Vapors of Insanity 0.54

Vapors of Insanity 0.54 has been released!

The focus of this release is to try to become a bit more friendly to newbies. The right side of the main screen has been reworked, and it contains icons, which can be clicked to perform some action. You can also right click on objects to open an extra window about the given objects, which show actions available and contents for the given object. Also most common uses can be executed by simply dragging one object to another. As always, this is still a work of progress, but I want to release a version before Christmas to show what is being worked on.

As for more changes...

• You can now choose from several modes of movement input. There is still a VI mode for hardcore roguelike and VI fans, but you can also select two simpler modes.
  
• A 'Rogue' specialization is added. Rogues are good at hiding in shadow, striking from the back, and they know a simple teleportation spell. Overall, the facing mechanics used by VoI are supposed to allow a nice stealth-based game, and Rogues exploit that. (Although it seems it is quite hard to actually perform a backstab.)
  
• Mouse navigation of the main menu.
  
• Tooltips are shown when you are trying to use the mouse in an in-game menu, so you no longer need to guess what a click does. Anyway, when playing with a mouse, you probably won't need to use menus that much especially item selection menus).
  
• Widemap now covers fullscreen (and can be navigated with the mouse, of course).
  
• Spells obtained via concatenation now have icons which present what they do.
  
• Some new icons. Armor icons are mirrored now.
  
• Players no longer start with hooded cloaks (since they restrict vision, and I don't want to give bad impressions about FOV).
  
• Fixes with AI (to make backstabbing more playable).
  
• "Power of sight" can now be used to see the FOV of another creature.
  
• Items in the backpack no longer lose color (unless you want this).
  
• Some other minor bugfixes.
  
• Tutorial now has two modes, for keyboard and mouse users.
  
• "Spells" now shows mana, and "skills" shows XP and free XP pool.
  

So, not many gameplay chnages, but I have not had much time recently. And of course... there is not much time left, but fans are recommended to vote for Vapors of Insanity and my other games on Roguelike of the Year. Happy Holidays :)

Hyperbolic Rogue in action

This video by ortoslon shows Hyperbolic Rogue in action, and how to get a score of 138$. Thanks!

My current high score is 163$. Other scores I have seen posted in Internet seem to be around $60. Are there any better scores?

I am planning to write a bigger game based on Hyperbolic Rogue geometry one day, but it will have to wait (I am thinking about the next 7DRL challenge)...

Hydra Slayer 13.0 + NotEye 3.1

Hydra Slayer version 13.0 and Necklace of the Eye 3.1 are released!

This version of Hydra Slayer introduces bloody hydras, which are just like normal hydras, except that you don't know their type, resistances, or susceptibilities. Two of them should appear before the first boss, and more should appear randomly later.

Additionally, Potions of Knowledge can now provide "real" information instead of just hints: they can fully identify bloody hydras, and suggest three first attacks when you are under a shadow hydra attack.

The graphical (NotEye) version has been updated. Whole game should be mouse controllable now (this includes all the menus, and all gameplay actions). Also the hydra slayer picture is now displayed in the main menus, hydra list has been moved to the top left corner in the FPP mode, and the hex mode is centered better.

Also a bug with Ambidexterity + sword + axe has been fixed, and Trollish inventory now displays free keys even if the inventory is almost empty (potentially helpful for mouse users).

I have not tested it very thoroughly, but I hope there are no big bugs.

As a side result there has been a minor update to NotEye:

• NotEye menus now can be controlled with a mouse.
  
• NotEye no longer lags as a result of moving the mouse.
  
• drawtile function has been introduced, so you can now draw individual tiles without creating a screen.
  
• Some other minor technical changes.
  
• As mentioned above, Hydra Slayer 13.0 is included, and its noe file is updated.
  

Vapors of Insanity 0.53

Version 0.53 of Vapors of Insanity is hereby released!

Unfortunately I have not worked much on VoI recently, due to lack of time (I have worked a bit on my other roguelike projects though, Necklace of the Eye + Hydra Slayer, and Hyperbolic Rogue which seems to have turned out to be much more popular than I expected). Still, I have made some progress, and since there is currently a discussion on Bay 12 Games Forum about VoI, I have decided that I should release what I have instead of waiting until I have time to develop more. I am quite tired now, but I hope nothing is seriously broken.

OK, so the changelog for Version 0.53 follows...

• When you try to start a new game, you are told that you should try the tutorial, and how.
  
• You can now have several saved games, and see a list of them. Also this works in a more logical manner now.
  Playerfiles (*.apf) are now correctly linked to saved games (universe files, *.auh): their names now include universe names (to avoid collision) and are deleted together with them.
  
• Four directional movement works now.
  
• You can now select geometry (four-directional, hex, eight-directional) from the main menu.
  
• Input is now configurable. Currently you can switch to VI keys, and have more or less confirmations.
  
• Provided icons for vortices, vests and armors, skills, usages, actions, potions and elements, etc.
  
• Rune of Draining, which allows you to cast spells from sources other than your own mana.
  
• Spell of Charging, Spell of Zap.
  
• Rune of Anchoring has been renamed to Spell of Tagging, and is now a spell that can be cast at enemies (but also resisted).
  
• Improved the balance for the "spray" spell.
  
• Diaries are more frequent now, and they have a random thing/monster picture on their covers.
  
• The ordering in the list of actions ('?') is better now.
  
• Runes no longer work on non-spells.
  
• Fixed bug with melting doors with locks.
  
• Fixed missing parameters for some potions.
  
• Sponge spell now can steal potions from inside vials and dragon breath.
  
• Fixed designs. Fixed chasm arrows.
  
• Fixed a bug with stacking target signs which caused stack overflow.
  

Technical:

• Priority assigner in VaporGS. For now, used for initializer scripts, but all method priorities are planned to use it.
  
• Shift+F2 thoroughly analyzes icons now.
  
• Internal icon names are more standarized now.
  
• Wishing cheat improved. Can generate specific books, or bottles and cauldrons with specific potions now.
  
• Asking for a VaporGS symbol (mQSymbol) improved.
  
• Books are now methplexes as everything else.
  

HyperRogue 1.1

Based on the RogueTemple discussion I have added some keys to control the visual presentation. The previous version caused nausea when played for a long time, hopefully choosing to scroll instantly or manually will help to prevent that. (It's hard to find any guide about that, maybe making the animation speed match the screen refresh speed would help too.) I have also added an option of a 3D view using red and cyan glasses.

Hyperbolic Rogue

Most roguelikes allow 8-directional movement, like Rogue. Recently there are many new roguelikes which explore changing this geometrical structure. Some games use 4-directional movement, and there are also some based on a hex grid. My Hydra Slayer and Vapors of Insanity both allow the player to choose one of these three geometries.

I thought that it would be interesting to create something even more different. Hyperbolic Rogue is set on a hyperbolic plane, and the map is composed of hexagons and heptagons.

Another interesting feature of Hyperbolic Rogue is heat. Your body generates heat, which attracts ice wolves and melts down ice walls.

I wanted to wait with this for the 7DRL challenge, but could not resist the temptation and wrote it right away (in 5 days).

Hydra Slayer 12.9

Due to new features of NotEye, the graphical version of Hydra Slayer has been improved. You can now control movement and switch weapons using mouse, and use the tiles also in the hex mode.


Version 12.9 also includes a minor bugfix (last help screen was not displayed correctly) and a minor change (when a monster A kills another monster B, B's HP bonus does not go directly to you; instead, it is transferred to A's health bonus, so you need to kill A to get it),


Download Hydra Slayer version 12.9 here.