Prod me to purchase Scallywag?

[getter77]

Hey everybody, new to Shrapnel in general and very likely about to make my first order in the very immediate future. I feel confident that half of that order will be this game called Dominions III, and am hoping some folks here can make the 2nd half of said order Scallywag.

How has the game held up, here in 2009? Crashing issues, bug and imbalance issues, victories? I'm a tremendous fan of Roguelikes and have a hard time not supporting any of the very few commerical ventures that I come across in English---I even own Kamyran's Eye 2. So long as it is about on par with other PC Roguelikes in these regards, or even older console fare like Fatal Labyrinth and Dragon Crystal, I'm probably golden. That said, I simply can't seem to find much discussion on the game outside of the topics here and even those don't seem to go far in a "down the line, here's where folk are at" manner. I'm also a tad concerned that the developer's website still seems to be down and out after all this time...

I'm pretty well within inches of purchasing this and later aiming to throw a serious effort at the editor to try and get things lively and encourage other purchases from some people I know in the Roguelike community that also had this totally fly under their radar. I just need one or more pushes, with reasoning, from my would-be predecessors! or

Thanks for taking the time to read! :eyes his wallet and waits:

[S.R. Krol]

Obviously I'm coming from a biased perspective so I'll try responding as neutral, but hopefully helpful, as possible.

As you can tell from the forum it's been rather dead, which is unfortunate. Scallywag has some nifty mechanics and a slightly different focus than most RLs (that being that speed to completion is more important than hacking everything in sight). The key point though is how easy it is to mod, and it's truly baffling that point hasn't been latched onto. When it first came out I knew a few people messing around with the ideas of some mods, but nothing ever came of it.

All I can say is play the demo. The demo gives you an excellent sample of what to expect in the full game (you can even mod the demo). If you're not interested in doing a lot of modding keep that in mind, as that will impact what the game is to you.

As far as updates, etc, the game when released was rather stable, with nothing out of the ordinary being reported. Unfortunately I believe the developer has other priorities in is life at the moment so don't expect any updates anytime soon.

[getter77]

Heh, sounds about like what I figured.

If I didn't even bother to try a Demo for Dominions III, this one had no chance either.

SOLD as well as Dominions III!

I can't say when I'll be able to throw down fully with it, as it would appear I'll need to pick up a few new tricks in my own right to make full use of the editor, so PLEASE don't remove this forum...ever...so that there'll be a place to liven up moreso at a later date.

Would you believe that Kamyran's Eye 2 never even had a forum anywhere at any time for discussion? That, and from my talks with the developers many secrets still seem to be unknown after all this time, is sheer madness.

Looking forward to it, we'll see how this goes with shipment time, my backlog, and so on.

Thanks for chiming in!

[Skirmisher]

Originally Posted by S.R. Krol

The demo gives you an excellent sample of what to expect in the full game (you can even mod the demo).

The demo doesnt seem to work right. You can't exit the level and you can't open a chest thats there. Aside from that the game seems really drab. I guess what I'm trying to say is the demo doesn't make me want to buy the game.

I find the original Diablo far more interesting than scallywag , and its 12 years old.

[getter77]

Got the package in the mail today. I do believe this game has the thickest manual I've ever seen stuffed inside a dvd case! Going to take awhile to get this and the manual for Dominions III read and processed in my head...

[S.R. Krol]

Actually the manual for War Plan Pacific pretty much almost breaks the DVD case, but Scallywag is also a tight fit.

Hope you enjoy the game and when you try your hand at modding please share!

[getter77]

I definitely intend to get some modding wrangled, and hopefully bring a few folks along for the ride to really get things cooking. Why the PC Roguelike community is oftentimes is so hesitant to throw money at things/retail Roguelike efforts aside from Dwarf Fortress donations I really don't know...

[Skirmisher]

Originally Posted by getter77

I definitely intend to get some modding wrangled, and hopefully bring a few folks along for the ride to really get things cooking. Why the PC Roguelike community is oftentimes is so hesitant to throw money at things/retail Roguelike efforts aside from Dwarf Fortress donations I really don't know...

Well for starters maybe the product is sub par?

I mean the demo is like a rating of 1 out of 10.
It gets one for effort of programming and the artwork.

Please tell me why you think this games so good.
If the games main premise is that its highly moddable, thats fine, but what about the base product?

[getter77]

I meant more in general...most I've chatted with(virtually all in fact) had no idea this game exists. As do some people think that all Roguelikes must be "free" or else it is treading upon some perceived traditions. There are similar problematic attitudes from a business perspective on the RPG side of things in PC land as well---though they take a different train of thought to arrive at pretty much the same destination.

With any PC Roguelike, the few retail or otherwise, open or closed source, one elects to get into, newer ones in particular, it is an investment in potential 9 times out of 10. There is no other retail Roguelike for PC, console, or handheld that contains such a marvelous sounding editor---it is simply unheard of. Even among the pure ASCII amateur projects out there I'm drawing a blank outside of perhaps something, ultimately, like Dwarf Fortress.

I fully expect the base products to have some issues, afterall, it seems the company itself ran into issues with even keeping a website up and things lively. Couple that with the fact, really, that nigh all PC Roguelikes that go a retail route are effectively cursed to obscurity no matter their pedigree and you've a recipe for some tricky bits.

I'm enthusiastic about Roguelikes. Reading some of the blurbs about the Dominions III guys in the early part of the manual...I could say much of their sentiment towards strategy gaming resonates with me along Roguelike lines. I'm a fan of potential lurking under the surface in most Roguelikes, especially PC. So here, in 2009, several years late to the party, I seem to have found one that offers the closest thing to "easy access" to said potential lurking under the surface AND is graphical to boot. So for my money, that's well worth a budget price and something to be lively about.

Then again, I'm also a crazy guy that bought both this game and Dominions III without ever so much as touching their demos, even with them right there on the screen, nor did I watch any videos for either. So...I might be defective moreso than vanilla Scallywag.

[Skirmisher]

I've bought Space Empires 4, Dominions 3,WinSPMBT and WinSPWW2 from here and I'm happy with all of them.

Scallywag looked interesting at first, but after downloading the demo twice and trying it out, I just can't seem to get into it.

Well I'm happy you like it. Cheers.