Shoals Surfer
Posts: 300
Joined: Thursday, 1st May 2014, 13:13
Proposal: Only generate one (non-slime) S branch per game
## Proposed Solution: Only generate one S branch per game. Only require 2 runes for Z, and possibly remove the rune lock on V or move it to U.
## Justification: If the choice of order between two branches isn't interesting, and completing the second branch is almost always easy, why make characters go through a second branch at all?
There are several additional benefits. First, generating only one S branch increases game variability and so replayability. Currently, there is a 50% chance of any given S appearing in a game, this change would reduce that to 25%.
Second, forcing a character to confront an S branch that's threatening to them leads to more interesting decision-making. This might seem counter-intuitive, since the proposal appears to remove a choice from the player. But it just substitutes more for less meaningful choices. Currently, if Shoals or Spider generates for a character who would have trouble handling the threats they pose, they can simply put off facing these branches until they are stronger. This reform forces the player to consider the resources they have available and find a way to survive. Or, if they conclude they really cannot handle the branch, they might choose to enter early a late-game branch like Vaults or Depths. I think this sort of branch order decision, while not perfect, is better than the choice between S's.
## Possible Issues: You could argue that this will make some play-throughs more difficult than others. A game that gets Swamp will be easier than a game that gets Shoals for most characters. To this I say, so what? Crawl is not meant to be uniformly difficult. I think it's more important that this change would make most play-throughs less tedious, and force players to overcome more obstacles before they have solutions to everything.
It's true that some balancing and tweaking of S branches might be necessitated by this change. Spider, for example, tends to be very binary in difficulty, i.e. its either fairly easy or really really hard, as I think crate has pointed out. A fragile character forced to go into Spider with no source of rPois might justifiably feel screwed. But I think the existing situation just serves to mask problems with the S branches that should be addressed anyway.
You could also argue that this will decrease the overall amount of XP and loot a character has at the point where they enter V or U. If that's really a problem, there are ways to address it: grant some XP on getting a rune and/or generate more loot in the rune vaults. But I think it's generally agreed that there is too much XP available in a given game. This change would at least delay that point of oversaturation until later. A character capable of getting a rune is more than likely ready for V:1-4, and should be encouraged to do so rather than farming additional unnecessary XP by completing another S branch. In other words, I don't think this change makes the post-S branch game significantly more difficult.
Finally, I'm unsure what to do about the V rune lock. On the one hand, I think offering the player some kind of option if they find the generated S branch too difficult makes sense. Making an early entry into Vaults and/or Depths possible is one way to address this. On the other hand, removing or displacing the rune lock still allows a player to put off nabbing a rune. If that's an issue, it could be partially addressed by increasing the incentive to complete S:5, by, again, offering some XP or loot with the rune.
- For this message the author all before has received thanks: 2
- Brannock, duvessa