Quoting Doug Freyburger <dfreybur.DeleteThis@yahoo.com>:
>David Damerell <damer....DeleteThis@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
>>Quoting =A0Jorge Estrada =A0<jestra....DeleteThis@web.de>:
>>>What is an alpine ascension?
>>It's never really been formalised, but the idea was no unnecessary
>>backtracking up/downstairs, so no stashes, etc.
>Maybe a speed ascension, maybe just careful on each
>level with minimum visits per level.
It's quite difficult to formalise because of the possibility of
uncontrolled levelport / multiple level trapdoor incidents. One could say
"you lose if that happens", but the idea is to have fun.
Here's a first attempt at formalising Alpine, with two flavours of
harshness. It's a bit wordy because of the ugly cases for missing
invocation artifacts and level teleport around non-optional branches.
First of all - Dylan still hasn't released traps-341. I believe, from a
quick skim of the source, that a levelport from a branch may place you in
the branch or in any higher level in the parent branch. If that's wrong,
let me know...
You are always moving upwards or downwards. You may only take
stairs/ladders etc which lead in the appropriate direction.
You may not deliberately level teleport except to a level which you would
be permitted to move to via stairs/ladder/etc, or to the current level.
This includes hitting a known levelport trap.
If you hit an already known trapdoor or hole while moving upwards, you
lose the conduct. If you hit one while moving downwards, you lose if that
causes you to miss a necessary level.
If you read an unknown scroll and it level teleports you, you lose. You
are recommended to take precautions against this - price-ID, avoid reading
unknown buc-status scrolls, etc.
If you hit an unknown levelport trap, trapdoor, or hole, that's OK. You
may be permitted to switch direction in the rules below. You can
re-examine levels which this leaves you revisiting, and attempt an optional
branch which you did not attempt before.
Optional branches may be attempted only once. When you rejoin the main
dungeon after the direction switch at the bottom of the branch, you revert
to travel in the main dungeon. If you are levelported out of the branch
before you have reversed direction, you revert to travel in the main
dungeon - _if_ that causes you to pass the entrance to the branch, you may
reenter it, even if that is much later in the game.
Non-optional branches are different. You must work out the precise range
where the branch can occur in your current game. You must search every
possible level for the branch as far as is necessary to establish it is
not present before moving to the next level. You must enter a non-optional
branch, when you have found the entrance, before making any other level
transition voluntarily. If it turns out you missed a branch entrance
through inadequate searching and left the level with it on voluntarily,
you lose.
If you are involuntarily moved between levels such that you move out of
the range, you switch to travelling back towards the range and search it
from the end you enter it at. This includes cases where you are moved
entirely past a range you had not yet entered. If you are moved between
levels in the range to an already-searched level, you move back to the
level being searched. If you are moved to an unsearched level in the
range, you search it and may select a direction of travel provided that
that direction contains some unsearched levels. If you, as a result of
an earlier involuntary level transition, have no unsearched levels in
your current direction of travel and some unsearched levels in the
opposite direction, you reverse direction. Most of these conditions won't
come up unless you have infernal luck with level teleporters.
Invocation artifact search procedure: if a monster appears to have left
the level with the Bell, Book, Candelabrum, or Amulet, and you still need
that item to finish the game, you change to this procedure. Exception; if
the monster got the item because you dropped it voluntarily, you lose.
If you are in a non-optional branch and have not yet reversed direction
and the missing item is not the item pertinent to this branch, you first
proceed to the branch's pertinent item as normal.
You _must_ use telepathy, detect monsters, or some other 100% reliable method
to show the monster has left the current level. If you do not know which
monster has it, you should kill or otherwise examine the inventories of all
possible monsters; this is not compulsory, but if you don't do this to a
monster which later proves to have the item, you lose. You continue
travelling in the current branch, reversing direction only at the end of
the branch. When you have examined every level in the current branch, you
must exit the branch into the main dungeon (or perhaps you are there
already), using the direction of travel when you entered the branch as
your current direction.
You may bounce up and down the main dungeon multiple times, provided that
you are satisfying the "telepathy" and "kill all possibles" criteria for
each level you enter. You may enter a branch to search it, including the
branch you started in, but if the item does not prove to be in that
branch, you lose.
Working from the Gazetteer:
Start the game travelling downwards.
Mines: if you spot a level with two downstairs, you may attempt the Mines.
Less harsh; you can "peek" down one set of stairs and return. More harsh;
take pot luck.
When in the Mines, you are travelling downwards. You switch to upwards
travel as soon as you reach the bottom level. The preplaced level
teleporters in the Catacombs do not count as "known" traps for the
purpose of the rules above, but since you will be moving upwards when you
hit one, you'd best try and avoid them.
Sokoban: if you spot a level with 2 upstairs, you may attempt Sokoban. You
cannot "peek", since you know which staircase is involved.
When in Sokoban, you are travelling upwards. You switch to downwards
travel as soon as you reach the top level.
The Quest. Searching a level for the branch is trivial. More harsh; you
must wait on the Quest level until you qualify. If you are involuntarily
moved off it, return to it in the appropriate direction. Less harsh; the
Quest branch does not exist until you are level 14. You continue in the
main dungeon, but as soon as you reach XL 14, you proceed to the Quest and
must do it immediately.
If you hit the Quest portal accidentally while not qualified to do the
Quest, you must exit immediately. You may not purposefully enter the Quest
when unqualified. You reverse direction in the Quest when you pick up the
Bell.
Fort Ludious is a one-level optional branch, which means you may enter and
leave it only once.
Vlad's is a non-optional branch. You switch to downwards travel as soon as
you pick up the Candelabrum.
The Wizard's Tower is a non-optional branch. You switch to downwards
travel as soon as you pick up the Book of the Dead.
If you have not yet found either of Vlad's or the Wizard's Tower, the
range from the 9th to the 18th level of Gehennom counts as _one_
non-optional branch range.
The Planes are already inherently Alpine.
--
David Damerell <damerell.DeleteThis@chiark.greenend.org.uk> Distortion Field!
Today is First Saturday, February - a weekend.
>> Stay informed about: Role difficulty and number of ascensions 
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