Floor 13 (Concept)

[Nexscarecrow 0]

"Corpse walker" That has a nice ring to it. The idea of having the monsters look like dead players sounds pretty neat but Im not sure if we should use it.

[Saix 0]

i don't know about "ghouls". that name for me is to strongly tied to vampires. a Ghoul being a humans who is a slave of a vampire and is empowered by the vampires blood.

Actually, long before White Wolf ever used the Ghoul in their Table Top Rp, the term Ghoul belonged to a rather generic folkloric monster or spirit associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh. First mentioned in literature in the One Thousand and One Nights compilation of stories, the Ghoul, or more specifically ghūl of Arabian folklore may be the oldest example of a named 'undead' folkloric monster. It was later introduced to English literature in 1786, in William Beckford's Orientalist novel Vathek, which describes the ghūl of Arabian folklore further solidifying the Ghoul as a type of corpse eating zombie/undead in the minds of western civilization.

Given the rather long backstory associated with the name, it would not be out of character for 'Ghoul' to appear as an undead enemy in SAO.

Though, if something corpse related is preferred as a name, might I suggest using something like "Shambling Corpse"? It has been used in many different MMO's, card games, and RPG's as an undead enemy type. Then again, so has Ghoul. But no reason not to use a classic, haha.

[Inu 0]

Whatever's it's called I definitely think that aspect is a must. And I'm only slightly hesitant to the deceased players appearing, simply because I feel like having to fight off human-like entities is sufficient enough to be damaging to them psychologically, without having to push them to their mental brink. I am very, very, interested to see how this concept fleshes out.

[Nexscarecrow 0]

One thing I think would be cool is to have some ghosts to help out. Most of the missions in the area could be based around helping spirits move to the afterlife.

[Kay 0]

Good concept but if we make floor 13 this hard then the difficulty curve will be nightmare-ish.

[Nexscarecrow 0]

Yeah. I like the idea of the floor being on an unlucky number, so im searching for one a little higher. Maybe 31?

[Inu 0]

I think keeping it at 13 isn't a bad idea. It IS the unlucky number, pretty unanimously known as such. So it would make sense, and be a fun twist, to have it reflect in the game as such. Which this certain level could be rather mentally challenging, it doesn't actually rate anywhere above it actually being a level 13 floor. Besides... it makes sense that an unlucky number would throw a curve ball as such in, then it'd be a good breather to get to 14 and be able to take a deep breath again. Feel reinvigorated, or whatever. Yet the monsters/beasts on 14 would clearly be harder, even if the entire floor isn't a challenge like the one prior. I don't know... if it doesn't happen on 13, it doesn't make much sense being anywhere else... truly haha

[Nexscarecrow 0]

In Afghanistan 39 is a fairly unlucky number (It can be translated to dead cow, and is also somehow used as slang for pimp). In Chinese 54 can mean "Not Live". Also 6 can mean to drop, fall, or decline, as well as 4 which can mean death, so they could be in some combos.

[Inu 0]

Maybe these 'cursed' floors can hit randomly at all these unlucky numbers, or something? That way it's not such a like random event on this one particular flood, but rather is actually reoccurring, thus becoming a fighting style the Players will in fact have to adjust to coming back to... yet just the same, they won't know when/where... unless they catch on to the pattern. That way 13 doesn't seem too hard/extreme in the long run.

[9Lives 0]

Actually, long before White Wolf ever used the Ghoul in their Table Top Rp, the term Ghoul belonged to a rather generic folkloric monster or spirit associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh.

I didn't say that white wolf invented the word, just that when i hear the word ghoul all i can think of is vampire.

if you want 13 to seem like a curse then there are numerous ways to make that happen. first you could make all the town npcs have monster bodies, and all the monsters be human. you could make all rolls reverse so that a 1 is a critical and a 10 is a fail. you could have monsters that steal form your inventory and you have to kill them to get the item back (which could be very difficult if they stole your weapon). you could make it where retaliative size of everything is twice as big so the player feels like they have shrunk. you could steal an itea from guildwars 2 and make it so that all players appear as monsters making it hard to tell friend form foe. thats just some ideas.

[Nikki Styx 0]

Maybe these 'cursed' floors can hit randomly at all these unlucky numbers, or something? That way it's not such a like random event on this one particular flood, but rather is actually reoccurring, thus becoming a fighting style the Players will in fact have to adjust to coming back to... yet just the same, they won't know when/where... unless they catch on to the pattern. That way 13 doesn't seem too hard/extreme in the long run.

I very much like this idea.. a lot... A few cursed and messed up floors to really twist players around.

[Nexscarecrow 0]

Having a floor thats cursed sounds like a neat idea to me as well. Though it definitely needs to be an extremely rare thing.

[Nikki Styx 0]

Or even what if instead of Zombies or things like that, some sort of hive of parasites. All the people in the town are infected turning them into monsters. and every proper monster is a giant form of the parasite itself.. ie drones, soldier and so on. Then the boss for the floor is the Hive Mind parasite that controls everything'

[Nexscarecrow 0]

And then after the floor boos is defeated the town is abandoned? Sounds pretty good to me, I like the idea of each enemy being a hive mind.