[Dungeon] - The Dreamvale

Kino · Jan 4, 2012

Time passes for all, but for those who lie dreaming, time is but faint memory.
A distant blur of when the kingdom was whole and men still tred the vine strangled halls.
Since then, many ages have come and gone.
But the dreamers still remain. Forever lost, never waking.
Perhaps someday, one will walk the long road out of Dreamvale.

DREAMVALE

Genre: Dungeon Crawler
Players: 1-4

General

Intro

Dreamvale began as a personal attempt to create my own dungeon in the style of Warchasers. Back then the genre was relatively underpopulated, with only a few maps.
Since then the map has changed alot. What was a personal testing ground for terrain and general mapping systems is now fully playable and open to all.

The game is simple, you pick a hero and complete up to 7 levels featuring a minigame and a boss at the end.
Players can add traits to their hero, adding up to 2 permanent scalable stat boosts.
There are also active trinkets which can further be used to improve your hero's strengths or minimize its weaknesses.There are no mandatory picks, although it is suggested that a balanced team of offense, defence and enough utility does help.

Story

Alone, the lost slumber in the depths of Dreamvale. The wild tangle that sprang forth when the Sea of Dreams was unleashed upon the the city of Voya. Long is the day since the waking last tread through its halls, and lasting is the dusk where nightmare walks. For one day, even the neverwaking must open their eyes to the warming dawn. When that comes, they must follow the lonely path out of the land they once knew but since forgot. On a road paved with memories blur but yet so fammiliar. And then perhaps, the journey will finally be at its end.

You control one the dreamers, lost in a vast and surreal land you can recall in only the most clouded memory. An unknown amount of time has passed and you must find your way out of the endless jungle. Either that, or await your eventual demise at the hands of the vale's nightmarish creatures.

Features

Colourful Terrain

• Each enviroment has a distinct style
• Well lit contrasting enviroments
• Terrain thats supports both aesthetics and gameplay

Scaling Systems

• Game scales with player count
• Rebalances on player leave
• 4 Difficulties for players looking for various levels of challenge

Challenging Combat

• Monsters are tough and will employ more dangerous moves as the game progresses
• Monsters will zone you and force you to move with their abilities, others will try to kite.

Easy To Pick Up

• Levels are easy to understand but hard to execute
• Intuitive Sfx; fire is fire and should always be avoided. There are no ability effects that cannot be easily identified as dangerous or otherwise
• Every boss attack counts for something, there are no abilties that exist for the sake of adding bulk to the boss's moves.

Heroes

Anzo: Melee, Tank
- Towering construct of earth and steel, Anzo can send enemies flying with his bare fists and deflect lethal force off his glyph-scarred frame.

Sablefang: Melee, Dps
- Agile bladesman with high control over his damage output, Sablefang uses his twin cursed scythes to rip up enemies as he moves among targets.

Eldiamos: Tank, Support, Caster
- Turtling master, Eldiamos can summon walls of vegetation among other things to stop enemies in their tracks and control area combat.

Zephyr: Ranged, Dps
- Kiting and ranged damage specialist, Zephyr uses volleys of poisoned arrows and shearing desert winds to tear up her enemies on the move.

Adowyn: Support, Dps, Caster
- Raging force of nature based on supportive bombardment and area of effect utility moves, Adowyn razes enemies from a distance with tongues of wildfire and exploding elementals.

Ridian: Dps, Support
- Nocturnal monstrousity, Ridian weaves into crowds and picks out lone victims to shred with her vicious claws.

Karoma
- Resilient debuff and crowd control hero, she pins down her enemies with a mixture of natural blights and menacing constructs.

Cassindi
- Wandering incarnation, she completely sacrifices offense for all rounded support.

Gallery

Journal

Development Journal 1 - Sleeping Halls
Development Journal 2 - Regrets

Screenshots

Changelog

V2.0n
--------
- Redid all hero progression systems
- Glyphs replace traits, these bonuses are now more intresting and less stats stick-ish
- Potions are now upgradeable
- More Trinkets
- Added an improved scoreboard that shows player damage dealt
- More level polish
- Implemented Sleeping Halls
- Redid the Delirium Dusk'
- All monsters now use a standard armour/damage type
- Added a specific new armour type for summoned units, causing them to take 50% damage from abilties.
- Numerous other changes i dont remember

Hero
-----
- Redid most of Jared's skillset
- Redid some of Eld's abilties
- Adowyn now has a flamethrower
- Minor nerfs to Zephy'r mobility and kiting ability

I apologise for the vague changelog, Ive lost track of most of the things ive updated.

Supported Projects

Shadows of Everwood
Defend Wintercastle

What I need
I need a few things done right now

- Testing/Feedback/Reviews
- 2D Artist for Hero Skins

Mediumunwell · Jan 5, 2012

I had Dreamvale v2.0 downloaded from the hive's map archive. I thought it looked interesting. I'll test this new release out and edit this post to let you know what I think. I forgot what it was like...

Kino · Jan 20, 2012

2.0f
-------

Hero Changes
------------------------
- Divided the Tencity stat, Tenacity now only gives movespeed.
- A new stat, Skill has been added, it improves attackspeed.
- Increased the heal and mana regain from consumable powerups
- Halved the mana regeneration given by the Endurance stat
- Reduced the mana costs of both of Anzo's sheilds.
- Fixed a bug where Execute would restore health even if it failed to kill

Level Changes
------------------------
Ruins Vigil
- Reduced Sikhar's single target damage
- Immolating constructs run faster
- Shortened the channel time of Flame Torrent
- Fire Runes (Same as the boss edition) are now spawned on Mythic and Normal Mode whenever a monster dies

- Changed terrain of Nest of Claws
- More polish on Nest of Claws script and events.

Kino · Feb 10, 2012

2.0j
-------
- Purchasable potions are back
- Installed a new damage engine.
- Implemented Relic systems
- Remaining items have been replaced.

Hero Changes
------------------------
- Skill now adds mana in addition to its current bonus
- Ridian's passive now causes her to deal bonus damage from behind.
- Removed Anzo's current passive
- Anzo now has Ridian's old passive
- Jared and Zephyr's END scaling abilities now scale on SKILL
- (Finally) Included the knockback effect into Sunder's tooltip, props to all those who noticed the the secret effect.
Zephyr and Ridian's dashes are now targetable.

Eldiamus
- Removed Splinter
- Remade Ability - Galewind: Deals line damage and throws enemies into the air, moving Eldiamos moves the tornado
- New Ability - Flourish: Heals Eldiamos and his summons

Aduinn
- Remade the entire Ember shard system, i now charges on ability use.
- Molten Chrysalis no longer gives mana regen
- Molten Chrysalis has a new icon when it is fully charged

Level Changes
------------------------
- Gnawing Fiends only spawn on normal and mythic difficulty

WaterKnight · Feb 10, 2012

Download link?

Hexcellion · Feb 10, 2012

He has a download link in his signature, which links to http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/maps-564/dreamvale-2-0j-180886/ and an attachment in his first post. Why are you asking for a download link? Why not check Maps section?

Kino · Feb 10, 2012

Download link?

I took it down to fairly exploitable bug, the update should be soon.

He has a download link in his signature, which links to Dreamvale 2.0j and an attachment in his first post. Why are you asking for a download link? Why not check Maps section?

Because its more convenient.

WaterKnight · Feb 10, 2012

And that people do not mistake it. And no, I would rather not browse through the maps section as I am not aware whether the entry there gets updated, could be just a test version after all and it's inefficient to search. Actually, development threads should be linked to uploads and vice-versa. But then again, why do map uploads have an extra thread?

We have funmap evening today, so maybe will do a game of this at some point, depending on the players amount.

Hexcellion · Feb 10, 2012

Kino said:
I took it down to fairly exploitable bug, the update should be soon.

Because its more convenient.

What do you mean "it's more convenient?" I didn't ask something like why did you put map downloads in your signature? or something like that. I wasn't asking a question, and I only said check Maps section because he was asking for a download link, which I only answered. So I'm really confused why you're saying "it's more convenient" when we already know that it's convenient having a download link in your post here, and in your signature.

Kino · Feb 10, 2012

Fret not, the link is back up.

Vengeancekael · Feb 11, 2012

Mhm I love the atmosphere in the screenshots, gonna check out the map soon =D

Kino · Feb 12, 2012

Mhm I love the atmosphere in the screenshots, gonna check out the map soon =D

The screenshots are a little outdated, dont be suprised if the map doesnt look like that anymore.

Kino · Feb 14, 2012

2.0l
-------
- Potions are no longer banned on mythic
- Fixed some item bugs

Hero Changes
------------------------
- Fixed issues with dash skills not aiming correctly
- Fixed a bug where the status effect of Gale would never dissapear

Jared
- Redid his skillset.

Level Changes
------------------------
- Gnawing Fiends only spawn on normal and mythic difficulty

Gwy · Feb 15, 2012

I played it yesterday with a friend 4 times.
We had problems with the boss aggro - Bosses mostly attacked the caster instead of tank. Is that intended? Or was it our fault?
greetings,
Gwy

Kino · Feb 15, 2012

I played it yesterday with a friend 4 times.
We had problems with the boss aggro - Bosses mostly attacked the caster instead of tank. Is that intended? Or was it our fault?
greetings,
Gwy

Monsters dont use any custom aggro system, they attack whatever is in range and retaliate if a new attacker starts pounding on them.

-Kobas- · Feb 29, 2012

Look nice and interesting

Good job so far :thumbs_up:

Kino · Mar 4, 2012

2.0m
-------
- Removed the standard wc3 stat system, it never did anything anyway.

Hero Changes
------------------------
- New Hero: Siobhan the Deathless

Jared
- Raised his auto attack damage slightly
- Flurry Hits harder and has lower cooldown
- Combo Finisher now scales with stats
- Reduced mana cost of Backhand/Leapstrike

Ridian
- Fleeting Night is now magic damage
- True Terror has a new model and sfx

Aduinn
- Raised Wildfire damage scaling
- Liquid Fire now amplfies damage taken by the target
- Smoothed the scripts related to ember shards
- Chrysalis icon no longer changes upon 10 stacks
- Upon reaching 10 shards, his team colour now changes.

Level Changes
------------------------
- Some changes to level terrains
- Changed some monsters in chapter 2 and 3

Gwy · Mar 5, 2012

Played the map yesterday 45 Minutes with 2 friends. Its a really nice map, and i like the little changes in Lvl 1. Its for me the legitim heir of obsidian depth, its finished and you can play it with less people (what is essential in times of lower bnet activity). So overall, im in love with this map, thanks a lot for your work!

In lvl 2 we disapeared... our icons and heroes away... no one was dead, game continues, but we were gone... is that intended? A bug? a fail from our side?

Greetings,Gwy

Kino · Mar 5, 2012

In lvl 2 we disapeared... our icons and heroes away... no one was dead, game continues, but we were gone... is that intended? A bug? a fail from our side?

Upon startup or did you play ahwile before vanishing?

Gwy · Mar 5, 2012

we played maybe 20 sec.
The Ilidan Modell (he was in the last version the boss in Lvl 2) appeared
then we vanished all together.
We lookeed how he destroyed the laterns and couldnt do anything (no Soul, no one of us) ...

Kino · Mar 5, 2012

we played maybe 20 sec.
The Ilidan Modell (he was in the last version the boss in Lvl 2) appeared
then we vanished all together.
We lookeed how he destroyed the laterns and couldnt do anything (no Soul, no one of us) ...

Thats much more detailed, hence I managed to find the root of the problem.
It has been fixed.

1. Its for me the legitim heir of obsidian depth, its finished and you can play it with less people (what is essential in times of lower bnet activity). So overall, im in love with this map, thanks a lot for your work!

Im really flaterred by that. Really am.

Gwy · Mar 19, 2012

we played yesterday again some games
1 thing happened in Lvl 3:
Creeps-Spawning stopped before we could kill the boss
Is this intended (and we lost cause we are too slow to kill the boss with limited creeps) or is it a bug?

Greetings,
Gwy

Kino · Mar 23, 2012

we played yesterday again some games
1 thing happened in Lvl 3:
Creeps-Spawning stopped before we could kill the boss
Is this intended (and we lost cause we are too slow to kill the boss with limited creeps) or is it a bug?

Greetings,
Gwy

What version was this?
Im very sure this bug has been fixed.

Gwy · Mar 25, 2012

it was 20m

Kino · Mar 30, 2012

Development Journal 2

THE SLEEPING HALLS

In the hollows of Dreamvale, the ancients created a vast chamber where they could hide thier secrets from prying eyes.
Its walls held arcane devices, able to devour the light from outside, keeping the room in permanent dark.
Since then, a particularly shadow loving group of creatures has taken up residence in the ruin.
Using what remains of its machinery to keep their fragile spawn alive. - Eldiamos

Info
Both Delirium Dusk and the Crawling Chasm have been particularly problematic levels desing wise.

The Crawling Chasm, aka. The Insect level has been ridled with bugs, quite literally.
Its event is also essentially very simillar to the previous level execution wise; one chases around a single monster and beats on it. Occasionally that said objectiven become untouchable and attention goes elsewhere.

Delirium Dusk, aka. The Night Forest has too high a skill cap for such an early level. Infact it is probably the hardest level in terms of technical execution as well as having too many complex mechanics for an early level. In order to make it playable, each monster mechanic is severely weakened. This gives the chapter a very clutered feel, where many different things are present but which actually add any gameplay value other than being confusing to learn is uncertain.

Hence, I decided the add a new second stage, something that combines abit of both.
The new level will feature very, very simplistic monsters. The difficulty comes from the terrain, where it forces you to move from the objective in order to clear the monsters due to a very simple but annoying feature of their AI.

In Short..

- Spiders, Scorpions, everywhere
- Straightforward but challenging mechanics
- Monsters will emphasize ranged combat

Galagoz · Mar 30, 2012

Love the terrain!

Kino · Mar 31, 2012

Love the terrain!

Thank you.

sonofjay · Mar 31, 2012

Awesome, keep up the good job XD

Kino · Apr 1, 2012

Awesome, keep up the good job XD

As much as I like the morale boost, game feedback goes a long way for developing the game.

Kino · Apr 5, 2012

Development Journal 3

DEVELOPER REGRETS

I look back on my journey and see crystal tears scattered on the long road.
Of many a day where my blind desire took my hand and drew itself many forms in fiery drive and burning passions.
But these dream-pyres could not last.
For the rains and my tears would wash them until only the glitting splinters remain.
Now I look back at the smoldering ashes of these fiery thoughts and weep.
- Eldiamos

Heroes
There is one major regret I have when it comes to Dreamvale's development. The lack of a defined hero systems. Talents, Specs etc. You name them, Dreamvale probabbly at one time used them.
And still I continue to modify these core systems the game should have defined and set long ago.

I want each hero too feel like a wc3 hero, not an Spec-able Rpg Class. Hence having abilties that turn to uselessness when negleted is a no go.
Hence Dreamvale needs some sort of double scaling. A passive scaling which improves skills even when untouched. Allowing the hero's entire kit to remain relevant as the game progresses.
At the same time there is the active, choice scaling which players can personaly control. This allows some but not extreme specialisation choices when it comes to improving ones hero.

My gripe with the current system is that it makes tooltips unbelievably irrtating to read and ability scaling too time consuming too calculate.

Past Systems
Talents - Intresting in theory but difficult to balance and keep intresting in execution. Amazingly time consuming when spread across the board.
Spell/Ability Power - Basically the same the current system, just worded differently.

Potions
Potions are one of the minor things that have always bugged me, In their current state they are non mandatory albeit useful. Their limitations come in the form of shops and their location.
Strangely enough, Im amazed that the idea of a permanent potion ha never been used. Then I could start thinking of proper "R" skills for most heroes instead of having a generic non targetted heals.

Items
Items in their original state were near unbalancable, you either made them mandatory to keep the game challenging when people had them. Or you made the non mandatory and had the game become trivial when people managed to buy them. Let alone when people realised that it was cost effective to stack low tier items for stats.

The current system acts sort of like a pseudo inventory slot system, it limits the stacking of items.
At the same time, the new item system means that items either scale, (In the case of all stat sticks) or have active bonuses but no stats.

I might say that this is one thing that i feel good puting to rest for now.

Kino · Jun 15, 2012

After 3 to 4 months? (Ive lost track)
Im back.

V2.0n
--------
- Redid all hero progression systems
- Glyphs replace traits, these bonuses are now more intresting and less stats stick-ish
- Potions are now upgradeable
- More Trinkets
- Added an improved scoreboard that shows player damage dealt
- More level polish
- Implemented Sleeping Halls
- Redid the Delirium Dusk'
- All monsters now use a standard armour/damage type
- Added a specific new armour type for summoned units, causing them to take 50% damage from abilties.
- Numerous other changes i dont remember

Hero
-----
- Redid most of Jared's skillset
- Redid some of Eld's abilties
- Adowyn now has a flamethrower
- Minor nerfs to Zephy'r mobility and kiting ability

I apologise for the vague changelog, Ive lost track of most of the things ive updated

magIc_seeKer · Jun 15, 2012

hmm looks very interesting

i like the dungeon-like maps, done some of my own in the past

can't wait to test it

Kino · Jun 17, 2012

Updated changelog.

Also changed the thread layout, lifted more or less from SoE. (Thanks Wolfe

)

Kino · Jun 20, 2012

ResidentV · Jun 20, 2012

very impressive map! the mapping is very unique

those rays of light make everything seem dreamy lol.

WaterKnight · Jun 21, 2012

I believe it also had purple fog. That adds some psychodelic effect to it.

Kino · Jun 21, 2012

very impressive map! the mapping is very unique those rays of light make everything seem dreamy lol.

I believe it also had purple fog. That adds some psychodelic effect to it.

I worked alot on the lighting, thanks!

Gwy · Jun 21, 2012

i played it last sunday
dungeon 3: The bearer or the latern was stuck in the top of the map
Greetings

Kino · Jun 21, 2012

i played it last sunday
dungeon 3: The bearer or the latern was stuck in the top of the map
Greetings

Explain with more details please, its too vague for me to know what to fix.

Gwy · Jun 21, 2012

as i understood the level, the latern bearer shpould wander through the lanes.
But he couldnt wander. He was above the top lane stuck in the wood. so he walked from left to right side of the map - but on the top above the lane.
Detailed enough??

Gwy · Jun 21, 2012

tried it just again in single player mod:
bearer or latern walked straight to the top border of map and then "patroled" above the lane (right and left) but never come back onto the lanes...

1 positive thing in this version i wanna mention too: Test mode is now fun; NNot too easy, but not too challenge!

Kino · Jun 22, 2012

as i understood the level, the latern bearer shpould wander through the lanes.
But he couldnt wander. He was above the top lane stuck in the wood. so he walked from left to right side of the map - but on the top above the lane.
Detailed enough??

More than detailed enough, will get a hotfix asap.

Gwy · Jun 22, 2012

1 more bug:
when you reach level 2, you get no ability pount to spend.
Thats not intended i guess!

Gwy · Jun 23, 2012

and last post in seria...
imo you could give the bosses in test mode a bit more power. Creeps are perfect/ a little challenge, bosses are a bit too fast down (at least in lvl 1-2)

WaterKnight · Jun 23, 2012

Test mode is actually for testing everything besides difficulty.

ResidentV · Jun 23, 2012

or for single player? :O

Kino · Jun 23, 2012

Test mode is actually for testing everything besides difficulty.

Yup, its only for showing how the game plays out, its not recognised as a "real" difficulty.

or for single player? :O

As the first post says, the game scales with player count. All difficulties are doable with single player.

Kino · Jun 29, 2012

Im about to release v.2o soon.

However I cannot seem to replicate the mentioned bug despite completing the level on my own.
For those who are actually watching, there will be cuts to the first level to make it run faster and tweaking of various hero skills.

Gwy · Jun 30, 2012

I give you a replay for this bug in lvl 3View attachment Dream.w3g