It was a most peculiar setup. I made a new room on the 2nd floor. The maze room.Ever built a maze game? The one where they have to walk around the entire room twice? It was a good plan or so i thought. Something felt wrong no matter how i built it. In the end i looked up online to see how others built mazes.

I loaded up the ancient 2D tower defence gameplays to see what could be a good style to use. They showcased a number of typical ones. the double spiral, the lane runners, the snake, the wave, the diagonal pathways,the hub, the snake and the mirror.

There were these atypical ones that i saw, one of which i have a liking to. They built what i call the ‘thick walls’. Instead of 1 wall, they build a thick wall of 2-3 units each row. By doing that as the runners get by, more towers hit them. The path gets shorter but they get to deal more damage. It was an interest concept.

Even after looking at those mazes, something felt wrong. What was wrong with the maze? I was just not sure.

It was the fallacy of playing too many tower defence games. It took me sometime to realize this very, very major problem. The Plant are meant to die. If i built a pure maze, they could just blast a straight line through the entire maze and exit the room. In those mazes games, the creeps do not attack the towers and walls. In this case, the plants can be attacked..

It was an odd situation. For a maze, the walls are usually not destroyed. Just imagine a maze that you can blindly charge through but stand the risk of every plant targeting you as you do, or take it the slow way, where you clear out the room inch by inch. It felt more and more like an odd buzzer game as i built the maze.  Touch nothing and you will live.

What if someone really brute forced their way through this maze? That would cut short the maze big time and reach the exit of this maze. Mimosa only makes the plants focus on one character while Mimosa uses .  So while 1 hits the plants the rest get by unharmed by. The Clerics would heal him while blasting their way through. Given the time it took, it would be faster than running the entire maze to get to the exit. The plants are too short to make it count. They can see where the exit is

It took me over an hour to get pass this problem. All i needed was to make more exits/entrances. I am already doing that on the first floor, what is the harm of setting up more exits and entrances.

With that in mind, i used the hub + thick walls idea. First, i planted a cluster of 10 plants at various locations, only some of the plants would hit as the rest of the plants are out of range, then i lined up the paths with the 50 cm tall Mimosa plants followed by a row of Saplings + Sappers. They are tall enough for you to know that they exist but also short enough for you to not notice when you walk. Who pays attention to something that is knee tall when you have bigger things to worry about. If they were to touch a Mimosa, that lines the path while they are dodging the hits, they get a concentrated dose instead. Perfect maze for a Rogue and Archer or anyone who focuses on Agility from my view but who knows. Archers and Mages would have it easy in this maze they can just hit their way from a distance.

Then of course we need the ‘Stun’ spell. What better to stun than to make them fall?  Falling is an art. Falling in a maze is fine. But falling at a Mimosa is not fine. Just as you pick yourself up, you are hit with a barrage of attacks.

Not to mention the binds from Saplings plus a heck load of stingers from Sappers. Sure, they only hit once this way, but the bind and slow is going to lock you in place for the next few seconds. The the normal attacks from Sapper and Saplings would continue. If the Clerics do not do their best, you will be dead by then. It seems like everything would go well with this current design.

A NPC Party (F+) has entered your dungeon.Rogue, Page, Priest, Cleric, Archer(Leader), Fire Wizard

I see new classes. Page, Fire Wizard and Priest. Now that is something. I got NPCs that have gone through job change… i wonder how powerful they are, but first let me finish this Maze. there is still much work to do.

For the next 2 hours, i began laying out the maze design. Refining what could be the shortest way as the most dangerous way and at the same time the wasted trip. The most evil forked road trap. As they could see the area around them, it would mean that they could see the shorter road leading to an opening leading out of the room. However that itself is a trap. All it does is simply lead then to the path to the other end of fork road. Basically a dead end from the very start of the maze. It is a maze with no answer. The only way out is to blast through certain areas. To hop over to the next path to walk. But because you do not know which is the entrance and which is the exit, you will be walking around the openings many times over.

Truly, i said to myself, i am proud of this evil work.

Checking back on the NPC Party, i was surprised. I now have 2 NPC Parties in the Dungeon at the same time. 1 ranked F+ and 1 G+. it seems that with the recent upgrades i have gained enough reputation among NPC Guilds to send a stronger party.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Once that G+ party leaves, i think i am going to get a F+ party coming in next. The NPC Parties have yet to go pass the New 2nd floor.

Checking in on the total  number of Players in the Dungeon, i was rather surprised. Within my 23 rooms,  i have 16 teams and 3 teams lost in the tunnels.  These teams had an average of 6 players. That meant that i have over a hundred players.

It was an odd situation. I was quite sure that when i first started the game, 30% of the Players were Dungeon Players. I should get 2-3 people entering my Dungeon at most. I have 50 times the amount that i should be getting.

Rather than looking up the Forum, i checked with Alex once again.

*ring-ring*

Not waiting for Alex to speak, i blurted out the moment the like got through, “Hey Alex, what is with the number of players in my Dungeon. I remembered that when we first joined the game there was 30% of the player base being Dungeon Players, why do i have over a hundred players crowding in my dungeon?”

“Really? I mean you have not been looking at the details placed on the Forum? You are a Rising Star as a Dungeon Player. Your Dungeon is ranked 4 / 5 in Difficulty Rating. While having a 1 / 5 in Death Rating.”

“Death rating? Difficulty Rating?”

“Death rating represents what are the odds of you dying in the Dungeon while Difficulty Rating is to show how hard and annoying the Dungeon is. Most Dungeons have an equal amount of Rating usually. The harder it is the easier to die. That is how it usually rolls. Remember the videos you posted? <>? Many people saw that and found you as a perfect training partner. Stationary mob that hits back. It is better than hitting the wooden puppets at the training hall. Although come to think of it there is an interesting Puppet Dungeon somewhere. I have yet to look at that Dungeon myself but it is 3 / 5 in Difficulty Rating and 2 / 5 in Death Rating.”

“Puppets?”

“Yup.”

“Cool. Any other interesting ones?”

“There are some aquatic ones, and some chimeras. Oh. the aquatics ones are hated by most of the females.”

“Why?”

“They get wet.”

“Wet? Ohhhh… that is understandable.”

“Back to the main topic, because of that low death rate, everyone ‘loves’ your dungeon. Hard to die but easy to kill mobs. For under level 20, this is haven. A good place to train before they head to another dungeon.”

“Train?”

“Yep training group. Once they get the hang of attacking and various skills they hop on to other dungeons.”

“Damn. so those guys will leave once they get the hang of it?”

“Most of them will. There is always those that is up for a good challenge and would try against your Dungeon. You are the rare few 4 / 5 in Difficulty Rating that is still unbeaten at floor 1.”

“Really? Is my dungeon that strong?”

“No. it is weak actually. You are not killing fast enough.” Most other dungeons have at least 5-6 kills an hour and look at your kill count. You barely killed any. It is just plain annoying at best. You are full of status effect that cannot really kill.”

“So you mean my dungeon needs to kill faster?”

“Maybe, if remove the annoying tunnels and Carpet Thorns on the 1st floor i think you will get more people coming in. Tripping about is just plain annoying. Also, most players are over level 20. Your Mobs are too low leveled for people to want to clear it.”

“So that means no one will be walking through my Maze anytime soon?”

“What maze? Your Dungeon is already a maze right now. Your annoying plans already sent many people away from your dungeon. Your dungeon is rank 187 on the unofficial hated rating.”

“Is that high or low?”

“That is a bad rating. You do not want to be on it. But you are fairly high up. Of the billions of user and you are rank 187. What do you think?”

“What? Then how did i get that high up in the rating if i do not see them in my dungeon?

“Simple. Your post. All those views were funny. At the same time why did you think you gained so much views? It shows others what your dungeon can do. Last i checked, they have 300k views each at least. Do not bother check your Forum Credits. They capped it at 120k view. 300 Forum Credits is more than enough for a Video according to the game developers.”

“Then should i take down those videos?”

“Too late. You are already on the list. To save yourself, remove Carpet Thorn. They are the Thorns in the Heart and Soul of most if not all, maybe the ass and face too.”

“... Fine i will take them down but that is only after the Dungeon Rush Event that is going to happen soon.”

“With that said, good luck with the Dungeon Rush. i heard it goes on and on and on and on.”

“I am not SuperVolt.”