0007740: Hidden Rooms/Destroyable Walls - Arcen Idea Tracker (Bugs and Features)

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0007740	Valley 1	Suggestion - Room Ideas/Complaints		May 11, 2012 12:01 pm	Jul 19, 2012 2:50 am

Reporter	Remliel	Assigned To
Status	considering	Resolution	open

Summary	0007740: Hidden Rooms/Destroyable Walls
Description	Another classic feature that could add something to the exploration function of the game. Secret doors to connect rooms, as well as walls and floors that looks normal but can be destroyed. Perhaps they can even be keyed to specific elemental damage types for the breakables so you have a reason to carry a variety? Along with this you could put in a spell to enchant to reveal the breakables and secrets, perhaps in an x-ray style cone projection, or a 'spotlight' around the cursor. Perhaps hidden rooms could be a new room type that might show up on the dungeon map at a different distance (1 instead of 2 levels?) to hint that there might be something there. Perhaps stashes in them could be slightly better to incentivize finding them.
Tags	No tags attached.

Internal Weight	Feature Suggestion

Izumi5 May 11, 2012 12:33 pm reporter ~0024053	Being stash room isn't enough for trouble finding... maybe a room with an arcane ingredients?

Remliel May 11, 2012 2:22 pm reporter ~0024074	That's a possibility. I don't know what the devs would think about that though, as the AIs are generally supposed to be explicitly mission drops, right? Still, if they're cool with that, I am totally down. It'd give me another way to get those blasted Charred Amber. ;)

Izumi5 May 11, 2012 2:30 pm reporter ~0024076	I think they say no to AIs (which I almost mistook for Artificial Intelligence :D ). What I mentioned is only about the incentive for the players. There's low possibility of this addition of secret rooms... and I don't care whether they add the rooms.

Matthew Carras Jul 18, 2012 4:30 pm reporter ~0026891	I never find rooms hidden behind crates (and other background/foreground objects). Wouldn't that be awesome? Especially vents/cracks! You could even make it so these rooms don't automatically show up on the Region Map unless you have that +1 to Scouting.

BenMiff Jul 18, 2012 4:59 pm reporter ~0026893 Last edited: Jul 18, 2012 5:00 pm	I'd say these should always be stash, mission or rescue rooms so they're worth finding. I'm also inclined to say that floors / walls would be problematic given the way maps seem to work; however, hiding them in the "background" wall should be feasible. (New door type that looks like the background until damaged by a background-targeting-spell, at which point the door is revealed.) I'm inclined to say that the door should have a hint beyond the minimap, though; thinking back to some of the ways Doom hid its secret doors, you could have some use a (slightly) altered background so you can spot them if you're sharp eyed, raise the floor (or ceiling) next to them slightly so there's a visible "bump", or just hide arrows pointing at them a background object. I'd disagree with making them pointed out only if you have +1 dungeon scouting, though, since secret rooms would be a big enough addition that limiting their visibility that severely wouldn't be fun. Letting the hint appear further away should still be enough incentive.

Pyrrhic Jul 18, 2012 9:42 pm reporter ~0026902 Last edited: Jul 18, 2012 9:45 pm	I would make hidden rooms as visible as any other rooms on the Region Map; otherwise, players might feel like they "have" to scout 1 room closer than usual, just to check if there are hidden rooms - which in a way is like nerfing everyone's scouting range, which I don't think anyone would like. I'm thinking that the so-called hidden rooms would be perfectly normal yellow rooms (mission rooms, stash rooms, etc). The rooms before them, though, would be special: let's say they're colored blue on the Region Map. They'll be called something like "Secret Rooms", their description reading something like "a room that can be entered easily enough, but whose connected stash rooms can only be entered by carefully searching for and discovering their entrances" (with less words than that, I figure). Upon entering these blue rooms, players will get a Hidden Tutorial Message like: "You've entered a Secret Room! These rooms always connect to Stash or Mission Rooms, but have hidden the entrances to them. Disover them by [whatever method(s?) the devs end up using]. Good luck!" With regards to just how the entrances will be hidden - I personally don't feel too strongly about however it's done. Just as long as the player doesn't have to expend a ton of frustrating effort to uncover the rooms.

doubtful Jul 19, 2012 2:50 am reporter ~0026913	I very much like the idea of /some/ form of hidden rooms--hiding them in the background layer as some have suggested seems best to me due to the static/immutable nature of most rooms' floors and walls. I hate crates, I really do, they rarely serve any purpose except to get in the way, with the occasional benefit added to a combat-y mission room like boss rooms due to monster collision. I'd rather see "secret" stuff hidden in a more clever, less obvious "look behind all crates for "secrets" fashion. :) I just recently started playing Metroid 3 on SNES, and this definitely reminded me of how many secrets Metroid games have. :)

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
May 11, 2012 12:01 pm	Remliel	New Issue
May 11, 2012 12:33 pm	Izumi5	Note Added: 0024053
May 11, 2012 2:22 pm	Remliel	Note Added: 0024074
May 11, 2012 2:30 pm	Izumi5	Note Added: 0024076
May 12, 2012 9:00 am	tigersfan	Internal Weight	=> Feature Suggestion
May 12, 2012 9:00 am	tigersfan	Status	new => considering
Jul 18, 2012 4:30 pm	Matthew Carras	Note Added: 0026891
Jul 18, 2012 4:59 pm	BenMiff	Note Added: 0026893
Jul 18, 2012 5:00 pm	BenMiff	Note Edited: 0026893
Jul 18, 2012 9:42 pm	Pyrrhic	Note Added: 0026902
Jul 18, 2012 9:45 pm	Pyrrhic	Note Edited: 0026902
Jul 18, 2012 9:45 pm	Pyrrhic	Note Edited: 0026902
Jul 18, 2012 9:45 pm	Pyrrhic	Note Edited: 0026902
Jul 19, 2012 2:50 am	doubtful	Note Added: 0026913