If you could make impovements to Deep dungeon...

[Brannigan]

For starters, don't design it for level 17s who have never played the game. Don't design for four DPS. Design it for a standard group comp. If four DPS can get by with pomanders - good for them! It shouldn't be the standard though since it absolutely makes for boring content like FATEs. It is 100% ridiculous that at this point in the game's life we're STILL getting content for people who haven't played in months. The leveling dungeons in this game try to teach you mechanics and good party play, but at max level you throw that all away in favor of monsters that do nothing but throw out telegraphed, easily dodged attacks. See: original incarnation of The Vault vs any """"Expert"""" dungeon.

Add more unavoidable attacks to monsters. I'd basically remove all telegraph zones and cast times, barring a few like Self Destruct and minotaur/cyclops 1k tonze swings. The big orange circles you can easily step out of are part of what makes this place so stupidly easy. I'm not asking for Savage difficulty, I just want the dev team to stop treating us like idiots who don't know how to work a mouse and keyboard.

Second, add events on floors. Not every floor needs a special event/goal, but at least one per instance would be nice. I'm cross posting this from another thread, but basically steal ideas from good games. Here are some I thought of in five minutes:

Oh no, a Tonberry is chasing you (this one is from your good game, ARR around 2.0) so you have to move quickly through this floor.
A mysterious merchant has appeared who will let you trade 2 pomanders (stop it loc team) for one.
Certain monsters on a floor have had their stats turned way up. They have a black aura.
Cultists are summoning a boss on this floor. Get to them and kill them before they succeed.
You found a magic lamp with a genie inside who will grant you a wish. Choose wisely (+weapon, +armor, +exp, +gil, or a massive buff for the next floor)
This floor has no map and is shrouded in darkness. Stick together and make your way to the exit.
This floor's exit is behind a caved in wall. You need to lure bombs to the wall to destroy it.
A treasure goblin appeared. Where have I seen this one before?
There are 4 switches that you need to stand on at the same time. Split up and go do it.
A miniboss appeared. Kill it.
Your whole party is transformed into monsters and you have to fight "adventurer" NPCs this floor.
This floor is a tower defense mini game.
On this floor you're fighting Ifrit.
Your party has been split up and you need to get back to each other to advance.
Every room has a door that you need to answer a riddle to get through. If you fail a riddle you fight a hard monster.

Add "champion" type monsters at random with affixes like in Diablo. "Screeching Icy Puk Champion" that casts AOE silence (screeching) and leaves a trail of ice behind when moving (icy). "Super-Heavyweight Exploding Gargoyle Champion" who moves very slowly but hits super hard (Super-Heavyweight) and explodes when he dies.

These guys could drop bonus stuff maybe, which leads me to...

Use this place to experiment with new stats and effects. Balance does not matter here at all and it's high time for some new stats. Speed/Det/Crit are played out. Add some interesting stuff to Aetherpool gear at random. Oh snap, while going through the dungeon this time I got an Aetherpool enchantment that restores HP when I attack! Oh yeah well I got one that reduces my cooldown timers, etc.

Really, just take some risks and do something creative. Not every piece of content has to be beatable by a newbie on their first run.

[WinterLuna]

They need to add puzzles such as keys for different rooms, riddles, or using other classes such as gathering (for example a level 35 BTN requirement to chop down a tree blocking a room.) Of course those rooms would be optional and wouldn't affect progress. It just gives some excitement instead of the mindless grind it currently is.

[Kerii]

I wouldn't mind seeing some of the elements of Aquapolis come over to deep dungeon. Treasure Goblins, Mini Bosses, even the door mechanic would be a cool thing to have. (You have two doors leading from the room you are in, but you can only open one door.) I also think that more diversity in the floors would be nice. As it is now, you go in, find as many chests as you can, clear however much to get to the next floor, farm xp just before the boss. Finally, I think some jobs are favored too much. Doing this on my AST is leagues easier than doing it on BLM.

[Ash_]

I'm sure these first 50 floors were just introductory and things will probably get more varied/difficult in the next 50... hopefully.. or should do. We pretty much reach the current lvl 60 cap well before floor 50, so I'd expect a difficulty spike going forward, since we can't go over 60.

I do like some of the ideas above. I wouldn't mind seeing more dead characters from the past, preferably show up as boss's; imagine having to fight a zombie Haurchefant.. And there definitely needs to be environment mechanics of some kind that go beyond 'Sprinting disabled'. And giant slimes.

[Vaer]

Some way to key bind the poms. Trying to use them while fighting mobs is like playing twister. i.e using a clutch witching when you get jumped by 3 roaming mobs or when you trigger a luring trap.

These could all be toggle options:

Pom of sight should leave rooms you haven't been to a different color (maybe gray) instead of the discovered color.

Chime/sound effect for when the passage/portal to the next floor opens.

When you come across a chest with a pom that you already have the max amount of, it should ask you whether you want to use it. If yes, it will use one of them then open the box to refill it.

[JakAlendi]

I'd like the XP rewards to be increased, maybe the runs will speed up as people get more used to it, but right now it seems inefficient vs just doing leveling roulette or the highest available dungeon (especially with rested XP, heat of the battle, food and XP boosting items pre-30). Also there is the risk that you wipe and get nothing. Maybe add some daily random objectives that will grant an XP (or gil if level capped) bonus.. kill 5 slimes, open 10 chests, etc.

I also agree that having "event" floors would be fun.

[Erim-Nelhah]

As of right now, there's one mob (slime) in the 11-20 floor set that will instakill the entire party at random with no warning. Give that ability a cast time or some sort of tell, so that it can be stunned or run away from (if you're solo on a class with no stun). My solution for them so far has been to kill it fast, but killing it fast only works if you only have 1 of them, and might be unreliable even then. Pomanders of witching should not be an absolute requirement to survive these, given that you can't guarantee having one when it's needed, and just avoiding the slimes isn't that great of an option either, since you might need to kill some for your kill count, or you may want XP.

Also, the timer is extremely tight for soloing, especially given that you can't repeat a floor set without starting over. I say increasing the timer to 90M would be a good thing.

I may post more once I've gotten farther.

--Erim Nelhah

[RLofOBFL]

Diadem HAD non combat objectives & look how that turned out -_-


The fifth post from the top sounds pretty nice though.

[Ferth]

From a solo perspective:

-Progress saves every 5 levels instead of ten.
-No more silver chests that blow up. It's bad enough that the upgrades can (and most likely will) fail, this is adding injury to insult.
-Easing up on the traps. For a group they are nothing more than a minor annoyance, for a solo player they can be an instant failure.

In General:

-More floor goals than just "kill mobs til the next floor opens up."
-"Traps" that provide unexpected beneficial effects. Or traps that don't discriminate between mobs and players.

[Stormfur]

I would love to be able to switch to non-combat classes to help with things, but I can see how that would affect people who DIDNT have them leveled. i.e. Turn into a miner to bust a hole through a wall..but if you don't have miner leveled (even level 1), you need to lure bombs to it. A little more risky but worth it.

I loved transforming into monsters. Being a 1-shot Manticore was awesome, but not all potions have to have that kind of functionality. I'd like to see us transform into some of our beast tribe familiars. Just imagine:


- A sahagin that can breathe underwater - transform, dive, flip a switch or something, room area drains and we can progress.
- An amaljaa that can light magical torches to help light the way in a dark room.
- A sylph that can do whatever sylphs do because I hate the little buggers and never leveled their quests.
- A kobold that can fix a broken switch or otherwise use some mechanical ingenuity to disarm a trap or something.

Quests that aren't so hard that you can't pass them but still fun in how you can use the features.