#2883 Radiant Cavern Portal Vault \o/
'Deep within the dungeon, there is rumored to be a cavern filled with so much valuables, that it makes the Orcish Mines look petty. The cavern was filled with radiant crystals and sculptures crafted from them by a civilization long gone. It was said that something happened to that civilization, driving them out of the caverns and into the outside world. Since then, the caverns have not been seen, until now.'
The Radiant Caverns (extremely tentative name) would be a late game portal vault. It would appear somewhere around when the player would be ready for Zot, say, D:23-27. The Radiant Caverns would be filled with tougher creatures that the player would not have been likely to have seen, such as ball lightning, elements, golems, demons, and (maybe) some Zot creatures. The Caverns would also have 'mutagenic' creatures, such as shapeshifters, choas spawn, and pulsating lumps, which would fit into the main theme of the potal vault: mutations and glow.
As the player lingers in the vault, the mutagenic crystal walls (fire and ice shooting monster should be somewhat common to utilize them) would cause the player to accumulate glow. A fast player would be able to scrap the barest minimum of loot from the vault, but only get high levels of glow, whereas a normal run might cause the player to get at least one or two bad mutations.
To balance the glow effects, the vault should have a high chance of at least one or two cure mutation potions, which gives the player an interesting delima when deciding to enter the vault: Are their current mutations bad enough that they would want to risk going through the vault for the cure mutation potions? Would they be willing to risk other mutations for a cure for their current ones? Would the gear be worth getting mutated? Should they try and grab the first things they see, or search for the better, hidden treasure? Also going with the glow theme, most randarts generated in the portal vault should have the mutagenic glow property, but otherwise be of good quality to go with the theme of mutations versus rewards.
Nice idea. Just make one! This part of Crawl is pretty DIY :)
Not all of this can be coded with the current syntax but a lot can be done. In fact, everything bar the permanent glow can be done. And the latter shouldn't be too hard to provide. Will come once maps roll in. Promised!
To start, have a quick look at bazaar.des, sewer.des, icecave.des, then read bits of docs/leveldesign.txt and then start going. You can send the maps to me if you get stuck.
Sounds brilliant, do it! :D
A late branch based on mutation and glow. neat.
since it'd be generated so deep underground, "plutonic cavern" seems the obvious pun.
Some (not entirely serious) name ideas:
- Beryls of Fun
- Corundum Conundrum [Kyrandia, anyone?]
- Chernobyl [Too soon?]
- and I really like nobody's "Plutonic Caverns" idea.
Other (slightly more serious) name ideas:
- Radiant Ruins [sounds like a Sonic the Hedgehog level]
- Crystal Town
- Chamber of Reflection [my personal favorite]
At the risk of making it too much like Slime Part Deux, there could be various G in the cavern. Shiny things might draw in some of the eyeball creatures.
I think a vault like this would be devilish fun.
Oh, and the previous comment is from Mong, if anyone cares. Sorry for the doublepost.
Some of the names are okay, but you can simply make levels. Whoever is first, will probably have most impact on the vault's theme and layout. Making maps is easy!
Since this FR sounds cool but looks like it's going nowhere, I'm trying my hand at making some maps for it.
Lamil: You can send maps (even half-finished ones) to me or Eino, for evaluation and feedback. Have fun with it!
First draft now available at http://crawl.pastebin.com/m4a912550. Comments, critiques, additions, revisions, and suggestions all welcome.
Did anyone have a look at lamil's design? For now, I'm adding this to the Mantis wiki: http://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php?id=dcss:brainstorm:portal_vaults