Bay 12 Games Forum

First, link! That goes to the game's blog, where you can find download links. Looks to be around an update every month or so, so... yeah. Also the game's name was changed earlier this year -- one of you out there might recognize it better as Legend of Siegfried. There's a forum, too, if apparently not particularly active.

Blurb:

The game draws the most influence from ADOM, but it will go far beyond that. The world will be randomly generated, continents, dungeons, towns, cities, etc. There will be a single over-arching theme to the game, but there will also be random quests, as well as a selection of preset quests that will appear in some or all games. The idea is to take the great ideas of ADOM and other roguelikes and remove their limitations while improving upon them. Rather than the world and quests being completely static (and limited), they will be as dynamic as possible while still retaining their meaning and feel.

A lot of the mechanics will differ from ADOM, of course, but in the end it aims to be in the spirit of ADOM (and its predecessors), without limitations and with maximum re-playability.

What is it?
It's an in development roguelike! Standard fantasy fair, mostly, but some interesting things as well. At the time of this posting, you get thrown into the world with a wizard tower and probably not much else, and after you run around and murder things for a bit you pick up a quest or two that gives a little bit of direction. Still pretty barebones in a number of areas, as fairly well befitting its state of development, but it's definitely got the sense of getting there.

Why should I care?
Easily what's attracted me to this the most immediately is the magic system. There is no mana! Spells operate off a cooldown system, but also from some other things. As well as cooldown limitations, you've also got two other magic related "resources" -- magical saturation and magical balance. The first is relatively straightforward -- it's a percentage that rises as you cast spells, up to a limit, after which you can't cast anymore (so far as I know, I haven't actually hit the cap yet, heh). The neat thing to that is that as saturation increases, so does the strength of your spells, so you've got a system that really incentivizes using the abilities you've got.

Magical balance is an interesting limiter, and a pretty neat mechanic (even though it's perfectly viable to just kinda' ignore it, from what I've seen playing). It's basically your magical saturation in reverse -- as you cast more spells, your imbalance increases and in turn decreases your spellpower. It and saturation just about cancel out, if nothing else is being done. The trick to it is there's a way to mitigate magical imbalance, with the way being in the name. The game's magical system is based around (at least at the time of writing) three general types of spell, and if you cycle through all three, part of the imbalance cancels out -- basically, if you keep yourself in balance and vary up the sorts of spells you're using, you mitigate a fair amount of the penalties involved. It's an honestly pretty slick bit of design, both incentivizing active ability use and rewarding variation in what you're using and combined arms, so to speak, tactics. All while having things tuned so it's not really a punishment if you don't.

There's also a really rather neat modifier type mechanic in the game. You have a small pool (two types, at time of writing, and 8 each) of what amounts to runes you can place at a distance, which modifies the effects of many spells when cast within a certain radius of 'em. Ferex, with the basic magic missile style ability, one type spits out an extra bolt when you cast at anything within about 5 squares of the rune, and the other, well. The other explodes when your magic missile hits anything within ~two tiles of the rune. And there's no real hard limit to how many you can have out, save the your pool of available ones, the duration they last once placed, and whether the rune-thing is consumed when triggered -- it's entirely possible (and, indeed, how your character is most likely going to manage to survive) to set up a line of the bolt duplication ones and fire volleys into a layered line of the explosive variety, slamming an enemy with swarms of magic missiles and triggered mines as they approach. This alone has made playing, even with the still fairly limited magic list, quite the blast (sometimes literally :V) -- it definitely adds a whole hell of a lot to the game, considering how to place things and cross-interact spells and triggered spell effects and whatnot.

And then there's that wizard tower. It... is a wizard tower. You have global enchantments you can toggle (only four, currently, and only one of which effects anything beyond you or your tower, but still). You can have a laboratory (necessary for alchemy, which is a kinda' neat system in itself that I'll leave to the player to check out), you can have a ingredient growing area, you can have an automatic mine. You have a grand hall, an observatory to check out the astrological signs, it's... just a straight up wizard tower, and the most wizard towery implementation of a wizard tower I've seen in... well, at the very least a roguelike, and probably just about anywhere in the world of video gaming. Even with how bare bones it currently is.

And last but not least, the item system definitely looks to have a fair amount of potential. Conceptually fairly basic material/enchantment stuff, but they're already doing some occasional fairly neat stuff (like a material that increases damage as you repeatedly hit something in a short time period) and it's only barely starting to get fleshed out.

There's probably other stuff, too, but that's been the most immediately noticeable stuff I've ran in to, so far.

Any warnings?
Well, it's currently ASCII. Pretty clean ASCII, but still ASCII if that's a problem for you.
It's... also rather difficult. I tried for a while normally, and could get pretty far if I played very carefully, but even a little bit of inattention or poor play would get my face shoved in. Even cheating hilariously (which is how I've been playing in my more recent runs, just to see more of the game) I still occasionally get brutally murdered.
And, of course, development is development. There is the occasional crash bug (current version, watch out for the white Ds -- they seem to have something going on with their crits that can cause the game to error out. You can still fight and kill them, just don't let them get in melee with you) and whatnot, and who knows what the game will look like next year or whatev'.
Related to that, the UI is a little clunky in places. Not particularly badly so (and there's mouse interface, which ameliorates a bit of that), but working with container items (which is kinda' important, since you've get something more or less like ToME4 transmogrification chest at level 2, i.e. an autopickup feature that can mulch unwanted items for gold) can be a little rough. Couple more button presses than really needed, stuff like that.

Anyway, I've had a fair bit of fun with it over the last few days, even with so much development ahead of it, so I figured it'd be a good idea to share it and hopefully get it on some more folks' radars. If it manages to keep going and continues to develop along the path it's on now, we're definitely going to have a contender for one of the major roguelikes on our hands, imo.

First, link! It's currently selling for ~10 bucks USD, and there's a decently hefty demo. I'd offer screenshots, but frankly the game's not the prettiest thing in the world and the demo's only about 23 megs. Go check it out.

Second, blurb:

Summon hundreds of powerful creatures to fight by your side in Siralim, a turn-based RPG with roguelike elements for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. In Siralim, everything is randomly generated - including the dungeons, the quests, and the items.

Third, why you might give a damn: Well, did you like Dragon Quest Monsters? Did you particularly enjoy the magic key worlds? Well, this is more or less those, made into a game.

For those who have no idea what DQM is, think Pokemon but more JRPG tropes. If that still doesn't help, think a SNES-era RPG where you murder monsters into your party and you've more or less got the idea.

Pros:

• It definitely scratches that itch that DQM scratched. Monsters everywhere, bringing them into the party, raising them up, etc., etc., etc.
• There's tons of critters, and each and every one of them has a very much notable special ability. Example: My low level-ish party has:
  • a critter that gives everyone on my team a chance to stun (stop enemy from acting for a turn or two) whatever hits them
  • another critter that turns invincible for one hit when it attacks or is attacked
  • a third thing that has a bouncing attack that poisons up to three enemies
  • and a last one that has a 20% chance to move to the front of the action queue at the end of anything's action.
• You've got loot. You've got loot oozing out your pores, as well as ways to customize equipment and various resource sinks to sink resources into. There's also a whole host of various consumables, spells, and just in-general a bunch of junk.
• Battles can get freakishly brutal. The game scales with you, and, as noted, everything you fight has potentially battle-changing special abilities. There's also several different varieties of special curbstomp critters running around. Of course, your own menagerie of abominations bring all sorts of destruction to the table, but fights can get incredibly nasty.

Cons:

• This game is grindy as the buggerall. It's basically a sandbox, where you're given a castle, and a host of fairly-samey (tileset and loot varies a bit, but that's about it) random dungeons and not much else -- there's a series of tutorial-ish quests to introduce you to the game, but if there's anything beyond that I haven't yet noticed. There's also a host of mostly-forgettable resources, a great deal of those consumables and whatnot are of arguable interest, and junkloads of things to sink those resources into. Some of which are grind-requiring bottlenecks on your general capability or ability to progress (to the extent progression exists, anyway).
• No plot in sight. Pro or con is arguable, there, but it definitely lacks the kind of motivative/connective stuff DQM has. Don't go into this thinking it's more than it is, heh.
• Several things are kinda' slow, even with message speed turned up. Game is in terrifying need of rapidfire. You're going to be doing a lot of fighting, with a lot of "mash A to continue" stuff.
• Game can get pretty brutally difficult. There's also a certain degree of memorization (or wiki-walking, I guess, but I have no idea if there's a wiki up so :V), since figuring out what the zog you're fighting does generally takes starting to capture it (or a spell, which wastes one of your critters turns and, by the by, enemies can come in groups of six) and, well, as mentioned, some -- many, really -- of the special abilities are outright game-changers that approaching incorrectly can cause you to get your face wrecked. Fortunately, while the game has a hardcore mode, it doesn't default to it. You almost certainly don't want to play it
• Expect palette swaps. They're fairly common -- some critters have a little bit of other variation, but it's generally just color swaps. There's still quite a few critters, but there's also quite a few different colored same-critters. And, well. Each and every one will be doing something different, so. Yeah.

Overall: Somewhat limited, but it generally seems to know exactly what it's doing and setting out to doing what it does pretty damn well. I'd fairly comfortable rank it near the old DQM games, particularly the plain gameboy/gameboy color ones. It definitely isn't an epic game or whathaveyou, but if you're feeling a monster breed or old-school RPG battle itch, this can probably scratch it for you. It's also pretty easy to pick up and put down, so while it's a time sink it's one fairly easy to take in chunks, or pick up and put down.

Lastly, why make a thread: Well, it didn't seem to have been mentioned here, and it's definitely right up some folks alleys, so... here we are. Figured people might like to know. Discussion, impressions, etc., are more than welcome, of course.

Ah, and actually lastly: If you have trouble opening the demo (or the game, I guess) -- specifically, if trying to run the .exe spits out something about not being a win32 application or some such nonsense -- just rename it to a .zip and extract it wherever.

E: You saw nothing!

Royale whatsit tempted me, three things I wanted for ~five bucks, much savings, etc., etc., etc. Thing is, stuff in there I already had or didn't want.

So. Giveaway thingy. Foisting off AI War and expansions up to Ancient Shadows as a bundle, Shattered Haven, and Tidalis. Steam or desura keys as requested (looks like the desura ones are all in one or something, so... no go.).

Fairly standard giveaway rules apply; bay watcher, registered >30 days ago (so May 21st or earlier), indicate interest in joining. Can throw in for any or all, but no repeat winners. Random.org'll decide the recipients in... let's say about 48 hours, or around noon GMT-7 on Sunday, barring something coming up for me.

Current entrants as of last thread check:

OP not as witty as title, huzzah! Here's the link. You want the v1.3 version! [Half year later edit: Or whatever's most recent!]

Blurb

Drakefire Chasm is known for its dragon inhabitants. Over the decades, brave and greedy adventurers have dwindled down the numbers of the scalykind, however. Yet some still remain, and the many caves of the Chasm keep drawing treasure hunters even today.

Drakefire Chasm is a seven day roguelike made in 7DRL Challenge of 2012. You play as a freshly born wyrmling, trying to survive and prosper in the old home of dragons. Eat lesser beings, hoard riches, defeat your foes, and finally become a Great Wyrm, the most terrifying and noblest of creatures.

What is it? Drakefire chasm is a coffee-break roguelike about growing up as a dragon. By murdering and eating everything that moves, not always as two separate actions! It's a neat little gem, a former 7dRL* that's been updated a bit since.

Why should I care? Because, for all the shortness, it's one of the better expressions in games I've seen about, well, being a dragon. Killing things, eating things, and collecting the shinies. It's fairly simple, but rampaging around eating everything and spewing fire or lightning or poison or whatev' is enjoyable, the progression system is pretty clean, combat is quick and painless (for the player, anyway. Not so much what's being played, or anything said playee runs in to), and it still manages to be quite challenging. Overall, it's quick, challenging, and good for a few playthroughs or the occasional fireup and rampage.

Any warnings? ASCII! It may be restricted to windows OS... not sure how libtcod and junk deals with crossplatform. That's about it, I think. Except the gnomes. Watch out for ranged crap, especially until you got some better range on you!

Anyway! Just won for the first time with a strength/stamina focused red, and the last fight was pretty amazing**, so I figured I'd throw up a little interest post to see if anyone else has played it/would be interested in it. Give it a whirl folks, and enjoy!

*Seven day roguelike, a roguelike made in seven days, for the uninitiated.

First, link:Homepage. Straight to the download page.

Second, blurb:

Vapors of Insanity is a roguelike game set on a paradise island of Fortarica, where the common Humans, mighty Dwarves and Orcs, insect-like Melissans and Formicans, and many more people lived in peace and harmony... until now. One day, you wake up, and see magical fog everywhere around you, and every man and beast around seems to become a mindless machine, wanting only to kill you! The only way to find the source of the problem is to fight the crazy beasts, hoping that you will find a way to remove the vapors, and the beasts will be sane again... Will you be able to win?

Third, why the hell you should care: My last character melted three people and a number of miscellaneous animals via spewing out a massive spray of acid that covered my entire field of vision, before dying to a kobold, giant mutated eye, and a pair of giant lizards -- the massive amount of acid I covered them in melts slow

My current character is wandering around the countryside viciously murdering everything he comes across with a dagger-inflicted spell that covers my foes in flashfrozen liquid air, then using his artificer trained skill in creating golems to reanimate the corpses as zombies, spreading a slowly growing swarm of undead minions before, behind, and around him.

Short version: Incredibly versatile and awesome magic system that lets you freely mix and match component spells into whatever strikes your fancy, elemental interaction (water+frost=snow, which is frost but longer lasting and more damaging, lightning does more damage to creatures covered in water, etc.), detailed (or at least complicated, ha) crafting system including weapon, armor, and potion creation, golem creation, and a number of other things I haven't personally seen yet, and a pretty well fleshed out skill system for an alpha.

Lastly, the warning. As a DF player to other DF players, the UI for this thing is DF level horrible, or at least horribly clunky. Using a skill is going to take at least four keypresses, possibly more. Example, casting a spell -- the quick and easy way, with a simple spell -- 'f z <number> enter enter'. Melee attacking is the only thing that happens in one button press, and that's only if you're attacking something directly in front of you -- attacking to the sides takes (at least) three (a 1 enter). There's facing and it takes a (small) bit of time to change your direction, so that can be pretty important in a particularly pitched battle.

First thing that I recommend: Before starting the game, go into vapors.ini and change 'hex' to 'oct'; this'll change the view to a standard grid, which is a bit easier to look at, imo. One you start the game, press 'n enter g 2 enter' (otherwise known as starting a new game and firing up the tutorial), then hit enter and go through the tutorial. It helps tremendously in figuring what the blue hell you need to do to get from point A to point B and spew out a zombie horde. The tutorial also gives a pretty good idea of whether you're going to be able to stomach the game or not, hopefully saving y'some time if your reaction's negative..

Finally, it's an alpha -- very feature filled for one, but an alpha nonetheless, so various problems may or may not arise.

Anyway, check this thing out, see what neat crap you can do, then come back and discuss. This seems to be something that's right up a DF player's alley.

I'm not one to normally indulge in trope waving, but...

Posts:
9001 (2.554 per day)

It had to be done.

Quick search for 'paper' says apparently no one's mentioned this thing, so here we go, folks need to know:

First, the link: http://www.indiebird.com/blog/?page_id=376

Second, the website blurb: "Attack of the Paper Zombies is a strategy game where your small band of space marines hold off and defeats a giant horde of alien zombies.  Even though there are hundreds more enemies than your soldiers, you have some aces up your sleeve.   You can construct automated guns and minefields that rip the zombies to shreds.  You can also order the use of grenades or call in a chemical barrage.

The goal of the game is to exterminate the zombie infestation.  To do this, you need to destroy and capture all of their hives.  Watch out though, the zombies are capable of evolving new powers and defences.  It’s up to you to adapt and counter their mutations."

Third, the lowdown: It's an RTT -- real-time tactical -- game involving your squad, the junk they can build, and a metric ton of zombies. Controls are smooth enough, mostly mouse controlled, graphics are effectively perfect for what it's going for, and there's both a few preset maps and a random map generator for delightful replayability. It's not terribly complex, but games are fairly short (maybe 10-20 minutes if you're going veeerrry, veeerrry, slowly -- less than five if you blitz out with flamers on the smaller maps) and it's a wonderful pickup distraction to kill some time with. It's definitely going to stick around my computer for a long time to come. Check it out, folks.

Embarked on top of a cave, upon arrival there's this massive pile of junk spread out over a large portion of the map, especially within the cave and the cavern it connects to.

On top of the small giant population within, there's somewhere between two and three thousand assorted bits of food and crafts stuck in the 2x2 area, mostly in and around the cave itself.

A representative picture:

Most of the z-levels of the cave, from the bottom of the cavern to the top of the hill covering the entrance to the actual cave, looks more or less like that. The miasma seems to be coming from the food that was laying around.

A poorly displayed list of what was laying around:

Nothing in said list was brought with the settlers.

As a side question, is this happening to anyone else? You can have caves display by default in the worldgen params, if anyone's interested in checking it out.