I was just killed by a ,
More proof that punctuation is entirely evil.
— Greg Harvey
Nowadays, there are plenty of multiplayer roguelites, roguelike-likes, and MMORPGs with roguelike elements. It’s great to have such diversity in the genre! But for Tangaria, it’s essential to preserve core roguelike concepts. It’s very difficult to carry over the true roguelike spirit from single-player games — where the player is usually fair to themselves and genuinely enjoys the gameplay without resorting to munchkin-style powergaming. In multiplayer roguelikes, competition between players is inevitable, and it’s important to prevent unfair mechanics — because, unfortunately, players will exploit them, no matter what.
So… Tangaria is not just a variant of PW/M/Angband — it actually presents a multiplayer roguelike concept that could be implemented in any roguelikish multiplayer game.
– Permadeath mode only. Classic roguelike experience. Having a non-permadeath mode teaches players to approach the game in the wrong, non-roguelike way — and most “everlasting” players struggle to switch to true permadeath once they’ve been tempted by the ezpz gameplay of pseudo-roguelike immortality.
– One character per account/mode. Having more than one account per person is forbidden to prevent cheating — such as transferring money or items between characters without any real trade or gameplay interaction.
– Disconnected stairs. Up/down staircases are not connected between levels to prevent stair-scumming. Otherwise, players would just camp the same staircase, re-entering it over and over to roll a “nice” level — and rolling (of anything) shouldn’t exist in a proper roguelike. There could be other solutions to this problem, but disconnected stairs are a solid and elegant choice.
– Limited range of telepathy and detection: exploration matters! The game is rebalanced for a smaller overview radius, as it proceeds in semi real-time — encouraging players to explore actively, rather than relying on omniscient scanning.
– Bracket system — restrictions on entering dungeons after reaching a certain level. Each dungeon has a maximum level cap, which prevents players from grinding low-level mobs for items and experience.
– Food matters. In fact, it’s an example of a very important concept in any roguelike: if a gameplay element exists, it should be meaningful and influence the game. If it doesn’t, it should be removed – or better yet, revamped. Removing features that already exist (for 40+ years) in a roguelike is, in 99% of cases, a bad idea. In most *bands, food doesn’t play an important role – you just need to remember to buy some (very cheap) at an NPC store from time to time. In Tangaria, it’s different: food is one of the most important and expensive resources. It’s rare, and it can be depleted in various ways — by monsters, traps, magic, or especially during powerful spellcasting. You have to search for it, and you have to hurry to find something to eat – or you’ll die of hunger (or be weakened). Food motivates players to clear dungeon bosses, as they often have it, and the bracket system forces you to constantly make choices: should you move faster to get extra food, or play it safe? This adds some fast-paced moments to the game. They don’t happen too often to make the game overly spicy, but without them, it would feel dull.
– No high-experience-penalty races. Players shouldn’t gain an advantage just by spending x*n more time grinding with overpowered races. That’s not a roguelike approach. Player skill should matter — not how much time is spent farming. Existing powerful races with high XP penalties should be rebalanced, if any remain.
– No instant kills. The number of monsters and situations that can kill the player in a single turn should be reduced.
– No selling to NPCs. This removes boring item-grind from the game. Instead, you get extra gold directly in the dungeon and can trade with other players.
…and other stuff – check in-game 🙂
Goals
Tangaria’s first goal is to enrich traditional Angband gameplay with MMORPG and other roguelike games spirit. For example, get inspiration from Nethack gameplay with awesome various random gameplay events; but at the same time not to overburden the game with spoiler-based Nethack’s stuff (like hatching eggs, imba polymorph control, altar grind, etc) as players should focus exploration on actual gameplay, not on reading spoilers by checking the code. And of course, Tangaria is not limited only to Nethack’s influence, it’s also inspired by:
- Roguelikish stuff from DCSS, ToME, ADOM and other great rlgs;
- Game world immersion from MUDs (aka text MMORPGs);
- Attention to details from DnD;
- Sandbox ideas from Ultima Online and some other MMORPGs.
Lore
Tangaria is following classic fantasy traditions and has its own unique fantasy world, though it’s heavily based on J.R.R.Tolkien – it’s not JRRT-canonic and does not intend to be so. Also it’s influenced a lot by DnD worlds, but has a totally different approach to many things; eg orcs are not just stupid evil creatures, but actually just another living beings who want to have their own place for a calm life in the world (and no, these are not Warcraft’s orcs with green skin.. although some of them could have a greenish tint).
Storyline of the game could be found there: https://tangaria.com/storyline/