Evolving "dungeons"

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles..

 

First off a little background.

 

The world is covered in miasma which is fatal to people. The only protection is from crystals around which various settlements have developed.

The only problem is that each as it keeps the misama at bay the power of the crystal wanes. The crystal needs to be recharged once every year by collecting myrrh from trees. These trees grow in thick concentrations of miasma (which also happens to be where the biggest monsters hang out).

 

This is where the character comes in. It's your job to become part of a caravan and collect 3 drops of myrrh for your villiage.

 

This is where it gets interesting. Each time you collect a drop of myrrh the tree you collected it from becomes dorment. After 2 years the tree then reawakens. But the monsters that repopulate the dungeon also evolve (as do the items you can get from them) in some cases the dungeon evolves too, paths that were closed open up to reveal new areas. However the basic dungeon structure remains constant. It's a concept that anyone who played PnP games set around "local" dungeons will be familar with.

 

Each time you return (with your myrrh) the gameclock also advances a year. Which leads to changes in the enviroment as a whole which can open up , or close off some parts of the map.

 

Each year also brings you closer to finding the source of the miasma. But your only defined goal is to collect those 3 drops of myrrh from whichever dungeon you choose.

 

There are other reasons to visit the dungeons of course. Items are created from a recipe + ingredients and a lot of these can only be found on monsters. Dungeons which are on a higher cycle (and thus tougher) yield more interesting items for you to craft.

 

So in concept.

 

You have a plot which gives a purpose to all that exploring. IE your not just exploring for the sake of it. As you collect from the trees closer to home you have no choice but to go further afield in order to find a new source of myrrh. If you just stick to the closer dungeons then they will outevolve your current equipment and make for a very tough game.

 

You have the raw materials from each dungeon which allow for item crafting. Again another important reason to actually visit somewhere aside from it just being there.

 

You have an evolution of the areas so that you are not just visiting the same area over and over and seeing the same things (each area has 3 levels of evolution).

[Iolo]

I don't think that's anything new. Other games had areas that evolved later through the game. I recall Zelda 64 had that for Hyrule. It's just an expansion of the concept, which isn't bad in itself I suppose.

[mkreku]

Gothic/Gothic 2 also does this. Whenever you've taken a huge step forward in the main story, the games switch chapter. Switching chapter means, in reality, en evolvement of the entire world of Gothic. New monsters pop up where there were none before, new quests arise from old NPC's, new areas open up, NPC's get new dialogue trees that recognize what you've done and so on. I think it's a great way of making the game world feel more alive and in an ever changing state. I just wish the Gothic-games made the switch between chapters bit more.. subtle. As it is now you get this huge loading screen which actually says "Chapter X". It would be more immersive if it kind of just happened. There's really no need to tell the player he has entered a new chapter, since most often most people don't see their daily lives being divided into chapters..

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Changes resulting in advancing the main plot isnt really anything new. But the areas in FF:CC develop independent of the main plot. Which is what makes it noteworthy.

 

The area reacts to the actions of the character. If you leave an area alone then it will be at level 1 even if the game clock is on year 12.

 

Likewise if you revisit an area at every opportunity then it will be at level 3 as early as year 6.

 

This is far more dynamic than simply reaching chapter III and everything "upgrading".

[Ellester]

I like it, as it would offer some replay value for areas you

[HiddenAssassin]

I don't think it would be that much extra because you already have the enemies and the areas you just have to program a trigger that will make them respawn as in leaving the room or something. Actually that could be quite hard i dunno.