Helpfile help?

[divinefistoka]

I'm just managing to update and come back after years of absence, and when switching from 03 build 007_4 to the 05 alpha, I note that most of the helpfiles state 'They are significantly out of date and most of the information is wrong'. (Paraphrased, but serves my point.)

Is there any sort of quick run-down of what's not covered in them somewhere? Or any sort of advice I should know before trying to play the modern version? God knows my own knowledge is out of date...

Thanks in advance!

[Variaz]

You can check the 0.5 forum.

To summarize the changes:
- New stats system. (with less multiplicative abilities, and so you can't break the game by doing damage higher than 2 billion....at level 30.)
- The classes are revamped. While not all are back, they are much more useful, and the need to multiclass is less than before.
- Monsters are now rated using a CR from 1 to 10. A CR1 enemy is a common enemy(not necessarely "easy", mind you, just normal), a CR2 is a more powerful enemy that is less common, CR3 is very powerful(and much rarer), and then it continues... highest enemy CR right now is 5. Note that this does not take into account the special status of the monsters(elites, bosses, Nightmares). So, a CR3 enemy will still be CR3 if it's elite or boss, but obviously much more difficult.
- In general, base stats are used to increase damage, while skills are used to increase hit rate and penetrate enemy armor. So skills no longer boost your raw damage, but instead allows you to hit more often, and penetrate the monster's AC.
- AC is no longer a chance to avoid all damage, but rather a reduction of damage. How much damage it prevents depends on the AC versus the skill related to the attack. Agility now provides a chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks. For spells, Magic Defense acts as both AC(skill * 3 if I remember) and dodge chance.

There's more, but that summarize it.

Note that for the time being, I am not actively working on Portralis(you may have noticed the boards are very quiet...). So the next upgrade might not be coming soon. Don't worry, I'll get back to it eventually... just not now.

[divinefistoka]

Well that answers some of the questions I ran across (the CR thing and my AC of 15 with 20 points in agility...) I did notice the huge drop in forum traffic, but just thought the rage died down... Glad to hear you will get back to it, and I guess all that time I spent learning to patiently wait for slow-to-write fanfic authors can now be applied to waiting for you. Enjoy your rest! ;D

Thank you.

[Variaz]

The rage did die down I suppose... To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the lack of feedback I got from the previous release. Only a few members commented on it. However, I am also responsible for being slow and irregular on the updates. If I can't keep up, then I really cannot expect other players to keep up either, so it's really my fault.

I will get back to it eventually, I just don't know when. I think part of the problem may be that I tried to do so much at once that in the end, I ended up not doing anything. 0.5, while a nice upgrade to the system, didn't really bring much in terms of new content. Once you kill Quazar and Balcia for the 100th time, you will get bored and wish there's new stuff.

Perhaps I will have to consider cutting off a couple things, and focus on making a few things better. (the Flow comes to mind... just too hard to balance, not even that fun either. The best thing about it is the Dungeon Shop, and that can just be added to the normal dungeons as a vault or something).

[divinefistoka]

Honestly, the story is what should be worked on the most. You can throw in all the classes, skills, new features, etc. that you want afterwards. People will play the game for what it is, and as new material is released, they will play it again for with the new classes/races/groups to work for/whatever. I dunno how much further 05 goes compared to the version from a few years ago, (thought Quazar was the last back then) but the easiest way to impress me is to give more storyline.

That's just my two cents though, and I'll continue to follow the game no matter what you do, (and throw a fit if you abandon it! Don't think I won't!) and always be happy to have it. Others might not agree, or may want different features instead of a more complete game. You're the only one with a complete picture to make the tough choices there, and I can be patient enough (read: Stubborn) to wait till you get there.

I've never really understood why Portralis hasn't been so much more insanely popular, compared to other roguelikes. God knows you offered so much more, and still do. Even the modern 'ToME' is imitating you now with respawning characters, and a 'respawn dimension'...

[epicman]

I just wanted to say I have derived immense enjoyment from Portralis, and still check the forums occasionally to see if there is an update.

One thing to think about for 0.6 (or even 0.7, if you go that far before hitting 1.0) is working on the interface. Right now, you have powerful and easy-to-use multiclassing, differentiated classes, many ways to victory (i.e. ways to kill monsters), challenge content for advanced players (Nightmares, the Flow, etc), your own fantasy setting, an actual plot, etc, etc ... and older Angband UI.

Now I know it's not the stock UI, and having done a tiny bit of work on the Angband's UI myself, I know it is both not very fun and not at all easy, but even just adopting the UI from the current version of Angband would improve the playing experience, and a modern RL interface like Crawl's or LIBCOTD would be so awesome.

I think a new interface would do more to attract more players than anything else you could do right now. People come back for deep gameplay, story, and character development, but are initially attracted in large part by chrome and shinies.

[Gando]

Well having read the comments here I understand a bit more. Variaz, hopefully my sometimes extremely critical commentary hasn't pushed you away from this project. I have over the last few years tried to help more than harm. Hard to tell sometimes in a project like this what the best policy for commentary is. I did somewhat give up on the game as I realized the updates were going to be more like once a year than once a month.

Life happens and work for free isn't always fulfilling. However, hopefully you understand quite how impactful your contribution to gaming has been. Even if you do nothing else the game has come a long way from New Angband and Pernband. And while I wouldn't say Tales of Mayaj Eyel has become a clone of Portralis (the contributors and DG himself have all been extremely active and creative, and while both have gone in parallel directions they differ immensely) it seems like they did adopt some of the features you innovated here, if only because some of the players insisted.

For all you've done Thanks!

PEL