RPGs with the best dungeons

[Annie Mitsoda]

Should I bother with the facepalm? No, no I'll not.

I'll say no decaying mythal then. I'd kiiiiiiiiiiinda forgotten how many there were. I do like the sort of "letter of the law instead of the real intent of the caster = OHHHH SHIIIIT" kind of setup, as a functioning mythal that, say, caused creatures that died there to rise and defend it might be good if people were still living there, but if say, a dragon settled there and croaked, o shit dragon zombie defending an area, and bodies on bodies pile up. So you get to the bottom imagining there's a fuckload of treasure, and instead - an enormously powerful spell that seems to beget trouble. Well, fuck, how do you close something like THAT away?

Just a concept. Like I said, just brainstorming, and I really do want to have more interesting dungeons and encounters. It should go without saying there will be a twisted warren of caverns at some point that is home to a group of trolls who fervently worship a discarded tome of dark magic. There is a power struggle going on between several who claim only THEY can divine the true nature of the codex, and those who disagree scream "DECLINE! DECLINE!" and wave their clubs around.

And you know what you'd do if you were a gamer playing through that area. Kill everyone and poke through the remains looking for anything shiny and fun :twisted:

(kidding, kidding )

 

[circ]

Stream of thought writing aside, ok, I have nothing. What are you saying? A dragon zombie defends a dungeon and you kill it and you find a bunko spell. I don't get it, close it away what? What does it all mean?

Where are the puzzles and the dialogue concepts? You can't plug a dungeon with 'LOL GAIS PUT A ZOMBIE DRAGON THEAR. NO THEAR. LOL. POOP DRAGON. ZOMBIE POOP. LOL. OK, NOW, GAIS... READY? MAKE 9000 HP. LOL? 9000! CARNAGE! OK OK. PUNCHLINE. CHEST WITH SPELL!'

I wouldn't touch it with a two foot pole if I were a gamer. Someone needs to take off their 'this shit is a gargantuan golden masterpiece'' glasses and see NWN 2 and its editor for the crap it is.

 

[Secretninja]

Stream of thought writing aside, ok, I have nothing. What are you saying? A dragon zombie defends a dungeon and you kill it and you find a bunko spell. I don't get it, close it away what? What does it all mean?

Where are the puzzles and the dialogue concepts? You can't plug a dungeon with 'LOL GAIS PUT A ZOMBIE DRAGON THEAR. NO THEAR. LOL. POOP DRAGON. ZOMBIE POOP. LOL. OK, NOW, GAIS... READY? MAKE 9000 HP. LOL? 9000! CARNAGE! OK OK. PUNCHLINE. CHEST WITH SPELL!'

I wouldn't touch it with a two foot pole if I were a gamer. Someone needs to take off their 'this shit is a gargantuan golden masterpiece'' glasses and see NWN 2 and its editor for the crap it is.

lolwut

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

I do like the sort of "letter of the law instead of the real intent of the caster = OHHHH SHIIIIT" kind of setup

This works especially well with wishes. Be careful what you wish for...

It was pretty well done (albeit superficially) in BG2 with the "Limited wish" and "Wish" spells.

dragon zombie defending an area, and bodies on bodies pile up. So you get to the bottom imagining there's a fuckload of treasure, and instead - an enormously powerful spell that seems to beget trouble.

That's pretty much Pool of Radiance : ruins of Myth Drannor's plot. Except that, games being games, finding the "mythal powered dracolich" doesn't exclude getting lots of phat loot as well. :wink:

 

[cardtrick]

I'm kind of embarrassed, but I'm going to throw Wizards and Warriors in here. It's a game that makes . . . very little sense, and which is poorly balanced and generically plotted. But the dungeons are good enough that the game is actually worth playing through.

There are a few things that made them great. First, they all played quite differently (some were puzzle-heavy, some were exploration-focused, one was underwater, one had your party turn into entirely different creatures with restricted abilities for pretty much the entire duration). There was some moderate use of the physics engine for puzzles, which worked well (toss a crate to block a closing grate, stack things to climb higher, etc.). There was a narrator who described the non-visual elements of the dungeons -- it was used sparingly but effectively to build atmosphere. Dungeons weren't solely combat-oriented; most had a main quest to focus your exploraiton and at least one or two side quests, along with a couple of non-hostile characters to talk to.

Overall, it's an underrated game. Check out Vazdru's Let's Play thread if you're interested -- it's awesome, and he actually finished it.

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

Hm. Wizards and Warriors? First thing I thought of was the NES game. I am thinking this is probably maybe different I'll look into it!

Also, goddammit, the dracolich, you're right. I was really just thinking "bignasty X," but couldn't recall what feasible-as-undead-looking big monster we had in the NWN2 toolset that could take its place. Size-wise, a fight with a dragon in an enclosed area is technically difficult to achieve. Sooooooo, it couldn't of NECESSITY be a dragon. Boo!

And seriously, while I get KIND OF what circ is saying - what? Dialogue concepts? I'm not crafting a golden anything, I just want to get compelling dungeons in there as SIDEQUESTS AT BEST. If I make something dialogue-related, I don't usually build the dialogue FIRST. That's a nice way to let a concept run away into Chatstoomuchville. And this isn't because I have something against dialogue, mind, it's just that I've seen too many people take that approach first, and what you get in the end is a simple fetch quest dandied up all pretty, that isn't particularly memorable or fun. I want to focus on the combat/design set FIRST.

So you like chatty dungeons? Or... lots of quests in one? One basically built off a storyline, like... hello, what is this here, a fucked up mansion what got sunk in the earth, let's explore... and as you go, you find out who lived there and why the mansion got fucked up by... journals, ghosts, what? I liked how Grout's mansion was set up in Bloodlines, which works along a similar concept. Now, without professional VO to rely on, and the fact that dialogue is triggered on a skippable screen that automatically cuts out when you move away OR forces you to stay locked in place - it doesn't transfer in the same way.

Also I loved the Ocean House, which was particuarly rad because there were no enemies in it anywhere. That was an experience that worked deliciously well for a first-or-close-quarters-3rd-person camera view, and in a way that used the Z-axis. Movement in NWN2 is far more detached, and less visceral than Bloodlines, so while there MIGHT be a way to recreate that kind of feel in that game, it would be tricky. While I'm not adverse to it, it's not a 1-to-1 translation, and would take a lot of work. Again, not adverse, but want to get a GENERAL feel of what people want, and I'm going to start with what's possible before I start moving on to the trickier concepts.

 

[Liberal]

The dungeons in Oblivion were the best dungeons of the XXI century.

 

[Machined Plate Man]

Definitely Anvil of Dawn.

 

[JarlFrank]

Actually Oblivion's dungeons had some nice traps and exploration in them, which was sadly ruined by the level-scaled loot and enemies, which shows again that, to make a game good, *everything* need to fit properly, not just one feature.

 

[Luzur]

Just a concept. Like I said, just brainstorming, and I really do want to have more interesting dungeons and encounters. It should go without saying there will be a twisted warren of caverns at some point that is home to a group of trolls who fervently worship a discarded tome of dark magic. There is a power struggle going on between several who claim only THEY can divine the true nature of the codex, and those who disagree scream "DECLINE! DECLINE!" and wave their clubs around.

And you know what you'd do if you were a gamer playing through that area. Kill everyone and poke through the remains looking for anything shiny and fun Twisted Evil

(kidding, kidding Wink )

this must be made into a RPG game soon.

the dungoen/caves could be named "The Abyss of Decline"

 

[Double Ogre]

pic

I can see a deformed humanoid with a huge head. If we can be sure it's an alien then deathclaws also are aliens.

It's the same skeleton as one of the two in the crashed UFO special encounter. Also,

There should be a big-headed dead "Gray" in the Glow, behind one of the broken glass specimen cylinders. Then again, I haven't looked in a while.