Malarame
Level: Master Delver
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Ah, first post!

I think there should be a screen associated with each room and/or level that tells you things like how many tries it took you to beat it, how many monsters you killed, time spent in that room, etc.

And here\'s another idea, how about it records the time it took to beat a room (not total time, just the time for the winning try) and we can have best times for each room on the main website. What do you guys think?

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Matt O'Leary
Webb Institute
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zex20913
Level: Smitemaster

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Sounds like cool stuff man.

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ClaytonW
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As well as shortest time, include shortest number of moves. On a level like 17 (the effieciency level) this would be rather fun to try and be as efficient as possible.

zex20913
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ClaytonW wrote:
this would be rather fun to try and be as efficient as possible.

Sometimes efficiency is waiting.

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Malarame
Level: Master Delver
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Good point zex...however, if the quickest way to beat a room is to wait, then that would be reflected in the list of fewest moves. If someone else can beat a room without waiting, so can you.

____________________________
Matt O'Leary
Webb Institute
Class of 2007

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception."
-Groucho Marx

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Malarame wrote:
I think there should be a screen associated with each room and/or level that tells you things like how many tries it took you to beat it, how many monsters you killed, time spent in that room, etc.
...

I like these ideas too. The next version will at least have a tentative step made in this direction. It doesn\'t save the best values upon completing the room or anything like that, but if you right-click on the room, it will tell you how many moves you\'ve made so far, how many monsters you\'ve killed, and how many moves remain until the next spawn. (BTW, anyone who has the latest code can check this out.)

Adding a best scores list is a neat idea. We would also like to add something related to the DROD challenges into future versions that can be customized using the level editor.

Malarame
Level: Master Delver
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mrimer wrote:
It doesn\'t save the best values upon completing the room or anything like that, but if you right-click on the room, it will tell you how many moves you\'ve made so far, how many monsters you\'ve killed, and how many moves remain until the next spawn.

Would it be possible to put the number of moves remaining until the next spawn right on the main screen so you can tell without having to right-click?

____________________________
Matt O'Leary
Webb Institute
Class of 2007

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception."
-Groucho Marx

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Would it be possible to put the number of moves remaining until the next spawn right on the main screen so you can tell without having to right-click?

Erik and I have discussed this a lot, and I think we have come up with a reason why this is not desirable here. I think one element of the DROD philosophy is to keep the game screen and gameplay as simple as possible. This makes it fun! IMO, putting stats directly on the game screen actually might water down the smite-mastering fun, turning DROD into more of a numbers game. I\'ve seen some other \"pure\" puzzle games that have some stats on the game screen, and I\'ve noticed that you tend not to need the specifics they give you, they can be distracting (i.e. looking at them often removes your immersion from the puzzle) and they take away from the screen space. So I\'ve arrived at the tentative comprimise of being able to look at these numbers when you really want them, but they\'re otherwise out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

But don\'t despair. We\'re thinking of other good ways to approach this issue. More on this later.

ErikH2000
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mrimer wrote:
But don\'t despair. We\'re thinking of other good ways to approach this issue. More on this later.

That\'s right. Maybe some good in-game visual or audio cues. But let\'s not geekify the screen with numbers!

-Erik

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moldar
Level: Delver
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erikh2000 wrote:
That\'s right. Maybe some good in-game visual or audio cues. But let\'s not geekify the screen with numbers!

-Erik

How about a small crescendo in the room music? A quickening roach-like chitter? A tar-burbble that accelerates as the spawning time comes closer?

I think the audible approach can be nice (especially given the option of turning it off . . .)

Oneiromancer
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Ah, bringing this back up to the forefront, it would be cool to have some kind of conclusion screen when you beat the game that says how many times you died, how many monsters were killed, how many rooms you conquered, etc. Then when we have this list of those who have solved the game, we can compete even more by comparing arbitrarily large numbers!

There might have to be some considerations, like instead of total number of monsters killed, only have the total number of monsters killed on the successful completion of the room. 'Cause otherwise it wouldn't really mean much. And hopefully reentering a room with tar won't confuse the counting system. Or restoring an old room to resolve it, although maybe that could get your kill count down while continuously adding to the death count...just to avoid "padding" your statistics...

Game on,

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams