Level

This article is about physical dungeon levels. For "level" as it relates to experience and character advancement, see experience.

A dungeon level is like a level in a building. However, they are below ground (!). In roguelikes they can be either persistant or non-persistant. Persistant levels are when the game remembers a previous level you went on and the state you left it in. sometimes games have semi-persistant levels where the layout is remembered but the monsters and items get randomised. non-persistant levels get generated again once it is requested again.

Traditional levels are always visible whole. 80x20 is most often used level size. Sometimes higher text mode resolution is used increasing size to 80x45 (Xenocide). Angband and descendants have very large areas to explore but suffers from off-screen attacks. Crawl has 80x80 levels and displays much smaller portion than bands do but centers view on player every move and ensures no attacks out of screen are made.

ADOM is known to adjust its level size to terminal but without changing other factors. It unbalances the game in several ways. Trolls have problems with finding enough food to sustain their stomach, there is more space to hide and exploration of somewhat empty places is boring. It is especially visible in small settlements like Terinyo or Lawenilothehl where a lot of barren ground is surrounding few concentrated buildings.