Dungeon Orientation

[Big-J-Q]

I once again started a new game on v15. So, I descended to the Trolin level, picked up the empty waterskin and the compass which I put into one of my party member's hand. Then I went to fill up my waterskin, but when I stepped through the stairway, the compass pointed in another direction, although I haven't turned (how could one turn in the stairway?)

[beowuuf]

In DM, stairwells can start facing one direction, and come out at any other direction on the next level - so RTC has got it dead right, and it is exactly how the original dungeon was oriented...you go down N/S stairs on level 2, and emergy from W/E facing stairs on level 3. There's just a bend in the stairwell you don't see cause you can only see the top and bottom if you like : )

[Big-J-Q]

Really? When I've been playing with DMute, I always had to make sure that the end of the stairway is aligned with the beginning of the stairway.

I think it feels a bit stupid that player doesn't see the stairway twists. Luckily that has not much relevance, but still...

[Gambit37]

Why is it stupid? The staircases could be really long, and be spiral, and go through all sorts of other areas before coming out on the next level. I quite like that and it works well for DM as it's the kind of game where a bit of imagination can go a long way.

[beowuuf]

As long as stair A is on the same co-ordinates as stair B, the game flips you to the correct facing. You can actually have stairwells open at both ends, though when you come back up you will always only face one way.

I agree, for mapping it would throw you alot without a compass, if you had more than one point of reference (example, fall down a pit, then walk back to the stairs up) until you realised that the level was 90 degrees to where you think it should be.

[Big-J-Q]

Well, the stairways could be long and spiralling, but at least I would accomplish it differently. If the stairway is longer, then the following level would be deeper, but the pits don't care about the distance between two consequential levels. (the distance between n and n+1 equals the distance between n+2 and n+3, even if the other stairway is imagined to be longer).

But this is, after all, a very minor bug, if bug at all, and this certainly gives the compass more meaning than just a device used to cope with rotation traps.

[Big-J-Q]

Of I had to forget something...

So what if the player goes up a stairway, but the end of the stairway is open to three directions (everywhere but player's facing-direction)

[Gambit37]

You can't do that unless you deliberately remove the two side walls, which would be pretty daft. If you did this, you wouldn't know from the side view that there were stairs there - it would just look like normal open space. Only when you cross the tile would you suddenly appear on the level below. This is what DM did - not sure about RTC, but I asssume it's the same.

[beowuuf]

I don't know how DM chooses which way to face you, nbut it always faces you the same way...if you come up stairs that have all sides open, then there is no problem,. you face the correct exit way. All that would happen is you could sidestep left and right, and if you looked at it from ths side, aas gambvit says, you would see nothing (like a wrong facing door. If place a stairwell in the middle of a 3x3 room you will see

As for your depth worry...if you think about how the graphics look, the dungeon corridors are just over people height...yet you take 40 damage and possible breakages in limbs from a fall? I've jumped down from enough roofs and walls to know that it needs more than that!

So you can expect that the floors are VERY think, and that the pits are quite deep, so all staircases are long enough to twist how they want...i guess it's just preference, but I go with Gambit on this one and like how DM does it.

And yes, it does make compasses all the more useful...but then, that's not a bad thing : )

[George Gilbert]

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