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As of recent, OSI has been adopting ideas of revamping classic dungeons. They have some interesting ideas so we'll see how that goes in the future.

On that note, even before this recent introduction from OSI, AOV has contemplated and planned certain ideas for dungeon revamping. Now is a good time to set these plans into motion and begin work on a single dungeon to test out its potential.

Ideas and Plans (Subject to change)

- Every dungeon will have at least 1 unique type of puzzle.

- Dungeon chests will be revamped to include new loot and collectibles. There will also be classic and new traps applied to the chests, depending on the level.

- Chests will fit the theme of the dungeon. For example, in the despise ogre lord area, those chests would contain items pillaged from villages as well as crude tools such as ogre clubs, stone and leathers.

- Each dungeon will have a variety of different quests.

- We have toyed with the idea of creating instanced map copies to create a blank copy of the same dungeon. In this dungeon copy, there would be a private battle with a mini boss. These "arena battles" would make it seem like you are fighting in the same dungeon but it's a copy of it.

- Dungeons will have a greater progressive impact. The farther down you climb into a dungeon, the better the chests and the harder the monsters and the quests. The best rewards will exist on the furthest levels. Because of this change in dungeon design, recall and travel into a dungeon level will no longer apply, you would need to walk down to the furthest level (Recalling out may still exist depending on the circumstances).

Other dungeon ideas

Player ideas are greatly appreciated to help improve dungeons and their themes as well as providing better rewards and greater challenges to players. If you have some ideas, please post them so we can get some discussions going.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:6195, old post ID:36971

I have no coding experience, so have no idea how difficult this would be to put in....

With the deepest highest level chests how about a very very slim chance of finding a "Crumpled Treasure map"
You would need a cartographer to decode it, but once decoded your chest picker could go fetch it.
The treasure map would show a vague description of an area (doesnt have to be in this dungeon, could be in any of them, this would also force the exploration of other dungeons)
As soon as the map is decoded a special Treasure chest would spawn at the maps location.
The chest would only be pickable by the original holder of the map, but would become open for anyone to pick after 24 game hours have passed.
This would give you chance to locate the special chest and get to it...
Because of the very slim chance of finding one of these maps then the chest should be of high level loot, if not an Artie chest with 1 guaranteed artie in it....

As i said i have no idea how hard this would be to code....

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:6195, old post ID:36972

I like the new dungeon revitalization idea that OSI is putting through testing, and I would be happy to see something similar here. My initial ideas would be:

- Focus on monsters, quests, and level progression before dungeon chests. Although definitely give some thought to the chests when the dungeons have been redone.

- Scale down the "old" monsters and add in some new, but similar, mobs alongside them.

- Add dynamic loot to the dungeons, similar to the way OSI is doing it. With significant advantages and dis-advantages with item drops, and the very rare drop that is all advantages.

- Add in monster specific items that can be combined with common or other monster specific items to create decoration items or rare items with special purposes.

- Somehow link the virtue with the anti-virtue dungeon. For instance, if you tithe or utter a hymn at Honesty, you would gain a temporary bonus against denizens of Deceit.

That's it for my initial reaction thoughts. I look forward to see what others think.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:6195, old post ID:36973

Blackadder wrote:I have no coding experience, so have no idea how difficult this would be to put in....

With the deepest highest level chests how about a very very slim chance of finding a "Crumpled Treasure map"
You would need a cartographer to decode it, but once decoded your chest picker could go fetch it.
The treasure map would show a vague description of an area (doesnt have to be in this dungeon, could be in any of them, this would also force the exploration of other dungeons)
As soon as the map is decoded a special Treasure chest would spawn at the maps location.
The chest would only be pickable by the original holder of the map, but would become open for anyone to pick after 24 game hours have passed.
This would give you chance to locate the special chest and get to it...
Because of the very slim chance of finding one of these maps then the chest should be of high level loot, if not an Artie chest with 1 guaranteed artie in it....

As i said i have no idea how hard this would be to code....

It wouldn't be too hard to code, it's initially placing a chest somewhere in the world and checking for the owner of the map once it's being unlocked. That being said, 2 ideas to add onto your idea:

- The chest would be located within the dungeon itself. The game already covers chests outside of the dungeon so I think it would be an interesting spin to have a chest within the dungeon

- The chest would be located by a game of "hot and cold". You remember the one you used to play as a kid where the proximity of the item you are searching for is given through clues, as you walk towards it. Once you have stepped on the tile the chest is hidden on, it would reveal itself and then can be opened.

Nexus Graveheart wrote:I like the new dungeon revitalization idea that OSI is putting through testing, and I would be happy to see something similar here. My initial ideas would be:

- Focus on monsters, quests, and level progression before dungeon chests. Although definitely give some thought to the chests when the dungeons have been redone.

- Scale down the "old" monsters and add in some new, but similar, mobs alongside them.

- Add dynamic loot to the dungeons, similar to the way OSI is doing it. With significant advantages and dis-advantages with item drops, and the very rare drop that is all advantages.

- Add in monster specific items that can be combined with common or other monster specific items to create decoration items or rare items with special purposes.

- Somehow link the virtue with the anti-virtue dungeon. For instance, if you tithe or utter a hymn at Honesty, you would gain a temporary bonus against denizens of Deceit.

That's it for my initial reaction thoughts. I look forward to see what others think.

I like these ideas. For now, most of the OSI stuff we'll put aside and incorporate later on when more information is available.

For the starter levels of the dungeons (1 - 2 levels), they will mostly remain new player friendly as to not disrupt the initial design and purpose of those levels.

The idea of having rare monster drops and combined item drops as suggested a long time ago would fit well with some of the new monsters that could pop up in dungeons. Items like origami paper, glacial staffs, demon bone armor already exist in the game as drops so it would be easy to replicate on any dungeon specific monster.

Of course, we can never forget the virtues of Ultima. We will definitely need to think up ways of linking the virtue to the anti-virtue for the case of classic dungeons.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:6195, old post ID:36974

I like the "hot and cold" idea and also would be great to have the chest in the same Dungeon....

You mentions "instances" in the dungeons....
How about 1 level of a dungeon having a war between 2 sets of monsters...
Before you enter you must choose which side to fight on (kind of exists with the solent ants quests when you are friended to the hive)

Once you choose your side you enter the instance and start the battle.
This would be particulary good for warrior chars as area spells such as wither would also damage your allies, forcing them to turn on you or reject you from the arena.

Because you would be helping one side to fight then the other side could be slightly weighted with extra hitpoints and extra damage dealing.
Not sure how to determine the winning side.
Reward could be another title for your paperdoll as we already have on the champ spawns....
Plus a specific weapon or piece of armour that reflects the side you beat....

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:6195, old post ID:36975

I like the idea of dungeon-specific treasure maps. It seems like it could add a lot of "identity" to the dungeons.

There could also be, perhaps, titles granted to players who battle the inhabitants of the dungeons. Or a rare drop on all dungeon monsters of hued books that trace the history of the dungeon, like the ones from Khaldun. Purely aesthetic, but neat.

Also, with some of the old dungeons that are not linked with the virtue/anti-virtue system, there could be revitalization or corruption waves. So, for instance, with the Orc Caves. If the players kill enough orcs in a certain amount of time, a portion of the dungeon would become "civilized." And in that portion of the dungeon there would be various NPCs and safe-areas. On the other side, if the wardens who won that portion of the dungeon fail to defend the won areas, the orcs could then reclaim the area, slaughtering the NPCs and corrupting it once again. It could work in the park in Wind as well, being a lush, beautiful garden when defended, or a dead, beast infested area when ignored.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:6195, old post ID:36976