Random Cave Dungeon

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Approved

Hello there!

Good to see this one on Review :) The new flooring looks much better.

Your left_1.blueprint didnt have any blocks beneath the liquid, i fixed that for you, hope you dont mind. Let me know if you would rather re-do that yourself!

Im going to Approve this one, i believe it got a significant amount of improvements.

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Needs Review

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Active

Hello again! Sorry such a delay >_<

Dungeon file was not working at first, please be sure not to use any dots in names of blueprints. After uploading to the website the end_small_boss_1.1.blueprint turned into a end_small_boss_1.1 file with no extension. Using something like end_small_boss_1_1.blueprint would be safe to use.

According to feedback from dev team, id say the entrance is looking much better and is definitely more noticeable, good job! I see there are many more decorations compared to a previous version too.

However, i think the 'fairly plain hallways' part of the feedback refers to purely natural blocks on all the walls and floors, not only to the amount placeable decorations. May be changing the floor everywhere to some man-made tiles/patterns would work? Or some extras on the walls here and there? Something to break up the monotonousness of the tunnels and match the boss rooms/those structures that some rooms have.

We just had a wave of Acceptances, and i believe the next round will only happen again in a few months from now, so there is plenty of time to make sure that this dungeon is as good as it can possibly be. 

Hoping to see it on Review again.

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Needs Review

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Active

Changing status to Active so you could update the dungeon if you wish to.

We really like the technical aspect of this concept, and the execution is really cool.  We have some concerns about the aesthetics of the dungeon - the entrance doesn't really fit the geode theme, and it can be mostly hidden by terrain in some generation patterns (example: https://i.imgur.com/s6MSm4v.png ), plus the hallways tend to be fairly plain as well with little in the way of decoration.  We'd really love to see this with a few more aesthetic changes.

Oh, i forgot to mention, for them possible future uploads - please dont use the dots in file names. Like the end_small_boss_2.1.blueprint for example turns into a end_small_boss_2.1 'file' with no extension when uploaded to the website. I renamed them to use underscores (end_small_boss_2_1.blueprint) instead and adjusted  the references in .dungeon file too, so dont worry about it this time. Im not 100% sure if that has any implications on the way files would work in game, but i cant recall a single blueprint that would have a dot instead of underscore so id say its better be safe than sorry.

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Approved

Hello there!

Dungeon is looking great! Im so happy you had enough dedication and patience to finish this grand project, good job!

Approved.

There is a Creation Contest running during the whole March - create a Cake dungeon room for the upcoming Sunfest event - check it out, may be you would like to participate :) https://trovesaurus.com/page=5256 

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Needs Review

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Active

Hello again!

Whoa, you ve made some really good progress with this dungeon :) Getting very close to fully functional and fun!

Boss rooms - these feel much more spacious now and are suitable for both kids of objectives!

end_big_boss - only has one variation, may be a room without liquid but with traps for option 2?
end_small_boss_1 and boss_2 - both rooms are identical, please add/remove something to make them differ. also, these need to be using GM Quest - a chest without any crowns. The green crown chest (GM Master Quest) is used for 5-star dungeons only.

Left & Right corridors are just perfect - well done!

Down corridors - all the left, straight and right ones of these are using antigravity blocks, this is a bit too much considering the amount of times this kind of room spawns in a dungeon. Would be really good if some of them had Jump pads and Updraft blocks instead.

Straight corridors - all these look almost the same, only difference i can spot is a size/location of acid? When they spawn in a row the corridor looks very plain. Would be great if they had same variety as Left and Right corridors offer.

Start - the 3 entrances work really good! Much easier to tell which way to go :) 

However, the fake air roof would do absolutely nothing if it sits straight on the solid blocks, just like in a previous version of this dungeon - it would work better if it was 7-10 blocks above the highest block of an entrance construction, and it does need to go out a bit, currently the actual entrance side will be as easily obstructed.

The start piece could also use a variation, but the current biggest issue is a pool of liquid in the middle of it. Without any blocks below that the liquid (and players) will fall down creating two things that need to be avoided - lots of falling liquids (these are bad for consoles) and players possibly getting stuck. Some of the corridors have the same issue - it would be best to fix all such holes.

One last push and this dungeon should be done, i hope :)

Random Cave Dungeon status has been set to Needs Review

Random Mouth Dungeon status has been set to Active

Hello!

Sorry for the delay.

The dungeon looks very interesting from engineering perspective, glad you could make that all work, good job!

Now, it needs to be not only fascinating from technical side, but also welcoming for players. Wouldnt want them running past this just because its hard to find the boss locations. There are a few moments that would need to be addressed:

- overall navigation through the dungeon
- size and variety of boss rooms
- variety of tunnels

overall navigation through the dungeon

First of, the dungeon should be easy for players to discover when they are running around on the surface. Currently the teeth are not visible unless you know what to look for and the fake air roof is placed too close to the build, so if dungeon spawns in any sort of hill it will get buried in the ground.

I would suggest making teeth (or an entrance structure) pointing upwards and moving fake air roof to at least 7-10 blocks above the highest point. There should be enough space available to do that.

Another thing, currently if the player jumps in and runs through one of the tunnels to its end they have to return back to the starting point and they wont have any in-built indication of which tunnel they have already completed as every direction looks the same. More about tunnel variety later on, but for the sake of navigating through the dungeon - i think it might be better to have 3 tunnels instead of 4 so players are at least not faced with a dead end OR each entrance should have something obvious on it to help players remember which way they already cleared.

Since players would have to come back to the start, there would need to be helpful jump pads or air currents or anti gravity boosters in the tunnels. Rushing down through the tunnel feels quick and fun while climbing back up without those additional helpful movement boosters is pretty unpleasant. I understand in some variations such boosters might feel out of place, but im still convinced that it will be better with them.

size and variety of boss rooms

At the moment, the dead end, the miniboss room and boss room look identical. The mini boss rooms need to be Bigger as 3* dungeon objectives will most certainly spawn cursed-skull objectives so there needs to be enough space for them. Good size is about 15x15 and ~10 tall for miniboss objectives and about 21x21 and 10+ tall for Boss rooms to make them feel noticeably Grand. Players should not be left wondering if they completed dungeon objective or killed random enlarged mob.

I would also suggest adding some geodian-made structures to break up the plain cave environment. Quest objectives could have some platforms in them or even whole rooms built into the caves. The cave pieces of different cave color (blue?) with those weird cave trees would work just fine, or really anything else that would visually separate quest objective locations from the corridors.

Platform example from existing dungeon:

variety of tunnels

As i ve mentioned before, it is hard to tell which direction was completed and which one wasnt once players return to the starting point. Having an obvious difference on path doorways could be a solution, but even with that it might be hard to tell.

I believe the tunnel rooms would greately benefit from some path-blocking obstacles inside of them. I dont mean a wall that would block all access, but more like something that players have to get through/open/find a way around/ to proceed. You have a lot of pieces available, so adding some extra structures to them would surely spice up the experience and make it easier for players to recognize if they already took that path.

For example, if they have to throw bomb to break some glass it would be obvious that the path has been 'done'.

Some quick mockups to illustrate what i mean by obstacles.

I hope that all makes sense.

The dungeon is really promising and unique, and you already did the hard part of planning it all out and making it work, only some polishing needs to be done.

Im going to change the status of it to Active for now, but i do hope to see it on Review again.

random_dungeon status has been set to Needs Review