Snake Sneak
Posts: 109
Joined: Wednesday, 2nd February 2011, 03:20
Arena Portal
Basically I'm thinking of a new portal, intended for the midgame (somewhere after Lair, before Zot - possibly accessed through the mid Vaults and later dungeon levels).
The concept would be a single arena to fight in (with the possibility of different maps of course). You enter through the archway at the start of a corridor. You then walk through the corridor, but just before you enter the larger arena space, you're given a prompt asking you if you're sure you want to enter the arena. If you do, as you go through a gate slams behind you and the corridor shuts. Monsters are summoned. The exits are all blocked.
I see two possibilities from here. There could be a lever / pressure plate that triggers the gates and allows you to leave. Or it could be tied to successfully killing or banishing the monsters. In any case all the loot drops are tied to successfully killing or banishing the monsters. It could go either like the DoomRL Hell's Arena where there are multiple levels (you are prompted after clearing the arena the first time if you wish to continue) or it could be a single clearing.
For flavour - randomized crowd cheers. Possibly gods cheering on, or just generic crowd cheering.
It would use primarily melee monsters rather than ranged or magic using, though some hybrids (monsters that buff themselves rather than cast offensive magic) would fit thematically. The monsters would be largely humanoid or natural, though I could also see an undead version or a chaotic version or whatever for some variety.
It would be more XP heavy than loot heavy, though it would come with a couple good items - either armour or weapons.
The entry portal would be fairly unique. I considered treasure trove / zig style, but I think this is more interesting. The entries are all small buildings / fortresses with a small number of thematic monsters. (Individual portal entries are tied directly to individual maps, so that for example the Orc arena would be entered via an orc portal entry vault. I'm not sure if that's possible, if not it's not that big a deal.) There is an empty stone archway with a description that's basically "this arch appears functional, but there seems to be a nearby power preventing it from providing access". That nearby power would be a randomly named unique (not a true unique, just a larger, more well equipped monster). To access the arch you would need to kill the monster. Banishing would result in no change to the arch, only the monster's death. There would be a timer on killing the monster, just as there is with the other portals. If you wait to long to kill the monster, nothing happens, the portal doesn't create.
...
Anyway, more ideas are welcome. Including negative ones of course. I'm pretty sure I have enough understanding of the code and the lua to do this myself (or rather, enough ability to muddle my way through it without truly understanding it ), so I'm gonna start working on it either way at some point, but comments and suggestions are appreciated - and once there are enough I'll move it over to the wiki.