A claustrophobic hack-and-slash through a nightmare dungeon.
The town of Anoiktos has enjoyed a tranquil and bucolic existence since its founding. Nomadic herders from the east making their way through the Arcadian pass stumbled upon an emerald expanse of verdant fields 200 years ago. Stunned by the beauty of the valley, the herders decided to settle down and over the years Anoiktos has evolved from a settlement to a hamlet to a vibrant trading town.
The men from the east were not the first to dwell in that valley in the shadow of the Mavros mountains. It was common knowledge throughout the region that a bustling city resided there long ago. Its citizens enjoyed a secluded life and rarely traded with even their closest neighbors. The city was destroyed in a mysterious cataclysm centuries ago, but due to its isolation it was years before outsiders were even aware of the city's obliteration. Now a few scattered obsidian monoliths dotting the valley are the only visible remains of this forgotten civilization.
As Anoiktos' prosperity grew, it was decided that the old mine near the outskirts of the village, left over from the previous inhabitants, would be restored. For three years the mine yielded bronze, silver, and valuable gems that greatly enriched the town. Three years to the day after that the mine was restored, a freak accident killed most of the miners. The traumatized survivors fled to the surface and quickly sealed the mine, refusing to provide further details to the rest of the townsfolk. That is when the troubles began.
The people of Anoiktos have not had a restful night's rest since that day. Noises coming from deep within the mine make sleep almost impossible, and when it does comes it brings dreams filled with an incessant, dark whispering. Multiple townspeople report sleepwalking, only to wake up in front of the mine with bloody fingers futilely gripping the iron padlock. The mayor of the town has issued a decree throughout the region, offering a handsome reward to anyone willing to enter the mine and destroy whatever lurks below. Eager for riches and fame, you have heeded the call...
Nyctos is a roguelike. For anyone with any experience with Crawl, Adom, Angband, or any of the other countless roguelikes nothing more needs to be said. On the off chance that you're new to this genre, keep reading.
In 1980, Rogue was released. Rogue is a turn-based, ASCII graphics, computer RPG that popularized various mechanics that can be found in most roguelikes to this day. Besides the simplistic graphics and turn-based play, the other hallmarks of a roguelike are difficulty and permadeath. You will die a lot and when this happens your saved game will be erased. This makes beating the game no simple feat, and the average roguelike has a learning curve that takes weeks or even months to learn. To learn more about the characteristics of this genre consult the Berlin Interpretation from the 2008 International Roguelike Development Conference (no, we did not make that up): http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Berlin_Interpretation
There are two types of roguelikes: Hacks, which are derived primarily from Nethack, and 'Bands, which are derived from Angband, itself a derivative of Moria, a 1983 clone of Rogue. Nyctos resides squarely in the Hack branch. It's major roguelike influences are ADOM, Crawl, Incursion, and Diablo I, and it embraces a philosophy of no scumming and grinding (i.e. the monotonous repetition of a act for a predictable gain). As a result, you will not find unlimited items, monster spawns, or HP regeneration in this game. These things and more are essentially resources to be carefully managed. Your death will hopefully not be the result of a single unfair encounter, but rather the culmination of a series of tactical blunders.
This game is not for everyone. It is intended to be difficult and requires a familiarity with its mechanics and ample forethought. If there's any glaring aspect of the game that you think requires fixing or balancing, please feel free to contact us.
Be sure caps lock is off when you play!
- Nyctos is still in the early stages of development. Report any bugs at http://nyctos.googlecode.com.
- here is currently nothing much to do in the town where you start. Head east down the road and follow the second dirt trail north to the mines.
- Light your torch with L!
- There's nothing to do in the town yet, just follow the road east to the second dirt trail leading north. The dungeon is through the hatch in the rock outcropping.
- Unlit braziers can be lit with your torch using L. They can also be picked up, but are quite heavy.
- A maul might be fun, but smaller things like bats are best dealt with using a fast weapon.
- Torches and lanterns have a finite lifespan.
- If you ever can't see yourself, you suffer penalties. If something attacks you that you can't see, it has large attack bonuses.
- Descending the stairs, which are more like mine shafts, is treacherous and takes a lot of time. Doing this with a monster adjacent is almost certain death.
- Werewolves are probably the most dangerous foes you will first encounter. It is wise to reserve some potions of speed and strength to deal with them until you gain a few levels.
You will use three kinds of interface in Nyctos:
Your character possesses four intrinsic attributes that can be increased upon character creation or gaining an experience level:
In addition, there is a fifth intrinsic attribute, speed ("SPD" on the status bar), that cannot be increased when gaining a level -- it can only be affected by items and magical effects. Every action in the game, whether taken by your character or something else, takes time to complete, which is simulated down to the millisecond. Every action has some inherent energy cost associated with it, and your character's speed determines how long it takes to expend that energy, as follows (in milliseconds):
timeOfAction = energyOfAction / (speed / 10.0)
Thus an action costing 1000 energy will take an average character (with speed 10) 1000 milliseconds, or 1 second, to complete.
Together, the above intrinsic attributes determine a number of derived attributes.
Simply walk into a hostile monster to attack it with your character's wielded melee weapon (or unarmed if nothing is wielded). The result of the attack is determined in the following steps:
- The amount of time the attack takes is calculated. This is determined by the attacker's speed, and the attack energy cost associated with the wielded weapon. A weapon's attack energy cost is listed in its inventory description (e.g., "A:1000"). The attack takes this much time whether it is successful or not.
- Whether the attack hits the target is determined. First an "attack draw" is made by drawing a number between 0 and 1 from a beta distribution whose alpha parameter is equal to the attacker's hit skew (HIT), and whose beta parameter is a constant 10.0. Similarly, the defender makes a "defense draw" from a beta distribution whose alpha parameter is equal to the defender's EV and whose beta parameter is 10.0. If the attack draw is greater than the defense draw, the attack succeeds. Otherwise it misses.
- If the attack hit, the amount of damage dealt to the defender is determined. Every weapon has an inherent maximum damage and damage skew modifier (written "D:X+Y" in the inventory description, where X is max damage and Y is damage skew). The weapon's damage skew modifier affects the character's damage skew derived stat (DMG). First a number (between 0 and 1) is drawn from a beta distribution whose alpha parameter is the attacker's damage skew (DMG) and whose beta parameter is 10.0. This drawn number is then multiplied by the weapon's maximum damage to arrive at the actual amount of damage dealt. Thus a character with DMG 10 will, on average, deal half of his weapon's maximum damage, with higher or lower values of DMG skewing that in either direction.
- Finally, the defender's PV may reduce some of the damage it receives. A number is drawn from a beta distribution with alpha=beta=10, and the result is multiplied by the defender's PV. This value is deducted from the damage received. Thus the average deduction is equal to half the defender's PV.
- Ankheg: This close to the surface one can find numerous creatures that are tolerant to light, many of which frequently venture to the surface for food. In this case an ankheg has found you, and there's a decent chance it won't have to venture to the surface today for a meal. A gigantic arthropod with yellow chitinous armor plates, huge mandibles, and dozens of eyes, it rears up on its many legs and towers over you.
- Apollyon: A lord of the abyss, a searing heat emanates from this cloven-hoofed abomination. Upon its head rests a crown of burnished brass, and it has the face of a man but the teeth of a lion. Wearing a breastplate of iron that reflects no light, it flexes a scorpion-like tail that drips with black venom.
- Bloodshot Eye: The massive orb before you effortlessly floats a few feet off the ground. No one is exactly sure as to the origin of these bizarre creatures, but magical contamination is fairly common deep below the surface. Your light makes the beast recoil in agony, as all forms of illumination sear its delicate, unblinking retina. Throbbing with pain, the eye lurches forward to crush you with its telekinetic power.
- Burrowing Worm: The walls in this area are dotted with small holes about 8 inches in diameter. Peering into one, you realize they aren't holes but rather tunnels. There's something living in these walls. It can't be that big, but if it can eat through solid rock it can certainly eat through you.
- Cave Troll: As you grope your way through the darkness, a swarm of rats suddenly erupts from ahead and streams past you. As the echo of their chittering recedes, you are assailed by the rancid stench of rotting meat. The ground shakes as it lumbers into view and your grip on your weapon begins to tremble.
- Flayed Spectre: Flayed Spectre: Some shades refuse to accept their fate and in their delusion convince themselves that they still live. Their incorporeality, however, leads to a certain amount of cognitive dissonance. Flayed Spectres resolve this by acquiring a new set of skin. The apparition floating before you wears a leathery, cracked hide caked with brown blood. Its eyes flash with desire... you seem to have caught its fancy...
- Giant Bat: Squelch You grimace as your foot sinks into a pile of black guano. More of a nuisance than a deadly threat, these large flying pests have developed a penchant for human blood. They hide in the darkest recesses of the cave system awaiting the cacophony of an approaching adventurer groping his way in the darkness, since their sonar vision makes them ideally suited for a blindfight. A single sword thrust is frequently enough to dispatch this vermin-but good luck hitting it.
- Giant Centipede: Entomologists have long recognized the caves honeycombing the Mavros mountain range as the home of the most impressive arthropods in the region. The scholopendra gigantea is the largest known centipede of the cave systems, measuring up to 12 inches in length. It's diet consists primarily of bats and small reptiles. Most entomologists scoff at the talk of mammoth centipedes the size of a hunting dog with a penchant for human flesh. Entomologists who have discovered otherwise were quickly devoured.
- Gremlin: Suddenly something small and fast darts across your field of vision. Nimble and lithe, it effortlessly hugs the shadows as it avoids the dancing light of your lantern on the wall. Try as you might, you can't get a good look at the creature even though it's getting closer. A flash of dozens of serrated small teeth, and then it is upon you.
- Grendelkin: þonne secg under fenhleoðu seceð þa findeð scolde he Grendles cynne ond swa scolde findeð deaðe swa se ellorgast, Grendles bearne, eorles bloddrinceð, sinsnædum swelgeð.
- Grue: The sun's rays have no hope of penetrating the subterranean depth that you currently explore. Outside the dancing circle of your light, it is pitch black. You gulp. You know what that means.
- Hidden: Something snickers in the darkness. You snap around in the direction the noise came from only to see nothing. Turning around again you briefly see a red, emaciated figure standing in the distance in front of you with curving talons instead of fingers. In a flash it vanishes and reappears a few feet away on the edge of your peripheral vision. The moment your eyes land on it, it vanishes again. Moments later it snickers again, inches from your ear.
- Niddhogr: The bones that litter the cavern floor bear deep cuts as if something spent a great deal of time gnawing on them. Your knowledge of troglozoology tells you that a Niddhogr must not be too far from here. Commonly mistaken for a minor dragon, this cave drake makes the bowels of the earth its home and loves nothing more than any warm meat it can find or kill, joyfully gnawing the bones long after all of the flesh has been picked clean.
- Nosferatu: Before you stands a pale, gaunt human figure with eyes that flash for a moment with an unearthly hunger. Your gaze is drawn to its elongated and slender fingers, which end in razor sharp nails. As your knees begin to buckle the creature's parched lips curl into a smile revealing ivory fangs, and at that moment you realize God is far, far away from this place that is about to be your tomb...
- Shadow Imp: A tiny demon composed entirely of negative energy, a shadow imp was once a thrall to a practitioner of the dark arts who failed in an attempt to escape the chains of its eternal servitude. Its punishment is perversely ironic: it was released from bondage, but denied return to its original demonic plane of existence. It now wanders the forgotten crevices of the world, stripped of any hope of homecoming as well as the existential fulfillment of service. The tiny red eyes that narrow as you approach burn with a hatred that has festered in the darkness for eons.
- Smoke Golem: The insane creation of Alhazerian sorcerers who have smoked too much Artemesia weed, these towering constructs are primarily used to guard arcane sanctuaries and treasure stashes. Regardless of the obstacles an adventurer places between himself and the golem, a single crack is enough for the smoke golem to seep through. Though composed entirely of an acrid smoke, they can compress a tremendous amount of smoke into an impossibly small volume, delivering crippling blows.
- Reaper: Making no noise as it moves, you see a robed figure standing over a fresh corpse. As it turns its gaze upon you, your light reveals a charred skull under a black hood. Its skeletal visage suggests unlife, but the Reaper is in fact of minor lord of Hell. Tasked with collecting souls to toil at the forges serving the burning legions, it is said all mortals cut down by the Reaper's scythe are hellbound, regardless of their previous deeds in life.
- Shadow: "Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." For every hero that emerges victorious from a dungeon, clutching the severed head of an unspeakable evil, there are hundreds who die alone deep below the earth. No would-be hero succumbs to fate; be it cowardice, hubris, or a lack of forethought, the seeds of his destruction reside deep within the shadow of his own subconscious. Adventurers who fail to conquer these flaws through self-realization are doomed to haunt the underworld forever, embodying the very weakness that felled them.
- Soul-Flayer Mist: A dank fog envelops you and quickly fills your nostrils with the stench of the grave. Your skin becomes to tingle as the fog grows thicker and your lungs begin to burn. You raise your light in a vain attempt to penetrate the mist, and see that your skin is covered in dozens of small lacerations that are growing larger.
- Succubus: Your heart nearly stops as you gaze at the daughter of Lilith that saunters towards you. Voluptuous, winged, supple, cloven-hoofed, her fingers gently caress a thorned scourge. You grow weak in the knees. Your concerns melt away and you are overcome with a burning desire to have the flesh flayed from your bones as you shriek in esctatic agony.
- Sword Wraith: As you feel your way through the darkness, ice-blue eyes lock onto you. The ghost of a powerful fallen warrior, Sword Wraiths have come to embrace their fate. They see their unlife as a continuation of their past great deeds, and envision themselves as on a quest of the utmost importance. Throughout the centuries they weave an increasingly elaborate narrative around their frequently cruel actions that makes sense only to themselves. You are a cruel despot, a blasphemous necromancer, a murderous traitor... to the Sword Wraith you are all of these things and more in its effort to give meaning to the absurd.
- Ungoliantaki: A rhythmic staccato noise ahead makes you pause. As soon as you stop moving, the noise stops too. Walking slower and more softly now, you brush aside the cobwebs that line the walls and raise your light a little higher. Suddenly you trip over a large object on the floor and nearly lose your balance. Peering down you see a man-shaped lump wrapped in spider silk. You begin moving while frantically scanning the walls and ceiling. The staccato noise quickens and gets closer.
- Werewolf: Peering ahead down the tunnel you discern two glowing red orbs burning with animal rage. The moment your light falls on it, it's growl rises into a howl that nearly ruptures your eardrums. Falling to all fours it rushes forward, blood and saliva dripping from it maw. In the instant before it closes the gap you see something else behind the fury in its eyes... It's pleading with you to kill it?
Designed and coded by "Mary Haas". Additional design and prose by "James Madison". Playtesting by Dr. Bovine and Thor.
Inspired by:
Music stolen from:
- Castlevania
- Dragon Spirit
- AbadoX