Suggestions for new lands

[archmageomega]

In the latest HyperRogue blog, zeno mentioned sending suggestions for new lands. Well, I've been sitting around doodling in the gameboard mode, so here are a few ideas. (For lands. I don't have any ideas for what orbs or monsters would go in them.)

Feel free to post your ideas here as well.

Flower Garden

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486269301

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486269560

Not really much to say. It's a flower garden. There might be interesting stuff to find down some of the paths.

Boulders and Fissures

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486269929

I was thinking that you could push the boulders into the fissures to create unstable bridges.

Wasteland

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486269811

A mostly empty (at least obstacle-wise) area, except for these abandoned towns. Whatever monsters live in the wasteland would probably come out in force when you disturb the town. (You can probably guess I'm thinking of zombies here.)

Islands and Bridges

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486267871

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486268050

I was trying to work out a way of making an infinite series of islands and bridges. I think I like the first style better, but I'm not sure it'd be easy enough to generate infinitely. The second might be, but it doesn't seem as interesting. (I did see a way to use the symmetry mode to make something like this, but it involved using one color as a big island and a second for bridges, leaving the other two mostly empty.)

The Town of Citysville

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486270373

Well, it looks neat, but I have no idea if you could generate it.

Random Interesting Patterns

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486268503

A bunch of straight lines intersecting at right angles looks pretty interesting. They need three colors to distinguish everything, but you only need a few of the third color. I have no idea how to turn this into a playable land though.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486267388

Another collection of straight lines. This time, they just touch in a fairly regular pattern. The three colors are perfectly balanced here. (Again though, no idea what to do with it.)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486266563

More straight (in a sense) lines. This time, they all just avoid touching. This one actually reminds me a bit of a cathedral for some reason.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=486267101

Finally, some packed circles. The orientation of the green triangles is random since they won't fit together regularly.

(I may have hit a pictures-per-post limit, or at least that's my guess as to why that last picture won't show up. It still works fine if you click on it though.)

[J Pystynen]

I've been thinking about Elemental Planes. They're four independent lands, technically. What if, instead of or in addition to spawning as a cluster, instances could also spawn in "blocked-off" locations?

• Plane of Earth in Living Cave, but always starts off blocked off by living walls entirely;
  
• Plane of Water in the Ocean, but cushioned off by a layer of "outwards Whirlpool";
  
• Plane of Air in the sky in Yendorian Forest, or in the chasms in Dragon Chasms or Reptiles?
  
• Plane of Fire in Land of Power, blocked off by fire?

So you'll need an Orb of Earth to access the first, Orb of Water to access the second. Orbs of Air and Fire wouldn't help with the latter two though, and the easiest way to waltz in will be probably Orb of Aether…

[Patashu]

Don't forget about orb of teleport and possibly other movement-based orbs.

And by luck, you could try your hand at making a slime bridge from an alchemy lab, through a living cave and into the plane of earth, if you're lucky enough.

[Patashu]

Dream World: (60 treasure land)

Overview:
In this land, your field of vision is reduced by lavender clouds which are temporarily revealed at a distance of three steps and become opaque again once they're outside of this range. The floor beneath the clouds should come in a variety of shapes and colours, so you can use them to navigate.

"Travelling mysteries" are dark visible patches that walk through the clouds at a slow speed (like once every other turn to once every four turns). While in this form, they can move through obstacles, but they still path-find around enemies and each other... As soon as they step into a visible tile, they'll transform.

There are a number of things that these entities can transform into. (identity is not predetermined for various important reasons)

For example:

1) Eagles.

2) Fat guard equivalent. Though with one more turn of stun.

3) A group of three hounds, one enemy on the expected position and two more enemies, one for tiles adjacent to it and adjacent to the tile(s) in front of it.

4) Perhaps an invincible enemy with a movement restriction.

These four would normally be impossible to deal with in large numbers, if it weren't for the fact that this land gives you a lot of control over when you encounter something and where you encounter something... However, you can't avoid encountering enemies entirely, because:

5) The travelling mysteries can also turn into treasures, being the only way to get treasures in this land. Since identity is not predetermined, "dipping" can be countered.

There are probably a few more interesting things that these mysteries should turn into.

If an enemy ends up inside of the clouds again, it'll be indicated by a dark patch like a mystery, but it'll retain all of its properties and its identity. If a treasure leaves your view, it will be hidden by the clouds.

There are objects however. Tall spires can stand out from the clouds, while other obstacles like cuttable trees (that are not tall) and chasms, are indicated by off coloured tiles around them, so that if you're fleeing from a cluster of enemies, you have some extra forewarning for obstacles that could potentially end your life.

---

How it gets harder with treasures:

As you collect treasures, the cloud opaqueness starts to vary. Some clouds vanish at a distance of five steps, while some only vanish next to you... It would be annoying to reveal an eagle at a distance, or a hound pack right next to you.

The travelling mystery count also goes up very sharply. Especially since they travel very slowly and the slower ones are even easier to avoid. Though, you do have a big field of vision that you have to avoid with, which becomes more complicated as the opaqueness starts to vary.

Not sure if the environment under the clouds should change, if there should be any other enemies or if any travelling mysteries should have one speed.

The first thought that comes to mind for an extra enemy is one that increases the reveal radius of the surrounding clouds by one, to a max of five.

---

I think this land is suitable for Hyperrogue, because dreams don't always make sense so hyperbolic geometry is a good fit for a dream-like location, just like how R'lyeh is a fit for a similar reason, and due to the nature of the enemies and the environment, having more directions to move in provided by the hyperbolic geometry would be a great help.

The hyperbolic geometry would also mean that there are more tiles contained within a circle, since circle area increases exponentially with radius in this geometry, thus making the sight limitation not too limiting in other regards.

Otherwise, it explores a variation of a topic that people have been interested in, that is limiting the sight radius.

[Patashu]

More potentially octagonal exclusive lands. In this case, it is potentially a unique replacement for ocean.

Such as the Docks/Sea Ports. These straight structures branch out at 90 degree angles from every octagon before eventually ending at sea, with extra disconnected structures easily able to fit between the "branches"

There are some combat challenges that this could offer, as surrounding enemies take complex paths with boats included to get to you at potentially unusual timings, sort of like zebra.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/314739291408564234/386311625331965952/Docto.png

This is how it looks and how it connects to a land. It could connect to multiple lands and still lead out to sea using some kind of distance... Because of this, water should almost always be connected to the ocean, allowing this structure to function as a narrow but functional dock. The water also appears to be straight.

I'm still pushing for octagon mode, for its potential is high and distinct. In this case, this is a demonstration of perfectly straight lines and 90 degree angles, made possible by octagons.

Edit: This design could also be reworked into a labyrinth with breakable walls occasionally connecting two octagons belonging to separate segments, with treasures triggering ambushes.

[tricosahedron]

The dock land idea looks really interesting, I'd love to see such a land in the game! :)

I noticed the line pattern before, it's closely related to this 11-cell pattern:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1188109906
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1189508919

[Patashu]

Here is a really simple idea based on the land of eternal motion, with a fire theme.

Instead of trapdoors dropping in one turn/step, the trapdoors drop anywhere between 1 (the turn you step on it) to a couple of turns, with the potential inclusion of fire/chasms which are effectively 0's. They respond to you and enemies alike (flying enemies excluded)

The trapdoors are indicated by a number, coloured spot or colouration, so the land isn't unpredictable.

It is generated in such a way that no two numbers are generated next to each other.

This idea can easily be made more complex through its enemies and mechanics, though I don't think making it more complex is completely necessary. But for example:

Enemies: such as creatures that only take a step towards you if they're standing on/moving from a chasm/fire, enemies that drop trapdoors with every step regardless of value, enemies that drop all of their surrounding trapdoors on death and enemies that live inside of fires/chasms or ignore them.

Mechanically: there could be more interaction between the floor and fire, like if a floor of a certain value is surrounded by more fires than its value, it becomes fire. There could be floors that explode into the surrounding tiles (great against enemies, bad for you). There could be tiles that continue counting down after you (or enemy) step off of them. There could be tiles that start counting down within a distance of you or possibly in sight (they probably have a value greater than 8).

This can give it the complexity to become a 60 or 90 treasure land rather than a 30 treasure land... The possibilities are quite vast.

I call this land: Scorched Earth, a land of unstable tiles ready to burst into flames.

Edit: Made some additions to potential mechanical changes.

[Fulgur14]

Snake Nest

This land only exists in tilings that have three even polygons at each vertex (Euclidean, (6,6,8), (8,8,6) and (8,8,8)), In these tilings, the tiles can be uniformly colored in three colors so that all three colors are present at every vertex.

The main enemy type are Garter Snakes. Garter Snakes have stripes in two colors and they are restricted to their two colors -- they can never enter cells of the third color. In addition, they can't leave Snake Nest and (to make it a bit easier), they don't even attack cells they can't enter (unlike Rock Snakes).

There are three types of Garter Snakes (each with one excluded color). All three appear together.

[Fulgur14]

Cathedral

This land uses Warped Sea tiling. The enemies include generic Priests and Bishops, who move diagonally.

[Fulgur14]

Floating Platforms

A "restricted visibility" land. Most tiles are chasms, but some are secretly "floating platforms". Floating platforms appear when someone is next to them or when stands on them, but fall again when they move away, so you always only see platforms next to you and enemies. You have to navigate the maze of platforms and chasms.

To make it easier, platforms could always stay up once revealed, which would make this land a bit similar to Minefield.

Platforms are revealed based on pressure sensors, so enemies that don't walk on the ground won't trigger them.

[Fulgur14]

Megaturtle

Megaturtle unlocks by saving a Tortoise.

Megaturtle appears in the ocean. It's shaped like a big ellipse. It has four legs, a head and a tail. Legs and tail can be walked upon, they are a form of a shore. The shell, however, uses Red Rock height mechanic, with most of it being height 2 and the central portion has height 3. The whole turtle is surrounded by an accessible "shell rim" so the player wouldn't be dependent on finding a limb.
Barnacles appear as enemies on the "shore". They work like Red Trolls -- they leave a height-1 shell after they die.
The top of the shell has patterns drawn on it, being divided into concentric ellipses and each ellipse is divided into more-or-less equal segments.
The goal of this land is to get to the Megaturtle's head. It requires navigating the shell, as the head itself has height 2 throughout and so it can't be entered directly from the sea.

On top of the head is the Turtle Shrine. You don't have to collect anything, you just go in there and you're awarded the Turtle Blessing which counts as a treasure.

The Orb is the Orb of Calm Seas. When active, water creatures like Krakens or Sharks (and even Water Elementals) will be nonhostile, and you will be able to ignore the currents in the Whirlpool. However, monsters who use boats (like Pirates) will still be hostile. In addition, if you attack a nonhostile water monster, you will instantly lose all charges.

[Fulgur14]

The Imaginarium

This land is a plain that generates a lot of monsters. The catch is that only half of them are real -- half is imaginary. Imaginary monsters still chase you, though they can't harm you. You can move through them, pushing them to the cell you left (though you can't enter their cell from further afar by teleporting etc.)

The treasures are Imagination Figments. Whenever you pick up a Figment, real monsters become imaginary and vice verssa.

Apart from monsters, there are also walls, both real and imaginary. You can move through imaginary walls, but the imaginary monsters can't. This is so you have a way to lose the imaginary monsters pursuing you so they wouldn't kill you once you collect the next Figment and make them real.

[Fulgur14]

The Abyss

Gravity land with gravity leading away from the Great Wall.
The rim of the land (next to Great Wall) isn't affected by gravity.
Once you jump in further, there are no platforms. You are always falling. You must maneuver while falling to collect the necessary treasures and avoid the monsters. Monsters fly so they maneuver better than you.
The only way out is to collect Orb of Safety. To make it easier, every 30th or so layer contains many Orbs of Safety.

[J Pystynen]

Originally posted by Fulgur14:

The Abyss

Gravity land with gravity leading away from the Great Wall.
The rim of the land (next to Great Wall) isn't affected by gravity.
Once you jump in further, there are no platforms. You are always falling. You must maneuver while falling to collect the necessary treasures and avoid the monsters. Monsters fly so they maneuver better than you.
The only way out is to collect Orb of Safety. To make it easier, every 30th or so layer contains many Orbs of Safety.

Add a few Air Elementals or the like for improved mobility / decreased mobbability, and I'm in. Treasures would float in place, I presume?

"Goomba-stompable" enemies will be perhaps also work as a mobility addition: maybe you can move off of them to kill them (in a flail-guard-ish fashion), or maybe they just give you 2-3 charges of Aether upon being killed.

Award: Orb of Gliding? Allows you to move parallel to gravity (but not upwards), perhaps also over chasms; comes with a good number of charges.

[Patashu]

The Abyss suggestions are making me think about Downwell...

http://store.steampowered.com/app/360740/Downwell/

[hotdogPi]

Checkers-based land: Instead of attacking the enemies native to this land normally, you jump over them to remove them. When you jump over an enemy, it does not use a turn, meaning you can chain jumps. Treasures are scattered, as usual. There will be a LOT of these enemies, though.