The Tavern

I like how auto-explore and running (shift-direction) are disabled when a monster is present. Is there any way to get the normal movement keys to do this, and then to create alternate keys (say, alt-direction) to force a move in that direction?

Wouldn't that be horribly awkward? Oh, I see a goblin six squares to the west, so now I can't just run up and attack him, I have to hold ALT while doing so! And the same goes for running away...

I don't think holding ALT while pressing 4 is very difficult, but I can see that this could get tiresome if you are fighting for a while. Perhaps there could be some sort of mode to switch between my suggestion and normal operation? Alternatively, I would be interested in the opposite of what I suggested - holding down ALT to warn before moving.

Hold Shift

Yes, this does what I want, except that it moves many tiles. Is there any way to get it to move one tile? (I still like having the option of running, so I don't want to set the maximum run distance to 1.)

Actually, that doesn't sound so bad even if I have to get rid of running. Is there a way to change the max distance you run to 1?

If someone (say, I) were to write a patch to implement this, is there a reasonable chance this would be accepted by the developers?

I have no clue, but I see no reason why they wouldn't put it in and keep it disabled by default, making it possible to change via the settings.

Maybe it should be modal, like in cataclysm, where you switch safe mod on and off by pressing a key, so you didnt have to press it all the time.

Still kinda bothersome though

Wouldn't it be better to just use force_more_message = comes? into view

modifier + movement or a toggle for safe movement would have a much different (better) effect than forcing more every time you see a new creature. I don't think adding this feature is necessary for crawl to be a great game. But I do think that if this feature was to be added, a fair share of people would have a better crawl experience for it. I've been wanting this feature pretty much since I started playing. Seriously if someone could code an option like max_run_distance that can be set to one I would be a very happy man.