Personally I'm very intrigued by the idea of random dungeons and quests. They just need to be better implemented, and I agree that they should respawn. On the basis of playing with random dungeon generators that some brilliant folks have written for the Morrowind construction set, and playing lots of games with random dungeons, here are some suggestions:
Special rooms: have a few "special rooms" for each tileset. These can be designed as a whole, so they can be rich and detailed. Should contrast in style somewhat with the random elements, and look like a significant place, e.g. a temple, museum, or great hall. If you had five special rooms for each set and used a random chance of getting one, two or three special rooms, you'd still be getting surprised after several levels of that type.
Small special levels: extra down stairs leading to special levels with boss and treasure. The four small levels you got to via floor tiles in Divine Divinity's starting catacombs would be an excellent example of what I have in mind here.
Mix up the tilesets: if the tiles are the same size, should be possible to have a level which has areas in different tilesets. Might need special transition (doorway) tiles for this, but otherwise not too hard to do.
Random bosses with special drops. Make them stand out and associate them with the special room types.
Special treasure chests. Associate with special room types.
Entrances need some attention <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> I like the "rainbow pit", but every tileset needs its own stairs graphic. And who ever heard of going into a hole in the floor to get to the level above?
Should be less predictable where the quest goal will be. Permit them to occur in any of the special rooms/levels, for instance.
Ideally, of course, more complex quests... currently we have "get item" and "kill beast/get item". Adding just a few more quest templates would make a much richer system, e.g.:
- find a clue (NPC, note) which sends you to another location/beast to get item (repeat one, two or three steps in chain)
- two (or more) merchants want the same item; quest reward depends on which merchant you give it to
- plot twist: sent to rescue an NPC, who unexpectedly turns out to be an enemy
And so on.
Last edited by Srikandi; 07/05/04 01:50 AM.