"Mercenary" DLC - Random Dungeon Generation - Support this! Complete layout.

[Ghostlight-BL]

BUMP IT IF YOU LIKE IT. If you don't, what would you change?


Why an addon like this, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. Random dungeon generation has been shown to yield a lasting play experience; especially among friends. The Diablo series, as well as the newer Torchlight, both feature the ability to never play the same way twice. This is thanks to their random map generation. Sure, bosses and overall objectives may seem similar, but you'll never be able to turn to your buddy and say "Oh, to get there, go straight this far, make a left, right up the hill! You can't miss it". New surprises, new spawns, new enemies, every time. Gameplay will be continuously fresh and challenging.

Someone also suggested making objectives more randomized on current maps. This would spice things up in older DLC.

I would love to see some form of this implemented. Gearbox, you could easily release multiple DLC packs supporting this one feature. New enemies, maps, objectives! All randomly generated and catered to your group. A big
"Mercenary Mod", haha.

Base DLC - Mercenary - Random Dungeon Generation

Maps:
3x Small
3x Medium
3x Large

Teams could have a random map or pick a specific size.
DLC packs would include new maps.

Objectives:

Hunts (Kill Mission)
Salvage Missions (Collect Mission)
Artifacts (Collect Mission)
Bounties (Kill Mission)
Research (Collect Mission)
Patrol (Kill Mission)

At first, the DLC would keep it simple. Kill and collect missions are easy to implement. For a single player experience, the thought of kill X exactly Y times doesn't sound too appealing. However, with friends, these missions could easily produce lasting entertainment for a group just looking to get out there and kill quickly. The rewards don't even have to be amazing. The mission reward could be randomly generated and hidden until it's complete.

(OSS1E suggested some more game modes: )

Survival - Time - You are locked into an randomly generated dungeon, enemies are constantly spawning and attacking you, you and your friends have to survive for as long as possble before you can't take any more. The longer you survive, the better loot you are rewarded with at the end of the game. (Not all players must survive)

Survival - Travel - Make it from point A to B as a team, if any one player dies, you loose. Make it to point B for reward.

Survival - Loot Hunt - This time you are separated, you must fight individually, you kill your enemies first, you get to go in the highest loot room.
(Loot Room - There are 4 of these, the first person to arrive gets to go in the best loot room (with better loot in, duh))

Your kills are counted in all game modes, and are multiplied into exp at the end of the game (for Gun prof. for top levels)

(End OSS1E's stuff.)

Enemies:

-Random Boss Generator

Small Maps: 1-2 Boss.
Medium Maps: 2-4 Bosses.
Large Maps: 3-6 Bosses.

-Boss Types

If say, a Large Map has two bosses instead of four, these two seperate bosses will be significantly harder than if the group went up against four seperately. This point would be moot if all four bosses were encountered at the same time.

Boss encounters could select a random character model and assign it an element of series of elements. Another alternative would be to have a list of techniques a boss could use. Perhaps the boss periodically heals itself and must be killed within a time limit. Perhaps a boss needs to be tracked over to barrels and killed by blowing them up. On a higher difficulty, the boss might even do both!

Examples from the discussion:

Some bosses only taking damage from corrosive barrels. Having to get the boss near the barrels, blowing them up, and slowing eating away at it's health with corrosive damage. I suppose it would be sensible to have the boss also be sensitive to corrosive guns on easier difficulty levels, but on higher ones the guns wouldn't work. A team would have one person kite the boss while another focused on barrels.

Originally Posted by ewren3

Maybe instead of barrels for a boss battle, the players would have to run around turning on pumps that would eventually dump massive amounts of corrosive acid and/or lava on said boss.

-Regular Encounters

Anything from the base game would be available at first. However, down the road you might be able to purchase "Mercenary" DLC that branches off from other DLC. Perhaps you're looking for zombie mercenary encounters? Why not spend an extra couple dollars on a mini DLC that unlocks special maps/enemies for Mercenary.

-Moxxi Support

All of these randomly generated enemies and bosses could easily be implemented into Moxxi. This would, again, make for lasting, competitive play.

Difficulty:

This is the mother of them all. Mission rewards will heavily be determined by this. By having a wide array of difficulties, you open up replay value to anyone. That hardcore group of Borderlands fanatics that have been playing since day 1 might throw themselves at expert, while a newer player can still get a kick out of playing on Medium.

Impossible would be exactly that; near impossible to beat. Your team, with a lot of strategy and a lot of luck, might be able to kill some things. The maps on Impossible would take all day to beat if not longer and the rewards would be worthwhile. However, this level is purely for fun. I expect most players would stick to Expert.

Easy
Medium
Hard
Expert
Impossible

Gearbox, over time you can release DLC Packs that further support this.

Mercenary Addon Pack #1
Mercenary Addon Pack #2
Mercenary: Dr. Ned's Zombie Island Pack.
Mercenary: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot Pack.
Mercenary: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx Pack.

Hell, you could start bundling the Mercenary addons with the DLC themselves as a nice little added bonus. This would reignite interest in those that decided to pass on the DLC.

Had time to plan it out a little more today.

[RodHull]

Yeah great idea, similar to something discussed elsewhere yesterday.

I referenced an update which was being worked on for Tabula Rasa prior to its demise like that, it was basically an endless dungeon type affair with gradually increasing difficulty and random mobs and a random boss on each level. No respawns would be allowed only player healing or second winds...

To get the truly great loot and super tough bosses you'd have to surive multiple levels...

Either idea or something similar to both would be awesome, id buy them tomorrow

[avgjoe]

This is something that I asked for but the maps or dungeons if you want to call them that would be procedurally generated. Anyone who has tried Torchlight would know how awesome procedurally generated maps could be. I think it's asking a bit too much for the Unreal engine that is used in Borderlands but it is possible. A modder managed to create procedurally generated maps for Half-Life.

[Madman340]

This has been a suggestion since before the game was even out.

[Ghostlight-BL]

Originally Posted by Madman340

This has been a suggestion since before the game was even out.

Probably by me. Consider it round 2 now that they're settled in.

[Ghostlight-BL]

I made it pretty to attract people that like bright colors and shiny things.

Also more in depth information.

[Ghostlight-BL]

Feedback either way? If you don't like it, what would you change?

[weeschwee]

Originally Posted by Ghostlight-BL

Probably by me. Consider it round 2 now that they're settled in.

i think what madman means is that this was originally planned for the game. the devs actually were implementing randomized terrain, dungeons, etc. the reason they didn't include it is because they found that everything turned out really bland and uninteresting.

your idea sounds a little more in depth as far as the mission objectives are random too, but otherwise this is what gearbox had originally intended. i think it would be great fun and would lengthen the life of the game greatly. i doubt it would happen, but it would be cool.

[Ghostlight-BL]

Originally Posted by weeschwee

i think what madman means is that this was originally planned for the game. the devs actually were implementing randomized terrain, dungeons, etc. the reason they didn't include it is because they found that everything turned out really bland and uninteresting.

your idea sounds a little more in depth as far as the mission objectives are random too, but otherwise this is what gearbox had originally intended. i think it would be great fun and would lengthen the life of the game greatly. i doubt it would happen, but it would be cool.

Yeah, it would probably be a little bland compared to straight story, but it has more replay value and playing with friends is what makes this game fun.

This would be a worthwhile endeavor if Gearbox really thought it through.

[Tulisin]

It is almost funny how every time a game gets my hopes up for randomly generated content without being a Diablo clone they always pull away at the last minute in favor of carefully constructed areas. It happened with Hellgate: London too.

You know what is bland? Looking at the same prebuilt zone for the millionth time.
You know what isn't? Going into a randomly generated area and never knowing what you're going to encounter in there.

IMO it wouldn't be a great feat of engineering to use the cave levels as a template, create a bunch of caves, and then randomize them together into a cave complex that is unique every time you go through it. Classic dungeon diving.