Discuss level feelings; accurate? inaccurate?

[Rowan]

Today's scripture reading:

Oozing, seeping, and gushing- these are all holy in the sight of the gods. Spilling, spraying, spewing- these are anathema. The word of the lords. Thanks be to gods.

Haha, who knows. Originally they probably just wanted to keep fighters special snowflakes with their swordy swordliness.

[AnonymousHero]

Today's scripture reading:

Oozing, seeping, and gushing- these are all holy in the sight of the gods. Spilling, spraying, spewing- these are anathema. The word of the lords. Thanks be to gods.

Nice one. My guess, too, would be "balance", but...I don't agree that classes/races have to be balanced, necessarily...

As to the OP's question: Neither. My answer would be meaningless. Completely and utterly meaningless.

[Nick]

As to the OP's question: Neither. My answer would be meaningless. Completely and utterly meaningless.

This is clearly untrue. They just don't necessarily mean what you think they mean.

[AnonymousHero]

This is clearly untrue. They just don't necessarily mean what you think they mean.

Hah! Point taken, but not accepted.

Do you see what I did there?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Although level feelings are misleading, since they don't reflect anything about monster inventories or drops, I still use them as a little "exploration" rule. Here's what I do:

A) Explore level until @ gets the "treasure feeling". If it is a 4 or less, explore until the first down-stair and take it. (Although, if there is a Unique that I see as a target of opportunity, I'll try to stick around and take it out in hopes of getting a good drop.)
B) Explore more thoroughly if the feeling is 5 or above (especially in the early levels as this could mean a 'thanc dagger, the phial, free-action gloves or boots).
C) As @ get's deeper in the dungeon, I tend to up the "explore more thoroughly" threshold to a 6 and later a 7. How deep do I make the adjustment? Not sure, really. I just go by feel. It depends on the @'s class/race, hp's, gear, etc.
D) If level feeling is 8 or 9, explore until I know why, and if it's something I want try and grab it.
E) Overarching all of this - GTFO if danger becomes overwhelming, no matter what the level feeling is.

[Nomad]

Although level feelings are misleading, since they don't reflect anything about monster inventories or drops, I still use them as a little "exploration" rule.

Yes, your system is very similar to mine. I like the delayed treasure feelings as a way to add a bit of variation to my playstyle - rather than "always immediately go down the first set of stairs you find" (which usually gets me killed because I'm too melee-happy to be good at stealth characters) or "always completely clear every level" (which is too slow and boring for me) the level feelings create a nice balance between the two: "explore for a bit until the 'timer' goes off, then make a decision over whether to keep looking or head for the stairs". It also provides a little bit of motivation to stick around on tougher levels instead of just running away from every halfway dangerous monster that shows up.

There may or may not actually be a useful prize to correspond to a high treasure feeling, but for me the encouragement to mix it up and try different exploration tactics on different levels is kind of a reward in itself. It adds a bit of a variety instead of falling into a rut of approaching every level the same way.