Monday, February 24, 2020
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Ragnarok: Temple Of Doom
 |
| You win some, you lose some. |
Ah, roguelikes. There's no other sub-genre in which this kind of narrative makes any sense:
When I walked into the room, I saw a deadly asp on the other side of it. I didn't want him to get too close, so I killed him with my shurikens. I wanted to eat his corpse to get intrinsic poison resistance, but I didn't have any artificial resistance, so I knew trying would kill me. I had three unidentified rings, one of which might have been a Ring of Immunity, which would have protected me from poison while I ate him, but I only had one Scroll of Identification, and I was hoping to hold onto until I found a Scroll of Blessing because blessed Scrolls of Identification identify everything in your pack. I tried one of the rings blind, but it turned out to be a Ring of Relocation, and it teleported me to another part of the dungeon. While I was trying to make it back, I stepped in quicksand and started to drown. The only thing I could think to do was drink an unidentified potion, hoping it was a Potion of Phasing, but it turned out to be a Potion of Lycanthropy, and my character dropped all his stuff when he changed into a werewolf, then ran around the dungeon killing everything he encountered for a few minutes. Eventually, he turned back into a man, but I got killed by another deadly asp before I could get back to my equipment. C'est la vie.
There's so much to learn, and enough that works differently from NetHack that I'm not sure if my previous NetHack knowledge is a blessing or a curse--an apropos phrase, as I spent forever trying to figure out how to use Holy Water to remove curses and/or bless things before coming to the conclusion that it simply doesn't work that way in this game. As far as I can tell, Holy Water just increases your luck. You have to find Scrolls of Dispel Hex and Blessing to do the other things. But if you do find a Scroll of Blessing, a good use for it is to bless your Scroll of Identification, because blessed Scrolls of Identification identify all your items, not just several as in NetHack. To find monsters on the level, I don't want a Potion of Monster Detection; I want a Potion of Depredation, which sounds like a bad thing. If you do find any "bad" potions, don't save them to throw at enemies because that doesn't work here.
 |
| And maybe stay away from mushrooms entirely. |
The worst part is the monsters. While NetHack and Ragnarok have a lot of overlaps in terms of equipment, the bestiary is almost entirely new. It makes good use of Norse mythology, yay, but I've got to learn every enemy's special attacks and weaknesses again. I started keeping a list of enemies to particularly avoid, but it ended up including almost all enemies. Jacchuses give you a disease that prevents you from healing. Kalvins pluck your eyes out. Pale Mosses destroy your brain tissue, which causes you to forget potions, scrolls, and such that you've already identified. Ramapiths toss fireballs. Red oozes devour your weapons and can't even be killed by regular weapons. Ulls disorient you; Predens give you fevers; Retchweed makes you hungry; Gas balls deafen you; Pelgrats suck charges from wands that you carry. I've barely gotten started.
 |
| I had lycanthropy for a while. It was worse for the other creatures in the dungeon. |
I've spent a lot of time debating whether to try to eat slain enemies or not. Ragnarok doesn't seem to have as many enemies whose corpses give intrinsic protection, but they're definitely there. The aforementioned asps will give you poison resistance if you can survive eating them. Fire dragons confer fire resistance. I haven't found much else. What I can tell you is that troll corpses do not confer regeneration, wight corpses do not give you experience, and giants do not give you strength.
Ragnarok seems to offer more items and monsters that rearrange the physical environment than other roguelikes. In NetHack, you could take a pick-axe to just about every solid part of a level, and you can do that here, too, but there are also traps that fill rooms with water or lava, cause the ceiling to collapse, or replace all the external walls with monsters. There's a scroll that summons lava, and another that randomly plants trees wherever you are. There's an artifact called a "disruption horn" that you can use in the doorway of a room to cause the ceiling to cave in, killing whatever monsters are there (you get the experience!). A creature called a "mudman" leaves gobs of mud everywhere. There's a wand that just blasts the hell out of everything you point it at, including floors, walls, and anything in between.
 |
| Using my horn to collapse the ceiling on a roomful of deadly moss. |
I spent seven hours exploring the dungeon beneath the forest, and I have nothing at all to show for it yet. It's three levels with nine maps per level--as big as Rogue by itself. Commenters were right: the game got a lot harder once I left the forest. I've been trying not to abuse the backup system too much, but thank the gods it's there. Some of my more amusing deaths include:
One of my most heartbreaking deaths came late in this session, when I had just come across a Wand of Wishing. These are as useful here as they are in NetHack except I don't really know the specific names of the best equipment to wish for. Since I'd already activated the first wish by using it at all, I wished for one of the only high-level items whose name I reliably knew: Mjollnir. For some reason, I got a sword instead. Before I even had a chance to investigate it, a bartok came wandering into the room and killed me with a sonic wail. My previous save was well before this area was seeded with equipment. Lesson learned: save after you find Wands of Wishing.
A lot of my woes are equipment-related. I'm constantly over-encumbered, made worse by the fact that I don't understand how a lot of stuff works. But there are good things to report. I have a full set of armor, including a "holocaust cloak," which protects against fire and I think is an homage to The Princess Bride. I have both a Ring of Locus Mastery and a Ring of Relocation. This means that every 12-100 rounds, I get teleported, but I can direct my destination location. It gets me out of a lot of fights and traps, and if I don't want to move, I can just specify the next square I was going to walk into anyway. It would be nicer to have these powers as intrinsics, but with the ability to equip 8 rings, you don't feel like you're wasting a slot as much as you do in NetHack.
In other good news, a blessed Scroll of Enhancement empowered my silver sword up to +9. In bad news, a red slime then ate the sword. Then I found another blessed Scroll of Enhancement and got a spear up to +15. You have to roll with the punches in roguelikes.
Two Scrolls of Knowledge bestowed my character with the "Terraforming" and "Identification" abilities. I haven't tried the former yet, but the latter seems to render Scrolls of Identification moot. I wish I'd known to wish for Scrolls of Knowledge back when I had that Wand of Wishing.
On Level 2, I found an enemy named Scyld, who was so powerful that I assumed he must be some kind of "level boss" and likely in possession of one of the quest items. I reloaded half a dozen times before I finally killed him, but it turns out he didn't have anything special.
The real conclusion of the dungeon came via a hole I found on Level 2, which led to some kind of temple, preceded by a title screen. The game strikes a good balance between random level generation and some fixed level content, as this particular level shows. Its enemies are chiefly "guardians," who root in place unless you walk next to them, at which point they become hostile and generally kill me in two or three blows. My teleportation abilities plus careful navigating led me to avoid most of them.
I soon encountered a warrior named Hrethel, standing on a stump with a noose around his neck. He pleaded for freedom, but I had options to kick out the stump and do nothing instead of setting him free. (Note that the developers, finding no good way to operate this encounter with the usual game commands, just provided a special options menu. In both this and the graphics, the authors of Ragnarok show more flexibility than a lot of roguelike authors.) Of course, I chose to free him. The grateful Hrethel joined my character, but before I had a chance to figure out what that really meant, the god Vidur attacked and killed me instantly.
In subsequent trials, I learned that Vidur always gets angry and appears if you rescue any of the three captives on the level. If I chug a Potion of Speed, I can act as often as Vidur and can wound him, but he always pounds away my hit points in two or three turns. My Orb of Imprisonment doesn't work on him. Neither (it seems) do several wands. He has no special attacks (so far), but his physical attacks are devastating. I'm going to roam around the dungeon some more and try to build my resources before giving him another run, as I have several unexplored screens on Level 3.
I'm still enjoying Ragnarok, but I have a feeling it's going to be way too long. I also forgot how exhausting roguelikes are. You have to watch every step, pay attention to every message, and stop and think before every combat. Life and death can hinge upon whether you take a beat before entering a room, or whether you take a corner using a diagonal movement key or two lateral movement keys. NetHack taught me to stop, pause, and think between moves, which serves me well here, but it also means that it seems to take forever to get through a level and yet you still have to pay rapt attention.
The lack of permadeath helps, of course. I'm quite careful to save every 200 turns and usually glad that I did. It means that I have a reasonable chance of getting through the game without having to look at spoilers, since underestimating an enemy or misdiagnosing a piece of equipment doesn't mean that I'm starting over from scratch. But 200 turns are more to make up than they sound, and it's especially jarring when, thanks to the nature of randomization, the same stuff doesn't happen the second time.
Because of reader comments, I never did switch to the Valhalla version of the game. It's a more apt name, since far more of my characters will have ended up there than at Ragnarok.
Time so far: 10 hours
- I stepped on a mist trap, which confused me. Confused characters in this game sometimes randomly use their items, and in this case, I ate a mushroom that turned the whole world hallucinogenic before killing me.
- I ate some creature that turned out to be made of lava.
- I stepped on a trap that turned all the surrounding walls into wizards, who quickly surrounded and killed me.
 |
| At least the hill giant probably won't make it out, either. |
- The one below didn't kill me, but it made life hard enough that I reloaded.
 |
| What kind of potion was that!? |
One of my most heartbreaking deaths came late in this session, when I had just come across a Wand of Wishing. These are as useful here as they are in NetHack except I don't really know the specific names of the best equipment to wish for. Since I'd already activated the first wish by using it at all, I wished for one of the only high-level items whose name I reliably knew: Mjollnir. For some reason, I got a sword instead. Before I even had a chance to investigate it, a bartok came wandering into the room and killed me with a sonic wail. My previous save was well before this area was seeded with equipment. Lesson learned: save after you find Wands of Wishing.
 |
| In retrospect, the best answer would have been: "I wish I wasn't so excited about having found a Wand of Washing that I'm failing to notice the dude coming up from the southeast." |
A lot of my woes are equipment-related. I'm constantly over-encumbered, made worse by the fact that I don't understand how a lot of stuff works. But there are good things to report. I have a full set of armor, including a "holocaust cloak," which protects against fire and I think is an homage to The Princess Bride. I have both a Ring of Locus Mastery and a Ring of Relocation. This means that every 12-100 rounds, I get teleported, but I can direct my destination location. It gets me out of a lot of fights and traps, and if I don't want to move, I can just specify the next square I was going to walk into anyway. It would be nicer to have these powers as intrinsics, but with the ability to equip 8 rings, you don't feel like you're wasting a slot as much as you do in NetHack.
 |
| Thankfully, my Ring of Translocation will eventually get me out of here. |
In other good news, a blessed Scroll of Enhancement empowered my silver sword up to +9. In bad news, a red slime then ate the sword. Then I found another blessed Scroll of Enhancement and got a spear up to +15. You have to roll with the punches in roguelikes.
Two Scrolls of Knowledge bestowed my character with the "Terraforming" and "Identification" abilities. I haven't tried the former yet, but the latter seems to render Scrolls of Identification moot. I wish I'd known to wish for Scrolls of Knowledge back when I had that Wand of Wishing.
 |
| That's one logistical concern I no longer have to deal with. |
On Level 2, I found an enemy named Scyld, who was so powerful that I assumed he must be some kind of "level boss" and likely in possession of one of the quest items. I reloaded half a dozen times before I finally killed him, but it turns out he didn't have anything special.
 |
| This seemed like a unique enemy, so I thought there would be more to him. |
The real conclusion of the dungeon came via a hole I found on Level 2, which led to some kind of temple, preceded by a title screen. The game strikes a good balance between random level generation and some fixed level content, as this particular level shows. Its enemies are chiefly "guardians," who root in place unless you walk next to them, at which point they become hostile and generally kill me in two or three blows. My teleportation abilities plus careful navigating led me to avoid most of them.
 |
| Entering the temple. These special screens help create an atmosphere lacking in a lot of roguelikes. |
I soon encountered a warrior named Hrethel, standing on a stump with a noose around his neck. He pleaded for freedom, but I had options to kick out the stump and do nothing instead of setting him free. (Note that the developers, finding no good way to operate this encounter with the usual game commands, just provided a special options menu. In both this and the graphics, the authors of Ragnarok show more flexibility than a lot of roguelike authors.) Of course, I chose to free him. The grateful Hrethel joined my character, but before I had a chance to figure out what that really meant, the god Vidur attacked and killed me instantly.
 |
| I like that the game supports these special options in addition to the usual plethora of roguelike commands. |
In subsequent trials, I learned that Vidur always gets angry and appears if you rescue any of the three captives on the level. If I chug a Potion of Speed, I can act as often as Vidur and can wound him, but he always pounds away my hit points in two or three turns. My Orb of Imprisonment doesn't work on him. Neither (it seems) do several wands. He has no special attacks (so far), but his physical attacks are devastating. I'm going to roam around the dungeon some more and try to build my resources before giving him another run, as I have several unexplored screens on Level 3.
I'm still enjoying Ragnarok, but I have a feeling it's going to be way too long. I also forgot how exhausting roguelikes are. You have to watch every step, pay attention to every message, and stop and think before every combat. Life and death can hinge upon whether you take a beat before entering a room, or whether you take a corner using a diagonal movement key or two lateral movement keys. NetHack taught me to stop, pause, and think between moves, which serves me well here, but it also means that it seems to take forever to get through a level and yet you still have to pay rapt attention.
The lack of permadeath helps, of course. I'm quite careful to save every 200 turns and usually glad that I did. It means that I have a reasonable chance of getting through the game without having to look at spoilers, since underestimating an enemy or misdiagnosing a piece of equipment doesn't mean that I'm starting over from scratch. But 200 turns are more to make up than they sound, and it's especially jarring when, thanks to the nature of randomization, the same stuff doesn't happen the second time.
Because of reader comments, I never did switch to the Valhalla version of the game. It's a more apt name, since far more of my characters will have ended up there than at Ragnarok.
Time so far: 10 hours
Thursday, February 20, 2020
The Same But Different
I think this little skirmish played 10 years ago might have been the first game for my nascent Prince Valiant collection. (See my Prince Valiant page for more)
In any event the majority of the games have used Medieval Mayhem, a set of rules written by Rob Dean (with some input from me) in 2002 and later published in Battlegames. Its still a viable choice but I've been playing around with other ideas, usually for more of an old school "battle" set of rules but this is supposed to be my one "skirmish" game so I'm taking another run at it. My first thought was to go back to Mayhem but recently The Duke of Tragardland did a blog post about skirmish games on a map with irregularly shaped areas which suddenly reminded me of the one shot Privateer Raid game using irregular areas I did five years ago. (Click here to see the rules)
Reviewing that post got my brain cranking over so I've taken some ideas from that game and modified the to make a draft of a new Prince Valiant skirmish game on a grid for me to try with my old Elastolins for the last game of the year.
(If they work I'll share them! )
In any event the majority of the games have used Medieval Mayhem, a set of rules written by Rob Dean (with some input from me) in 2002 and later published in Battlegames. Its still a viable choice but I've been playing around with other ideas, usually for more of an old school "battle" set of rules but this is supposed to be my one "skirmish" game so I'm taking another run at it. My first thought was to go back to Mayhem but recently The Duke of Tragardland did a blog post about skirmish games on a map with irregularly shaped areas which suddenly reminded me of the one shot Privateer Raid game using irregular areas I did five years ago. (Click here to see the rules)
 |
| I'd actually forgotten that this game was why I made my little wooden houses! |
Reviewing that post got my brain cranking over so I've taken some ideas from that game and modified the to make a draft of a new Prince Valiant skirmish game on a grid for me to try with my old Elastolins for the last game of the year.
(If they work I'll share them! )
Zombies In My Pocket?!
What's going on everyone!?
Still in tons of pain from my back but I did manage to get a ga,e of Zombie in my pocket in.
While packing up games I came across my ol' ZIMP pop which used to be my all time favorite travel game so I knew what I wanted to play this evening.
After moving more stuff today I realized that I had packed it away. :/
Really itching to play the game I decided to see if there was an app for the game by chance... thankfully and much to my surprise there is!
It's a great adaptation of the game and really is fun! Unfortunately for me, I ended up dying but that wont be the last time, lol!
As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Worst Or Useless Things In PUBG
While playing PUBG weapons, items and many kinds of equipment are required. Most of the items are useful and play an important role in getting a 'Winner winner chicken dinner'. But there are some useless items as well. We have given 8 useless/ worst items of PUBG as follows :
1. Clothes :
Clothes in PUBG are actually only meant for impressive outlook. Except for helmet and vests the other clothes have nothing with your win/ lose.
2. Vans :
PUBG has plenty of vehicles throughout the many different maps. Van, I consider, is the most useless vehicle. Because of its big size, its speed and vulnerability are limited. And no one would want to be slow in PUBG.
3. Quickdraw magazine :
Being able to reload faster is the only good thing about the quickdraw magazine. But most of the other attachments have multiple different uses and a lot of them are better than being able to reload faster.
4. Gas Can :
If you have a vehicle that is useful to your match then take a gas can. Or just leave it as it is basically useless.
5. Used vests and helmets :
An unused vest or helmet can last longer than a used one. It is also less effective. Neglect any used vests/helmet unless you absolutely need them.
6. Shotgun chokes :
Due to the increased range, the weapon's damage starts to degrade as the bullets are in flight. If you have multiple targets, the choke may not work as well as the shotgun without chokes should.
7. R1895 Pistol :
The worst pistol in PUBG is the R1895.
Putting a scope in it is not available. Also, it takes a longer time to reload than many other pistols. So avoiding it is better.
8. Bullet Loops :
The worst thing about them is that they decrease the base spread of a weapon. There are better and more useful attachments that have a variety of indispensable skills.
If you enjoyed, comment in the below and let us know. Also, do share the link
https://sudragamer.blogspot.com/?m=1
and follow us for interesting updates on PUBG.
Recent Gaming -- Online
In the past, I've spent a little time playing online versions of board games, from Puerto Rico on Brettspielwelt.de to Vinci on boiteajeux.net, to Magic: the Gathering on MTG online, but I usually lose interest after a while. I much prefer irl board gaming, face to face with real people.
I recently posted that my game Eminent Domain is available for free online play at BoardGameArena.com, and that I'd been exploring some of online boardgames that site has to offer:
I recently posted that my game Eminent Domain is available for free online play at BoardGameArena.com, and that I'd been exploring some of online boardgames that site has to offer:
Well, I've been continuing to play games online -- my current makes that much more viable than getting to a live game night. I mostly play 2p games late at night with my friend Steve. I like 2p best, since otherwise it can take a frustratingly long time for my turn to roll around, and I will have forgotten what was going on in the game.
Games I've been playing since my last post include:
- Caylus - an old favorite, still a great game, but not a very modern feeling one
- Hawaii - a neat game I'd played once before, a long time ago
- In the Year of the Dragon - one of my all time favorite games. 2p is weird because turn order can be such a big deal
- Penny Press - a neat auction sort of game, but feels a bit one dimensional (after only 1 play)
- Ponte de Diavolo - an abstract game that it turns out I'd played before, but forgotten. Not my type of game
- Race for the Galaxy - I haven't played much RftG irl since EmDo became a thing. It's a solid game, and I like 2p better than multiplayer because I feel like playing 2 cards at a time gives me more agency and feels more fun
- Seasons - a decent card combo-y game, but one I got a little bored with after a handful of plays
- Signorie - a "heavy"-ish game that got good buzz. It's OK, I guess, but I really didn't feel like there were different approaches like there appeared to be
- Takenoko - a very nice, very fun game by Antoine Bauza. Works well with 2, and didn't really seem to get old
- Tokaido - another very pleasant, very good game by Antoine Bauza. 2p has a neutral pawn that the player farthest ahead gets to control, which is a really neat aspect. The game is great, but many of the player powers seem lackluster (at least in 2p) because they're so narrow and easily blocked. Still a great game though!
- Tash Kalar - a largely abstract game, which is usually not my thing, but this one is pretty interesting. Cool how the scoring goals (Tasks) are what's important more than simply placing pieces and taking opposing pieces (Nexus Ops had some of that going on, and I guess Twilight Imperium did too)
And I've started a game of The Castles of Burgundy on boiteajeux.net with Steve. I like that game, but when I play it in real life I feel like it takes too long. I'd REALLY like the game if it only took an hour, but it consistently takes 2 hours when playing with 4 players. So maybe it's better online? So far, yes and no. It's nice to log in, think about your turn, and do it... but it's real easy for me to ignore my opponent and play solitaire that way, which has hurt me in this game. Also, just like irl, the game has the dice luck that can really be annoying sometimes.
I'm having a lot of fun playing these games online, though it'll never be as good as playing in real life. It's especially fun to play and chat in real time, though with my schedule I can never commit to actual real time games, just turn based ones where we take our turns in quick succession for a while.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Brave Browser voted the best privacy-focused product of 2020
Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.
An extremely productive year for Brave
Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.
Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.
The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.
Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:
"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"
Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.
Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now
If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.
The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.
AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.
For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.
Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.
Earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) with Brave Web Browser
Try Brave Browser
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
