Proper Dungeons

[phyerboss]

Another thought came across my mind last night that I felt I should share here. 

Bare in mind that I am not aware if the developers had anything like this in mind. It was sparked after looking at some images of what appeared to be a sand fort 8n the sandbox. The idea I had was that each biome would have some sort of dungeon sub level like place. Be it a lab. Or some sort of insect lair. Like the anthill in the grass area. And the hedge lab 8n the...hedge.

Not sure if this was something the devs already had in mind. But if so I'd like to suggest adding more puzzle and in some cases. A bit more platforming and enemies in these levels. Even going as far as having challenging bosses in them with a few good drops.  Maybe even let players come across and try to obtain some really helpful tech like grappling guns or mutation chips that could be applied by the scab bracelet. Bottom line. High risk areas with high reward. To things that don't gate progress. But if obtained. Could "ease" it a bit.

In the labs there's of course security note. But I think there could be some other types. Like some big armored guys or turrets and traps. Maybe with the occasional insect or spider that got in. Plus bosses in labs can be large robots or a rogue computer AI. While creature lairs could be things like insect queens or brood mothers. 

[Sylvia Rose]

I like where you're going with this, but let me refine your ideas a little.

I like the idea of a dungeon in each biome, but what if each of these "dungeons" was a thematically-fitting rogue-like?

So, a sandcastle in the sandbox, because sand. Maybe the oak tree has a knothole high up on the trunk you must build stairs to reach. Maybe the pond has an underwater cave system. 

Now, what do I mean rogue-like? Well, on one hand I like knowing where to go when I'm in, say, the ant-hill. But after awhile, its not exciting anymore BECAUSE you know how to get everywhere. These "dungeons" could provide you with some randomly generated rooms that make it so you never really know where to go to speedrun it, so to speak.

At the end of these areas could maybe be a boss type of creature or a challenging puzzle/platforming section with raw science as your prize?

[Gnith]

44 minutes ago, Sylvia Rose said:

I like where you're going with this, but let me refine your ideas a little.

I like the idea of a dungeon in each biome, but what if each of these "dungeons" was a thematically-fitting rogue-like?

So, a sandcastle in the sandbox, because sand. Maybe the oak tree has a knothole high up on the trunk you must build stairs to reach. Maybe the pond has an underwater cave system. 

Now, what do I mean rogue-like? Well, on one hand I like knowing where to go when I'm in, say, the ant-hill. But after awhile, its not exciting anymore BECAUSE you know how to get everywhere. These "dungeons" could provide you with some randomly generated rooms that make it so you never really know where to go to speedrun it, so to speak.

At the end of these areas could maybe be a boss type of creature or a challenging puzzle/platforming section with raw science as your prize?

I really love the idea of some random gen content

[Sylvia Rose]

It would be nice, but so far everything in the game is set in stone, planned out meticulously. While the idea of random generated content seems easy to implement, I would think its that much harder to balance due to all the variables.

[Gnith]

9 hours ago, Sylvia Rose said:

It would be nice, but so far everything in the game is set in stone, planned out meticulously. While the idea of random generated content seems easy to implement, I would think its that much harder to balance due to all the variables.

definitely ... from a development perspective, it's a completely different paradigm of thought, different programming style, and very likely would require a change in the game engine being used ... 
and if you can comfortably jump the pretty huge hurdle of just getting your programmers to think in a different manner ..... 
THEN you can start to consider things like ... game balance