ded@milo.UUCP (Don E. Davis) (12/09/85)
I've recently been playing the urogue written by Herb Chong. It has many nice attributes which I find interesting, but one which spoils the game for me. That one is: You have been summoned by the lesser god something-or-other; you are terrified; now hit your space key until you die. You might as well say: you're doing too good; you die. This is not fun. I have no chance to react, to drop my scare monster scrolls or quaff a potion of hero. Is this arbitrary death a "feature?" Or is there something I can do to avoid it? don davis
herbie@polaris.UUCP (Herb Chong) (12/11/85)
In article <179@milo.UUCP> ded@milo.UUCP (Don E. Davis) writes: >I've recently been playing the urogue written by Herb Chong. It >has many nice attributes which I find interesting, but one >which spoils the game for me. That one is: You have been summoned >by the lesser god something-or-other; you are terrified; now hit your >space key until you die. You might as well say: you're doing too >good; you die. > >This is not fun. I have no chance to react, to drop my scare monster scrolls >or quaff a potion of hero. Is this arbitrary death a "feature?" >Or is there something I can do to avoid it? > you haven't thought carefully enough about what is happening: 1) you notice that the monsters are from a much deeper level of the dungeon than the level number indicates (about 3 times, in fact). 2) the particular monsters you ran into terrified you or other such nasty things AND there were a lot of them. you may have noticed that you were completely surrounded there are three conditions for being summoned: 1) 1 in 100,000 turns totally at random (i.e. about once in every 120 levels into the dungeon, or about once a game) 2) a possible effect of misactivation of an artifact 3) possible while going upwards through a stairwell while carrying an artifact i know of at least two total winners (carrying all 8 artifacts) and a lot of people getting killed on the way back up. i'm one, but that's not surprising since i do know the code very well. in my opinion, since i have not even come close to being a total winner at any other version of rogue, urogue is too easy. the next version will be harder. Herb Chong... I'm still user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... VNET,BITNET,NETNORTH,EARN: HERBIE AT YKTVMH UUCP: {allegra|cbosgd|cmcl2|decvax|ihnp4|seismo}!philabs!polaris!herbie CSNET: herbie.yktvmh@ibm-sj.csnet ARPA: herbie.yktvmh.ibm-sj.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa ======================================================================== DISCLAIMER: what you just read was produced by pouring lukewarm tea for 42 seconds onto 9 people chained to 6 Ouiji boards.
mcooper@oberon.UUCP (Michael Cooper) (12/13/85)
In article <179@milo.UUCP> ded@milo.UUCP (Don E. Davis) writes: >I've recently been playing the urogue written by Herb Chong. It >has many nice attributes which I find interesting, but one >which spoils the game for me. That one is: You have been summoned >by the lesser god something-or-other; you are terrified; now hit your >space key until you die. You might as well say: you're doing too >good; you die. > >This is not fun. I have no chance to react, to drop my scare monster scrolls >or quaff a potion of hero. Is this arbitrary death a "feature?" >Or is there something I can do to avoid it? > > don davis The "throne room" as it is called is used to help discourage total winners. There is a random change of something like 1 in 99,999 of being summoned to it while proceeding down into the dungeon by just moving around. On the way back up, there is a slight chance or running into a throne room trap that sends you to a throne room, and something like a 1 in 15 chance of being summoned when going up a staircase. mike -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
ded@milo.UUCP (Don E. Davis) (12/16/85)
I complained about urogue being too arbitrary. In particular, I mentioned the problem with being summoned by a lesser god and killed outright without an opportunity to react. Herb Chong replied: > >you haven't thought carefully enough about what is happening: >1) you notice that the monsters are from a much deeper level of the >dungeon than the level number indicates (about 3 times, in fact). >2) the particular monsters you ran into terrified you or other such nasty >things AND there were a lot of them. you may have noticed that you were >completely surrounded > >there are three conditions for being summoned: >1) 1 in 100,000 turns totally at random (i.e. about once in every >120 levels into the dungeon, or about once a game) >2) a possible effect of misactivation of an artifact >3) possible while going upwards through a stairwell while carrying an artifact > Then he goes on to say that he doesn't think the game is too hard; in fact the next time around he will make it harder. Apparently Herb missed by point. I don't mind the game begin hard. A hard game makes a good game. What I object to is a random death totally out of my control. I was summoned by a lesser god and just hit my space key until I died. Not because I had done anything wrong, but because there was a random chance this would happen. Arbitrary deaths detract from a game. Instead of wasting my time with 30 hits of the space key, why don't you just put up a message saying "You're dead," and core dump.