Mines Malingerer
Posts: 43
Joined: Tuesday, 1st May 2012, 15:09
Location: Utah, USA
Easy/Casual Mode
So I downloaded the source and created an Easy mode for myself. It is a separate menu option at the beginning (like starting the tutorial) and has a separate high score list (like Sprint mode). It gives the player +10% HP, +10% MP, and +1 to all skill aptitudes.
There were a few design goals I had in mind.
1. Have a buffer for stupidity and casual play.
2. Remove the need for tweaking skills (I can leave all skills on and still have a viable character).
3. Reduce the tedium of building up the player's skills during the early game. Since so many characters die, this became very boring. Giving +1 to aptitudes means my players build up a little quicker.
4. Reduce early-game survival dependence on lucky finds. It is always nice to find a dagger of venom, platemail, or some other great item that will make the early game easier. I am in no way trying to suggest that you have to have good loot to survive, but the HP, MP, and skill boost makes the early game a little more forgiving.
5. Still leave the game challenging. The game is still hard. 10% is not a lot in the big scheme of things. And once a skill hits 27 it cannot go higher anyway, you just reach it a little but earlier.
There is an additional side-effect that I have noticed and that is that some interesting race/background combinations become more viable with the aptitude increase.
My characters still tend to die, but they get farther on average and it is less tedious (more fun).
I called mine Easy mode, but perhaps Casual mode would be better. Is this something that is worth considering for general release? Would other people be interested in it?
I could see a possible downside that players may become too soft playing Casual mode and get used to taking chances, but maybe that is not such a big deal.
As a bit of background, I am a relatively experienced roguelike player (been playing since Rogue) and have played Crawl since the original. I have two wins with 0.10 (SpVM and HOFi) before I created my Easy mode.
My CAO player page