With a click, I maneuvered the camera in the center of the first room, about head high, of my dungeon and looked around.
Let's see, except for one wall, which had the entrance, the other 5 sides were perfectly smooth, unnaturally so. Considering it was mined out with magic, it made sense though. First things first, let's try and expand the dungeon. The more mana I can get, the faster I can expand; and the more I expand, the more mana I get. Just like Warcraft.....Warcraft? Oh yea, that old time strategy game. More came out after it, but nothing really beats the classics. OK, enough reminiscing, getting back on track.
With a click on the Space button, my view gets put out of the room and back into the planning stage. Quickly, yet carefully, I click the point of the first room's wall directly across from the entrance, move my mouse across the width, and click at the corner. Next I drag my mouse to the top corner of the height and click again. Finally I move the mouse the same length back as both of the height and width to make another square room right behind the first one. As I click the final point, a 3D outline of the room I want appears with a prompt:
Are you sure you want to make this change?
Yes
No
It's nice that I don't have to worry about a missed click.
I move the mouse over to the yes button and with a click the changes to a dungeon become reality. I watch as the entire cube evaporates and the water from the ocean rushes into the free space. Glancing up, I notice that a small chunk of the mana bar is missing. Excited about the increase in mana I quickly pull up the Dungeon Status.
Dungeon Master:AzazelDungeon Name:Mana550/600Mana Regeneration:60/yearCurrent Entrances to the Dungeon:1Current rooms1
So it looks like a new room costs about 50 mana. That sounds a bit reasonable. 50 mana now for an extra 100 mana later along with an increase in mana regen. That's a pretty nice return. However I am a concerned about why neither the total mana nor the mana regen increased.
Closing the Dungeon Status, I look back at my dungeon and immediately notice the problem. I still only have one room! My single room is now 10 ft wide, 10 ft high, and 20 ft long.
Why did this happen this way... according to the instructions, I just need to add another room next to it. Then add a doorway......Of course. Since there is no doorway, the machine had no way to notice that this was supposed to be a new room, and just added the new space to the pre-existing room.
Excited to try again, I quickly click on the Door button and position a door across from the entrance. This time instead of the half-moon entry way the opening is smaller, like a circle that is resting on the ground. A familiar window pops up.
Are you sure you want to make this change?
Yes
No
I move the mouse over to the yes. As the opening disappears, i notice that there seems to be a 6 in barrier around the side of wall that it is placed on. It matches the wall's height and width, but only extends about 6 in.
So this must be how I am able to make rooms. I can now connect the new room to the barrier's corners and go from there.
I immediately click the space icon and create a new room right next to the barrier. Same size, a cube of 10 ft.
Are you sure you want to make this change?
Yes
No
Hurriedly I click yes. I watch in rapt attention as the area designated evaporates and water rushes into the room. I watch closely at the opening and notice that it's still there. I look once more at the Dungeon Status, excitement mounting.
Dungeon Master:AzazelDungeon Name:Mana490/700Mana Regeneration:70/yearCurrent Entrances to the Dungeon:1Current rooms1
"Woot Woot!"(Azazel)
That seems to have done the trick. It's always exciting, when something works out how I envision. Also it seems that I am 10 mana less, than the 50 for the room. That must be how much it takes to create an opening. Excellent now it's time to increase the rooms.
I quickly clicked on the door button again. Facing away from the entrance to the Dungeon, I oriented the screen to face the left wall.
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Time for an experiment.
I oriented the first door about 4 ft to the left of the center of the wall. And excavated an opening. Then i watched as a door barrier stretched along the entire wall, and connected to the already existing door barrier towards my first door barrier. Next I clicked the door icon again and attempted to add a second door to that 20 ft long wall, just 4 ft to the right of the center.
It worked like a charm.
I now have two doors on the same wall that are using the same door barrier.
Time to move to phase 2
With a click to the space icon, I then slowly start to shape a 10 ft cube room behind the leftmost doorway. This time however I started with the height at the top leftmost corner and dragged the mouse downwards towards the bottom left corner, then the length going away from me, however when I got to the width instead of moving it all the way right to a complete 10 ft, I stopped it a few inches away.
Are you sure you want to make this change?
Yes
No
With a quick click, the room began evaporating. Next I hurried towards the right door and started again. First the door icon, then the top right corner, followed by the bottom right corner, next a 10 ft length, and then moving leftwards stopping just shy of a 10 ft width. With the room outlined, a new prompt appeared.
Detected user trying to make a wall between rooms. Would you like to normalize walls between them and continue with changes?
Yes
No
YES
With a quick click I watch the changes effect the Dungeon. Both rooms formed into a 10 ft cube, then a wall formed between them directly between the two rooms effectively splitting them. The wall was 6 in in width and took 3 in off each room. Then a new icon appeared.
Congratulations, due to experimentation, you have completed the requirements to unlock the wall icon. Using this icon allows the user to build Walls between rooms. No longer will you have to worry about rooms connecting. With this handy tool, you will be able to separate rooms built, or to be built. Please note that this ability only works between two rooms that have been joined. You will be unable to build a wall the separates a single room into two. However, due to the nature of the Dungeon this ability will cost no mana.
Now we're talking.
Quickly I separate the long room into two separate rooms. Sure enough a wall forms between them taking 3 inches off each room. Next I add a doorway to the new wall.
I have enough mana for two more rooms, so facing the new door I quickly add rooms on the right side that mirrors the left side.
Let's see how this dungeon looks now.
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I built 6 rooms with 6 doorways, so that's 360 mana out of my 600 starting mana. That means I have 240 mana left with which to make rooms. Well then, let's make another four.
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Finally I exhausted all my mana. Let's see how much the Dungeon has grown.
I open the Dungeon Status.
Dungeon Master:AzazelDungeon Name:Mana0000/1600Mana Regeneration:160/yearCurrent Entrances to the Dungeon:1Current rooms11
Not bad for my first time. With a mana regen that is in the years I think I'll try out my bed's function. I'll sleep until I'm full of mana, then i will keep building.
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Author's Note:
Okay peeps, I'm not a fan of author's notes, so I'll try and keep this short. For this story, there will be a Science VS Magic theme. Unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned, there is nothing scientific about a Dungeon. Dungeons are all magic. I don't want to share too much and spill the beans, but the science part will be all about evolution as well as biology, mathematics, and programming (not in that order). This part has been slow, but I feel like it's needed so that it gives a glimpse about the nitty gritty bits of creating a dungeon.
TSG