Crawl suggestions (long)

Having finally beaten this game, I feel ready to suggest improvements.
A broad principle and then some ideas.

The principle: Balancing should make different options more, not less,
distinct. For example:
* Is Crystal Spear too powerful? Don't reduce its damage, lower its
range. What if earth conjurations all had a range of 4 or 5? There
aren't many (any?) spells with that kind of range right now - it
would create a whole new set of tactical problems.
* Are shields too weak? Don't just boost their general effectiveness,
leave them weak for melee but very effective against missile weapons.
* If artifact weapons are weak because they can't be enchanted,
don't just adjust things so the pluses end up closer, give artifacts
other advantages. For instance, what if an artifact weapon could have
multiple brands, or an offensive evocation?

And some YANIs:

1. More high-level consumables. Some of these should be so rare that
you might not find even one in a normal game, justifying the use of an
acquirement on a potion or scroll. Potion of full healing; potion of
invulnerability; potion of degradation (permanently lowers a stat);
potion of permanence (greatly extends any current magic effects);
potion of fiery breath (gives you a temporary breath weapon); potion of
power (like might, but for spellcasters); potion of polymorph (acts as
a *-form spell); potion of detonations (very powerful with Evaporate);
potion of growth/shrinking (works with the new size system); potion of
resistance (fire, cold and electricity); potion of gaseous form (big
evasion and stealth boost; can't physically attack; can pass through
walls); scrolls of devotion (big piety boost; nice when you're
switching gods) and heresy (angers your god); scroll that instantly
transports you to the first level of any discovered branch (would not
work when teleport control is impossible); scroll of mass charming;
scroll of enchant item (boosts the power of variable-effect jewelry);
scroll of banishment (instantly sends you to the Abyss).

2. Make miscellaneous items more useful. Why should the disk of storms
be unusable if you have shock resistance? - it would be cool if that
could be your main form of attack. And making the summoning items
depend on elemental skills makes them almost useless (except the
nondescript stone). Either get rid of the dependence, or let use of
element-linked items practice elemental skills.

3. If it wouldn't require too much coding trouble, let vision radius
vary. That would create a whole new dimension for tradeoffs among
races, items, gods, etc. If monsters had variable range vision that
would create more variation there too. Of course you'd have to figure
out how to deal with attacks from outside visual range. The simplest
solution would just be to make a ranged attacker always visible on the
target's next turn.

4. More kinds of monster attacks and defenses. How about one or two
kinds of monsters (maybe an aquatic one and a slow-moving land one)
that could grab the player and prevent movement? Make golems immune to
all magic attacks, like in earlier editions of D&D. Add one or two
monsters that can steal or permanently destroy equipment. How about a
monster (maybe some kind of 1) that can cause you to forget spells?
Better bring your spellbooks to Hell. A monster that reflects beam
attacks. Let Q's create permanent new monsters of the appropriate
type. Then put a bunch of them in the last level of the Hive - it
would be a totally different challenge if k's were being created as
fast as you could kill them until you forced your way through to the
queens. A monster that can pass through rock, and flees into the walls
when damaged. The best way to kill it would be in an open area.

5. New weapon brands. Madness (charms, confuses, scares, paralyzes or
slows target, with a probability based on your Enchantment skill;
drains intelligence when wielded). Dancing (evoke to animate).
Treachery (boosts stabbing damage). Shattering (may destroy
opponent's equipment; nasty if a monster is wielding it). Entangling
(whips only; prevents opponent from fleeing.) Whirlwind (may strike
additional monsters next to original target; of course to use it
effectively you have to be fighting multiple opponents.)

6. More nasty traps. Trapdoors and shafts that drop you down one or
more levels); antimagic traps that drain your mana and cancel any
current magical effects; bear traps like in some other roguelikes.

7. More gods. A Nethack-style god whose piety rises over time, who
helps you with your most serious problem when you pray, but who
doesn't like to be prayed to too often. An earth god who helps you
with earth magic and earth-based attacks (including thrown stones) and
at high levels allows you to create golems based on the size and type
of items on your square (another reason to hoover), whose piety rises
as you go deeper underground and also likes sacrifices of gold. A
thieves' god who boosts your stealth when praying, has an invocation
that attempts to sleep all monsters in LOS, likes killing monsters
unawares, and dislikes making loud noises (no wands of lightning for
you!) A god of wild magic who gives a number of enchantment-type
invocations but dislikes the use of magic devices - anything that
trains the evocation skill. Among existing gods, the necromantic-magic
one should be changed so the invocations better complement spells.
Instead of summoning a reaper, how about an invocation to heal, haste,
or otherwise empower all nearby undead? Demonspawn should not be
allowed to worship a god - there should be an atheist option besides
demigods.

8. The tradeoff between spell schools should be harder, such that
it's basically impossible to cast top-shelf spells from both of
opposed schools. Either LCS or Deflect Missiles, either Fire Storm or
.... well, we might need a new high-powered Ice spell. Similarly with
the non-elemental schools - you should really have to pick two or
three. Right now spellcasters all seem to end up with the same list,
which is kind of dull.

9. Make doors matter somehow. If pillar-dancing is eliminated (it does
seem un-Crawl-like), there should be some way to use doors to get away
from pursuers, at least if they can't open them. Maybe the solution
is to make it easier to open up a space from a pursuer, but make nearby
monsters follow you up stairs with a couple turn delay. So closing a
door would be the best way to get time to rest - especially if there
were some way to lock it.

10. Suppose the chance of leaving a corpse depended on the attack form.
(Would fit with the flavor text in the readme.) Say you're more
likely to get a corpse with a polearm, short blade, poison or
non-conjuration spell, as likely as currently with a quarterstaff, long
blade, unarmed attack, missile weapon or low-level conjuration, and
least likely with an axe, mace or high-level conjuration. Would be
something else to consider when choosing a weapon skill.

Lemuel

lemuel.pitkin.RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
> 3. If it wouldn't require too much coding trouble, let vision radius
> vary.

IMO, this would be very annoying and add almost nothing to the game.

> Make golems immune to
> all magic attacks, like in earlier editions of D&D.

Silly, IMO. You just force conjurers to learn melee weapons to beat
Zot: 5.

> Add one or two
> monsters that can steal or permanently destroy equipment.

Too annoying, Crawl is tough enough. J's are enough of a bitch and they
just take off a few plusses if you're not careful.

> How about a
> monster (maybe some kind of 1) that can cause you to forget spells?

Orange statues can. Purple 3's? Brain worms? Not sure about the last
two.

> 7. More gods. A Nethack-style god whose piety rises over time, who
> helps you with your most serious problem when you pray, but who
> doesn't like to be prayed to too often.

Boring. If you want Nethack gods, play Nethack.

I think there are plenty of Gods. Kiku, Zin, TSO don't see too much
play, unfairly IMO as they all have their advantages.

> 8. The tradeoff between spell schools should be harder, such that
> it's basically impossible to cast top-shelf spells from both of
> opposed schools. Either LCS or Deflect Missiles, either Fire Storm or
> ... well, we might need a new high-powered Ice spell...

Like Ice Storm? Ice storm is comparable to Fire Storm and it even does
1/2 damage to resistant creatures.

> Right now spellcasters all
> seem to end up with the same list,
> which is kind of dull.

Unfortunately, in practice this would still result in spellcasters all
looking the same...they'd just have an even more limited spell
selection. Deflect Missiles is great, but LCS is critical--without it
you can't take out fire/ice resistant creatures.

4.1.xx will nerf vehumet's enhancement and enhancer staves, so I think
we'll see some radical changes to spellcasters.

> 10. Suppose the chance of leaving a corpse depended on the attack form.

Does this really add to the game?