malfador-off topic

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Puke:
Best. Game. Ever.

Nethack? Can you explain why? I downloaded it and tried it a few months ago. I don't want to start a fight, but it was pretty boring to me. But maybe I was missing some aspect of it or something. move, fight, move, fight, die. Half the time I didn't know there was a creature there until after I had killed it, or it had killed me.

Geoschmo

[sachmo]

Geo,

to be honest, nethack and other rougelike games are not for everyone. The graphics pretty much suck, and the story usually takes a back seat. The point of the game is the joy of slaughtering monsters and trying to stay alive as long as possible. Or finding new ways to die, like the time in ADOM when my 11th level Paladin died from eating a Gorgon corpse. Just a note, if you eat a Gorgon, you WILL turn to stone...
Most Rougelike games take a while to get used to as they have a ton of commands, and you will generally die a lot while trying to learn the game. To make Nethack a bit more fun, try Nethack Falcon's Eye (www.the-underdogs.org) as it has much better graphics. Or for another dungeon crawl, try this game:
http://www.valinor.freeserve.co.uk/k...harnemain.html

[geoschmo]

I don't mind the lack of graphics. There did seem to be a LOT of commands, I will grant you that. The main thing I didn't like about it was there didn't seem to be any point to the game. The reason I liked D&D so much was getting into the character and becoming part of this universe. I don't need graphics for that, but I do need some kind of story, besides just wandering a random ceries of caves killing as many creatures as I could find. I am hoping DO has that, or I will not care for it much I am afraid.

Geoschmo

[ July 24, 2002, 19:32: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Krakenup]

Originally posted by Puke:

quote:

---

Originally posted by sachmo:
...but for my money, I want replayability. Like nethack

Best. Game. Ever.

---

I was addicted to Angband/ZAngband for about 5 years. It took me a year and a half to beat it the first time. It's really satisfying to kill a 'D'.

http://thangorodrim.angband.org/

Even. Better. Than. Nethack.

[Puke]

fight, move, fight, die?

granted, but you are missing alot. a cockatrice will turn you to stone. if you are wearing gloves, you can kill one and wield its corpse, and turn other monsters to stone. if you are wearing a ring of slow-digestion, you will have an easier time fighting your way out of a purple worms stomach if it swallows you. if you make the right sacrafice, you can convert an alter of a hostile god to that of a friendly one.

there are an innumerable number of options and possibilities. you can gain intrinsic abilities by eating things with those abilities. if you polymorph your self into a rock-eating or metal-eating monster you can gain intrinsics by eating certain magic items or amulets.

you can achieve different spell effects by reading a scroll or book of magic while holucinating or confused. you can tame creatures and they will follow you as a pet. you can make pets more loyal by feeding them. loyal pets help you detect which items are cursed, and might bring you things they pickup from the dungeon.

if you drop something you are not planning on using, dont be supprised when a wandernig monster picks it up and uses it against you.

and thats not even scratching the surface. the game has been being revised for about 20 years now, and features keep going in. the developers themselves still run into several supprises when they play the game.

imagine if SE4 was open-source, and people had been modding it and adding features for TWENTY YEARS.

thats why its the Best. Game. Ever.

[Puke]

Originally posted by Krakenup:
Even. Better. Than. Nethack.

hmm, while those ARE fighting words, i will let it slide this time. i will take this opportunity to point you towards MANGBAND though, multiplayer Online angband. www.mangband.com

[Baron Munchausen]

Geo, it's about solving the puzzles. You have to be a very 'verbal' person to like nethack or the other 'rogue-like' games because they're about word-magic, and that requires thinking. Eating the corpses of monsters often gives you powers that the monsters had, for example, but sometimes it has bad effects, too. Half the fun of the game is seeing 'what happens if...' you eat a certain item, or wear a certain combination of items. As Puke says, you can wield a cockatrice corpse as a weapon. This is called the 'rubber chicken' attack, btw. The elaborate 'ritual' required to open the final level and get at the Wizard is amazing. I never would have figured it out myself. Had to read a spoiler file. The other half of the fun is how unbelievably smart the monsters are. I once killed a cockatrice and did NOT pick up the corpse, then ran around a corner to avoid another 'monster' (a human guard of some sort) while I healed. The guard picked up the corpse (he had gloves obviously) and tried to use it against me! I've had incredible battles with demon lords too, where he/she/it used every trick you'd expect a player to use and we wiped out entire levels of the dungeon before I finally got him/her/it. Sometimes I had to go back for healing/replenishment of resources several times before winning the battle with that one 'monster'. If the AI in SE IV was a fraction as smart as the nethack AI we'd all be begging for mercy, not whining about how bad it is.

[ July 24, 2002, 20:23: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]