Unpopular Opinion: Dungeon design has been bad for a long time

[HWalsh]

The problem with offering options is that people will go straight for the path of least resistance. Unless there's some kind of incredible reward for it, but then people who already have it won't want to bother doing it again, so anyone who's late to the party is screwed.

There is a solution to this -

Add in a new dungeon type (you just need one) that is needed only once in the MSQ.

Dynamic Dungeons -

You create a stone fortress - You create 25 generic rooms - then 25 types of hallways - With 10 or so boss chambers.

Populate these with special bosses (or even Primals)

Give the rooms different mechanics as part of their design.

Each boss room terminates in a zone as you go deeper into the dungeon.

Each floor is procedurally generated.

You don't know the right path, or what rooms you'll encounter, you can have patrols and such here. Adjust the enemies to the group level for challenge.

Go nuts.

It would only need to be created once and could provide a bunch of replay value. As each expansion or update comes out tack on a new room or new boss or new couple of hallways.

Not complicated, well within the technological limitations of the current engine, and provides a varied game play element.

Remember:
Procedural generation of dungeons like this was first created by Richard Garriot in the PC game Akalabeth back in 1979. So if we could do it in '79 I'm sure we could do it in 2019 without too much fuss.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

There is a solution to this -

Add in a new dungeon type (you just need one) that is needed only once in the MSQ.

Dynamic Dungeons -

You create a stone fortress - You create 25 generic rooms - then 25 types of hallways - With 10 or so boss chambers.

Populate these with special bosses (or even Primals)

Give the rooms different mechanics as part of their design.

Each boss room terminates in a zone as you go deeper into the dungeon.

Each floor is procedurally generated.

You don't know the right path, or what rooms you'll encounter, you can have patrols and such here. Adjust the enemies to the group level for challenge.

Go nuts.

It would only need to be created once and could provide a bunch of replay value. As each expansion or update comes out tack on a new room or new boss or new couple of hallways.

Not complicated, well within the technological limitations of the current engine, and provides a varied game play element.

Remember:
Procedural generation of dungeons like this was first created by Richard Garriot in the PC game Akalabeth back in 1979. So if we could do it in '79 I'm sure we could do it in 2019 without too much fuss.

Isn't that Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High?

[Hawklaser]

Isn't that Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High?

Sort of. The problem with PoD and HoH, is they are not quite balanced the same as a normal dungeon. PoD and HoH are balanced around the possibilty of the group being all tanks, or all healers, or all DPS. So they kinda end up meh after a bit, now if they actually took an actual well put together party? That could be a totally different story. As I thought I would be for PoD/HoH, until I played them a few times and found how devoid of challenge they were in a group once you started getting a few upgrades to your PoD/HoH gear, as they were pretty much just run about and kill things until the next floor opened up, rinse an repeat until the boss.

[gumas]

Isn't that Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High?

you know, if i were the dev, i would make a randomize dungeon like POTD or HOH.

- just put it under daily run
- randomize dungeon, called infinite dungeon or something
- reward depend on your level (lots of exp if you are not max level, tomes if your level is max)
- tile set is mix match from all dungeon tiles (just make it "room" based with portal/jump pad connecting to other "room")
- enemy is basically random from all available dungeon (just sync their level to players party)
- including the boss too

thats it, this dungeon could last forever.