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[Robsoie]

Personnally 2D art has always been something i appreciated, even when it was the end of the seventies when characters where just a few pixels for the bodies, a few pixels for the legs, you could already see the artists were trying their best to create visuals that i found brillant at the time.

That's something i never found or felt in any rogue native ASCII, and i find that a finely crafted tileset like the one featured in Stone Soup is a superb asset to the gameplay, there are many tilesets i don't like in lots of rogues, but the Stone Soup one is very well done.

Anyways it is not ascii or tiles that makes the rogue interest, it is the gameplay so back to adventuring.
I am not used to magic based classes, so i was surprised to get my first pure wizard character to reach level 5
The magic dart is a very good spell and mephitic cloud can be a life savior.
I was happy that my character was able to defeat early Menkaure apparently before he managed to use his Torment.

In the 5th floor, i was attacked by Edmund and an Ant
Being doubtfull i had any chances i retreated to win some time and get back some magic point, but suddenly Ijyb appeared so i had to go to the first stair i could to at least escape, with the Ant following me.
Unfortunately, there was an Imp waiting there, and ant got lucky and killed me later as the Imp was blinking and blocking my retreat path in a corridor.

Code: [Select]

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.6.0 character file.

439 Falgaris the Ruinous (level 5, -4/25 (26) HPs)
             Began as a High Elf Wizard on Mar 31, 2010.
             Was a Follower of Sif Muna.
             Slain by a giant ant (6 damage)
             ... on Level 6 of the Dungeon.
             The game lasted 00:17:15 (2459 turns).

Falgaris the Ruinous (High Elf Wizard)           Turns: 2459, Time: 00:17:17

HP  -4/25 (26)   AC  3     Str  6      Exp: 5/353 (71), need: 51
MP  10/17        EV 12     Int 22      God: Sif Muna [*.....]
Gold 192         SH  0     Dex 12 (14) Spells:  3 memorised,  8 levels left

Res.Fire  : + . .   See Invis. : .   e - +0 knife (curse)
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : .   a - +0 elf robe (curse)
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Poison: .       Res.Corr.  : .   b - +0 elf wizard hat
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : .   (no cloak)
Spirit.Shd: .                        (no gloves)
Sust.Abil.: .       Rnd.Telep. : .   h - +0 pair of boots
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   i - amulet of inaccuracy
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .   (no ring)
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .   (no ring)

@: rotting, slightly resistant to hostile enchantments, fairly stealthy
A: fire resistance 1
a: Channel Energy, Renounce Religion


You were on level 6 of the Dungeon.
You worshipped Sif Muna.
Sif Muna was pleased with you.
You were not hungry.

You visited 2 branches of the dungeon, and saw 7 of its levels.

You collected 172 gold pieces.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 e - a cursed +0,+0 knife (weapon)
Armour
 a - a cursed +0 elven robe (worn)
 b - a +0 elven wizard hat (worn)
 h - a +0 pair of boots (worn)
 j - a +2 leather armour
Comestibles
 d - a bread ration
Jewellery
 i - an amulet of inaccuracy (around neck)
Potions
 f - a potion of decay
 g - a potion of levitation
 k - a potion of might
Books
 c - a book of Minor Magic [flame]   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   *Magic Dart                        Conjuration                  1
   Summon Small Mammals               Summoning                    1
   Throw Flame                        Conjuration/Fire             2
   *Blink                             Translocation                2
   Slow                               Enchantment                  3
   *Mephitic Cloud                    Conjuration/Poison/Air       3
   Conjure Flame                      Conjuration/Fire             3
   


 You had 71 experience left.

   Skills:
 - Level 2 Dodging
 - Level 2 Stealth
 + Level 5 Spellcasting
 + Level 7 Conjurations
 + Level 1 Translocations
 + Level 1 Fire Magic


You had 8 spell levels left.
You knew the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power          Success   Level
a - Magic Dart            Conj           #####          Excellent   1
b - Blink                 Tloc           N/A            Very Good   2
c - Mephitic Cloud        Pois/Air/Conj  ###.......     Very Good   3


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (6/27)             Temple (1/1) D:4         
   Orc: D:6-11     

Altars:
Cheibriados
Elyvilon
Fedhas
Kikubaaqudgha
Makhleb
Nemelex Xobeh
Okawaru
Sif Muna
Trog
Vehumet
Xom
Yredelemnul
Zin


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

Your flesh is heat resistant.


Message History

The giant ant is moderately wounded.
The giant ant waves its antennae.
The giant ant misses you. The imp blinks!
You feel your flesh start to rot away! You feel your flesh rotting away.
* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
The giant ant bites you.
You die...

         #...
         #..#
       ###..##
        .....#
        #..5.#
        #....#
        #a...#
...######.<..###
.......@a.......
...######..5.###
        #....#
        ##.###
         #.#
         #.#
         #.#
         #[.
          #


You could see a giant ant and an imp.

Vanquished Creatures
  Menkaure (D:5)
  A hound (D:4)
  A giant ant (D:3)
  3 gnolls (D:4)
  A snake (D:2)
  A giant mite (D:5)
  2 giant geckos
  2 oozes
  3 giant cockroaches
  6 hobgoblins
  10 kobolds
  4 orcs (D:3)
  A quokka (D:4)
  7 giant bats
  2 giant newts
  7 goblins
  2 jackals (D:6)
  12 rats
  A small snake (D:2)
67 creatures vanquished.

Notes
Turn   | Place   | Note
--------------------------------------------------------------
     0 | D:1     | Falgaris, the High Elf Wizard, began the quest for the Orb.
     0 | D:1     | Reached XP level 1. HP: 7/7 MP: 5/5
   110 | D:1     | Reached skill 4 in Spellcasting
   466 | D:1     | Reached XP level 2. HP: 11/11 MP: 2/9
   994 | D:2     | Learned a level 2 spell: Blink
  1296 | D:2     | Gained mutation: Your magical capacity is low (-10% MP).
  1296 | D:2     | Lost mutation: Your magical capacity is low (-10% MP).
  1296 | D:2     | Gained mutation: Your flesh is heat resistant.
  1326 | D:2     | Reached XP level 3. HP: 17/17 MP: 7/11
  1623 | D:3     | Reached XP level 4. HP: 21/21 MP: 4/14
  1713 | D:4     | Found a staircase to the Ecumenical Temple.
  1723 | Temple  | Entered the Ecumenical Temple
  1778 | Temple  | Became a worshipper of Sif Muna the Loreminder
  1849 | D:4     | Reached skill 5 in Conjurations
  2054 | D:4     | Learned a level 3 spell: Mephitic Cloud
  2193 | D:4     | Reached skill 6 in Conjurations
  2199 | D:4     | Reached XP level 5. HP: 22/26 MP: 5/16
  2269 | D:5     | Entered Level 5 of the Dungeon
  2300 | D:5     | Noticed Menkaure
  2309 | D:5     | Defeated Menkaure
  2329 | D:5     | Found a blossoming altar of Fedhas.
  2397 | D:5     | Acquired Sif Muna's first power
  2424 | D:5     | Noticed Edmund
  2426 | D:5     | Reached skill 7 in Conjurations
  2432 | D:5     | Noticed Ijyb
  2456 | D:6     | Reached skill 5 in Spellcasting
  2459 | D:6     | Slain by a giant ant


[G-Flex]

That's something i never found or felt in any rogue native ASCII, and i find that a finely crafted tileset like the one featured in Stone Soup is a superb asset to the gameplay, there are many tilesets i don't like in lots of rogues, but the Stone Soup one is very well done.

Superbly? It has the same problems as many other attempts at Linux-based developers trying to do artwork. They simply don't seem to know what they're doing and don't seem to have an eye for what actually makes graphics functional.

If anything, they tried to make them look TOO good. More simplistic graphics would work much better. It's not that I have a thing about graphical roguelikes, but most roguelikes that attempt it either don't take proper advantage of it or it just plain looks awful. I think IVAN handles it relatively well.

[debvon]

Superbly? It has the same problems as many other attempts at Linux-based developers trying to do artwork. They simply don't seem to know what they're doing and don't seem to have an eye for what actually makes graphics functional.

If anything, they tried to make them look TOO good. More simplistic graphics would work much better. It's not that I have a thing about graphical roguelikes, but most roguelikes that attempt it either don't take proper advantage of it or it just plain looks awful. I think IVAN handles it relatively well.

Relax, some people like it and some don't. That's why they give you the option to use either or.  For a complete beginner to roguelikes, the stone soup tileset is almost perfect. It makes getting into the game and understanding it easy if you've never been around ascii. I've introduced a number of friends to the game with the tiles version and they were able to get into it fairly quickly, whereas if I used the ASCII version they would probably have become confused and disinterested.

They simply don't seem to know what they're doing and don't seem to have an eye for what actually makes graphics functional.

Maybe not functional to you, but functional to plenty of others. To each his own right?

[Robsoie]

Having an optional choice between acsii and tileset was a great decision from the dev team, it makes stone soup accessible and enjoyable by everyone, because it does not distract from what is the most important part of a rogue : the gameplay.

Superbly? It has the same problems as many other attempts at Linux-based developers trying to do artwork. They simply don't seem to know what they're doing and don't seem to have an eye for what actually makes graphics functional.

If anything, they tried to make them look TOO good. More simplistic graphics would work much better. It's not that I have a thing about graphical roguelikes, but most roguelikes that attempt it either don't take proper advantage of it or it just plain looks awful. I think IVAN handles it relatively well.

I'm not sure what you find that bad and hard to understand with the stone soup tileset, everyone i know that is using the tileset has strictly no problem with it, so unlike what you say it is then perfectly functionnal for what it is supposed to do and does not break the gameplay in any ways.

To each his own

words of wisdom.

[Grendus]

Finally managed to get a good wizard going. I can now summon two spammals consistently and have enough mana and regen even without being sated with blood (love vampires, bat form and easy food rule). It's interesting to get further into the dungeon, I just ran into a fortress guarded by gnolls, which was hella fun to siege with an army of dogs and spammals. Plus it was full to the brim of shops, and while I can't afford anything I want yet it's been completely cleared so it should be easy to return to if I survive long enough.

Game's fun, if you don't die right off.

Edit: What kind of misanthropic moron puts 9 demons behind a freaking wooden DOOR!

[Mr.Person]

Depends on what kinds of demons they are. There's a difference between a Smoke Demon and a Hellwing.

[Grendus]

Main problem is it was 9 freakin demons. I had a small entourage of animals, a mix of dogs and spammals, ready but they overwhelmed them. It was just imps, but that early in the game just imps is enough. I outran them and went to the next floor, which was full of electric eels and killer bees. I died.

My next game was going great until I ran into a spore that one shot me. Totally lame. 

[Mr.Person]

Giant spores are the reason you should always carry some king of projectile. Learn Magic Dart or carry some actual darts.

[Robsoie]

I recently played a Deep elf summoner too, so started with the small summon animals spell then after a few level i learned the summon imp that is sometime calling some Imp variants that actually summon or animate corpses.
They helped to defeat Jessica very nicely, she had no chances in front of the little buggers.

Unfortunately early i found a ring, a teleportation ring, that was cursed so often i was teleported randomly when walking and couldn't get rid of it, due to the item being cursed.
Annoying, but thanks to the summons i could get quickly some help when i was teleported in bad places.

After a while of being annoyed by this cursed ring, one of the many scroll i managed to find (i was using every of them, hoping one would be an anti-curse one) appeared to remove the curse, and i was then able to un-equip the ring and throw it away.

Unfortunately, i was always randomly teleported despite having removed the ring, i learned in the morgue log that the character had been affected by a Teleportitis bad mutation.

At some point i met an Orc squad, with some regular Orcs and there was a wizard amongst them, this one had some interesting trick for me :

I summoned 3 Imps before being teleported away by the Teleportitis (got badly wounded by a magic dart before the teleportation).

I waited a bit where i was (using the S key), to regain a bit of magic point (i was out of them) and was noticing my Imps were apparently doing a carnage, as "you more experienced" appeared several time.

So thinking there was no more potential threat i proceeded to walk back to where the fight took place, when suddenly the Orc wizard appeared in front of me out of thin air and killed me in a single shot of another magic dart.

I wonder if it was a teleportation, or if he just rendered himself invisible to escape the Imp and was looking for me, but it was a surprising "intelligent" Orc reaction that i was far from expecting.
A bad for the effect of it, but very good surprise to see what kind of nasty "intelligent" tactic sometime those monsters can randomly use.

Code: [Select]

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.6.0 character file.

163 Zorbgunis the Caller (level 4, -4/20 HPs)
             Began as a Deep Elf Summoner on Apr 2, 2010.
             Killed from afar by an orc wizard (9 damage)
             ... with a magic dart
             
             ... on Level 3 of the Dungeon.
             The game lasted 00:11:31 (2100 turns).

Zorbgunis the Caller (Deep Elf Summoner)         Turns: 2100, Time: 00:11:32

HP  -4/20        AC  3     Str  5      Exp: 4/119 (29), need: 76
MP   6/13        EV 11     Int 20      God: No God
Gold 80          SH  0     Dex 15      Spells:  2 memorised,  5 levels left

Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : .   d - +1,+0 dagger
Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : .   g - +0 elf leather armour
Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .   (no shield)
Res.Poison: .       Res.Corr.  : .   (no helmet)
Res.Elec. : .       Clarity    : .   (no cloak)
Spirit.Shd: .                        (no gloves)
Sust.Abil.: .       Rnd.Telep. : +   (no boots)
Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .   (no amulet)
Res.Rott. : .       Levitation : .   (no ring)
Saprovore : . . .   Ctrl.Flight: .   (no ring)

@: slightly resistant to hostile enchantments, fairly stealthy
A: slow metabolism 1, teleportitis 1, Int -1
a: no special abilities


You were on level 3 of the Dungeon.
You were not hungry.

You visited 1 branch of the dungeon, and saw 3 of its levels.

You collected 60 gold pieces.

Inventory:

Hand weapons
 d - a +1,+0 dagger (weapon)
Armour
 a - a +0 elven robe
 g - a +0 elven leather armour (worn)
Comestibles
 c - a bread ration
 h - 2 chokos
 j - a pear
 k - a meat ration
Potions
 f - 2 potions of healing
 i - 2 potions of heal wounds
Books
 b - a book of Callings   
   Spells                             Type                      Level
   *Summon Small Mammals              Summoning                    1
   Sticks to Snakes                   Transmutation/Summoning      2
   *Call Imp                          Summoning                    3
   Summon Elemental                   Summoning                    4
   Summon Scorpions                   Summoning/Poison             4
   Summon Ice Beast                   Ice/Summoning                5
   


 You had 29 experience left.

   Skills:
 - Level 2 Dodging
 - Level 2 Stealth
 + Level 3 Spellcasting
 + Level 6 Summonings


You had 5 spell levels left.
You knew the following spells:

 Your Spells              Type           Power          Success   Level
a - Summon Small Mammals  Summ           #####          Excellent   1
b - Call Imp              Summ           #####.....     Excellent   3


Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations

Branches:
Dungeon (3/27)           

Altars:

Annotations
D:1 exclusion: 27 flame clouds


                    Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations

You have a slow metabolism.
You are dopey (Int -1).
Space occasionally distorts in your vicinity.


Message History

You feel clever.
You feel a bit more experienced.
You hit the orc wizard, but do no damage.
The orc wizard hits you but does no damage.
The orc wizard gestures at you while chanting.
The magic dart hits you!
You die...

................
...........##...
...........# ...
...#########  .
...####   ####
...#...# ....#
...#...##....#.
.......o........
.......@........
......#.........
......#...#####
......#.....
......#......
......##......
......  .....
.####   ....
##      .


You could see an orc wizard.

Vanquished Creatures
  A hobgoblin (D:1)
  A giant bat (D:1)
  2 rats (D:1)
  A toadstool (D:1)
5 creatures vanquished.

Vanquished Creatures (collateral kills)
  An orc priest (D:3)
  Jessica (D:2)
  4 giant bats
  4 giant cockroaches
  2 hobgoblins
  9 kobolds
  4 orcs (D:3)
  A quokka (D:3)
  5 giant newts
  12 goblins
  10 rats
  A small snake (D:2)
54 creatures vanquished.

Vanquished Creatures (others)
  2 quokkas
  2 giant bats (D:1)
  7 rats
  A small snake (D:1)
  4 toadstools (D:1)
16 creatures vanquished.

Grand Total: 75 creatures vanquished

Notes
Turn   | Place   | Note
--------------------------------------------------------------
     0 | D:1     | Zorbgunis, the Deep Elf Summoner, began the quest for the Orb.
     0 | D:1     | Reached XP level 1. HP: 8/8 MP: 4/4
   200 | D:1     | Reached skill 5 in Summonings
   603 | D:1     | Reached XP level 2. HP: 12/12 MP: 1/7
   691 | D:1     | Gained mutation: You have a slow metabolism.
   691 | D:1     | Gained mutation: Space occasionally distorts in your vicinity.
   691 | D:1     | Gained mutation: You are dopey (Int -1).
  1557 | D:2     | Reached XP level 3. HP: 16/16 MP: 6/10
  1582 | D:2     | Learned a level 3 spell: Call Imp
  1678 | D:2     | Reached skill 6 in Summonings
  1863 | D:2     | Noticed Jessica
  1882 | D:2     | Defeated Jessica
  2094 | D:3     | Reached XP level 4. HP: 5/20 MP: 6/13
  2100 | D:3     | Killed from afar by an orc wizard


[beorn080]

If you uncurse a ring of teleport, don't throw it away. Random teleporting can be an immense lifesaver, and its not like its that heavy. Plus, you can activate it and get out of there quickly. As for eels, worship Fedhas and use sunlight.

[Robsoie]

I originally threw it away because despite unequiping it i was always randomly teleporting, so i thought that just having it in the inventory was bad news.
I was not aware my character catched the Teleportitis mutation (and was the real responsible of the problem).

I agree that teleportation are life saver, next time i see such ring, now that i am more aware of what caused the random teleporting problem, i will treasure it a lot.
Teleportation are often something i overlook in the last moments of my various characters, mostly being in panic mode by then, it is a mistake they all paid dearly.

[beorn080]

Actually, if you had teleportitis, you didn't need the ring. Always check your 'a'bilities screen if your in a jam. You'd be surprised at what you forget you have.

[Mr.Person]

Teleportis is probably the worst mutation possible.

[Robsoie]

Always check your 'a'bilities screen if your in a jam. You'd be surprised at what you forget you have.

Thanks for the tip, i always forgot to check that when i don't have native abilities (or when i am not following a deity).

Teleportitis can be a real pain, when my character was at level 2 it nearly got me killed in one battle, when i was out of magic and watching my summons having fun against a kobold, i suddenly appeared in a room with 1 hobgoblin, 1 goblin and 1 snake, i was very cautious for the snake possible poison (certainly fatal considering i had few health) so i prefered to run away instead of risking losing this character trying to fight with my original elven dagger.
I had to run a lot around to get back a few magic points so i could summon some help, hoping i would not add other enemy when running blindly in the dungeon.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

circles are your friend, especially if your running them.