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Does anyone actually LIKE sewer dungeons? I really feel like I should scrap this whole dungeon :_:

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Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
I've never had a problem with them.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
>.> My current RPG has a sewer dungeon (in the works)
Better, make a 'forest maze' version of a sewer dungeon (multiple cross shaped rooms that constitute a confusing maze), every room has encounters with bats that blind you for maximum annoyance, trust me I know a really good RPG that had this exact type of dungeon
Twilight Princess's sewer prison thing is one of my all-time favorite environments.
I just find it hard to be creative with a sewer dungeon, plus every map I make looks ugly as sin. I've always avoided making them before. All I can come up with is "this switch raises and lowers the water level".

It's the penultimate dungeon, so I'll just have to hope players are hooked by this point (or don't ever reach it) haha.
NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6280
author=Little Wing Guy
I just find it hard to be creative with a sewer dungeon, plus every map I make looks ugly as sin. I've always avoided making them before. All I can come up with is "this switch raises and lowers the water level".

If I may make a few suggestions off the top of my head:
- Include areas with polluted/poisonous water that the player has to somehow cleanse first before being able to get past it. Or let the player utilise this poinonous water to destroy certain obstacles (like plants) and kill off enemies that are in the way.
- Give the player a way to interact with vermin and rats and such in the sewer, perhaps even take control over them to reach and explore areas they could not otherwise enter. Alternatively, give the player the option to shrink to the size of a rat and make the place a mixture of normal and miniature dungeon in the style of Minish Cap.
- In addition to rising and lowering the water, allow the player to cause and/or change currents in the water, which makes certain objects or platforms (like rafts, crates, garbage etc.) float to different spots.
- Set enemies to behave and function differently in battle depending on the water level.
- Include an amphibious, reptilian or aquatic character who can move through the water (but maybe not over land, or only some types of land), and add challenges based around getting the whole group to the next area by messing with the water levels and such.

Maybe none of this is useful, but I'm pretty sure you can come up with plenty more thematically appropriate mechanics to add to a sewer dungeon.
I tend to like sewer levels for the most part. I think some people's initial disdain for them comes when sewer levels have been transformed into a type of Water Level. Yeah, hitting switches to change walkable pathways is cool, but if you start swimming around through most of the sewer, bam, water level.
Just don't feel married to the raising the water level gimmick. Also sewers don't always have to be ugly or constrained to its real world function, environments can benefit to some extra twist.

-It's a sewer, but it was built ontop of a forest where the pollution goes into the roots of the trees.
-It's a sewer but it used to be the old version of the city the sewer is currently under
-It's a sewer but it's located next to the sea and somehow ends up as a boat graveyard clogging it up
-It's a sewer but it's completely drained and repurposed for something else.

Going from there it can affect your visual choices and your gameplay decisions.

The convenient trap about sewers is that if your characters need to escape from a populated area the sewers is USUALLY the goto for a quick access to a dungeon. That's something worth utilizing sometimes. Rise of the Third power has the best RPGMaker sewer dungeon. It's really just a basic sewer with rat people monsters and key puzzle fare, however it was a sewer (probably) because it was the quickest way to get into a dungeon after a wedding crash scene dense with enemy guards.
Dyluck
For thousands of years, I laid dormant. Who has disturbed my slumber?
5184
As long as you don't try to make "realistic" sewer lighting, then it's fine.
Final Fantasy Adventure/Seiken Densetsu made me love sewer dungeons.

It had a unique flavor to it for the time, what with all the flowing waterways, bridges, treasure on other sides (so close and yet so far), and the tension building knowledge that this is only the beginning (of the entire Dark Lord's Castle dungeon).

And then there're sewer dungeons like in Legionwood, where the water turns to lava as soon as you enter >.>;;

So I dunno.
It's like any dungeon, really. Do it right.
Chrono Trigger has one of the better sewer dungeons out there - I recommend checking it out if you haven't already.

There are some rather bad sewer levels, but they can also be good. As with most dungeons, make them interesting.
"Its all over, the fishmen attack if I make even the slightest noise..."
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
There are sewer dungeons I like (Chrono Trigger, the first Xenogears sewer dungeon), and there are sewer dungeons I hate (Final Fantasy XII...well...really every Final Fantasy that ever had a sewer dungeon.). It's not so much that you shouldn't include a sewer level because they suck; just, if you make one, don't suck.
TMNT made sewers cool.
If I may make a few suggestions off the top of my head:
- Include areas with polluted/poisonous water that the player has to somehow cleanse first before being able to get past it. Or let the player utilise this poinonous water to destroy certain obstacles (like plants) and kill off enemies that are in the way.
- Give the player a way to interact with vermin and rats and such in the sewer, perhaps even take control over them to reach and explore areas they could not otherwise enter. Alternatively, give the player the option to shrink to the size of a rat and make the place a mixture of normal and miniature dungeon in the style of Minish Cap.
- In addition to rising and lowering the water, allow the player to cause and/or change currents in the water, which makes certain objects or platforms (like rafts, crates, garbage etc.) float to different spots.

Nice suggestions.

Visually, you could try to give it some kind of memorable or dungeon-specific atmosphere so it isn't tedious to trudge through.

Or you could intentionally make it unsettling/grotesque, so the player has an inherent motivation to get out of there etc.

Some visual examples that aren't too awful







Commercial games






Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
LWG wtf have you been




also if you need it for the story i wouldn't sweat it. maybe don't make it super difficult or anything, more a travel dungeon than not? not sure on your pacing/narrative but surely you could stick a more nuanced, longer dungeon optionally before the final dungeon if you really want more chances for xp/loot/whatever.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
it's better than a cave
I'm fine with them as long as they don't stink.
Wow, this sure got a lot more responses than I'd ever hoped for! Some really great advice and tips in here, and just reading through the comments have sparked a lot of ideas for me, so thank you everyone.

I'm definitely going to keep the sewer dungeon now. I feel a lot more confident. NeverSilent, I'm going to nick a couple of your ideas and mix them together.

Thanks a bunch. Love this community!

author=Craze
LWG wtf have you been.

I still hang around on Discord. I never really left, just went quiet - but I always liked seeing your face around :)
Mirak
Stand back. Artist at work. I paint with enthusiasm if not with talent.
9300
I fucking hated ff viii's sewer portion in the first disc pls dont make one like it
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