Gunder wrote: ↑September 8th, 2017, 7:21 pm
It's been 26 years since BT III... game design and computer technology have evolved hugely since then. We want to be able to take advantage of as much of that quarter-century of evolution as we can while still remembering where the game came from.
But does that honestly make any difference? (And if so, what exactly?—specifically)
The passage of time itself I can't think of as being meaningful in this context. Tools do improve over time; (both software and hardware

).
A compass and GPS do not not work the same, but they were built to solve the same problem. GPS is like a very evolved compass, so much so that they seem entirely unrelated machines—yet they are for solving the same problem; same with a hammer and a nailgun. Sure, no one wants a 1:1 BT III clone. I'm sure most want a fun game and the most eye-popping visuals possible (in a consumer product—for the price-point), but using the name and not providing the expected features of the name is a bit like selling a product called "Improved Pipewrench", knowing that it doesn't loosen or tighten pipes.
Sadly Bethesda is heinously guilty of this with their mistreatment of the Fallout IP; turning a highly respected top-tier RPG series into an action-franken-shooter with vestigial RPG hang-ups... made wholly for a different consumer-base than the series traditionally attracted; (many of whom seem genuinely hostile to RPG mechanics in general). Point being the '4' in 'BT4' (like the '3' in FO3) is supposed to indicate an inherited similarity to the experience. IE. an Improved BT/Fallout, as opposed to a BT or Fallout themed —something else; a re-skined TES4, in the case of Fallout 3.
As an aside: Nodes aren't bad—per se, but when you are in a multi-floor dungeon, it's irritating (for several reasons) not to know where you are in relation to what's above and below you... Especially if the levels of the game are not a rigid grid of a known size. It sounds like the nodes in BT4 are mostly offset to off-center (to accommodate the decorations), rather than moving significantly variable distance & direction each step. So long as a pit (every pit) lines up with the hole in the ceiling below, and that maps can overlay with the nodes more or less in the same dozen feet or so, I don't see any problem using them. I would hope that any diagonal nodes on your maps at least loosely align with a node above and below the current floor. Put another way: If there were identical rooms above & below, and nine steps between North & South staircases on the level below, then there should be nine steps between them on the level above—though not necessarily traversable steps if the rooms were not both identical.
*So the big question is...(if and when you are permitted to answer): ~In the abstract...do you have multi-level dungeons somewhat like Grimrock and Bard's tale 1, 2, & 3, or are the levels more akin with Myst, Riven, & Exile?