Day 11
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status Day 11, Mana: 26/36, Size: 72, New upgrade available
That ... was something.
But other than that bit at the beginning, I cannot see how any of that diatribe was anything other than bragging on the part of the counterpart, being all excited that it has access to lots of information. It gives me an impression similar to that first intruder I killed, bold but clueless.
Perhaps there will be something useful in the next session.
Huh, I was so focused on planting lots of trees I almost did not notice I am large enough for another upgrade.
Let us see if I can get core Trap this time, perhaps Trap Core is a prerequisite or something.
Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Core Trap
Well, that worked. I suppose it makes sense that having a Trap core would be needed so core trap is not lethal to use.
At least I have enough mana left to make the room square(except for that support) and add in the last two trees for that third row.
Before I finish that up, what sorts of memory should I try to focus on? Earliest memories were kind of a bust, and while I can use that as a last-resort, other things have been much more useful. But what to focus on? I already have ideas for what I want from secondary cores, and even some ideas my predecessor never had reason to consider, but I know nothing about spawners except they usually refresh daily and may refresh faster with lots of invaders. From the name, I suspect they are not particularly useful for my particular approach, but I don't really know anything else about them. Mana flows are probably why my mana per day goes up when I open up an entrance, there might even be ways to improve that. What else was mentioned? Manipulating the world through mana is clearly how I dig, give orders and create things; but there may be more capabilities as my disposal as well. Training heroes is probably ranked below mana flows, it might provide something useful, but probably just means give them monsters to fight and give rewards when they win.
Companion: Mana flows are the primary purpose of a dungeon. When mana stagnates it picks up contaminants and encourages unhealthy things to develop, much like stagnant water, also like water when it is flowing it can cleanse some of that impurity. But nothing can cleanse mana of impurities quite like a dungeon core can. You also naturally pull in unpurified mana, see how your core is twenty? That means you pull in all unpurified mana within twenty spaces of your core, which is about one hundred feet as visitors would call it. It also says how large your core is, so right now you have a diameter of twenty inches, and that will only go up as you grow the strength of your core, letting you pull in and purify more and more mana.
But that is only the most basic part of mana flow, you can also create entrances to the surface world which will provide a path for mana to flow directly to your core or sub-core, giving a small boost in your daily mana per flow. Generally you will want to have multiple entrances per core to maximize the flow, but you also need to be careful not to let the flows combine, as you can only siphon off a small portion of the purified mana as it flows through your core and gets purified, so several small flows will give you more mana than if they were all combined into one larger flow. Not that larger flows are bad, but it is generally more beneficial to have more smaller flows instead of letting them combine. Now that is a bit of a disincentive to purify as much mana as possible, as it takes more time and effort to set up independent flow paths, but for the more service-minded dungeon, you can increase the size and density of a mana flow coming in through an entrance by claiming a swath of the surface around that entrance. While this can be a less expensive way to grow your mana capacity, as you do not need to remove the surrounding material, it is generally less efficient than digging a path for a new entrance which is far enough away to have independent mana flow.
That said, a secondary core on the surface and surrounded by a large claimed area can be quite beneficial for growth so long as you do not have visitors coming by to get rewards from the exposed core, but this 'mana garden' approach is not one I would recommend for a small dungeon, as it would require a significant delay on upgrading your defenders when you do not yet have a strong rapport with the local potential invaders, giving them both an opportunity and incentive to take control of your core and force you to serve them. Even if such an arrangement may seem beneficial at first, invaders can be perfidious and they will eventually turn against you. It is not as if a dungeon core can escape after all.
Day 12
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status Day 12, Mana: 32/37, Size: 74, Core: 12 next upgrade progress: 28%
Huh, so surface dungeons are a quick route to power at the risk of being enslaved. But unlike other dungeons, I can actually escape if they try, so it might be a good option to pursue if I get found again.
Also, it feels like those twinges are getting stronger, no signs of damage yet, but if that keeps up, I may need to hold off on delving into those memories unless I have something important that I just cannot figure out.
It is a little sad that even starting dungeons start with much more than I have even now. On the other hand, I can control what I get, and I have the potential to gain a lot more core advancements than other dungeons, especially with those core hunters
Now, by my count, I am actually marginally ahead on mana generation once all the trees mature, so I should start moderating my tree planting so that I do not waste mana on overflowing my max.
The next couple rows and enough trees to keep me near my cap should put me within striking distance of my next upgrade tomorrow.
I guess spawners would be next, as I do not expect there to be much about how to be a mana spring.
Companion: Spawners are easy, you just take the home base of the monster and infuse it with enough mana to create four of the monster you want to spawn, then every day it will produce one monster of the appropriate type unless there are already at least two per spawner slot allocated to that defender type on that floor. As an added bonus, if the spawner has not yet created a monster of that type for the day, it can spawn a replacement as soon as the visitors have left the area designated for the floor holding the spawners.
Core: Home Base? I do not see anything called a Goblin home base.
Companion: Under your features you should see Nest, Den, and Camp, these are home bases for your starting defenders, nests are for vermin like rats and snakes, dens are for larger predators such as wolves or bears, and camps are for tool using defenders and provide them a place to find or make those tools.
But they also have utility beyond your basic defenders, as nest, if placed up high, can also spawn flying defenders such as bats or harpies, and camps can be placed next to each other to make larger communities such as villages and towns, this lets the tool users use more advanced tools such as slings and armor. Dens can also be combined to allow larger predators, as a single den can only spawn bear cubs or wolves, but adding them together can allow dire wolves and adult bears, or even larger animals like dire bears or owlbears. Speaking of bats and harpies, the location of the nest is important, bat nests need to be on the ceiling while harpy nests need to be on the wall at least ten feet above the floor. Digging up or down is an option for this, but it is generally preferable to dig out a room that is shared between levels, possibly with a winding staircase along the other walls, making a large, exposed area where the visitors cannot rush without risking a fall, giving the harpies plenty of opportunities to test their mettle.
Day 13
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status Day 13, Mana: 36/45, Size: 90, next upgrade progress: 72%
Yep, those twinges are getting stronger. I have no idea if they can actually cause me harm, but I should probably try to cut back and see if they get weaker if I wait a few days.
It also sounds like starting dungeons have a lot more defender and spawner options to start with than I have.
Well, the only way to catch-up is with upgrades, and I suspect I might manage one today. I need ten more spaces to be eligible, and then I should have just over half my mana left. It seems like, aside from the first few upgrades, it always takes about half my max mana for the next upgrade, or at least half of the max when I reach the minimum size for the next upgrade. I may need to add in the trees tomorrow, but I should have more than forty mana available to plant them with, at least if my first secondary core does not cost too much.
Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Alternate Entrances
What?! again? What does 'Alternate Entrances' even mean, that I can now have two entrances? Could I not before? I never really tried to have more than one, but that hardly seems as valuable as secret passages or secondary cores.
I suppose I can see why it would be needed before I could get secondary cores, as more cores are only useful with more entrances, but still, it feels like a bigger rip-off then false cores.
Only one mana left, so I was right about being roughly half of the max mana when you reach the minimum size for the next upgrade. I'll try to clear my mind as I dig out the last non-support square to make my tree-room nine by eight spaces.
Yea, that one is really weird. You start with it because you can't really be a dungeon without it, just a chain of practically identical rooms leading to a core.
Alternate Entrances not only allows you to have multiple entrances to draw in mana, but also lets you customize them, anything from a rabbit hole barely large enough for a child to slip through to a grand entrance fifteen feet high and twenty feet across with iron plated doors. This goes for your passages as well. You can also alter the finish of your walls, floors and ceilings to be anything from rough earth and stone to polished marble.
Day 14
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Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
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status Day 14, Mana: 43/50, Size: 100, Core 13
Ok, so being able to make different sorts of entrances and tunnels might prove to be useful, especially if I experiment with the mana-garden approach next time around, and make my entrance look like an unremarkable nest of normal rats, with the core hidden behind a secret door, and possibly behind another hidden passage half way down a narrow but very deep pit.
On the plus side, not making a conscious effort to drag up specific memories does not seem to have made the pain worse, at least. Perhaps I was just pushing too hard before and I was damaging something.
One more row should finish the room as an even nine-by-nine and four more trees will put my eventual daily mana just over my max after digging out the room, and still leave me space in the tree room for five more trees before it is full. That should give me some lee-way for trying out some of those alternate passages and level changes.
I suppose I could try to make the room even larger by leaving in more supports, it is a pretty quick way to grow my mana production after all. I should really consider what other structures I should add once I have plenty of tree space available though.
The mana garden is an approach where a dungeon primarily cultivates resources instead of defenders. Preferentially resources that can boost mana production, but other types of resources can prove useful as well.
The standard mana garden approach is to focus on growth and active mana generation to fuel that growth over traps and defenders. This can be very effective for an undiscovered dungeon, but the larger a dungeon grows, the easier it is to detect and also the more likely it is to create an accidental opening. Neglecting to upgrade the core can help with the ease of detection, but not with the eventual likelihood of intersecting with an occupied area. Many types of seekers can tell when they have entered the collection range of a dungeon core, and some seekers have specialized skills or abilities to find cores over long distances. The stronger the core, the easier it is to detect.
Once a mana garden is found by seekers, it will generally have any available harvestable resources taken and any spawners protecting those resources destroyed. If those resources are not replaced, the seekers will usually try to coerce the core with further suppression, destruction of non-harvestable features, or, in some cases, the application of a control device to the core to prevent mana from being spent in any manner other than as directed by the controller. This usually requires the destruction of the counterpart. Cores fitted with a control device are prone to going insane and will usually be destructive to both themselves and their controllers should that control ever slip. This most often happens when the controller either dies or attempts to pass control to a new controller. Kingdoms have been lost when the controller of a large and important mana garden dies unexpectedly.
Day 15
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status Day 15, Mana: 47/58, Size: 117, next upgrade progress: 39%
Either I am tolerating it better, or not trying to force anything in particular seems to be letting whatever was hurting start to recover somewhat. I still seem to be coming up with things relative to what I am doing and seeing, so this is probably the superior option unless there is something I truly need to know right away.
I wonder what other elements might be useful and how. Mana is very useful, so if there are other things I can use as well, that would be good to know about.
After I hit fourteen wide, I think I will try adding a section behind the core room that can be separated from the garden area once I put in a secondary core. That bit about accidentally hitting an occupied area suggests that if I intend to keep growing that garden, I should buffer my core from it as much as feasible, so long as I do not end up accidentally creating a new entrance on the opposite side.
Trap Cores present an illusion that should be identical to a real core with the first level of core trap applied to it for all normal and esoteric senses. While the lack of a mana in-flow may reveal a core to be a trap core, application of hidden passages and mana conduits should render this difference imperceptible to all but the most discriminating senses.
Like core trap, the trap core will generate an explosion in the direction of any attack against the shell of the illusion. When re-applying core trap to a trap core to enlarge the explosion, a trap core counts as starting with a single casting of core trap.
When in close proximity to a source of elemental mana, a trap core can incorporate that element into the explosion without the need for any additional mana conduits.
A trap core can also be set to explode in one or more specific directions instead of targeting an attacker as part of a larger trap. When used as part of a larger trap, the base trap core can generally take out a single support pillar, while a single upgrade can allow the trap core to take out a second pillar. Generally a second upgrade is needed to take out three or four support pillars. If a trap core is targeted on fewer supports than allowed by its upgrade level, any remainder can be allocated to the counter-attack.
Core: that sounds nasty
Would-be core killers deserve everything they get.
Day 16
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status Day 16, Mana: 53/70, Size: 140, next upgrade progress: 39%
Ooh that could be really handy, especially in the middle of that huge tree room. If I put a trap core against the newer pillar and then pump it up a few times and try to target the other two pillars that could collapse pretty much the entire room on the fist person to attack the core...
I'll do that right after I dig out the last four spaces I need for my next core upgrade. I think it should be half of the seventy two max mana, so I should still have thirteen mana left, I think, and hopefully that will be enough to level up the trap core a couple of times.
Upgrade Complete, New Feature: Secondary Cores
Yes! Finally, now I can make that separated hidey-hole and move into it on my next core improvement.
Looks like a trap core costs five and powering it up costs another five. It does not feel strong enough to take out that second support yet, but it should at least damage it somewhat.
Secondary cores are the primary means for a dungeon to increase their mana processing and their daily mana recovery.
Each secondary core will set up an additional mana collection field with up to half the diameter of your primary core.
Now placing cores closer together will limit their growth, as any sub-core will automatically reduce its collection radius if the radius of either your main core, or of a sub-core currently collecting in a smaller area attempts to enter that collection area.
An added benefit of spacing your cores well apart from each other is that they can each have multiple mana in-flows to further improve your mana processing and daily mana.
While it is possible to use sub-cores to maintain disconnected sections of your dungeon, if something happens to such a sub-core, you will lose control of all sections of your dungeon that are not also connected to another core.
Attempting to place your core where a sub-core is located will cause the two to switch places, otherwise moving a sub-core generally costs about half as much as placing a new one.
Day 17
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status Day 17, Mana: 66/72, Size: 150, Core 14, next upgrade progress: 8%
That seems reasonably helpful, especially that switching places bit.
Although for now, I am more looking at a distant location from which to rebuild, so, now that I have a nook deep enough to both cut off and hide behind a secret passage, I think stairs down then a few spaces to be filled back in later, followed by a rats nest to be made into a spawner and then a bunch of rat-sized tunnels before opening up into a new, and probably smaller tree-room where I can hide my actual core along with some resources to help start building again.
If I am hoping to get to core twenty in this dungeon, then I probably want about thirty spaces between here and the new core spot, giving plenty of room for the sub-core to collect mana from. So probably twenty five rat tunnels, probably twisting back and forth and up and down a little bit since they do not take up the entire space and that may make them seem more natural.
So, to balance out all that building I'll need about eight new trees... I have room for seven, but digging out one more space will make room for the eighth. This mana garden approach really does speed things up a lot.
Prisoners and some traps can be an effective way to force invaders to spend additional time in your dungeon, but they are not without risk. Taking prisoners can be just as dangerous as killing an invader, but with the added hazard that the invader themselves can also come back with a vendetta, and not just their survivors. Just as imprisoning could be considered a lesser version of killing, having both less risk and less reward, traps can be considered a lesser version of imprisonment. At least traps that are designed to delay instead of trying to kill, those that may kill still should be considered on the lethal defender axis, but traps that only try to cause delays, like pit or sleep traps, can be considered a lesser form of imprisonment, with both lower risks and lower rewards. That is not to say that a well placed and timed trap cannot delay a group by enough to provide quite a lot of mana, or that a prisoner will stay around long enough to give more mana than most traps, but in the average case, killing causes more problems than imprisoning and delaying with a trap causes fewer problems than imprisoning.