ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Once you start to understand the Sandworm Lair's mechanic, you can still get caught by tiles on the edge of rooms that appear to be supported but instead collapse when you move into them. Additionally, it's not impossible for a large group of tunnelers to make an area that looks a little like a room, leading you to believe that it is safe. The mini-map already makes it clear, with a great deal of squinting and double-checking, which tiles will collapse, so the same should be done to the main screen.

A little "shadow" or falling debris effect would also be good for tunnels that will collapse in the next few turns.

Sadly when running at 2560x1600 the minimap is almost useless for this purpose, so having a few falling pixels of sand occasionally fall across tiles which can collapse on the main screen would be very useful

You can already tell the difference between dug out, collapsible tiles, and uncollapsible tiles.
Hint: observe the terrain tooltips in the lower right corner of the screen

A graphical effect of little sand particles would be a great addition I think. For new players it might also make it a little clearer what the hell's going on.

martinuzz wrote:You can already tell the difference between dug out, collapsible tiles, and uncollapsible tiles.
Hint: observe the terrain tooltips in the lower right corner of the screen

Hmm, good to know. Still, it really should be represented differently, given how graphical ToME is.

Surely the floor tiles for 'dug' areas can have a bit more texture to them? There are already a few different looking tiles for 'sandy ground' (see pic 1 which is untouched), so why not have another set specifically for dug tiles, that are slightly lighter or sandier (even though they may have a bit of variety in between them still)?
I suck at impromptu edits but here's a nooby representation (see pic 2)
It can still be kinda subtle, so long as it takes into account those people with a bit less contrast in their screens (my example may not be 'different' enough to qualify in that respect).

Maybe instead of trying to change most of the tile area, just take the already existing tiles and add a few (randomly between 2-5) little clumps of sand scattered about on those temporary spaces?