Creep nests!



What are Creep nests?

A creep nest is a nest that houses one type of creeps. Every type of creep has its own nest. And as we already know, creeps hate heroes. They make a lot of noise, kill everything that moves and not one of them has learned how to close a door behind them (and the dungeon gets windy over time). That would upset me too. So every time some opens a door they send out troops to get rid of the intruders.



What can the heroes do against it?

Each nest has a set amount of waves it can spawn. With every door opened a new wave is spawned and the amount of waves in the nest is reduced. When the nest is empty it crumbles to dust (not dust dust, just dust ). But they are not going without a big bang. The last wave contains one (or multiple) BADASS creeps that where introduced with 0.5.0.. Maybe even Super BADASS creeps !



The aftermath

When the nest is finally destroyed, the heroes can find a chest, dust or other rewards where the nest once was. The room can also powered again and works as a normal room from now on.



The Details:

• A nest mounts on a major module slot.
• The room with the nest cannot be powered until the nest is gone
• Each nest has a set amount of waves it can spawn
• It spawns a big wave of creeps that houses in the nest with every door opened
• Heroes cannot prevent the spawn there by standing in the room
• The last wave contains one or more elite creeps
• The nest destroys itself after the last wave (when its empty)
• After the nest is destroyed it rewards the heroes with random stuff. Items, Dust, a major module and so on. The room works as a normal room from now on.
  
  

The idea behind this it to create a new threat for the player. If you open a new door and find a nest behind it you cannot power the room right away, even if you have the dust to do it. You need to defend against it, multiple rounds in a row. Because there is only one type of creeps coming out of it, you can setup a proper defense against this. But its only for a few rounds, so you wont commit allot resources into it. I think that creates more situations where the player has to juggle his resources. A good defense on one side, lot of FIDS to build other things on the other side. Also the thread is only for a few rounds so you don't want to over commit in defense.



What do you think about it?

I like it--but why get rid of the nest at the end? What if you had the chance from the first moment of encountering the nest, an opportunity to "buy" it with a food price, which got cheaper after each subsequent round of defending against it. If you buy out the nest, you have the waves of mobs defending that area until it's depleted--and you can spend food to bolster it/extend it's longevity.



When I first purchased DotE, I posted a proposition for multiplayer where players would take on the roles of different factions on Auriga working in concert--a mechanic like the one you're proposing could be developed further into another defense option for the players, which could be the basis for the native faction in a multiplayer game, who specialize in "organic" defense systems.

If the player has the possibility to just "bribe" the creeps to fight on his side, the only challenge is to get enough resources to buy them of. That is not what i want to accomplish with this. The core idea is that there is a room that is spawning creeps for some rounds and the player cant do not much against it except defend against the waves. I he manages to survive, he gets a reward.

I think that will be thrilling if you open a door on the save side of your base and find a nest behind it. You cannot power the room or send a hero inside do prevent spawns there. You must defend against this.

By itself, that's just a fixed spawning point for a batch of monsters which stops you from powering up a room for "x" rounds. It's not really adding additional depth in defense strategy--the same tactic I would use to defend an area that I eventually want to move into but don't have the resources to do so yet would apply to this circumstance.



By providing multiple resolution methods, you open up the potential for this kind of event. If the players can bribe the creeps, the challenge isn't just gathering enough resources: it's deciding to make a food investment into something that will only last one level vs. a food investment in one of your characters. The player needs to determine the value of that room's real estate value for their defense strategy, and decide to endure prolonged threat, or to turn this event into a temporary buffer between them and the mobs to save up their industry for other rooms.