red_locust wrote:
I can't believe that endless mode is a doubtful/maybe after release (as per the community feedback thread), for a game like this, and it's even called dungeon of the endless! Seems like a no-brainer to include an endless mode, even if it is as simple as endless levels where spawns just get harder and harder until it is no longer possible. A sort of survivor mode.



An endless room mode seems more interesting, but it's hard to imagine how the gameplay could be balanced for such a mode.

Mysterarts wrote:


And the implementation is not "pretty easy" because a lot of elements (mobs, items, events, tilesets...) are "manually" distributed on the levels.

Well, if it is "not pretty easy", then something with the core of the design already is flawed. ^^



Let's just assume there was 12 floors, which you now kinda gave away is the aim for the game.



Here's the algorithms of how I'd go on from there in the endless-mode that should be there after finishing said 12 levels.



mobs: use their values (speed/attack/defense/health/whatever) of floor 12 and multiply them with CurrentLevel²/MaxStoryLevel² e.g: you are in level 15 then the mobs have 225/144 = 156% the power of those in level 12



items: in order to have the game still feel rewarding after floor 12 the items also should progress, so we once again can take the items of floor 12 and have them buyable/lootable with improved values. However, in order to have progressing difficulty, the items quality must develop slower than that of the mobs. This could be realized by multiplying their values with CurrentLevel/MaxStoryLevel instead of CurrentLevel²/MaxStoryLevel² so in floor 15 it's 15/12 = 125% better items



events: those probably should be storyline-exclusive



tilesets: nothing easier than simply randomizing which one to use after floor 12



science: I think the tech-tree will be made to be roughly but not completely researchable during a story-playthrough, maybe if you focus a lot on it you'll be able to finish it. I'd say that after having all technologies researched simply make it so you can research an endless improvement-project that improves everything that was previously improved by other techs by a small margin.

let's say we multiply all the improvable stuff by: (SciencAaccumulatedAfterReseachingAllRegularTechs+ScienceNeededToResearchAllRegularTechs)/ScienceNeededToResearchAllRegularTechs

For example: Say it takes 3000 science to research all the regular techs and now you continue making science and by level 15 say you have made 300 more science then stuff would be improved by 3300/3000 = 110% to ... turret-damage/resource-production/whatever else techs could possibly improve

Mysterarts wrote:
Hello,

Thanks TealQuest for your post, some very inspiring remarks here

We are currently working on the mobs (and modules) diversity and I like your ideas.

We technically can't do too complex interactions between enemies and environments but your proposal gives me some (more simple) ideas to test...



About Endless mode, we understand your expectations but yes, I confirm that we want to focus on the "story mode" with a fixed number of floors.

Currently, there are not many levels and the difficulty is not here yet, but when the game will be complete, we really think it will be important to give a goal, the 12th exit, to the player.

If I am not mistaken, FTL (one of our main inspirations) doesn't have an endless mode (not officially) and that makes sense in the structure of the game.

And the implementation is not "pretty easy" because a lot of elements (mobs, items, events, tilesets...) are "manually" distributed on the levels.

But yes, we like the idea and we will really probably do it one day!

Mysterarts wrote:
About Endless mode, we understand your expectations but yes, I confirm that we want to focus on the "story mode" with a fixed number of floors.

Currently, there are not many levels and the difficulty is not here yet, but when the game will be complete, we really think it will be important to give a goal, the 12th exit, to the player.

If I am not mistaken, FTL (one of our main inspirations) doesn't have an endless mode (not officially) and that makes sense in the structure of the game.