“The River… this one’s a bit trickier than The Mountain…”
In the fight against the orc, I found two big problems with The River’s current build… lack of build. After all, I didn’t give it a single skill yet.
First, it was too slow to chase the orc when he was running away. It isn’t that my monster is slow but that it has 5 SPD, the average speed. Average isn’t bad for the usual stuff, but for an unstoppable monster, it’s kind of lame.
What’s the use of being immune to slows and immobilization effects if you can’t catch up? It means nothing!
The second is that it sucked against multiple enemies… though I expected this one. Without area attacks, the monster can’t easily deal with lots of weak enemies.
“The thing is… how am I going to solve those two problems? In particular, the first one. There are two ways I can go about it, and I can’t decide which one I like best.”
I can either give it a flat speed bonus or a mobility skill. Both are good, but I can’t imagine a river teleporting or jumping around, so I think I will go with the passive one: Sprinter. It also synergizes quite well with the Unstoppable skill and solves the problem of choosing a passive skill for The River.
This is what I call efficiency! Hahaha!
But increasing the speed by one isn’t enough, I want it to be even faster! I’ll upgrade Sprinter as soon as I choose the first active and triggered skills. This is how it’ll look after the upgrade.
| Sprinter - Lv 2 (Passive skill) |
| Increases the unit’s Speed stat by 1. |
| Upgrades |
| Proficient: Triple this skill’s bonus stats. |
Nice, don’t you agree?
What!? You’re saying it’s a waste of two skill points to make it just a little bit faster!? That I’m a noob that doesn’t know how to create proper monsters!?
I disagree. Having three extra speed points makes a huge difference.
A one-point difference is enough to avoid getting caught up in flat terrain or to easily catch up if you’re the chaser.
Two points allow you to safely run away as long as you aren’t slowed, regardless of the situation. This is why I, as a mage with 7 SPD, don’t have trouble staying out of the enemy’s reach.
Usually… when I don’t mess it up.
But at three, the difference gets so big that it’s almost impossible to overcome. Just to give you an example, the Not A Rabbit – that has the Wererabbit with speed 9 as a base, one of the fastest units in the entire game – is so fast that almost no player has ever managed to escape them. And those that did escape, it was because they could fly and used the terrain to their advantage.
It’s also the reason why the Stitched, with SPD 3, are so hopelessly useless. Unless the players allow them to get closer, they’ll never catch up.
“Alright! First problem solved! Let’s go for the second!”
Now that The River has been upgraded from a slow, meandering river to a fast, aggressive one; it’s time to solve the other issue: the lack of area attacks.
And there’s this skill that I really, really, really, really, reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally, REALLY, want to give to The River.
A skill that’ll deal area damage while at the same time helping by stacking Pride’s extra damage. A skill that synergizes with the build so well that there’s no way I’m not picking it.
As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, I’m talking about Ice Aura.
It deals damage in an area, and it slowly builds up the Pride stacks over time. It’s also cheap at 1 MP per second. The only drawback is that it’s a passive skill, so I can’t give it to The River yet. I first have to choose an active and a triggered one.
Well, this and… that it deals damage to allied units too. Which is much more relevant than you might think.
The River will be allowed to go anywhere inside the dungeon. This means that, unlike most monsters with skills like this one, it’s impossible to predict if there will be monsters nearby when a fight occurs, or where it’ll happen.
So… my monsters are going to take damage, and that damage is going to grow.
“Not good. Definitely not good!”
The Hunters are my wardens! They shouldn’t go around killing the monsters they’re supposed to protect and supervise!
But I have a trick up my sleeve! It’s called: spending a skill point to upgrade the skill!
This is how Ice Aura will look in the future, after I give The River the remaining two skills I’m postponing for one or another reason.
| Ice Aura - Lv 2 (Passive skill) |
| Cost: 1 MP per second (cannot be deactivated during combat) |
| Deal (2 + 0,1 * SPI) ice damage to every other unit within 5 meters each second. |
| Upgrades |
| Selective Freeze: Allied units aren’t affected by this skill. |
With this upgrade, I won’t have to worry anymore. The cost? It’s only a single skill point! Who cares about a single skill point!?
Well… all decent players do…
But I don’t! This means I’m better than everyone else! Fufufu! Hahaha!
Or is it…? No, Andreu, don’t get distracted by foolish thoughts! You shouldn’t care about what other people think!
“Focus… let’s focus already… So, where was I…? Ah, yes, the triggered and active skills.”
I’d love a triggered skill that works with movement. Like the Pounce skill I gave to the Hauntlings, only more generic. I don’t like the requirement to run in a straight line for The River.
“Skills related to movement… Kinetic punch! No, this one is an active skill. Pounce is discarded… Momentum…? Never seen this one before.”
| Momentum (Triggered skill) |
| If you’re moving faster than your target when attacking, your attack deals 30% more damage. |
“Aha, aha. Aha… Now I understand why I’ve never seen this one before. Because it’s too restrictive!”
A 30% damage increase is nothing to scoff at. But this damage bonus comes with a significant condition: moving faster than the target. It might seem easy to pull off, but it isn’t.
To move faster means that: One, you must be moving, you can’t stand still when attacking to receive this bonus. Two, you’re faster than the target. Three, you aren’t affected by slowing or immobilizing effects.
The thing is that you usually only have control over the first one, and that’s assuming the dungeon layout allows you to move freely during combat.
But what if… what if my unit isn’t affected by the third at all, and the second is almost guaranteed?
And what if I modify the AI to never stop running during combat? A player would get dizzy when moving around too much, but the AI won’t care at all.
It’s perfect! AI is perfect!
…perfect as in it can achieve feats humans can’t. Because if we start talking about how stupid they are, and how difficult it is to program them so they do what you expect them to do, we can keep at it until we die of old age.
“Momentum, I choose you!” I say, upgrading The River to the next level so I can give it the skill.
I don’t know why the hell I shouted that. It came out of my mouth by itself, I swear it!
“Now I must choose an active skill. So far, it’ll be two skill points each for Sprinter and Ice Aura plus one for Momentum. This makes The River level 5, level 6 if I the active skill into account. If I want it to have the same level as The Mountain, then it can have two more skills or a single one plus another upgrade. Hmmm…”
The active skill comes first, so I quickly open the skill list.
I want some damage over time skill if possible. So far, Ice Aura is an area, and the Naga’s Venomous Bite has melee range. So… a ranged single-target skill?
“Poison and ice. Hmm… What else is related to rivers?” I don’t want all skills to have the same damage types to avoid a counter if possible. “Acid? Does acid make sense for The River? I don’t see why not.”
If I go with acid DoT damage, something cheap that can be spammed will be the best. Something like Acid Bubble. The upgraded version of the skill, I mean.
| Acid Bubble - Lv 2 (Active skill) |
| Cost: 20 MP |
| Deal (2 + 0,5 * SPI) acid damage to a single enemy. There is a 10% chance that the acid sticks to the enemy, dealing an extra (0,1 * SPI) acid damage each second for 3 seconds. |
| Upgrades |
| Dissolve: Raises the chance of sticking to 100% but halves the damage. |
“Man, I love it when the game gives you the perfect upgrade to your skill. Half the damage dealt? I don’t care! I only care about the dealing damage part, not about how much! As long as it’s more than zero, it’ll eventually grow until it’s lethal! Hahaha!”
I shiver in excitement. It feels incredible when everything goes smoothly.
“So, with this, my two hunters are finished! The two are at level 7. Now I just need to make sure their AI is perfect and place them somewhere!”
I start with The River since I have the Template opened.
During combat, it’ll continuously move around. It won’t stop under any circumstance as long as the place where the fight occurs makes it impossible. This will ensure Momentum is always active. It’ll also make it look like an actual flowing river thanks to its white tail.
At least, I hope so.
It’ll prefer targeting Champions as long as they’re within acceptable range. Otherwise, it’ll attack whichever enemy is closer.
It’s funny because this change is one of the easiest you can make as long as the unit has at least 5 INT. You only have to set the preferred target to Champions. Super easy! You select the ‘preferred target’ mode and then select ‘Champions’ as the object, and the game does everything else for you!
And it only consumes one of the AI changes you can do!
“...If only I had this option for the Stitched… My life would have been so easier at the start…”
But the interesting part of The Hunters, and the reason they’re the wardens of my dungeon comes next. They are in charge of laboratory security, so their behavior outside of combat is as important, if not more important, than the in-combat one.
Outside combat, The River will move around randomly until it meets the invaders, or finds a dead monster. Either one of mine or an enemy's corpse will do. Then, it’ll start tracking the corpse trail until it finds the invaders.
To avoid stupid AI actions, I make it so that, if it reaches the cave entrance when following the track, it’ll go back and move toward the dungeon core instead of coming out of the dungeon.
Yeah… who knows what would the AI do otherwise? It might get stuck there, standing still and doing nothing!
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
The Mountain will behave the same when outside combat, but its actions during combat will be completely different.
During the last fight, it stayed immobile in the middle of the room while rooted because the room was small and Boulder Trow could reach everywhere. But from now on, it’ll take root and stay there for the duration of the battle, or until the players run away.
If they do, then The Mountain will unroot itself and give chase. The same is true if they start using attacks from outside its Magic Missile range.
And the most important part. If one hunter meets the other during the tracking phase, they will both start tracking the invaders together.
Yeah… you heard it properly.
TOGETHER.
If the invaders take too long to clear my dungeon or are simply unlucky, there’ll be a high chance they’ll have to fight the two of them at the same time.
Plus any other monster that might be roaming around! Fufufu! Hahaha!
“It feels so good to work with advanced AI. Used to monsters with braindead AIs, this is heaven. I can achieve anything I want! The results aren’t always as predicted, but still…”
I save the last changes and make them spawn randomly in the dungeon. One will spawn somewhere inside the laboratory areas and the other in the tunnels.
Tweaking the dungeon layout, I also make them unable to enter the sealed area. Both for balance reasons – the area is too dangerous already, and I don’t want to kill every single invader that ends up fighting them inside it – as well as for roleplay reasons.
Roleplay? You say you don’t understand? Sight… allow me to explain, then.
If they’re my wardens/security forces, why would they ever go inside a sealed area? It’s sealed because it isn’t used anymore, there’s no need to make sure everything inside is ok!
“Fufufu! Hahaha! Shiver in fear, poor invaders! For now, you aren’t alone anymore! My new creations will give you company, chasing after you as soon as they get a sniff of your presence. For they are The Hunters!”
I’m looking forward to the player’s reactions. How will they adapt to their presence?
“Protect my laboratory, my minions! Make sure to bring their bodies to me, so I can use them for my next experiment! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
Oh, yeah. Before I forget. Here are the monster’s stats.
| The Mountain (Lv 7) | |||||
| HP | 1312 (820) | STA | 84 (54) | SOU | 121 (76) |
| EP | 912 (570) | MP | 1264 (790) | ||
| STR | 81 (51) | CON | 99 (62) | AGI | 67 (42) |
| SPI | 115 (72) | WIL | 131 (82) | DEX | 92 (58) |
| SPD | 5 | INT | 5 | COM | 3 |
| Skills | |||||
| Active: Boulder Throw, Entangle, Magic Missiles - Lv 2 (Targeted Missiles), Take Root - Lv 2 (Deep Roots) (Innate). Triggered: Persecute, Lust (Innate). Passive: Shared Pain, Stoneskin (Innate). |
| The River (Lv 7) | |||||
| HP | 1168 (730) | STA | 108 (68) | SOU | 104 (65) |
| EP | 1008 (630) | MP | 992 (620) | ||
| STR | 68 (43) | CON | 81 (51) | AGI | 96 (60) |
| SPI | 107 (67) | WIL | 96 (60) | DEX | 75 (47) |
| SPD | 8 | INT | 5 | COM | 3 |
| Skills | |||||
| Active: Acid Bubble - Lv 2 (Dissolve), Venomous Bite (Innate). Triggered: Momentum. Passive: Ice Aura - Lv 2 (Selective Freeze), Sprinter - Lv 2 (Proficient), Pride (Innate), Unstoppable (Innate). |
“I love how the game forces you to give each monster one active, triggered, and passive skill before you can start giving them more skills or upgrade the existing ones. It not only makes each monster trickier to deal with but it also enhances their personality and fighting style if done properly.
Because of how each skill type synergizes with the others, the possibilities are near infinite!”
- Excerpt of an interview with a random DMA player.
“The River… this one’s a bit trickier than The Mountain…”
In the fight against the orc, I found two big problems with The River’s current build… lack of build. After all, I didn’t give it a single skill yet.
First, it was too slow to chase the orc when he was running away. It isn’t that my monster is slow but that it has 5 SPD, the average speed. Average isn’t bad for the usual stuff, but for an unstoppable monster, it’s kind of lame.
What’s the use of being immune to slows and immobilization effects if you can’t catch up? It means nothing!
The second is that it sucked against multiple enemies… though I expected this one. Without area attacks, the monster can’t easily deal with lots of weak enemies.
“The thing is… how am I going to solve those two problems? In particular, the first one. There are two ways I can go about it, and I can’t decide which one I like best.”
I can either give it a flat speed bonus or a mobility skill. Both are good, but I can’t imagine a river teleporting or jumping around, so I think I will go with the passive one: Sprinter. It also synergizes quite well with the Unstoppable skill and solves the problem of choosing a passive skill for The River.
This is what I call efficiency! Hahaha!
But increasing the speed by one isn’t enough, I want it to be even faster! I’ll upgrade Sprinter as soon as I choose the first active and triggered skills. This is how it’ll look after the upgrade.
| Sprinter - Lv 2 (Passive skill) |
| Increases the unit’s Speed stat by 1. |
| Upgrades |
| Proficient: Triple this skill’s bonus stats. |
Nice, don’t you agree?
What!? You’re saying it’s a waste of two skill points to make it just a little bit faster!? That I’m a noob that doesn’t know how to create proper monsters!?
I disagree. Having three extra speed points makes a huge difference.
A one-point difference is enough to avoid getting caught up in flat terrain or to easily catch up if you’re the chaser.
Two points allow you to safely run away as long as you aren’t slowed, regardless of the situation. This is why I, as a mage with 7 SPD, don’t have trouble staying out of the enemy’s reach.
Usually… when I don’t mess it up.
But at three, the difference gets so big that it’s almost impossible to overcome. Just to give you an example, the Not A Rabbit – that has the Wererabbit with speed 9 as a base, one of the fastest units in the entire game – is so fast that almost no player has ever managed to escape them. And those that did escape, it was because they could fly and used the terrain to their advantage.
It’s also the reason why the Stitched, with SPD 3, are so hopelessly useless. Unless the players allow them to get closer, they’ll never catch up.
“Alright! First problem solved! Let’s go for the second!”
Now that The River has been upgraded from a slow, meandering river to a fast, aggressive one; it’s time to solve the other issue: the lack of area attacks.
And there’s this skill that I really, really, really, really, reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally, REALLY, want to give to The River.
A skill that’ll deal area damage while at the same time helping by stacking Pride’s extra damage. A skill that synergizes with the build so well that there’s no way I’m not picking it.
As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, I’m talking about Ice Aura.
It deals damage in an area, and it slowly builds up the Pride stacks over time. It’s also cheap at 1 MP per second. The only drawback is that it’s a passive skill, so I can’t give it to The River yet. I first have to choose an active and a triggered one.
Well, this and… that it deals damage to allied units too. Which is much more relevant than you might think.
The River will be allowed to go anywhere inside the dungeon. This means that, unlike most monsters with skills like this one, it’s impossible to predict if there will be monsters nearby when a fight occurs, or where it’ll happen.
So… my monsters are going to take damage, and that damage is going to grow.
“Not good. Definitely not good!”
The Hunters are my wardens! They shouldn’t go around killing the monsters they’re supposed to protect and supervise!
But I have a trick up my sleeve! It’s called: spending a skill point to upgrade the skill!
This is how Ice Aura will look in the future, after I give The River the remaining two skills I’m postponing for one or another reason.
| Ice Aura - Lv 2 (Passive skill) |
| Cost: 1 MP per second (cannot be deactivated during combat) |
| Deal (2 + 0,1 * SPI) ice damage to every other unit within 5 meters each second. |
| Upgrades |
| Selective Freeze: Allied units aren’t affected by this skill. |
With this upgrade, I won’t have to worry anymore. The cost? It’s only a single skill point! Who cares about a single skill point!?
Well… all decent players do…
But I don’t! This means I’m better than everyone else! Fufufu! Hahaha!
Or is it…? No, Andreu, don’t get distracted by foolish thoughts! You shouldn’t care about what other people think!
“Focus… let’s focus already… So, where was I…? Ah, yes, the triggered and active skills.”
I’d love a triggered skill that works with movement. Like the Pounce skill I gave to the Hauntlings, only more generic. I don’t like the requirement to run in a straight line for The River.
“Skills related to movement… Kinetic punch! No, this one is an active skill. Pounce is discarded… Momentum…? Never seen this one before.”
| Momentum (Triggered skill) |
| If you’re moving faster than your target when attacking, your attack deals 30% more damage. |
“Aha, aha. Aha… Now I understand why I’ve never seen this one before. Because it’s too restrictive!”
A 30% damage increase is nothing to scoff at. But this damage bonus comes with a significant condition: moving faster than the target. It might seem easy to pull off, but it isn’t.
To move faster means that: One, you must be moving, you can’t stand still when attacking to receive this bonus. Two, you’re faster than the target. Three, you aren’t affected by slowing or immobilizing effects.
The thing is that you usually only have control over the first one, and that’s assuming the dungeon layout allows you to move freely during combat.
But what if… what if my unit isn’t affected by the third at all, and the second is almost guaranteed?
And what if I modify the AI to never stop running during combat? A player would get dizzy when moving around too much, but the AI won’t care at all.
It’s perfect! AI is perfect!
…perfect as in it can achieve feats humans can’t. Because if we start talking about how stupid they are, and how difficult it is to program them so they do what you expect them to do, we can keep at it until we die of old age.
“Momentum, I choose you!” I say, upgrading The River to the next level so I can give it the skill.
I don’t know why the hell I shouted that. It came out of my mouth by itself, I swear it!
“Now I must choose an active skill. So far, it’ll be two skill points each for Sprinter and Ice Aura plus one for Momentum. This makes The River level 5, level 6 if I the active skill into account. If I want it to have the same level as The Mountain, then it can have two more skills or a single one plus another upgrade. Hmmm…”
The active skill comes first, so I quickly open the skill list.
I want some damage over time skill if possible. So far, Ice Aura is an area, and the Naga’s Venomous Bite has melee range. So… a ranged single-target skill?
“Poison and ice. Hmm… What else is related to rivers?” I don’t want all skills to have the same damage types to avoid a counter if possible. “Acid? Does acid make sense for The River? I don’t see why not.”
If I go with acid DoT damage, something cheap that can be spammed will be the best. Something like Acid Bubble. The upgraded version of the skill, I mean.
| Acid Bubble - Lv 2 (Active skill) |
| Cost: 20 MP |
| Deal (2 + 0,5 * SPI) acid damage to a single enemy. There is a 10% chance that the acid sticks to the enemy, dealing an extra (0,1 * SPI) acid damage each second for 3 seconds. |
| Upgrades |
| Dissolve: Raises the chance of sticking to 100% but halves the damage. |
“Man, I love it when the game gives you the perfect upgrade to your skill. Half the damage dealt? I don’t care! I only care about the dealing damage part, not about how much! As long as it’s more than zero, it’ll eventually grow until it’s lethal! Hahaha!”
I shiver in excitement. It feels incredible when everything goes smoothly.
“So, with this, my two hunters are finished! The two are at level 7. Now I just need to make sure their AI is perfect and place them somewhere!”
I start with The River since I have the Template opened.
During combat, it’ll continuously move around. It won’t stop under any circumstance as long as the place where the fight occurs makes it impossible. This will ensure Momentum is always active. It’ll also make it look like an actual flowing river thanks to its white tail.
At least, I hope so.
It’ll prefer targeting Champions as long as they’re within acceptable range. Otherwise, it’ll attack whichever enemy is closer.
It’s funny because this change is one of the easiest you can make as long as the unit has at least 5 INT. You only have to set the preferred target to Champions. Super easy! You select the ‘preferred target’ mode and then select ‘Champions’ as the object, and the game does everything else for you!
And it only consumes one of the AI changes you can do!
“...If only I had this option for the Stitched… My life would have been so easier at the start…”
But the interesting part of The Hunters, and the reason they’re the wardens of my dungeon comes next. They are in charge of laboratory security, so their behavior outside of combat is as important, if not more important, than the in-combat one.
Outside combat, The River will move around randomly until it meets the invaders, or finds a dead monster. Either one of mine or an enemy's corpse will do. Then, it’ll start tracking the corpse trail until it finds the invaders.
To avoid stupid AI actions, I make it so that, if it reaches the cave entrance when following the track, it’ll go back and move toward the dungeon core instead of coming out of the dungeon.
Yeah… who knows what would the AI do otherwise? It might get stuck there, standing still and doing nothing!
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
The Mountain will behave the same when outside combat, but its actions during combat will be completely different.
During the last fight, it stayed immobile in the middle of the room while rooted because the room was small and Boulder Trow could reach everywhere. But from now on, it’ll take root and stay there for the duration of the battle, or until the players run away.
If they do, then The Mountain will unroot itself and give chase. The same is true if they start using attacks from outside its Magic Missile range.
And the most important part. If one hunter meets the other during the tracking phase, they will both start tracking the invaders together.
Yeah… you heard it properly.
TOGETHER.
If the invaders take too long to clear my dungeon or are simply unlucky, there’ll be a high chance they’ll have to fight the two of them at the same time.
Plus any other monster that might be roaming around! Fufufu! Hahaha!
“It feels so good to work with advanced AI. Used to monsters with braindead AIs, this is heaven. I can achieve anything I want! The results aren’t always as predicted, but still…”
I save the last changes and make them spawn randomly in the dungeon. One will spawn somewhere inside the laboratory areas and the other in the tunnels.
Tweaking the dungeon layout, I also make them unable to enter the sealed area. Both for balance reasons – the area is too dangerous already, and I don’t want to kill every single invader that ends up fighting them inside it – as well as for roleplay reasons.
Roleplay? You say you don’t understand? Sight… allow me to explain, then.
If they’re my wardens/security forces, why would they ever go inside a sealed area? It’s sealed because it isn’t used anymore, there’s no need to make sure everything inside is ok!
“Fufufu! Hahaha! Shiver in fear, poor invaders! For now, you aren’t alone anymore! My new creations will give you company, chasing after you as soon as they get a sniff of your presence. For they are The Hunters!”
I’m looking forward to the player’s reactions. How will they adapt to their presence?
“Protect my laboratory, my minions! Make sure to bring their bodies to me, so I can use them for my next experiment! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
Oh, yeah. Before I forget. Here are the monster’s stats.
| The Mountain (Lv 7) | |||||
| HP | 1312 (820) | STA | 84 (54) | SOU | 121 (76) |
| EP | 912 (570) | MP | 1264 (790) | ||
| STR | 81 (51) | CON | 99 (62) | AGI | 67 (42) |
| SPI | 115 (72) | WIL | 131 (82) | DEX | 92 (58) |
| SPD | 5 | INT | 5 | COM | 3 |
| Skills | |||||
| Active: Boulder Throw, Entangle, Magic Missiles - Lv 2 (Targeted Missiles), Take Root - Lv 2 (Deep Roots) (Innate). Triggered: Persecute, Lust (Innate). Passive: Shared Pain, Stoneskin (Innate). |
| The River (Lv 7) | |||||
| HP | 1168 (730) | STA | 108 (68) | SOU | 104 (65) |
| EP | 1008 (630) | MP | 992 (620) | ||
| STR | 68 (43) | CON | 81 (51) | AGI | 96 (60) |
| SPI | 107 (67) | WIL | 96 (60) | DEX | 75 (47) |
| SPD | 8 | INT | 5 | COM | 3 |
| Skills | |||||
| Active: Acid Bubble - Lv 2 (Dissolve), Venomous Bite (Innate). Triggered: Momentum. Passive: Ice Aura - Lv 2 (Selective Freeze), Sprinter - Lv 2 (Proficient), Pride (Innate), Unstoppable (Innate). |
“I love how the game forces you to give each monster one active, triggered, and passive skill before you can start giving them more skills or upgrade the existing ones. It not only makes each monster trickier to deal with but it also enhances their personality and fighting style if done properly.
Because of how each skill type synergizes with the others, the possibilities are near infinite!”
- Excerpt of an interview with a random DMA player.
