Would it be possible to implement objects / monsters that only appear when playing at a certain difficulty level?
At a high level i think it would be interesting to have some more powerful items and challenging monsters for example when playing roguelike as opposed to adventure mode, maybe as a reward for the single life you have. Maybe some egos ONLY appear at certain difficulties...
Another thought on implementation is to increase the chance of better egos in found weapons and mini-boss frequency as well.
What do you think?
Difficulty Specific Objects / Monsters
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Charlatan73
- Thalore
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Re: Difficulty Specific Objects / Monsters
The critter idea's been suggested before, especially for insane difficulty. Simply having it so more (or all) elite monsters get a few classes tacked on would probably manage that just fine.
Content locks based on difficulty (excepting tutorial), though, is something I'd readily call a terrible idea. Roguelike should get the same items and areas that adventurer does, and insane should get the same items (or at least run off the same item generation code, though higher level monsters can result in better items) as normal. Locking content via difficulty just encourages cheating or savescumming (if you see the two as different) and prolongs games needlessly even if such tactics aren't resorted to.
The mechanic isn't very interesting, really. More frustration to get at something neat isn't really a good thing. Most games that do that are simply trying to abuse completionist tendencies to hook players into playing more. S'neither healthy nor particularly good game design.
The reward for playing roguelike is playing roguelike. It's the greater challenge and the greater accomplishment, as well as the quicker buildup of playing skill, not greater loot. Increasing the power of items acquired in harder difficulty levels simply cheapens the experience of said difficulty levels. The only difficulty level that should involve limited item sets is tutorial, really.
Now, a mode along side adventurer or whatever that kicks item and critter generation up to 11 without the difficulty spike of insane? That'd be interesting. What was it back in t2? "Always generate very unusual rooms?" Something like that.
Content locks based on difficulty (excepting tutorial), though, is something I'd readily call a terrible idea. Roguelike should get the same items and areas that adventurer does, and insane should get the same items (or at least run off the same item generation code, though higher level monsters can result in better items) as normal. Locking content via difficulty just encourages cheating or savescumming (if you see the two as different) and prolongs games needlessly even if such tactics aren't resorted to.
The mechanic isn't very interesting, really. More frustration to get at something neat isn't really a good thing. Most games that do that are simply trying to abuse completionist tendencies to hook players into playing more. S'neither healthy nor particularly good game design.
The reward for playing roguelike is playing roguelike. It's the greater challenge and the greater accomplishment, as well as the quicker buildup of playing skill, not greater loot. Increasing the power of items acquired in harder difficulty levels simply cheapens the experience of said difficulty levels. The only difficulty level that should involve limited item sets is tutorial, really.
Now, a mode along side adventurer or whatever that kicks item and critter generation up to 11 without the difficulty spike of insane? That'd be interesting. What was it back in t2? "Always generate very unusual rooms?" Something like that.
Re: Difficulty Specific Objects / Monsters
I agree that adventure and roguelike should stay functionally the same apart from number of lives. The difference should purely be on that element of gameplay preference, and nothing else.
Some weirder stuff for insane might not be too bad though :)
Some weirder stuff for insane might not be too bad though :)