After playing some Witcher 3, I felt like it wasn't quite as good a "Game" as it is awesome graphics (my excuse), and relatively great storytelling. I missed the feeling of uniqueness and emergent gameplay that could sometimes happen in games like Baldur's gate etc. There was rarely a weapon that would change my whole strategy, never did some combination of random factors result in my death. And as others have pointed out, it gets easier and easier. I wanted a game that gets harder and harder!
I started to search for something else..
1st I tried to find out if something like Baldur's gate exists in some way or another. I like the fact that in DnD 2nd edition you can't hurt certain enemies unless you have a +2 (or more) weapon. I stumbled upon these ASCII roguelikes that are brutal, some of them with a very stiff learning curve, and a minimal interface. They quickly put me off.. (although im growing more and more ready for them.)
But then I found Brogue! It's easy to get into, very few commands, as elegant as an ASCII game can get. And it's AWESOME! It throws at you very difficult problems and tactical situations all the time. You die in hilarious ways, and it's quite a quick game. Well I never made it further than Depth 11 so maybe that's why.
It's well made in that the weapons and armors and general stuff you find is what defines your characters. You are forced to make due with whatever you can get. Try it, die and try again. Drink unknown potions not too far away from water..
Get it for free: https://sites.google.com/site/broguegame/ (https://sites.google.com/site/broguegame/)
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: [ptx] on September 19, 2015, 04:13:35 pm
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: Thomek on September 20, 2015, 09:54:59 pm
Just tried it a bit.. seems a lot more hardcore :)
Idk, I really like Brogue.. It seems they have found a super elegant balance between simplicity and amount of weird shit that can happen.. (ways to die, i.ex)
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: Gravoth_iii on September 20, 2015, 11:41:37 pm
Stone soup is glorious, and tough. My best run ended up with me getting sent to the abyss and my futile attempt at finding an exit ended quickly. Gotta love dungeon crawlers.
Also i have a boner for ASCII graphics and similar, if there are more suggestions of good crawlers i would love to try some out. Still need to pick up dwarf fortress again, but i got bored with my last settlement since it did too well :shock:
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: Uther Pendragon on September 22, 2015, 11:15:20 pm
The problem with Dwarf Fortress (in Fortress mode) is that if you do too well and you get too many living things at once, it'll slow down to a crawl since the game is so old it can't use the computers power to the max, and when FPS is low, the game is slow. AND THEN THE GAME IS SLOW, THE GAME IS BORING AND YOU QUIT IT
There were rumours of some tests with newer computers that allowed the game to work more efficiently, but only rumours...
That's why you need to keep your population at around 50 dwarfs and sacrifice any over the cap folk to Armok by drowning them in the sea of magma.
Especially children, fuck children in Dwarf Fortress
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: Paul on September 23, 2015, 06:09:28 am
Or you could just lower the cap in the ini for a magma-saving solution. I think there are also tools or mods that allow a periodic cleaning of the fort to keep the item/object count of a fort low. Nevertheless I hope for an optimation arc to happen soon. Last time I read the dev notes I got really exited because Toady spoke of "working through performance stuff". Was kinda pissed when I found out it was about dancing.
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: Polobow on September 23, 2015, 08:50:08 am
Today spoke of "working through performance stuff". Was kinda pissed when I found out it was about dancing.
Only in Dwarf Fortress...
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: Thomek on September 23, 2015, 04:14:47 pm
This thread is not about Dwarf Fortress, which I half-assedly tried to get into 3 times!
Anyone actually tried Brogue? It's excellent. Brilliant game design.
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: Kalp on September 23, 2015, 04:21:17 pm
Is it better than ADOM ?
Title: Re: Brogue - Pretty and accessible ASCII roguelike/dungeoncrawler
Post by: Thomek on September 23, 2015, 04:43:47 pm
It's much much simplified, and a run takes probably 5-20 minutes depending ofc on how far you get.
It's really nothing to learn before starting up, no stats, no BS. It is a kind of boiled down version of the classics. Keeping fantastic gameplay, the dilemmas, the horrible deaths, and tricky situations, while disregarding a lot of the stats and numbercrunching.
People are scared to try a new ASCII game, but this one got me going in seconds. It's really different from the lot, with no letters and symbols to learn. It's all self-explanatory. It's just great!