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[zaimoni]

CivilianAI and GangAI are very difficult to interpret their action selection routines.  It would not surprise me if the tests for player-ness have not-so-subtle effects there.  There are also intentional game mechanic differences (e.g, aggressing is a non-free action for AI, but a free action for the player, specifically as a balancing issue).

More to do as undead: priority on my end is to make the current game mechanics work.  And most of that is going to need intentional savefile breakage to fix.  I do have some ideas regarding zombie masters specifically (cf. Prisoner Who Should Not Be).

[zaimoni]

Enemies seem to perfectly kite you if they are faster.

The living AIs play with Combat Adviser ON.  They do not seem to properly model stamina, however (yet!).  Try influencing them to flee over jumpable objects.

[zaimoni]

I loved playing this game. Took another shot at it and was reminded of all it's problems.

- AI reacts differently to undead players than to undead AI.

Maybe having inventory at all, even if unusable, has something to do with that?  That needs a policy decision; the current behavior is internally inconsistent.

[nenjin]

- Nothing to accomplish. The hospital and police department are cool but they don't do anything other than give you something to almost die to. It needs some sort of end game.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I always thought the end game of RS was clearing those jet black corporate buildings with the RS logo, full of well-armed military and high level zombies.

I rarely finish smaller roguelikes such as RS. But I "finished" RS so I'd tend to agree it lacks a lot of enduring gameplay.

[thegoatgod_pan]

This thread has made me find my copy of Rogue Survivor .7 (didn't like the later builds) and play a few games. There totally is a plot!  The prisoner, the facility etc.

[zaimoni]

Right...hard to see how to extend what's implemented of the plot, until what is there in the game, is working properly.  This requires changes to the savefile format.  What was the key misfeature introduced in alpha 8?

I clearly recall that the sanity mechanic [new in alpha 9] wasn't very popular.  (It makes hiding impractical, and is unfixable since it cannot be balanced for all reasonable playing styles.  It is currently balanced for lone wolf gun bunnies, which is not a very survivable playstyle with only in-game knowledge).  There wasn't a lot of noise about alpha 8 or alpha 7, although I'm aware of at least one player who considers alpha 7 to have a breaking misfeature.

Plan on my end is another day of early-game testing, then cut a final release with some changes to the AI and UI to make the game slightly easier -- and then start intentionally breaking savefile format.

[zaimoni]

RC 6 is the final release before savefile format breaking.  I was hoping to get some changes to make the game easier in for a final release, but there are unacceptable bugs in the development version.

[Micro102]

How do you get your followers to attack gang members? I am suffering from a serious lack of shooting at gang members.

[zaimoni]

That looks like a failure regarding noticing that indirect enemies should be attacked.  It certainly isn't a phobia about committing murder (it is quite possible to murder an indirect enemy, but that check is made after the fatality).

[thegoatgod_pan]

Right...hard to see how to extend what's implemented of the plot, until what is there in the game, is working properly.  This requires changes to the savefile format.  What was the key misfeature introduced in alpha 8?

I clearly recall that the sanity mechanic [new in alpha 9] wasn't very popular.  (It makes hiding impractical, and is unfixable since it cannot be balanced for all reasonable playing styles.  It is currently balanced for lone wolf gun bunnies, which is not a very survivable playstyle with only in-game knowledge).  There wasn't a lot of noise about alpha 8 or alpha 7, although I'm aware of at least one player who considers alpha 7 to have a breaking misfeature.

Plan on my end is another day of early-game testing, then cut a final release with some changes to the AI and UI to make the game slightly easier -- and then start intentionally breaking savefile format.

I think it was in 9, not 8, but the gamebreaking feature was sanity, just as you suggest (.8 obviously not to blame: I just only have a .7 on file). The sanity thing made it impossible to clean up corpses or survive as a loner without losing the ability to sleep and then perishing.

[zaimoni]

HMM...I only have played Classic but yes I can visualize the problem there.  [The AI improvements have made maintaining sanity somewhat tricky even for gun bunnies in RC 6/final release; the required 12 undead kills/day to not have a use for pills or books are not as easy to come by.]

[jorgene0]

HMM...I only have played Classic but yes I can visualize the problem there.  [The AI improvements have made maintaining sanity somewhat tricky even for gun bunnies in RC 6/final release; the required 12 undead kills/day to not have a use for pills or books are not as easy to come by.]

This is what Roguedjack said about it:
"Sanity needs a bit of balancing, the fine line between "oh i lost sanity, whatever" and "zomg game breaking""


These are the suggestion about sanity given by players:
- "Communicating with others and trading should result in some gain of sanity, murder of livings should take a bigger hit than murdering undead, Being in the presence of a horde of zombies should quicken sanity loss, and so should isolation."

- "sanity loss = hallucinations. Sanity loss should result in hallucinations, rather than forced actions. It doesn't force the player's hand, but it makes sanity loss a pretty big pain in the arse."

This is my suggestion: Make an option to turn sanity on/off and make it to decay slower.


Thanks for you hard effort put into the game, I really appreciate it

[zaimoni]

I don't see the hallucinations idea flying more than the current implementation: at 0 Sanity, there is a 5% chance of the insanity locking you out and providing a command.  No 7DRL (7-day roguelike) that has been built around hallucinating UI has been playable from my point of view.

The current reliable way of regaining sanity is killing undead (each kill covers 2 hours).  This requires a playstyle that is infeasible with in-game knowledge.  My gut reaction is that Sanity should be calibrated against post-traumatic stress disorder and American Civil War/WWI/WWII/Vietnam , all of which were severe enough to produce accounts of what we now recognize as post-traumatic stress disorder.

I have some other ideas regarding communication; they require savefile format breaking.

[nenjin]

I can't imagine, after how long this has gone w/o updates, that anyone would particularly object to that.

[zaimoni]

Those are great news , Rogue Survivor was a great survival game.

Anyone managed to get in touch with Roguedjack since 2012 ?

He has surfaced exactly once, on the main forum for Rogue Survivor.  Source is now mostly GPLv3 at his request.