I've been playing a lot of One Way Heroics lately and I've noticed how the "impending darkness" mechanic creates a certain tension, preventing you from lingering too long and overfarming/grinding. I wonder if Dredmor would benefit from something like this-- right now, it is generally better to explore all of a floor, collecting all of the loot and killing every monster, before moving on to the next. Though the game does spawn extra monsters the longer you stay on a floor, it actually helps you farm, you tend to be strong enough to take them down by the time you've hung around that floor long enough to start spawning. My idea: a Super Dredmor or some sort of "ghost" that spawns after a certain number of turns (let's say 60-75% of the average time it takes to clear a floor entirely). This ghost would be strong enough to kill you in 2-3 turns, but only within 2-3 tiles of the adventurer. Alternatively, you could have it only attack at melee range, but every 10-15 turns it gets to move twice. This ghost should be indestructible, of course, and able to go through doors-- i don't know if that part is possible, since even Dredmor is stopped by mighty doors....thoughts?
An interesting idea! I'd certainly like to see this as a toggle option when creating a new game. As you said, this would be great for adding a layer of tension on top of the regular game. Some thoughts - perhaps the monster should only spawn after the player has encountered the floor's monster zoo? Each monster zoo is arguably the highlight of each floor, and certainly where the player earns the most experience. So say 60-75% of the time it takes to clear a floor has passed, the game would then check to see if the player has encountered/ beaten the floor's monster zoo. If yes, the monster is spawned, if not, it waits and then spawns the monster immediately somewhere else. Just a thought. Also, I think it would be possible to let the monster go through locked doors, in a sense. Diggles can already tunnel past doors if they are aware of your presence, so an Uber Diggle of sorts may work. Of course, the danger then is that the Uber Diggle (or whatever you want to call it) could possibly surface right next to the player and land an instant attack. I don't know if the digging patterns of diggles could be modded in such a way that a suped-up diggle would always surface at least one square away from the player. As long as the Uber Diggle/ Ghost/ Super Dredmor cannot kill the player in one move from full health, though, instant attacks may be acceptable. Perhaps the monster should deal a flat 50 piercing damage with 0% crit chance and 200% enemy-dodge-reduction? Final thought - I'm assuming this monster will spawn on every floor except the floor Dredmor is on, correct? I wouldn't want to deal with an invincible monster on top of Dredmor himself!
Actually, I think you might be able to make it a more universal effect, with certain limitations. It would have to be a room spell, and room spells will only trigger once a player has entered the room, even if you use <condition condition_type="entered" not="1"/> (I think I tried that one myself and it did nothing.) So any countdown effects would be contingent upon the player finding that specific room, which may or may not even spawn on the level. (You best bet for a guaranteed room spawn is to create a very tiny 5x7 room that you give <flags special="1" notreasure="1" noblockers="1" nomonsters="1" notraps="1" minLevel="0" maxLevel="14"/> so it will theoretically pop up on every level, but only once) However, assuming the player does stumble across your clock room, clock objects will continue counting even if the player has left the room and is on the opposite side of the map. Now, room spells can only target IDed objects or monsters, or X/Y coordinates within themselves. However, if you leave the targetat out of your triggered spell: <action on="success" action_type="spell" casts="You're Doomed"/> it's supposed to automatically default to the player's position, which I think works even if the player is no longer inside the room. If it does, you could then use a buttload of stacked trigger spells with increasing amounts (ex: <effect type="trigger" amount="0" spell="Impending Doom"/> <effect type="trigger" amount="1" spell="Impending Doom"/>) to trigger a 1 turn debuff spell, that would make life hell for the player until they left the floor and broke the chain. (I'm not quite sure what would happen if they went down a level and came back up. It would more than likely just stop the effect) The other thing that I'm pretty sure would work, is if you set up a clock and/or a whole bunch of chained template or fireball spells with an incrementally increasing radius. I know you can trigger spells that have a radius that's larger than the room, since I've done it before, but I'm not sure if there's an upper limit to a spell radius, or whether said effects immediately disappear the moment you go up or down a staircase. Now, like I said, the effect would be radial, rather than left to right, but you could say... come up with a spell with a HUUUUGE radius that both buffs and causes shout on all monsters, so everything on the floor immediately wants to kill you. You could also make it a damage spell mine that does serious damage to anything within an ever increasing radius of attack. The two major downsides to this is that unless you made the damage taxa-specific to where it only affects the Player (which I've had mixed results with myself), then the player is going to be raking in the experience for every monster the spell kills, right up until the point where it intersects a shop, and Brax gets all pissed off and sics his red demons after you.
