Just downloaded it, excellent work! It's practically rivalling the PC version in responsiveness now. Love the faster magnifying glass too, I'll probably be using it a lot more often thanks to that improvement.
Great update, thanks! However, I am still occasionally experiencing the tap through directional control issue; definitely less than before, but it is still there. I have also started experiencing a graphical glitch that didn't seem to happen before where the Gamecenter and Information square icons and the little brown circle graphical element show up in the game screen after starting a new game and persist through up and down levels. The only way to get rid of it that I've found is to save the game, force quit the app and re-start. I've probably had this happen five or six times since the update. It usually happens when I hit new game quickly after ending a previous game. Oh and there is one last annoying bug whereby I keep getting killed around level 7 or 8 by a variety of methods. Please fix.
Are you tapping the top or right directionals when you tap through? I'm thinking it might be a *cough* edge case and the dead hit area may need to be a bit bigger. Yes, I encountered the button glitch. Whoops. Who knew that in your frustration with dying you'd hit play again so quickly for another round of abuse? An annoyance that will be fixed with the next update. As for dying on the 7th or 8th level... I accidentally left permadeath on, sadly there's no fix for this.
That is indeed possible. It's usually when I have a telepathy effect on and suddenly accidentally go charging toward whichever friendly beastie happens to be at the bottom of the list. As for the permadeath issue, I am convinced it is simply a case of 37 unlucky randomly generated dungeon seeds in a row.
I know that there is another Brogue general forum *cough*, but this is such a great game, I think we need some iPad centric action. First, a question for Sandoze. What exactly are the differences between general Brogue and the iPad port? One main difference that I can see is that the iPad character doesn't seem to have a "level" (or at least a visible one). Is there a reason this was left out in the iPad version? Are there any other differences? I am a master of the stupid death (e.g., testing an unknown wand next to a lava lake - hello wand of blinking!). My primary problem is impatience/hitting the movement keys too fast, although I am getting better. So far, my best depth is level 11 with a score of around 4,000. That was with an Ogre ally who I sadly had to sacrifice to a potion of descent after he found himself surrounded by a pair of Wraiths and a Jelly posse. Unfortunately, I didn't survive much longer after that without my bodyguard. My favorite amusing death was the will o' wisp that popped up out of nowhere in a field of withered fungus next to a lake. Note: Using levitation to escape a will o' wisp over a lake directly adjacent to a burning field of withered fungus = not a good idea. I find it exceedingly difficult to keep allies alive, primarily because they seem to go charging off at the most inopportune moments (damn bloats). I've had the most success with mystics, mainly because they are cowards, but they aren't much help in the offense department. Which brings me to my usual downfall. In the 40 or so games I've played, by the time I get down to level 8 or so, I am usually woefully underpowered, with many of the larger creatures able to dispatch me in 2-3 hits to my 8-10. I can usually survive 3 or 4 of them with my various consumables, but eventually get overwhelmed. That said, I'm still enjoying the game immensely.
Character levels (i.e. experience in general) was removed from Brogue a while ago, because it served no game design purpose anyway. So this is not an iPad exclusive feature.
Doh. I just realized that all of the screenshots I was looking at with the "Level" component were from 2012. Thanks.
I didn't play Brogue when player levels were in, but I've heard the play style changed drastically once it was removed. Before you'd have to carefully pick your battles, now it's simply a case of avoiding conflict as much as possible. I really like the game as it is, but I'm thinking maybe I'd like it more if I had a reason to fight.
I guess it's kind of true to the original Rogue now, which more or less became a pure stealth game on the later levels. You just couldn't survive most monsters anymore. I have to say, I have played Brogue mostly when levels were still in and so "grinding" to get more HP was a considerable factor...
I like it, but (at risk of sounding like a broken record) really want "run" functionality on the directionals ported over. It's true that on desktop, I'm playing it with mouse clicks and auto-explore, and prefer it that way (and btw, I'm grateful to the iPad version for introducing me to Desktop--it's a nice alternative to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup). However, the tap targets on iPad are too small to use comfortably, so I want to manually navigate without hitting one tap per square moved. I appreciate the mods around making movement faster/more responsive. However, a (perhaps *the*) major way of roguelike navigation is still on the cutting room floor. Unfortunately, I've found this sufficiently frustrating that I've deleted the game until full movement functionality comes in. I'll be watching the boards for updates though!
Loving the game so far. It just oozes gameplay depth and discovery which each level. I actually have relegated to using the auto explore button a lot, mostly because I've seen lots of others do it. In a way, it sort of serves the purpose of taking away a lot of time used for just navigation, and gets you everywhere you need stopping only when you see something of import. It's kind of like Turbo-rogue with prettier tiles, and extra bells and whistles to the gameplay. Kind of interesting how the only stat advancements are through found items. Probably why many avoid fights. Thing is, I guess the main reason for fighting is to unlock the weapon's potential, so I do see it having a use. Still would like weapons to be a little less rare in this game. Not a fault of the iPad port, mind you, but Brogue in general. Maybe I'm wrong, but it almost seems that increasing weapon drops a little could go a long way to making engaging combat even more useful.
The iPad has the exact same game engine of 1.7.2 with no changes aside from the interactions. As for dying on level 8-10 it helps to keep your early allies alive but it's a bit pro. I had 2 monkeys from level 1 that eventually could cast shield, lightning, blink and were immune to fire. Keep in mind you can cast poison, fire, etc on a Jelly before splitting them and they will all have that malady. Most importantly, find a splint or plate mail (hopefully one with magical properties but it's rare on the first 3-4 levels). This sometimes means taking a splint mail over a wand/staff in a treasure room. Enchant it up to 4+ so there are no more negatives on it. This will keep you alive and you'll be able to go toe to toe with Ogres (Trolls on the other hand...). You'll probably want to do the same with your weapon. This generally means trying out all your potions around level 3-4 and finding the detect magic (be sure to drink your potions on a new level, preferably by a door and with adequate life to handle some of the nasty potions). I'm a bit at a loss on the meaning of 'run' functionality. Touch and magnify are by far the best way to move as well as 'Explore' on the early levels. Holding down on a virtual button to move would negate the need to fine tune your rogueish movements deeper in the dungeon. I'm open to ideas on how to improve controls though. Aside from that, the original on PC/Mac/Linux should have everything you're looking for aside from the portability and GameCenter scores. The Explore feature is pretty much all I use on the first 3-4 levels. Once my inventory fills up and/or I have a friend or two I slow things down and use the tips I mentioned above.
Thanks Sandoze. Do you wear armor/use weapons before you have adequate strength? I think in the 40+ games I've played, I've had 17 strength maybe twice and I've never had 19 strength. In other words, I'm running into Ogres and other beasties than can trash me in 2-3 hits long before I have the strength to wear splint/plate without penalty. Or are you saying you can enchant it to overcome the penalties of wearing it without adequate strength?
Enchanting armor or weapon knocks off 2.5% penalty, essentially the same thing that a strength potion would do.
Hey Sandoze, I've got a saved game that I'm unable to continue or delete from the list. When I try to open it I get a "Playback is out of sync" message and all I seem to be able to do is quit back to the main menu. I'm thinking maybe the error occurred with the update. I'm not bothered about losing the save but is there any way I can remove the file?
I mean the equivalent of shift+dir on desktop: move until event ("shift to run" in the help). My suggestion is to make that double-tap on the directional arrows. I don't zoom in these kind of games. It's really awkward. Rogue is meant to be a single-screen map and really doesn't work any other way for me. That plus shaky fingers == tapping sucks. Can't tell you how many times I've had wands go awry. Can't solve that, but can solve running. As for best way, I've been playing roguelikes for almost 30 years now. I have my own best ways baked in.
On PC I use a combination of tapping the keys and holding them down, depending on how safe I think I am, so I wouldn't mind that implemented in the iPad version. geoelectric is talking about something different, but I guess more options can't hurt.
I do single taps once I'm in a room with a monster or something like that. For basic navigation, I prefer running. Auto-explore is very good for exposing the map, but (for example) if the downstairs are in the first room, then I expose the entire map, I prefer to run to navigate back. I realize I could double-tap in the room with the stairs instead, but the pathing might take me somewhere I don't like, like a room I left full of monsters. Running is the halfway point for me between full pathfinding and taptaptaptap
