golem strong. Great fun.

Probably the best way to unlock the advanced fire / ice tree as well, as you can do tons of fire and ice damage switching between your infusions. Alchemists are great low maintenance characters.

I managed to win with the paradox mage above, won with a shalore Anorithil, and am a couple dungeon levels from a dwarf solipsist win. A lot of these characters, once you get over the hump around L15-20 or so, just become ridiculously powerful. The Anorithil gets a special ability to fire a ray of light or dark everytime they get a spell crit and getting to 100% crit was fairly straightforward, plus they have an ability that passively attacks other creatures each turn within a certain range (which of course can also crit), so once he got within 4-5 squares of anything, it was game over. The solipsist has had some great luck with drops, but things are so easy at this point I only use my actual abilities on bosses or exceptionally dangerous creatures, otherwise just running into things until they die in 2-3 turns while taking no damage.

Having said that, I tried my mage on nightmare and got slaughtered quickly. Autoexplore doesn't cut it on nightmare (which means I'm probably not playing Nightmare...I can't fathom not using it). Maybe I can make a character that auto-uses Track or something

[path12]

I haven't unlocked solipsist or Anorithil yet it appears, hadn't heard of those!

I lose many characters to Bill the troll or whatever the hell his name is. If I can get by him I can get up to L10-15. It seems like the early drops you get are key, plus realizing how the difficulty ramps straight up from where you run through everything to getting one-shotted.

Guess that is just the nature of roguelikes though.

[JAG]

I usually underestimate Bill myself, he's often more than I can handle at lower levels and I don't normally like to come back later. A physical wild for when he rushes (or shield rune) and a phase door rune or spell (or faster movement speed if available) are important for ranged characters. For melee, I think he can be stunned and for sure can be confused, though the latter may not be as helpful. And there's always run like heck if the above fails.

[Thomkal]

Humble Weekly Sale are all roguelikes: You get Sword of the Stars: The Pit Gold Edition, Binding of Isaac with a DLC added, Teleglitch: Die More Edition, Hack, Slash, Loot, Dungeons of Dredmor: Complete, and early Access to Paranautical Activity. Need to pay just $6 or more to get all of them. Lasts for another six days or so.

https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly

[path12]

Has anyone played SotS: The Pit? I was wondering about that during the last Steam sale.

[JPhillips]

I played it quite a bit after the DLC was released. It's a pretty typical Rogue, but with everything space themed. It's pretty difficult.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by path12

Has anyone played SotS: The Pit? I was wondering about that during the last Steam sale.

I have and enjoyed it a great deal. Played it on easy mode, so its relatively easy to get deep into the "dungeon" on most days. It's set on a planet where you have retired to I believe and you are looking for a cure to a planet wide plague. Its rumored to be at the bottom level of an alien bunker.

It has a very sci-fi feel which is very uncommon till recently for roguelikes. Enemies include aliens, crazed humans, and a wide variety of robots amongst other things. Has a bunch of low tech and high tech weapons, traps, and even has crafting which is done by trial and error for the most part. You advance your character by putting points into various skills on a percentile basis.

Check a little further up this very thread for more about it from me and some others.

[Grover]

Just started playing ToME last night. Can't put it down.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I have and enjoyed it a great deal. Played it on easy mode, so its relatively easy to get deep into the "dungeon" on most days. It's set on a planet where you have retired to I believe and you are looking for a cure to a planet wide plague. Its rumored to be at the bottom level of an alien bunker.

It has a very sci-fi feel which is very uncommon till recently for roguelikes. Enemies include aliens, crazed humans, and a wide variety of robots amongst other things. Has a bunch of low tech and high tech weapons, traps, and even has crafting which is done by trial and error for the most part. You advance your character by putting points into various skills on a percentile basis.

Check a little further up this very thread for more about it from me and some others.

There's an DLC available for this game on Steam-lets you play as a Zuul-you know the main thing you end up shooting if you play as any other race/class. If you play one you get to dominate and control zuul instead of shooting them so they become your ally. Certainly a different way to play. You should also get the Gold Edition so you can play with even more races/classes and get new skills like psionics.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Good news for us FTL fans: FTL: Advanced Edition has been announced, a free upgrade.

http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2013/12/20...utm_medium=emp

I played a couple rounds of the Advanced Edition and unlocked a couple ships (on easy). You have to make some tough calls about what ship modules (hacking, mind control, stealth, drones, teleporter) to buy as the new ones are pretty great but you have very limited slots. The new alien race sucks the oxygen out of rooms. Mind controlling your enemies is fun. The new weapons are kind of cool. One shoots shrapnel that rips through shields pretty well. One I found lowered the cooldown for its own charging each time it went through a cycle, eventually getting so low that it was almost every second or two. Even though it was just one laser shot, as long as I could survive long enough and it didn't get damaged during the fight, ships couldn't stand up to it (combined with other weapons). There's a drone intruder that goes around and stuns crew / ionizes system. Lots of new challenges as the enemies use all this new stuff too.

Thumbs up to the Advanced Edition.

[Matthean]

[JAG]

Playing ToME again lately. I won with a shalore marauder (a fighter-thief) which was kind of fun, lots of mobility and heavy-hitting ability. I wanted to try taking a character to the infinite dungeon after winning, so I'm working on trying an improved version of the solipsist I made before and seeing how far I can go before kicking the bucket.

[Thomkal]

Found a new Sci-Fi Roguelike called Shattered Planet. Have not purchased it yet, but watched a Let's Play and it looks fun. You are a clone charged with exploring every level of a shattered planet (duh!) and apparently catalog everything on it. You unlock new classes as you go-and you can find pets on the surface as well. Like most roguelikes, its permadeath, but looks like you have a storage area where you can keep items for future characters and you keep whatever money/crystals you old character had so your new character can buy some things/level up stats at the starts.

Unfortunately its not free, but is 10% off at Steam right now (something like $13.50) I will probably look for a bigger sale on it before getting it.

Shattered Planet | Kitfox Games
Let's Try: Shattered Planet [Sci-Fi Roguelike] - YouTube

[Grover]

I am really enjoying Dungeonmans, even in its early access state.

[path12]

Been playing a lot of ToME lately and kind of obsessed with the Dwarf Stone Warden who uses shields instead of weapons and possesses a little eldritch magic as well as an awesome power called Stone Vines that stop and chip away at foes from up to 10 squares away.

Have gotten five editions of Brax the Dwarf to Mount Tempest but cannot get past that damn thing to save my life.

I don't think I will ever win this game.

[path12]

Question for those of you who have gotten a long way in ToME:

Brax X is up to level 22 and I've finally got through Mount Tempest (needed the blood of life to resurrect at the VERY END OF THE BATTLE though, bummer to lose that).

I've got two ingredients in all of the alchemist quests so I think the RNG kinda screwed me there. The last quests I have for now:

Spellscar blaze
Graveyard by Lost Hope
Dreadfell

Thoughts/advice would be appreciated!