Many old,active players in our social network groups conplain that with the playing time accumulating, the game itself has become much less challenging even when they accelerate the evaluation speed or set monster resilience to really high. As a matter of fact, the current monster options don’t play a decisive role when it comes to extending the game life since high resilience only leads to more attack times but not more playing style(a thicker sandbag is still sandbag), and high speed isn’t that dangerous when traps or slimes or mounted lazer weapons are used.
Thus we come up with an idea that, since we already have the "monster speed"and “monster resilience” adjustments in world options, why not add more options such as “monster armor” or “monster strength” that can be set by ourselves? Imagine a soldier zombie with 2 times of armor or a child zombie that can break the wall within 2 turns, how can we beat these monsters? Thinking about new strategys would be necessary here, which I guess should bring more fun to hardcore players.
Sounds pretty fun! Shouldn’t be too hard to implement either, just need to change the strength/armor property of the mon object. Can’t wait to try this out in my next hardcore world
I’d rather have there be a couple of extra layers of monster evolutions for more enemy variation as well as a few more boss monsters like the jabberwock. Make them naturally spawn with a chance of wandering around the map so that there’s a chance they’ll get to you before you’re ready. If more bosses are added then they should evolve as well.
Bosses who consist of multiple tiles would also be nice. Examples:
Gigantic blob: Several big blobs merged into one. 3x3 tiles large, can change form to go squeeze through tight spaces, and each section has to be defeated individually. Apart from spawning naturally they can also come into being if 9 big blobs actually get together in a 3x3 array. Evolved version could be acidic or have spikes. You know what, adding acidic or spiked blobs in the game would be nice aditions on their own. Reward for defeating it? More blob globs than 3 military rucksacks would allow.
Humongous serpent: A snake 12 tiles long. Termendously high pierce and poison damage from the head. Rest of the body does some contact bash damage if the head is aware of the player, and the tail can flick the player away several tiles if the head is aware of the player. Head cannot attack diagonally backwards or directly backwards. “Back” is determined from where the body part connected to it is. All parts die if the head dies. All parts connected to the head bleed and moves slower proportionally to how many of its body sections are left. if any of the body sections are seperated from the chain that starts at the head then they turn into impassable meat, bone and fat walls that the player can axe or saw apart for the materials but will rot away eventually. Head doesn’t live long at all, only a few turns, if diconnected from the section directly behind it and cannot attack. Dead head can be dissected for venom glands that would be used for flesh-eating venom-laced arrows, and its teeth that would be used for various weapon designs that deal mostly pierce damage. All parts, if butchered or hacked apart, will give large scales that would be used in light-weight armour construction. Maybe the scales can also be used for snake mutagen.
New-England bull worm: Like the snake, but found underground and digs through tiles as it moves with a tunnel-making AI that will make sure it won’t just hollow out the earth but actually make passages. 3x20 large. It’s not directly dangerous and is slow but it can swallow you and bite a bit on you as you’re swallowed if you’re in its way and then you’ll have to deal with being inside it with stomach acid burning you at every step. Your character’s position will be automatically updated depending on how it moves, like how you can go about on a moving vehicle. How do you get out? Hack your way through its innards’ walls or if you want to kill it then attack its heart.
XLART: The Extra Large Armoured Robot Tank, you basically have to fight an armoured vehicle with several turrets, one massive gun, and an electrified hull. 5x7 large. Reward? Depending on how you beat it, vehicle parts or lots of metal rare materials.
Underwater is also a bit lacking in danger, so that could also get some nice additions so that the option of swimming away from this horde has the potential of being just as dangerous as running away from them, though if there are sea monsters and the like then I haven’t encountered them.