HousePet wrote: And it certainly isn't fun to never be surprised by random critters.
...so you don't use the available tools like arcane eye, track and precognition because you like surprises? Then I guess you
are in favour of reworking them?
Also surprise doesn't need to equal (effectively an) instakill, now does it? Not that getting instakilled in normal is very common.
HousePet wrote:Random is random.
You do realise that one could literally justify any random action imaginable with this line of reasoning (like adding a 1 in a thousand of a chance each turn to instakill your character regardless of enemies. why? because random is random). The appeal of roguelikes for me is that eventhough you can't
always save your character from death, usually you can
if you don't screw up (and trying not to screw up is the fun part because eventually it will happen but it will be the players fault). Roguelikes are a test of will: you are playing against your own stupidity and carelesness.
HousePet wrote:If random enemies are the only reason
Mankeli wrote:Although the problem is related to the "rare but possbily very deadly" nature of uniques (but not only to that)
So yeah, reading.
Dungeon Crawl used to have spell school called divinations. It had things like magic mapping, detect items etc. It was removed because non-combat spells often encourage grindious/tedious behaviour: people who want to maximize their odds of winning should use them if there are no downsides inside the game. However, there is a downside in
real life which is lost time doing something boring. This is pretty far from OCD, I'm not sure you have completely grasped the meaning of that term.
Now, what about solutions? Here is a couple of alternatives. Note that some of these solutions try to address other LOS-related problems as well.
1) Make all the scouting effect passive, remove the abilities that doesn't fit well with passiveness. Balance NPC class talents to make some classes actually do something and the others not effectively kill the PC as soon as the NPC notices the PC.
Improvements: Removes tedium, improves balance.
Problem: Chronomancy related talents. I guess some people do find precognition etc fun?
2) Remove all the scouting abilities. Make LOS reciprocal (means removing lighting in the current form as well).
Improvements: No more ultra cheesing monsters outside of their LOS (well, at least less of it), no more out-of-LOS instakills for your best characters, no more tedious scouting preparations for fights.
Problem: this is actually a pretty big change so it would take time to implement. Also many people would complain about it regardless of it gameplay effects (which you may or may not appreciate, of course). Also chronomancers.
3) Give some kind of instakill shield if the attack originates outside of PC's LOS.
Improvements: would lessen the need to scout ahead, less cheap deaths.
Problems: even though your character is not instakilled is may be
effectively instakilled because of the inflicted status effects etc. that completely debilitate your character. I don't know if it would be possible to address that in a meaningful way.
4) Combination of the above ideas. Like passive scouting + instakill shield + rebalance of NPC talents or whatever you prefer.