What are your favorite locations in ADOM, and why?

[Ozma777]

I haven't made it past XPlvl23 yet (noob played slashem too long and didn't play adom) but still going with a few lvl23 characters
My favorite is the SMC (supermariocave or the extension that snes roms have). Easy to find out whether your character is a keeper or not.
Make it through the SMC to HighMountainVillage and it's a keeper....die and well start a new one really.

Also infinate dungeon is pretty cool, although I wish it was more like puppy cave or others like it, with shops and vaults and stuff (maybe I haven't traveled deep enough for those dungeon features to show)

And I love the shifting graphics like tower of eternal flame or the water dragon mother cave and I agree the ice level should have maybe greyscale shifting graphics to enhance the icy feelings. I finally recently made it through the rift and library by not have any eq at all entering the rift (just some artifacts and some other armor I was prepared to let die, oh and also lizard/bat rations and herbs) but I was lucky I had over 800 castings of teleport and also ice/fire/acid/lightning ball burning hands and petrification.

I like the fact that adom has so many different places you can visit that it is entirely up to the user and/or the character what locations you should visit and in which order.

The SMC though and the resulting mad dash for a barely level1 character into the Unremarkable Dungeon gets me really into the game; pulse running high until I get to the High Mountain Village (killing the stone giant lord or finding him non-hostile or non-existant) and knowing that I now can exit and go to the CoC because my character survived SMC and UD. If I can't go to the first village stock up on large rations until i'm burdened. Eat them all and travel to and through the SMC to the HMV then it's a worthless character (or worthless RNG) that tells me to start again (by my characters death of course)

[gym21]

I love the UD. If I can't go through it with a character I always feel less attached to them. It's a delicious trial by fire, and the only part of my ADOM games where I feel in genuine peril at all times. You can prep for surprises beyond the HMV dive, but in the UD, death lurks around every corner and there might not be a thing you can do about it.

Second is Dwarftown. It's my first save point in each game, and it's a very nice hub. I really like that Thomas included a safe zone in the upper CoC to serve as a place to rest and recuperate from the perils of... well, everywhere else.

Third is the Big Room. I'm pretty sure I spend more time here than anywhere else in the game, because I'm a grindy sort of soul. Kill monsters, eat herbs, see what drops, run to Dwarftown to recover when you need to. Read a blessed scroll of danger and it's probably within RoDS range, too, but without the risk of corruption. Sure, it's not that exciting, but it's nice to see the character growing without the back and forth treks to the ID, which I never use.

And fourth, the minotaur maze. Just because of the feeling you get after clearing the stupid place without all the tools you should need.

[sylph]

1. SIL
This place has some wierd effect on me. I think it's a combination of how long you've been plugging the infinite dungeon for, combined with the unexpected nature of the place, combined with the fact that it features a part of the chaos trinity, which just the NAME of is enough to make it mean business. The SIL feels really eerie to me, and the way you never find it again makes it feel like some magical childhood glade that you can never return to... SO enchanting!

2. The Minotaur maze
I love the eerie village above it, and I really enjoy ploughing through the maze. I understand that a lot of players don't like it, but I really enjoy the change of pace, it feels like a completely different roguelike.

3. The Pyramid
It's a little easy after you've been playing for a while, but I remember back to the first time I entered the pyramid, and how sudden the change of pace was. I realised I was somewhere special, I'd been invited by a scroll and therefor felt I wasn't normally supposed to be there, and the fitting monsters for the area really got the atmosphere down for me. I'd like to see it made a little more tricky, but i remember how special it felt way back when.

Honourable mention goes to the scintilating cave, but I didn't include it because the main reason I have fond memories of that place is how rarely I get to go there.