[Crawl-ref-discuss] Combinations - what to do with the mess?

[David P. <pl...@mi...>]

Hi all,

still a bit shocked about the reaction (and even more so by Darshan's vote 
for having all of them possible), I utter a hilarious idea here. (I only 
do this because the last hilarious idea of mine, Beogh's water walking, 
meant unanimous approval.)

We start the game with a very tight set of combinations (like the one 
Johanna and me came up with). Meaningful games will unlock new 
combinations. (See below for some details.)

Yes, this may be awkward for a roguelike - I know this idea from arcade 
games (where you unlock a new shooter by winning in a certain way, for 
example). Here's the basic advantages and drawbacks:
+ the newbie sees precisely the good choices
+ the better you get, the more bizarre combinations you gonna play
+ thus, it adds a lot to longplay motivation (believe me on this)
- you cannot play your awkward combination straight from the box
   (but, please, think as designers in this discussion, not only as
   players)
- we get nailed down on having transferable score files (the scores
   formats could actually change, but then we'd need scripts or something
   to update them)

Please don't dismiss this off-handedly - I am convinced it could help both 
you and us. (And like Johanna, I'd try to keep the starting screen 
unlittered.)

David

PS: Some rough ideas on the word meaningful:
* getting three different runes (no matter in how many games) with a
   species unlocks a new role
* new (private) records (measured in runes) unlock new combinations;
   bizarreness related to number of runes
* conducts could go in
Actually, unlocking stuff could be much easier:
* reaching the Temple with a race could give a new class for that race
* similar with other benchmarks (setting foot in Zot and so on)