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Interview with SLASH'EM Developers

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the alpha-means-never-having-to-say-you're-sorry dept.

MilenCent writes "The O'Reilly Network posted an interview with super-deluxe Nethack variant SLASH'EM's Warren Cheung and J. Ali Harlowe last month talking about the impending beta release of v0.0.7E2. (Don't you just love incredibly provisional version numbers? In development for years and not even a 0.1 yet!) There's another recent O'Reilly article on the game too."

16 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Network Play! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How hard would it be to make it have "network play", ala Open Battle.net with Diablo II? It would be a very neat feature, I think.

    1. Re:Network Play! by Tomble · · Score: 5, Insightful
      There have been multiplayer roguelikes, but not many, and they've generally not got that far. Because roguelikes basically aren't suited to multiplayer games.

      They could keep the gameplay the same, if you don't mind the possibility that you'll have to wait maybe a few hours (or strictly, forever) between each single step; otherwise, you have to fundamentally change it (eg, stop it being turn based). Then other gameplay details would start to look odd, and before you know it, you've changed it into Quake.

      --
      Be careful! New moon tonight.
  2. unjustified decimals are annoying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Furthermore I believe that vaporware should use imaginary version numbers like v1.3*i.

  3. Re:Oh Really? by thoughtcrime · · Score: 4, Funny

    Killer Tripe. Here's a picture: %

    --

    ____ _______
    Duty now for the future!
  4. Looks good... by kb3edk · · Score: 3, Informative

    Good to see that people continue to breathe life into Nethack. And I thought the graphical variants for the game had topped out with Falcon 's Eye. Well, time to download the alpha before the site gets /.'ed.

  5. Not even .1 yet by Berylium · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, one good thing about being version 0.0.7e is that nothing much can be expected from it which gives people alot less power to bitch. Example: /.1 "This program is a piece! It doesn't do a damn thing and my mom writes cleaner code! Booya!" /.2 "Sir, I think you've been misinformed. As this is version 0.0.7e you have no right to bitch, it's alpha code. If you want something better code it yourself. -1 troll." ...eh, or somethin' liek that.

  6. Easier install (please) by Charm · · Score: 3, Informative
    You think these guys would have heard of autoconfig or something similar. Their current build system for unix systems is terrible. I though the game looked good on the linux game tome but after downloading it and trying to install it you soon realise that not enough effort has gone into making building it easier.

    Other games can why not Slashem

    --
    -- RTFM:Slackware::Beer:Saturday
    1. Re:Easier install (please) by BJH · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Autoconfig didn't exist when Nethack was originally written. Since Slashem bases their releases on the latest Nethack source, it's not in their interest to screw around with the build system - it ends up being just more stuff they have to maintain outside the Nethack tree that provides no player-visible benefit.

  7. OT -- how to kill Lichs? by digitalhermit · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nope -- haven't read the Slash'em article. I've been too busy trying to kill these damned lichs that are popping up in Nethack. I've been hitting them with a +2 Stormbringer, tried polymorphing them, tried cancelling them, etc.. Nothing works. Anyone have clues on taking them out? No scrolls of genocide unfortunately.

    1. Re:OT -- how to kill Lichs? by Tomble · · Score: 4, Funny
      Nothing works. Anyone have clues on taking them out?
      How about chocolates, or maybe flowers. Worth a try.
      --
      Be careful! New moon tonight.
    2. Re:OT -- how to kill Lichs? by Repton · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a while since I last played nethack, so my sk1llz are probably out of date ...

      But the first advice is to make sure you are standing on the up stairs. Monsters which teleport at will (including the tougher lichs) always 'port to the up stairs when they get in trouble. And if you catch them there, they escape up to the previous level. So you need to make sure you're standing on the stairs...

      Other than that, I think you can just whack them until they die. It might help if you are using Magicbane (which absorbs curses) (preferably at +2). Otherwise, try to get hold of a decent artifact (Frost Brand and Greyswandir used to be the artifacts of choice) and enchant it up to +5, or +7 if you can manage it. If memory serves, Stormbringer isn't all that hot a weapon, and +2 isn't much of an enchantment.

      [generally, you should stock up on useless potions and scrolls in the early levels.. then, use boots of water walking and a moat to turn the potions to water and blank the scrolls. Bless the potions (you can #dip 10 potions of water into one potion of holy water and end up with 10 potions of holy water). Then get a magic marker, bless the magic marker, bless the scrolls, and write lots of scrolls of enchant weapon and of enchant armour. Modulo the disclaimer in the first line :-) ]

      --
      Repton.
      They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
  8. Re:In development for years and not even a 0.1 yet by Gr33nNight · · Score: 5, Funny

    *lifts up the rock*

    Hey down there, some game called Duke Nukem Forever called, they want 5 years back.

  9. Re:No wonder ... by GoofyBoy · · Score: 4, Insightful


    This is a clear case of people programming purely for fun.

    Do deadlines. No end-users requirements. No political/checkpoint milestones. No office politics.

    Let them finely hone their program to the nth degree. It seems like they are more interested in the process rather than the end-product.

    And sometimes, thats a good thing.

    --
    The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
  10. Re:No wonder ... by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As insightful as that was...

    Mr. DogIsMyCoprocessor is apparently unaware that SLASH'EM is already a finished, fully working game. Most open source software is "under development," that doesn't mean that it doesn't work. (Nethack has been under development forever as well; most of us consider that a good thing.)

    Think (or at least learn something about the subject) before performing knee-jerk moderation, people.

    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
  11. If this were a commercial product by rmarll · · Score: 4, Funny

    It would be 'ready to ship'.
    Slap a big 'ol 1 on the front and put it in a box.

    Considering the state of most MMORPG's these days. You could put a script on the CD that pops up a dialog "Content comming soon!". Label it Ultimate Online Origins Space Wars Online 2. No one will ever know the difference.
    Reviewers will gush with praise saying that it sure is promising and in time it may even become a game.

  12. graphical variant by polaar · · Score: 3, Informative

    You might also want to have a look at Noegnud ("an alternate ascii/2D/3D UI for nethack and slash'em using SDL and OpenGL"). It seems to be more actively developed, and more playable than Falcon's Eye.