Well here are some ideas to improve the game:

Let so the heroes would run away if they feel overwhelmed. Then they would go a diffrent route if possible or try facing the monsters(traps) again. By running away a special brave bar would begin to empty itself and when empty the heroes would give up and leave the dungeon.

Another idea:
Let so the heroes would take much more time to fill the happiness bar, but watch out if you give them too much stuff they would become too powerful and success in raiding your dungeon(this would add more risk factor to the game as it is yours to decide too kill them early for medicore soul erergy or wait and be at risk they will become too powerful but if you would manage to kill them just before they get too powerful you would get much more soul energy(the soul energy increase would be in squere). But you wouln't loose if they become too powerful because they would only steal gold from the dungeon heart, but if there wasn't enough gold for them they would attack the heart and then you could loose. You would only need to think about this when you are far in a level.

Hmm, I dont think it would be a good idea because it would make the game too difficult... I think you didn't try to fight a bunch of level 20 paladins yet or you would not say so :/

Heroes can be really powerful and you need soul energy ! Or you cannot succeed at all. Making it so you have to kill them earlier to get less soul energy would be a pain, especially in multi (would make the game too long and hard)

Try fighting heroes at a higher level and see how you already struggle, then come tell us if you still want this I can't remember the map name where's there almost only paladins, that map + your idea would really make it impossible :/

Quote:Let so the heroes would run away if they feel overwhelmed.

They already run away if they are low on health (except fighting against the avatar. In testing, that was just plain outright annoying, so we added this exception ).

Quote:Another idea:
Let so the heroes ...

Uhm.... mh... uh... I have to admit - unlike Soul Stream, I didn't really get what you were suggesting . I read the text three times, but I just don't get the idea. Can you elaborate more? You want to make the heroes strength dependend on the .. "happiness"?

We have two values at the moment: "Satisfaction" (=soul energy level. Filled by treasure/armory/library/fighting etc.. If full, the hero leaves) and "admiration" (=likelihood of starting a stampede. Empties over time, when talking to low-admiration heroes and when the champion enters. Fills by enjoying prestige gimmicks. If empty, the hero gets pissed and attack the dungeon heart).

Which value do you mean?

(01-10-2011 02:27 AM)imi Wrote:  

Quote:Let so the heroes would run away if they feel overwhelmed.

They already run away if they are low on health (except fighting against the avatar. In testing, that was just plain outright annoying, so we added this exception ).

By saying that the heroes would run away if they feel overwhelmed I mean that if they are fighting many thougth monsters at the same time and the liklyhood of winning the battle is none then they would run away(same with tarps, if they would run into many traps in a very short space of time then they would run away).
Then they would heal(if they had any potions) and go a diffrent route if possible or wait for other heroes to arrive and then try facing the monsters(traps) again. By running away a special brave bar would begin to empty itself and when empty the heroes would give up and leave the dungeon. While fighting the avatar this feature would not be taken into effect.

Quote:

Quote:Another idea:
Let so the heroes ...

Uhm.... mh... uh... I have to admit - unlike Soul Stream, I didn't really get what you were suggesting . I read the text three times, but I just don't get the idea. Can you elaborate more? You want to make the heroes strength dependend on the .. "happiness"?

We have two values at the moment: "Satisfaction" (=soul energy level. Filled by treasure/armory/library/fighting etc.. If full, the hero leaves) and "admiration" (=likelihood of starting a stampede. Empties over time, when talking to low-admiration heroes and when the champion enters. Fills by enjoying prestige gimmicks. If empty, the hero gets pissed and attack the dungeon heart).

Which value do you mean?

I kind of mean Satisfaction. By getting more equipment or study more books they get more powerful but my idea would bring this feature to a much larger scale. If this would cause problem with too many heroes on the map I would reduce the number of heroes that would enter the dungeon or make it so you could close some of the gates.

Quote:Then they would heal(if they had any potions) and go a diffrent route if possible or wait for other heroes to arrive and then try facing the monsters(traps) again.

Hm.. this sounds quite difficult to do with our current engine. We neither have real group behaviour for heroes nor can we set up prefered walking paths or have any kind of "dangerous area" concept yet. It's a nice idea (e.g. also usable for goblins - if they get attacked in one area too often, they start to avoid this path). But its just hard to do with our current tools.

Quote:By getting more equipment or study more books they get more powerful but my idea would bring this feature to a much larger scale.

hm.. they already get slightly stronger. Fighter who use an armory, sometimes find a magic weapon (if you look carefully: they celebrate out of joy and then their weapon gets a sparkle). magic weapons are around 10% stronger than normal ones. Mages using a library get an additional spell.

We could tweak this effect, but honestly I don't think it would be visible to the player. As long as the heroes are surrounded by other heroes, I think it just will be below the attention level of the player.

But it is indeed an interesting thought to put the player into a conflict choosing between "OMG, I have to kill this guy quickly or else I won't be able to overthrow him" and "Mhh... yummy soul energy.. I think I wait a bit more before harvesting him".

Personally, I'm not delighted by this idea because soul energy is already hard and slow to get (especially with some heroes and their needs) adding a stress with heroes getting even more strong would be really hellish :/

Sure some heroes are easy to please and easy to kill but I think it's necessary to be able to get stronger at a reasonable pace.

For that, in the original dungeons there was a skill to make the hero have a larger need bar, you could implement that skill again but with a bad effect of them getting stronger (and it would raise with every level of the skill) making this skill a crucial choice for the lord (also interesting in multi because the enemy lord would have to cross stronger heroes too... And maybe he cannot handle it...)

Makes me think of a new skill but for what lord ?
Force target hero to go attack the dungeon heart of zone in which he is... Now that's evil !
So, if the hero is at the border of hell and hes targeted, he will go attack calypso's heart !

Quote:Force target hero to go attack the dungeon heart of zone in which he is... Now that's evil !

It's called "Pessimism" and is a scroll (Well, pessimism makes the hero angry against his owner, but still ... )

We already thought about some kind of idea where you can choose between torturing your own heroes or make them angry at the enemy dungeon heart. But until now, no round and working design sketch hasn't popped out. (Heroes are just not meant to be a threat, so it would require too many of them - which are usually not available in your prison at any time. So its kinda hard to make the option available in a working way)

Scroll
Then need a scroll that accelerate the coming of heroes for x minutes !