New early/late game content concept!

[Wurtstool]

It’s a New year and its time to get those creativity juices flowing again! 

I’ve been reading through a couple of forums lately and realize that people are wanting more early content that is still relevant in the late game. So, I have devised a concept that has been cooking for a while that is in line with ruins/lunar/boss rushing when you start up a world. I won’t say that you have to do this right off the start of a new world but it is another exciting option for you to explore. 

I present you the Shadow Temple! 

 

I know this is taken straight out of Hamlet but here me out, this is a location within the surface world that is randomly generated EVERY TIME YOU CLEAR IT! Think of it like a caves server when you enter it, and like hamlet the camera is fixed to this angle.

So, how do I access the Shadow Temple?

Randomly placed within a surface biome (or maybe a new biome in the future) is the entrance to the shadow temple. 5 key pieces are needed to be combined to open the shadow temple, how to get key pieces? 20 pieces will spawn in random dirt mounds that need to be dug up within the surface map and one key piece will respawn every 3 days if there are less than 20 in the world. This incentivizes a little bit of surface exploring and preparation before heading straight in and also incentivizes co-op play if other also found key pieces too. 

Now, what is the shadow temple?

It is randomly generated dungeon of sorts that is within its own private server that is 3-5 floors deep with each floor consisting of 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2 rooms in a randomized layout similar to dungeons in the original legend of Zelda or the Binding of Issac. The temple is full of dangerous traps, mobs, puzzles, exciting loot, and a new non-raid boss in the end so it is better to come in prepared like you would be for a ruins rush.

Room Concepts:

• The entrance will always be the same 2x2 room with a telelocator focus in the center with 6 gem slots (more on that later)
• Rooms can contain a key that you need to access different parts of the dungeon
• Secret rooms can be accessed by blowing up a wall with gunpowder or slurtle slime which may contain good loot.
• Rooms can contain: Traps(spikes, mobs, rockfalls, darts), mobs(spiders, nightmares, etc), a chest with randomized loot, a new crafting station(more on that later), unique resources, puzzles(an item in a chest may be required to solve that puzzle), puzzles that requires 2 or more payers to solve (these are optional and leads to more loot but is not a requirement for progression, its to incentivize co-op play) 
• The last room of the last floor will always be a 1x1 room containing a non-raid boss (around 5000hp) guarding the idol room which contains the shadow idol
• Say of you complete the dungeon and pick up the shadow idol, the dungeon will start to collapse. You will have a set amount of time to backtrack and escape while rocks fall from the ceiling. If you don’t make it out in time you will die with all your loot gone and respawn at the dungeon entrance as a ghost. If you do make it out congrats you got the loot and the ENTIRE DUNGEON WILL REGENATE WITH NEW FLOOR AND ROOM LAYOUTS after 5 days (still need to unlock it again though). Fun and repayable!

 

So, what’s the reason/loot in order for me to be incentivized to do this?

• Like I said there are random chest spawns in the dungeon that will contain common helpful items for your survival (like spears, log suits, lamps, gold, nitre, etc)
• New resource called runic rubble can be obtained by mining various statues in the dudgeon, and can be used in the new crafting station found within it.
• Black gems! An extremely rare resource that symbolizes eternity (it counts as a gem so no duping!)
  • Black gems can be infused in to any tool/weapon/item that has durability and reduces durability loss of said item to ¼
  • Can be placed in ice boxes to slow food spoilage by another ½ rate
  • Can be used in the new crafting station
  • Can be obtained by mining the shadow idol which give 3 runic rubble and 2 black gems
  • Can be obtained by mining a rare statue in a secret room for 4 runic rubble and 1 black gem
• Runic crafting station (found in a random room in the shadow temple)
  • Eternal amulet (4 rubble, 1 black gem, 4 nightmare fuel; body slot, lasts 6 min) slows hunger and sanity drain to ½ while and taking damage will do so over time like Wanda, can be refueled with nightmare fuel for 1 min each
  • Staff of eternity (6 rubble, 2 black gems, 2 living logs; 5 uses -50 sanity each) stops any mobs or boss in time for 8 seconds
  • Orb of unchanging (1 thermal stone, 1 black gem, 5 nightmare fuel) a thermal stone that retains temperature for wayyy longer and prevents freezing from wetness (still can break and repaired)
  • Runic coin (1 rubble 1 nightmare fuel) you can consume one to teleport like the lazy explorer
  • Runic Headpiece (8 rubble, 4 nightmare fuel) 85% dmg reduction head armor that last 2x longer than a football helm 
  • Runic armor (10 rubble, 5 nightmare fuel) 80% dmg armor that give a small 5% speed boost (twice as durable as a log suit)
  • Runic pick/axe (pick/axe, 10 rubble, 4 black gems) infinite pick/axe
  • Runic hammer (6 rubble, 4 rocks, hammer) a hammer that breaks structures in one swing
  • Runic mace (6 rubble 3 nightmare fuel) a tentacle spike that has 200 durability

Remember that telelocator focus with 6 gem slots at the beginning, if you place 6 black gems and use a telelocator staff, all survivors standing in the focus will be transported to the TRUE shadow dungeon. A labyrinth consisting of way harder mobs and a raid boss at the end, maybe this unleashes the true power of black gems and the days in the constant go by at ½ speed (still in thought development). 

So what does this solve in the current DST space?

Well, nothing but more content! It gives players more options on what to they want to do early game as well as giving late game players a fresh experience every reset. My aim to to add something to DST that is not static in the world and I think this strikes a good balance between what's expected in a world and unpredictable surprises.

A lot of this is purely conceptual and there is a lot of ideas that need to be fleshed out more (like bosses, rooms, and mobs). I'm open to any feedback so please leave a comment on what you would change and why, or if this is a good concept at all. I love doing these for fun and I will expand on this concept more if we get a good discussion going on.
 

[Hornete]

Aye, while I'm personally not a fan of the main idea, I've always liked the idea of different shaped rooms for interiors, with long rooms, big rooms, maybe L shaped rooms. DST always likes to do a good twist when it gets inspiration from DS content and I always felt differently shaped interiors could be a nice way to set apart interiors in DST if they were to ever come for any purpose.

[mr. brj]

13 minutes ago, Wurtstool said:

ENTIRE DUNGEON WILL REGENATE WITH NEW FLOOR AND ROOM LAYOUTS

Imagine accidentally dropping recraftable character specific items while escaping, like Abigail's flower.

[Wurtstool]

7 minutes ago, mr. brj said:

Imagine accidentally dropping recraftable character specific items while escaping, like Abigail's flower.

Well, your out of luck and need to craft another flower. People know the risk going into and know that they could potentially lose everything. However for character specific items that they can't live without such as Wanda's ageless watch, they respawn with them in their inventory once resurrected.

Oh and for important items such as Ancient key from the guardian, it'll just spawn right outside if you don't make it out. 

[Dextops]

40 minutes ago, Wurtstool said:

your out of luck and need to craft another flower.

you're* your argument has been invalidated