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Non-combat dungeon ideas
Ceejengine
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Instead of always fighting 1 boss, introduce Challenges. Like you walk into a room and it's a maze. At the beginning of the maze there's a single rope that one player can climb to get to the upper level that has a glass floor, and levers in a ring on the perimeter.
Cultists then spawn in the maze and the main party fights through them as they navigate the maze.
The player above can help them navigate because they have an overhead view. At a certain point, a cultists makes his way into the upper portion of the maze with the lone player and invokes an altar. That altar spawns a wall of instant-death at the start of the maze that slow advances towards the party. It is the entire width of the maze corridor, so there is no way to avoid it.
Then, cultists start appearing in the upper portion, pulling levers that drop a wall in front of the main group. The lone party member needs to make it to the lever in time to open the door so the party can advance.
The player in the upper portion can also drop down boons to the main party, but they quickly despawn in the upper portion. Think arena glyphs.
At no time ever are any cultists in the upper portion attack-able. It is strictly a speed check. The player must be able to run their character quickly, pass jump puzzles, etc.
Or invert it, 3 players climb into separate areas and one must navigate the maze. The 3 rooms separate wings on the maze. 1 character in room 1 can't see the maze in 2 or 3. While the maze runner is in their part, they must do the cultists lever bit.
Have it so the maze cycles through the 3 areas like a pie chart so you don't just afk after the first part of the fight.
The idea is a relatively slow pace, thought provoking challenge without the stat checks, dps checks etc. Or to introduce checks for non-combat stuff. You can't DPS your way through the wall.
There's no DPS check, there's no health check, its just a group of people working together to get through a maze.
You could add branching paths that require a player + the over head to work through to pull a lever while the other 2 fight through monsters or solve a puzzle of their own. Like Simon Says and if they don't press buttons right constantly, gas pours into the room and deals constant damage
By continuously hitting the sequences while the overhead player and the runner work through their part.
The side path also deals constant, unmitigated damage and requires a fast character to complete.
At no time is combat the focus.
I'm talking stick something like that in the middle of a dungeon with bosses.
Or as a Challenge Dungeon, there are two high society families that are in a behind-closed-doors feud. The son of the matriarch who hires the party was killed by a group of 5 cousins within the rival family. She has thrown a luxurious ball and invited all members of the noble courts to partake.
She has orchestrated the fall of the entire rival family,, and the 5 cousins must be dealt with first, discreetly.
The players arrive at her manor, full of neutral noble NPCs, all intermingling. They speak with the matriarch and she gives the party a clue to each cousin.
Some are direct "He wears a red tunic with his family crest on it."
Some require observation, "He is quite fond of the chocolate treats I serve, though he would never eat them in public."
For the above, the NPC will take a chocolate from a servant, then go to a secluded place to eat it.
Players are not required to have the Blade of Woe, but each cousin has boss-level power, but can be killed by the blade of woe.
Any NPC can be tricked/deceived or lead into isolated rooms and killed like bosses. If a non-cousin NPC is killed, there is a loot penalty.
If players fight any of the cousins in front of the court, the guards are summoned and the party is killed. Each cousin drops loot as if they were bosses. When all five have been killed, the dungeon is complete and players may return to the matriarch for loot based on how many were covertly assassinated.
When players first arrive, they are contacted by a khajiit thief who tells them that she knows where the matriarch treasure vault is.
The vault is in her own private hall, which is off-limits to the guests. There is a door that is impossible to get through that only she has the key for, and she keeps it with her always.
The khajiit leads the party through a window, through a loose grate that she had opened earlier that day (she poses as a maid and scoped the place out) and into an old secret escape tunnel.
The tunnel has since been filled with traps and automatons.
First they come across a large sheer pit, with a small pool of water. Players must then use different types of debris (think the pushy box puzzle) to depress buttons at certain weights to adequately raise the water level so they can swim across.
Once across, there is a long hall way full of traps and secret doors that may or may not contain chests. Players must avoid traps to get through this phase. Finally players come a massive open well, 50ish feet down, they see the treasure. A device that appears to be a dwemer lift extends into the pit, to far, far above (this is where the locked door leads.)
The party then splits into 2 groups of 2.
On each side of the well are a series of levels and buttons, and a bronze platform protruding from the wall.
Each group assigns 1 player to navigate the puzzle while the 2nd player uses the levers to create new platforms for the runner. At the end of this puzzle, each jumper will pull a lever at the top, which activates the lift failsafe. The lift then descends into the treasure vault.
Players must jump onto the lift as it descends past them or they will die from fall damage.
As soon as the players reach the bottom, the khajiit begins piling treasure onto the lift. The players are then given a timer to load as much treasure as possible.
Several Heavy chests, Sload Pearls, and Draconic satchels are scattered around the treasure piles. Players may pick these items up and take them to the lift to increase the treasure haul.
Heavy chests slow the player's movement and drain stamina while carried.
Magical Sload Pearls drain magicka and randomly teleport the person carrying them.
Draconic satchels burn their carrier, causing fire damage ever 3 seconds while carried.
When a player picks up one of these items, the pits defensive automatons activate. These are small unkillable dwemer spiders that snatch the above 3 items out of player's hands and return them to their place.
The khajiit then notifies the party that they can be temporarily disabled by overcharging their batteries. Any player may heal these defenders and once healed to x health, they deactivate for x seconds.
After x timer, the lift and any treasure ascends. The closer the timer gets, the faster and more numerous the automatons become.
At the top of the lift is a room with a large open window. Looking out the window is another Khajiit with a cart backed up. Players use an AoE indicator to drop loot from the window into the cart. The indicator moves and sways occasionally (poor aim). Any treasure thrown into the cart is awarded, and missed is destroyed and a lesser gold amount is awarded.
The Khajiit then thanks the party and jumps out the window.
IF the Players kill the cousins first, then raid the treasury, the matriarch won't know they're involved and the full loot is received.
If they don't, she finds out and half the loot is recovered.
Idk. I just think there's so much more fun we could put into this game. And I think with more non-combat related encounters, it would encourage more players to go crazy.
Challenge dungeons don't require a vet mode just based on their design. Though you could add it and have tighter parameters for success.
In either, if enough people whine about wanting free loot for doing less, you can add a scroll at the beginning that just turns off all the interesting parts and make it a standard kill trash -> kill boss til last boss. Have it award drastically less loot.
Dungeon mode:1 per boss as usual, extra for last boss hm.
Actual mode: minimum 1 per challenge, +x for successfully completing challenges.
Like in manor, each heavy chest, sload pearl or draconic satchel you bring out gives everyone +1 loot item. Whether that's gear, motifs, rare items, etc.
Edited by Ceejengine on March 17, 2021 11:49PM Cultists then spawn in the maze and the main party fights through them as they navigate the maze.
The player above can help them navigate because they have an overhead view. At a certain point, a cultists makes his way into the upper portion of the maze with the lone player and invokes an altar. That altar spawns a wall of instant-death at the start of the maze that slow advances towards the party. It is the entire width of the maze corridor, so there is no way to avoid it.
Then, cultists start appearing in the upper portion, pulling levers that drop a wall in front of the main group. The lone party member needs to make it to the lever in time to open the door so the party can advance.
The player in the upper portion can also drop down boons to the main party, but they quickly despawn in the upper portion. Think arena glyphs.
At no time ever are any cultists in the upper portion attack-able. It is strictly a speed check. The player must be able to run their character quickly, pass jump puzzles, etc.
Or invert it, 3 players climb into separate areas and one must navigate the maze. The 3 rooms separate wings on the maze. 1 character in room 1 can't see the maze in 2 or 3. While the maze runner is in their part, they must do the cultists lever bit.
Have it so the maze cycles through the 3 areas like a pie chart so you don't just afk after the first part of the fight.
The idea is a relatively slow pace, thought provoking challenge without the stat checks, dps checks etc. Or to introduce checks for non-combat stuff. You can't DPS your way through the wall.
There's no DPS check, there's no health check, its just a group of people working together to get through a maze.
You could add branching paths that require a player + the over head to work through to pull a lever while the other 2 fight through monsters or solve a puzzle of their own. Like Simon Says and if they don't press buttons right constantly, gas pours into the room and deals constant damage
By continuously hitting the sequences while the overhead player and the runner work through their part.
The side path also deals constant, unmitigated damage and requires a fast character to complete.
At no time is combat the focus.
I'm talking stick something like that in the middle of a dungeon with bosses.
Or as a Challenge Dungeon, there are two high society families that are in a behind-closed-doors feud. The son of the matriarch who hires the party was killed by a group of 5 cousins within the rival family. She has thrown a luxurious ball and invited all members of the noble courts to partake.
She has orchestrated the fall of the entire rival family,, and the 5 cousins must be dealt with first, discreetly.
The players arrive at her manor, full of neutral noble NPCs, all intermingling. They speak with the matriarch and she gives the party a clue to each cousin.
Some are direct "He wears a red tunic with his family crest on it."
Some require observation, "He is quite fond of the chocolate treats I serve, though he would never eat them in public."
For the above, the NPC will take a chocolate from a servant, then go to a secluded place to eat it.
Players are not required to have the Blade of Woe, but each cousin has boss-level power, but can be killed by the blade of woe.
Any NPC can be tricked/deceived or lead into isolated rooms and killed like bosses. If a non-cousin NPC is killed, there is a loot penalty.
If players fight any of the cousins in front of the court, the guards are summoned and the party is killed. Each cousin drops loot as if they were bosses. When all five have been killed, the dungeon is complete and players may return to the matriarch for loot based on how many were covertly assassinated.
When players first arrive, they are contacted by a khajiit thief who tells them that she knows where the matriarch treasure vault is.
The vault is in her own private hall, which is off-limits to the guests. There is a door that is impossible to get through that only she has the key for, and she keeps it with her always.
The khajiit leads the party through a window, through a loose grate that she had opened earlier that day (she poses as a maid and scoped the place out) and into an old secret escape tunnel.
The tunnel has since been filled with traps and automatons.
First they come across a large sheer pit, with a small pool of water. Players must then use different types of debris (think the pushy box puzzle) to depress buttons at certain weights to adequately raise the water level so they can swim across.
Once across, there is a long hall way full of traps and secret doors that may or may not contain chests. Players must avoid traps to get through this phase. Finally players come a massive open well, 50ish feet down, they see the treasure. A device that appears to be a dwemer lift extends into the pit, to far, far above (this is where the locked door leads.)
The party then splits into 2 groups of 2.
On each side of the well are a series of levels and buttons, and a bronze platform protruding from the wall.
Each group assigns 1 player to navigate the puzzle while the 2nd player uses the levers to create new platforms for the runner. At the end of this puzzle, each jumper will pull a lever at the top, which activates the lift failsafe. The lift then descends into the treasure vault.
Players must jump onto the lift as it descends past them or they will die from fall damage.
As soon as the players reach the bottom, the khajiit begins piling treasure onto the lift. The players are then given a timer to load as much treasure as possible.
Several Heavy chests, Sload Pearls, and Draconic satchels are scattered around the treasure piles. Players may pick these items up and take them to the lift to increase the treasure haul.
Heavy chests slow the player's movement and drain stamina while carried.
Magical Sload Pearls drain magicka and randomly teleport the person carrying them.
Draconic satchels burn their carrier, causing fire damage ever 3 seconds while carried.
When a player picks up one of these items, the pits defensive automatons activate. These are small unkillable dwemer spiders that snatch the above 3 items out of player's hands and return them to their place.
The khajiit then notifies the party that they can be temporarily disabled by overcharging their batteries. Any player may heal these defenders and once healed to x health, they deactivate for x seconds.
After x timer, the lift and any treasure ascends. The closer the timer gets, the faster and more numerous the automatons become.
At the top of the lift is a room with a large open window. Looking out the window is another Khajiit with a cart backed up. Players use an AoE indicator to drop loot from the window into the cart. The indicator moves and sways occasionally (poor aim). Any treasure thrown into the cart is awarded, and missed is destroyed and a lesser gold amount is awarded.
The Khajiit then thanks the party and jumps out the window.
IF the Players kill the cousins first, then raid the treasury, the matriarch won't know they're involved and the full loot is received.
If they don't, she finds out and half the loot is recovered.
Idk. I just think there's so much more fun we could put into this game. And I think with more non-combat related encounters, it would encourage more players to go crazy.
Challenge dungeons don't require a vet mode just based on their design. Though you could add it and have tighter parameters for success.
In either, if enough people whine about wanting free loot for doing less, you can add a scroll at the beginning that just turns off all the interesting parts and make it a standard kill trash -> kill boss til last boss. Have it award drastically less loot.
Dungeon mode:1 per boss as usual, extra for last boss hm.
Actual mode: minimum 1 per challenge, +x for successfully completing challenges.
Like in manor, each heavy chest, sload pearl or draconic satchel you bring out gives everyone +1 loot item. Whether that's gear, motifs, rare items, etc.
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Hapexamendios✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭That sounds more like a group heist rather than a dungeon. I want no part of something like that in the regular dungeons.1 -
Ceejengine✭✭✭Hapexamendios wrote: »That sounds more like a group heist rather than a dungeon. I want no part of something like that in the regular dungeons.
Im guessing you're reference the Challenge Dungeon part and glossing over the maze part. To which I say don't do them.
If you're talking about challenges as a whole, I say look at Black Drake Villa and expand that. I'm guessing you don't farm the secret bosses.
Keep em optional. Maybe my maze leads to the optional boss, the Order of the Hour's primal Minotaur that you only get to fight if you pass the maze, and the maze rewards treasure for beating it.
He's not a part of the main dungeon, he's not referenced anywhere, and you have to earn the chance to see him.
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