Schizophrenic Characters, Chatting Monsters

[Kozaczu]

Hello there

I have bunch of ideas, which I suppose could interest you.

First of all I'm astonished by little thing in this, at first glance, simple game. Starting from creative "Sticks to Snakes" spell, going thorugh clever spell combos (flight+swifft), gods and, finally ending at clever suggestions like:

Demons should insult Felids with "fleabag" etc. rather than "knave"

.

Ok, let's go to the point.

1. Multiplayer?

I'm very atrracted to Octopodes desing (brilliant idea), eldritch tentacles snapping from portals (?), creation of Kraken... This reminds me of classical AD&D Illithids® with mysterious psionic powers. One of them was called "Schism" which allowed you to separate mind in two parts. I also remind old good days of PSX and multitap games which served you Splitscreen function .

So imagine it in this, still misty and unfinished way:
Selecting race (or clas) like "Schizmatic", or "Parallel Twin" which would allow:

+ Communication between players (newbies could have support without "Otacon" beeper mode/ brief watching pro's in action)
+ Minor help, for example Healing/Teleporing when your friend stops, and it's clear that he wouldn't survive attack of Executioners with 3HP left
at cost of permanent intellect ability decrease
+ Tansfering one item, or items with low chance of success by dropping them to Abyss Portal.
On the other side of portal there would be chance to see your friends item appearing.

I should think it could be nice because of that these portals appear on 20+ levels, so it shouldn't affect the gameplay in more way than lucky Acquirement drop.
It would add some more mystery to all portal things, and maybe force players to think... maybe there are several Zot Dungeons in parallel worlds which are explored by brave adventurers .

2. Mob's Sleep Mode Alternation -> "Chatting"

The first few levels are repeated by X times, where X is number is times you die + your urge to complete the game.

After X times you're fed up of Goblins, Orcs, and Kobolds...

Why shouldn't they have more personality? To entertain themselves in sunless dungeon they could spare time to share their experiences, tell jokes, and probably inform Stealthy player about dangers awaiting further in dungeon.

I suppose that could make players not to gain all the neccesary information through Crawl Wiki and add some Metal Gear Solid flavour .
I think that "Chatting mode" would be fun idea, and appear only between 2 or more adjacent creatures.

3. Finally, ending.

I think that after beating the game, the ending screen should say something more than "Goodbye, *player name*"
maybe simple congratulations would be a bit more rewarding ?



Hope these suggestions would be considered...

Sincerely,
Kozaczu

[goo]

Ok.

[Kozaczu]

To enhance split screen game, and to enhance Sphinx race...

Sphinxes are extremely dangerous monsters, able to Paralyse, Confuse and Smite you from a distance.

Maybe it would be nice to add "Riddle" power. The power would ask a riddle about Dungeon Crawl (or any roguelike game) - if player answers correctly - the Sphinx turns to neutral. If not, Smite. Moreover, if you type insulting message like "F*ck you Sphinx" the monster goes berserk.

What's the point adding it to the multiplayer? Your buddy can help you, or if he's a big meanie - get you into more trouble...

[Bim]

To be honest, I've always liked the idea of a two player rouge-like dungeon crawl thing, but I imagine the work to do this would be immensely difficult and complicated, without even thinking about balance issues. However, I may start a topic on 'heritage' in games, If you've ever played dwarf fortress (and a few other games) they have the ability for you to affect other aspects of the game from a previous play which I think would be an awesome addition above just ghosts (helpful ghosts?!).

However, your idea of more conversation and even slightly useful information could be useful, but I don't know how useful it could be other than 'there's a bazaar on level 14', but I really don't know how many players would spend listening to orcs. I normally like the random bits of flavour that sigmund and uniques bring up, but when I'm in the heart of the action I don't stop and read every line, so I'm really not sure how helpful this would be.

[Kozaczu]

If you've ever played dwarf fortress (and a few other games) they have the ability for you to affect other aspects of the game from a previous play which I think would be an awesome addition above just ghosts

Maybe something like Demon's Souls (PS3) players summoning? Never played DF though.


Well I imagine creating turn-based game multiplayer ridiculously challenging, even impossible to make.
But I lack some of support and tactical cooperation, like in Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics - which were also turn-based - but that was cool to coordinate team that would overcome the weaknesses of the single classes.


Spell "Summon Twin" (translocations/summonings) which would allow to summon your companion for 3 rounds using ONLY melee attacks (or similar level as player)... Should be less devastating than Shatter...

I imagine the work to do this would be immensely difficult and complicated

Well, that's for sure...

Inspiration goes from tekken http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAA6eMpOfB8 ->0:51