New dungeons in recent versions

[mjkittredge]

I can't wait to see the new stuff once I finish with my current crop of characters and download the new version.

Or is it possible to download and have both run on the same computer? I wasn't sure if that would work, and don't want to screw things up for the saves I already have.

[kevintrimble]

A idea I have is if each of the new dungeons had a jail at the bottom containing a random npc. You can free the npc and they will give you a quest to escort them to a random town. If you complete the quest you get a random reward. I think this would give more incentive to explore these dungeons. Especially if the reward was each npc would train a specific skill.

[anon123]

is it possible to download and have both run on the same computer?

Sure, just install the new version to a different directory and use the "portabilizer" batch file so that it saves its settings within.

You can also use the following batch file, just create a file called adom_start.bat in the ADOM directory and copy the contents in there. Use this instead of the adom.exe to start the game.

@set ADOM_HOME=%cd%
@start Adom

[Soirana]

A idea I have is if each of the new dungeons had a jail at the bottom containing a random npc. You can free the npc and they will give you a quest to escort them to a random town. If you complete the quest you get a random reward. I think this would give more incentive to explore these dungeons. Especially if the reward was each npc would train a specific skill.

So carbon copy village dungeon? Nah, I'd rather have chests with random loot.

[LexyBoy]

Some ideas:

Something like a cavernous level with gold and/or gems on every tile, and a single W guarding it would be easy to implement (and look quite cool), if unoriginal. Ideally the wyrm would be alerted to the PC when (s)he picks anything up - "You hear an angry bellow and thundering footsteps!".

A temple of some sort - there are 5 chaotic temples in the game and no lawful/neutral ones (well, except Ruun's chapel) - perhaps the temples that existed further away from the chaos gate haven't yet fallen to the powers of chaos?

A puzzle, like say a level which is entirely dark ("You go downstairs. It's dark here... really dark. It feels almost as if something is covering your eyes. Your skin crawls") and cannot be lit (when you try: "You hear sorrowful moans! For a second you see hateful faces before the light is absorbed by some strange force!", summons ghosts). There would be a maze - not as hard as the Minotaur maze! - with a reward of some random stuff. It could be the tomb of someone so maybe armour, some weapons, herbs and some bones?

[paivi]

During my last three games, I've found several vaults, herbs, pools, altars, forges and two surges of power in these caves. Good enough for me.

[plllizzz9]

Diggin this out, I''d vote for one of the higher DL'd ones having a guaranteed surge/pulsing surge. Maybe even a greater vault. Imho, they're much more fun source of guaranteed artifacts than dull and repetitive pre/postcrowning, plus it'd add greater possibility of showcasing new vault types.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

+1.

Cavernous dungeon maybe at least worthwhile to scum for altars, everything else - meh. I pretty much never explore lower (or any) CoC levels if I find staircase early on.

But it's fun to go to the relatively high DL dungeons in the early/early midgame, pre-ToEF, when the lower CoC is blocked.

In my current ongoing game I found an ancient dungeon (R4) right after doing the Pyramid, at PC level 16, and a monster dropped white dragon scale mail. I also found a crumbling dungeon (R6) near Griffyard, at PC level 17 or 18, and was clearing a vault of berserkers when I took a stroll through the level, opened a door, to find a mixed tension room featuring a diamond golem and an ancient black dragon. I got the hell out of there.

Of course, I agree with everyone that it would be better to give these dungeons special content, but even in their current state, I think they already add to the fun of the game.

In the current versions, considering the Ice Queen domain and the new dungeons, the typical midgame blocks that slow the game to a stall (Khelavaster and especially ToEF) are no longer a problem, as there are plenty of places to go before clearing them (there are even reports of people clearing the minotaur maze before ToEF). I think this is clearly positive for the game. While I love underprepared ToEF runs with close calls against the ACW like the best of us, the fact is that a stall in the midgame with lots of people posting in the forums to ask about what to do was not a sign of good game design.

By the way, I don't know how you guys get so many surges of power... I don't think I see even one every 50 games (and I'm talking about decently long games, not stone block deaths at the SMC). But well, I haven't ever seen a wand of wishing in my whole ADOM career, and I have won a bunch of times...

[Blasphemous]

I had a randomly generated wand of wishing two games ago on a mindcrafter.
5 charges, it was in FGJC:3, I would have never found it if not for teleportitis from a helm, trying to drop me on a monster instead of empty tile.
Also, the last surge of power I remember was in pyramid. It was a book...
Surges are rare and I have never had the pulsing variety and I have also won a bunch of times.

As for the R dungeons, they are nice indeed, when you have an altar you need at one of the early levels.
In some situations I will even dive to look for herbs or vaults which can be pretty damn useful as well, but full exploration? Probably not.
There's no real incentive without some special feature. If the bottom had something nice, that would be different.
I'd gladly see another town in one of those or a tomb with some extra graves to dig, especially if there were at least some guaranteed great treasure graves.
Sometimes the graveyards can really screw you over in that department.