New pit types

[CJNyfalt]

Suggestions:
- Anthill as a beginner pit.
- Eye pit. A room full of eyes, creepy.
- Birds nest. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

[Nomad]

Originally Posted by CJNyfalt

Suggestions:
- Anthill as a beginner pit.
- Eye pit. A room full of eyes, creepy.
- Birds nest. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

I did try an ants' nest. Trouble is, some of them have the 'trample weaker monsters' ability, so by the time I actually got to the nest, there weren't very many ants left inside it. I also tested both bat and bird pits; they worked well enough, but I thought they were a bit boring to clear.

Eyes could be an interesting experiment though. Eh, why not: version three, now with completely untested eye pits! I have no idea how those will turn out, so I've stuck 'em at level 30 for the moment. Undead beholders and hive mothers are excluded, but you might get ordinary beholders in there.

[Nomad]

Okay, I scummed for an eye pit, and they seem like they could be quite fun. All the eyes that can actually move end up stuck in the middle behind a wall of non-moving ones, but they can still cast spells from there. The gauths do have a tendency to wipe out the weaker eyes with cold balls, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing, because it means they can free themselves and the beholders to come after you. I think eye pits have potential.

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by Nomad

Okay, I scummed for an eye pit, and they seem like they could be quite fun. All the eyes that can actually move end up stuck in the middle behind a wall of non-moving ones, but they can still cast spells from there. The gauths do have a tendency to wipe out the weaker eyes with cold balls, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing, because it means they can free themselves and the beholders to come after you. I think eye pits have potential.

I think these new pits sound fantastic, and I'm seriously considering delaying 3.3 to include them ... ;-) .... but you were right in your other post - they will need significant playtesting. Ho hum. I promise they'll be in the first nightly after release.

[fizzix]

Originally Posted by Nomad

I did try an ants' nest. Trouble is, some of them have the 'trample weaker monsters' ability, so by the time I actually got to the nest, there weren't very many ants left inside it. I also tested both bat and bird pits; they worked well enough, but I thought they were a bit boring to clear.

That's pretty much what happens with horned reapers in Demon Pits.

You're right that lots of ants have KILL_BODY though, so it would be worse.

[JohnCW9]

Originally Posted by Nomad

So, I've had a go at designing some new types of pits and nests to add a bit of variety to the first half of the dungeon. The attached zip file has the amended pits.txt and limits.txt files if anyone wants to give them a try.

Playtesting and feedback would be much appreciated: too shallow, too deep, too much or too little reward for the risk level? I've been stair-scumming a lot in my test games to find the things, so the figures I've chosen for the average depths are a bit of a shot in the dark.

There are four new types of pit added:

* DL 15 - Kobolds
* DL 20 - Spellcasters (apprentices and kobold/orc/dark elf mages)
* DL 25 - Naga
* DL 30 - Dark elves

And four types of nests:

* DL 30 - Creepy crawlies (centipedes, killer beetles, spiders excluding phase/drider/aranea)
* DL 40 - Minor demons (excluding bodaks and death quasits)
* DL 50 - Serpents (snakes, naga, low-end hydra)
* DL 55 - Lesser undead (skeletons, zombies, low-end wraiths)

I think I corrected for the more bizarre results I got in testing, but if any monsters show up that seem like they shouldn't have been included, let me know.

I have seen what are called clone pits which say be of priest of all kinds or maybe a single chairter or Money pits

[Antoine]

Originally Posted by fizzix

That's pretty much what happens with horned reapers in Demon Pits.

hey, how about we take horned reapers out of demon pits?

A.

[CunningGabe]

Originally Posted by Antoine

hey, how about we take horned reapers out of demon pits?

A.

If people think that's a good idea, it can be accomplished by adding "s:HASTE" to the major demon pit. This forbids any major demon that can cast HASTE, and the Horned Reaper is the only one.

As far as Quylthulgs and animal pits: would anyone care if Quylthulgs just weren't animals anymore?

[fizzix]

Originally Posted by CunningGabe

If people think that's a good idea, it can be accomplished by adding "s:HASTE" to the major demon pit. This forbids any major demon that can cast HASTE, and the Horned Reaper is the only one.

As far as Quylthulgs and animal pits: would anyone care if Quylthulgs just weren't animals anymore?

It makes more sense to use s:KILL_BODY since that's the problem with Horned Reapers.

I've lobbied for removing ANIMAL flags from Qs for awhile. I think there might be enough support for it now.

[CunningGabe]

Originally Posted by fizzix

It makes more sense to use s:KILL_BODY since that's the problem with Horned Reapers.

It does make more sense, but it doesn't work currently -- s is for forbidden spell flags, not forbidden monster flags. But it would be easy to add the capability to forbid monster flags. I'll do that soon.