Infinite Dungeon, Monster Progression, and 'Out-of-Depth'

[TobiasAmaranth]

Had this idea as I'm laying down trying to sleep. Starting from the top.

One potential problem with an Infinite Dungeon mode is monster progression to maintain a challenge, particularly when the player's level eventually caps. My proposed solution to this is a system of monster progression stats. The monsters need to get harder to kill as you go further or else they potentially stop posing any real threat.

Kobold | HP | Attack | Exp | Maximum Gold | Base Item Drop % | ..etc
Floor 1 | --- | ---
Floor 2 | 15 | 7
Floor 3 | 15 | 8
Floor 4 | 20 | 8
Floor 5 | 22 | 9
Floor 6 | ..etc

Eyeball | HP | Attack
Floor 1 | --- | ---
Floor 2 | --- | ---
Floor 3 | 8 | 4
Floor 4 | 12 | 4
Floor 5 | 15 | 6
Floor 6 | ..etc

Fill in whatever you need to, depending on the rate of power inflation that is needed, up to, let's say Floor 50. From Floor 50 on, the values are increased by a fixed decimal value rounded down. The player has stopped gaining strength from levels and is now gaining stats only from items and shrines and must take special care as he goes deeper and deeper.

This process would work well enough in the main game, even in a branching-paths scenario, but would likely need a separate table. Additionally, it would compliment New Game+ mode incredibly well because the tech to boost the monster's strength would already exist.

Another fun idea that opens up when using a depth-related strength determiner is something from the old roguelikes. It was referred to as an "Out of Depth" monster. One that doesn't belong where it is found and poses a very serious threat to the player. This can be accomplished in a rather fun way for Chasm. A player enters a visually distinct room that is clearly more dangerous than the others and realizes 'oh crap, I have to be careful'. My personal idea is a "Bloody Room". A random chunk where all monsters that spawn are calculated from 2-3 floors further down. A troll on level 2, or an eyeball monster on level 1. Or just in general really strong enemies to have to push through. No bonus rewards, simply a dangerous challenging room. The room would basically be the same palette as a normal room except would be decorated in a layer of blood, a few skeletons, some signs of a massacre, etc. A clear visual distinction implying threat.

[allmightyspoon]

the out of depth system could definitely be interesting depends how it is pulled off though, and for infinite dungeons using a system that increases enemy stats based off floor level is simpler, ie add floor x hp bonus attack bonus etc for each enemy. might not be explaining it very well but from what digging in the files I've done torchlight seems to use a similar system based off the enemy level and it works decently well, only issue with an endless dungeon is the memory it would consume so it would have to randomly generate upon entering the floor and remove from memory after x floors otherwise it would cause major save file bloating, imagine the save file's size after going down 300 floors if it saves all of them lol

[Nemomon]

Have You possibly played any Boktai (Bokura no Taiyou) game? They all have a thing called Limitless dungeon. The're various versions of them, I will use the Azure Sky Tower as an example. It has a total number of 99 floors. But they're not available right away. At each run a player can reach 4 more floors (with a boss at the end) than he previously reached. After killing the boss, he's returing to the starting point. Then he has to do all the floors again to reach these new four floors. Pretty much like in the Zelda Phantom Hourglass (with the exception that here You cannot skip any floors). Of course the enemies here are stronger and stronger. Player cannot advance to another floor until he will find a key to locked door. The enemies have the key, and a character must kill them in order of getting it.

I heard legends that someone actually managed to finish the 99th floor! At the top of it he received an object that allowed him to shoot infinite amount of shoots.

If this idea is added to the Chasm too, maybe it should reward some unique object every 10th floor. As well as having some other unique objects added here and there. Floors each time could be randomly generated, and they would have somewhere hidden some parts of the key. A player would need to find them all in order of advancing to the next floor. Each 5 floors he finished he would be given an option to go gack to the entrance, and therefore save his progress. Of course, then he would have to start making floors from scratch.

[James]

That's a really interesting idea for an alternate game mode. Thanks a bunch for mentioning it, we'll definitely look into it

[Nemomon]

I'm glad You like the idea .

In the Boktai games this area was available righ in the game, but a played need some Emblems to enter it, and he needed some different emblems to unlock possibilities to build a tower. He received one random emblem upon entering the Azure Sky Tower, and was forced to receive the rest from his friends through trading using the GBA Link. The emblems in the Azure Sky Tower also were some kind of keys allowing to enter locked door with unique one-time items.

Aside from that, Chasm doesn't really need to overcomplicate things. I think in the storyline Tyrion could find some emblems or otherwise keys that would allow him to unlock the next 10 floors of towers, and also enter some rooms that needed an exact emblem/key.

This way the Tower can be played along with the normal gameplay, and can be a source of extra XP and objects if the current boss is too tough to beat, yet the final key that would unlock floors 91-100 would be acquirable after finishing the main plot. Or perhaps in the New Game+, or in the Post Story Mode.