Tweet
So I'm thinking of revamping my T2 fork as a single-dungeon game. I like T2's variety and (admittedly fragile) extensibility; but I've grown to dislike the huge wilderness, the multiple dungeons, and everything else that makes the game more tenuous and more time-consuming. Also I just want a single-dungeon game that's more varied than V and more forgiving than Hellband.
What I'd like to do:
- Get rid of the wilderness map. Town level is shanty town/siege camp on the surface. Ideally the townspeople would be mostly friendly and mostly fellow adventurers. Also ideally, weak (but still hostile) monsters would sometimes come up the stairs and spawn in town, to add a little danger.
- Once below the surface, all camaraderie disappears. Everyone wants Morgoth's crown, for good or ill, so everything you meet underground will be hostile. On a related note, all player summoning (and all charm spells) would be removed.
- All (non-special) levels would be small, with a relatively number of monsters.
- Monster breeding would be completely removed, to prevent the shallower levels from getting unmanageable.
- The Angband special levels from T2 would be kept, and perhaps Deathwatch and Orc Town. The others wouldn't make it in. All special levels would have a random chance of appearing within a certain depth range, and would only appear once. Princess and Fumblefingers quests would be removed.
- Floor traps would appear only in vaults, special levels, and otherwise unusual areas. There would be no random floor traps whatsoever. However, floor traps would remain invisible and lethal, to make players think a bit before taking on that vault... (And the monster "create traps" spell would still work too.)
- I'd like to implement themed levels a la Quickband. Some ideas include
* Aquifers with aquatic monsters
* Graveyard levels with appropriately tough undead
* Dragon strongholds where everything is huge, like in T2's Lonely Mountain dungeon
* Garbage dumps with all manner of slimes and jellies (and maybe zombies)
* A really nice one would be coal seem levels, complete with noxious gases, flammable dust, and a tendency to collapse when the spells start flying. That would take more serious coding though.
- There would be no monster leveling. Period. Full stop. However, some high-level monsters (most notably Balrogs) would be modified for enhanced deadliness.
- Likewise for the endgame, Sauron and Morgoth would be revamped to be more dangerous (especially Morgoth). Tiksrvwhatever and Melkor and the whole Void plotline (and any other plotline) would be removed. It might also be cool to add an uber-endboss on dlevel 127...
How does all this sound? Am I biting off more than i can chew here? Are there any single-dungeon modules still around, that I could examine for clues on where to start?
Finally, is ToME 2 even a good bet for this? e.g. how hard would it be to extend the NPPAngband magic system, with realms possibly containing much fewer than 8 books?
What I'd like to do:
- Get rid of the wilderness map. Town level is shanty town/siege camp on the surface. Ideally the townspeople would be mostly friendly and mostly fellow adventurers. Also ideally, weak (but still hostile) monsters would sometimes come up the stairs and spawn in town, to add a little danger.
- Once below the surface, all camaraderie disappears. Everyone wants Morgoth's crown, for good or ill, so everything you meet underground will be hostile. On a related note, all player summoning (and all charm spells) would be removed.
- All (non-special) levels would be small, with a relatively number of monsters.
- Monster breeding would be completely removed, to prevent the shallower levels from getting unmanageable.
- The Angband special levels from T2 would be kept, and perhaps Deathwatch and Orc Town. The others wouldn't make it in. All special levels would have a random chance of appearing within a certain depth range, and would only appear once. Princess and Fumblefingers quests would be removed.
- Floor traps would appear only in vaults, special levels, and otherwise unusual areas. There would be no random floor traps whatsoever. However, floor traps would remain invisible and lethal, to make players think a bit before taking on that vault... (And the monster "create traps" spell would still work too.)
- I'd like to implement themed levels a la Quickband. Some ideas include
* Aquifers with aquatic monsters
* Graveyard levels with appropriately tough undead
* Dragon strongholds where everything is huge, like in T2's Lonely Mountain dungeon
* Garbage dumps with all manner of slimes and jellies (and maybe zombies)
* A really nice one would be coal seem levels, complete with noxious gases, flammable dust, and a tendency to collapse when the spells start flying. That would take more serious coding though.
- There would be no monster leveling. Period. Full stop. However, some high-level monsters (most notably Balrogs) would be modified for enhanced deadliness.
- Likewise for the endgame, Sauron and Morgoth would be revamped to be more dangerous (especially Morgoth). Tiksrvwhatever and Melkor and the whole Void plotline (and any other plotline) would be removed. It might also be cool to add an uber-endboss on dlevel 127...
How does all this sound? Am I biting off more than i can chew here? Are there any single-dungeon modules still around, that I could examine for clues on where to start?
Finally, is ToME 2 even a good bet for this? e.g. how hard would it be to extend the NPPAngband magic system, with realms possibly containing much fewer than 8 books?
Anyway player summoning stops being fun after a while; you just sit around and hope your monsters don't breath on you, and eventually move in for the kill (if you're dealing with a unique).
Comment