new player - what turned me off to this game

[werepacman]

1 last visited persistent level could be enough. All other dungeon - new levels, and those before last are random.

This combines advantages of both variants.

However this decreases game challenge. With level randomness you need to take a risk to defeat all monsters and pick up treasure.

[Zireael]

One or two last visited levels being saved sounds like an excellent idea.

[AnonymousHero]

One or two last visited levels being saved sounds like an excellent idea.

I think I've mentioned in numerous times around here, but here goes again: The Entroband/Chengband/PosChengband variants all have a pretty good implementation of this. I find that it actually increases difficulty (and adds interest) in the early game since it makes escaping much less trivial.

[Tibarius]

re: persistent levels

I see a couple of topics with persistent levels:
You clear a spot around the ladder ... move into the other level.
Now you got a 100% save retreat place AND you can move out, heal up, move in again.

On the other hand - if you flee from too strong foes which are positioned around the ladder, moving out will leave you without the escape option to take the ladder again in the new level (if the player happens to be surrounded there as well).

Hard to judge on the first sight what impacts this change would have.

[mushroom patch]

I think I've mentioned in numerous times around here, but here goes again: The Entroband/Chengband/PosChengband variants all have a pretty good implementation of this. I find that it actually increases difficulty (and adds interest) in the early game since it makes escaping much less trivial.

How does it handle multiple downstairs? Do different stairs take you to the same place or a different one on the same level?

If different, this sounds like it would be straightforwardly superior to the current situation in vanilla with default options, where there's really no reason to ever leave the stairs. Also better with the disconnected stairs option, imo.

[Mars]

How does it handle multiple downstairs? Do different stairs take you to the same place or a different one on the same level?

If different, this sounds like it would be straightforwardly superior to the current situation in vanilla with default options, where there's really no reason to ever leave the stairs. Also better with the disconnected stairs option, imo.

Different stairs lead to different levels. Also, if you fall down a trap door to a lower level, it's possible to find a way back up to the earlier floor (same for teleport level i think). I remember a few times where this came in very handy when accidentially triggering traps while clearing vaults. Just try a few up stairs until you hit the 'right' one. And hope you don't encounter something you can't handle while trying to backtrack

I don't think I'd agree with the disconnected stairs though, I don't see why that would be any more (or less) broken with semi persistent levels.

Also, if I remember correctly, additional monster spawns also occur on levels you've left, so they're not guaranteed to be as safe as when you left 'em.

[werepacman]

I hope those different stairs and ladders don't turn game into labirint.

[Mars]

Well, once you recall or leave a dungeon, everything is reset again, so it's not that cumbersome. And your main focus will still always be to find a way down, so most of the time you won't care about the way back up. Not counting the few cases where you enter the dungeon from floor 1 and dove down a few levels, then having your recall burnt and being low on food :P .