Kerkerkruip 9 released

Playing Project Announcements
21

Dunno if this is accepted as a proper strategy or just a lazy remnant on my part of previously-played roguelikes and my lack of ability to maximize my advantages in a fight, but I’ve developed a quirky habit of leaving one level-one enemy as a backup to serve as a healing potion. :slight_smile: After a fight with Israfel that was spiralling out of control (having previously killed a mindslug), I retreated, killed Miranda, and hey presto, back to full health and with some time to think about what I learned about Israfel.

Then he went and separated and obliterated me, but it was still cool.

22

Peter, that is definitely an accepted strategy! One of the most central of all strategies, if you want to survive the game. :slight_smile:

23

Israfel is really tricky though. If you have a reliable way of dealing massive damage, you can usually beat Israfel, but concentration-breaking strategies are pretty useless against hir. Also, splitting and joining cancel out most otherwise-permanent effects like insanity and enslavement. Not only that, but when Isra and Fell are separated in different rooms, they can still rejoin as Israfel so you’ll have to fight both all over again.

Some things that help:

Use fragmentation grenades and scrolls of death when Isra and Fell are separated. Even if they reform, Israfel will still have twice the damage.
Try not to let Isra stay concentrated, since Fell benefits from his concentration.
Israfel’s healing trance gets stronger every turn that you don’t break it. So if you can’t do a lot of damage two or three times in a row, you might be better off waiting for Israfel to get to full health and split into Isra and Fell.
Israfel doesn’t heal when you’re not there, so you can always try running away until you can deal a final blow.
Before reforming, Isra and Fell become frozen for one turn. During that turn, they can’t react to attacks or hit you as you retreat. Take advantage of that.
Isra’s attacks will blind you, so throwing a flash grenade as a reaction is a better-than-usual defense. In fact, since Israfel has 3 levels of radiance, it’s basically the same as being blind when it comes to attacking and defending against Israfel. So anytime you can make Israfel blind, whether or not it affects you, you’ll get an advantage.

24

Don’t you kill Israfel by learning how to dance so you and your partner can synchronize your attacks?

25

:smiley: At least someone knows my references!

The power of the hound would be handy to have against Israfel, as it is against all groups of rogues.

Anyone have comments about the new menus? They are being well received at audiogames.net, though apparently they’re buggy with one of the screen readers.

26

I just tried the download out on my 13" Macbook Pro. 200x50 is too big for my screen! 160x40 is the biggest I can fit.

27

Did you create Israfel, Dannii? What is the reference?

28

I came up with the original idea of a rogue that would split into two, though the specific powers were Victor’s idea I think. Israfel is an angel in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

29

One cool thing about Kerkerkruip, game historians and students of collaboration, is that many of the discussions that led to new features are public and online. Some of them are here on intfiction.org, while most are at the game’s github repository. The Israfel proposal thread is here, and it looks like most of the ideas for the powers actually came from a post I made, though just about everyone contributed and of course it was Victor who selected, pruned, developed, and designed Israfel/Isra/Fell.

(I can’t wait to try putting together the monster card art for Israfel…)

30

Ah, sorry Erik, they were your ideas. All of your card art is amazing though this one will be a challenge!

31

Oh, no problem! Victor did the real work, just as you said.

If folks are interested in tracing the history of any more of their favorite Kerkerkruip monsters, I think that both the hound and the overmind have similar threads…

32

When we settle on a wiki, we should link to the threads.

Erik, I always look forward to new art. They’re all so cool!

33

Random question: how many things and rooms does Kerkerkruip have at this point?

34

Here’s the release progress report for 9.0.1:

[spoiler][code]Launching: ni “-rules” “/Applications/Inform.app/Contents/Resources/Inform7/Extensions” “-package” “/Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform” “-extension=ulx” “-release”
Inform 7 build 6G60 has started.
++ 0% (Lexical analysis)
++ 5% (Semantic analysis)
I’ve now read your source text, which is 1105 words long.
I’ve also read Standard Rules by Graham Nelson, which is 39455 words long.
I’ve also read Basic Screen Effects by Emily Short, which is 2155 words long.
I’ve also read Numbered Disambiguation Choices by Aaron Reed, which is 813 words long.
I’ve also read Glulx Entry Points by Emily Short, which is 2658 words long.
I’ve also read Dynamic Objects by Jesse McGrew, which is 1212 words long.
I’ve also read Fixed Point Maths by Michael Callaghan, which is 7440 words long.
I’ve also read Questions by Michael Callaghan, which is 6586 words long.
I’ve also read Interpreter Sniffing by Friends of I7, which is 1761 words long.
I’ve also read Flexible Windows by Jon Ingold, which is 8193 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Glimmr Additions by Erik Temple, which is 13004 words long.
I’ve also read Menus by Dannii Willis, which is 1909 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Windows by Erik Temple, which is 2100 words long.
I’ve also read Inform ATTACK by Victor Gijsbers, which is 8518 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Permadeath by Victor Gijsbers, which is 411 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Persistent Data by Victor Gijsbers, which is 1378 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Dungeon Generation by Victor Gijsbers, which is 4817 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Events by Victor Gijsbers, which is 639 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip ATTACK Additions by Victor Gijsbers, which is 3024 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Monster Abilities by Victor Gijsbers, which is 6792 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Systems by Victor Gijsbers, which is 12409 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Systems - Hiding Smoke Ethereal by Victor Gijsbers, which is 2595 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Actions and UI by Victor Gijsbers, which is 7538 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Items by Victor Gijsbers, which is 29324 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Religion by Victor Gijsbers, which is 6002 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Locations by Victor Gijsbers, which is 15161 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Scenery by Victor Gijsbers, which is 1855 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Monsters by Victor Gijsbers, which is 46876 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Events and Specials by Victor Gijsbers, which is 4212 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Dreams by Victor Gijsbers, which is 4281 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Ugly Special Cases by Victor Gijsbers, which is 127 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Start and Finish by Victor Gijsbers, which is 4903 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Tests by Victor Gijsbers, which is 1803 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Final Declarations by Victor Gijsbers, which is 161 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Help and Hints by Victor Gijsbers, which is 5937 words long.
I’ve also read Dynamic Tables by Jesse McGrew, which is 1971 words long.
I’ve also read Glulx Text Effects by Emily Short, which is 1918 words long.
I’ve also read Glimmr Graphic Hyperlinks by Erik Temple, which is 4813 words long.
I’ve also read Glimmr Canvas Animation by Erik Temple, which is 31154 words long.
I’ve also read Glimmr Bitmap Font by Erik Temple, which is 3826 words long.
I’ve also read Kerkerkruip Image Fonts by Erik Temple, which is 451 words long.
I’ve also read Glimmr Animation Fader - Black by Erik Temple, which is 464 words long.
I’ve also read Inform ATTACK Core by Victor Gijsbers, which is 3543 words long.
I’ve also read Plurality by Emily Short, which is 3141 words long.
I’ve also read Glimmr Canvas-Based Drawing by Erik Temple, which is 39857 words long.
I’ve also read Undo Output Control by Erik Temple, which is 3047 words long.
I’ve also read Glimmr Drawing Commands by Erik Temple, which is 22845 words long.
++ 15% (Drawing inferences)
++ 20% (Binding rulebooks)
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++ 29% (Binding rulebooks)
++ 32% (Binding rulebooks)
++ 35% (Binding rulebooks)
++ 38% (Binding rulebooks)
++ 41% (Generating code)
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Stat failed on /Users/mike/Library/Inform/Extensions/Remko van der Pluijm/Kerkerkruip Arena of the Gods.i7x
Stat failed on /Users/mike/Library/Inform/Extensions/Victor Gijsbers/ATTACK.i7x

The 1105-word source text has successfully been translated into an
intermediate description which can be run through Inform 6 to complete
compilation. There were 81 rooms and 524 things.
Inform 7 has finished.
/Applications/Inform.app/Contents/Resources/Compilers/inform-6.32-biplatform
-kE2~S~DwG +include_path=/Applications/Inform.app/Contents/Resources/Library/Natural,.,…/Source /Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform/Build/auto.inf /Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform/Build/output.ulx
Launching: inform-6.32-biplatform “-kE2~S~DwG” “+include_path=/Applications/Inform.app/Contents/Resources/Library/Natural,.,…/Source” “/Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform/Build/auto.inf” “/Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform/Build/output.ulx”
Inform 6.32 for Mac OS X (18th November 2010)
Compiled with 5616 suppressed warnings
/Applications/Inform.app/Contents/Resources/Compilers/cBlorb
/Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform/Release.blurb /Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform/Build/output.gblorb
Launching: cBlorb “/Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform/Release.blurb” “/Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip.inform/Build/output.gblorb”
! cBlorb 1.2 [executing on Friday 18 April 2014 at 15:02.02]
! The blorb spell (safely protect a small object as though in a strong box).
! Auxiliary file: </Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip Materials/Kerkerkruip.ini> =
! Release folder: </Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip Materials/Release>
Copy blorb to: [[/Users/mike/i/kerkerkruip/Projects/Kerkerkruip Materials/Release/Kerkerkruip 9-0-1.gblorb]]
! Completed: wrote blorb file of size 22108444 bytes (452 picture(s), 1 sound(s))

Compiler finished with code 0[/code][/spoiler]

35

Just about the same totals as the current Hadean Lands build! (Although I’m sure the rule structure of the games is really different.)

At some point I will write up some code examples on “making your game not be so damn slow just because you have 500 objects.”

36

I have a suite of automated tests, and one of the tests I ran involved cloning an object a couple hundred times. That REALLY made it slow.

37

35 of those rooms are tunnels however. 20 or so of the things are g-windows. Almost all the rest is stuff you could interact with. And for those keeping count we have 773 property functions, 779 phrases and 4016 numbered rules.

38

I approve.