Have I mentioned before that I've really been enjoying Dungeons of Dredmor? I have. I've been enjoying it so much, in fact, that I've pretty much not played any other games this week. For those of you who have been tracking my Week of Gaming articles over the past year, you'll realize that this is an unprecedented level of focus for me. I may have played Borderlands on Monday with my regular game squad, and I might have thrown down with a bit of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Starship Defense - but those were just brief distractions.
So in recognition of this "Week of Game" - I will now go on at length about Dungeons of Dredmor.
Games of note this week:
1 - Dungeons of Dredmor
Dungeons of Dredmor
The first character I played specialized in maces, heavy armor, vampiracy, astral magic, math, fungi, and ley walking (absorbing magical energy from the earth.) I didn't really have a plan, or a robust knowledge of how the game worked. Vampiracy was the biggest impact on that first session - I had no health regeneration, and couldn't eat food to regain health. I did regain a small amount of health when I killed an enemy, and I could still use potions - but after just a few skirmishes I was running around using ranged weapons exclusively. (I had no proficiency with ranged weapons, but it was better than dying!)
Dungeons of Dredmor is a turn-based game, but not obviously so. This isn't a strategy game like Civilization where you lay out orders, then hit "next turn" and watch the results. It also isn't a tactical game like King's Bounty where you run your characters around and make several decisions in-between each enemy response. Dungeons of Dredmor is a turn-based game where a "turn" is the smallest possible quanta of action. Do any one thing, and then every other creature does one thing. Take a step on the rectilinear grid, pick up an item, brew a potion, make an attack, cast a spell - everything takes exactly one time-step unit.
Much of the time there are no enemies around, and so you move and take actions as if the game were real-time. This isn't a separate mode like Baldur's Gate's mix of real-time and turn-based interactions - it's just a natural consequence of the fact that nothing happens in-between your actions, which gives the appearance of a continuous flow to your choices.
Weighting all actions equally has some interesting mechanical effects - it means that everything moves at the same speed, for starters, and it means that there is no concept of "many fast attacks" vs. "fewer heavy attacks". (That's not exactly true... wait for my dissection of combat below.) it also means that teleporting, which comes in several varieties in the game, is a great way to effectively get more actions - since you can move several squares in an instant.
But the biggest effect of turn-based gameplay is that you can pause - walk away from the computer, examine your inventory and spells at length, map out movement and predict outcomes - whenever you like. The game literally plays at your pace, but without any mental overhead for you. Awesome.
Skill Trees, Levels, and Character Classes
Making a character in Dungeons of Dredmor is simplicity itself. There are no equipment or vanity options - just pick 7 skills from a list of 34, and press "Done." Each skill comprises a linear path of abilities which you unlock one by one. For example if you select "crossbows" as one of your skills the following abilities are available: "Bolt Thrower" -> "Bullseye" -> "Prince of the Crossbow". You start the game knowing the first ability in each of your seven skills ("Bolt Thrower" in the above example) and at each character level you may unlock one additional ability from one of your skill paths.
This means that each ability is, in some sense, of equal worth. Higher-tier abilities are stronger than low-tier abilities. Picking the other two crossbow skills at levels 2 and 3 mean that your have the best possible fidelity with crossbows - but you have no extra defensive abilities, magic, or anything else. You can eventually max out all or nearly all of your skill trees but surviving is hard - and you always need to be considering what will help you survive right now.
In addition to their unlocked abilities, each skill is considered a Fighter, Mage, or Rogue skill. In your character sheet there is a chart which shows how many abilities of each type you possess - you might have 9 Rogue skills and 1 Fighter skill, for example. The distribution of skill types informs the advancement of your stats at each level. If you have mostly fighter skills, for example, you might gain 1 strength and 5 health every level, and 1 dexterity every 5 levels. If you had mostly Rogue skills, that might mean 1 dexterity, 2 health, 1 mana every level, and 1 strength every 5 levels. This means that picking skills not only grants you immediate abilities - but it also has an impart on the long-term strengths and weaknesses of your character. Even if you want to play a wizard, it might be a good idea to get 2 fighter skills early on, to improve the growth curve of your health.
The Guts of Combat
"Heroes never miss - but sometimes their attacks are dodged." In Dungeons of Dredmor attacks always succeed - but several things can happen during the attack which modify the results. The combat sequence plays out like this:
- Target's dodge value is compared to attacker's "dodge reduction" value.
- Target has a chance to dodge the attack - avoiding it entirely.
- Target's block value is compared to attacker's strength value (I'm not sure what reduces block, but strength is my best guess at this time.)
- Target has a chance to block the attack - reducing damage.
- If the attack has landed successfully, its damage is reduced by target's defense values. (Damage comes in several flavors such as poison, crushing, etc. Physical armor defends against crush, slash, or pierce damage. Magic rings & various abilities provide defense against other types.)
- Target takes damage.
- If target survives the damage, they have a chance to counter-attack, based on their "Counter probability."
- If a counter-attack is launched, it behaves like an extra attack which does not cost an action. Counter-attacks cannot themselves be countered.
The abilities and equipment are laid out such that most characters will focus on one of the defensive options (dodge, block, armor, counter-attack) to the general exclusion of the others. Plate Mail, for example, gives large block and armor values but gives penalties to dodge and counter-attack chances.
There are five combat skills - sword, axe, mace, staff, and unarmed. They are quite similar - get a heavy attack at level 2, get an area attack at level 5 - so there really isn't any reason to take more than one of them. Conversely, you better REALLY know what you're doing if you want to take none of them. Unarmed gives the most interesting bonuses - but unarmed damage is much lower than weapon damage, so it probably evens out eventually. Remember to put a shield in one hand (or both hands if you are unarmed!)
- Swords - lower damage, bonuses to counter-attacks, area attack hits enemies in a line.
- Axes - highest damage, no bonuses.
- Mace - medium damage, knockback on some attacks.
- Staff - medium damage, bonuses to magic power & defense, uses 2 hands (cannot use a shield.)
- Unarmed - lowest damage, variety of damage types, bonus to dodge, block & counter-attack.
Crafting Systems
A huge part of Dungeons of Dredmor is the excellent crafting system - which is big enough to be completely overwhelming at first, but small enough to become relatively sensible over time.
Each type of crafting requires a piece of equipment - anvil, distillery, toolbox, grinder, chemistry set, and so forth. Each interaction simply changes one set of objects into another. The Ingot Press, for example, changes various metal ore chunks into nice labeled blocks of metal. Any character can use the Ingot Press, but if you have the Smithing skill you can sometimes make 2 or more ingots out of each ore chunk, instead of just one. Ingots are then used by the smith or the alchemy skills to produce more complex objects - like magical armor, weapons, or potions. Ingots and other objects may be put through a grinder to produce various metallic powders - which are then used by the alchemist or the chemist to produce even more objects.
Instead of making these transformations a one-way trip, each type of refinement produces useful objects for the other crafting skills - which means taking combinations of crafting abilities in order to maximize their potential. The biggest limitation to crafting is your limited inventory - you will become rapidly overwhelmed if you are collecting ore AND ingots AND mechanical parts AND potions AND gems AND powders AND mushrooms AND the various other fiddly bits necessary for all the best recipes. A master smith can make amazing iron equipment - but can't turn that iron into steel without some chemistry skills.
I suggest new players skip crafting entirely - you can certainly do without it - and only start to explore one crafting tree after they feel comfortable with the game. Warriors should try smithing, Magicians use Alchemy, and crossbow wielders should try Tinkering.
Magic
All characters have mana, but without at least one magic skill you won't have anything to do with it. Mana regenerates relatively slowly, so if you want to use it frequently you need to invest in Ley Lines (faster mana regen), Blood Magic (gain mana for each kill), or Alchemy (tons of mana-regen potions). The effect of your magic is greater if your "Magic Power" stat is greater - so getting a skill tree like Magic Training or Alchemy makes all of your spells stronger. If you are investing in all of these skills, it's generally a good idea to take at least 2 magic skill trees, so you have some variety in your abilities. Focusing 100% in Promethean Magic is awesome - until you hit fire-resistant foes!
Schools of Magic:
- Golemancy (create minions)
- Fleshsmithing (defense, healing, decay, zombification of foes)
- Mathemagic (teleporting, curses, amplification of Magic Power)
- Psionics (a bit of everything - damage, healing, knockback, mind-control)
- Necronomiconomics (damage, curses, massive bonuses to self paired with massive penalties)
- Viking Wizardry (combat bonuses, defense, some damage)
- Astrology (defense, stat bonuses, healing)
- Promethean Magic (fire - just lots of fire)
Dabblers will probably want Viking Wizardry (great for warriors), Golemancy (great for ranged fighters) or Necronomiconomics (bring tough enemies down to size.) If you want to use Mathemagic, Psionics, or Promethean Magic you really want to create a "Wizard build" which focuses on your ability to kill enemies with just magic.
Wizard build: Staves, Magic Training, Ley Walker, Alchemy. Add 3 magic skills, or 2 magic skills and one other skill (crossbows, archeology, burglary, blood mage, master of arms, fungal arts, assassination, wand lore)
Get Playing!
With all this talk of mechanics, I believe I have neglected to mention one critical fact - Dungeons of Dredmor is available through Steam for just $5. That's not the sale price - that's the everyday price. You can absolutely afford this game, and I think that if you have any interest in all you should buy it immediately.
Comments