Proposal: epic unlocking.

[Hurkyl]

The first time I entered Zot, the animation let forth three bursts of sparkles (each of a different color) before opening the gate and letting me down.

For whatever silly reason, I was looking forward to seeing many more bursts of sparkles if I brought many more than three runes to the gate. I was very disappointed the first time I brought five runes to Zot: it still only unlocked the lock with three runes. (I don't think I even got my three flashes of color that time, just one)

So... I propose that the animation for unlocking a rune lock be more involved if you bring more runes than needed!

[Tiktacy]

This is entirely pointless from all sides but flavor, however, it's simple and easy enough to add, so I say do it.

[duvessa]

Well yeah, why the fuck would I give the coke machine 20 bucks if a drink only costs $1.50?

[Siegurt]

Maybe it will give you change for a twenty, and if all you got is a $20 bill, and you got the thirsty on ya....

[wizzzargh]

Hah, that describes my experience exactly, Hurkyl.

Even if the animation remained the same, I wouldn't mind seeing more lines of flavour text pop up.

[nicolae]

Hah, that describes my experience exactly, Hurkyl.

Even if the animation remained the same, I wouldn't mind seeing more lines of flavour text pop up.

if you go into zot with more than three runes, the gate calls you an overachieving nerd and gives you a wedgie

[jejorda2]

There should be a Zot:0 floor that has X Pan Lords sleeping in a large circle around the entry stairs, where X is the number of runes that you didn't collect. They are trapped behind transparent but destrucible walls that disappear when you get the orb. The exit stairs are one space away, so if you have enough stealth, you just walk by. Good luck with the noisy orb. Do you release them one by one, or hope to rush by the gang?

[1010011010]

It would be nice if the Gate the Zot reacted differently to each rune, even if you only put in 3.

[Galefury]

I too was disappointed that the Zot unlock didn't change with different or more runes.

[Psiweapon]

+1 to this.

Just give each rune a different special effect, mostly cosmetic, what's wrong with giving unlocking the portal to ZoT a little more oomph, dramatism and variation? It already has special effects just because, tying them to the runes the player has actually collected would give him/her a little more sense of accomplishment - think of it as an aesthetic, flavorful reward:

Decaying rune: A thick mist emanates from the gate! - A few green gas or steam clouds appear around the gate.
Barnacled rune: Sea water floods from the gate! - Short-lived shallow water appears in some of the tiles in LoS - never on the player square.
Serpentine rune: The snake decorations on the gate come to life! 1d4 neutral low-level snakes (adders, ball pythons) are spawned around the gate.
Gossamer rune: The gate is suddenly covered in cobwebs! - 1d4 webs (detected) are spawned around the gate - never on the player square.
Slimy rune: Caustic slime seeps from the gate! - The floor in a radius of 2 around the gate becomes green??

Silver rune - no idea
Golden rune - Black flash as per Torment?

Abyssal rune: Space is distorted momentarily! - A random amount of wall and floor squares in LoS get cosmetic changes as per Lugonu's Corruption ability

Glowing rune - Short-lived chaos clouds? Green flash?
Magical rune - no idea
Fiery rune - Short-lived fire clouds?
Dark rune - Flash-duration reduction of LoS, as per Darkness or Lantern of Shadows?
Demonic rune - no idea

Iron rune - no idea
Icy rune: There's a sudden flash of cold blue light! - blue flash as per Ozocubu´s Refrigeration
Obsidian rune - no idea
Bone rune - no idea

[siprus]

btw I think vault guardian should do more damage more runes you carry. Every time you pick up a rune new ring of 8 vault guardians spawn around the orb. (But if 8 already exist no additional once will spawn, their damage just upgrade)

[Sar]

Orb guardians hit as hard as stone giants and act almost as fast as centaurs. They also have some guaranteed moths of wrath spawn in their vault. Are you sure that's not enough?

[njvack]

Well yeah, why the fuck would I give the coke machine 20 bucks if a drink only costs $1.50?

Because this coke machine doesn't keep your money?

[galehar]

There are already special effects when opening the zot portal. A green flash for the first rune, and some blue smoke for the second. Some variations could be nice, or tying the effect to the rune inserted, but nothing too complicated. It's still a roguelike, so I think it would be better to have some nice flavour text with a simple effect rather than cinematics.

[caleb]

Perhaps I never paid close enough attention but I had thought the effects were tied to the rune already. Either way it would make sense for this to happen.

[Psiweapon]

There are already special effects when opening the zot portal. A green flash for the first rune, and some blue smoke for the second. Some variations could be nice, or tying the effect to the rune inserted, but nothing too complicated. It's still a roguelike, so I think it would be better to have some nice flavour text with a simple effect rather than cinematics.

And still the torches on the dungeon walls flicker, and chaos spawn iterate through several tiles, as well as do altars of Jiyva, Xom, Makhleb and Vehumet.

My suggestions were probably over-the-top, as they often are, but hey, that's what such discussions are for. You advocated for:

-Some variations
-Tying the effect to rune inserted
-Flavour text plus simple effect

Which sounds, frankly, awesome. The way I see it, the bottom line of this is giving the player a little nugget of aesthetic and flavour reward for fetching the runes and placing them in the goddamned portal - not every reward is yet another +1/+1 on your weapon or another artifact ring with even more intrinsics piled up.

[tompliss]

It's still a roguelike, so I think it would be better to have some nice flavour text with a simple effect rather than cinematics.

I know I'm going a bit off-topic, but have you played CogMind ?
It is in full ascii but has really nice effects on its (laser/rockets/EMP) weapons...
Roguelike doesn't mean ugly.

[Lacuenta]

+1

If you bring all 15 runes you should get electric boogaloo disco zot!!