Dungeons of Dredmor - Update, Impressions

Dhruin

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There's an update on Dredmor blog that says a new patch is up on Steam after they fixed an audio bug that was producing some crashes. Next week they will start on some UI improvements, such as scaling at high resolutions:
We’ve put up another build which has a fixed audio driver, and resolves a few other little issues. We have tried to make this backwards compatible with previous save files, but one of the things we added in this patch was also backwards load/save compatibility… so we’re going to have to work out the kinks here a little. If you make a *new* save that crashes and can’t load it, or you still get a random crash (we know about one descending, then ascending stairs, which we have seen a bit – but it might also be the audio thing, so we’re just going to wait and see… also what are you doing going back *up* the dungeon anyway?), send us an e-mail, preferably with a save game or crash dump, and we’ll get on it.
That said, so far everybody who was having crashes has reported that this build has cleared it up. Whew.
(Profound thanks to Ryan C. “icculus” Gordon, who debugged the first audio crash, then confirmed that the second audio crash was, in fact, “something that has just never been triggered in the past eight or so years in SDL_mixer.” We have now broken SDL_mixer about eight times and aren’t allowed to keep breaking it any more.)
I don’t know when the next patch will be up – probably not until some time next week – but we are going to try to start resolving some of the UI Clunkers people have reported (getting the keyboard/mouse movement a little more consistent, adding UI scaling, etc.) I would also like to turn on the Mod Browser and Weekly Challenges, but getting the core game running well is the top priority for all of us.
Meanwhile, RPS has some brief impressions:
You can sort-of disable permadeath, which entails asking the game to let you load old saves, but while that’s a route to achieving more I know full well I’d only feel like I was cheating. The thrill of a good roguelike is narrowly avoiding death and, when death comes, going out in spectacular/pathetic fashion. So, for me Dredmor is a game about dying – that’s something I’m more than comfortable with, it’s just that I’m dying very quickly at the moment.
Part of that is, I suspect, because I’m trying to do to much. There’s a huge skill tree in there, massively customisable in order to create your own bespoke class, as well the inevitable megaton of loot. There’s also crafting and teleporting and traps and stealing and sneaking and… well, pretty much every RPG feature you care to name, bar talking to the monsters. So I’m getting a bit too distracted by trying to build a new mace or working out how to summon a moustache golem than I am on simply surviving. Which has the added pain of meaning that when I die, I lose a ton of cool stuff I’ve built an unlocked. Sigh.
More information.
 
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I wonder if someone will mod in some more storage? Also, is there a manual?
 
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I would try this game, but I just can't get over the silliness. Wish the devs luck though.
 
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I would try this game, but I just can't get over the silliness. Wish the devs luck though.

The silliness and the cheeses is actually well done. Let say that it fit together nicely.

I think it's the first game where you can craft a grilled cheese too...
 
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I will probably buy it anyway just to support someone making the type of game I like, but I've just never been able to stomach much of any silly in my rpgs.
 
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Give me silly any day of the week. Hell give me as many Quest for Glorys as possible. I've saved the worlds of many "dark and gritty" games, now I want to save the world in a Discworld type game :)
 
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I actually like Dredmore, it's really fun to play. I spent now two hours in the game, died seven times and still love it. It was worth those 4€ I spent on it.
 
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I actually like Dredmore, it's really fun to play. I spent now two hours in the game, died seven times and still love it. It was worth those 4€ I spent on it.

I am loving it as well, loads of fun, nice light dungeon crawling. Well worth the $5!

My one nitpick - it supports SteamPlay but not the SteamCloud ... so I can play on Mac or PC but my saves don't transfer - which of course I discovered when I had my PC in front of me last night and wanted to continue a fun game I was playing.
 
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Yeaaah... I mean, $5 is very reasonable...

But roguelikes are free. :/

I have Elona, IVAN and the mighty Dungeoncrawl Stone Soup sitting there.

Someone talk me into buying Dreadmor. If you can... :)
 
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well, pretty much every RPG feature you care to name,
Ah, by the great measure of the RPG elements thesis, a game that includes all the RPG features one could care to name can be only one thing: a RPG.
 
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I'll give you $10 if you do that. Simply address Mr.Bernanke, he has plenty of those at the moment.

Alright, you convinced me. When you said Bernanke you make me feel jewish for not wanting to spend $5 lol

edit: Ok, right off the bat im not liking how you can't attack or walk diagonally. Though, this does mean u can only be attacked from 4 directions making it much easier. Dont like how you take up 2 squares and how hidden monsters are when directly north of a wall. Don't like how when you mouseover a sword it doesnt display your current one for easy comparison.

Since theres no hunger and food gives you healing, whats stopping you from ending turn to fully heal after every fight? Since this is a viable option, why force the player to hit space 200 times and not just have a "rest to full" button? Its bad design to assume players won't do it because its tedious. Avoid tedium! Don't let tedium be the most powerful option.

I do like how the rusty sword does less slashing but a little poison damage. I do like the humor. He looks kinda like guybrush threepwood, hey. :)
DO like Anvil of krong. Enchanted my dagger with "roots enemies to the ground"

Im playing on Going Rogue with perma death on. I'll spam some more impressions after I get a better feel for it.
 
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Since theres no hunger and food gives you healing, whats stopping you from ending turn to fully heal after every fight? Since this is a viable option, why force the player to hit space 200 times and not just have a "rest to full" button?

This is not encouraged, as monsters are spawning when character is waiting.

But yes, equipment comparison interface would be great. Also, I have serious problem memorizing the meaning of all those little icons...
 
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Seems a competent if perhaps a bit simple Rogue-like. Unfortunately, the art style turns me off.
 
This is not encouraged, as monsters are spawning when character is waiting.

The monster respawns are only home delivered xp. Half the time they'll kill themselves on traps.

I can relate this style of play to the Mummy race in stonesoup. A few versions ago you could just hang around on level 1 leveling up on respawns, since mummy does not hunger. The result of this were players who'd spend MILLIONS of turns not leaving the first floor until they'd leveled up a very powerful set of skills.

This was addressed by making high higher level monsters respawn after around 5000 turns then eventually stopping the respawning entirely. It did kinda ruin the mummy race a little and I feel their apptitudes or at least XP to next level should be slightly better to compensate.


Yeah, so far its… It's alright. I'm sure after its had the 15 years of open source development and discussion like stone soup has had it will at least be potentially almost as good. :)
 
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Half the time they'll kill themselves on traps.

Call me nuts, but this is something I actually like it in RPGs ! :lol:

Stupid monsters who actually manage to kill themselves ... :lol:

I wish there would be more of this ! :lol:
 
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Same here. I've been tempted to give DoD a try just for all the praise it's been receiving here, but it's just too "cute" for my taste.

It's not "my" style either, but it beats
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(IMHO)
 
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I'm probably going to catch hell from Alrik, but I'd actually prefer ASCII graphics to cute children and monsties.
 
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