[Suggestion] Crystal Tower

[Raistlin]

Hello everyone, i'm here to post how Crystal tower could be a good Instanced-Dungeon and some features that were walking in my mind. This will be a long post so be patient

First how can u imagine a Crystal Tower in FFXIV? could be a giant Aetheryte, a tower sorrounded by magical crystals or something like this:




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Content

• Access
• Multifloor
• Random Floors
• Random Events
• Random Rules
• Random Monsters
• Last Floor

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1. Access

In my opinion, free access to end-game content is not a good system. Here i post some posible options to access end-game content:

• Item Drop to can enter.
• Once per week (or twice)
• Charges (like Assaults in FFXI or Guildleve)
• Money to enter (Like Dynamis, buying hourglass)
• Previous Quests
• Previous options combined.

I like all these systems, but we have 2 ways to implement them:

1. Saving your progress: Dungeons have some "checkpoints", when all your party go out, it save your checkpoint and you dont have to start from the beginning.
2. On wipe/finish: restart the instance like The Dzemael Darkhold.

The main diference between this endgame content is the time u need to complete it. If is something too long, (for example 3 or 4 hours to complete it) first way is best choice because you can split your attempts in diferent days, but if is something that u can finish it in less than one or two hours, saving every instance for every player is a waste of resources, rarely someone will split it in diferent days.

What i am proposing here, is not a long time game content, then a system like Dzemael Darkhold must be the correct choice. If i had to implement it on our current game state, probably an Item drop from Strongholds HNM (encouraging people to down them for something more than coffer key) and a limit twice per week. (to evade hardcore players to clear it in less than a week or overcamping strongholds), but is needed multiple content in the game or people will be bored having too little content to do.

2. Multifloor

Of course this was mandatory if we are talking about a tower. In multilevel dungeon, you need a system to up or down like stairs or teleport. We are talking about a magical tower, so both work good, but i like teleport a little more, it fits FFXIV history (Aetherytes, Aetheral Gates, Animas, etc) and is easier to implement just adding a crystal in each level:

Blue Aetheryte: to go up
Red Aetherite: to go down

The main idea is to clear a number of floors, killing enemys, escaping from monsters, looking for a key, etc. So each floor have diferent events and rules. This way, Crystal Tower could be upgraded in diferent patchs or expansions, just adding more floors.

3. Random Floor

Why End-Game content sometimes feels monotonous and tedious after u finish it multiple times? because u cant feel a challenge, or it cant surprise you. In my opinion, to combat this a little, we need Dynamic Dungeons, where every try, is a new one and u dont know what is gonna happen.

So first thing is that u never know what is in the other side of the door. Is this posible in a MMORPG? i will post a posible solution, i dont know if is so hard to implement or not, but with hard work (like SE is doing right now to fix the game) all is posible.

First lets divide each floor in Cells. This cells will be called Terrain, and are diferent from Rooms because have not Walls yet. So Terrain + Wall = Room. But a room can use more than 1 cell (next pictures explain it better)



Here an image with 16 terrains forming a Floor.



Now between Terrains you can place walls with doors, forming a labyrinthine Floor. Something like:



Why to separate Walls and Terrains instead of just use predefined Rooms? Because this way you can open or close doors in walls to can create a more dynamic Floors. For example, in the above picture, the big room (formed using 4 cells) have some walls that could have a door but it havent.

This dungeon idea is to randomly build a Floor (4x4 or 5x5 cells) using a premade list of Terrains(1x1,1x2,2x1,2x2) randomly, and then placing Walls forming a labyrinthine floor. As you can see, some terrains like corridors or special rooms, cant have a door in all directions, so each Terrains will have some properties to determine in what wall direction it can have a door.

4. Random Event

Events are missions that must be completed to clear a Floor or a Room, so we will see 2 diferent types of events:

Floor Event: This event need to be completed to "Activate" the Blue Aetheryte and go up to the next floor. here i post some posible Floor Events:

• Clear all the floor (Kill the mobs) in a specific time.
• Free a NPC soul (trapped in this tower magically u have to free him)
• Escape from Tower Keeper (run away from a inflamable Bomb that follow you trying to explode)
• Find Aetheryte activator (opening coffers until a chunk of crystal is droped to activate Blue Aetheryte)
• Kill Aetheryte Guardian (NM protecting the teleport)
• Turn certain switches in the right order (like FFXI assaults)

Room events: Sometimes when u enter on a room, an event can be activated, then doors will be closed magically and your party need to complete this event to open them again.

• NM pop
• Arena Time (1vs1 MonsterVSPlayer) in a closed area. You need to win 5/8 with diferent mobs
• Search for invisible mob who is hidding from you.
• Clear Room
• Invisible path (this room have invisible areas that will damage you, your party need to find the correct path and survive (Enough damage to cant go straight to the next door, something like 20% HP/tick so you need to carefully find correct path)
• Find the Traitor (One of players is a traitor, you have to kill mobs in the room to get clues about who is the traitor (he is magic, he is melee, he use a lance, he is lalafell, etc). Players have to interact with the door, if you are the traitor you will open the door, but if u are not him, you will die instantly.

5. Random Rules

Extracting it from Final Fantasy Tactics, this tower apply a rule on each floor, so for example:

• Healing Rule: each HP point healed to a party member, is half-damage to the healer, so if u heal your tank 400HP you lose 200HP
• Enmity Rule: this rule inverse enmity properties, so mobs will attack who have less enmity.
• Magic Rule: Damage inflicted via magic will be reflected by half.
• Melee Rule: Damage inflicted hitting at melee will be reflected by half.
• Aura Rule: You can damage your party member if they are so close to you
• Friendship Rule: party members who are too far from party leader will be damaged.
• Gear Rules: If you are wearing an specific armor, you will be damaged.
• Job Rules: If you are using a specific class/job you will be damaged. (enough to be countered by perma-regen)
• WS Rule: You cannot use WS or damage will be reflected.

6. Random Monsters

Each floor can have a diferent set of monsters, for example:

First Floor: Slimes
Second Floor: Goblins
Third Floor: Amalj'aa
....

NM are not forced to be the same race, could be good to have aroung a pool with 20 NM with a decent dificult. Every time an NM is needed to join the game (Floor event or Room events) a random NM will be selected from NMs pool.

7. Last Floor

Last Floor could be a 4x4 cells room and there you will have your final fight. Here i would like too to have some random things like a Crystal Humanoid or a group of them that can be diferent jobs every time you try it. For example:

• Gladiator -> Spiral cut, Knights of the round, invincible.
• Marauder -> Warcry, Mighty strikes, All-in, shockwave,
• Archer ...
• Lancer ...
• Pugilist ...
• Conjurer -> Summon a primal (random one)
• Thaumaturge -> Meteor, Supernova, Ancient Spells, Maelstrom, Double

... and Rare Encounter HNM, something like u will get once a month if you reach to last floor every time. For example, if SE allow you twice per week, this is 8 attempts per month. 10% could be good enough, or if you are tired of "chances", once every 8 clears per Free Company could work too.

• Crystal Dragon.
• Crystal Behemoth
• Aetherite Golem
• Cristalized Primal

Sorry if my english is not good enough.
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Like this post if you LIKE this Dungeon.

[Raistlin]

Like this post if you DONT LIKE this Dungeon

[Zenaku]

I like it a lot sound great

[Zahak]

Take Nyzul Isle...and make it even better and more diverse ; )! Crystal tower XIV! Loved Nyzul and hope it's just as fun

[mghtywarior]

too complicated for the current environment..and it cant be too lengthy... but u should apply for development team for different MMORPGs .. pretty good thoughts..

[Raistlin]

yay, current one is so bad, but i'm hoping 2.0 engine can allow to do things like this. And i love complicated content. My idea for card game was so complex too ^^

I like this coz is posible u get a floor with some fun combos like:

Friendship Rule (all players must be close together) and Invisible path Room Event (where u have to find a safety path

Friendship Rule + Escape from Tower Keeper (A bomb following you all together to explode)

Enmity Rule + NM encounter (Full attack from all players coz NM will attack who have less enmity)

Job Rule (WHM) + anything

Clear the Floor + Too much Room events

etc.


And for HNM u have to go with a balanced party (Not full Mages or full Lancers, etc) because u dont know what kind of HNM u have to fight until u are there.

[AshToreth]

Nice work!
You got a like from me
Also, too much emphasis is curerntly placed getting instances done quickly, to the point where there are achievements for completing under a said time.
I'd like to not see that happen in the tower.

It causes groups to form "optimal" party setups and to ignore those that have classes considered to be less than optimal. On top of that... I've never once watched any instance cutscenes, due to it taking up too much time.. (I'm sure I'm not alone there lol)

But yea, great job, you should be on SE payroll, then I could rest easy that upcoming content will be more than just a timed zergfest :P

[Leigh]

Wonderful, SE needs developers like you.

Man I would pay out of pocket for SE to give this one to us.

[Allistar]

BUMP...this thread deserves another go round on the forums. Awesome idea...this actually sounds like it could be a very real possibility.

[Razen_Arghast]

This has the potential to become really good with some fine-tuning. Only thing I never want to see on it is a timer to finish. I HATE dungeons burdened with timers and sadly we already have too much of that BS and seemingly it's here to stay...