My dream system: mixing epic spawns with crafting
Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 7:52 pm
tl,dr: Make rare epic bosses spawn, with a small chance to drop an ingredient for enchanting. This in turn spurns player generated quests and role-play.
First, the dream epic boss spawn system:
anywher, any dungeon, there would be a 1 of 1000 chance of a spawn being an "Epic Boss Spawn", (EBS).
The EBS would be 3 levels higher than regular spawns, and different from standard spawn, (for example, a skeleton mage in the BG graveyard!)
It would cast a special EBS only spell that would buff it up. This spell would take 20 seconds, would shake the screen the whole time, make a lot of loud noise and light effects, and give a warnng pop up, so everyone on the map would know an epic boss had spawned. this gives players time to flee or prepare. if the EBS spawns next to a player, the player has a choice: start slashing at it while it is casting the EBS spell, (only with damage, no interrupt possible), or run.
The EBS would not de-spawn if players flee. This allows those who feel the need to flee an RP opportunity: say recruit help, or sell the information of the EBS location, or who knows what else.
When the EBS falls, its corpse stays on the map until reset, as a new treasure chest, for any body to come by and loot.
When the EBS falls, it drops a loot bag as well, which would contain a crafting component: an "essence", which will be defined a bit later. The CR level of the EBS would determine the chances of it being feint, weak, strong or epic....
part two: Essences
I only use the term essence for simplicity. For immersion i hope for things like "demons eye" or "ghost dust" would be used, with appropriate icons.
why essences? 1) to spawn player generated quests, and 2) crafting can not be a simple gold + spell and skill combo imho. crafted items would be made to be beyond epic, (nobody is going to craft a +2 dagger), and since they would be beyond epic, they should require more than grinding, gold and levelling. They should require mission, role play and interaction.
currently, afaik, the developers are set on a layering craft system, where it first must be given a +1, then +2, then +3' etc. Why? i dont know, perhaps to slow the crafting process to one enchantment per rest, or reset.
Back to the skeleton mage EBS in the graveyard. In its loot bag is one essence. no matter the level, there would always be at least a 1/100 chance of it being epic, a 3/100 chance of it being greater, etc etc... At the highest CR on the server, that chance of it bing epic would be about 10/100, with the chance of a greater essence dropping at about 30/100, etc... The skeleton mage, being undead and caster, would drop one of many forms of essences attached to it. caster essence which could be used to imbue a spell slot item, undead essence, which could be used to add negative energy resistance or damage, and weave essence, which could be used for general +type enchantments. (ie +3 armor).
The crafting could then be layered or not. If layered, to give a weapon say +4 negative energy damage, it would first need a feint undead essence, then a weak for the +2, then a strong for the +3' and an epic for the +4. Ideally, all would not be needed at once, so the seeker of said weapon could hve the +3 neg energy sword, while still searchng for that epic undead essence to make it +4. Surely after a while he would have a coupleepic essences himself, to trade.
yeahh... that would be so awesome if...
First, the dream epic boss spawn system:
anywher, any dungeon, there would be a 1 of 1000 chance of a spawn being an "Epic Boss Spawn", (EBS).
The EBS would be 3 levels higher than regular spawns, and different from standard spawn, (for example, a skeleton mage in the BG graveyard!)
It would cast a special EBS only spell that would buff it up. This spell would take 20 seconds, would shake the screen the whole time, make a lot of loud noise and light effects, and give a warnng pop up, so everyone on the map would know an epic boss had spawned. this gives players time to flee or prepare. if the EBS spawns next to a player, the player has a choice: start slashing at it while it is casting the EBS spell, (only with damage, no interrupt possible), or run.
The EBS would not de-spawn if players flee. This allows those who feel the need to flee an RP opportunity: say recruit help, or sell the information of the EBS location, or who knows what else.
When the EBS falls, its corpse stays on the map until reset, as a new treasure chest, for any body to come by and loot.
When the EBS falls, it drops a loot bag as well, which would contain a crafting component: an "essence", which will be defined a bit later. The CR level of the EBS would determine the chances of it being feint, weak, strong or epic....
part two: Essences
I only use the term essence for simplicity. For immersion i hope for things like "demons eye" or "ghost dust" would be used, with appropriate icons.
why essences? 1) to spawn player generated quests, and 2) crafting can not be a simple gold + spell and skill combo imho. crafted items would be made to be beyond epic, (nobody is going to craft a +2 dagger), and since they would be beyond epic, they should require more than grinding, gold and levelling. They should require mission, role play and interaction.
currently, afaik, the developers are set on a layering craft system, where it first must be given a +1, then +2, then +3' etc. Why? i dont know, perhaps to slow the crafting process to one enchantment per rest, or reset.
Back to the skeleton mage EBS in the graveyard. In its loot bag is one essence. no matter the level, there would always be at least a 1/100 chance of it being epic, a 3/100 chance of it being greater, etc etc... At the highest CR on the server, that chance of it bing epic would be about 10/100, with the chance of a greater essence dropping at about 30/100, etc... The skeleton mage, being undead and caster, would drop one of many forms of essences attached to it. caster essence which could be used to imbue a spell slot item, undead essence, which could be used to add negative energy resistance or damage, and weave essence, which could be used for general +type enchantments. (ie +3 armor).
The crafting could then be layered or not. If layered, to give a weapon say +4 negative energy damage, it would first need a feint undead essence, then a weak for the +2, then a strong for the +3' and an epic for the +4. Ideally, all would not be needed at once, so the seeker of said weapon could hve the +3 neg energy sword, while still searchng for that epic undead essence to make it +4. Surely after a while he would have a coupleepic essences himself, to trade.
yeahh... that would be so awesome if...