What you use at your dungeons?

[Duckman]

Well, almost every RTC editor uses RTC builder program nowadays. Last few versions of it give incredibly much opinions, not actually very far from DSB in freedom it gives. RTC has been made so that the better imagination and skills you have the more is what you can do. But that also means more work. Well, i interwiew you on that subject:

1:Do you use monsters already on the editor, do you change them a bit, do you mix them and their images/audios for more opinions, or do you usually make completely new monsters? How much of each of these you use about?

2:Same question but with items

3:characters?

4:Wallsets?

5:If/when you need new graphics, do you draw them by yourself completely, use downloaded images and those already existing to create very funny combinations and then perhaps trim them a bit, do you just take an image you already have and change it little bit, or do you always use downloads as how they are? or do you not use new graphics at all?

6:Same but with audios?

7:What about maps in your dungeon? yours, based on something, almost merely copied or made by level generator?

8:And finally, the ideas themselves (puzzles, traps, fights, the story): are you good at making new ones or do you just copy them?

[Soaponarope]

1. I use the monster graphics already in the editor, but alter the monsters. This varies from just tweaking their resistances a bit, to completely new monsters with custom attack methods. I am using all the monsters graphics from DM1, CSB, and I think I will use a couple from DM2.(since most of those look weird and out of place to me) Around 45 monster types.

2. Same as monsters really. I am altering the statistics of most items, and using most everything from all three games. In short, a huge selection.

3. I have a hall of champions with many custom characters I made up.

4. This one I am contemplating right now... I may just stick with the standard DM one for the whole game, or may use the DM2 stone for the later levels. I certainly won't have outdoor tilesets or steampunk machinery as this turned me off to DM2. I was actually looking for feedback on what people thought about this anyway.

5. Not using new graphics, as I want everything to look "right".

6. Not sure yet, but likely will use standard audio.

7. All maps are just made up by hand, never use random or preexisting.

8. I think I'm quite creative, and try to be original, though some things are certainly influenced by the original game and then expanded on. I have only played DM1, CSB and the start of DM2. Haven't tried other people's custom mods yet, and part of this is because I didn't want to be influenced by their ideas. I hope a lot of the things in my dungeon haven't been done before.

[beowuuf]

1. Standard monsters with plans to expand around about them. For now, I like the DM world and want to compliment it not replace it!

2. Same as above.

3. Usually new characters

4. No graphical skill, so usually use the wallsets available with plans to change them later.

5. No graphical skill, but I will attempt to draw or alter. I'm proud of a dungeon view book and mortal/pestle I did for CSBwin. I have some very poor monster/character (dungeon view) pictures I altered from existing works that look...less than good. One of them is actually in Sophia's Dark Portal dungeon! Actually, I'm proud of my voracious ******* too

6. Living on my own would mean I could do my own audios better than before. Usually keep the sounds that are around, but for creatures I tried some sound recordings of my voice twisted for critters. Not perfect, but again two of them are audible in Sophia's Dark Portal!

7. I always do my own maps. I try to make them logical, and also interesting to my eye. However, that is probabyl the first rule of dungeon building. Sure, it loosk good from the top, but this isn't a pen & paper RPG. Chances are, it will be confusing or boring to navigate through if you don't tone down rooms, twists and turns, etc

8. I'm kinda bad with puzzles, but I do try new ones. My first dungeon has a few new-ish puzzles, however they suffer from 'one true path' syndrome cause I'm bad with logic. So I figure out how they work, then try to make some stuff around it so the actual solution is hidden, and then hope for the best. Never got negative feedback on those puzzles, but never got that much positive feedback either, so there you go!

[Soaponarope]

Usually keep the sounds that are around, but for creatures I tried some sound recordings of my voice twisted for critters.

Heh, this makes me want to do this too.

[beowuuf]

I found that reversing the sounds gives good effect, as does speeding them up.

[Duckman]

Good someone has found their way here. Hmm, i'll answer myself while waiting for more.

1:I mostly make attack methods by myself and the monster properties too, but graphics and sounds are usually taken from original dm:s. I put totally same monsters than in originals too, but usually i try to use them interestingly.

2:I am good at drawing items so i make them myself sometimes. With food, flasks, water and basic equipment i usually use what's used at least hundred times in other dungeons but when I make something powerful or special, I mostly make totally myself.

3:I am good at inventing names and stats so I almost always do them myself. With image I normally base it on old one(s) and draw a totally new out of it (them).

4:Wallsets are simply too hard and too much work to draw for me, so I can never make a totally new wallset. I however mix them a bit, and sometimes change images of old ones a bit.

5:I certainly do not use my own graphics in nearly every aspect. And when I make custom graphics I hardly ever make them from a scrath.

6:I do not have equipment to make my own audios. I use freeware audio downloaded from something a lot.

7:With DMjava i always do the mapping myself. I make very little basementation in that aspect, i just draw forward. In rtc i often use random level creator but I map myself too so I won't have to do clockwork with trapping and puzzling

8:I have some imagination, so I more often use my own ideas than someone others (however if my brother learns something it is tomorrow in my dungeon and vice-versa). Exception is with puzzles, I can rarely do anything totally new in that aspect.

Continue posting!

[linflas]

All of below is for Forest of Doom. Sukumvit is closer to DM/DM2 but with new ambient music and sounds.
1. all new monsters but of course cloned from the most similar from DM or DM2. For example, my ogre is based on axe man, wolves are the same but with new graphics.
2. replace graphics mostly, add special items for unique events.
3. all new.
4. all new.
5. drawn by myself (which is why FoD dev is damn so long), but i start always with images from google or miniatures websites for monsters. I also took some monsters from games such as Hexen and modify them a bit.
6. free sounds and free music are very easy to find. i've also composed the main intro theme (not the menu).
7. close to the gamebook but added new paths and caverns.
8. i suck at puzzles... and i am not focused on them at the moment.

[Duckman]

All of below is for Forest of Doom. Sukumvit is closer to DM/DM2 but with new ambient music and sounds.
1. all new monsters but of course cloned from the most similar from DM or DM2. For example, my ogre is based on axe man, wolves are the same but with new graphics.
2. replace graphics mostly, add special items for unique events.
3. all new.
4. all new.
5. drawn by myself (which is why FoD dev is damn so long), but i start always with images from google or miniatures websites for monsters. I also took some monsters from games such as Hexen and modify them a bit.
6. free sounds and free music are very easy to find. i've also composed the main intro theme (not the menu).
7. close to the gamebook but added new paths and caverns.
8. i suck at puzzles... and i am not focused on them at the moment.

WOW! ye ar then prbaly better than even Thom is doing dungeon trimming, and that's much said.

[Trego]

As I have not finished a dungeon yet this is all as at this moment.

1: Monsters: I change them to suite location in the dungeon (earlier easier/weaker ect). New monsters from what I’ve found around the forum (been placing these on the wiki), usually tweaked clones of similar ones.

2: Items: only a few new items (borrowed) from DM java. Custom items, same graphics, to make things easier or reward characters for side quests.

3: Characters: Different names, same stats until I work out difficulty.

4: Wallsets: A only those preset from the DMII dungeon. (would like a lake/wet wallset).

5: New graphics: I download them, try and weak them in Gimp (if I can).

6: Audios: no new ones (yet).

7: Maps: are mine based around the DMII theme of a large outdoor area, which you can go back a forth through many times, to get to other areas once unlocked.

8: Ideas/puzzles/story: some ideas and puzzles come from cartoons (eg Shaolin Wuzang) others I’m still working on. Story is based around a mixture of other games, side-plots to gain better weapons, other tasks to unlock other areas and characters. Its all a bit epic at the moment.

[Trantor]

This is all regarding my dungeon that is nearly completed.

1. Mostly DM/CSB monsters, very few from DM2 (I think just one, actually), a few from Eye of the Beholder, and a few modifications made by my girlfriend (you don't find good sabretooth guinea pigs on the web, sadly).

2. 95% items from DM/CSB, but I created some new weapons myself.

3. Mostly existing characters, sometimes giving them new names. I tried using forum members as champions, but their avatars often look too different from the usual DM portraits.

4. Only existing wallsets from DM1 and DM2. I have neither the skill nor the patience to create wallsets myself.

5. For my (few) new items, I basically alter existing DM items.

6. I incorporated quite a lot of music; much thought has gone into the selection, so please try it before you dismiss it. I also used some real-life recordings (sabretooth guinea pigs have to sound like real guinea pigs, after all).

7. All the layout is done by me. Some places are hommages to iconic areas in DM or CSB.

8. I'm not very creative and steal a lot of stuff, but I think I came up with a few things myself. Just wait and see...

[Duckman]

3. Mostly existing characters, sometimes giving them new names. I tried using forum members as champions, but their avatars often look too different from the usual DM portraits.

Heh, good idea. Could just create a theard askin' could I please use ye'r avatar?, and tästä näin, free new portraits! not anything difficulties with copyrite negotations, just a little theard! (ps. where is one?)

[sucinum]

I only changed characters and teleport around apples.

[Jan]

Simple and smart!