Saturday 4 October 2008

LambdaRogue 1.2

This version has nice looking graphic tiles, but the graphical mode is unusable because the odd gameview size 20x5. So you get visibility of whopping 2 tiles in north and south directions. The ascii mode however has more visibility and it's better in terms of playability.

I don't know what happened to the gameplay, but when I allocate skills points to fighting it's almost impossible to die, at least in the dungeon at right side of the overworld map. I just went on and killed everything with few hits. If that is not easy enough, you have 20 aspirins in your inventory and they are good for healing your character.

Some of the UI decisions are strange, like when you need to input a number when digging (besides I tried it a couple of times and it didn't even work). The game is tediously asking you to press space or enter in every situation, but when you die it's possible to exit the game without seeing anything, because the direction keys are now "any key" that quits the program.

The dungeon is very boring with lots of dead ends and predictable layout of rooms and corridors. I don't know what you should be doing in the dungeon, maybe kill everyone?

I don't want to sound too negative, but the way the graphics mode has been destroyed is epic. In top of everything the tile height is two times the width. Why? Tiles should be square sized and preferably the gameview too.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The ascii mode however has more visibility"

Graphical mode is also available with smaller tiles. To be activated in options menu.



"I don't know what happened to the gameplay"

Reading your former feedback that you die everytime and therefore making everything easier for you. ;)

Seriously, balancing is a difficult thing, and the first two dungeon levels are very easy. Gets harder deep down.



"20 aspirins"

Every profession has it's own starting items, so not everybody starts with aspirin.



"'any key' that quits"

Oh. Forgot about that.



"dungeon is very boring with lots of dead ends and predictable layout of rooms and corridors"

That's the consequence of using puzzle tiles. However, the first dungeon levels are more structured than the deeper levels.

I agree that the tiles are somewhat repetitive. At least I have water and lava and crypts and excrements ;)

Basically I add more variation with every release. LR 1.3 will also have dark rooms and spider webs.



"what you should be doing in the dungeon, maybe kill everyone"

For example. Ahna gives you a first hint: Find the lonely librarian in the sewers (dlv 3) and kill him to get a list with important scriptures.



"tile height is two times the width"

You recognize this two years after the first release? You're a fast guy, aren't you? ;)

It's because I can create a 80x25 (or "compatible" aspect ratio) output in a 800x600 window without caring about ASCII or non-ASCII. It's basically a console emulation.



Thanks for your -- this time very peaceful -- feedback.

Krice said...

I don't mind if I die easily, it's just that I want to be able to kill stuff:)

After all complaining I must say that LambdaRogue has two good things: it's playable and it's released. More than you can say about many RL projects.

Slashie said...

What a great irony! :)