Need help on a decision

[Aurawhisperer]

So I'm adding unique weapons and armor into my game. Thing is though, is that when I define unique, I'm talking a rare item with many positive perks. That said, I don't want the obtain to be easy. There's this dungeon that I call bonus dungeon, which means this is a one time stage per major chapter that's accomplished by the player (up to 8 chapters, which means there will be a total of 16 unique items) in this dungeon has many boogey traps when it comes to chest opening. From level 1-3, some are known empty and some have slimes trapped in the chest, which will trigger combat when player opens them. The rest contain useful tools used for the upcoming fight in this dungeon. The fourth level will contain 3, dangerous mimics. The rest contain treasure.


Now here's my question. Should I put my first unique item in one of the mimics, or should I just put it into one of the chests? It's a tough call for myself to decide. And I know I made these mimic's a pain of ones arse.

 

[Celianna]

Moved to general discussion.

 

[Mayuen]

My first thought was putting it in one of the treasure chests, aka not the mimics, since you have chests previously being empty and such it would reward the player of still being curious and wanting to check all the chests. But if you want to force the player to meet at least one mimic, it works giving them the treasure too.


I think it depends a little on what you to reward the player for, curiosity or battle skill.

 

[Aurawhisperer]

Curiosity is fun, but the battle for the item I feel is better. I mean, these are one of a kind items that the player can sell for high gold or keep. It isn't like he or she will find them anywhere else in the game, and just opening a chest and finding that item sounds a bit too easy. But that is me.


On the other hand, I can use two chests in the dungeon that contains such items and try testing them to see which chest is the real chest (due to the fact that there's two locations with two chests bundled side by side. One is treasure, other is mimic) and bonus dungeons are meant to be a challenge. But that's me

 

[LaFlibuste]

Well, "too easy" also depends on the context. If the unique item is in that chest next to the save point a few feet from the entrance, yeah, definitely too easy. But if it's in the deepest room, guarded by rows of traps and a big boss, why add a mimic to that? Mainly it depends on how you want your dungeon to flow, if the unique items are two spoils among a lot of other spoil in a more exploratory dungeon, or the big reward at the end of a more straightforward dungeon. Using variables, you could even randomize which chest have the uniques and which chest are empty/mimics/other items (either on a dungeon-wide basis, per pre-defined regions, per room, etc.), so no guide or whatever could tell the player which chest the uniques are in.

 

[Anthony Xue]

Using variables, you could even randomize which chest have the uniques and which chest are empty/mimics/other items (either on a dungeon-wide basis, per pre-defined regions, per room, etc.), so no guide or whatever could tell the player which chest the uniques are in.

How about scripting it in such a way that the item is always in the third (or for more variance, 50% the third, 50% the fourth) chest opened, regardless of whether it's a trapped or an easy chest? So the player will almost definitely have to face some kind of challenge.