Crawl 0.14: You feel energized by your suffering!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Crawl 0.14: You feel energized by your suffering!

PleasingFungus: Oct 10, 2012; idiot asshole bitch who should fuck off

What is Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup?
Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup is a popular, free roguelike game focusing on tactics, balance, variety and a lasting challenge. A roguelike is generally a turn-based RPG, with an emphasis on randomly generated worlds, a high depth of play, huge menageries of monsters, and some MacGuffin you have to dig up and escape with. Most roguelikes use ASCII characters for graphics, though an increasing number utilize graphical tiles, like Crawl. Roguelikes are usually very tough to beat, and death is often permanent: once you're dead, you're dead.

Crawl is unique in its design philosophy, with a focus on eliminating a lot of the annoyances of the genre, while focusing on the strengths.

Major design goals:

challenging and unpredictable gameplay, with an emphasis on tactical skill
meaningful decisions (no no-brainer, works-every-time-with-every-character play choices)
grinding should be unnecessary, even discouraged
a simplified and elegant interface, with a helpful tutorial and mouse support for new players

Minor design goals:

clarity of design (playable without the need for external spoilers)
thematic consistency (no lightsaber-wielding orcs)
replayability and lasting challenge (with optional branches, multiple race/background/god choices, and optional challenges)
proper use of out-of-depth monsters

This culminates in an accessible roguelike with a compelling play experience, with tough but fair challenges, and the tools to win under your own steam. When you do die (and you will), the cause is usually clear (if not completely preventable), as well as how you can overcome it the next time around.

What's new in 0.14?

Two new races! Vine Stalkers trade healing potions & wands for fast regeneration & a magic-draining bite; Formicids trade teleportation & haste for good stats & skills, the ability to use two-handed weapons with shields, and suffering.
One new god! Dithmenos, God of Shadows and Sneaking.
Dungeon revamp! The main dungeon is now 15 floors long (down from 27), followed by 5 floors of intense Depths action. The Vaults are also now locked until you find a rune.
Summoned creatures now vanish when their summoner dies.
Also, most of the summoning school has been replaced, most rods have been replaced (with good ones, completing the transition into Evocation Dominance), new monsters, new unique enemies, and probably more things I�ve forgotten!

Screenshots!
WebTiles (on CSZO):

ASCII (again on CSZO):

Android Tiles! (yes, there's an official Android tiles version now)

How do I play Crawl?
You can download the offline builds here. The offline versions of Crawl are available in ASCII and graphical tiles formats for Windows, Mac OS X, Debian/Ubuntu, and there is also a (new!) official Android Tiles port. The development builds (Android port is located here) can also be downloaded which allow you to play the most recent experimental beta releases and test out the new additions being considered for the next stable release.

However, one of Crawl's biggest selling points is the ability to play online through various methods - read on!

Why and how to play online
If you use either an SSH client or the WebTiles interface, you can connect to one of the Crawl servers and play along with dozens of other people, or watch those who are playing. Here are some of the perks of online play:

People can spectate as you play, and with WebTiles' integrated chat window, spectators can now talk amongst themselves as well as with the game player
Your game saves and play statistics are tracked centrally and are available from any computer
Every game you play is recorded by the server, and can be replayed in whole or in part, or otherwise examined for later analysis, bragging, and mockery
You get to meet and fight the ghosts of other players, rather than just your own
You can play in the annual and version-release tournaments

Purists can play or spectate via console (see sections 'The Servers' and 'The Software'), while for those who like the graphical interface, various servers offer WebTiles functionality - a web interface which mimicks the offline Tiles build, and even has an integrated chat window for the player and spectators to talk in.

Places to play Crawl online
CAO: crawl.akrasiac.org - long-serving Crawl server located in Tucson, Arizona. Offers console and WebTiles. The website which tracks player wins and statistics is now back online at crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring
CDO: crawl.develz.org - Germany-based server for the Europeans among us, supports console only.
CSZO: crawl.s-z.org - Pennsylvania-based server, supports console and WebTiles as well as cross-interface spectating and chat. The most popular server among online players at present.
CLAN: European (German) server - MAINTAINED BY GOON TZer0 (Give him props, he rules.)

:siren:

There are a couple of new servers! :siren:

CBRO: crawl.beRotato.org Georgia, US.
CKR: kr.dobrazupa.org Korea. Webtiles-only.

This game is very hard. Where can I get help?
In keeping with roguelike tradition, Crawl is indeed an excruciatingly difficult game at times. Fortunately, there are many resources available to assist you (some considerably more reliable than others!):

##crawl - the official Dungeon Crawl IRC channel. Has a pair of bots (Sequell and Cheiabrios) that can be queried for up-to-date info on monsters & other crawl info.
##gooncrawl - the SA Crawl IRC channel.
LearnDB - a searchable repository of Crawl lore. Almost always up to date & accurate, but sometimes its terseness does it no favors.
The Tavern - the official Dungeon Crawl forum. Not a very good place to go for help, but still better than...
~~CrawlWiki~~ - community-maintained, notoriously out-of-date and of highly variable quality. Do not assume anything you read here is true or that any advice is sound. Further details here.

Beyond learning the basic mechanics of the game, probably the best way to improve is to talk about and play the game online. Online play allows other people to give you pointers on mistakes you may be making without realising, and there are usually friendly goons around in IRC who will be happy to advise you.

You can also check out the LP thread, which has writeups of completed games (won & lost) to learn from, plus an active community of helpful players to spectate and ask questions of.

Tournament????
Here!

Threads from previous versions

Crawl 0.13: FoIE GrAs: You are engorged.
Crawl 0.12 Erolcha banished me and gave me apocalypse crabs
Crawl 0.11 Eight legs and it's not an Octopode: Welcome to Spider
Crawl 0.10: Your tentacles turn into razor-sharp scythe blades
Crawl 0.9: A meow rips itself from your throat
Crawl 0.8: Mennas II Society
Crawl 0.7: The Dying Game
Crawl 0.6: Slouching towards The Abyss
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.5.0: Now with less Oklob!
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.4.0
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.3.0

*OP shamelessly stolen from the last thread, like the thread before it, and the thread before it�

PleasingFungus fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Aug 24, 2014

# ? Apr 11, 2014 00:36

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 21:16

LogicNinja: Jan 21, 2011; ...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

Let's talk about Android Tiles for a sec, I tried it once briefly and it felt infuriatingly slow compared to playing on a keyboard. Has it changed at all? Does it get much easier as you get used to it? I'm probably getting a Note 3 and I'd kind of like to slap Crawl on there but the interface change made me sad.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 00:43

kaschei: Oct 25, 2005

You may want to include a link to the up-to-date LearnDB since the bots' web interface seems to be going out of style.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 00:45

MOVIE MAJICK: Jan 4, 2012; by Pragmatica

Anyone starting up a tournament team?

# ? Apr 11, 2014 00:46

PleasingFungus: Oct 10, 2012; idiot asshole bitch who should fuck off

kaschei posted:

You may want to include a link to the up-to-date LearnDB since the bots' web interface seems to be going out of style.

Good call - done.

WYA posted:

Anyone starting up a tournament team?

If someone wanted to make a list of which goon teams have already been made, that might be useful.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 00:49

PleasingFungus: Oct 10, 2012; idiot asshole bitch who should fuck off

For the new thread: here are the 0.14 Tournament Rules.

Basically, anyone playing online (e: in 0.14!) between April 11th and 27th will automatically be entered into the tournament, and will be able to earn 'points' and 'banners'. You can also join a clan with up to five other people to pool points. It's not really an intense competitive experience, but it's neat anyway.

PleasingFungus fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Apr 11, 2014

# ? Apr 11, 2014 00:51

LogicNinja: Jan 21, 2011; ...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

PleasingFungus posted:

For the new thread: here are the 0.14 Tournament Rules.

Basically, anyone playing online between April 11th and 27th will automatically be entered into the tournament, and will be able to earn 'points' and 'banners'. You can also join a clan with up to five other people to pool points. It's not really an intense competitive experience, but it's neat anyway.

My favorite thing about tournaments has been team members spectating and giving you advice. I play a lot better when people are yelling at me not to do the dumb poo poo I do all the loving time.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 00:58

Firebatgyro: Dec 3, 2010

PleasingFungus posted:

For the new thread: here are the 0.14 Tournament Rules.

Basically, anyone playing online between April 11th and 27th will automatically be entered into the tournament, and will be able to earn 'points' and 'banners'. You can also join a clan with up to five other people to pool points. It's not really an intense competitive experience, but it's neat anyway.

Just make sure when you start a game you choose the .14 option and not Trunk or any of the older versions

# ? Apr 11, 2014 00:59

Viashino_wizard: Mar 26, 2010; Consider my interest piqued.

Might want to fix the screenshots in the OP so they don't stretch the page out.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:20

The Newman: Oct 17, 2003; unconstructive critic

I would like to join a team. I won 3 times last tourney, a feat I will not repeat this time because I have a job.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:20

busb: Mar 19, 2009; Thorgie

At what stage does the clan page listing update?
I'm assuming as team captain i have to play a game before it looks to update the clan listing?

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:24

goldjas: Feb 22, 2009; I HATE ALL FORMS OF FUN AND ENTERTAINMENT. I HATE BEAUTY. I AM GOLDJAS.

Does online play still have a super restricted User Interface compared to the single player version, or have they fixed that by now? (I haven't checked online stuff since WebTiles first existed).

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:28

LogicNinja: Jan 21, 2011; ...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

Firebatgyro posted:

Just make sure when you start a game you choose the .14 option and not Trunk or any of the older versions

Nostalgia Tournament would be fantastic....

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:29

busb: Mar 19, 2009; Thorgie

goldjas posted:

Does online play still have a super restricted User Interface compared to the single player version, or have they fixed that by now? (I haven't checked online stuff since WebTiles first existed).

Webtiles has just about everything nowadays except zero latency and some mouse interaction, but you don't really need to use the mouse for anything anyway.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:30

Lawman 0: Aug 17, 2010

LogicNinja posted:

Nostalgia Tournament would be fantastic....

Speaking of nostalgia.

quote:

Goodbye, Lawman0.

3858 Lawman0 the Arsonist (level 9, 0/57 HPs)
Began as a Grey Elf Fire Elementalist on Apr 10, 2014.
Killed by a Zot trap (34 damage)
... on Level 7 of the Dungeon on Apr 11, 2014.
The game lasted 00:22:21 (7957 turns).

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:36

Arrhythmia: Jul 22, 2011

busb posted:

Webtiles has just about everything nowadays except zero latency and some mouse interaction, but you don't really need to use the mouse for anything anyway.

It also doesn't have the little inventory box in the lower corner, but that's about it.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:43

LogicNinja: Jan 21, 2011; ...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

Lawman 0 posted:

Speaking of nostalgia.

Well, yeah, BUT Vehumet has the old predictable gifts starting with Book of Conjurations... but the new Book of Conjurations, so guaranteed Battlesphere/IMB. That, plus the shitton of XP available from 10 levels of Lair, 7 levels of Elf, etc, is pretty great.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:48

Ramc: May 4, 2008; Bringing your thread to a screeching halt, guaranteed.

Just reposting from the 0.13 thread to deathrats and coyo7e you do not seem to be showing up in the roster yet ( http://dobrazupa.org/tournament/0.14/clans/ramc.html )

Double check that you set yourself up correctly in the 0.14 rcfile!

and for posterity-

Zincense and Peppermints

Captain- Ramc
2- Jazzimus
3- arghonaut
4- firebatgyro
5- deathrats
6- coyo7e

# ? Apr 11, 2014 01:50

Not My Leg: Nov 6, 2002; AYN RAND AKBAR!

In the last thread I dug into the inner workings of Zin's recite ability. I might as well move it over here so it doesn't get lost forever. Thanks to HyperBowl for providing the code for the basic formula.

Zin's recite ability works by comparing your piety and invocations skill against a susceptible enemy's HD using the following formula.

code:

//Resistance is now based on HD. You can affect up to (30+30)/2 = 30 'power' (HD).
int power = (skill_bump(SK_INVOCATIONS, 10) + you.piety * 3 / 2) / 20;
// Old recite was mostly deterministic, which is bad.
int resist = mon->get_experience_level() + random2(6);
int check = power - resist;

Translating that from code, when you recite the game determines your "power", the monster's "resist", and then performs a "check". If your power is higher than the target's resist, the recite works.

Your power has two components: invocations and piety.

The amount of power you get from piety is straightforward, piety * 3 / 40 = power. At 200 (max) piety, piety contributes 15 HD of power. You lose 1 full HD of power for every 13 1/3 piety below 200.

Invocations is a little more complicated, because it uses the "skill_bump" function. For all skill levels above 2, skill_bump(skill, X)= (skill+3)*X. So, for recite, it becomes (invocations+3)*10. This is then divided by 20 to determine your power from invocations. At 27 (max) invocations, invocations contributes 15 HD of power. You lose 1/2 HD of power for every skill point below 27, until you hit 2 skill. For skill levels 0, 1, and 2 skill_bump = (skill*2)*X. So, if you are really trying to recite things with less than 3 invocation skill, each skill point contributes 1 HD of power.

Once you are above 2 in Invocations, the full formula is Power = ((Invocations+3)*10 + piety * 3/2)/20.

Enemy Resist is straight forward, it equals HD + 1d6 - 1.

If Power - Resistance > 0 Recite works, but the effect is based on enemy type and by how much you beat the enemy's resistance.

Enemy type is checked in the following order - Chaotic, Impure, Unholy, Heretic I(worships other god), Heretic II(everyone else). If an enemy potentially fits into two categories, only the first category counts for recite.

If the enemy is Chaotic

+1-4: Bleed or Smite (equal chance, smite guaranteed if enemy cannot bleed)
+5-9: Smite or Corona (equal chance)
+10-14: Ignite Chaos or Corona (equal chance)
+15 or more: Salt

If the enemy is Impure

+1-4: Bleed or Smite (equal chance, smite guaranteed if enemy cannot bleed)
+5-9: Rot or Corona (equal chance, rot will affect rot immune enemies if they have flesh)
+10-14: Holy Word or Corona (equal chance)
+15 or more: Salt

If the enemy is Unholy

+1-4: Daze or Confuse (equal chance)
+5-9: Confuse or Corona (equal chance)
+10-14: Holy Word or Corona (equal chance)
+15 or more: Salt, or go back to 10-14 effect (equal chance)

If the enemy is a priest or worshiper of another god, or a demigod

+1-4: Bleed or Smite (equal chance)
+5-9: Blind (33%), otherwise Antimagic (if susceptible), otherwise Corona
+10-14: Permanent Blind, Non-Permanent Paralyze, or Permanent Mute (equal chances)
+15 or more: Permanently Mad (confused) or Permanently Dumb (paralyzed) (equal chance)

If the enemy is just a generic heretic (everybody else who is susceptible to recite)

+1-4: Daze
+5-9: Daze or Confuse (equal chance)
+10-14: Confuse
+15 or more: Paralyze (1/3) or Confuse (2/3)

So, there again is everything you wanted to know about recite. Long story short, assuming a character with 27 invocations and 200 piety, you are guaranteed the best effects against anything up to 10 HD (for example, all mummies up to Priests), the best effects are possible against anything up to 15 HD (includes low HD random Pan Lords), and some effect is possible against anything up to 30 HD, although very unlikely (Orbs of Fire). Since piety decays over time, it's probably best to assume you don't actually have perfect piety and you might want to knock a HD off all of those numbers.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:07

UncertainKitten: Oct 10, 2012

You forgot the very most important update where cats get to use wands. This is clearly an inaccurate OP :colbert:

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:27

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

So I stopped playing around 0.12, right before lorcs, djinn, and gargoyles were added. What important changes have been made since then?

UncertainKitten posted:

You forgot the very most important update where cats get to use wands. This is clearly an inaccurate OP

I'm genuinely shocked they made Felids suck less. Playing Felid was the most boring Crawl victory I've had.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:34

Hellioning: Jun 27, 2008

Internet Kraken posted:

So I stopped playing around 0.12, right before lorcs, djinn, and gargoyles were added. What important changes have been made since then?

I'm genuinely shocked they made Felids suck less. Playing Felid was the most boring Crawl victory I've had.

Dungeon is now 15 levels. After that there's the Depths, which is five levels. Also gargoyles are amazing.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:36

Elyv: Jun 14, 2013

Internet Kraken posted:

So I stopped playing around 0.12, right before lorcs, djinn, and gargoyles were added. What important changes have been made since then?

I'm genuinely shocked they made Felids suck less. Playing Felid was the most boring Crawl victory I've had.

Try FeCK, it's pretty fun.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:45

PleasingFungus: Oct 10, 2012; idiot asshole bitch who should fuck off

UncertainKitten posted:

You forgot the very most important update where cats get to use wands. This is clearly an inaccurate OP

PleasingFungus posted:

...and probably more things I�ve forgotten!

Internet Kraken posted:

So I stopped playing around 0.12, right before lorcs, djinn, and gargoyles were added. What important changes have been made since then?

Lava Orcs are still trunk-only and their developer has left. Djinn were removed. Gargoyles are really, really strong.

Also evocables are good now, crypt, vaults, and conjurers are way less boring, traps & doors and stabbing skills were removed... axes cleave, fulsome distillation & evaporate are gone... plus the stuff I mentioned in the OP, and other things.

It's an exciting time for crawl!

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:47

Slaapaav: Mar 3, 2006; by Azathoth

Axes are amazing if you like the O + tab playstyle now that they have cleave.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:48

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

What's up with the knowledge bot? It doesn't display images anymore but the text still works.

Hellioning posted:

Dungeon is now 15 levels. After that there's the Depths, which is five levels. Also gargoyles are amazing.

Eurgh. I don't like the sound of this solely because I'm so used to the traditional 27 levels and gauging how safe it is to dive deeper based on which one I'm at.

Elyv posted:

Try FeCK, it's pretty fun.

CK is "fun" if you enjoy being arbitrarily screwed over whenever you actually manage to do well.

Well more than the game does that already.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:50

Elyv: Jun 14, 2013

Internet Kraken posted:

CK is "fun" if you enjoy being arbitrarily screwed over whenever you actually manage to do well.

Well more than the game does that already.

Xom generally doesn't screw you over that badly.

Of course, I have lost a character in late zig due to Xom intervention, so I just might be wrong.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 02:59

LogicNinja: Jan 21, 2011; ...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

CK is just playing Double Crawl.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:00

kaschei: Oct 25, 2005

Internet Kraken posted:

What's up with the knowledge bot? It doesn't display images anymore but the text still works.

For some reason the way that the web interface used the (extremely outdated) monster DB or the (rarely updated) learndb broke.

So if you can't get on IRC the only way to get to newer learnDB entries is here, and if you want monster info you have to get on IRC (although xv or ?/m work decently).

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:11

UncertainKitten: Oct 10, 2012

Internet Kraken posted:

So I stopped playing around 0.12, right before lorcs, djinn, and gargoyles were added. What important changes have been made since then?

I'm genuinely shocked they made Felids suck less. Playing Felid was the most boring Crawl victory I've had.

Well, DracoOmega was watching me splat a lot of felids <.<. There were almost certainly other factors, but it just came up while I was talking to him and playing a couple months ago where I basically was playing a felid til I won one (it took 79 tries).

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:40

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

It only took me two tries to win with a Felid. First was a fighter that got TREMENDOUSLY poo poo luck and died to a giant on D:8 I think. Second was a venom mage that vomitted poison everywhere and strolled to an easy win. The only part that made it hard was how loving bored I was. I think I died like twice on Zot:5 just because I was so sick of playing Felid.

Its an inherently weird race though and I doubt I'll ever enjoy them just because I find the whole extra lives thing to be really unsatisfying in a rogue like.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:46

nrook: Jun 25, 2009; Just let yourself become a worthless person!

PleasingFungus posted:

Also evocables are good now

Evocables were always good >:(

RIP old stone of earth elementals, you were too pure for this world.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:47

Johnny Joestar: Oct 21, 2010; Don't shoot him?

...
...

nrook posted:

Evocables were always good >

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:50

Elyv: Jun 14, 2013

Agent Kool-Aid posted:

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

These are the words of someone who missed how broken the 0.5 evokables were.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:52

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

Evocables is the skill of "this could be good if it didn't have a chance to backfire horribly".

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:53

Johnny Joestar: Oct 21, 2010; Don't shoot him?

...
...

'Always' implied that they weren't crap before they got changed to what they are now.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 03:54

Circle Nine: Mar 1, 2009; But that’s how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now, I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don’t have to carry a suitcase.

Ummm I'm pretty sure you meant to put this rockin picture of Gastronok at the top of the first post instead of that lame old thing?

# ? Apr 11, 2014 04:09

MOVIE MAJICK: Jan 4, 2012; by Pragmatica

Someone please make a team so I can join it

# ? Apr 11, 2014 04:21

nrook: Jun 25, 2009; Just let yourself become a worthless person!

You're making me want to found "team bad players who have played a really long time but haven't played very much recently, also are bad"

# ? Apr 11, 2014 04:27

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 21:16

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

So are Formicids really ant people? I want to play as an ant that punches people in the face.

# ? Apr 11, 2014 05:36

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