Don't make the mega dungeon too easy to exit and re-enter

[rjshae]

Progressively harder monsters at each level and all 15 lvls of dungeon in one go hard mode, are things that justs imposible to achive in game where dungeon is not all content, and not even its biggest part. Without autoleveling system.

Because it can be well balanced for only specific interval of character levels to begin this dungeon. And when i come there with endgame character this dungeon will be peace of cake from begining to end.

That works well, but it would be nice to have a rationale for why the monsters are getting more difficult the deeper you go. Something akin to an ecosystem perhaps, with the richer, more rewarding aspects toward the bottom. If it is an undead dungeon that wants to prey on life forms, then the most desirable real estate would be nearer the top. So why aren't the toughest undead up there waiting for tasty adventurer morsels to wander in?

 

One thing I'd like to see some type of consistent motif appearing in places throughout the dungeon. (Regardless of the variations in themes.) After all, this dungeon complex was built at the behest of a single owner. This pattern would serve to link the parts together in the player's mind, much as music does in a movie. I'm not sure what the motif would be though; perhaps distorted human heads or stretches of Inca-like masonry?

[cyberarmy]

Well, they can make some of the enemies in the mega dungeon escape each time we go out. Escaped enemies could take some major loots with them and after they left some of the rooms/passages could be blocked for good.

And we couldnt able to find escaped enemies, let them just vanish.

[Stun]

Real world arguments are invalid here. There are no elves and dwarves in the real world either. If this dungeon is advertised as a mega-dungeon, it's only normal that some of us just want to marathon through it.

Can you point me to the poster on this thread who ever argued that we shouldn't be allowed to marathon through it?

 

 

You mean, Planescape: Torment Dungeons; Icewind dale dungeons: Baldurs Gate Dungeons: Temple of Elemental Evil Dungeons. ie. The dungeons in the very games that PE claims to recapture the magic of. You can freely exit all the dungeons in those games at will.

Even if you don't count the Underdark as a dungeon, I'm pretty sure you couldn't exit the Beholder's Lair (Unseeing Eye quest), Astral Plane, Planar Sphere and Werewolf Island. There's probably more.

There's a HUGE difference between a small series of map areas and massive 15 level complexes. If the Endless paths is going to be a 2 hour quest line (like the ones you mentioned above), then sure, lock us in. But if it's going to be Dragon's Eye x3 then Hell No.

Edited October 21, 2012 by Stun

[Metabot]

Sorry, but the more options excuse is BS. Bethesda use that same excuse to justify all the hand-holding features they ruin their games with.

 

What it really boils down to is this. Developers are afraid to frustrate gamers anymore, so they design overly accessible games that hold your hand, then rely on players to choose to ignore all the hand-holding that's shoved in their face to experience the game as it should be experienced.

Nope. There's never a time when More Options are a bad thing. And You can call it "hand holding", and a product of the "modern era", or whatever, but dungeon exits at every level have existed in RPGs since like, forever. BG2's watcher's keep had them. Temple of Elemental evil, not only had exits on just about every level, but it also gave mages the Teleport Spell, so that they, and their entire party, could instantly exit the dungeon from anywhere in it.

 

You sure about that? Every single possible option is a good thing? What a moronic statement.

[redneckdevil]

give us somewhat an exit on every 5 levels, but make them exits and not entrances

[Hassat Hunter]

This seems like something that would work well with the difficulty settings. When playing on easy, there are a decent number of doors or portals available. If you want to play as an Expert, you find that the portals are no longer there or the doors are sealed off.

I don't want to be forced to do a 30+ hour sidequest in a row without break just because I chose "expert"...

[harpoon]

I'm definitely not a fan of the idea of a level-scaled dungeon where players clear a few levels early on, level up a bit, return for a few more levels, and so on. That ends up seeming more like a chore than anything else, and it kind of takes away from the dungeon's hugeness if you're only meant to do small bits of it at one time. I'd rather see it be an all at once dungeon done when the player is in the medium-high levels of the game.

 

I don't think allowing ease of entry/exit would make it much shorter. I'm thinking of DA:O's Orzammar level, which was broken out into four/five parts, relatively easy to exit to level up/resupply/etc., yet still felt like a giant area.

[eselle28]

This seems like something that would work well with the difficulty settings. When playing on easy, there are a decent number of doors or portals available. If you want to play as an Expert, you find that the portals are no longer there or the doors are sealed off.

I don't want to be forced to do a 30+ hour sidequest in a row without break just because I chose "expert"...

 

Oh, I can certainly understand that. But it is just a difficulty mode. If it's really too much, you can just turn it down to easy when you approach one of the usual exit points and decide you've had enough of this for awhile.

 

(And, yeah, I realize that's not perfect either because people feel a little uncomfortable briefly changing their difficulty settings to get around annoying issues. It just seems like a somewhat workable compromise between people who really want the options to be locked in a dungeon and those who want the ability to leave if it gets too dull, depressing or hard. I'm personally in the second group.)

Edited October 23, 2012 by eselle28