!"#¤!!@! Abyss..

[daggaz]

My best character yet so far. 18th lvl kofi, clearing everything out with ease, the _one_ resistance I cant seem to find is MR. Get banished while clearing snakes, wander the abyss, slay hordes of demons, FIND THE RUNE, wander, wander, wander... get reeeeaaaal tired of wandering... wander, wander, wander, finally bump into a big nasty who silences me and smites me to death. Never did see the portal out but I must have been randomly teleported at least 50 times.

Anybody else have such bad luck in there? Usually I can find the way out but man.. this was just stupid.

/endrant

[Happy Corner]

I once lost a high-level Vampire caster in the Abyss, because I was resting in bat form over a lava tile in one of those little corners that was closed off, and a smoke demon came in to occupy the only other visible title. I couldn't escape, I couldn't bite it hard enough, I couldn't Makhleb-blast it worth anything (I had neglected Invocations), and - of course - I couldn't turn back to spell-casting, item-capable normal form because I was a brain-dead shitnoodle who resting in bat form over a fucking lava tile.

In summary, my death was slow, painful, burny, idiotic, and utterly well-deserved.

[slowcar]

yes, abyss is all about randomization, and can be very tedious. also quite dangerous, but mostly tedious and boring.

[daggaz]

yes, abyss is all about randomization, and can be very tedious. also quite dangerous, but mostly tedious and boring.

Emphasis mine. I hate dumbing down games more than anybody (or at least more than the next guy), but this seems to be the general consensus about the Abyss here in the Tavern. "Tedious" is absolutely anethma to the philosophy of the Devs (may they rejoice in the treasures of a thousand character deaths, huuuuzzaaa), so maybe the 1 in 7500 drop rate for an exit portal ought to be upped? This of course would make it somewhat easier to escape the abyss, and making crawl easy in that sense is equally taboo for the Devs (may they bathe in the tears of noobs and the blood of master gamers for all time, huuuzzaaaa), so in that vein, one could add difficulties along other dimensions:

-add some more lower level demons to slow runners down
-make the portal(s) surrounded by teleport traps except one or two directions
-give the portal(s) a guardian who must be killed/lured off in order to escape

[galehar]

I'm currently working on the abyss. I've improved the morphing (again just last night) and made it get faster with time spent down there. The monster generation will be scaled with the abyss speed too.
Regarding exits, I've said it before and I'm saying again. We keep the current rate for normal exits, but we make heavily guarded exit vaults more common. The problem is that such vaults don't exist yet. Maybe we could use the rune vaults and give them a chance to have an exit. Or just ask for more abyssal vaults.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

So the Abyss will function pretty much like an angry nose that would like either to sneeze you out or to destroy you with a lot of slimy protectors if you, a body alien to the place, stay there for too long?

[vintermann]

I'm currently working on the abyss. I've improved the morphing (again just last night) and made it get faster with time spent down there. The monster generation will be scaled with the abyss speed too.
Regarding exits, I've said it before and I'm saying again. We keep the current rate for normal exits, but we make heavily guarded exit vaults more common. The problem is that such vaults don't exist yet. Maybe we could use the rune vaults and give them a chance to have an exit. Or just ask for more abyssal vaults.

I went a trip to new abyss in a recent trunk with a Merfolk summoner/fighter of Fedhas, due to a miscast summon ice beast. I did survive, it was interesting, but I'm not sure I like the morphing. Wasn't it supposed to be out of sight? First time I saw the portal, it just morphed away. It annoyed me enough that when I got to a monster-free place just after, I just hit rest instead of exploring. A new portal morphed in just ahead of me. Sadly I lost that character to Saint Roka in the Swamp.

Lesson learned: There's a good reason morphing should be limited to the off-screen abyss: it gives you an incentive to move around.

[galehar]

I went a trip to new abyss in a recent trunk with a Merfolk summoner/fighter of Fedhas, due to a miscast summon ice beast. I did survive, it was interesting, but I'm not sure I like the morphing. Wasn't it supposed to be out of sight? First time I saw the portal, it just morphed away. It annoyed me enough that when I got to a monster-free place just after, I just hit rest instead of exploring. A new portal morphed in just ahead of me. Sadly I lost that character to Saint Roka in the Swamp.

Lesson learned: There's a good reason morphing should be limited to the off-screen abyss: it gives you an incentive to move around.

No, it was never meant to be off-screen. I've changed it some days ago to prevent exits and altars to be morphed. Just last night, I changed the morphing to make it look much less random.

[daggaz]

And here I thought I was just being teleported all the time... The first time I found that rune, btw, I stood on the tile and clicked to pick it up and... BAMF! "There is nothing here." I had been teleported.

The teleporting is actually nice most of the time, as it shakes the devils off your tail, but oh man it hurts when the goal is (was) in sight. All I know is, its so aggravating when you are spending *that* much time wandering around just looking for an exit. I literally used half an hour. I prefer fast and somewhat deadly over slow, tedious and sometimes deadly.

[Jeremiah]

Had a GhIE who had 9-10 runes and had killed several Pan lords.

Banished myself by unwielding a distortion weapon as I was running out consumables.

Found the Abyssal rune, then an exit... guarded by a kraken.

Thought I could sneak past the kraken and get out - but I had forgotten how fast the tentacles are and quickly got surrounded. Within about 2 turns I had gone from 250 HP to 50.

Couldn't blink because it was the abyss. Couldn't cast Ice Storm without hitting myself. The only thing I could think of to do was try Vampiric Draining on the tentacles and then use a wand of healing and hope my teleport kicked in before I died. It didn't.

In summary: however powerful you think you are, there is always something in the abyss that is a threat to you.

[joellercoaster]

...if you run up to it

(The Abyssal Kraken is a jerk, though.)

[Eji1700]

I don't mind the abyss being long exactly. I mind it being inconsistent.

My most recent character had two trips there, and was in running around with his lantern of shadows(i NEVER leave these at stash for this reason alone) for probably a total of 5 min top. Real time. I've had characters in the past spend upwards of what must have been at least 30 min. To the point that i'll save multiple times and have play sessions that are solely in the abyss...assuming i live that long. It's just obnoxious because it's so very very random. I want the abyss to be alien and threatening, but escape is just too random when i feel like i could've built a house out of corpses by now. And conversion doesn't really feel like an option so much as trading uncertain death for very very very certain death. If you can handle your gods wrath you can probably handle wandering around in the abyss until you escape. I guess it does help the godless though in a thematic way.

Anyways that's all game design stuff. On topic, seriously, #%$#%*# the abyss. I seriously think i have fewer issues with player ghosts than others because most of them are still looking for exit portals back to the dungeon.

[Astarotte]

Abyss is trivial in bat form, even at low levels. I got there by miscasting Summon Ice Beast.

Well, it IS a form made up to run away conveniently.

[slowcar]

I don't mind the abyss being long exactly. I mind it being inconsistent.

My most recent character had two trips there, and was in running around with his lantern of shadows(i NEVER leave these at stash for this reason alone) for probably a total of 5 min top. Real time. I've had characters in the past spend upwards of what must have been at least 30 min. To the point that i'll save multiple times and have play sessions that are solely in the abyss...assuming i live that long. It's just obnoxious because it's so very very random. I want the abyss to be alien and threatening, but escape is just too random when i feel like i could've built a house out of corpses by now. And conversion doesn't really feel like an option so much as trading uncertain death for very very very certain death. If you can handle your gods wrath you can probably handle wandering around in the abyss until you escape. I guess it does help the godless though in a thematic way.

Anyways that's all game design stuff. On topic, seriously, #%$#%*# the abyss. I seriously think i have fewer issues with player ghosts than others because most of them are still looking for exit portals back to the dungeon.

Good summarization, i wholeheartedly agree. And hope that we'll get some exit vaults soon. If you are a weak character banished by chance, you'll have to find the unguarded, random exit as before, but if you have beaten the lords of hell and pandemonium you can clear the path to a, well guarded, permanent exit.