skinsmen
Level: Goblin
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Pleeeeaaase don't hurt me if someone has said this before but what if there were something like, these roaches that laid eggs from which hatched queen roaches? (Or maybe just eggs lying around or something?.... Something to do with roach queen eggs anyway...)

Drizzo
Level: Master Delver

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I don't know if I want anything that can lay roach queen eggs... it would get too unmanagable too fast, and there's other ways to time more roach queens appearing if you absolutely must, but one roach queen layer could have you swamped under more roaches than you can handle in two spawn cycles easily...

____________________________
"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government
and business." - Tom Robbins

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
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- but in small numbers, I think they could work quite well. How about a queen that simply produces things that run away from Beethro?

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

skinsmen
Level: Goblin
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Hmmmm... That could work too I guess.

agaricus5
Level: Smitemaster
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The_Red_Hawk wrote:
- but in small numbers, I think they could work quite well. How about a queen that simply produces things that run away from Beethro?

This then doesn't add much because the monsters will run away from you and won't actually attack you or do anything. It may be useful for monster trapping or certain types of manipulation, but I don't think it provides enough puzzle potential to be implemented.

____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

skinsmen
Level: Goblin
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Oh, whoops! Yeah it wouldn't do that much if they ran from you. Sorry, I read it wrong.

Having too many roaches coming at you wouldn't really be a problem. I mean, what kinda pycho makes a room where you start in the middle and every other space is roaches right? It could work if you control the number of them in a room and maybe perhaps have a higher spawn cycle...?

The_Red_Hawk
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How about a queen that wakes when you step in its line of sight like an eye?

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

skinsmen
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 26
Registered: 03-06-2004
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Hmmm. That's a pretty cool thought... But I still think it would be better that queens are produced. Maybe they wouldn't be produced as frequently or they will only go into the one space below the creature. You know what I mean?
Anyways. How would this other queen roach idea you speak of work?

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
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When it sees Beethro, it will start acting as if it was a queen from the beginnning.

Maybe we could have a "Double Queen" that lays eggs in every other square, each one holding two roaches inside.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

skinsmen
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 26
Registered: 03-06-2004
IP: Logged

Hmmmmmm, how would it work if you simply avoided letting it see you and just snuck up on it?
2 roaches per egg would be strange. How would it be determined which 2 spaces they hatch to?

The_Red_Hawk
Level: Smitemaster
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How about one where the egg is, and one just outwards? If there's no space, it simply doesn't appear. That might be good for some puzzles where you have to have a monster to block an extra egg appearing.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

nem-z
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 16
Registered: 11-13-2004
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how about a golden 'grand-queen' that lays normal eggs unless there are no normal queens in the room, at which point it lays a single batch of queen eggs. Good for rooms with an incentive to leave a queen alive for a while, or as a multi-staged threat.

Krishh
Level: Master Delver
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Registered: 06-05-2004
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These wouldn't really be much effective anyway. If the queen-egg layer also runs away from Beethro, and the queens it produces run away too, they will all just pile up in a corner and only one layer of queens would ever be crated anyway, and since those queens would all be piled up too, the whole thing would be creating about 5 roaches a spawn cycle, which can easily be done using normal queens too.

Edit: And the Golden queens would be just as bad. They would create a layer of queens around them which would block all the squares around it and, again, sit there doing nothing.

[Edited by Krishh at Local Time:11-18-2004 at 12:10 PM]

nem-z
Level: Goblin
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okay, so add a behavioral trait that the grandqueen stays away from the player as a second thought, with a primary movement goal to maximize the possible free squares around it. This way it would naturally stay at least a little bit away from the other queens and even be a more efficient producer of normal roaches when queens are still around.

Krishh
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 282
Registered: 06-05-2004
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That wouldn't help all that much:

----+
RQQQ|
RQGQ|
RQQQ|
RRRR|

In that case it would create a square like that and get blocked by the quens.

nem-z
Level: Goblin
Rank Points: 16
Registered: 11-13-2004
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true...

okay, what if the grandqueen can force other roaches to trade spots with it if it would prefer to move and can't? perhaps chainge it so that it kills other roaches that gets in it's way... ruthless little critters.

Krishh
Level: Master Delver
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That wouldn't help because it wouldn't want to move away from the forementioned square with the movement options you set. (as far away from Beethro (a corner) while having 9 spaces around it)

nem-z
Level: Goblin
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Registered: 11-13-2004
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no, i said the first priority was to maximize possible free squares... an occupied square is hardly free.

the grandqueen would look for the most open spot in the room and make a beeline for it, only as a second thought looking for which of the total possible locations with an equal number of maximum free squares is farthest from the player at any one time.

Krishh
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 282
Registered: 06-05-2004
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Oh. That would get more interesting, a monster like that would really create some interesting situations, although it could get quite complicated with more than a couple of them in a room.