@Starcrow Pinging because we both brainstormed on this! =D lets goooooo

I think it would be fascinating if the campaign system would be expanded to support dungeons (and possibly co-op dungeons).

In a previous suggestion, I outlined RNG quests in the campaign, but here we have something else on a platter in a different vein.

Simple dungeons!

Well, how would a dungeon even look like in LW's campaign system? Easy.

Let's start with an example layout of a dungeon consisting of a 4x4 grid maze, this corresponds to 16 explorable tiles. On one end you start, or another you end. In the middle, some tiles will trigger ambushes or NPC dialogues or interactable objects. This may feature locked doors, treasure chests, pressure plates or switches.

Puzzles should be simple, like pick up rock, drop rock on pressure plate, gate to exit opens. Ta-da!

Does anyone remember the old games like dungeon hack, ultima or anvil of dawn? Think on those terms.

And the interaction?

Wolves would have persistent health throughout the dungeon (so better bring healers or tanks!).

To navigate the dungeon, buttons would feature standard south north west east buttons + any other interactive buttons like (press button, open chest, Leave a wolf on a pressure plate) Directions that are invalid (covered by a wall) would not be present.

A minimap that slowly uncovers will be a must, especially for larger dungeons. If no minimap is present, the dungeons will have to be 4x4 and no bigger.

If the party gets knocked out, they exit the dungeon and lose all loot.

A party can escape a dungeon at any time and retain currently acquired loot!

There is no time limit on finishing a dungeon, but maybe they should disappear after a week of inactivity.

UI things

An additional box for quest items will have to be present. Perhaps you would be able to add items to it like a full suite of armour (of a type) that gets consumed in the dungeon as a HP boost. This may give mining more use than just making common decor.

CO-OP dungeons.

Some dungeons perhaps...could be designed to be co-op-able by people. In this case, an invite code is generated that you can send to a friend, first comes first serves. So if any additional person tried to join, they would be declined.

This would need additional UI elements, like a chatbox that would also broadcast dungeon updates (X defeated the forum gang, Y stepped on a pressure plate). X and Y would be the names of the featured wolf in each respective team for RP flavour.

The minimap would also need an additional marker for the second player.

Both players share all rewards at the end or if they 'finish' a dungeon early by escaping it.

If a player leaves, they do not get rewards you win after and you cannot invite another person.

If a player gets knocked out, the other player will have to finish the opponent that defeated them before resuscitating them to 10% HP. A co-op dungeon only ends early if both players get knocked out.

CO-OP puzzles should be relatively simple, like both players finding a pressure plate, or one having to deal with switches while another navigates the resultant chaos.

CO-OP maps should be slightly bigger and have more rewards.

If you are an invited player. You will have the dungeon node unlocked on your map and you can only join a dungeon if you currently have no dungeons pending.

How is a dungeon found?

A dungeon should be randomly found in the campaign, and you should have the option to remember the location or ignore it. If you remember the location you unlock a new node on the map that you can enter with your campaign team. You can only have one dungeon active at a time and the dungeon should aesthetically and compositionally mirror the zone they are located in.

I think this would be fun. Especially the co-op dungeons and maybe they could interact with the pack holidays with an additional boon of tickets for completing a dungeon during the events.

Given that they are less common, they may be able to break up monotony! But as grinding the campaign is encouraged during that time, people will be more likely to encounter dungeons overall than just their day-today campaign explore.

This would be really fun as it's own fleshed out mini-game/profession, I think, and that would allow it to be much more fully featured, maybe with it's own thematic rewards and achievements tied to it. It would be fun to have a more interactive profession than farming and fishing, and where the tactical team comps could be something more interesting than just "the PVE campaign grinding meta: again"-- maybe give breeds some special delving ability(ies) that are different from their battle abilities but still thematic; maybe kits have trap disarming, maybe zerdas have some kind of detection buff or the ability to make your "view bubble" larger (say it starts as 4x4, maybe they make it 5x5 or 6x6) as a conceit to their "awareness" being greater because of their great hearing. Something to make a varied team worthwhile instead of only stacking the 2 "good" campaign breeds and a healer. :P

You could leave companions out of it or give them abilities too, either way would probably work.

Those are great sugestions. Especially the unique abilities.

I don't mind them not being teid to the campaign, but i find them having a presence somewhere impactful, like the map.

While I think they shouldn't be too common, but something to spice up monotony, I think they might end up as the Arena where they're a bit hard to brainlessly grind...but, you'd do it for fun. Or possibly encoured like with a weekly reward or one time % to get something neat.

At least that's my hopeful prediction.

Lw has a fun system going and there are many ways to expand it.

Your idea that you "find" them during campaigning to unlock them is a great idea, the way you suggested they are actually delved separately to campaign (which I also agree is a good option, so it's not wasting stamina being ignored when folks just wanna mindlessly grind, like during the holidays) despite being tied into it was what made me think them being a whole separate profession to actually go spelunking in could be really fun.

Flavor wise, the idea your campaign team is scouting them out and finding them for your spelunking team is cute and works well. It allows for them to be unlocked in "stages" for newer players (and everyone else in the future as more areas are unlocked), and something to keep newer players around and working towards that's engaging like this could be is a good idea. They could be tied into the story as well occasionally, and maybe even have potential to be integrated into the quarterly events. There is a lot of potential flexibility to the idea that I appreciate.