When our character dies, we are hit with a barrage of prompts; I’m sure we’re all familiar with them by now. “Do you want to see your inventory?” “Do you want to create a memorial file?” etc. I propose that we add a final one, “Do you want to return to the main menu?” I think we all intuitively know this is a good idea, but that wouldn’t make a very exciting RFE if I just stopped now.

I had the thought when, after killing what must be my fifth or sixth Mist Elf Necromancer, I wished I could just hit a button to re-create the character with the same Race/Class combo so I could get going right away. Even better would be if we could just return to the main menu! I’ve identified and outlined a few issues for and against the idea below.

+ Reason the First: We want to keep the player playing! I know it sounds like a devilish marketing strategy, but we want people to keep playing ADOM, and closing the game when they die seems like the worst idea! It will help the newbie who will inevitably die quickly and many times in a row get right back into a game.

+ Reason the Second: I’ve seen rumor going ‘round that this game might be on Steam in the future, and although I don’t recall seeing anything about that from the Word of God, this feature would be a *must* in that environment. Re-launching the game through Steam each and every time would quickly become a pain.

+ Reason the Third: Allowing the player to return to the main menu quickly would do more than just allow them to make a new character. If they were so inclined, they could check the manual to better see how to survive, check the FAQ, or look at the high scores.

+ Reason the Fourth: Sheer force of willpower! I want this feature badly!

On the flip side, I’ve thought of a few reasons why it might not work out.

- Reason the Negative First: It would be even easier to scum for ‘good’ star signs. Personally, I don’t think this is a big deal. Thomas has done a good job balancing the star signs, and if the player wants something (even if it is scummy) I am all for easing their frustration. It already exists, this would just make it less of a hassle if they really don’t want, say, the Falcon on a Wizard.

- Reason the Negative Second: It forces the player to take a break. If the game closes when they die, it forces the player to evaluate how and why they just died, and saves them the trouble of rage-quitting. Maybe this makes better players? I dunno.

- Reason the Negative Third: This sounds crazy (to me), but this feature might not be used all that often. If it’s not popular, there is no reason to implement it. I had a few more things to say about this but oops I forgot them.

- Reason the Negative Fourth: The ADOM codebase might not even be able to support it. I won’t pretend to know how the game was made. For all I know, there’s simply no way to get this in. It just might be impossible. But if there is a way…

In summary, there should be one final prompt when the character dies, asking us if we want to return to the main menu or quit. I did a basic search and didn’t see any requests for this feature, so I’m assuming it’s either novel or in some FAQ somewhere and I’m just an idiot for typing all this out twice because it’s already been declared impossible. [The forum’s save feature does not work like as I expected it to :( I swear this post had more content and was funnier the first time I wrote it, so if you wouldn’t mind, pretend it was.] If anyone else has anything else to say, because I’m sure I missed some key issues, please raise it in the comments! I’m only human.

Post Script: ~ Reason the Zeroth: We should, at the very least, have the choice.