Dungeon crawl ideas

[Shadow]

This is mostly a post to point to all of the other dungeon crawl idea threads, but I want to reiterate that we love hearing feedback from all of you. So if you have some cool ideas (old or new) that you want to see in a dungeon crawl type game, please tell us. You can post here, on a more specific thread, email me, or even send me a tweet or post on our facebook page.

General thread

Favorite DoP & Kivi monsters

Interactive objects

Monsters teamwork

Morale system

Stamina and durability

World modifiers

Objects

Undead

Quests and Quest system

Item system

Hybrid class system

Hybrid class system 2

Random dungeons

Random dungeons 2


Feel free to start your own new thread if you have a new topic you want to discuss.

[ShaggyMoose]

I will re-post a few ideas from another thread just to start the ball rolling.

I know one thing I would like to see is the persistent gameworld remain, but expanded.

• Instead of just having the craftsman randomly ask for materials, they should be trying to craft a specific epic weapon for example. Some kind of weapon and armour crafting/enhancement would also be great.
• Competing towns in a world map, increasing the scope of the game.

Some other stuff...

• Mix of random and static areas to allow more differentiation of zones and the ability to create some unique areas.
• I would also like to be able to give my party more direct orders. Sometimes they do incredibly frustrating things...
• Better tools for loot handling. The shared loot chest is fantastic, but now that I have four high levels characters playing through the game, the juggling of loot at the end of each world takes a long time. Its too difficult to compare and swap equipment between characters.

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by ShaggyMoose

Instead of just having the craftsman randomly ask for materials, they should be trying to craft a specific epic weapon for example.

I actually do have an idea along these lines, but if they were making a specific item in game terms how could this impact the player?

[ShaggyMoose]

Originally Posted by Shadow

I actually do have an idea along these lines, but if they were making a specific item in game terms how could this impact the player?

Okay, some ideas then.

• They could still be asking for materials, same as before but with a specific aim in mind.
• Perhaps they need assistance with a process. eg. "I need this sword heated in region x and quenched in the waters of region y".
• Perhaps they need some instruction. eg. "Find this book, or talk to this grand master smith" etc.

[Shadow]

Would "I need 4 bat wings to make a Sword of Darkness" quest be cooler than "I need 4 bat wings because my supplies are low" for you guys? Even if there is no other change to the world?

[Shadow]

Although if I made the Sword of Darkness quest rare enough he could offer it for sale after it was completed.

[SharpCarlos]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Although if I made the Sword of Darkness quest rare enough he could offer it for sale after it was completed.

See, THAT would be cool. Talking about a "Sword of Darkness" that doesn't exist, just to add flavor to the quest text, would frustrate me.

It would be neat to see quests interact with the world in ways like this. Like, maybe the blacksmith needs a particular ingredient or ALL swords will suddenly become unavailable in his shop. Of if I don't get certain things to the alchemist, I won't be able to buy health potions. And maybe those things are really important to me, but maybe I'm playing a priest who has healing spells and wields a staff, and I don't CARE about swords and health potions.

Other quests could have more subtle consequences, like affecting the overall prices in a shop.

Or... (and now my ideas are spinning completely out of control) there could be a whole tech-tree sort of thing going on, where completing certain quests makes certain classes of items available in the stores. Like, you've got "medium" health potions, but if you want "strong" health potions, you'd better start gathering bat wings. I don't know, that might be pushing things too far into "kingdom sim" territory (like Majesty or Hinterland).

[torikamal]

I completely love the idea of interactions of availability of items with ingredients gathered. This must go in! In continuance of this, it would be a good segue of transitioning into crafting. Getting too deep into crafting may be beyond the scope of this game, but basic crafting could be very cool. Here's a little breakdown on how this could work and I'll only use an alchemist in this example, though it would work equally well for learning spells, summoning monsters, making weapons and armor, etc.

1) You would start the game not knowing how to make anything. You can only get drops and what is available at shops.

2) The alchemist asks you for some items so that he could make a particular potion available. Now he has them available for purchase and he'll give you a free sample for providing him with the stuff, but after that you must buy. If you bring him more ingredients for that type of potion, he'll give you a discount.

3) If it's a really simple thing (like pot of healing), if you bring him enough stuff for that particular pot, expending a skill point in this area, he'll teach you how to make this kind of potion and you can use his bench for free whenever you're in town.

4) You're still a lowly, fumble apprentice at this point, so it takes you many more ingredients to generate the potion. At this point it would probably still easier to just buy it from the alchemist. However, if you keep spending skill points for this potion, you can eventually get it down to the point that you're almost as good as the alchemist. (it doesn't make sense to every be as good, because the alchemist has devoted his life to this, but you could come relatively close).

I think this makes hunting particular creatures, or picking herbs in certain areas more interesting. It gives you more of a reason to revisit other areas as well and especially if you have little hidden secrets in these areas (maybe Kivi-style), while you're picking around and hunting stuff, you might discover a little cave with goodies in it or some cool little tombstone or something like that.

Varying alchemist price according to what is available in the area also makes a lot of sense and would give the game added depth.

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by SharpCarlos

It would be neat to see quests interact with the world in ways like this. Like, maybe the blacksmith needs a particular ingredient or ALL swords will suddenly become unavailable in his shop. Of if I don't get certain things to the alchemist, I won't be able to buy health potions. And maybe those things are really important to me, but maybe I'm playing a priest who has healing spells and wields a staff, and I don't CARE about swords and health potions.

Other quests could have more subtle consequences, like affecting the overall prices in a shop.

DoP's poisoned supply quests worked a bit like this by increasing the prices of food/drinks. It would be cool to extend this to other types of items.

[torikamal]

I was trying to think of ways to relate DoP and Kivi's Underworld to the new game (other than just inhabiting the same mythos).

One way I thought might work would be to have the dungeon crawl happen after DoP and Kivi.

I'm also going to operate under the supposition that barbarians are better at above-ground fighting, while Lumen are better at underground.

Because [insert reason and villain], all the tunnels to the rest of the Underworld (where the lumens get all their supplies, etc.), have been collapsed, and in this part of the world, almost all the Barbarians have been beaten back by the [insert reason and villain] to this village. However, there are still a few remote villages scattered about that were rumoured to under heavy siege, but are still holding out.

The village we do know about also happened to be near the only Underworld exit left. So, the Barbarians and Lumen forge an alliance to beat back the enemies. The Barbarians will mainly handle the above-ground fighting to clear the way to these rumoured villages that are still alive. In turn, this will clear the way for the Lumen to find other entrance/exits to the underworld that they have been cut off from. The Barbarians need the Lumen to find new lifestones deep beneath the ground so that they can have a fighting chance against the enemy hordes.

So, they must brave this world together.

I very much love the idea of money sinks beyond expensive weapons. I was thinking that as lumen find treasure and lifestones, they can use that to build up and buy safety to the next barbarian village. So, as more treasure is found, etc, you can add bigger buildings, or add more patrols or something like that and when you get to a sufficient number, the barbarians should have enough accumulated strength now to forge on to the next village, which will also act as a staging point for the next dungeon delve.

Still just semi-formed ideas, but...it's at least one way to bridge the gap between the two games.