Random Ideas: Can we add dragon-eggs? I'm thinking they're very functionally similar to alarm traps (albeit MUCH more thematically appropriate). They're too small/buried to be noticed by casual observation, but if you step on it it cracks, and instantly turns all dragons within a large radius berserk and lets them know your location. If they're located towards the end then triggering one of these would cause a (in my mind) Metroid-like "Time Bomb has been set, escape immediately!" alarm to go off in my head
. Also, it's another reason to favor Apportation over walking past the dragon's nest area or standing still for several turns detecting traps.
Random idea: Bones of previous victims/adventurers has already been discussed. For one of the mini-vault portal entrances (or loot areas), I think it'd be very cool to have the bones of a previous explorer clutching an anti-dragon weapon (or even a wyrmbane!!). Obviously, make this a much lower-weight entrance.
A few thoughts I had for non-spoilage to a player:
First, it should be quite obvious to the player that entering a dragon's den may put them into an encounter with a dragon. It's a timed portal, right? So for its messages:
"The dragon slumbers in its den, the door open.",
"The dragon begins to wake in its den.",
"The dragon awakens to protect its den.",
"The dragon beigns sealing its den furiously.")
disappear = "The acrid scent of a dragon's breath fills the air " ..
"as it seals it's Den against the possible intruder."
In short - it's extremely clear to a player that there's a dragon protecting its den inside there, so if merely being in LOS of a dragon will mean you're dead then maybe you should be cautious.
Second, is it possible to reveal map-tiles upon entry (even if only for a few turns)? I think revealing the location [JUST those tiles, mind you] of the loot and the dragon would actually be quite a nice twist for a few reasons.
* It gives the player a sense of where they're trying to sneak around to.
* The obvious entrance may not be the most direct one.
* It tells the player what some of the loot is (but unable to examine under the piles!!) which may tempt them to try harder to earn it or not, depending how risk-averse they are.
* In my first efforts at portal design I couldnt' find a way to vary the wall/floor tile colors on an instance-by-instance basis. That is to say, all ice caves must have the same tileset. In the case of having a variety of elemental dragons as is planned here, that could be trouble. If a player can better assess their readiness to play tag with the dragon, I'd think that's a plus.
-AHMAD