Challenging wandering monsters

[tazoz]

It can add an interesting challenge for players trying to get to their stash safely, suddenly the autotravel would be disrupted by Titans and dragons instead of rats and sheep. Could add an element of risk in going to pick up scrolls you left on dungeon 3. The logic is that the orb of Zot generates tougher and tougher monsters over time.

Orcs can be upgraded to multiple warlords, snakes to guardian nagas, Lair generates Hydra's and death Yaks, etc.

Increase the level of risk depending on turns spent in the game, so mummies who spent millions of turns resting would suddenly face really dangerous enemies, maybe go as far as ancient liches and orbs of fire or fiends. It would add a sense of urgency to the game, you need to get out before the orb of zot gains enough power to overwhelm you with monsters. (It would make creating stashes so much more dangerous)

[TwilightPhoenix]

Isn't this what the OoD timer technically does already?

[mumra]

Isn't this what the OoD timer technically does already?

For a while; then it stops generating monsters altogether, to prevent XP scumming (which of course would be the problem with this idea!)

[tazoz]

Yes, It was a bad idea...

[Kate]

Well, spawning either stronger monsters or nothing at all would certainly be an improvement over running into goblins and rats when travelling through the dungeon later on. Weak monsters are just a waste of time at that point (and free food, I guess).

[dpeg]

Placing tough monsters on purpose during stash runs is a really bad idea. Removing worthless monsters _always_ unless they're spawned near worthy monsters is a good idea and I campaign for it since quite some time. It would be good for the interface (less tedium) and for balance (piety and food). I'd turn it into an Implenentable if I had any clue on the details. If someone can fill in, please step up!

[tazoz]

One idea is to create a number of set dangerous encounters composed of a selection of creatures that would be challenging for most characters, for example a combination of hydras and you give the player a bunch of allied humanoids with weak bladed weapons or maybe a 15 headed hydra and a bunch of dead humanoids with bladed weapons surrounding it, necromancers and giants or dragons, so once you kill the large creatures the necromancers raise them and you have to face them again. or maybe slow nasty creatures (such as slugs) with a huge pack of orcs closing in from all directions, so you have to take them out before the slow creatures get into range and the situation becomes dire, or a bunch of cultists who summon a unique fiend after a few turns and are subsequently killed by it, maybe by use of refrigeration, they can also scream in the process and once the fiend is successfully summoned they can be affected by fear and start running away before their imminent death, make the encounters very rare, sort of ambushes, to add a bit of flavor and surprise to the long walks, tie the encounters to the characters level, so on levels 10-15, certain encounters take place.

[mumra]

One idea is to create a number of set dangerous encounters composed of a selection of creatures that would be challenging for most characters, for example a combination of hydras and you give the player a bunch of allied humanoids with weak bladed weapons or maybe a 15 headed hydra and a bunch of dead humanoids with bladed weapons surrounding it, necromancers and giants or dragons, so once you kill the large creatures the necromancers raise them and you have to face them again. or maybe slow nasty creatures (such as slugs) with a huge pack of orcs closing in from all directions, so you have to take them out before the slow creatures get into range and the situation becomes dire, but make the encounters very rare, sort of ambushes.

This could make a nice vault map encounter at sufficient dungeon depth; no need to generate such events on stash runs through already-cleared levels (difficult to implement, generally annoying to have autotravel interrupted when you're trying to get somewhere and do something specific!)

[dpeg]

tazoz: these are interesting ideas, but why should they come up during stash runs rather than during exploration?

[tazoz]

Dpeg, good point, they would work better as random encounters during exploration.

Both of my suggestions (waypoints and this one) were mainly to get rid of the tedium of being interrupted by non challenging creatures while on the way to the stash.