Day 18
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status Day 18, Mana: 72/91, Size: 183, next upgrade progress: 75%
I guess I saw the problems that might be caused by imprisoning first hand in that last dungeon, but that counterpart must have really enjoyed talking if so few of the random snippets I get are anything but monologues, unless perhaps that is due to whatever repository seems to think I should have access to my progenitors memories.
I guess whatever allows me to keep my memories between dungeons is letting those earlier memories leak through due to being created from the energy of the older dungeon. Unless this sort of thing is normal for dungeons and I am just getting it in a different form due to a lack of a counterpart to relay that information directly.
If I make the new core room a nine-by-nine room with a support next to the core, that should give me forty six mana plus my core level for rebuilding if I lose my in-process tree-room. That seems like a much better start than ten or twenty mana per day.
Although that does mean putting off upgrading my core until tomorrow, that is fine, as I need some time to think of what upgrades might be a good idea.
Core upgrades
Every time you sufficiently enlarge your dungeon you become eligible to upgrade your core. This will increase your mana field radius, as well as your daily mana generation, but you also get to add a new type of defender, trap, or feature to your dungeon.
Most of these upgrades require other upgrades as prerequisites often forming a tree-like structure, for example, the Troll defender requires the Ogre defender which requires the orc defender which in turn requires the goblin defender that all dungeons start with.
It is generally important to have a long-term plan in mind before choosing core upgrades because each one takes more growth to get than the last and there are practical limitations on how many a dungeon can get due to this increasing cost per upgrade.
Day 19
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status Day 19, Mana: 80/111, Size: 222, next upgrade available
Ok, that was not as helpful as I was hoping.
So, my primary need is not to let that awful hammer anywhere near me ever again. That should be addressed by the Core Trap, as that will shatter the core at the first hit.
Except I do not want the hammer to get that close. So I guess I need something else to cause that first hit on command?
A properly instructed defender could do it, unless the invaders kill it first.
Pit and spike traps can be combined with each other, but cannot otherwise be placed in the same space as other features.
My sleep trap refuses to form in the space with the core as well, so presumably that will be the case for all of the traps I can place, so I will need one that can traverse multiple areas.
A crossbow trap could work, so long as there is nothing in the way. I might need several practice shots to make sure it is aimed correctly however, and considering the wide open layouts I am looking at for my core spaces, something getting in the way would be all too easy.
If traversing sideways is likely to be blocked, how about up and down?
I am not sure how something might come up from below, but the pedestal would be in the way in any case, so something coming down from above. Perhaps something falling from a space above the core. If I had doors, I could open up a door with lots of rocks and gravel on it to trigger the Core Trap, assuming I could get my defenders to accumulate the rocks for that.
There might even be such a thing as a falling rocks trap. Let’s try for that, and if it does not work, I can select goblins for my next upgrade and have them collect rocks while I dig, then select doors and have them place the rocks on those doors.
Upgrade Complete, New Trap: Falling Rocks
That works, so I just dig up above both core locations and place the falling rocks trap over each of them.
There we go, now both the core trap and the real core can be hit by a bunch of falling rocks on-command.
Oh, right, I need to trap on the real core to be confident that the falling rocks will destroy it.
Hmmm, down to twenty points, should I start filling in between the sections? No, wait, I need an actual sub-core in place before I do that. Let’s give it plenty of room and put it inside that trap core illusion.
The falling rocks trap is a lower level trap that can be quite effective against those not wearing a helmet and not expecting the trap. While often not very effective by itself, the falling rocks can be dropped onto an incline and cause a rock-slide capable of pushing invaders off of ledges or stairs.
When used within a natural cavern motif, these traps can encourage invaders to believe that the cavern is unstable or collapsing, especially if several of these traps are triggered as part of the effect.
Day 20
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status Day 20, Mana: 104/111, Size: 222, Core 15, next upgrade progress: 43%
Interesting, considering that I intend to use the falling rock traps to trigger core Traps that are targeted on support pillars, I think that will be very convincing that the room is collapsing as it will have a large amount of unsupported roof trying to fall down.
It also looks like secondary cores are a hefty twenty points each, so I will probably not be getting a lot of those. Then again, that is the same cost as five trees, and once I get my core up to twenty, those cores will provide the same pay-out as those five trees, but with slightly more digging to keep them well separated. Considering that I now have more than forty trees, I may be getting a bunch of secondary cores after all.
So for today, I need thirty four areas for the next core upgrade, forty to finish the new core room, and then, um, sixty four mana for the upgrade? I can actually do all four of those, if just barely.
So, if that is the building plan for today, what upgrade would I want? Doors might be useful, even if I do not really have a specific use for them right now, or goblins if I have tasks with hands, but I would probably want to get camps if I get goblins, so I can use spawners.
Hmm, my feelings suggest that having so many rooms and passages without any doors feels weird, so, as I have no more pressing need, I’ll go with my gut, as it were.
Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Doors
The Doors feature handles all moveable barriers for limiting line of sight or access between parts of a dungeon or the inside and outside of a dungeon. This includes doors in the floor or ceiling that can be opened to allow vertical movement, entrance doors, puzzle doors, wooden doors, metallic doors, shutters, cabinets, and any other hinged cover that is affixed to a structural element.
Doors are what elevate a proper dungeon above a mere cave or lair. Dungeon doors are permeable to mana and do not significantly hinder its flow.
Day 21
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This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
status Day 21, Mana: 114/131, Size: 262, Core 16, next upgrade progress: 9%
To finish securing the new core room, I would want to back-fill all the spaces between the nest and the old core room. That cuts down the total size of my dungeon by eight, so I only need to plant another six trees to approximate my generation with my max mana.
After that, I guess it is time to get back to that old tree room. First another upgrade on the core trap so it can drop both columns, then back to digging and planting, but putting trees in the new core room first.
Ugh, I guess I was warned about this possibility. Looks like the entire hillside collapsed, including most of the overhang back to my last support pillar. At least I did not have anything under that to get smashed. I still have plenty of mana, so I might as well hide those two passages back to my old core room to keep anyone from getting any ideas. I think another upgrade of the Core Trap on the secondary core should be enough to let it reach that third support, but since the doubling has increased the cost of that to twenty points, I can’t do much more than clear a couple paths through the rubble. Good thing the rubble dissipated on my claimed territory and ‘surface’ claiming takes only half as much mana as digging.
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status Day 21, Mana: 0/148, Size: 296, next upgrade progress: 59%
Intruder Detected
Looks sort of like the group with hoes and pitch-forks, but this time many of them seem to have shovels, and some small carts.
I guess it was kind of noisy when that hill-side fell down.
The carts seem to be for collecting stones that fell when the face of the hill fell, as they spent a lot of time collecting the loose rocks from the collapse before noticing the trees inside.
Fortunately, they seem wary of the dark opening, but unfortunately both the size of the opening and the shimmering of the trees seem to reduce that darkness enough to embolden them to enter.
The ones with shovels poke at the edges of the remaining ceiling, but seem satisfied that it is stable.
They seem very interested in the fruit and quickly relieve the trees of their glowing burdens. That will cut their mana production in half, but at least they seem content to just take the fruit and not the entire plant like they did with the grass.
When they get to the point where they can see the secondary core, they look it over intently, but do not approach closer than the closest trees. They seem worried about the unstable looking roof over the core and make sure to give it a wide berth. As wide as they can without leaving behind any of my fruit that is.
With all the fruit loaded into one cart and the other loaded down with stones, they seem content to just leave the trees alone, but they do seem to be leaving a couple of the more energetic pitch-fork holders behind to keep poking around.
The pair spend time pretending to poke each other and the air with their pitchforks, then climb some of my trees, but they seem to be ready to leave once one of them falls out of a tree and lands with their face next to the pitchfork they left on the ground.
If these trees are going to be without fruits, I am going to want to fill up my core room to make up for the lack, then probably plant some more trees up there as well. At least they do not need to be replaced like the grass does.
Harvesting is almost never worthwhile mana-wise.
If a resource is deep enough that seekers take time to get there, then it requires skilled defenders that can make more by just questing on their own, and if the resources are shallow enough to be harvested with minimal protection, then any experienced harvesters will be able to get in and out with their desired resources before you can recoup the mana cost of restoring those resources.
While there are a few mana-garden type resources that can be a net-positive for the dungeon, the dungeon is still usually better off just cultivating the unharvested resources than enticing harvesters to collect those resources.
Speaking of Mana Garden resources, there are a number of resources that can only be cultivated either by or inside of a dungeon. These are generally only cultivated in dungeons that are actively being suppressed and controlled. Usually this is because of dungeons that take the risky mana garden approach, but any dungeon that shows the capacity to produce those resources is a candidate to have a coercive device mounted onto their core after being suppressed by having all defenders and spawners destroyed.
Now some specific high-concentration materials can be placed deep inside the dungeon and seekers will expend the effort to retrieve them. Those materials have a very narrow utility, so generally having more than one instance of such a resource is wasteful since only the largest communities of seekers can make use of more than one unit every ten or twenty days. Even then, avoid having more than a few such resources as seekers will gravitate to the dungeon with the easiest path to acquire those materials, once again making this approach have a very dubious return. This is only worsened if you consider the cost of spawners and other defensive resources dedicated to those paths likely to be rarely or never used. Adding rare herbs or resources as part of an existing path, so as to avoid those added costs will just eliminate the value of that resource for other dungeons, as anyone following that other path will just pick up the resource in passing any time there is a need for it.
Day 22
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status Day 22, Mana: 81/148, Size: 296, next upgrade progress: 59%
I have room for six more trees in my core room, then I’ll need to plant in the open area. With my current trees and the contents of my core room, I’ll be almost thirty mana short of full if they come back and harvest every day, so I am going to need a lot more trees. But I should not neglect my core growth either, so perhaps ten trees and the rest to claim enough area for my next core upgrade.
I was hoping that I could make a really big dungeon this time, perhaps even get my core past the 'starting point' for normal dungeons, but if I am already exposed, that seems a lot less likely.
Intruder Detected
Looks like they are back, only about half as many, but twice as many carts between them. A few of them still have slings or pitch-forks, but they seem much less nervous and quite happy that my fruit grew back since yesterday.
They also seem to be very excited about the things that changed, in particular the number of new plantings. You would almost think they did not know how trees work, except they have plenty of wood in their carts and tools, so presumably they should have some experience with trees as well.
There does seem to be one heated discussion when one of the fruit harvesters approaches an empty tree with an axe that was hiding in the cart, but the axe gets put away and the trees remain unmolested once their fruit is collected.
They are also taking a lot of the fallen rocks with them as well, so it is good that I avoided claiming any more of the rock-fall and just went around it..
I kind of wonder where they come from and what else might be nearby.
The Scout upgrade can be applied to any defender or spawner and will encourage the affected defenders to spend their active cycle exploring the closest unexplored area outside of the dungeon. While this will never be as good as the map of a dungeons claimed area, it can still provide information about the nearby environment and what sorts of invaders are likely to be encountered.
The starer bat is often a favorite for scouting as it can travel much greater distances in a night than most defenders can cover, but it is also limited in that bats are generally active at night, and so day-time creatures and activities will generally be missed.
Ground-based scouts can be effective, but are also more likely to lead invaders back to your dungeon. The starter rat can be used to bait nearby predators into your dungeon, but the hare defender is generally superior at this task due to its fast and evasive nature.
Tool-use capable scouts are a good way to lure humanoid invaders, as they are prone to investigate any new tool users in their domain.
Day 23
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status Day 23, Mana: 91/165, Size: 330, next upgrade available
I guess that explains why sending out my orcs and goblins brought in those human invaders.
Scouts seem like a good upgrade to go for first, but I should probably look to get access to bats afterwards.
After the core upgrade, I think I can manage two more trees, a nest and a normal rat spawn. Probably near the rubble off to the side. Good thing I have so many trees down in my new core room, or I would be even more slowed down by all the harvesting going on. At least that wide-open entrance seems to be bringing in two distinct mana flows.
Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Scouts
Intruder Detected
Back to take away my fruit again.
This time one of them starts inching closer to the secondary core, so I let a few pebbles loose from the edges of the rockfall trap when they start to get close, and they quickly skitter away to the angry yells of the other fruit collectors.
I do not think they even noticed my new rat nest.
Intruders include all animate entities that enter a dungeon that did not originate in that dungeon. While this can include defenders sent from other dungeons or monsters spawned from disrupted mana flows, those are unlikely to be near any other dungeons and tend to avoid them if they travel far enough to find one.
Practically speaking, this means that invaders will generally be natural born entities. While wild animals will sometimes try to claim part or all of a dungeon as a nest or lair, this is uncommon. Generally the primary invaders will be tool-users seeking to gain training or resources from the dungeon.
While these intruders can bring in mana from distant areas to be mixed in with the local mana, this is not a process that requires the participation of a dungeon, and can be considered incidental to the main task of a dungeon.
The primary benefit of allowing intruders to train in a dungeon is that many intruders have abilities that are prone to disrupt normal mana flows, some even corrupting the mana itself, so encouraging the practice of those abilities to be primarily within a dungeon’s area of mana control minimizes the negative impacts of those skills on normal mana.