Collection of Quality of Life, Gameplay Mechanics, and Engine Enhancements

[prudernan]

Hi everyone! I would like to propose a set of feature requests and enhancements for future updates. These ideas focus on expanding customizability, map vision mechanics, room efficiency dynamics, and quality of life (QoL) improvements.

1. Customizable Fog of War / Map Visibility Modes
   Add an option in the game setup/settings menu to select different map visibility modes prior to starting a match:

Always Visible: Full map reveal with no Fog of War.

Standard (Current System): Areas stay visible permanently once explored.

Dynamic Fog of War (Starcraft-style): Areas reveal terrain when explored, but fade into a "grayed-out" shrouded state when no friendly creatures or structure vision are nearby. The shroud shows the last known state of the area.

2. Increased Hand Capacity Limit
   Allow the Hand of Evil to pick up and carry more than the default limit of 8 creatures (ideally configurable or scalable).

3. Expanded Temple Sacrifice Recipes & High-Tier Creature Locking
   Provide expanded configuration options for Temple sacrifices in map scripts/settings.

Allow map creators/engine settings to lock certain high-tier or powerful creatures so they can only be summoned via specific sacrifice combinations rather than entering through the Portal.

4. Environmental & Contextual Modifiers for Room Efficiency
   Introduce room synergy and environmental proximity mechanics to influence room efficiency:

Library: Efficiency increases if placed in quiet areas (far from noisy rooms like Training Rooms, Workshops, or Torture Chambers).

Torture Chamber / Prison Synergy: Placing Prisons in close proximity or within line-of-sight of a Torture Chamber increases Torture Chamber efficiency due to the psychological effect ("fear factor") on prisoners.

Other Room Synergies: Expand contextual positioning bonuses across other rooms.

5. Enhanced Save System & Campaign Folder Management
   Unlimited Save Slots: Remove the current hard limit on save files.

Folder/Campaign Categorization: Allow players to create custom folders and group save files by campaign, custom map, or player profiles for better organization.

6. Spells & Powers: Targetable Imp "Must Obey" & Toggleable Sight of Evil
   Targetable Speed/Must Obey Effect: A new power (or expansion to existing ones) that allows applying the Imp efficiency "Boom" / Must Obey effect to targeted areas, even when cast through the Sight of Evil.

Continuous Sight of Evil: An option/power to keep Sight of Evil active indefinitely over a target area in exchange for a continuous gold drain per second.

7. Quick-Sell Button for Workshop Manufactures (QoL / Economy)
   Add a dedicated UI button or shortcut to bulk-sell stored workshop items/traps instantly.

Context: In many custom campaigns and late-game scenarios, selling manufactured items serves as a primary economy loop (replacing Gold Veins). A bulk-sell mechanic would significantly reduce tedious micro-management.

[PieterVdc]

1 should really be up to the mapmaker, but well if you really want to can always add a simple lua mod to override it
2 MaxThingsInHand in rules.cfg is already a thing
3 same file also already possible
4 really dificult to convey to end user how mechanic would work, so eh
5 the extra ones aren't visible trough gui, but using the console commands you can access way more slots
6 custom powers a mapmaker could do
7 nah makes it too simple to just have a workshop instead of gems

so most of these a mapmaker could implement if they wanted to, everything a mapmaker can do can also be done by an end user trough the mod system, but well overriding that can upset balance of maps, so up to you if you want to mess with it, but some stuff might get too easy or hard depending on what you change

[prudernan]

Hi! Thanks a lot for taking the time to read through the proposal and for pointing out the existing features in rules.cfg and the console commands — I appreciate the heads-up on those!

I think I might have phrased my original post a bit unclearly regarding the end goal. My intention isn't to create local, one-off modifications or custom Lua scripts just for personal play. Doing that individually inevitably leads to game version mismatches, balance issues, and incompatibility during multiplayer matches.

My goal was to start a community discussion about which of these QoL and gameplay dynamics we might want to bring into the engine natively, backed by in-game UI toggles or settings. That way:

Standardization & Multiplayer: Everyone plays on a unified base build without needing manual file edits, avoiding desyncs or broken compatibility when hopping into lobbies.

Accessibility: Casual players or mapmakers who aren't familiar with editing .cfg files or using console commands can easily enable/disable features straight from the game options.

Preserving the Vanilla Experience: I completely respect that KeeperFX's primary core value is bug fixing and preserving classic DK1 mechanics. Having native settings turned off by default would allow purists to keep the standard experience untouched, while giving multiplayer lobbies and modern campaigns an easy, standardized way to opt into these features.

I understand that mechanics like room proximity/synergies or workshop balance tweaks are complex to convey and might shift game balance. I just wanted to pitch these ideas to see if the community feels any of them are worth standardizing natively over time.

I completely understand and respect the community's goal of preserving the core gameplay and fixing bugs without forcefully altering traditional mechanics. My idea is simply to offer these as optional, host-configurable engine features that elevate KeeperFX to the next level while keeping everyone on the exact same official build.

Thanks again for all the incredible work you all do on this project!