Rogue Survivor alpha 10.1 release!

Hey!!

Alpha 10.1 is here!
Get it in the download page. You can get the source code as well.

Here's the readme. Have fun!

ALPHA 10.1 CHANGES
------------------
A minor update, mostly bugfixes and a couple of new features and tweaks.
For devs a new experimental useful/hilarious/depressing/infuriating Bot Mode.

FIXED BUGS
(1) (Stability) Ordering followers to drop all items could crash the game.
(2) (Rules) Group members could trigger each other trap (eg: your follower triggering your trap).
(3) (Stability) AI detected to attempt illegal or looping actions will not crash or lock the game anymore.
    They will just say something about it instead and wait a turn. 

NEW OPTION : AUTOSAVE
- New option: AutoSave Period, by default 24h.
- The game will autosave at regular intervals when you:
- start to sleep
- start a long wait
- or change map/district
- Manually saving the game will reschedule the next autosave.

NEW GAMEPLAY : STEALING FOLLOWERS
- Can steal followers if you have a higher Charismatic skill than their current leader.
- Just use the lead command on someone that has already a leader.
- The AIs can do it too!

UI : NEW ICON FOR NPC CARRYING VITAL ITEMS
- If an NPC has an item that is vital for you in your current condition, it will get a yellow $ icon.
- Vital items :
- Food when you are hungry
- Blue pills when sleepy
- Healing meds (bandages, medikit) when injured
- Curing meds (purple pills) when infected
- Keep in mind there is no guarantee the NPCs will trade the item with you. The icon is just there to help you notice the npc.

SURFACE MAPGEN
- New layout variant for houses : apartments, aka "cramped places of death".
- CHAR Agencies have books and magazines... which will probably be looted very quickly.

PRISON MAPGEN
- Cells doors are now unbreakable, because NPCs will now actually try to break free when trapped!
- "That person" down there can now be in any of the cells, not always the last one.

HOSPITAL MAPGEN
- Moved Jason Myers spawn point so he's more likely to roam around.
  Also gave him more stamina and made him more agressive.
- Increased max number of nurses starting trapped in hospital storage rooms.

AI
- Civilian followers are now much more likely to lay traps and build fortifications.
  They were previously too busy following their leader. You should see much more traps and fortifications around.
  "Light Feet" skill can be a life saver!
- NPCs will not pick up traps layed by themselves or their group.
  No more followers messing with your clever trap layout.
- NPCs will never trade away unique items unless for another unique item.
- Hungry civs searching for food will angrily push objects around only when inside. Pushing cars outside is not a productive food search
  method.
- NPCs leaders are a bit less likely to get stuck waiting for followers forever.
- Improved Explore and Wander behaviors logic. As a side effect, they can try to break free when trapped or blocked.

MISC
- Closing gates do not insta-kill anymore but inflict large damage, and if the victim is still alive the gate will not close.
- Book bore chance up to 10% (was 5%)
- Added a bunch of new names and surnames for NPCs.
- City Size option has now no effect on difficulty. There are both advantages and disadvantages for large cities so in the end it evens up.
- You can now bump into things to break them instead of using the Break command, but it will ask for confirmation.
- Typos fixes.
- Misc manual fix: removed obsolete mention that killing in self-defense is murder.

FOR DEVS
- Most changes in the source code marked by "// alpha 10.1".
- New experimental Bot Mode in Debug build only: AI takes control of player.
- Press INSERT to toggle ai taking control of the player.
  Will work for any ActorModel that has a default controller defined. As of alpha 10.1 that means all actors.
- The character controlled by the bot is still considered as the player by most of the game rules, the other AIs etc...
- Remember AIs do not leave districts so the bot won't either.
- The Bot will handle everything a player has to do : answer trade offers, choose skills upgrades etc...
- When the Bot is exploring, keep in mind it make no use of the player fov memory of the maps, so it is suboptimal when
  exploring for the player. Also the ais make no use of the messages the player is receiving like "you hear fighting..." etc...
- Fix (3) about AI not crashing the game is only in Release build. Debug build will still throw exceptions etc...
  Faulty AIs should not crash or lock the game in Release if possible.

Have fun!
And remember, die with a smile!

Alpha 10.1 soon

Hey!

I'm running some final tests on Alpha 10.1 and should release it within a few days.

A useful new feature I added for devs is Bot Mode. By pressing a key in Debug build you can let CivilianAI takes control of the player. Hilarity ensues.

Here's a screenshot of HiScores, all of them games by bots.

Not so bad CivilianAI. Not so bad.

See you soon!

News on Alpha 10.1; Android Game Pixel Diamonds Caves

Hey!

ALPHA 10.1
I have starting working on alpha 10.1. This will be a minor update. Mostly bug fixes reported by players and a few new minor features added. I sneak a couple of hours on it whenever I have the time.

PIXEL DIAMONDS CAVES - ANDROID GAME
Unrelated to RS, but several months ago I released an android game Pixel Diamond Caves. You can find it on google play store. Its an old school pixelish arcade/puzzle game. Some levels are handcrafted and some are procedurally generated. Think Boulder Dash with items, procgen levels and more varied monsters. You could give it a look between two brain/groceries eating sessions.

See you next time!

Rogue Survivor alpha 10 release!

Hey!!

Alpha 10 is here! Right in the download page!
Six years after the last version! ...and on the same day april 28! Coincidence? I think... yes. I didn't do it on purpose but its funny.
I released the source code as well.

Here's the readme. Have fun!

ALPHA 10 CHANGES
----------------

New stuff and modifications of existing stuff that should make the game more fun!


FIXED BUGS
(1) (Stability) Fixed various issues with the sim thread.
(2) (Gfx) Fixed overlays sometimes being cleared when they should not.
(3) (Rules) Fixed running actors not dropping scents on every tile they run through.
(4) (Gfx) Fixed special dialogues overlays not cleared when closed.
(5) (Misc) Fixed "that person" in "that place" leaving a corpse when "the thing" has happened.
(6) (AI) Char Guards only warn trespassers they can still see.
    Note that due to fov behind asymetric, sometimes they can see you while you can't see them.
(7) (Misc) Fixed bikers jacket being wrongly described as being suspicious/unsuspicious to gangstas while gangstas don't care about them.
(8) (Rules) Actors dragging corpse cannot push/pull/shove anymore.
(9) (Rules) Pushing/Shoving did not properly check tiles triggers.
(10) (GUI) Fixed situation were was saying "Hint available" but when asked to show the hint had none.
(11) (Misc) Fixed "that person" in "that place" hailing the player even when not visible to the player.


NEW ACTION : PULL  (default Ctrl-P)
- Similar to pushing, you can now pull objects and actors.
- Select an adjacent object/actor to pull.
- The select an adjacent tile you can walk to.
- If possible, the pulled object/actor will be forcibly moved into your tile.
- And you move into the walkable tile you selected.
- You can pull in any direction, not limited to "walking backward".
- Some interesting uses of the pull action :
- Gives you more options on how to close the entrance to your camp.
- Pulling an enemy on your traps (see the updated trap rules).
- Pulling someone out of danger.
- Or pulling someone into danger, pulling them in your place.

NEW GAMEPLAY : DISARM
- Each succesful melee attack has a chance to disarm the defender.
- The item on right/left hand will be dropped in an adjacent tile if possible.
- Base chance is 5%.
- Martial Arts skill adds +10% per level.
- Defender Strong skill resists disarm by 5% per level.
- Some melee weapons give disarm bonus as well.
- Rats and Skeletons cannot disarm!

NEW GAMEPLAY : NEGOCIATING TRADE
- New action: Negociate Trade. Default key E. Select an adjacent npc willing to trade.
- Opens a window where you can offer or ask for items.
- You see your inventory and the npc inventory.
- Items are color coded so you can see if the npc will accept or not and if your Charismatic skill had an effect or not.
- Removed now obsolete action "offer item to trade".
- "Fast" trade by bumping into a npc is still there but you should use the negociating trade action.
- The player Charismatic skill is rolled only once per turn to avoid exploits :)
- A succesful trade recovers some Sanity for both parties.

STENCH KILLER OVERHAUL
- Stench Killer is now sprayed on actors not tiles.
- You can spray it on yourself or adjacent actors.
- It suppress all the actor scents for a number of turns : the actor won't drop scents on the tiles.
- Works on any actor, living or undead.
- The suppression is subject to decay like other odors (effect of rain etc...).
  Note that accelerated odors decay due to rain now only affect tiles that are outside.
- Example of uses:
- Spray on yourself and your followers before entering or leaving your base.
- Spray on a zombie master to prevent him from dropping tracks for other undeads to follow.

TRAPS
- An actor and his group will never trigger traps they have layed when stepping into them.
  Eg: if you drop some spikes you and your followers can safely walk into them.
- Makes defending your base with traps a much more viable strategy!
- Traps that are safe for the player have green icons and description mentions who setup the trap.
- Undeads are 30% more likely to trigger traps.
- Light Feet skill bonus to avoid/escape traps bumped to +15% (was +5%).

RANGED WEAPONS FIRING
- When firing the interface now shows your average hit chances for each shot and which fire mode you are using.
- Redone how "Rapid Fire" works, it was useless and no one ever used it!
  Now it is actually an option to consider especially with the firearms skill.
- Rapid Fire attack values are now a stat of the ranged weapons, some are a bit better than others at rapid fire.
- Before it was just a flat penalty to each shot irrevelant of the weapon used.
- As before, Rapid Fire makes you shoot twice for the cost of only one action.
- Keep in mind "rapid fire" means you are not taking the time to aim properly between shots,
  not that you are using automatic fire or not. Automatic fire doesn't "exist" in the game and is just reflected
  in the weapons damage or attack stats, some weapons are always assumed to be fired in burst and an "ammo"
  for them does not represent a single bullet. That was a clarification for weapon nerds out there :)
- The game remembers your fire mode so you don't have to switch each time you fire.
- Distance to target is now a % modifier on the ranged attack value and has a bigger effect on hit chances,
  especially beyond efficient range.

NEW GAMEPLAY : MELEE WEAPONS AS TOOLS
- Some melee weapons can be "tools". Eg: hammer, crowbar...
- Equipped tools give bonuses when breaking, barricading, repairing or building.
- Some tools are better at breaking than building and vice-versa.
  Eg: the crowbar is best at breaking stuff, the small hammer at building and repairing.
- Read the melee weapon item description to learn each tool weapon bonuses.

GROUP AND ENEMIES
- Groups now share enemies :
- "The enemies of my leader are my enemies"
- "The enemies of my mates are my enemies"
- "The enemies of my followers are my enemies"
- Examples:
- A civilian lead by a cop will be enemies with gangs because the cop faction is enemy with the gang faction.
- You decide to attack another civilian. Your follower will be enemy with him too.
- A biker aggress you for your item. All the biker group will now be your enemies too. All your followers will
  be their enemies too.
- You got a new follower but he is a murderer. If cops go after the murderer they will go after you too.
- To "get rid" of the problem of being enemy of a whole group because you have a "problem" with one of them you have
  to break the group links with him, so 2 solutions:
- Kill the guy you have a problem with (eg: the one who agressed you)
- Or Kill the group leader.
- Look at the icons and the actors descriptions to understand why they are your enemies.

SKILL UPGRADE INTERFACE
- Skill Upgrade choices are now shown in a window. Less cramped than message logs!
- Works for upgrading your followers too and you also see their current skills listed.

SANITY REBALANCE
- Increased Sanity recovery for having a follower with a bond or killing undeads.
- Chatting or trading can also recovers Sanity.
- Rewards more active play!
- Sanity Nightmares now also drains some Stamina.

WEATHER & TIME OF DAY AWARENESS
- Weather is now more dynamic. It stays the same for a very short or very long period of time and then will change.
  So you can have anything from short burst of rains for a few hours to long sunny days and it can change at any time
  during a day. Previously it could change only when starting a new day.
- If you can't see the sky (sleeping or sewers/basements maps) :
- you are not told the time of the day.
- you are not told the weather and informed of weather changes.
- Cellphones and Police Radios can give you the time of the day.

MISC GUI
- Options screen: describe currently selected option and which option/game mode interactions.
- Actor description shows unusual or unexpected abilities.
  Now you can see what each type of undeads can and cannot do. It removes a bit of mystery but improves gameplay.
- City map: highlight your current district in green.
- City map: removed Sewers Maintenance from notable locations.
- City map: "that place" information has the correct tile coordinates and will be easier to find once you know
  where it is.
- Location info: shows fov penalty for time of day and weather.
- Actors following their leader now have a new icon.
- When hovering on an actor:
- Actors in the same group are highlighted with a blue icon.
- Actors targeting this actor are highlighted with a red icon.
- Martial Arts and Hardy skills are highlighted green when active.
- When bashing an object shows how much damage done.
- Non-threatening things said by actors are in cyan, threatening things in red.
- Undeads with the Z-Grab skills have an icon as they are very dangerous.
- Items descriptions mention that you can take/drop them with ctrl/shift keyboard shortcuts.
  Most players probably didn't know about that!
- Hints: when a hint is available tells you which one it is.
- Hints: disabled when playing undead.
- Game modes description improved.

AI
- NPCs will check if they can reasonably reach an actor/an item before trying to trade/lead/melee/pick up.
  Prevents them from getting stuck trying to do something they cannot possibly do.
- NPCs will now use Rapid Fire when shooting weapons if they think its a good idea.
- Rewrote NPCs item rating and trade logic. Means they will pick up and trade different items than before and
  should be better at managing their inventory.
- NPCs will always equip best items possible.
- NPCs should be a bit better at escaping.
- NPCs will get rid of empty cans.
- NPCs will "defrag" their inventory by merging small stacks to keep their inventory as tight as possible.
- Tweaks to Fight or Flee logic.
- Intelligent NPCs more wary of stepping into unsafe damaging traps.
- Living NPCs a bit more likely to choose Necrology and High Stamina when upgrading.
- NPCs will not try to trade with people fighting or fleeing.
- Improved Gangs items scavenging.
- Some NPCs can try to break or push stuff to get where they want.
  Eg: Gangs cause now more mess. Civilians can get messy if they feel they have to.
- Updated NPCs use of stench killer, can spray on themselves or their group.
- Skeletons can now use stairs.
- Some other tweaks.

MAPGEN
- Housings can have a small garden or parking lot for variety.
- Parks can have small sheds with tools.
- Hospital Storage now starts with some nurses trapped in it.

UNIQUE ACTORS
- Unique Actors are now invincible until you spot them.
- When you first spot a Unique Actor it plays its theme music and focus on him.

MISC
- Actions like barricade now always consume an item from the smallest stack instead of the first one it finds.
- Rain affect odors decay only on outside tiles.
- Unsuspicious:
- Increased effects of outfits to 75% (was 50%).
- Increased effect of Unsuspicious skill to 20% (was 15%).
- Light Sleeper skill increased to 20% (was 10%).
- Z-Grab skill increased to 4% (was 2%).
- National Guards have Firearms skill.
- New Hints for Sanity, Infection and Traps. Merged Corpses hints.
- Music :
- Rewrote how music is managed with the concept of background map music vs event music.
- New bgm for surface maps.
- Option: Max City Size up to 7 (was 6).
- Some typos fixes.
- Updated descriptions for new stuff like weapon disarm chance etc...
- Some changes to manual and hints.

DATA AND MODDING
- Melee Weapons: new stats "disarm", "toolbashdmgbonus" and "toolbuildbonus".
- Ranged Weapons: new stats "hit2value" and "hit3value" for Rapid Fire.
- Trackers: new stat "hasclock".
- Skills: Martial Arts new stat "disarm".
- Icons: new icons.
- Rebalanced ranged weapons.
- Iron Golf Club sta penalty now 1 (was -2).
- Rats dmg 2 (was 4) def 6 (was 4).

FOR DEVS
- Most changes in the source code marked by "// alpha 10".
  Some dead code is left in commentaries to help find what has changed.
- "Godmode" for dev: in debug mode you can be toggle player invincibility by pressing F11.
- New AI helper RouteFinder is a *very simple* pathfinder used to quickly check if NPCs can expect to reach a tile.
  It assumes npcs are using the vanilla movement behavior. It doesn't compute the shortest path, just checks for
  reachability.
- Boring item is now item centric: moved out of Actor into ItemEntertainment.
- In debug mode there is code to detect if an ai is looping "ai loop bug detection". You should add a breakpoint here.
- Some new dead actor reference clean up code reduce saved file size and so load times.
  Side effect is revived actor forgeting some stuff they did while alive. It makes sense gemaply wise so its ok.
- Some minor tweaks here and there.

Have fun!
And remember, die with a smile!

Rogue Survivor Children... and Alpha 10 !?

Hey!!

CHILDREN OF ROGUE SURVIVOR
Since the game has gone open source some users have made child projects.
They are pretty cool and updated frequently! Check them out on the fans forums!
Rogue Survivor Revived by zaimoni
Rogue Survivor Still Alive by MP

ALPHA 10 !?
I've been working on a update to Rogue Survivor proper. What the hell!?
It has some new stuff, fixes etc...
For instance here's a screenie of the new Negociating Trade feature.

Negociating Trade

Here I'm trying to get the pistol ammo from a cop npc for my Kolt. As shown in the interface, I ask for his pistol bullets and ask him what he wants in exhange. He doesn't want to trade his bullets at all... But I could have convinced him to exhange the bullets for my bandages or medikit if only I succesfully rolled my charisma skill. Next turn I'll try again!

It should make trading with NPCs more interesting and viable!

See you soon ;)