Originally posted by magilla666:

Originally posted by electricdawn:

I like that. ;)

And yes, there should be an alternate track to get past the artificial gates raised by the bosses.

This is really a nice sandbox game with a vast world and it shouldn't be ruined by having to take pre-determined path.

And...what do you think that will do to length of time needed to get the next biome out? Whatever we've heard in the way of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth about how long updates take will at least triple if the devs have to build in alternate paths. I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice. I am saying it isn't feasible.

Add random chance to chest types in biome and next biome to drop the 'roadblock gadget'. Pretty much that and you have an alternate progression path, ideally selectable same as /no portals or /no map by player. Zero impact on normal game, naught but a dozen loot table modifications. An hour or two for coding, another hour for testing, done.

PS: The type of task you put on a newbie/intern/entry level programmer that you're bringing up to speed on the project.