Well, since my answers above don’t seem to fruit, let me answer this one more time… Step by step…:
So…
- If you use furniture/walls to climb up, you can climb down again, but you may slip while climbing and take damage from the fall. To being able to climb, have at least 5 of the surrounding 8 tiles around your character filled with walls or (impassable) furniture. Press the key you use to ascend stairs (default [<]) to get a choise on where to climb. Once you’re higher up, [e]xamine the ledge tile that’s above the tile you climbed from to attempt to [c]limb down. If you chose the right tile, you’ll be prompted with a
You may have problems climbing back up. Climb down? [Y]/[N]
choice. - You can also use downspouts to climb up and down. You may slip while climbing and take damage from the fall. You don’t have to stand on it, you can climb next to it just fine. Press the key you use to ascend stairs (default [<]) to get a choise on where to climb. To try to climb down, [e]xamine the ledge directly above or above and next to the downspout and attempt to [c]limb down. If you chose the right tile and depending on which you tile you chose, you’ll be prompted with a
You may have problems climbing back up. Climb down? [Y]/[N]
orYou should be able to climb back up easily if you climb down there. Climb down? [Y]/[N]
choice. - You can use stepladders ([a]ctivate them and put them next to the structure you want to climb) to climb up. After placing them (by [a]ctivating them, [d]ropping them on the floor does not work), stand on the tile you’ve placed them at and press the key you use to ascend stairs (default [<]) to get a choise on where to climb. To climb down, [e]xamine the ledge tile above the stepladder and attempt to [c]limb down. If you chose the right tile, you’ll be prompted with a
You should be able to climb back up easily if you climb down there. Climb down? [Y]/[N]
choice. As far as I know, you can’t slip while climbing a stepladder, but I will edit this post once I’ve checked the source. - If there’s a chain link fence next to the wall you want (and can) climb, position your character that at least one of the surrounding 8 tiles has a chain link fence on it and at least one of the surrounding 8 tiles (but not above the one your character stands on at this moment) has a terrain above that you can stand on, then press the key you use to ascend stairs (default [<]) to get a choise on where to climb. You may slip while climbing and take damage from the fall. You can also [e]xamine the chain link fence and climb it first (when you examine it, you get a prompt asking you if you want to
Climb obstacle? Y/N
) and then climb from there by pressing the key you use to ascend stairs (default [<]) to get a choise on where to climb. To attempt to climb down, [e]xamine the ledge tile directly above or above and next to the chain link fence and then [c]limb down. If you chose the right tile and depending on which tile you chose, you either get prompted with aYou may have problems climbing back up. Climb down? [Y]/[N]
orYou should be able to climb back up easily if you climb down there. Climb down? [Y]/[N]
choice.
But your starting question was about ropes. So let’s talk about that one… again:
- To get down from a higher floor with no of the options mentioned above, you can use a rope grappling hook or jump down. For that, your character can have one in his inventory, wear one or wield one. Using a grappling hook, there is no chance that your character will get hurt from falling, as long as you don’t just run into the ledge.
Now, [e]xamine the ledge and choose to [c]limb down. You will get a prompt that will ask you if you want toUse your grappling hook to climb down? [Y]/[N]
.
If you don’t have a grappling hook, you will get a prompt that will ask and state thatYou probably won't be able to get up and jumping down may hurt. Jump? [Y]/[N]
orYou may have problems climbing back up. Climb down? [Y]/[N]
(you may slip when attempting to climb down).
If you chose to jump, there’s - depending on some skills and stats, check post below - a chance that you get down unharmed.
That’s it.
…but you still may slip and take damage.
No, not if you do it right (using a rope grappling hook), your character’s skilled and unencumbered enough or at least a little bit and get lucky. From my tests, with a (unencumbered) sick character (reduced stats), I got down a z-level unharmed 8 out of 10 times (80% success rate).
If you walk into the ledge (and ignore the warning you get), you will get harmed 10 out of 10 times, or 100 % of the time (0% success rate), even with a rope or grappling hook in your inventory.
The damage you take also depends on your skills and encumbrance (and some additional factors).
I will check the code and report back with the actual calculations that are going on. I suspect dexterity checks and weight/encumbrance punishments. [Done, see post below]