Other Roguelikes > AliensRL

first impressions and some negative feedback

(1/2) > >>

ujk:
My first several characters died quickly, while I was still learning the ropes. Then one character survived an unpleasantly long time.
Honestly, I am amazed at how boring the game becomes. I know that busywork is common in roguelikes, but AliensRL takes it a notch further. The levels are huge and the difficulty between towers is about the same. Going through the complex room-by-room is a rote affair. Even after considering critical hits and range modifiers, combat is very predictable. Most of the time, I feel like I’m following an algorithm for clearing rooms. The vibe is less sci-fi horror and more under-equipped pest control. By the way, that is a huge departure from the marine campaigns in AvP games, where I constantly fling my character around, praying to actually see an alien and jumping when I do.
Why does the map not memorize anything besides barrels, floors, walls, and corpses? I can’t form stashes, so I have to leave many supplies lying all over the place, to be picked up later. I can’t keep track of them all! Plus you might have to swap weapons if you e.g. run out of .44 ammo, and after you gradually fill up on that ammo, the original weapon can be hard to find. This is not realism, this is just unpleasantness.
Do want: A macro that reloads all weapons and switches to the primary weapon.
Do want: An option to walk around unless an alien is in view. Pressing coma+direction is very uncomfortable, plus you cannot control the number of spaces you move. The cramped environments of AliensRL make me press direction keys in quick succession, and in familiar territory, an alien can sneak up unbeknownst to me.
The grenade system is well-implemented IMHO.
One odd quirk I found is that meat-shields do not really exist. Take #aA @# as an example: if I burst-fire at ‘a’, then ‘a’ will take most of the damage. Should I interpret this as aliens being very small compared to grid squares?

Kornel Kisielewicz:
AliensRL is pretty much unfinished, especially from the point of view of the content. The levels are big but there is not much to fill them with. The initial idea is that you should not go exploring, but rather go immedately for the objective as soon as you have found decent armor/weapons.

That said, there'll be more content coming, and even now the generators for the towers are a lot more interesting than in the public version.

Thank you for your feedback!

ujk:
Ohh really, so the challenge of the game is supposed to be a balance between powerleveling your character and finishing the game as soon as possible. Then there should be insentives to keep your butt moving - such as aliens spawning at an increasing rate, or eggs that set off a facehugger-spawning countdown when approached (rendering the level too hazardous), or crazed personnel running around from the ground up and trying to weld doors or blow up sectors (which can be forewarned via sirens and a countdown just like in the movies.) Deranged people can be as fun to kill as aliens!

Game Hunter:

--- Quote from: ujk on May 28, 2012, 00:13 ---Then there should be incentives to keep your butt moving - such as aliens spawning at an increasing rate...

--- End quote ---
This is more or less what happens, although I believe right now it's just difficulty of the enemy.  Early on you'll find hunters out of nowhere, but they'll change to warriors, stalkers and eventually praetorians. It's more of a balance issue if it's not significant enough.

While I'm here, though:

--- Quote from: ujk on May 26, 2012, 02:06 ---I can’t form stashes, so I have to leave many supplies lying all over the place, to be picked up later. I can’t keep track of them all! Plus you might have to swap weapons if you e.g. run out of .44 ammo, and after you gradually fill up on that ammo, the original weapon can be hard to find. This is not realism, this is just unpleasantness.

--- End quote ---
I'd argue that AliensRL, in its current state, isn't a game that is meant to induce heavy backtracking. Sometimes it IS necessary, although it's a gamble all by itself since it takes time, which makes the random spawns all the more dangerous. (This does become significant if you dawdle without making progress.) Oftentimes if you're handling each situation effectively, you only rarely worry about ammo issues past the beginning stages of the game. Granted, if you totally deck yourself out, you can easily wipe out even the nastiest random spawns, although it's only if you want to spend that much time.

A part of what I like about AliensRL is the apparent lack of piecewise objectives. Your mission is to kill the queen (which is vague at best) and it's up to you to explore until you understand what that actually entails. I imagine for a lot of people that this comes across as padding or unnecessary information-gathering, but it's the want to know that gets me going in the first place. Over time you'll figure out what you should do.

skarczew:

--- Quote from: ujk on May 26, 2012, 02:06 ---By the way, that is a huge departure from the marine campaigns in AvP games, where I constantly fling my character around, praying to actually see an alien and jumping when I do.

--- End quote ---
Have you ever played pre-gold versions of AvP 1, on Director's Cut difficulty? Mission: Orbital, Tyrargo or Waterfall? I assume you there are so many Aliens there, that praying for an additional one is the last thing you would do.


--- Quote from: ujk on May 26, 2012, 02:06 ---Why does the map not memorize anything besides barrels, floors, walls, and corpses? I can’t form stashes, so I have to leave many supplies lying all over the place, to be picked up later. I can’t keep track of them all!

--- End quote ---
This roguelike is as it was meant: simple. Regarding supplies: it reminds the real life: there are so many things in it, that you have to choose the things that you would concentrate on.
But I agree to a certain point that a basic map tracking could be interesting (especially with the less attractive classes like Engineer/Technician).


--- Quote from: ujk on May 26, 2012, 02:06 ---Plus you might have to swap weapons if you e.g. run out of .44 ammo, and after you gradually fill up on that ammo, the original weapon can be hard to find. This is not realism, this is just unpleasantness.
Do want: A macro that reloads all weapons and switches to the primary weapon.

--- End quote ---
Well, DoomRL doesn't have such an option (to reload everything), so it is not as bad as it may seem. ;)
And there is a possibility to carry weapons from a place to a place, and drop them there. In the end, you can combine backtracking, pickup&drop strategy to carry more than 3 weapons with you.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page