I'm not sure what it's actually doing. Here's two screenshots from a brand new game:

Normal view
Map view

I have the default tile size of 32 and I set the minimum to 4. You can tell the game is definitely resizing the tiles (it's not just artifacting from the JPG screenshots), but it's either resizing them to 32x32 and simply making them fuzzy or only making them at most a few pixels smaller in both dimensions. It's still using the lossy algorithm. You can see, for example, some of the water on the left, the middle door, and some wall between the two open doors being chopped off.

So, a potion of absorbed life increase is better than a potion of life gain, but a potion of magic gain is better than a potion of absorbed magic increase. Unless I'm missing something, I suggest the names be swapped for one side so the strengths and names match for both HP and MP.

Also, sometimes it works out that when you gain a level with an edge, you could have spent the spell point you just got to meet a prerequisite for one of the school-related edges. But, since you can't open the learn spell menu while the edge menu is open, you end up having to wait for your next edge. I'd suggest letting people spend their spell points first, if this isn't by design.

Here's some edge ideas...

Fountain Efficiency: You take longer to dry fountains up than others.
(In effect, fountains have more energy, or they only lose X% of the energy they give to you, 'cause you're better at drawing from deeper within them or some such thing.)

Scroll Mastery: Allows you to use each scroll an additional time before it is used up (can be taken multiple times.)

Also, the stat-raising edges get less and less useful the deeper you go into the dungeon I assume the bonuses they give are not factored into the chance of successfully using a life/energy gain potion, or they're really really useless beyond the first few levels. But even with that, I don't think it's good to have such a short-term bonus for an edge... Maybe they should give something like, say, +1 for every X orbs you grab, or something of that nature? Plus an initial +Y bonus so they're still useful if you take them initially.

...I wonder if it would be possible / balanced / thematically appropriate to have an edge that expands your spell selection somehow, in some fashion letting you eventually learn a spell outside your initial schools? Of course, you'd still have to spend spell points on the spell (possibly more than usual), in addition to taking the edge to get 'access' to them. Increasing the spell-point cost of 'cross-school' spells taken with this edge would limit the potential imbalance of, say, just grabbing Drain or Create Boulder or some other useful level-1 spell; you'd be giving up overall spell knowledge (and an edge) in exchange for versatility. I don't know whether the edge should grant access to one additional spell, or one additional school... with the increased spell-point cost (and maybe even an increased MP cost), this edge could certainly be balanced, but I could understand not liking it for thematic reasons. Anyway, I thought I'd suggest it.

Added ideas from this thread to the project page. Should be considered "under consideration"; they're not necessarily going into 1.0, or going in at all, but I don't want to lose/forget them.

ideas

More Overcharged Spells
- why no cone of dig? cone create wall? why no better armor spell Hyper Armor that stops all damage (non extendable duration) I'm kind of dissapointed to find there isn't a Ca-Ra-Zy version of every spell and inverse spell in this game.

Enemy Behavior
* Fleeing and snare dropping. Intelligent rogues or tricky things like maybe kobolds that flee pause after maybe 4 steps to drop a nasty trap before continuing to flee

*more zig-zag rushes and flees for intelligent monsters to prevent line of sight.

*ability for skirmisher monsters to leap at player within three squares of closing or away from player to a non-line-of-fire sqaure when at low health for fleeing

* intelligent monsters less likely to step into charged melee radius 2 or higher.

*passage blocking. enemies step into corridors to prevent the player from stepping into the corridor to escape/control combat. It helps if the enemy has either a ton of HP so they are really a threat as a temporary wall or have a ranged attack so they can snipe at the player from the corridor.

*fountain guarding / using. enemies under 1/2 health will step into healing fonts if they are in the room. enemies step onto fountains and guard them if 1) the player is engaged / within a certain number of squares. obviously they should rush the
player when the player is unengaged because otherwise they will just get ru

ENVIRONMENT
* most hazards like acid or lava have a purely negative effect. I would never think of really risking anything to pass through them. The ONLY time they have been important is when I was dragged unwillingly into acid by a black mote. which was pretty spectacular.

*blessed squares that grant armor bonuses or damage bonuses from entering. squares that are actually good to be in during combat as opposed to fount. perhaps in formations that the player would be challenged to use without the monsters also using it. Or ranged monsters that would rush to a damage boosting tile etc.

*difficult terrain with a higher movement cost to pass through. Items or fountains loaded into it. This would present an interesting tactical choice during or right before combat. unlike lava or acid where a player would NEVER enter it voluntarily, a player might spend turns as a resource to cross difficult terrain for a variety of reasons.

* rooms that may form pillars in a variety of formations

* with restraint, warp gates. perhaps on later levels a single warp gate that connects to a single other location

* I know there are the blue motes but I really would like some sort of common exploding DOOM barrel object.

* single use before expiring Overcharged Spell tiles (magic circles?). move invisibily or Leap towards it to blast down 10 or so monsters in the sphere room etc. tactical choices for resource expenditure to reach the power tile and risk vs. reward of trying to reach it.

* pattern hazerds. spike balls the roll glued to a wall and turn right whenever available and really damage the player if they touch. Objects that "march" from left to right in a straight line, spinning blades or something. Its important that the objects be clearly visible to avoid stupid roguelike death traps. this is an environment feature I really want to see that to my knowledge hasnt ever been implemented before. I was thinking earlier today "how could I make a roguelike that is more metroid/turrican like?" and that is the idea I settled on.

* expanding hazards. fungus or something

basically a lot more environment interaction for tactical combat choices. Without slipping into random screw over / stupid nethack death-trap syndrome. No hidden traps and fair warning for object sighting and object behavior.

So, it's officially become unwieldy for me to track all the cool ideas that may or may not get used on the project page. Suffice to say, I am reading and tracking them.

to clarify a bit more about an intelligent monster decision:

as it stands right now the player can always wait for a monster to step into an attack radius. this being a strategy game with a heavy focus on tactical decisions and meta-game thinking the monsters should be able to think similarly.

A really intelligent monster will always stand here out of line of effect if the player is holding any charges and wait for the player to waste the charges instead of walking into charged or double charged melee like a stupid zombie or gargoyle. at least until the player is engaged and would lose life for changing focus. I kind of like the idea of a "waiting rogue" because it makes a lot of sense in that it is what an actual PLAYER opponent controlling the monster might do. you might think that is a little bit too cheap, however.


* . . . .
* @. . .
* . . . m

Also, I beg of you, please PLEASE ditch the orc/goblin monsters. they are BORING. they have no awesome gimmicks. (except for the darter, who could just as easily be a kobold or something. and if fleeing should be smart enough to check line of effect and step out of it before running. and should drop invisible single damage immobalizing snares somewhere on its escape path, especially if it senses walls on two adjacent sqaures because a passage would be better. Yeah.) even your other monsters that have no awesome gimmicks like wolves at least travel in packs. Or something. My main motivating factor has been seeing the new monsters on each level

Here are ideas for a couple.

PIT WORM - avg. speed, decent hit points, tremor senses player within a certain radius. movement normalizes wall tiles which the worm ignores on its pathfinding so the things. Also, after the monster loses 50% HP it may try to flee in a random direction, possibly boring more tunnels. lower level. Fun because battlefield manipulation is fun.

FIRE WALKER + fast speed, double low damage melee fire-typed attacks that may cause burning. leaves a firewall tile in every square it leaves, perhaps only with a 20 turn duration. If the player is engaged, it will always choose to "dance" around the player until its path-checking senses another creature in an adjacent clockwise or counterclockwise space (chosen randomly?) mid level

; ; ; F@ walks right up to the player and begins beating

T T Oops. you're fighting some trolls? let me use my double monvement to
; ; ; ;@F fire dance around you and cut off avenues of escape.
; ; ;

TRANSFORMING CULTISTS - cultists wield poison knives and will run up to stab player. if the player is otherwise engaged the cultist will begin a 5 turn ritual to transform into a Lesser Demon which will basically be a low level mini razor fiend. strategically fun monster because of the target prioritization decisions it would cause. especially good decision point if there are dangerous artillery monsters in the same level range

i see that fire dance picture didnt turn out right. I've been awake for 30 hours now. that's also my excuse for the couple of times I trailed off there anyways, let me try again....

. . . . T T
; ; ; ;@ F
. . . ; ; ;;

fire dance! fire dancing around the player, cutting off those avenues of escape!