Bridge building

[Soirana]

I think it makes sense, how are you going to get a pools' worth of magic water into a pool without lots of magic water?

I would not call uncursed potions of water as being magical in Adom... Maybe ask for 10 different potions.

[SinsI]

how are you going to get a pools' worth of magic water into a pool without lots of magic water?

By using a self-replicating magic item.

[clawbugmenot]

I would not call uncursed potions of water as being magical in Adom...

Try mixing two of them with the Alchemy skill =)

So, pool problem seems quite interesting. Pools are not guaranteed as the sources of positive results, they are more like roulettes, so I don't think requirements for building a pool should be too strong. On the other hand - the normal physics requires it to have enough water that you can "slip and fall in". So in the end it could be huge rock + a couple of potions of water + something magical. For me the candidates for "something magical" are potion of wonder and wand of wonder. They are useful by themselves but may be worthy trading into a pool.

Altars are really hard. I agree that they can provide significant tactical advantage and creating one in a corridor is one way to go. The thing is, you can already create a corridor to the altar by using wand of door creation. Anyway altar requirements could be stricter. Maybe in terms of how much time they require - so that building them on the deep levels will bring additional corruption on the PC. Maybe by stat drain or something else.

Creating altars only in unholy rooms is quite intriguing but those are too rare to make any difference. I guess restricting them to any special effect room are more reasonable (but then it still hard to explain logically, why can't you build them anywhere).

And thanks everyone about the notes for huge rocks. I relied on the adom wiki article and thought they are generated only as loot.

[JellySlayer]

For a pool, wouldn't it make more sense to need to dig a hole?

Altars are really hard. I agree that they can provide significant tactical advantage and creating one in a corridor is one way to go. The thing is, you can already create a corridor to the altar by using wand of door creation. Anyway altar requirements could be stricter. Maybe in terms of how much time they require - so that building them on the deep levels will bring additional corruption on the PC. Maybe by stat drain or something else.

You can do this, but you can't put the altar wherever you want. For example, you could put an altar at the choke points on D:50 and just sacrifice every enemy except the ghost lords. Even if an altar did spawn on D:50, it probably wouldn't spawn in a location where it would be feasible to lure all of the enemies over to it (and many enemies there can open/break doors anyway).

[clawbugmenot]

For a pool, wouldn't it make more sense to need to dig a hole?

I don't think so. When pool dries up there is no hole left. But how about building still with huge rock but only on a water tile?

You can do this, but you can't put the altar wherever you want. For example, you could put an altar at the choke points on D:50 and just sacrifice every enemy except the ghost lords. Even if an altar did spawn on D:50, it probably wouldn't spawn in a location where it would be feasible to lure all of the enemies over to it (and many enemies there can open/break doors anyway).

Good point, but I can't think of a sensible way to prevent that. Suppose if we require adjacent tiles to be empty (no walls, no objects) - that still doesn't solve the problem as you can build an altar and then build walls around. But maybe creating an altar on this depth will require so much time that you get too many corruptions and will be in danger of transforming into chaos being? Other thought is that you are so close to the Andor Drakon that he can destroy your altar or prevent you from creating it.

[clawbugmenot]

The time where bridge building would really shine, ie early game rivers is where you either wont have a hatchet, have way too low skill value, not enough food for the process or can't go back up because you're in ud.

That's right. It sounds more like a race/class power for me

[clawbugmenot]

Good idea, though probably needs higher requirements:

Build bridge. Requirements: log
Build door. Requirements: log + wooden stick
Build wall. Requirements: 2 x huge rock
Build forge. Requirements: huge rock + unholy water + heavily damaged room
Build statue. Requirements: huge rock + scalpel + holy water + incredibly ancient room
Build altar. Requirements: huge rock + holy water + supernatural entity room
Build pool. Requirements: huge rock + 15 potions of water (needs to be in stack) + holy water + humid room
Build torch: wooden stick + bandage + potion of oil

I returned to this comment and now that I was pointed out about D:50 this style with special effect rooms sounds interesting too. But since those rooms are rare by themselves, that will be a primary bottleneck, so requirements for materials can be made much weaker.

The hints as to where you can build what can be provided in fortune cookies.

[Phoobnahr]

Bridge building is one of the most useless skills in the game

just to chime in in defense of Bridge Building, I don't find this first statement accurate at all.
I have used bridge building to cross the pool to the High King's tomb MANY times. Not all characters are lucky enough to have a wand of ice by that time, and though I always grind the cavernous levels in that dungeon, the RNG is sometimes uncooperative.

[SinsI]

You can use ice-generating monster (ogre magi or ice/chaos lizard) instead of that wand. Since several previous levels are cavernous, they are readily available.

[Phoobnahr]

You can use ice-generating monster instead of that wand.

you CAN, but i have never successfully managed to do so. I find pumping a few skill points and hauling about 10-15 logs down to the bottom of the dungeon to be a much more reliable and less dangerous method of crossing the lake for a wandless character.
I do however wish there were some forests on that side of the mountains, or trees to cut down in the hills and swamps...