WIP Dungeon Crawler

Builder Bob

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Dungeon Crawler


Firstly, as this is a WIP, it's strongly advised you read the section about controls if you test the map.
I've been working on a dungeon crawler with randomized levels, items, monster spawns, etc. Here's what I've come up with so far.

Main Features
  • Single Player
  • Levels are randomly generated every time, and they all include stairs down to another increasingly difficult level below.
  • Typical dungeon crawlers offer experience points for every monster you kill. This one is different. You power is determined by your skills, and your skills are determined by your items. The power of those said skills are determined by attributes given to the corresponding item, randomized when you first found the item. Higher level monsters will give better chances on good stats for your skills.
  • Monsters are randomly generated and roam the levels. You will never be safe, so stay on your guard! (much is being planned to improve this feature in later releases. Including more random monster types, different monster behaviors, and randomized monster types for each level)

Controls

The character selection is very quickly made just in order to have one at all.
  • Arrow left/right: Switch between characters.
  • Arrow up/down: Switch between starting skills.
  • Play (Z): Starts the game with current selection.

The game itself is played a bit different from most warcraft 3 maps.
  • Left-/right-click: Both will order your character to move to the location.
  • Skill hotkeys (E, R, D, F, C, V): When used, they are always aimed towards the mouse pointer. No need to click the mouse at all.
  • Arrow keys: Navigate the item multiboard to see information about your items/skills.
  • Walk close to an item on the ground: Pick up item from the ground.
  • Left click on items: Drop targeted item on the ground.
The controls handling items are a bit clunky so far, so I am hoping I will come up with better solutions on that regard. The reason for not using the item tooltips themselves is because of the randomly generated attributes given to them at item creation.


Character
  • Wizard: This guy has a range of different spells you can find for him. Everyone of them with different properties. Your typical gameplay will be to aim and shoot down monsters before they reach you. He should be like a glass cannon. Spells so far include Fireball, Frostbolt, Lightning, Electrocute, Psionic Blades, Slow Time, Shock Nova, Implode.
  • Hunter: The thought I had when designing her was to make a character who could control where and when to fight. Always being in motion, striking at every opportunity. I don't know if I managed to exactly do this, and the name Hunter might not be so fitting either. It's all WIP I guess, so let me hear what you think and things can chance. Skills at her disposal so far include Slice, Shuriken, Grappling Hook, Hook Shot, Chakram, Evade. I don't recommend using Evade, as it is not functioning the way it's supposed to, and is therefor brokenly imba.
  • Warrior/Brute/Berserker/Barbarian or something like that is the next planned character.

Screenshots

Screenshots will feature all the skills I've made. All of them shall be using custom made effect models, and most of them already are. Here are some screens I had already taken. They'll have to do temporarily until I make better shots.
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Your standard Fireball
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Frostbolts fired from within a slow time field
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Mass Implode gained through cheats. Usually there's only one implosion and the inevitable explosion every time you cast.
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Lightning as it was in diablo 1
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Psionic Blades. Yes, I know it's not nice to copy other people's ideas, but the similar spell from diablo 3 just amazed me from the very first time I saw it!
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Shock Nova pushes other projectiles away from it's center.
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Fireballs fired through two slow time fields


Want to help?

I'm looking for a motivated modeler who'd want to make wall models, and other items placed in rooms (like candles, tables, chairs) to better differentiate levels from each other.

I'd want to work together with you as you design the models in order to work towards an art style different than that of warcraft 3. The models must have textures which can look good in many different light settings. Multiple 128x128xheight models must be created and made possible to match each other when placed next to any other wall of that type.
If you like this project and feel like you can contribute, give me a pm.


For now, try it out and let me know what you like and what you don't.
I hope you enjoy :)
 

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Kenny

Back for now.
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Possibly one of the best games I've played in a while. Even though its still a work in progress, i cannot really find many bad things to say about it. It seems that if you continue doing what your doing, then this game will be very good.

A little more detailed review of it so far:

Terrain:

Not much can be said really. You were looking for a dungeon and you basically made one. The terrain itself is nothing special really, but it does the job. Once you add the other features, such as torches and whatnot i think it will look much better. All i could really suggest for this is a little variation, but you are already on top of that with the aforementioned features.

Skills:

They are pretty sweet. Nice basic, but useful and fun skills. Coupled with your casting system, they make the game very fun. The multiboard thing that shows the effects of each skill is a pretty decent idea. It took me a little while to get what it was doing, but after that i found it pretty each to use.

A suggestion: Maybe you could give the dummy units used for your spells a little bit of sight range (just like 250 of even less), so that you can kind of scout up ahead or check around corners or whatever. I found that when i was playing i was wishing i had something that could do that.

Im not sure if you have actually given them any sight range, but it doesn't seem like you did for the lightning one.

Gameplay:

Its pretty straight forward really - keep fighting your way through the monsters. And it was surprising a lot more fun than i thought it would be.

Suggestions:

Not sure if any of this is already in place, cause i didn't really check through it that much, but:

- Checkpoints: Would it be possible that when you die you go back to a checkpoint or something? Maybe the last staircase you came down, or even put a checkpoint somewhere in each level, so you have to (not really, but it would be better) find it before you go to the next level.

- Boss levels: I thought it may be a decent idea to have a boss level every X levels in the game. Like a big slow thing with heaps of HP that you have to kill to continue. I say this, because this game kind of reminds me of those games like Doom of whatever it is mixed with diablo.

One question:

Will you ever think about making it maybe 2 player or something? I think this game would be okay with a bit of teamwork. Not like 5 people teams, just 2 max or something. Is it possible, or is this game 1 player because it cannot be more than that.


Anywho, this is a sick game, and i will definately be looking forward to some updates. + rep. Oh and i got to level 3, almost level 4 :D, but i didnt really play for too long.
 

Builder Bob

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Thank you for a thorough review as well as suggestions for improvements! I'm really glad you like it so far.


The game is currently single player mainly for two reasons. All players need their own set of trackables for every single 32x32 cell covering the whole map. I'm using small trackables to ensure spell casting precision. The spells themselves, as well as systems being used by the spells are also quite cpu demanding. That being said, I just made it single player because I knew there couldn't be a lot of players in the game at the same time. 2 might work perfectly, it's just not tested. I'll definitely give it a try. Most of the code is already set up for use by a full house of players.


What you say about terrain, I couldn't agree more. My biggest problem here is lack of models. I am not a great modeler, nor texturer, so what I've tried making so far is just not good enough. Given the right models, It'd be a small job to make it work within the random dungeon generator.
The setting of the dungeon also need work in my opinion. The surroundings should give you a sense of being somewhere. As you descend lower and lower, you should immediately know that you're somewhere else. I'm hoping to work with a modeler on this, as I just can't seem to materialize (or rather virtualize) my idea of how it should feel when walking around in the dungeon.


I could try to give you ownership of projectiles and give them sight so you can see what you're hitting. It might have unforeseen consequences though, as all projectiles are currently owned by neutral extra, and all other triggers are coded so they won't activate for neutral extra.


Bosses is a definite must, I agree. Now that the game is playable through multiple levels, this is high on the priority list. I've still not finalized the design around how bosses shall operate. How random if at all their abilities shall be. Whether they shall be presented at the end of every level or appear periodically.
I'd also like to add in mini bosses. Basically a stronger version of a stock monster with a much higher drop rate, able to drop higher quality items than you currently have access to.


About checkpoints... Well, I'm willing to discuss them, but once we do discuss it I am suspecting the next thing on the list is a save/load system. I'm willing to discuss anything really, but know that I have originally been trying to make an arcade-like map where you go on for as long as you can, and get something like a high score in the end. I'd like the high score to present as much detail about your run as possible.
 
Reaction score
91
Very interesting game, never thought I'd see such one with the use of trackables. I have no bad comments since there isn't anything wrong with the map (and it's still at early stages), however I'd request health bars for the units - maybe floating texts?
EDIT: I also noticed the game is performance consuming, still, not that much - my fps was around 50 while it's usually 63-64. I hope it isn't that critical for users with older PCs.
 

Builder Bob

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Glad you find it interesting :)

Nothing wrong with it, huh? Well, in that case, what's right about it? I wouldn't want to accidentally remove that.

It's performance consuming, true. I'd be interested in hearing what fps other people get, and what systems they have. Since you mentioned it, what's your system Tyrande?
 
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System = PC stats? 2,2 GHz duo, 2 GB RAM DDR2 and ASUS video. Without creeps or casted abilities my fps stays around 55-57, otherwise it's ~40-50.

> Well, in that case, what's right about it?
Everything is right at this current state - movement, attack, spellcast, camera, teleporting, etc. Though, I found out that you could right-click for normal movement at some places even though you can't enter them.
 

Kenny

Back for now.
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About slow time.When you use it, then use something like the fire skill, it works fine. But when you use the nova skill, it speeds up the projectiles again, when they are still in the slow time thing. Is it meant to be like that?

Also it would be pretty cool if it slowed units as well, just like giving a dummy unit in the centre of the sphere a negative endurance aura. Or does something like that come when it gets stronger?

Also where did you get that model from? I've been looking for something like that for so long.

Oh and the abominations are freaking hard. How much health do they have. Maybe it would be a decent idea to show health bars or something.
 

thewrongvine

The Evolved Panda Commandant
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506
Looks really cool. I'll try it out when I can. :thup:

EDIT:
OK, it was pretty nice.
Spells should either cast more instantly or just have a casting time. There's a delay, so you have to wait after you press it, but it's not a wait like casting time.

Aiming is hard since you move when you turn, so the melee ones are the best in my opinion.

Something is wrong with this... when you click somewhere to aim, your guy turns different angles by itself.

But good job! Make it more clean with finished tooltips and stuff, and it'll be awesome!

~Hai-Bye-Vine~
 

Builder Bob

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Ok, I'll try to answer everything.

@Kenny
Slow Time and Shock Nova are spells using the projectile distortion systems I've made. The spells themselves are highly experimental, in that they serve no real purpose at this point in the development other than being able to do cool things. What the Shock Nova does, is manipulate a system of pre-existing vectors coded within the grid. Slow Time uses a similar system with scales in the place of the vectors. With these systems I can easily make vortexes, gravity fields, wind patterns, etc. Shock Nova creates a very short anti-gravity field in it's center with diminishing strength the further out of the nova a projectile gets. This is why projectiles start moving quite rapidly when being pushed from inside a Slow Time field. In an earlier test, I let the Slow Time affect the movement from the vector grid system, and projectiles would get pushed a lot slower from within the Slow Time field. The reason I changed it was mostly because it was not as fun.

As for slowing units, I'll try it out. Right now the Slow Time spell is next to useless. Mostly because there are very few ranged monsters at this point. Another reason is because it slows down your spells as well, reducing your control as well as theirs. At first I just made it affect everyone's projectiles equally, simply because I needed to test it out somehow. My own spells were good test subjects. Now I see that it might become more useful if I make it affect anything hostile instead. If it does not becomes too powerful to slow down monster move speed and possibly attack speed, I'll change it into that. More experimenting will tell.

Model is home made by me. As are all other models I use that aren't blizzard's.

Abominations have about... a lot(93) of hit points. I'm sorry about the health bars. They have been removed out of necessity in order for the trackable system to work without flaws. Health bars made out of text tags is a no-go, as I can't sacrifice any performance to that. I'm open to suggestions to other forms of indications of monster's being healthy/hurt/badly hurt/etc.

@thewrongvine
I'm uncertain about what you mean by some things.
Spells should either cast more instantly or just have a casting time. There's a delay, so you have to wait after you press it, but it's not a wait like casting time.
What makes you say it's not a wait like casting time?
Aiming is hard since you move when you turn, so the melee ones are the best in my opinion.
What do you mean by "you move when you turn"? As it currently is, turning and facing does not affect any spells at all by anything when the spells are aimed normally. Everything is fully triggered and does not account for facing, except in the rare case where you aim directly at your caster's location. In that case I have no other option than to shoot the spell in the direction you are facing.
Something is wrong with this... when you click somewhere to aim, your guy turns different angles by itself.
Why is that wrong? Wouldn't it be stranger if the guy fired a lot of spells with his back turned towards the monsters?
But good job! Make it more clean with finished tooltips and stuff, and it'll be awesome!
I will, thanks :)


Edit: removed all edits
 

saw792

Is known to say things. That is all.
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Perhaps you could change the tinting of units based on their hp to show when they are hurt. I have seen something like this used in Shopping Maul, where creeps change gradually to a darker red as they lose health.
 

Vestras

Retired
Reaction score
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Hey, that's cool! I'll try it ASAP.
Btw... you make FX models too? :)

Also, if you want, I have this SlowTime.mdx model made for a D3 project (the project isn't dead, but meh.)
I made it, so I can basically decide who uses it :)
 

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Bloodcount

Starcraft II Moderator
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Like my pal Tyrande_Ma3x said, this has potential. Mainly because it is like diablo II. :) You shloud rename yourself Mr. Strange, cuz of the wierd, but cool ideas you have. :p What I don't get is how you make the dungeon, well, a dungeon. I mean is it possible for bugs such as, you are locked in a chamber and there is nothing you can do about it to acure? Other then that good map :)



Btw, did u make the models or download them?
 

Builder Bob

Live free or don't
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Perhaps you could change the tinting of units based on their hp to show when they are hurt
I'm already using the tinting for frost effects, and had plans to use it for poison as well, but the system can combine tinting values, so using it for damage as well might look great! Thanks for a really good idea! I'll try it out to see how it looks right away.

You shloud rename yourself Mr. Strange, cuz of the wierd, but cool ideas you have. :p
Hehe thanks, I like that :)

What I don't get is how you make the dungeon, well, a dungeon. I mean is it possible for bugs such as, you are locked in a chamber and there is nothing you can do about it to acure?
All levels are generated with the same algorithm. It ensures all rooms connect to each other, a starting location, and a stairs down. If I input numbers for extremely large rooms, the whole map will become one large room with a starting location and a stairs down in the same giant room. Unless there are any bugs I don't know of, you should always be able to progress. I have played the game countless times, and I have never gotten stuck on a level.

Yes, I made the effect models. I like working with particles :). I'm not very good at solid models or wrapping texture though.

I have this SlowTime.mdx model made for a D3 project
Woo! looks fancy! Was it made in max, and do you have the source file for it? I'd be interested in seeing how it would look in-game.
Btw, have you released any information on this D3 project somewhere?
 

Bloodcount

Starcraft II Moderator
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I'm already using the tinting for frost effects, and had plans to use it for poison as well, but the system can combine tinting values, so using it for damage as well might look great! Thanks for a really good idea! I'll try it out to see how it looks right away.

Hehe thanks, I like that :)

All levels are generated with the same algorithm. It ensures all rooms connect to each other, a starting location, and a stairs down. If I input numbers for extremely large rooms, the whole map will become one large room with a starting location and a stairs down in the same giant room. Unless there are any bugs I don't know of, you should always be able to progress. I have played the game countless times, and I have never gotten stuck on a level.

Yes, I made the effect models. I like working with particles :). I'm not very good at solid models or wrapping texture though.


Woo! looks fancy! Was it made in max, and do you have the source file for it? I'd be interested in seeing how it would look in-game.
Btw, have you released any information on this D3 project somewhere?

I hope this is a single player only map. Don't ruin it by maiking it for multi player. Some projects are made to be for the non-hosting players :p
 

Builder Bob

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I hope this is a single player only map. Don't ruin it by maiking it for multi player. Some projects are made to be for the non-hosting players :p

Originally I wanted to make a multiplayer competitive map, but after seeing how much resources trackables consume, I reconsidered and went on to see how I could make a single player map.

When I continue working on this map, I'm absolutely going to keep this map first and foremost balanced for single player. I am however intrigued by the idea of a 2 player co-op option suggested by kenny in this thread. Whether I can pull it off or not, I don't know. The only thing I know for sure is that I won't go over 2 players no matter what.

How does that sound to you?


As an additional question. In early stages of this map, I wondered if I should include save/load option or not. Without going into too many details why, I decided not to. Let's say the map is finished with loads of levels, lots of monsters with varying behavior and abilities as well as multiple challenging bosses throughout the whole. As a single player, how do you think not having the ability to save affects your interest in playing the map?
 

Vestras

Retired
Reaction score
248
Woo! looks fancy! Was it made in max, and do you have the source file for it? I'd be interested in seeing how it would look in-game.
Btw, have you released any information on this D3 project somewhere?

I have the source file, I just made a sphere in max and exported and did the rest in magos'.

2 sec, I'll upload it so you can have it...

Edit: uploaded, enjoy :)
 

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Builder Bob

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It's very generous of you!
attachment.php

Tested in-game

As fancy as it is though, I'm going to stick with my current model. It's scale and animations are set up to match the spell perfectly, and it's smaller in file size.

More importantly though, I have the max file for the model. I absolutely need that as I regularly create new iterations of my models in attempts to improve them. As an example, the fireball and frostbolt have gone through about 6 major iterations each before they became what they are now.
 

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Immolation

Member
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Great concept! :thup:

-Mage and Hunter got the same amount of HP =P... bug, or intended? I suggest you to change the health and mana parameters a bit, like, giving more mana to the Mage and more HP to the Hunter.

-As of now, gold and lumber got no use.
Let's imagine that lumber are your training points(gained through killing many enemies) and gold is... gold? At the end of each level/stage/whatever, you can buy items to raise your armor, HP, movement speed, spell damage, crit chance, crit damage, range, mana, mana regeneration, HP regeneration etc...(you could make a different multiboard where your items are placed).

Example item:
Leather Jerkin
Level 1 Chest Armor
Common
+2% HP
+1 armor


Things might get interesting if you put another shop where you gamble for spells. You might also get(from enemies) some special runes which you can enchant spells(or armor, weapons, etc...!) with:

Example rune:
Rune of Doublecast
Level 1 Rune
Uncommon
Increases doublecast chance(for the enchanted spell) by 3% when enchanted on spell.
Increases doublecast chance(for all spells) by 1% when enchanted on armor.


Let's try to enchant the Leather Jerkin above with the above rune:

Leather Jerkin of Doublecasting
Level 1 Chest Armor
Uncommon (Enchanted)
+2% HP
+1 Armor
+1% Doublecast chance on all spells

P.S.: It's obvious that you can't equip 2 chest armors, 3 gloves, or 5 sleeves :O


With lumber(training points) you increase your stats, spell damage, chance to crit, HP, MP and such but PERMANENTLY.



Big post O:

Anyway, great MAP!:thup:
 

Viikuna

No Marlo no game.
Reaction score
265
This looks really cool. :thup:

I would enjoy more playing some non-random dungeon with a nice story and lots of carefully planned stuff, but I guess random dungeons work too.
 
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