Portal redesign (planes)

[tukkek]

Depends on #63

Since those types of gates would accomplish what Portals were set up to do (mobility), we could have Portals take players to a mini-scenario inspired by one particular Realm. Each would have 4-5 locations (mostly Troves and Guardians) of epic level (16-20) and a portal back. Time doesn't pass inside those and there are probably one for each Realm (plus invasion portals).

Of course, this requires a whole new context and screen code.

Time could pass as normal too but then the Squad isn't back into the main world until the world itself catches up with their Squad#hourselapsed value.

It would also be cool if instead of just having a gate back, there would be a chance that a portal would just lead to another portal, making it a recursive function - or even have a gate back and one or more gates to other planes. This would help add a sense of exploration to the game in the sense of old CRPGs where you progressed between levels in a strategic fashion. Of course for this to happen each Plane would have to be suited for resting, at least enough for it be balanced as a mini-scenario of its own, otherwise chaining portals would be unfair.

This could also lead to a cool new Scenario "Plane hopping" or something of the kind, where your objective is to travel between planes - maybe playing one or two or whatever in a single setting.

[tukkek]

As mini-scenarios, each Plane should probably be a shop, an inn and a few encounters - always using custom maps (like Haunts) based on the Plane's Realm. This is a minimal design draft but should be a good starting place.

This would be better done after a Context hierarchy is refactored out of the BattleScreens.

[tukkek]

An interesting idea for this would be to apply a Template to all monsters on each Plane since we aren't using these anywhere so far - for example, a "Heavenly" plane would have Celestial templates applied to all its denizens and would be styled after that theme too (in appearance, if nothing else).

In that case, portals would be named ("Portal (fire plane)"...) if the Squad can pass a knowledge check of DC10+EL for the plane. Trying to enter a non-identified plane will show the message "Entering an unknown plane might be a dangerous journey and the way back might not be easy to find, are you sure you want to enter?"

Inside, the World should be the same size of the original but with far less features - encouraging exploration but not being much longer than an hour to explore and beat (if you're a high enough DC). Terrain generation should be done on a per-plane basis, without the entire gamut of terrains, to keep things simpler. Several portals back should be placed (2d4?), so that the player doesn't have to find the only-and-one exit back to safety.

[tukkek]

Besides the Portals that would serve as the standard way out of a plane, a new Unique Location "Interplanar Tower", maybe) could cross the boundaries between all game Worlds. It needs to be cleared to allow for passage back to the main World, and as such should be a level 16-20 fight to avoid it becoming a trivial way out of any plane - but it's still there as a planar travel gimmick and option.

The deal with it is that it shares its state regardless of the plane it's sitting at - so if it's cleared in the main World, it will be cleared in any Plane too but if it's not cleared or has since been occupied by an Incursion, it will also reflect that.

If #147 is implemented, it could also serve as a gateway between persisted Worlds. It should be practically at-will but some restrictions should apply so that the player doesn't get distracted hopping worlds willy-nilly instead of focusing on the main quest. One idea would be to have a chance of it causing a disaster (#146) in the arriving world.

An idea for this would be to have each world-jump increase the chance of a Planar-inflicted Disaster by 10% (with the first one being free at 0%). Then each passing day has 5% chance of diminishing that chance by 1% (meaning that it's only safe to use the tower once every two seasons, which isn't much at all).

A price in rubies could also be demanded - maybe 1, 2 or 5 rubies per traveler. It would then take the player to any of the persisted world or a random one (each counting as one chance).

[tukkek]

Exiting a portal does not necessarily need to be a matter of finding a portal out - it could be one portal; many portals; finding a way out in a dungeon; finding an item that lets you leave whenever you want; having to find a number of items to get out; etc.

[tukkek]

An easy idea to implement is having each monster type (fey, construct, animal, outsider, etc) be its own plane. That way you can make it a target for ELs of [minimum group CR, maximum group CR] and immediately have a thematic plane be generating fights and garrisons by mix-matching units together.

Some types could be divided even further, like "intelligent undead" or "evil outsiders" (not to mention the actual SRD subtypes).

Templates would be a nice addition beyond that (planes for Fire-based templates, undead, etc) but not applied together.

[tukkek]

Once there are enough planes and the ability to generate a "world-like" area around a certain level, it should be able to create a game mode "planeswalk" (working title) where you start at a plane and then choose branching planes until you get to level 20 or some other end goal. It might have a higher exploration/rogue-like feel to it instead of the strategic focus of the main campaign.

Ideally you'd have 20 planes, meaning one per-level non-branching (with repeating planes in practice for branching) but that sounds a bit excessive, especially if each plane should have their own gimmicks, locations, tilesets, etc.

[tukkek]

One interesting concept for planes would be that you require a key to leave it - which could be in a trove, random event, dungeon chest, shop, etc (or more than one). For branching planes, the extra portal(s) could either be unlocked or have keys of their own.

[tukkek]

Would be cool if Plane entrances could be found inside Dungeons, either to existing Planes (accessible from the game World) or to brand-new planes, inaccessible from anywhere else.

[tukkek]

As touched upon on #269 , portals would make a lot of sense as Wilderness variants with certain monster types, alignments and Templates #207 rather than full new mini-Worlds of their own.