Has anyone seen this before?

[Medieval]

I've been playing Angband for years, but I've never seen a level like this...



Anyone seen anything like this before?

[Derakon]

Yep, that's a labyrinth level. They're new as of...3.3? I think?

[Timo Pietilä]

Yep, that's a labyrinth level. They're new as of...3.3? I think?

They are quite boring though (at least unless you are playing ironman and downstairs is guarded by something you can't handle). Cavern levels are better.

[Nick]

They are quite boring though (at least unless you are playing ironman and downstairs is guarded by something you can't handle). Cavern levels are better.

¿por qué no los dos?

[MattB]

They are quite boring though (at least unless you are playing ironman and downstairs is guarded by something you can't handle). Cavern levels are better.

I love them - they're my favourite!

[Medieval]

Yep, that's a labyrinth level. They're new as of...3.3? I think?

That explains it. I've been playing version 3.4.0 for a while now but I've never seen one of those. Interesting...

[Medieval]

They are quite boring though (at least unless you are playing ironman and downstairs is guarded by something you can't handle). Cavern levels are better.

I don't think I've seen a cavern level either. What are they like?

[Spacebux]

I don't think I've seen a cavern level either. What are they like?

I don't really care for the cavern levels -- difficult to navigate.

They look cool, but they're just hard to run around.

[MattB]

I don't think I've seen a cavern level either. What are they like?

Big, irregular rooms connected by short, or no, passages. The danger of this is that you can't easily get out of line of sight of things. Like Spacebux says, they are fiddly to run around.

[Medieval]

Big, irregular rooms connected by short, or no, passages. The danger of this is that you can't easily get out of line of sight of things. Like Spacebux says, they are fiddly to run around.

I actually just encountered a cavern level. The "rooms" weren't very big, though. Also, there were enough 1-space passages to help me fight a few hordes of orcs without too much trouble.

I'm just surprised that I haven't encountered a labyrinth or cavern level sooner. I guess that's what you get with randomly generated levels.

[Spacebux]

I actually just encountered a cavern level. The "rooms" weren't very big, though. Also, there were enough 1-space passages to help me fight a few hordes of orcs without too much trouble.

I'm just surprised that I haven't encountered a labyrinth or cavern level sooner. I guess that's what you get with randomly generated levels.

The other issue is lighting the room - normally, I'm used to lighting a room; but in a cavern level, without well defined rooms, light spells / scrolls are only effective to a given range.

While I understand the concept, early on, with limited spell range or candle-light power, its quite frustrating to navigate a cavern level. Later on, when potions of enlightenment are readily available, this isn't an issue.

My two biggest gripes/groans about cavern levels are:

Navigability.
Insufficient lighting.

Other than that, I'm ok with caverns. Lines of sight tend to go both ways.

[Timo Pietilä]

¿por qué no los dos?

Cavern with a room? Would make caverns a bit more interesting if they had one lesser vault (at least) in them. Maybe some vault type that is not found outside of cavern levels.

With any digging ability maze isn't really a maze. You see something close by and if you need to walk a lot to get it, you just make a shortcut. If it were permanent walls then it would really be maze. OTOH if there is nothing interesting into level then permanent walls made it just more boring.

I don't think those levels can be made interesting unless you really make them level-wide vaults with vault-like treasure somewhere in them. Center room of somekind.

[Timo Pietilä]

The other issue is lighting the room - normally, I'm used to lighting a room; but in a cavern level, without well defined rooms, light spells / scrolls are only effective to a given range.

Hm, maybe light room spell should increase range with level and eventually become a LoS -effect at high levels? Priests have clairvoyance which lights up entire dungeon, giving light spell a bit more power would not be game breaking change.

Tiny problem with that though would be waking up every monster in sight.

[Nick]

Cavern with a room? Would make caverns a bit more interesting if they had one lesser vault (at least) in them. Maybe some vault type that is not found outside of cavern levels.

With any digging ability maze isn't really a maze. You see something close by and if you need to walk a lot to get it, you just make a shortcut. If it were permanent walls then it would really be maze. OTOH if there is nothing interesting into level then permanent walls made it just more boring.

This is one of the (several) variant level types I have been playing with.

If you look closely you will see that the cavern on one side only has up stairs, and the one on the other side only has down stairs. What you can't see is that on the up side you can't teleport (only phase), and that the central labyrinth which is mapped in the picture actually can't be mapped by magic means.

[Mondkalb]

With any digging ability maze isn't really a maze. You see something close by and if you need to walk a lot to get it, you just make a shortcut. If it were permanent walls then it would really be maze. OTOH if there is nothing

I'm sure that I have seen a labyrinth level with permanent walls;I'm not so sure whether it was in vanilla. Could have been FAangband.