ADOM plus OMEGA+ misc

[foxfire29]

Hi again everyone!

Its great to see alot of the people still active since last time I visited these forums. I really got into ADOM and did so much better because of the fact a good few of the veterans on here spent a considerable amount of time with me discussing game mechanics and stuff.

Essentially I played adom non stop for weeks and it was awesome but if I were to play again I think I want to use the whole god/crowning system (This is one aspect I need to know more of qand didnt exploit)

I think I was a casterr last time but I could do with a change, any suggestions?

Further more I just started playing a game called Omega and it is very difficult and at least start game it feels very linear in the sense that if you dont follow set rules you will die always. (That being said it has an appeal)

Where adom is concerned I loved the fact it had decent well thought out quests, it is perfection for me as far as roguelikes go since even though this breaks the stereotype I always want to play roguelikes with epic action and epic quests. Another roguelike I loved was legerdemain but the problem with that was the excessive food need and It got to a point where I was going to have to buy some guidebook, I do intend to buy it; its just cant at the momment, poor student and all that hehe

Anyway I know many on here has similiar roguelike tastes thats why I want to ask "Is there another quest type roguelike; like adom?" <------im really looking for a roguelike with massive depth, btw theres this kinda proof of concept roguelike on youtube , its to do with some place called Cyphen or something but It wont be out for ages, still very cool! Literally dieing to play something with lots of quests!

I played TOME which is also good but it gets a bit excessively grindy and I have gotten to the point where I am having to scum alot. (I did it alot when learning but that has shown me how over scumming can wreck a game)

Thanks again

by the way heres some of the roguelikes I have tried

DoomRL
Crawl <--------havent played much, just cant get into it for dieing on the tutorial
Nethack <--------I like this more than I did but I still worry that with no sidequests I will get bored
Elona <--------liked this for a time but I grew to not like how when you get good fame your mobs get way to tough

Legerdemain <---------quality
ADOM<-------quality
Xenocide <-------not bad but dont know if it has quests and only played for 10 mins
Ascii sector <-------does this have roguelike dungeons or is it all in space? seems cool but the idea of trading foodstuffs in space does not appeal to me (X2 killed any trader in me P )
Ivan <--------seems ok, havent got far enough to make judgement
DoomRL <--------cool concept, I just worry about depth of gameplay though outwith the cool sounds
Incursion <-----does this have quests?? Everyone seems to like this game but I cant last long enough hehe
Gearhead <-------thought I would love this but I feel the game quest and help system lacks direction and half the time you are wandering around like a headless chicken wandering what to do next
Omega <--------I keep comming back to this but its tough and I joined paladins firrst as per walkthrough but the starting gear isnt good

Ive played many more but I will add them as I remember

p.s please dont think I do not like roguelikes I just figured if I can tell you how I find certain elements it should be clear to see what matters to me in a rogue (In short, direction, I dont mind fighting as long as theres a purpose, since that helps immersion and makes all the differance)

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Hmm. I don't really know any roguelike of your style. My favourites apart from ADOM are Crawl Stone Soup and Powder, each is great in its own way, but none of them has quests like ADOM, they are more like "go down and down and down and recover the *foo* of *foo*ing".

IVAN has quests and a direction, and it's lots of fun, but the problem is that it's not a final version and it has massive unbalance issues. And it hasn't been updated since 2005 so it seems it's going to keep that way

Have you tried the old Ultimas? Ultima IV, for example? It's not exactly a roguelike, more a CRPG, but it has lots of combat and dungeon crawling and it's more roguelike-ish that some games some people call roguelikes (like Diablo).

I hadn't heard of Legerdemain but the screenshots in their website look really promising, I'll give it a look.

[Captain Platypus]

If somewhat non-traditional roguelikes that nevertheless follow the spirit, if not the letter, of the genre are allowed, check out Runic Games' Torchlight, which is cheap, and Transcendence, which is free. Both have quite nice graphics that nonetheless run well on slow systems like mine and realtime combat, but keep the general "dungeon exploration" format (Transcendence manages this despite being IN SPACE), the inventory/equipment system, et cetera. Torchlight even has an option for death to be permanent in best roguelike fashion, and Transcendence requires fuel, which is highly similar to ADOM's food system, if somewhat harder to acquire from the corpses of your enemies.

[JellySlayer]

I would second more generalized form of Al-Khwarizmi's suggestion: a lot of old CRPGs carry many of the elements that you would expect to see in a Roguelike--lots of dungeon crawling, fairly open ended, minimal capacity for saving/reloading, brutal consequences for death (or other stupid actions...).

My suggestion would be to take a peek at some of the oldish Wizardry games, for example. Wizardry 7 is probably the best of the series as far as plot and depth go, and is quite challenging esp. if you aren't saving and reloading all the time. Wizardry IV is much less forgiving in many respects, but is quite linear in comparison. It's also considered one of the most challenging RPGs ever created...

Ultima series are another good choice. Plot is usually very engaging and often involves more thought than just "go find this item and bring it to me".

The early Elder Scrolls games (Daggerfall, Arena) have a very Roguelike feel and Daggerfall in particular, at least has a ridiculously, stupendously, unbelievably huge world. I don't remember the exact figure, but I seem to remember reading that it takes several real-life days if you wanted to cross from one side to the other on foot (fast transit options are obviously available). Unfortunately, the epicness of these two games is blemished by the fact that they tend to be a quite buggy and imbalanced.

[foxfire29]

I kinda expected the two quality roguelikes I mentioned were unique but i will check out what you suggest

Thanks!

Also I think you will enjoy legerdemain given the chance so heres some general and some vital starting advice without spoilers

Some legerdemain tips

dont use magic like in other roguelikes or you will starve

when you get to the town in each time the game does a perma save and if you die it was all a dream at the inn where your save was made, this negates scumming but not difficulty and why other roguelikes dont immplement it kinda surprises me

Meditate to memmorize magic but be careful especially at the start for that starting prison does not hold enough food for you to be exploring it all and/or using magic, so first thing, get out to a town or you will die and in getting to a town the game will open up

When you talk to npcs some text comes up then you can ask them about elements of what they have said i.e type in the text job if they mention job, some npc dialogues are far more intricate than.....go....killl....a ...rat and the fictional writing is top notch

When you can afford to buy every ration in the shop do so for you will need them and more

In my view legerdemain is the most underated roguelike out there and given half a chance....e.g getting to the first town and exploring dialogue options most would love it. The lanscapes are well done as are the dungeons, in fact legerdemain is what completely converted me to ascii graphics and helped my imagination after which I got into adom and felt great about it as well.

If you ever get to the orc encampment and open up areas beyond there or beyond the forest or just need any help feel free to post or pm me, I would like to figure out how to get past the forest and orc encampment, I am no guru but I know most of the start game and maybe someone else doing well will get me motivated to get further

Another reason I stopped playing was because I had hordes of dialogue text and I wasnt wanting to keep asking questions on the official forums , especially considering the author , to my understanding doesnt want walkthroughs or guides so he can sell his guidebook; I cant afford this but at the end of the day theres 10 times worse games selling merchandise and in fairness the author has made a brilliant job and anything else he does I will check out immediatly

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JUst noticed the other posts, thanks , plenty for me to try out there, I did have wizardry 7 waay back but that was before I was well way to much on my pc hehe so Im going to givee that a proper concerted try now along with the other suggestions.

Some nice feedback!

Actually just one final addition, I appear to have found wizardry 7 I had the game ages ago just never played it for any length of time, Im reading on the net though, one other dos box game which looks great is a game called albion, have any of you ever played that?

I just added yet another thing Its just I havent given crawl a chance yet which is why I mentioned this when I had written of it however do the crawl fans on the forum play with or without tiles? Also how would you compare crawl to nethack?

I guess I say I like quests but ultimatly I guess I juist like lots of differant places to visit and dungeons that seem good, actually heres one I didnt mention, called prospector; I played it when it was like really early days and just out, it had potential but there wasnt very good in game help for controls etc(un surprisingly) so I gave up with it but I always mean to go back

[Silfir]

Heh. Despite its obscurity, you're in luck; I played the demo version of Albion once. It actually is pretty decent if you ask me. Story and everything. Though the 3D dungeon exploration is a joke compared to 3D CRPGs of today

[foxfire29]

sweet

Also guess what? checked on the legality of ultima IV and it is legal to download! So I got it and have it running with fukllsceen and sound in vista, I think Im going to enjoy ultima iv, this is the first time I have tried it

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Hi,

I'm playing Legerdemain and it's great! Thanks a lot for the recommendation. I think this game really deserves to be better known. It looks huge, it is very beatiful, the writing is nice and so is the setting, and the magic system looks pretty interesting. Although it has some interface shortcomings: I hate that I can't play with the "false numpad" on my laptop and the only other choice is to use the "vi keys" (or rogue keys). I find that keyset extremely unconfortable and would like to be able to just use the numbers as in ADOM. Well, I guess it's something I'll say at the bugtracker or the forums once I know the game a bit more. I also would like to be able to play in full screen.

By the way, this game reminds me A LOT of old CRPG's like the Ultimas, Might and Magic, Bard's Tale, Times of Lore, etc. so I think you definitely should go that route if you like this game.

I have reached the town and am fooling around the area, found the hillfolk enclave already. Actually I like that there's no guides, because playing unspoiled is a great experience. I reached the ADOM mana temple unspoiled, but then I fell to the temptation of these forums and I proceeded spoiled. It's easier not to get spoiled if there is no easy access to guides.

Currently my main goal is getting $25 to buy a saddlebag because, as a paranoid packrat, I don't like being able to move only 7-8 items around. After that, I'll try to learn more magic. I suppose that if I allocate a skill point to, say, chaos, and then buy a chaos brush from the sage shop, I'll be able to use it, right?

Also, are there ways of IDing items apart from using them? (the magic shop sells unID'd scrolls); and are there any skills that are useless and to which I shouldn't assign points?

[moomoo]

I've played some dungeon crawl and I liked it a lot, its a good game for quick snack - type games

Not really a roguelike but speaking of ultimas and the like, maybe greatest game ever is Nahlakh. Used to spend hours and hours with this game, so good!

[foxfire29]

Ok momoo checking some of those recommends

Also Al-Khwarizmi, your doing well with that game if you didnt check the legerdemain forums and your at the enclave already, honestly the game gets better and better and theres a place in some hills which you will go in at somepoint and its a battle and a half! (Just keep following your quest clues like you are doing)

Later on you will get things called chants but your a bit of that yet , Im glad you like legerdemain, the thing with it is you could in theory play it and not grasp the importance of the npc text and paragraphs(obviousluy you have not done this which is good) hence wrongly judging the game. (It was a good few attempts before I realised this game was great and seriously underated and is the reason I try not just major RLs now, in facts ADOM is the only majo rl Ive found to be every bit as good as people stated) If you persevere with it just a tad longer you are going to be in some epic journeys with it.

Its been months since I played so Im going to check the legerdemain forums for you to get my memory jogged and then I will try my best to help you. Skills I am embarrased to admit I cant remember much about but one thing I found was magic was to be used completely as secondary and last resort based on the fact use it to much if your deep in a dungeon and you will starve.

I think Im going to start a char on legerdemain again - I do also concur with you pertaining to your suggested game dislikes but overall its very enjoyable.

Good luck with it!

N.B havent put on Legerdemain yet as have4 been watching Adom youtube videos and I just realised when I seen the footage that Adom and Legerdemain is the best in my view so Im rolling an elf wizard in 5 mins and Im going to try and do the puppy quest correctly this time [wont say no more as it would be spoiler hehe]