With all that FtA talk, I'm wondering who's into rogue-likes on this site. Set is in Dwarf Fortress, the Pundit is obviously in NetHack as I've seen from FtA (and as was one of the major selling points to me), but who else and into what?

For those few ignorants who never heard of rogue-likes: Rogue-likes are subgenre of CRPGs, finding their predecessor in Rogue from around 1980. They are always turn-based, and always consist of totally randomly created dungeon levels. Usually, they are also displayed with plain ASCII letters, demand a shitload of keyboard commands and include Permadeath (once your character dies, the save file gets deleted and you have to restart from scratch with a new character), although there are a few exceptions. (Decker for instance uses only graphical tiles, allows reloading after death and can be played with the mouse alone, although keyboard commands are a useful timesaver.)
Those who don't understand yet or want to know more, there's a pretty exhaustive article on Wikipedia, including a typical screenshot and links to actual rogue-likes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike


Of the few big roguelikes, NetHack is definitively my all-time favourite. Got never farther than DL10, but my current game with an Elven Ranger seems promising - EXP level 9, reached Minetown safely, got a good stash on DL 3 right next to the > to the Gnomish mines, and have already found a chaotic altar on DL1. I only need to find means to deal with the 5 fire ants directly around the < on DL7 - and as so many fire ants at once are unusual, I hope it is a bones file with some interesting booty. (I use Hearse, so I don't know what the bones files on my machine look like exactly.)

I tried a few Angband variants, but I found them to be dull compared to NetHack - no shoplifting, no creative use of equipment and dungeon features, and not even corpse eating to solve the hunger problem. Only hack, slash, hope to find food rations, and if that fails run back to town and buy some more. Maybe it gets more interesting later, but the game couldn't catch my interest long enough to find out about it.

I haven't tried ADoM yet, although it seems very promising with its side-quest parts.

I tried a bit SLASH'EM and Nethack brass, but as they seem to be simply harder versions of plain vanilla NetHack, so I'll save them until I've ascended in the original (read: until an Afro-Turkish islamic communist lesbian becomes premier of Bavaria).


Of the smaller rogue-likes, I especially appreciate DoomRL and AliensRL by the Polish programmer Kornel Kisielewicz.
DoomRL is a very simple coffeebreak rogue-like, but with enough tactical and strategical options to keep veterans interested. It's especially interesting if you can remember the days when Doom was all the hotness and gore that was possible in FPS, and I would recommend it to everyone who seeks an easy start into this subgenre of CRPGs.

AliensRL is simply how survival horror has to look like in a rogue-like. Sparse and definite ammo, indefinitively spawning and hunting aliens, and two alien subraces that can really surprise you by breaking all your assumptions about aliens in the game (don't want spoil you on this one - it's really a shocker to find it out the hard way). With hacking and jury-rigging the security systems there's also an interesting subsystem in the works. Unfortunately, it's still pretty much under construction - there isn't even a save feature yet. However, I'm sure it will rock even more as soon as all features are implemented.


There's also Decker - a small mission-based rogue-like where you play a cyberspace hacker in the near future. It's a bit too repetitive after a few missions, but it's still good enough to play every now and then.

I enjoy Decker, DoomRL and most especially Dwarf Fortress.  I like NetHack, but haven't devoted enough time to it to learn its ins and outs.

I've ascended exactly once in NetHack, with a female elven wizard. Other roguelikes on this computer include such oldies as Alphaman and Omega.

NetHacking 'till the day I die.

Made it to the quest area once as a human ranger. Got killed by trolls. Them's the breaks.

I played ADoM very heavily for a looooooong old time. I think I managed to close the gate once with a Trollish Potion Merchant that I cleverly (:rolleyes:) named Jagermeister. A large part of that had to do with finding a blessed scroll of...was it charm monster? taming? summon familiar? ...and getting a greater earth elemental to be my best buddy for a large portion of the endgame, until it got hit by one of those damned explosive-rune-trapped doors and turned on me.

And now my most promising NetHack character ever suffered YASD... Got to EXP level 15. Cleared the Big Room already. Got the "oReflection from Sokoban. Got 50 normal daggers, around 20 elven daggers and a shitload of orcish poison arrow and dagger stuff, enough to clear out any level three times.
And then I went to the last preps for the quest. Moved my stash, created holy water for blessing ?oIdentity and other stuff - and sacrificed.
Dumbly, I sacrificed another Elf. Even more dumbly it summoned Yeenoghu. Luckily, he was peaceful.
So I left him alone on the altar level, traveled lightly to move my stashes - and got crowned, receiving a nice enchanted and blessed Stormbringer as gift.
Of course I wielded it, of course I traveled with it on the altar level - and then I accidentally ran into Yeenoghu. NetHackers should know what that means - it means an attack without confirmation, and an attack on a peaceful makes him hostile, and if this peaceful is a demon lord and you are just a wimpy Lvl15 character, good night.
Checked my inventory - of course, as I was completely busy with stash moving I left everything behind that wasn't necessary, including my 5 wands of digging, my pick-axe and even the ?s and /oTeleportation.
I tried to run to the staircase to get away, but he geeked me with just 2 blows.

And the lesson of this tragic story is: Should you ever find Stormbringer, then do it as far away as possible. Throw it in the next pit, move a boulder over it and summon a mold on top of it, anything that keeps you from accidentally wielding it.
I won't touch this sword again with a ten-foot-pole.

Furthermore, everything is disposable as long as you have as much digging and teleportation stuff on you as possible.

sounds like lots of old-school fun.  i usually shy away from CRPG's since i never have an up-to-date computer.  in this case, that shouldn't be a problem, right

It definitively is old-school fun! However, it's tough to get into it if you don't have any rogue-like experience.
DoomRL is the game that I would recommend as best start as it has a very limited amount of commands and stuff and doesn't demannd much tactics to have successful moments, although the Doom thematic isn't your usual CRPG stuff.

Quote from: SkyrockIt definitively is old-school fun! However, it's tough to get into it if you don't have any rogue-like experience.
DoomRL is the game that I would recommend as best start as it has a very limited amount of commands and stuff and doesn't demannd much tactics to have successful moments, although the Doom thematic isn't your usual CRPG stuff.

thanks, skyrock!  

I stick with Angband myself...I play a game of that weekly.

Dwarven Fortress looks awesome and plays very heavy. I think part of its appeal is the graphics, but the rules and instructions are inpenetrable. BUT the game is fully supported and updated.

Angband and MAngband are my top choices.

DoomRL is the only roguelike I have finished, although I have played a few... and once spent months trying to win Omega. I did kill Humperdinck, high priest of Balance and take his place. :haw:

DoomRL is just perfect, and unlike the original Doom, I can still enjoy it (Doom is so familiar that it offers no thrill anymore, not even on Nightmare ).

I've got Rogue, Moria and Larn on my Palm, which is the main source of any RL play these days.

My computer plays it a ton though.  I've got an AI borg that plays Angband as my screensaver.

Quote from: J ArcaneMy computer plays it a ton though.  I've got an AI borg that plays Angband as my screensaver.

That sounds like the coolest screensaver ever.  And a little bit scary to boot.

Quote from: J ArcaneI've got Rogue, Moria and Larn on my Palm, which is the main source of any RL play these days.

My computer plays it a ton though.  I've got an AI borg that plays Angband as my screensaver.

Man, that's the most awesome thing I've ever heard of.