cLevel 50 Ranger

After my last character in Angband died, I was a bit depressed. It had taken a long time to build up that character. I can no longer remember how he died. It was probably some double poison breath from some monster. Whatever the case, I was not in the mood to play Angband for a while.

Then I got a good idea. What not let the Borg build up the next character for me? Then I could choose a race and class which cause a high experience penalty. That's no problem for the Borg. It has unlimited time to knock out experience points galore.

Now the Borg is not perfect. There are times when it causes my characters to die. I have found that the deaths happen quickly. But once a character is a bit established, the Borg is more conservative in the long run. So I let the Borg run for a few times each night. Before long, I had myself a character level 50 High-Elf Ranger with a bunch of goodies to show.

Here is the equipment my character is wearing:

The Lance of Eorlingas (3d8) (+14,+21) (+2)
The Long Bow of Bard (x3) (+17,+19) (+2)
a Malachite Ring of Speed (+5)
a Malachite Ring of Speed (+6)
a Ruby Amulet of Wisdom (+2)
The Star of Elendil
The Full Plate Armour of Isildur [25,+25] (+1)
The Cloak 'Holcolleth' [1,+8] (+2)
The Small Metal Shield of Thorin [3,+25] (+4)
The Hard Leather Cap of Thranduil [2,+15] (+2) {BlndESP}
The Set of Cesti of Fingolfin (+10,+10) [5,+20] (+4)
The Pair of Soft Leather Boots 'Dal-i-thalion' [2,+15] (+5)

A Review of dL1

I was reading the development USENET newsgroup for the 7 day roguelike competition. There was a link to a review site for the games entered. I was curious as to what would be said about my game. So I read the review on dL1.

Here are the things listed that I need to improve:

1. Provide batch file to launch game
2. Prevent inaccessible locations on map
3. Have monsters attack you if you go near
4. Give some progression if you clear the map
5. Make the game winnable

In essence, the reviewer wanted the game improved from the viewpoint of a player. That sounds like a reasonable request. The goal of my entry was to get something that worked. On that I succeeded.

So let's call the version I entered v1. Now it is time to produce some incremental releases that address the concerns of the reviewer that I want to correct.

7DRL Winner's Circle

The results of the Seven Day Roguelike Challenge for this year have been announced. There were a total of 45 challengers (myself included). Of those, 25 were winners. My entry dL1 was listed in the winner's circle. To the left is the challenge medal for this years winners.

It is not impossible to win the 7DRL challenge. You only have one week to code up a game. That part is difficult. But to win you just need to produce a rogue-like game that works and is playable within the week long time period. Don't get me wrong. That is no trivial task. However if you set realistic goals, you can achieve success.

I wonder if I will be around next year to enter again. It is my hope that I would have gained more Java programming skills. Perhaps it is time to study up on different things like level generators, lighting, and monster AI to be prepared. It is all good fun.

Roguelike Challenge Completed

I figured out how to distribute my game including the libraries and run time files it requires. Since I was in the 7 Day Roguelike Challenge, I posted the following declaration on Usenet group rec.games.roguelike.announce:

I completed my 7DRL entry dL1. It was written in Java and made use of libjcsi for input/output. It requires Java 1.6. You can get it at http://h1.ripway.com/gifcom/dL1/dL1.zip

Launch the game by typing "java dL1". Move around with the keypad. Numlock must be on to move diagonally. Press "q" to quit. Grab some gold. Attack young dragons. That's about it.

This is only my second real Java program. I am in a Java programming class at college. Read all about my 7DRL week on my blog http://legend-angband.blogspot.com/

- Legend of Angband

Adding the Credits

I just finished adding the credits to my 7 Day Roguelike "dL1". There was so much more I wanted to implement. But there comes a time you need to turn in your work.

Now I need to figure out how to distribute this application. Being a Java novice, I am not so sure about what you send out. It is not like the Windows world where you ship an EXE and maybe some DLLs.

I will figure this out, post it out there for the world to see, and declare it a success. If nothing else, I learned a lot of Java programming skills. And I think I learned a little of the basic game mechanics at a coding level.