i love this game but...

[abort_user]

i hate that you cant move diagonally. i know it shouldnt but it really bugs the crap out of me.

[ledow]

If you could move diagonally, you'd actually gain an advantage, strange as it sounds. There's way too many times I play the game and would be able to use diagonal movement to help me lure and trap monsters.

There are also pathfinding problems - if you treat a diagonal as a "1-square" movement, you can get to places much quicker than currently (which would cause problems with monsters following you AND you having time enough to recover).

If you treat it more accurately (it should be "1.44 squares" to be accurate), then you end up in some horrendous mathematics and part-turns that you need to resolve.

Though Nethack, etc. treat a diagonal as one movement, they also have to take account of a lot more and it can become less-obvious to find paths in busy situations (i.e. the map might spawn in a certain way because it KNOWS there's a path you can use, in theory, but on-screen that path might be almost impossible to see - similarly monsters will squeeze through gaps that you didn't think they could, etc.)

It would just change the gameplay and balance far too much and I don't see it as that much of an inconvenience. I rarely used diagonals in Nethack and usually only to escape situations or where every turn really mattered (e.g. running away from a monster that was sure to kill me). If they had built it in from the start, you could have done something, but I don't think it would be sensible to try to retro-fit it to an established game.

[abort_user]

Rogue and most Roguelikes use diagonal movement. in fact, it actually helps in the long run cause in most Roguelikes every turn actually matters not just running away.

the game could have been built with diagonal movement in mind. im not saying add it in now. but enemies could have moved diagonally. and the health regen could have been balanced accordingly.

its a minor pet peeve.