Has anyone been playing this? I used this for the first time recently and i must say its quite nice, lets you realize yourself and your build a little faster and lowers the importance of archeology which is nice for me recently. So what i would like to hear is: What do you guys (and girls) think about this option.
I nearly always play NTTG because I always felt floors were too big for my tastes. It got boring to me. It's somewhat harder due to the lack of loot, but easier when starting.
It's nice to not have to deal with the tremendous amounts of clutter. Bigger floors = more items, 98% of which are useless or filler. However, smaller floors does mean fewer Krong altars, fewer Brax shops, fewer chances to get Chests of Evil, etc. Most of the things in shops/chests are useless to you, of course, but having more of them gives you more chances to find something useful. Somewhere on the forums, someone said that with NTTG, less of the EXP comes from monsters, so it really behooves you to have lockpicks and disarm traps otherwise you miss out on a vast chunk of EXP. I'm not sure I buy that, though, because monster XP is doubled same as anything else.
Things that'd improve NTTG mode (in my opinion): Shop on every floor Monster Zoo on ever floor > 1 One of each type of Vending Machine on every floor All ammo/ingredients that are found/sold have their quantity doubled Maybe double Zorkmids too?
NTTG I find you level quicker making some builds easyer to get started, but as many people found double mob exp actulay left them will less overall exp per floor (though grinding is easyer). This is due to fighting a lot less mobs. It also makes crafting difficult with the reduced items. And overall the entire run ends up more difficult due to reduced artifact/uber/shops counts. But I find the pace much more plesent myself.
Played it once. Hated the lack of shops and whatnot, but it actually made the game a whole lot easier.
The reason you fight fewer mobs per floor is that you spend less time on that floor, so there are fewer respawns. However the reduction of floor space also means monsters have fewer places to spawn, meaning there's a much higher chance of wandering into a room chock full of 'em near the end of the floor. This problem is particularly pronounced on GR. That said, I much prefer NTTG, just because it keeps the game moving at a decent pace.
I actually HATE NTTG, as it ironically turns the game INTO a grindfest. In my experience, there's absolutely no need for grinding in the normal settings, as you can just explore the entire floor and then move on to the next one. The game's quite well paced in that regard, I have to hand it to whoever was in charge of the XP growth and costs. With NTTG however, the goal ceases to be "explore the whole floor", because that takes hardly any time at all, and becomes more "Fight enough enemies to be strong enough for the next level. NTTG is great for testing out skill trees and the like, but I really dislike it for actual play.
lowers the importance of archaeology? Huh... I've been noticing archaeology being MORE important, actually...
How practical/possible would it be to have the nttg option on the load game screen? That way you could choose reg or smaller levels for the next level you find/generate. Obviously you wouldn't be able to change the level you are on or have already discovered.
