Where is the Temple?

[Mackerel]

In game it says it is between D4 and D7. I have explored everything down through D11, and it's not there. I don't appear to have any bubble levels; they all seem to have the requisite number of upstairs and downstairs. No scroll of magic mapping yet, to help solve this. The entrance to the Temple seems to have gone missing.

Except ...

(1) There is an area of deep water which extends beyond line of sight from land. I finally got a book with flight in it, and flew a longish distance along a river of blue water, up to the point it turns out there's an orange crystal statue there. Might be interesting things past the statue; I don't have a wand of disintegration yet, so I'm blocked there for now. And ...

(2) There is a 13 x 13 room with translucent rock walls; inside it there is a 9 x 9 box made of green crystal; there is an assortment of monsters and minor loot in the 11 x 11 corridor surrounding the green crystal area. I cannot find a secret door to enter this area. I suppose shattering, digging, or disintegrating will get me in there, but I haven't found any of those yet.

Is it possible that the entrance to the Temple is in one of those presently-inaccessible areas? That seems unlikely, but it's all I'm coming up with at the moment. In the meantime, I've cleared half the Lair, and usually my piety would be well up the scale by now, but ...

[KoboldLord]

Both of those areas are pre-set vaults, so they definitely will not have branch entrances in them. Odds are the Temple happens to be in a section of the Dungeon obscured by a secret door. You might look again through the valid levels to see if there are any suspicious-looking dead ends and try searching in them.

If you're really frustrated, you can go to wizard mode and forcibly map each level to see where the Temple was hiding. You can't get back from wizard mode, though.

It might also be worth considering a different religion than your original plan. It might be a good time to try out a deity you've never used before to see if you can get the gist of her play style, since evidently you haven't found the one you actually wanted.

[Mackerel]

Yeah, I've thought about that. The four altars I've found are Zin, Nemelex, Yredelemnul, and Xom. I've never tried any of them. I am working a Naga Venom Mage, spellcasting 10 poison 10, air magic 9, so I was planning on either Vehumet or Makhleb. I think the poison affinity rules out Zin, and I hate the randomness that the descriptions of Nemelex and Xom entail. I guess ... become a necro?

[KoboldLord]

Zin actually doesn't mind poison. Zin recognizes that sometimes you need strict disciplinary measures to keep evildoers in line, and in principle only opposes necromancy, changing form, and demon summoning. TSO is the one that doesn't like poison.

Yred and Nemelex are both solid choices too, though. Being slow isn't so bad when you can swap places with a bone dragon that follows you everywhere.

[Nexodas]

Yred is Necromancy without needing to train Necromancy or learn any of the spells, more or less. Also them permanent companions man...them permanent companions. No comment on any of the others.

Have you tried looking for unconnected bits of certain floors? Like say D7 is split in half and the only way to get to the "hidden" part would be to either dig, or go down a different set of stairs on D6 (Or up in D8). I've found many randarts that way.

[Mackerel]

Ah well, it's time to learn that counting works better when you pay attention to what you're supposed to count.

I saw three upstairs and three downstairs on the level map for level 5, so I knew I'd found them all. But, as it turns out, one each of those were escape hatches. Went upstairs, found a down staircase I hadn't used, went down into a small separate bubble, turned two corners, and ... there's the stairs to the temple.

Thanks for the advice, all.

[Moose]

I've often wondered why this game has a temple at all ... Have the project managers given any thought to eliminating it? I think the only thing we'd lose is a safehouse for hoarders...

[Nexodas]

The odds of finding an alter for the god you want to worship before you get to the temple is rather low.

So the temple is in the game so you can worship the god you want to worship, except for a few of them.

[Happy Corner]

Yes. Getting rid of the Temple would make the early game significantly harder for players who don't want to start with a religious background (and for good reasons, as many gods don't even offer a starter background).

[Shade]

Removing the Temple would flood the early dungeon with overflow altars. It wouldn't affect god accessibility much, but it would sure make early levels look messy.

The corrupted temples, while very cool, already do this to a great degree. A player can detect a corrupted temple with almost complete certainty already.

[TwilightPhoenix]

Also, removing the Temple would be removing a milestone for new players who can't get very far yet. Reaching the Temple for the first time is a big deal.

[Silk]

Also, removing the temple would rob my spellcasters and Death Knights of their early stash.