Hi! I was bored and noticed a discussion on the potential of a rework for the Tomb of the Ancients going on in the official RotMG discord. I had a random idea and ran with it, here’s what I came up with:
This idea for the Tomb turns it into more of a set-map dungeon similar to the Cave of a Thousand Treasures, Oryx’s Sanctuary, and The Shatters. I didn’t intend to make it as difficult as O3 or Shatters, necessarily. There is still room for variation within some of the rooms, so each run of the dungeon can be somewhat different.
The first room is the entrance. At the bottom of the map (or maybe Deca would choose to make it go from left to right, who knows), players spawn in here, as will a Portal of Cowardice. A simple room, dimly lit with torches, and some neat hieroglyphics on the walls. Maybe a crumbled pillar or two.
At the top of the room is a destructible sandstone wall. Players will break through it to access The Antechamber, a large empty room with a single pedestal in the center, yielding a large, bright crystal.
The Antechamber is the Tomb’s defense mechanism, designed by Bes the Protector. If the crystal in the center were removed or destroyed, the room would collapse, keeping any would-be Tomb Robbers trapped inside.
Shooting the crystal will begin to break it. This starts a gauntlet similar to the Tablets room of the Shatters, as the room around begins to crumble, disturbing the enemies slumbering in the walls.
There are snakes that throw damaging bombs and shoot bullets that inflict Bleed; swarms of Scarabs (similar to the existing scarabs in current Tomb) that try to sit on players and inflict paralysis; and Scorpions that will aggressively lunge at players firing small bullets that inflict Armor Break, and a large, high-damage single Pincer bullet.
All the while as the room is “crumbling”, stones will fall from the ceiling with a red indicator circle showing when they will land. These inflict moderate armor-piercing damage, similar to the Holy Beams in O3 or the Crushers in Steamworks, though not as deadly. These will also daze players hit by them. Additionally, they leave behind patches of Quicksand, which gradually slow players that walk through (just like in the current Tomb).
Players must continue to shoot at the crystal to get it to fully shatter. Once it does, all remaining enemies will de-spawn, the quicksand on the floor will turn into regular sand, and the door to the next room will crumble away, leading players into The Gardens.
The Gardens were the cultivation of Nut’s healing magic. Fountains brought forth healing water, nourishing the plant and animal life around it. Once Nut fell dormant, the fountains became corrupted, and its influence can best be seen by the aggressive change in nature of the flora and fauna now found here.
The Gardens have become overgrown, the fountains of water have crumbled and their waters now spill forth in rivers across the narrow, winding path through the room. Once a boon, the waters now Sicken players that stand within (similar to the Toxic Sewers).
There is a fixed path that leads to the end of the room, but there are also hidden paths blocked off by destructible plants (similar to the destructible walls in the Parasite Chambers). These paths can lead to un-corrupted Healing Fountains, hidden Treasure Sarcophagi, or an ambush of Corrupted Jackals that have found their home in the gardens. Along the main path, there are stationary, corrupted plant enemies that fire a variety of shots at players, inflicting status effects such as Slow, Silence, and Curse.
The intention of the Gardens is to keep the spirit of the original Tomb being a dungeon that can be rushed. Players could clear together, or a single player could rush from the beginning to the end and allow all other players to teleport, skipping a significant portion of the dungeon.
At the end of the Gardens is another sandstone wall. Destroying it will lead into the final chamber.
As time passed, the gods Bes, Geb, and Nut were slowly forgotten and abandoned by most worshippers. Angered by this betrayal, the trio became wrathful. To prevent the old gods from clashing with the new, their former acolytes now perform inhibition ceremonies on a sarcophagus, trapping them in the sands of time. (This is the Realm Eye’s description of the gods, modified for your reading cohesion.)
In the final chamber, Bes, Geb, and Nut lie dormant in stasis, seated at the north end of the room. In the center is a single Sarcophagus, surrounded by four acolytes who are busy performing their ritual to keep the gods at bay. They will activate one at a time to attack the players as a sort of mini-boss fight, and once all four are defeated, the players can attack and destroy the central Sarcophagus to awaken the gods and begin the main boss fight.
(In the graphic I showed at the start of this post, I got lazy and simply denoted the enemies by the first letter of their names; B is Bes, G is Geb, N is Nut, P is Priest, S is Sarcophagus, and the circles with X’s inside are pillars).
Anyways, this is all I have so far, but if it gets good reception I could maybe work on the enemy designs, boss fight, etc. What do you guys think?
