Abyssal Squid wrote:
One of my favorite game-related activities is coming up with half-baked ideas to improve it, and as of last night, DROD is not an exception.
The problem is that the merits of a half-baked idea can often not be very clear in DRODistic discussions. With so many features already present and suggested, you'd need a good justification to include one. Perhaps a three-quarter-baked idea might be a bit better in terms of clarity and ability to be analysed as a potential game element.
Turtle - an amphibious monster that hides in its shell every so often (let's say 5 or 10 on the spawn counter), making it invulnerable and immobile. Alternately, it could turtle up whenever Beethro's sword nears it, but that would effective require a mimic or some other sworded monster. Maybe it would leave a shell like the rocks of golems, or maybe it's more fragile from the inside, so that Beethro shatters the shell after killing the thing, whichever works better.
Is amphibious to be taken literally? In that case, it would mean you require water as an in-game element, which is not confirmed. If not, then it's still an interesting idea, a bit similar to my Mole idea from a long while ago (it burrows underground and pops up every 5 moves for 5 moves, at which point it is vulnerable. The only difference would be that it isn't an obstacle while moving.
Snapper - an aquatic monster that behaves like a roach, but will not willingly enter an edge square, unless Beethro occupies it. This assumes that Beethro can move through water, of course. They would not be counted as monsters for the purpose of green doors, etc.
This again assumes the inclusion of water, but would make an interesting addition as a water element, although maybe just having the ability to swim in water might not distinguish it enough from other monsters with roach-like behaviour. Perhaps it might also be able to jump from one body of water to another (one square apart), and will do so if beelining for you will put it in a square that is only two squares from another water square.
Unnamed diagonal monster - a monster that prefers to move diagonally, but like a mimic, it will move orthagonally if forced to.
This is interesting, for if it is moving directly at you from a horizontal or vertical direction, it will try to move in a zig-zag pattern until it reaches you. The only problem would be how to determine to which row or column it will move to when moving diagonally into a row or column that is not the one you are in. Perhaps it could have a preference for south and east over north and west, for example. It might also be more interesting if it could not move orthogonally, because you could then use the fact that it only travels in diagonals to manipulate and block it from entering certain squares, just like Golems and Wubbas.
Unnamed directional monster - similar to a guard, but cowardly, and instead of a really big sword, it has a really big shield that protects 3 sides at once.
If it gets into a corner, how would you kill it?
Your shield monster is interesting, but perhaps reducing the number of shields to one might be better (you could then tactically manouever around it to kill it). There would be only one problem with it, though - since it won't do much more than run from you, it will only be useful in situations involving manipulation of it, for example out of sealed-off areas, or to block spawning. Maybe it could have a dual function and spawn something, for example (perhaps even a guard, once every 30 moves in the direction the shield faces).
Centipede - 'nuff said.
How would this monster work? What would it do?
Although I guess it's a long monster from the name, it's not apparent what it's supposed to do. Is it, for example, like the centipedes in the game involving shooting their segments and the split parts becoming new centipedes (in this case, stabbing them would produce new heads and tails)?
Grenade - a black potion with a limited range (the same as decoy or invisibility aura), it creates a small explosion of radius 1 around the target, leaving behind smoke that blocks eye vision for 15 turns. Since it is thrown, it can't go over walls, crumbly or not, or doors for that matter, but it can go over monsters, pits, and obstacles.
So, would its primary function be a temporary line of sight blocking device? Perhaps enlarging that function might be an idea - the explosion could be removed, and it could just release smoke to fill a certain area (perhaps the wall blocking effect could be used to stop smoke entering areas, just like how an explosion is stopped), and this smoke could last for 30 moves (or until the next spawn cycle). The smoke would then block the line of sight for any monsters affected by it. So, monsters within it won't be able to see anything, and will stop moving until the smoke clears or Beethro stands next to one, evil eyes won't be able to see through it, and if Beethro steps into it, it would act like a temporary invisibility potion and all monsters will stop moving until Beethro leaves the smoke, or he stands next to one on the edge of a smoke mass.
Doorway - a smaller kind of door, that swings instead of rising and/or falling, and always takes up only one square (like a door in a roguelike game). Beethro and intelligent monsters (goblins, guards, Slayers, Halph) can open the door, and conscientiously close it when leaving the square. Tar and mud babies can ooze under it, but tar and mud mothers are stymied. It would be fragile like a crumbly wall, so Beethro would have to be careful not to destroy it while trying to reach safety.
I don't like this idea much; it's basically like a selective floor square that only lets certain monsters over it. Also, making it fragile would then leave it useless if a Guard or Slayer walks straight through it with the sword directly facing it.
Prism - a large crystal that refracts light, it would rotate by 45° any Eyesight line that passes through it. Furthermore, it would distract other monsters if you happened to be in their now-distorted line of sight, similar to a decoy.
I like this idea, since it basically extends the use of Evil Eye line of sight puzzles, and perhaps prisms or crystals of differing rotational power (so you could have some that rotate light by 90 and 135 degrees too) might be interesting. This was also discussed with the idea of mirrors a long time ago, which would also include reflection as well as refraction/total internal reflection. Having prisms affecting the line of sight of other monsters, though, is probably going to be a bit unintuitive and difficult to predict, especially as you now will need to consider what a monster is looking at.
Edit: Strangely blunt language edited.
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Resident Medic/Mycologist
[Last edited by agaricus5 at 08-15-2005 06:42 PM]
) Also, this suggestion doesn't seem different enough from regular roaches.
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/dy
