Poll: How much attention do you pay to level feelings?

[Donald Jonker]

I'm curious as to how people adjust their play based on the level feelings they receive. I take this to be more important in the early game when players' detection isn't quite so sophisticated, [edit: before] level feelings become relatively unimportant.

[Narvius]

Some. While I usually take most down stairs, I simply can't resists exploring that superb level...

[MrCba]

Actually, when I started a new game, I fully explored each level. When I am little more experienced, I only explore fully Good Feeling level.

[Atarlost]

I don't pay any attention at all, but I can't vote for either of the first options because I'm not consistant between them.

I'm more likely to dive when I'm bored, which has no relation to level feeling. I explore levels when I'm challenged at the current level even though this is incredibly bad for my chances of survival. I also tend to stairscum so I get a lot of "looks like any other level". Sometimes I stairscum for more stairs, preferably with stair detection or magic map. In 2.7.9 I sometimes used serial stair creation to either dive or rise when I wanted to hunt a level other than my recall depth, which also lead to a lot of "looks like any other level". Sometimes when playing a variant or class that's new to me I'll stairscum the first level for flavored items so I can pick up a little cash and some phase door scrolls.

The problem with level feelings is that they don't place any limits on the danger level, which is the only thing that really matters. Monster spawning is completely unrelated to level feeling. I can't know that the nice boring level didn't have an ood unique generated twenty turns in. By the same token a pack of forest trolls may be boring, or they may be carrying stat potions or the Elendilmir and the phial is usually carried by a snaga on a boring level. That's without getting into pits which can range from superb (black dragons when I have Thorin) to terrible (undead pit under any circumstances) to boring as all get out (jelly pit).

[HallucinationMushroom]

The level feelings change the tone of my game. If I come across a superb level I suddenly start playing more cautiously and if it says boring I slam the keys pretty fast without much care as to which one I'm slamming.

[Pete Mack]

I mostly dive and ignore, but if I get stuck, I'll explore good levels rather than boring ones.

[Donald Jonker]

I oughta answer my own question: I always ignore level feelings, taking the nearest down-stair, but occasionally making detours for lucrative detected monsters/items/vaults. I actually can't remember the last time that a good level feeling was actually connected with a particularly noteworthy find. Edit: then again, that's probably because I stopped paying attention.

[buzzkill]

If I'm stuck (dived down to a level that my CL/equipment can't handle) and can go no deeper without extra-ordinary risk, then I pay a lot of attention to level feelings, because I'm usually looking for helpful magic items. Normally, I'll 1/2 search superb/excellent levels, esp. with a stealthy character, else I'll stay pretty close to the stairs once I find them. As for the rest of the level feelings, they're all the same to me, dive deeper.

[Atarlost]

No, that's not it. Most noteworthy finds fall into one of three categories:
1) items that are in depth and cannot become egos (eg stat potions)
2) items that are dropped by monsters
3) items in vaults

Only the third affects level feelings directly, and they occur at depths when most levels are felt to be "interesting", usually for reasons relating to monsters not items. Autoscum makes this worse by preferentially generating interesting levels.

I know this is the V subforum, but an illustration from ToME might be enlightening. ToME has fates and one There are simply so few floor items relative to monster drops and monster drops can be elevated by several dungeon levels when they come from deeper monsters. Interesting for dungeon level x is what is dropped by the deepest monsters common at that dungeon level. If stuff 4 levels OOD is common and killable and my recollection is accurate that item generation uses the average of monster and dungeon level then items generated to level x+2 are par for that level. Floor items would be a double bogey. Add monsters that DROP_GOOD and noteworthy finds are even more likely to not figure in level feelings.

[Malak Darkhunter]

I explore the whole level if I get a lucky feeling, I know there's something different nearby, if it's not a nest of monsters, there's usually a ego item right around the corner. This usually means a good level for me. Very important for me as I usually play without artifacts.

[RogerN]

items that are in depth and cannot become egos (eg stat potions)

This is an excellent point... some of the best item finds do not affect the level feeling at all. I almost wish that the player received a level feeling which was based solely on the estimated sell value of items on the level, rather than the depth. Maybe that should be a special ability for Rogues?

For example, in the current system ?Acquirement usually won't affect the level feeling since it's depth 20. Its sell value, though, is a whopping 100,000. Stat potions are similarly valuable, as are the nicer egos. On the other hand, an unenchanted Set of Cesti is native to level 50, but is only worth 100 gold.

[Daniel Fishman]

I will pay attention if the level feeling is significantly out of the ordinary - a high feeling at low levels will mean I am more cautious but will try to find the cause, while a lower feeling at high levels will mean I don't spend as long looking round. (I've yet to master the art of diving past where I am reasonably comfortable). But I frequently haven't spent long enough on the previous level to get a feeling on the next one, particularly later on, so it doesn't matter anyway.