Forums » Suggestions

Dungeon crawl anyone?

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May 07, 2005 rorekley link
i was messing around on a friends mac trying to convince them to try this game out and the pulled out the classic.. descent.. now i left EQ right after LDON's came out.. and been playing alot of WoW as well. they do a bunch of instanced dungeon crawls in those two games. so here is what i was thinking. what about a dungeon crawl descent style in the middle of an asteroid or something.. could have a giant hive space station that you could fly your ship down with some friends (so the corridors would need to be fairly large). then you could stick a boss at the end and maybe stick rare weapons or stuff on him. would incorporate alot of the idea that have been put forth recently. and it would also take a platform (the dungeon crawl / boss fight) that has been proven to work in other games. maybe even grab that concept of holding a base (from SWG) so that players might defend these places from other players. maybe the station can manufacture something special that you can only buy while you control it.
May 07, 2005 Solra Bizna link
May 07, 2005 Harry Seldon link
I think that if we just had combat areas that involved split up asteroids, and places you could dodge around in in unpredictable ways, that would be awesome. Since we already fly in a Descent-fashion, incorporating that more into the game allows for more styles to take shape, and different roles.
May 07, 2005 Suicidal Lemming link
I think the best way to handle instanced space dungeons would be instanced systems, as an instanced 'roid would have to be huge in order to make sense. The systems could work with the main sector being surrounded by a lot of sectors that disrupt jumps, like ion storms. As you get closer to the main sector the defending anti-jump sectors will get harder. Each sector would pretty much be a dungeon in itself and the entire system would take awhile to complete being that you don't know for sure where the 'boss' is. Perhaps their could be 3 'boss' areas, each one varying in strength.
May 07, 2005 Cpt. Overkill link
Well there is talk about the Liethaven.

Why not make them the dungeons.
They are supposed to be massive arn't they?

~Cpt. Overkill~
May 08, 2005 Harry Seldon link
Because the leviathan is big with pointy teeth...good luck getting inside. ¬_¬

:P
May 08, 2005 Starfisher link
Dungeons in space.

Please, no. Please, TRY to innovate. Try to come up with a mission system that is interesting and engaging before resorting to this.
May 08, 2005 Lord Q link
i agree, a true doungen crall makes no sence in a space game. instead a series of linked campaign-like missions would be better.
May 09, 2005 Harry Seldon link
Out of curiosity, why hasn't the Hive constructed it's own stations (that would be undockable) that Hive bots spawn from? I know the Leviathan is something, but it seems that if the Hive constructed something more permanent like a station, there would -always- be a threat.
May 09, 2005 Solra Bizna link
That's basically what a Leviathan would be... destruction of a Leviathan will be a rare occurence, even for the usual suspects.
-:sigma.SB
May 09, 2005 skystrider link
Please... No dungeons in space, no "big boss" at the end of the level, no powerups or special weapons, no stupid blue hedghogs, or crazy plumbers, no tasmanian devils, no wacky alien sidekicks, no quirky japanese big eared yellow blobs, no deathstars, leviathans, or robot planets, no no NO NO NO ...just give me a tall ship, and a star to steer her by. (oh!, and some guns,... better make them big ones!)
May 09, 2005 rorekley link
yeah i've seen the design wiki. thats mostly what sparked the idea of a dungeon. you need to have a change of scenery. some sort of difference in terrain. otherwise your PVE is always going to be strafe up-right/shoot.

lord q: what part of a space dungeon crawl doesnt make sense? not trying to flame your post but you didnt really give any reasons.

starfisher: i cant think of any other space mmo's that had any dungeons. i think on a technicality that would be an innovation.

really what the suggestion is all about is mixing it up a bit.. no matter how clever the mission is its always going to be "travel through miles and miles of empty space.. shoot something.. go home." what im trying to suggest is the idea of changing the terrain and throwing a little bit of linear content in there so you can hide a boss without people pulling a run and gun on him. an asteroid dungeon is simply an example of how it might be implemented. meant purely to help people get a contextual grasp on the concept. the idea of open space is cool (and needed) but you have to have some changing terrain or it gets a little stale and people complain about lack of content. content is not just more (bigger) ships to shoot at.

again it doesnt have to be an asteroid. what if you were sent out in a light fighter/scout vessel to investigate an abandon station that recently floated into your sector? or maybe if you had roids that looked like swiss cheese and you had to go into them to mine (where the baddies lurk). would make a really good spot to pirate unsuspecting miners.. tough to run when your deep in a twisty corridor.

more space debris would be nice too.. maybe some space pirates have built thier lair in the hull of a "sunken" cap ship.

have you guys tried the instance dungeons in WoW yet btw? they're really alot of fun. not because they are instanced. but because they are a change of the scenery and you cant simply circumvent the baddies.

if the view never changes its hard to convince a player that this mission is different from the last.
May 09, 2005 rorekley link
skystrider it sounds to me like your perfectly happy with simply soaring around the galaxy with no purpose or goals.. what then would you need those guns for?

again im not knocking open space. but the same old same old over and over gets tired pretty quick.

what about a sector that was a giant maze of a space station that you could pvp in/around?

since this game is (at its core) a 1st person shooter lets look at some other very popular fps games. how about counter-strike. arguably the most popular of the genre. what if all the maps where a square parking lot of the same dimensions and the only difference between maps were the placement and model of the cars?

we should have a sector design contest much like the ship model design contest they're trying to start up.
May 09, 2005 skystrider link
I am sorry if this reads like a flame, but I dont want VO to be changed into an arcade game, (I have faith in the devs not to pay heed to any such ideas) but i just want to be sure that those ideas dont go unchallenged.
Rorekley - I am not aimlessly floating around in space - My character MING is trading, mining botting, and occassionally PvPing, with a bit of cap ship defending thrown in for good measure. So, guns are useful, well they would be if I could actually hit something!

If I wanted to play descent, I would (I don't).

Whether this game is "at it's core" a first person shooter depends on your outlook. I prefer to think of this game as a space combat/trading/roleplaying game.

As for having aims, my character, MING aims to build an intergalactic trading empire the like of which has never been seen before, commanding fleets of cargo ships, carrying billions of tonnes of cargo to the far corners of the universe, protected by elite squadrons of mercenary escort fighters, etc etc...do I need to go on? (by the way, this use of imagination is known as roleplaying)
My aim is to escape from the real world for a few hours and have a good time.

FPS games such as counter strike are great, but they are not based in a zero-g three dimensional enviroment, so your "parking lot" analogy is not particularly pertinent.

Being in open space makes combat more challenging, no hiding behind walls, sniping, or lobbing grenades around corners, you are out there, exposed, living, or dieing by your piloting skills alone. This is the unique challenge of VO, and it not one I would wish to see changed into an arcade game.
May 09, 2005 Starfisher link
Dense asteriod fields, nebula, various stellar phenomena: yes.

Dungeons in Space: No, jesus NO!

I play a space game because it's set in space. If you have me driving around inside a station or a mined out asteroid, I'm not in space anymore. I can just hear the reviews: "Vendetta, ostensibly set in space, takes place largely inside dungeon surrogates."

The "terrain" should be capships. Ever play Freespace? Huge shifting cap ships provided more than enough terrain to maunever around, and I was in space, not inside something. It's so artificial... I mean anyone would see right through it.
May 09, 2005 tkjode link
I like Lemming's idea... Leviathan sector surrounded by ion storms, or possibly another artificially created phenomena created by the Leviathan itself as a defense mechanism. This would stop players from jumping-in/explode/reload/jump-in-again tactics used to fight queens. Sure they could /explode, but it'd take them a little while to get back through 2 or 3 heavily defended jump-disrupting sectors.

Dungeons? Flying around inside roids/space stations? Space stations are meant for walkin', not flyin'!! Huge super-structures created by the Leviathan, this I can agree with. I think something on the scale of the huge expansive stations in Tachyon: The Fringe would be fairly cool, and not super-hard to implement. Say, if the Leviathan has been around in the sector long enough to gather enough resources to create such a structure, it'd begin building it, every week getting bigger and badder with better defenses. It could start by hanging out inside a set of roids, but would eventually move into it's defensive superstructure.

But flying around a bored out asteroid with a pack of friends... in real-life it'd be suicidal, let alone dangerous and an all-around 'bad idea'.
May 09, 2005 johnhawl218 link
I agree that "dungeons" per say are not the best idea. but the core idea of the dungeon crawl is still a good one. And I like what Lemming suggested about the Leviathon in a sector and have the surrounding sectors ionized and packed tightly with lots of Overseers, Guardians, and Assault bots to make the journey in more interesting.

But…

I also like the idea of a large object that needs to be manuvered though, such as a large roid. That does not mean that the whole misson has to take place inside of the roid, only that part of it involves the large roid. Perhaps the Leviathon tethers onto the roid for stability and is more like a worm coming out of a hole. You could attack it from free space, inside a roid field, or make runs at it from smaller off shoot holes inside it's main large roid. Perhaps some of its more vital components are kept safe inside the roid for protection, like it's queen producing section, or parts that are not quite joined together yet.

_____________________

A whole other way of looking at this, from a more faction vs. faction perspective, would be to have a mission/campaign where you had to take an assault force deep into enemy territory to destoy an installation of some kind (Millitary/Science/Manufacturing), along the way there could be different npc's that are dispactched to intercept you. As you travel towards your goal you have to take out ToO's (Targets of Opportunity), like listening stations, boarder patorls, seekers, sf's, perhaps even a station or two. Make these destroyable targets appear in sectors that don't already have "static" content, so as to not interfer with normal game play.

Right now there is no real mechanism for facilitating someone who wants to be a combat pilot for a specific nation to feel like he's currently in a war with any other faction, specifically Serco/Itani. There needs to be regular battles at the boarders, not "border patrol" missions, but all out war with NPC cent/wart/vult's and HACs that a player can join in on. There should also be little mini (destoyable) listening posts/stations, perhaps attacked to roids, or floating in space, much much smaller then a current station that can be destroyed. These are what should determine if your seen in monitored space.
May 10, 2005 rorekley link
i think people are getting hung up on the word "dungeon". all im saying is that it would be nice if the scenery changed some.. something a little more imaginitive then wide open space and an asteroid field.. gimme something to dodge and weave around.. gimme something to duck behind.. sneak around.. something that makes combat slightly more then strafe/strafe/roll and endless identical asteroid fields.
May 10, 2005 johnhawl218 link
what your asking for is sector redesigns on a grand scale, and not something I think the devs are up to at the moment. But, I still think you can get some of what your looking for if content were to be added as a script called for it. Like having a deralict station appear in an empty sector for you to fly around in and execute a mission around. Or other types of objects like large porus roid, comets (or comet trail), small planetoid (very small, rendered in sector), etc. Or, the devs could add a few more patterns to the roid field generator. Who knows, we haven't even seen a patch in so long I forget what it's like to have updates. I think guild got ahold of SOE's playbook on how to run an MMO…
May 10, 2005 zamzx zik link
no.... a1k0n ON THE SPOT made sector 40... now that I think of it, the chain of stations made a tunnel....parts of it WAS a Dungeon crawl.