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[Defense / Survival] Quill's Perpetual Dungeon Project

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FINAL BETA VERSION 1.1
The Perpetual Dungeon Project is my attempt to create a map in which a player can play almost indefinitely against an ever-increasingly powerful pack of foes acquiring ever-increasingly powerful loot and abilities.





The Layout:
The map is a 5x5 grid of rooms. When the hero enters a room, enemies spawn to battle.

Starting Out:
You start out the map by selecting a difficulty to play the map as. The selections are Abilities of the "Choose your Difficulty" unit. Once you have selected Easy, Medium, Hard, or Insane, the "Choose your Hero" stone will appear. You select a hero to play as from the stone. Aside from their key stat and being either ranged or melee, all of the heroes are essentially identical. They start with no abilities, 16 points in their key stat, and 11 points in their other stats. Whenever they level up, they will earn 1.3 points in their key stat, and 1 point in the other stats. Once you've selected your hero, some starting items will spawn for you.



Version 1.0. Change Log:
A new boss has appeared on the scene. The Tier 7 bosses are live!
A new boss has appeared on the scene. The Tier 8 boss is live!
A new boss has appeared on the scene. The Final Boss is live!
All dungeon enemies now properly spawn up through the final tier.
Runes now provide more experience when picked up. The Rune of Chance now provides more bonus experience to lucky players.
Dungeon Champions now provide more bonus experience when killed.
The Hero spawned in the special event now gives bonus experience equal to a defeated champion.
Blight is now removed outside of a player’s vision.
Expanded camera bounds should now make room transition more seamless.
Functionless mercenary camps, dragon roosts, and other passive structures no longer appear on the minimap.
The cooldown of Slay (Orange) has been reduced from 120 seconds to 90.
Slay can now affect hero units, though it still cannot affect bosses.
Reduced the mana cost of Flame Attack
Furbolg Cub and Polar Furbolg Cub are now the correct level and can spawn as Level 1 enemies.
The Breath of Fire abilities used by the Living Flames summoned by Summon Living Flame (Yellow) now have correct tooltips and have had their damage adjusted to account for the lack of a damage over time effect.
Fixed a bug that was causing terrain to not appear properly.
Sounds now play for the Shimmering Portals used in the Reality Render boss fight and the Portal Ambush theme.
The health, damage, and armor of boss monsters now varies with the current difficulty level.
Adjusted the reward tiers for high scores.
Text that appears when you clear Boss 4 has been corrected.
Fixed a bug that caused multiple rewards to appear after the death of Boss 5.
The Mercenary Camp that appears in the special event will now purchase items from the player hero.
The Mercenary Camp that appears in the special event now allows the player to hire a level 9 and a level 10 minion.
The enemy hero that appears in the special event now has a variety of possible skills.
The Death and Decay effect used by the Earth Appendage in the Tekth ta-Nar boss fight now does more damage.
The Guardians summoned by Summon Guardian have had their damage reduction abilities bolstered.
The Fountain of Power that appears in the special event now sells Runes and purchases items.
There is now a shorter delay between clearing an area and getting rewards.
Units the player summons or hires are now automatically added to the player’s current selection.
The player’s Pack Horse is now classified as a worker, allowing quick selection.
Fixed a bug which could make Dungeon Champions invulnerable.
Adjusted text display of the Score Reward tiers.


Version 1.1 Change Log:
Rooms can snow spawn with some special features: Mysterious Tomes, Magic Vaults, Exploding Barrels, or Summoning Crystals. Destroying these special features can spawn skill books, items, minions for the hero to control, or create big explosions to damage friend and foe alike.
The issue of room features that spawn overlapping has been as well fixed as I am able to do at this time. There are still some cases of overlapping features, but they now occur with GREATLY reduced frequency.
Several themes now spawn defensive structures at higher level tiers.
A few enemies that did not upgrade properly now upgrade properly.
New enemies added to the random spawn lists:
Level 7: Water Wyvern, Berserker, Gyrohunter, Gnoll Alpha, Darkbone Marksman, Darkbone Gravecaller
Level 8: Ancient of Vengeance, Cryocaster, Druid of the Shell, Troll Fleshweaver, Necromaster Naga Wavewatcher
Level 9: Devouring One, Anubimite, Thunderheads, Elven Windwatcher, Grotesque, Wyvern Winglord, Gryphon Winglord
Level 10: Magma Fiend, Artillery Squad, Retainer, Lost Ork, Hunter Killer, Entlord, Nerubian Royal Guard, Flamecaller
Time Stop (Orange) has had its duration reduced and no longer interferes with Thunder Clap (Red).
Playing on Easy difficulty now results in the player finding less loot.
The difficulty selection options have had their text updated.
Fewer and weaker enemies now spawn in the Ambush special event and the Portal Ambush theme.
Enemy spawns in the Ambush special event are now linked with the selected difficulty.
Fixed a bug involving hero selection.
Fixed a bug that could occur upon entering the first room.
Reduced the number of item/book spawns for score rewards from 5 to 3.







MAP INFORMATION


Level Tiers:
Upon reaching Hero Level 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90, the player will have battle against a boss. If the player defeats the boss, they will enter the next tier of the dungeon. Better items will drop, the level of skills they pick up will be higher, enemies will grow more powerful, and more enemies will spawn. There are 10 tiers in total.


Skill Books:
The player's hero starts out with only 1 skill, Call Minions. They must learn other powers by picking up Skill Books that drop as you clear rooms. There are 6 slots for skills, each marked by a specific color. Picking up a new skill book will replace whatever skill was previously associated with that color. As the Level Tier increases, picking up skill books will teach the hero higher level versions of the skills. The general breakdown of the colors and the types of skills that fit in that slot are as follows:
Red: Damage
Green: Buffs
Blue: Autocast
Orange: Ultimates
Yellow: Crowd Control
Purple: Passive skills

List of Skills by Color:
Red: Chain Lightning, Mana Burn, Carrion Swarm, Fan of Knives, Flame Strike, Impale, Wind Walk, Hurl Boulder, Thunder Clap, Acid Bomb, Frost Nova, Soul Burn, Rain of Fire
Green: Mirror Image, Clone, Dispel Magic, Immolation, Rejuvenation, Feral Spirit, Life Drain, Siphon Mana, Anti-Magic Shell, Divine Shield, Mana Shield
Blue: Frost Armor, Curse, Raise Dead, Spell Steal, Inner Fire, Flame Attack, Bloodlust, Parasite, Slow, Faerie Fire, Abolish Magic
Orange: Stampede, Volcano, Absorb Mana, Locust Swarm, Monsoon, Slay, Inferno, Time Stop, Avatar, Reincarnation, Pocket Factory
Yellow: Feedback, Armor Spikes, Envenomed Weapons, Slow Poison, Pulverize, Suppression, Mind Control, Banish, Cyclone, Summon Dire Bear, Summon Nether Beast, Summon Earthswarm. Summon Healbot, Summon Living Flame
Purple: Evasion, Critical Strike, Drunken Brawler, Smash, Devastate, Devotion Aura, Brilliance Aura, Command Aura, Unholy Aura, Endurance Aura, Agility Focus, Intelligence Focus, Strength Focus


Special Events:
Special Events occur approximately 14% of the time that a player enters a room. The current special events that can happen are as follows:
1. An empty room with a Fountain of Power in the center.
2. An empty room that spawns double the normal loot when entered.
3. An empty room that spawns a random hero filled with loot that drops upon death. This hero can spawn with a Legendary item just as a Dungeon Champion does.
4. An empty room that spawns a foot switch. When stepping on this foot switch, the player teleports to one of five spots on the map.
5. An empty room with a Mercenary Camp where the hero can purchase units to join him.
6. An empty room with a Dungeon Shop where the hero can purchase items appropriate to his level.
7. A room which spawns 6 merchants who sell the various skill books.
8. A room in which the player will be ambushed by a horde of enemies.


Clearing an Area:
Clearing an area will spawn the following standard loot:
2 items appropriate to the player’s level.
2 random skill books.
1 Rune.
Note: If you are playing on Easy difficulty, only 1 item and 1 book will drop instead of 2. If you are playing on Insane difficulty, three items and 3 books will drop instead of 2.


Runes:
Upon clearing a room, one of the items that is dropped is a Rune. There are 5 types of runes. The Runes of Agility, Intelligence, and Strength each increase their respective stat by 1, grant experience, and provide recovery equal to 75% of your hero and minions maximum health and mana. Runes of Recovery only provide the health and mana recovery. The fifth type of Rune that can drop is the Rune of Chance.
Rune of Chance:
Picking up a Rune of Chance triggers one of a number of effects. The current effects are as follows:
1. Double experience in the next room with enemies.
2. Half experience in the next room with enemies.
3. Hero recovers all health.
4. Hero loses half of current health.
5. Hero recovers all mana.
6. Hero loses half of current mana.
7. Earn double loot the next time loot drops (4 items, 4 skill books, 2 runes).
8. Earn half loot the next time loot drops (1 item, 1 skill book, 1 rune).
9. Increase hero's Strength, Agility, and Intelligence by 1.
10. Decrease hero's Strength, Agility, and Intelligence by 1.
11. Hero gains (level tier x 1500) experience.


Dungeon Champions:
When you reach level 10, a Dungeon Champion will spawn somewhere in the map. This hero has significant power, skills, and carries items that it will drop upon death. It may even be carrying special Legendary items that can only be found on Champions! Defeating a champion gains you its loot and a big boost of experience. When a champion is defeated, another will spawn somewhere in the dungeon. An additional champion spawns when you hit level 20, and another at level 30, for a total of 3 at a time. The location of Dungeon Champions will be pinged on the map from time to time, so you can find them, or avoid them.


Dungeon Bosses:
Tier 1 Boss: Lord-of-all-Waters
Tier 2 Boss: Rotfeast
Tier 3 Boss: Reality Render
Tier 4 Boss: Winglord Shoveltusk
Tier 5 Boss: Primordial
Tier 6 Boss: Tekth ta-Nar
Tier 7 Boss: The Masters
Tier 8 Boss: The First Champion
Tier 9 Boss: ???
 

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Level 6
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1- good concept, enjoyed the demo.
2- tons of stuff comes to mind, I can list them later, I'm a little tired now.
3- Snowy, volcanic, forest, swamp, etc..
4- Room switching is bad. I can keep going left and right without moving to the other rooms, so this needs some work.
 
Level 6
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1- good concept, enjoyed the demo.
2- tons of stuff comes to mind, I can list them later, I'm a little tired now.
3- Snowy, volcanic, forest, swamp, etc..
4- Room switching is bad. I can keep going left and right without moving to the other rooms, so this needs some work.

I'm getting all 25 rooms working in my next release. At that point I'll test every connecting passage to make sure they all work. Until then, I can't be certain that you aren't moving into area that aren't scripted yet. If you have found a problem though, I will find it and fix it.

As a general expectation for what coming up, I decided to copy this over from my planning notes:


To do for V0.4:
finish up the 12 outer core inner betweeners, and the 16 outermost in betweeners. Then finish up the gate reset trigger to turn them all on. Make level 4 and level 5 items. Add 2 new powers of every color. Build 5 terrain types (keep random enemy production for now)

To do for V0.5:
Add 2 more powers of every color, add level 6 and level 9 items. Add 5 more terrain types, build preliminary specialized unit generation. Build the enemy hero generation.

To do for V0.6:
Finish up all items up to level 10. Add two more powers of each color. Add 10 more terrain types.
 
Level 21
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Yeah that's interesting, it just needs multiplayer and some distinct events.

The general gameplay of dungeoncrawling is fine and randomization adds enough spice to it.
 
Level 6
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A]mun;2790760 said:
Yeah that's interesting, it just needs multiplayer and some distinct events.

The general gameplay of dungeoncrawling is fine and randomization adds enough spice to it.

I have no idea how I would adapt this to multiplayer play at this point. Unfortunately, I think this is doomed to be a single player dungeon crawl.


UPDATE!
The OP is now updated to the 3.5 release (or will be within a couple minutes of this posting)
 
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Level 6
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UPDATE!
Version 5.1 is now live. Check the OP for the link and change logs.

This project is proceeding very well. All that really remains now is just finishing up the item and ability lists, then just added more themes and getting them all working up through tier 10.

The core system and all the special crap I had previously planned is totally finished... though I'll have to fiddle with the theme terrain generation before I proceed.
 
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UPDATE!

Version 0.7.0 is now live!

You can find download links and change logs in the original post.

All I have left to do now is to add a few more skills, get all current themes to generate enemies up to tier 10, and add at least a dozen more themes.
 
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Ardenian

A

Ardenian

Wow, I regret not having played it earlier! I look forward to the next versions!

There is a bug with Electric Field, it has a requirement you probably forgot to remove.
I could also swear a red tome gave me a yellow ability, but I am not sure.

It is a bit hard at the moment, when not cheating.

Let's see, other suggestions..
An item craft would be interesting, as far as I played, weak items drop. Maybe a way to melt them into stronger ones could be a good idea.

For special events, what about theme-dependent weather, having different impact dependent on the hero class ?
 
Level 6
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Wow, I regret not having played it earlier! I look forward to the next versions!

There is a bug with Electric Field, it has a requirement you probably forgot to remove.
I could also swear a red tome gave me a yellow ability, but I am not sure.

It is a bit hard at the moment, when not cheating.

Let's see, other suggestions..
An item craft would be interesting, as far as I played, weak items drop. Maybe a way to melt them into stronger ones could be a good idea.

For special events, what about theme-dependent weather, having different impact dependent on the hero class ?

You are actually probably completely right about a red tome giving you a yellow ability. I switched the ability color of suppression and a few others, but forgot to change their model. This bug is already corrected in the build of version 8.0.

Thank you for noticing the requirement in Electric Field, I had missed that. And oh dear god I didn't even update the mana cost fields in that power either. How'd I miss so much? Thank you for noticing.

Yes, item drops are very weak when you start out, by design. But as the level tier increases, the items really ramp up too. In general, the bonuses granted by items increase by +1 for each level tier, and items with non-stat effects increase by a value of 5. And if you can find Legendary items from the dungeon champions, those are all equivalent to Tier 12 items, so their bonuses are crazy good. Like 25% lifesteal, +15 attack, or +600 max health.

I do have difficulty concerns, though. I may have to do a flat reduction in difficulty once I have the final build. It's a lot easier to subtract difficulty than add it, so I'm intentionally building it near the upper limit for possibility. It's just hard to balance. The player's power grows at a completely different curve than a normal hero unit.

Item crafting sounds interesting. I've never attempted an item craft system before. But I suppose it would be quite simple to create a system where two items of the same item level in a specific place would replace them both with 1 random item of a higher level... though there are so many item rewards being thrown around that it would make it very easy to get items of tier 6 or even higher by reaching level tier 2...
I think the best way to handle that would be to create a special event, some kind of mystic forge where you have the chance to do that. That way the opportunity it limited... Yeah, I think I can make that work without a great deal of difficulty.

A periodic change in global weather providing certain buffs and/or debuffs to the player is a very interesting idea. I'll look into that.

I'm glad you are enjoying my project. Version 8.0 will go up after I finish the last powers, bring the total number of themes up to at least 25, and have all themes operating up to level tier 6.

I have a question for the player base: Is it worth it for me to add waygates or teleporters to the sides of the map so the whole thing wraps around? Or is that just a superfluous idea? Would it help your immersion, or just be an annoying oddity?
 

Ardenian

A

Ardenian

Hm, in my opinion would teleporters feel strange, as the theme of the room changes. I don't think the portal model fits that. I think it is alright as it is now. You could ensure though that the sites look the same, what I mean, so the player does not notice the unit and camera was moved. There are different ways to do it.
 
Level 6
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Hm, in my opinion would teleporters feel strange, as the theme of the room changes. I don't think the portal model fits that. I think it is alright as it is now. You could ensure though that the sites look the same, what I mean, so the player does not notice the unit and camera was moved. There are different ways to do it.

I thought about that, but I'm not aware of a way to make that transition without the player noticing, unless I add a fade in and out at every room transition.
 

Ardenian

A

Ardenian

I thought about that, but I'm not aware of a way to make that transition without the player noticing, unless I add a fade in and out at every room transition.
I would not suggest fades. They feel odd in fluent gameplay and slow down, even if only mentally, the game speed.

The problem is is the terrain generation. As the full room gets a new terrain, the player does notice the changes. A way around this could be to increase the length of the entries/exits, so the player does not have any sight of the actual dungeon room.
Another solution would be to emit combinations of Black Mask or Fog of War over the dungeon room in between rounds.
 
Level 6
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I would not suggest fades. They feel odd in fluent gameplay and slow down, even if only mentally, the game speed.

The problem is is the terrain generation. As the full room gets a new terrain, the player does notice the changes. A way around this could be to increase the length of the entries/exits, so the player does not have any sight of the actual dungeon room.
Another solution would be to emit combinations of Black Mask or Fog of War over the dungeon room in between rounds.

That's not a bad idea, and should be relatively easy to implement. I'll add it to my list of later development possibilities. I fully expect to have version 8.0 live before the end of the day, and knowing my obsessive work rate, I'll be halfway done with 9.0 before I go to bed.


UPDATE
Version 0.8.0 is live. You can find download links, change logs, and information in the OP!

UPDATE AGAIN
Version 0.8.1 is live with more fixes! You can find the download links, change logs, and information in the OP!

UPDATE AGAIN AGAIN

I'm up to version 0.8.3. Some important bug fixes have warranted two more small updates. You can find the download links, change logs, and information in the OP!
 
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Level 6
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UPDATE
Version 0.9.0 is LIVE!


The map is nearing completion. The only thing I have planned that is left to do is get all of the rooms to have working spawns beyond tier 6.

I'm sure I'll be adding more special events, dynamic themes, and maybe some new skills here and there, but my focus for now is just to make the map playable up to level 99. Everything is in place- all I have to do is tell it what enemies to spawn.
 
Level 26
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This was very fun!
I found it very interesting until about level 15 or something, when I thought it became a little repetetive.
It is a great concept though and I'm sure you'll make it even better than it was now in the future!

I kept playing until level 40 or something, Then, I was I got too bored.
I think you should have some ultimate goal, so that you can win the game and perhaps after that continue on an endless adventure increasing in difficulty throughout eternity.

I hope that you'll keep adding new skills, items and new areas with more diversity!
And also, perhaps more interesting boss fights?

One more thing: I think you should reduce the grid to 4x4 cells instead of the current 5x5, since searching for a Hero/ Boss (I loved this idea) took a little too long in mu opinion. Overall, great work and I see forward to playing it again once it reaches 1.0

Good luck! :)

PS: Love your signatture :D
 
Level 6
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This was very fun!
I found it very interesting until about level 15 or something, when I thought it became a little repetetive.
It is a great concept though and I'm sure you'll make it even better than it was now in the future!

I kept playing until level 40 or something, Then, I was I got too bored.
I think you should have some ultimate goal, so that you can win the game and perhaps after that continue on an endless adventure increasing in difficulty throughout eternity.

I hope that you'll keep adding new skills, items and new areas with more diversity!
And also, perhaps more interesting boss fights?

One more thing: I think you should reduce the grid to 4x4 cells instead of the current 5x5, since searching for a Hero/ Boss (I loved this idea) took a little too long in mu opinion. Overall, great work and I see forward to playing it again once it reaches 1.0

Good luck! :)

PS: Love your signatture :D

Yes. I considered the idea of having a tier boss at each level, and I may institute that, though not for 1.0. That will be more of a 1.1 or a 1.2 thing.

I've also been theorycrafting some ideas for more dynamic room themes, like the Portal Ambush I have now (and which is easily my favorite). Those take more time and effort to build, but if I could have merely... 10 or so dynamic themes (as opposed to the two I have right now), then players would be encountering a more dynamic and active chamber an average of every 5 rooms. The idea of having the difficulty continue to increase after a final boss intrigues me. And since I already gave a single ever-increasing upgrade to every single creep, it would be incredibly easy to implement, so that's a definite thing that will happen.

And thanks for commenting on my sig. I love that phrase. Came up with it years ago, used it ever since.
 
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A progress update:
I'm continuing to test as I develop the enemies for tier 7 and beyond.

I've also decided to institute the tier bosses idea, and some of those are going to take quite a bit of triggering to design, so it may be a week or more before I do end up putting version 1.0 on here.

I aim for quality in my projects. Anything else is unacceptable.

A new and more specific update:

I have 4 out of 9 bosses working now. The remaining 5 will take time, as they are each unique, scripted encounters.
I finally found the right balance of difficulty for tier 7, and tier 8 was as simple adding just another general spawn on top. Only tier 9 and tier 10 remain.
A number of fixes and rebalances have made the map more functional than ever.
 
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Ardenian

A

Ardenian

Great to hear!

Remember none wants to fight against bosses you can tank out or simply auto-attack down.
I expect a lot from the scripted encounters :)
 
Level 6
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Great to hear!

Remember none wants to fight against bosses you can tank out or simply auto-attack down.
I expect a lot from the scripted encounters :)

The first 2 are pretty tank and spank, but the rest require frequent, sometimes constant movement and micro... unless you enjoy dying. I'm aiming for interesting encounters more than I'm aiming for brutal challenge.
 
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Building everything I want into version 1.0 is taking longer than I anticipated, but substantial additions have already been made.

As such, I've decided to release Version 0.9.3.

This version has numerous fixes, and features the first 5 bosses of the dungeon.
 

Ardenian

A

Ardenian

Things I noticed throughout gameplay:
- command to lock camera to hero would be nice
- doors have a shadow which looks strange
- trees can spawn in buildings
- mini map picture is rather confusing, as not being in the same shape as the atcual map
- summon your pack should not cost mana ? Since you could also first enter a stage with it and then follow with the hero
- camera focus not better than no camera change ? Try to only move the unit and not paning to the hero, then you would have a fluent effect

I made it to 48, then I got stuck in a mercenary camp that spawned on me after activating a ground button and being teleported to another stage.
 
Level 6
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Things I noticed throughout gameplay:
- command to lock camera to hero would be nice
- doors have a shadow which looks strange
- trees can spawn in buildings
- mini map picture is rather confusing, as not being in the same shape as the atcual map
- summon your pack should not cost mana ? Since you could also first enter a stage with it and then follow with the hero
- camera focus not better than no camera change ? Try to only move the unit and not paning to the hero, then you would have a fluent effect

I made it to 48, then I got stuck in a mercenary camp that spawned on me after activating a ground button and being teleported to another stage.

As always, I appreciate your thorough testing and critique.
I've corrected the error with the teleporter, and eliminated the mana cost for the Call Minions ability.

I know that things can tend to spawn on top of each other, but I'm really not sure how I can fix that short of creating or using a brand new system for control the spawn locations.
I also just removed the shadows from the rolling stone doors.

I don't know how I would go about adjusting the mini map.

I'm pretty sure I understand what your first suggestion meant. I'm pretty sure that you are saying I should add a chat command to Lock the camera onto the player hero, is that correct? That's an easy thing to add.

I'm not entirely sure I understand what your last suggestion was saying. If you could clarify it for me, I'd appreciate you help.

In the meanwhile, I'd better get back to finishing up boss number 6.
Did you know there are virtually no attachment points to get buffs and stuff to appear on the Tentacle model? BECAUSE I DIDN'T. Luckily, I have found work arounds.
 

Ardenian

A

Ardenian

Excuse if the feedback was a bit harsh, I was in hurry when writing it.

Do you use the Locust trick for having locust units with pathing ?
One solution is to check before you create a 'doodad' if the point is pathable. There are systems for this in the spell section, if I recall right, but it is also rather easy to write your own.

About the mini-map, why don't you zoom it in, so it appropriately shows only one room, as supposed ?

Yes, locked camera to the hero, feels like a good addition/option to me.

We had a small discussion how to create fluent passages between dungeon rooms, do you remember ?
If the camera would not pan on the hero, move to him, then the illusion would be near perfect, I think.

One workaround would be to use a dummy like Vexorian's dummy to simulate the attachment points.
 
Level 6
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Excuse if the feedback was a bit harsh, I was in hurry when writing it.

Do you use the Locust trick for having locust units with pathing ?
One solution is to check before you create a 'doodad' if the point is pathable. There are systems for this in the spell section, if I recall right, but it is also rather easy to write your own.

About the mini-map, why don't you zoom it in, so it appropriately shows only one room, as supposed ?

Yes, locked camera to the hero, feels like a good addition/option to me.

We had a small discussion how to create fluent passages between dungeon rooms, do you remember ?
If the camera would not pan on the hero, move to him, then the illusion would be near perfect, I think.

One workaround would be to use a dummy like Vexorian's dummy to simulate the attachment points.

I'm unfamiliar with some of these concepts at the time of writing this. I only started using the warcraft 3 editor again late last year after many years away from it. And back then I was no master. My projects are essentially glorified proving grounds for teaching myself ever increasingly more advanced techniques. The detail of your critiques is exactly the kind of feedback I need to know where my skills are still lacking, and to discover the tools I can use to work around limitations within the editor.

I'm unfamiliar with the Locust trick you make reference to. I'll have to look into that.

I'll look into creating a pathable check for my room decorations. It would be a long process to fix, but it would be an awesome piece of polish.

I always thought that adjusting the camera bounds was enough to get the minimap to zoom in, but it doesn't seem to do that in my map. If I could find out how to do a zoom, I'd institute it immediately.

I'll play around with the room transitions and camera controls for smoother transitions.


I have 6 bosses live in my current map right now, and another one planned. I'm blank on the other three right now, but they'll come to me. They always do. I still need to get all of the themes working for Tiers 9 and 10, though. Plus I'm adding 8 custom units at each level... so that's another 64 custom units I have to copy and modify. Overall, the project is nearing true completion.
 

Ardenian

A

Ardenian

Ah I see. Well, you basically create a dummy unit at the location where you want to place a 'doodad'. If x and y of that unit are the same after a short time, then there isn't anything blocking and you can safely create the doodad.
If there were something, then the dummy would be moved, I think.

The locust trick is this one: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/world-editor-help-zone-98/locust-units-pathing-276234/

I don't think you can zoom in the custom mini-map picture. You would have to edit the picture itself and re-import it.

About 8 custom units per level, I cannot recommend that. Object data will increase insansly while the effect is rather average. What you did up to now was fine, in my opinion.

Keep them going, I am excited for the new update!
 
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Ah I see. Well, you basically create a dummy unit at the location where you want to place a 'doodad'. If x and y of that unit are the same after a short time, then there isn't anything blocking and you can safely create the doodad.
If there were something, then the dummy would be moved, I think.

The locust trick is this one: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/world-editor-help-zone-98/locust-units-pathing-276234/

I don't think you can zoom in the custom mini-map picture. You would have to edit the picture itself and re-import it.

About 8 custom units per level, I cannot recommend that. Object data will increase insansly while the effect is rather average. What you did up to now was fine, in my opinion.

Keep them going, I am excited for the new update!

Good advice. I had also noticed that custom units, while sometimes chosen for random spawn, were disproportionately chosen less than the default units. I'm assuming that some hardcode within the random selection system must first select to choose a custom unit (at a 1 in X chance), and only then select from the ones on that list. Or I could just be the joke of statistics again. That happens too.

Using a dummy unit spawn system to determine pathability is a good approach. I'll experiment with it before I decide though, because that will invariably require a few hours to implement across all of my system.

I'll take you words to heart and keep on with my work. It may be as long as a week until my next update, but could be a couple days. It's always hard to know how hard I'll dive into my projects.


UPDATE:
Version 0.9.4 is live. This version has more fixes, a level 60 boss, and a locked camera. Due to the changes in this version, room population is now invisible to the player, greatly improving immersion.
 
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Ardenian

A

Ardenian

Could you add a version number to the attached map, please ?

Played up to and killed the first boss, the water elemental.
Here is another feedback list:

- 'never-ending' in the loading screen is a controversial term. What is the sense of a game you can play forever, with no aim than highscore ? You could slightly re-phrase it to something more/additional luring.

- You could think about preloading abilities. It will increase the loading time, but it will remove the short frame rate drop when picking up a tome you did not have before

-I would suggest to give rewards of a stage with a maximum of 1, 2 seconds delay. I keep running around searching for an enemy I might missed

- Trees, dolphin statues and rocks still spawn in buildings

- I would suggest to increase the map size and to increase the length of the passages. The you can move from room to room without any interruption noteable to the player

-I noticed you have seperate strings for the reward message and the number of the next score reward. You can add both in one message using Concentrate Strings

-I also noticed Barrens bones and the skulls lying around the floor block movement. Seems quite illogical to me. Maybe create two different sets of doodads, the ones blocking the movement and the ones being pathable decoration

-Has the food cap of 16 any meaning ?

-I couldn't sell items to the Mercenary Camp ( cannot remember if you can in the default game), if items cannot be sold to shops, then they should not have a selling information in them

-What do you think about adding the worker classification to the mule, so you can fast get access to its control ?

-Also, what do you think about a command that activates auto-selection for your summons ( summoned units are automatically added to your current selection)?

-Has the green dragon roost a neutral building icon ?

-What do you think about adding traps ?

Finally, my suggestion fo the day: Interactive terrain
I noticed you have doodads the player can interact with ( TNT barrel e.g.). Why not go a step further and make it influence gameplay ? All unit around an exploding barrel could be damaged.
Additionally, you could make another step further, for example could lava cracks damage the hero, moon wells could heal close enemies, corrupted moon wells could damage you once you are close and so on.
What do you think about it ?
 
Level 6
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Messages
223
Could you add a version number to the attached map, please ?

Played up to and killed the first boss, the water elemental.
Here is another feedback list:

- 'never-ending' in the loading screen is a controversial term. What is the sense of a game you can play forever, with no aim than highscore ? You could slightly re-phrase it to something more/additional luring.

- You could think about preloading abilities. It will increase the loading time, but it will remove the short frame rate drop when picking up a tome you did not have before

-I would suggest to give rewards of a stage with a maximum of 1, 2 seconds delay. I keep running around searching for an enemy I might missed

- Trees, dolphin statues and rocks still spawn in buildings

- I would suggest to increase the map size and to increase the length of the passages. The you can move from room to room without any interruption noteable to the player

-I noticed you have seperate strings for the reward message and the number of the next score reward. You can add both in one message using Concentrate Strings

-I also noticed Barrens bones and the skulls lying around the floor block movement. Seems quite illogical to me. Maybe create two different sets of doodads, the ones blocking the movement and the ones being pathable decoration

-Has the food cap of 16 any meaning ?

-I couldn't sell items to the Mercenary Camp ( cannot remember if you can in the default game), if items cannot be sold to shops, then they should not have a selling information in them

-What do you think about adding the worker classification to the mule, so you can fast get access to its control ?

-Also, what do you think about a command that activates auto-selection for your summons ( summoned units are automatically added to your current selection)?

-Has the green dragon roost a neutral building icon ?

-What do you think about adding traps ?

Finally, my suggestion fo the day: Interactive terrain
I noticed you have doodads the player can interact with ( TNT barrel e.g.). Why not go a step further and make it influence gameplay ? All unit around an exploding barrel could be damaged.
Additionally, you could make another step further, for example could lava cracks damage the hero, moon wells could heal close enemies, corrupted moon wells could damage you once you are close and so on.
What do you think about it ?

Many of these are good ideas that I'll work on as I go into ongoing development after the 1.0 release. For right now, I am focusing on just getting out a finished version of the basic thing.

I have the final 3 bosses fairly well planned, I just have to put them in.
 
Level 6
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Messages
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I will probably have 1.0 up by the end of the weekend. This final boss is... going to take a while to dial in the difficulty. I've never constructed anything like it, nor fought anything that used the system I'll be developing.

I can promise it will be a unique encounter.
 

Ardenian

A

Ardenian

That makes me quite excited!
Take your time, no need to rush :)
 
Level 14
Joined
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Messages
1,314
Your map is a lot of fun! great job on the terrain generation and the tome system is really entertaining as well. I will certainly play this game with my bro a few hours next week! :)

Just one thing, I would disable the horse to be able to change tomes as your hero does. Or at least mention it at the beginning of the map. Well, its not a must, I mean, its fun anyway to change abilities! :)

Overall your map is a real good fun map! thanks for sharing it :)
 
Level 6
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Messages
223
Your map is a lot of fun! great job on the terrain generation and the tome system is really entertaining as well. I will certainly play this game with my bro a few hours next week! :)

Just one thing, I would disable the horse to be able to change tomes as your hero does. Or at least mention it at the beginning of the map. Well, its not a must, I mean, its fun anyway to change abilities! :)

Overall your map is a real good fun map! thanks for sharing it :)

The horse should not be able to pick up the tomes or runes since version 9.0 or so.

I'm glad to see people enjoying my map.
I promise I'm not rushing my work. Hell, I've spent most of today having marathons of Game Grumps while scribbling down notes as new ideas come to me. Never underestimate the power of a notebook on hand.
 
Level 14
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Messages
1,314
The horse should not be able to pick up the tomes or runes since version 9.0 or so.

I'm glad to see people enjoying my map.
I promise I'm not rushing my work. Hell, I've spent most of today having marathons of Game Grumps while scribbling down notes as new ideas come to me. Never underestimate the power of a notebook on hand.

oh ok, well you're making quick progress then :)
Have fun making your map! About the notebook, you are very right, sir!
 
Level 6
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Aug 11, 2015
Messages
223
THE FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE, VERSION 1.0 IS LIVE

Check the OP for download links and change log.

I'll leave the map here before I do an official submission of it. Hopefully that will give time to do more improvements and catch more bugs.
Happy hunting everybody!
 
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Ardenian

A

Ardenian

Any news ?

Hm, I think a big problem, one I face with my own dungeon crawler, too, is that the
gameplay is too uniform, too grind-like.
The gameplay in general is too repetitive, too many similarities,
not terrain- and style-wise, but gameplay-wise.
I myself get bored quite fast.
 
Level 6
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Messages
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Yeah. That's a problem with dungeon crawlers in general. That's why this one is finite. If you beat the final boss, then the enemies get their damage and armor upgraded after every room you clear, so eventually it doesn't matter how strong you are, you WILL be defeated. The fact that the final boss involves permanent stat draining further guarantees defeat after.

Still, this project was my little baby for a while, so I'm proud of what it did.

Anyway, I've built a system to fix the overlapping spawning, more or less, but it takes time to copy it to all of the feature spawns. I'm going to upload one final version here in the OP. About half its themes have the fixed feature spawning, and while the rest don't yet have it, they are still functional.

This will be the last version of the map I upload to this thread. Once I'm done with the spawn fixes, I'll be submitting the map to the Maps Section. In the meantime, here are the changes to my final beta version, 1.1:

Version 1.1 Change Log:
Rooms can snow spawn with some special features: Mysterious Tomes, Magic Vaults, Exploding Barrels, or Summoning Crystals. Destroying these special features can spawn skill books, items, minions for the hero to control, or create big explosions to damage friend and foe alike.
The issue of room features that spawn overlapping has been as well fixed as I am able to do at this time. There are still some cases of overlapping features, but they now occur with GREATLY reduced frequency.
Several themes now spawn defensive structures at higher level tiers.
A few enemies that did not upgrade properly now upgrade properly.
New enemies added to the random spawn lists:
Level 7: Water Wyvern, Berserker, Gyrohunter, Gnoll Alpha, Darkbone Marksman, Darkbone Gravecaller
Level 8: Ancient of Vengeance, Cryocaster, Druid of the Shell, Troll Fleshweaver, Necromaster Naga Wavewatcher
Level 9: Devouring One, Anubimite, Thunderheads, Elven Windwatcher, Grotesque, Wyvern Winglord, Gryphon Winglord
Level 10: Magma Fiend, Artillery Squad, Retainer, Lost Ork, Hunter Killer, Entlord, Nerubian Royal Guard, Flamecaller
Time Stop (Orange) has had its duration reduced and no longer interferes with Thunder Clap (Red).
Playing on Easy difficulty now results in the player finding less loot.
The difficulty selection options have had their text updated.
Fewer and weaker enemies now spawn in the Ambush special event and the Portal Ambush theme.
Enemy spawns in the Ambush special event are now linked with the selected difficulty.
Fixed a bug involving hero selection.
Fixed a bug that could occur upon entering the first room.
Reduced the number of item/book spawns for score rewards from 5 to 3.
 
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Messages
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Just played the map and here to give my feedback. Firstly it's quite fun. Scaling enemies and loots seems balanced and level themes are well done.

I feel like abilities in general should be modified heavily to fit a dungeon crawler. For example Reincarnate has a long cooldown which can be exploited by waiting. I think you should balance abilities to use at least once in a level. For example Reincarnate can have a 60 seconds cooldown (Most likely to use once per level, if you die) and bring back with ???% health. (Percentage increased with level of the ability).

Another example would be Stampede. It has a very large area, yet there are few enemies and they usually stand close. So Stampede could effect a smaller area.

Also abilities should tell more from the book item before you learn them. I know the space is small, but maybe you can change the "Blue ability - Replaces your blue ability with this one" to just "Blue ability" since you already explain it before game begins and use that space the tell more about the ability you are about to learn.
 
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