![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.
Recently I found some time in which I felt okay playing games and decided to make a proper start on Breath of Fire. Then I discovered that my right arrow key not working made it impossible for the character to move right. I could have remapped the keys to get around this problem but decided instead to put that on hold until I possess again a fully functioning keyboard (right arrow key not working, 'o' and F1 keys working but missing [edit: left shift key mostly not working]) and play something in the meanwhile which I'd not expected to get around to for some years yet: Roguelike Roulette.
The premise is pretty simple - there are a number of roguelike (or, in some cases, roguelike-like) games which I have downloaded, each of which gets played in alphabetical order until I lose the game and move on to the next one. Originally I was not intending to play these until I had played through my more conventional games, mainly because roguelikes are notoriously hard and likely to consume a lot more time in the attempt to complete than many other games. Once the Keyboard Criterion is met, they'll be placed back in hibernation.
First on the list is AliensRL, developed in 7 days by Kornel Kisielewicz, most known for making DoomRL and creator of a few others I've yet to play. Am pleased to learn on starting it up that, as with DoomRL, this game features music. Sound of any kind is unusual in roguelikes in my experience. Character classes look interesting enough I'd possibly be willing to beat the game more than once. Going with the standard marine for now.
There's a more recent version available for beta testing in the forums, which I overlooked originally. Ah well, stick with the original version for now.
So far only looked at the help screen, bit scared to make the first move. Seems fitting for an Aliens game. By the end of the first corridor, hearing various unsettling sounds suggesting aliens are alerted, and come across a bloody corpse. Of course I expect to die, but still unnerving.
Avoiding opening doors, as is my usual policy in unexplored areas, but this map is large enough that may be impractical.
More noises, more corpses and blood on the wall. Eventually find a room with something in it - a variety of ammunition, a medical pack, and a juvenile alien. Had been intending to avoid contact, or at least not seek it out, having the feeling it may be easy to run out of ammunition before running out of aliens. The alien is signified by a green 'a', which given the other games I've played causes me to reflexively possibly undervalue it. I'm used to 'a' meaning 'ant'.
Killing it uses up 24 of 30 rounds loaded into the MP5... since that was a juvenile, and that was a weapon I advanced skill in during character creation, it seems clear this is going to be tough.
More aliens screaming in the distance as the spoils are collected (none of the ammunition for the weapon I fired, nor for a weapon I possess). Either there is more than one sound attached to the local ones, or more than one kind of alien is after me.
I stumble my way into the medical tower. Not having any idea what my objective is (escape?), or how to go about it, I return to the Civilian Tower intending to explore it further.
Spotted an alien worker. Have no idea if those are hostile or not. If hostile, finding out may kill me. If not, firing on it may ruin my chance to find out. Waited a few beats, no movement on its part. Taking the potentially foolish decision to travel back up the corridor and away.
Found Main Tower, headed back to Civilian Tower, heading in the last direction. Lots more alien sounds from various directions. Got all the way to the Storage Tower... appears many may be trapped behind doors? We shall see.
Seems the aliens are mostly trapped behind doors. Suspicions also correct about ammunition. After a few rooms and various aliens, out of bullets. More than once resorting to point blank grenades in order to get space, searching for more bullets. This is the phase in which one is aware of inevitable death, but is still moving and breathing. Primary goal is to discover anything possible so that quantum leakage to other histories might enable someone else to survive further.
Ran out of bullets and grenades with two juvenile aliens after. Used up a couple of medpacks fleeing, escaped to Security Tower. No melee capability.
Ammunition increasingly filed under 'nice to have but too difficult to acquire'. Found a grenade and expended all re-accumulated ammunition and the grenade itself fending off another juvenile in an open area. In some cases sneaking past workers, in other cases it is deemed too risky. Finding guns on the ground, but only models I already have and unlike DoomRL guns on the floor can't be harvested for ammunition.
Even only fighting those unavoidable is costly. Attrition continues. Ironically, have much ammunition but not for any weapons in my possession.
Weapons seem more effective at point blank. Don't like point blank.
So far seen: juvenile aliens, hunters, warriors and workers.
Replaced primary weapon with 12g. combat shotgun, found better armour, retreated from Military Tower back to Storage Tower. Shotgun seems more efficient than the SMG, supply of shells managing to increase after an initial dip. Beginning to entertain thoughts of survival.
Seems more aliens are spawned with time on map, or over time in general. Starting to leap out of air vents. Hope this isn't like System Shock, and that ammo be as proliferating as aliens if so. Least favourite to fight: worker aliens. They have more health or armour or both, take a long time to go down. Seem to do less damage, but still. Fortunately they seem reluctant to attack unless unknown conditions are met.
I know there are elevators in the game, and according to game screen have been on level 1 of various towers the whole time. Presumably victory involves finding elevators and ascending to some degree. Presumably there is a victory condition. I checked the text files with the game and found no description of an objective, but mortem files posted online seem to indicate the goal is
1) Kill alien queen
2) Escape alive
Game has no save function, so I'm to sleep. We'll find out what happens tomorrow.
* * *
Having the 'unload and drop weapon' key adjacent to the fire key can lead to some panicky moments.
Reminder to self: fighting every alien leads to rapid resource depletion. Try to find a way up.
Hearing a new sound in the distance. Don't know what that is, sounds ominous.
Finally found an elevator up, just as I was growing bored, feeling in little danger and without purpose. Had mistaken it in the distance for water. Now we shall see.
Level 2 seems more dangerous, with only a couple of rooms to go on. It's dark, running through medkits fast... running to see if the towers are still connected above ground level, trying to reach the Medical Tower.
Lots of Hunters out in the open. Better head to Storage Tower after for ammunition again.
Found the next elevator up, deferring until resupplied. How high are these towers?
Found a .44 Colt, finally. Been at maximum ammunition for that for a long time. Wielding... but forgot to load, making the first encounter embarrassing. Effective with bullets in though.
Considering armour doesn't degrade with use, and I haven't seen anything beyond Flak Armour so far, armour seems too plentiful on the ground. There's as yet no impetus to juggle trade-offs that makes it worth having so many lying around.
Storage Tower seems so far the best tower to be in for keeping oneself in good condition. Have gained enough skill points to invest in another level with light weapons; sidearms get the next upgrade, in accordance with the straightforward approach being taken this time. Haven't found any heavy weapons yet, hopefully won't regret not investing later.
Relatively quickly in good condition, so taking a quick exploration jaunt before heading up again.
Increasingly in the position of being swarmed by 2-4 aliens at once, close calls. Trying to remember to use grenades more, but not excessively.
Already in a bad way from waves upon waves of aliens, I find an M41-A pulse rifle in the Military Tower. Can only carry one weapon of a class at a time (sidearm, primary, heavy), so wielding it means dropping the shotgun I've been using for something with an uncertain ammunition supply. Amusing, since part of the current bad situation is a result of accidentally dropping the shotgun when trying to fire.
Perhaps a fortunate find. In the very same room, suddenly attacked by a never-before-seen elite alien. The pulse rifle makes short work of it. In many ways it is too powerful and limited a weapon to be using casually, but also (since I've only seen one so far) too valuable to leave on the floor. Going to switch to using the sidearm colt as primary for now.
Wow. Managed to take out an alien warrior in one shot with the colt. Gooood gun. *pets*
Level 3. Low on ammunition for pulse rifle and colt. Parking the pulse rifle in a safe spot, swapped for another shotgun to let it refill on this level. Switched again to a new MP5 submachine gun, since there's been a lot of ammunition for that around. Would be handy if later versions had an inventory so weapons not in use could be carried. Might be a deliberate omission.
Upgrading sidearms to advanced. Seem to have a pattern going, use a weapon until ammo depletes, then switch to something full and repeat.
This is not working out well. Exploration means depletion and death, but also experience and better gear. Trying to go back to a more conservative style, opening doors but not fighting for rooms unless I see something valuable.
Finally killed on level 3 by an elite alien. The shotgun is a bad weapon to fight them with, and I'd exhausted my colt. Used up about 8 medkits in the fight and at one point reduced to 0 hitpoints before using one. So ends Alas, the space marine.
(the previous two paragraphs should be read in a tone of growing panic)
-- AliensRL (DAY 7++) Post Mortem ------------------------------------
Name : Alas
Class : Marine
Rank : Experienced
Result : Deceased
Died on : Security Tower, level 3
Total Experience : 6375
Experience left : 975
Game length : 142838 truns
Armor : Flak armor [2]
Sidearm : .44 colt (0/6)
Primary : 12g. combat shotgun (2/5)
Medpacks: 0
-- Graveyard ---------------------------------------------------------
.............##
..............##
...............#
#######-########
...............#
###-############
...............#
.........*.....#
........A......#
...............#
####-###########
...............#
.....|.....*...#
..A............#
....A..........#
....A.....A....#
...............#
...............#
########-#######
...............#
...............#
A........A.....#
...............#
################
...............
...............
################
..A....*.......#
...............#
............|..#
...............#
...............#
#########-######
..A.......|....#
.+.............#
.....%.........#
...............#
.|...A.......%.#
-- Skills ------------------------------------------------------------
Sidearms : advanced
Light weapons : advanced
Heavy weapons : untrained
Technical : untrained
Medical : untrained
Fitness : untrained
Perception : untrained
-- Ammunition --------------------------------------------------------
9mm ammo : 90/400
.44 ammo : 0/150
M309 ammo : 420/500
M250 ammo : 0/500
60mm gren. : 0/40
12g. shells : 152/200
frag grenade : 5/5
inc grenade : 0/5
krak grenade : 4/5
-- Kills (460) -------------------------------------------------------
238 juveniles
25 workers
90 warriors
103 hunters
4 elites
-- Messages ----------------------------------------------------------
shreds you! The elite shreds you!
The elite shreds you!
You use a medpack. You feel much
better! The elite shreds you!
The elite shreds you!
You have no more MedPacks!
The elite shreds you!
The elite shreds you! The elite
shreds you! You die. Press
enter...
no subject
Date: 2010-04-18 23:03 (UTC)From: