75 replies to this topic

[DarkFlameWolf]

As some of you may or may not have known, I'm working on a few projects within ZC. I'm not saying they'll be released anytime soon, but you may see something from me in the future.
Beside that, my question to you all is rather than what you WANT to see in a new quest from me, how about, what would you rather NOT see in a new quest from me?
The projects I'm working on, they are not revolutionary. I'm falling back from Origin/Lost Isle and doing what I do best: 9-dungeon romps with extras. No frills, just quality gameplay. Its what I do, its what I excel at, its what is going to happen.
So what would you prefer I leave out this time around? Thanks.

[SpacemanDan]

Personally, I'd rather not see multi-level dungeons; especially early in the quest. (Later on, I don't think it's much a problem.) My main reason for that is that such dungeons can end-up way to big and complicated where a smaller dungeon could have easily done the trick. Of course, I'm not saying that such dungeons are bad, I just find them a little more tedious to navigate and can be a pain to complete.

Of course, if you had to do multi-level dungeons early in, I'd suggest keeping the floors themselves smaller so that it isn't so overwhelming.

Just my two cents.

[eNJuR]

yeah, i'd agree with blaman. an example would be lost isle. I love it so far (but i'm stuck at the second dungeon) but i actually stopped playing it for a while because of the first dungeon was so complex and every time i died, i had to keep going all the way back thru, it being a 3 floor monster. I eventually returned and beat it (with some help), but yeah... Multi-floor dungeons in latter levels would be awesome tho.

(Lost Isle is a really great quest, by the way!)

[Xiion]

Limited consumables.

They're the only reason I stopped playing Lost Isle. Couldn't beat the level 4 boss without a potion, and I just couldn't find any more. Really annoyed me too, because I wanted to finish it. Maybe another day I'll go back and restart.

[Russ]

What would I NOT like to see. Where to start?

Only starting with three hearts. This was my biggest complaint about Lost Isle. Why should I spend the first five minutes each time I play just looking for health?

Lack of good continue points. You know how in LI's level 1 how even if you died at the very bottom, you had to restart at the beginning and drain the water all over again. Let's not have a repeat of that.

Impossible to find secrets. "To find the Master Dome, burn the big tree in the dead end of the canyon, then use the wand to hit the wall." How's anybody supposed to figure that out!? I'm not saying to tell us exactly where stuff is, but at least having it fall in line with common sense would be nice.

Lack of potions. I found one the entire time I played Lost Isle. And I accidentally used it because it's where the boomerang is on most subscreens when I use l and r to scroll through items. Would it kill you to place a few more?

[Nathaniel]

I have no complaints about your challenges, since I have yet to not be able to handle them. After all, I have tackled Hidden Duality Xtreme and Wolfstyle DX on hard mode. But here is a radical idea for a limitation: No traditional overworld. Or you can say, something completely unorthodox for one.

One possibility of that: Make the quest completely or almost completely underground. The overworld is a complex of caves, and the dungeons are unique subsections of that main cave complex. This idea is based from the Drow of the Underdark in the Forgotten Realms Campaign of D&D. There doesn't need to be a storyline, but if there is, there is still a lot you can do with it.

Another idea would involve some sort of plane traveling. Instead of one connected overworld, you travel among several smaller planes that you move back and forth from, each connected only by carefully placed portals. Each plane represents something about it that makes it different from all the others. They could be elemental planes. They could be planes representing certain forms or factions of evil. The sky is the limit on what they could be. They don't even have to be 8x8 in size, as they could be of any size. Although small is the general aim.

I also have another idea that would probably best not be explained here, since it could make for an interesting quest, and I would hate to spoil it to others if you ever agreed with the idea. But like anything, I have no idea what you would think of it. All I will say that it is based on a very old D&D computer game, thus outside the realm of zelda or other well known video games. If you are interested in hearing it, just send me a PM. It is only a basic skeleton of an idea, so there is still a lot to do with it.

[ZebraStallion]

Hmm... Things to leave out...

Well first of all, please don't make another first quest remake. I'm kinda sick of those, and others probably are too. I'd really like to see another overworld like Lost Isle's. It doesn't have to include a big story or anything, it just needs to be a good overworld with a nice Metroid feel.

Another thing to leave out would be repetitive dungeons. They should all have a different theme, use different tiles, and have different gimmicks. I think there's too many quests out there that utilize the standard Pure dungeon tiles with no gimmicks involved.

And that's pretty much it.

[eNJuR]

in lost isle, i have had no shortage of potions, and have found quite a few, but then again, i am quite conservative, so....

[cosmofield]

Lost Isle is your best quest in my opinion, giving the player the opportinity to face several dungeons with different challenges and enemies. I can agree with the Dungeon size because even if the difficulty is balaced, the player still doesn't have enough HP or good equipment to easily conquer a large multi-floor level, I never seen blue wizrobes or killer darknuts in the first levels and that is good, not including HD EX though

And the thing starting only with 3 hearts sometimes can be a bother in later levels if you don't have potions or pots/bushes in reach, but death should be some form of penalty, otherwise its too temtating to choose F6 -> Continue as soon as you are near a continue point. Maybe set the init value to half of your HP.

[ShadowTiger]

Some things to ponder:

• I had a hell of a time finding the first sword in Lost Isle. It may be obvious to its developers, since they placed it, but not to the common player all of the time. Either start with the sword, or make it available within a single screen of the player, or make it -extremely- and foolproofedly obvious where the sword is, and giving them absolute clues. "On the beach" is far, far too vague. I'm not saying hold the player's hand, but definitely don't let it reach the point where the player has to interpret and decipher clues that were never meant to be deciphered or interpreted into a mystery hunt.
  
• Secrets should make sense. The Master Dome is one thing. It's the Master Dome. But for the love of god, using a wand on a mushroom without prior information does not make sense at all. For that matter, we'd have to be clear on what the wand does if the wand were real. No, it's not real obviously, but the player will create a backstory for it on its own. If they just pick it up and start using it when it's found in the middle of a dungeon, they'll have no way to know purple mushrooms need to be wanded. (New word.)
  • If you want, I would be more than happy to draw and animate new tiles to accommodate this. I'd rather put in a few hours work now, than put in a day's worth of wandering later trying every single item I have on every single piece of terrain I find. That would be ludicrous.
• Whenever I'm in a dungeon and I pick up a key, I have to backtrack quite a bit to find the locked door that I passed way early off in the dungeon. Maybe devote several floor patterns to the dungeon, and drop a few combos of the floor tile for each wing of the dungeon into main hallways so people can see which wing of the dungeon they're about to enter, so they can recall what locked doors were in it.
• Keep the player informed, but in the quest itself. If there are going to be limited items, let the player know that "This is one of a kind." or "Only a few people make this, and there aren't enough ingredients to make more." Potions and Shields. Yep.

[DarkFlameWolf]

Let's settle some of the issues right now:
Multi-floor dungeons: Yes, there will be a few in the quest, but not for the starting levels, so breath easy.
Limited Consumables: No need to worry about that.
Starting with 3 hearts: I won't let you start with full health, but 50-75% should be a good penalty for dying or cheating using f6.
Remakes: Going to be none of that here.
Repetative Dungeons: I'll try not to, but I 'am' going back to my basic roots. So do bear in mind that I will be using formulaic DFW designs.
Massive LI Overworld: Not going to happen, I have something rather unique planned though.

Anything else?

EDIT: Update to ST's post:

Sword: you will have it at the start, breath easy.
Secrets: They will make sense this time.
Keys and Doors: We'll see how it plays out.

Edited by DarkFlameWolf, 25 February 2010 - 04:08 PM.

[Zenith]

Actually, mine are more of what I would like to see. For one, more details in dungeons that give them individuality. I want Level 2 to feel completely different from Level 1, especially if they're in radically different areas. Also, try to find music that fits an area really well, instead of one that just works okay. One of the few problems I had with Isle of the Winds was that you tried to get all of the music from one series, and it ended up with several reused midis and more than a few places where it just didn't fit that well.

Impossible to find secrets. "To find the Master Dome, burn the big tree in the dead end of the canyon, then use the wand to hit the wall." How's anybody supposed to figure that out!? I'm not saying to tell us exactly where stuff is, but at least having it fall in line with common sense would be nice.

Actually, there was a secret info room in Wolfstyle DX that gave it away.

Edited by Zenith, 26 February 2010 - 12:03 AM.

[DarkFlameWolf]

Yes and that secret info room was wrong about what was in the Master Dome. It said the Red Mail was there, this was obviously before Peteo and I had that fight that the Red Mail should go elsewhere.

[Eppy]

I have nothing that I don't want to see. Most everything that I play in your quests are just fine...

....ok well actually maybe one, just a little less Zola/Statues shooting at you would be nice.

[Twilight Knight]

I don't think complaining about the secret hiding the Master Dome is logical. Seeing that it's supposed to be hidden well.

Only thing I really agree to is the high penalty when dying. It could end up being rather annoying.