It seems to me like auto-explore gets a lot of praise here. It also seems (to me) like it's a hackish, effort-intensive workaround for a very simple problem, i.e. too much empty space in the game.
Maintainers of V have traditionally been against adding much new content, and I can see why - coming up with good content is hard. Likewise, adding more monsters and items per level could make things too grindy (or too monty haul) for many players' liking.
But how about taking the simple way out, and shrinking the dungeon levels?
I was just experimenting with smaller levels in V 3.4.1. The default 198x66 dungeon always bores me... So I shrank it down to 88x44 in defines.h. Then I rolled up a High-elf rogue and went down into the dungeon.
On my third try in ~10 minutes at the moment. Here's what I'm seeing:
- More difficult gameplay. There are monsters everywhere! Groups of jackals pose more of a hazard when you don't have many places to hide from them, poisonous monsters are a bigger threat, and Farmer Maggot's dogs tend to turn up more than one at a time.
- Faster gameplay. For the rogue, it alternates between sneaking around and stabbing stuff, and running like hell. Usually running like hell.
(Oops, just died by yellow jelly poisoning. On to the fourth try.)
- Staircases are easier to find. I consider this a good thing.
(Oops, just got killed by Wormtongue.)
- I gain levels faster... Not that it helps much.
(Killed again, bunch of novice mages and a novice paladin.)
You get the idea. Suffice to say this works a lot better IMHO, and I'd heartily recommend that V fans give it a try.
I also wonder how hard it would be to include small dungeon levels as a difficulty option, as in Zangband and ToME2.
Maintainers of V have traditionally been against adding much new content, and I can see why - coming up with good content is hard. Likewise, adding more monsters and items per level could make things too grindy (or too monty haul) for many players' liking.
But how about taking the simple way out, and shrinking the dungeon levels?
I was just experimenting with smaller levels in V 3.4.1. The default 198x66 dungeon always bores me... So I shrank it down to 88x44 in defines.h. Then I rolled up a High-elf rogue and went down into the dungeon.
On my third try in ~10 minutes at the moment. Here's what I'm seeing:
- More difficult gameplay. There are monsters everywhere! Groups of jackals pose more of a hazard when you don't have many places to hide from them, poisonous monsters are a bigger threat, and Farmer Maggot's dogs tend to turn up more than one at a time.
- Faster gameplay. For the rogue, it alternates between sneaking around and stabbing stuff, and running like hell. Usually running like hell.
(Oops, just died by yellow jelly poisoning. On to the fourth try.)
- Staircases are easier to find. I consider this a good thing.
(Oops, just got killed by Wormtongue.)
- I gain levels faster... Not that it helps much.
(Killed again, bunch of novice mages and a novice paladin.)
You get the idea. Suffice to say this works a lot better IMHO, and I'd heartily recommend that V fans give it a try.
I also wonder how hard it would be to include small dungeon levels as a difficulty option, as in Zangband and ToME2.
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