Zot 5?

[BobIsDead]

Does anyone know about the... umm... creative origins behind some of the monsters in the Realm of Zot, particularly the last level? I'm not criticising them, I'm just sort of curious as to who dreamed up some of them. I'm guessing they've been part of the game for a long time. However, I still can't get my head around some of them.

For example, you've got your Orb Guardians, which make sense, have a perfectly sensible reason for being there. As do any dragons or draconians, 'cos everyone knows dragons and their kin are always found at the end of really long dungeons.

But then you've got things like electric golems, ancient liches and orbs of fire. Creatures that seem there mostly because they are powerful and dangerous. Sure, they seem a little out-of-place, but they come across as old and powerful, so they're right at home in Zotland.

Then you've got the death cobs, curse toes and killer klowns. At this point, you get the feeling that the Realm of Zot is just dicking with you. How these were even dreamed up is completely beyond me. In fact, I'm not even sure what any of them are meant to be.

Like, if anyone knows their origins, I'd be super curious to find out. It also makes me wonder, have there been other such oddities in past versions that have been taken out? Or is the opposite the case, that it was super bland before some of them were added in?

[Sprucery]

You'd have to ask Linley Henzell, the creator of Linley's Dungeon Crawl.

Orbs of Fire were called swords in Linley's Dungeon Crawl 3.20 and earlier. I believe swords were in some other game and taken from there. IIRC electric golems were robots even before that. This is hazy though.

Death cobs and curse toes are supposed to be humorous.

Oh yes and draconian packs used to be deep elf packs.

[tedric]

Both the wiki and LearnDB suggest that Killer Klowns are directly inspired by the 1988 film Killer Klowns from Outer Space, though that doesn't explain why they were added to a roguelike.

[TeshiAlair]

RIP Toenail Golems

I like that Zot feels like the land of raw untamed magical weirdness, rather than the more Lovecraftian chaos that is the Abyss. Honestly, death cobs are the only thing that I think is kinda meh simply cause they are wildly uninteresting in every way aside from glyph/tile.

[twelwe]

when you really think about it isn`t the whole game like, really really weird?

[Sar]

I think toenail golems can still appear in vaults, I remember meeting some in a volcano recently.

[PleasingFungus]

Toenail golems can also spawn on the orb run.

As the wiki notes, Orbs of Fire have a strange history:

In very ancient, pre-Stone Soup versions of Crawl, these monsters were instead called "Swords", in a reference to the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness by Hugh Cook. This explains the rather nonsensical (from a thematic standpoint) inclusion of Malmutate in their spell set, since they were originally very different monsters.

Also, quokkas' descriptions referenced their "nanotechnological manipulators". (bottom of page.)

Strange game.

e: There was at least one more crawl monster from that series (long, long since removed); I don't recall the name right now.

[Brannock]

Honestly, death cobs are the only thing that I think is kinda meh simply cause they are wildly uninteresting in every way aside from glyph/tile.

Give death cobs the herd/pack property.

Orbs of fire can turn death cobs into killer popcorn.

[duvessa]

For example, you've got your Orb Guardians, which make sense, have a perfectly sensible reason for being there. As do any dragons or draconians, 'cos everyone knows dragons and their kin are always found at the end of really long dungeons.

Orb guardians used to be called guardian robots, and zot used to have deep elves instead of draconians. I can't think of any Zot-exclusive monsters that didn't start out as a joke.

[and into]

Toenail golems can also spawn on the orb run.

That kind of works as a joke, though. Like, the demons are just throwing everything at you to prevent ascension. Everything.

[XuaXua]

If they're already clipped, how do you know they're toenails and not fingernails? By the monster name?

[Sar]

the smell

[wheals]

e: There was at least one more crawl monster from that series (long, long since removed); I don't recall the name right now.

YOU ARE VIOLATING AREA SECURITY!!!

[SaidTheAlligatorKingToHisSon]

Give death cobs the herd/pack property.

Orbs of fire can turn death cobs into killer popcorn.

omg implement plz

[PleasingFungus]

if anyone was wondering, sgrunt kindly provided me the answer: the removed monster type was the 'dorgi'.

quokkas were actually removed at the same time, but came back. can't keep a good marsupial down...?

[BobIsDead]

That's all pretty interesting. And certain details make a lot more sense. By the way, any idea what a "dorgi" was? Why were swords replaced by orbs of fire, specifically? Did they have all the fiery powers back then and people just thought it fit? Incidentally, for some reason, I still find orbs of fire weirder in some ways than, for example, death cobs. Probably because I'm stupid and therefore keep accidentally confusing them with orb guardians.

Also, I'm now sad that I'll never get to go fight with a robot in crawl.

[PleasingFungus]

By the way, any idea what a "dorgi" was?

except, a cyborg (?)

Also, I'm now sad that I'll never get to go fight with a robot in crawl.

never say never.

[reaver]

I remember hearing somewhere Henzell filled Zot with weird monsters because he never expected anybody to actually get there. (I could be misremembering though)

This isn't really Zot-specific but a lot of weird monsters come about because their mechanics were designed first and their flavor was created to match. See: Torpor snails, Crabs, mana vipers, all the abyss monsters added in 0.12, etc.

[Psiweapon]

Zot is, and probably was, still pretty tame in weirdness factor compared to other games by Henzell.