How difficult is this game?

[yoshirules]

I have a little experience in roguelike games.
Some games I do like. But TOME for example was too hard for me to get in to
So I wondered how this game is compared to other roguelikes. Is it too difficult for a beginner?
My favorite strategy genre is turnbased games

[grommile]

Originally posted by raixel:

Compared to ToME (Angband) and the 'hack derivatives (I love ADoM & 'hacks way more than ToME myself), the interface is a thousand times more intuitive,

A thousand times zero is still zero ;) There is no such thing as an intuitive computer interface; there is only "like another interface I've used before". (And the quest for "intuitiveness" leads to the pointless - or even counterproductive - skeuomorphism of many modern GUIs.)

Caves of Qud's interface is good. Rogue's classic interface (Hack's interface was a slightly enhanced clone of Rogue's, and Nethack's is an evolution of Hack's) is also good. Imposing Rogue's classic interface on Caves of Qud would be a serious user interface regression... and so would imposing Caves of Qud's interface on Rogue or (Net)Hack.

And best of all, its actively updated usually every Friday with bugstomping and new stuff

Yep! This is awesome.

Caves of Qud is definitely a better game overall than Nethack, though I'm not convinced that permadeath is the right default configuration for Caves of Qud.

[tiagocc0]

Originally posted by grommile:

There is no such thing as an intuitive computer interface

As a developer this is one of the most far from the truth I've ever read. As a gamer it should be as well, as a employee using lots of different programs every day too.

[raixel]

Originally posted by tiagocc0:

Originally posted by grommile:

There is no such thing as an intuitive computer interface

As a developer this is one of the most far from the truth I've ever read. As a gamer it should be as well, as a employee using lots of different programs every day too.

Thank you. You saved me the trouble of saying it.

Originally posted by grommile:

Originally posted by raixel:

Compared to ToME (Angband) and the 'hack derivatives (I love ADoM & 'hacks way more than ToME myself), the interface is a thousand times more intuitive,

A thousand times zero is still zero ;) There is no such thing as an intuitive computer interface; there is only "like another interface I've used before". (And the quest for "intuitiveness" leads to the pointless - or even counterproductive - skeuomorphism of many modern GUIs.)

Ok, pendantry aside, assuming one has a minimal knowledge of computers and typing single keys to cause commands to happen, hitting "g" to "get" makes more sense than ";" or "d" for "drink" instead of "q" for "quaff". If we are starting from a level of "no computer knowledge", the conversation is entirely moot and the person should probably go take computing 101.

Over the years I probably have thousands of hours in roguelikes starting with Rogue and Moria back in the day. (Yep, I'm that old). I still play them, mostly ADoM, CoQ, and the latest NetHack branch. And you know what? If I havent played NetHack or ADoM for a while, it takes a second to remember all the commands. I have to go back through the command list to remind myself of the more obscure ones. This is after 30 years of playing. CoQ, that doesnt happen. I can pick it up even if I haven't played for a year and just start playing. Because the interface makes sense and is intuitive.

[Goaliosis™]

it isn't over hard when you get the basics down.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/333640/guides/

[grommile]

Originally posted by raixel:

Ok, pendantry aside, assuming one has a minimal knowledge of computers and typing single keys to cause commands to happen, hitting "g" to "get" makes more sense than ";" or "d" for "drink" instead of "q" for "quaff".

I entirely agree that the mapping for 'get' was goofy (comma, not semicolon, as it happens), even though there's a sane reason behind it.

'q' for 'quaff', on the other hand, is because 'd' is for 'drop' :) and given that Rogue was being played over serial terminal lines, flipping to the inventory screen automatically would have provided a terrible user experience so the CoQ-style "noun first" mode of inventory interaction would not have worked well.

Pickaxe use is my current pet example for "why I would like a bit more Nethack-ism in the way I am able to interact with CoQ", though I'm sure will get improved eventually at some point:

To dig out an adjacent wall with my pickaxe in Nethack, I hit three keys ('a'pply item 'v' (my pick-axe, and I know it's in slot 'v' because I put it there) then a direction key) and wait for the wall to collapse or an Important Event (becoming Weak with hunger, being attacked, seeing a hostile monster approach) causes the game to automatically interrupt my excavation.

As far as I can tell, to dig out an adjacent wall with my pickaxe in CoQ, unless I've already got my pickaxe equipped, I've got to do a minimum of three keystrokes just to get my pickaxe out (open inventory, if I'm lucky it's on the first page so I can select it with one keystroke, then 'e' to autoequip), then manually bump-attack the adjacent wall until it collapses (which takes quite a lot of attacks, especially if it's one of the sturdier walling materials).

[Via]

CoQ's inventory system is basically very smart and done well enough, I guess. The problem is that player is tend to carry massive items and do complicated operations. It's also strength of this game. (In many games it's impossible to replace/mix liquids from containers, and there is no item simulation to do such.)
I have also noticed that replacing liquid is often busy a little, so some change may be desirable...though no idea about this.