Debonair Dungeons: The Stygian Shallows

#1

Never thought this would finally be complete, but here we are!

The Stygian Shallows is a late-game dungeon based around an archipelago of Hadean islands, whose tides constantly shift the landmass. As the center of the many underworld rivers, its water is deadly to mortals and even standing foot in it will cause characters to become Quieted, and the tides can become so high as to completely swallow some pathways around the islands.

But why go on and on, when you can explore for yourself?

Also Reddit thread for important wizard reasons

Ruins of Chaos-New late game dungeon
Best of the Best Nominations - December 2017
#2

okay, first beef I have with the document within 5 seconds of looking at it:

the thing is wider than my screen, I don’t like scrolling sideways back and forth every line.
in fact, I’m not even sure I’m willing to put up with that long enough to read everything.

sorry :confused:

#3

:open_mouth:

IT’S OUT!

Well, I like the formatting and all, but it’s better for items and such. I can see why people don’t necessarily enjoy it, but I’m fine with it.

Onto the dungeon itself.

I really like it! The bosses seem nice, especially Eurynomos and his shapeshifting and the entire idea of the Stygian Canal. I have 2 minor qualms, and those are subjective: the enemies are a bit simple, and the bosses lack dialogue. Those are just my opinions on it. I think that it’s great, other than that. Of course, the art is also great.

The items are nice. I really like the Colossal Skull, for one.

My major issue is the tracking bullets and Colossal Skull effect, and how they’re not really possible. However, those could possibly be added, given time.

Overall
Great dungeon! I like it a ton. 8/10.

Bonus

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I think these are great bullet names.

Ego increased to 100

#4

How about you use your brain and zoom out twice, lmao.

#5

To be actually on topic, this is an amazing, well thought out dungeon. Love the theme and flavour behind it, particularly with the amazing secret boat ride/boss fight area! The only bones I have to pick is the large amount of “trash” loot you can get (T3 rings, purple bag loot) which doesn’t scream like END-GAME loot to me. And, the lack of dialogue done by the bosses combined with the confusing and complex phases could confuse a lot of players

#6

To be fair, if you zoom out then it’s probably too small to read.

A lack of dialogue is a fair point, however. I do intend to polish the dungeon over time and such suggestions are helpful, although I’m going to be devoured by a hurricane in a few days, so I wanted to at least post the idea before I’m making any more preparations.

Excuses, excuses, I know.

#7

This look like from dazar

#8

Cmon man, don’t be fair with Xaklor, refusing to read it and bothering to post that he’s not going to read it is just rude and cocky. Also, zooming out is completely fine with me, it’s a much cleaner layout in general than the usual documents made for dungeons, so having to press two keys to zoom out twice is fun by me

#9

Oh THAT’s where your Profpic came from. nice!
##Dungeon Gimmick
Oh, boy Quiet! My favvvvvvvv…rrrr…
If nothing else, it sure makes for an interesting gimmick, especially that deep water slowly suffocating you while you dip into it. Confusion sounds deadly here. Priest’s healing is going to take a day off here.

The Boat Ride sounds cool! Try your best to avoid being paralyzed, so you don’t get swallowed by the waters.
What would make it cooler is if the tiles spawned by Oarsman would slowly drag you towards the boat’s direction, at about the same speed as the boat to create the illusion of “moving in a boat”. Perhaps have the tiles be animated too from being water into being raft and vice versa to add to that illusion!

##Monster

Let’s see here… the stygian hydra sounds interesting to fight, so props for that.

Mr. Shapeshifter’s gimmick would probably be not very dangerous if the number of props decrease over time. Perhaps have a phase where he “resets” the board via many AoEs?

The Monster Momma and the Whirlpool! Interesting choice here… would you make Monster Momma angry by killing the other, or would you tank through the many obstacles to defeat her.

##Items
Ohh, momma. That shield is oddly balanced? I do like the concept behind it and the execution.

The skull sounds brutal for mid-game dungeon, but pretty useless on late game/end game since peeps could just shoot at it. 1000-ish damage is only about a second of firing from the Necro, after all.

The Staff Dbow sounds very powerful, especially with only 5 as arc gap. I wonder what’s the frequency and amplitude?

Orb sounds good, but the stasis duration and radius is not included?

Robe and ring, defense and survavibility. A bit similar to Shendyt in concept, but unique buffs.

The Confusion Juice sounds interesting, but in those dungeons I imagine priests would be around to heal. It would make my trek through the mad lab’s green gas room more enjoyable.

###Closing
Really cool idea, and I love the formatting. Makes it so much easier to understand. Here’s a little “reward”!

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A background wallpaper for your phone that you never knew you wanted.

#10

Do it

#11

I like it. The design is creative, and it has a good theme. Sprites for the bosses are appropriately shaded, and I don’t think the dungeon on the whole would violate Realm’s aesthetic, unlike some dungeons coughcough mountain temple coughcough

While it’s hard to get creative with staves, or whatever they’re called, I think that the Oar is of a particularly lazy design. Sprite is creative, but it follows the typical Ut Stave thought process. “if it does lots of damage, maybe moves funky, and shoots slow, it’s hard to use, therefore balanced and a new concept” I think you can get a little more creative with it :stuck_out_tongue:

Overall, 8.6/10 Like it a lot, some new funky concepts, especially that water yo.

#12

ouch :fearful:

and I didn’t say I wouldn’t read it, I said I won’t go super in-depth and read everything. I’m just not in a position atm where I can type everything that I would say about it because that’ll take a while.

#13

Just zoom out twice, not hard man… It’s actually a much better and much more visually appealing layout than the many dungeon ideas posted on this forum

#14

I’d love to get my hands on that skull… insta-killing anything under 900 HP when at 30 Vit would be fun although it would be hard to predict when the enemy is under 900 HP… a challenge but would be totally satisfying if used correctly!

#15

Did you even read that comment?

#16

Balanced dungeon with unique ideas

And nice sprites
9/10

#17

okay, now I have both the time and the keyboard required to list all my thoughts.

first off:

can you ditch the attitude please? it adds nothing to your stance other than to infuriate others into an argument, so I’m going to ignore anything you or anyone else has to say on that topic in that particular manner.

every format has advantages and disadvantages, and the biggest one of this is that it’s too wide to fit on a typical computer screen. that’s all.

as for the actual dungeon, it’s definitely a lot more complete than a typical idea here on the forums, but there’s still some information missing:

where’s the sprite?

what does “Deafen” do, and why does only eurynomos use it?

how does the stygian canal connect to the rest of the dungeon? does it just branch off the starting island? there’s not quite as much detail regarding the connections between the three sections and how they all fit together, I have a general idea of how it works but the details could use some elaboration.

a lot of the enemies are missing how exactly they attack. what are this guy’s attacks anyway? the bullets are listed but how they’re used is not, a lot of enemies have this problem.

the gorgon shield sacrifices half a second of stun, for 4 and a half seconds of paralyze. that’s a bit much when you consider that this shield alone can completely disable most enemies. the loss of damage isn’t really that important tbh, I would drop the stun entirely as 4.5s of paralyze alone is pretty big.

charon’s robe is too similar to the soulless robe for my tastes, I would increase the mp penalty and increase the atk slightly.

all the other items are fine, and I like the bottled madness.

in short: great dungeon but could do with more details, particularly on enemy behavior.

#18

Amazing dungeon, but I have a couple questions about some of the enemies. For the shapeshifters, how do they interact with the former characters? Do the formers just disappear and get absorbed? Also, wouldn’t it be easy to just paralyze formers and stop them from interacting with the shapeshifters, as they aren’t immune to paralyze or any other effects?

#19

I suppose I take it for granted that I have a rather wide screen, though I made it this width because nobody had any complaints about it in the Dapper Ideas doc.

Eur-onimo!! was supposed to have a sprite, and I did reupload a new one now, but I think I accidentally deleted it at some point.

Deafen has been replaced with Confusion, because I had the idea for a new status ailment but decided against it. Deafen was supposed to be a debuff that cancels out any buffs while also preventing the player from being able to acquire new ones, similar to Quiet.

Once Eurynomos is defeated, the marina that the players originally spawn near will have Charon docked. Players can use Charon’s Coin on or around him, and he essentially turns into a portal into the Stygian Canal. From there, the Canal and the boss chamber is on the same map, and if it weren’t for the expanse of deadly water everywhere, the player could theoretically walk up to the boss island and back.

I wasn’t sure how much detail to add on the attacks for minor enemies, but there’s no harm in mentioning the frequency of attacks, at least.

Gorgon Shield is a big stickler for a lot of people, so it definitely needs to be revisited. I’m thinking of going back to a previous concept and making it Stasis enemies, but there’s also the new Petrification to play around with; maybe making it petrify for 2 seconds and stun for an extra 0.5 will make it less redonkulous, as well as a little truer to the Greek legends that it borrowed from.

Good idea on Charon’s Robe. Can’t really think of much else to say.

I think it’ll be a few iterations before I can make something nearly as detailed and well-developed as any of your dungeons, so I appreciate the criticism tremendously!

@Pokemonha

You know the Phylactery Bearers that help heal up their Lich masters? It’s similar to that, but you are correct that they disappear after healing Eurynomos.

That’s also the intent; Formers need to be kept in check that they don’t wander too close to the boss or any Shapeshifter Ghouls. Keeping them paralyzed forever won’t do the trick though, as Eury will leap around at players frequently.

#20

as thematically appropriate as that would be, I’d like to remind you that petrify is no different from stun + paralyze in unison, and that particular combination is what I find more concerning than the paralysis time.

everyone starts somewhere, and this is at least a strong start. idk if anyone here saw it but the first incarnation of the nameless void was a mere two pages at best! what matters the most is how far you’re willing to improve. :slightly_smiling_face: