Nice tileset and minimap. Very DCSS reminiscent. As for auto-explore... Most roguelikes could use one. I quit ADOM after getting oneshot by chain-CC while cooking with a level 10 Mist Elf Farmer in an open area on the easiest level of the easiest dungeon. Didn't figure out how to recharge spells either.
There are also anchoring trap kits that you can set and then spring yourself to get the effect. Traps can not be set when hostile creatures are seen, but in the case of the last level, you can set traps before starting
a fight.
There are some secrets to be found in the shop level and in the last level, but you need high Search-skill to find the areas.
Got a fun run so far with an elf.
While running away (good my elf seems to be fast to move) from a slow animal that turned hostile before i tried to go close and tame it, i met quickly Abhak that is one of the "hippofolk". Coming with a ranged and melee weapon he happily accepted to follow me in that attempt to survive the 1st level and i was no less happy to finally have a chance to survive more.
Then in a room with a pentacle and a strange lever, i went the cautious way and pulled the lever :D , to my surprise instead of doing something that would have killed my character in a way or another, 2 summoned zombies joined my party.
Wow, after so many quick deaths, would this character be the one to break my losing streak ?
Then moving into an open room, a flash of light and 4 or 5 bandits appeared all over. "You've just been ambushed millord !" on of them told me.
Poor guys, they had no idea that this time my character was not a lonely easy target.
My trusted hippofolk killing machine told me , as optimistic as ever, "We're not gonna die here, Robpuk" (my character name there)
I was wearing my recently lighting-enchanted flail and charged to melee (got some nice piece of armour found from a few treasures rooms too so my elf was much less frail than usual) .
The 2 zombies rushed as slowly as they could, but it's the intent that count , right ?
During the fight, one of the young bandit screamed "Please, don't kill me mister !" but i'm not sure Abhak even know what that meant as he struck him down with his morningstar without even caring.
It's great to not be on the pointy sticks wrong end for once after a battle :D
(https://i.imgur.com/3BszTWi.png)
Lots of fun with Zorbus.
I wouldn't be sure "too easy" is something i would say about Zorbus, at least that latest version i'm playing.
I don't remember playing any other roguelike in which clearing the very 1st floor is already challenge :D
In a sense it's actually good that even the 1st floor is a challenge, it makes replaying actually fun in comparison to a lot of other roguelikes in which a character can clear the 3 or 4 first level of a dungeon without really trying, leading to annoying type of gameplay "i wish i would start in floor 5 with the XP from floor 1-4 already given because up to then it's so uneventfull boring".
Something that can't be said from Zorbus in which the challenge is already there and interesting to overcome.
edit
anyways , after beating down a kuo tua big group (took time to get them all with running away to heal and ranged attack very often) found some nice weapon when looting their dead leader , though unfortunately 2 handed forcing me to give up my +3 tower shield
(https://i.imgur.com/UE2K51R.png)
Oh and it's a talking weapon, it does not seem to like me much
(https://i.imgur.com/sntLU4u.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/UxvSsad.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Cot6Sfx.png)
Additional things i learned
Once you have cleared a level, you can turn on your lantern again (press F1 to turn it on/off ) then press E to autoexplore what's not yet explored.
The interest is that if you have visited already the whole level, E will bring you to hidden doors (why you need to have the lantern turned on, i found that even my infravision elf can't find them if not using a lantern) depending on your Search skill of course.
take in mind that hidden room may have monsters stronger than the one that were found in that floor.
Explore this way completely a level and all the hidden room you can find, reason is that your will gain lot of XP for a fully explored floor (more with the depth of each floors) , and as usual you want all the XP you can to gain level for you and your allies.
(note XP is shared with allies unless you have a special skill for everyone to get 100% of the XP)
You can remove safely an ally in the trading plane, he will be there when you come back.
Noticed what is very likely a bug a few times : when i poison an enemy and he start to flee, if at the instant the enemy died (from the poison) he is NOT in my view, i get no XP from the kill.
Even if he dies only a few tiles away (by example a stealthy drow in the dark died at only 3 tiles from me but at the very instant he died he was hidden or a monster that clsoed a door and went so out of my sight just before dying) there's no XP delivered (at least there's no mention of any XP in the logs).
Very annoying when it happens with an enemy that is strong (and so worth lots of XP).
edit
On floor 9 while sneaking in the dark i ran into an interesting pile of loot on the floor.
(https://i.imgur.com/52qFXB0.jpg)
And indeed he's such a squishy weakling that i nearly died only after moving into a few rooms when 2 orcs targetted me, i ran directly to the stairs and after losing them (it's nice that close enemies can also follow) in the dark in the 2nd floor i ran into a panther that had killed an enemy, and i tamed immediately.
Going back to the 2 orcs that weren't too far, the panther murdered them in no time, tamed a dog that was there too (you can't ally or tame anything if an hostile is still in view by the way) .
Moved back to floor 1 (as my weak character is probably going to die from anyone sneezing in floor 2) i recruited a bit more
(https://i.imgur.com/cBZJdUP.png)
It's so fun to turn the tides on the enemy troops "oh you outnumbered me before, now let's see how you react when my army of murder machines rush at you" :D
Uh. I look at that and think, make that warning bigger, heh. And brighter. Maybe have a second confirmation prompt restating it, etc. Warnings generally shouldn't be in smaller font than the confirmation options. You also generally want them above, rather than below, the prompt options.
E: More like this, if the link works: (https://i.ibb.co/YjbvChk/better.png) (https://ibb.co/F7nGrzw)
If there's something i really love in Zorbus it's that it features a party system , it works wonderfully and is really adding to the fun.
How often in some roguelike i was thinking how it could be good to have a party instead of just a solo adventurer.
My Aasimar leader archetype seems to really have luck, got some nice party members (3 magic users amongst them, if i can keep them alive they should become killing machines) and recently got 3 skeletons warrior joining the fun from an undead summoning room.
(https://i.imgur.com/m2sBEM2.png)
So much fun :)
Ugh. It prompted me to update so I did. Guess I should have read the changelog better because SUPRISE!, updating just flat out deletes your save files.
It should *really* say that in the screen where it prompts you to update instead of just in the patch notes.
Whelp, there goes my level 14 gnome wizard, think that's all the Zorbus for me for a while.
You didn't get this red text then?
I did not. This is what I got.
(https://i.imgur.com/NTMD3d1.png)
I think that's probably why i found Zorbus insanely hard previously, because i was playing with low spirit characters, that could then recruit only 1 party member at max (as unmodded spirit is what set the max amount of recruits in your party) , and most of the time with said party member dying i often had to play a solo character until i ran into a new potential recruit.
And solo characters are very often running into unwinnable situations as it's rare to not run into multiple ranged enemies (and worst running into magic users as their offensive spells hit much harder than bow/slings and can summon more uglies while crippling your character in webs/slime/poison) or enemies much stronger than your character in melee (that you can workaround somehow by using those small damaging ranged attacks from bows/slings and dark area to run into range again).
Having more party members even the odds and turn impossible situation into winnable ones without forcing you to run away so much to ambush enemies in smaller groups, it's also more fun as you can actually run into large scales fights with lots of magics, arrows, bullets and weapon slashing between your troops and theirs.
My aasimar leader archetype is still very much alive, sadly lost a lot of previous party members (one of the magic user that i customised with equipment was a killing machine, sadly lost it in a very difficult battle as blinking away didn't saved her as she landed into more monsters) that i had to replace with new encounters.
At some point i equipped most of the +search items i could and found the secret door in the trading plane (i had also killed every non-recruitable npc there so i could visit everything and get everything from the shops for free) There was a couple difficult enemies in the new area but the worst was a Nightwalker , i had met one previously in the dungeon but maybe this one was powered up at that point but it was extremely resilient and was hitting very hard (good i had that nice health surge ability) .
It was surprising because it took a lot more difficulty to take that thing out than the named enemies that were in that area.
Post battle was rather disapointing as i found nothing better in the loots and coffers than i and all my party members had before (probably bad luck). Oh at least there was the lot XP that was worth it i guess.
My current team managed to take out my first ancient dragon.
(https://i.imgur.com/XmJJVkp.png)
Still tons of fun to play "army general" with an aasimar leader archetype, much more fun than every character i tried previously.
I may have used the forbidden spell described in the book strangely named "Book" (is it normal or a bug as all the other books have their own names ?) a few times as i was having too much fun with my character ...
... but a win is a win :D
big spoiler then :
(https://i.imgur.com/OnV9KvK.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/kINUawh.png)
Will have to get a legit victory one day now i +/- know what to expect from each type of monsters in the game.
Definitively one of my favorite roguelike.
A demigod ending is the normal, should be enough for most players. God / overgod -endings are just an extra challenge for the die hard -players. Still, there are players that manage to dethrone the overgod in just one run.
Tip:
Search around in the Zorbus level. There are hidden, prisoned creatures that have antipathy against the ruling pantheon. When freed, they usually kill a god or two. Of course they don't like you either, but you can usually stay away from them until they're weakened.
(https://i.postimg.cc/475h8kHw/Untitled1.png) (https://postimg.cc/475h8kHw)
I guess the reason enemies dont use anchoring/withering that much is cause they are new effects and not yet fully implemented for the AI? The most striking this was in the Zorbus, where not a single god used them... But I still had a lot of trouble from withering in my run, as I was counting on my high health regen. So if enemies start using these more, then we will probably need few more items to counter these effects.
I feel like this game might gain more replayability by making it so that we can somewhat choose the path we take towards Zorbus, like in FTL or slay the spire. Like do you want to go through a level controlled by titans, or dragons? Or a level shrouded in mysterious mist where anything from lowly goblin to ancient dragon might be found... But that might take quite a bit of work.
P.S. There is also a minor issue with potion giving search bonus. If you clean a floor drink the potion, and press E to find a secret, then pressing E again enters the secret, which usually leads to a fight, so you can only find few secrets as the potion runs out during those foghts. Thus it is much more optimal to press E, and block the found door from autopilot before pressing E again, which allows you to find most/all of the secrets on the floor, but is a bit tedious to do. (but still a good thing you no longer have to manually run around each wall :D)