Because a game with this phrase must be pretty awesome, right?
Dungeon Monkey Unlimited (DMU) is a side-project by Joseph Hewitt, the guy who made
GearHead 1 & 2. I saw it mentioned in one of the roguelike threads, but so far no thread of its own.
I've learned about its existence for a while but never tried it until yesterday. It's pretty fun! So I think I'll start a thread about it.
It's a roguelike with tile graphics (no ASCII mode, equipped items change your characters' appearance), randomly generated world (and probably story), with the player controlling a party of four characters. Iron-man mode on by default. If all your characters die, it's game over!
Here's what it looks like in-game...
Download from hereSimply unzip the downloaded file into a directory outside of Program Files... since it puts its save data in sub-directories, and you don't want to have to grant it admin rights.
Run dmu.exe and then close it. This is to create the config file, config.cfg.
Open config.cfg in the DMU directory... I recommend removing "#" from the following lines:
#SHOW_LEGAL_MOVES
#FULLSCREEN
SHOW_LEGAL_MOVES will display your character's max range in yellow, very convenient I think.
Run dmu.exe to start the game.
Game is mostly mouse-driven. Hover near edge to scroll the view, click on empty space to move, click on objects to interact, click on enemies to attack, right-click your characters for control menu.
Only a few keys are used:
H - Center view on party
M - Opens minimap
Shift-H - View history of party's exploits
Shift-R - Rest for a little while (beware of ambushes!)
Shift-Q - Quit game
The first thing you need to do is create four characters. What little document Joseph provided suggests a Warrior, Priest, Bard and Mage would be the easiest setup.
Choose a gender, then race.
Race mostly affects how high your stats can be, but some races have a few special properties. Like centaurs, who can move very fast but cannot wear shoes.
Then you have to roll your stats.
Your stats affects what class you can choose. So keep rerolling! Mouse-over the class will tell you about what it can do.
As far as I can tell:
Strength and Toughness are used to calculate Defense % (chance to avoid getting hit)
Strength and Reflexes are used to calculate Attack %.
Intelligence affects Magic %
Piety affects Aura %
Strength affects max. encumberance.
Spell gems are used for memorizing spells. More on this later, but in short the more gems the better. Different class provides different amount of gems, and you will receive more gems on level up.
You can choose to multiclass when you level up. Multiclassing here is not multiclass in the D&D sense... it's changing your class into the new one, while keeping abilities and spell gems earned. For example, a druid can use spear but not heavy armor. After multiclass into a priest, he can no longer use spear but can wear heavy armor, while keeping the spell gems earned as a druid.
After that you can change your appearance (limited as the avatars are so small), and choose starting equipments.
In the game the weapons got detailed descriptions; but armor doesn't. You can only judge an armor based on price and effects on Def% when equipped, unfortunately you don't get a price on character creation.
I think most of those "color XXX" are for appearance only; for protective values go for these items:
Padded Armor
Ranger Armor
Leather Armor
Bronze Breastplate
etc.
With four characters created, choose Start Campaign from main menu. The selection order decides how they line up in the game (I screwed up this one in my current game). Choose your tough guys first!
The first thing to do is to visit the town nearby (click on it).
Town provides several crucial functions:
Guild - This is where you go to level up when you've got some XP. It's free!
Inn - Pay a small fee to get fully recharged on HP and MP.
Library - Spellcasting classes use this place to setup their spellbooks. More on this later.
Shop - This is where you buy, sell and identify magical items. More on this later.
Temple - Pay a fee to restore status effects or resurrect the dead.
This is the shop interface. You choose who enters the shop; i.e. shop for each character separately.
Items your character cannot use will be marked with a "#" symbol and piled up at the top of the list. The list can be longer than the screen - hover mouse near the top/bottom to scroll. Again, weapons are described clearly, but armors aren't. You can only judge based on price and weight. Those very cheap items like Black Shoes (5gp) are for appearance only.
The library lets you do two things:
Spend spell gems to prepare a new spell, or discard a prepared spell (you will get your spell gems refunded).
Spell descriptions are very detailed. At the start of the second line is the amount of spell gems required.
Don't forget to equip your new items! Right click on one of your characters to display the character menu:
Here you can cast spells, use abilities, or enter inventory (Change Equipment). As your spell list grows you may need to scroll this menu as well.
The inventory:
It's similar to shop interface, except with a new marker "+" to indicate the item is currently equipped. When changing armors, use the Defense % on the left to see how useful the piece of armor is. Also on the left is the Encumerance level. When carrying too much your character will walk very slowly during combat.
You can open minimap by pressing M:
Fog of war is removed as you explore. Certain locations will be marked on your minimap, which you can jump your view to. Then you can click on the ground to travel there (with auto path-finding).
Enemies do not respawn (or at least, I haven't seen any). It is possible to sneak past enemies if you move around them carefully.
When you get close enough to enemies, combat will start.
Combat is turn-based, everything will get to move once during a turn. The character you're controlling will be surrounded by a blue square. The yellow area marked the character's max range, which is affected by encumberance level. Attacking counts as moving 1 square, so in the above image my Priest cannot attack the tree-like monster. You can move in portions; your character's turn won't end until you've spent all action points. You can also press Spacebar to end the character's turn immediately.
On my bard's turn, I right-clicked to open character menu:
I choose the Probe spell. The game enters targeting mode, and I can move the orange square around. Left-click to confirm (you can fire on invalid targets wasting MP and the turn), right-click to cancel.
The Probe spell display the target's data.
When combat ends you will get a report on how much XP and gold you've received.
Some monsters will be guarding chests. A short while into the game you'll start finding magical items - equipping magical armor/weapon/items makes your spells more powerful - Magic% and Aura% will increase.
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Topic: Dungeon Monkey Unlimited (Read 3028 times)