New player - newbie questions

[Gold♥Shield]

Since this game doesn't really explain anything at all, I'm curious what I'm actually supposed to be focusing on during the missions. It seems the rate at which the heroes enter, grab gold, and admire my gimmicks is pretty slow, so what should I be prioritizing? Should I be spamming a ton of gimmicks to pique their interest with a small pile of gold? What about pentagrams? Should they be put in the way of heroes (seems to just slow them down) or use them to just expand my influence ring? How about digging out portions of the dungeon? I imagine digging out larger swaths of rock means I can create larger areas for adventurers to play in, but it feels rather unimportant at the moment.

Maybe I just wasn't expecting this game to be so slow - maybe it is just slow, I don't know - but it feels like I'm missing something major here. I had no real problems with the first mission, but the second one has been a very slow slog.

[Sagi]

spammimg gimmicks. Expand for as far as you can handle the hero's. Try to keep you monster level the same or slightly above hero level. Collect soul energy as much as possible cuz they make gimmick placement possible. More expensive gimmicks are also more cost efficient.
Try to make all the hero's demands being met and also try to be able to take the full hero's out without getting other hero's interact to much with that.
If you get many hero's together in one place it gets very hard to do this.
Angry hero's who go after the heart are a failure but can also drag other discontent hero's with them and then you will lose.
Hero's are not the enemy, they are your food and you are hungry!

This game has a very very good economy concept for an evil dungeon lord but sadly this mechanic is the only thing the game has to offer.
Dungeons the dark lord has a fun campaign story tough and is overal better then dungeons original. Dungeons 2 and 3 are more like original dungeon keeper but i did not enjoy those titles.

[Gold♥Shield]

I never played Dungeon Keeper that I hear everyone referencing so that's not an issue for me. I'll keep doing what I'm doing and just figure everything out as I go. I've tried to keep the gold piles in one centralized area with a ton of gimmicks for them to look at along the way with at least one pentagram near each of the hero spawns to help slow them down.

[Sagi]

good plan!
Altough keep in mind that the pentagram's monsters also function as a way to fullfill hero needs.
Meaning the closer it is to an entrance it potentially also makes the route for a satisfied hero shorter to escape your dungeon and thus harder to track down and imprison.

[Gold♥Shield]

Are pentagrams the only way to expand influence?

[Sagi]

yes
Diffrent types have diffrent expansion ranges tough

[Gold♥Shield]

Is there a way to keep heroes from just walking up to the dungeon heart? Adding monsters just attracts them and destroying all the gimmicks in the area does nothing to deter them.

[Sagi]

keep them entertained. placign gimmicks, monsters loot piles and such keep's hero's satisfied.
Satisfied hero's do not attack the dungeon heart unless they see it.
However angry hero's who are going after the heart can rally other hero's to join him.

try to make the way to the dungeon heart longer (teleport spell fom the dungeon lord is very usefull). placing the prison in front of your dungeon heart also helps but this is also risky since hero's will also set other hero's free and create an even bigger problem.

That's the fun part about this game it is something completly diffrent compared to other dungeon sim games

[hitesh_no1]

Best suggestion list (from my experience at least):
- close to hero gates make two rooms for the library and armoury if you have them.
- Place small amount of gold nearby to entice them to those rooms
- make a longish corridor then another room with a load of monster pentagrams. This is to create a kill zone type area.
- possibly create a large treasure chest around here to entice heroes to the kill zone
- Place prison away from any hero gates. Possibly close to your dungeon heart (but with some space).
- Eventually Learn spell "close hero gate" so you can control which gates are opened.

I haven't really seen the need to create gimmicks accept to raise pristage. All the heros do is look at it and carry own. They raise no soul gems. I dot them around the dungeon.

In terms of expanding yeah you need pentagrams to that. expand to connect more monster strongholds. for more pentagrams.