Another idea for a clock


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bel

Cocytus Succeeder

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Joined: Tuesday, 3rd February 2015, 22:05

Post Sunday, 22nd October 2017, 13:11

Another idea for a clock

There are several "clocks" in crawl (food, piety etc.) which don't work too well. Here's a different approach. It's a simple idea, so maybe it has been suggested before (I don't recall seeing it).

Items on the current level (which are not picked up by the player) are destroyed over time at a constant rate. That's it.

Advantages:
(a) Player is incentivized to use consumables, lure less and rest less.
(b) Non-intrusive.
(c) Smooth (no breakpoints).

Disadvantages:
(a) A bit like speedrunning, which is not to everyone's taste. The rate can be tweaked to try to mitigate this a bit, but this part is unavoidable.
(b) Your character might get screwed bit by bit, and not realize it until its too late. This is not dramatically different from current crawl (compare the XP system which also has sunk costs), but is still something to keep in mind.
(c) Perhaps Crawl should contain more monsters which force consumable use, for the limit to matter in practice.
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Sunday, 22nd October 2017, 14:09

Re: Another idea for a clock

Well, Jivvy is fun. She's also fun because you aren't forced to take her. I don't think that having this mechanic in all games would be good, although it would make the game decidedly faster, and lower inventory management.
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Spider Stomper

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Post Monday, 23rd October 2017, 06:09

Re: Another idea for a clock

That's not a continual clock. The player is going to be disadvantaged at the start of every floor, and you may push bad play (especially among less skilled players) much as timed portals can do as the player rushes around trying to uncover as many tiles as possible. After some time goes by, depending on just how fast the items decompose, the clock winds down (in a spoilery way I should add), and now the player is incentivized to remain on the floor anyway and take his time killing the monsters and gaining as much XP as possible before diving to the next floor.

A strong player is probably not even going to be affected by this clock, as optimal game play requires they not put themselves recklessly into dangerous situations, and there is a glut of consumables and equipment, anyhow.

EDIT: For the record, I really like timed portals. They taught me not to run too fast and that I shouldn't always enter. But in contrast to this proposal, they are reasonably rare, completely optional, and they have guaranteed rewards.

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