[Terrain] Gorges

[Airandius]

As far as I know we only have shallow water and shallow lava.
Quite boring isn't it.

I suggest a new terrain tile called the gorge or pit if you want. It's a giant pit which can not be traversed by any creatures.

Gorges

Sometimes you would find deep pits and long gorges underground. They are deep enough for all creatures to fear them. Many creatures avoid gorges, as when they fall in they will have to wander forever in the dark. Not even the most evil creatures would like living down there.

Gorges are rare and large, there are also smaller pits. They are a step beyond lava:
- All creatures and heroes can move in water, they just move a little bit slower.
- Only creatures resistant to lava (dragons) and flying creatures can pass, other creatures will take damage when they walk over lava.
- The gorge only allows flying creatures to pass.

Bridges may be build on gorges, however they should not be too long as they need some form of support. I have no idea what the difference between wooden and stone bridges is however so I need some information about that before I elaborate.

What if you delete a bridge piece?
Well monsters will fall in the pit.

No, it's not overpowered.
In case you were thinking that they would die, nope they don't.
Creatures that have fallen will climb up using the nearest portal (which is linked to the massive underground that the gorge connects to) that is claimed by the keeper they are associated with. They can find their way to that portal because they follow the scent of magic that oozes into the great underground from your dungeon. This is also how monsters are attracted in the first place you know, a warlock told me that.
Heroes follow the magic left behind by a hero gate.

But I don't have a claimed portal!
In that case the monsters will wander down below until you do get one.
They will kill any other monster that tries to enter your dungeon before them so they will not be replaced by weaker monsters.

There is no hero gate!
Congratulation, you just divided by zero. I guess we just have to have a hero gate in every hero level or else they simply stay down there forever (which is cheap).

How long will it take them to return?
They wont be gone too long. Imagine them walking back in a straight line towards the portal. Fast units will return faster. Slow units will return slower.

Art:


Yes, the portal of DK2. Just remove the weird diamond things and make it huge. I imagine that the outer rims are right next to the walls. Monsters wont be able to walk on the sides.
If that makes sense.

[MeinCookie]

There was a chasm suggestion a while back - but it was very unbalanced. I'm all for extra terrain types. They diversify and add new aspects to the game-play.

[Mothrayas]

This is just like that chasm suggestion, except this time it is good and not game-breaking.

I like it.

[Dizzi]

Basicly, no walking unit can pass over this 3rd terrain. If they somehow fall, they will walk to the portal. I can see this working well. But where do they exactly go when they fall? Do you think you can open paint and show some illustrations. Can some gorges be giant? It's like water and lava right? Units can't be picked up when they fall, right? The wait time could be rather long, do they need to walk?

[Airandius]

Basicly, no walking unit can pass over this 3rd terrain. If they somehow fall, they will walk to the portal. I can see this working well. But where do they exactly go when they fall? Do you think you can open paint and show some illustrations. Can some gorges be giant? It's like water and lava right? Units can't be picked up when they fall, right? The wait time could be rather long, do they need to walk?

I'll explain this from a DK1 perspective.

Yes, walking monsters can not traverse gorges and they can come in any size (they can be as big as the giant pools of water and lava we all know and love).
As for how they go back: Vampires and Mistresses can teleport, while they do this their 'number' in the monster panal becomes red and they can't pe picked up. The same applies to monsters that have fallen. They can't be picked up.

I think the best way (engine wise) is to mark the unit as teleporting, they can't be picked up or use any spells. While they are still on the map, they are physically removed. (The game simply remembers that you had a lvl 8 dragon, the monster stays in the monster tab and the amount of monsters you have stays the same but the dragon is not rendered anywhere.)
The game then marks where they have fallen and checks how far it's located from the nearest claimed portal, makes a timer depending on the speed of the monster and when the timer expires it will climb up that portal.
If the portal in the mean time has been claimed by the enemy I guess they will still climb up that portal. I don't see this happening much if at all.

I guess it might take a long time for them to walk. It depends on a lot of things. I guess their speed could be doubled when they are in that dark pit. Think of it as them hurrying back because they need to magic in your dungeon (or call it panic). They do 'walk' in a straight line so it's not going to be extremely long unless they had to walk from one corner of the map to another corner of the map. A maximum walking time of one minute or so seems appropriate, most creatures would have returned well before that mark but we can't keep the fatties underground forever.

Kind of hard to explain.

[Metal Gear Rex]

I like this idea. I suppose we could also make some kind of special bridge for this since Wooden nor Stone have no support. I don't think there will be much of a problem with creatures falling down it if we have good AI like in DK1. (And not like DK2 where those idiot Vampires would walk on water even though it burns them)

Only time someone would fall in is if they were blown or knocked into it :P (/)

EDIT:
Lol, I also remember putting off in reading this thread for a looonnng time cause I was too lazy to read all that.