ADOM is probably my favourite roguelike of all time. I’ve written about it before (and you can read all about my failings through that link), but there was one thing I neglected to mention:
Though the game is available for free, the creator, Thomas Biskup, does have one request:
“If you are enjoying ADOM and are gaining hours of fun out of playing it, please “pay” me by sending a postcard from whereever you live…”
After many years of playing ADOM, I have finally undertaken this most noble of quests.
The front of the postcard.
YASD = Yet Another Sad Death
- jatori
The harness of power be bestowed upon you.
Isi is still kicking ur ass at finishing the game first though
– you need to up ur game!
Comment by trashcondor — 5 June 2009 @ 9:34 am
I cannot die until I finish ADOM. Therefore, I shall live forever. ;_;
Comment by jatori — 5 June 2009 @ 10:26 am
hmmm i should get adom at the lab here… will give me something to do all day ^_^
Comment by kezbane — 6 June 2009 @ 7:00 pm
I don’t know adom, but I watched the nethack lets play on rpg.net. I’m pretty gamist, and I knew they played with the spoiler books open (knowing where to read in them is still a skill, though), but nethack is still this impossible, dangerous world I can’t imagine walking around in. Kind of like everest! I think adom is probably the same – these mysterious, untouchable worlds that I can only ever seem to dabble in the shallow end.
I’ve always wanted to code one myself, and get in on the infamy…
Comment by Callan — 7 June 2009 @ 9:41 am
A steep learning curve (and other high barriers to getting into the game) plague all roguelikes, as far as I can tell.
A few years ago, trashcondor and avianfoo started working on their own roguelike (if I remember correclty). Maybe they’ll be willing to share some of their experiences.
Comment by jatori — 7 June 2009 @ 12:04 pm
lol – we did start. And had some great ideas too!
My favorite:
* The skill/feats system was point-buy based, with skills/feats having prerequisites. Each skill/feat would be associated with one or more “classes” (such as “combat”, “social”, etc) – and some of the prerequisites of skills/feats would actually be something like “10+ points in combat-class-skills”. In other words non-specific prerequisites.
* The magic system relied on casters drawing energy from the surrounding environment. So underneath it all it tracked the “energy density” of the level. When a spell was cast, the immediate surrounding would be more depleted than the rest of the level – and the density would slowly flow from high to low density areas. Many side effects such as “energy-less” levels would be possible. Also anti-magic feats that naturally drained energy away from areas and the like would be possible.
* The damage system followed a 2-descriptor system. So you could specify a sword to do “10 steel, slashing” damage. To do more damages, (fiery sword for example) you’d specify the weapon to do 10 steel, slashing and 5 steel, fire damage. The effective damage would be determined by the targets vulnerability/resistance to steel, slashing and fire damages. This also allowed for “uber”-typed (or pure type) damages to be done, for example a spell might deal “10 fire fire” damage, thus a creature with fire vulnerability (2x damage multiplier) would end up taking 10 x2 x2 = 40 damage from the attack.
Ah good times. I need to take a year off work to actually implement it all correctly
Comment by trashy — 7 June 2009 @ 12:18 pm
Do it! You can live off the postcards!
Comment by jatori — 7 June 2009 @ 12:21 pm