Hello everyone,
I started playing roguelikes about 7 years ago, and Angband was my first. I won Angband once (it's been so long that I forgot what race/class), and then I moved on to ToME 2, which I also won once. College then happened and I fell out of the roguelike habit until about a year ago, when I started playing ToME 4 (DRASTICALLY different game now), and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.
I have my frustrations with both games, moreso ToME 4, with its drastically different gameplay involving cooldown-based combat, generally uninteresting monster behaviour, and the gameplay that ultimately degenerates (for me, at least) into hotkey spamming (since everything is unlimited in the long-run, no consumables, just cooldowns).
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has a lot more depth in my opinion, but it lacks a lot of flavour/atmosphere/vibe that made Angband and ToME so much fun and so immersive for me. Despite my love for a lot of Crawl's concepts, such as the skill-based character building and the complete openness of character development in the long run (anyone can pick up any skill eventually, pretty much), the gods system and the variation in dungeons through branches, I find myself soon treating it more as an intellectual affair of perfecting a build and item set, and don't find myself very immersed in the atmosphere and setting of the game.
I'm trying to give the *band-style roguelikes another shot now, and I was looking to find the perfect variant (or even an entirely different kind of roguelike, for that matter) for me to sink my teeth into.
Here are the things I'm primarily looking for:
1. Interesting, intelligent AI (like Sil, for example - except I find the lack of magic a major detractor for me). I read about 4GAI and it sounds like what I am looking for, so I'd ideally want to be playing a game that uses that).
2. Interesting terrain and maps (I get bored quickly of vanilla's same layout and terrain, level after level). I'd love a game where terrain plays a real tactical role in gameplay.
3. Less repetitive and more tactical combat (eg. some kind of abilities system like what Sil has, that makes you stay more involved and actively thinking tactically in combat).
4. An active player/developer/discussion community, just because I like playing a game that has active interest in it, from the players as well as the developers.
I've tried Sil, and really want to like it, ESPECIALLY for how tactical all the enemies are, how tactical you need to be in combat, and the amazing abilities system, but I find the absence of magic too much to miss out on.
I'd really appreciate some leads here! It doesn't NEED to be a *band-style game, could be an entirely different roguelike too, as long as it has a proper emphasis on atmosphere, setting and flavour (this is where I find Crawl a bit weak).
I started playing roguelikes about 7 years ago, and Angband was my first. I won Angband once (it's been so long that I forgot what race/class), and then I moved on to ToME 2, which I also won once. College then happened and I fell out of the roguelike habit until about a year ago, when I started playing ToME 4 (DRASTICALLY different game now), and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.
I have my frustrations with both games, moreso ToME 4, with its drastically different gameplay involving cooldown-based combat, generally uninteresting monster behaviour, and the gameplay that ultimately degenerates (for me, at least) into hotkey spamming (since everything is unlimited in the long-run, no consumables, just cooldowns).
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has a lot more depth in my opinion, but it lacks a lot of flavour/atmosphere/vibe that made Angband and ToME so much fun and so immersive for me. Despite my love for a lot of Crawl's concepts, such as the skill-based character building and the complete openness of character development in the long run (anyone can pick up any skill eventually, pretty much), the gods system and the variation in dungeons through branches, I find myself soon treating it more as an intellectual affair of perfecting a build and item set, and don't find myself very immersed in the atmosphere and setting of the game.
I'm trying to give the *band-style roguelikes another shot now, and I was looking to find the perfect variant (or even an entirely different kind of roguelike, for that matter) for me to sink my teeth into.
Here are the things I'm primarily looking for:
1. Interesting, intelligent AI (like Sil, for example - except I find the lack of magic a major detractor for me). I read about 4GAI and it sounds like what I am looking for, so I'd ideally want to be playing a game that uses that).
2. Interesting terrain and maps (I get bored quickly of vanilla's same layout and terrain, level after level). I'd love a game where terrain plays a real tactical role in gameplay.
3. Less repetitive and more tactical combat (eg. some kind of abilities system like what Sil has, that makes you stay more involved and actively thinking tactically in combat).
4. An active player/developer/discussion community, just because I like playing a game that has active interest in it, from the players as well as the developers.
I've tried Sil, and really want to like it, ESPECIALLY for how tactical all the enemies are, how tactical you need to be in combat, and the amazing abilities system, but I find the absence of magic too much to miss out on.
I'd really appreciate some leads here! It doesn't NEED to be a *band-style game, could be an entirely different roguelike too, as long as it has a proper emphasis on atmosphere, setting and flavour (this is where I find Crawl a bit weak).
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