Procedural generation of potentially millions of possible NPCs in all settlements within the game.
Several dozen different NPC types, each with their own schedules which play out alongside the player’s actions.
Face generation with significant variation for genetics and culture.
Detailed conversation system, with several hundred potential lines of enquiry, and answers / detail of answers / willingness to answer determined by a range of social and personal factors, leading to millionsof possible conversations.
Procedural clothing generation for almost all possible items of clothing, differences in clothing between cultures, and also major differences in clothing between culture types (feudal, nomadic, tribal, etc), and unique clothing styles for religions.
A large number of general optimisations, improvements, new visuals for various things, and so forth.
I continue to be really impressed with the improvements made to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup over the years since I played it last. The whole experience has been much smoother and more enjoyable. The tile graphics seem to have been given a big overhaul. Everything that you equip is represented visually on your character which I don’t recall being there before. And all the graphics themselves seem much nicer. Also, the game start doesn’t seem nearly as brutal as it used to be. And the new mouse friendly UI is great.
There are little temporary side branches to explore which are quite fun. The first one I did was a Gauntlet that has a minotaur boss at the end guarding the exit. The gauntlet itself wasn’t hard to get through but my encounter with the minotaur was the closest I’ve come to dying so far. He had silver javelins and was just shredding me from a distance. Fortunately, I had boots of running on and was able to circle around (with him chasing me) and reach to the stairs out of there before he killed me. I’ve also found a portal to a bazaar with several shops and a portal to an ice cave, which was pretty easy to clear.
Here’s my level 15 Draconian Fire Elementalist on level 14 standing in front of the entrance to the Vaults (just discovered). I’ll need a rune to get in. One more dungeon level to go after this one before heading back to the Lair to take on the Spider Nest to get that rune.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.25.1 (tiles) character file.
Game seed: 15993217759895855239
Draco the Arsonist (DrFE) Turns: 32228, Time: 13:35:26
HP: 125/125 (126) AC: 19 Str: 14 XL: 15 Next: 62%
MP: 39/39 EV: 16 Int: 27 God: Vehumet [*****.]
Gold: 1280 SH: 8 Dex: 12 Spells: 3/36 levels left
rFire + . . SeeInvis . O - +6 flail {flame, rF- MR+ Str+3 Int+3}
rCold . . . Gourm . B - +3 buckler of the Old World {rElec MP+9}
rNeg . . . Faith . (armour unavailable)
rPois + Spirit . r - +2 hat {Int+3}
rElec + Reflect . A - +1 cloak
rCorr . Harm . C - +2 pair of gloves
MR ++... Q - +2 pair of boots {run}
Stlth +++....... m - amulet "Rehevot" {RegenMP +Fly rPois Slay+3 Stlth+}
HPRegen 0.30/turn V - ring of protection from fire
MPRegen 0.51/turn j - ring of poison resistance
@: quick
A: breathe fire, unfitting armour, fire resistance 1, cold-blooded, AC +9
a: Breathe Fire, Renounce Religion, Evoke Flight
You are on level 14 of the Dungeon.
You worship Vehumet.
Vehumet is extremely pleased with you.
You are not hungry.
You have visited 3 branches of the dungeon, and seen 22 of its levels.
You have visited 1 bazaar.
You have also visited: Gauntlet and Ice Cave.
You have collected 2370 gold pieces.
You have spent 1090 gold pieces at shops.
Inventory:
Hand Weapons
h - a +5 hand axe of venom
F - a +2 hunting sling of freezing
G - the +11 flail "Koullav" {elec, +Inv rN+++ Str-5 SInv}
(You found it on level 6 of the Lair of Beasts)
Occasionally, upon striking a foe, it will discharge some electrical energy
and cause terrible harm.
It affects your strength (-5).
It renders you almost immune to negative energy.
It lets you see invisible.
It lets you turn invisible.
O - the +6 flail "Gepypnuc" (weapon) {flame, rF- MR+ Str+3 Int+3}
(You found it on level 9 of the Dungeon)
It has been specially enchanted to burn those struck by it, causing extra
injury to most foes and up to half again as much damage against particularly
susceptible opponents.
It affects your strength (+3).
It affects your intelligence (+3).
It makes you vulnerable to fire.
It affects your resistance to hostile enchantments.
Missiles
d - 12 curare-tipped darts (quivered)
v - 114 poisoned darts
Armour
r - a +2 hat of intelligence (worn)
A - a +1 cloak (worn)
B - the +3 buckler of the Old World (worn) {rElec MP+9}
(You acquired it on level 11 of the Dungeon)
It insulates you from electricity.
It affects your magic capacity (+9).
C - a +2 pair of gloves (worn)
Q - a +2 pair of boots of running (worn)
Magical Staves
z - an uncursed staff of summoning
Y - an uncursed staff of fire
Jewellery
a - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
e - an uncursed ring of ice
g - an uncursed ring of resist corrosion
j - a ring of poison resistance (right hand)
m - the amulet "Rehevot" (around neck) {RegenMP +Fly rPois Slay+3 Stlth+}
(You acquired it on level 12 of the Dungeon)
[amulet of magic regeneration]
It increases your magic regeneration.
It affects your accuracy and damage with ranged weapons and melee attacks
(+3).
It protects you from poison.
It lets you fly.
It makes you more stealthy.
s - an uncursed ring of protection from cold
x - an uncursed amulet of regeneration
N - an uncursed ring of see invisible
V - a ring of protection from fire (left hand)
Wands
n - a wand of paralysis (16)
o - a wand of random effects (73)
p - a wand of enslavement (7)
q - a wand of disintegration (9)
K - a wand of polymorph (29)
R - a wand of flame (18)
W - a wand of clouds (4)
Z - a wand of iceblast (22)
Scrolls
c - 3 scrolls of magic mapping
l - 5 scrolls of remove curse
t - 9 scrolls of teleportation
u - a scroll of identify
w - 4 scrolls of fog
L - 3 scrolls of amnesia
T - a scroll of fear
U - a scroll of silence
Potions
f - a potion of magic
i - a potion of lignification
k - a potion of brilliance
H - 2 potions of cancellation
I - 3 potions of mutation
M - 2 potions of curing
S - 4 potions of heal wounds
Miscellaneous
E - a box of beasts
J - a lightning rod (4/4)
Comestibles
b - 16 rations
D - 6 chunks of flesh
Skills:
* Level 9.8 Fighting
+ Level 6.6(9.0) Axes
+ Level 9.3(10.2) Maces & Flails
Level 0.7(4.2) Polearms
+ Level 0.3(5.8) Staves
- Level 0.8(1.0) Slings
+ Level 0.3(0.6) Throwing
- Level 8.0 Dodging
- Level 3.4 Stealth
- Level 4.0 Shields
+ Level 0.5 Unarmed Combat
+ Level 11.1 Spellcasting
- Level 11.1 Conjurations
- Level 5.6 Hexes
Level 3.0 Summonings
+ Level 3.8 Translocations
- Level 0.5 Transmutations
- Level 11.2 Fire Magic
- Level 0.3 Ice Magic
- Level 1.0 Air Magic
* Level 6.2 Earth Magic
+ Level 5.7 Poison Magic
* Level 5.5 Evocations
You have 3 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:
Your Spells Type Power Failure Level Hunger
a - Foxfire Conj/Fire #### 1% 1 None
b - Magic Dart Conj #### 1% 1 None
c - Searing Ray Conj ###### 1% 2 None
d - Mephitic Cloud Conj/Pois/Air #####... 1% 3 None
e - Ignite Poison Fire/Tmut/Pois #####... 1% 3 None
f - Fireball Conj/Fire ######.... 1% 5 ###....
g - Hailstorm Conj/Ice #####... 1% 4 None
h - Fulminant Prism Conj/Hex ######.... 1% 4 None
i - Sticky Flame Conj/Fire ######.. 1% 4 None
j - Lee's Rapid Deconstr Erth #####..... 2% 5 ###....
k - Apportation Tloc #####. 1% 1 None
Your spell library contains the following spells:
Spells Type Power Failure Level Hunger
Lightning Bolt Conj/Air #####..... 2% 5 ###....
Corona Hex #####.. 1% 1 None
Sting Tmut/Pois #### 1% 1 None
Summon Small Mammal Summ #### 1% 1 None
Ensorcelled Hibernation Hex/Ice ####.. 1% 2 None
Poisonous Vapours Pois/Air ####.. 1% 2 None
Confusing Touch Hex #####... 1% 3 None
Conjure Flame Conj/Fire ######.. 1% 3 None
Dazzling Flash Conj/Hex ###### 1% 3 None
Inner Flame Hex/Fire ######.. 1% 3 None
Tukima's Dance Hex #####... 1% 3 None
Shroud of Golubria Chrm/Tloc ####.. 2% 2 None
Recall Summ/Tloc N/A 2% 3 None
Animate Skeleton Necr N/A 3% 1 None
Infusion Chrm ##.. 3% 1 None
Spectral Weapon Hex/Chrm ####.... 3% 3 None
Song of Slaying Chrm ##...... 6% 2 None
Ozocubu's Armour Chrm/Ice ###..... 11% 3 None
Olgreb's Toxic Radiance Pois #####... 1% 4 None
Freezing Cloud Conj/Ice/Air #####..... 26% 6 #####..
Borgnjor's Vile Clutch Necr/Erth ####...... 30% 5 ###....
Metabolic Englaciation Hex/Ice ####...... 30% 5 ###....
Ice Form Ice/Tmut ###..... 32% 4 None
Animate Dead Necr N/A 36% 4 None
Ozocubu's Refrigeration Ice ###....... 75% 6 #####..
Death Channel Necr ##........ 99% 6 #####..
Simulacrum Ice/Necr ###....... 99% 6 #####..
Dungeon Overview and Level Annotations
Branches:
Dungeon (14/15) Temple (0/1) D:7 Lair (6/6) D:9
Swamp (0/4) Lair:3 Spider (0/4) Lair:4 Slime (0/5) Lair:6
Orc (2/2) D:10 Elf (0/3) Orc:2 Vaults (0/5) D:14
IceCv (visited) Gauntlet (visited)
Hmmmmmmm. I tried DCSS a couple times over the years and given that I invariably died on the first floor or the second at the outside and nothing much interesting happened along the way, bounced right off. But if it’s more survivable to start, maybe I ought to give it one more try…
If you do try it, make sure you pick one of the beginner classes and read that guide I linked. Minotaur Berserker is a good melee choice for a beginner. Draconians are good for beginning casters because they have more survivability. That’s why I picked one of those.
I finally tried Zorbus (it’s on itch too and can be installed via their client, which is nice). Took a smidge to get into but wow it’s good. They weren’t wrong about the second floor being much harder than the first. Wow.
In the PC version there’s a config file where you can change a ton of stuff like the UI window element sizes and font sizes. I don’t know if the Android version has that or not. The info about that is in the options_guide.txt file in the docs directory in the PC version.
I have tried and tried but never could get into this, mostly because of the overly busy UI exemplified in the screenshot you posted. It is too busy for my tired old eyes.
Well, in fairness to the version that I’m playing, the UI is a whole lot easier than the previous versions I’ve played and way, way easier than other old school roguelikes such as nethack.
Bear in mind that the apparent complexity of my screenshot is mostly an illusion. The first row of icons on the bottom right of the screen are clickable buttons for your inherent talents that you can evoke (dragon breath and fly respectively in the screenshot). The second row are clickable buttons to cast all the spells that you have currently learned. The third row of icons are commonly used commands like auto-explore, rest, manage skills (detailed screen), memorize spells, etc.
Below that, the tiny vertical column of icons are actually tabs that change the display of the remaining icons shown in a big block. In the screenshot, the active tab is the inventory tab so all the icons shown there are what’s in your inventory. You click them to use them or wield them. You right click them to get an information screen describing them. The other tabs are memorize spells (simplified version), manage skills (simplified version), system commands and navigation. Lastly, you can left click on the character info window in the upper right to get a popup character summary window.
It’s all very clean and simple in my opinion. Also, note that in the config file you can also change which of these UI elements are shown on the screen and in what order.
Thanks, I downloaded this back when you first mentioned it and just got around to playing it this past week. Only took 3 tries to ascend a character, which means it’s one of the easier roguelikes but that’s not a complaint - quite the opposite. Plus I focused on a defensive melee tank so there are plenty more interesting options it looks like when I go back in.
Plus it has a cool persistent end game that I wasn’t expecting, giving more reasons to continue.
At the end you are given a choice to fight one of 8-12? or something gods or fight the big bad in the middle. I decided to not push my luck and picked on one of easier gods and ascended. Next time I make it with a character the god I defeated should be replaced with my ascended character, and if I choose to fight the robed figure in the middle then he should, I believe, assist. Haven’t tried it yet myself though.
TOME has sucked me back in with a vengeance. My Shalore Temporal Warden is kicking ass and taking names, especially with a dagger that triggers a giant explosion of lightning on literally every swing, on a character that swings more than once a turn half the time. That said, am I imagining things/confusing TOME with another game? I thought Temporal Wardens had a concept of “damage smearing” where they’d instead of taking a big hit all at once, bleed that damage into a DoT over the next few turns, but that’s definitely nowhere to be found in this version.
