Cavern levels

[jens]

So, just cleared my first cavern level (in angband-r7dda40ccdd from April 9).

It's neat, a nice change from the ordinary, new interesting tactical challenges with mostly broader corridors.

Now the downside... Lighting & running. I can't light the caves/rooms. I can't run because of all the irregularities. This leads to the exploration of such a level being very tedious. So tedious that I will always abandon such a level ASAP, unless there is a compelling reason to stay. If there is a compelling reason to stay I will stay and be bored. I will probably get the same stairs going up, because it seems to be designed to be far to walk to stairs down...

As it stands today I would object to have them in the game. I would however prefer a fix so they can be in the game by rewriting the lighting code so it's possible to light up open spaces that are not rooms, and fix running code to be more flexible (possibly as an option).

/Jens

[Derakon]

They aren't perfect, but they aren't so bad that they should be removed. I do think they show up a bit to early though; very early on they have a terrible risk/reward ratio since the player absolutely can't handle getting swarmed and often has little ability to see what's coming. I think they'd be just fine with two changes: one, make them show up later, and two, add loops so there's more than one way to get from point A to point B. As it stands even if you have a map, moving about is a bit tedious.

[Napsterbater]

I rarely stick around caverns. I grab easy treasure, kill orc hordes, then go straight for the exit. I would never waste a !Enlightenment on them. And they're always granite, never anything to mine. I think caverns should be more open, and the enemies more spread apart. Make it like a real cave. Make them bigger than normal levels.

[fizzix]

Early caverns have a nice feel. Especially for dungeon levels that are occupied by animals and orcs. However they are more difficult than normal dungeons. I would like the cavern style to be the default dungeon style for the early game for flavor reasons, although this is bad for gameplay reasons as others have pointed out.

Possible solutions for early caverns (I may have posted this already)?

Keep monster frequency about the same, but maybe reduce pack size in caverns.
Give players automatic stealth bonuses in caverns (soft floor, sounds don't echo as much?)
Make fixed perma-lit sections.
Add lots of rubble, especially in places that separate two sections of the dungeons.
Add secondary pathways after the cavern is done. Rubble filled corridors that connect sections of the dungeon. Sort of like how a double wide magma streamer would be created.