From:
[email protected] (Edwin )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic
Subject: DUNGEON KEEPER: ## Ultimate Comments/Hints/Suggestions List ##
Date: 2 Aug 1997 20:03:45 GMT
DUNGEON KEEPER Comments/Suggestions List v1.0
=============================================
CHEMISTY THAT WORKS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
o Goes beyond traditional Real-Time Strategy Mold
o Creatures with unique traits and personalities that you must learn how
to control rather than blindly serve
o Creatures also have noteworthy habits such as how they sleep in their
lairs, how they go about eating chickens in the Hatchery, how they react
to being slapped, how they celebrate when they increased their Skill or
researched new spell, and how they die.
o Ability to join battle as an upfront participant then leave creature to
fight based on their own personalities (fantastic flexibility)
o Mixes both humour and violence
COMMENT ON CREATURES (Pros: Greater variety and numbers)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Cons: Chaotic by nature)
IMP - regular worker force but train them above Skill 3 then they can
utilize the SPEED UP spell to work wickely fast! Unfortunately these
little buggers tend to get into trouble by laying down your territory
into enemy squares even when you arent looking. Catching them before
they do will save you alot of Imps especially if you trained them
above Skill 3 for they are not much more resistant to damage at
higher skills.
Skills: [1] Dig/Claim [2] Attack [3] Speed Monster [4] Teleport
FLY - Excellent fast scout and semi-useful at Anti-Imp hunting. Otherwise,
training them above Skill 3 serves little. I might also say how
amazing first-person looks when you use the FLY!
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Sight of Evil
BETTLE - Basically good as a starting fighter at the beginning solo levels
but useless even at Skill 10. Yet another excellent first-person
viewpoint!
Skills: [1] Attack
DEMON SPAWN - Cute little fellow and fairly good in close combat but again
more of a starting fighter that can easily be overwhelmed.
Of extra note: If you continue to train a Demon Spawn
beyond Skill 10 they will eventually change into a Dragon
(by that time, however, you'd probably have won the game)
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Red Bomb [3] Squeel Bomb
SPIDER - Supposedly great fighters but are only useful on less aggressive
levels. Even at Skill 10 they dont last long. One comment about
the first-person view: its incorrect! Spiders do not have a single
lens but upwards of five distinct eyes. I doubt this would have
been difficult to implement considering how well the FLY was
imitated. Ensure they are seperated from FLIES as Spiders just
love them flying beasties for appetizers.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Slow [3] Web Hold
TROLL - Entry level Green-skinned Mace-weilding Fighter who while not too
bright they are nasty in numbers. Quite respectable in capacity
when above Skill 5. Attracted by large Workshops.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Speed Monster [3] Flame
WARLOCK - Specialists in Long Range Magical death! These magic users come
with an impressive offensive package that when executed above
Skill 4 is extremely useful! Deploy these fellows 2-3 square
away from a major battle and they are lethal! Attracted by large
Libraries upon which they tend to occupy quite extensively
during their tenure. You'll find, however, that all this great
baggage comes with a price: they can get angry and easily desert.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Fireball [3] Heal [4] Meteor
[5] Invisibility [6] Red Bomb [7] Sight of Evil
[8] Tempest [9] Word of Power
ORC - My personal fav! Purplish warriors with both Hammer and Shield in
hand when trained above Skill 5 they are incredibly devestating in
numbers! Above Skill 7 they are brillant fighters. Also want to note
how cute their little walks are. Attracted by a large Training Room
and a Barracks.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Speed Monster [3] Protection [4] Heal
DRAGON - Fire-Breathing, slow, expensive, normally easy to attract into
dungeon (they like large treasure and lair rooms!) but quite
useful above Skill 3 since they can heal themselves and above
Skill 6 they have that wicked Meteor Spell (similar to Warlock's
advanced fireball spell) which does good radial damage as well as
a niffy Glass-breaking Nova Spell.
Skills: [1] Flame [2] Heal [3] Squeel Bomb [4] Meteor
[5] Word of Power
BILE DEMON - Farts, Stink Bombs, Excellent Close-Combat Fighters but slow,
very useful above Skill 4. If I have 4-8 of these slow
moving titans all above Skill 5 they are practically
unstoppable! Attracted by a huge Lair and Hatchery!
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Breath of Poison [3] Fart of Death
[4] Squeel Bomb
DARK MISTRESS - Other than the ORC, she has to be my other fav! Seems to be
attracted by a large Torture Room which she seems to visit
many times for regular beatings :o Her funny yells when
fighting are quite memorable but train her above
Skill 7 and you get a nice surprise: Lightning attack which
is an excellent Anti-Imp weapon let alone effective
otherwise.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Lightning [3] Speed Monster
[4] Fire Lightning [5] Teleport
TENTACLE - What looks like a single sharp green claw with four feet
actually fights best on water. Train them above Skill 5 and they
are quite effective regardless of terrain.
Requires a large Lair, Temple and a level with water to attract
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Freeze
HELL HOUND - Two headed canine with speed as its upfront asset. Above
Skill 5 it breaths fire like the Dragon but because they are
difficult to attract their usefullness is diminished. Of note,
their first-person view is all grey and looks quite rad.
Attracted by a large Scavenger Room.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Speed Monster [3] Flame
VAMPIRE - Probably the more undervalued creature because you firstly have to
research a GraveYard then pile enough dead carcasses into it to
resurret one of them! I say 'undervalued' as though upfront they
look less than powerful they are extremely fantastic as close
combat Fighters! Train them above Skill 5 and they are a formitable
warrior. They tend to hang around the Scavenger Room for awhile
and have an inheritant issue with WARLOCKS (can't count the times
I've had to break these two up from ripping each other apart!).
Again, their first-person view is very kuel: dark redish where
everything is painted in an erie drab - quite effective!
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Fly [3] Slow [4] Teleport [5] Heal
[6] Fire Lightning [7] Protection [8] Tempest
GHOST - Like the Vampire in some way this 'Floating Spirit' is also
'undervalued'. Created by the death of a tortured enemy creature or
hero they make an excellent but expendable fighting force. You can
normally rack up a large Ghost army depending if you favour
stunning your enemies, dragging their bodies to the Prison, then
placing a few prisoners into the Torture chamber. An advantage to
taking this extra effort is the Skill level of the tortured enemy
is retained in the resulting ghost although a Ghost above Skill
8 unfortunately has that useless Tempest Spell. Ghost tend to
congregate around a Temple although I usually ignore their calls
for a larger temple. Of special note: their first-person view is
perhaps the most amazing and original sight you have seen! Although
the view is real kuel it regretably has a massive framerate hit!
Further note: Throw Ghosts in your Library - apparently they love
reading!
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Invisiblity [3] Reflect [4] Tempest
[5] Fire Lightning
SKELETON - The third creature in a row who is somewhat 'undervalued' these
are created when HEROES die when left long enough in your
prison. Throw them back into Prison and they supposedly train
faster. Its sorta a tossup whether its best to have Ghosts or
Skeletons but since Ghosts are created in the Torture chamber
while also giving you the chance to convert an enemy creature
or sometimes providing gold when a torture victim dies it
normally makes sense to create Ghosts. Skeletons make a cheap
but effective fighting force but train them above Skill 7 and
they'll have use of a Lightning Spell.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Protection [3] Lightning
HORNED REAPER - The rarest and most dominable creature in the dungeon with
a temper twice its size!! So difficult to attract he is even
more challenging to control his ego. Some people have
referred to the Reaper as a "she" although I can't fathom
why as there are no such distinguishing features. This is
perhaps the only creature that doesnt need to be trained
since even at Skill 1 he is very deadly. HORNED REAPERS
can be lured into your dungeon by sacrificing a BILE
DEMON, a DARK MISTRESS, and a TROLL in the Temple.
Generally, if you have trained all your upper level
creatures (ie. Dragons, Bile Demons, etc) to above Skill
5 then you will have no need to have the Horned Reaper
since their more trouble when they lose control and go
nuts. However, I have found that if the HORNED REAPER
does get mad throw them beside a 'large' temple! He will
eventually be content although it is probably best to
build an entirely separate Lair, Training Room, Hatchery,
and Temple for him first so he is secluded and no threat
to any of your creatures)
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Speed Monster
COMMENT ON HEROES (Pros: Greater Abiltity and Discipline)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (Cons: Less variety)
TUNNELLER - Similar to Imp in every facet. Would be nice to either
choose an Imp or Tunneller to be my main work force
with both having their own abilities.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Protection
DWARF [Mountain Dwarf] - First level fighters and thus somewhat fragile.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Protection
ARCHER - Long-Range Marksmen but poor close-combat fighters
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Arrows [3] Red Bomb [4] Speed Monster
THIEF - Another entry level fighter but slightly better than DWARF.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Speed Monster
BARBARIAN - Intermediate level fighter slightly beneath the GIANT's
strength
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Protection
GIANT - Advanced large-hammer carrying close-combat fighter (basically
a walking tank and perhaps equal in strength to the LORD OF
THE LAND!!)
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Speed Monster
FAIRY - Agile, fast, spellcasting platform but weak as a close-combat
fighter. Very dangerous in numbers and from a distance.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Fire Lightning [3] Lightning [4] Heal
[5] Invisible [6] Red Bomb [7] Reflect [8] Meteor
[9] Freeze
MONK - Excellent fighter and magic user
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Heal [3] Protection [4] Slow [5] Red Bomb
[6] Fire Lightning
SAMURAI [Ninja] - Outstanding 'all-in-one' warrior with deadly close-
combat abilities, speed, and magic.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Sight of Evil [3] Lightning
[4] Speed Monster [5] Freeze
WITCH [Priestess] - Advanced Spellcaster boasting high mobility as
a significant asset.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Fly [3] Poison Cloud
[4] Reflect [5] Tempest [6] Lightning
[7] Heal [8] Red Bomb
WIZARD - Ultimate Spellcaster (arch-rival to WARLOCK) and extremely
dangerous from afar.
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Red Bomb [3] Fireball [4] Reflect
[5] Heal [6] Freeze [7] Ice Storm [8] Fire Lightning
[9] Slow [0] Meteor
KNIGHT [Lord of the Land] - Equal in offensive majesty to the HORNED
REAPER, he is close to an unstoppable force
then can be imagined! Though slow, his
Broadsword speaks for him as he always
makes a booming presence as 'Master of the
Realm'. Practically invulnerable!
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Reflect [3] Heal
AVATAR - "OVERLORD OF ALL THE LANDS!!" If you've played Origin's ULTIMA
8: PAGAN and seen what your character looks like this is him!
His fortitude is indominable, almost impossible to defeat,
packs a huge magical array, and is the very reason why you
have made it this far up the acropolis! Note: If you can
stun, imprison, torture, then successfully convert him to
your side you will have one serious colossus!
Skills: [1] Attack [2] Protection [3] Heal [4] Web Hold
[5] Fire Lightning [6] Red Bomb [7] Conceal Self
[8] Word of Power
COMMENT ON ROOMS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Treasure Room - Build them large at the start to attract creatures,
close to creatures so they can quickly get paid when
payday comes, and ensure you create small Treasure
Rooms near to Gold/Gem seams so your Imps dont need to
travel far to increase your wealth.
Lair - Build it large to attract creatures and for increase population
growth as well as a buffer to keep some creatures from fighting
against one another. Best design is to not only have a large
Lair but place a Hatchery all around its perimeter.
Hatchery - As above, the best design for the Hatchery is one that
surrounds the outsides of a Lair. This design allows your
creatures to get food right away as normally sleeping
creatures will likely require food (midnight snack perhaps?)
when they awake. Of special note: You can go into First-Person
view with any chicken but you cannot control their movements.
Training Room - Same rule applies: Larger the Training Room the faster
your creatures get trained. In this way, they are more
readily exposed with all the instruments in the room so
they travel around less to increase their skills.
Library - As with the Training Room, the larger they are the more
exposure to knowledge your creatures will have. However, like
the Workshop, the larger the Library is the faster research is
done as well as the quantity of knowledge is stored.
Bridge - Claimed structure that allows your creatures to safely pass over
lava/water. Also allows you to extend your territory to other
impassable parts of the dungeon. This can only be placed beside
your claimed territory/bridge.
Guard Post - Place creatures in here to keep an eye out for enemies as
they approach (I never you use it as either I create an
Alarm Trap or when I hear my Imps are in trouble I remove
the ones fighting then drop my creatures down right at
the site of conflict and "get busy!" :)
Workshop - Similiar to Library, larger it is the faster you get Doors
and Traps created. Also a large Workshop allows more of
these to be stored. Of extra note: If you have placed a
Trap down and it hasnt yet become active (Trap still
appears transparent) then drop an Imp into the Workshop and
he will carry the 'manufactured trap' to the appropriate
location. Further, I have yet to determine how one can give
instructions as to what to type of DOOR or TRAP to build?
Trolls tend to automatically be lured to the Workshop.
Prison - Once you have created a Prison, under the "?" Tab on the
Toolbar the option to IMPRISON will be available. You
creatures will stun the enemy rather than kill and your Imps
will attempt to drag the stunned carcasses back to the
Prison. If your Prison is too small then a 'prison break' is
likely so ensure you have a large Prison. Also, I have found
when you imprison enemy Vampires or Dark Mistresses when
they are above Skill 8 they tend to immediately begin to
rip apart your Prison.
Torture Room - Drop creatures in Prison here to convert them,
kill them (turns them into Ghosts and sometimes you
may luck out with some Gold), or gain intelligence
about your enemy's dungeon (Imps only provide this
when tortured). Again, a Large Torture Room allows
you to torture more people at once. DARK MISTRESSES
tend to often visit here a few regular beatings! :))
Barracks - Drop creatures here to create groups but I never use it.
Better to just go to the creature list and drop them into
battle totally unexpected.
Temple - Basically a Stress-Sink! Place creatures along side the
TEMPLE and they will be happier or if inflicted with the
Disease Spell you can cure them here. GHOSTS tend to
congregate here so the more creatures that die and return
as Ghosts in the Torture Room the bigger you want the
TEMPLE to be.
GraveYard - Place all your dead in here and eventually a VAMPIRE
will result. Normally up to 6-8 dead carcasses carried
to the GraveYard will make a VAMPIRE rise.
Scavenger Room - Attract other similiar creatures to your dungeon
when placed in this room. VAMPIRES tend to populate
this area.
COMMENT ON SPELLS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
View First Person - As what it says. Recommend possessing the
following creatures for a truely incredible
view: FLY, BETTLE, HELLHOUND, VAMPIRE, and GHOST.
Create Imp - Use this to create extra Imp workers.
Sight of Evil - Very niffy effect. Use this spell to see into
suspicious, unexplored areas of the dungeon or to
gather intelligence about your enemies' dungeon
layout.
Speed Up - Use this on low skilled Imps so they preform their
duties faster or use on creatures while training,
in the library or workshop (they will all work
faster!)
Must Obey - Forces creatures to do thine bidding but really never use
or found a use for it.
Call To Arms - Attracts creatures together when you drop them over
this spell.
Conceal Creature - Provides stealth so creatures can not be seen
and thus attacked. Use this on Imps when they
get too close to an enemy's dungeon.
Hold Audience - If ever your Dungeon Heart is attacked and no one
is nearby to help defend this then this is the
spell to use!
CaveIn - Use this in conjunction with the SIGHT OF EVIL spell and
rain massive destruction in an enemy's dungeon (provided
you have a bit of gold to do it!)
Heal - Probably the most useful spell as it can cleanly heal any
creature but for a price. Higher level creatures require
much more healing but unfortunately this spell has to be
manually applied to individual creatures.
Lightning Spell - Very devestating but slightly difficult to
target. Hold the LEFT-MOUSE button down til
the 3000 GOLD mark and let loose! This spell
is also quite unfair and unbalanced since when
used with the SIGHT OF EVIL spell you could
really piss off your neighbours by peeking into
their dungeons and eliminate their Imp workforce.
Protect Creature - Conjures a magical shield around creature. Sadly
it doesn't work against traps and it fails to
provide 100% protection against a massive
bombardment.
Chicken Spell - When an enemy creature is selected it turns them into
a chicken for 20sec! Damn funny especially when done
on highly prestigeous enemies like LORD OF THE LAND
or AVATAR!
Disease - Select an enemy creature and it will insert a highly
contagious virus that can spread inside their dungeon.
Word of warning: virus is not discriminating so it can
effect your creatures if the infected individual comes
close to your minions.
APOCALYPSE - Summons a duplicate of all your creatures right at
your dungeon heart as a 'last line of defense'.
For its cost of 60,000 GOLD that money is best
spent elsewhere as it is so rare to have to use it.
DESTROY WALLS - Simply removes an ememy's reinforced walls so you
can dig through. Not the most prominent end-spell.
GAMEPLAY HINTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
o HORNED REAPER getting angry? Build a large temple and drop him to the
side of it and he will cool off!
o If a cluster of gold exists far from your main treasure room then dig
out a small room just shy of the gold cluster and create a secondary
gold room there so the Imps will not have to travel far to buildup your
money.
o If possible, drop traps around those fluttering HERO GATES as chances
are HEROES will emerge from them sooner or later. You must claim the
squares around it in order to laid traps.
o Slap your creatures when they are in the training room - makes them
train faster
o Use the SIGHT OF EVIL spell to see into enemy dungeons and then use the
LIGHTING spell to vanquish his Imps when they are stationary. Either
that or if you see his Imps going after your Gold and you have a fair
bit of cash then you can really upset him by eliminating his entire
Imp force as they dig.
o You can only stun enemy creatures if you first have erected a PRISON
then enabled the IMPRISON button under the ? tab on the left-side toolbar.
If you leave enemy creatures in prison long enough them will die and turn
into Skeletons. Throw the Skeleton back into Prison and it actually trains
faster. One humourous note: Toss a Chicken from the Hatchery into the
Prison and the prisoners will actually fight over it!
o When grabbing enemy creatures in your prison and then transferring them
to your Torture Chamber ensure that none of your creatures are either
inside or closeby to the Torture Chamber because if you drop an enemy
creature/hero to be tortured and if they see one of our creatures
nearby they will attempt a prison break! Try to place the Torture
Chamber a little away from your dungeon or close it off with a door
and LOCK it (creatures going by the door can sometimes inadvertently
open it causing exposed Torture victims walking to the table to
turn on them!). Unlock the door when all prisoners are being tortured
at their respective tables. Of extra note: If a tortured victim
gets converted just as you drop a new creature down to be tortured
they will both fight it out so be aware of this.
o If you have BILE DEMONS trained at Skill 10 throw them back into the
Training Room and they will shortly change into Dragons!
o If you cannot claim enemy territory and thus cannot invade his
dungeon use the CALL TO ARMS spell to group your creatures over your
land then progressively move the spell into the enemy dungeon and
those creatures attracted to it will follow. Beware, it costs
10Gold/sec to use the CALL TO ARMS spell over enemy territory!
o To minimize Imp casualties when seeking out enemy traps use the
CALL TO ARMS spell and place it near or over the offending trap then
drop 2-3 of your most prominent creatures (Bile Demons, Dragons, etc)
near to it the spell and they will absorb the lion's share of the
traps' fury thus allowing an Imp to nullify the trap.
o Boulder traps require a bit more sneakiness! You will have to be with
the Imp as it claims enemy territory so when a Boulder is seen rolling
down the corridor or corner you MUST pick up the IMP, let the Boulder
roll by, then drop the Imp back down to continue claiming land.
Note: Boulder traps can only be used once and, like other traps, once
exhausted have to be replenished by your Imp force via the
Workshop.
o Effectively using the Scavenger Room to attract like-creatures: erect
reasonably-sized Scavenger Room and place a whole lot of one type of
creature into this room. Each contact costs 35 Gold but eventually
a creature of the same type will 'silently' be attracted into your
dungeon. Use the Creature Tab to see if in fact your fold has
proliferated. You can even scavenge your opponents' creatures!
o Immediately start training a small # of Imps in the Training Room
to get their Skill 3 or above. If you can spare them, drop 4-8 Imps
into the Training Room and create more Imps using the IMP icon to do
the mundane work of digging Gold to pay for creature training. This
way you will have 4-8 highly trained Imps to dig Gold and Rooms much
faster, more speedily retrieve stunned or dead carcasses, claim
territory quicker. and with that greater skill are now able to run
away from threats with reduced damage.
o Results of sacrificing the following in the TEMPLE:
- IMP Each Imp sacrificed reduces the cost of every subsequent Imp by
150 gold
- FLY/SPIDER Sacrifice both of these to attract a WARLOCK
- FLY/FLY Current research is immediately completed (best to
retain these for later in the level when it is harder
to research)
- BEETLE/BEETLE Completes your current job in the WorkShop
- BEETLE/SPIDER DARK MISTRESS will be attracted into your dungeon
- SPIDER/SPIDER/SPIDER BILE DEMON is attracted into your dungeon
- DARK MISTRESS/BILE DEMON/TROLL The infamous HORNED REAPER arrives!
- HORNED REAPER All your creatures become angry
- BILE DEMON/BILE DEMON All your creatures turn into chickens for a
short time! (only do this if you don't want
your creatures to go to an Armageddon!
Chickens do not heed it's powerful call)
- GHOST All your chickens are killed
- VAMPIRE/VAMPIRE All your creatures become diseased. Happy
Sacrificing!
o If you see FLIES hovering around some of your creatures an enemy
Keeper has used the DISEASE spell and these infected creatures will
not only slowly die but will contaminate others. To disinfect any
defiled creature simply drop them into your TEMPLE and those
affected will be cleansed!
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
o HEAL ALL OPTION or only heal certain creatures of the same type (its a
pain to go after fast moving Imps/Creatures to manually heal them)
I recommend that when you try to heal a set of Imps or Creatures that
a 'confirmation window' pops up asking if you wish to spend that much?
o Full support for SKIRMISH 1PLAYER MODE should be implemented and not
be concealed by a command line. This will offer incredible replayability
and only makes sense as many people dont have time or the bandwidth to
play over the Internet where 'SKIRMISH-ON-DEMAND' offers unlimited
play value.
o Improve Multiplayer code - REAL SLOW (even on a LAN!) and proned
to SYNCH errors
o Not enough options for Multiplayer
- How many AIs to participate
- Set AI skill levels
- Set Handicapp Levels (ie. AI Keepers start with higher skilled
creatures or who train much faster)
- choosing only to attract either CREATURES or HEROES into my dungeon
(Lord of the Land or the Avatar would be equal to the HORNED REAPER).
- choosing whether to have IMPS or TUNNELLERS to be your main work
force (Tunnelers would have their own set of abilities which differ
from the Imps)
- Randomly created maps would be ABSOLUTELY great - unlimited
replayability!
- Basic option to choose my colour on the map?
o Built in Map Editor/Scenario Builder
o AI Player Issues
- rudimentary abilities to affectively create LARGE rooms and
agressively search for nearby gold (he sometimes just walks right
by a large gold seam without mining it)
- noticed Enemy AI will not dig through its own reinforced walls -
in other words, he will sometimes bottleneck itself this way.
- should be much more agressive when backing up his Imps when pushing
into enemy territory (currently he just allows his Imps to get
slaughtered as he tries to take over my claimed land)
- fails to search out dungeon specials and use them!
- major failure to defend his Dungeon Heart 'at all costs'! (AI
player had 7 creatures doing other mundane things while I was
trashing his Heart)
- Inability of AI player to effectively train his creatures as
quickly as I can (I continously see his creatures' skills down
around 1 or 2 with only a few exceptions)
- Inability of AI player to place traps let alone place them
in effective areas (ie. around Dungeon Heart)
- vulnerable to having his creatures scavenged. I built a fair-
sized Scavenger Room and started putting 3 creature types in there
(Quantity of 3 for each) and his entire army was soon reduced
by half making him way too easy to eliminate. In other words,
AI should be able to "effectively scavenge back" and not just
scavenge using the VAMPIRE.
- fails to heal his Imps even if he has the HEAL spell (noticed almost
all his Imps have so little health when they come away after
skirmishing with my Imps)
- extremely vulnerable to losing all his Imps when they go up against
hidden traps (I saw upwards of 6 AI Imp carcasses when I first
entered his dungeon all dead beside two visible but exhausted
lightning traps - consequently almost all his creatures had left
since he had no Imp workforce to pay them)
o Better map warning where enemy is attacking or being attacked by my
creatures. Currently a SYNDICATE-like blip on the map displays where
a CALL TO ARMS spell was conjured. Recommend some sort of flashing BOX
on the map to show where fighting is currently taking place.
o Clicking on the Top-Left Map window is not very accurate and certainly
quite insensitive: if you try to click to a point on that mini map it
will likely do nothing until you click somewhere else. This problem
was also in Westwood's RED ALERT where clicking on the right side of
the map did nothing until you clicked just to the left of it. In DK,
however, mouse clicking around the mini map is not responsive enough.
o Imps with a 3+ Skill level should be able to disarm traps or at least
not set them off as easily.
o Disallow Creatures from simply vanishing and reappearing anywhere in my
dungeon. Noticed some creatures will simply disappear after I drop them
infront of an enemy door so they can bash it down. Creatures should
either walk back to my dungeon or have a Teleport Spell (creatures that
did this did not have such a spell) and not simply 'warp' back to my
main dungeon.
o TEMPEST SPELL (huge gust of wind accompanied by blowing leaves which
pushes away all in its path) really REALLY takes a massive
game preformance hit when used. I would strongly recommend removing this
spell as it is essentially useless and there is no way to stop my creatures
from using it. While it is actually quite humourous to see the whole game
crawl to a slideshow when this spell throws many creatures down the
dungeon it has no defensive value: Wouldn't you rather attack the enemy
'in his face' rather than shove them away?! Its more an upfront nuisense
delaying the inevitable and has no value in combat except to look funny.
(unless there is some underlying value to it?)
o Ability to queue entire regions of a map to dig through rather than
manually having to select square-by-square by holding the LMB.
o BUG FIX REQUEST - if you fortify your entire dungeon Tunnellers cannot dig
through and thus are indefinately kept out preventing you from completing
the level. At some point the HEROES trying to get in should find a soft
spot and simply make a suprise entrance at a random location.
o Able to fully scroll the End-level Stats sheet as currently it simply
flies by with no option to stop it.
o There seems to be a maximum # of creatures one can attract through
the Dungeon entrances which is preset based on the level you are on.
Higher levels allow up to a maximum of between 17-20 creatures that
can come through the portal. Further, if you kill off some of your
creatures you seem to be able to get back other creatures you missed.
Can we perhaps alter this so we can have more or is this basically
a memory issue?
o Creatures/Heroes should be able to attack "while moving" and not have
to stop. When I posses a creature I can easily attack while moving in
First-Person mode but why not in the Isometric perspective?
o You should be notified when a creature has been successfully scavenged
into your dungeon: currently you have to go to your creature tab and
see if your fold has increased.
o APOCALYPSE and DESTROY WALL spells are sequentially incorrect!
APOCALYPSE should be the last and final spell since it has the most
impact (plus it costs more). Removing reinforced walls is practically
useless anyways as it is done so rarely. Heck, I want people to
break into my dungeon so I deliberately leave them unfortified.
DK2 FUTURE IDEAS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Creatures
-------------
GOLEM (very slow but excellent in Workshop - great melee combat
fighter)
MEDUSA -GORGON-(expert in turning people to Stone or can convert
enemies to drone "upfront while in combat")
BANSHEE (very very fast and expert at subversion - intelligence
gatherer and early warning - perhaps could be the answer to
early detection of enemy traps! Jeezz we really need one of
those!)
ELEMENTAL (whether Water, Fire, Wind, or Stone - can act as a
Kamellion and thus move through the environment as one of
the four topography types for a short period)
SALAMANDER (shots poison and expert at stinging but must be close)
SHAPESHIFTER (counter-intelligence and sabotage - can walk right into
enemy Dungeon and damage Rooms - need to train them well
so they can use Teleportation at higher skills)
New Traps
---------
o Napalm - Dispenses a circular column of fire that actually spreads for
2-3 squares doing moderate damage based on exposure
o Freeze - Freezes enemy creature in his tracks leaving him open to attack
(useful when placed inside enemy dungeon and not by itself)
o Wind - throws enemy creature far back down the dungeon doing little damage
o Fog - enemy creature becomes shrouded in a large quick-expanding thick
darkness where you cannot see or select creature
o Teleport - transports enemy creature to a destination of your choosing
(this would likely be useable only once)
o CaveIn - collapses dungeon ceiling over enemy creature normaly resulting
in death
New Game Spells
---------------
o Create Water - turns a variable 3x3 square radius into water (this
allows you to cover over your own territory hindering
the enemy) Suggested Cost: 2000 GOLD
o Dig Back - Ever dig into a new area and decided this was a mistake?
Use this spell to rebuild a wall back. Suggested
Cost: 15,000 GOLD
o EarthShake - This would be the new Ultimate Game Spell! Click on
the Epi-Center (Ground Zero) and it violently shakes a
20x20 square area around it causing some rooms to be
largely broken up and random creature damage.
Suggested Cost: 100,000 GOLD
New Creature Spells
-------------------
o Life Drain - short range health-sink attack which transfers hitpoints from
target to creature [low impact/moderate recharge]
o Clone - create an exact clone of the creature for up to 30sec.
[high impact/very low recharge]
o Bounce - all projectiles fired by creature will bounce off walls
[moderate impact/moderate recharge]
New Room Types
--------------
o Sleeper/Sedation Room
- put real angry monsters to sleep so they cool down or for storage
so you could sell them from Gold! Tradeoff is this can take awhile
and the creature could accidentially wake up if there is too much
activity around.
o Skill/Spell Exchange Room
- want to give a Dragon the ability to fire lightning? This is where the
spell change would be made. Tradeoff is the donor would have to lose
this spell and accept one from the receiver. There should also be the
possibility to give one creature even duplicates of the same spell from
two donor creatures: you could conceivably create a 'SUPER CREATURE'
putting all this into more than one designated creature.
o Barder Room
- finding it very rare to get that creature you want? Why not try to
barder Gold/Ceatures for it? ie. to get a HORNED REAPER it could
cost you 3 Bile Demons, 6 Dragons (both of which are easy to attract
into dungeon), and 30000 GOLD. Or enter a lottery system where the
cost is 1000 GOLD and by random chance you may win that HORNED REAPER.
New Dungeon Specials
--------------------
o Random Creature - brings forth a randomly-selected Creature
o Mega-Level Increase - bless creatures with random skill increases
o Transfer Creature(s) - randomly selects the # of creatures that
can be transferred and not just one.
New Features
------------
o Hold more than 8 creatures at once (we want to break the WARCRAFT2
spectre that made this such a serious oversight)
o Computer Assistant that actually will partial-heal any creature close
to death healing them to 3/4 health (keeps cost down to KEEPER but
ensures your army keeps fighting provided you have the gold)
GENERAL QUESTIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
o Hard to know (even by dungeon design) how to attract certain monsters -
ie. I create my dungeon all the same way (build my rooms in sequence
based on the toolbar and all rooms are large in size!) yet I get
different creatures (is this more a function of the level I am on
where the land above me has different citizens to attract?)
o How do you disarm a trap? IMPS just go right into it and will just die
in numbers until one makes it and claims that square. My anti-trap
strategy is to conjure a CALL TO ARMS spell on the trap then move my
most skilled creatures over it so they take some beatings then drop my
IMP who will then claim it without ill. Still.. any other way to
disarm traps?
o How do you tell the Workshop what to create? Seems to do what it wants
and randomly creates DOORS and TRAPS.
