First of all, sorry if this has been suggested before. I quickly browsed through some suggestions and that's about it. I haven't done much research about the game yet either The idea is to have different rituals for different dungeons on different planets. An example: You arrive at a dungeon and you see an altar with a bowl on it. The dungeon itself is equipped with ruby eyes that will glow between, let's say, midnight and 1 AM. This information is kept quiet from you until you encounter a certain NPC, but you can also be lucky (or knowledgeable from previous tries) and open the dungeon without the help of the NPC. The bowl must be filled with a certain liquid (let's just go with water for now) while the eyes are glowing, to open the dungeon. This is just a simple mechanic, but you could expand the idea to include puzzles and hints. Doing this at the wrong time/performing the wrong action could trigger a few options: -Nothing happens. Boredom imminent. -Something happens to the rubies that renders them useless. Either they remain useless permanently or you need to go through some extra effort to make them work again. -A boss spawns. Killing this boss should not open the dungeon, but perhaps it could leave clues to help you in future attempts. Doing it the right way could also have the probability to spawn a boss before the dungeon opens. Additionally, you could make it so the dungeon only stays open for a set period of time. In some of these situations, you need to clear a certain objective to stop it from closing. In others, as soon as the dungeon closes you cannot open them again. This is just an improvised idea, but I believe it could work. Anything to improve the idea is of course always welcome, and if you don't like the idea at all, feel free to bash on it. All I expect is arguments to back it up. EDIT: The indicator that the ritual can be started (in this case, the ruby eyes), the time (midnight - 1 AM) and the action (fill the bowl on the altar with water) can all be randomised. You may aswell have a dungeon with horns that blow steam, to be opened on a rainy day by throwing wood into a designated fire. Cheers.
My one concern would be how this impacts gameplay. It's possible that players will have to wait in the world for some time until the right time rolls around. Missing it (especially if there's only an in-game hour to do it) would be frustrating, especially with the lack of a timeskip function. You could make the time extended to, say, dusk until dawn (or midnight until dawn). That would still make it a specific time, but also give some flexibility. You're better off liking a post instead of just saying "+1". A post that short is technically spam. It's also helpful for the OP for you to say what you like and why.
I love the idea, personally. The concept is unique and at a good standard, and there isn't really much else to add. My support is granted.
I agree. Also, what about, instead of filling a bowl with a certain liquid, have the player kill a "mini-boss" that is protecting the altar in a certain way. With fire or ranged, melee, or with a certain weapon obtainable close-by or craftable with resources found in that dungeon (the latter would imply that the dungeon is split up in multiple parts, for instance, 1/2 is open, the rest is hidden until the requirements are met). This could be another type of ritual, alongside the ritual the OP suggested. Overall great idea, has a lot of possibilities. +1
Of course, the timespan I gave is just an example. You could put in any timespan or any other time condition (rainy days), but I think the conditions should not be the same for every dungeon. One would need a rainy day, one would only be opened from midnight till dawn, another would only be open for an hour, etc. Let's just say you could randomise the time conditions and action conditions seperately, provided they don't contradict each other. It doesn't even necessarily have to be time/action, but starting off with this "template" would be the least complicated approach IMO. I'll update the OP to be more clear on the subject.
This springs to mind the 'assault course' type dungeons in Dust: An Elysium Tail. This could allow bragging rights for reaching the end teleporter (which would double as resetting the dungeon in the process) in the shortest time/least health lost/enemies killed for instance. It could also be a means of unlocking techs in a more reliable way (for instance if you knew that a repeatable dungeon would drop technology at the end if you got there quickly enough and you were missing (for instance) bubble boost, then this would at least give a means of 'working for it' rather than just simply stumbling on them).
I hadn't actually considered rewards yet but I like the idea of unlocking techs with this. I'm not sure whether I would like this type of dungeons to have exclusive rewards or not. Assuming that they do, should the nature of the reward decide the exterior or the ritual of the dungeon? Should everything just stay random to keep you wondering what's inside the chest as you wander inside? A bit of both?
If you want I could try to present you with stuff that sounds like it's all scientific. Like the eyes start to glow at a certain period because there's a clock wired to them. Actually sounds like something fun to keep myself busy. Could bump on some new mechanic ideas along the way
Could make it so when the time is up, a trapdoor opens up somewhere in the dungeon that leads to a small room. This small room would contain remnants from people who previously made attempts to clear the dungeon but died in the process, and you could dig your way out of there.
Shouldn't these dungeons be indestructible? (Unless you mean digging yourself out of that small room) Would be useless if you could just dig into the treasure chamber.
Yeah, the trapdoor would lead to a room below the dungeon. You'd have to dig your way around it to get back to the surface.
i got a idea inspired by a old game what if you need to collect old robot body parts that are hidden like a head,arms,legs,chest and then put it all together to make a robot that follow you to a door and that you need to open that door and maybe you need to defend the robot or that the robot defends you or you just need to find a head/hand/eye/brain/datachip that are hidden and that you need to show to a sensor on a blast door to open or to activated a mysterious computer or something very mysterious or crazy but sci fy like
wait what if there was a dungeon that requires you to sacrifice another player? that would be...pretty hard to implement actually
