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[C.A. Sinner]

Rogue's Souls






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alpha 0.915 (Jun 10 2013)

alpha 0.86 (Jan 13 2013)
alpha 0.72 (Oct 1 2012)
alpha 0.62 (Aug 20 2012)
alpha 0.51 (Jul 25 2012)
alpha 0.4 (Jul 8 2012)
alpha 0.32 (Jun 22 2012)

0.915 Changelog:

Code:

-Added weapon enchantments
-Added weapon poison coating
-New spell
-New item
-New dungeon tiles
-More item descriptions

-Fixed critical save system bug (save compatibility is unfortunately broken)
-Streamlined turn counter in HUD

-Changed the way poison attacks work: Piercing weapons cause longer poisoning, blunt weapons shorter.
-Slightly modified the equipment and stats of some starting classes
-Dungeon progression tweaks
-Other minor fixes and tweaks

Hey guys, this game has been my pet project since early April now. It's a roguelike and it's loosely inspired by Demon's Souls and Dark Souls as well Brogue and DoomRL. The focus is on tactical combat. The central mechanic is the stamina system used for things like attacking, blocking and running.

The current version features 14 dungeon levels and no win condition. Instructions can be found in-game by pressing F1 at any time. Mouse controls are planned for the final version.

Tileset by Jerom

[alastair]

This is pretty cool so far, looking forward to see it progress! I put your tiles folder in the ascii one, they look nicer.

Do you think you'll end up streamlining some of the controls? Like just walking into stairs to go down them instead might be more intuitive. Also I'm not sure if you can use potions yet, I tried selecting it with the letter then pressing "a" but it didn't do anything?

I like how you lose souls over time too, so you don't just rest for ages.

[Fallsburg]

Well you combined 4 of my favorite things, so how can I not check this out.  As for future custom tileset, I'd recommend going the Brogue route.  I much prefer a lush ASCII setting to most tiles (even nice ones like DoomRL's).

I'll post back later when I get a chance to try this out.

[Rube]

I've been a sucker for roguelikes since the days of Zangband and Pernband, and an energy system could really add a lot of depth to what can often be a very hack-and-slash genre. Mechanics like running using stamina, the same resource used for attacking, can introduce interesting decision making for the player.

I'm not so sure about the lack of upward staircases. I assume this was done to stop scumming? The problem with this method is that it removes control from the player, as the dungeon generator could plonk the player down on a new level surrounded by enemies, leading to unavoidable deaths. I think Dungeon Crawl handles this better, which allows the player to backtrack but stores the state of all the levels so new monsters aren't generated upon going up/down staircases.

I don't know if you just hadn't got around to adding line of sight yet, but roguebasin has some excellent articles on the subject.

[C.A. Sinner]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Do you think you'll end up streamlining some of the controls? Like just walking into stairs to go down them instead might be more intuitive.

Yeah I thought about doing that but tbh I don't really like autousing stairs because it can be a bit confusing when you accidentally step on a staircase (or at least it is for me when I play Brogue lol). Also, because you can't ascend dungeon levels in my game, it could have some pretty heavy consequences.

I'm not so sure about the lack of upward staircases. I assume this was done to stop scumming? The problem with this method is that it removes control from the player, as the dungeon generator could plonk the player down on a new level surrounded by enemies, leading to unavoidable deaths.

I'm actually trying to prevent stuff like this by not letting enemies spawn too close to the entrance. As a matter of fact I had ascending floors in the game and the code is still there but there really isn't much of a reason to go back as is.

I don't know if you just hadn't got around to adding line of sight yet, but roguebasin has some excellent articles on the subject.

The game  actually does use a very simple LOS algorithm for revealing the map (it's done chunk by chunk) and LOS is relevant for ranged combat and for monsters spotting you. I read a few of the Roguebasin articles in the past but I'm still undecided as to whether I'll switch to a more complex algorithm in the future.

[C.A. Sinner]

Also I'm not sure if you can use potions yet, I tried selecting it with the letter then pressing "a" but it didn't do anything?

You have to press a from the main game screen to bring up the "use" menu. But that's actually a good call. I just added some functionality that lets you use or equip items directly from the "i" screen while viewing their description. I want to make the interface as accessible as possible for people who haven't been playing roguelikes for 10 years like me.

Which is why I put together a new minor release today.

Changelog:
-"Consumable" items like potions and soul vessels now stack in inventory
-Added functionality to use and equip items from the inventory screen
-Selecting an empty inventory slot no longer results in an error message

Download here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3725770/roguessouls_0.32.rar

[moi]

nice, working fairly well, I find it a bit too difficult, but I am not usually a  rogue player and I know these games are supposed to be hard, but the hunter should collect more arrows and melee combat becomes deadly very fast. Souls also are a bit rare.
I liked the area to exchange your souls against stats, It would be cool with more features like that and things to discover.

My only problem so far is the "fog of war" or how the area suddenly appear, instead of being smooth.
Also, I think several keyboard commands are redudant and might be mixed into one.

[C.A. Sinner]

Yeah the game isn't very balanced right now because I'm still at the stage where I'm implementing the core mechanics. What I've thought about re: the hunter is giving him more arrows at the start of the game and then introducing a monster that has a relatively high chance to drop arrows on a later level. I don't really want to alter the mechanics for the different classes because they're just meant to be starting packages, not to lock you into a certain playstyle. I've noticed the lack of souls thing too so I guess I'll tweak the formulas a bit for the next release.

The game will definitely have more "special" dungeon features like the altars later on. NPCs (including merchants) and bosses are planned, for instance.

What commands do you think are redundant?

[moi]

there are too many commands related to inventory, perhaps

[C.A. Sinner]

So yeah, originally the next feature I was going to implement was the magic system. But because that's relatively large scale and I have study related things to do at the moment, I decided to postpone that in favor of two smaller features: Water and knockback.

Knockback chance is determined by the attacker's weapon weight (which also determines stamina damage on blocking btw) vs. the weight of the defender's gear. Right now, you can only get knocked back one square but maybe that'll change in the future.

Water essentially acts like an obstacle (i.e. like a wall) but getting knocked into it results in death. Some monsters (such as bats) have the ability to move through or over water. I'm planning on maybe implementing some kind of swimming mechanic later on as well writing an algorithm that randomly "floods" certain parts of the map during level gen.

There are still a few bugs left to iron out but I'll release a new build once that's done

[C.A. Sinner]

Decided to postpone the new build a bit because i just started working on bosses the other day and thought that would make for a more interesting release.

I initially wanted to have fixed "setpiece" bosses but then decided that those don't go together with roguelikes very well, so I'm going the Crawl etc. route of having the bosses spawn in the regular levels. You'll get the same bosses every game, but the dungeon levels they spawn on vary.

Also made monsters drop souls based on an individual stat as opposed to their level and made stat upgrades for the player cheaper. I'll also probably reduce the number of altars because as it stands you can't even use half of them due to lack of souls.

[st33d]

I personally went with a pool of preset bosses to randomly choose from and some more randomly generated champions. Worked out quite nice that way.

[C.A. Sinner]

Yeah optional bosses are something I'm planning as well. I want to tie them to the NPCs once they're in. So yeah the boss system is set up for now as is the first boss (also an excuse to code some new monster special abilities).

Anyway I just started working on the magic system today so that'll probably be in the next build as well. You have a limit of how many spells you can memorize based on your magic stat (max 5). You memorize spells from scrolls you find in the dungeon. Each spell has a limited number of uses that regenerates slowly over time and/or can be restored using potions. Spells also cost stamina to cast and their effects scale with your magic stat to varying degrees.

[C.A. Sinner]

OK, version 0.4 is out! The main changes here are the magic and boss systems as well as water and knockback and a change in player movement. I also added 2 new starting classes and expanded the manual to explain combat and magic mechanics better.

Here's the link:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3725770/roguessouls_0.4.rar

And this is the full changelog:

-Added magic system
-Added bosses
-Added water and bridges
-Added knockback in combat
-Added new monsters, items and dungeon tiles
-Added 2 new starting classes: The sorcerer and the cleric

-Changed player movement: It isn't possible to move between diagonally between 2 adjacent walls now
-Player now gains souls from slain monsters based on an individual stat as opposed to the monster's level
-Increased overall gain of souls
-Decreased levelup costs
-Reduced number of altars
-Slightly increased HP regeneration

-Game now returns to title screen after death instead of exiting
-Fixed an inventory-related bug
-Various other bugfixes and tweaks

Please tell me if you discover any bugs, balance problems etc.! 

[rdein]

love this love letter to dark souls

i was initially angry at the controls (so many spread letters i had to learn) but then after 5 minutes i got used to it
then

i got to a level without an exit (stairs). it had a bunch of chests and soul altar, if that helps any bit

i am stuck so here is an screenshot of my progress



keep working on it. i really want to see more etc. more classes more everything
it sucks that i want this game to be able to save progress, but it's a roguelike..