ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I really like the new changes to the Maze, but the fact that the transition between the two areas is a glowing circle in a predetermined but arbitrary corner still bothers me a bit.

The area could potentially gain a lot of atmosphere based on how the approach to the Minotaur's area is framed. Some options:

- craft a special room for the entrance festooned with mild gore and a few statues (possibly in the center of the maze for tradition's sake)

- make the minotaur's appearance an ambush; task the player with getting an item from the center of the labyrinth (maybe a guaranteed piece of confusion resist gear?), then remove the entrance, disable recall options, and force them to move forward as soon as they pick it up.

- even more punishing: put the whole maze in one area and have the minotaur's appearance triggered by one specific action, then randomly place the boss on the map (announced by a roar or somesuch), shut off the old entrance, place a ton of new traps, and spawn a new exit in a random (?) corner

Besides these boss-specific ideas, I'd generally prefer if trying to exit to the world map after entering the maze would cause at least some minor complications at some point (e.g.: no recall, 50% chance for the exit to randomly teleport you inside the maze instead); otherwise, the area is nothing but a clump of corridors arranged in a square.

The maze never really struck me as a particularly important dungeon, so I'm not sure it merits something like making it especially difficult to leave. And besides, fleeing should always be an option.

The terrain is very boring in the Maze. I don't know why so many roguelike devs feel the need to throw in the obligatory maze + minotaurs zone into their games - it's always dull :P Nethack, Crawl and ADOM all have this same boring zone too. I'd be happy if it were removed entirely.

I will not, however, argue with that. At the very least make the walls diggable.

Grey wrote:The terrain is very boring in the Maze. I don't know why so many roguelike devs feel the need to throw in the obligatory maze + minotaurs zone into their games - it's always dull Nethack, Crawl and ADOM all have this same boring zone too. I'd be happy if it were removed entirely.

I don't much like the current maze either; the endless samey corridors are more aggravating than the Sandworm Lair, where you at least have to apply some logical thinking. I think the dungeon is urgently in need of an overhaul - either by scrapping it altogether (the boring option) or by coming up with ways to make it more exciting.

Haaaaaate the Maze. Especially the 1-wide corridors and the unavoidable, pointless traps. It would be cool if the zone had a feeling of pursuit to it, though I'm not sure how to develop that.