Lessen the Randomness of Flame Clouds in Volcanoes

[bcadren]

  Code:

[05:01.35] <Bcadren> !lg * recent place=volcano s=ikiller
[05:01.36] <Sequell> 1325 games for * (recent place=volcano): 199x, 162x a molten gargoyle, 72x an orc warrior, 49x a gargoyle, 47x a fire elemental, 47x a vampire, 45x a salamander, 40x a lava snake, 37x
a sun demon, 36x a fire bat, 34x a lindwurm, 32x a hell knight, 28x a centaur warrior, 27x a fire crab, 27x a manticore, 26x a yaktaur, 26x a fire drake, 25x a red devil, 21x Nessos, 17x a red ugly thing
[05:01.40] <Bcadren> !lg * recent place=volcano s=ckiller
[05:01.40] <Sequell> 1325 games for * (recent place=volcano): 178x cloud, 162x a molten gargoyle, 72x an orc warrior, 49x a gargoyle, 47x a vampire, 47x a fire elemental, 45x a salamander, 41x a player
ghost, 40x a lava snake, 38x a sun demon, 36x a fire bat, 34x a lindwurm, 32x a hell knight, 28x a centaur warrior, 27x a manticore, 27x a fire crab, 26x a yaktaur, 26x a fire drake, 25x a red devil, 22x a
draconian

I just realized that the #1 killer of things in volcanoes is the volcano itself. This is a little excessive; since they are sometimes very unpredictable and you gain no experience from facing clouds. Just seeing this as a bit of a problem; because it's often completely unavoidable damage. Volcanoes shouldn't inflict comparable random deaths to hell.

[Sar]

I honestly fail to see a problem with people entering a portal called "volcano" and burning to death. Doesn't it mean that it's working well?

[Wahaha]

Clouds only appear around lava. There is also a warning before they appear, though the warning is rarely useful if you're not going to use a scroll of blinking. I think there is also a minimum time between two eruptions, but this is just based on observation. Using these rules I rarely (lately, never) get in trouble with flame clouds now, and I think they're fine. I have gotten into big trouble two or three times and maybe died once, but now I've learned how to avoid them and they're fine.

Flame cloud deaths compared to total deaths by monsters gives a pretty good ratio, doesn't look excessive.

[onget]

Portal is boring as of grinder. Volcano If you are lack of rF, simply ignore, or force the death. It is the same as simply not exist Volcano.

[Sar]

Except I've done plenty of volcanoes without rF. I think I've done at least one with rF- as a mummy because I wanted some rF. Admittedly, I kind of know what to expect depending on the map layout due to playing Crawl a lot.

[onget]

It is the most portal is very luck-based difficulty,　simply very boring choice Force. (Simply ignore or, random death)
The easiest portal is a zig, because it is guaranteed.

[Sandman25]

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=15389&p=210609
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9811&p=135185

[Blobbo]

The volcanoes with the collapsing rooms are the worst / most hilarious. Not only are there flames, but you're encouraged to jump into them to grab the loot before it's gone, which causes some hilariously frustrating situations.

[tedric]

^ this is where we devolve into a crossover with the apportation thread, yes?

Seriously: Except for that one layout where you have to pass through one of two parallel sets of small rooms -- in which it is more or less impossible to avoid flame clouds -- I find that the monsters in the volcano represent the vast majority of the threat.

[scorpionwarrior]

Clouds only appear around lava.

it would be great if the game actually told players about that at some point.

[tedric]

as someone who has even the barest idea what a volcano is, it always seemed pretty intuitive to me

(to be fair, in a lot of maps the space between the volcano and the walls is about the same as the area that counts as "around lava"; on the other hand, the flame clouds don't appear in lava-less closed rooms or the ends of corridors far from lava, so i don't think this represents insufficient communication on the game's part)

[dowan]

I didn't know volcanos only spawned flame clouds next to lava, and I've been playing since 0.12. I assumed they worked like ice cave frost clouds, meaning, they just randomly appear in some areas and there's no predicting it. If that's true, it'd be nice if the game somehow told players that, maybe in the volcano description?

[duvessa]

I didn't know volcanos only spawned flame clouds next to lava, and I've been playing since 0.12. I assumed they worked like ice cave frost clouds, meaning, they just randomly appear in some areas and there's no predicting it. If that's true, it'd be nice if the game somehow told players that, maybe in the volcano description?

ice cave clouds and volcano clouds both work the same way: each vault has predefined, invisible squares where clouds can appear, which can only be determined by experimentation or by looking at the vault's source file. in volcanoes it happens that all of these squares are also lava

anyway what i find confusing about this thread is that vault clouds are somehow actually killing people, clouds always seemed like a harmless annoyance to me and there aren't many players that have entered more volcanoes with rF-. I guess cloud mechanics are pretty weird...