I wouldn't mind a change, but then also I don't have a problem with the normal delay before displaying the "$" indication of one or more artifacts.

Since delayed level feelings were introduced mainly for people playing with lose_artifacts=no, I'm inclined to agree. What do others think?

Seems reasonable. Though you can't guarantee the level feelings will always include artifacts on a level right? I just found a Phial on a 3-2 level in a locked chest. But I guess that wouldn't affect the level feeling if the Phial is only generated when you open the chest?

I think that special feelings are only for items generated on the ground. If they included monster inventories then you'd always be at risk for losing artifacts if a monster got generated with an artifact in-inventory the round you left the level. As for chests, I guess that's an implementation detail -- as you say, I don't think chests generate their contents before they're opened. Plus there's weirdness with chests being able to be destroyed without dropping their contents.

Isn't this going to encourage stair scumming? Might be ok with forced descent or with no connected stairs.

OK, I think you're right, and I think the current situation is correct.

Originally, spending too little time on one level resulted in the message "Looks like any other level" when you arrived on the next one. This was seen to be a problem because it was hard to tell how much time you were meant to have spent. The solution, then, was to delay announcement of level feelings; this way, you were told when you'd spent "enough" time on the level, because you got a feeling. And all this deliberation was completely independent of playing with artifact preservation on or off.

Ironman hobbit ranger feedback (short)
 

My ironman ranger testing is progressing nicely now. Will write a full summary once complete. For now I can say this is the most enjoyable version in a long time for a kobold/gnome/hobbit (i.e. non-high elf) ranger with ironman settings. The initial game quickly becomes difficult until you find a decent shooter. Then it gets difficult again when you start running out of ammo. It gets easier once you get the create ammo spell, but the the prereqs for this spell are nicely tuned - many attempts failed just short of the right player level or having >= 20 mana points or just finding the book before being totally out of ammo and soon dead. [twice dead wielding a powerful x3-5 (+x,+20)ish bow after running out of ammo with pitiful melee as last resort that just didn't cut it. This is good, otherwise an early find of such a bow would be too big]

Also I really like having staves as material for ammo. It's brilliant because they are plentiful enough but also heavy, and they stack. So my ironman ranger can finally go 100% archery with just one shooter which I find very satisfying. The cost of collecting staves is burden and inventory slots. It has quite some impact but that feels right since I no longer need to bring swap-shooters and multiple stacks of ammo. Also I can clear nearly any vault or huge monster pit with just arrows after level 30(ish), no need to switch to melee.

Also, the very important (for this build) ?phase door is now very easy to stock up on. Blue p's and even blue p pits are common, but more interesting than large packs of hounds so no complaints there. Teleport scrolls are more scarce but after thinking about it, I feel their commonness is also well tuned.

What is the difference between pFear and Fear in the character sheet?
[edit] Nm, I guess one is constant fear from e.g. =escaping]

Something has gone odd with the rune.id system. Even with the "know runes" birth option on, Boots of Wormtongue have a {??} in its title indicating unknown runes.

Exactly right. Basically, think of the Fear indicator as "Panic". Which pFear cannot protect against. E.g., mushrooms of Terror, Rings of Escaping, etc.