@rGetting Started
When you first start a game of DoomRL, you're presented with a menu screen
with a few different options. "New game" will, well, start a new game!
"Show highscores" displays the highscore list, not surprisingly. "Show
player" displays your player statistics, which include your player rank,
number of kills, and number of wins. It has several screens which can be
scrolled with the arrow keys. "Help" displays the help screen, which
contains the info you are currently reading.
"Challenge game" is initially locked, and becomes unlocked after you reach
Corporal rank(need to survive 10 levels for it). Challenge games force you to
play the game a certain way (e.g. using only melee), and you can raise your
player rank in DoomRL by completing them. As your rank goes higher, more
challenges will be made available to you.
For now, select "New game" with the arrow keys and press "Enter" to start
your very first game of DoomRL!
Before you start your game, you have to make a few decisions. The first is
the difficulty level. At the beginning, only three difficulty levels are
available: "I'm too young to die", "Hey, Not Too Rough", and "Hurt Me
Plenty". At higher difficulties, more monsters appear and tougher monsters
appear earlier. "Ultra-Violence" and "Nightmare!" difficulties are unlocked
as your player rank rises. At Nightmare! difficulty, only the most insane
DoomRL warriors will stand a chance!
The second decision you have to make is what your name will be in the game.
You can figure that out, right?
The third and final choice to make is select a starting "trait".
Traits are upgrades or "perks" that you earn when you gain levels in DoomRL
(by killing monsters). Traits can raise your max health, let you run faster,
deal more damage per shot, or otherwise make you more awesome. Some traits
can be levelled up individually.
You'll notice a few traits aren't available. Some are "Advanced Traits", and
require you to learn a normal trait first. Advanced Traits are more situational
but quite effective, too. The rest are master traits, which require you to take
a specific set of traits (and block off a few other traits) and give you some
sort of great unique bonus. But hey, don't think about it too hard. Just pick
one you like and move on.
And that's it, you're ready to play the game! After a brief intro, you will
be greeted with something like this:
@d---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Doom Roguelike...
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@bDoomguy@d Armor : @lnone@d
@dHealth@r: 100%@d Exp:@l 1@d/@l0%@l Weapon: @lpistol (2d4) [6/6]
cautious @rPhobos Base Entry
@d---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@bThe Starting Screen
This is a map of the first level of the moonbase on Phobos. The whole level
is exactly the size of the screen. Walk around (using the arrow keys or numpad)
and get used to the interface. Don't get yourself killed!
Take a look at the screen. It is divided into three parts. On top you have
the "message area", made of two lines of text. Watch this space carefully -- it
may notify you of impending danger or tell you that you're out of ammo (poor
sob!).
On the bottom you have the status bar. The top line displays your name, and
below it is the most important stat -- your health. If this one drops
below one percent, you're dead, dude - nothing can save you. Scanning
to the right you can see the experience indicator. The first number is your
character level -- the higher it is, the tougher you are. The second number
is your experience displayed as a percentage. Each character level requires
a certain experience amount needed to achieve it.
Below your health and experience is "tactics". By default your tactic is
"cautious". This tactic gives no benefits or disadvantages.
If you press "Tab" once, it will change to "running" (note that changing
tactics takes some in-game time). With this tactic you have increased movement
speed, dodge chance, and defence bonus, but have less chance to hit. After
some time spent running(or after pressing "Tab" again), you will get
"tired". Tired has no effects, positive or negative (like "cautious"), but
while "tired", you can't run again. You can return to the "cautious" tactic by
levelling up, using a health-restoring powerup, using a med-pack, or by
descending to next level. Since running is limited in this way, try not
to waste it. But at the same time, remember to use it, they don't stockpile
for later levels.
In the column to the right of that, you have two indicators, "Armor" and
"Weapon", that show you what weapon and armor you have equipped. For
weapons, the number in brackets indicates what damage the weapon does, and
the two numbers in square brackets indicate how much ammo you have loaded
in that weapon (eg. [4/6] means you have loaded 4 bullets in a magazine that
can hold 6).
Between the status bar and message bar, there's the map. The "@@" sign with
the cursor below it -- that's you (aren't you ugly?). See any letters nearby?
That's an enemy. Kill'em all. The "#" are walls, "+" is a closed door,
"/" an open door. Dots are normal floor. Red dots are either Phobos's ugly
rock landscape (on the first level), or blood (anywhere else).
Press "i" to see your inventory. It's pretty empty, right? Your character
starts equipped with two things -- your trusty 10mm pistol, and a handful
of ammo. The pistol is not displayed in the inventory because you have it
equipped. You can see it on the status bar, or press "e" in-game to see a
list of equipment.
Your pistol and ammo are not going to last you very long, though. Press
"g" to pick up new weapons (represented by "}") and ammo ("|"). If you
walk around that first level you're likely to run into some small medkits
(red "+") that you can pick up and add to your inventory. Later on you might
find other consumable items, they're all "+"s. Press "u" at any time to use
a consumable. If you ever want to drop something (usually to make room for
new weapons or items), press "d" to open the drop menu.
As you go deeper into the base, you'll find some power-ups ("^") - they're
used as soon as you pick them up.
Oh, I almost forgot! To shoot, just press "f" -- you'll be asked for a target
(if you have a gun and proper ammo, that is...) -- use arrow keys to choose a
target, and press "f" again to fire. Or, you can press "m" to see an ASCII
image and description of what you are aiming at. You can also press TAB (when
targeting) to toggle between the targets. Some weapons allow an alternative
fire mode, such as the chainfiring mode of the chaingun.
Ok, I hear you cry -- "Out of ammo!" Don't panic. Press "r" to reload your
weapon. (Some weapons allow you to do an alternative reload by pressing "R".)
Reloading is automatic if you have the proper ammo in your inventory. But
what if you don't? You can try pounding on the enemy with your fists or a
hand-to-hand weapon -- to do that just walk into him. Pick up a Berserk
pack and/or a chainsaw (or at least a knife) and you can do some
serious damage that way!
Getting hit too frequently when trying to approach an enemy (or when
running from him)? Try not to move in a straight line, move diagonally,
this increases your chance to dodge. If you don't want to approach or
retreat from the enemy, but also don't want to be hit often, try moving
from side to side perpendicularly to the direction of enemy, as this
gives you the same bonus as moving diagonally). Sometimes, in important
cases, switching to the "running" tactic and using both of these tricks
at once will give you a much greater chance to dodge than normal.
In the equipment menu (remember, press "e") you'll see that you have a primary
weapon equipped and a secondary weapon at hand. By pressing "z" you can
switch your primary out for your secondary. This is faster than equipping
a new weapon from your inventory and it saves you valuable space. It's
also quite useful in a firefight, when the situation can change at any
moment!
Hey, you think you're cool because you found some armor? Think again. Look,
there are three numbers by the armor. The first two in square brackets are
[current damage resistance/maximum damage resistance]. The second one is
your armor's health. 100% means it's undamaged, 1% is almost destroyed. The
more damaged an armor is, the lower its actual resistance is. Keep an eye on
those numbers!
Try to check out "@@" screen, some useful information is written there.
First - there are listed your main parameters: movement, firing and
reloading speed, and also your chance to hit with the weapon you currently
have equipped (from point blank range). Also there you can find
your level, amount of played turns, and your score so far.
Second good thing that you can find there are parameters of equipment that
you have: damage, firing and reloading speed, and accuracy for
weapons, and protection value, durability, movement and knockback
modificators for armor and boots (yes, armor and boots can affect your
movement speed and chance to be knocked back by powerful attacks).
Along the way, you're bound to run into levers ("&") and barrels ("0"). To
pull a lever, stand on it and press "u" to use them. The effects are random,
so pull them at your own peril! And if you've ever played Doom, you know
what to expect with barrels: They all explode quite nicely, but with varying
effects depending on the barrel.
There are 4 types of items in this game:
1) @<Common@> - hmm... This items are... "common"? You will see them all
across the game. Most of them can be generated randomly, while some of them
only appears in certain places (as a reward for completing special level,
for example). Each common weapon and armor can hold 2 mods (without traits),
so choose wisely.
2) @VExotic@> - contrary to unique items, exotic weapons may appear more than
once during a game, and appear more often. Besides that they are usually more
powerful versions of standard items, sometimes even a new type of weapon
altogether. An exotic can usually hold a single mod, and appears colored in
magenta.
3) @GUniques@> - These items are completely different from commons.
Some of them just have cool stats, while others have special
abilities, and each of them come with a unique name. There are 2 ways to see
one of them: complete certain special levels, where a unique item is a
reward, or wait for level generator to spawn it on normal level (this happens
fairly rarely). Uniques that are generated on levels are usually green, while
rewarded uniques are usually yellow. Only some uniques can be modded.
4) @CAssemblies@> - These items can be assembled from other items by modding
them with a specific set of mods. Experiment, discovered (assembled) assemblies
will be recorded in your player data.
Mods (Displayed by a ") are little packs that somehow enhance your weaponry
or armor. Most weapons you find can be modded once, so try to cover up their
weaknesses by modding them.
Whenever you see something that you aren't familiar with, press "l" to
trigger the Look command -- moving the cursor with the arrow keys will
show what's under the cursor in the message bar. You can also press "?"
in-game to open up the help menu.
Happy fragging!
