Rayel

Rayel
Beta Project
Developer	Anfeir
Theme	Fantasy
Influences	Daggerfall, ADOM, ArcticMUD
Released	Mar 5, 2010
Updated	Apr 12, 2011
Licensing	Freeware, Closed Source
P. Language	C++
Platforms	Windows
Interface	ASCII - Keyboard, Mouse
Game Length	50+ hours
Official site of Rayel

Rayel is a single-player role playing game similar to a rogue-like. The game world is predefined and almost static: all the areas, dungeons, most of item properties.

The plot: A character comes to in a world that is completely new to him. He knows nothing about it. How he should behave and what to do - it's all up to him.

Versions history:

• 0.1.10: a small improvements release. Savefiles are not compatible.
  • Items are lored permanently. No need to use scrolls or lore spell anymore.
  • Changed dark inventory colors to more readable ones.
  • Now russian and english version come both in one package.
  • Slightly improved path finding algorithms.
  • Many hidden player scores are visible now.
  • The failure of skills sneak, hide, natural motion is noticeable now.
  • The library of Lamton contains now more useful information.
  • Linton is removed from the starting towns. (It was the worst for the beginning).
  • Some minor balance tweaks (items in shops, traps).
  • Monster charmies can stay alive after their master is dead. Aslo they have much less items now.
  • When you take a quest you can ask about your reward and about how hard is the quest.
  • Scrolls of find work and greater scrolls of find work available.
• 0.1.10a: an important bugfix
• 0.1.11:
  • important bugfix with followers of followers
  • slight changes in status screen
  • sky mounts are cheaper now
  • merchants need less coins to hire servants now
  • increased number of non-hostile plains dwellers (only for new characters)
  • more possibility of 'out-of-depth' items
  • more artifacts available, also it is easier to find them now (only for new characters)

Some of already implemented game features:

• The game is playable and winnable starting from version 0.1. There are winners already.
• The big and fully active world. Although, not random.
• Variety of the world: dungeons, plains, forests, steppes, swamps, deserts, seas, isles, rivers (with underwater part), mountains, castles, temples, towers, towns (plains, forest, underground, mountain), ruins, ancient misty constructions and areas, many of them are quite not easy to find. Different areas and different parts of one area can be settled very differently.
• World: no strict bound between locations. There are some areas which extend over the significant map part.
• World: no strict levels/floors division: in any place of the map you can encounter an ascending, descending or stairs. Many corridors lead very far away.
• World: Hidden and locked passages. Hint: there's no sense in tapping and touching every wall in every area.
• Pseudo real-time actions: every action and movements takes some time, has the beginning and the end, and everything can happen during this period.
• The large variety of monsters, items and other objects. The significant part of experienced monsters (capital 'letters') can be met only outside the well-known region of map.
• Different types of non-item objects: signposts, traps, fountains, plants, levers, caches.
• 12 unique classes, every of them has its own set of skills and spells, besides the common skills and spells. The significant part of them are accessible only after gaining a particular level.
• There are some spells, effects of which can vary depending on caster's power (mostly his intelligence).
• Monsters have almost the same set of attributes that the main character, they can use weapons and other items.
• There are some new made-up monster types (although it can be even disadvantage for someone).
• One the same monster type can be of different professions.
• Monsters, especially experienced, can have large variety of skills and spells, depending on their races and classes, which they use.
• Skills: real raising, without manual raising.
• Large variety of temporary monster effects. Miscellaneous buffs, weaknesses, diseases, venoms, curses etc...
• Communication, although primitive now. Random quests with different difficulty degrees, in addition to the plot with several branches.
• AI: not bad base, though half-inactive. Complex behavior of monsters is planned for the future, after version 0.1 gains more stability. In general, most of monsters don't care who are standing before them - the player character or any other enemy or friend.
• Missiles (and some spell effects) are flying in the real-time. Some classes have ability to gain amazing speed and overrun them.
• Not bad (imho) interface. Flexible settings of quick movements, autorunning along the long plains roads.
• Program performance: it was formerly planned to work almost with 16 Mb RAM. It is not quite important now, but it allows to ignore high performance peaks and it allows to use the reserve performance in the future: e.g., make a global invasion of giant humanlike robots.
• Internationalization support: full Russian and English versions.