| Name | dcss:brainstorm:variants:sprint |
|---|---|
| Summary | Suggestions for the Dungeon Sprint game. |
| Added by | dtsund |
| Added on | 2010-10-06 06:49 |
Original proposal by — dtsund 2010-10-06 06:49
In the future, there should be many more Sprint maps 'officially' available on CAO and included in the download. Here is proposed that the game include difficulty ratings for each map, and that Sprint designers not be afraid of making a few intentionally easy maps. To be more specific, here's an idea for difficulty ratings:
1/3: Challenging, but doable, for beginning players who've never seen a rune.
In particular, it might be nice to have a number of these to allow beginners to learn the elements of survival strategy more efficiently (that is, without having to invest an hour or two of playtime before encountering a potentially fatal scenario), with the maps being designed to facilitate such learning. As an example, consider a possible 1/3 map designed around teaching players to play spellcasters more efficiently. This map would have loot oriented toward the caster playstyle (good robes, spellbooks, and the like) and give players a choice between Sif Muna, Vehumet, and Kikubaaqudgha. It could impress upon new players the power of Mephitic Cloud with a water-lined corridor filled with ogres, while teaching them about its later limitations with some high-HD monsters toward the end.
2/3: A concentrated dose of Crawl for players who can, or are nearly able to win with three runes.
The maps could emphasize the tactics needed to survive the regular endgame. This difficulty might also be appropriate if someone makes a 'novelty' Sprint map requiring an unusual playstyle (like, perhaps, a map where half the enemies are jellies with a Jiyva altar right next to the stairs).
3/3: Extremely challenging, even for the best Crawl players.
The existing Sprint maps could go here.
Having a number of maps of difficulty 1 or 2 would do wonders for making the game more accessible even while keeping the difficulty where it is. In particular, if these 'easy' maps are designed well, it could give new players a way to experiment with tactics and learn quickly which ones don't work, let them experience the benefits of each god firsthand without requiring spoilers, and allow them to learn about the nastier uniques without losing hours of progress when they unexpectedly die (and, again, without needing spoilers).
I like the idea of more specialised Sprint maps: for example, restricting background choice (perhaps to just one background — I think this is generally more interesting than restricting species choice) or providing a starting god.
— dpeg 2010-10-06 11:58
It would be great if it were possible to do that, aswell as having multilevel sprints - which I have some plans for.
— st 2012-05-26 21:48
Some of the Sprint map designs make assumptions about specific mechanics that have changed or may change in the future, and these may necessitate minor changes in the maps themselves. — dtsund 2010-10-18 22:32
Wayne/Wiglaf formerly had Smite, but now he doesn't. Having him sealed behind glass now makes no sense, so he should be replaced with some other reasonably tough smiting monster… Norris, perhaps?
Don't change this, it's great. — OG17 2010-10-19 02:56
When krakens get tentacles that can extend beyond the water's edge, it may become unreasonably difficult to enter the rightmost major vault; perhaps the entry doorway will need to be moved.
The way that I played Red Sonja, it felt a bit like a game about programming, except without the programming. There was not a lot of variation between the attempts generally, except to avoid the latest way to die stupidly, or fail to avoid a discovered way to die. Due to the fact that all the major mistakes I make up to the latest way to die are obvious to me, the main cause of death is carelessness or recklessness, often inspired by a desire to power through the earlier rooms that I know exactly how to do, but find too tedious to pay attention to.
For context, I'm not a very good Stone Soup player, only getting up to the Ecumenical Temple at best, but I could get a reasonable distance in in Red Sonja, up to the Daeva before I quit playing. Aside from the stopping point, it was like this for most of the starting builds I tried. I didn't try very many builds, but I played maybe 20+ times. I don't know if this situation persists on the other maps, as I've barely played them. The way I can think of to fix this that requires the least change to the map is to let the players actually program their character, maybe using a simple kind of assembly language. I'm assuming that it is replicated for other newbie players and thus needs to be fixed, but that might not be the case. — Pourush
Mummies have the unfortunate distinction of being the only species to start with one measly consumable. While it's true that they can't drink, rendering potions unusable, it seems unfair to just leave things at that. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me to give them a few scrolls to compensate for all the potions they don't get. What about two scrolls of fear, an extra scroll of blinking, and maybe a scroll of torment? — GameKnut
I support this. Not sure what and how much is needed. A scroll of torment is a nice touch. — dpeg 2010-11-12 23:20
Mantis 2286 suggests that creaking doors are overly random and unavoidable, leading to the best solution being just quitting. I'm not sure whether this was before walls started blocking noise, though.
— st 2013-05-20 12:11
Heck yeah, all of these things would be awesome for Sprint — Mu. 2013-06-10 12:46