The Dark Sea has been really fun so far. It’s immersive, and nearly every expedition is unique from the last.
Vetex has taken alot of inspiration from Zelda games so I believe that this idea would fit perfectly into AO since it’s directly inspired by Zelda’s dungeons.
Dark Sea Labyrinths:
“Large structures left behind by an ancient civilization that existed long before the Dark Sea came to be. In order to protect their immense wealth and power, they hid their treasures in intricate structures that would ward off would-be adventurers.”
How they would work:
Labyrinths would be randomly generated on islands and would be pretty large. They’d be composed of rooms that would each be around the size of the King Calvus boss room. Each labyrinth would have 4 to 5 rooms. It would be possible to solo these, but more difficult.
Upon reaching the entrance to the labyrinth, you would see a symbol on the door signifying the level of the labyrinth from 1 being the easiest to 5 being the most difficult. You would enter the first room and the door behind you would close, shutting you in. To reach the next room or open the door behind you to leave, you would have to clear whatever obstacle is in the room.
Upon clearing each room, chests would spawn. The first room would spawn only a few chests, but each consecutive room would spawn more and more chests. This way, if you decide it’s to dangerous to keep going, you can back out with whatever loot you’ve gotten so far. The final room would spawn the most loot and open an exit to the outside.
The types of rooms that could spawn:
(The difficulty level of these rooms would depend on the labyrinth level on the entrance door)
Combat Room
This room would simply spawn enemies for you to fight. The enemies would be multiple lower level enemies, a couple mid level enemies, or one high level enemy. Because you’re fighting in an enclosed space, there would be platforms above you to jump on in case you need to recollect yourself. There’d also be pillars in the corners of the room to take cover behind, similar to the King Calvus boss room. Defeating all the enemies would open the next room
Puzzle Room
This room would consist of you solving a randomly generated puzzle to progress within a time limit. This could make use of the carry mechanic to carry objects on top of panels to create a certain pattern. There could be all kinds of different puzzles to keep it interesting. These wouldn’t be insanely hard, but challenging enough to make you mindful of the time limit. Successfully completing the puzzle would open the next room.
Trap Room
This room would have you dodging projectiles and traps and trying to stay alive for a certain time limit. There would be indicators on the floor letting you know where to avoid. The traps would get increasingly faster and more oppressive the closer the timer got to 0. Surviving past the time limit would open the next room.
Riddle Room
This room would have you answering a riddle to open the next door. Text would appear on your screen of a riddle question. The answer would be a single word. These riddles would be written by contributors and hints to the riddle would generate on the walls of the room for each riddle question.
In the middle of the room would be a panel. Any text you put in chat while on the panel would count as an answer. There would be lights above, indicating how many guesses you have and the amount of guesses would depend on the difficulty.
Riddle example: “What runs but never walks?”
Answer: Water
Mirror Room
This room would spawn an enemy that copies your appearance, equipment, skills, level, and stats. It’d be an exact replica of you, and you’d have to defeat it to progress to the next room. If you were to enter this room with a group of people, the labyrinth would randomly choose one player to make a mirror from, and only that person could damage or interact with the enemy. However, the other players could still assist with potions, food, healing, etc. This room would always be the same no matter the difficulty.
Boss Room
This room would only spawn in the final room. It would have a 30% chance of spawning instead of a normal room. This would be a unique boss that would have generators around the room protecting it from damage. You would have to destroy these to damage the boss. When the boss is defeated, the exit would open, and even more loot than usual would spawn.
There are all the rooms I could think of, but if you have an idea for a room, feel free to share it below.
Overall, I think the labyrinth would be a fun, unique addition to the Dark Sea that would further build on the dangerous adventure vibe.
EDIT: My friend thought of a cool idea to add, Labyrinth Keys:
“Keys used to easily access labyrinth rooms. Perhaps these were used by members of the ancient civilization to do maintenance within the labyrinth without obstacles?”
These keys would let you essentially skip all rooms except the final room when used on room doors. Upon usage, they would either kill all enemies if it’s a combat room, instantly solve the puzzle in a puzzle room, or disable the traps and open the door in a trap room.
These would be rare drops in Dark Sealed Chests. You could stock up on them to quickly speed through a labyrinth or save them to use in a pinch.
