User:Hi

In good roguelikes it is you against the dungeon; the creatures terrain and items all interact to make a much more interesting problem.

Thematically I would prefer an indifferent dungeon rather than a hostile one. I can envision an enjoyable game where it is not you against the dungeon, but rather the dungeon as a system that you manipulate, giving aiding some parts and fighting against other parts.

Illustration

If there was a territorial dragon that built it's lair on top of the down stairs and I needed to get past it.

• The dragon is surviving by eating salamanders and fireweed fruit.
• Because the grass growing on the floor ignites when it is mature and dry it greatly increases the danger of the dragon's fire.
• Fireweeds sprout more quickly than any other plant but are out competed unless there is periodic disturbance.
• salamanders are produced by burning and do not reproduce but eat bugs.

My choices are starve it distract it or fight it.

• I could build walls or ponds to reduce the grassed land to the point that the dragon starves.
• I could try to establish a less flammable plant than grass to outcompete the fireweed and starve the dragon.
• I could bring in monkeys to steal some of the dragon's treasure so that it prioritizes chasing them over chasing me.
• I could release some cows and hope that the dragon is busy across the level eating them when I go for it's lair.
• or I could try to fight it.

The danger is that this kind of play would get too tedious when you see a solution but it takes too long to implement or relies on too much trivia for you to see.

outline

you start the game in an old overgrown farm, your have heard of a elixir that can remove any weed, deep in the caverns beneath the farm. commands : throw item, dig direction, fill direction. soil varies in thickness so you can dig ditches and and build small hills