Dungeon

From Neverend

Dungeons make use of a dungeon map file that fits within the terrain. This requires ample underground space if the dungeon goes underground. Dungeons can be above ground or a combination of both, but underground areas should not clip in to other dungeons, buildings, tunnels, or objects. Like caves, dungeons can collapse, filling empty space with dirt.

Dungeons can be created by GMs, NPCs, and monsters based on the right conditions. Certain mountains or hills may make good entrances for a dungeon. A jungle or forest may make a good "ruins" dungeon. Cliffs and mountains, oceans, swamps, volcanic, canyon, and other remote terrain may make suitable dungeon entrances.

Though dungeons are intended to be a closed system, players will use terrain altering spells and items or mining and digging abilities to create shortcuts, use movement spells to avoid obstacles and progress faster, and attack or destroy important walls and any non-invincible structures. Dungeons and caves can possibly join together from tunneling by players or monsters. Outside monsters and unintended items could enter. Thus the dungeon is seen as temporary as it will have chaotic entropy and eventually be destroyed.

Contents 1 Dungeon difficulty 1.1 Password 1.2 Monster clearing 1.3 Monster obstacle 2 Dungeons traps 2.1 Dungeon puzzles 2.2 Keys and locks 3 Dungeon types

[edit] Dungeon difficulty

Challenging monsters will spawn for each player that enters based on average power level of each player, average power of a party, and ratio of strong players to weak players. A majority of weak players will spawn more weak monsters, and a majority of strong players will spawn more strong players. This will leave a minority of weak or strong monsters to be handled by minority level players, though a strong dungeon provides little incentive for weak players, and a weak dungeon provides little incentive for strong players.

Number of players in the puzzle will affect the number of monsters per area, and change puzzles that require a minimum number of players. A player group of eight will have a puzzle needing eight people, but if four leave the puzzle will only require four players.

Player skills and skill level will determine the type of monsters present and the skills needed for skill based challenges. A dexterous player will find dexterity challenges, a mage player will find magic challenges, an archer will find projectile challenges, and a fighter will find strength challenges. A balanced party will create a better range of monsters, while a party of the same type of players will find monsters meant to exploit their weakness, such as magic manipulators against magic users.

[edit] Password

Dungeons may have a password, code, sequence, or other combination to go further. The answer may be a dropped item, written message on a wall, wall texture, NPC through conversation, idle monster conversation, monster conversation through threat or bribe, hidden message on a small object or surface, behind a hidden wall, tile, brick, platform, trap door, in a container or corpse, in debris or trash, in a pile of items, in treasue, in boss inventory, or a message from solving another puzzle.

Clues can also exist for hidden switches, bricks, buttons, platforms, plates, doors, walls, and hidden items or invisible objects, which exist as part of the dungeon and can be found by accident, but due to being required to continue, the clue allows their discovery to be found purposely.

[edit] Monster clearing

A set amount of monsters needs to be killed to open a door, move a wall, start a mechanism, start a magic pathway, activate a boss, activate a NPC, complete a quest, drop an item,

[edit] Monster obstacle

Monsters intentionally wait on pathways, tunnels, rooms, and areas meant to be passed, instead of wandering.

[edit] Dungeons traps

• Items can be trapped as monsters. When interacting with an item, touching, moving, or disturbing it, it can shapeshift to a monster, reveal itself as a mimic, possessed object, enchanted servant, or summon a monster next to it to attack. Statues can become monsters. Snakes come out of vases, undead come out of coffins, tombs, crypts, graves.

[edit] Dungeon puzzles

• Sequence puzzles require a sequence of events to be done in the correct order, by touching tiles, touching objects, placing items, taking items, attacking objects, or attacking monsters in the right order, or the puzzle will reset, deal damage and reset, deal damage and complete, or deal damage and disappear if associated with extra treasure.
• Statues with "slide" enabled can be slid to the edges of a specified area. Used for pressure plates and puzzles. Blocks, vases, and petrified monsters can also require sliding. Puzzles require a specific pattern to complete, and a multiple solution puzzle can open one of several doors or activate one of several chests.
• Survival puzzles require players to survive based on a set time, set number of attacks, or set number of hits.
• Player number puzzles require a certain number of players to activate triggers, step on tiles, attack monsters, attack objects, hit targets, stand in a location, place items, enter rooms or complete individual challenges.
• Skill puzzles require players to use a skill to go forward, which may lead to a switch, door, or key needed to open areas for other players, or special treasure. A player may need to walk a rope, use a vine, climb, jump, dodge, hit remote targets, use strength to push an object or lever, use magic to dispel or deactivate enchantments, disable magic traps, hit targets with a specific magic element, find and disarm traps, lockpick, levitate to an area, become small to get through a narrow area, use remote viewing, reveal invisible, or teleport through walls.

[edit] Keys and locks

Dungeons use different lock types:

• Type 1: Can be bashed or lock picked vs player skill
• Type 2: Requires a large physical or explosive force to break down
• Type 3: Magic lock requires a magic dispel
• Type 4: Can be unlocked by solving puzzle conditions or defeating a monster
• Type 5: Uses temporary dungeon keys found as loot or crafted, used in any dungeon. Dungeon keys come in common, uncommon, rare and ultra rare, leading to special treasure.
• Type 6: Uses permanent dungeon keys found through specific quests or achievements, used in any dungeon. Eight types of keys exist, requiring varying levels of difficulty to obtain.
• Type 7: Requires a temporary key dropped by a monster, found in a chest, or found in an object, used specifically in that dungeon, matching any locks of the same lock type (multiple keys and doors allows more exploration, one type of lock per type designates a required linear route).
• Type 8: Requires a key from a quest related to the dungeon, such as finding information leading to a key in another area, or finding a key in a chest, monster or NPC while on a quest, required for a dungeon related to the quest.
• Type 9: Requires a key from another dungeon, used in a sequence of related dungeons.
• Type 10: Requires a personal key from a player, such as a house key.
• Type 11: Requires a crafted key made under specific conditions such as an enchantment or specific key sequence, found by gathering information on dungeon.
• Type 12: Lock requires more than one key to be inserted by multiple players
• Type 13: Bolt lock requires magic, telekinesis, or player from the other to open

[edit] Dungeon types

Dungeon categories:

• Type 1: A common, self generated dungeon found through exploration
• Type 2: A dungeon placed by a GM or NPC
• Type 3: A player created dungeon
• Type 4: A dungeon related to a quest, placed in an appropriate location when quest is accepted
• Type 5: A dungeon for a special GM or server event

Dungeon styles:

• Cave
• Canyon
• Volcanic
• Undersea
• Wood
• Stone
• Ruins
• Lair
• Marble
• Clockwork
• Metal
• Glass
• Crystal
• Ethereal
• Golden
• Silt
• Black rock
• White rock
• Sandstone
• Moss rock
• Spider lair
• Insect lair
• Worm lair
• Dragon lair
• Icy
• Ethereal
• Dimension
• Plane

Special types:

Challenge dungeons allow players to go through successively more difficult floors to see how far their skills take them. These dungeons may have specific items and equipment useful for that dungeon, and may have required player enchantments that limit skills and levels to a set amount, acting as a unique level system for the dungeon. Unique counters can also be set to count as temporary gold and experience totals within the dungeon. Other counters exist for time, floors completed, monsters defeated, bosses defeated, key items, tokens, and other unique counters.

These dungeons are intended for bored players who want a closed system similar to traditional single player and online games, though most remain open to all players who have access.

Dungeons have a storyline to justify their existence, and linked dungeons can act as a larger story similar to a single player game. NPC conversation may change when a completed dungeon is retried, or a failed attempt is retried, preventing an NPC from relaying the same information. Storylines typically center on magical and other dimensional environments to justify a non-continuous link to the main world, using myth and folklore NPCs, magic based, explorer, king, warlord and other NPCs with information on off world areas, involving protection of someone or something, prevention of attack or invasion, finding an NPC or item, defeating an opponent, or completing a challenge.

The progression requirements of each dungeon require tracking of temporary stats and equipment, either in the player profile, a recording NPC, the server database, or within an item. Some dungeons only retain stats until exit or completion. Objects can act as save and continue points for longer dungeons.

Dungeons have their own difficulty for enemies, acting as slower paced bosses requiring a full party, risky Rogue/Nethack random environments, or fast paced Diablo runs. Self contained dungeons in single player games provide further examples, such as Disgaea or Lufia. Older games which are entirely dungeon based, such as Dungeon Master, are also helpful, though their repetitiveness and long completion time needs some alleviation with creative story elements. In this way, dungeons act as a single player game worth of content, though extremely boring.

• Type 1: A dungeon with multiple floors, uses experience, levels, and temporary equipment to reach higher floors and defeat a boss
• Type 2: Monster challenge, monsters or groups of monsters spawn in waves until last wave is reached
• Type 3: Timed dungeon, each floor has a time limit, time can be added with special items
• Type 4: Puzzle dungeon, each floor has multiple puzzles required to access the next floor.
• Type 5: Dungeon with multiple floors, gives equipment to be used in repeat attempts and other dungeons of the same type
• Type 6: One or more dungeons in a series, links in a sequence to successively harder dungeons, requires completion of lower level dungeons to access
• Type 7: Requires multiple items found in challenge dungeons to access, as a number of tokens, treasure items, or unique trophy items
• Type 8: Solo dungeon, intended for one player only