The Tavern

Very small suggestion. Some people have mentioned that, if you don't recognize the surrounding tiles around a portal vault, it can be easy to trigger the short timer without realizing it. How about when those tiles come into sight, the player gets a warning that pauses everything (to make sure they see it) and stops auto-travel. It can be something such as "You hear an eruption" (Volcano), "You feel a frigid chill" (Ice Cave), "You smell garbage" (Sewer), and etc. This would only happen when the short timer on these vaults start, not when they enter the level, so they still have to find the vault itself on the floor. And, when they see the tiles, they still have to force their way through whatever is guarding it if they want to get there in time.

That would be great!

good idea

+1.

You should post this on the brainstorm wiki here:
https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php?id=dcss:brainstorm:vault:portal_vaults

I definitely support this idea (admittedly though, I was one of the many people who've suggested it before)!

Timer portal vaults are excellent BTW - but missing them most of the time because I don't even know what they are until it's too late, makes me sad.

This is a great idea. You should brainstorm on the appropriate messages for all types of portal vault.

Thought up a couple to get people started. Some of them are hard to find themes for (spider nests, mummy curse, baileys, etc) especially since I'm guessing you'd want a dozen or so of each to keep some variety.

Some for sewers:
You hear the squeaking of [dozens of] rats.
You hear water pouring out of a grate.
You smell the pungent aroma of waste.
You can hear the pitter-patter of tiny rat feet.
You hear what sounds like a [kobold/rat] paddling through stagnant waters.
The noxious fumes of garbage invade your nostrils!

Spider caves:
There seem to be more spider webs than usual in this part of the dungeon.
The hollow carcasses of a spider's previous meals litter the ground.
This place seems to have a curious lack of [mosquitos/small insects].

Baileys:
You hear an orcish war chant.
You see a sign warning you to keep away from a nearby [orc/kobold/etc] stronghold.
You see bones with [orcish/kobold] teeth marks on them.

Ossuraries:
Small flecks of sand litter the area.
Your [weapon] flickers black for just a moment. [trying to riff on the curse motif of the mummy; could be phrased better]
You see a [small scrap of parchment/sign/blood scrawling on the floor] warning about the mummy's curse.
You see dozens of smashed potion flasks, labelled "Potion of Rot".
You see the corpse of an adventurer who appears to have rotted to death.

Some theme is provided by the messages you get when you see the actual portal. But I like what you have there. (By the way, known timed portals should be listed in the Ctrl-O screen.)

I'm not sure, but maybe we should limit ourselves to "you hear/feel/smell", messages.

I've had this in mind for a while (but probably didn't write it down in the wiki). I'll try to review the portal timers before 0.8 and see if I can add such messages. Thanks for the message suggestions, keep them coming, there's at least Wizlabs still without suggestions.

--Eino

Tukima's Studio --> dance, reflection
For some reason, an old dance tune from your youth drifts through your mind.
You feel a sudden spring in your step that you haven't felt before.
You feel an almost imperceptible tug on your weapon in the direction of the floor ahead.

Erinya's Garden --> centaurs, fruit, oklobs
A whiff of fresh grass and summer air catches your attention.
A clatter of hooves echoes through the dungeon ahead.
You hear the faint twang of a bowstring from the dungeon ahead.

Doroklohe's Tomb --> demons, golems
A forbidding silence seems to emanate from the area just ahead.
You catch a whiff of stale, unwholesome air.
Something at the back of your mind seems to be warning you away from the area ahead.

Cigotuvi's Fleshworks --> mutagenic, twisted, aberrations
Your skin begins to crawl...did you just see that section of floor quiver?!?
A sickening, pungent scent permeates the air here.
The floor ahead appears to be covered in a repulsive goo.

Iskenderun's Mystic Tower --> Deep elves, purple, statues, force spells
You catch a whiff of ozone and the smell of blasted rocks.
You see a few Eldritch symbols scriven on the floor ahead.
You hear a faint noise like an explosion far off in the distance.

Zonguldrok's Mausoleum --> zombies, skeletal warriors, ancient lich
You shiver as if someone just walked over your grave.
A foul odor, reminiscent of a charnel house, wafts your direction.
A eerie greenish glow flickers in the air ahead.

Wucad Mu's Monastery --> autumn, orange statues, shadow monks
An unexpected puff of air blows a few dry leaves your way...where could they have come from?
You have an unnerving sensation like someone is watching you.
You are struck by a moment of contemplation. The area just ahead looks like an inviting spot.

Cloud Mages' Chambers --> air and water, cloud mage
You feel a static charge building in the area ahead.
A puff of cool, moist air blows toward you from the area ahead.
The section of dungeon floor ahead appears damp, but you can't see the source of the moisture.

Halls of the Hellbinder --> demons, fire
Did you just hear the cackle of impish laughter?
You catch a faint whiff of brimstone in the air.
The dungeon here feels hot and oppressive.

I'd say stick with simple messages ("You see/hear/smell a something-or-other. The entrance to a <portal> is nearby!"), the really cryptic ones just result in players getting confused and/or looking up spoilers.

don't make unique messages for each map; the mystery is good (gameplay: more motivation to enter; more danger since you don't know if the map is one that is hard to escape)
I don't think it would work currently anyway but I don't know the relevant bits of code

I thought that the short timer starts when you see any tile from the entry vault, but it turns out this was a hallucination; it only starts when you see the portal itself. I modified the wiki page in question.. https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php?id=dcss:brainstorm:vault:portal_vaults&#timers I think it should change (at some point), and such messaging as suggested here should happen.

--Eino

Aren't there are a few ossuary entrances completely encased in stone and only accessible via a secret door? They are already easy to miss, and this change would make these even more problematic.

But the level of satisfaction you get when you realise that there's probably an ossuary in that rock, find the secret door, and then find the portal just as it's almost completely covered with sand is second to none.

However, it admittedly does encourage spoilers =/

I wish the announcements were a little more intuitive too.

The initial announcement when entering a level should give you a vaguage direction, like "you hear a snort, from far to the south east" something like that.

Evktalo just fixed this bug.