Walls

[Xecutor]

At some point I decided to add different types of walls in Wizard's Quest.
Just to make progress visible, and to add some variety.
First decision was simple: starting from first levels with undead enemies walls are moldy.
On next set of floors there were no enemies with some specific trait.
So I came up with 'wet' walls. Not so uncommon in mines.
Along with wet walls there are puddles.
After wet walls there are walls ... covered with fluorescent mushrooms
You can see the wall itself in darkness, but not the floor near it.
And than ... I ran out of ideas.
I have 3 main colors left: red, yellow and purple.
Red color I reserve for bloody walls of final level.
So, yellow or purple.
Sandstone can be yellow, but it's not very common as a walls material in mine. AFAIK.
Purple... mb walls covered with mystic runes or something like this.
And some random special effects when player is wondering around. Horror style.
Can't decide.
Any good ideas?

[Hi]

Walls that are mirrors. in the same style as ascii portal

[Xecutor]

Walls that are mirrors. in the same style as ascii portal

I had this idea
But current implementation of the way everything is drawing it's a little hard to do.
And way too confusing if whole level is with mirror walls

[Fenrir]

Is it possible to make them magical mirror walls that magically reflect magic? That could be interesting.

[Xecutor]

Is it possible to make them magical mirror walls that magically reflect magic? That could be interesting.

Theoretically it is possible.
But in practice it would be too harsh.
Strategical destruction of a wall is part of game.
Hm. Probably if not all walls, but some are reflective..
I'll think about it, thanks!

[Etinarg]

I remember a non-roguelike game that had walls which were invisible until you bumped into them. Basically you started with a black screen, all enemies visible, but you had to "discover" the maze step by step.

It was realtime, and there was some time-pressure on the player due to attacking enemies; it still might be an interesting idea.

[Z]

What about another kind of obstacle, like lava? Or deathfog, which is opaque and is constantly slowly moving, killing those who did not try to escape (still, it moves in a way that the non-fogged region always resembles a normal static natural cave a bit, and it is impossible to be surrounded by the fog unless you really try)? That's just a very rough idea, I don't know exactly how it would work.

[Z]

A small toy experiment with this idea: fog See how fast you can explore the level without being trapped in the fog. (This is a zip file, the server just does not allow me to store a zip file.)

[AgingMinotaur]

I remember a non-roguelike game that had walls which were invisible until you bumped into them. Basically you started with a black screen, all enemies visible, but you had to "discover" the maze step by step.

It was realtime, and there was some time-pressure on the player due to attacking enemies; it still might be an interesting idea.

It would require an AI that takes the feature into consideration, somehow. For instance, do the monsters know about the walls from the very start? If not, what happens when they bump the walls? Should walls also become opaque when you bump them, obscuring monsters from your vision as you bump more and more of them? If you could construct a system where it might be clever to keep some walls transparent (deducing their positions from monster movement, perhaps), while gaining a different advantage from making others opaque ...

As always,
Minotauros

[Xecutor]

Entirely transparent dungeon is overkill.
It requires significant rewrite of AI. As current AI knows dungeon layout perfectly.
But several transparent/invisible walls inside rooms might be a nice addition.

[Etinarg]

It would require an AI that takes the feature into consideration, somehow. For instance, do the monsters know about the walls from the very start?

I don't remember clearly anymore, but I can imagine two easy solutions:

1) The walls actually do not exist, until you create one by bumping into the place where it will spawn.

2) The walls are there, just invisible for the player. Monsters see/know the walls, and act accordingly.

Both ways the AI should not become much more difficult to program than the average roguelike AI.