Bardness Update

I am pretty much done trying out the 7DRL successful entries. Now I am checking out games with regular updates on rgrd. Today I installed Bardness. The game required a separate XNA Framework download from Microsoft. I wanted to try the game, so I went ahead with the download and install.

Bardness starts out with a huge page of stats and abilities. I accepted the defaults, and quickly lost during a demo verion. Then I went for the full quest. This one had more enemies. But I guess they were spread out better throughout the dungeon. I have not seen an enemy yet.

Bardness has a blinkig cursor next to your player character on the screen. Not sure if that is a side effect or a feature. I like the power bars that graphically show your health. Some of the menus are clipped on my screen. Is this due to my screen resolution? Who knows?

Based on the version number, I suspect this game is still in beta. I will be interested in seeing version 1.0 some day.

Ascension of the Drillworms

I started playing Acension of the Drillworms. This is a black and white game. The control is done by use of the mouse. You click to move, and click to shoot at the worms. There is a cool mini-map in the upper right hand corner to show you where you are in the big scheme of things.

There are some stats in the upper left hand corner of the screen. I am not sure how they work yet. I plan to find out. This is a pretty cool game. It is kind of weird that you can walk into little doors. The screen goes dim. Not sure how that contributes to the game goals.

I have wandered around most of the first level in the game. This game does not seem overly complex. But I think there is more to it than meets the eye. I like this one. Impressive that it was done in just a week.

The Waaghammer

I tried out Waaghammer today. This one really felt like a mature roguelike. I appreciated that I could choose which stats start out higher. The commands and controls felt natural.

I was a little confused about the bright green characters in the dungeon. They were not walls as I could walk over them. They were not something I could pick up. Perhaps they were just part of the scenery.

I did some battle with all the monsters I encountered. Killed them off without needing to quaff the healing potions I picked up. There was one problem though. I explored what seemed to be the entire map of the first dungeon level. Could not find a way to climb down any stairs. What am I supposed to do now?

Lost in the Infiniverse

I tried out Infiniverse. I liked that there was an online version available. Guess it must be a web game. It looks like we are no longer in a dungeon. We are in the universe. Or more precisely, we are in the Infiniverse.

The colors and hues of the game are really nice. I felt more like the USS Enterprise than a roguelike warrior. There were a lot of stats regarding the areas of the Infiniverse I was exploring.

One more thing was odd about this game. I did not run into any enemies. I was expecting to battle some monsters, or at least some other space ships. No luck. I tried going in one direction for a while. Turns on the Infiniverse is not infinite. There is an end. Still no enemies.

The message at the top of the screen directs me to get the ancient alien knowledge. Perhaps this is just a space quest game.

Plight of the Halfling

I spend a lot of time playing Angband these days. My name is Thread. I am a Hobbit Warrior. My super strength and dexterity allow me to swing my katana fast to chop down my enemies. These stats do not come naturally. I wield rings and gloves that boost my abilities.

I am a bit concerned about my health. Not that I am sick. But I do not have the reserves required to take many blows in battle. I search for the potions to cure this deficiency. But old Drago in the black market refuses to stock such items. I return time and time again to find other nick nacks for sale there.

I cannot fault Drago too much. He did find and sell me a wonderful chain mail that resists all kinds of attacks. Good stuff. Now if only I could locate an item to prevent the attacks that leave me blind, I shall be ready to dive into the dungeons fo Angband.

Gold in the Hills

I need something to give the players of my JSRL roguelike a score. One part will be how much gold they collect. Today I implemented placing random amounts of gold in the dungeon. Then I had to implement a gold display that shows how much you have collected so far. This display will be part of the main player stats line.

There are only two more ideas I want to implement before I call this 7DRL a success. They are multiple dungeon levels and monsters. I think I will tackle the multiple dungeon levels issue next. I want the whole game to be 10 levels. I just need to add some staircases up (and down if you are lower than dungeon level 1). Then I want to make sure the lower levels have more gold.

The Trident of Wrath

I've got a fighter that is coming along quite nicely in Angband. Been experimenting with different weapons to get the maximum damage per round. Just found a Trident of Wrath with +2 attack speed. It does over 300HP of damage per turn. Yes.

The fighter can automatically pseudo identify items. I hate when this detects an item being magical, but it is actually cursed. I have to waste a spell of identify to find out the magic worked in a negative way on the item.

My speed is up to +14 now. However it comes with me having to take off one of my items of resistance. So now I only have a shield of Elvenkind which resists cold, fire, etc. That means I take one third damage from those attacks. Might have to put back on a second item of resistance to shrink that to one ninth damage.

All of my stats are maxxed out except for wisdom and intelligence. I can see invisible creatures, as well as resist blindness. I got free action. Now I still am very careful around basilisks. However I am starting to be confident in even the lower levels of the dungeon. Will keep you posted on this characters progress. Oh yeah. His name is Fighter.

Short Bow of Amrod

Recently I found the Short Bow of Amrod. I was excited when I read an *identify* scroll to figure out how this weapon would help me. It speeds my regeneration. That will allow me to free up my amulet slot (current I wear an amulet of regeneration). More importantly, the bow gives me a +2 bonus to both my strength and constitution. Both of these stats are low for me because I am a mage. This weapon should have little detriment as I already have an empty slot for a bow.

To tell the truth, I really don't know much about Amrod himself. All I do know is that he was a son of Feanor. His father Feanor is a much more famous character. Feanor made the Simarils. He also gave Melkor the name of Morgoth. And that is is who we are trying to defeat in the game of Angband. Who knows? Perhaps this bow from Amrod will help me to eventually achieve this goal.