Non-Linear Dungeons

[Avin00]

A friend of mine just started playing and we were going through the first few dungeons and he commented that it was a bit like playing 13 again because it was all a single corridor. After thinking about it I realized that this continues for all the dungeons with the exception slightly of a thousand maws of toto rak.

So what would be really great is a dungeon similar to one where the walls and rooms are different each time a party enters. Creating a proceduraly generated dungeon with rooms that are boxes with corridors attached wouldn't be too difficult from a coding, art or design perspective and would have the side benefit of keeping the dungeon fresh for the players no matter how many times they came back to it. If you really wanted to go crazy why not make the wall move at set intervals making navigating the dungeon a question of not killing every mob in sight but of sneaking past some in order to get to various doors in time.

[Garlyle]

Procedural generation, at the visual bar that XIV has set for itself, would be a nightmare.

Not that I'm not all for a procedurally generated dungeon as a form of content - hell I am so for it - but what you're asking is a lot more work than I think you realise in terms of amount of time spent to make it not look like crap.

[point09micron]

Instead of procedural generation, maybe do something like Nyzul Isle, where there's a set of maps that is selected from randomly when you move to the next floor. Actually, I'd love to have something exactly like Nyzul in this game, as it was by far my favorite content in FFXI.

[Edellis]

Procedural dungeons are rarely ever done in a way that makes them feel like they're actually different. I mean, humans are really good at picking apart patterns. Good content has to actually be designed to be interesting, otherwise you just go from running down a linear corridor fighting enemies, to going down a non-linear corridor fighting enemies, except now there are dead-ends or un-optimal paths to take, and nobody likes wasting time in an MMO.

I think the best choice would simply be to have a few very well-designed variations that cycle. MMO dungeons that try too hard to be non-linear usually succeed, and instead just fail at being interesting and non-aggravating.


No matter how well you can mask the fact that the rooms are generated, you still have to fill them with non-repetitive visuals and gameplay content that doesn't feel random and pointless.

[Spawnie]

used to be a mmo around where u dropped dungeon fragments grouped into a, b, c,d and the whole dungeon system in the entire game was u designing ur own dungeon depending on the type of fragments dropped difficulty/monsters/bosses varied game died within 3 months cause whole community complained how u nvr knew what monsters u would get or what drops would come, made gearing up more of a grind then ff14 end game cause it was just a lucky draw design a dungeon out of random pieces n pray to the game gods it turned out to be somethin u wanted :P

so after enduring completely random dungeons in that mmo i prefer the more linear style of ff14 dungeons lol XD

[Mentalyrawred]

I would second something similar to Nyzul but toned to a level between ST and Coil where a group of 4 or 8 could go in and have a good time clearing areas and getting loot. The current dungeons feel a lot like a roller coaster ride to me which makes it rather exhausting to grind them cause you're always starting and stopping, but something massive that is just one big nonlinnear dungeon that you partake mainly with your static or friends could be more than fun in it's own right.

We have casual and hardcore content, but most content doesn't last too long, so lets add in content that takes a long while to work through. (Not how long it takes a party to learn a boss fight and clear it, cause if you know the fights and your party knows the fights going through all of coils doesn't take too long but content that itself is long to get through even with a competent party).

[Snugglebutt]

Raid content where an alliance of three groups each all start at a different location within a zone and have to work their way to each other solving puzzles and fighting unique boss on the way to final boss which is where they all meet up. Needing each group to complete their own task and down their own boss for the alliance to progress to the final one where take it down all together. Would be like playing three dungeons in one depending on which group was put in and could use alliance chat to keep track of each groups advancement, making use of more communication during runs for example final gate might not open until each group has reached a certain point and having to communicate to alliance that have to all interact for gate wheels in different positions at same time to open it (giving a second or two leeway on the interaction time).

[Pterois]

another degree of change / difference would be a scale that says how much time your willing to spend in, and that would create the scale of this place (small = 1hr, large = 2hr, XL = 3hr, XXL=4hr) think of the smaller places as dungeons, medium and island, large is an open plain, xxl a canyon... and of course nooks and crannies FF series is so well know for and somewhere lurks a boss that drops a key to that one door you found... but we didnt explore that other part yet...

edit: and i would think because it is instanced it could be made huge right? like 30 mins from one side to the other huge... just running?

[Spawnie]

i dont wanna spend 4 hours in a dungeon tho lol

[Mentalyrawred]

i dont wanna spend 4 hours in a dungeon tho lol

Which is why the easiest way to remedy this is to not include it anywhere within the roulletes but to make it its own seperate piece of content with occasional save points.