Feet or Level ?

[PaulBlay]

When confronted with a message like ...
"This monster is usually found ..."
how do you want it to continue?

[thapper]

meter?

but I guess that's not going to happen

[PaulBlay]

meter?

but I guess that's not going to happen

Ha-ha, yes I suppose I should have included that one.

[Arphod]

Feet, for me, only because I started roguelikes playing Moria, which was in feet only. I voted both, though, since the newest beta has both. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

[Donald Jonker]

I prefer feet, mostly because it makes the dungeon seem only half as deep.

[Joe B]

Both. We should all get it on!

But, seriously, I think both is better.

[bebo]

meter?

but I guess that's not going to happen

I'm with you on this one, but i guess the majority of users come from nations where sensible decimal systems aren't used

[Zikke]

Level. If I wanted to do math, I'd actually be doing work at work and not *banding.

[ekolis]

Kilotons. Everything's better when measured in kT!
* waits to see who if anyone catches on *

[PaulBlay]

I'm with you on this one, but i guess the majority of users come from nations where sensible decimal systems aren't used

The reason I don't like meters much is that it doesn't go well with the 'historical-fantasy feel' of the game.

In fact underwater levels should be measured in fathoms.

[Pete Mack]

@bebo
I strongly suspect they didn't use meters in Middle Earth. It would really not help the mood. Feet works much better, for me. Also, for units on the floor, 10' is more convenient than 3m or 5m, and 10m is just too big.

[Daniel Fishman]

@bebo
I strongly suspect they didn't use meters in Middle Earth. It would really not help the mood. Feet works much better, for me. Also, for units on the floor, 10' is more convenient than 3m or 5m, and 10m is just too big.

This is, IMO, true in general - Imperial units are far more convenient for everyday use, while Metric units are far more convenient for doing calculations with.

[ekolis]

If we can measure dungeons' depths in arbitrary "levels" (is a Balrog or an Ancient Dragon going to fit in a 50 foot high dungeon level? I'm not quite sure...), surely we could measure floor distances in arbitrary "tiles" (that Balrog probably won't fit in a 10x10 square either!)

Though using real units is tempting, seeing as it lends a certain aura of realism and non-gaminess to the game... perhaps we could use fictitious units with not-so-well-defined meanings? E.g. instead of saying a monster is found at 1250 feet deep and can see intruders up to 200 feet away, you could make up a fictitious Tolkien-sounding unit, say, a "swarthe", or other nonsense word, maybe give it a vagueish backstory ("the height at which Ando Durpens, the legendary hobbit warrior-monk, could circle-kick"), and map it to "feet" or "levels" or "tiles" - say, a swarthe might be two feet or something, such that each dungeon level is 25 swarthes and each tile is five swarthes... lends even more flavor to the game IMO - would be better even if Tolkien has some units defined so we don't have to make up our own fake ones!

[Zikke]

To be honest, I always kind of assumed the different levels should be of varying height, so the # of levels is appropriate rather than feet, since feet would force each level to be exactly the same depth.

Ancient dragons needs more space than kobolds.

[Atarlost]

Where did my copy of UT go? There's a section on Numenorean measurements. IIRC it's after "(The) Disaster of (or possibly at) Gladden Fields" One of the measurements is "man high" There was another for a pace. These would, I think, make excellent units of measurment for Angband, but I don't remember what they're called and can't find my copy right now. I'm sure someone else can though.