btw, re: "Some A* pathfinding would be great" — IVAN already has "breadth first" pathfinder. NPCs are using it when they need to move to some known place. what might be added, tho, is "heat maps", so scared monsters will not simply run into some corner and stay there.

btw… maybe ambassadors/emissaries should have their own apartments instead of always wandering in Cathedral? they may come to Cathedral for some time, and then go back to their apartments (or to the nearest pub in case of orcish representative ? this goes in line with extending Attnam by adding new buildings.

it is not hard to do too. in k8IVAN, exiled priestess in New Attnam returns to the temple when you killed imperialist, for example. (but she is slightly with her head in the clouds, so you have to tell her that the imperialist is dead first.)

yeah, i thought about that too, and i think she may give some stolen goods back if you accept the quest (and stop stealing). like, "oh, it seems you accidentally dropped this… here, take it, and please be more careful next time."

oops. and in k8IVAN too, because i copied the code. just never looked what exactly this thing does.

yeah. it should be quite easy to do. create several "template" POIs and spawn them randomly, asking the player if they want to enter. wipe dungeon data on exit instead of keeping it. almost all required code is already there (as i have POIs as Configs, not separate classes).

it may need some new properties like "Min/MaxDangerLevel", maybe "TimePassedBeforeSpawn" and such to control what will spawn and when, but it's easy too.

actually, the hardest part is designing the levels themselves, C++ side is a piece of banana.

this is interesting too, but it will require scripts… again. and prolly some new themed monsters. this is where i need a helping hand both with scripting, and with gfx.

ah. this souns like the perfect fit for "cloud dungeon". or/and to some abandoned dwarven mines, where they tried to dig to the lowest levels of the world… and succeeded!

i'm not sure about this. it doesn't look fair, and IVAN is the fair game. i mean, most of the time you die by doing something stupid, and most traps are not insta-kills.

on the other side… it might be possible to blow a hole in level floor if you'll try hard enough, and fall down to the dungeon below. like, stack a lot of backpacks, mines and such, blow them away, and voila. it will require adding HP to floor tiles, though, but it should not be that hard to implement.

lol. yeah, i definitely like it!

also, i was thinking about a way to go off the world map, and die by falling onto the frog which holds the world on its back.

k8ivan is quite different here: i can easily generate POIs on worldmap as i need to, and remove them later. i've rewritten the POI code to use owterrain configs instead of separate classes, so it is possible to add new dungeons from the script simply by creating new configs. coincidentally, this allows dynamic POIs too.

so we can simply describe random encounters as new dungeons, with the specific "random encounter" flag set, and the game will simply randomly spawn them under the player when the player is moving around (and will remove/replace them if necessary after visiting).

thank you! the new dungeon sounds interesting… but i need someone to create the scripts. i can add required things on C++ side, yet creating dungeon scripts is something completely different. i cannot even imagine how red_kangaroo managed to pull off that trick without any tools better than text editor. but i like the idea, and maybe one day i'll try it.

the staff is easy to do, and we can give it to Izzy as unique weapon instead of boring plain enchanted staff.

as for belt of levitation… i simply don't feel it right. besides, the belt is relatively easy to obtain (there are at least 3 ways to get it). checking distance to the nearest land square is not hard, the code could be done in 5 minutes or so. the belt has hella lot of uses already. but… your reasoning looks legit too. if the player wants to fly all over the world… why not?

the devs wanted to make worldmap not as dull as it is now. maybe add some random encounters, in Fallout 1/2 style? not just fights, but some unique events, like those Knights with The Holy Grenade in Fallout.


as for the bomb… k8IVAN has "Hell's device", which was intended to be The Nuke that devastates whole cities. i planned to put it into Alien Vessel dungeon. no specific quests for it, but you can bring it to Attnam and blow it away just for fun of it.

also, i will prolly partially revert the change to Siren logic from vanilla. having Elianise to sing to you and take your stuff in Cathedral is so… "ivanly". i bet nobody cares if she takes some stuff from a dirty peasant. it is IVAN after all! the player will quickly learn to avoid her; she stole my stuff more than once, and that was… frustrating, but fun. i knew that i have to avoid her, so it is my punishment for being careless.

btw, i don't remember if i already mentioned it, but k8IVAN will try to automatically apply the proper key when opening a closed door before kicking it. actually, the game goes through all available keys, asking (via a new method) if the door could be opened with each one. besides being nicer to doors , locking doors has one more use in k8IVAN: the player can rest in small empty rooms even if panicked. locking the doors will ensure that no monster will come to say hello.

and… scroll/wand of lock creation? pretty useles, and should prolly be cheap, but may save your ass if you are paniced and need some safe place to rest.

people, if you are reading this, feel free to comment on my ideas! i sux at game design (at any design, actually), so i'd love to hear your thoughts. or even your crazy ideas. not that i'm out of things to do (you'd better don't look at my TODO file, it's HUGE , but if you'll tell me about your ideas sooner, it may shape the code in a specific way to make implementing them easier.