Shorten Lair

[File200]

But make it wider. Keep it mostly the same, but change it to three over-sized levels, each about twice as large as current Lair levels. Branch entrances spawn on the first two levels, while the third level has an ending vault and the Slime entrance. Monster generation gets harder on each floor.

Now exploring Lair is a bit like exploring a jungle. You have to go deep into unknown territory to find what anything. To advance, you need to travel farther from the stairs that you came down. You risk being unable to retreat to them when you encounter +speed monsters, or find that a random monster has wandered into your retreat path. Finally, turn up the ambient noise so you're less likely to wake up the whole level. Now you have a slightly more interesting branch without needing to change any monsters or add any gimmicks that change your tactical choices.

[Pollen_Golem]

Would there be technical difficulties with larger levels? Reducing the number of stair-pairs from 3 to 1 would have a similar effect, and you'd still have to turn up the ambient noise. Stairs in Lair can be very unlucky.

[File200]

Maybe. The game explodes whenever I edit the level generation code. Two stair-pairs would be fair for current Lair. Bear. Hair.

It still needs to be shortened overall.

[KoboldLord]

To the best of my knowledge, Lair cuts are already on the agenda to experiment with. The devs just want to do the necessary cuts slowly so they can confirm that each cut is an improvement. That way, if there's an undesirable side effect they know what caused it. A Lair level or two is probably on the chopping block within the next six months, or a year at most.