The first two floor bosses are fine, and the fourth-floor boss is as well. The third-floor boss though was limited by my abilities at the time it was created. I can't afford to put this off as more and more people are starting to make it to the end of the second floor. Meaning that soon I won't have much freedom to edit the third floor. So, without delay I bring up a copy of the third-floor boss inside of this blank room. It's not an actual room, more like a space inside my head that also doubles as a factory, and test chamber all in one. I wonder if I'll be able to save the new pattern or if I'll need to create it Frankenstein style every time. I guess if that's the case I could just store extras in my personal storage to be placed in the dungeon as needed. You'd think that after four years I'd have a better understanding of how to actually be a dungeon. Instead, I'm still figuring shit out as I go.
Getting back to what I was doing. I first create three copies of the boss. Then I completely disassembled the original copy so I could get started making changes. First, I started by adding a second ribcage and spine between the skull and existing rib cage. Then I added arms to the upper rib cage as well. The idea was to make the skull harder to hit since the skull is a skeletons weak point. Once I add the skull back on and place it in the test chamber it doesn't take long to figure out that something is wrong.
It can't bend over very far without either toppling over or just snapping in half completely. The problem is how to fix this issue without jeopardizing mobility. I tried several different options to fix the issue. The first was to just reinforce the failure point but that just moved the failure point somewhere else. Besides which it made the whole mob even more top-heavy meaning even if I got it to be stable it would be too wobbly to actually fight. The next idea was to change it so that it permanently leaned forward slightly then create a second ribcage and spinal column complete with skull on the back side.
This turned out great actually. After some trial and error, the two skulls eventually figured out how to work together to keep themselves upright. I even threw teams of level 15 skeletons at it to simulate boss battles, and it performed better than I could have hoped. The problem however was that when I tried to place it in the boss chamber on the third floor. I found that because it had two skulls it technically counted as two separate creatures. I saved this pattern anyway because even if I can't use it as a boss, I can still use it as a normal mob. Perhaps I'll even introduce it on the fifth floor. Maybe guarding a chest.
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I'm getting ahead of myself again. First things first figure out how to make the double decker skeleton work as a boss. After several failed attempts I eventually realize that I'm going to have to sacrifice at least some mobility to make my idea work. The solution it turns out was to fuse another spine to the side of the existing spines near where they connect. This does reduce the boss's range of motion though not nearly as much as I feared it would.
The next problem is exactly what weapons to give it. I originally wanted to give both sets of arms a sword and shield. While it could work and in fact already did in the test chamber, I still decided against it in the end. I already had to buy the dual wielding skill just so that it could control multiple swords at once. So instead, I just gave all the hands swords except one. These swords also had the same sharpness enchantment as the first sword. The reason I did this is that with the enchantment on the shield forcing opponents to subconsciously target the shield there really wasn't a need for a second shield.
For now, I have the bottom arms using the sword and shield technic and the upper arms dual wielding swords. After putting all the armor back on, it looks just as intimidating as I had hoped. I did need to make a second chest plate for the upper ribcage and a few other gauntlets. The final result though was something that looks like it walked right out of someone's nightmare. Satisfied with my creation I replaced the third-floor boss with this new and improved version. Now I just need to wait for an actual party to encounter it.
Speaking of delvers, it didn't take them long to figure out I had instances. Now the number of delvers I get each day has dramatically increased. This in turn gives me more mana faster. On top of that I've usually always got at least one instance on each floor not in use at the moment. I'm sure that won't last long but the reason it's significant is that I can make changes to any instance not currently in use. These changes will then be applied to other instances either instantly if that particular instance is not in use at the moment or upon the next refresh if the instance is in use when the changes are made.
Now it's time to work on the fifth floor. This time I think I'll even add some flying mobs now that my rooms have the verticality to allow them to maneuver properly. I still can't go too crazy with the size but there should still be plenty of deadly options. Aside from flying mobs I have a few other ideas for the fifth floor. Up till now I've just been placing rooms with no real rhyme or reason, but now I finally have enough space to really get creative. I'm still going to have separate rooms don't get me wrong. It's just that I plan for the rooms to have much more of a logical progression. Not just in terms of mob levels but also in terms of the overall look and feel of the room. If I do it correctly delvers will find it hard to tell where one room ends, and another begins unless they are paying attention. I can't completely hide the hallway linking the rooms, but I will do my best to disguise them.