The Tavern

A handful of commits were posted a few hours ago that simplify the ambient/background noise of branches: Lair and Orc are no longer especially noisy; Shoals and Desolation are rather noisy at equal levels; Crypt and Tomb are rather quiet at equal levels -- which is to say, much quieter in Crypt and much less quiet in Tomb.

Players will now get a message about ambient noise upon entering these branches. Also, ambient noise no longer affects stealth.

There's a note in one of the commits that suggests the devs are debating whether branches should have background noise levels at all. Discuss amongst yourselves!

Commit links:
https://github.com/crawl/crawl/commit/b ... dbcc751251
https://github.com/crawl/crawl/commit/f ... be4b494d1f
https://github.com/crawl/crawl/commit/0 ... 37803d01f5
https://github.com/crawl/crawl/commit/c ... 71dca3a613

Oh, I always thought ambient noise affecting stealth was one purpose of the mechanic. But of course, if the effect was tiny, it's better to not have it.

I have never liked ambient noise and mostly try to pretend it doesn't exist

Basically, I only ever cared about this on spriggan stabbers, and it almost never was a factor in decision making even there. It does affect optimal pull distance somewhat, but I usually only pull half a screen or so anyhow. While my action may wake someone, I've guaranteed that they're all on one side of me which is usually enough.

I'd be OK with burning it out. It's flavorful, but unimpactful. Unless anyone has an idea about how to make it actually relevant in a fun way.

the fallacy here is assuming that ambient noise has a purpose

Well, I imagine the purpose is that if you do loud stuff in a loud branch, monsters from all over the level are less likely to swarm to you than in a deadly quiet branch like Tomb, so you can be more or less careful about noise in various branches. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work. If I swing around Fireballs in Lair, or even just IMBs (Very Loud/Loud, respectively), I pretty much have to retreat to a safe area after the fight anyways, because even with the high ambient noise (before the recent changes), I always found that a ton of monsters eventually swarmed there (and it's always optimal to retreat and fight later when fully prepared, instead of staying there and fighting on with mostly depleted mana and lost health, even if I fancy my chances). Even in Tomb, it doesn't matter if I let loose a Fire Storm, if I just retreat afterwards into a safe distance. Thus, small differences in ambient noise don't matter much - really quiet branches like Crypt and Tomb might have more noticeable monster magnetism to noise, but that just means you are forced into doing what is already optimal. Now, the recent "simplifications" have further reduced the significance of noise, by removing it from Lair and Orc, lessening it in Tomb (where it was at least somewhat noticeable) and buffing it in Crypt (which is already an easy location, both optional and not containing a rune, and thus that particular change doesn't matter much). Perhaps the Shoals noise increase (it was increased, right?) is the only relevant part (if it was a sufficient increase) because it does have a problem of monsters swarming you the moment you make any noise, and unlike in other branches, it's not so easy to retreat all the time because of the water.

Well, it creates atmosphere! Or would, if the player would notice it. So clearly we need messages that indicate the ambient noise every few turns. In Orc: "You hear orcs shouting in the distance." In Crypt: "Everything is silent." :)