SLE: coding started (sort of). SouthLab: solving the ARC problem.
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# Soulthieves Labyrinth Engine
#
# Author: Josh K. Singh
# Version: 0.0.0.0
# Updated: 5 February 2012
# Package: sle.labyrinths
# Module: maps
# Description: Labyrinth map generation and handling.
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"""Labyrinth map generation and handling.
The maps module contains classes and tools for generating and handling labyrinth
maps. It is to be noted that 'labyrinth' in this context broadly refers to any
labyrinth or labyrinthine construct by any other name, such as dungeon levels,
towns and overworlds. Maps of random or fixed design may be generated.
"""
So I've begun coding the Soulthieves Labyrinth Engine. Well, sort of, anyway. I've written some actual code and a lot of comments to lay out how I think the logic should work out. I've only been working on the maps module and I've already had to make a lot of adjustments. But much shall be in the works in the near term, I hope.
I was just thinking about SouthLab and the Aquatic Research Centre, the water-filled branch dungeon. The problem with it was somehow impairing the ability to teleport past all the water hazards. I came up with a solution, but then I got to thinking about how useful a water-filled dungeon could be; you'd have to learn the Swimming skill (in practice, by training at the Aquatics Centre), but would the skill be very useful elsewhere? I haven't thought too much about putting water hazards elsewhere in the SouthLab complex. If I don't do so, though, then is the swim training kind of an unnecessary drag in the context of this game? SouthLab is, after all, supposed to be the simplest of the roguelike projects.
The solution to the teleportation problem is in the Spatial Magic skill. There will basically be a simple argument that spatial magic spells, like Blink (the self-teleport spell) require you to kind of extend your mental feelers magically across the current labyrinth in order to establish your spatial reference points. You won't be able to teleport easily or at all in the ARC for one basic reason: because you only know how to feel across dry cavernous stone, you don't know how to feel across such a large volume of water. Basically the water screws up your magic more than you can ever handle. How that manifests itself, I'm not sure just yet. The options are basically: a) you cannot teleport at all; b) you can teleport but only with a massive Magic cost multiplier; c) you can teleport at normal cost, but the water block (as it were) will cause you to teleport into the water, which ordinarily is disallowed, and which may in turn cause you to drown rapidly. Some combination of b) and c) is also an option, where the multiplier is much smaller.
The way swim training would work would be extremely different from the way it works in FOE. In FOE, you have to engage in active training, as it were; you complete exercises at a cost and receive a certain amount of skill point training based on your performance. In SouthLab, though, you will instead pay a dynamic amount to train an entire skill level of Swimming in a single turn. The cost will vary depending both on your current level and your attributes. Instead of actively engaging in the exercise, the training will simply take one effective turn, although the number of turns counted off the turn counter will be proportionately large. This way, although in real time it will be very quick, in-game it will be represented as taking a lot of time, and more importantly a lot of calories. I'm thinking that you might get hungry during exercises, in which case there will be a pause and a prompt to eat something; if you choose not to eat, the exercise will abort. If you eat, the training will continue from where it left off. Don't think too hard about the 1-hour rule; for SouthLab, I can readily ignore that.
I might consider providing another option, fixed-cost exercises. Those would be much more inefficient, but they would give you an option if you have little scrip. The gains here would scale down as you improve your skill. Considering that there's a guaranteed source of big money, the Capitalist Students' Union, it's probably an unworthy complexity to have the low-cost option. Expensive by-level training is preferable because there will be so few places to train your Swimming skill otherwise.
Some thoughts.