minmay wrote:am i the only person in the world who uses "melee character" to mean "character which melees"
Blarg. Thanked when I meant to quote.
Anyway, this idea of terrain was meant to address the fact that ranged combat is better in nearly all circumstances because it does more damage (damage the whole length of approach, and length of fleeing), and it allows you more escape options, since you can stay near LOS limit and still kill things, while melee must either open themselves up to a full LOS worth of attacks or stay in corridors since they have to go up to a monster to kill it. AC/EV and SH may be good, but it isn't as valuable as not getting hit by things that can't see you. If there are some benefits to staying out in the open, then you may have a new choice.
TimP wrote:Wouldn't Consecrated Ground run afoul of the 'no double gods' rule on the list of things that won't be implemented?
My thought was that you would be technically following the god, but rather the area is filled with a little bit of the god's power. However, if you don't follow this god, there should be a moderate chance of short-term Wrath. Also, if you already have another god, then you should lose large amounts of piety for using that holy site (Unless both the site and your god are TSO, Ely, or Zin). Atheists would be benefited in this case.
dpeg wrote:100 Rogues has something like this (single squares which boost one aspect). It does lead to luring which is not so bad for 100 Rogues because the levels are very small and the food clock is relentless.
If you want to use this in Crawl, it certainly needs more thought.
I'll try to work out problems as other people point them out, since usually other people can see problems with your idea that you yourself can't.
Would it be possible to make the generation of terrain conditional on 1. a localised pack of monsters nearby; and 2. an open area? If so, then simply having the two, possibly three timers in addition to these conditions should prevent luring. The shortest timer should be very short, would start when you stepped onto the terrain, and would end be marked by, "This place is falling to pieces," and accompanied by a gradual decrease in benefits. The middle timer would start when you saw the terrain and the long timer should be about the length of the long vault timer.
I think luring can be prevented by instilling a "Use it NOW or lose it" mindset.
XuaXua wrote:There is a page in the dev wiki for this:
right here
If enough problems with the idea are worked out here, I'll move it. If the idea has too many problems, then I won't clutter up the wiki, since cleaning individual pages can be a pain, as you have pointed out elsewhere.
ebarrett wrote:There is so much wrong with this - scummable, needlessly complicated, assumes melee, T&D and evocations are worse than they actually are, etc.
Could you explain how it should be simpler then? I'm all for conciseness and removing unnecessary bits.
The Terrain idea probably does assume the weakness of melee too much.
But T&D and Evocations? As I see it, T&D is just security. It does nothing constructive or fun. It presents me with no new choices. It only keeps me from experiencing totally random problems, and unlike monsters, these traps aren't fun problems to solve.
Evocations is primarily limited to wands, rods, and occasional rings and artefacts. Misc. Items aren't yet good enough to use widely, and cards are still primarily for Nemelexites only, since decks don't generate often enough elsewhere. However getting enough useful rods to rely on in a 3-rune game isn't something you can count on, and rightly so, since Evocations is at least partly defined by its greater randomness than spellcasting. If Evocations had something else that it affected, you might consider pumping Evocations even when you weren't a Troglodyte or Nemelexite.
Human kind cannot bear very much reality.
TSE