bisanabi@vrdxhq.UUCP (Paul Paloski) (01/29/86)
I have seen very few articles about UltraRogue in the news. Any help with
the following questions would be appreciated.
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Questions :
(1) The side effects from (trying to :-) activate artifacts seem more
costly than the benefits they provide. Losing attributes and/or items is a
bit steep. I agree they help limit the use of powerful artifacts, but
does the character's attributes, experience, etc. have any effect on the
outcome ?? (I sell them to the trading post to give me room in the pack.)
(2) A previously genocided creature appears on the list for a new
genocide scroll. Can you genocide the same creature again :-( ? Is there
any way to list what has been genocided ?
(3) If you blast a god/demon with antimatter, is this synonymous to
genociding it? No experience points are awarded in either case.
(4) What does a wand of cancellation do? Do they negate creatures
special powers? Can you undo an antimatter blast or deactivate a trap?
(5) Recently, a +5 ring of intelligence disintegrated when enchanted.
Is +5 the maximum for rings, or was this a bad percentage roll? What
about armor and weapons?
(6) What are the differences in effects and consequences of regeneration,
vampiric regeneration, and resurrection rings ?
(7) My character finally survived a throne room (summoning). Any good
strategies people have found that work well in this situation ?
(8) A *normal* wand of drain life causes my character's hit points
to go down as well as the creature's. What does a cursed one do ?
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Strange Happenings :
(i) Are pools really random ? On a couple occasions, the room lit
up after a few moves displaying a pool. Both a -1 ring, and a -2 ring,
were brought up to +2 (one per occurrence). Was the light a subtle
hint, or a fluke?
(ii) A dragon attacked with a lightning bolt while my character was wearing
crystalline armor and carrying a mace. Both the armor and weapon were covered
with lights, and I found my mace *charged*. This happened again soon after,
and I had a weapon with 57 lightning bolt charges. Several wands of charging
were used thereafter to maintain a sufficient charge. (This was the first time
I had not previously protected my weapon.) Anybody else have this happen to
them ?
(iii) Often I have detected a party room filled with magic items. After
killing all the creatures, I find one or two items left ?!? This usually
happens if I cannot stand in the doorway to the party room while fighting.
(The monsters do not take them, because I do another magic detect.) This
*bug* (?) is very frustrating. Why do 20 magic items turn into 1 or 2 ??
(The magic detect is a prayer, and I only use my mace to kill the monsters.)
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Suggestions for Enhancements :
(1) A nice added feature would be to polymorph items. Care should be
taken to keep charges constant, etc. (see hack discussions about this)
(2) (a) A player should get a one-move warning when phasing is about to
wear off. If you had the insight to keep another potion of phasing, or enough
prayer points handy, you should be allowed the chance to re-phase.
(b) Also, an indicator showing that you are phasing would be nice. I
remember restoring a saved game, and several moves later getting confused by
an umber hulk. I walked thru a wall (phasing - left over from the other day).
I quaffed a potion of clear thought, headed back to the room, and petrified
one move away. A visible indicator, like when disguised or invisible, would
help.
(c) Does a cursed potion of phasing un-phase you, or petrify you?
(3) Is there any way to exit in the middle of a line-by-line inventory
listing ? <ESC> does not work here ?!?
(4) Attempting to throw an item not in the pack gives you the message
"<letter>" not in pack
Hitting a 't' to throw again results in item 't' being thrown.
A better sequence would be
"<letter>" not in pack --More--
Throw what ?
(I once lost the Phial because it happened to be item 't'.)
---------
(If anyone has documentation, I'd appreciate a copy.)
(I'm running version 1.02 on 4.2 BSD UNIX.)
Thanks in advance for any suggestions, and Happy URogueing !flanner@esvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Philip Flanner III) (01/31/86)
I know a few people who have been playing UltraRogue 1.02 (myself
included!) and so can answer some of the questions posted earlier.
1) Artifact side effects. Yes, the artifacts have very bad side effects
and I never use them. But a friend says that if you have time, you
can a) take off your armor, b) drop your weapon, c) drop the most
valuable items in your pack. Then apply the artifact, and most of the
worst side effects (weapon melts, armor shatters, items cursed) can't
happen. Of course, you have to pick everything up again...
2) You can genocide the same monster repeatedly but it won't do you
any good. Currently you just have to remember what you've done.
Also, a blessed scroll of genocide doesn't seem to do anything extra.
4) A wand of cancellation cancels a monsters magical abilities such
as blindheims blinding, umber hulks confusing, basilisks paralyzing
or petrifying etc.. Nothing else.
5) Rings have a limit of 3? (maybe 6 -- I've changed my version so I'm not
sure), weapons 15 (hit + hurl), armor 8, and staffs 30?. Thereafter,
a die roll determines whether it will blow up.
6) Rings : regeneration uses up food and gives you one hit point per move;
vampiric regeneration USES UP FOOD (lots!!!) and gives you a percentage
of the damage points you inflict on any monster (vampiric!); resurection
gives you more life(s) with some side effects but who cares it's better
than being dead!
7) Throne rooms -- unless you have a very good character you don't have
much chance (unless you have a blessed scroll of teleport). The best
thing is too read a scroll of electrification and stand in a corner.
8) A cursed staff of drain life drains only your hit points and not the
monsters.
9) Pools are random. When bad, they make your weapon -x,-x if it was
enchanted, make it worse if it was bad. When good, they make it
+x,+x no matter how bad it was before. Poison pools are a little
different.
10) If you are wearing crystalline armor, every lightning bolt that hits
you adds charges to your [wielded] weapon. I've had a weapon with
over 1500 charges!
11) Black puddings, gelatineous cubes and evil sorceresses pick up magic
items. Black puddings never give up what they've taken, gel. cubes
only drop one item when killed (I think they only carry i.e. pick up
one item) and evil sorceresses drop as much as will fit in the
immediate vicinity when killed (but they are nearly impossible to
kill - a prime candidate for genocide if you plan to make it to the
lowest levels). Thus a party room can be emptied of magic by the
time you get into it. Note -- a roving dot (.) seems to mean that
a monster is picking up a magic item.
I haven't peeked at source to get these answers -- they come from hours
(days? weeks!?) of playing experience. I'm trying to get urogue running
on an IBM PC to give my Microvax a rest........
----------------- Archmage, from level 86 of the dungeons of doom ---------jjg@security.UUCP (Jeff Glass) (01/31/86)
In article <2512@vrdxhq.UUCP> bisanabi@vrdxhq.UUCP (Paul Paloski) writes: > (5) Recently, a +5 ring of intelligence disintegrated when enchanted. > Is +5 the maximum for rings, or was this a bad percentage roll? What > about armor and weapons? I had my +10,+13 long sword explode upon being enchanted once more. I don't know why. > (6) What are the differences in effects and consequences of regeneration, > vampiric regeneration, and resurrection rings ? The ring of resurrection is tremendously helpful. If your hit points go to zero while you are wearing it, you do not die. You are teleported to some random place on the level, with 30-50 hp, while the items you were carrying are scattered throughout the level. However, the last time I had a ring of resurrection, I also had a ring of teleport control. After I "died", I was asked where I wished to teleport to, and *my pack was intact*! I am not sure that this was caused by the interaction of the resurrection and teleport control rings, because I had six others on, but it seems likely. This process (dying and teleporting) was repeated three or four times on level 270 (cursed scroll of teleport, right?) until finally something happened and the items (including the ring of resurrection) were scattered throughout the level, and I died for the last time. > (7) My character finally survived a throne room (summoning). Any good > strategies people have found that work well in this situation ? Hah. Try to get to the %. If that fails, try to get to a corner of the room, since then you can only be attacked on three sides at once. Wait as long as you can, and then teleport, leaving the monsters behind, or phase, moving through the wall. > (ii) A dragon attacked with a lightning bolt while my character was wearing > crystalline armor and carrying a mace. Both the armor and weapon were covered > with lights, and I found my mace *charged*. This happened again soon after, > and I had a weapon with 57 lightning bolt charges. Several wands of charging > were used thereafter to maintain a sufficient charge. (This was the first time > I had not previously protected my weapon.) Anybody else have this happen to > them ? Yes, I've had 500+ charges on weapons. I have wondered if something evil would happen to me if I removed my ring of lightning resistance while my weapon was charged. > (iii) Often I have detected a party room filled with magic items. After > killing all the creatures, I find one or two items left ?!? This usually > happens if I cannot stand in the doorway to the party room while fighting. > (The monsters do not take them, because I do another magic detect.) This > *bug* (?) is very frustrating. Why do 20 magic items turn into 1 or 2 ?? > (The magic detect is a prayer, and I only use my mace to kill the monsters.) z's (evil sorceresses) pick up magic items. Has anyone figured out how to kill these things, short of genocide? I make trapdoors and let them fall into them, but this is not a great method. > (2) (a) A player should get a one-move warning when phasing is about to > wear off. If you had the insight to keep another potion of phasing, or enough > prayer points handy, you should be allowed the chance to re-phase. I agree. /jeff -- security!jjg@mitre-bedford.ARPA (MIL) {allegra,ihnp4,utzoo,philabs,uw-beaver}!linus!security!jjg (UUCP)
tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU (Tom Tedrick) (02/01/86)
>10) If you are wearing crystalline armor, every lightning bolt that hits > you adds charges to your [wielded] weapon. I've had a weapon with > over 1500 charges! What good is it to have your weapon charged? It doesn't seem to make any difference as far as I can tell. > [ ... ] evil sorceresses drop as much as will fit in the > immediate vicinity when killed (but they are nearly impossible to > kill - a prime candidate for genocide if you plan to make it to the > lowest levels). I stopped playing after running into about 40 evil sorceresses one time. It's not that they are hard to kill, rather that it takes too long to kill them. It is so boring to sit there surrounded by 8 monsters and having to hit an evil sorceress over and over until she dies. It takes forever almost ... and it spoils the fun of the game. As far as playability goes the game could use some improvement.
cccallan@deneb.UUCP (02/03/86)
> >10) If you are wearing crystalline armor, every lightning bolt that hits > > you adds charges to your [wielded] weapon. I've had a weapon with > > over 1500 charges! > > What good is it to have your weapon charged? It doesn't seem to make > any difference as far as I can tell. Try zapping it, like a wand. > > > [ ... ] evil sorceresses drop as much as will fit in the > > immediate vicinity when killed (but they are nearly impossible to > > kill - a prime candidate for genocide if you plan to make it to the > > lowest levels). > > I stopped playing after running into about 40 evil sorceresses > one time. It's not that they are hard to kill, rather that it > takes too long to kill them. It is so boring to sit there surrounded > by 8 monsters and having to hit an evil sorceress over and over until > she dies. It takes forever almost ... and it spoils the fun of the game. > As far as playability goes the game could use some improvement. What would you rather have? Monsters down at 50th level that you can kill with one blow? There should be some monsters that should be avoided and not fought. Otherwise rogue (or urogue) become a mindless hack-n-slash type game. I think that if anything, urogue needs to get harder/different at the lower levels. I still say that REAL rogue players play rogue 5.3. Has anybody found any bugs (profitable ones) in 5.3? -- """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Allan McKillop ...{ucbvax,lll-crg}!ucdavis!deneb!cccallan (UUCP) ...ucdavis!deneb!cccallan@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (ARPA) Semi-Obligatory Silly Quote: "I'm no fool! I killed the boss! You don't think they are going to fire me for that?!"
mullen@ulowell.UUCP (Daniel Mullen) (02/03/86)
In article <2512@vrdxhq.UUCP> bisanabi@vrdxhq.UUCP (Paul Paloski) writes: >I have seen very few articles about UltraRogue in the news. I had never heard of it. . . . >(If anyone has documentation, I'd appreciate a copy.) >(I'm running version 1.02 on 4.2 BSD UNIX.) Is Ultra-Rogue Public domain? If so, could we get a copy? We have a Vax 750 running Ultrix with the basic Rogue and Rogomatic. Thanks, Dan.
tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU (Tom Tedrick) (02/04/86)
>> > [ ... ] evil sorceresses drop as much as will fit in the >> > immediate vicinity when killed (but they are nearly impossible to >> > kill - a prime candidate for genocide if you plan to make it to the >> > lowest levels). >> >> I stopped playing after running into about 40 evil sorceresses >> one time. It's not that they are hard to kill, rather that it >> takes too long to kill them. It is so boring to sit there surrounded >> by 8 monsters and having to hit an evil sorceress over and over until >> she dies. It takes forever almost ... and it spoils the fun of the game. >> As far as playability goes the game could use some improvement. > >What would you rather have? Monsters down at 50th level that you can >kill with one blow? There should be some monsters that should be avoided >and not fought. Otherwise rogue (or urogue) become a mindless >hack-n-slash type game. I think that if anything, urogue needs to >get harder/different at the lower levels. I think you missed my point. My point is that it is very boring to sit at the terminal for an hour hitting 40 sorceresses until they all die. OK, maybe the idea is to avoid them. I never thought of that since my normal style is to fight everything that I can kill. But I suspect that rather than being a feature, it is a design flaw. If you read some of my earlier postings or knew me, you would know I have been complaining about the game/monsters being too easy for a long time. I had the highest score on some of the berkeley machines in the earlier versions. I agree that the game should get harder/different at the lower levels. >I still say that REAL rogue players play rogue 5.3. FYI, I have the highest 5.3 score among the total winners at Berkeley. >Has anybody found any bugs (profitable ones) in 5.3? Yes.
mcooper@oberon.UUCP (Michael Cooper) (02/05/86)
In article <190@ulowell.UUCP> mullen@ulowell.UUCP (Daniel Mullen) writes: >In article <2512@vrdxhq.UUCP> bisanabi@vrdxhq.UUCP (Paul Paloski) writes: >>I have seen very few articles about UltraRogue in the news. > I had never heard of it. >. >. >. >>(If anyone has documentation, I'd appreciate a copy.) >>(I'm running version 1.02 on 4.2 BSD UNIX.) > Is Ultra-Rogue Public domain? If so, could we get a copy? > We have a Vax 750 running Ultrix with the basic Rogue and Rogomatic. > > Thanks, > Dan. I've refrained from opening my mouth on this subject, but I can see that this is one of those "I want a copy, too" things. First, UltraRogue is based on Advanced Rogue 1.8 from Bell Labs, though it is looking less and less like the original everyday. The original hacker is Herb Chong who is currently working feverishly on version 1.03 (1.02 is the current release). While the source is *not* availible except to a small group of people, myself included, working on enhancements and bug fixes, binary versions *are* availible with no restrictions. In fact, an article was posted several months ago from one of the URogue hackers at Berkeley announcing the availiblity of the binary via anonymous ftp from ucbvax. Last time I checked, though, something had happened to the copy of ucbvax. If need warants, I can make a binary copy (for VAX 4.2BSD) availible, also via anonymous ftp on ARPAnet. I'd also like to say that version 1.03 is nearing completion (according to Herb Chong) and will go into Beta testing shortly after that. When 1.03 is ready for wide distribution, an announcement will be made to this group (net.games.rogue) concerning retrivial. Again, only binary copies will be distributed. Did I miss anything, Herb? mike cooper -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Michael Cooper UUCP: ...!{uscvax, sdcrdcf, engvax, | | University Computing Services scgvaxd, smeagol}!oberon!mcooper | | University of Southern Cal. BITNET: mcooper@uscvaxq, mcooper@jaxom | | Los Angeles, Ca. 90089-0251 ARPA: mcooper@usc-oberon.arpa, | | (213) 743-3462 mcooper@usc-eclc.arpa | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+