Idea for another type of floor

[argh226]

Hey guys,
I would like to add an idea for a type of floor. Id go with some of the Aliens movie related creature.

You could get a kind of lair of egg that would eventually let the spider like creature to roam around the dungeon for heroes. Also, it could hatch right away when heroes goes by the egg. You could get from that different creatures up to maybe the legendary Queen.

How does it sound ?

[Jake]

I am definitely a fan of nods to other pop-culture stuff where it can be made to fit thematically =). We have one spidery egg nest area, so the assets aren't a stretch to make something Alien-esque; we might not cast them as aliens, though. They could be spider demons, perhaps--black, soul-stealing, monstrosities, with needle-like appendages and more teeth than all spiders ever combined (divide by zero!). They are part demon, so we can definitely get away with a xenomorphish form-factor.

I feel like the Dark Eleves should probably be involved in all advanced spider-themed floors. The build path would likely be Gossamer Gallows + Dark Dwelling + [1st or 2nd tier demon floor] -> This floor.

Making an egg trap that hatches on players is a possibility, but I am not sure if we should make that the basis for recruiting minions on this floor. If we did go that route, do we perhaps have tiny spider demons hatch, and if they defeat something, they'll transform that thing into a larger demon, and then maybe if that demon kills something, it transforms again, until they reach "Queen" status? The disadvantage with the trap method is that we would have to balance it against the minion mechanics of other floors. If the trap produces multiple minions, then either they will all have to die before you can build another egg trap (and that would suck if you had one that leveled up, preventing you from rebuilding), or there would have to be multiple traps, each producing just one minion--in which case, why not just allow players to buy the minions normally?

I know it would be cool to have them burst out, but I want to make sure it makes sense balance-wise, too =).

[ThirdAnguis]

I really like the idea of a minion that grows in power the more heroes it defeats. Even if you don't use it in this floor, you should use that mechanic somewhere!

[argh226]

The "Queen" could need eggs to keep alive for example, the need to eat eggs in order to stay there. If it’s that powerful, it could get a counter like thing and then die.
This way by eating the smaller one would make sure there won’t be 10 Queens wiping the whole dungeon, although I'm not sure how it would work...

Also the weaklings/spider thing could be very weak but could hold heroes off while other creatures beat the cr*p out of it.

[Vryl]

Just a possibility for how this can go forward without someone issuing a cease and desist order... how about if the demon eats fallen heroes, growing larger and stronger as it feeds? You could still have the small and weak creature that turns into a hero-destroying behemoth in time, and it will be different enough that there should be no worries of Brandywine Productions or 20th Century Fox suing.

[Jake]

Just a possibility for how this can go forward without someone issuing a cease and desist order... how about if the demon eats fallen heroes, growing larger and stronger as it feeds? You could still have the small and weak creature that turns into a hero-destroying behemoth in time, and it will be different enough that there should be no worries of Brandywine Productions or 20th Century Fox suing.

They couldn't sue even based on my outline above; the things I've described (spindly, spidery demons emerging from eggs, as spiders do) are clearly not Xenomorphs, and honestly, the Alien brand is pretty routinely parroted--and *much* more closely than here. I don't know if the property holders are prone to suing, but I can't imagine that they have had much litigative success, because the world is rampant with Alien-esque IPs; it may be an iconic brand, but brands become less defensible as they become more generic.

Our stuff will be different enough anyway; I don't plan to mimic any Alien designs that closely =).

[Vryl]

Just a possibility for how this can go forward without someone issuing a cease and desist order... how about if the demon eats fallen heroes, growing larger and stronger as it feeds? You could still have the small and weak creature that turns into a hero-destroying behemoth in time, and it will be different enough that there should be no worries of Brandywine Productions or 20th Century Fox suing.

They couldn't sue even based on my outline above; the things I've described (spindly, spidery demons emerging from eggs, as spiders do) are clearly not Xenomorphs, and honestly, the Alien brand is pretty routinely parroted--and *much* more closely than here. I don't know if the property holders are prone to suing, but I can't imagine that they have had much litigative success, because the world is rampant with Alien-esque IPs; it may be an iconic brand, but brands become less defensible as they become more generic.

Our stuff will be different enough anyway; I don't plan to mimic any Alien designs that closely =).

Fair enough. Sorry for getting nervous about it, I just don't want to see something happen to the game.

[Jake]

[This thread has been moved to the new Spare Concepts subforum, as it has not been backed yet.]

Sorry if I was a little zealous about defending the idea as-is; I just want to make sure people aren't too worried about copyright infringement. I'd like this to be the kind of game where we can make a bunch of tiny references to other things. This should be quite legal in a limited capacity; no one can claim that I am profiting off of the Alien brand by having one tiny section that sort of resembles it, and that is what the law is designed to protect them from =).

Having the Queen eat smaller ones would require us to allow a lot of smaller ones; I think we should limit the number that can be in play to maybe five. A cap on the number of little ones would also limit the big ones. The Queen could still run on a hunger model like some other big units--she would require feeding (flesh cost) every so often, or else she would go into a dormant state.

If we go the trap route, perhaps rather than blocking the trap from being built if there are still active demons, we should make it so buying a new egg trap will kill all of the demons in play. This way, if all but one demon is remaining, and you want to start a fresh batch, you can do so. We can make remaining demons detonate or something (causing damage and generating some flesh and bone tiles--maybe an item), so that their deaths aren't a complete waste.