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Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
I like Teleglitch a lot, so here's a little blurb. It's in the current Indiegala Limited if you want to pick it up cheap.

Teleglitch: Die More Edition
Cost: $13



Genre: Top-down shooter
Graphics: Lo-fi
Music: None in-game, there is a DLC soundtrack.
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
Let's Plays: Various ones on Youtube, no goon ones
Forks: No

Probably best described a roguelite, Teleglitch: Die More Edition is an updated version of the original Teleglitch. Showing that nobody in that universe played Doom, military teleportation experiments have brought back something Very Bad from the other side of the universe which has proceeded to drive the facility AI insane, seed lethal spatial anomalies everwhere, and lead to everyone except you dying or becoming its microchipped slaves. To survive, you have to kill your way through ten increasingly dangerous levels, with more than one branching point where you can choose an alternate level path. Teleglitch is a top-down shooter with what I can best describe as lo-fi graphics, down to the 90s-esque loading screen. There is a cool line-of-sight system that makes entering a new room a tense experience, and the sound design is awesome - ominous drones and monster sounds really put you on edge.

While almost nothing in the game is really random (there is a fixed set of items, monsters and room modules per level, but these are scrambled up each time you play, so while you more or less know what's coming, you're never quite sure what's around the corner It's usually some rear end in a top hat with an SMG.) it does have permadeath, and you will be dying a lot. It's also quite moddable provided you know some Lua. Succeeding requires you to pay constant attention, conserve ammo and react properly to the various kinds of threat. Recommended, provided you have a decent tolerance for difficult games.

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Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Anyone playing Bionic Dues? I'm most of the way through my first playthrough on the default difficulty and default party. It's a sort of party-based lite roguelike; you have 50 days to buff up your party before having to face a final battle, and getting a TPK just means you lose a day (and the enemies get a bit stronger).

I like the fluff and the aesthetic (and the fact that every bot enemy has some hilarious gaping hole in their "build" that makes them unpredictable threats), but I'm really hoping that higher difficulty levels will make for a significant challenge, because once I got some decent AOE and ranged attacks the difficulty curve just took a nosedive. There's not much the enemies can do when you have a weapon with twice their attack range that hits a radius-4 circle and one-hit-kills just about everything. Who cares if you only get 10 shots? The overall flow of gameplay suggests to me that there's a serious snowball effect: once you get stronger than the bots, you'll stay stronger than the bots (they don't have any real catchup mechanisms, in other words).

The loot's very Diablo-like, and works decently well except there's so damned many slots to fill on your party members. Each weapon has three slots, every character has at least two weapons, and then they have a variable number of reactor, shield, propulsion, and computer slots as well (depending on class). I think they really could have just done with a single slot per weapon, at least.
I finished a game of Bionic Dues when it first came out, sentry turrets really trivialized it. However, I understand they've been patched to be less amazing! I did have a quick go at the higher difficulties and they do seem like a decent jump in difficulty.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

andrew smash posted:

i played a fair amount of it but the fluff actually kind of turned me off. It felt really unfocused. I also really hated the music and sound bites the robots yell when they die.
I have to admit to smiling every time I hear, "Why was I programmed to feel pain!?".

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Infra Arcana is something I've gotten into recently, anyone else played it and have some tips? A pack of mummies paralyzed me and beat me to death. :(

Infra Arcana



Genre: Turn-based RPG
Graphics: Tiles optional
Sounds: Since v15
Platform: Windows, Linux
Let's Plays: Various ones on Youtube, no goon ones
Forks: No, but it's open source (C++)

Essentially, it's Lovecraft meets Blood, roguelike style. Your goal is to infiltrate the Church of the Starry Wisdom in search of the Shining Trapezohedron, a source of forbidden knowledge. Unfortunately, the dungeons beneath are full of reanimated corpses, cultists (shouting phrases from Blood!), Byakhees, mummies, etc. etc. To defeat them, you can use various melee and ranged weapons (including a Tesla cannon and a spike gun that can pin enemies to walls!). It's mainly developed by a guy called Martin Törnqvist, but since v14 it seems to have been open-sourced, so others appear to be contributing too.

The character creation system still seems to be a little bit in flux, but you first choose two traits (like Dextrous, which raises your evade chance and gives you every fourth move free), then two abilities (like Occultist, which lets you memorize a spell for future casting once you read an identified manuscript). Replacing the usual hunger clock is a sanity mechanic - you have a current stress level and a long-term insanity level. Seeing monsters, being in darkened rooms and generally hanging around in a dungeon increases your stress, and when it hits 100% you gain a bit of insanity and can faint, scream, become confused, and so on. Once you go completely insane, your adventure is over. There are a lot of nice touches in the game, such as reanimated corpses often refusing to stay dead once you 'kill' them, the ability to jam doors with iron spikes to stop monsters from following you and call-backs to Lovecraft like the walls in a room suddenly crumbling and a horde of rat-things pouring out. I'm finding it quite a difficult game - apparently there are 30 levels, but I've only gotten to level 7 or so.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

Space Bat posted:

I personally wouldn't recommend it at the moment. I spent several hours trying it out and it's very frustrating in a bad way. For reference, my favorite roguelike is probably Adom and I love Sil too, and those games are all about lulling you into a false sense of security and then sucker punching you. My problem with IA is that it's just...not fun. If you run into Reanimated corpses you're pretty hosed. They take too much damage and you can't actually kill them, and the stealth mechanics in IA are broken and useless. It seems like the devs should consider taking a page from Sil where everything gives you EXP and numerous builds are potentially good, from pacifist to fighter man. The only luck I've personally had is a dexterous/tough melee/rapid recoverer who found a suit of armor on floor one and I made it to like floor 7 or 8 before being chain stunned and confused by a million ghosts that spawned on top of me. It does have really nice looking tiles though.
I've played it for a while now, I agree that it would be more fun if it weren't so punishing. I think the developer has the attitude that actually winning the game should be a once-in-a-lifetime event. It also seems like the saving and loading mechanics are broken at the moment since you can lose the permanent intrinsics from your initial trait choices and it doesn't save the spells you know. You can permanently kill reanimated corpses, though - either kill them in such a way that they don't leave a corpse, such as by doing lots of damage in one hit, or re-kill them once and they stop resurrecting.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

Agent Kool-Aid posted:

I haven't found it -way- too punishing as of yet. I've mostly just been saving my resources for when I absolutely know I'll need them, though. Only gotten to around level 8 I think before getting hosed up by something I'm pretty sure I could have avoided. It could definitely use some work in my opinion, especially when it comes to the fact that some status ailments can pretty much be death sentences since they last goddamn forever. The game is right on the edge of being a fun and relatively short roguelike, but yeah, it does feel a little bit unfair in how harshly it treats the character. The unfortunate bit is that it feels like there really isn't anything I could have done with the tools I had sometimes when I die.

Also, having all of your spirit drained should just shoot up your insanity by a fair chunk instead of outright killing you. Starting as an Occultist seems to be basically useless since you won't be able to cast anything you know until like 6 levels from then when you might possibly have a spirit pool large enough to eliminate at least 90% of the instant kill chance. It's pretty neat overall, and I hope it gets even better with more updates. (Hopefully on the more balanced side.)
I find Occultist can be useful because you sometimes start with a Manuscript of Sacrifice Spirit, which is more or less a healing spell on tap. It does seem like most spells are too draining to cast, though the more Mythos knowledge you get, the lower the Spirit costs are.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Awesome! I already backed Dungeonmans, so I'd like Risk of Rain. Steam profile.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
It's here: http://roguelikedeveloper.blogspot.com/2013/12/request-for-votes-ascii-dreams.html

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
I have to say that I didn't enjoy the demo (which seems to have vanished from the developer's website?) very much. I'm not sure how representative it was of the full game, though.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Are Claustrophobia or Hero Siege any good? I can't seem to find much in the way of reviews.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
I've been playing TowerClimb recently and just finished Chapter 1 of the beta (and there's still the bonus 100-floor mode left). It gives me exactly the same feeling of needing to focus completely on the game and manage resources properly to win as a good roguelike, but it also has nice (albeit low-res) graphics, great music and satisfying platforming. On the downside, the controls could be improved some, as it's a bit annoying having to hold down the run button to keep hold of things. You should buy this game if you like platformers even a little bit, especially since it's only $5.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
I found myself just not bothering with terminals (on Normal, anyway). I guess they're supposed to be the analogue of potions, but the benefits of a good one are never really that amazing, and you can't always control when you can use them.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Some more Sproggiwood feedback:

Can choose Continue without having started a game?
No way to return to title screen?
Choosing quit to desktop didn't do anything the first time.
Can place the inspection target in places you can't see. This looks a bit weird, especially when it goes under the UI.
No way to get back upstairs? I assume this is deliberate, so maybe a prompt your first time going down.
Warrior's Charge description text is covered by the picture.
Charge animation seems very slow sometimes, both for you and Goat Giants?
Big Ick's lair had an inaccessible area to the right, although you could see it on the minimap.
Can't use Print Screen to take a screenshot!?
Build Mode exit arrow is partially off the screen at 1920 x 1200.
After confirming the move of a Bridge in build mode, the bridge position shifts by a few tiles.
No indication you can scroll when buying Civic Boosts, I accidentally hit the scroll wheel!
I found the acid slime left by the blue jellies quite annoying, as you could trap yourself in an area and not have enough HP to get out.
Couldn't activate Scroll of Fireball using the numpad?
Farmer double pumpkin bomb ability doesn't activate if used near enough to a wall, is this deliberate?
Goat Giants will still try to charge you even if afraid from Scarecrow ability.
Goat Giants' charge will (sometimes, maybe if more than 1 square?) set off bombs (for no damage) but not remove acid slime.
Doors summoned by Scroll of Wonder don't seem to do anything?
Can't seem to level up past level 5, is this intentional?
Maps can generate with a shrine blocking the entrance to a room.

Naar fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Oct 2, 2014

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Another Sproggiwood bug - I beat the boss of The Bloated Grotto, but it was on a teleport pad when it died, and I couldn't move on to the tile to pick up the chest (teleporting on the pad also didn't trigger it). I had to quit out as there was nothing else I could do.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

Unormal posted:

Hah, that's a good one! I'll fix it up.

Thanks! Here's another one for you - you don't seem to actually need to equip the Alchemist's Vial to get double potion uses. It's selected as default when I start a map, but I can select Rumakko's Jewel instead and still drink a health potion twice.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

Dazzling Klaxon posted:

2) Enemies that are frozen may unfreeze and attack on the same turn. So if something's in a block of ice and I move next to it, I get hit. I expected them to work like spiderwebs and give me a 'free' turn, which is usually the case so the issue may just be them unfreezing visually at the wrong time.

This game is really fun also. I got to the 'unwinnable' 7th level and I would agree that is the case.
Definitely agree with all of this. There wasn't much I could do about a screen full of cloning, fire-spraying mushroom wizards.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Aaaargh guards in Teleglitch are bullshit. If you're going to give a monster a gun, it needs to be non-hitscan, inaccurate, and/or low-damaging. Guards have fast-firing hitscan weapons that deal like 25 damage per hit.

I've yet to make it to the fourth zone. Is it too much to ask for checkpoints at every level? None of this "We'll let you start from level 3 if you can make it to level 5 from level 1" crap. The game seems to be actively player-hostile.
Listen for them, they make a distinct sound. Then ambush them from behind a door. It used to be that a single sticky grenade killed them, but that may have changed in a later patch?

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

Scalding Coffee posted:

Can't you turn it off and still scum it?
Yes, just turn off cloud saving and it'll be on your hard drive if you want to back up your progress.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
No, it's turn-based and tile-based. Check it out, it's really cool!

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
I backed Approaching Infinity on Kickstarter, because I wanted the dude to make his game. I wouldn't pay $40, for it, though. I did get a code to get the boxed version for $25 too, but even that's a bit much.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Any tips on how to get the 'return the fleece in <= 150 turns' achievement in Hoplite? It tends to go OK for the first ten floors or so, then I find myself either taking too long to clear a path and running out of time or rushing ahead and getting killed.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
By the way, if anyone wants to pick up Dream Quest for free, Vodo are doing some sort of new user promotion thing where you can send a free Vodo gift to a friend. You can use it to get any of the offers they've got running, including Dream Quest. If you're interested, catch me on Steam (http://steamcommunity.com/id/Krauthammer/) or PM me.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Trying to beat Shifting Passages as a Bloodmage is starting to get really old. I usually use Gnome with Binlor's altar prepped (plus a whole bunch of extra stuff), but I feel like I'm missing something because the furthest I've got is Evolvia at about half health. Any tips?

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Anyone interested in splitting a Cogmind 3-pack? It works out at $20 each. PM me here or talk to me on Steam, I'm http://steamcommunity.com/id/Krauthammer/.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
How is The Curious Expedition? I heard the developers talking about it on Roguelike Radio, but I already have one exploration-themed roguelike in Renowned Explorers.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
After listening to a Roguelike Radio episode about Road Not Taken where they more or less described it as the second coming of Roguelike Jesus, I decided to play it. As far as I can tell, it's kind of a randomly generated Sokoban with some faintly awkward controls. Am I missing something fundamental here?

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Has anyone played Golden Krone Hotel yet? It looks fun, but some hands-on opinions would be good.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Any tips for Deathstate on Desecration 2+? I can fairly consistently finish the game on Desecration 1, but any higher is kicking my rear end.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

HeartNotes3 posted:

I got Dream Quest. It kind of reminds me of Desktop Dungeons. I still have NO idea what I'm doing. Any early game tips?

Dream Quest is mostly about picking a gimmick for your deck and doubling down on it. Trying to spread yourself too thin will get you killed.
It will get easier as you unlock the various passive boosts/better cards by doing challenges.
Similar to Desktop Dungeons, try to save lower level monsters as ways to refresh your per-x-battles abilities if you can.
Think very carefully before adding a card to your deck. Also, try to get rid of any poor cards (like Attack 1) ASAP via a monastery.
The Flee talent is great for mages because you get two chances to alpha strike a monster - just run away if your starting hand isn't great.
You don't need to fight every monster to reach level 10, so skip the really dangerous ones if possible. Most dragons are difficult, as are Hands of Glory, Sphinxes and Hags.
Once you unlock the talent that makes all your damage piercing you can steamroll so many annoying gimmick fights that I always end up taking it.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

Unimpressed posted:

Any opinions on Monster Slayers? Looks like Dream Quest with a nicer UI, at least it professes to be that.
I'm quite enjoying it. It's definitely very Dream Quest-esque, with some nicer production values and the same feeling of "this is impossible, oh wait, no it isn't". I can't quite put my finger on it, but I get the sense it isn't quite as finely tuned mechanically as Dream Quest is. Still, there have been a few patches already so the developers are still tweaking things. Definitely worth £4 or the equivalent in your currency of choice.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

hito posted:

Have any Dream Quest nerds figured out how the heck you win with Priest? I've won with the other basic classes but Priest just seems sorta bad at everything. They seem like maybe you're supposed to spec them into defense spellcasters who use things like poison / shields, but that archetype seems bad because there are just too many enemies you need to burst down quickly. Maybe this is just me being generally bad at spells talking, though - my only Wizard win was basically going pure electricity thindeck which seems like the most brainless way to use spells.
You can go for spells and be quite defensive with the Priest, but I found doubling down on prayers worked pretty well. There's a card that reduces the timer on all active prayers, and if you get two or three strong ones (e.g. the one that does 25 damage or the one that lets you draw loads of cards) the enemy's going to feel it.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

RoboCicero posted:

Alright, I've recently gotten into Dream Quest (approximately four years and change after it was released). Any tips on beating the game on the second difficulty level with Samurai? I've finished the game with every other basic class but this guy suuuucks. Refill on victory is amazing but his starting deck is pretty weak so deck building is a uphill battle of getting the deck to a point where you can play enough cards per turn to burst the enemy down before you die. Attack (3) Attack (3) Pierce (1) Sorcerous Strike (3) is a decent play on floor two but complete rear end on floor three.

Right now I'm taking Smash and Heal since being able to pick your fights seems important, especially on floor 3 where you're really relying on the heal after combat to keep yourself healthy between fights.

I know that it pretty much depends on what cards you find per run but not having Circles in the deck at the start makes it hard to get an action based build up, and mana builds are a tiny bit too unreliable since you're not guaranteed to find Electrocute / you have to rip a bunch of Attack cards out of your deck to get mana to reliably cast them.

I even managed to die with the cheesy double Gauss's Hourglass build :negative:
For the Samurai, you can usually generate enough mana with Sorcerous Strike cards + the odd mana card that has useful effects, like Frost Charge. I usually take Training to start so I can get a Sorcerous Strike 2 from the get-go. Don't forget your Kai Strike/Blast as it can blow through a lot of defences, making it a good 'oh poo poo' button. You're right to trim the starting deck, ditch the Attack cards ASAP. On floor 3 (like with pretty much every class) I usually take the Pure talent to make all my damage piercing.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Life's too short for that, just buy them with achievement points!

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

golden bubble posted:

Besides unlocking the true final boss, what is the difference between the three difficulty levels in Dream Quest? Maybe I'm just too much of a noob who rarely beats the floor 2 boss, but easy, medium, and hard mode feel equally difficult to me. Hard mode might have one more elite enemy per floor (maybe?), but it feels like it is countered out extra treasure chest and shop spawns (also not sure this is actually a thing).
If I remember right, the easiest difficulty level doesn't let you proceed to the last floor. The medium difficulty level lets you finish floor 3, and the hardest lets you fight the last boss (and you also get -1 HP/level or something).

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
I just found out that there's a secret level in 868-Hack. Despite watching people getting there on Youtube, I still can't tell exactly what you need to do. Is it use Undo, then Step twice, or something like that?

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe

PMush Perfect posted:

God, Card Quest has been kicking my rear end. Got a little better once I started besting the first level in each zone instead of just bashing my head against the same one, since then you get some trinkets and equipment that lets you specialize your build. Still, though, I've yet to beat a second boss. Anyone got any tips?
As you've probably found out, there are some items that are flat-out better than other ones, and depending on your class/gear some areas may be either very easy or very difficult.

Vague advice for each class:
Rogue: Swashbuckler school is much better than Street school. Assassin school is even better IMO, partly because you start every combat hidden, which it doesn't bother telling you. Bag of Tricks is my favourite defensive item despite it not having any actual blocks.
Fighter: Berserker school can be a bit tricky to use but can put out a lot of damage. Paladin school (especially with the Holy Sword etc.) makes you pretty much invincible but it often takes a lot of turns to win fights so it can be a bit boring.
Wizard: Pyromancy lets you blow the poo poo out of enemies, but going full pyromancy (book and scroll) will just get you overheated and dead. Try a Necromancy scroll as the defence option.
Hunter: This class feels like garbage at the start because its starting weapon and school are really bad. Once you get a decent bow (I like the Demon Bow or Arcane Crossbow) and the sniper school things improve.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
From memory, the necromancer defence option (Scrolls of the Dead?), which is mostly blocks, works fine because it both blocks quite a lot and also does damage. If the monster is killed while attacking, you don't take any damage yourself. I haven't found a good way to use the Book of the Dead, because you just can't seem to put out enough damage to do much of anything, especially against armoured enemies.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Actually turning the game on to check, there seem to be pretty good synergy between Necromancy School/Book of Dread/Scrolls of the Damned. Wraith Collector gives you lots of souls, as does Dark Ritual. Life Drain gets some of the health back. Your main way of killing things is poisoning them, as you have lots of cards that can do that. Of course, you need to stay away from areas with poison-immune enemies. Guardian Scrolls also works fine as it can block 4 - 6, which is usually enough. Necromancer Robes are pretty much required, though and Death Ring is very useful.

Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Has anyone played Nowhere Prophet? It looks like the kind of thing I'm into (roguelike + cards).

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Naar
Aug 19, 2003

The Time of the Eye is now
Fun Shoe
Cheaper Synthetik if you're on the fence, use code SUMMER18 for another 18% off.

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