Overworld Gameplay: What will it be like?

[WickedJohnny]

I've been thinking a lot about how the gameplay in this installment will play out. I'm really curious to hear everyone else's idea on this. Are we to expect larger numbers of NPCs in this game? Massive battles, assaulting the heroes' villages and fortresses? Seeing as we'll be spending quite a lot of time in the overworld, how exactly is the game gonna play out, gameplay-wise, while retaining the key gameplay components we've all grown fond of? What about the creature selection method, are we still gonna pick up creatures and drop them, and if so, are we gonna retain Imps claiming tiles or what?

A big problem I'm having is, if we're in the Overworld, where are our creatures gonna come from? Is it gonna be like the previous titles, you build rooms and attract creatures from Overworld portals?

Here are some thoughts I had:

One thing I feel that's really lacked in previous DKs is the empire building element. A potentially cool addition could be having a main fortress dungeon, potentially borrowing some ideas from Overlord. Sort of like the original "map" of the overall realms in previous DKs, showing your malignant influence on the world. Perhaps this dungeon could be located at the Underworld Entry to the Overworld, and perhaps a level or two could involve defending it from invading heroes or rival keepers who want the entry for themselves.

Here, you'll beable to store stolen Heroes' artifacts and treasures, and it'll also give you an oversight of your conquered areas and the next realm you plan to take, on a map brought up via clicking on a map stored in the Dungeon, stored on a giant table or slab or some such thing. Depending on whether you chose to Enslave or Destroy the area, the influence will show visually on map, and you'll beable to interact with the previous areas, ie: using pillaged gold and resources to give you a slight bonus in a future level, not a huge one of course, but a slight advantage.

I'm a big advocate of bringing back the Transfer creature bonus, and in your main dungeon area, this is where your Transferred creatures are kept for the next level. And say, you can choose one to bring with you and if you've found the Bonus for it.



I also think that maybe claiming tiles via imps in the overworld might take a while and make for some AI difficulties in the Imps focusing on claiming unimportant tiles, but perhaps this is something that can be ironed out. I'm kinda leaning towards Imps claiming Hero rooms and guard towers, .etc, and you effectively own the area around them, so you can drop your creatures in that vicinity, but once again, who knows?

How do you guys feel about the creature side of the game? Are we gonna have a set number of creatures at the start of the level to conquer the area, or is it gonna play out DK1 and 2, or a combination of both?

What are your guy's thoughts on all this?

[tehbassdemon]

One of the key changes that was going to be made in wfto was going to be the idea of playing on 3 planes at the same time. You've got the deeper plane, the dungeon plane and then the overworld (I'm not sure if that's still what people want but...). To travel between them you would use staircases or holes between them. As far as creatures goes you can't really change much in terms of gameplay. If you don't pick them up and drop them where you want them to go it's not dungeon keeper. If you don't attract creatures from a portal it's not dungeon keeper. If you don't have imps claiming tiles or digging it's not really dungeon keeper. Having a set amount of creatures was always part of dungeon keeper but it wasn't obvious and was dictated by the portals this should not be changed. The things you could do if having imps claim tiles in the overworld is a problem are for one having the tiles simply being bigger another would be that imps claim tiles on paths but not on grass. There are probably more.

[WickedJohnny]

One of the key changes that was going to be made in wfto was going to be the idea of playing on 3 planes at the same time. You've got the deeper plane, the dungeon plane and then the overworld (I'm not sure if that's still what people want but...). To travel between them you would use staircases or holes between them. As far as creatures goes you can't really change much in terms of gameplay. If you don't pick them up and drop them where you want them to go it's not dungeon keeper. If you don't attract creatures from a portal it's not dungeon keeper. If you don't have imps claiming tiles or digging it's not really dungeon keeper. Having a set amount of creatures was always part of dungeon keeper but it wasn't obvious and was dictated by the portals this should not be changed. The things you could do if having imps claim tiles in the overworld is a problem are for one having the tiles simply being bigger another would be that imps claim tiles on paths but not on grass. There are probably more.

At the same time? Really? Sounds hardcore. I knew there were 3 planes, but not at the same time. How would that implemented?

[tehbassdemon]

tbh I'm not sure how it would work maybe i got it wrong but I kind of assumed that you flip between them also you would only really be fighting on one plane whether it be the dungeon layer or the overworld.

[kyle]

tbh I'm not sure how it would work maybe i got it wrong but I kind of assumed that you flip between them also you would only really be fighting on one plane whether it be the dungeon layer or the overworld.

If i picked up right, i think you would have a view of three planes, switcing between, in order to expand you will need to build a stair case that goes up a level, using these stair cases will give your creatures acsess to the caverns/dungeon and then the overworld.

[Evi]

Actually, I think they put it where the 'Staircases' are claimable only.

[kyle]

What, thats what i said.

[Evi]

in order to expand you will need to build a stair case that goes up a level

[gnounc]

I think you should be able to see a map of each layer from your current position.
So you could perhaps do things like dig underneath a wall above you and make it crumble down (that sounds overpowering...maybe that shouldnt be implemented)

also perhaaaaaaaaps...have like a familiar/avatar system where you can choose
(at some cost or another) a creature that always transfers. One creature that no matter what you do, when you beat the current level, it will accompany you to the next level, and not cost any money (but reatian stats ie, be levelable and whatnot.)

In DK1 I transferred the same level 10 mistress around a lot of levels, I think it would be nice to have 1 creature to be your go to guy/gal.

[tehbassdemon]

It would be nice to have it so that you could have one creature that always goes with you but it would be totally overpowered. I remember getting a knight to level 10 and transferring him loads on some levels with enemy keepers all I had to do was dig to the enemys dungeon from the beggining. That was overpowered but at least you have to find the special to transfer it.