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#111 | ||
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 5
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I've been lurking here on and off for a couple of years, reading many of the debates that have taken place about the future direction of Angband. I've recently started to feel that a lot of the problems covered there ultimately stem from the existence of the town, and in particular that certain things are always easily available there. (For example, curses are difficult to do in an interesting way if you can always buy ?Identify and/or ?Remove curse.) However, I would be very hesitant before removing the town. I wonder if, after taking it out, the game would still be Angband? Maybe it's just an artefact of the Roguelikes I play, but the town level does seem a very characteristic feature of Angband. Since I've been moved to post, let me say one more thing. Quote:
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#112 | |||||
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Location: Canberra, Australia
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Other mechanisms to show danger are certainly a possibility, though. Quote:
Also, with forced descent, recalling means you go down a level ![]() Quote:
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More generally, I think Angband has succeeded so well in the past because it does allow a lot of oddball ways of playing which still provide enjoyment to somebody. There is a tradition of inclusiveness to maintain here.
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#113 | |
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It may be a big change, but it certainly isn't going to be an immediate one. You may remember I posted a list of things I would do in the first post of this thread - all that stuff has to happen first. These things I'm talking about now are a long way off yet, and they're aims and principles rather than concrete plans.
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#114 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Berkshire, UK
Posts: 1,214
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[*]Forced descent will be the default option. As a consequence, in a standard game there will be no more than 99 levels generated before you meet Morgoth. Aaaaaaaarrrgggghhh Noooooooooooooooo!!! (Although I guess an option is just that. The thing is, I like to feel like I'm playing on default and believe that anything else is kind of mild cheating - or lunacy depending on the option) [*]The dungeon may be shortened. Yuk [*]Individual dungeon levels will be more interesting. Great [*]Some fights will be dangerous, and require the player to escape or die. They already do, for me anyway. ![]() [*]Some fights and/or traps will result in the player being effectively crippled, and needing to return to town to recover properly. Ditto. [*]Ironman will be very hard to win. Fine. (Are you still smarting from Psironic's FA Ironman win, perchance? ![]() [*]The town will be primarily a place to recover rather than restock. Excellent. [*]Every object will be useful to some character at some time; very few will be useful to any character all the time. Fantastic! |
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#115 |
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,246
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Hehe, Nick, now you're talking my type of a game.
![]() My main piece of advice: design the mechanics so that the player doesn't have an incentive to do boring things, like clear each level in order even though they are powerful enough to dive. Sil and Mist solve this in different ways. Sil has a time limit of a sort, and you are not supposed to clear levels. In Mist you are supposed to clear levels, but the levels are small. Between levels you get to decide how far you want to dive, and the game rewards you for diving fast (more wiggle room later and/or a big score multiplier if you manage to win). Angband's strength compared to most other roguelikes is that you never need to spend time on boring levels. The downwards-only version needs to keep that strength, somehow. |
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#116 | |||
Swordsman
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 473
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I can think of a few changes that would make the shops more interesting. Firstly reduce the amount of gold about and don't increase the gold dropped at deeper levels meaning that removing curses etc. would be at the expense of purchasing consumables. Also you can spend on consumables OR save up for some nice gear but not do both (at the moment you have 200k+ gold after a while and can just buy anything you want.) So an interesting gameplay decision would be between purchasing gear and consumables. If you play carefully avoiding using up stuff unnecessarily then you get rewarded for it. Also make ?recall much rarer and only found in the dungeons. As they are precious you won't be recalling every time you get your strength reduced by 1. Quote:
A solution I thought of a while ago would be that dangerous monsters drift into shallower levels after a certain length of time. These would be different from just deeper monsters, but specific "hunter" type monsters that are alerted to the player's presence by their time spent in the dungeon. |
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#117 |
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Join Date: Sep 2010
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Shops are fun in Mist. Gold is scarce. Town visits are not guaranteed between levels, and in recent versions there is a small reward (acclimatization to the Mist) if you choose to skip town.
If you want to live, you need to choose wisely how to spend your gold. |
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#118 | |||
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Of course, boring play is a bit subjective, and varies from person to person and day to day. Some days clearing an orc pit is fun, and some days it's a chore. Quote:
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#119 | |
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#120 | |
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