![]() Here's my handy-dandy script (batch) file for cheating at Dungeon Crawl. I pay it as much mind as I do other religious injunctions. It is like some kind of religious injunction. All around the Internet and even in comments on my own blog, one can find Dungeon Crawlers scolding other players about this. ![]() I find the angry reactions aroused by the idea of so-called "cheating" to be peculiar and amusing. Hardcore crawlers refer to this practice as "save scumming," and prudes disapprove, which is weird, considering it's just a game. If you later get killed, then the batch file can copy this backup directory over to the Save directory, and you can resume from that point. The idea behind the batch file is that whenever you reach a point where you would like to preserve your existing character, you can save, exit the game, and the batch file will backup the Save directory to a new directory that the game will not modify. Due to the additional features offered by this batch file, even if one doesn't cheat, it is a convenient way to run Crawl. There are two ways to cheat death in Crawl: Wiz Mode and the use of a Windows batch file or Linux script to run the game. After I have invested 50,000 turns in a character, I'm not in the mood for the reality of death. The first one is well past “early game”, you get more for taking on optional branches, and they're (in)conveniently placed in guarded vaults and the like.The only annoying element of the rogue-like game "Dungeon Crawl" is that your character can get killed suddenly and that's that. In fact, I'm starting to like the idea of using the runes as savepoints. But you don't lose everything back to the race screen! And note that you can still save a doomed character (mis-allocated skills, chose the wrong god or such). (That is, the Temple is actually too shallow to host the first of them.) In each segment, death still loses the progress since the last savepoint, and that can be substantial. ![]() SAVESCUM! And I'ma wizmode me an +eleventy Holy Scourge of the Archmagi, while I'm at it!” ETA: Yes, it changes the nature of the game, for the better! If there were, say, three single-use savepoints available at various depths, the effect would be to partition the game into four segments. I repeat: occasional savepoints are not equivalent to: “Naah, I don't wanna die. I'm missing the point? You're the ones who are refusing to admit any difference between allowing some mercy within the game, and completely overriding the game from outside. What would be satisfying to you would be save points that are “limited” loosely enough to destroy the “no takebacks” nature of the game, added in on top of the existing characters (it's a different matter when it's effectively treated like a class feature of the new Felid race, and very strictly limited). It would certainly not be satisfying to the people who want saves, like you, and would probably drive people like me up the wall trying to decide when to use them. But it would strain against it, weaken it greatly, and be both unintuitive and aggravating. I'll admit that adding, say, two saves over the life of the character and letting you only load each a second time wouldn't utterly destroy this principle. This is not just a trait of the game, it is a core design principle. There is one and exactly one way to accomplish this, and that is by not letting you take back your mistakes. In a roguelike, the only thing that makes you closer to beating the game is gaining skill in and knowledge about the game. The reason is simple: Too much saving and too much free progress. The top three non-RL RPGs put together probably constitute less time than either one on its own. I have bought, with real money, RPGs that I have sunk far fewer hours into than Crawl or Nethack.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |