Shattered Pixel Dungeon's prison quests are over 8 years old, and they really show their age. In v2.2.0 I'm making some targeted changes to make these quests more engaging:
- The corpse dust quest is the most mildly changed, with some guarantees about how often wraiths spawn and how far the grave room can spawn from the entrance.
- The elemental embers quest is getting some changes to the boss, which now has more HP, less damage, and an avoidable fireball attack. It's still super vulnerable to frost, but this is no longer the only way to counter it.
- The rotberry quest has received the most changes, with more maze-like hazards blocking your path to the rot heart. Despite the increased density, there is a guaranteed safe path to the rot heart.
The room on the screenshot doesn't have a safe path though (unless your hero is ranged).
Rot lashers are also getting some changes, they're stronger but wait 1 turn before attacking when you enter their range.
A game mechanic I've been considering pitching to this group might be interesting here.
I was thinking of grass that's like a "thick grass" so you'd have to actually attack it to remove it. It would have a very small chance to have a mob or loot in it that you'd find.
These would be on levels with extra vegetation, randomly placed (not all grass would be thick), and act as barriers to sight, thrown weapons, and wands, etc.
You could use them strategically or remove them, etc.
These might make the rot lasher room more interesting as well because you would not be able to always use ranged attacks.
Mechanically this is actually pretty similar to what's being added soon with the new caves quest. For the rot lasher room in particular, I opted to just add some walls, as is shown in the screenshot.
Yes, that's it. I figured since you had "mining" it would be easy to add this as well, should you want to.
I should point out that you could stop dev on this game right now and I'd still pay a yearly subscription to you for the rest of my life. This is literally the only game that holds my interest year after year. I'm 51 and have very little time for gaming, which I've always loved. SPD gives me the ability to play when I can, immediately, for however long I can, and just love every second.
It's the first thing I install on a clean phone. :)
Thanks, I'm glad to hear that you've been enjoying the game for so long!