Universal Cavern (by Sami Sierla)

Hi, Sami,

The 2.5 update is excellent. Great work on it. It took me a bit to figure out the tap-and-hold controls, but once I got used to them, they were great. Thank you for creating such a fantastic game. I spend way too long wasting time on it!

I've encountered a few bugs, though, and some of them are pretty serious. Reflection seems to have a major glitch for me (as in Ring of Reflection, Buckler of Reflection, Amulet of Reflection, etc). If I try to equip an item with "reflection," as soon as I take magic damage, the game will crash. This is a repeatable bug.

Also, guards can't be targeted. That may be intentional, but once I've retrieved the Mystery Object, everything that has died in the maze comes back to life against me...including, sometimes, the guards that the King has sent down to protect me along the way. Since I can't target them, they're proving to be extremely dangerous if I encounter them on the way back up.

I also have a request. After the Mystery Object is grabbed and I take the portal stone, I often end up in the shop two levels up. It's full of monsters, and I can't kill them fast enough to prevent the shopkeeper from dying. That shopkeeper is pretty crucial for the run back up. Could you buff his defense/HP, or put a guard inside the shop instead of outside? Or maybe just make him invulnerable?

Thanks again, Sami. I really enjoy Cavern.

 

Walkthrough/recommendations

Can't really read all 76 pages of posts but I was wondering if there's a walkthrough or recommendations anywhere. I gave been playing off and on for a few years but never really got into it till lately.

I usually use the wizard/Mage and tend to run out of money or food or whatnot. This 2 release has helped with some of those problems but now I'm wondering if dexterity is useful for a Mage or how to build up my Mage to be able to keep my player alive forever lol

Anyway I was wondering if anyone has made a walkthrough if some sorts to help figure out this stuff? Any suggestions?

Thanks!
-Tre

 

Found an issue, though I would think it's already known (but didn't have time to look back to see). If I have a bow equipped in one slot and sword and shield in the other, when I swap from bow to sword, the shield gets unequipped.

 

^ I was just about to post this one, it's annoying because I continuously have to go in menu to reequip it, if you can fix please =] just getting back into this game never beat it yet but the last update made it really nice to play keep it up, great game !

Gotta say the only thing keeping this under 100 rogues for me is the fact that there are no talent Trees, sucker for it =P

 

Sami,

First time poster in this thread so I apologize for the potential rehash.

Love the game, the balance is incredibly tight and I've been playing it since close to day 1. However, the bugs are killing it.

The cosmetic bow bug hasn't been fixed for me in three updates. Don't much care but I've seen its still an issue for other people.

Problem is, this particular update broke the game for me. When I use the surface link stone, the game no longer recognizes taps as valid, and starts clipping, like the old 3D shooters used to do. The map goes haywire and the character starts warping all over the map, on water, outside the map boundaries, etc.

Also, and worst of all, frequent crashes. Like frequent. Once a floor, never happened before.

iPad 3, OS 9.2.1, fighter, sword and shield, a couple of charms, the snake cuirass.

Let me know what other info I can post to help, the bow bug wasn't horrible but the game's broken now.

 

Sami,

I'll get on that soon's I can. Your game's awesome and it shows it's a labor of love so no worries, keep on rockin it.

 

Yes, I'm a sucker for Roguelikes.

Yes, I love a good dungeon crawl.

Yes, I can handle 'retro' aesthetics.

But is that why I've just dropped £2.29 on this in an instant?....

No. It's because the Dev is not only still supporting but practically rehashing the entire game for newer hardware/firmware on a relatively consistent basis. Moreover, he continues to do this despite it not even being a remotely recent release - it's 6.5 (yes, read it again - 6.5!!!!) years after it first launched! My daughter isn't even that old and I certainly haven't put nearly as much commitment in to her as Sami has to this game.....only kidding. But seriously, any solo indie developer putting that much attention and love in to something like this deserves support.

....and yes, I know I'm seriously late to this party!

@Sami - I've also posted this as a 5 star review on the App Store, thought you deserved the support. Well done, keep up the good work. Thanks.

 

I know I'm reviving an old thread here so appreciate it's the equivalent of having a conversation with myself but just had to share that I've finally done it - Sir Bronson Beefsteak, level 18 Fighter with a score of 147,928! I'm well chuffed, go me....yay...../silence/...

Sami - if you get round to reading this at any point, just Ccouple of things I noted during my play through....

I became heavily overpowered very early on with the Serpents Fang bow and a shield/sword/armour combo - mainly it was the Kings Armour of something.....possibly Excellence (Lvl 73 +4 Strength I think) that swung it for me. I went from being almost wiped out in seconds to being practically a tank with that on. I think the balancing could be adjusted a bit for some items, not sure if this would continue with all classes but seems like a steep start for the Fighter followed by a comparatively easy walk in the park later in the game. Maybe I just got lucky with my stats/equipment choices.

Would also like to see a greater variety in weapons/equipment/potions if possible - there's a good selection already but I'm a massive 'gear whore' and love having a varied selection to choose from.

There was also a couple of changes to the interface that I thought may benefit the gameplay - if your inventory is full, it's a real pain having to drop items to make space to pick something up just to see if it's worth equipping. And then swapping back again if not. Could we please have an item query button or have the item description show up whenever you go to pick it up and the option to pick up greyed out if you have insufficient space?

Also, assigning items to the quick slots - could these be bound to the slots semi-permanently? ie when you assign health potions, they will always show up whenever you have some in your inventory rather than having to reassign it after you've run out or dropped them. I regularly swap my inventory around as I'm going back and forth selling items in the town - gets really tiresome having to rebind the shortcuts.

Also, having to open and close menus constantly is a bit 'faffy' - could you not have tabs at the top of the menu to switch between them (ie. map, inventory, character, settings) or have them swipeable to either side? Just a thought.

Also, having to walk across the town to get to the shop whenever you warp back is a real chore - could the two be brought closer together to speed revisits up or have the warp stone in the centre of town perhaps?

And lastly - any chance we could also have a d-pad/directional tap to control please? Perhaps a bit like Cardinal Quest 2? The auto-route is ok but find it frustrating at times and not as precise as I'd like.

Hope you don't take any of these suggestions as criticism of the game, my feelings are still the same as before - it's a fantastic Roguelike and I'm really enjoying it. I wouldn't suggest these things if I wasn't going to be investing a lot more time in the game.

So yeah, if you could find a spare 5 minutes to program this stuff in, that would be great. Didn't think it was too much to ask of a solo developer working on a labour of love.....shall we say you'll have the update ready for next week?.......I'm kidding of course!

 

Hi Sami,

Thanks very much for replying, I really appreciate it, and of course for your efforts in creating such a great game!

And whilst I'm really chuffed to hear you like my suggestions, I won't keep you to your promise (well, aspiration) to include them in the next update....or at all for that matter...I know how these things can sometimes seem simple on the surface but end up being a programming iceberg underneath, so no worries if they don't make it in.

Either way, I'm excited to hear there's still more to come and especially so soon. The simple fact you're still developing and improving this beauty after so long is testament to you and your passion for the game - whilst I'm sure you've had plenty of downloads, I'm guessing it's not up there with the AAA and f2p titles as far as revenue goes, so clearly it's a labour of love. Big respect for that.

Thanks again.

And to all those of you out there that have never heard of Cavern or passed it up due to the 'retro' aesthetics or some such hangup - I would highly recommend you take the plunge and invest your couple of £/€/$/¥....anyone know the symbol for shekels?!....and give it a go. I would suggest you invest a good half hour to get to grips and let its hooks get in, after that you'll struggle to put it down.

 

Oh my this must be one of the oldest games in the App Store still being updated no?

 

This game is dope

I didn't used to like turn based games, but then I played Cavern. It's a simplistic yet somewhat complicated enough to keep me playing for hours on end. It's a great time waster for whenever I'm waiting for something. Waiting doesn't feel so bad when I'm playing and slaying in Cavern. I really hope this game comes out with more content.

I'm currently #2 on the mystic hall of fame and I'm wondering how the person above me achieved level 66 and 1,000,000+ points while I only got to level 25 and six figures. Anyway, great game and keep up the awesome work.

 

I'm curious about this level 60+ business too. After my best game yet this afternoon I thought... surely I will be at the top of the leaderboard for the week...only to find someone (presumably) glitched their way to level 67 and 2 million + points? Ah well, I know in my heart I'm #1! It's a great game.