Best Roguelike?

[zyborg]

So far, I've played NetHack, ADOM, and some Mystery Dungeon games (2 Pokemon and the original). Are there any suggestions for what ones I should try next? What are the best Roguelikes?

[Douglas]

I was going to say "Troubles of Middle Earth", but it's apparently mutated quite a bit since the last time I checked for updates or new versions several years ago and it's now "Tales of Maj'Eyal" at te4.org (http://te4.org/). I have no personal experience whatsoever with this new game, which is apparently a complete rewrite and ground-up redesign, but it's made by the same guy and his previous work was quite good.

I discovered the new name and changes just now when I went to find a link for you, so this is a bit of a surprise for me too.

[psilontech]

DOOMRL

DOOM: The Roguelike.

That is all.

[Ozymandias]

I was going to say "Troubles of Middle Earth", but it's apparently mutated quite a bit since the last time I checked for updates or new versions several years ago and it's now "Tales of Maj'Eyal" at te4.org (http://te4.org/). I have no personal experience whatsoever with this new game, which is apparently a complete rewrite and ground-up redesign, but it's made by the same guy and his previous work was quite good.

I discovered the new name and changes just now when I went to find a link for you, so this is a bit of a surprise for me too.

ToME 4 (Tales of Maj'Eyal) is indeed much different from "Tales of Middle Earth," which was Tome 2. It's still very much in development, but new betas are coming out quite quickly, and its got a pretty good base so far.

You can still get Tome 2 somewhere, I think, although I'm not sure where.

[Gadora]

Well, I've heard good things about this (http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/) one, and I'm planning on giving it a try once my current game of NetHack* finishes. I try not to switch between roguelikes too often, since I generally find that the control scheme is just enough alike that I can really screw up when I trip over the differences.

There's also something to be said for giving the original a try. Here's a link to a download for Windows (http://www.prankster.com/winrogue/), and here's one for Mac OS X (http://sourceforge.net/projects/roguedarwin/). It's been a while since I played, but I seem to remember some difficulty loading saves. I don't remember what I did to fix that.


*Elven wizard with 5 spells, Magicbane, silver dragon scale mail, and a horse named Pinkie Pie.

[Cespenar]

DOOMRL

DOOM: The Roguelike.

That is all.

True dat. Who would have wondered that a FPS can be simulated so good in a roguelike?

[Sarco_Phage]

Thirding DoomRL.

Also Dwarf Fortress's Adventure Mode is hilariously lethal in the early parts of your career, while later on you could be an insanely fast dude in full plate armor hacking the noses off Elves and keeping them in bags.

(but no matter how strong you are, one good arrow to the brain will solve you)

[endoperez]

DoomRL is nice. It's not that difficult, as far as roguelikes go, but it is very fun. The background music and the good visuals (:smallbiggrin:) are a plus too.


Dungeon Crawl is the most mechanically sound of all the roguelikes I've played. It's been designed so that you don't need spoilers to play (although they can be helpful). It's also been designed so that there are only very few ways to "grind". The biggest examples of grinding that are absent from the game are the fact that you can't sell items to shops, so you don't have to carry half the dungeon with you, and that you can make your god or goddess happy without hauling half the dungeon to their altars.

You also can't bless scrolls or potions. While it means that there's one less layer of complexity in item management, it also means that you can't identify all your belongings at once. There are no instantly deadly cursed items, so you can actually try using things first, and save your identify for the things that aren't instantly apparent.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Crawl's the only roguelike I've played much, so I can't really comment on "best". It is very fun though. If you do decide to try it out, get version .80 (it's in "open beta"), not the current public release (0.72). It has a load of improvements and balance fixes that make it much better.

[plllizzz]

Gear Head

mech simulator [mech combat, customizing your giant robot, etc.], anime cliches, cybernetic implants, building your intelligent robots, randomly generated plots and missions

still mainly in beta phase, the second game is getting a complete rewrite in /lua now, while the first is at a 'late beta' development level, and probably staying there

still, MECHS + ROGUELIKE

[Ogremindes]

Perhaps Rogue?

[Sarco_Phage]

Gear Head

mech simulator [mech combat, customizing your giant robot, etc.], anime cliches, cybernetic implants, building your intelligent robots, randomly generated plots and missions


YES.

The best part about this game is the hilarious lethality of some melee weapons.

You can do locational damage.

I once one-shotted an entire mech with a chainaxe.

Yes. Each individual part was wrecked in a single critical hit, including the cockpit.

[Premier]

IVAN and Ragnarok (a.k.a. Valhalla) ought to be mentioned. Both use graphical tiles by default, and are worthy of checking out.

[Incomp]

Raising another vote for Dungeon Crawl. It's extremely well balanced in that every class is viable, (except wanderers, they suck. [but those are intended to not be viable anyway, so that's fine]) every race does something really well and is cool, (except humans, they suck.) there are no god choices that are hands-down superior to the others or duds, etc, etc, etc. Moreover, while you need luck to survive the early game (damn D:2 ogres...) skill honestly factors in more.

Plus, it's hella fun.

[Pie Guy]

YES.

The best part about this game is the hilarious lethality of some melee weapons.

You can do locational damage.

I once one-shotted an entire mech with a chainaxe.

Yes. Each individual part was wrecked in a single critical hit, including the cockpit.

Link for download?

[Sarco_Phage]

Here (http://www.gearheadrpg.com/). The download links for GH1 and GH2 are on the left side.

[zyborg]

Trying Gearhead right now. Thanks for all the suggestions...


EDIT: Dwarf Fortress - what's SDL, and what's Legacy?

[Mewtarthio]

Raising another vote for Dungeon Crawl. It's extremely well balanced in that every class is viable, (except wanderers, they suck. [but those are intended to not be viable anyway, so that's fine]) every race does something really well and is cool, (except humans, they suck.) there are no god choices that are hands-down superior to the others or duds, etc, etc, etc. Moreover, while you need luck to survive the early game (damn D:2 ogres...) skill honestly factors in more.

Plus, it's hella fun.

Plus, the gods are awesome. Much more personality, to the point where which particular god you worship has about as much impact as your choice of race and class. "Xom thinks this is hilarious!"

[zyborg]

I found DoomRL to be fun. The GearHead one would be, but the ascii scrolling makes me queasy, and I can't get the SDL one to work. I can't seem to get Dwarf Fortress to go faster than a slow crawl. I'll try Dungeon Crawl later.

[Tengu_temp]

Perhaps Rogue?

Rogue is an extremely basic game. Later roguelikes, like ADOM or Dungeon Crawl, leave it in the dust when it comes to amount and complexity of content.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Plus, the gods are awesome. Much more personality, to the point where which particular god you worship has about as much impact as your choice of race and class. "Xom thinks this is hilarious!"


More impact than class, for sure. Starting class loses importance as levels go by, while choice of gods sticks with you all the way.

[Sarco_Phage]

Just gonna post this to illustrate why I love Dwarf Fortress.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll260/gzu117/MYLUNG.png

YOU MAY HAVE KILLED ME, BUT WITH MY DYING BREATH I STAB YOU IN THE THIGH. HAVE AT THEE!

[Mewtarthio]

More impact than class, for sure. Starting class loses importance as levels go by, while choice of gods sticks with you all the way.

Hence my use of the phrase "race and class." Strictly speaking, it would have been more accurate to say that choice of god is about as important as choice of race, but I figured throwing class in there clarifies things for people used to games like ADOM and Nethack, where class is more important.

[zyborg]

Any idea why Dwarf Fortress is running so slowly for me?

[Sarco_Phage]

Any idea why Dwarf Fortress is running so slowly for me?

Use the SDL version, it runs a lot faster than Legacy. Requires at least a halfway decent processor to run the game though, that thing eats physical memory like a BOSS.

EDIT: Also, I'm running a gladiator tourney using DF's arena mode (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194612), if anyone's interested in seeing how hilariously the combat system works out, you might want to sign up for a gladiator.

[BlackSheep]

For a much more lightweight experience, I'd recommend Desktop Dungeons. It's not nearly as detailed as any of the games mentioned above, but for quick fun, it's got a surprising amount of strategy.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Hence my use of the phrase "race and class." Strictly speaking, it would have been more accurate to say that choice of god is about as important as choice of race, but I figured throwing class in there clarifies things for people used to games like ADOM and Nethack, where class is more important.

I see what you mean now, yeah. Completely agree.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

In ADOM race is very important. A drakeling monk plays very differently from a trollish monk or a gnomish monk. The first has a wonderful acid spit ability that means he has to focus less on ranged combat skills, the second is a power hitter that has short life expectancy problems and the third can become a powerful caster once he survives the early game.

[Iranon]

Nethack for its cleverness and place in geek culture
IVAN for glorious, undiluted bastardry
Dwarf Fortress for its insane simulation detail (although I prefer the fortress mode)
Crawl for just being a rich, polished and damn good game.

[Comet]

Thanks for recommending Gearhead, I'm having a blast with both the original game and the sequel!

In the original game I'm playing a pretty basic hot-blooded martial artist and melee mecha fighter with some spirituality thrown into the mix. Also, seeing a screenshot of a guy kicking his way through an entire mecha and destroying it in one strike on the forums cracked me up.

Gearhead 2 is still a bit lacking, especially in the beginning, but the world and the various starting areas, jobs and backgrounds mean that you can make basically any anime stock character ever and add mecha to the mix. So far I've built a broody teenage knight on a quest of revenge, a passionate tech genius who is completely useless outside of a mecha and an overly charismatic and optimistic songstress who lets her friends do all the work while she cheers them on to save the world. Good times, can't wait for new updates.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

DARN YOU. I'm now hooked on Gear Head. MECHA!!!!!!!!!

[Sarco_Phage]

In the original game I'm playing a pretty basic hot-blooded martial artist and melee mecha fighter with some spirituality thrown into the mix. Also, seeing a screenshot of a guy kicking his way through an entire mecha and destroying it in one strike on the forums cracked me up.

Jesus, Gespenst kick much?

[Telok]

I'm going to have to plug Temple of the Roguelike here (http://www.roguetemple.com/).

I've run Crawl and Gearheads alot, to the point that I'm using the Crawl gods in my D&D game with some prestige classes based on them.

I also recommend the Roguebasin website with a search engine of roguelikes.

[zyborg]

Despite the scrolling making me queasy at first, I'm addicted to GearHead as well. I'm also having fun with Dungeon Crawl, even though it keeps kicking my butt. Thanks for the suggestions.