Abyss Ambulator
Posts: 1217
Joined: Sunday, 14th April 2013, 04:01
Wednesday, 21st September 2016, 20:09
Remove levels, add portals
There are two schools of thought that fight a lot in the Tavern. School one is "Midgame is tedious, take out levels," and seems to be the more common one, particularly among long term players. School two is "Stop removing levels," which is also fairly common and has very devoted fans.
One big issue with current branch length is repetition- Lair is probably the worst offender, but Orc was notorious for this as well.
Proposed compromise solution: Remove floors from most branches, but at the bottom of a branch, have a portal that leads to 2-3 more floors of the branch, but with a specific flavor (i.e., three floors of increasingly Undead themed Swamp, or a Shoals with a volcano off to the side so more of the map is steam and lava as you go down.) These portals have xp and loot BUT cost 0.5-1 levels of exp to enter. Portal would be balanced to hopefully provide 0.75-1.5 levels worth of exp to compensate.
Benefits of this plan:
Portal is an elective challenge. If you are happy with your current level and loot, you can ignore it safely because there is a cost to enter (which solve the Labyrinth issue of always being the optimal choice). If you feel like you are a bit lacking, or want a challenge, doing the portal may grant benefits.
Reduces required branch length, but increases variety within the branch should you want to do more.
Interesting risk. It being a portal means you only get one shot- if you retreat, you don't get to go back, and you don't get the exp you paid back either.
One big issue with current branch length is repetition- Lair is probably the worst offender, but Orc was notorious for this as well.
Proposed compromise solution: Remove floors from most branches, but at the bottom of a branch, have a portal that leads to 2-3 more floors of the branch, but with a specific flavor (i.e., three floors of increasingly Undead themed Swamp, or a Shoals with a volcano off to the side so more of the map is steam and lava as you go down.) These portals have xp and loot BUT cost 0.5-1 levels of exp to enter. Portal would be balanced to hopefully provide 0.75-1.5 levels worth of exp to compensate.
Benefits of this plan:
Portal is an elective challenge. If you are happy with your current level and loot, you can ignore it safely because there is a cost to enter (which solve the Labyrinth issue of always being the optimal choice). If you feel like you are a bit lacking, or want a challenge, doing the portal may grant benefits.
Reduces required branch length, but increases variety within the branch should you want to do more.
Interesting risk. It being a portal means you only get one shot- if you retreat, you don't get to go back, and you don't get the exp you paid back either.
Three wins: Gargoyle Earth Elementalist of Ash, Ogre Fighter of Ru, Deep Dwarf Fighter of Makhleb (0.16 bugbuild 
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)- For this message the author TeshiAlair has received thanks: 2
- VeryAngryFelid, yesno