GearHead-2 First Release

[Guest]

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

I would like to announce the first release of GearHead-2. Set five
years after the end of GearHead-1, the solar system is in turmoil. The
Federated Territories of Earth and Aegis Overlord of Luna stand on the
brink of war. Factions will have to choose sides, and the PC's actions
can either prevent or hasten the most destructive war since the Night
of Fire.

This is a very early release. It is set in Maquise Spinner, the capitol
space colony of the L5 Alliance. The PC will be able to play through a
single randomly generated story episode. You can download the source,
Windows ASCII version and ASCII graphical version from here:

http://gearhead.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.html

There are many things that haven't been completed yet, of course. There
is no save/load. Character generation has been disabled; players will
simply be given a generic bounty hunter named Bruce. There isn't a lot
of content in the city.

Features that you can look forward to in GH2 include:

- The play area will be greatly increased to include
not only Earth but Luna, Mars, Venus, and the Spinner
Colonies as well
- Mecha combat in space, underwater, and other new
environments
- Hostile environments will be able to harm your PC,
unless he has the right protective equipment
- Mecha for encounters selected by faction affiliation
and terrain type
- The PC will be able to purchase a spaceship to serve
as home base and transport between planets
- Improved core story, with new random generator and
multiple endings
- Random content has been added to cities, dungeons,
and other game locations
- Unique content that will not be repeated
- Conversation trees can be randomly generated
- Nonlethal combat will be added
- Ammunition caliber and energy weapon power has been
reworked
- Shopkeepers now have more well-defined inventories
- Pet and robot stores
- Intrinsics will be added
- PC rescue system changed
- Chaotic reputation renamed to Criminal
- More opportunities for criminal PCs to steal things
- Improved character generator, allowing player to
select history, faction, home town and personal goals
- ASCII interface now handled by FPC video, graphic
interface handled by OpenGL/SDL
- Computers and software to be added
- Other new gear and weapon types
- Skill roll history
- Bones files to record winning PCs, who may later be
encountered by new PCs
- Source code has been extensively cleaned

Try it out, and let me know what you think.

- Joseph Hewitt

 

[Guest]

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

Elethiomel wrote:
> It's neat! However, I can't find out which key is supposed to switch
> between inventory and equipped items - it says '/' in the menu but my
> keypad / does nothing, and my Norwegian keyboard has no other /s.

Strange. I'll look into this problem.

> Also, where's Sheila?

If Sheila is someone you have to meet for the story, press "m" to view
your memos and that should tell you what building she's in. You can see
the names of the building by passing the mouse over them (in graphical
mode) or using the "l"ook command (in ASCII mode).

- JH.

 

[Guest]

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

Joe Hewitt wrote:
Elethiomel wrote:
> > If Sheila is someone you have to meet for the story, press "m" to view
> > your memos and that should tell you what building she's in. You can see
> > the names of the building by passing the mouse over them (in graphical
> > mode) or using the "l"ook command (in ASCII mode).

> I died because I didn't understand how to shoot in mecha combat. I
> should look at the manual. Anway, "where's Sheila" was a (in retrospect)
> seriously non-obvious joke about the name Bruce.

Bruce and Sheila wouldn't happen to be two columnists who answer
questions that people right in, would they? That's what some Googling
came up with. There were some other curious matches, but that's what my
gut tells me it is. Anyway, you hit its obscurity head on.

 

[Guest]

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

Joe Hewitt wrote:
> I would like to announce the first release of GearHead-2. Set five
> years after the end of GearHead-1, the solar system is in turmoil. The
> Federated Territories of Earth and Aegis Overlord of Luna stand on the
> brink of war. Factions will have to choose sides, and the PC's actions
> can either prevent or hasten the most destructive war since the Night
> of Fire.
>
> This is a very early release. It is set in Maquise Spinner, the capitol
> space colony of the L5 Alliance. The PC will be able to play through a
> single randomly generated story episode. You can download the source,
> Windows ASCII version and ASCII graphical version from here:
>
> http://gearhead.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.html
>
> There are many things that haven't been completed yet, of course. There
> is no save/load. Character generation has been disabled; players will
> simply be given a generic bounty hunter named Bruce. There isn't a lot
> of content in the city.
>

>
> Try it out, and let me know what you think.
>

It's neat! However, I can't find out which key is supposed to switch
between inventory and equipped items - it says '/' in the menu but my
keypad / does nothing, and my Norwegian keyboard has no other /s.

Also, where's Sheila?

 

[Guest]

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

Joe Hewitt wrote:
> Elethiomel wrote:
>
>>It's neat! However, I can't find out which key is supposed to switch
>>between inventory and equipped items - it says '/' in the menu but my
>>keypad / does nothing, and my Norwegian keyboard has no other /s.
>
>
> Strange. I'll look into this problem.

Ah, I'm sorry, I tried again and shift-7 worked. Dumb me.

>
>
>>Also, where's Sheila?
>
>
> If Sheila is someone you have to meet for the story, press "m" to view
> your memos and that should tell you what building she's in. You can see
> the names of the building by passing the mouse over them (in graphical
> mode) or using the "l"ook command (in ASCII mode).

I died because I didn't understand how to shoot in mecha combat. I
should look at the manual. Anway, "where's Sheila" was a (in retrospect)
seriously non-obvious joke about the name Bruce.

 

[Guest]

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

Elethiomel wrote:
> I died because I didn't understand how to shoot in mecha combat. I
> should look at the manual. Anway, "where's Sheila" was a (in retrospect)
> seriously non-obvious joke about the name Bruce.

Ah, it's not that non-obvious. I should've gotten that one. Since the
story is randomly generated it would have been entirely possible that
you did have to find a Sheila.

- JH.