The first time I saw Dungeon Keeper I was very young and watching my uncle playing it. I didn't understand much of the game back then and imagined it more like a tycoon building game then the real time strategy game Dungeon Keeper really is. Only years later did I get my own PC and my own copy of the game, and I was kind of shocked how different the game was then from how I remembered it from back in the day with my uncle. I also took some inspiration from Legend of Keepers I played a lot recently.
This map is another attempt to recreate the Dungeon Keeper from my memories and maybe a vision of the game that the developers one had themselves if one watches the game's intro carefully.
The first change is, that the heroes will come from the Portal. Like the intro suggested.
The second and biggest change is, that you can not move monsters while heroes are in your dungeon. I always thought it's weird that the player can just drop all monsters on the heroes at once. This was also the main point of critique by some game magazines. The player is therefore forced to defeat the heroes by dungeon design and not by leveling a bunch of creatures as fast as possible.
At third the max level of the most creatures is capped at five. Most action adventure games will throw lots of crap monsters at you and only occasionally confront you with a boss monster. This way the player is forced to wear the heroes down over time instead of destroying them with one blow. Some inspiration from Legend of Keepers for sure.
During play testing with friends I observed some interesting things. Guard Posts become much more practical as well as barracks. A Friend build a Barrack with an Alarm Trap in front .. This instantly reminded me of the scene from the intro and I really belief, that Dungeon Keeper once was meant to be a bit like this map.
- CC BY-SA 4.0 - meaning anyone could feel free to chance and re upload this map for example to create an easier or harder version or to include this map in a campaign or map pack.
Known Issue:
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The gameplay is kind of new, therefore the difficulty is depending on strategy.
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I know that the bolder trap is way to strong. I plan to add small crap hero groups to wear them down, but I don't have much time.
Chancelog:
Vampires can level up to 10 and if you convert heros you can also lvl up them to 10. was way to easy
I really liked the idea of playing a map with the hand limited, but this map did not quite do it for me. Heroes spawned every 5 minutes, and in between there was nothing to explore or do. When they did come, there was nothing I was able to do.
Heroes were weak enough that if they fought against your full army they would easily die, especially because you could also convert all invading heroes. The only twist was that your own evil creatures could not train past level 5, but for me that meant that they could just stand on a guard post next to the only hero spawn on the map.
On a map with no hand, I would like to see heroes attack from multiple directions, with different agendas, and you having to use your tools well. Call to Arms, Barracks, Guard Post, Possession, Hold Audience and Alarm traps are all made for situations where you have no hand.
This might be interesting as an actual mod.