Randomness and difficulty.

[KodosTheExecutioner]

I think the game could be improved immensely by adding more randomness and difficulty to the dungeons. This would also slow the pace of zergs. Could be implemented as a new mode "dungeon crawl" mode.

So here are some of my suggestions:

1) A 10% exp bonus if nobody dies during the quest.

2) Randomly trapped chests, with search being able to discern trap type so groups without rogues can try and buff through a trap. For example buffing a resist energy to fire for a fire trap on the barbarian who opens it. Trapped chests should have more treasure of course then normal traps.

3) Illusion traps. Create a vertical shaft 2 stories tall with spikes/water/whatever at the bottom, and randomly place it in dungeons (rarely) with a floor illusion over the surface. The fall area should be a small area so that once seen the trap could be walked around.
Fall traps could also be used to add mini dungeons off of main dungeons that the ones who fall in must fight back to the main group through.

4) Either/OR quests. Quests which branch and you can only go one way, perhaps the branching occurs based on who first talks to the NPC and what their faction with a certain house or alignment is?

5) A Maze dungeon that is represented in a tile puzzle. The group must split up, one part staying at the tile puzzle and defending it from waves of attackers, while also adjusting the puzzle based on changes in it. The puzzle actually is the map of the dungeon the other part of the group is fighting through and they have switches too that alter the puzzle as well and thus the dungeon. This should be doable only on elite and should give a big exp and treasure bonus.

6) Cursed items that require a lore check, and a stay in a tavern to remove the curses or a high level cleric etc.

7) Chaos Shrines. Shrines using the kobald crystal graphic that were color coded. These shrines would require the sacrifice of an item to work or would only restore spell OR health but not both. Res shrines that require another party member in range to lose half their health or res but apply a debuff.

8) Much more randomness in dungeons as in dungeons that are created when you zone in. So everytime you run them its the first time.

Anyway these are some things I would like added as a dungeon crawl mode to have more Dnd flavored crawls as options and less zerging.

[MagicianBlade]

I would definitely like to see more randomness. The rare spawns for dungeons and outdoor areas could be in multiple places. I notice when you go to Cerulean Hills, the orcs are wandering around the area, pretty decently (also they have NPCs to kill, which is something I haven't seen anywhere else in the game, and that's pretty cool too.. kinda gives you a warm fuzzy feeling when you save an NPC farmer from getting whacked by an orc) .. but they all start in exactly the same spot, and have very standard wandering patterns. It probably wouldn't be terribly difficult to have an area defined that has a specific list of things that may-or-may-not spawn within it, and then set them to a wander pattern from there, for the explorer areas. Cerulean Hills appears to be more interesting than most of the other explorer areas from that standpoint, whereas in all the other explorers, pretty much everything is just standing there doing nothing until you happen upon it.

[sirgog]

More of these are in-game than you might realise... Responses in yellow.

I think the game could be improved immensely by adding more randomness and difficulty to the dungeons. This would also slow the pace of zergs. Could be implemented as a new mode "dungeon crawl" mode.

So here are some of my suggestions:

1) A 10% exp bonus if nobody dies during the quest.

Introduced in Mod 9

2) Randomly trapped chests, with search being able to discern trap type so groups without rogues can try and buff through a trap. For example buffing a resist energy to fire for a fire trap on the barbarian who opens it. Trapped chests should have more treasure of course then normal traps.

Run Xorian Cypher, it's got these. One room, you open a chest and it sets off two traps in the room.

3) Illusion traps. Create a vertical shaft 2 stories tall with spikes/water/whatever at the bottom, and randomly place it in dungeons (rarely) with a floor illusion over the surface. The fall area should be a small area so that once seen the trap could be walked around.
Fall traps could also be used to add mini dungeons off of main dungeons that the ones who fall in must fight back to the main group through.

There's collapsing floor traps in The Cursed Crypt that dump you in trap rooms you have to fight your way out of. One of them has you fall through the floor that a tantalising treasure chest was sitting on - if you don't disarm the trap, you cannot get the chest.

4) Either/OR quests. Quests which branch and you can only go one way, perhaps the branching occurs based on who first talks to the NPC and what their faction with a certain house or alignment is?

Litany of the Dead does this in a major way. Genesis Point does it in a minor way. A Cabal for One also has a choice like this (you can choose to have an easier boss fight but lots of mean traps, or a harder boss but only one trap)

5) A Maze dungeon that is represented in a tile puzzle. The group must split up, one part staying at the tile puzzle and defending it from waves of attackers, while also adjusting the puzzle based on changes in it. The puzzle actually is the map of the dungeon the other part of the group is fighting through and they have switches too that alter the puzzle as well and thus the dungeon. This should be doable only on elite and should give a big exp and treasure bonus.

Genesis Point and The Crucible have versions of this as minor parts of the quests.

6) Cursed items that require a lore check, and a stay in a tavern to remove the curses or a high level cleric etc.

Not in game

7) Chaos Shrines. Shrines using the kobald crystal graphic that were color coded. These shrines would require the sacrifice of an item to work or would only restore spell OR health but not both. Res shrines that require another party member in range to lose half their health or res but apply a debuff.

Not in game

8) Much more randomness in dungeons as in dungeons that are created when you zone in. So everytime you run them its the first time.

That can't be done with the game engine, but The Shroud part 2 has an element of that (4 random bosses).

Anyway these are some things I would like added as a dungeon crawl mode to have more Dnd flavored crawls as options and less zerging.

[William_the_Bat]

Actually, there are some dungeons with some random elements, such as the wizard king, where the "tiles" are semi-random, and you don't really know where the break-away floors will be, etc.