Prospector (roguelike)

[Blackthorne]

I noticed that there seems to be no thread about this (admittingly, rather obscure) game. First things first, here's the website:http://code.google.com/p/rlprospector/It's a roguelike, basically a graphically simple, turn-based RPG which is relying heavily on random generators*. You start as a scout, some guy with a small ship and a rather huge loan to pay off, who explores the stars for profit (and fun). There's quite a few features, namely you can land on planets, explore underground cave systems and cities, fight spaceships in space (and abuse your own as some kind of artillery support when landed on a planet), get to run around with a bunch of redshirts (who'll die in droves) and a core crew (which might survive a tad bit longer), buy (or find) bigger ships, bigger guns, more useful equipment and finally die alone on some godforsaken rock in the middle of nowhere because you ran out of oxygen...errr, retire as a rich man. Or maybe get eaten by some gas-giant dwelling space jellyfish who thinks you ship is dinner while refueling.*= As a classic roguelike, the game doesn't give a flying rat's ass about your status as a designated protagonist. It'll kill you, not because it hates you or you did something wrong, but simply because the dice decided that the next world you happen to land on is inhabited by an advanced race of killer octopi. With laser rifles and a rather xenophobic mindset. It's not cruel, though, just callous. Better luck next time.My only gripes are that no one takes this concept an runs with it - in my opinion, this *IS* the perfect space game, as far as the premise and the options are concerned. Visually, of course, it's a bloody roguelike: simplistic enough to make your eyes bleed and turn based. But imagine someone hooked up this game concept to something similar to the minecraft engine and added a real-time space combat option...Oh well, a man can dream. In the meantime, Prospector is a nice game to kill some time while waiting for the next big thing. Try it, you might like it.-Blackthorne

[sscadmin]

I haven't played much of this but it has been discussed before here: http://www.spacesimcentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=688

[ollobrain]

forums for this gmaehttp://prospector.freeforums.org/index.php

[Grimm]

Thats a funny game. I played it a few times but i always manage to die within 5-15 minutes In this game you really get the feeling the space is very very deadly Anyone who managed to survive longer?

[FStyle]

Grimm wrote:
Anyone who managed to survive longer?
Newp. I really suck at it. It's got some interesting concepts, though. Like I love being able to walk around in the stations, that's a nice touch.It's a fun little time killer, and I think it could be really awesome if it were built with a more advanced engine (I played the tiled version, ASCII graphics just make me sad).

[Grimm]

I managed to survive 282 turn with my pirate cruiser and my crew started to become quite succesful. But as i explored a planet i wanted to blast a passage through a mountain with my ship weapons, unfortunately the target coordinates were the position of my away team... damn...Another crew of mine got eaten by gas giant inhibitants and my last explorer crew died because of greed. They explored a very recource rich dying planet. My science officer shouted we should go back to the ship but i was to greedy. As i headed back to the ship the planet exploded. I love this game

[magellan]

Hello, Prospector Dev here.I just released version 0.2.2. Some bugs were fixed, and some features added. Also worked a bit on documentation, and that shows in the form of a 22 page PDF Manual. So, excuse this shameless plug, and enjoy

[sscadmin]

For those that are interested I made a small blog post (http://spacesimcentral.com/?p=350) covering the basics of Prospector. It's a little tough and even though v0.2.2 is released the download only shows v0.2.1? Maybe I have to compile from the source to get that version.

[sscadmin]

farcodev wrote:
The dev made a good work, it's too bad that i don't have the time to play it yet
They way some of the games go for he they last 5-10mins. I did have a game that lasted about 60mins last night I think I definitely need a better ship and crew for negotating space without dying in those plasma and nebulas.

[SGDominator]

DarkOne wrote:


farcodev wrote:
The dev made a good work, it's too bad that i don't have the time to play it yet
They way some of the games go for he they last 5-10mins. I did have a game that lasted about 60mins last night I think I definitely need a better ship and crew for negotating space without dying in those plasma and nebulas.
The way to play this game so you can play longer is to set in the configuration menu that when you die it will automatically go back to the start menu. Then before you try something really dangerous hit crtl-s to save. It will back you out to the start menu, but will save the game under the name of your ship in the savegames directory. Copy that file somewhere safe in case you die, in that way before you start from the menu, copy the saved backup into the savegame directory, then load that game from the start menu. Everytime you die the savegame file gets automatically deleted, hence the need for a backup.

[s2odan]

This looks great, I think I'll try this right now

[ollobrain]

sd2an lots of ideas for the pioneer game once we get around to content creation

[s2odan]

hehe that would be something

[s2odan]

Thanks to SGDominator's little cheat I have managed to keep a backup of my dude along the way for when the unthinkable happens, which with this game is a lot :)I'm now the proud owner of a destroyer on turn 2010, after clearing it of space crystals that seemed to be napping.My captain has decided its better to send others off to die, and now refuses to leave the ship ;)I've found quite a few interesting places, most of which caused death. Most notable so far would be the human colony filled with weird people unable to speak correctly, if you bother them they will eventually attack you, one of them made the mistake of dropping some rare alien disintegrater weapon, which promptly led me to slaughter his brethren on the off-chance they might have one too They did not...Here's a nice little tip for combat.. Forget guns, blast the gits with your rocket exhaust Its saved me from every monster/pirate so far. I only realised how deadly it was after repeatedly flying into my own plasma exhausts.Update: Well I found something that trumped all the other encounters:[attachment=846:prospector 2011-07-15 05-11-15-68.png]That would be a sandworm from a certain desert planet...

[magellan]

Heya.Just stopping by real quick to let you know that I fixed some bugs.Changelog looks like this:* new rumors about special planets* you now can save the star-creatures with environmental problems* game now actually reads savescumming option* some cave entries were invisible in tiles mode* special planets now get marked in tiles mode too* some balancing* Camo (including the artifact) and firing several weapons at once in space combat works now* Some minor bugs fixed Enjoy!

[sscadmin]

Been a while since I visited Prospector but looks like Magellan has been busy:
Quote:
10. Oct 2011 - New Release 0.2.3aEris-apollo interaction works nowInspecting the corpse of your opponent in the arena no longer affects your payoutFixed leveling & XP bugsAwayteam members grunt when they take damagesome more minor bugs fixed 18. Sep 2011 - New Release 0.2.34 new artifactsAutopilot routefinding is now less recklessAutoexplore for more convenient planet mappingYou know can fully customize your crew: No fixed slots anymore for officers and redshirtsAdditional officers can contribute in certain positions: Pilot - This is a one person job, addtitional pilots don't help Gunner - Addtional gunners help as long as there are weapons for them to arm Science Officer - Addtional SOs help up to the max sensor rating of the ship Doctors - No limit The final rating is determined as follows: Each additonal officer adds his skill divided by his position. If you have 3 SOs its SO1/1+SO2/2+SO3/3 Fractions of a skill point get droppedYou can now fire crew members or train them (Forcing another leveling roll for half standard wage)

[sscadmin]

New version of everyone's favorite rogue-like game...
Quote:
17. Jan 2012 - New version 0.2.4 released- You can now join in NPCs space battles- It's harder to make other ships follow you in spacebattles- New System type: Rogue gas giant- New Item: Hydrogen scoop (Improves gas giant scooping and collects fuel when in gas clouds)- Further stacking the deck: very dangerous planets are now always in gasclouds- Spaceships now have speed differences- Tiles out of sight are now darkend- Savegames and Highscore entries now have dates- New command \Cs shows the current standing with the factions- You can change the spacemap size in config- All away team members now need armor to be on a hostile-environment planet without being damaged.- New item: spacesuit (counts as armor and is dirt cheap (see above))- Fixed a bug that overwrote current science officer with Tree- Fixed a bug that allowed you to recruit more than your ship could carry- Autoexplore now can go around planets

[celticfang]

I keep having a lot of crashing issues on 0.2.4 for me, I hit a key and it dies

[ollobrain]

getting same crashes with latest version any eta on a few fixes

[sscadmin]

celticfang wrote:
I keep having a lot of crashing issues on 0.2.4 for me, I hit a key and it dies
My first go around with the new version crashed after a few directional movements. It's weird that this is happening because the latest version I played v0.2.2 seemed to work just fine for me. And my OS didn't change, still using Win7 64bit. Hope a new version comes out soon to address these crashes because Prospector is a nice rogue-like game.