I don't think ToME "needs" it, but you're not alone in wanting this feature (I've seen a few posts about this), and IMO it would be nice.

Is autoexplore a common feature in roguelikes? I'd hate for Darkgod to implement such a thing just to get barraged by comments such as "copycat!"... I think he's already had a lot of that in the past if I'm not mistaken.

I don't think autoexplore is appropriate for ToME. DCSS needs autoexplore because it has very large, open, same-y floors, and lots of them. I enjoy playing DCSS but it is a different experience from most other roguelikes, in that the player rapidly jumps from significant event to significant event (via autoexplore, fast travel to branches or stashes, using the find feature to search for relevant drops). In my opinion DCSS is very focused on one aspect of roguelikes, it is like a "kick down the door" D&D campaign: the player is focused on "kill things/don't die" and anything in between is a waste of time meant to be skipped through. ToME has much less "empty space" than DCSS, with the exception of maybe the trollmire exploration is never tedious, while in DCSS I would die of boredom without autoexplore.

This is not a bad thing, it is simply a design choice. ToME has a different design: the presence of a world map and game lore, with meaningful dungeons and bosses within that world (not to mention quests), make the game not just about "kill things/don't die". The player is experiencing their own story in a game world. Autoexplore and fast travel are not only unnecessary for ToME but they would detract from this world experience, not to mention trivializing certain aspects of the game such as maze dungeons.

Maybe pfhyyhtsche is right. As I wrote, it was my first thought.. especially because of Trollmire. Let's see if that will change.

I also went to the first dungeon, and, because you mentioned it, there I thought fast travel would have been very useful. Marching manually from stairs to stairs, when leaving the dungeon or getting to the deepest previously visited level again, is just very unexpected micro-management, which takes too much time in my opinion.

Calling someone "Copycat" because s/he implemented a feature from another open-source software is stupid. The idea behind all this open-source stuff is for others to use it and/or advance it!

Cheers!

I knew the minute I agree everyone would disagree... even the OP...

After playing a bit more, I still think travel/auto-explore would be very useful. Having to look at the tiny map to spot the "entrance/exit" of a level and (worst of all) having to touch the mouse to travel there is.. well, sub-optimal ;)

Cheers!