It sounds like your creatures are not under the player's direct control. Almost sounds like a Dwarf Fortress or Dungeon Keeper type of control. If that's the case I had some ideas.

Have the choice of whether a create enters the water to achieve it's goal vary from creature to creature. Some creatures can be petrified of water (instantly cancelling any order given to it that would lead to water) while others give it no mind at all (will go right in!) This may add to a creatures over all personality, and maybe even the drama for the player ("please open that door! Come on! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T LIKE WATER?!")

You mention flying creatures aren't effected by water... but what if they're in an enclosed space (like DF or DK)? Couldn't the water reach the ceiling? If it does, wouldn't the flying creature need to be effected by it?

Why limit the underwater actions to just doors? If the creature can open a door, can't they pull a lever or press a switch as well?

Maybe the creatures can even "rescue" other panicking creatures. If you have the petrified creature, who is suddenly engulfed in water, maybe he panics and flails. On the shore, a "brave" creature (who is otherwise idle) may see his panicked comrade and decide to save him.

I don't know how feasible any of that is with your system, but just some thoughts that came to mind.

Sounds great, and offers more opportunity for gameplay.

You could have enemies that are more water-friendly, that can *walk* under the water just as easily as they can walk on land. Some kind of mer-goblin (mermaid-goblin). They can then attack enemies trying to stay afloat by dragging them down under the water and drowning them. And, you won't need separate swimming animations for them! :P

You could also have powerful fire-elemental enemies (and weaker will-o-wisp enemies) that do instantly die when they get flooded, making flooding an area a potentially good strategy against some types of enemies, but not others. Again, no separate swimming animation for these units.

And you can have a balrog-like creature that has fiery aspects to it, that when it gets flooded, it gets weakened, and stays weakened after being un-flooded, until enough time has past that it re-bursts into flames. This provides a way to basically use the environment to majorly debuff a powerful enemy for a short period of time.

Some enemies like this, that are larger enemies, when flooded they could just duck down and huddle on the ground, weighted down by their bulk, and basically just freeze all actions, until the water recedes, saving animation work. (stone golems or similar, if you have them, could also just "sink" in a crouched huddle, and not move until the water recedes)

Does flooding a room put out your torches? Does that have any game-play related or grue-related effects? Are there ways we (players) can use darkness to benefit us in some circumstances, and are there ways for the enemy to benefit from the darkness in other circumstances? Environments are double-edged swords, knowing no ally.

To simplify the doors being under water, you could make it so that a door flooded on one side and not-flooded on the other cannot be opened except by explicit user action (because it'd flood additional rooms).

A door flooded on both sides should be automatically opened, and cannot be closed except by explicit user action (if the player wants to intentionally drain a nearby room).

Thx, great ideas you both got here :-)

Almost sounds like a Dwarf Fortress or Dungeon Keeper type of control. If that's the case I had some ideas.

Yes,it is a mix of both.

Why limit the underwater actions to just doors? If the creature can open a door, can't they pull a lever or press a switch as well?

This would at least leave some option (find the lever in the murky water to drain the water).

Some kind of mer-goblin (mermaid-goblin). They can then attack enemies trying to stay afloat by dragging them down under the water and drowning them. And, you won't need separate swimming animations for them!

Hmm... I already thought about some fish like creature only living in water. At least this creature would be very similar to flying creature, that is they keep the attack ability and could even do more stuff, thought the would be under water.

You could also have powerful fire-elemental enemies (and weaker will-o-wisp enemies) that do instantly die when they get flooded, making flooding an area a potentially good strategy against some types of enemies, but not others. Again, no separate swimming animation for these units.

I will try to give a creature a "in water" effect, which depends on the creature. This way I could attach a dot to a fire-elemental, a slow to a normal creature and maybe even a haste and attack bonus to a water creature.

Does flooding a room put out your torches? Does that have any game-play related or grue-related effects? Are there ways we (players) can use darkness to benefit us in some circumstances, and are there ways for the enemy to benefit from the darkness in other circumstances? Environments are double-edged swords, knowing no ally.

You have a fog of war, you can more or less only see what your minions see, but each torch you place removes the fog of war for this tile. When an invading force enters your dungeon,it is vital to see what and how many enemies approaches. In this sense a flood which turns off or even destroys torches would have a nasty side-effect.

One issue is, that the flood-system is updated continously and you can have several thousand objects in a dungeon, so, checking if a torch is in-water or not could stress the performance... I need to think about the option, nevertheless, a nice idea.

To simplify the doors being under water, you could make it so that a door flooded on one side and not-flooded on the other cannot be opened except by explicit user action (because it'd flood additional rooms).

A door flooded on both sides should be automatically opened, and cannot be closed except by explicit user action (if the player wants to intentionally drain a nearby room).

Doors work currently automatically (if a minion approaches, it opens). Doors are an important defense feature and each door will let water through(slow it down), but there are although floodgates which prevents the water flow. Maybe floodgate should only be opened/closed manually and I keep doors the way they are (automatically opening)

Nevertheless, great ideas. I will implement the first interation and present the result here,thought I will need some time.