Libre Game Recommendations List

Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby Jastiv » 30 Jan 2019, 06:42

I'm surprise no one mentioned Battle for Wesnoth. They really spent a lot of time "polishing" it.
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby onpon4 » 30 Jan 2019, 14:31

Probably because it's already on there. ;)
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby Danimal » 31 Jan 2019, 20:30

you mean that missed hit simulator? its great overall, but i totally hate its guts; i dont like my veteran troops dying to some lowly orc that can hit me four times straight while i fail all my 3 attacks against it...
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby anaseto » 05 May 2019, 09:05

I read that you had problems compiling Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, so I suppose it's the reason you haven't added it. Thait said, this game really would fit in such a list: as far as I know, it's currently the most actively developped libre game (openhub gives around 400 different contributors a year, so it seems to be on a larger scale than DCSS or even Wesnoth), and it's becoming kind of a reference in the survival game genre in addition to the roguelike genre. I actually am not really fond of survival games, but this one really stands out and is libre.
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby fluffrabbit » 05 May 2019, 09:46

Cataclysm: DDA is a survival game, yes, but... It's not in the Debian games repo and if I'm not mistaken it only has text-mode graphics. Doesn't seem that special to someone who didn't grow up with ASCII roguelikes.
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby anaseto » 05 May 2019, 12:37

There are actually several tilesets for CDDA, included with the base game (and, AFAIK, they are libre too, the default one being derived from a nethack tileset). It's a libre game known outside of the libre software community with one of the more active communities and development (maybe the most actively developped), so I would say it's special, though I admit being special is always something kind of subjective :-)

Edit: it's strange you have not it in Debian repos (a cataclysm-dda-sdl package seem to exist in Debian sid when I search in a search engine, but I cannot check on a Debian machine). It certainly is at least on OpenBSD and Void Linux.
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby fluffrabbit » 05 May 2019, 12:59

I guess I'm just not properly positioned to give this game mindshare. The Reddit banner for the game as well as the image in the LGW article imply that it's text-only, but an SDL version with a tileset sounds great. I also can't seem to find anything about it in the Ubuntu 18.04 apt repos.

To quote someone on Reddit:

Most linux players compile their own game for Cataclysm DDA.

That can annoy some players. It's not a problem for me except that I never gave it much thought because I guess the game isn't promoted properly in my section of the Internet. I'll have to play it now. :D
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby anaseto » 05 May 2019, 13:35

Yeah, I suppose its ASCII origins have left a text-only impression in the free software community and some wiki info like in libregamewiki is outdated. I've only played with tiles a couple of years ago, but the game sure has evolved a lot in last years (I just remarked there's now a quite nice webpage at cataclysmdda.org). There's also some quite good let's plays to watch: the game's so featureful that I found it great to have such an introduction to avoid being overwhelmed; it's also funny to see windows gamers playing a libre game :-)
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby fluffrabbit » 05 May 2019, 13:52

Some people are allergic to the stereotypical FLOSS playing style. Like dude, I just want to punch guys and get loot. That website isn't helping. Monochrome text with nerd speak like "design document" and no screenshot. I dunno man...

Cloning now. Holy balls, how is this repo so many hundreds of megabytes? Are the assets made out of gold?
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby anaseto » 05 May 2019, 14:11

It seems that the `tests` folder is like super big (I don't find another explanation, the tilesets are just 50M).
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby fluffrabbit » 05 May 2019, 14:13

Well, I don't care to try this game anymore. They clearly don't know how to manage a codebase.
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby anaseto » 05 May 2019, 14:30

Heh, I may be inclined to acknowledge that the devs seem to have a very personal way of doing this :-) It may be reasonable to call that bloated, haha, but it's a survival game afterall.
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby fluffrabbit » 05 May 2019, 14:49

My friend, don't get me started on survival games. You have no idea who you're talking to when it comes to that. I'm not saying I know of a good way to run a project, but I know plenty of other ways...
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby onpon4 » 05 May 2019, 16:05

I don't recall rejecting Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. I think it's more likely just something that kind of flew under my radar because I'm not personally a fan of roguelikes in general (e.g. I don't like Nethack). It's just a genre I don't tend to "get", mostly because they just don't feel constrained or "real" enough for my liking (tiles help a little, but not fully). That's why, if you'll notice, my only compliment about NetHack is of its fame and history; I just actually can't stand it personally even though I know lots of people love it, and I just don't have the patience to get familiar with it and other roguelikes to understand what makes it special.

So I just downloaded and briefly played CDDA, and again, I don't get it. But I agree, it should be on the list considering how much widespread exposure it has; clearly it's a flagship libre game and must be special somehow. So can I ask a favor? Just to save me from having to play a game I don't like for hours, can someone verify whether or not I understand the game properly? This is how I'm thinking of describing the game based on what I've read on Wikipedia:

"A traditional roguelike game, but focused on things like survival rather than actual goals, meaning that it is also a sandbox game."

And yes, it is going on the list. I just want to check my description of it since it's a game I personally dislike and don't really understand. So I think I conceptually understand what's special about it, but I just want to check that.

By the way, guys, please do let me know about any other particularly important roguelikes I've missed. Do note though that I don't want to end up listing all roguelikes, so there needs to be some reason for its inclusion beyond "it's fun". NetHack gets special treatment just because of how old and legendary it is (which makes it kind of foundational, like the original Super Mario Bros or Street Fighter II, for instance).
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby onpon4 » 05 May 2019, 16:34

Addendum: I just watched a review of the game and I think I was missing a whole bunch. So let me try this:

"A vast sandbox survival roguelike game with a wide variety of complex scenarios and vast customizability for your character. Start out just trying to survive, and if you can achieve that, persue your own ambitions."

Is that sufficient to explain what this game is about?
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Re: Libre Game Recommendations List

Postby anaseto » 05 May 2019, 16:56

Yeah, your second try sounds right to me.

With respect to more roguelikes that would be worth adding, you're right it's not easy, the list would get flooded with roguelikes. Maybe a good summary would be to add just Brogue (beginner-friendly, quite modern and at the same time the most close to the original Rogue game), and maybe add Angband (I personally don't like it that much, but it is still developped and has had maybe the most influence, with something like dozens of variants). IVAN is one of the first graphical roguelikes, but more Nethack-like, so you could skip it. Hyperrogue is definitely different and has a big community too (though it has non-libre extensions, so not sure you want it in the list).

Most other libre roguelikes with big communities are related to those. There are also quite a lot of other finished roguelikes with smaller communities (heh, I even wrote one of those myself), but I think you surely can skip them in your list: by adding CDDA, Brogue and maybe Angband you would have covered most main popular styles, so then it would be quite natural for a player to go search themselves for other roguelikes similar to one of those.
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