Additional new NPCs in Arcade

Own

Moderator
Well, there's quite a few new NPCs, and several of them seem like they would be right at home in Arcade. Maybe in a Villager Room, that chooses one of a few random NPCs to spawn into it, or they just become an option to appear in the [?] rooms alongside fishing. Or as a spawn in the

Trip:

Seems to me that Trip would be right at home in Arcade as another merchant of sorts, given he's a wanderer and seeker of exotic goods. How to set him apart from Shady Merchant? A few ways.

Option #1 - The Long Haul. Trip is as eager to get to the end of the dungeon as you are, by discovering assorted goods throughout the level that no one else can find. Unfortunately, he needs someone to finance his travel through the dungeon. Trip first appears on the start of Floor 2, thanking you for clearing the way on Floor 1, but needs money for supplies to follow you further. He'll part ways with the mystery grab bag of loot he found on Floor 1 if you pay him (#) gold, you never know what you'll get until you buy.

If you don't pay, he doesn't show up again at all that run. If you do pay, he either shows up again every floor in the starting room or every 1-3 floors at random, continuing so long as you continue to pay him increasingly high sums of money. Rewards are poor at first, but get better and better the further in you go with Trip, possibly getting items that aren't available in Arcade (Halo, Chicken Hat,Health Amulet), monster loot, essences or health potions. Maybe even special tokens that can spawn a healer/shady dealer on the floor? If you take Trip to the end of Arcade, you can cash out all your remaining gold with him for essences.

Currently you can only buy from loot Shady Merchant or HP from nurse. Throwing all your cash at Trip as a third option could be fun. :)

Option #2: Investment. If you find Trip in an NPC room, he'll request funding to go deeper into the dungeon with an assurance to pay you back someday. He'll reappear at the start of a random floor before the end of the dungeon, with +10% interest per floor until you find him again. But can you survive without your gold until then?

Dr. Jones:

Dr. Jones appears in the NPC room with a chest surrounded by ominous skulls at the end of the room. He has a deal for you - loot the contents of that chest and meet up with him on the next floor, he'll make it worth your while. Leave the room without accepting the job or opening the chest and the room'll be empty next time you go in.

Unfortunately, the chest is always cursed. As soon as you open it he'll bolt off screen and leave you to deal with the consequences that persist until you reach the next floor.

Curse #1: Cave-In. Even if you're not in a cave, stalactites perpetually fall at random around the room, even cleared ones. Ouch.

Curse #2: Vengeful Spirits. Every single cleared room will have it's enemies respawned as elites, risen from the grave for revenge. They offer no EXP or drops, just get through the room fast.

Curse #3: Any one of Candy's curses for the current floor?

Hagglox:

Hagglox appears in the NPC Room, and he's there to offer you double or nothing on pretty much anything. You can only pick one option and only one roll, though.

Gold? Health, bet 20% of your HP and get an health potion back if you win? EXP (only up to the amount currently in the EXP bar)? However much you currently have you can bet with 50/50 odds to lose it or get twice that back. Maybe you can even double-or-nothing a single Talent, Silver or Gold point, if you have one available. Or Essences, up to, say, 10-20.
 

The G-Meister

Giga Slime
Maybe even special tokens that can spawn a healer/shady dealer on the floor?
"Bishop Bait". I like it :p

loot the contents of that chest and meet up with him on the next floor, he'll make it worth your while.
I like the curses, but there's one issue. If you see that there's an NPC room available, you can always clear the whole floor and then go back to it afterwards. This either limits the types of curses you can have or gives players a huge advantage to skip through the floor quickly when they know what's going on :oops:

The solution to that would be making him available in the starting room. With this you can ensure any enemy related curses still have an effect.

Admittedly the curses you've stated only really take effect for cleared rooms, but it would be nice if we could broaden it out into a few more areas.
 

subaru313

Rabby
How about a curse that fills the dungeon with the poisonous gas from Mount Bloom?

Effectively that would mean you'll have to clear the floor from starting room (here the chest would have to be in the first room I guess) to boss in time for, say, an A-grade? We don't want to be too mean ;) .

For this to be working nicely I would only look at the time-grade not at the damage the player took. You'd have a little bar above your head that decreases until you start to take damage from the poison (just like in Mount Bloom only slower)
 

Own

Moderator
Really you only want the curses to be stuff to make you run through previously completed rooms quickly, ignore the elite enemies, dodge the stalactites. Anything beyond that wouldn't be worth taking the challenge, no one likes guaranteed HP loss.
 

subaru313

Rabby
Well, no one has to open the chests ;)
If the HP loss bothers you, how about the gas corrodes one of your equipped items instead? Once the time bar is empty there's a pop up window telling you that your armour corroded and fell off.
 

Ray Gaines

Green Slime
I was thinking of doing a youtube series of the arcade mode and I have already started one with the story mode I am just wondering if anyone would like to partake in my adventure? I think it would be fun and adventurous. You can reach me here or you can text me at my phone number (203) 414-0078 and my skype is raymonddog2445
 

Pharphis

Rabby
I think the RNG for gambling stuff is too broken and makes arcade runs a gamble, especially for seekers of high scores (not that I am one myself)
 

Own

Moderator
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The Fishermen: After unlocking the pond for your town, these three can be unlocked by rescuing them from deep in the dungeon... or by just hiring them for # essence from Haddock, after doing Haddock's fish quest? Maybe each three has a different unlock method.

For every floor you go past floor 2, each fisherman has a 1% chance (+ .1% chance per floor deeper) to catch an essence that you can collect from a fishbasket near them after the run. Alternatively, every successful fish catch during a run has % chance of making them catch an essence in town.

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The Painter: Can paint the exterior design of your house to look like any style of area's homes. Startington, Evergrind or Tai Ming. Alternatively, can paint the trees in your town to be green, snowcapped, Pumpkin Woods-y or Tai Ming pink?

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Faita: [?] / Challenge room NPC. Tasks you with slaying a random elite mob from the area using nothing but your weapon and shield, + without taking any damage? Awards a lot of EXP?
 

The G-Meister

Giga Slime
Doesn't the fishing guy in Tai Ming explicitly state that he's not fishing because there aren't any fish in the pond? I guess that doesn't hinder his ability to fish if he can though. Just a thought :p
 

Own

Moderator
Doesn't the fishing guy in Tai Ming explicitly state that he's not fishing because there aren't any fish in the pond? I guess that doesn't hinder his ability to fish if he can though. Just a thought :p

There's also the fact that he's 1000 years dead compared to Hatman and Wintergirl... but Arcade is in it's own little non-canon universe? :D I hope by the end of the game pretty much every Story NPC showcases in Arcadia or the dungeon itself.

There's quite a few people into base-building / town-building mechanics in games, seeing them gradually populate as you progress is fun. Not many games cater to it, though. :( Outside of Suikoden, Dark Cloud, Wizorb, Terraria...

Your Photoshop skillz are improving with each idea, @Own! That lake mockup is pretty legit :D

MS Paint 4 lyf
 

Own

Moderator
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Tannie Hawk: Adds novelty phase plates and mirrors around your town to use for fun, in exchange for essence. Maybe to access a new section of your town?

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Nolea: Start of dungeon floor NPC, after flying fortress. Nolea is broken and requires parts from the Flying Fortress to be repaired. # Scrap Metal, # Crystals, # Wisp Cores, # Crystal Crumbs. These can be cumulative across multiple runs. After giving Nolea all the necessary materials she'll award you with # Essence and join your town as an NPC.

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The Gardener: Start of dungeon floor NPC. In exchange for # gold, she'll spawn 5 permanent friendly uncharged Summon Plants in every room of the current floor.

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The Techie: Start of dungeon floor NPC. In exchange for # gold, he'll cause a friendly rocket to focus fire on a random enemy every 5 seconds in every room of the current floor. Similar to Flying Fortress rockets.

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The Scientist: [?] room NPC. Challenges you to help experiment with a gathered assortment of monsters, who have been enhanced in some way. Spawns a bunch of elites, or normal monsters with greatly enhanced strength / speed / HP?

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Igor: Start of dungeon floor NPC. Asks your help in chasing down a random enemy from a different area, in exchange for a reward. Accept and he'll mark a room on your map to go to, asking you to kill every enemy in every room on the way there except the one he's trying to catch. So in the Flying Fortress, maybe kill every enemy except a rabbit or boar trying to kill you on the way to that room.

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Monyplix: [?] room NPC. Guards a room with 9 chests. In exchange for gold each player can open only one. Most contain junk, one or two contain gear, one contains a bunch of essence.
 

Own

Moderator
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Archaeologist: An NPC option to appear at the start of floors. Offers to sell you random items from the loot pool from previous floors that you didn't get, at much higher prices. Missed the spectacles, blue ring and wisp bracelet while you're in Seasonne or Temple of Seasons? Worry no more!

Alternatively

Archaeologist: A town NPC that tells the player how to find artifacts lost within the labyrinth... for a price. Artifacts only manifest in specific circumstances and offer powerful bonuses, which can be further increased by feeding them essence. Examples,

Pao Zhi - Increases gold earned for town upon end of run by %. Appears by winning the beehive boss battle without any skills or shield.

Gaan'tlet - Reduced score needed per essence by %. Appears by having the boar kill every other enemy in the zoo.

Amalet - Increase chance of elite mobs and bosses dropping essence by %. Appears by surviving (?) minutes vs Helloweed before killing it.

Others - Decrease gold needed to upgrade town by %, increase chance of special NPC room appearance rate by %, etc

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Mundi: Takes care of the museum / shrine where artifacts are housed. Possibly assumes the alternative role of the archaeologist, if he doesn't.
 

Own

Moderator
Bran Di - 'Maintains' the weather/style machine, which adds an overlay on top of your town. Feed it more essence to unlock new types for your town.

Snow - Snowflakes fall across your town.
Rain - Rain pitterpatters across your town.
Party - Confetti falls across your town.
Sakura - Cherryblossom petals drift across your town.
Scarlet - Red cherryblossom petals.
Spooky - The edges of your town are distorted, ala Pumpkin Woods, and a swarm of bats occasionally fly past.
Cloudy - Clouds occasionally drift over your town.
Flutter - Butterflies drift over your town.
Historic - Applies the Tai Ming past-orb effect on your town.
Hades - Z(spoiler)-boss's fire spark effect floats over the town.
Bokbok - Chickens fly over the town, ala Zelda.
Retro - Applies the game over fade effect on your town.
Super Retro - Applies a green Gameboy-esque fade effect.
 

Own

Moderator
The Miners

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Rock appears and stands outside a crumbled in cave, or next to a patch of earth with an X on it. Pay him # gold to have the finances to clear the cave blockage/dig into the earth and discover Undarcadia.

Undarcadia is where NPCs of less than reputable natures appear, along with the miners. The more miners you hire with gold (as a huge goldsink), maybe the more branches are dug into the mine for NPCs to take up home in? Or the mine is completely cleared as soon as it's open.

Miners (aside from Rock) also/alternatively give more essence through different means, acquired whenever visiting them. Examples:

Miner #1 - % chance to dig up an essence per elite killed.
Miner #2 - % chance to dig up an essence per 50,000 score gained. (during each run)
Miner #3 - % chance to dig up an essence per challenge room/Bishop challenge completed.
Miner #4 - % chance to dig up an essence per 1000 gold spent at Shady Merchant or Nurse.

Cavelings

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Rulex appears in Undarcadia and tells you he needs you to perform a few... jobs for him, to smuggle the rest of his clan in one by one. The more 'jobs' you do, the more cavelings that appear. Cavelings 'help' you acquire more gold after runs, similar to how Miners do above. Example jobs:

Insurance Scam - Take a total of # damage across your run before dying or winning. Should require numerous health potions or orbs / nurse visits in one run to hit this.
Fixed Match - Survive against Marino in Seasonne for at least # seconds before dying. Gotta make it look convincing!
Protection Money - Acquire the card that knocks gold out of enemies and gain # extra gold from it in the run.
Smuggler's Run - Reach floor # with every equipment slot but sword and shield taken up by contraband, then give it all to the first Shady Merchant you can find.
Nixing The Competition - Reach Seasonne and go into a special Frostling Den room. Survive a respawn-based battle of 50 frostlings, then bash in the Bossling at the end.
 

Own

Moderator
Tripp and Archie

Two merchants locked up somewhere deep in the arcade dungeon. When freed they will appear in your town every 20-25 floors you have traversed, but only for that town visit. Each one has their own appearance cycle.

Both sell treasures from strange, faraway lands for steep prices. If you're not auto-unlocking items in arcade mode that otherwise only be found in story mode, this is a way to handle it.

Archie offers to sell a single, random functional item per visit. Phase Resequencer, Ice Medallion, Spider Medallion, etc.

Tripp offers to sell furniture and cosmetic items that only appears in story mode, but only a few options each time. Electronic Cat Screen, Catfood Bowl, Dungeon Paintings, Chef Hat, Ski Goggles, etc.
 
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