How many variant developers/maintainers have beaten their own variant?

[Bandobras]

Originally Posted by andrewdoull

(in fact any guardian on the LotR 'starting branch' of the maps) should have always been completely optional.

Agreed. That was inspired by your "more breathing space" request and I think it works OK. You can get almost anywhere on the charted portion of the map for free (for food, actually), though the cheapest routes have some (not immediately) dangerous consequences.

[Pete Mack]

That's exactly right! The spelling correction on the iPod touch sometimes does very stringy things to approximate typing.

[andrewdoull]

Originally Posted by Pete Mack

Maybe it's time to try unangband again. I used to really enjoy it when I could get to the heart if the game without slogging through the lonely mountain. Killing Adunaphel before cl25 was possible only by exploiting her vulnerability to sunlight. It was still risky-I list about 1/3 of my characters to her or the rider at the ford. Now I just die whenever I face her, unless I'm willing to take a long grind getting string enough.

I'd have to check the maps, but I believe the Lonely Mountain can be bypassed several ways. The revisions to monster ecologies also ensure that even in the Lonely Mountain, there'll be much less of an issue with a limited set of monster types on every level.

I'm hoping the final 0.6.3 release will be good enough for me to confidently invite former players back into the fold.

Andrew