Lunever's dungeon idea

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Lunever
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Lunever's dungeon idea

Post by Lunever »

Split off from this discussion thread - b.

The dungeon I'm planning to do once some RTC release will allow factions would allow such endings. You would lure/drive Libby and Elsie, starting from 2 vertically opposite ends of the dungeon (Libby from above, Elsie from below), through a complex series of pits and teleporters to a great central hall, the Hall of Gor, where they and their summoned minions could fight each other for eternity. Gigglerlike small spirits would guard the eternal battelfield by picking up demon horns and iron gauntlets occasionally left behind by slain minions, and carry them to altars of Vi for ressurrection.
The player could then decide to leave Mount Anaias, or join one of the 2 sides by fighting his way through the enemies ranks to fuse their Lord. Or he could try the almost impossible by fighting both sides and fuse the other Lord too before he has made his way to the dungeon's exit after his foe had been smitten down. That would make the Grey Lord appear and end the game unless you shoot at GL before he starts speaking with you upon reaching a tile adjacent to you.

Central to the layout would be a deep chasm, deep as the long shaft in CSB; it would separate the dungeon horizontally by an irregular line of 2-3 tiles, riddled with caves, strange creatures, some flying, half destroyed rope bridges and abandoned dwarven guard houses with a series of interlinked switches. Too bad that no engine so far supports seeing what's going on on the opposite floor above/below.

Starting room would be the Hal of Gor where already some normal demons and animated armours would fight each other, later to be joined by archdemons and inquisitor knights. The eternal battlefield too would be divided by the chasm, but would have a long, narrow, unsecured bridge. It would have 2 closed and locked gates for exit. You would have to find a way to fall down bit by bit from one rock nose to the next in order to survive.

After arriving in an area that could be described as hell, the pit of FulSar, where Elsie is wandering about you'd have the choice to ascend through one of two pathes twisting the principles of the four arts. Nu, path of the knight, and Röta, path of the monk. Both would spiral up intertwined up to the top of the dungeon, the top of the Tower of KathRa, where you have to find your way past Libby and then get the choice to proceed upon two other twisted pathways spiraling intertwined all the way down: Kain, the path of the soldier, Ruin, the path of the assasin.

The pathes would be interconnected in a way similar to the pathes of CSB.
You also would have to get 4 corbums. One you'd need to restore the Spirit of the firestaff from the lava, accessible in the ruins of the Grey Lords laboratory. The other corbums would charge the Spirit of Firestaff with a limited amount of charges in respect to its fuse function, that is 1 charge per corbum (1 try per Lord ;-)).

The path of the soldier would include battlefields that have many trench-like areas, where you have to do ranged combat to fight foes on the other side of chasms, while also fighting adjacent foes.

The path of assasin would mainly have riddles that aim at luring strong opponents into spots where they cannot fight back very well.

The path of knight would inlcude many fear riddles combined with hostile environment and much melee.

The path of the monk would mainly have areas riddled with shooter riddles, where you need speed, protection and cleverness to succeed.

The entire dungeon would be riddled with twisted layouts reminiscent of areas and riddles of DM and CSB, often, but not always, using this seemingly familiarity to the players disadvantage.

Yeah well that's it. Not that anyone here would ever get a bit off-topic :-)
Parting is all we know from Heaven, and all we need of hell.
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Trantor
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Post by Trantor »

That sounds like a fantastic idea for a dungeon Lunever! I'd say it's a bit too ambitious for current engines as you yourself said, but who knows, maybe one day... Your description conjured up loads of nice images in my head! :)
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beowuuf
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Post by beowuuf »

Cows and myself had a brief discussions on his forum ages ago about how to do just that - see above/below a level

I reckon triggers and floor/wall items apling people (as long as you had li,mited people around) it could be doable to see what is below/above in an arena/pit - myself, i wanted a raised dias, so obviously on the next level, that you xcould see the top of (evil master creature to start with) or fireball from (take out evil creatures minions from your elevated positions)

I like you idea, as it is all warrior classed (I guess except monk, but then warrior monks, you know you know) - but it is all based onb physical stuff not jsut trying to go direct for the ninja/fighter/priest/mage split, it is a different split from that

Not ambitious for the engine at all trant, just setting yourself for alot of work!

I am runnign a bath right now, but this evening I may split this idea off to the appropriate forum so people can chim in - it's a good one Lunever (I can also see you'd have your battlefield idea you always wanted to do here where people are already fighting and you are joining in). ...actually, **** that, both of you are mods with spooky powers and can do it yourselves to the custom forum!, although don't ,mess up as then it's out of your ability to edit it :D
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Lunever
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Post by Lunever »

Beo: Am I wrong in that I think I only have mod powers in the Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back main forums? How could I split off a topic to lets say RTC suggestions?

I also thought about not engine-based but wall-item-based views to see adjacent levels of the opposite chasm walls, but to emulate what I aim at it would become an incredibly complicated mess. I'd need to see MOVING creatures. You know, you pull that lever in the abandoned dwarven guard house, then you see a mobile bridge expand, and a creature moving over to the other side. You'd check you maps then and think "Hey, I've been over there when I was on the monk path. Now, that creature will trigger the floor pad over there ..."

Actually, the pathes are not specifically warrior based. The just turn the wheel of character classes by 45 degrees - the knight would be a fighter/priest, the monk a ninja/priest, the soldier a fighter/wizard, and the assasin a ninja/wizard. It also represents the metaphysical imbalance brought by Libby and Elsie. Before the spread of christian churchism, in almost every ancient culture in our world, priest and wizard used to be one and the same. The split of the wizard being associated with the dark and evil Lord Chaos and the priest being associated with fascist Lord Librasulus thus represents cultural imbalance.

Also, its about making choices and having alternatives. You'd need to recover the Spirit of Firestaff to open up the dungeon's exit. There you'd need to accomplish one of the 4 pathes so you can leave the combatants to their own peril. You can join battle. After all, what choice is either not finishing the game ever or banishing LC only but not Libby in a game that states "Balance is the ultimate good"? You can do this, by completing one more path and thus make the world outside the dungeon become a nightmarish place governed by random violence or iron fist tyranny. Or you can restore the good old times by completing one more path and removing both combatants from the cosmic chessboard, and have the world under the dominion of the Grey Lord, until he goes shizo next time. And, completing one more path, you can even fuse the Grey Lord and thus literally get rid of God and leave the mortals to their own fate.

Having said that, I doubt I ever will be able to make this become real all by myself, but I'd love to be part of a joint effort.
Last edited by Lunever on Sat Feb 03, 2007 9:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Parting is all we know from Heaven, and all we need of hell.
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beowuuf
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Post by beowuuf »

Oh, the move command lets you do a shot to nothign and throw it anywhere, just if you push it to a place you didn't mean to and have no influence on, you are stck (you could move things from DM to RTC bugs for example and then relaise you meant you can move them to RTC suggestions and do it, but if you accidentally put it into DMJava you would be stumped)

For example, all mods who wish to delete a thread would be probably best to stick it into the 'for pruning', whichthey can do, but of course it puts them outwith their reach if they realised they didn't want to move it!

Also, can I remind new mods that you don't want to leave shadow topics - sure they might once in a while remove confusion, but they cannot be deleted afterwards, so it's easier to leave a placeholder new post really!
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Lunever
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Post by Lunever »

BTW: The idea of getting rid of the Grey Lord alongside Libby and Elsie was of course inspired by Lorien joining the Vorlons and the Shadows.
Parting is all we know from Heaven, and all we need of hell.
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beowuuf
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Post by beowuuf »

B5, interesting idea source :)
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Lunever
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Post by Lunever »

Well, the Order/Chaos conflict with mankind being caught in the middle of these ancient powers like a sword between hammer and anvil is as crucial to B5 as it is to DM.
Parting is all we know from Heaven, and all we need of hell.
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