New Roguelike for Amiga: The Lair of the Lich King

[intric8]

@Warty

First night of playing the very (tough!) fun game on the C128. The following are my notes, questions and possible bugs I captured along the way so far. I realize you made this post for the Amiga release. I can move this over to "8-Bits" later if you prefer to keep the two releases separated.

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Notes
I love how one of the first foes we meet is the “lump-o-lichen”. =) Your humorous wit peppered all over the place makes the game a total delight.

This made me literally cackle out loud.

I like how the overall potential equity of my inventory seems to be applied to my final score rather than just the gold I've collected. Holy smoke the death tax is like 50% though! LOL

Nice-to-have: When I remove armor in order to put on newly found or purchased better armor, I wish we stayed on the inventory screen and didn’t return to the game screen before selecting the new bling. However, can I use a keyboard command to remove armor w/o having to go to the Inventory?


Questions
Inventory:
1. Why did you go with "G" to invoke the inventory rather than "I" or "i"?

Economy:
Since the buying/selling is done in Gold, shouldn’t the Inventory reflect your collected gold vs. “cash loot”? Or are there other forms of payment for goods I've not yet seen? (gems, etc.)

Weapons:
When I look at a weapon in my inventory, I can see it’s “max damage” and other stats. For example, a shortsword might say 6 and a greatsword 10.

But on the game screen, if I equip the short sword the number next to it's weapon icon might now be 10, and the great sword could be 8.

Are there quality/durability/magical attributes that only reveal themselves on the game screen? I’m not understanding the differences between the data on the two screens and when I should select one over the other other than my assumptions around the names.


Possible Bugs
Some Wall graphics are not displayed at all. Using F1/Lantern does not resolve this.

In one game I played, the blank walls seemed to make it so that I was soft-locked, as I never found the stairs. Trying to move against these blank areas never revealed a hallway.

Nowhere to go!

On my C128Dcr, the Help Key does not spawn the Help screen. Tapping it does close the Help screen, however.

This is a very clever and well-designed help screen.

This might be my hardware and not the game but I’m listing it here just in case since the experience was novel.

After over an hour of playing my 3.5” disk started to freak out and wouldn’t read/write anymore. Sounded a lot like the dreaded bad-disk double-grind sound you can sometimes get on an Amiga. I power-cycled everything and relaunched the program. The drive acted like the disk had gone completely bad. (It was “brand new” from a fresh box.) I tried multiple times, then ultimately inserted a different disk - my “OG" LK Disk” is for making copies and is write-protected. Same thing: unreadable. Out of ideas, I changed my C128D’s internal drive to drive ID 9, and flipped the FD-2000 to 8. Now, on the first try, the game booted right up again. Never seen an issue with the drive/IDs like that before. And the fact it seemed to start while I was playing was weird.

Having fun!

[intric8]

Something else minor to add to my small list above. Today while playing I noticed in my player stats that I needed a certain amount of XP to get to level 3. It said, "To next: 25."

I continued on and killed something else. I flipped back to the stats and it showed this:

It seemed like I should have progressed to Lvl 3 at that stage, but I actually needed to earn greater-than-25 for it to flip over.

I've beaten the demo a few times now.

One thing happened to me today that was kind of funny. I was wasting steps on a level because I wanted the Tinker (Shop) to appear to unload a ton of stuff I'd collected. I kept hitting the spacebar while just a few moves away from the stairs down. I was finally alerted to the Tinker being on his way.

"Phew!" I thought, "Finally."

I kept hitting the spacebar methodically. A red character appeared from a doorway above.

"The Tinker has a physical presence?" This surprised me because in the past the screen would simply happen seemingly at random. One spacebar press later, Poof! Tinker Time. I sold off a bunch of stuff. Satisfied, I left the screen back to the game screen.

The red character was still there, 2 moves away. I figured what the heck, let's see.
It was the Lich King! Flashbacks to Berzerk filled my head. Oh, for a digitized voice at this stage to say, "Prepare to die, scumbag!"

I decided to go for it even though I knew I would die. I actually got a couple hits in; he missed me twice before I was knocked down in a single stroke.



At this point, I think the last main area of the game I've yet to cover is the magical side. I've not used a scroll or potion (I tried one, but it seemed to equip it rather than use it immediately). I'll poke through the manual and see what's up. Beyond that, I've very much enjoyed the 3 levels available so far. I should be fairly prepared by the time the full game is released.

[Warty]

Something else minor to add to my small list above. Today while playing I noticed in my player stats that I needed a certain amount of XP to get to level 3. It said, "To next: 25."

Confirmed this: the game is not going to promote you until you exceed the threshold. I'll report that as +1 on the inventory screen.

It was the Lich King! Flashbacks to Berzerk filled my head. Oh, for a digitized voice at this stage to say, "Prepare to die, scumbag!"

Oh, for there to be enough memory for that! I would also be comfortable with "Achtung Schweinehund!" <sigh>

Nice-to-have: When I remove armor in order to put on newly found or purchased better armor, I wish we stayed on the inventory screen and didn’t return to the game screen before selecting the new bling. However, can I use a keyboard command to remove armor w/o having to go to the Inventory?

Yes. This is intentional, to throw a little "reality" into the game: the likelihood you could change armor by yourself without getting wailed on by whomever you were fighting is pretty low. But it's a game, so the penalty is very low: 1 turn to take off armor, 1 turn to put on armor. I have it drop you out of inventory mode so that if you are next to, or near4 monsters, you can see them attack you are move nearer. And on a more basic level: I HAVE to drop you out of inventory, because there isn't enough memory to keep all the code in place at one time (on the 8-bits). Inventory is in one overlay, combat is in another, etc. The only exception, really, is the tinker. The tinker is out of time and space (his special ability), so while you are with him, you can sell him your amor, which removes it, without costing you a turn.

1. Why did you go with "G" to invoke the inventory rather than "I" or "i"?

It started as "I" of course, but user feedback was that it would be good to have all the keys grouped around the same area, so you could get to them without moving your hands. On the 8-bits, there are 2 "sets" of controls, which roughly map to left hand and right hand. Left-hand is centered around S for movement, and goes over 2 columns of keys from there for magic, etc. right-hand is around the numpad for platforms with a numpad.

The good news is that for Amiga users, there's enough memory available to give you custom controls, so you can change it to whatever you want.

When I look at a weapon in my inventory, I can see it’s “max damage” and other stats. For example, a shortsword might say 6 and a greatsword 10.

But on the game screen, if I equip the short sword the number next to it's weapon icon might now be 10, and the great sword could be 8.

The rating you see in the status area is the "attack" rating/bonus: higher numbers make it easier for you to hit something. The max damage is about how much damage you can do, IF you hit. Magically enchanting a weapon only affects the attack rating, not the damage. (it also repairs any durability damage it took). I think this is laid out in the manual, but I probably didn't explain how magic affected it.

Some Wall graphics are not displayed at all. Using F1/Lantern does not resolve this.

Yes, this is a bit of known issue. What happens is that the rooms are plotted, then random paths between rooms are plotted. Sometimes, the path will go THROUGH room B to connect rooms A and C. And sometimes, it will go ALONG room B, and wipe out one of its walls. I try to repair them, but there are some imperfect repairs. I have never seen it NOT provide a way to another room though. Are you 100% sure you tried moving "into" each cell in that snap you showed?

I'm not sure how I'll fix this. there's not much memory left to play with in the MAP generation overlay. I can't have people getting stuck though. Can you buzz if you get that again, where you can't get out?

On my C128Dcr, the Help Key does not spawn the Help screen. Tapping it does close the Help screen, however.

I think HELP might be one of those special keys on a C= that doesn't report in the normal way. cc65 might not be detecting it at all. I'll look into it.

After over an hour of playing my 3.5” disk started to freak out and wouldn’t read/write anymore. Sounded a lot like the dreaded bad-disk double-grind sound you can sometimes get on an Amiga.

No idea. I don't do anything fancy with disk access, just standard CBM read/write/open routines. I would have the disk went bad, as happens all the time, but you're saying the disk came back to life? that's weird.

[Warty]

BTW, forgot to say it: THANK YOU for the excellent beta testing!!

[intric8]

Left-hand is centered around S for movement, and goes over 2 columns of keys from there for magic, etc. right-hand is around the numpad for platforms with a numpad.

Ah, OK. I saw in the 'Help' screen you'd assigned keys on the keyboard for movements/commands. But I've been using the C128's NumPad, which you gave full support for movement (thank you!) which I prefer. This leaves my left hand - which is my dumb hand; it just sort of flops around when I remember I can use it - free to tap whatever when I need to. Since you made this a C128 game, I like using the C128's physical hardware advantages over it's older 8-bit sibling. Burnnn C64! =)

Are you 100% sure you tried moving "into" each cell in that snap you showed?
...
Can you buzz if you get that again, where you can't get out?

In the game where I got soft-locked I definitely moved into the black areas one at a time looking for a hallway or something to escape. If I ever get in a situation where I appear to be soft-locked again, I'll try to remember to video it.

BTW, forgot to say it: THANK YOU for the excellent beta testing!!

It's been a total pleasure! I love what you've created thus far.

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I think I've found another really interesting bug - and it happened to me twice tonight. I had no idea why the game broke the 1st time. I have a strong theory about the 2nd time. This is what it looks like when the game crashes:

Note:
I just started a level.
Take a close look at that green underscore next to the weapon icon in the bottom right. For me, when the game crashes, I get a blinking underscore cursor there. I have to reboot the machine at this stage and reload the game entirely.

In both cases I was in battle right at the start of a level.

I think what may have happened is that when the game started I may have spawned right on top of a monster. The second time I experienced this crash, when the game started I appeared to be in an empty room. As soon as I moved one step two Lichen suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere - one right next to me and another a couple of steps away. As soon as I tried to hit the one next to me - boom! Frozen screen except for the new blinking cursor.

[Warty]

Take a close look at that green underscore next to the weapon icon in the bottom right. For me, when the game crashes, I get a blinking underscore cursor there. I have to reboot the machine at this stage and reload the game entirely.

Ah, so this is not crashed. When more than 3 lines need to be displayed in the buffer since you last read one, it will show 3 lines, then blink the cursor in the spot you noticed, and wait for you to hit space. you hit space, it shows more lines. This happens relatively frequently, especially when you get into a 2:1 or 3:1 combat situation.

too subtle?

[intric8]

Oh! I had no idea the game wanted a user interaction that specific at that moment. I was so focused on the battle I was in the middle of (or thought I was). None of my other keystrokes worked. I even started doing the old, "1...2..3..4..5..6.." across the top of the keyboard to see if I could make the computer respond. I assumed it had crashed. My bad!

Maybe if that "_ "said:

(hit space)

at the end of the text where it says, "...Extermination Badge!" in white or something.

I was confused because all other keys were unresponsive. At least I'll know what to do next time I see it!

[intric8]

Maybe something like this when the need arises during game play?

Spacebar, the final frontier.

Question
Let's say you just escaped battle victoriously with 2HP left. You run to a hallway to rest.

Do monsters in this game ever wander (besides the Lich King)? Like, if you're resting for 50+ turns, do you ever run the risk of being rudely awakened? Not sure I've seen that happen, or if it's even possible.

For that matter, do (or can) monsters even chase you if you flee a room wounded?

Minor Note
Not a big deal, but once you enter your Name at the beginning the lower part of the screen draws itself then dissolves before the game loads.

Thought
It would be cool if I could pay the Tinker to identify an item...

[intric8]

Last thought before I call it quits tonight.

While I find the "Steps" counter interesting, I don't find it particularly useful unless I should be literally "watching my steps" to find a general average where I get my ass handed to me by the Lich King. And I've not been looking at that closely at all as I've not generally felt an overwhelming need.

If I've unraveled a particularly large and windy map, I already have a sense of dread if the pink stairs are on the other side of the screen as I travel back w/o even looking down at the steps counter.

Maybe it matters more beyond level 3...

On the other hand, the "Loot" number is directly tied to my final score, and I do think that'll be important to some gamers trying to climb the Death Charts. It's really hard to know where you stand score-wise unless you keep flipping back over to the inventory screen. Just a gamery/gamification thought that's occurred to me on more than one occasion.

[intric8]

Found a small bug in the on-screen helper text.

I attempted to cycle my magical items when I knew I didn't have any. This spawns the following text:

Code: Select all

DM: No magic selected ('-' or 'v' key to cycle)

The problem is it should say "'0' or 'v' key to cycle" since the '-' key is for using ranged weapons.


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The spell that "clones" you and has you respawn in a different location if you later die is really cool, including the little animation.