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16
Bug Reports / Strange Crash Bug in 989
« on: February 21, 2008, 04:53 »
It doesn't seem to be triggered by any particular thing, but it's happened twice in the past thirty minutes, and based on what I was doing each time, maybe I just overrode the awesome buffer, I don't know. The first time I was just walking down a hallway on an AoMr run in which I had found the Blaster, and the game ate itself. Then I was doing a non-AoB melee attempt and was doing some inventory management at the end of Chained Court and the game ate itself again. When I say it ate itself, I mean that it sprayed a bunch of text (I could just barely see the words unhandled exception) and crashed to desktop.
I'd love to give you the entrails so you could read them, but I can't, because there aren't any. Neither of the times this happened was anything unusual written to the log or the mortem, and I've looked in a bunch of other files too, with no success. When this happens, it's as if the game I was just playing never existed; the previous mortem file is still there, and there are no signs of the failed game whatsoever in the log.
I'd love to give you the entrails so you could read them, but I can't, because there aren't any. Neither of the times this happened was anything unusual written to the log or the mortem, and I've looked in a bunch of other files too, with no success. When this happens, it's as if the game I was just playing never existed; the previous mortem file is still there, and there are no signs of the failed game whatsoever in the log.
17
Requests For Features / Unchain Intuition
« on: January 03, 2008, 16:15 »
There is a problem with Intuition. It'd behind Eagle Eye. This ability is of immense use to almost any build. I've been told a million times it's not, but my experience (I do have some) tells me that having it significantly lengthens my average game, and I mean before level three. (Level three actually shortens it a bit, because it tempts me into blowing up my stuff on The Wall and then I get pissed off and quit. :p) Knowing whether a lever will heal me or kill me, and better yet, knowing where the globes and shards are is already a very nice thing to have on a chaingun or AoMr run. On a shotgun or berserker run, it could completely save the game for me... except that I can't ever actually get it on either of those, because it's behind Eagle Eye, which means that getting it requires me to completely and totally waste two levels.
Now, I've suggested something similar before, and was resisted because having monster sense at level three would be overpowered. And it would! I am forced to agree with that. I think there's a pretty simple fix, though.
Get rid of it.
Think about it. Instead of the third level of Intuition, just take Cateye. Remember Cateye? That was a fun trait, right? But you haven't taken it in forever because you have Int3. Even worse, Int3 is not really all that much more useful. The basic reason it's overpowered is that it's like having Cat2 at the time you should have, at most, Cat1. Beyond that distance, is the information you get from Int3 really that important? It shows you where the monsters are in parts of the map where you cannot possibly attack them and do not yet need to worry about evading them. By the time you get to where they are, they will have moved, unless they're sitting on a lever. You seriously just might as well have taken Cateye and then you'd be able to actually hit the things instead of the barrel next to the red armor they're standing in front of.
I say we cap Intuition at 2 and make it a base trait. If there is some reason you have to have a certain number of things with prereqs, I say put TaN behind Ironman. They both do pretty much the same thing anyway, and I think Ironman is the more important one.
Now, I've suggested something similar before, and was resisted because having monster sense at level three would be overpowered. And it would! I am forced to agree with that. I think there's a pretty simple fix, though.
Get rid of it.
Think about it. Instead of the third level of Intuition, just take Cateye. Remember Cateye? That was a fun trait, right? But you haven't taken it in forever because you have Int3. Even worse, Int3 is not really all that much more useful. The basic reason it's overpowered is that it's like having Cat2 at the time you should have, at most, Cat1. Beyond that distance, is the information you get from Int3 really that important? It shows you where the monsters are in parts of the map where you cannot possibly attack them and do not yet need to worry about evading them. By the time you get to where they are, they will have moved, unless they're sitting on a lever. You seriously just might as well have taken Cateye and then you'd be able to actually hit the things instead of the barrel next to the red armor they're standing in front of.
I say we cap Intuition at 2 and make it a base trait. If there is some reason you have to have a certain number of things with prereqs, I say put TaN behind Ironman. They both do pretty much the same thing anyway, and I think Ironman is the more important one.
18
Requests For Features / Tie Map Elements to Loot
« on: January 03, 2008, 15:33 »
Currently, there is very little incentive, if any, to explore in DoomRL. The experience suffers greatly for it, I feel, as poking around and thrashing at walls was one of the defining elements of the original. The reason it worked in the original, obviously, is that most of the time if you saw a hazardous area, you could tell that you were supposed to power through it to get something on the other side. That's a tough trick to pull in a roguelike, since the levels are randomly generated, and what's basically required here is the random generation of whole setpieces. I think I've cracked that nut, though.
If it isn't already, the first step of map generation should be to roll up a loot list. This task done, see if there are any items which are particularly powerful for the level the list is for. For instance, on level four, a red armor or certainly a double shotgun should trigger this. On level twelve, you should expect something yellow. Once you've picked the highest of these good rolls, you start building parts of the map around it. It will be at the back of a pool of acid, or can only be accessed once the wall is brought down by a lever, or has a teleporter leading to it. I think doing something like this is important for teleporters in particular; right now the things are nothing more than a nuisance. They probably shouldn't be generated very much at all except as links to treasure caches.
If it isn't already, the first step of map generation should be to roll up a loot list. This task done, see if there are any items which are particularly powerful for the level the list is for. For instance, on level four, a red armor or certainly a double shotgun should trigger this. On level twelve, you should expect something yellow. Once you've picked the highest of these good rolls, you start building parts of the map around it. It will be at the back of a pool of acid, or can only be accessed once the wall is brought down by a lever, or has a teleporter leading to it. I think doing something like this is important for teleporters in particular; right now the things are nothing more than a nuisance. They probably shouldn't be generated very much at all except as links to treasure caches.
19
Discussion / Shottyman Movement
« on: January 03, 2008, 02:39 »
With Shottyman, do you move at the speed of movement or reloading? In other words, once you have it, do you want Hellrunner or more Reloader?
20
Requests For Features / Update the in-game help!
« on: December 30, 2007, 14:08 »
Some of the keybindings are wrong! I have no idea how the new tactics system works! The help file was written before the old tactics system! My head fell off!
21
AliensRL / More Atmospheric Stuff, Also Bones
« on: October 02, 2007, 00:51 »
AliensRL is good, but it needs just a tiny bit more flavor. Scatter around some computer terminals that give partial maps as well as some log files from the inhabitants of the station before and during the incident. Place some corpses around each level from which you can collect dog tags or other personal artifacts which could be recorded in your player file.
I think bones files would be a particularly potent expression of that, in addition to being of practical use if you happened to have died with anything decent. The implementation doesn't need to be terribly detailed, you don't need to save whole levels and junk as with traditional bones stuff from other RLs. Just spawn an old player corpse in some random location on the level they died at. Bones just seem more appropriate for AliensRL than almost any other game I can think of.
I think bones files would be a particularly potent expression of that, in addition to being of practical use if you happened to have died with anything decent. The implementation doesn't need to be terribly detailed, you don't need to save whole levels and junk as with traditional bones stuff from other RLs. Just spawn an old player corpse in some random location on the level they died at. Bones just seem more appropriate for AliensRL than almost any other game I can think of.
22
Pre-0.9.9 / [E|88%|YAVP] Finally!
« on: October 01, 2007, 18:01 »--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (v.0.9.8.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
Fartgunner, level 8 Imp Sergeant, defeated the Cyberdemon
on level 25 of the Phobos base.
He survived 91207 turns and scored 32450 points.
He was too young to die!
He killed 276 out of 313 hellspawn. (88%)
He found the Phobos Arena.
He stormed the Chained Court.
He ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
He fought on Hell's Arena.
He became a champion of Hell's Arena!
He faced The Wall.
And he cleared it completely!.
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
#..........................................................
#..........................................................
#..........................................................
#..........................................................
#..........................................................
#...............#..........................................
#...................}......................................
#...................X|.....................................
#.........................................................#
#.........................................................#
#.........................................................#
#..........................................................
#..........................................................
#.....................##......###.....###...###..........##
#.....................###.....#>#.....###...###..###.....##
#.............................###...........###..###.....##
#................................................###.......
#..........................................................
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 35/50 Experience 23017/8
ToHit +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Finesse (Level 1)
Hellrunner (Level 1)
Tough as nails (Level 2)
Reloader (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Rel->Rel->SM->HR->TaN->Fin->Jug->TaN->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] nothing
[b] [ Weapon ] double shotgun (6d3)x2 [0/2]
[c] [ Boots ] plasteel boots [8/8] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] advanced rocket launcher (4d5) [0/1] (D1R1S2)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] blue armor [0/2] (19%)
[b] red armor [1/4] (21%)
[c] red armor [2/4] (37%)
[d] shotgun shell (x15)
[e] large med-pack
[f] large med-pack
[g] thermonuclear bomb
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
52 former humans
17 former sergeants
18 former captains
22 imps
32 demons
19 lost souls
34 cacodemons
6 barons of hell
1 Cyberdemon
19 hell knights
6 arachnotrons
3 former commandos
4 pain elementals
2 arch-viles
6 mancubi
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 3 he entered Hell's Arena.
He left the Arena as a champion!
On level 4 he stormed the Chained Court.
On level 10 he witnessed the Wall.
He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
On level 11 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
Then at last he found Phobos Arena!
On level 25 he finally defeated the Cyberdemon.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
Fire -- Choose target...
Fire -- Choose target... The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit!
You use a large med-pack. You feel fully healed. The Cyberdemon reloads his
rocket launcher.
Fire -- Choose target...
The Cyberdemon fires! You are hit!
Fire -- Choose target... The Cyberdemon reloads his rocket launcher.
Unknown command. Press "?" for help.
Fire -- Choose target...
Fire -- Choose target... The Cyberdemon hits you.
You use a large med-pack. You feel fully healed. The Cyberdemon hits you.
Fire -- Choose target... The Cyberdemon hits you.
You use a large med-pack. You feel fully healed. The Cyberdemon hits you.
Fire -- Choose target... The Cyberdemon dies. Congratulations! You defeated
the Cyberdemon! Press <Enter>
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
Before him 114 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
108 of those were killed.
3 of those were killed by something unknown.
And 3 couldn't handle the stress and commited a stupid suicide.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, it's on easy, but I'm still proud of it because it's my first this version and it's with a shotty. I got really close to blowing it, was actually kind of surprised when he finally went down.I do have to say that I'm kind of sad my first victory was named Fartgunner. *facepalm*
23
Requests For Features / Barrels in The Wall
« on: September 28, 2007, 16:46 »
Because I got The Wall at level 13 after I figured I must've skipped it and traded my rocket launcher in for a BFG in Halls of Carnage and now I'm totally gonna cry. ;_;
24
Pre-0.9.9 / [M|AoB|100%|2] Idiot
« on: September 27, 2007, 23:35 »
By the skin of my teeth and sheer luck, I managed to clear a 2nd level that had a flat out retarded number of guys, all clustered together (notice the huge pile of junk near the middle of the map) so that it was basically a miracle of tactical prowess that I survived on the eight medpacks and three or four health globes I burned through. At the end of it all, I was at 14%. Figuring I was screwed next floor anyway, I decided it couldn't hurt to find out what that lever the last sergeant was standing on did.
It didn't make me feel any less stupid. :(
If you're wondering, my character's name is 20 because that's the number of AoB runs I've had this streak without seeing the Chained Court. The number is actually kind of low, I finally had one sometime yesterday.
[Edit: corrected the mortem info in topic's subject]
It didn't make me feel any less stupid. :(
--------------------------------------------------------------
DoomRL (v.0.9.8.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------
20, level 2 Imp Sergeant, killed by something...
on level 2 of the Phobos base.
He survived 3502 turns and scored 2778 points.
He didn't like it too rough.
He killed 22 out of 22 hellspawn. (100%)
This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
He was an Angel of Berserk!
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
###########################################################
#......#..==....................0....#...........#...0.....
#..=...#..===......0.................#...........#.........
#..=..=#.=.=.........................#...........#.........
#....=.#.==..........................#.........#.#.........
#...=..#=0...........................#...........#.........
#......=.............................#0..........#...}.....
#......#.............................#....}....#.#.....|...
#......#..........................}..#...}.|...#.#.......>.
#......+...........0..............}}}#....|....#.#.........
##/#####.......................}}||}|#\........#.###/######
#======#........................|}||||}........#./.........
#======##+==############################/#########.....}}..
#======#...=..0.....................0............#.....}%..
#=X====#..=.===..................................#.....|..0
#======#...=====...........0.....................#.........
#======######====############+#+##############+###.........
#==|===#.......==..........|.....................#.........
#==}&==#.......===.......0.......................#.........
###########################################################
-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health -1/50 Experience 523/2
ToHit +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +6
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Brute (Level 2)
Bru->Bru->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] green armor [0/1] (48%)
[b] [ Weapon ] combat knife (1d6)
[c] [ Boots ] nothing
[d] [ Prepared ] combat knife (1d6)
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
11 former humans
2 former sergeants
5 imps
-- History ---------------------------------------------------
He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
On level 2 he finally was killed by something...
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You hit the imp. The imp hits you. The imp hits you.
You hit the imp. The imp dies. You advance to level 2! <Enter>
The former sergeant fires! Your green armor is damaged!
The former sergeant reloads his shotgun.
You miss the former sergeant. The former sergeant misses you.
You hit the former sergeant. The former sergeant hits you.
You miss the former sergeant. The former sergeant misses you.
You hit the former sergeant. The former sergeant dies. You feel
relatively safe now.
There is a lever here.
You pull the lever... The ground explodes in flames! There is a lever here.
Argh!!! Lava! There is shotgun shell (x29) lying here.
Argh!!! Lava!
Argh!!! Lava!
Argh!!! Lava! You die!...
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
Before him 97 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
92 of those were killed.
2 of those were killed by something unknown.
And 3 couldn't handle the stress and commited a stupid suicide.
--------------------------------------------------------------If you're wondering, my character's name is 20 because that's the number of AoB runs I've had this streak without seeing the Chained Court. The number is actually kind of low, I finally had one sometime yesterday.
[Edit: corrected the mortem info in topic's subject]
25
Requests For Features / A Much Simpler Request Than the Last One
« on: September 26, 2007, 21:55 »
Instead of damage being random, make it affected by how well you score on your to-hit roll. This way Eagle Eye can do something for shotguns without screwing around with the numbers directly. A really awful "miss," for a shotgun, would deal minimum damage regardless of distance, while a really solid hit will deal the max even if you're far away.
PS: I don't think this should be just for shotguns, either. It seems basically appropriate for any of the non-explosive weapons. Higher roll = better hit. If done correctly, this should leave the average damage of a chaingun or plasma rifle basically unchanged: there may be a very small bias towards higher damage, but the biggest factor is still that some shots which wouldn't hit now do. Those will generally be at the lower end of the range, so it balances out.
PS: I don't think this should be just for shotguns, either. It seems basically appropriate for any of the non-explosive weapons. Higher roll = better hit. If done correctly, this should leave the average damage of a chaingun or plasma rifle basically unchanged: there may be a very small bias towards higher damage, but the biggest factor is still that some shots which wouldn't hit now do. Those will generally be at the lower end of the range, so it balances out.
26
AliensRL / This Game is TOO HARD
« on: September 25, 2007, 16:55 »
What is with you people posting "screenshots" of levels above 1 and weapons other than the pistol, MP5, magnum, and shotgun? You're obviously lying. Come on now. Own up.
That's a joke, but for serious AliensRL is too hard. How are you people doing this? I can wander around the whole damn complex forever and ever and ever until I either just get bored to death or my ammo runs out, but I have never seen a lift anywhere. What's the deal?
That's a joke, but for serious AliensRL is too hard. How are you people doing this? I can wander around the whole damn complex forever and ever and ever until I either just get bored to death or my ammo runs out, but I have never seen a lift anywhere. What's the deal?
27
Requests For Features / Weapon/Trait Overhaul
« on: September 25, 2007, 15:50 »
Hi. I'm new to the forum, but there's a snowball's chance in hell Kornel remembers my name because I emailed him like... a friggin' year ago with some suggestions. (Seriously, it was before the challenges or the player info or the trait prereqs. Old.) He told me to post them here, but I never got around to it. I figure this time I should do it right in the first place.
The new DoomRL is definitely sweet, very obviously an improvement over last time I played with it. (Though it seems much harder now. >_<) There are some things that I think need a bit more work though, primarily with traits. First though, a little weapons gripe: I hated the shotgun then, and I hate it now. Aside from the fact that it's kind of silly to have a weapon that's useless by level two unless you roll very poorly, it just seems weird to have three versions of it. Now, I sort of understand why it's like that, because it's supposed to parallel the progression of the other weapons. The trouble is that it's not really any good, it's not different enough from the other shotguns to be any fun (especially if you get Shottyman, then you basically carry around four fewer shells) and to top it all off, the progression for precision and splash weaponry is made uneven. P->C->PR, SG->CS->DS->RL->BFG. See what I mean? I think there should be another step in the precision weapons line. I suggest a plasma pistol, since you start getting plasma ammo well before you can actually use it, particularly if you take the red stairs. I like either 4d3 or 1d10, not sure which winds up giving the better balance.
That brings up another problem, that the split between the two classes of weaponry makes you do weird things with traits. Now most of the traits are decent enough, but the big bonuses of the specialist traits like Shottyman or Intuition just make the incremental bonuses of the other traits seem flat. Finesse, Ironman, Hellrunner, and Son of a Bitch basically exist to give you more time to find out whether or not you're going to pick up a double shotgun before it's time to run down EE->Int with your chaingun. This is made even worse by the fact that there are some traits you just don't touch outside of challenges; Son of a Gun is just no replacement for EE->Int unless you need Dualgunner to get through AoM, and I don't even need to mention the melee stuff.
The best fix for this is to restructure the traits with this specialization scheme in mind from the beginning. Have general traits unlock options for improvement with melee, precision, or splash, and those options in turn unlock further improvements for specific weapon classes. It seems inevitable to me that this come with some degree of power creep, since some of the options as they currently exist are subpar anyway. If it's that big a deal, just buff the monsters. :p
Intuition1 (as is) unlocks precision tree
Eagle Eye (combine with Cateye, cap 2 or 3) unlocks pistol and auto branches
Gun Kata (Dualgunner + SoaG, cap 2, first level gives move-fire,2 second level gives move-reload on empty mag)
Bullet Hose (shots per action for CG/PR increased to 10, mags doubled)
Son of a Bitch (die type and knockback +1, cap 2) unlocks splash tree
Reloader (reload time halved, cap 2) unlocks shotgun and explosive branches
Shottyman (number of dice +1, move reload, cap 1)
Demoman (explosion radius and number of dice +1, cap 1 or 2)
Hellrunner (speed/dodge +25%, cap 3) unlocks melee tree3
Tough as Nails (armor +1, health +10, cap 3) unlocks damage and stealth branches
Berserker (combine with Brute, cap 3)
Ninja (monster sight radius halved, gain extra attack from prepared slot, cap 1)
This all probably seems a bit overpowered, but I think that's curable in a rather simple fashion: get rid of weapon mods, which are already kind of annoying to use anyway. You either get your target weapon early enough to spec in it or you don't. Even if it does have some power creep, it is at least much more balanced than the current model, which I think is the most important part.
NOTES
1Why is Intuition before Eagle Eye? Because EE is useless to shotgunners, and not really of interest to demoguys either. The general idea with this tree structure was to place the generalist traits at the root.
2Yeah, that's right, move-fire. Basically with every step, your character asks for a target whenever one is in sight. Might seem like a bit much, but remember that you're restricted to a pair of pistols, here.
3The entire melee tree is a huge buff. That's okay as far as I'm concerned. The AoB challenge is damn near unplayable in its current form. I've never survived long enough to get to the Chained Court! :(
The new DoomRL is definitely sweet, very obviously an improvement over last time I played with it. (Though it seems much harder now. >_<) There are some things that I think need a bit more work though, primarily with traits. First though, a little weapons gripe: I hated the shotgun then, and I hate it now. Aside from the fact that it's kind of silly to have a weapon that's useless by level two unless you roll very poorly, it just seems weird to have three versions of it. Now, I sort of understand why it's like that, because it's supposed to parallel the progression of the other weapons. The trouble is that it's not really any good, it's not different enough from the other shotguns to be any fun (especially if you get Shottyman, then you basically carry around four fewer shells) and to top it all off, the progression for precision and splash weaponry is made uneven. P->C->PR, SG->CS->DS->RL->BFG. See what I mean? I think there should be another step in the precision weapons line. I suggest a plasma pistol, since you start getting plasma ammo well before you can actually use it, particularly if you take the red stairs. I like either 4d3 or 1d10, not sure which winds up giving the better balance.
That brings up another problem, that the split between the two classes of weaponry makes you do weird things with traits. Now most of the traits are decent enough, but the big bonuses of the specialist traits like Shottyman or Intuition just make the incremental bonuses of the other traits seem flat. Finesse, Ironman, Hellrunner, and Son of a Bitch basically exist to give you more time to find out whether or not you're going to pick up a double shotgun before it's time to run down EE->Int with your chaingun. This is made even worse by the fact that there are some traits you just don't touch outside of challenges; Son of a Gun is just no replacement for EE->Int unless you need Dualgunner to get through AoM, and I don't even need to mention the melee stuff.
The best fix for this is to restructure the traits with this specialization scheme in mind from the beginning. Have general traits unlock options for improvement with melee, precision, or splash, and those options in turn unlock further improvements for specific weapon classes. It seems inevitable to me that this come with some degree of power creep, since some of the options as they currently exist are subpar anyway. If it's that big a deal, just buff the monsters. :p
Intuition1 (as is) unlocks precision tree
Eagle Eye (combine with Cateye, cap 2 or 3) unlocks pistol and auto branches
Gun Kata (Dualgunner + SoaG, cap 2, first level gives move-fire,2 second level gives move-reload on empty mag)
Bullet Hose (shots per action for CG/PR increased to 10, mags doubled)
Son of a Bitch (die type and knockback +1, cap 2) unlocks splash tree
Reloader (reload time halved, cap 2) unlocks shotgun and explosive branches
Shottyman (number of dice +1, move reload, cap 1)
Demoman (explosion radius and number of dice +1, cap 1 or 2)
Hellrunner (speed/dodge +25%, cap 3) unlocks melee tree3
Tough as Nails (armor +1, health +10, cap 3) unlocks damage and stealth branches
Berserker (combine with Brute, cap 3)
Ninja (monster sight radius halved, gain extra attack from prepared slot, cap 1)
This all probably seems a bit overpowered, but I think that's curable in a rather simple fashion: get rid of weapon mods, which are already kind of annoying to use anyway. You either get your target weapon early enough to spec in it or you don't. Even if it does have some power creep, it is at least much more balanced than the current model, which I think is the most important part.
NOTES
1Why is Intuition before Eagle Eye? Because EE is useless to shotgunners, and not really of interest to demoguys either. The general idea with this tree structure was to place the generalist traits at the root.
2Yeah, that's right, move-fire. Basically with every step, your character asks for a target whenever one is in sight. Might seem like a bit much, but remember that you're restricted to a pair of pistols, here.
3The entire melee tree is a huge buff. That's okay as far as I'm concerned. The AoB challenge is damn near unplayable in its current form. I've never survived long enough to get to the Chained Court! :(
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