The Spoileriness of Abyss Rune Vaults

[Quazifuji]

Abyss is frequently criticized for being tedious, but there's one feature that I've found sometimes makes it feel particularly frustrating for me: Finding the Abyssal rune as quickly as possible required recognizing the rune vault when you find it. While many of the rune vaults are very distinctive and just scream "this is it" when you find the entrance, some of them are less obvious, especially if you approach them from the back.

There are also a number of vaults in the Abyss that do not contain runes. Multiple times I've found myself exploring some structure in the Abyss, unable to find a rune but not sufficiently sure it wasn't the rune vault to just leave. Sometimes I'll also find a symmetrical structure and be unable to tell if it's the result of random chance or the back of the rune vault.

Overall, this element of exploring the Abyss feels very spoilery. Being able to recognize certain vaults helps in many places in the game, but it never feels like it has quite as big an impact as it does in the Abyss. Hunting for the Abyssal rune can already be very frustrating, and wanding around a symmetrical structure wondering if it's the rune vault or worrying you missed the rune because you didn't recognize the vault from the outside just makes it more aggravating.

So I think it would be nice if there were some way to know when you've found the Abyss rune vault without needing to be able to recognize it from experience. The simplest way would probably just be to give the walls of Abyss rune vaults a special appearance that doesn't appear elsewhere in the Abyss, but I don't know how easy/hard that would be and there would probably be other ways it could be done too.

[bananaken]

Maybe the Abyssal rune can automatically "corrupt" nearby walls or other props like water/plants into an unique Abyssal version of that prop. As soon as you reveal a tile that has been "corrupted" by the Abyssal rune you could get a notification much like when you find an Abyss exit. Alternatively you could have unique flavor descriptions for corrupted tiles that allude to the presence of the rune.

This would ruin the look of a lot of vaults, but it would at least make pinpointing the rune much easier and less tedious.

[phloomp]

Or just a message like "you sense the presence of the abyssal rune nearbye" with no visual change nor change to the dungeon.

[Chicken]

Is this really a problem? Getting *out* of the Abyss is a problem most of the game, but by the time you're ready to go *in* for some 15 rune character, what difference does it make if you have to knock over one extra vault? Most of the Abyss is so pointless, you ought to be glad to have a chance to explore something built.

[Quazifuji]

Is this really a problem? Getting *out* of the Abyss is a problem most of the game, but by the time you're ready to go *in* for some 15 rune character, what difference does it make if you have to knock over one extra vault? Most of the Abyss is so pointless, you ought to be glad to have a chance to explore something built.

It makes Abyss more tedious and frustrating. Exploring Abyss for 20 minutes without finding a rune vault is already an extremely frustrating experience, wondering if I've seen the rune vault but not recognized it and exploring every remotely structured area I find on the off chance it's part of the rune vault only makes it worse, and, in my opinion, doesn't add anything positive. Personally, Abyss is the rune I find most frustrating to go for by far - I don't even mind Pan or Hell that much, unlike a lot of people, but I basically never enjoy going for Abyss rune, and multiple times I've gone for the Abyss rune and just given up after 20 minutes of aimless wandering. This would make it less agonizing, without ever making it less interesting, in my opinion.

[dpeg]

Quazifuji: At what Abyss level do you hunt the rune? You know that the chance increases with depth?

[Tiktacy]

Quazifuji: At what Abyss level do you hunt the rune? You know that the chance increases with depth?

I never understood why anyone would go deeper than abyss:3 if their only goal is winning. Doesn't that just put you in more danger with the only upside being less tediousness?

[Quazifuji]

Quazifuji: At what Abyss level do you hunt the rune? You know that the chance increases with depth?

I never understood why anyone would go deeper than abyss:3 if their only goal is winning. Doesn't that just put you in more danger with the only upside being less tediousness?

Exactly my thought. Currently, Abyss 4 and 5 seem to go directly against the game's philosophy of avoiding situations where the optimal strategy is very tedious. They seem to be worth doing solely if you're willing to increase the risk of dying just to save some tedium.

[archaeo]

Personally, I'd be happy with making the rune vault more common, but I still favor a solution that involves Abyss teleports just becoming increasingly likely to drop the player in a rune vault. It'd be cute to combine this with the idea I recently read elsewhere that has a chance of dropping you deeper into the Abyss when you teleport.

e: but on re-reading this, I should point out I only mean when the Abyss teleports you, not when you manually teleport. That'd be terrible.

That said, the other response is that people should make more Abyss vaults and rune vaults. They're spoilery, but several really do stand out as special, spoiled or not, and it should be possible to add more of them that look distinctive.

[bcadren]

What if all the rune vault's walls and floors had their colors animate randomly (like Discopan)? It would be an interesting look and noticeable enough without being a completely new feature. "Hearing" the rune when the vault loads (like a timed portal) would also help.

[dpeg]

archaeo: Yes, I had abyssical (not player) teleports in mind: being morphed to a new area of the Abyss should have a chance depending on total Abyss time and current Abyss depth to land one level deeper.
Also yes to more vaults -- cannot have too many!

[Hurkyl]

It'd be cute to combine this with the idea I recently read elsewhere that has a chance of dropping you deeper into the Abyss when you teleport.

Hrm. While it maybe creates interesting situations, it might also wind up being more annoying if the best play is to leave as soon as you can every time you're dropped into Abyss:4 and make your way back to the safer Abyss:3. I suppose other things could change concurrently to avoid that problem.