Challenge modes ideas - old and new.

[Ischaldirh]

Angel of Hatred

You hate being here. You hate everything and everyone around you. Your hatred gnaws at you night and day, like a leech sucking at your very soul. You would go insane were it not for the killing; the sight of their blood soothes your tortured, hate-filled mind.

Pros: You gain life equal to 5% of the damage you deal, +0.5% per level gained. (Cumulative, so if you deal 10 damage in one attack and 10 damage in the next attack you would gain 1 life after the second attack.)

Cons: You lose life at a rate of 1 HP every 20 seconds, -1 second per level gained.

[Captain Trek]

Just going back for a moment to one of the challenges Malek put in his poll (where Angel of D&D and Angel of Nukes, which I can only assume later became Angel of Red Alert, won out), specifically this one...

Angel of Hallucinations
The game randomly assigns a new 'psychadellic' monkier (and new color/symbol) to every monster, weapon, special level, etc., at the beginning of the game.  You have no way of knowing what a 'monkey launcher' is until you fire it (is it the BFG or an advanced pistol?), and the 'menacing clown' (represented by a bright yellow c) might be the Cyberdemon, a Baron of Hell, or a former human.

There are two problems I can seewith this... This first is that experienced (or even relatively inexperienced) players are going to know what many monsters and items are based purely on thier location... No player in his right mind is going to mistake that BFG in the Halls of Carnage for anything else, even if it isn't called a BFG 9000 in his inventory slot, he'd just have to remember that it was called the "shit slinging uber gun" or whatever, so that he doesn't confuse it with the "uber water gun of uber uberness" that he got off the "super ninja pirate monkey" that turned out to be a former commando and is actually a plasma rifle...

The other problem (which you might have guessed from reading the above paragraph) is that it could easily get too silly... One could easily chock such a mode full of inane pop culture referrences and other facepalm enducing horrors and I'd rather not have to be constantly shutting my eyes to stop them from rolling straight out of their sockets, thanks... :)

With that out of the way, here's a couple I came up with...


Angel of hemophilia

A specail mode that brings back the bleeding mechanic from earlier incarnations of this game, just for a change of pace... Could be combined with any other challenge mode...


Angel of gemini

Select two other challenge modes and try to play under the conditions of both at once... Now, obviously, AoB and AoMr would be incompatible and both of these would be incompatible with AoPac, but they rest of the modes would be more or less compatible, though some could create bizarre (but none-the-less interesting) scenarios like a 50 level Ao100 (Ao100 + AoH)...

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Actually AoB and AoMr would be compatible... you'd have to finish the game with fists alone, or as AoPac :P.

[Captain Trek]

Right... Well, anyway, this...

scenarios like a 50 level Ao100 (Ao100 + AoH)

...gave me an idea... Perhaps each combination of modes could be given its own name as well... Ao100 + AoH = Angel of 50, for example... Here's a few others I came up with...


Ao100 + AoH: Angel of 50

AoPure + AoPac: Angel of Bhuddism

AoRA + AoPac: Angel of Passive Agressive

AoRA + AoMas (or maybe AoB + AoMas): Angel of Sadomasocism


That's all I've really got so far... Actually, that's an idea, what if only some of them had names? You know, like little easter eggs or something?

[LockeCarnelia]

Angel of Insanity:

Hell's Invasion has left you a bit.... touched in the head.

This is a variation upon the Angel of Hallucinations, but instead of weird bizarro wacky things, instead, all items and monsters have random icons, so it is quite plausible that a Former Human could look like an Archvile until he shot his pistol at you.  Similarly, on maps with large quantities of lava/acid, certain tiles will be marked as dangerous when they are not, and certain tiles that ARE dangerous will appear normal until you step on them.  Levers, however, will remain normal.  The effect message, however, will be blatantly false, and will appear to reflect the false message until you actually test it, revealing the effect to be false.

A bit of a note to make things easier: Enemies will be revealed as their true selves once they fire. Equippable and usable items will be revealed when you get within two squares of aforementioned item.  Barrels will remain hidden as their insane visions at all times.  Each rank increase of Intuition would increase this "Detection" range.

This isn't the weird goofy hallucination stuff, this is dead serious hallucination stuff.

The Advantages?  Weeeell, you could overestimate an enemy, and overestimation of a foe NEVER hurts.

The Disadvantages?  You could look at a barrel right next to you and think it's a Former Human, just ready to shoot at you.

[Captain Trek]

Angel of Insanity sounds like a good way to drive the player insane... I'm just... not a fan of these "mislabel everything" type challenges as they really aren't "challenges" so much as they are the Russian Roulette and I don't know about you, but for me, games of pure chance (such as both kinds of roulette) are not my idea of either challenge or fun...

[LockeCarnelia]

Thing is, it's not pure chance.  Monsters will still act like monsters, and everything else will still act like everything else, so one can tell pretty fast if that shotgun in the corner is really a shotgun.

It's meant to be a serious challenge, and I think it accomplishes that.  If you're frustrated, it's doing its job.

[Ischaldirh]

What if instead of mislabeling everything as something else, everything appeared identical? All enemies looked like demons, all guns looked like pistols, something like that?

[Dawgas]

or maybe randomize every icon in the game, forcing you to look at everything, for example, .s may be archviles one game, and walls the next


not exactly challenging... maybe it could change every floor and be combined with Angel of Darkness?

[Visalos]

Hallucinations work best in roguelikes that don't have rocket launchers.

[Sachiko]

Hallucinations work best in roguelikes that don't have rocket launchers.

Wise words of wisdom.

Aaaanyways, I'm gonna make another challenge suggestion myself...

Angel of Silence:

You have a little problem. You're deaf-mute. To counterweight this lacking, your other senses have developed more than usual, but unfortunately, you can't hear a thing. At all.

Advantages: Your sight range is increased slightly.

Disadvantages: Anything that would generate a sound remains completely silent.

And believe me, remaining alert to the sounds that lurk by the dungeon can be quite a lifesaver sometimes. Each monster has a characteristic growl that helps you know what is waiting for you behind the door you're about to open, and also, if shooting a monster that is beyond your range of sight/Intuition, you won't know if you have hit it or even killed it. It can quite disrupt your tactics if you are not careful.

Thoughts?

[rekenne]

Am I the only person that turns sounds off, entirely, when he plays DoomRL?
I listen to music instead. >_>

[Visalos]

Am I the only person that turns sounds off, entirely, when he plays DoomRL?
I listen to music instead. >_>

ah, that makes me reminisce again, back to the days when i'd play doom until the wee hours of the night wired on caffeine and when i'd try to sleep i'd still be hearing the roars and wails and death-rattles of demons. but to answer your question, i wouldn't singlehandedly besiege hell itself with headphones on. forewarned is forearmed :P

[Sachiko]

Indeed. I can't count the many times that hearing to the growls of the demons has helped me keep myself alert and capable of making a winning tactic.

For example, if I get close to a corner and I hear something like "Grrrrr... bark!", I know that there's a mancubus waiting for me, so I'll give him a fistful of rockets as a welcoming gift. I hear like someone's munching or grunting like a pig? Meh! Another former human! A bit of boomstick will make short work of him!

Keeping your ears open is a good way to be a step forward, both in the original game and in DoomRL.

[Poochie]

Angel of Certainity:

You hate chance, you hate games of chance, you hate dice so much that you crush them when you see them. As a result your guns do (either average or max) damage and you are guaranteed to hit. However this also applies to your enemies.

This would make HR, EE and probably some other traits worthless, but it might be fun for an attempt.