Librarian

Hi Editors.

I'm been looking at the spawn patterns for a few dungeons.

The room types mentioned include Chest, Switch, Pre-deployed and Mimic Pit. Soemtimes Chest Room, Switch Room, etc. I think I'm seeing some inconsistencies in how the labels are used.

I propose the following types: Chest Room, Switch Room, Mimic Room, Mimic Pit, Skippable Room (though I'm not totally happy with that label), Treasure Chamber.

I think we need to distinguish between "Mimic Pit" which occurs in a corridor, and "Mimic Room" which is the same concept but in a full-size room, because I believe the possible spawn patterns differ for these two types, though there can be some overlap.

Currently some editors seem to be clumping "mimic room" spawn patterns under the "mimic pit" heading, but others are including them under "Pre-deployed". I think we need to distinguish "mimic room" where you MUST find the key to progress, and "Pre-deployed Room" which you can just run through ignoring all the mobs. But then "Mimic Pits" and "Mimic Rooms" are also in a sense Pre-deployed, so "Pre-deployed" is not a good title. So I want to call that last type "skippable room" in the sense you can skip the mobs, (or skip through at high speed to avoid agro.) "Skippable Room" sounds clumsy. Anyone got a better suggestion?

I think the reason we're seeing inconsistencies is that the terms haven't been defined, or if they have, they aren't easy to find. I propose adding definitions of "room types" to https://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/Category:Dungeons My suggested wording is below. Then when labels like "mimic pit" are used in the spawn pattern of a particular dungeon, I think those words should link back to the definition on the above page. (And it would be great if someone has the scripting skills to automate creation of those links.

With respect to mimic pits, I think there's also some inconsistency in the mimic count. If the spawn pattern entry is "5 mimics", some editors seem to mean "there's 5 mimics, and also a treasure chest containing a key which I didn't bother mentioning since that always happens" but others seem to mean "there's 5 chests, one of which is a treasure chest with the key and the other 4 are sleeping mimics". To avoid this inconsistency, I think we should always explicitly mention the treasure chest.

I figured this change is sufficiently significant that I should seek feedback here in the forum BEFORE implementing it.

So here's my suggested wording. It will replace the paragraph currently stating:

"All dungeons are generally structured to have multiple rooms with a treasure chest that spawns one or three waves of enemies when opened, a room or hallway with prespawned enemies and/or a treasure chest containing key, and/or a room with four orbs that either spawn enemies or open the locked gate. Within the exception of the orb rooms, a Dungeon Key always dropped and is needed to open the locked gates that lie ahead."

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ROOM TYPES

Chest Room:

A room containing a single chest. Opening the chest causes all doors to the room to close and one or more waves of mobs will spawn, usually one or three waves, but there are a few very rare patterns with four waves. Once all mobs are defeated, the doors will open. One mob in the final wave will drop a key, which will open a subsequent door and which is required to complete the floor.

Switch Room:

A room containing 4 switches, one in each corner, and a closed exit. One switch, referred to here as the correct switch, will open the closed exit. The other three switches will cause mobs to spawn. Once the correct switch is hit, any switches that haven't yet been hit will be deactivated. Any spawned mobs need not be defeated - the correct switch will still open the exit while mobs are spawned. When mobs spawn, the room entrance does NOT close, so weaker players seeking to avoid multi-agro may choose to retreat via the entrance and pick off mobs one at a time from a distance.

In Uladh dungeons, a switch is usually an orb, a spherical bulb atop a vertical stem. The bulb lights up when hit. When the correct switch is hit, the other switches do not change appearance.

In Iria dungeons the switch can also be a pillar of stone or ice which disappears into the ground when struck. Hitting the correct switch may also cause any remaining switches to disappear.

Mimic Room:

The room contains 4 chests, one in each corner. One of these is a treasure chest containing a key which opens the exit to the room, and may sometimes also contain treasure. The other three chests are resting mimics, identical in appearance to the treasure chest. The room might also contain other mobs, possibly including more resting mimics randomly scattered about the room, but the key will always be in one of the chests in the 4 corners.

When listing spawn patterns on the dungeon's page, the preferred format is to explicitly list the treasure chest first, the mimics second, and any other mobs after that. For example:

Treasure chest + 5 mimics + 4 brown snakes.

Useful methods for distinguishing the treasure chest from the resting mimics include:

• Try to Windmill it. You can windmill mimics, but not the treasure chest.
• Summon a pet with stun, freeze or knockback effects. These affect mimics but not the treasure chest.
• Load Shooting Rush. Mimics in the attack path will have a target arrow above them. The treasure chest won't.

Mimic Pit:

Similar to a mimic room, but the mobs spawn in a corridor rather than in a dungeon room. This results in all the mobs occurring in a much smaller area, so when there are much more than 4 chests/mimics, they may overlap, making it difficult to see exactly how many there are. The four corner chests can still usually be recognised by their location at the 4 corners of a square. Since these are not in a room, the key obtained will open a subsequent door rather than a locked exit of the current location.

Skippable Room:

A room which already contain mobs when the player reaches it. The distinguishing feature of this room type is that the player does NOT need to defeat the mobs. Rather, the player can just "skip" the room by running past the mobs, ideally on a fast mount to minimise the chance of attracting agro. The room's exit may already be open but more commonly the exit is a closed door requiring a key obtained elsewhere.

To minimise the number of mobs the software needs to track, the mobs in mimic rooms/pits and skippable rooms are NOT all spawned when the player starts the level. Rather, there is a trigger point shortly before the room that causes the mobs in the room to spawn. When the trigger point is close enough to the room, the player can hear the sound effect of the mobs spawning. Players experiencing lag may also have the unpleasant experience of entering an apparently empty room, only to have the mobs spawn all around them after they enter.

Treasure Chamber:

A room containing 9 treasure chests arranged in a 3 x 3 square grid. A floor may contain 0 or 1 treasure rooms. Where it contains a treasure room, mobs on that floor may drop a Treasure Chamber Chest Key. Each key will open any chest but can only be used once. A chest may contain valuables, most commonly money, potions or bandages. Also, a chest may be empty and opening it will cause all doors to the room to close and mobs will spawn. Defeating all the mobs will cause the doors to reopen.

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OK. That hasn't yet included the weirder variants that happen in some Iria dungeons. Those variants are currently well-documented in the individual dungeon pages, so it should be easy to copy those in later if desired.