Dungeon Master Forum

Version: 1 for DSB V0.44
Platform: DSB
Author: Joramun
Date published: 2010, September 22
Date last updated: 2010, September 22

Story:
A random dungeon generator.
The code is open source.

Notes:
Hi all,

I present : CHAOS HACK for DSB.

This is a custom dungeon for DSB.

The goal is to reach the fluxcage.

Beware, starting a game over is not always a solution...

Instructions:
Instructions, code and discussion is available here www.dungeon-master.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 69#p116869

But in summary:

1. Open in ESB (Editor Strikes Back). TADA ! A random dungeon.
2. You can play a new dungeon everytime you start Chaos Hack.

Download:
Download this dungeon from this Shared OneDrive (in the 'Custom Dungeons' folder)

Congrats on releasing this Joramun!

Oh, an actual DSB dungeon!

(Does this mean I have to actually start supporting DSB again... ? )

(Either that, or you'll be emulated )

Thank you for your dungeon, Joramun! Well done!

I've played it for about 20 minutes and here are some thoughts:

I'm on level 2 where I died on thirst - I found five empty waterskins but no water at all, with no fountain in sight it's desperate.

I'm having permanent problems with low stamina. With no flask to make a stamina potion it's a little bit irritating.

I can't pick torches from the sconces. It doesn't seem to be intentional. It looks like a bug!

DSB - related:

The programme sometimes seems to react too slowly on two (fast) consecutive moves on a keyboard. But perhaps the problem is in my slower computer.

The save screen of DSB looks a bit confusing to me - you click on a slot, name it, and then what? Have to press Enter. But why isn't there a cursor so that everyone knows that you have to press Enter? I always click on the slot and then wonder whether it's done or not.

Joramun wrote:Beware, starting a game over is not always a solution...

What does that actually mean? Is there some hidden sense in that sentence?

Anyway, I don't want too sound critical. I'll restart the game and see what can be done. Thanks again, Joramun! And Sophia!

Spoiler

It's a random dungeon generator, so restarting should solve all your problems. But it will create others.

I'll look into the sconce problem.

Jan

There is water nearby you just have to fight your way through to it. I found the saving of games confusing (very confusing) In the end I was just clicking on my previous save game name and then pressing Enter. I must admit though that it does need looking at but it is DSB related rather than Dungeon Hack. Think Sophia needs to re-look at ways to make it more straight forward.

the master wrote:There is water nearby you just have to fight your way through to it.

As far as I understand it, it's random, so in my particular case the water might be too far to reach.

the master wrote:I must admit though that it does need looking at but it is DSB related rather than Dungeon Hack.

Agreed.

@The Master: How far / deep have you got?

Joramun wrote:It's a random dungeon generator, so restarting should solve all your problems. But it will create others.

Of course I understand (and understood) that one particular randomly created dungeon doesn't say anything about the general engine, I was purely reporting on my one go.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying to play it once again and beat it!

Ok, the problem with the sconce and fountain should be solved for the next version.

Jan

I am way deep. The dungeon is so big and complex that I have lost count of how far down I have come. You will accumulate lots of keys so any chance you have of picking up a chest to keep objects in should be taken. Loads and loads of creatures to fight off. Very enjoyable so far.

I've restarted it, found two fountains on level one, and having great fun with that game!

However, I also have to report that some of the wall switches don't work. I don't know whether it's intentional or not.

As I said before, the game seems a bit sluggish to me at certain points. I hit the monster from the stairs, turn left to go upstairs and the monster hits me "from downstairs" when I'm actually already upstairs. Sometimes, the engine wouldn't even "listen" to my command or wait for some time and then process several commands at once or do things in a weird order. But this all can be caused by my computer being too slow, and it's certainly not so frequent nor serious to become irritating. It's the first time I've used DSB and I can conclude that it's quite alright!

Jan
I have found lots of switches that don't work and it hasn't affected the game play at all. There are also a lot of incorrect wallsets used i.e ones that look as though fireballs or poison gas should shoot from them but nothing happens. Down further there are so many creatures that you just don't know which way to turn first. Most of them take as much as 5 times the fire power to kill them as the single dragon did in the original DM. I am now in a room that has approx 30 monster coming at you including 4 armoured knights, to name just a few. If you think its hard where you are now Jan - you aint seen nothing yet!

the master wrote:In the end I was just clicking on my previous save game name and then pressing Enter.

For what it's worth, that's pretty much the right way to do it.

I've added an extra line of text clarifying that you need to press enter, as well as adding a blinking cursor where the text is going to be typed. Hopefully that should alleviate the problems some people have had. I'll release a new version once I've had a chance to add a few other minor fixes I've wanted to do.

I am fighting against 4 x Animated Armour at the same time. I am in a position where I can hit them by closing a door on their heads. This however seems to be taking forever. Is it essential that I kill them or, as I suspect, they are carrying something (a key) I need. Think on the quiet that the creator of this dungeon must have one big mean streak as these creatures must have hit points of 10,000+.

Maybe Joramon is exponentially increasing their stats as you descend?

Are there any more DSB games out there apart from this one, DM and Chaos Strikes back?

The list of custom dungeons gives a rather bleak answer to your question.

I had no time to play Chaos Hack yesterday and today.

Come on Jan catch up. I want to see if you have the stamina to keep destroying the wealth of creatures that I am encountering. I can see where he got the name from as it is just a case of hacking through hundreds of creatures without any sign of a puzzle in sight.

the master wrote:Are there any more DSB games out there apart from this one, DM and Chaos Strikes back?

I stopped all my RTC development and switched to DSB. But it's slow going. I hope one day to release something, but don't hold your breath!

Gambit37 wrote:don't hold your breath!

I'll hold my fingers crossed!

the master wrote:without any sign of a puzzle in sight.

I think it's because it's random? Anyway, how far does this "randomness" go? How does the game work actually? I'd be rather interested. I looked into ESB but can't make head nor tail of it (mostly because I didn't have the time to tinker with it - ESB looks quite impressive though).

If I understand it right...
Repeatedly loading it in ESB gives a good feel for what Chaos Hack can do, anyway, but it won't help with any specific dungeon because it's randomly generated each time dungeon.lua is executed.
So the thing that ends up in ESB will be totally different from the dungeon that is actually being played in DSB.

So what your saying is that we won't be able to give each other clues because no 2 dungeons will ever be the same or is this just the case with Dungeon Hack.

So what your saying is that we won't be able to give each other clues because no 2 dungeons will ever be the same or is this just the case with Dungeon Hack.

It's only the case for Chaos Hack.

This custom dungeon's purpose was to show the power of DSB coding.

I could polish it until Chaos Hack is a full-fledged "roguelike"/"diablo-like" but I don't have the time or willpower right now.

TRICKS:
- Open dungeon.lua in text editor and modify "level = 16 and size = 16' to have different dungeon size.
- Open in ESB and save elsewhere to have a constant dungeon.
- Modify the saved dungeon "characters" for example giving some items.

Now that the secret is out, can I suggets you edit the title for this thread to Chaos Hack - the first randomly generated custom dungeon' or the like so people will realise how cool this is? They might be otherwise put off by it being a DSB dungeon, instead of seeing your work and also getting pulled in to the world of DSB by it

Isn't it possible to have a 'seed number', so that randomness is based at this value, and you could decide either to enter such a seed number before generating, or let it do the usual way (which is normally picking the current time as seed number)?
Even if you generate such a 'time-based' dungeon then, the initalizing timervalue could be saved and you could give the number to other people.

Impressive! Illustrious! Astonishing! Marvellous! Stunning! Well done, Joramund and Sophia!

Bit wrote:Isn't it possible to have a 'seed number', so that randomness is based at this value, and you could decide either to enter such a seed number before generating, or let it do the usual way (which is normally picking the current time as seed number)?
Even if you generate such a 'time-based' dungeon then, the initalizing timervalue could be saved and you could give the number to other people.

Yes it would be possible. Just ask Sophia for a function dsb_set_randseed(int)

Joramun wrote:

Bit wrote:Isn't it possible to have a 'seed number', so that randomness is based at this value, and you could decide either to enter such a seed number before generating, or let it do the usual way (which is normally picking the current time as seed number)?
Even if you generate such a 'time-based' dungeon then, the initalizing timervalue could be saved and you could give the number to other people.

Yes it would be possible. Just ask Sophia for a function dsb_set_randseed(int)

*grabs helmet*
Sooophiiiia, I got a lil request...
*runs in panic and hides in the shadows*

(... yes, that's pretty much all I have to say)

Yeah Bit, you're a little dramatic. Her status is "Concise and Honest", not "Frightening and Awful"