I recently finished competition 107 which used vanilla 3.3.0, so I thought I'd give some minor feedback about my impressions:
I like the new different types of levels a lot. I thought they were just a little too frequent, but it's hard to make such a judgment without a lot more playing: I definitely saw more "cave" type levels than I would have liked, but I don't know if I was just [un]lucky or not. IIRC I only saw 2 "maze" levels, which seemed quite reasonable. The average level is also a lot more sparse than in older versions: many fewer total rooms on a level. With fewer monsters and less loot on a level, it certainly encourages one to go down a bit quicker. Personally, I would like to see the occasional "old style" level, densely packed with rooms. Or even something even denser, like the Oangband style block-of-directly-interconnected rooms. Not all the time certainly, but as another option in the variety-of-different-levels category.
The "restore stats on level-up" mechanic is nice. It seemed to make stat drain less of a problem, but still a problem, which I think is a good thing. I also like that charge-drain attacks now don't suck up all the charges. It certainly helps the player, and is less likely to be fatal, but draining is still bad enough that one needs to avoid it.
I don't think there are enough items with RES_STUN. But clearly you don't want too many of them either.
Despite my personal bias because of the name, I think the removal of Bronze Dragons and the changes to confusion are a net positive.
The following is a general issue, not a 3.3.0 issue, but there are too many different types of weapons and armor, most of which are redundant. At least half of each should probably just be removed. In particular, I think that the Lucern Hammer should be taken out, since the name confuses people into thinking it is a blunt weapon, when it isn't. I think the right answer is to remove it (rather than rename it).
I like the new different types of levels a lot. I thought they were just a little too frequent, but it's hard to make such a judgment without a lot more playing: I definitely saw more "cave" type levels than I would have liked, but I don't know if I was just [un]lucky or not. IIRC I only saw 2 "maze" levels, which seemed quite reasonable. The average level is also a lot more sparse than in older versions: many fewer total rooms on a level. With fewer monsters and less loot on a level, it certainly encourages one to go down a bit quicker. Personally, I would like to see the occasional "old style" level, densely packed with rooms. Or even something even denser, like the Oangband style block-of-directly-interconnected rooms. Not all the time certainly, but as another option in the variety-of-different-levels category.
The "restore stats on level-up" mechanic is nice. It seemed to make stat drain less of a problem, but still a problem, which I think is a good thing. I also like that charge-drain attacks now don't suck up all the charges. It certainly helps the player, and is less likely to be fatal, but draining is still bad enough that one needs to avoid it.
I don't think there are enough items with RES_STUN. But clearly you don't want too many of them either.
Despite my personal bias because of the name, I think the removal of Bronze Dragons and the changes to confusion are a net positive.
The following is a general issue, not a 3.3.0 issue, but there are too many different types of weapons and armor, most of which are redundant. At least half of each should probably just be removed. In particular, I think that the Lucern Hammer should be taken out, since the name confuses people into thinking it is a blunt weapon, when it isn't. I think the right answer is to remove it (rather than rename it).
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