Preview: Character Milestones

Every other roguelike has them, so Kharne now has them too (or will do, in the next version): Character milestones. What is a milestone? Here's an example from Crawl:

15328 | Lair:9 | Identified the +2 helmet of Intuition (You bought it in a shop on level 9 of the Lair of Beasts)
15332 | Lair:9 | Identified the cursed -2 pair of boots of Xacriyts (You bought it in a shop on level 9 of the Lair of Beasts)
15336 | Lair:9 | Identified the +2 cloak of Unreason (You bought it in a shop on level 9 of the Lair of Beasts)
15882 | Lair:10 | Entered Level 10 of the Lair of Beasts
16246 | Lair:10 | Reached skill 16 in Axes
16600 | Slime:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Pits of Slime
16883 | Snake:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Snake Pit
16958 | Snake:1 | Reached XP level 13. HP: 86/118 MP: 8/8
17470 | Snake:1 | Noticed Rupert
17495 | Snake:1 | Defeated Rupert
18143 | Snake:2 | Reached skill 10 in Armour
18393 | Snake:2 | Reached skill 17 in Axes
18409 | Snake:2 | Received a gift from Trog
20544 | Snake:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Snake Pit
20837 | Snake:5 | Reached XP level 14. HP: 128/128 MP: 9/9
21258 | Snake:5 | Reached skill 1 in Spellcasting
21683 | Snake:5 | Reached skill 18 in Axes
21694 | Snake:5 | HP: 10/256 [naga warrior/uncursed club (6)]
21698 | Snake:5 | HP: 4/128 [poison]
22626 | Snake:4 | HP: 6/128 [poison]
22631 | Snake:4 | HP: 4/128 [poison]
22636 | Snake:4 | HP: 5/128 [poison]
24007 | Snake:5 | Got a serpentine rune of Zot
25141 | Swamp:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Swamp
25278 | Swamp:5 | Reached skill 19 in Axes
25522 | Swamp:5 | Reached XP level 15. HP: 64/138 MP: 12/12
25817 | Swamp:5 | Got a decaying rune of Zot

So far, I have:

• Starting out
• Dying
• Gaining an XP level
• Gaining rank 5/10/15 etc in a skill
• Noticing a unique monster
• Killing a unique monster
• Finding an artifact
  

Here's an except from a Kharne log:

Turn Place Note
--------------------------------------------------------------
0000191 The Wilderlands 1 Identified The ancient artifact "Ethaedric"
0000396 The Wilderlands 1 Noticed Adrialith the Wrathful
0000409 The Wilderlands 1 Killed Adrialith the Wrathful
0000409 The Wilderlands 1 Reached Level 2, HP: 11/11, MP: 21/21
0000571 The Wilderlands 2 Explored Level 2 of The Wilderlands
0000709 The Wilderlands 2 Noticed Etib the Tormentor
0000709 The Wilderlands 2 Killed Etib the Tormentor
0000814 The Wilderlands 3 Explored Level 3 of The Wilderlands
0000841 The Wilderlands 4 Explored Level 4 of The Wilderlands
0000933 The Wilderlands 4 Reached Level 3, HP: 15/15, MP: 32/32
0000938 The Wilderlands 5 Explored Level 5 of The Wilderlands
0001119 The Wilderlands 6 Explored Level 6 of The Wilderlands
0001384 The Wilderlands 6 Gained Skill Level 5 in Heavy Armour
0001386 The Wilderlands 6 Reached Level 4, HP: 19/19, MP: 43/43
0001672 The Wilderlands 7 Explored Level 7 of The Wilderlands
0002151 The Wilderlands 7 Killed by a Desperate Adventurer

I think it looks pretty sparse, so far. So...what character actions are worthy of milestones?

0.03 Coming Soon

I think I will release the next version of Kharne this week, probably by the end of the week. It doesn't have many of the features that I wanted it to have, but there's enough to warrant a release.

The only tasks I have not yet done which I had originally planned to do for this release are:

• Finish inputting speech and actions for any remaining monsters.
• Implement a door-stripping check to remove isolated and annoying doors in the dungeon.
• Overhaul the adjectives (i.e. simplify the adjective lists) used to describe items.
• Reduce the number of items available in the dungeon.
• Refresh the contents of the shops in the Town Level every time you re-enter said level.
• Add milestone handling to the character log files.
  

I may just say "sod it" and shift these back to 0.03a though.

Beyond that, I really need to start work on implementing ranged combat, and potions/scrolls, along with finishing the refactoring needed to allow saving/loading.

0.03 Preview #5 - Wizard Mode

The new Wizard Console in 0.03, currently toggleable by pressing 'W'

0.03 Preview #3 - Uniques

Following this post in r.g.r.d, I've implemented randomised Uniques. If there is a Unique on the level (25% chance), creatures who can speak will occasionally say things about it:

Here is the Unique in question (the name and suffix are randomly generated). They have better stats and are better at fighting than normal creatures of their type:


When you kill an Unique, the other creatures on the level won't forget it:

I don't think I will make hard-coded Uniques (like Sigmund). Eventually, Uniques will have a chance of carrying magical items, and will affect Monster AI for those creatures in LOS to them. Perhaps they might even drop unique items (for example, "Preald's Goblin Totem"?).

0.03 Preview #2 - Atmosphere in the Dungeon

One of the features I'm currently coding for inclusion in 0.03 is customising the message to give more atmosphere in the dungeon. Monsters will speak, and do things, and the combat messages will be much more flavoursome. Here is an except from the message log with highlighted flavour text for Kobolds:

There is a portal leading to the Fortress of Ablach here
You have travelled through the portal to The Fortress of Ablach
You open the door
You open the door
You open the door
The Xvart sees you!
The Xvart critically hits you inflicting 5 points of damage
You hit the Xvart inflicting 5 points of damage
You have killed the Xvart!
You open the door
You open the door
Something close by is alerted to your presence!
The Kobold attacks but misses you
Something close by is alerted to your presence!
The Kobold glares at you with hatred!
The Kobold attacks but misses you
The Kobold hits you but you deflect
The Kobold attacks but misses you badly
The Xvart attacks but misses you
The Xvart attacks but misses you
You critically hit the Xvart inflicting 12 points of damage
You have killed the Xvart!
The Kobold barks loudly!
The Kobold hits you but your armour absorbs the blow
The Kobold hits you but you block
There is a fountain here...
You take a draft from the fountain
You feel something in the fountain!
You drink from the fountain. The water refreshes you
The Kobold attacks but misses you badly
There is a dried-up fountain here...
You see an Elaborate Iron Kite Shield here
You pick up an Elaborate Iron Kite Shield
You have an Elaborate Iron Kite Shield
The Kobold hits you but you deflect
The Kobold glares at you with hatred!
The Kobold says "I'll have your guts for garters"!
The Kobold attacks but misses you
The Kobold says "I'll stick you full of arrows like a porcupine"!
You hit the Kobold inflicting 3 points of damage
You have killed the Kobold!
You see a Opaque Green Potion here
You unwield a Bronze Kite Shield [4, 0]
You wield an Elaborate Iron Kite Shield
It is an Iron Kite Shield [4, +1]!

Eventually, I'd like to have flavour text for the character's own combat as well, for example, warhammers would "smash" and "thump", whereas daggers would "stab" and "slice", and so on.

Potions and Scrolls

I've just started implementing the use of potions and scrolls. They will follow the usual roguelike convention, i.e. they start off scrambled and can have a "{tried}" status if they produce no obvious effects. The list of potions and scrolls I intend to implement at first is given here.

One additional piece of functionality which I'd like to implement but will probably not for the time being is adding the standard roguelike shortcut of (q)uaffing an item by assigning keyboard shortcuts on the inventory (as opposed to the current method of dragging the item onto the small icon (shown above)). This will require some refactoring.

High Score Preview

The new High Score screen in Alpha 0.03.

0.03 Preview #1

Here is another preview of Alpha 0.0.3. A rather tricky situation, n'est pas?

I've been working today on the hi-score functionality. It is my intention not to display the entire character dump on death, but instead go to the hi-score screen and then give the option to save the character dump to a file or to view it in an external program such as Notepad.

Eventually, its my intention also to make the HITPOINT WARNING messages configurable as well.