Vaults Vanquisher
Posts: 463
Joined: Monday, 20th July 2015, 04:01
Ghosts are too weak. Please buff them.
Lo and behold, a Formicid Fighter appears. This bad boy was armed to the teeth. Massive AC, massive EV, massive HP, and to top it off an executioner's axe and decent fighting skill (as evidenced by his accuracy at swinging said axe at my gelatinous and later icy form). The first thing I thought was "wow, what a tough opponent. I'll surely die if I try any strategy at all except immediately flee." I especially loved how its ability to fly meant that I couldn't use my race's natural advantage to escape, because it was undead I couldn't constrict it or use any of my extensive transmuter tools to bring it down, and because it was a player ghost it was generated awake so sneaking by it was a big no no since it can wander around and potentially reappear in a really bad spot.
Of course having some HP to burn I decided I'd swap to ice form and attack anyway to see what would happen. I fought valiantly but after 3 turns of grueling battle and 60% of my health, ol' undead Formy wouldn't even show me his HP bar, the pretentious prick, so I was forced to leave in search of other opponents who would. Jokes on it though, because that just saved me from having to make some sort of meaningful choice about exploring the Bailey when I actually run into the deadly orc knight. I quickly left through the portal while imaginarily flipping off the orc knights I never got to see.
So I thought about my amazing experience and figured I thought it might be neat to add it to D:1. Imagine, you're travelling through the dungeon, barely scathing through your chance encounter with an adder or jackal pack with the still beating hearts of your enemies in your hands (or if you're a troll or kobold, in your mouth) when you're unavoidably killed from full health after turning a corner by a centaur ghost with a bow.
Sometimes crawl even goes the extra length so I don't have to decide whether or not I want to suicide my character by generating ghosts that move faster than me and having them quickly chase me down and kill me. All of this thinking normally wracks my brain so that's kinda nice.
But let's not forget about my favorite ghost race: I always loved how draconian negative energy breath always took half of my health in one hit regardless of character, meaning I didn't have to waste any time deciding that the only thing I wanted to do was leave. Silly me, my brain doesn't work well so I sure am glad crawl decides this stuff for me.
Even the normal ghosts are still alright, despite being weaker. They stop me from simply autoexploring so I learn proper crawl tactics like repeatedly going up and back down different staircases 100s of times to avoid dangerous enemies. And these normal ghosts are practically unkillable as well, so even better! But occasionally I meet ghosts that give me free exp and that's a big no no. Too bad there's no way to spawn an appropriately leveled ghost for the floor so the player never gets that stuff for free and is always horribly outmatched. Unfortunately, full randomness does have a few downsides after all.
But let's make ghosts even better. Of course you're probably wondering the same thing as me: "How could this amazing design feature be made even more perfect?" That's easy, silly. We give them buffs!
What if every ghost could move as fast as Sp? Imagine, you're always scared of your impending death! No more Orb of Zot for anyone from now on unless they can manage to sneak their way past all of the lethal ghosts while still killing enough enemies to get the exp they need. You can only circumvent it by playing Sp or Ce, which... seems so simple, honestly. Normally it was so hard to decide on a preferred style of character I want to play so I'm glad crawl has my back. Huh... Thanks crawl!
But back on topic: why stop there? The invincible ghost with player level AC and EV already has all of the properties belonging to ghosts AND the ability to fly! Why not add to that as well? Let's throw on the ability to move through walls and an ashenzari-styled player-detection ability on top of even more resistances! Fire? Electricity? Corrosion!? Hell, let's go the extra mile and in addition to giving them all of these, tack on additional AC and EV on top of what the amazing amount the deceased player already had.
Man, no wonder this game is so hard. All of the random ghosts make it crazy difficult. That's part of the journey though! Learning and adapting! And there's a lot to adapt to with all of the randomness. Not sure why so much effort is spent towards making new, beautiful and interesting levels when all you have to do to add depth and difficulty is simply buff ghosts and make them even more numerous! You guys wrote a design philosophy for a reason after all.
- For this message the author PowerOfKaishin has received thanks: 5
- Blomdor, Cimanyd, IronCretin, VeryAngryFelid, ydeve