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HunchBluntley:
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sunshinecorp: HunchBluntley, have you played ADOM at all? 'cause, like, you should.
Nope, I prefer to take this kind of game one at a time; I generally play one on and off over the course of many months until I start to get sick of it before I look into alternatives. Before I had the Internet at my disposal, I made do with the shareware versions of Castle of the Winds and Ragnarok; much later, I finally played NetHack (as well as the by-that-time-freeware full versions of CotW and Rag), and later still, I found a simple "NetHack-lite" Windows 8 app called Dungeon of Slyn, and also tried to get into Tales of Maj'Eyal. Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup is my current "true" Roguelike drug of choice.

I have heard a lot of people speak positively about ADOM, so I'll probably look into it the next time I'm in the mood for a different RL; but it'll probably take me months before I get tired enough of Crawl to seek out a different game of this particular type.
Post edited March 13, 2016 by HunchBluntley
Well, my new all-time most successful character in this game just got killed off earlier. I never would've guessed that a kobold would make such a successful berserker! :D
Little fella died at 18th level, having cleared the Lair and the Mines, delved into a volcano, and explored as far down into the Dungeon as the 13th floor (not the deepest I've ever been). He even escaped the Abyss after a long interlude spent (involuntarily) roaming there, only to be brought low in the Elven Halls by a combination of too many enemies -- branded dancing weapons (that blasted sword of distortion was the bane of my existence!) and a named enemy called something like 'Saint Roka' being the real dangers -- and too few sources of healing magic. Still, I would say my cause of death (at least on the strategic level) was hubris, not the animated branded eveningstar that actually relieved me of my last several hit points.
Might as well give this a bump for shiggles to take advantage of the extra forum traffic due to the sale. =)

I'll drop another question, just for fun: For those who have tried Crawl, but prefer other Roguelikes to it, why? What did not like about Stone Soup, or wish it had that another RL has?
Just now noticed that DCSS was updated again a month ago, so I figured I should give this topic a bump!
Crawl 0.19: “Dancing Through Memory”

We’re proud to announce the release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup 0.19: “Dancing Through Memory”! 0.19 features two new gods, a new portal vault, and many other additions, streamlinings, and general improvements to the game.

Download DCSS 0.19 , or [url=http://crawl.develz.org/]play it online on one of many servers across the world! The Windows and Linux packages are available now, as well as the source; the OS X binaries should be online within a few days.
OS X binaries are now available, many thanks to agolden for building them!

[...]

0.19′s highlights include:

- Branches: Lair and its sub-branches have been made shorter but deadlier, Zot offers new perils to the unwary adventurer, and the Desolation of Salt, a new timed portal vault, offers hoards of ancient artefacts to those strong enough to face down the unique threats hidden in its blinding saltstorms.
- Spells: Two new spells have been added: Lesser Beckoning, which pulls enemies straight to your feet, and Infestation, a high-level Necromancy spell that spawns death scarabs from the remains of slain foes.
- Items: All Long Blades now offer a ‘riposte’ effect, giving a chance for an automatic counterattack whenever an enemy misses the player. The Fencer’s Gloves let you riposte with any weapon.
- Characters: Halflings and Kobolds have had their aptitudes and stats reworked, pushing the former to be powerful heavy-armour fighters, and the latter toward stabbing and spellcasting.
- Gods: Uskayaw the Reveler offers remarkable combat powers to acolytes, peaking at the ability to instantly kill any targeted foe, but the piety that powers those abilities drops back to nothing after every battle. Hepliaklqana the Forgotten gives followers a single, permanent ally, which grows in strength alongside the player. Plus, Nemelex Xobeh’s decks have been streamlined and reworked, and Sif Muna’s abilities have been overhauled to be much more fun to use.

For a list of other major changes, see the . Many thanks to all those who have [url=https://github.com/crawl/crawl/blob/stone_soup-0.19/crawl-ref/CREDITS.txt]contributed to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. We hope you enjoy playing 0.19!
Haven't played it yet, but I have been back into Stone Soup lately (a little bit), so I'll probably try it out this weekend.

Also, there's currently a player survey you can take, for anyone who thinks the game is "good, but...". ;D
I haven't played 0.19 yet and missed the tournament as well, but I play this thing a lot on and off. I'm able to win with minimal runes count, but only with melee characters. Fighter, Berserker, Qazlal, Okawaru, Trog. Mages are much harder to play for me, but sometimes I get a lucky run and clear Lair. I'm totally incompetent with Stealth or hybrid characters. The hardest (or maybe most obscure) part of the game seems to be the skill management.
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Nightblair: I haven't played 0.19 yet and missed the tournament as well, but I play this thing a lot on and off. I'm able to win with minimal runes count, but only with melee characters. Fighter, Berserker, Qazlal, Okawaru, Trog. Mages are much harder to play for me, but sometimes I get a lucky run and clear Lair. I'm totally incompetent with Stealth or hybrid characters. The hardest (or maybe most obscure) part of the game seems to be the skill management.
I rarely bother getting fancy with skill management -- I disable anything I consider irrelevant to my concept of the current character, but I pretty much always leave it on "auto". Then again, I'm not going into it with the mindset of "OK, this is the run where I'm finally gonna get the orb!" I just play to play, and min-maxing isn't terribly important to that goal. :P
Wasn't this game slated to have been released on GOG? What happened?
I've played it along time ago. Played it for a whole while, my favorite class being Troll (or was that Trog) Berserker because of the fast start - but that lack of defense really comes to bite you near the end. I think I only made it all the way to the bottom once or twice, and died shortly after each time.
Post edited December 04, 2016 by kalirion
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rampancy: Wasn't this game slated to have been released on GOG? What happened?
As far as I know, this game isn't sold anywhere (at least, not for PC, since it's free and open-source; somebody mentioned some Android port in the thread months ago, but I don't know how "official" that is). I'm not sure what you might be thinking of.
So, for an avid player and lover of NetHack, how does this game compare?
I know, I could google and all that, but that is no fun.
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rampancy: Wasn't this game slated to have been released on GOG? What happened?
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HunchBluntley: As far as I know, this game isn't sold anywhere (at least, not for PC, since it's free and open-source; somebody mentioned some Android port in the thread months ago, but I don't know how "official" that is). I'm not sure what you might be thinking of.
It was a brain-fart on my end; I got this confused with Dragon Fin Soup.
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advancedhero: So, for an avid player and lover of NetHack, how does this game compare?
I know, I could google and all that, but that is no fun.
I'm not listing these as advantages of one or other game, just comparing:
No grinding.
Food is scarce, monsters almost don't respawn.
Much more complex skill system.
No kitchen sink. The design is much tighter. Also the dev team is not afraid to remove features.
You are not required to read spoilers.
No crazy combinations of things, like throwing the potion of blindness on monsters to blind them, or dipping into fountain to dilute potions and get them blessed, no dancing around nurses. Stone soup is almost always about combat.
Levels are much larger, but you have autoexplore.
(I'm not sure about this) More monsters. Bosses. More spells.
Optional challenges - not conducts, but more branches in dungeon.
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advancedhero: So, for an avid player and lover of NetHack, how does this game compare?
I know, I could google and all that, but that is no fun.
More streamlined, somewhat more user-friendly (halfway decent GUI/mouse support in the tiles version, without having to use a third-party "wrapper" like Vulture...no sound or music, though, unlike Vulture-NetHack), and WAAAAY more noob-friendly (there's a multi-stage tutorial AND a Hints Mode with contextual messages and slightly simplified versions of some of the interfaces -- e.g., the skills screen). Somewhat less unfair, too, I'd say, though your mileage may vary.
Not nearly so many different items, and most serve a clear purpose (i.e., no "joke" items that turn out to be super useful in certain very, very specific situations). In fact, there's pretty much none of the "you have to find out about [thing] through trial and error/someone else telling you/looking it up on the wiki" stuff going on. No cursed/blessed consumables (potions, scrolls, etc.), though anything equipable can still have either of these properties. No hidden doors (...anymore), and therefore no searching.
Classes are actually called "backgrounds", and, accordingly, they really only affect your starting skills and equipment (and, in a few cases, which god you serve), but don't grant special abilities or impose restrictions. (Races fill that role.) This means you can start with a spell-casting background, but still become a kick-ass axe fighter (or whatever floats your boat).
Speaking of gods, you can choose from a number of different gods to worship during the game, each with their own likes and dislikes regarding your behavior, with appropriate rewards (passive buffs, special spell-like abilities, gifts of equipment, etc.) if you please them...as well as punishments if you piss them off. (You can only serve one god at a time. :) )
Also, as mentioned, there are skills which level up independently of your class. You can change several aspects of how your skills are trained, so it's fairly customizable and min-max friendly [the skills system, that is].

That's off the top of my head.
Post edited December 04, 2016 by HunchBluntley
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Nightblair: Food is scarce, monsters almost don't respawn.
You know, maybe it's just because I seldom play spellcasters (or, at least, seldom play them as more-or-less pure spellcasters), but I can't recall ever actually having had serious trouble finding food in DCSS. I'm almost positive I've never starved to death. Maybe if I played one of the races with dietary restrictions and/or a fast metabolism as a caster, while worshiping a deity that imposed further restrictions on what I could kill/butcher/eat, I might have to seriously worry about starvation. Normally, though, by the time I've made it to the 10th dungeon level or so, I'm swimming in non-perishable foods.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I starved quite a few times in NetHack -- tons of times, if you count the occasions where I was starving, but got killed by a creature while desperately looking for some nourishment. =)
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HunchBluntley: You know, maybe it's just because I seldom play spellcasters (or, at least, seldom play them as more-or-less pure spellcasters), but I can't recall ever actually having had serious trouble finding food in DCSS. I'm almost positive I've never starved to death. Maybe if I played one of the races with dietary restrictions and/or a fast metabolism as a caster, while worshiping a deity that imposed further restrictions on what I could kill/butcher/eat, I might have to seriously worry about starvation. Normally, though, by the time I've made it to the 10th dungeon level or so, I'm swimming in non-perishable foods.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I starved quite a few times in NetHack -- tons of times, if you count the occasions where I was starving, but got killed by a creature while desperately looking for some nourishment. =)
What a paradox, isn't it? I've never starved either, even when spellcasting is wasting food like crazy if character is not skilled enough. However, we don't usually deal with starvation because we don't try to grind in DCSS. If you want to stay in these levels long enough to spawn some baddies for you to easy kill, then the food will be a big problem. I'm noob in Nethack, but it usually spawns so many monsters to eat, that I've never had any problem. Heck, I've choked to death with a fortune cookie once! (just one more, nooo, just one more, argh!)