"A Return to the Dungeon Crawl"

[Serpent Eye]

The following article is from the July/August issue of the magazine Beckett Massive Online Gamer -- saw it while I was at the bookstore today, and thought I'd purchase it so I could share it with you guys.

 

The news may be slightly outdated, but it's worth a shot. :thumbup:

 

While I have transcribed the article from the magazine by hand, any spelling or grammatical errors are as they appear in the printed version.

 

The Dungeons of Daemonheim will be the largest Runescape expansion ever, and, like the dungeons themselves, Jagex has been keeping players in the dark. "We've been sneaking around the office, in a highly conspiratorial manner, keeping most of the details under wraps," said Lead Designer Mark Ogilvie. There's much excitement in house, as well as among the players, as Runescape leads up to this expansion. Smaller dungeons for the solo player will take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete, while larger dungeons for up to five players can take up to two hours. The number of skills chosen determines the complexity level and new players can, if they wish, level entirely in this expansion.

 

Into the Deep

"We've had one-time events in Runescape, including one that affected all players across all servers. They were all knocked down for a second or two as the earth shook," Ogilvie said. Indeed, the lore of Dungeons of Daemonheim refers to the event. While the sages of other nations closeted themselves to analyze and divine the meaning of the strange power, the Fremennik, a barbarian race from the north, followed the visions of their seers and sailed to its source. There, they found an ancient and abandoned castle, with two hidden doors leading to near-endless dungeons.

 

The Fremennik, priding themselves on their strength and daring, send their hardiest men and women into the dungeons. After many weeks, only two men returned, bringing stories of terrible demons and forgotten races. With their ranks thus depleted, the Fremennik realized that aid was needed and called upon the mercenaries and adventurers of Runescape to raid the place they call Daemonheim, and return with the secrets hidden in its depths.

 

The Skills to Survive

Runescape is a game that has skills that players can learn instead of pigeonholing them into classes with some customization of skills, and Dungeoneering is the skill that players need to go adventuring in the Dungeons of Daemonheim. This expansion is completely underground, and as players enter these dungeons, they are introduced to the Dungeoneering skill in a series of tutorials, attaining the Ring of Kinship to access these dungeons. "This expansion actually is very newbie friendly," said Ogilvie. "Imagine entering as large and mature of a game as Runescape is at this point in time. There's so much choice; so much to do and see and so many paths to take. It can be overwhelming."

 

Imagine if you will, then, the ability to go to a place and to be able to create a dungeon for yourself, customizing the level, size, difficulty, time requirement and the equipment you will take with you. Then imagine doing that for a group of friends once you've learned how to manipulate the options.

 

"Dungeoneering is a bit like the Summoning skill," Ogilvie explained. "Training it will improve your game experience, since you'll be able to access and create more complex dungeons as your skill improves."

 

First-level dungeons will involve the basic skills, such as combat, fishing and cooking, and can purely combat, or fishing, or cooking, or combinations thereof. Second-level dungeons can require Mining, Smithing, Woodcutting, Fletching, and Runecrafting. Third-level dungeons add skills such as Agility, Thieving, and Herblore. Fourth-level dungeons add Farming and Summoning. There are a total of six complexity levels, and there's also Exploration if you're the type that wants to check out every nook and cranny of a dungeon, or, if you're pressed for time and just want the critical path to the dungeon boss, that option will show only the paths and rooms you have to get through to get to him. Dungeons always balance to your level, but players can choose who the dungeon levels for, so that if a higher-level party member can't stay long, the lower levels can still complete the dungeon experience.

 

There are 60 floors and the rooms are random, so there's little likelihood that a player will ever encounter a dungeon that's exactly duplicate of another that he's plumbed, but players will encounter similar rooms. "I expect that the first player-created guides out will be how to vanquish certain rooms," said Ogilvie, "as well as lists of the unique spells, items, and monsters to be found in the dungeons."

 

The joy of the Dungeons of Daemonheim is the old-world feel of a well crafted Dungeons & Dragons campaign, as that's what Jagex has based the expansion on. It's not just about combat but the use of all your other skills. The player-Dungeoneer will pick the skills the party members require, but the game generates the content. Perhaps the were will a ferocious cat creature that has to be placated by a certain number of fish before adventurers can get past, or you could try to using Agility to sneak by. Maybe you require Farming skills to pull away a vine covering a doorway, Woodcutting skills to chop down a bridge to prevent monsters from crossing a chasm, or Thieving skills to obtain a key from a sleeping orc. And there will be puzzles, mirror puzzles and climbing puzzles to name a few. The story of the original parties of Fremennik who explored the dungeon will also be found as players explore the dungeon and find bits of journals, parchment scrolls, and notes.

 

Dungeon Denizens

Some of the boss monsters to be found in the dungeons are rather interesting, such as the Behemoth, which is encountered in the early dungeons. It needs to eat during battle to keep its strength up, so the strategy here might be to distract it or herd it away from its food. The deeper you go, the more complex the dungeon and the tougher the boss-mobs. After you pass through the basic levels, the dungeon begins to look more civilized. You begin to see building structures and furnishings, and you may encounter the Libromonster, a sorcerer ensconced in a large library. It teleports around the room and pulls books of magic from the wall, summoning from each a different spell which requires different combat skills to counter. On the other hand, you may also encounter the hobgoblin shaman with his poisonous personality and the ability to summon large rocks, which fall from the ceiling, creating a maze to protect himself in, all the while raining poison on adventurers.

 

The Dungeons of Daemonhiem is a unique space within which players can create equipment up to level 99. However, they cannot take items and weapons out to the surface. You have a little friend in the dungeon which makes you check your equipment at the door before you leave. You can, however, gain enough faction with the Fremennik to get new equipment to level 80. The equipment you gain can be bound to your character so you don't have to re-equip and remake them each time you enter the dungeon. With 60 floors, 40 to 50 unique bosses, six complexity levels and a dungeon creator which randomizes the many, many rooms to form each dungeon, players both new and high-level will be enjoying this expansion for some time to come.

[Great_one]

last 25 rooms now please :wink:

[Low C]

Yeah that is about all this confirms is that there will be 25 more floors.

[Dax]

Fear the LIBROMONSTER.

 

Lulz. Can't wait for the next 25 floors. They're Warped and Occult or something like that, no?

[My_Eggs]

>Woodcutting skills to chop down a bridge to prevent monsters from crossing a chasm

 

Why has this not been put in yet? That sounds pretty cool actually...

 

Also, I agree, give us the other 25 floors already.

[GibberEsh]

Smaller dungeons for the solo player will take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete, while larger dungeons for up to five players can take up to two hours.

Wha? Are they stopping to harvest every single resource possible?

[My_Eggs]

Smaller dungeons for the solo player will take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete, while larger dungeons for up to five players can take up to two hours.

Wha? Are they stopping to harvest every single resource possible?

 

 

Jagex did not plan for us to figure out Rushing.

[xxshady]

Smaller dungeons for the solo player will take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete, while larger dungeons for up to five players can take up to two hours.

Wha? Are they stopping to harvest every single resource possible?

 

 

Jagex did not plan for us to figure out Rushing.

 

Because Runescape players invented the speedrun :rolleyes:

 

Anytime Jagex hands out hours to a publication, they are inflated. Has nothing to do with the reality of the situation.

[sciencemile]

Smaller dungeons for the solo player will take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete, while larger dungeons for up to five players can take up to two hours.

Wha? Are they stopping to harvest every single resource possible?

 

 

Yeah ._., I used to do this. Dungeoneering sucks for the Obsessive Compulsive.

[Den]

Smaller dungeons for the solo player will take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete, while larger dungeons for up to five players can take up to two hours.

Wha? Are they stopping to harvest every single resource possible?

 

 

Jagex did not plan for us to figure out Rushing.

 

Yeah thats what I was thinking. :P

 

Im betting stuff that is mentioned here and hasnt been added will come with Batch 2.

[Saru Inc]

Fear the LIBROMONSTER.

 

Lulz. Can't wait for the next 25 floors. They're Warped and Occult or something like that, no?

 

 

 

I saw that too.

 

You know, idc about the rationale or anything, as I know it's illogical, but I really want like a group of jungle floors. I think that would look really really cook.

 

 

Also that article made the behemoth sound so much more badass than it is.

[Neglexis]

 

You begin to see building structures and furnishings, and you may encounter the Libromonster, a sorcerer ensconced in a large library. It teleports around the room and pulls books of magic from the wall, summoning from each a different spell which requires different combat skills to counter. On the other hand, you may also encounter the hobgoblin shaman with his poisonous personality and the ability to summon large rocks, which fall from the ceiling, creating a maze to protect himself in, all the while raining poison on adventurers..

 

Am I the only one who thinks that the monsters the writer describes here have a LOT in common with Lexicus Runewright and Stomp?

[Den]

You begin to see building structures and furnishings, and you may encounter the Libromonster, a sorcerer ensconced in a large library. It teleports around the room and pulls books of magic from the wall, summoning from each a different spell which requires different combat skills to counter. On the other hand, you may also encounter the hobgoblin shaman with his poisonous personality and the ability to summon large rocks, which fall from the ceiling, creating a maze to protect himself in, all the while raining poison on adventurers..

 

Am I the only one who thinks that the monsters the writer describes here have a LOT in common with Lexicus Runewright and Stomp?

 

Libromonster = The Read-o-holic Lexicus Runewright.

 

They mixed the Hobgoblin Geomancer with Stomp, but yeah that's what they are referring to.

[Naive]

You begin to see building structures and furnishings, and you may encounter the Libromonster, a sorcerer ensconced in a large library. It teleports around the room and pulls books of magic from the wall, summoning from each a different spell which requires different combat skills to counter. On the other hand, you may also encounter the hobgoblin shaman with his poisonous personality and the ability to summon large rocks, which fall from the ceiling, creating a maze to protect himself in, all the while raining poison on adventurers..

 

Am I the only one who thinks that the monsters the writer describes here have a LOT in common with Lexicus Runewright and Stomp?

 

Libromonster = The Read-o-holic Lexicus Runewright.

 

They mixed the Hobgoblin Geomancer with Stomp, but yeah that's what they are referring to.

I think they mixed the Riftsplitter in with them, neither hob nor stomp rain poison :P

[ddaanniiellh]

They just created a new boss monster to represent 3 of them at a time to same some space =p

~Dan

[Squisher_33]

"40 or 50 unique bosses"

 

dear god theres only 18 out now, 6 per floor se meaning theyre either going to have more bosses releasaed throughout the existing floors, or the top 25 floors will have about 25 bosses themselves, about double the "boss density" for higher floors

 

but yea im glad theres 60 floors, would have sucked if they stopped it at 99 on floor 50