Constantinople Mission Design

## Constantinople Mission Design : Antonio Valvona-Smith[1803277]

### Leaving Constantinople

When the player has done all there is to do (or hit level 40) they're now ready to leave Constantinople to the West. However the only way to leave Constantinople to the West is through the Neo Labyrinth. The mission is a level 40 quest and is received at the entrance to the Neo Labyrinth and is lead to from the main story quest. The quest is to slay the Minotaur so that the labyrinth returns to normal city streets, as there will be no more Minotaur to keep inside, The Labyrinth is an instance dungeon, that means every time you enter it is randomly generated.

### The Neo Labyrinth

The Labyrinth is formed of the streets of the poor sector of Constantinople which have been twisted to form a new place of containment for the Minotaur. The Labyrinth is a multi-levelled dungeon that is separated by street-like areas that all have some sort of challenge in order to get through. these are presented at the start of each 'floor' and are presented similarly to the labours of Heracles. There are 10 missions that the player must complete under certain conditions, including fighting the Minotaur. These are floor by floor missions including capturing monsters without killing them, slaying monsters with hindrances to your abilities and stealing a key/item from a heavily guarded room without being detected (also parallels of Heracles' labours) and if these conditions are not met then at the end of the dungeon before the Minotaur the player will be dragged out to the beginning of the dungeon where they have to make up for any tasks not completed to a satisfactory level by completing newly assigned tasks. Tasks, like the dungeon will be generated at random with the only constant being your last task being to slay the Minotaur and fix the Neo Labyrinth.

### Labours of the player

The player has many labours which they will have to carry out at the end of each level of the dungeon in order to reach the Minotaur and fix the Labyrinth.

#### Slaying

A slaying labour will take many forms for the player throughout the dungeon. The task could simply be to slay one strong monster or lesser god such as Medusa (or another one of the gorgon sisters if Medusa has already been slain) or Thanatos in a boss-like arena which will change to match the monster/god. A fight against a gorgon for example would be an arena full of corners or pillars in order to hide from their gaze. and the fight against Thanatos would involve the arena darkening and hiding in the shadows being the main gimmick of the fight.

Another variant of the slaying labour would have the arena be more bland, looking like a town square where lesser monsters crawl and emerge from the walls in waves that the player must defeat in order to progress. However with these labours there are limitations thrust upon the player to make the fights more challenging than just fighting enemies

##### Additional Conditions

additional conditions the player must perform in these labours are randomly selected but all hinder the player in some way. These conditions limit the use of, or completely ban, the use of magic attacks, reinforcement spells or melee weapons, or limit your amount of dodge rolls or blocks.

#### Capturing

Labours involving capturing monsters takes place in a special arena that has a number of cages. where the player whittles down the monster's health until they're weak enough to remain inside a cage. players must be careful not to kill the monster or it will count as a fail when it comes to checking the player's progress before the Minotaur.

The monsters to be captured vary in size and amount, from capturing 3 harpies to capturing Cerberus. This leads to more variety when it comes to capture labours and also has many special arenas this can take place in to add challenge. The more capture missions the player does will lead to cages being taken away on subsequent labours to make each one more difficult than the last.

##### Additional Conditions

in addition to reducing the amount of cages on subsequent captures, the player may also be required to do it under a certain time or have their health cut to a certain percentage.

#### Stealing

In terms of level layouts the labours where you've to steal a key are the most complex as they act like a maze in which many strong, above your level enemies patrol the area, however you are given many paths to sneak and hide. The goal of these is to steal a key, or similar object and deliver it to the end of the level in order to progress to the next level and task. Unlike capture or slay labours, stealing labours take up the entire level instead of just being an arena scenario at the end.

##### Additional Conditions

In terms of additional conditions stealing only has a time limit, as it puts pressure on the players but it isn't to the point where players cannot win.

#### The Minotaur

After the player successfully completes 9 labours they are faced with their last, a fight against the Minotaur. The Minotaur is a Slaying/Capture Labour where the player is able to do whichever they prefer. In this fight the player has access to all of their abilities and is only faced with the Minotaur's insane strength. As the fight goes on the attack power of the Minotaur continues to increase slowly, which means the player either needs to finish the fight quickly or find ways around the Minotaur's attacks in order to secure the victory.

#### Aftermath

After defeating the Minotaur the Neo-Labyrinth twists back into regular city streets and the player is now free to leave Constantinople to the west, and also marks an end to everything the player has to do there. However there is a small street which is clearly still distorted, which when accessed allows the player to redo a harder version of the dungeon with friends. The monsters in here are of a much higher level and is something that should be returned to instead of tackled right away.