One thing that's been bugging me about this game compared to other roguelikes: It starts insanely difficult (I die within the 1st 5 rooms 75% of the time unless I get a few very specific skills) then gets easier, then gets harder. Most roguelikes start out very easy (assuming you are smart enough to check for traps and not read/quaff everything you find), then get hard, then brutal. This makes it excessively annoying to play with random builds and skills that have potential, but nothing that does any damage at game start. After my neat random build got cornered by a zoo the second room on level 5 (pyro mage and an immune to fire named golem >.<), I burned another 15 characters without getting past 1/3 of level 1 (though one was a crash, which was a bummer cause it was going decently well). It also didn't help that I TWICE encountered an enraged diggle in the first room... Anyway, either characters should be a little more powerful at game start, or mobs should be a little weaker. Start ramping them up on level 2, after we've had a chance to get a couple levels and a piece of gear or two. (Note that this refers to Going Rogue mode and a little bit to Dwarven Moderation, but primarily GR)
I feel getting started should be a little hard, especially on GR. One could argue that the squishiness of mages at level one is a balance issue to compensate for their nigh-invulnerability later on. Getting a necro-build started should be challenging, since it cakewalks later. The tough start provides a totally different play experience than the rest of the game, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I must admit, some days that initial mad-dash for equipment and XP is more appealing to me than the long war of attrition in the middle floors. When that's the case, I'll often start a new character despite having one in progress further down. I'd be sad to see that change too much. Perhaps a better approach for all would be for someone to make a mod that includes easier rooms and easier monsters on the first floor. Then those who want a softer start can opt-in to it, without it taking anything away from those who like the main-game's approach to the opening floor.
I certainly wouldn't be opposed to a mod to achieve this, as it is my personal opinion. However, my view on games in general is that they should progress from easy to hard to brutal, or at the very least maintain difficulty throughout. The fact that this game tends to start Brutal and progress in reverse for a few levels before picking up difficulty again around DL 6, depending on your specific gear set at the time, bugs me. And generally, like you said, it becomes a war of attrition, though this is true of most roguelikes I've played (so long as you don't go down so fast it's that AND the constant insta-death "it breathes" threat. To be honest, I've never played a mage-heavy skill set beyond the one time that I got to level 5 and died to a fire immune special in the first-room-zoo. So, I can't really say how powerful they get even further down. It was a good char, but far from invincible. As to the mod approach, a pretty easy way to mod this would be starting the game with a buff that increases damage and reduces damage taken and lasts for, say... 30 attacks or 150 turns or something. That's all I need, just something to get past those first few rooms. Similar in concept to the "rez immunity" type buffs in many MMO/FPS games, only not THAT powerful and lasting a bit longer. I'm tired of opening the first door and finding 2 mob divisions, one potatoes, one blobbies, or an enraged diggle or two that kills me in 2-3 hits and I can't do any damage to. Hell, if someone could point me in the right direction, I'll make the mod myself!
I do think that Floor 2 should probably be another, lower floor. As it is right now, no matter what build I have, it's pretty much the hardest floor. Perhaps there should also be an option to have more floors, including transitional ones.
While I can't say that I agree with floor 2 being the hardest, I do think it would be nice to level out the difficulty jump that each floor presents. I have no clue how hard it would be to do, but I would love an option that makes the floors half the size (leaving every aspect of them the same otherwise), increases difficulty half as much when you go down one, and double the total number. That's a bit of a different topic though. My concern is with, literally, the first 5 or so rooms at game start.
OK. I give. Someone tell me how to mod this thing. I lost another 15 characters in the first 5 rooms, most in the first 2, and these weren't even random skills attempts. I finally had a bit of time to play, and I've spent the last 2 hours unable to get any traction with a character at all without resorting to stacking mage skills with level one damage abilities.
