eeviac wrote:There's a lot of small bits of DCSS that I don't understand or appreciate, but I don't want to make 12 different threads. I'm not complaining here. I'm not asking for them to be changed or removed - for now - I'd like (dev) input on what/how/why these things are the way they are:
I'll give a whirley go at it...though I haven't started my dev'n with crawl, my background is in test development engineering where I have had my experience with developing.
eeviac wrote:A. Sickness
All this ever accomplishes is forcing me to rest more and immediately after a fight with Komodos/Mosquitoes/sometimes ugly things. Crawl has too much enforced 5'ing, and this is a major cuplrit. (I really want to add nausea in here too but I think it's been discussed to death)
In keeping with the original Dungeon Crawl by Atari, poisons makes you sick. Sickness is a part of the game. If you only got poisoned once while playing, you would be asking "Why is that there? Seems like it should happen more often."
eeviac wrote:B. Corpse Sacrifice
Fedhas' LOS sacrificing is really slick - why don't Oka/Trog/Mak/Lugonu function the same way?
To thine own self be true. Why have a variety of Gods, if they all do the same thing? It adds diversity.
eeviac wrote:C. Non-renewable evoked Levitation/Flight
Why am I forced to stop levitating before I can start again? It's pretty irritating in the Abyss. Same goes for Black Drac flight.
Levitation is not a compound spell, so the more you do it, won't make you go higher. It is because of this thinking that some people have tried to apply to it in RPGs that the spell must expire before it can be recast. It's just the way the spell is defined globally.
eeviac wrote:D. Negative AC Armour
This just doesn't make any sense to me. The robe of misfortune is a funny joke, but the -7 randart gloves aren't so much. Feels like a NetHack leftover.
Variety. Having the same item every game coming up with the same cursed stats makes the game dull. The object is to make the game seem different every time it gets played.
eeviac wrote:E. Contam Ego
Flat out ruins anything it touches. I've hear it justified as making a good swap option, but after 1000 games I have never seen randart jewelry with just the right properties to see myself doing this.
Contamination leads to mutations. It is a way to keep a very powerful item from being used to death.
eeviac wrote:F. Fleeing
There's way too much of this going on. Elephants are massive killing machines, Slime Creatures are mindless - why are they getting scared all the time? Does anyone actually enjoy chasing dudes down? While we're on the subject:
It's called "Preservation of Life" and every animal will do it. Every intelligent being will do it. Though I tend to agree, it doesn't seem like behavior that a slime creature would take, but then I can also think of the times that I was glad to see one evade so it didn't take down an enchantment just before I got to kill it.
eeviac wrote:G. Submersion
I'd kill it with fire but it's hiding. Right next to me. Underwater. And there's nothing I can do about it.
It's a peek-a-boo encounter. Now you see me, now you don't. I understand at times it feels like your playing whack-a-mole, but it brings a counter to flight and levitation that allows someone to think they can move over deep water to evade an encounter.
eeviac wrote:H. Ring ID Game
Ego'd armour and weapons auto-id. Why don't rings with the exact same egos work the same way?
Many do. They just don't do it as soon as you put them on. For example ring of fire. You won't know it is a ring of fire until you get hit with fire.
eeviac wrote:I. Skeletal Warriors
Why do they have so much AC? Why do they have to come in packs? Bad monster draws can have you fighting 20+ of these dudes per Crypt floor. It's not an enjoyable experience (unless you have LRD).
They are made of bone. It is not like destroying the flesh will end this encounter. You must destroy a bone mass, and many of these are trolls so that makes the mass even greater. Bone is hard enough to use as a shield, so there is probably a shield bonus in there too.
eeviac wrote:J. Food Shops
1000 games and the only times I've used them is when they happen to be significantly closer than my stash and I've run out of potential shop/bazaar generation to use gold on. There's enough food in Crawl that these are a downer whenever they show up. Food is not fun.
Tell that to a human wizard with no amulet of gourmand. It depends on the race and class that you play for some of these to make sense.
One out of fouw people suffews fwom Ewmuh Fudd Syndwome. Guess whaaat?