Anyone Want to Share Fan Mission Ideas for Fun?

[SilentKrabs]

I'm not a programmer, and geometry was my worst subject in school, so learning DromED is beyond me. Nevertheless, it's fun thinking of ideas for fan missions even if they'll never be implemented: stories, locations, gameplay ideas, et cetera. If nothing else, it's a good diversion before work.

Whenever my friends and I come up with a writing idea, we share it in a document that we all have access to. We can then iterate or expand on it together, or anyone can do whatever he wants with it on his own. Looking through the forum's posting history, there have been a number of threads that have attempted something similar for fan missions, but most of them are ancient.

Is this something that people would be interested in doing? I think that this could be a fun way for non-programmers to participate in fan mission creation. It could be as simple as posting an idea for a puzzle, an enemy encounter, or a story premise. Someone takes that idea and iterates on it, or adds to it, then someone else does the same thing, and then, before too long, these individual contributions have spiraled into something resembling a design document. Who knows, if people come up with particularly good ideas, then perhaps those who actually understand DromED can steal use them for their own projects.

That shouldn't be the end goal of this, of course. The important thing is to just share ideas with each other and have fun while doing it. Here's a PDF of what I think a good post would look like. It's hardly a design document, some ideas are clearly more developed than others, and it doesn't account for things like engine limitations, but that's not the point. Again, what's important is just sharing ideas and stimulating each other's creativity for fun. If anyone's interested, then start posting away.

[Aemanyl]

As someone who has no clue about geometry or spatial design, I can strongly relate to the first sentence in your post. It's always nice to exchange gameplay or design ideas and I have my own fan mission concepts written down in documents. I'm all for stimulating each other's creativity. However, I feel like most authors already have their own ideas that they are keen on implementing. So I personally like to contribute to community by beta testing missions, proofreading texts, and providing feedback once an FM is released. Just my two cents.

[mxleader]

I'm not a programmer, and geometry was my worst subject in school, so learning DromED is beyond me.

The most difficult part of DROMED is getting it running and getting all the updated textures and stuff installed. Once you're through that the real terror begins. Oh wait, that didn't come out right... Anyway, it's not really beyond most people like some think. If you use KOMAG's basic DromED instructions (and there are other good ones too) you can build a basic mission that can be expanded on or saved as a base model for other new missions you might build. Trust me it's totally possible to build a mission regardless of how small or simplistic the mission is because I've made two and I'm completely inept at most things in life.

It might take a while to get through the instructions if you are completely new to that type of computer work but you can do it even thought it'll be very frustrating at times. The funny thing is that if everyone on here followed the exact same instructions for their first basic build each one would be slightly different like when you use an AI image program and keep hitting the create button over and over again.

That reminds me, I need to fix a couple of things in an old mission so it works with all the newer updates ... So frustrating....

[Ghostly]

Example for a briefing;
After casing the Lord Gervaisius' mansion for Viktoria and after seeing the letters from the past librarian made me wonder whether there is a more grim background to Karra's power, I better pay visit to the local tavern and see if I can eavesdrop anything from that one regular known to have been a hammerite priest in the older generation, with a few extra coins worth of wine down his throat may convince him by asking to spill the beans on Karra's background more thoroughly to see if the rumours are true, I better do this without Viktoria knowing until I have some worthwhile information to bring forth to our cause shes getting way too comfortable with me as is.

Example for missions;
1) Seek the former Hammerite priest for information regarding Karras
*rest are triggered after doing so*
2) Take a trip to the outskirts of northen mountain to find location of said fortress.
3) Steal the blade of necromancy
4) Such a deep trip to the outskirts, do not kill any humans.
5) Get back to safety of city once job well done.
*triggered after stealing the blade of necromancy*
6) Survive the forgotten horrors.
7 bonus objective) Congratulations you managed to steal X amount of loot from the outskirts, living up to your reputation as master thief.

Concept of the level layout;

You start outside the city gates to the north, there is a travelers inn/tavern type of building not too far along the road where the first mission takes place, this portion of the layout would be relatively safe with largelly no enemy AI's around and will be pretty straightforward single way path to cold northen mountainside featuring heavy snow effects and a beautiful winter scenery, but once you get closer to the fortress map should largen into a wide open space to offer the players multiple points of entry into the fortress.

Forterss is embedded into the side of the mountain with towers dotting out of it hap hazardly to indicate its an old structure filled with dead bodies of the necromancers the hand brotherhood outcasted, they should all be laying around hap hazardly as dead harmless bodies but there should also be lots of rooms locked down with strong iron doors.

Once player steals the blade thinking a job easily done it should awaken the horrors hiding in the shadows of the fortress by spawning in ghouls, zombies and cold spirits ( opposite of fire spirits engulfed in flames ) and you'll have to navigate through the mess you ended up in and survive getting out instead.


I kept it relatively brief with just broad ideas that could be remolded as rarely would an idea be exactly as you portray once done, it would also be a challenge to keep it as a very large mission where you can see the mountains from the outskirts of city where you start and once you steal the blade, you can peek out of one tower window to see all the down towards the city, like a visually intense mission largely focus on undead and survival aspect getting Garrett into an unpreditable mess, the trekking towards the mountain would go around from the backside of the mountain where you walk away from the city and halfway through it bends around a corner so you move back towards the citry but up the mountain to help build that vantage point, like a vertical mission with a cold winter nature crooked around on it if that makes sense, like a big and dense map that does not feel cramped at all.

I have been brewing on this idea for years and it's like an 8th iteration I remolded and probably more so int he future, just too busy life I cant afford spend time in DromEd.

[downwinder]

i would like a mission devoid of life and massive exploration, built by a a.i.

[mxleader]

i would like a mission devoid of life and massive exploration, built by a a.i.

But seriously, can AI like ChatGPT be used to modify or create code to build missions in Dromed?

[downwinder]

yes mxleader a.i. can now make games

go to youtube and put in "a.i. makes video game" then you can pick what platform you want to see it done on, of course i don't think anyone tried dromed yet, but i am sure its the same result, its learns everything instantly about program then you just type to it what you want done and if it makes a mistake re order it to correct it till you get desired effect you are looking for, now each step would have to be done that way from layout of map, objectives what you want in mission/etc but once you see how it is done you or someone else might want to test it i think the a.i. is free to use.

i seen a few of the videos and if anything the a.i could make a big chunk of level, not sure how objectives would be/etc

[mxleader]

Using AI to build some of the more tedious things would be great but now that I think about it there are a number programs FM level builders have created to make doing tedious things easy. There are a few things out there like base missions that have all the basic brushes, weapons and starting point ready to go and there are add ons to make goal creation fast and somewhat easier.

That being said I've been tossing around some ideas for another winter mission and I have started a couple of versions but keep getting frustrated with Dromed, but that shouldn't be surprising. Maybe I'll get back to it.

[Esme]

I have a request for any authors using AI to create a mission

Please label it as an AI creation that you spent minimal effort on

After all if you aren't bothered enough to create a mission, why should I be bothered enough to play it ?

[mxleader]

I have a request for any authors using AI to create a mission

Please label it as an AI creation that you spent minimal effort on

After all if you aren't bothered enough to create a mission, why should I be bothered enough to play it ?

I'm willing to bet that DromEd would cause any AI system to self-destruct.

[SilentKrabs]

As someone who has no clue about geometry or spatial design, I can strongly relate to the first sentence in your post. It's always nice to exchange gameplay or design ideas and I have my own fan mission concepts written down in documents. I'm all for stimulating each other's creativity. However, I feel like most authors already have their own ideas that they are keen on implementing. So I personally like to contribute to community by beta testing missions, proofreading texts, and providing feedback once an FM is released. Just my two cents.

The idea of the thread was to get non-authors to just share ideas for fun. Offering up ideas for actual fan mission authors to steal was a joke on my part. Maybe I didn't convey that clearly.

[SilentKrabs]

yes mxleader a.i. can now make games

go to youtube and put in "a.i. makes video game" then you can pick what platform you want to see it done on, of course i don't think anyone tried dromed yet, but i am sure its the same result, its learns everything instantly about program then you just type to it what you want done and if it makes a mistake re order it to correct it till you get desired effect you are looking for, now each step would have to be done that way from layout of map, objectives what you want in mission/etc but once you see how it is done you or someone else might want to test it i think the a.i. is free to use.

i seen a few of the videos and if anything the a.i could make a big chunk of level, not sure how objectives would be/etc

I've got a friend who's getting his doctorate in computer science. According to him, large language models are useful for creating templates that he can then edit as needed, and they can help him summarize certain concepts or track down certain functions very quickly. Theoretically, large language models can build whole programs on their own like games, but they're usually broken and unoptimized in practice. You still need an actual programmer to edit and optimize everything that the model produced.

[mxleader]

The idea of the thread was to get non-authors to just share ideas for fun. Offering up ideas for actual fan mission authors to steal was a joke on my part. Maybe I didn't convey that clearly.

I don't think that anyone would really steal the ideas since they are freely given. Also, most authors prefer to use their own ideas anyway.

That being said I'd like someone to make a new holiday Thief mission for this year. I don't care if it's Halloween or Christmas but there should be one of each. T1, TG and T2 only though. No offense to TDS players.

[SilentKrabs]

Example for a briefing;
After casing the Lord Gervaisius' mansion for Viktoria and after seeing the letters from the past librarian made me wonder whether there is a more grim background to Karra's power, I better pay visit to the local tavern and see if I can eavesdrop anything from that one regular known to have been a hammerite priest in the older generation, with a few extra coins worth of wine down his throat may convince him by asking to spill the beans on Karra's background more thoroughly to see if the rumours are true, I better do this without Viktoria knowing until I have some worthwhile information to bring forth to our cause shes getting way too comfortable with me as is.

Example for missions;
1) Seek the former Hammerite priest for information regarding Karras
*rest are triggered after doing so*
2) Take a trip to the outskirts of northen mountain to find location of said fortress.
3) Steal the blade of necromancy
4) Such a deep trip to the outskirts, do not kill any humans.
5) Get back to safety of city once job well done.
*triggered after stealing the blade of necromancy*
6) Survive the forgotten horrors.
7 bonus objective) Congratulations you managed to steal X amount of loot from the outskirts, living up to your reputation as master thief.

Concept of the level layout;

You start outside the city gates to the north, there is a travelers inn/tavern type of building not too far along the road where the first mission takes place, this portion of the layout would be relatively safe with largelly no enemy AI's around and will be pretty straightforward single way path to cold northen mountainside featuring heavy snow effects and a beautiful winter scenery, but once you get closer to the fortress map should largen into a wide open space to offer the players multiple points of entry into the fortress.

Forterss is embedded into the side of the mountain with towers dotting out of it hap hazardly to indicate its an old structure filled with dead bodies of the necromancers the hand brotherhood outcasted, they should all be laying around hap hazardly as dead harmless bodies but there should also be lots of rooms locked down with strong iron doors.

Once player steals the blade thinking a job easily done it should awaken the horrors hiding in the shadows of the fortress by spawning in ghouls, zombies and cold spirits ( opposite of fire spirits engulfed in flames ) and you'll have to navigate through the mess you ended up in and survive getting out instead.


I kept it relatively brief with just broad ideas that could be remolded as rarely would an idea be exactly as you portray once done, it would also be a challenge to keep it as a very large mission where you can see the mountains from the outskirts of city where you start and once you steal the blade, you can peek out of one tower window to see all the down towards the city, like a visually intense mission largely focus on undead and survival aspect getting Garrett into an unpreditable mess, the trekking towards the mountain would go around from the backside of the mountain where you walk away from the city and halfway through it bends around a corner so you move back towards the citry but up the mountain to help build that vantage point, like a vertical mission with a cold winter nature crooked around on it if that makes sense, like a big and dense map that does not feel cramped at all.

I have been brewing on this idea for years and it's like an 8th iteration I remolded and probably more so int he future, just too busy life I cant afford spend time in DromEd.

Castles and secret complexes built on the top of mountains are something that I always love. Ravensreach was a fan mission that did that very well. Northern Journey sounds like a game that you'd enjoy if this is the kind of level design that you want. I wonder if there are any fan missions that have ziplines like in Northern Journey or Splinter Cell.

I'm imagining a mountain level inspired by The Lord of the Rings. You start at the bottom of the mountain, and you scale your way up to a tower that pierces the atmosphere. You go in expecting some old mines or tombs, and you discover that the entire mountain has been hollowed out and transformed into a giant temple for some unimaginable terror god. The god's soul is at the tallest tower at the tallest peak, and in order to escape, you have to jump off the tower and fall all the way down. I love heights, both in games and in reality, so actually having to fall at terminal velocity for however long would be very stimulating.

[SilentKrabs]

I don't think that anyone would really steal the ideas since they are freely given. Also, most authors prefer to use their own ideas anyway.

That being said I'd like someone to make a new holiday Thief mission for this year. I don't care if it's Halloween or Christmas but there should be one of each. T1, TG and T2 only though. No offense to TDS players.

I'm aware of that. When I say "steal," I'm being sarcastic.

Everyone focuses on Halloween and Christmas. I'd like to see a Thanksgiving level, or a Valentine's Day level, or a Groundhog Day level.

[mxleader]

I'm aware of that. When I say "steal," I'm being sarcastic.

Everyone focuses on Halloween and Christmas. I'd like to see a Thanksgiving level, or a Valentine's Day level, or a Groundhog Day level.

I'm aware of that.


1. A mission that's entirely underwater and you have to finish before you run out of breath potions.

[SilentKrabs]

I'm aware of that.


1. A mission that's entirely underwater and you have to finish before you run out of breath potions.

I actually had a similar idea. Garrett would infiltrate a large dam in order to reach an aristocratic sanctuary that got flooded. He was supposed to have a partner who would provide him with "mechanical gills," but he apparently flaked out. The player could discover the gills while exploring one of the flooded buildings. The room that you find them in is blood red with giblets floating all over the place. You'd be able to identify the remains as your partner because his set of silver teeth would be a loot item that you could pick up.

[mxleader]

I actually had a similar idea. Garrett would infiltrate a large dam in order to reach an aristocratic sanctuary that got flooded. He was supposed to have a partner who would provide him with "mechanical gills," but he apparently flaked out. The player could discover the gills while exploring one of the flooded buildings. The room that you find them in is blood red with giblets floating all over the place. You'd be able to identify the remains as your partner because his set of silver teeth would be a loot item that you could pick up.

That's pretty dark but I like it.

[SilentKrabs]

That's pretty dark but I like it.

I wrote a briefing for the idea. It might be a bit long, but I can't really think of a way to condense it without losing important information.

The Monument to Parasite

Most people would tell me that I'm cursed with how many freaks and eccentrics come looking for me. I'd say that they don't appreciate when life throws money at their feet. An old colleague of mine, Sterling Stephen, decided to pay a visit after dropping off the face of the Earth for however long. It turned out that that wasn't too far from reality: Stephen had spent most of the last few years underwater as a spear fisherman and deep sea diver. His reputation had become so prestigious, apparently, that he was regularly contracted as a scout and an underwater surveyor. Color me impressed. Stephen had returned to the city after his work with the Mechanists suddenly dried up (I didn't dare tell him my part in that). Before they all ran off, he managed to steal a set of “mechanical gills” from them, and he was eager to try them out somewhere interesting.

Up north, Stephen heard tales of conflict over the creation of the Tamed River Reservoir, the largest in the land. Supposedly, a thriving village existed on the site that the dam was to be built, and the locals were all forcibly displaced to make way for it. Further research led to rumors that it was actually some kind of sanctuary retreat for nobles on the run, and that it had been intentionally flooded without warning. Whatever the truth, it was the perfect place for Stephen to try out his new toy. The only problem is that the Tamed River Dam is both immense and heavily restricted. That's where I came in.

In exchange for helping him sneak into the reservoir, Stephen offered me a generous fee upfront, as well as a complete run of the dam itself, and half of whatever loot we stumbled across underwater. He told me that he had two sets of the gills, so I could accompany him and make sure that he didn't scam me. How could I say no to saintly terms like that?

Of course, it was too good to be true. I've been skulking about the forests surrounding the dam for days, and Stephen still hasn't rendezvoused with me like he said that he would. My patience—and my food—are limited, but I've come too far to just turn back with nothing. Surely, one of the marvels of modern engineering has to have something worth picking, right?

[mxleader]

You could run it through ChatGPT to condense it like this:

Many would say I'm cursed with how many freaks and eccentrics seek me out. I'd say they don't appreciate when life drops money at their feet. An old colleague, Sterling Stephen, showed up after vanishing for years. Turns out, he’d spent most of that time underwater as a spear fisherman and deep-sea diver. His reputation grew so prestigious that he was contracted as a scout and underwater surveyor. Color me impressed. Stephen returned to the city after his work with the Mechanists dried up (I didn’t mention my role in that). Before they fled, he managed to steal a set of "mechanical gills" and was eager to try them out somewhere interesting.

Up north, he heard tales of conflict over the Tamed River Reservoir, the largest in the land. Rumor had it a thriving village was displaced to build the dam, or perhaps it was a noble sanctuary intentionally flooded without warning. Whatever the truth, it was perfect for Stephen to test his new toy. The problem? The reservoir is immense and heavily restricted. That’s where I came in.

Stephen offered me a generous fee, access to the dam, and half of any loot we found underwater if I helped him sneak in. He even had two sets of gills, so I could join him and ensure he didn’t scam me. Hard to say no to a deal like that.

Of course, it was too good to be true. I've been lurking in the forests around the dam for days, and Stephen still hasn't shown up. My patience—and food—are running low, but I’ve come too far to turn back empty-handed. Surely, one of modern engineering's marvels has something worth picking, right?