Like the feeling when you see your characters' level going up? Like the feeling when you find a new shiny weapon with more damage? But you currently don't have the time to play games? Or you just don't want any more time eaters besides the ones you already have?

There comes Epic Idle Quest! The brand new ZPG (Zero Player Game) of 2018.

Inspired by Progress Quest (gameplay) and Angband (graphics).

1. How to play

• The game runs by itself without interaction, as long as the browser tab is active.

1.1 Why?!

I've been playing RPGs on and off since i was 13 years old. When I had to write my master thesis I had to stop playing exhaustivly. But looting items and seeing your character advance is like a drug, you need it! The idea of Epic Idle Quest was born.

You can play it while working, while being afk and of course while playing other stuff 😄.

2. Game Mechanics

The game is pretty simple, but still has some real game mechanics:

2.1 Monster Spawn

• The enemies that spawn depend on how long you are alive. With low [Time alive], only very weak enemies are in the possible spawn list.
• The longer you are alive the stronger the enemies that might spawn.

2.2 Item Drops

• The items that might drop depend on the enemy you've killed.
• Better items are automatically equipped.
• Additionally to the item base value (damage or armor), a prefix and a suffix quality are chosen randomly.
• The prefix and suffix can each range from defective(0.1) to epic(10.0).
• The mean quality is the calculated by summation of prefix and suffix and dividing by 2.
• The item base value is then multiplied with the calculated mean quality.
• An example:

You kill a [Skeleton] and it drops a [ShortSword] which has a base damage of (12). For the prefix you role a (3.0). For the suffix you role a (1.2). So the axe's total damage is (12 * (3.0 + 1.2) / 2) = 25.2.

2.3 Death

When you die, you automatically start again with ([time alive] = [longest time alive] / 2). You keep all items and your level. When your [longest time alive] has reached 6.000 you will start at [time alive] - 3.000

2.4 Page reload

When you reload the website your character is automatically loaded and you keep going where you left before. However -50 ticks are subtracted from your current [time alive] to prevent cheating into higher levels.

3. Is cheating possible?

All game logic is executed on a server and your browser only receives this information. Therefore cheating is not possible.

4. How is my character saved?

When you first visit the website a random ID and password is generated and saved in your browser cache. This ID is linked to the character data on the server. When you clear your browser cache your ID will be reset and your password (and therefore access to your previous character) will be lost.

You can prevent losing access to your character by requesting a recovery key in the "My Character" section at the bottom. Using your recovery key also allows you to play the same character on multiple devices (e.g. at work and at home).

5. How much CPU Load does this Game consume?

On my PC (8 x 3.5 GHz), Chrome consumes about 10% of a single CPU Core. When I got heavy load on my PC (like playin AAA titles or training Neural Networks) I switch to a section like "News" (not "My Character", since there are updates like lootlog) and completely scroll down so I only see text. When the game window is not in the screen, Chrome consumes almost no CPU load.

6. Beta status

The game is still in developement. There's still lots of work to do, like balancing and performance optimization. When I find time to work on this project I might have to restart the server sometimes. This will only cause your current run to end and you'll start a new one. Also changes of damage formula, level, formula, drop formula, etc. might happen. If it happens you can read about it in the "News" section.

7. Credits

Special thanks goes to the following designers for offering the following graphics:

• Wyrmheart (UI design): https://opengameart.org/users/wyrmheart
• David Gervais (monsters and items - graphics for Angband): "(...) graphics may be redistributed, modified, and used only under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence (...)": http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
• Klankbeeld (ambience music): Also Commons Attribution 3.0 licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/