It’s planned (there has even been a tentative interface for the past 5 years or so). No idea what’s preventing a release.
I found Brian on twitter and started following him. He is very funny shitposter.
Later I found he made Caves of Qud, so I bought the game. Tried it, but bounced on the surface. I am happy I can enjoy Brian post on twitter withouth paying a cent :D
Caves of Qud!
Here’s a spoiler free beginner guide that’s got lot’s of information to help with bouncing off.
The above has a ton of information.
As a beginner you should start in Joppa and here’s a good guide that includes a Joppa section to help you get a footing there and in the game:
There is also this, which I have installed and which seems neat (I have only done some of it):
The Big Simple does a nice set of tutorial videos for Qud
So, in my current game as an esper, I had proselytized one of the esper hunter assassins that came after me. Because, what better revenge than making them fight with me against their own side, amirite?
Anyway, after a while, when I was buying new mutations I got Domination. So I dominated my esper follower to manage his skill points and buy new mutations for him. One of the 3 choices offered was Beguile so I took it for him. I figured I could dominate him and then use his Beguile power to get him his own follower. And, since his follower belongs to my follower, his follower is also my follower. Yeah…
I was more than 30 levels down in the sub-surface underworld and had been being followed for some time by some astral tabby cats. These cats are absolutely vicious and have a 75% chance to dismember a body part when they attack something. Scary. But, they are astral creatures that are out of phase with our reality and therefore harmless to those that are not out of phase like they are. So, they just follow you around, waiting and hoping that maybe you’ll use a phase skill so they can dice you up.
I’m a cat person and I wanted a pet cat so I dominated my follower and had him see if he could beguile a tabby into becoming a pet. I wasn’t actually sure beguile would work on out of phase creatures but it did. And sure enough, his cat was then also my cat. I had some hopes for this cat. I figured that sooner or later it would run into something out of phase and rip it’s face off. Then I could wear the ripped off face for a nice ego bonus. Yeah…
Anyway, at level 40+ I ran into a Leering Stalker robot. There was a Decarbonizer (a stationary robot) sitting near it. While my followers and I tried to deal with the Leering Stalker, the tabby was just sitting there watching us fight as always. Content in being out of phase and therefore untouchable.
Then boom, the Decarbonizer fires it’s weapon and it was targeting my cat. I suddenly get all these log messages about various pieces of the cat being dismembered and a final message that the cat has been decapitated and died. It turns out that the Decarbonizer’s weapon fires a dismembering beam that is also omniphase and can hit out of phase creatures like my poor tabby.
I walked over to the remains of my cat. There amidst the pile of cat body parts I saw it. The face of my cat. Wearing it grants a +3 ego bonus and -500 reputation with cats. I equipped the cat face and started looking for the next stairway down. Funny how things work out sometimes.
What a beautiful and moving story!
He will be remembered (as long as I wear his face).
That’s brilliant and grim. Poor out of phase dismembering astral kitty. Qud carbonara catastrophe.
I have well over 600 hours in this game now and I still have not come even close to experiencing everything it has to offer. It’s the one game I own that just keeps on giving.
I finally forced myself to roll up a Roleplay character, which means the game saves every time you enter or exit a settlement. Now when you die, you can just reload the game. Permadeath is gone. In this mode, Caves of Qud is no longer a rogue-like. But was it ever?
On the upside, Roleplay mode makes exploring to find settlements that much more important! Because now they’re your save points. I love this element of the game, and exploring and tracking down and trading bits of lore and managing/spending faction rep is one of Caves of Qud’s strong points. I’m also playing a Gunslinger and lead slugs seems to be the limiting factor for me in combat. So wandering the lands looking for merchants to trade me their lead slugs feels appropriately thematic.
On the downside, Roleplay mode really seems to screw with some of the character builds. For instance, I’ve come to appreciate a mental power called Precognition:
It’s the option to save and then reload, but on a cooldown timer! So when you’re playing Classic mode, which has permadeath, this is a way to check how tough that creature is or what’s down that dark hallway or how this dangerous artifact works. Oh, the creature one-shotted you? Just reload your precognition. Oh, there’s a fatal trap down that hallway? Just reload your precognition. Oh, your low intelligence character just discovered a white phosphorus grenade the hard way? Just reload your precognition.
It can be kind of grueling anticipating when you might need it, but it’s a real life saver. No, really. A real life saver. One of the hundreds of fun gimmicks you can discover in Caves of Qud. And it’s useless when you play in Roleplay mode, because you were just going to reload a save from the last village anyway. Okay, not actually useless, since Precognition can save you from yet another trip back to the last village. But it’s a less important in the overall scheme of things. I wouldn’t have wasted points on it if I’d known, and now I’m wondering how I can spend my points differently knowing I can just reload a saved game. Pah, survivability is for chumps who play rogue-likes!
But on the upside, I’m getting to see a lot more of the game, and it’s a game with a ton of stuff worth seeing! And as you might imagine, I’m a lot less careful about exploring. Oh, I died again, big whoop, just reload. Now I’m back where I was and fully healed, ready to do it right this time.
Which is another downside. Now I’m getting target lock where I’m dying repeatedly in the same place instead of doing something else. Now I’m worried I’m turning Caves of Qud into a game about saving and reloading because I’m stubbornly trying to cheese my way past areas that might be too tough for me? I can’t say for sure, but this never happened when I played in Classic mode. Because I died, but still. It never happened.
But now I do kind of resent that I’m having to design the game if I want to experience the content. This is where I would normally end with some sullen barb about early access, but I suspect Caves of Qud will still work this way even at 1.0. So I can just write this one up to a “it’s not the game, it’s me” situation. I think I’m just so accustomed to rogue-likes that I’m out of practice with my save/reload RPGs.
-Tom
Kinda wish they’d named it Qaves of Qud now.
You need lead slugs? Grit Gate is the place for you. The vendor there sells them by the thousand.
Edit: Also for survivability, there are a few really good skills and items. For mutations, Force Bubble is probably the best tool to help your survival. If you can find a Force Bracelet instead, it’s just as good. You can shoot through your bubble so it would be perfect for your build. While your bubble is up, you can also tinker and exit to the world map to flee if needed. Awesome skill.
Heh, that’s where I’m trying to get! And where I keep dying during exploration! But no spoilers please, as I’m happy to experiment and find stuff myself. Right now I’ve backed off Grit Gate to look for settlements to restock my lead slugs. I can melee just fine, but I’m down to double digit lead slugs, and I’d like to get back up to a stock of 300. I felt a lot safer. :)
I’m just wondering if I have it in me to keep playing this as a save/reload game. Because I don’t think I can go back to rogue-liking it, knowing what I know now.
-Tom
It’s been like ten years and I have yet to hear ONE story from an albino ape mayor. :(
You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
I’ve pretty much resigned myself to putting every cool roguelike on the list of games I’ll play if I’m ever stuck on a deserted island. The list is exclusively roguelikes.
But you’ll only have 2 hours of power left on that gaming laptop!
I guess I have to give the game another try. this cool stories are crazy.
I recommend that while learning, you play in classic mode and turn on saves in the options. Then if you die, you can reload from the last save. This will allow you to learn, try strategies and make mistakes without having to constantly restart when you die.
Finally!
