What doungeon crawling experience you hope to find in Sota?

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Hello Avatars
Since i was a little boy, i allways dreamed from, advanturing into dungeons, to find a treasure chest or save the princess from the evil that rules over the dungeon.

On of my very first adventurs into a dungeon was the adventure book "warlock of the firetop mountain" from Steven Jackson.

Spoiler: warlock of the firetop mountain

What realy got me into this book was the exploring, fighting alle the monsters and hunting alle the keys and treasure to find a way on top of the mounten to face the evil warlock. But what realy got me dragged into to this world and made me lost for hours was the great riddels and traps. I loved and hated them.

A nother game i realy loved was "Dungeonquest"

Spoiler: Dungeonquest

I realy played that a lot with my family back than. The goal of the game was to find a way to the dragons layer and steal as many treasure as you can with out waking up the dragon. And oh, haw fulish you would be to wake up the dragon, cous it would turn you into ashes in an eye blink. Funny in enough this must had been one of the hardest board games i have ever played. Besides hat there was a time limit in wich you had to enter and leave the dungeons or you would be traped in for ever, and the frindly dragon i spoked early about, each room or room card would had a chanze to kill you. Doors could be traps, rooms sealing tryed to crush you, or you would be suprised by a shear number of monsters.

This two games were allways my insperation, when ever i would be a dungeon master in dungeons and dragons or The Black Eye (german fantasy pen&pape rollplay).

The way how the dungeons where created (different branches), the traps, the riddels, gave me allway a tons of ideas how to creat a dungeons, wich would not be only challenging but allsow fun.

Things i would like to see when i go into a dungeon in Shroud of the Avatar

1. Mulitple path

Having the choice from time to time to take differen routs in a dungeon makes him more interresting to explore and give each player a kinda unic expirence. Having 3 different areas wich will lead to the same endpoint but give players different riddels or enemys make a simpel linar dungeon to an exiting and replayabel dungeon.

2. Traps

What would be a dungeon with out traps. Atleast any good dungeon should have some of them. From dameging your armor or giving you debuffs over dealing you damage or killing you in an instant blow, to move you into a part of the dungeons you maby dont want to be to.

Here are a list of my Trap suggestions. (comming soon)

Spoiler: Traps

Blub

3. Riddels

 

I like the progressive ones. Where the top levels are for beginners and the lower you go the harder they get.


I'd like traps that are simple trapdoor chutes to one level lower, not deadly just putting you next to worse creatures than what you had before.
Those would be dreaded by beginners and sought out shortcuts by the elite.

 

Edward Newgate, I'd love to see some dungeons like that too. Me too Spoon, my favorite dungeons were in Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot. Dungeons where beginners levels were up top and each level of the dungeon became more difficult, and the dungeons were huge. I also prefer dungeons where you can see many people along the way as you travel instead of just an instanced solo/party tiny dungeons like we have in Sota

The dungeons currently in Sota, I really couldn't call them dungeons, they're boring, small, and extremely underwhelming.

 

Randomised dungeons similiar to (M)Angband/Rogue. This will alleviate boredom of knowing various dungeons after crawling through them more than once....

 

not that im overly fond of the dungeon but necropolis goes rather deep. many twisted turns in there problem is i can never get the right words to get the ghost to give up the right answer. then theirs the room with 4 doors only ever unlocked 1. it did take me quite a while to memorize all the sewers... there all connected so to me it seems like 1 large dungeon. still havent played in (if there are ones havent looked since these locations came on line yet) ardious, soltown and solania.

 

Any crawl that results in an S&M orgy.

That's right. Skeletons & Mages.

 

realy need to fiinish this post looks like peaple are interested in

 

Yesterday i've been running around Spectral Mines Dungeon and i should say it felt refreshing. A hidden entrance, a secret door, the need to find the key to get out, beautiful scenarios... i really enjoyed it, and love it as one of the first iterations of the dungeon concepts. I'd dare to say that if it wasnt for Kara's guidance (Thanks to Kara for showing us around!) i'd needed some time to figure out where shall we go, what do we need to find... It's true it was a bit small compared to the ones featuring in Ultima Online, but after years of raiding and taking it as a first pass, it felt pretty good.

What i'm trying to say is that dungeons in game shows us that they're already commited with this kind of experience. I've seen first iterations of secrets, divergent paths, exploration (and now that Roper brings it out, riddles! need to do that quest), so this thread can be a good source of inspiration. Can't wait to read what you left on the inkwell Edward!

Personally, my biggest concern is to make sure dungeons are worth visiting more than just one time, and to achieve that without putting amazing loot on a extra powerful boss. Besides the experience, clearing the dungeon should have an utility, a purpose for the player, and that should be repeatable.

 

I prefer Shroud's more explorative dungeon direction to other MMOs, where dungeons are basically just... well, "raids." Designed for players to blaze it through waves of monsters and get loot from sub-bosses with minimal emphasis on the dungeon itself.

I realize this is mainly to cater to the modern sensibilities of what a multiplayer RPG should play like.

But I don't like raids. I like dungeons. So yeah.

 

Ultima Underworld hat one of the best Dungeon experiences.
Hoping for many story elements, puzzles, quests, friendly creatures and not just enemies, traps etc.
Dungeons should be natural, there should be a reason for them in the world and they should be atmospheric and immersive.
Let's not forget that SotA is half single player game so the Dungeon experiences should also be interesting for single player fans.

 

My favorite dungeon experiences in any RPG are dungeons that do more than just contain monsters. Ultima has always been great in that respect, in part because of Richard Garriott's tabletop gaming roots and strong narrative bent. From the content shown off thus far there's been a strong emphasis on exploring and puzzle solving, which is fantastic and exactly what I want to see, but also the kind of thing the mainstream MMO crowd would get impatient as heck with in their endless quest for XP and loot.

I want dungeons I can get lost in. Literally and figuratively. So far it looks like the game's providing that.

 

I want dungoens to hide and hold many mysteries and secrets. I want them to be interesting and sometimes dangerous but not have danger be all about the creatures you run into, avoid, or fight. There could be traps, perhaps the landscape is treacherous and breaking in part. Perhaps you step on a piece of ground that puts you into a pit and you have to discover the way out and there will be a way out if you are diligent. Maybe there is a lost lake or pond of water that holds some mystery, perhaps a special fish can be found in this that has swallowed a ring that you have been looking for. But beware this fish is very pirana like if you are going to fish him up. Im a just a tad for some of single player features to be brought to this multi player experience if you can't tell Although I mostly play multi player, I do like some aspects of single player experiences for the player verses the environment. So mostly like the environment can be dangerous also, not just the creatures which is boring to me. Having unexpected surprises is wonderful. I am hoping with the hex system being able to drop in new content easier or so I've heard, will give us a richer experience than the average game because little things can then vary our experiences. Perhaps you thought you knew where that pit was, but someone has placed boards accross it now so you won't fall in this time, but then beware who knows what else might be different.

 

I want dungeons to be designed like they exist in the world for a reason, not just another place to farm xp and gold.

I guess I want to adventure against creatures and monsters in a dungeon, not a PVE experience, a exploration experience against the denizens of evil.

It urks me to no end to see monsters and such referred to as PVE as it denotes them as a simple play mechanism instead of the fear inspiring lore central characters in the play of the game. I remember reading about the monsters in the Ultima manuals, and they were described as more then a bunch of xp and loot...they had a back story, they made you want to see them in game...hell I even use hints they dropped in the description at the time since I was young and rpg's were generally new(slimes don't like fire).

I think in order to make these places matter is to treat them as a part of the world and not just a PVE area.

 

I agree with this