Multiple Towns
Posted: Tue 29.07.2008, 05:31
Here's an idea that I've had for a long time that I just want to throw out for discussion:
We could have more than one town. That is, on the world map, there could be distinct, geographically separated towns. For instance, there could be a town north of the current one, on an island or island chain. Maybe to the northeast there could be a town dug into the mountains. Somewhere way out there, a desert town filled with brown dirt tiles and scattered rocks and granite pillars could serve as another alternative to Mangband's normal town.
Obviously, multiple towns would have to be reconciled with the single dungeon in the game, but I have a possible solution: each town has a down staircase leading to the same dungeon, and going up on 50ft places the player in the town they were in last.
To move from town to town, players would have to either walk (or swim) through the wilderness, or there might be some kind of more expedient transportation, like a scroll that teleported players from town to town.
The monster sets in the towns could be different too. For instance, a jungle town deep in a forest might have large numbers of fruit bats that spawn periodically, sweep through town, and disappear into the wilderness. The aforementioned distant desert town could have orcs and low leveled fire monsters in it. Some towns might have a different collection of town-dwellers. For instance, the desert town might have mostly aimless looking merchants, mean looking mercenaries, and battle scarred veterans (along with the occasional hill orc or snaga), to reflect the harsher environment of the desert.
Obviously, some towns would be less welcoming to new players. This could be a good thing, and some towns could have shops that catered to different levels and kinds of player. Maybe there could be a town that had a higher frequency of the "tough" raced shopkeepers (half trolls, etc) and sold large inventories of weapons, but had understocked magic shops. Something like this might be a good chance to bring in kobold shopkeepers: a mountain-built town could have exclusively kobold shopkeepers, for instance.
Although I don't think that this could realistically be implemented without a lot of work, I think it is an interesting idea worthy of some contemplation.
Discuss.
We could have more than one town. That is, on the world map, there could be distinct, geographically separated towns. For instance, there could be a town north of the current one, on an island or island chain. Maybe to the northeast there could be a town dug into the mountains. Somewhere way out there, a desert town filled with brown dirt tiles and scattered rocks and granite pillars could serve as another alternative to Mangband's normal town.
Obviously, multiple towns would have to be reconciled with the single dungeon in the game, but I have a possible solution: each town has a down staircase leading to the same dungeon, and going up on 50ft places the player in the town they were in last.
To move from town to town, players would have to either walk (or swim) through the wilderness, or there might be some kind of more expedient transportation, like a scroll that teleported players from town to town.
The monster sets in the towns could be different too. For instance, a jungle town deep in a forest might have large numbers of fruit bats that spawn periodically, sweep through town, and disappear into the wilderness. The aforementioned distant desert town could have orcs and low leveled fire monsters in it. Some towns might have a different collection of town-dwellers. For instance, the desert town might have mostly aimless looking merchants, mean looking mercenaries, and battle scarred veterans (along with the occasional hill orc or snaga), to reflect the harsher environment of the desert.
Obviously, some towns would be less welcoming to new players. This could be a good thing, and some towns could have shops that catered to different levels and kinds of player. Maybe there could be a town that had a higher frequency of the "tough" raced shopkeepers (half trolls, etc) and sold large inventories of weapons, but had understocked magic shops. Something like this might be a good chance to bring in kobold shopkeepers: a mountain-built town could have exclusively kobold shopkeepers, for instance.
Although I don't think that this could realistically be implemented without a lot of work, I think it is an interesting idea worthy of some contemplation.
Discuss.