Post-Apocalyptic Roguelike - Have anyone tried this?

[Cespenar]

From what I see in the gaming forums, there are at least a couple of people who enjoy roguelikes, so there's a small chance I may enable someone to find a new gem in the roguelike "scene".

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (http://en.cataclysmdda.com/) is mainly a post-apocalyptic zombie survival roguelike, with a sci-fi twist. It's currently on 0.8, but there's an awful lot of content in there that rivals most completed roguelikes. Oh, and did I mention that it's free?

Anyway, what else? So, there's a construction angle, which I haven't seen in many one-character roguelikes before. You can dig ditches, make traps, build walls, and lots of details I wouldn't imagine they'd put in a roguelike. Like, a burning fire creates random patches of smoke and it's kinda hazardous to inhale it, unless you have a wearable on your Mouth part that has Environment Protection? What's up with that? :smalltongue:

Oh, and I heard it's easy to mod as well.

[Miscast_Mage]

Honestly, my main gripe about Cataclysm is that when you start getting into it, it just begins to feel like a chore moreso than a game. Dealing with zombies seems a test in frustration moreso than anything because of how making noise spawns more zombies; firing a single shot, especially from a noisy weapon like a shotgun can end up spawning a horde of 50+ zombies, some of which are special zombies that can outrun you. :smallmad: To be fair though, there is quite a lot of features to Cataclysm, such as you said the construction/building, the crafting, the limbs health system, the skill system, etc.

Another roguelike in a similar vein but a lot easier to get into would be Rogue Survivor. (http://roguesurvivor.blogspot.ie/) It's a pretty fun little survival game; it's based in a city with different districts as the map, and the aim is to essentially survive as long you can against the undead, hostile humans such as gang members and bikers, and other survivors who are desperate and might attack you for your bag of rotten groceries. You have to juggle escaping/barricading yourself from the undead with getting equipment such as weapons and medicine, making sure you have enough food, having somewhere safe to sleep, and in the latest version an infection meter was added.

Sadly, I think RoguedJack is finished developing it, as all of his latest posts are about the sequal, Rogue Survivor II, which is probably still quiet a ways off.

[Maxios]

I've been playing Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead since it was just Cataclysm, eons ago. It's a great game, though the newer versions of DDA (pretty much every update since 0.5) haven't been good in my opinion. They've all been extremely glitchy, removed established features to replace them with half-baked new ones (like the focus system), and added in extremely OP monsters (I'm looking at you, Jabberwocky).

Generally speaking, whenever I play it I create characters based off of myself. That is to say, complete cowards with little to no useful skills. I think the farthest I've made it into the game is to the end of summer. Then a pack of zombie dogs showed up, and I died horribly.

To Mage: Zombies only spawn when you make noise if you set the zombie spawn option to dynamic. If it's set to static, zombies only spawn at the start of the game. With it set to static, I've been able to clear out entire towns before.

Rogue Survivor was a pretty great game, though its creator seems to have abandoned both the base game and its sequel.

[Cespenar]

Though I more or less agree with those, it should be noted that they are faults you notice deep into the game. No dealbreakers at all, I'd say.

Anyway, since that's a theme, my current gripes seem to be:

-How little bullets you find,
-How overpowered fire is,
-How underpowered archery is,

...and of course,

-Killer animals. Seriously, zombies are small fries compared to wolf spiders, packs of wolves, and the dreaded moose. Why are they doing in the town again?

[druid91]

Honestly? I played it until I mastered the overpowered tactic of fueling a pickup truck and running EVERYTHING over.

[Maxios]

In my experience, archery is very overpowered. With the right starting build, you can pretty quickly craft a longbow and a few dozen arrows. Once your archery skill gets high enough, you get headshots on everything you shoot (and the arrows usually can be picked up and used again too.)

I hope the developers add in an option to remove the killer animals at some point, or just make them more realistic. I have no problems dealing with a horde of zombies, but three zombie dogs and I'm doomed.

[Cespenar]

In my experience, archery is very overpowered.

I thought that too, at first. In fact, I believed that and played archer after archer.

Then I discovered throwing. :smallbiggrin:

[Grinner]

I hope the developers add in an option to remove the killer animals at some point, or just make them more realistic. I have no problems dealing with a horde of zombies, but three zombie dogs and I'm doomed.

But...It's a roguelike...That's, y'know, kinda the point...

"Losing is fun" and all that.

[druid91]

In my experience, archery is very overpowered. With the right starting build, you can pretty quickly craft a longbow and a few dozen arrows. Once your archery skill gets high enough, you get headshots on everything you shoot (and the arrows usually can be picked up and used again too.)

I hope the developers add in an option to remove the killer animals at some point, or just make them more realistic. I have no problems dealing with a horde of zombies, but three zombie dogs and I'm doomed.

Funny thing, picking the cyborg perk at the beginning is a bit of a gamble, but sometimes it pays off....

Like the time you get a metabolic extractor and an arm mounted plasma cannon.

[Cespenar]

"Losing is fun" and all that.

Losing is fun.

Losing constantly to the same stuff and thus not seeing the rest of the content... is decidedly less fun.

[Jlerpy]

Every so often, I have another play of 1995's Alphaman (http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Alphaman)