Personal Dungeons

This idea is an extension to basements. The concept is to allow players to have their own personal dungeons, and it operates on a randomization factor that keeps things interesting. Khaldun's puzzle boxes and other cool stuff, various ways to progress deeper into the dungeon, etc. Some dungeons may be 5 levels, some dungeons may be 20 levels. The dungeon itself will periodically reconfigure itself over time, or based on accomplishments of the player. This could be a feature of the add-on system. The dungeons would be difficult and encourage players to seek assistance from each other.

These dungeons can also be connected, so players that Friend each other to their houses can interact in each other's dungeons. (find the hidden wall and bash through it to find your friend's dungeon entrance) The dungeons can also be PvP enabled.

Part of the randomization might also include one way exits to existing dungeons or other areas of the game world. I'd like these dungeons to have 'completion' objectives so there is a way to reset them. For example, you go into your personal dungeon and it's inhabited by undead. But after slaughtering all of the undead and killing the lich lord, the dungeon resets itself and is inhabited by kobolds. Perhaps it can only reset itself X amount of times per week.

Just an idea.

 

Cool concept. So if I happen to find the entrance to my friends dungeon, where would I be located in their dungeon? The first level, middle level, ..where would I show up?

 

Why does it have to be Personal? There is a Single Player Online Option which is already 100% personal?

To have it privately on your property sorry, still don't see it.

 

Pretty much the exact idea was discussed last year. If I remember correctly it was fairly liked but far too many technical issues to be practical.. including potential for abuse. Especially now that we've gone to the new use-based system.

For starters.. such a dungeon should not be able to extend beyond the size of your lot. So someone with a small lot size wouldn't be able to make good use of such a feature. Imagine everyone in Rat's Nest (mostly row lots) all having their own little dungeon.. it would be physically impossible. And how would two players manage to connect them? How would it work in a dynamic player town where lots could be moved? So many issues..

 

If you find the entrance to your friend's dungeon (a hidden wall, a portal of some kind, a trap door, a hatch, etc) it would bring you to a random, but permanently defined location in their dungeon - until the dungeon resets itself. This feature is only enabled if the dungeons are connected similar to how basement permissions work.

Here's an example: I purchase a 20 level dungeon through the add-on store (non-taxable) or in-game (taxable). The fact that is it 20 levels just means that when the dungeon configures itself, it can be a maximum of 20 levels. For this example, lets say I access the dungeon entrance at my house. I start out at level 1 and I make it down to level 5 of my personal dungeon. I discover a destructable wall on level 5 and it leads to a portal. The portal takes me to my friend's dungeon. I don't know what level of the dungeon I'm on, I just know that I'm in their dungeon now. For the purpose of this example, lets say the portal takes me to level 12 of their dungeon.

My friend happens to message me and says his party is stuck on level 6 of their dungeon. I have two options. I can exit their dungeon using the portal, go backtrack through my own dungeon, then back to my basement and exit the house then go to their house and access their dungeon from level one. Assuming the dungeon entrance is accessible. (they have to go back to their house and let you in?) Or I can try to figure out what level of the dungeon I'm on. I decide to explore the dungeon and find out that there are stairs leading up, and stairs leading down. I'm obviously not on level 1. There are high level monsters everywhere. The monsters continually respawn until the dungeon is 'completed.' I will have to battle my way upwards until I find clues of my friend's location. I try going up a few levels but it's too difficult, I encounter poison elementals and I am obliterated. Poison elementals in this scenario are a rank 4 monster so this tells me that I'm near the end of my friend's dungeon.

I go to my friend's house and now we know two things - he'll have to face poison elementals at some point. And we have to conquer whatever is preventing him from proceeding at level 6. In order to complete the dungeon, the dungeon owner must be in the Party to complete the final objective. (main boss, quest objective etc)

I was thinking perhaps some dungeon levels may not have monsters, but puzzles and quest related stuff.

 

Nice idea, Vecna.

 

Your concept is very nice and very complicated.

Sorry I just don't see it :-(

And if done I still say Personal / Private dungeons are a bad idea.

Possibly an ability to have a Player partially control and setup and instance for guild mate might work. Like in Friends Online one of the Guilds leaders can setup some of say Graig Mines in a way he sees fit. But just like POT stuff resources cannot be allowed in a place that can have players apply restriction to access.

 

Thank you sir.

As far as exploitability of resources and skills - I suppose you could put caps on the skill gains and treasure at the dungeon level. This can also be controlled by the amount of dungeon resets per week. I just thought it might be an interesting way to interact with friends, and perhaps even 'enemies' (PvP enabled dungeon, adding an entire Guild to the friends list of the dungeon?)

There would be different dungeon scenarios, some of them would dump you out into public dungeons and you'd have to fight your way out of them.

 

Great idea we had last year as well. I voted for also. However it will never happen due to budget constraints tied to development costs. Would love it though.

 

You guys missed my AD&D dungeon last weekend in the Dark Tower at Dara Brae event.

To see the video of it - https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...rae-an-ad-d-style-of-event.36922/#post-425421

 

I still think this is a good idea. Here was an earlier thread on 'POD's': https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/player-owned-dungeons.12813/#post-215797

I don't believe there are big technical challenges. The game already has four key ingredients: 1) player owned properties, 2) implemented player owned basements, 3) ability to limit some number of things on a property, and 4) monster spawning points. It seems all that is required for PODs is to allow players to have a limited number of monster generators on a property. The basements could instantly be turned into PODs by adding a few spawning monsters.

I'm don't see much potential for abuse. Not any more than one could achieve in a non-player NPC dungeon. If the concern is about placing too many mob spawners, then those could be limited on a property just like light sources are. If the concern is about mobs coming too fast, spawn timers could be set to create new monsters extremely slowly. If the concern is that mobs would have too high a level, well, basements are instances and can SOTA scale mobs to player level in instances like some other games do? If the concern is that players will have mobs following them everywhere in POTs, the spawns could be limited to the basement instance only.

On lot size, size is not a problem either. Dungeons dont have to be large. Don't underestimate the fun of just having one 'treasure room' in a player owned basement with a skeleton spawn or two.

 

I read through your older thread, some pretty interesting ideas for sure. Perhaps personal dungeons are do-able in the long term? I'd be more of a dungeon explorer than a creator per se, but I think both activities would be fun. Having my own personal dungeon would satisfy my inner hermit. I'm an introvert so I prefer smaller groups of people to interact with.

It would be cool if dungeon creators could submit their dungeon templates to the developers who could optimize them and have them added to the official 'random' dungeon list. So each week you'd have a different dungeon, some of them being created by players, some by the developers, and others totally randomized (eg: Pixel Dungeon). This would keep the game fresh in my opinion. Depending on how you look at it, it might also reduce congested zones.

Also as far as the interconnection of player dungeons - I thought perhaps puzzles or dungeon quests could be created that allows a friend to complete their own quest that is unrelated to the main dungeon quest of their friend. So if you happen to find the entrance to your friend's dungeon, there is a bit of quest or puzzle content that sends you in a different direction than the main plot of your friend's dungeon. This doubles the amount of content available because both friends would be able to participate in both quests. And also some of the quests would spill out into the public dungeons, so perhaps there are things you would need to accomplish in these dungeons as well.

 

Old school dungeon runners owned their own personal dungeons the old fashioned way. By slaughtering everything in sight and taking names. Why ruin it with a fake dungeon you know will be nothing more than a halloween themed dungeon maze or an easier way for dungeon 'owners' to bot their own personal pet monsters. Just sayin'.

 

I've had similar thoughts, although I was thinking more along the lines of procedurally generated crypts appearing in random encounters - not unlike the crypts in Morrowind, although with greater variety.

Using procedurally generated architecture would require considerable effort to make sure every possible instantiation looked good, was navigable and was glitch free. That includes dynamically generated pathing for monsters that understood the dynamically generated architecture. Yes, it would be an awesome game addition, but I see it more as an expensive NPC building add on for a POT, or something that crops up in a random encounter offering the possibility of undiscovered riches inside.

 

A cool idea for episode 2 or 3, perhaps.

It would be really fun to develop a "random dungeon generation" system like these games that produce random maps, for example Path of Exile map system or Diablo 3 nephalem rift system.

Reminds me of an Elder Scrolls style dungeon, always random yet always similar.

 

I remember the devs saying something about placeable spawning points for mobs.
Or am i wrong and thats something the players wanted ^^?

 

I think this idea was even in the first basement discussion, when the idea of the "under houses" born. But I think at least for this episode sadly we will not see too much more in basements. Maybe in the future!

 

Oh yes, I even had the idea with the "dungeon" included:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...s-with-basements-dev-replied.1245/#post-15184

 

Interesting. Anyone have the citation for that?

 

Nah, sorry. Otherwise I would have linked it.
But when I get my b+ hangout I will ask if something like that is planned.