Thomas Biskup on Roguelike Radio

This Sunday at 4pm UCT we'll be interviewing Thomas Biskup on Roguelike Radio (unless there's a sudden change of plan). The other regulars on the podcast haven't played ADOM or ADOM II much, if at all, so it'd be nice to get some people from the community here to take part in asking pertinent questions. Any takers? It'll be via Skype. If you're not able to directly take part then feel free to post here with questions you would like raised.

Some things I plan to ask about:
- Background of what got him into roguelikes and development
- History of ADOM
- How things changed over the years
- The whole open/closed source stuff
- JADE/ADOM II
- What sparked him back into coding
- Plans for the future.

When did Thomas play his last game of ADOM I, and what was the farthest he ever got on ADOM 1.1.1? What are the things about it that he feels important to keep in ADOM II, and which does he want to try to avoid, or change?

EDIT: There's a good chance I'll be in a cinema watching the Avengers at or around 4 pm UTC, but if I'm not, how does actively taking part work?

It takes part over Skype. - I'll PM you my username.

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Originally Posted by Grey

It takes part over Skype. - I'll PM you my username.

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Guess, my interest do not overlap with generic non Adom players as far as questions go,but....

How much some stuff like some articats not appearing in precrowns, famous dragon gold doubling, piety overflow,etc are game features vs bugs vs unintended use of some feature combinations?

What is his attitude to some non-cannon modifications like ToGu patch, server and russian version? [later was damn funny for me except being in some old gamma].
Formally looking all these are butchery of not open code i guess.

What was longest lasting game mystery/undiscovered feature in history? [I'd bet on phial, although not sure than phial blinding made it's appearance].

"What mysteries are still in the game" would be a good question. The others are a bit too specific for the audience, though some may be touched upon.

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Originally Posted by Grey

"What mysteries are still in the game" would be a good question.

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Would you hope to get list?
I had at my studies some wierd lectures like how one should formulate question and on. This one, IMHO, has zero value except keeping conversation going on. Might as well ask about weather in Germany.

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The others are a bit too specific for the audience, though some may be touched upon.

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I slightly missed if you do not need specific questions, why you need players with game experience? I am just geniously curious.

"Keeping conversation going" is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not trying to be the Spanish Inquisition. It's more for the benefit of the listeners to know that there *are* mysteries still in ADOM.

Players with game experience will be able to have a better dialogue with TB, and will have genuine interest in the answers. Plus it's a bonus for anyone who actually wants to talk with him.

Also, I don't know that much about ADOM II, so perhaps someone who has played it more might have some pertinent questions about its development.

Well, keeping the conversation going on is probably the most important thing in a radio talk. And while we wouldn't get a straight answer, most listeners would be interested by the question.

About the history of ADOM: Since the domains are ancient, can you say anything about the long history of the Drakalor Chain (and/or Ancardia)? [...] or any plans for describing its history? (maybe this was not what you meant with the history of ADOM, but ah well...)

It depends if you want radio show be conversation type thing or get something interesting going.

With all the love and respect to Mr. creator I actually think he needs severe reality check [based on impression I've got reading blog].

So on disasterous event of me making into mentioned "conversation" I guess my actual question would be:
Does Mr. T. Brander realize what despite his best effort ADOMII will never have success which ADomI had?

Well, i guess we are all lucky i won't be there.

At some point you should attempt to get a final, definite answer on the secret message in the High Mountain Village. If it's a red herring intended to keep players guessing, wondering and puzzling for a decade, it's succeeded admirably - is there anything more to it that no one has found?

ADOM has been tremendously successful in roguelike dimensions, that much is true, but I don't agree that ADOM II is doomed to linger in its shadow. I think it will be hard to achieve an end result that gets as much right as ADOM does. Hard, but not impossible. Never say never.

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Originally Posted by Silfir

ADOM has been tremendously successful in roguelike dimensions, that much is true, but I don't agree that ADOM II is doomed to linger in its shadow. I think it will be hard to achieve an end result that gets as much right as ADOM does. Hard, but not impossible. Never say never.

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That just show that you like, me and most of so called "community" have not played on ADOM rise.

The thing it was not "tremendously successful in roguelike dimensions" it was "tremendously successful in gaming dimension". ADOM II is "doomed" to be succesful or unsuccesfull "in roguelike dimension", and nowadays that is rather tiny and geeky dimension.

It was "tremendously successful in gaming dimensions" in the late nineties. Are you suggesting Thomas build a time machine and release ADOM II then?

Do you think Thomas is expecting to achieve the kind of success ADOM had as a downloadable game around 1997?

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Originally Posted by Soirana

How much some stuff like some articats not appearing in precrowns, famous dragon gold doubling, piety overflow,etc are game features vs bugs vs unintended use of some feature combinations?

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Don't forget one of my personal favorites, the wish engine. It is potentially game-breaking, but the changelog states PoRCs are not allowed to create artifacts or wishing items, while PoEXs are only barred from creating artifacts. So it could be intentional.

If these questions from me aren't also too specific...

• Are cursed items welded to the PC's body, or is there another reason they can't remove them? The former is "traditionally" the case (I think) in roguelikes; the game's manual says they "can't be removed" and the in-game message is "you cannot bring yourself to remove the -foo-", which are a bit unspecific.
• Are the joke items in ADOM I (scroll of cure blindness, potion of stun recovery, scroll of literacy check) and the ID fully original creations, or were they inspired by another source? I know some current RPGs have joke items and infinite dungeons, but ADOM already had these a decade ago.

I know they're a bit stupid, but I'd enjoy knowing the answers.

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Originally Posted by Silfir

Do you think Thomas is expecting to achieve the kind of success ADOM had as a downloadable game around 1997?

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Yes...........

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Originally Posted by Grey

"What mysteries are still in the game" would be a good question.

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Instead of "What" I'd like "How many" without naming them

and whether he's read theoretical stuff about game design (" Game Design Workshop" by Tracy Fullerton, Jenova Chen, ... ) in the meantime?

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Originally Posted by anon123

Don't forget one of my personal favorites, the wish engine. It is potentially game-breaking, but the changelog states PoRCs are not allowed to create artifacts or wishing items, while PoEXs are only barred from creating artifacts. So it could be intentional.

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In times of pre 1.0.0 [at some point in that ancient history] - neither of pots there limited. It was risky but acceptable strategy to get Moon Sickle and play roulette on explosions and bracers of war.

Overall i would guess wish engine falls into what i called unintended use of some game features - most fault being on stack dipping part - dipping 19 rings is really way way too much as 19 RoDS are already game breaking with or without engine.

Podcast is now up, and I tried to shove in some of the more focused questions where relevant:

http://roguelikeradio.blogspot.co.uk...as-biskup.html

Some enlightening parts there. I was especially surprised to hear that at one point he decided to give up entirely on ADOM and JADE.

should have asked him why haxors hate us so much :(

... There are things we haven't found yet.

I love this game.

Nice to hear DND was one of the games that served as inspiration. I enjoyed playing that and the DotND fork, both of which I found around the same time as ADOM itself.

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Originally Posted by Silfir

... There are things we haven't found yet.

I love this game.

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Not sure this is actually true. Last time we found something good it was tree shaking thing; the only downside was that is was fake ;)

love that you asked him about the exploding frog bit

Exploding frog is probably the weirdest thing in the game - I had to ask about it.

Nice interview.

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Originally Posted by Silfir

... There are things we haven't found yet.

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Time for some more wild speculation.

Is there a way to get the spear of raw chaos?
Is there such a thing as the Red Rooster Inn? I personally don't think so. The name of the scroll is a strong hint it's a red herring.
Is there some undiscovered secret with the weird tome? I suspect there is. I remember reading a rumor that a female dwarf bard would be the most likely character to get a step further with the tome, but I'm not sure where I read that again.