Playing JADE gave me an idea about stairs. I noticed it's super annoying trying to find stairs to the next level in those quite large levels (especially maze types). So, why not make it easier and place the stairs somewhere near the entry stairs? It would make navigating much nicer when you have explored that level and just want to pass through it. Someone would argue that it makes too easy to advance, but that's not correct. The level difficulty should be determining that. In other words you can't just rush into places without getting killed by powerful monsters.
JADE is a nice game, because it shows how not to do things. It's constantly reminding what is bad game design.
The path between the stairs could be long, as long as it's well marked. It could be a double- or triple-wide corridor, say, since it is a major thoroughfare. Or have torches lighting it, or have it follow a river. Or maybe the room exits along the path are decorated.
ReplyDeleteThe fun part of this would be to occasionally insert a cave-in or other obstacle along the marked path, requiring the player to detour.
You can put more than one stair. Crawl you know.
ReplyDeleteJames: Good ideas. The path could be navigated same way as corridors with walk command.
ReplyDeleteJose: That sounds like trying to solve the problem a wrong way. But that's Crawl I guess..