Dungeon Depletion

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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NikitaTheTanner
Posts: 366
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 7:57 pm

Dungeon Depletion

Post by NikitaTheTanner »

A wacky idea, not sure if it is possible, just a stab in the dark.

I am sure everyone is familiar with the fact that dungeons respawn as soon as player leaves them. So technically you can rob poor monsters blind and then come again to repeat the process. That could lead to a vicious cycle of repetition which is both immersion breaking and kinda unbalanced IMO.

As far I understand, it is impossible to store all the data in the save file like it happens in later TES games, otherwise the files will bloat. So I came up with a solution which I hope might somewhat reduce the issue.

I propose to save two additional variables for each dungeon: ENEMY_PERCENT and LOOT_PERCENT, each equal 100% by default

Example of how it could work:
1) Player enters a dungeon with a total of 100 enemy spawns and 50 loot containers;
2) Player kills 20 monsters and loots 25 containers (80% and 50% left respectively);
3) Player exit the dungeon, all data is cleared, except for the percentages;
4) Player enters the dungeon again, but this time only 80% of new enemies spawn and only 50% new loot containers appear.

As you see, there is no need to save the details, but only the variables. It would allow dungeons to deplete without bloating the save files.

Additionally, a respawn timer could be added, e.g. 3 months time, after which the variables for the visited dungeon will return to 100%

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Interkarma
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:51 am

Re: Dungeon Depletion

Post by Interkarma »

An excellent idea, and very light on save data as well.

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Arl
Posts: 202
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 10:57 am

Re: Dungeon Depletion

Post by Arl »

That sounds like a very good tweak for the gameplay, after you leave a dungeon you'll feel that you are done with it so far.
My Deviantart page, I have some Daggerfall stuff in there.

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Nystul
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2015 8:31 am

Re: Dungeon Depletion

Post by Nystul »

What about just storing the whole state of the dungeon visited last for a specific time. Would that consume to much disc space?
But the idea suggested by NikitaTheTanner is good and is of course the more lightweight solution

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