Suggestion: Add grues

[Zanoab]

For those that don't know, grues are monsters that fear the light and eat adventures.

As I understand it right now, the player currently just receives damage from the darkness itself.

Suggestion: After a specific amount of time, a grue spawns near the player (signaled by "What was that") and approaches the player. The grue(s) would then attack the player and back away in case the player tries to fight back before approaching and attacking again. If the player is killed, the player's body and inventory is missing when the sun rises.

If a source of light blocks the path to the player, the grue backs away and despawns. If a player tries to catch a grue with a light source right before an attack, the grue would flee and at best, the player will only catch a glimpse of a shadow. I personally wouldn't worry about players managing to catch and trap a grue because of several reasons.

1. It is pitch black preventing the player from knowing which direction the grue is approaching from.
   
2. A fire would only unveil the grue for a brief period.
   
3. The visibility distance of a torch makes it extremely difficult to maintain a chase against a grue fleeing at the same speed as the player (a simple change in direction would be enough to escape into the darkness and remain out of sight).
   

If a player did manage to maintain a chase to sunset, grues would be written to despawn instantly a moment before day break. If a grue is in a source of light at despawn, an item called "Grue?" will be left behind for the player to find (would be described to be a piece of a grue possibly left behind as a distraction). The item could be kept as a trophy for mounting an effective chase against a grue or turned into a large amount of research points.

For new players, they may attempt to flee from grues in the pitch black darkness (either running directly into one and receiving damage or starting a chase and calling for additional grues over time).

Why implement this idea?

This would leave a lasting impression on players by creating a legitimate sense of danger and fear of the darkness and allowing players to later fight back and attempt to chase down the cause of their fears.

[Kevin]

The name of the mechanism that kills you in the dark is actually "grue" in the source code

[jaywalker]

The fact that Zork still influences new games makes me happy.

[Shadoweangel]

The fact that grue is considered a word by this forums spell checker pleases me immensely.

Cool fact, the Grue first appeared in Jack Vance's Dying Earth novellas. Lot of magic in modern games is inspired by his style too, and is lovingly referred to as Vancian magic. Cool beans.

Edited November 5, 2012 by Shadoweangel
Additional awesome

[Spoonfairy]

They should least add the hands that is in the startscreen, like if you turn on the light after total darkness you can see for less then a sec the hands retreating from the light. Maybe even add so you can every now and then see fireflies being snuffed out by a hand slashing then / throwing a rock at them

[mobius187]

Even before reading this I naturally assumed a Grue ate you when it became pitch black. I avoid complete darkness whenever possible as a survival trait I picked up from playing Zork.