Hardcore scenarios

[Shadow]

Usually in our games, each time you start a new world they have the same basic setup. In Depths of Peril, you start in a town with several other covenants vying for control of the Barbarians. In Din's Curse, you start in a town that sits on a dangerous dungeon or cave and you must protect the town. In Drox Operative, you start in a sector of space populated with several races and must quell the sector using any of 5 win conditions. In Zombasite, you start in a town with your own clan, and must survive the Zombasite and can win with 4 different win conditions.

In our next game, the basic setup will be different each time. Basically each new world will be a different adventure. Right now the things that can change are the basic layout of the world, if there are any clans around, starting conditions, different win conditions, and different lose conditions. I'm trying to make these each feel and play very different from each other.

Right now there 16 different scenarios in the game, here's some examples:

Normal: You start in a town, there are several above and below ground areas, and there are clans in the region that may or may not work with you. Other than not having your own clan this is similar to Zombasite.

Survival: You are locked into 1 small area, there a ton of monsters that respawn fast, and there is an active invasion. Your goal is to survive!

Unstable: You start in a cave that is collapsing one level at a time. Once a level starts collapsing, it isn't certain death, but boulders constantly falling on your head is bad. You win if you can get to the last level without dying.

Deathmatch: You start in a small area with a number of other NPCs in a fight to the death. There aren't any other monsters, but there are lots of traps. You can try to make treaties, but they will have to end sooner or later because only one can survive.

Gladiator: You start in a very small arena. You are trying to survive while wave after wave or enemies are thrown at you. Each wave is harder than the last.

So, at least from a setup perspective, this is the direction the next game is going in. What do you guys think? Do you have any cool setup ideas that you think we should add?

[Mithur]

Great examples of future game scenarios.

As come in mind right now my suggestions for scenarios -
1) the player's character bought an ancient map of one dealer,which leads to the area where can be located a long-forgotten treasure of the ancient Kingdom and the key to it,but the map is so old that you can only partially find their way to it. Game starts in a small camp with a few NPC tradesmen(lumberjacks,herbalists),which in the course of the gaming session if the player will be doing their quests,they can be tell to player the area in which is high ligth(on a map),so this depends if game have world size option,if having it then- a place where can be found other clues or other small camps where to ask;if not having it- then approximately whereabouts of entry point(or points) in treasury.Well, here it is possible to search on the surface or in dungeons,you need to carefully search everywhere as the entrance to the treasure is hidden(like some hidden places in Depths of Peril),as it can be not only treasure,but also a death trap for those who dare go in long forgotten halls.Also there can be other characters that try to find this treasure before you do.

2)player character arrived in a secret village or city in a dangerous region of the world which until recently was hidden from the monsters,by the ancient artifact which were mysteriously stolen by gang of marauders or mercenaries or zealots.And the remaining residents are asking the hero to track down the kidnappers and return the artifact on the altar of the ancient temple until the monsters hordes found out and destroy the village.Here you can explore the village in search of traces where did the kidnappers(depending on the choice of the size of the world,finding can occur quickly or for a long time) and you run into a part of the gang,who after beating tell where to go next.Ending to quest can go two ways:a-In the end you need fight the rest gang and can get artifact to return,the avatar of the God-protector outside the temple will give the hero a reward for the salvation of his followers,OR b-find out that villagers are actualy a evil-god zealots ,who wanna capture artifact and raiding village, but failed in capture attempt and disguised themselfs as villagers try to use player to finish survivors who fled with artifact,after you help survivors clear village from zealots,the avatar of the God-protector will give you reward.

3)the player character has been cursed by dark gods for the fact that successfully thwarted their plans.The result of the curse was the fact that а character's shadow doppelganger appeared from Well of Darkness located in this lands,who became the leader of the local monsters groups,and arranges the chaos in the area.Need to track him down and kill until he has destroyed or capture all villages and towns in the area and have not gained enough forces and allies for the full invasion.Well, there may be side quests in towns/village,but you need to be careful as doppelganger sometimes personally leads raids on villages and towns,so recently attacked can attack you on sight as you two are the same. If his troops occupied the town/village(there may be the quest to recapture the town/village).Doppelganger could send his allies or bounty hunters after you.To win scenario you need to find his lair and kill him there,or destroy Well of Darkness,or catch and kill him at one of the meetings with possible allies,or try to hit him when he storms another town/village(in the latter two cases, he can escape like some bosses in Zombasite).But if Well of Darkness not destroyed there is a chance that doppelganger will appear again.

Will add more as soon as they are in more detail considered,and of course all my suggestions can be used in any game you like,not specially in hardcore one.

[Shalafi]

I really like the idea of completely different themes for each restart, it would keep the game much more engaging than the basic start-again-a bit-harder setup, but I don't really see how it fits in with the basic premise of the game you posted earlier. I'm sure it will be more clear when the story is finalised.

I do hope that it would be a bit customisable though, like you can blacklist certain options. I really hate mob wave scenarios! The cave in one sounds really cool, though I'm not sure how you'd start your second generation in that situation.

Are you going to keep the current Champion-Elite-Legend-Ultimate difficulty levels? It might be nice for people who like that sort of thing to be able to apply the difficulty modifier to any level of character when it is unlocked.

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by Shalafi

... but I don't really see how it fits in with the basic premise of the game you posted earlier. I'm sure it will be more clear when the story is finalised.

I do hope that it would be a bit customisable though, like you can blacklist certain options.

Are you going to keep the current Champion-Elite-Legend-Ultimate difficulty levels?

The basic premise is that you are trying to prove your race is misunderstood and is on the side of good, so you are adventuring around trying to save the world. This gets you stuck in lots of different scenarios.

I haven't decided yet how much control you will have in game for which scenarios pop up, but they are easily modded.

The different difficulty levels are still in like our previous games.