Easy Mode...

[BountyHunterSAx]

I wish I had the time and inclination to learn enough about Crawl coding and fork-design to create an Easy-Mode fork that could bring the winrate for players who commit 10-20 hours up to a solid 50+% on average.

I mean, at this point, I've spent countless hours playing and winning this game. I've exposed at least a hundred people to it via my channel, etc. And yet, unless you're one of those in the niche of roguelikes to begin-with this game is so damn unforgivingly hard that it's near-impossible to recommend to most people whom I wish could at least appreciate the cool design with the broad selection of races and playstyles.

The really sad part is that an Easy Mode fork wouldn't even really be that hard to make. A decent save system without going full blown wizard mode, alternatively, the ability to conveniently "pre-play" a segment before doing so on your "real run" alone would make this game beatable in under 10-20 hours of playtime for someone only interested in "dipping his toe in the pool".

Tougher would be, Popup messages warning you about things that are just plain not obvious at first blush the first time you encounter them:

* You hit go downstairs on V:7* "You peek down the staircase....this is what you see. Are you sure you're ready to go down this staircase?"
" Mara comes into view. !Warning- Mara can make two copies of himself and one of you! Be careful when engaging!!"
" The kobold is wiedling a distortion dagger. !Warning, distortion can force-bink, teleport, or even send you to the AByss!"

You could even set it up in hte rcFile to make such hints toggleable. How great would that be for your newbie who doesn't want to start his whole fucking game over just to avoid having to spoiler himself on wikis?




Anyway, there's a reason this is going in CYC. This is not a serious recommendation or a thread. Just. . . . this game was incredibly difficult back in v0.8x. v0.9 the game was so hard that I sunk hundreds of characters whlie learning it though I eventually got my first win with a Felid. Then v0.10...and it got harder. v0.11....much harder. v0.12.....harder. v0.13....LOADS harder.

It's as though the difficulty curves was designed *specificallY* for people who have been playing the whole time. If I'd started playing in what is our current trunk (v0.14) instead of v0.8/v0.9, I'd have rage quit in disgust and never looked back.

-AHMAD

[Hirsch I]

the game is fun because it is hard. I started playing on 0.12, got my first win on 0.14 and it was awesome! 5 months, 800 characters dead... but the feeling when I won was amazing. sure, they could make the game like any modern game: designed to be beaten, to give immediate satisfaction without too much investment... absolutely boring.
lets not take from our newbies the opportunity to discover things by themselves.

[b561248]

I don't think anyone is going to be in favor of a mode without perma-death. It's essential to the genre. I think it's generally agreed that the game already has a sort of implicit difficulty system in species/backgrounds/gods. TrBe, MiFi, DEWz, CeHu - all pretty typical beginner combos that are pretty easy to get off the ground. Felids with the extra lives and Gargoyles with all their intrinsics are a couple of recent species that are pretty easy. I do think that the game would be less intimidating if the early dungeon were easier.

[duvessa]

&Y

It's as though the difficulty curves was designed *specificallY* for people who have been playing the whole time.

Neither difficulty nor lack thereof is an explicit design goal, and as the game becomes more balanced it will necessarily become more difficult (because balance is about eliminating the outliers, and the difficulty of the game is almost entirely determined by the best strategies, which of course are by definition outliers). It's not surprising (or, to my knowledge, unintended) that this is true in practice as well as theory.

[Hirsch I]

do you agree that the game has become harder from past versions to the present?
I, personally, found 0.13 to be much easier than 0.12, mut maybe this is just me improving as a player.

[Senban]

I really like the idea of ADOM Deluxe: If you buy the game you get a global high-score table and the option to play without perma-death, for perma-death inclined players the game remains non-commercial. Actually lol'd when I read about that, though my sense of humour may be as perverse as my taste in games .

[duvessa]

do you agree that the game has become harder from past versions to the present?
I, personally, found 0.13 to be much easier than 0.12, mut maybe this is just me improving as a player.

There is small-scale variance (e.g. 0.7 was easier than 0.6, IMO, because of randomized energy, and 0.8 might have been easier than 0.7 if you were particularly unspoiled) but as a general trend, yes. I'd say every version since 0.5 has been harder than 0.5, every version since 0.8 has been harder than 0.8, every version since 0.9 has been harder than 0.9, every version since 0.10 has been harder than 0.10, etc.

[pratamawirya]

The funny thing about Crawl is stated rather clearly by the OP: There are many things in Crawl that casual/ordinary gamers would find to be very cool (races, gods, spells, etc), and thus Crawl is not far off from gaining more popularity by reaching for a wider audience, yet the devs intentionally or unintentionally kill this rather sweet opportunity by making the game even harder and unwelcoming (the new sirens, the new Vaults:5, etc) with each new release.

[Hirsch I]

interesting. this makes me kind of proud.

[moocowmoocow]

I really like the idea of ADOM Deluxe: If you buy the game you get a global high-score table and the option to play without perma-death, for perma-death inclined players the game remains non-commercial. Actually lol'd when I read about that, though my sense of humour may be as perverse as my taste in games .

Doesn't Crawl allow you to turn off death via wizard mode? I know it feels different to be given extra chances rather than giving them to yourself, but ultimately there's no difference?

[Klown]

God Mode: Play as one of Crawl's Gods.

[Hirsch I]

I'm chei. by the time I reached D:2, the other gods are already appearing as OOD spawns.

[BountyHunterSAx]

For those of you who are protesting that " it's *fun* for crawl to be hard, etc. I don't actually disagree. Clearly, part of what attracted us all to this sort of game was a desire for that level of challenge and a willingness to stomach defeat after defeat in pursuit of that victory. This isn't the only game that I've played that does this, btw.
I've heavily played and 'solidly beaten' Don't Starve, Super Meat Boy, N, Ikaruga, F-Zero GX, and many many many other games that I could name. But whereas a game like Super Meat Boy or N offers *NOTHING* for a casual player who just wants to enjoy the experience of its content, F-Zero GX and Ikaruga *do*.

You *CAN* go through Ikaruga on Free-Play mode, ignoring high-scoring comboes and just soaking in the rich music and glorious aesthetics of the bullet patterns. You *CAN* put F-Zero GX on Novice difficulty and enjoy the mind-popping gorgeous sensation of high speed. Hell, if you're so desperate, you can even enable friggin' restore so that you don't die when you fall off the track or run out of energy.
Traits like this allow me to tell someone: "You should try this game out, you'll enjoy the X/Y/Z of it, even if you aren't as keen on trying to play it "for realzies."



The problem with the Wizard mode approach is that it doesn't present an accessible version of the game, it turns you into the Developer who can re-write the game in whatever style he likes and provides *NO* challenge as opposed to a lesser challenge or a more feasible challenge.

Imagine, for instance, that if ever you would die you are automatically re-loaded to the game's state when you last went down a staircase. In such a situation, you would *always* have the chance to be like: "Damn, I screwed that up, let me try something different." But at the same time, not knowing how to deal with a pack of centaurs or the occasional orc priest would still be as lethal as ever. You will not learn the indescribably important lesson of crawl: infinite caution is the best trait you can have, but you *will* learn to deal with the threats of the dungeon. And maybe, just maybe, you'll be tempted to try to play the game "for real" without the safety net. Especially if/when you get through it with the net and realize "this actually isn't so bad."

Wizard mode removes the game altogether. The point of an Easy Mode would be that it was *designed* to be a fun and casual experience. Not like the core game/gameplay of crawl which holds it as an explicit design goal that it should provide "hard, random, challenging gameplay".



I'll stress again that I recognize this isn't something I'd expect the core crawl community to care about (it *IS* being posted in CYC as a rant rather than some other fourm as a serious work-in-progress project). I recognize that the crawl community at large is more-or-less indifferent to broadening the appeal of the game if it in any way compromises the experience for more hardcore players. And that, beside that, the developers and those who really *GET* the crawl project tend to believe that such an attitude strays from the philosophy of the game.

But damnit, I just want to be able to share with my friends the joy of entering the snake pit, throwing up a cloud of ice and then igniting the snakes from the inside out. How friggin AWESOME is that?



The *BEST* part of an easy mode would also be how much content you could deprive the player of. Just picture it - an easy-mode player would not be allowed into Pan or Hell. Go one further and lock them out of the Crypt. . .l. And that just like that you're tantalizing them with loads and loads of stuff that "is only available in the full game". But you've managed to hold their hand through the core content so they DON'T have to lose hundreds of hours just getting acclimatized to the core dungeon and/or leafing through wikis for more guidance.
Now, they will have learned the bad habit of not treating life as something to be super cautious about. But honestly? I'm okay with that. Every successful hardcore Crawl player learns that lesson sometime. I'd say someone with 20hours of crawling and an ez-mode ascension is more likely to invest further than someone who dies to a kobold three times on D:1-2 and then says "this game is stupid".

-AHMAD

[BountyHunterSAx]

The funny thing about Crawl is stated rather clearly by the OP: There are many things in Crawl that casual/ordinary gamers would find to be very cool (races, gods, spells, etc), and thus Crawl is not far off from gaining more popularity by reaching for a wider audience, yet the devs intentionally or unintentionally kill this rather sweet opportunity by making the game even harder and unwelcoming (the new sirens, the new Vaults:5, etc) with each new release.

I'd give up two toes for your eloquence sir. Yes, this right here is my point *exactly*. I don't think it's a serious enough complaint or one that has a good enough solution to bring up in a serious way.

But I'm just shy of 500 subscribers to my weekly Crawl channel. Many of them came for Gnomoria, Mario RPG, or other LPs, and see my crawl stuff and get interested. But then they message me saying that they'd love to play the game and are just too intimidated since losing 2-12hours of gameplay to death is too tragic. From a beginners perspective? I find it hard NOT to agree.

-AHMAD

[pratamawirya]

@BountyHunterSAx:
I know that feel, bro.
And I think your points hold water. Gaining more players is never a bad thing, as long as you aren't forced to make any compromise. With the right touch, we can really turn Crawl into the next worldwide sensation since Angry Bird or Flappy Bird or something, without compromising the hardcore roguelike qualities. Crawl is already as modern and polished as a roguelike can be, with the tiles, autoexplore, autocombat, numerous small design choices to streamline the game (the removal of nausea and sickness from eating, etc), etc.

[zrn]

I've exposed at least a hundred people to it via my channel

I'm just shy of 500 subscribers to my weekly Crawl channel

Watch My Weekly Crawl Vids --> http://www.youtube.com/user/BountyHunterSAx <--

Woah woah woah, wait a second, I just wanted to make sure on something because it wasn't entirely clear to me. You have a YouTube™ channel who has nearly 500 subscribers and you upload Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup specific content on a weekly basis??? I'm going to have to check you out and I recommend every else does, too! It's not even just crawl, he has something for everyone!

[nicolae]

And I think your points hold water. Gaining more players is never a bad thing, as long as you aren't forced to make any compromise. With the right touch, we can really turn Crawl into the next worldwide sensation since Angry Bird or Flappy Bird or something, without compromising the hardcore roguelike qualities.

Hardcore roguelike qualities aren't popular at all, no matter how fancy the interface is. Crawl will never be the next Angry Birds or Call of Duty or Bioshock or Farmville.

[Klown]

Despite the above sarcasm your youtube channel does good things for the game and watching a veteran walk through the early game is a huge helping hand to new players. Plus, I watch ZoopyJoobles videos, pretty sure he said he watched your videos in the past which inspired him to do his own videos. So keep at it.

I'm a fan of difficulty levels. There are players who have never won, some who win a few times a year, and some who win every few games(seemingly). Setting up easy-normal-hard-insane versions would help keep everyone happy in my opinion.

[pratamawirya]

Hardcore roguelike qualities aren't popular at all, no matter how fancy the interface is. Crawl will never be the next Angry Birds or Call of Duty or Bioshock or Farmville.

Setting up easy-normal-hard-insane versions would help keep everyone happy in my opinion.

Easy Mode fork

[Bloax]

Honestly I'm going to agree here, the game could probably use an "easy mode" where you get kicked two floors or so back when you die instead of YASD'ing. (Alternatively a full-on arcade approach with lives, or both!)

Because as you can witness by the fact that there are still players who have played for years but can't win regularly, this game actually is pretty hard.
And adding an option of softening the beginner burden wouldn't really do much at this point, since if anything this game is actually getting harder since 0.13. (And we certainly aren't at the point of "over-casualizing")

[nicolae]

Hardcore roguelike qualities aren't popular at all, no matter how fancy the interface is. Crawl will never be the next Angry Birds or Call of Duty or Bioshock or Farmville.

Setting up easy-normal-hard-insane versions would help keep everyone happy in my opinion.

Easy Mode fork

Here's the thing: if you don't compromise on the hardcore roguelike qualities, Crawl will never be popular, because hardcore roguelike qualities are not popular. Permadeath with loss of everything you've accomplished is not popular. The intention that a player may have to die many times as they learn basic game tactics is not popular. What hardcore roguelike qualities do you think are the essence of the genre, such that you could make Crawl into a popular game while still keeping its appeal to the niche demographic that likes roguelikes the way they are?

[Amnesiac]

I don't understand. Isn't dying fun?

[Hirsch I]

yes.

[Psiweapon]

Honestly I'm going to agree here, the game could probably use an "easy mode" where you get kicked two floors or so back when you die instead of YASD'ing. (Alternatively a full-on arcade approach with lives, or both!)

Because as you can witness by the fact that there are still players who have played for years but can't win regularly, this game actually is pretty hard.
And adding an option of softening the beginner burden wouldn't really do much at this point, since if anything this game is actually getting harder since 0.13. (And we certainly aren't at the point of "over-casualizing")

As much as I suck at playing crawl, somehow, games WITHOUT permadeath just aren't the same anymore.

Trying and trying and trying on the same spot until by chance you manage it is much more boring once you get used to permadeath.

A super-tutorial tip mode that tells you everything would be in principle doable, but probably a total PITA to implement.

You can't have hyper complexity, hyper interface optimization, hyper accesibility and hyper popularity all in the same package.

Or maybe you can, but not easily nor in a short amount of time.

[pratamawirya]

Hardcore roguelike qualities aren't popular at all, no matter how fancy the interface is. Crawl will never be the next Angry Birds or Call of Duty or Bioshock or Farmville.

Setting up easy-normal-hard-insane versions would help keep everyone happy in my opinion.

Easy Mode fork

Here's the thing: if you don't compromise on the hardcore roguelike qualities, Crawl will never be popular, because hardcore roguelike qualities are not popular. Permadeath with loss of everything you've accomplished is not popular. The intention that a player may have to die many times as they learn basic game tactics is not popular. What hardcore roguelike qualities do you think are the essence of the genre, such that you could make Crawl into a popular game while still keeping its appeal to the niche demographic that likes roguelikes the way they are?

Man, you should not just read my post, but try reading from the OP if you want to understand what this thread is about.

You might not realize it, but there are so many things about Crawl's gameplay that are quite appealing to ordinary gamers (who don't fancy roguelikes). The gods! The races! The spells! The simple yet tactically deep melee combat! Etc. Yet permadeath scares them away. This is such a waste, since we can just introduce "easy mode" to let them play (wizard mode isn't the same thing, since it's a test mode of some sort). And who knows, some of them might actually have a real "roguelike spirit" hidden deep in their hearts, and thus eventually man up to try out the real thing. This is what I mean by "keeping the hardcore roguelike qualities intact": we let people choose between normal mode as it is now or easy mode without permadeath.

Yeah I know, I know, people like you are more than content with the way things are now, because you don't need popularity and don't want one million n00bs flooding the Tavern or IRC or whatever reason, but that's exactly why this thread was made in CYC.

[Hirsch I]

one billion noobs... good bye small town feel.
no thanks.

[BountyHunterSAx]

Man, daydreaming about all the fun stuff you could do with an 'easy mode' is a lot of fun too.

Imagine, for example, if when an orc priest kills you, the message that popped up was something like:
"You were killed by an orc priest smite from afar (or whatever). Orc priests can deal massive damage to early game characters anywhere in their LOS. Your best bet is to try and stay out of sight till you can trick them into being in melee. . . or hide on staircases or disable them somehow."

Not every enemy in hte game mind you, but orc priests, orc wizards, centaurs and sigmund? Man those guys are NOOB-slayers.



* Picture trying to go into the Elven Halls all fancy like and then seeing a message pop up, "I'm sorry, this branch is only available in the real DCSS/ in 'Roguelike' mode"

* Picture trying to enter the Orcish Mines and a popup message "Warning! You are about to enter the Orcish Mines. Recommended level: XXX. Are you sure you wish to go in?" Rather than just leaving it as the unspoilered noob-deathtrap it is now, since it really does look like an easy to access early branch.

* Abyss:1 having 5x as many exits or perhaps a significantly lower enemy spawn rate, so that just being abyss'd "too early" made you burn consumables without being a near death-sentence.


Make no mistake, I would probably (honestly) not play EZ mode much. I'm spoilt on the real thing. And without fear of permadeath, the game would lose it's *spice*. But then, I've never attempted Pan, Hell, or Tomb without necromutation -- the fear of losing 8+ hours of gameplay and a "sure-win" is too much for me ot give up on just for the sake of experimenting at surviving without torment immunity.
So, in effect, a lack of ability to experiment makes me a noob at that post-endgame content. Let's not evne go into doing zigs without firestorm.

-AHMAD

[Sandman25]

But then, I've never attempted Pan, Hell, or Tomb without necromutation

Try it some day. I have the same phobia but watching your HP half every turn brings the most unusual feelings, this is a different game.
I watched a player (HaXX of Ash) recently who was on last floor of some hell branch fighting at 22-220 HP about 10 minutes with half Int and Dex because of no potions of restore abilities, that looked crazy, engaging in melee with 3 monsters at 22 HP and 16 AC (he had no ranged attacks). He won with 15 runes and I think he should be really proud of himself.
I will never play like that, I am too cowardly. Though I have never died in extended yet, preferring to win with less runes if I feel my character is not ready for some runes.

[duvessa]

(wizard mode isn't the same thing, since it's a debug mode)

IMO debug mode is Crawl's debug mode

[pratamawirya]

Okay, yeah, wrong term.

[TeshiAlair]

IMO, Crawl's difficulty levels come primarily from race/class combos. Some simply give you more tools to survive.

That being said, I think a good difficulty "knob" would be to have a few new/tweaked racesmade that are explicitly "easier mode," with simpler mechanics, and a reduced score impact.


"Simple" races:

Mountain Dwarf: The melee guy
Grey Elf: The mage guy
Halfling: The stealth guy (because I really hate halflings, I'll be honest here)

[Hirsch I]

I see your attempt of sneaking MD back in the game...

[DracheReborn]

Tougher would be, Popup messages warning you about things that are just plain not obvious at first blush the first time you encounter them:

* You hit go downstairs on V:7* "You peek down the staircase....this is what you see. Are you sure you're ready to go down this staircase?"
" Mara comes into view. !Warning- Mara can make two copies of himself and one of you! Be careful when engaging!!"
" The kobold is wiedling a distortion dagger. !Warning, distortion can force-bink, teleport, or even send you to the AByss!"

This is Hints mode and is already part of the game (have you tried the tutorials lately?). That said, it's very incomplete and character specific, and yes needs a lot of work.

I could see something like this get accepted into regular crawl (with an on/off toggle), but it's just not sexy and probably not many people want to work on it. Also, in effect it's hard-coded advice, which could potentially be very problematic - e.g. not everyone may agree on the best approach to a given circumstance, and also stuff changes regularly so advice needs to change to reflect it. In fact there's at least one thing in the tutorial that's outdated already (default pickup menu behavior).

As for "no death" mode, well there's wizmode. I don't see why playing wizmode is a problem when you just want to explore the content.

[One-Eyed Jack]

I don't think dying is fun. I never really understood that. I think getting better at games is fun. Dying is sometimes useful for this. It makes you more invested in a character, so you tend to play better.

If a player gets sent back to the staircase after fighting an orc pack, they might avoid it next time. Or they might try to kill it again, succeed because of damage rolls and ranged AI, and learn nothing. Crawl is a random game.

Also, what's the point of telling a player who has just died to a powerful ranged attack that the monster that killed them has a powerful ranged attack?

Edit: also hint mode exists, try xv

[Sar]

Crawl already have "easy mode" in form of races like Sp, Ce, DD, Tr, HO, Mi... Maybe it should be made more explicit.

[linear]

Hi, new player here. I registered to echo the OP, though I'm sure this discussion has occurred many times before. I've put in ~55 hours over the past 10 days, and will probably play another 50-200. I wouldn't have played more than a couple hours if offline save scumming weren't possible.

It's vital to appreciate that people can enjoy the same thing for different reasons. DCSS has so many great features that a wider audience could enjoy. But permadeath and difficulty, which may be viewed as required by existing players, are likely deal-breakers for many prospective players. Blizzard released stats showing that only 9% of Diablo 3 characters use permadeath. If you could increase the popularity of DCSS up to 10x, why wouldn't you? Hirsch's town might be larger than he'd like, but hey - some of the new neighbors could be good programmers and eager to contribute.

I haven't looked at the code. Still, an optional offline easy mode might be simple to implement. This wouldn't take anything away from existing players, other than the pride of exclusivity. A default mutation could multiply HP and MP, reduce received damage, and/or add to skill aptitudes. Autosaving before new level generation and restoring to that point upon death shouldn't be too hard. Conservation as a default intrinsic and autodeletion of bones files would be additional straightforward measures. I don't know yet if late game would merit other tweaks, since I'm busy juggling ten characters in early and mid game

[Amnesiac]

For me permadeath makes this game the greatest adventure of all games and I think people should learn to appreciate that instead of looking for easy ways.
Sure you could have some fun looking at all monsters, spells and levels, but that's not the point of this game. And if the option of saving/no permadeath would be allowed, this point will be missed and much less possible to be found out.
I, myself, tried some save scumming at first, when I wanted to see all the game, I cleared it of course, since you can't die and it's easy to kill anything with LCS in a few tries.
But then, I realised that I don't feel any fulfilment, so I returned to crawl and tried playing the proper way... and since then I've been hopelessly addicted for months after months of playing.

So... uh... My point is - don't play this game, you'll ruin your life. Maybe it's good that it's so painful with all stupid deaths. It's too late for me, though, because I'm used to this pain and I think I sometimes even feel some masochistic pleasure from dying, so I'm doubly messed up. Well, I'm joking about pleasure, it's painful every time, but I'm not joking about being addicted.

[BountyHunterSAx]

This game uses permadeath in such a way as to make permadeath dealable and interesting. It's integrated into the game well enough that removing it drastically changes gameplay in much the same way that "cheating for resources" changes the gameplay of Starcraft Brood War.

Surprise surprise, people like playing SC with cheats and like playing without cheats. I don't see the harm in this.

-AHMAD

[Sar]

But... why? I don't understand. Crawl is gameplay, and Crawl gameplay is heavily balanced around permadeath. I mean, I love some sprites in tiles mode, and I appreciate the minimalism of console mode, but with gameplay and tension completely destroyed by removing permadeath, what's the point? Is it the story, all the fascinating twists and turns and all the ways you can influence it? The atmospheric locations you just want to revisit again and again? Stunning graphics and jaw-dropping spell effects? The feeling of melee combat - heavy, screen-shaking blows of a great mace and flurries of quick blade strikes? The companions, the way you can earn their trust, friendship or - who knows - even romantic interest? None of that in this game, I'm afraid.* You can quickly visit all the locations in wizmode, kill all Panlords with max-power LCS/melee, and you will see pretty much anything you'd see with a savescummed character.

I'm not even opposed to adding some kind of easy mode. I just don't get it.

*Okay, some locations - vaults - are pretty cool.

[Viashino_wizard]

But... why? I don't understand. Crawl is gameplay, and Crawl gameplay is heavily balanced around permadeath. I mean, I love some sprites in tiles mode, and I appreciate the minimalism of console mode, but with gameplay and tension completely destroyed by removing permadeath, what's the point? Is it the story, all the fascinating twists and turns and all the ways you can influence it? The atmospheric locations you just want to revisit again and again? Stunning graphics and jaw-dropping spell effects? The feeling of melee combat - heavy, screen-shaking blows of a great mace and flurries of quick blade strikes? The companions, the way you can earn their trust, friendship or - who knows - even romantic interest? None of that in this game, I'm afraid.* You can quickly visit all the locations in wizmode, kill all Panlords with max-power LCS/melee, and you will see pretty much anything you'd see with a savescummed character.

I'm not even opposed to adding some kind of easy mode. I just don't get it.

*Okay, some locations - vaults - are pretty cool.

Probably some people just want to have fun doing stupid stuff without having to start over whenever they get killed. Also, supposedly majority of players haven't even gotten 1 win, so they'd probably like to get to see Zot, the Vaults, Pan, etc.

[Amnesiac]

Crawl is appealing to a lot of gamers, because it has a lot of features, I can understand that much, but still, permadeath is the most important one.

[pratamawirya]

Permadeath being the most important feature is highly subjective. We can argue about it all day long but it would likely be unproductive.

Without permadeath, Crawl would still work. We have high-score system, after all! Players could still aim for higher scores. Even if there's no built-in scoring system, players would try to invent ways to measure their performances. Dying less, using less consumables, etc.

What's truly important for any player is emotional experience. To us, it might revolves around permadeath. To others, it might be about something else. But as long as the gameplay system works smoothly, it doesn't really matter.

[Amnesiac]

I don't care about the score - I care about adventures, when taking on a a unique in a glorious battle is a real choice and not just "hmm I'd like to see what he can do - if something happens, I can just load the saved game. Oops, well, maybe I can take him down it two more tries.*Picks nose* Ha, this Cerebov guy can't do anything if he doesn't cast his fire storm, he's such a joke."

[Bloax]

Guys, guys - you shouldn't forget that a itty bitty option somewhere won't suddenly break the game.
It would if it was an intricate rebalance of the game that devs would have to pay attention to, but we're talking about something as minor as this:

Autosaving before new level generation and restoring to that point upon death, Conservation as a default intrinsic and autodeletion of bones files would be additional straightforward measures.

Which would really just be "permadeath - on/off"/"player ghosts - on/off"/"item destruction - on/off" gameplay options in our beloved offline versions.

and since it's simple little flags you can still experience the full crawl experience unless you specifically don't want to

It's like providing the option to jump in Doom. Sure, it didn't exist in the original game - and you should probably not exploit it, but it's still a good option for funsies.

[Sar]

But you can use jump to get that green armor on E1M2. And that's terrible.

[Amnesiac]

itty bitty option somewhere won't suddenly break the game.

It will, for those who will use those options. Not having meaningful decisions and just reloading with LCS and 0/0/0 defences completely kills the whole point of the game.

[TeshiAlair]

Can you save scum offline?

Yes.

Can you wizmode?

Yes.

Can you go into the source and tweak some values?

Yes. (trickier admittedly, but it might be a worthwhile side goal to document the source code and be like "Here is where <foo> is found if you want to change it")

[tasonir]

I don't feel like the game is getting all that much harder from version to version. There are a few things that have gotten tougher, like sirens, and specific builds that have been heavily nerfed - my beloved melee nagas were pretty much only viable in exactly .10 and not before or after, due to starting with constriction. But things like nausea being removed, wonderful gargoyles being added, are also more or less balancing it out. Most things haven't really gotten much harder, have they?

[pratamawirya]

Vaults are harder now (the new Vaults:5 is ridiculous).

Shoals are harder too.

Depths are hard.

Swamp is harder, also.

Snake pits are harder.

The new Pandemonium might be harder (and might be more annoying too, since we get demonspawns who can mess up your position, summon monsters that aren't meant to be in Pan, and do other annoying stuff; though less neqoxecs is good).

[Klown]

I find dying to be incredibly boring unless I reach a farther point than my previous best run. Playing the boring early game for the 2000th time doesn't compare to exploring new branches and watching your character turn into something fierce.