Very recently, something happened in the Crawl world. All the mountain dwarves are gone. Part of the player base revolted, so here are some words to explain the inexplicable.

For quite a while it was realised that MD, HO and Mi are too close to each other than is good for well-differentiated variety. In other words, developers agreed that cutting a species of the three would be an improvement. This was not urgent; that’s why it isn’t announced on the 0.10 development plan or anywhere else. However, it is also not a big change, so when we got the details ready in a session or two, we commenced with the wipeout.

First, theme. Hill Orcs are sacrosanct by Beogh’s protection. Even if you don’t like the orc god, there is no way we would get rid of HO as a player species. Choosing between MD and Mi, the lot hit the former. The reasons are less forcing than with HO, but are reasons nonetheless: Mi has a monster equivalent whereas MD has not (the monster dwarves are deep dwarves, akin to deep elves being the monster elves). Mi has an ancient mythos behind it (Minos, Crete, the labyrinth) as well as a portal vault in the game. MD on the other hand is the archetypical Tolkien-style dwarf, which in my book is a severe demerit.

Second, aptitudes. Removing a species does not happen in empty space. It might have impact on nearby species, and it certainly did so here. A table of the old and new aptitudes for Mi, HO and old MD is at the end of this text. The summary is this: new Minotaurs approached MD in certain areas (e.g. Armour is 2, also Stabbing, Traps & Doors, Evocations). Hill Orcs got additional magical competence.

Third, to dispel a myth. We didn’t use winning rates, or number of games played in order to make a decision.

Fourth, history. Over the course of DCSS, the following species had to resign: HD, GE, El, Gn, OM (Hill Dwarf, Grey Elf, Elf, Gnome, Ogre Mage). Of these, OM merged with Og into a more interesting species; the others left for the same reason MD goes now: lack of differentiation. On the other hand, some species were added over the years: Vp, DD, Fe (Vampire, Deep Dwarf, Felid). 0.10 will probably feature Octopodes. None of these are defined by aptitudes alone (but note that new Ogre is an exception!), which makes for additional complexity but also diversity. Note that species tweaking goes beyond adding and removing: Draconians and Demonspawns were changed (and will probably see further changes), and with some luck and effort, 0.10 will see more interesting Demigods.

An empty entry means no change from the old version of the species. Arm Ddg Sth Stb Shd T&D Inv Evo HP MP Exp -------------------------------------------------------------- Mi old +1 +1 -2 0 +1 -1 -1 -3 +1 -2 140 Mi new +2 -1 +2 0 -1 130 MD +3 -1 -3 -2 +2 +1 0 +1 +1 -1 130 HO old +1 -2 -2 +2 +1 0 0 0 +1 -1 100 HO new +2 0 Fgt SBl LBl M&F Axs Pla Stv UC Thr Slg Bws Crb ---------------------------------------------------------- Mi old +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +2 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 Mi new +1 0 MD +2 +1 0 +2 +2 -1 -1 0 -1 -1 -2 +1 HO old +2 0 +1 +1 +2 +1 -1 +1 0 -1 -1 -1 HO new Spc Coj Hex Cha Sum Nec Trl Trm Fir Ice Air Ear Poi -------------------------------------------------------------- Mi old -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 -3 Mi new -4 -4 -2 -2 HO old -3 0 0 -1 0 0 -2 -3 0 0 -2 0 -1 HO new -2 +1 -1 +3 Int, -1 Str MD -3 -1 -2 -2 -2 -3 -2 -1 +2 -2 -2 +2 -2