It's also available as a standalone program you can run on your own machine.
DCSS has some made some great innovations, such as fantastic use of color and auto-explore, tons of really unique gods and races, it's scriptable(!) in Lua, the list goes on and on...
Brogue is shorter and tighter than DCSS. If I had my way, we'd cut down crawl to 27 levels. In Brogue the maps are smaller, the food clock is more punishing, enemies tend to be more distinct from one another. I've joked that every time we need new content for crawl, we just steal it from Brogue.
To extend on that, from what I have heard, fans of DCSS should check out Desktop Dungeons (I liked the original, which is free, but the new version is also worth checking out).
I like this change, adding Terry Pratchett quotes:
"At the time of his passing this year, the DevTeam decided that it would be a fitting tribute to take a number of our favourite quotes from the various Discworld novels and incorporate them into the game. Being the way we are, we did a little more than that. There are now a huge number of quotes from many of the Discworld novels in the tribute file, but this doesn't mean that we wouldn't accept new submissions from other Pratchett fans."
And for anyone unfamiliar with NetHack and its classes,
"As some may know, Terry Pratchett was a fan of NetHack, dating back to the time that we introduced the Tourist class which was openly based on the Discworld novels he penned."
the Luggage has been one of the things visible when allucinating for many years, and it was one of the things that made me realize how many nerd references are embedded in nethack, which is still one of the reason it's so enjoyable.
That's great news on the front of "classic" rogue-likes. On the flipside, I'm really enjoying how Cogmind is evolving the interface and pushing ASCII graphics:
Also the server admin for NAO is Pasi Kallinen which got added to the DevTeam earlier this year.
From what he told me, he worked hard this year to add lots of what is considered "standard" among the modern NetHack forks. He didn't succeed completely but it's an uphill battle if some of your code changes are code reviewed with comments like "but this won't compile on a pre ANSI C compiler".
I hope he and the other new members will be able to jump start again the development of NetHack.
Should say that NAO currently runs a heavily patched version of 3.4.3. Specifically, the menucolors and pickup_thrown patches that are mentioned as being part of 3.6 are already in 3.4.3_NAO.
If you want to play without external help like a guide or a spoiler, it is almost impossible to get anywhere because the game only gives you little hint of what is happening at a given time.
Using "spoiler file" or wiki, will give you a rough overview of the creature's strength and ability, weapon effectiveness, etc. This is helpful but is not enough to win.
To win you must understand deeply (grok) all the different mechanisms of the game (hunger, prayer, sacrifice, alchemy, intrisics, etc) and then have a strategy.
This is counter intuitive but the early game is much harder, once you have found the right items, identified important scrolls and potions (about finishing gnome mine & sokoban) the game becomes much easier. And if you are well prepared everything beyond the Valley of Death is kinda boring and "easy". For a first ascension, it is probably wiser to chose an easy class (valkyrie, barbarian, knight, wizard).
Key strategy for the early game are : using your pet to identify cursed items, to not level up too quickly because the generated monster will become too tough, when in a desperate spot engraving "Elbereth" with your fingers might save you a few times[0], praying at the right time, etc
A full game with a successful ascension is about 20-30 hours. However you probably need 50-100 hours of failed attempt to learn the rope first. And it can be frustrating at times because even if you know the game better, it will take some times to make a breakthrough and survive the early levels.
Lastly if you really want to learn fast, play on a public server, and when you are in a very tough spot, you can (at least you could) ask people on #Nethack on Freenode for advice.
In the end, the game is very satisfying, because even if there is a big element of luck, once you know the game well, this is your skill as a player that will determine if you live or die, and this is really rewarding.
I played it extensively like a decade ago. Never ascended though, it's just too difficult.
My experience after discovering the game was one of being overwhelmed. Every single keyboard button has multiple functions, there's so much stuff happening and you're just stumbling around in a world whose rules you don't understand. (Like real life.)
After some time, I've dived into the spoilers file and gave it an extensive read. I realized that it would have taken years of playing figuring all this game mechanics out. And that even when spoiled, the game remains a lot of fun. (Again, like real life.)
What remains are fond memories and the realization that I'll probably never finish it in my lifetime. And I'm ok with that.
So yes, it's complex and complicated, but rewarding.
NetHack is complicated, but not complex. It has a lot of individual moving parts, but they generally act as you expect them to once you get the overall notion of the game.
There are also spoilers all over the place on the internet, namely on the Nethack wiki, that'll answer any question (literally, any question) about the game that you have.
The idea of permadeath games such as Nethack is that you play a game and die, lose everything you had with you and start all over again from scratch, time and time again.
But every time you play and die, you'll learn something. The learning curve is the game.
Personally I found it to become a lot more fun once I started using spoilers, as there were so many things I would never have found out. The only slight negative is that I have since become obsessive about trying to identify things by all available methods, that costs time and is a bit boring. But that's my own choice.
And I'm a completely hack and slash player -- I've ascended 15 Valkyries I think (and some Barbarians), but I'm utterly useless as a weaker class that needs to be played with caution. I did manage a few wizards that got lucky early on, they become all-powerful later.
Are there any good versions of NetHack (or similar) for Android? I've never played and it sounds like I'm missing out, but the only time I really feel like I could put in some hours would be on the bus or train or something.
The old school roguelikes that were built when they could count on a keyboard all have heavy keyboard dependencies. Nethack and Angband both have command sets that extend beyond the case-sensitive letters. (Protip: When forgetting what letter a given command is, do not just start hitting keys looking for it!) Of course you tend to use a subset in play, but even that subset can be quite large.
If you want to play a roguelike on a portable, you'll need to play something built for portable. I have no specific recommendations... unfortunately, I can't help but compare things to Angband (my drug of choice) and everything ends up too simple by comparison. That's just my problem, though. Android certainly has a lot of roguelike things on it, the Web is full of reviews and recommendations: https://www.google.com/search?q=best+android+roguelike
Lineage the Bloodpledge, a hugely successful korean MMO was heavily based on NetHack [1]. It is still one of the most widely played games in the world (mainly in South Korea).
The article below does an excellent overview of its history and inspiration from NetHack.
[+] [-] pmoriarty|10 years ago|reply
You can play or watch games in progress by:
Use the password "joshua".It's also available as a standalone program you can run on your own machine.
DCSS has some made some great innovations, such as fantastic use of color and auto-explore, tons of really unique gods and races, it's scriptable(!) in Lua, the list goes on and on...
[1] - http://crawl.develz.org/
[+] [-] grimgrin|10 years ago|reply
Here's a screenshot of me at the moment: http://i.imgur.com/mZXTnh1.png
There are a bunch of available servers:
* Sydney, Australia: http://crawl.project357.org
* Arizona, USA: http://crawl.akrasiac.org
* Georgia, USA: http://crawl.berotato.org
* Georgia, USA: http://crawl.s-z.org
* Paris, France: http://crawl.xtahua.com
* Falkenstein, Germany: http://crawl.lantea.net
* Seoul, Korea: http://webzook.net
* Tokyo, Japan: http://lazy-life.ddo.jp
And of course you can watch others playing on webtiles, too.
[+] [-] bhickey|10 years ago|reply
Brogue is shorter and tighter than DCSS. If I had my way, we'd cut down crawl to 27 levels. In Brogue the maps are smaller, the food clock is more punishing, enemies tend to be more distinct from one another. I've joked that every time we need new content for crawl, we just steal it from Brogue.
Edit: Please use this key when connecting to crawl servers -- http://crawl.akrasiac.org/cao_key
Some server admins have disabled password login.
[+] [-] 0942v8653|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] molloy|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gavanwoolery|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bencollier49|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] samstave|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] samstave|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sohkamyung|10 years ago|reply
"At the time of his passing this year, the DevTeam decided that it would be a fitting tribute to take a number of our favourite quotes from the various Discworld novels and incorporate them into the game. Being the way we are, we did a little more than that. There are now a huge number of quotes from many of the Discworld novels in the tribute file, but this doesn't mean that we wouldn't accept new submissions from other Pratchett fans."
[+] [-] roghummal|10 years ago|reply
"As some may know, Terry Pratchett was a fan of NetHack, dating back to the time that we introduced the Tourist class which was openly based on the Discworld novels he penned."
[+] [-] riffraff|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] itburnswheniit|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andrewstuart|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bcg1|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reidrac|10 years ago|reply
http://store.steampowered.com/app/333300/
I know this post is about NH, but some might find this interesting anyway.
[+] [-] vanderZwan|10 years ago|reply
http://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/
It's a great year for Rogue-likes in general, it seems!
[+] [-] mihaifm|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] roghummal|10 years ago|reply
$ ssh [email protected]
It's also available as a standalone program you can run on your own machine.[1]
You can follow milestones, defeats, and victories at #nethack@freenode. See NAO[2] for more information!
* NAO currently runs NetHack 3.4.3.
[1] - http://www.nethack.org
[2] - https://alt.org/nethack/
[+] [-] bhaak|10 years ago|reply
From what he told me, he worked hard this year to add lots of what is considered "standard" among the modern NetHack forks. He didn't succeed completely but it's an uphill battle if some of your code changes are code reviewed with comments like "but this won't compile on a pre ANSI C compiler".
I hope he and the other new members will be able to jump start again the development of NetHack.
[+] [-] jballanc|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andrewstuart|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eru|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] copperx|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seren|10 years ago|reply
Using "spoiler file" or wiki, will give you a rough overview of the creature's strength and ability, weapon effectiveness, etc. This is helpful but is not enough to win.
To win you must understand deeply (grok) all the different mechanisms of the game (hunger, prayer, sacrifice, alchemy, intrisics, etc) and then have a strategy.
This guide allowed me to ascend : https://alt.org/nethack/mirror/homepage.mac.com/mhjohnson/ma...
This is counter intuitive but the early game is much harder, once you have found the right items, identified important scrolls and potions (about finishing gnome mine & sokoban) the game becomes much easier. And if you are well prepared everything beyond the Valley of Death is kinda boring and "easy". For a first ascension, it is probably wiser to chose an easy class (valkyrie, barbarian, knight, wizard).
Key strategy for the early game are : using your pet to identify cursed items, to not level up too quickly because the generated monster will become too tough, when in a desperate spot engraving "Elbereth" with your fingers might save you a few times[0], praying at the right time, etc
A full game with a successful ascension is about 20-30 hours. However you probably need 50-100 hours of failed attempt to learn the rope first. And it can be frustrating at times because even if you know the game better, it will take some times to make a breakthrough and survive the early levels.
Lastly if you really want to learn fast, play on a public server, and when you are in a very tough spot, you can (at least you could) ask people on #Nethack on Freenode for advice.
In the end, the game is very satisfying, because even if there is a big element of luck, once you know the game well, this is your skill as a player that will determine if you live or die, and this is really rewarding.
[+] [-] cstuder|10 years ago|reply
My experience after discovering the game was one of being overwhelmed. Every single keyboard button has multiple functions, there's so much stuff happening and you're just stumbling around in a world whose rules you don't understand. (Like real life.)
After some time, I've dived into the spoilers file and gave it an extensive read. I realized that it would have taken years of playing figuring all this game mechanics out. And that even when spoiled, the game remains a lot of fun. (Again, like real life.)
What remains are fond memories and the realization that I'll probably never finish it in my lifetime. And I'm ok with that.
So yes, it's complex and complicated, but rewarding.
[+] [-] eropple|10 years ago|reply
There are also spoilers all over the place on the internet, namely on the Nethack wiki, that'll answer any question (literally, any question) about the game that you have.
[+] [-] exDM69|10 years ago|reply
But every time you play and die, you'll learn something. The learning curve is the game.
[+] [-] cstoner|10 years ago|reply
It's probably a bit easier to learn than Dwarf Fortress, but not by much.
It is an absolutely rewarding game once you make it past the first entry point, though.
[+] [-] Scarblac|10 years ago|reply
Personally I found it to become a lot more fun once I started using spoilers, as there were so many things I would never have found out. The only slight negative is that I have since become obsessive about trying to identify things by all available methods, that costs time and is a bit boring. But that's my own choice.
And I'm a completely hack and slash player -- I've ascended 15 Valkyries I think (and some Barbarians), but I'm utterly useless as a weaker class that needs to be played with caution. I did manage a few wizards that got lucky early on, they become all-powerful later.
[+] [-] jl6|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] losvedir|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jerf|10 years ago|reply
If you want to play a roguelike on a portable, you'll need to play something built for portable. I have no specific recommendations... unfortunately, I can't help but compare things to Angband (my drug of choice) and everything ends up too simple by comparison. That's just my problem, though. Android certainly has a lot of roguelike things on it, the Web is full of reviews and recommendations: https://www.google.com/search?q=best+android+roguelike
[+] [-] Spoom|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dzdt|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] revx|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davexunit|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bencollier49|10 years ago|reply
Take a subnotebook on the train!
[+] [-] balakk|10 years ago|reply
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/suraj$20nethack/rec...
What a beautiful game.
[+] [-] hellbanner|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FD3SA|10 years ago|reply
The article below does an excellent overview of its history and inspiration from NetHack.
1. http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/the-game-archaeologist-tr...
[+] [-] paraiuspau|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Turbo_hedgehog|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] roghummal|10 years ago|reply
Merry Christmas everyone! Awesome :)
--rog hum mal
[+] [-] SwellJoe|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyberias|10 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.nethack.org/common/git.html
[+] [-] bhaak|10 years ago|reply
That's probably why it doesn't work correctly at the moment.
[+] [-] Isamu|10 years ago|reply
http://unixpc.taronga.com/games/
[+] [-] josephcooney|10 years ago|reply
But totally worth it.
Ascii art never looked so 'cosmic'
[+] [-] Andaith|10 years ago|reply