Brainstorm - Creature Mechanic - Creature production - Ideas needed!

[Sebt]

Well, when you say that the hatching should be short I feel like it is very relative. I mean, I can say that a short hatching time is one minute while you mean 10 seconds. This is something I think we have to do some testing on and see what feels most right. I don't want the player to just spit out 10 creatures to defend him when he is being attacked just because he have the resources for it.

Yes, it's all about making tests of game balance. Dark Mother creates a life and life creation takes time, however I prefer to avoid something like default timer - like in almost every strategy game - so the specific certain amount of time needed to make unit.

So what about this: There is a various range of time of making creatures for example an Orc could be made in 5-11 seconds, but this is not only the one factor. If you want to have more units at once remember that Dark Mother is a living being an can be tired, exhausted. So as much creatures you want to make more in short period as their range of time to be made lengthen. So the first Orc could be made in 5-11 seconds, second could be made in 8-16 seconds and so on. What's more she sometimes could need some breaks.

We can make for example Evil Meter as Dark Mother power/energy and that factor could affect her ability to make creatures with better Stats or Natures etc. or just faster then at earlier game, any factor we invent could affect her productivity. I don't like mana or health points in games, they're unrealistic... that's one plus for Dungeon Keeper 1.

I agree with you, I see the imps as mindless creatures that just follow orders and want to please any master they may have, they don't want to fight, they just want to stay out of trouble, that is why they are doing everything we tell them to do. Having the imps fighting would as Mello said require a large group of imps to do any damage at all, and this could mean that as soon as a enemy enters the dungeon the player could loose a lot of imps because they are way to brave.

It's good to have them careful and staying away from battle, however it would be nice that their "mindless" could be makeshift. Maybe why they're so careful and diligent is only a part of their plan? I don't say about A New Imp World Order, but maybe this is their chance to make their life better and free from oppression?