Living Dungeon

It hasn't been long since the last major overhaul of the Zane Dungeon.

Unexpectedly, another major overhaul is coming so soon, and it will even involve changes to other dungeons. This left Gong Qiying feeling both excited and somewhat exhausted.

After all, it's impossible for a person to be full of inspiration all the time.

He spread a map out on the table; it was a rough map of the Arnor Kingdom, on which he found the cities of Bede City and Val City.

The distance between the two cities would take nearly two days to travel by horse-drawn carriage without sleep. This distance is considered far for ordinary people, but it is too close for the dungeon. So close that there will definitely be a problem of Sain and Val competing for the flow of people.

This problem is unavoidable; there will always be some people who originally belonged to Sen go to explore the Val Dungeon.

Fortunately, both of these underground cities belong to Gong Qiying, and no matter where people choose to go on adventures, their Spirit Power will eventually end up in his pocket.

However, if Val adopts a similar setup to Sion, there will always be overlap between those who choose to go there and those who choose to go to Sion. It's the same group of people being exploited. Although things are thriving now, in the future, the number of this group may stagnate after reaching a certain level.

Therefore, Val must change and differentiate himself from Sion!

"In short, I just want to expand my network," Gong Qiying muttered to himself.

Let the Val Dungeon use differentiated elements to attract those who are not interested in the Zane Dungeon, increase visitor traffic, and thus gain more Spirit Power.

The idea is good, but putting it into practice is another matter entirely.

"One thing must be clear: the design must not deviate from my original intention."

What was his original intention? Of course, it was to scam people.

"Under the premise of being a trap, let the elements in the Val Dungeon be different from those in Sein."

No matter what it is, from organizations and forces to Yugi and novels, there is one thing you absolutely cannot do if you want to successfully expand your reach—abandon your old customers.

Unless there were no loyal customers to begin with.

Take the Elden Ring as an example. It added many things that were not present in previous Souls games, such as maps, open world, ashes, and many Wheelchair Weapons and spells. Many veterans of Souls 5 commented that it was easier, lacked the Souls feel, and that the developers had shown mercy.

But it was the best-selling game. Before it, even Sekiro, which also won the Game of the Year award, did not have the incredible popularity of The Elden Ring.

Why? Besides the Yugi's high quality, the reduced difficulty and added new elements have attracted a large number of new players. With Wheelchair Weapons, even those who aren't very skilled can enjoy the Yugi.

For casual players, all they need to do is keep swinging stones as a mage, and the monster's health bar will disappear on its own.

Lowering the difficulty allowed the Elden Ring to successfully expand its player base, but veteran players of the Souls of Destiny form the core group, and it was the combination of both that truly made the Elden Ring popular.

This is a successful example of expanding the player base. As for failed examples, there are plenty of them in the Yugi, so it's guaranteed not to disappoint people.

Therefore, no matter what new elements are added to the Val Dungeon, they must adhere to Gong Qiying's original intention and the ancestral laws must not be changed!

Gong Qiying believes that the Val Dungeon and any dungeons that will be added in the future can all be collectively referred to as the "Sain-type" dungeons.

The Sain-type- based dungeons may close down, but they will never change their nature!

So, how can Vaal differentiate himself from Sion? That's where the treasures left by his predecessors come in.

Because of Kirici, the Val Dungeon will never close, and Gong Qiying currently has no authority to change this, so...

Why not make it Living Dungeon?

If he could attract a group of people to settle there, it would be equivalent to having a vein of spiritual energy that would continuously produce Spirit Power, and his life would probably be much more comfortable.

"Okay, it's decided then."

Having established the design direction, Gong Qiying, after some thought, decided to follow Sain's original design and turn the Val Dungeon into a classic multi-level dungeon where players could continuously explore different floors.

If the goal is to attract people to live there, then it's best not to make too many changes after it's opened. If there's anything you want to add, you can do so by adding new floors.

Several habitable areas need to be added to each floor. Except for the safe zone on the first floor, which can be unlocked unconditionally, the settlements in other areas need to meet certain conditions, such as clearing away monsters or solving puzzles.

But safe zones can't be safe forever, and the people living inside can't be put off forever, so he plans to design periodic monster attacks, but unlike in 7 Days to Die, the attacking monsters won't become stronger and stronger.

"Monster attacks are merely a means to provide psychological stimulation, therefore..."

After thinking it over, Gong Qiying decided to set up monster attacks for each safe zone that matched its background, and that these monster attacks could be avoided and defended against using certain methods.

In Dying Light, every safe zone needs to have ultraviolet lights turned on at night to prevent zombie attacks.

The safe zones in the Val Dungeon can follow a similar system, such as lighting torches at night or continuously using illumination spells. As long as adventurers follow the rules, they will be safe. However, if they are careless and forget to do so, they will have to fight monsters.

The focus of Living Dungeon is always the dungeon, not life.

His design was intended to allow adventurers to stay and explore for a period of time, rather than for them to marry, have children, and actually live a normal life there.

If they really want to live a good life, why don't they go to the safer outside world?

Perhaps one day when the demon race sweeps across the world and the outside world becomes even more dangerous, the survivors may seek refuge in the dungeons.

The safe zone will be set up like this for now, so now for the main event.

How do you navigate the traps and scams involved?

Without a doubt, if someone were to live here long-term, then traps fixed in a certain area would be unlikely to kill anyone except on first encounter.

Therefore, Gong Qiying needs to focus his efforts on dealing with demons.

For people to live in a dungeon, the dungeon cannot be too far removed from common sense. The same applies to monsters; the ecology between monsters and the environment must be well-maintained.

"Skeleton Monster, which can ambush people using traps and terrain, are no longer viable, so we might as well choose Elite Monsters."

"Divide monsters into ecological monsters and story-driven monsters,"

Ecological monsters are responsible for providing the exploration experience on this level, while story monsters are responsible for fragmented narratives and drop small items with background descriptions.

Each floor could have a little story to add to the immersive experience.

"Then, the monsters that make up the majority of the monsters can't be too strong, and the Spirit Power required to kill them can't be too much,"

If every monster here were Bazelgeuse, or a Gluttonous Furious Rajang, even Silver Rank adventurer wouldn't bother coming.

If we're letting them live in the dungeon, then we can't let monsters kill them instantly; we must at least leave them room to escape.

So the monsters that can be summoned are of the level of Rune Bear, Great Lobster, Arzuros, and Great Jaggi, with one or two Bazelgeuse- level monsters patrolling the area and blasting fish on each floor.

"Choosing the right monster is a big problem."

Gong Qiying wrote this down in his notebook; it was impossible to do this in a day.

Designing the environment for each floor is a big undertaking. Since each floor is independent of the others, the differences can be made quite significant.

"Why don't we investigate what adventurers are interested in lately?" he thought, "And design each floor according to their needs."

Has any heavyweight character recently emerged in Bede City that could design a floor for him?

Gong Qiying rubbed his temples; just thinking about these things was enough to give him a headache.

Safe zones, monster types, and environment design.

Besides these three questions, there is one more thing.

How can we get adventurers to willingly stay here for four or five days, or even a week or two?

Besides abundant resources, his first thought was to arrange some items that required a long wait to obtain, just like in cultivation novels, where the protagonist guards an unripe immortal fruit for seven days and seven nights before obtaining something. Perhaps he could also add scenes where one needs to stay for several consecutive days to obtain a certain state.

Hmm. How about a dream that you can have for days on end?

One point that needs to be made clear is that the Val Dungeon is going to take a slow and steady approach, which means that its daily Spirit Power output will be somewhat lower than that of Sain.

In order to reduce costs, the resources available here cannot require too much Spirit Power.

"Even if I just provide a plot of land that can double the grain yield, I estimate people will come."

Gong Qiying slumped onto the Shrine, sighed softly, and felt his brain was overloaded.

When you start seriously designing dungeons, you'll find that there are more and more things to consider, and your brain will feel like it can't keep up.

How wonderful it would be if someone could share his burden at this time.

He stroked the Knowledge Crystal left behind by Gide and muttered to himself:

"If only you could develop a mind, like the Red Queen, an artificial intelligence would be great. If not, just chatting with me would be fine too."

The Knowledge Crystal remained motionless; perhaps it was never meant to react.

Given Gong Qiying's current efficiency, designing the prototype of the Val Dungeon within two stars would be considered highly efficient.

Two weeks from now, we'll be facing a life-or- Deathmatch with the Calamity Nest Dungeon. I really can't dedicate my Spirit Power to designing the Val Dungeon during this time.

He needs to conserve his Spirit Power before he can begin constructing the Vale after the battle with the Calamity Nest Dungeon is over.

"By the way, how much Spirit Power do I have right now?"

Gong Qiying had just opened the city lord interface when his mouth suddenly dropped open.

Why did it suddenly rise so much?

Looking at the Crystal Ball again, he seemed to understand the reason.

An old man dressed in loose robes was unleashing his full power inside the Farron Keep.

It is the Sword Saint Gapar.

Yharnam is indeed coming soon, but it doesn't mean turning the entire dungeon into Yharnam.