Generic Brainstorming!

[Grimm]

Oklobs appear early enough that there needs to be a workaround for them. The worst case is the vault with three oklobs camping on all the down stairs in early Lair. Without the Inv tactic, they'd be almost impassable for most builds.

Better I think would be a late game upgraded oklob, "ancient oklob" or something, that was semi-sentinent and could SInv.

[nicolae]

Oklobs aren't hard enough. They should sense invisible.

They should also be invisible.

[Jabberwocky]

Oklobs aren't hard enough. They should sense invisible.

They should also be invisible.

Even better!

[Grimm]

No no no...a very poor suggestion.

[SchwaWarrior]

Ancient Oklobs should also talk to the player, giving hints as to where to go next and get the next Rune or what spell to try and learn next. While blasting the player with un-resistable 3d32 acid splashes.

[Grimm]

It could pull text chunks from random recent advice posts on the Tavern.

[nicolae]

No no no...a very poor suggestion.

You're right, it's not enough to make them invisible, they should be able to move around too.

[Grimm]

They should be able to alternate between shooting acids, and shooting bases.

[nicolae]

Getting shot by acid in water should create a violent exothermic reaction.

[Grimm]

There should be chunks of sodium lying around the dungeon.

[nicolae]

Chemistry patch to be included in 0.12.

[Grimm]

Oklobs should shoot aqua regia and be capable of destroying your gold pieces.

[varsovie]

They should stay hidden like trap spiders, only reveal when you're halfway to safety. They should also be able to reproduce with humming spores.

[nicolae]

Playable Oklob species. Sit at the upstair and shoot at the adventurers who enter. Zoklob Defense.

[Grimm]

They should also carry - and be able to use - Uzis. That shoot flaming electric dragon bees. That are also homing.

[nicolae]

They should also carry - and be able to use - Uzis. That shoot flaming electric dragon bees. That are also homing.

Yeah, but the flaming electric dragon bee Uzis shouldn't drop on death, that would be too overpowered if the player got one.

[Grimm]

Of course. They dissolve in the aqua regia.

[nicolae]

Of course. They dissolve in the aqua regia.

Brilliant.

[SchwaWarrior]

They should also be able to reproduce with humming spores.

While we're at it, let's let the player and other monsters reproduce too. Such as Mermaids and Sirens. And Tentacled Monstrosities.

And Sigmund with his Scythe.

[Grimm]

Hey, this is a family game. No sex. Just brutal combat and bloody death.

[SchwaWarrior]

Hey, this is a family game. No sex. Just brutal combat and bloody death.

But is death not a part of life?

Anyway it's only a matter of time before Rule 34 kicks in, so have fun. ^.^

[Grimm]

But is death not a part of life?

No.

"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in just the way in which our visual field has no limits."

Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 6.4311

[SchwaWarrior]

"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in just the way in which our visual field has no limits."

Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 6.4311

I love this so much. Fantastic answer.

I meant death being a part of life in the worldwide sense, as in the passing of generations, but this quote makes sense to me too in that "my world and limits are whatever I make of them, therefore my world can be eternal". At least that's what the quote translated to in my mind. ^^

Heck, eternal life might be as simple as shouting "Day shall come again!" with each sword stroke until you're finally out of the Abyss by some sheer miracle. ;3 I have days in RL where I feel like I'm doing that, or need to.

[Confidence Interval]

In Crawl it is not death I fear but the incessant rebirths - like the chronophobe described by Nabokov:

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour). I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth. He saw a world that was practically unchanged-the same house, the same people - and then realized that he did not exist there at all and that nobody mourned his absence. He caught a glimpse of his mother waving from an upstairs window, and that unfamiliar gesture disturbed him, as if it were some mysterious farewell. But what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin; even that was empty, as if, in the reverse course of events, his very bones had disintegrated.

Would the ultimate Crawl victory be not the attainment of the Orb but final escape from the cycle of death and rebirth, and release from saṃsāra?

[Jabberwocky]

They should stay hidden like trap spiders, only reveal when you're halfway to safety. They should also be able to reproduce with humming spores.

I think 20-headed hydra would make better trapdoor monsters.

[Grimm]

But what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin; even that was empty, as if, in the reverse course of events, his very bones had disintegrated.

"We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death."
-Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu

or in our idiom
"We should weep for players when they start a game, not when they inevitably lose."

Cioran had a good one about how the Thracians wept at births and celebrated at funerals, but I no longer possess the book it's in.

Would the ultimate Crawl victory be not the attainment of the Orb but final escape from the cycle of death and rebirth, and release from saṃsāra?

The only way to truly win Crawl is...not to play.

[BlackSheep]

The only way to truly win Crawl is...not to play.

How about a nice game of chess?

Non sequitur: anyone know why sometimes I see a quick reply button and sometimes I don't?

[Grimm]

How about a nice game of chess?

That's vulnerable too:

"Perhaps the black girl is a genius of meta-solutions — knocking over the chessboard, shooting the referee." - Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, p. 102.

Non sequitur: anyone know why sometimes I see a quick reply button and sometimes I don't?

Just checked and the "quick reply" seems not to appear when you arrive at the thread via the email alert link, but is present at other times.

[Blade]

No, that's not it. It disappears at seemingly random times for me, and I have no email alerts.

[Jabberwocky]

No, that's not it. It disappears at seemingly random times for me, and I have no email alerts.

Same here. I think Crazy Yiuf might have written the code for this website.

[Grimm]

Checked again and you're right, it does disappear without coming from the alert.

[Stormfox]

Inspired by another thread:

BADIDEA: If attacking Roxanne with the Singing Sword while berserk, the Sword commits a copyright violation against Sting and The Police.

[Jabberwocky]

Inspired by another thread:

BADIDEA: If attacking Roxanne with the Singing Sword while berserk, the Sword commits a copyright violation against Sting and The Police.

That's not a bad idea, that's a very good idea that still is kind of bad but very awesome but kind of in a way bad but really good if good is sort of bad. I like the idea.

[Grimm]

BADIDEA: If attacking Roxanne with the Singing Sword while berserk, the Sword commits a copyright violation against Sting and The Police.

and UTFO and The Real Roxanne

[Jabberwocky]

Crawl really should have pants. It seems like people would get legs would get badly hurt otherwise.

[nicolae]

Crawl really should have pants. It seems like people would get legs would get badly hurt otherwise.

As long as the player doesn't have to wear pants while playing Crawl.

[Jabberwocky]

Crawl really should have pants. It seems like people would get legs would get badly hurt otherwise.

As long as the player doesn't have to wear pants while playing Crawl.

Of course not. You are free to be as pantless as you want when playing crawl. I myself rarely play crawl in a public space so I frequently crawl without any pants!

[nicolae]

I myself rarely play crawl in a public space so I frequently crawl without any pants!

What does being in a public space have to do with wearing pants?

[Jabberwocky]

I myself rarely play crawl in a public space so I frequently crawl without any pants!

What does being in a public space have to do with wearing pants?

Most public space where I live are outdoors and it's typically cold without any pants. When it isn't cold there are black-flies which are a good reason to wear pants.

[nicolae]

Most public space where I live are outdoors and it's typically cold without any pants. When it isn't cold there are black-flies which are a good reason to wear pants.

Well, that makes sense.

Idea: The vault syntax for specifying items doesn't do totally strict checking to see if specified brands can be generated with that base class. So - a shop which sells only weapons, missiles, and armour with mismatched brands. Clubs of reaping. Bows of penetration. Helmets of running and gloves of see invisible.

[Grimm]

gloves of feel invisible

[Confidence Interval]

gloves of feel invisible

You closely miss Sigmund.
You hit Sigmund. Sigmund disappears!
You put on your gloves of feel invisible.
You feel Sigmund.
Sigmund squeals and giggles!

[Grimm]

hat of feel depressed

[Confidence Interval]

hat of feel depressed

I prefer "chapeau de la tristesse".

[Jabberwocky]

hat of feel depressed

boots of sense insanity

[nicolae]

Things which come to me just after waking before my brain has caught up with reality: God of the Mail. Gain piety by delivering letters, pray to get a choice of three letters and each has to get dropped off at a different dungeon or branch level. Also piety for killing canines, the sworn enemy of postal carriers. Passive effect nullifies paralysis, slow, nets, webs, sleep, and movement penalties from water, since nothing shall stay you from your appointed rounds.

[nicolae]

hat of feel depressed

boots of sense insanity

helmet of insane sense

[Grimm]

hat of feel depressed

I prefer "chapeau de la tristesse".

That's a fixedart. Very powerful.

[Jabberwocky]

cloak of uncommon sense

[Grimm]

shoes of foolishness