Signs of life

[LuckyDee]

Hey all,

Been a while since I last dropped in, but I figured I'd have another look seeing as how activity has been picking up again due to more TLC for DRL. How's everyone doing? Any people from the pre-JH era still around?

Cheers,


D

[Tormuse]

Hey LuckyDee.  :)

I still peek in here from time to time.  I recently idly picked up JH and DRL again after a long absence, but I haven't done much in the way of serious attempts at challenges.

Other than that, I haven't been doing great, if I'm honest.  World politics are giving me anxiety, and I'm already prone to anxiety in the first place.  :P  I'm surviving, though, and occasionally streaming myself playing games on my Twitch channel, so good times are still had, at least sometimes.  :)

[LuckyDee]

Hey dude, good to hear from you - how's Diamond doing? I hear you on getting anxious about daily affairs - things aren't really looking better when you live in Europe instead of Canada, but at least I'm still a dab hand at creating my own problems so I can blame myself most of the time XD

I found out DRL actually has its own TvTropes page, which triggered me into wanting to fire up the game again, not to mention I still have a JH Steam key to cash in. It's just that we moved into a new house a month and a half ago, and my setup is currently waiting for my own room to be furnished, so it'll be another couple of weeks.

Regardless, I thought it'd be good to get reacquainted with the Forge again. It's been good to me pre-JH, and I don't easily forget where I came from.

Looking forward to seeing what else is going on here.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

It's slowly picking up pace since the DRL release to my surprise :).

... and there's more to come.

[Omega Tyrant]

I came back around about a year and a half ago after getting the itch to play DRL again, which was probably going to be a month or two burst that ended after getting a few more Diamonds, but then development on 0.9.9.8 finally started back up after all this time and so I remained around since, both playing the game a lot and helping around where I can on here, beta testing, and on the wiki.

[Tormuse]

...how's Diamond doing?

Without wishing to bring the mood down or anything, Diamond sadly passed away a few years ago, pre-pandemic time.  Autopsy was inconclusive about what caused it, though it did reveal that Diamond was female and I had been misgendering her all along.  :P  It happened suddenly and mysteriously while I was at a New Year's party;  I came home to find she'd been coughing up blood all night.  It was a very gory and upsetting thing to come home to.  :(

[LuckyDee]

Without wishing to bring the mood down or anything, Diamond sadly passed away a few years ago, pre-pandemic time.  Autopsy was inconclusive about what caused it, though it did reveal that Diamond was female and I had been misgendering her all along.  :P  It happened suddenly and mysteriously while I was at a New Year's party;  I came home to find she'd been coughing up blood all night.  It was a very gory and upsetting thing to come home to.  :(

Aw man, that sucks. Bit late to still offer my condolences, but they're yours if you want them.

I came back around about a year and a half ago after getting the itch to play DRL again, which was probably going to be a month or two burst that ended after getting a few more Diamonds, but then development on 0.9.9.8 finally started back up after all this time and so I remained around since, both playing the game a lot and helping around where I can on here, beta testing, and on the wiki.

Hey man, good to hear from you too - I don't think we were in touch much before either of us temporarily dropped out, but I hear ya on the DRL itch. Recently moved to a new house and still working to get my office/studio set up (I finally have a room to myself rather than occupying space in the living room), but I'll be sure to give 998 a spin once it's up.

... and there's more to come.

I bet you say that to all the girls :x

[Omega Tyrant]

Hey man, good to hear from you too - I don't think we were in touch much before either of us temporarily dropped out, but I hear ya on the DRL itch. Recently moved to a new house and still working to get my office/studio set up (I finally have a room to myself rather than occupying space in the living room), but I'll be sure to give 998 a spin once it's up.

Yeah I unfortunately wasn't involved much in the community side pre-JH, only making about a dozen forum posts here and then sporadically editing the wiki over the years. Aside from playing 0.9.9.8, 0.9.9.9 just had its first beta come out (check out JH's discord channel to get it), and getting more help with testing it would be swell.

[Icy]

Do I count as an oldie? :D I suppose I'm more of a middle era player, although I mostly just lurked for years.

I've mostly been off and on with DoomRL, along with doing various other gaming and non-gaming otherwise. Within DoomRL, I've written a bunch of guides, got lots of cool mortems, and had fun with pushing ideas for the newer versions with Omega Tyrant.

Life's pretty good on the outside too!

[LuckyDee]

Yeah I unfortunately wasn't involved much in the community side pre-JH, only making about a dozen forum posts here and then sporadically editing the wiki over the years. Aside from playing 0.9.9.8, 0.9.9.9 just had its first beta come out (check out JH's discord channel to get it), and getting more help with testing it would be swell.

Well seems you built up quite some steam in the meantime, nice work. And thanks for the invite for beta-testing, but one of my personal pitfalls is saying yes to stuff I just don't have time for, so I'll have to politely decline.

I did manage to scrape together some courage and run 9.9.8 for the first time - visuals seem to have been cleaned up somewhat, some of the commands are different than I remember, and I like how you can actually save and quit at any point. And I didn't do too badly either, I just forgot what special level went where, and how much of a pain in the ass the city of skulls can be D:

Spoiler

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DRL (0.9.9.8a) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Dee, level 8 Human Private Marine,
 was spooked by a lost soul on level 4 of the Deimos base.
 He survived 142202 turns and scored 42702 points.
 He played for 1 hour, 26 minutes and 18 seconds.
 He didn't like it too rough.

 He killed 452 out of 489 hellspawn. (92%)
 He held his right to remain violent.

 He saved himself once.

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 6
  Levels completed : 5

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  UAC Star (bronze cluster)  25+ kills without taking damage
  UAC Star (silver cluster)  50+ kills without taking damage
  Hell Armorer Pin           Clear Hell's Armory/Deimos Lab
  Hell Champion Medal        Clear Hell's Arena
  Technician Bronze Badge    Discover an assembly
  Gatekeeper Bronze Badge    Clear out the Anomaly
  Brick Bronze Badge         Clear The Wall/Containment Area
  Arena Bronze Badge         Complete Hell's Arena

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  ............................................s.............#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ...|........|..................||.........................#
  ............................................}|.||.........#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ....................................s.....................#
  ........................................ss.s....sss.......#
  .......................................s.ssO.....X........#
  .........................................sssss..s......>..#
  .........................................s.s..............#
  .......................................+s.sss.O...........#
  ..................................|..|.ss.sO..............#
  ..................|................s......sss.............#
  ........................................s.................#
  .................................s........................#
  .......................................ss.................#
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 0/60   Experience 28754/8
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +2  ToDmg Ranged +2  ToDmg Melee +5

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Marine

    Son of a bitch   (Level 2)
    Reloader         (Level 2)
    Brute            (Level 1)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Ammochain        (Level 1)

  SoB->SoB->Rel->Rel->TH->TH->MAc->Bru->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   nanofiber red armor [2]
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   double shotgun (9d3)x2 [0/2]
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   10mm ammo chain (x57)

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] high power chaingun (1d8)x4 [26/26]
    [b] plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [31/40]
    [c] missile launcher (6d6) [4/4]
    [d] plasma shield [0/0] (89%)
    [e] Butcher's Cleaver (5d6)
    [f] 10mm ammo (x140)
    [g] 10mm ammo (x68)
    [h] 10mm ammo (x140)
    [i] 10mm ammo (x140)
    [j] shotgun shell (x66)
    [k] rocket (x14)
    [l] rocket (x14)
    [m] rocket (x14)
    [n] power cell (x70)
    [o] power cell (x70)
    [p] power cell (x27)
    [q] power cell (x70)
    [r] small med-pack
    [s] Arena Master's Staff
    [t] 10mm ammo chain (x250)

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    acid       - internal 20%   torso 20%   feet 20% 
    fire       - internal 20%   torso 33%   feet 20% 
    plasma     - internal 20%   torso 20%   feet 20% 

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    94 former humans
    45 former sergeants
    14 former captains
    86 imps
    23 demons
    135 lost souls
    16 cacodemons
    13 hell knights
    4 barons of hell
    2 arachnotrons
    1 former commando
    7 pain elementals
    5 elite former humans
    2 elite former sergeants
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 shambler
    1 agony elemental
    1 Arena Master

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
  On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
  On level 5 he assembled a high power weapon!
  On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
  He purified his fellow comrades.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he assembled a nanofiber armor!
  On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
  On level 9 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 9 he assembled a nanofiber armor!
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 10 he found the Butcher's Cleaver!
  On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
  He emerged from the Containment Area victorious!
  On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
  On level 12 he finally was spooked by a lost soul.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul
 dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies.
 You reload the double shotgun. The lost soul hits you.
 You use a small med-pack. You feel healed. The lost soul hits you. The pain
 elemental spawns lost souls! The pain elemental spawns lost souls! The lost
 soul hits you. Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : a lost soul (lightly wounded) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul
 dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul hits you. The lost
 soul hits you. The pain elemental spawns lost souls! The pain elemental spawns
 lost souls!
 You reload the double shotgun. The pain elemental spawns lost souls! Fire --
 Choose target...
 You see : a lost soul (mortally wounded) | floor | [ m ]ore
 The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul hits you. The lost soul
 hits you. You die!... Press <Enter>...

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

  He's the first brave soul to have ventured into Hell...

--------------------------------------------------------------


Do I count as an oldie? :D I suppose I'm more of a middle era player, although I mostly just lurked for years.

Nice to hear from you again as well! I don't recall you being that active either, indeed, but I do know you did some wonderful work on creating a manual.

Apart from the four of you, things generally seem quiet, but that's ok. I'll just keep sneaking in from time to time and pick up my mod / admin duties as if I was never gone, if the 'forge lets me.