Tags
Tagging your post is an important part of making a suggestion, it allows people browsing the forum to quickly identify the key elements of your suggestion. It's highly recommended that you tag your post identifying what game element it belongs to which will make it easy to both find and sort specific suggestions on this forum.
Below are a number of suggested tags that you should be using.
[Underlord Creature] [Empire Creature] [Neutral Creature] [Room] [Defense] [Spell] [Physical Spell] [Incorporeal Spell] [Shrine] [Game Mechanic] [Theme] [Other] [Misc]
Feel free to suggest tags for use in this thread if you feel that any are missing from this list.
Templates
The section below includes a selection of templates for use in your suggestion. Templates are a great way of summarizing the details of your Creature, Room or anything, they give your read the opportunity to quickly digest the most important data about your suggestion in bite size chunks.
Templates are not meant to replace the full suggestion only be a quick window into it and something for you to build upon. So you can leave your suggestion as just the template, but feel free to add extra flavor to your suggestion as required, sometimes a few extra paragraphs go a long way to describing and building something special.
You'll see that each template has a highlight, this gives you the opportunity to quickly summarise the thing that makes your suggestion special.
Creatures
Creatures are the bread and butter of every Underlord's fighting and working force. Designing a great creature requires several steps, you can find a lot of this in the guide. We've also had a fantastic WFTO Wednesday release recently which contained the important guidelines to creating a great creature and the steps the team undertake to make sure each creature is suitable!
All creatures in WFTO have a couple of natural traits, these are passive abilities that have a special impact on what the creature can do naturally. You may have as many traits as you see fit, though keep it reasonable. Most denizens of the underworld have an average of 2 traits.
Each Creature has several active abilities that it can make use of, these are part of the meat of the unit and the abilities that it will most often use in combat. All creatures in the Underworld have 3 Active abilities unless there is a very specific reason to have different.
Flavour is an optional part of the template, this section includes a few suggestions for adding flavour to your creature, you should feel free though to details any of this elsewhere in your suggestion, perhaps outside of the template.
View some of the official creatures using this template in the
WFTO Wednesday Unit Preview!
Key Stats
Highlight: What makes your creature unique? What's it's purpose?
Faction: Underlord / Empire / Neutral
Role: Role of the creature in combat E.G. Melee Fighter, Support Caster, "Go-away" Tank.
Acquired By: Many creatures are attracted via portals by owning specific rooms, however there are some that are acquired by other methods.
Basic Attack: [Melee/Ranged] [Damage Type] [Power - Relative]
Offensive Power: Relative term for how good the unit is at attacking - E.G. Weak, Moderate, Strong
Defensive Power: Relative term for how durable a unit is.
Resistances: Relative term for each type of damage. E.G. Average vs All, Weak vs Poison.
Movement: Relative term for Movement speed. Slow, Moderate, Fast
Work: Where does the creature work if at all.
Entertainment: What does the creature do for entertainment?
Special Needs: Does the creature have any extra needs other than: Sleep, food and entertainment?
Upgrades: Does the creature have alternative progression, if so briefly summarise it. E.G. Scavenges Gear
Traits
You may have as many Traits as you like for each trait copy the entry below, give each trait a name and detail it's effects. Bear in mind that more traits make a more difficult and convoluted unit. The average number of traits in WFTO is 2.
Trait Name: Details (You can have multiple Traits)
Abilities
You may have up to 3 abilities unless there is specific reason for more or less. For each ability copy the entry below give each ability a name and detail it's effects.
Ability Name: Details (You can have upto 3 Abilities)
Flavour
Appearance: What does your creature look like?
Likes: What does your creature like?
Dislikes: What does your creature dislike?
Behaviour: How does your creature behave in dungeon, does it have any specific interactions with other elements of the dungeon?
Spells
Spells are special abilities that are at the disposal of the Underlord while he is in RTS view, they can be cast into the level and have various effects, for example the create imp spell creates and imp worker within your area of influence, the prophecy spell allows the Underlord to divine the situation where he casts the spell even through fog of war.
Spells are divided into two types physical and incorporeal. Physical spells can only be cast within the Underlord's area of influence. Incorporeal spells on the other hand may be cast anywhere that the Underlord has vision, the exception to this rule is Prophecy which can be cast through fog of war.
Highlight: Summary of Spell purpose and effect.
Vein: Which vein of evil is this spell associated with.
Type: Physical or Incorporeal
Effect: What the spell does.
Cost: A relative cost in blood to cast the spell, e.g. Low, Moderate, High.
Appearance: What's the spell look like? How does it interact with things?
Rooms
Rooms are one of the key building blocks of and Underlord's dungeon, they provide the facilities which attract and provide work/entertainment for creatures. Rooms in WFTO have a variety of functions some may simply fulfill needs while others may serve to be centers of industry or yet undiscovered arcane knowledge.
The functions of a room define how a creature or player interacts with it, what they are able to do there and how it is done. E.G. Intelligent Creatures place their Lairs in a Lair by moving to an unoccupied tile and claiming it by creating their own lair prop. Creatures can also sleep in the lair by interacting with their Lair prop. A Room may have as many functions as you think are necessary but try to keep them simple and explain your reasoning.
Props are essentially objects in a room that creatures or the player can interact with. Once you've defined a prop and it's appearance, define how and why stuff will interact with it. Props are often tied to Functions for the room. E.g. A creature's lair is a prop that the creature can interact with to sleep. You can have as many props as you like, though of course a room that is too busy will be difficult to interract with for users so try to keep it as simple and intuitive as possible.
Highlight: Each room in WFTO has a purpose, some form of function that it fulfills. E.g. The lair fulfills specific needs for specific creatures, the foundry crafts defenses and other things. What's the unique purpose of your room?
Vein: Some rooms are closely related to the three veins of evil, is yours?
Associated Units: What creatures are associated with the operation of the room. E.g. Intelligent creatures use the lair. Augres work in the foundry.
Appearance: Define the appearance of your room, what do the walls and floors look like, are there any props, what do they look like? How do Creatures interact with the room if at all.
Functions
For each function in your room copy the below entry detail and give each function a name.
Function Name: Details
Props
You may have up to 3 abilities unless there is specific reason for more or less. For each ability copy the entry below give each ability a name and detail it's effects.
Prop Name: Details
Shrines
Shrines are neutral structures that can be found within the levels, capturing them has various effects on the game at hand, usually this will translate to a benefit to the owning player or a curse upon his opponents, though other effects are known to exist. For example the Primordial Tome will significantly increase the research rate of a researcher that is manning it, while the Stairs of Nephren-Ka will summon a powerful creature devoted to the protection of the shrine and the area around it.
Shrines are essentially a mapmaker's tool to encourage players to take actions they want them to, thus a shrine can have a whole boatload of different effects provided you make it clear what the use of the shrine might be, bear in mind an I win button shrine won't be good for multiplayer, unless that's what the level designer is aiming for.
Highlight: Summarise the purpose of the Shrine, its effects.
Purpose: How do you see the Shrine being used by the mapmaker?
Associated Units: Sometimes Shrines require creatures to reach their full effectiveness.
How does it Work: Summarise how it works.
Appearance: Define the appearance of the shrine, concept art is welcome.
Defenses
Defenses is the catch-all name for devices that are place-able by the player that carry various effects. Each defense has a different purpose and function for example a wooden door simply serves to control the flow of units, both friendly and unfriendly through your Dungeon while it may be weak to assault it can slow attacks down and give you time to prepare.
Other defenses perform other functions some may deal damage to creatures in specific manners, while others may simply summon additional units onto the battlefield for a constant mana tithe. The term defense doesn't necessarily mean it's a tool used only for defense, certain defenses such as the Underminer which destroys enemy walls and the Ember Rift which summons an aggressive fire elemental to fight for you are offensive devices.
Either way a defense is an important aspect of an Underlord's Dungeon and each must remain clear in it's purpose and implementation.
Highlight: Summarise the purpose of the Trap, its effects.
Vein: Which vein is this defense associated with?
How does it Work: Summarise how the defense works and any connected mechanics to the defense.
Appearance: Define the appearance of the defense, concept art is welcome.
Themes
A Theme is a cosmetic change for various elements of an Underlord's dungeon, it allows an Underlord to bring a personal touch, something that represents his own devilish personality into the game. The primary elements in a theme are the Emblem, Dungeon Heart, Worker, Floor tiles and Wall tiles and as themes have been demonstrated each of these may look slightly or significantly different in different themes.
Highlight: What makes this theme unique? What's it about?
Emblem: Each theme has an emblem associated with it, describe the appearance of the emblem.
Nexus Appearance: The Dungeon Nexus is the center of an Underlord's domain, the most recognisable and important object in it. Describe it's appearance in your theme.
Worker Appearance: Workers are a key part of any Dungeon, they carry out the menial tasks such as digging and claiming tiles. This is your equivalent of the Blood Imp, doesn't have to be an imp.
Wall Appearance: What do the reinforced walls of your Dungeon look like?
Tile Appearance: What do claimed tiles of your Dungeon look like?
