Elderlore

Source: Legend of Angband

After my last character in Angband died, I was a bit depressed. It had taken a long time to build up that character. I can no longer remember how he died. It was probably some double poison breath from some monster. Whatever the case, I was not in the mood to play Angband for a while.

Then I got a good idea. What not let the Borg build up the next character for me? Then I could choose a race and class which cause a high experience penalty. That's no problem for the Borg. It has unlimited time to knock out experience points galore.

Now the Borg is not perfect. There are times when it causes my characters to die. I have found that the deaths happen quickly. But once a character is a bit established, the Borg is more conservative in the long run. So I let the Borg run for a few times each night. Before long, I had myself a character level 50 High-Elf Ranger with a bunch of goodies to show.

Here is the equipment my character is wearing:

The Lance of Eorlingas (3d8) (+14,+21) (+2)
The Long Bow of Bard (x3) (+17,+19) (+2)
a Malachite Ring of Speed (+5)
a Malachite Ring of Speed (+6)
a Ruby Amulet of Wisdom (+2)
The Star of Elendil
The Full Plate Armour of Isildur [25,+25] (+1)
The Cloak 'Holcolleth' [1,+8] (+2)
The Small Metal Shield of Thorin [3,+25] (+4)
The Hard Leather Cap of Thranduil [2,+15] (+2) {BlndESP}
The Set of Cesti of Fingolfin (+10,+10) [5,+20] (+4)
The Pair of Soft Leather Boots 'Dal-i-thalion' [2,+15] (+5)

Source: Slashie.Net : News

New Version, now you can cover your units in glorious armor! Expedition 0.1.5 MP3 Sound Expedition 0.1.5 MIDI Sound Expedition - 0.1.5==================- 0000552: [Task] Sort units list, widen boxes- 0000551: [Task] Allow Units to Wear Armor- 0000545: [Request for Enhancement] Excessive memory consumption from the start- 0000546: [Bug Report] Tribes respawning/reviving????- 0000540: [Bug Report] Game Grinds to a halt- 0000543: [Bug Report] Negative stock on stores- 0000542: [Bug Report] Stores carry their inventory over from game to game- 0000547: [Bug Report] Cachés contents don't stack- 0000548: [Bug Report] Crash while sailing back to Spain- 0000550: [Bug Report] Crash while saving the game- 0000541: [Bug Report] Error when saving and reloading

Source: GearHead RPG

I’ve proceeded with my mad simplification plan, and I have to say that so far I like it. The skill list has been cut from 43 to 25. The talent list has been cut from 30 to 27. Conversation is no longer mandatory. The job list makes a little bit more sense than it did before. Now that all these things are out of the way, it’s time I sunk my teeth into some major changes.

If you’ve ever browsed the source, you’ll know that the megaplot generator (which takes several subplots and combines them) and the quest generator (which takes multiple quest fragments and incorporates them into the adventure) are very similar. They’re so similar, in fact, that I’ve been thinking about folding the quest functionality into the megaplot system.

Combining the two systems would have several benefits. First off, there’d be less code to manage, and improvements to one system would directly benefit the other. Secondly, it would solve the problem we have now where two very similar systems have slightly different interfaces. Third, it would allow content to be shared between plots and quests.

What’s the downside of combining the two? You remember right above when I insinuated that streamlining the character system was a minor change compared to what I was thinking of doing next? I wasn’t joking. The quest generator is a massive hairy beast of a procedure. It works in subtle and mysterious ways. Assuming that the megaplot generator can incorporate all of the quest generator’s functionality, there’s also the issue of revising all the quest fragments to match the new specifications.

Of course, I was planning to revise the quests anyways, and I’ve got some good ideas for making quests more powerful by giving them some of the same capabilities as megaplots. At the moment quests have no standardized way of storing variables. Subquests have no standardized way of communicating with one another. Quests also have no way of reacting to standard triggers, unless the PC happens to be in a quest scene at the right time. All of these limitations could be overcome if a Quest gear were present along the trigger search path. This Quest gear would function as a story or plot. To prevent the search path from getting clogged by all the hundreds of quests scattered throughout the game world, each Quest gear will be placed as a subcom of its host city. The trigger search path will need to be expanded to also apply triggers to the subcoms of the root scene. If you aren’t familiar with the inner workings of GH2 this paragraph probably made no sense but trust me it’s good stuff.

I leave you tonight with a video of the Noble Gundam, just to prove that I wasn’t making that crap on the forum up.

Source: Legend of Angband

I was reading the development USENET newsgroup for the 7 day roguelike competition. There was a link to a review site for the games entered. I was curious as to what would be said about my game. So I read the review on dL1.

Here are the things listed that I need to improve:

1. Provide batch file to launch game
2. Prevent inaccessible locations on map
3. Have monsters attack you if you go near
4. Give some progression if you clear the map
5. Make the game winnable

In essence, the reviewer wanted the game improved from the viewpoint of a player. That sounds like a reasonable request. The goal of my entry was to get something that worked. On that I succeeded.

So let's call the version I entered v1. Now it is time to produce some incremental releases that address the concerns of the reviewer that I want to correct.

Source: Angband at oook.cz - Banding News

- 23.3.2009 10:50. The latest version of newish variant DaJAngband is now available here. The changelist for this version is in the announcement . _{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}

Source: Lane's Blog » Roguestar

Here we see our hero fighting a recreant with a kinetic sabre. The material spheres front and left can be used to repair yourself, while a phase rifle is to the right. In unskilled hands, such powerful weapons can more dangerous to the user than enemy.

Source: Writing Kode

If you had been following this blog you would know that “Last Man Standing” was originally intended to be a simple game with a very limited scope. The original scope did not really cater for any game play other than killing all the monsters or being killed. In order to release the game, I felt that I needed a few extra features, and so “Last Man Standing” was born.

To make it a game I added the following features:

• the ability for actors to gain health and damage from their victims,
• all actors are enemies i.e. it is a free-for-all,
• and a user interface showing player stats, current threats, opponents and game messages

Overall I was happy with the end result, especially considering the amount of time I spent implementing these features (about 8 hours). But even as I put it all together I realised there were some flaws in the design. I’ve listed the main flaws below and included some discussion on how I propose to fix them.

1. The end game is really boring. I often found myself running around in the empty dungeon (for a long time) looking for the last opponent. I tried to remedy this by letting the computer AI seek you out if it is just the two of you, but it wasn’t enough. I have a few ideas on how to fix this situation.
   • The first would be to make the last opponent immediately visible on the map no matter where he is. You can then just run up to him without the whole hide and seek factor. I am, however, worried that this approach would take away some of the tactical combat elements and might be a bit silly.
   • A review on cymonsgames suggested directional cues, these could be visual or in the form of context sensitive game messages e.g. “You hear some movement to the west”. I’m not sure to what extent it would eliminate the hide and seek problem, but it’s worth a shot. I think this feature will enhance the general game play and is well worth implementing.

2. Combat is very basic at the moment. All you can do is run up to a monster and hit it. There are a few options for me to implement.
   • I can implement ranged combat and spells. This would add immediate variety in how you engage with the monsters. My concern is that I don’t really want to implement ranged combat and spells in the traditional sense. Ranged combat would require a different weapon type and potentially an inventory system. Spells would require all kinds of different effects and not to mention a complete magic system.
   • Another technique would be to implement different abilities. These could include swap life, spirit walk, phase door etc. I guess they’re could be seen as spells. My implementation, however, would limit these abilities to different races, or hero types. You pick a hero or race at the start of the game and then have one or more abilities available. This would provide you with completely different playing styles depending on what hero you choose.

3. The UI is hardcoded to a specific resolution. I propose to implement some kind of variable layout that would keep the standard output fixed, but scale the portion of viewable map area. I would have to implement map scrolling, but this isn’t a big deal.

I am sure there are a lot more flaws in the game, but I feel the above list is a good place to start.

Source: Powder News

Saturday March 21st, 2009 Two things of note. First, I'm about to leave for the Games Developer's Conference in San Francisco. I'll be there Monday to Thursday. While I do have a fair amount booked, I am not completely booked, so drop me a line if you are in town and want to meet up. If you are wondering how you can contact me, I recommend reading to the end of the README.TXT that ships with POWDER. I managed to write another roguelike in 168 hours! Woohoo! This one is called Jacob's Matrix. There is no deep meaning with it, just an attempt to capture some Flow in gameplay. Check it out at: http://www.zincland.com/7drl/jacob Previous seven day roguelikes:

• You Only Live Once
• Letter Hunt
• Save Scummer
• Fatherhood
• Jacob's Matrix

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Source: Legend of Angband

The results of the Seven Day Roguelike Challenge for this year have been announced. There were a total of 45 challengers (myself included). Of those, 25 were winners. My entry dL1 was listed in the winner's circle. To the left is the challenge medal for this years winners.

It is not impossible to win the 7DRL challenge. You only have one week to code up a game. That part is difficult. But to win you just need to produce a rogue-like game that works and is playable within the week long time period. Don't get me wrong. That is no trivial task. However if you set realistic goals, you can achieve success.

I wonder if I will be around next year to enter again. It is my hope that I would have gained more Java programming skills. Perhaps it is time to study up on different things like level generators, lighting, and monster AI to be prepared. It is all good fun.

Source: Angband at oook.cz - Banding News

- 15.3.2009 09:40. TinyAngband is originally japanese variant by iks of Hengband fame. Now it have its first English release - 0.0.3. Morgoth sits on level 27 and complete game should be winnable under three hours. Download Windows binary or source. _{-- Delivered by Feed43 service}