A defensive or escort style dungeon sounds like fun. The ROSE Team has been looking into something like this for awhile now and are still working on how something like it would work in game.
TaeNiMiku, you mentioned traps and mobs you'd have to take down before you can kill the mini boss. What specific kind of traps, or other kinds of mechanics do you guys think would be a good addition to this kind of dungeon?
First off, the certain thing being escorted must be of an absolutely important value for the attacking number and strength of mobs to be reasonable. It will then give a reason for the enemies to make elaborate plans to intercept the escort just to take down whatever it is. Given my current knowledge regarding the lore of ROSE, I cannot yet provide a good place, situation, and involved characters for the said "dungeon"; I'm still trying to get through all of the available dialogue in the game.
One idea in mind is that, probably 1/3 during the whole course, a miniboss will appear from behind chasing the escort, but is protected by some sort of magic. The source of the protection, can lie either ahead, prompting non-tanks to eliminate it, or behind the attacking mini-boss, to put a bit of thrill. It can be a sort of, perhaps a stationary target, or a mobile one who, for story's sake, is a backup of the attacking mobs. Other than invulnerability, it could also give bonus power to the boss to make things even trickier. A second mini-boss can also be done the same way, with a little variation, like coming from the front, and as usual with the dungeons, a final one that's gonna take a while to beat, but at the same time, the party has to protect the escort.
Second, the traps I think should be designed to be laid across the course, which is kind of what it's supposed to be, haha. Tankers, given their role and the nature of the game, will want to stick by close to the escort to protect it. Now traps, be it disarm-able or not, can be designed to hamper players who do stick too close to the escort as the escort passes by the trap. To make things a bit fair, the escort can be immune to the trap, but the players around it will probably be, say, stuck, or stunned, rendering them unable to protect the escort.
For the sake of fairness, these can be disarmed too the same way as the "magical protection" that is provided to the mini-boss. Positive "traps" as well, like perhaps some support like speeding up the escort momentarily, or perhaps rendering the escort invulnerable, will also be nice. The design though, must be planned so that players who will want to disarm it immediately as the game starts is prevented, since this will nullify the intended sense of tension in the middle of the game.
Third, a nice setting for these kinds of situations is probably a valley, as I've said, with some corners or other alley-like protrusions for the other stuff, like trap triggers/disarming, shortcuts to a vantage point for better protection of the escort, some stuff to say eliminate a large group of monsters and the like. The escort should also not be moved by the players, but follow a scripted movement, prompting stoppage if, say, the volume of the enemies ahead is too high. To give variation, as I've said before, perhaps multiple paths is good for replay, just like in Sikuku Catacombs where sometimes other gates to the sewers are closed.
One thing that gets me fired up about this kind of "dungeon" is that there is a true way to fail: the escort is killed/destroyed.
Edited by TaeNiMiku, 09 September 2015 - 05:30 AM.