[MPRDB] Version 1.2 Observations

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I've played a couple of rounds of Dungeon Bash v1.2, and it was really
enjoyable, even though I think I've seen everything there is to it yet. Here
is a list of some observations I've made.

Bugs:

- You don't have to stand on top of the stairs to descend (!)
- After drinking a potion of poison, hitpoints aren't updated immediately
- 'a'iming doesn't use numpad, only vi keys
- I once entered a room with a duellist located inside of the wall
- savegames are still called '7drl.sav.gz'
- unidentified rings have a number in front of them ('1 topaz ring') even
though they don't stack with others

Two balance issues:

- Good equipment should appear deeper in the dungeon (in particular, mage
armours and runeswords can be found too early)
- As no monster will follow you into the corridors, dying is quite difficult
if you know when to retreat to heal. For your 7DRL you decided against
adding food and hunger; you might want to reconsider this for Dungeon
Bash.

One or two suggestions:

- I've sometimes missed a level increase, and I've accidentaly pressed the
'Any' key at the time of death before being able to read my final score.
The level increase might instead be accompanied by a 'more' prompt or be
displayed in a different colour, and the 'Any' key might be switched to
SPACE or CR.
- I'd really like to see my adventures recorded in a highscore of some
sorts. Even a highscore with just one (the highest, of course) entry.
- I like it that you are open to at least two sides of attack when you enter
a room, and monsters should use this to their advantage. An improvement of
their AI to deviate slightly from their current beelining behaviour might
help -- something like 'do a random valid step if direct path is blocked'

Well, that's all for now. I still have an adventurer to get killed:

Shinsaku HP: 127/138 XL: 11 Body: 43 Gold: 2328
Defence: 21 Depth: 22 Agility: 32 XP: 9042

Thanks for this entertaining little game!

Cheers, Gero

--
Gero Kunter (gero.kunter@epost.de)
 
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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)

Gero Kunter <gero.kunter@epost.de> wrote:
> I've played a couple of rounds of Dungeon Bash v1.2, and it was really
>enjoyable, even though I think I've seen everything there is to it yet. Here
>is a list of some observations I've made.
>
> Bugs:
>
>- You don't have to stand on top of the stairs to descend (!)

D'oh! Will fix.

>- After drinking a potion of poison, hitpoints aren't updated immediately

Gah. Thought I'd caught all the display-update failures. Will fix.

>- 'a'iming doesn't use numpad, only vi keys

Noted. Will fix.

>- I once entered a room with a duellist located inside of the wall

That's... alarming. Will add extra sanity check to create_mon().

>- savegames are still called '7drl.sav.gz'

Noted. I decided that was a cosmetic bug, but since I've got a bunch of
stuff to fix anyway, that'll get fixed now.

>- unidentified rings have a number in front of them ('1 topaz ring') even
> though they don't stack with others

Laziness on my part; I need to make the object-name-printer smarter.
Will fix.

> Two balance issues:
>
>- Good equipment should appear deeper in the dungeon (in particular, mage
> armours and runeswords can be found too early)

Yes, changing item generation in this line is on the cards. I'm also
considering adding another equipment slot.

>- As no monster will follow you into the corridors, dying is quite difficult
> if you know when to retreat to heal. For your 7DRL you decided against
> adding food and hunger; you might want to reconsider this for Dungeon
> Bash.

I am planning to improve the AI somewhat; "awake" monsters may well
chase you into corridors in v1.3.

> One or two suggestions:
>
>- I've sometimes missed a level increase, and I've accidentaly pressed the
> 'Any' key at the time of death before being able to read my final score.
> The level increase might instead be accompanied by a 'more' prompt or be
> displayed in a different colour, and the 'Any' key might be switched to
> SPACE or CR.

Good plan; I'll take you up on that.

>- I'd really like to see my adventures recorded in a highscore of some
> sorts. Even a highscore with just one (the highest, of course) entry.

That can be arranged. v1.3 will have a chronologically ordered log
file listing all characters killed, and a highscore record showing the
highest experience reached, deepest descent (after fixing the stairs
bug), and wealthiest victim.

>- I like it that you are open to at least two sides of attack when you enter
> a room, and monsters should use this to their advantage. An improvement of
> their AI to deviate slightly from their current beelining behaviour might
> help -- something like 'do a random valid step if direct path is blocked'

Yes, the "orderly queue" AI wrinkle is on the list of things to fix. I
need to have a look at the cardinal-avoidance (high-level melee foes) and
cardinal-seeking (missile foes) AIs, as well; I'm not sure they make the
correct move in all circumstances.

> Well, that's all for now. I still have an adventurer to get killed:
>
>Shinsaku HP: 127/138 XL: 11 Body: 43 Gold: 2328
>Defence: 21 Depth: 22 Agility: 32 XP: 9042
>
> Thanks for this entertaining little game!

You're welcome! Scary adventurer :)
--
Martin Read - my opinions are my own. share them if you wish.
My roguelike games page (including my BSD-licenced roguelike) can be found at:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~mpread/roguelikes.html
 

Stu

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Apr 2, 2004
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yeah I noticed you can climb the stairs from anywhere..

another bug I just found, you can wear weapons as armour.

start a new game and (W)ear your (a) dagger...

you can drop items on top of the stairs, but not on each other.. then
the stairs cant be seen...
 

Stu

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wearing a runesword gives you the best armour level so far (that I have
found).
using them as rings doesnt seem to do anything extra... =)

-stu
 

Stu

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yeah, thats what I mean, wear+weild same.. just found robe of shadows
too..
shame you cant have a ring of regen + ring of vamp on at same time =)
unbeatable.

aah bugs =) heheh
 
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stu <yakumo9275@gmail.com> wrote:
[ ... ]
> you can drop items on top of the stairs, but not on each other.. then
> the stairs cant be seen...

Yes, that's how I've found out about the stair bug...

Cheers, Gero

--
Gero Kunter (gero.kunter@epost.de)
 
G

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (More info?)

stu <yakumo9275@gmail.com> wrote:
> wearing a runesword gives you the best armour level so far (that I have
> found).

They're armour just as good as robes of shadow. The source code shows that
no item may give more defence bonus than those two. Incidentally, a robe of
shadow seems to be as good a weapon as a runesword... :) It is also possible
to wear *and* wield the same item at the same time, which evokes a quite
funny image.

Cheers, Gero

--
Gero Kunter (gero.kunter@epost.de)