Bay 12 Games Forum

----

By all that is right, it should have been someone else writing this.

Lokum, our leader, claimed to know what he was doing.  He lured us all with tales of an oasis in the wilds of the frozen North.  We believed him, fools that we were.  None of us had any prospects to speak of but a life of toil in the mines, working for a pittance, making the damned King richer every day.

"For the honor of our ancestors!" he cried.  "For the glory of ourselves, and the honor of our courageous ambition!  A rich land, lost to the eyes of men and elves, the rock rich with ores and gems!  With our hands and the iron in our souls, we will craft a settlement where no dwarf is beholden to another!"  The glitter of gold in our eyes, we listened, enraptured.  Fool.  And greater fools, we six, for listening.  By my mother's beard, we deserve what we've gotten, and I the most of all.

I have no wish to remember, or to recount, the trials our inexperienced band withstood to get to this Armok-forsaken wasteland.  Suffice it to say that we were unprepared, and when we reached the ice... Our poorly-built, poorly-driven wagon was never meant for this terrain.  We broke a wheel, and the legs of our animals.

We had nothing but two barrels of rum that had remained miraculously unbroken and the flesh of our animals.  It would never sustain the group until the supply caravan from our homeland could find us.

We made a pact.  We would sit, and die, without touching the remaining supplies.  The last survivor, the dwarf that was proven strongest, would claim the lot, and hole up as well as possible until the caravan arrived.

We waited, and slowly froze.  They slept.  I didn't.  I drank.  It wasn't much, so help me, it wasn't much, but it was enough.  One by one they died, and the snow has claimed their bodies, and with them, all traces of my betrayal - save the empty hole where my soul once was.  I have paid a price for my life, and am paying it still.

And now I wait.  By day I see twin plumes of smoke, one from the southeast, one from the southwest, carrying foul smells on the wind.  By night I hear screams - they are faint but they haunt my nightmares.  I believe it is the Twisted Ones - the Goblins.  It won't be long before they realize I'm here.  If they're lucky, there will be something left for them.  

I have fashioned myself crude armor and a crossbow from the butchered remains of our animals.  Though I've seen nothing moving since we arrived, I have seen tracks that... I would swear I was seeing the footprints of a polar bear, except that only the bones have left any sign in the snow.  

I would rather not think about this any more.  I have lost my body and soul to this accursed ice, and everything in me that was good and Dwarven.  What more can any horror take from me now?  I fight now at the gates of Hell.  Survival is all that is left.

Highest muskoxen population: 67
Fewest points spent on embark on a haunted glacier to successfully develop into a survivable fort: 18 - but I think I could have done it with 16, or maybe even as low as 14
Oldest fort - 10 years (I know somebody can beat this)
Longest time surviving spending 0 points and not doing anything at all: 8 years and counting
Highest total fort population: 240
Most champions in a single fortress: 48
Highest FPS attained: 304

Your turn.

It's always been my major complaint with this game that there's a certain morality imposed upon the player.  I can't order my military to attack a peaceful target, or one of my own dwarves.  I couldn't until recently set up traps to slaughter traders, and soon that will be gone.  I want the ability to build a guillotine and send my king to it in a bloody peasant upheaval, or have the nobility launch a pogrom again the legendary dwarves that represent the threat of capitalism to their comfortable existence.  Or, two words: military coup.

I want to decide the morality of my fortress for myself!

This game is so awesome it hurts me a little. I've played for an unhealthy amount of time the last few days. It's already one of the best roguelikes I've played and I can see it will go a lot farther.

My ideas:

Right now, when using a two-handed weapon, everything you pick up gets put in one of your hands, and you start bashing things with it.  I'd like to specify that I want my maul to stay two-handed.

The screen that shows your limb condition could have something next to each limb to show how protected it is by your armor.  (a color indicator, or 1-4 stars, or something.)  Less important: armor / weapon damage and repair?

In real life, archers have to take a moment to draw an arrow from the quiver before firing.  How about adding a one-turn delay between shots  - "The elite bowman draws and nocks a *copper arrow*."  Also, maybe crowssbows could have an increased chance of penetrating armor, and do more damage, but require two turns - one to cock the crossbow, one to load the bolt.  Archery should be practically useless by the time someone is close enough to melee.  

By the way, how about archery shops?  Bolts and arrows are hard to get right now.

Right now, players can use rock throwing to gain several attributes and get to legendary within 10 minutes.  Wrestling the undead is the same way, but this seems a little more realistic- choking zombies really would be a great way to practice, but the experience gained from each different hold should decrease every time you use that hold.  Other skills seem to progress painfully slowly.  I have a human who's a legendary wrestler and rock thrower, has scavenged or bought all masterful iron armor, and has gained only one level in hammers and half a level in armor, despite the fact that I do the vast majority of my killing in melee.

Enemies fly really, really far when hit with a maul.  I think this could be tuned down a bit - maybe make it 2 or 3 squares, turned up a square or two with every strength increase.

Orders for companions would be nice - stay close, roam at will, etc.  Improved AI would be nice too.  Maybe they could file in behind you until there was some sign of combat, then spread out and try to flank.

Stealing should work if you can get away with it - at night, with no shopkeeper, if you can get an item and get out the door, it's yours, no consequences.  Also, when you're caught stealing, towns in the area should become hostile only after a period of time has passed.  This could depend on their distance from the victim town.

I think the inventory screen could be much better organized.  (This is probably one that's already in the works.)  I think the screen from Ancient Domains of Mystery is close to ideal.  

Sneak mode: it seems like you can wear an absurb amount of jewelry with no positive or negative effects.  All that jewelry should make you noisy when you walk around.  A character in full plate mail should be basically incapable of stealth.  Sneaking up and attacking should do a huge amount of damage, and a trained wrestler with a dagger/short sword and high ambush skill should have a very good chance of killing an opponent outright with a throatcut, or cutting a hamstring, etc.

There are a lot of keypresses involved in wrestling right now- I'd like to see a separate, specific key to wrestle, with the ability to specify your favored progression of moves.  For example, the first time you press R, you grab the opponent's weapon, and the second time, you throw them with it.  Or you could set it to grab their throat and then choke, etc. etc.  It would also be nice to see specific messages for grabbed weapons/limbs when they are used for an attempted attack - "The goblin tries to attack, but his mace is held tightly."  Opponents should put a high priority on regaining control of a held weapon.

When a companion/opponent drops their weapon, they should pick it back up with the other arm, maybe even at the expense of dropping their shield.

Wrestling ideas:
(By the way, this is one of the best features I've ever seen in a roguelike, and I've been playing them for 21 years now.)
-Walking toward a character/opponent on the ground should stand you on top of them to prevent them from standing.  
-Characters on the ground with another character standing over them should have a chance to throw the standing character and switch positions. If they fail, they get kicked.
-You should be able to sit on a downed opponent to further reduce their ability to stand up or deal damage, but an experienced wrestler could reverse this and end up on top.  
-Daggers/short swords should have large damage bonuses against a held opponent, while blunt weapons, polearms, and all two-handed weapons should suffer greatly.  
-When you're on the ground, you should be able to use your legs to perform wrestling holds.  These holds are -extremely- dangerous in real life.  It's far easier to break someone's arm/neck/leg with your legs than with any other part of your body.
-Neck break / eye gouge / headbutt option from a head grab! (Ask anyone in Thai kickboxing about the dangers of being caught in a head grab.)

And one more: the ability to prioritize body parts with a melee attack.  I'd like to make my enemy's weapon arm my first priority, both in melee and in wrestling.

[ January 11, 2007: Message edited by: Ibu Muffintakers ]