Lair Larrikin
Posts: 27
Joined: Saturday, 1st October 2011, 19:13
Tuesday, 13th December 2011, 21:43
Yet Another Branch Proposal: The Behemoth
The Behemoth
What shambling monstrosity is this? An enormous creature, the size of a mountain, trapped in the solid rock of the dungeon walls. All that is visible from here is the snapping maw, but if you dare to brave the razor sharp fangs and venture inside the Behemoth, you may discover the lost Beastly Rune of Zot.
Entry Vault and Branch Location
The entry to the Behemoth is always generated inside one of a set of predefined vaults. Each of these is in the shape of a mouth/head, and contains tiles for the teeth (possibly implemented as a trap). It also can contain a Unique (which, obviously, can't spawn anywhere else), the Tongue.
The Tongue cannot move, but can extend a little bit outside the mouth (like Kraken tentacles). It can Constrict (haven't read much on Constriction, but I understand it's coming), and can Trample characters into the teeth, causing damage. Maybe it can spit acid or fire too, to make up for it being tethered to the vault.
The Tongue should block the stairs to the branch, and act as a barometer of branch difficulty (i.e. a character that cannot defeat the Tongue easily is too weak to attempt the branch).
One possible Vault layout:
X = Wall
T = Tooth
t = tongue
The vault (usually/always) is generated up against one of the outer walls of the level, giving the impression that the Behemoth is trapped in the wall.
I envision this as a possible alternate branch for the Slime Pits (which, after the development of the Spider branch would give a nice 2x2x2 symmetry to the Lair choice). This also fits thematically with the Lair,
Beast:1 The Digestive Tract
After passing through the mouth, the player finds themselves in a three-tile winding corridor that leads to a roughly circular chamber, the stomach.
In this chamber are acid pools of varying sizes. Every few tiles along the wall is a Calcified Lump, which the player can destroy. Behind each Calcified Lump is a 1x1 alcove that can contain nothing, or a hostile monster, loot, or the down stairs. The idea here is that the player is carving their way out of the stomach, and into the blood stream of the Behemoth.
In the stomach, the player will find large quantities of chunks and skeletons, as well as living monsters (perhaps taken from the same set that could be generated on the level the branch entry was) that have not yet been digested.
Loot in the Stomach has a higher than normal chance of being an artifact, having the rCorr property, or being otherwise immune to acid (e.g. gold) (since anything else would have been long since dissolved).
Optional: At the far side of the stomach to the entryway is a unique, the Valve (or Sphincter, no giggling from the audience). The Valve doesn't move, but instead blocks the way. Destroying the Valve reveals a tightly-packed winding 1-tile wide corridor that leads a brave adventurer out to another part of the dungeon.
This corridor (the intestines) contains some very tough monsters (since this is where the bulk of digestion happens), but provides a short-cut from the bottom of the Lair to <insert destination here, maybe the Vaults?>.
Beast:2-4 Bloodstream
The next few levels are the Bloodstream. The level design is one long winding corridor, 3-5 tiles that connects in a loop. Along the way the player might find branch specific vaults in the form of minor organs (see Beast:5), and some smaller corridors (capillaries) that branch off, and may contain the downstairs.
Monsters in these levels are predominantly Blood Cells. To begin with, the level is full (or almost full) of Red Blood Cells, which move randomly, and do little or no damage.
Everytime a Cell is killed, nearby Cells check for promotion to the next level.
Red: weak, melee only, little damage
White: stronger, melee only, medium damage
Black: strong, ranged attacks
Blue: strongest (blue-blood, get it?), magic attacks
Optional: There is a 'flow' to the level (clockwise or counterclockwise). Cells that haven't detected the player will only move in the direction of the flow (possibly allowing the player to slip past some of the more dangerous ones). The detection radius of a cell increases with its level (Red blood cells have a zero radius).
Beast:5 Heart/Brains/Lungs
The Branch ends with one of three (maybe four, see below) themed levels. Each is loosely tied to an element.
Brain-variant (elec): The three up-stairs on this level are always together, and always in a room in the bottom-centre of the map that has a corridor heading straight upwards and into a maze with lots of diagonal passageways and electric themed enemies.
Lung-variant (air): The three up-stairs on this level are always together, and always in a room in the top-centre of the map that has two exits, one to the left lung and one to the right. The Rune is randomly in either lung (so the player has a 50-50 chance of guessing correctly, or having to do both lungs). There would be a general symmetry in the shape of the level, but not necessarily the passageways (which would hopefully be in a kind of branching tree). Enemies include air elementals (the breath of the creature).
Heart-variant (water): Rune is in a central 2-3 chambered room. Lots of advanced Blood Cell enemies. In order to get the rune, parts of the heart need to be cut away to reveal the final chamber.
Optional: If the end-level/element pairing is appealing, I'd add 'Gall Bladder' and put a stone/earth theme together.
What shambling monstrosity is this? An enormous creature, the size of a mountain, trapped in the solid rock of the dungeon walls. All that is visible from here is the snapping maw, but if you dare to brave the razor sharp fangs and venture inside the Behemoth, you may discover the lost Beastly Rune of Zot.
Entry Vault and Branch Location
The entry to the Behemoth is always generated inside one of a set of predefined vaults. Each of these is in the shape of a mouth/head, and contains tiles for the teeth (possibly implemented as a trap). It also can contain a Unique (which, obviously, can't spawn anywhere else), the Tongue.
The Tongue cannot move, but can extend a little bit outside the mouth (like Kraken tentacles). It can Constrict (haven't read much on Constriction, but I understand it's coming), and can Trample characters into the teeth, causing damage. Maybe it can spit acid or fire too, to make up for it being tethered to the vault.
The Tongue should block the stairs to the branch, and act as a barometer of branch difficulty (i.e. a character that cannot defeat the Tongue easily is too weak to attempt the branch).
One possible Vault layout:
X = Wall
T = Tooth
t = tongue
The vault (usually/always) is generated up against one of the outer walls of the level, giving the impression that the Behemoth is trapped in the wall.
I envision this as a possible alternate branch for the Slime Pits (which, after the development of the Spider branch would give a nice 2x2x2 symmetry to the Lair choice). This also fits thematically with the Lair,
Beast:1 The Digestive Tract
After passing through the mouth, the player finds themselves in a three-tile winding corridor that leads to a roughly circular chamber, the stomach.
In this chamber are acid pools of varying sizes. Every few tiles along the wall is a Calcified Lump, which the player can destroy. Behind each Calcified Lump is a 1x1 alcove that can contain nothing, or a hostile monster, loot, or the down stairs. The idea here is that the player is carving their way out of the stomach, and into the blood stream of the Behemoth.
In the stomach, the player will find large quantities of chunks and skeletons, as well as living monsters (perhaps taken from the same set that could be generated on the level the branch entry was) that have not yet been digested.
Loot in the Stomach has a higher than normal chance of being an artifact, having the rCorr property, or being otherwise immune to acid (e.g. gold) (since anything else would have been long since dissolved).
Optional: At the far side of the stomach to the entryway is a unique, the Valve (or Sphincter, no giggling from the audience). The Valve doesn't move, but instead blocks the way. Destroying the Valve reveals a tightly-packed winding 1-tile wide corridor that leads a brave adventurer out to another part of the dungeon.
This corridor (the intestines) contains some very tough monsters (since this is where the bulk of digestion happens), but provides a short-cut from the bottom of the Lair to <insert destination here, maybe the Vaults?>.
Beast:2-4 Bloodstream
The next few levels are the Bloodstream. The level design is one long winding corridor, 3-5 tiles that connects in a loop. Along the way the player might find branch specific vaults in the form of minor organs (see Beast:5), and some smaller corridors (capillaries) that branch off, and may contain the downstairs.
Monsters in these levels are predominantly Blood Cells. To begin with, the level is full (or almost full) of Red Blood Cells, which move randomly, and do little or no damage.
Everytime a Cell is killed, nearby Cells check for promotion to the next level.
Red: weak, melee only, little damage
White: stronger, melee only, medium damage
Black: strong, ranged attacks
Blue: strongest (blue-blood, get it?), magic attacks
Optional: There is a 'flow' to the level (clockwise or counterclockwise). Cells that haven't detected the player will only move in the direction of the flow (possibly allowing the player to slip past some of the more dangerous ones). The detection radius of a cell increases with its level (Red blood cells have a zero radius).
Beast:5 Heart/Brains/Lungs
The Branch ends with one of three (maybe four, see below) themed levels. Each is loosely tied to an element.
Brain-variant (elec): The three up-stairs on this level are always together, and always in a room in the bottom-centre of the map that has a corridor heading straight upwards and into a maze with lots of diagonal passageways and electric themed enemies.
Lung-variant (air): The three up-stairs on this level are always together, and always in a room in the top-centre of the map that has two exits, one to the left lung and one to the right. The Rune is randomly in either lung (so the player has a 50-50 chance of guessing correctly, or having to do both lungs). There would be a general symmetry in the shape of the level, but not necessarily the passageways (which would hopefully be in a kind of branching tree). Enemies include air elementals (the breath of the creature).
Heart-variant (water): Rune is in a central 2-3 chambered room. Lots of advanced Blood Cell enemies. In order to get the rune, parts of the heart need to be cut away to reveal the final chamber.
Optional: If the end-level/element pairing is appealing, I'd add 'Gall Bladder' and put a stone/earth theme together.
Last edited by TimP on Tuesday, 13th December 2011, 21:45, edited 1 time in total.
, especially the idea of finding misc monsters (or even unlucky uniques) inside the stomach that have been eaten!