archaeo wrote: I'm not sure that the benefit of allowing players a slightly faster form of scummery outweighs the ability for the game to enforce a challenging conduct on those who want to have fun grinding.
what the hell does that mean
challenging conduct = don't enter the depths zig between finding it and getting all runes? that's a lame-o conduct because there's nothing you have to go out of your way to do; it's not like "never enter lair" or "never wear jewelery". It's always a bit scary entering the depths zig because you want to do as many floors as you can without dying, and you could dive further if you power-leveled some more in depths and other areas. Or, is the challenging conduct that you have to grind the safer Pan/Abyss, rather than zigs, if you "want to have fun grinding"?
calling mega-zigging scummery is inaccurate because mega-zigging does not help your character do anything other than clear more zigs. If you can clear one zig, you can already get all runes and win easily. So it's just a minigame, really, like an arcade game mode you get after finishing the main quest.
If anything, removing the
Depths zig, or putting like a 10-rune lock on the depths zig, makes more sense than removing Pan zigs.
The megazig counter is not spoilery at all except in the one condition that you play a newer version relying on your knowledge of an older version without checking the changelog, which is natural. Except that maximum zig difficulty is reached after completing 13, which is just so whatever.
archaeo wrote:you only encourage the player to avoid the (spoilery) megazig counter.
If you think the player is unduly punished for reaching zig:27, due to later zigs becoming harder, the game can offer counterincentives:
a) punish bailing before zig:27 by revoking the Zig mini-game forever
(your preferred method)
b) reward reaching zig:27 by granting free access to another Zig
(OP's proposal, though you're not against it either)
(neither of these counterincentives is in crawl right now, which is why you may be slightly overestimating the incentive of bailing from zig:26)
Now let's suppose you already have 15 runes; in case a), the player has
no goals remaining if he bails from the zig, so it's not really an option. The currently legitimate (and often tricky) ploy of prematurely exiting the zig is devalued, so he will recklessly take stairs instead of going for the portal, every single floor, which is like consigning the player to death - not something Crawl wants to do. I thought knowing when to disengage from a fight is a key skill in playing Crawl, no?
Note also, the tedium/downtime of looking for a new zig is most welcome / least unwelcome when you have to make a disgraceful escape from a turbo zig floor that is kicking your ass.