Hello everyone,
Although I've been quiet, I've been hard at work at totally reformatting the game to better align with the original gameplay philosophy. The "player completes the dungeon" style gameplay moved away completely from the original inspiration for Dungeoneer and added a negative repetitiveness to the game.
So, as was originally prototyped - the dungeons have moved back to a randomly generated system. Dungeons will no longer be "completed" but will feel more like an open area the player goes to in which to complete quests and progress through the game. This means that multiple dungeons have been squished down into one larger randomly generated dungeon.
The new dungeons now consist of multiple zones, each randomly generated from a set of room tiles. Each zone typically has a boss located somewhere within with awesome loot. Dungeon layouts can vary wildly, creating a unique feel each time you explore.
Distended Caverns
Wetland Labyrinth
This change does mean that the previously existing dungeons no longer exist in the game. At least for the time being. I am not sure if they will return in some form.
Since there are now "zones" over multiple dungeons, Waypoints can be found throughout dungeons unlocking a quick way to navigate to specific locations in that dungeon from town. Just run over the Waypoint to unlock it permanently.
Waypoint
With this massive game design change comes a change in quest and dungeon progression. I struggled with how I would handle migrating old character files since I don't have a great system in place, but due to some technical concerns I believe I will just leave those characters as they are.
(This means old characters may or may not still have previous quest and dungeon progress and may be able to complete quests again. This has not been tested and may not work as intended. This may also allow characters to have more Echoes than intended if they are able to complete certain quests again.)
I've always been forward about things not being perfect as I continue updating this project but I will always do what I can to not interfere with the players as much as possible. But with this change, I highly recommend starting a new character to play the game as is now intended.
As a side note, I will have a few major improvements made and bugs fixed with this patch. I.e. instant abilities will no longer interrupt your auto attacks, better loading screen transitions, and some very important multiplayer fixes!
I plan to release this hopefully sometime next week.
Thanks for all of your support,
Alex