Another Expedition Into Qud

You may read my earlier posts about Caves of Qud here. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I last wrote about Caves of Qud almost two years ago. But I’ve been following the weekly updates for this excellent far-future roguelike about scavenging ancient sci-fi technology the whole time. There have been some big ones. A whole new segment of the main storyline was added, centered on the Tomb of the Eaters, where the ancient rulers of Earth and the stars beyond are interred. A large swath of the southeastern jungle has been replaced by a vast lake, hosting a new area known as the Palladium Reef on its eastern edge. This even includes a new friendly settlement known as the Yd Freehold. Then there are some big mechanical changes: the option to ease up the punishing permadeath mechanics by playing in RPG mode, where the game is checkpointed at towns, or even Wander mode, where no experience points are awarded for combat and most factions start out neutral to the player.

All of that was tempting, but not quite enough to lure me back, since I knew that once I started playing it would devour my free time. No, what finally convinced me to dive in again was the announcement that the early game areas of Red Rock and the Rust Wells had finally been redesigned. Many new characters meet their deaths in these relatively uninteresting caves, meaning players may never see the much, much cooler stuff to come farther along the storyline. A redesign hopefully meant the early quests were brought up to par with the rest of the game. I decided to find out.

Once More Into The Caves Of Qud

Readers unfamiliar with Caves of Qud should read my earlier posts about it first, as this post doesn’t bother explaining what it is. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

It’s been nearly five years since I last played Caves of Qud. But I’ve been following its development, and always intended to return to see how things were progressing. Developers Freehold Games were kind enough to give me a free copy of the game in Early Access on Steam back then, but when I saw it had also released on GOG I decided to buy it there to support development (it’s now available on itch.io as well). I was still busy playing other things, however, and didn’t actually fire it up. Finally, the periodic patch notes convinced me to dive back in. Notes like:

–Being in the same cell with slippery liquids no longer causes chairs, beds, iron maidens, and psionic sarcophagi to malfunction.
–There should be fewer game-breaking problems when you dominate a creature and a spacetime vortex consumes your dormant body.
–Cooking with the gland paste of various bearded lizards no longer forcibly removes your beak if you have one.

I was overdue for another trip to Qud.

Roguelike Updates: This Time It’s Personal

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, and possibly peruse some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. And maybe read about why we might want to start calling them deathcrawls instead. Also, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

My favorite roguelike, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, has updated to v0.18.1. For many players, the most exciting part of this update may be the new god, Pakellas, who specializes in evokable devices like wands (and the associated changes to wands in the game). Or it might be the new monsters and items, or the revamped Charms spell school, or the changes to the Orcish Mines, Elven Halls and Abyss branches. It might even be the improved interface graphics and tiles. But I will remember v0.18.1 for another reason: it was the version in which I had my first successful foray into the “extended game”, going beyond simply winning in favor of tackling the toughest challenges the game has to offer.

There will be spoilers in this post, like last time. And you’ll want to read that post too, if this post is to make much sense.

Roguelike Updates: Square Dancing On Stilts

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, and possibly peruse some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. And maybe read about why we might want to start calling them deathcrawls instead. Also, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

I haven’t had as much time to play roguelikes as I’d (rogue) like, so this coverage of recent updates is far from comprehensive. But I have managed to follow the latest developments for Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Caves of Qud, and Approaching Infinity. Read on for some thoughts.

Roguelike Updates: Caves Of Qud Goes Commercial

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, and possibly peruse some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. And maybe read about why we might want to start calling them deathcrawls instead. Also, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

Long-time readers will remember that I quite liked Caves of Qud when I played the original freeware release back in 2013. I also lamented that it hadn’t seen any updates in a while. Well, developers Freehold Games have resumed work on Caves of Qud, releasing it on Steam Early Access with regular updates. They also must remember that I enjoyed the freeware version, because they sent me a copy of the Early Access version for free. Sweet!

While there are a lot of updates, the core experience of the game is largely the same, so if you are unfamiliar, I direct you towards my earlier post about it, which describes what it is (a very-far-future roguelike about searching for ancient science-fiction technology) and why it’s great. Here I will focus on what’s new, and what I hope to see in the future.

In Space, No One Can Hear Your Roguelike Updates

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, and possibly peruse some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. Also, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

Well, it’s been another long delay between Roguelike Updates posts, largely because I haven’t had much time to play roguelikes recently. But I do want to highlight a couple of big updates. First, Approaching Infinity has been at version 1.1 for a while, with another update imminent. Second, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup forever marches forward, now on version 0.16.1. I’ve had a chance to play both, and offer some quick thoughts below.

Roguelike Updates: Let It Whip

As always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

It’s been a long time since my last Roguelike Updates post. Actually it’s been a while since I posted anything. I am running behind.

The biggest recent roguelike news (technically roguelike-like news) is that The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, a remake/expansion of The Binding of Isaac, has been released. But I haven’t played it yet. I haven’t even bought it yet. That is how behind I am. What I have played, however, is the latest version of Brogue (v.1.7.4), which adds many things, including whips.

Roguelike Updates: New Crawlers and Redder Rogues

Readers who are unfamiliar with rogulikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, or some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. Also remember that you can click on images to view larger versions.

One of the two updated roguelikes I’ve been playing is somewhat timely: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup reached v0.14 a mere three weeks ago (and is now on v0.14.1 with some bugfixes). The other is not: Red Rogue (which is actually a roguelike-like) reached v1.0.3 over a year ago (and I even mentioned it an an earlier Roguelike Updates post), but I hadn’t gone back to try it until recently. And then I found myself drawn in once more, playing it far more than I expected and being impressed all over again. I decided it was worth adding to my original post about Red Rogue with my more recent thoughts on the game.

Read on for details on these two, plus a run-down of other updated roguelikes.

Roguelike Updates: Gargoyles Are Pretty Good

Readers who are unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, or peruse the various Roguelike Highlights posts. Also remember that you can click on images for larger versions.

Only two of the roguelikes I’ve previously covered have seen updates since my last Roguelike Updates post. Brogue had been sitting at v1.7.2 for some time, but it’s now been updated to v1.7.3. I haven’t had a chance to play it much, but the major changes relate to the stealth system and the progression system for friendly allies. Given that the last major update removed player leveling from the game, making combat a completely optional endeavor, I’m excited to see how the new stealth system plays out. A sneaky adventurer who slips past enemies unnoticed would be fun to play.

The other big news was the release of v0.13.0 of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup last month. I have had a chance to play with this one, and I tried the new playable species that came with it: the gargoyle.

Roguelike Updates: Axe And You Shall Receive

Readers who are unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, or peruse the various Roguelike Highlights posts. Also remember that you can click on images for bigger versions.

Just because I spent four months playing nothing but indie platformers doesn’t mean that the various roguelikes I’ve covered on the blog have stopped updating. It’s time to catch up with the latest developments! The biggest news for me was the release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup v0.12 (it’s now at v0.12.2 with a few more bugfixes). While the nickname for this release, “High Vaultage”, refers to the redesign of the Vaults dungeon branch, I was actually more interested in another change: axes now hit up to seven targets around the wielder with each attack. This presented an excellent incentive to return to a race/class combination that I’d dabbled with before: the deep dwarf berserker.