You might want to also consider having less valuable items found in chests closer to the entrance.

Sounds like a good plan for not making the game linear. If you also level up both the loot and the monsters with the player then you'll give people reason to come back. Of course, some chests will contain quest items or unique equipment which you will not want to respawn, and there might be sufficiently high-level monsters guarding those unique chests :).

I wouldn't worry about grinding too much. If people are investing time to grind in your RPG, you are obviously doing something right :D

One idea I'd like to mention is that you could selectively respawn chests. If your game has consumables, especially if they're such that players practically *must* use consumables (ie you'll never make it through a dungeon without a bunch of potions), you could make those not respawn, and only make shiny swords/weapons/armor/equipment chests respawn (so there's actually less loot on subsequent runs) and the player will have to pay the cost of maintenance(potions).

Also, if there are some super-rare or unique things that are manually placed, I'd make those not respawn.

Like Dekasa said, try limiting the chests after each run. Perhaps the first run the treasure value is at 100%, the second at 90%, and so on. This way they can grind their way through it, gaining loot, but it lessens what they can receive, eventually capping the grinding for that area.

It might confuse players if a dungeon has good loot, but each subsequent run has less loot. I think most players would either assume a dungeon's loot doesn't respawn, or it does respawn, but wouldn't expect it to get less after each raid. They'd then probably complain to themselves that they are 'unlucky' and getting sucky loot - They wouldn't know why they are getting sucky loot, and so would assume it's just chance, and keep trying, but each time they try, the loot is getting worse.

I think dungeon loot should be tied to player level, or dungeon level. Not based off of time.

I think the chests shouldn't be instantly refilled, but should be refilled bit by bit as time goes on. Instead of all the chests refilling when you re-enter a dungeon, only 10% of the chests get refilled every, say, 10 minutes your away from the dungeon (to discourage immiediant raiding of the same dungeon, preventing repetitive gameplay, but allowing the player to return later at liesure, or raid a different dungeon in the meantime).

Or, have the value of the items in the dungeon decrease, like Dragonsoulj said, but have it decrease not by having worse loot, but by having less loot (unless I misunderstood what he was saying, in which case, I agree completely [smile]). So the first time you loot a dungeon, have 100% of the chests present. The next time, 90% of the chests present (different items, ofcourse), then 80%, and so on... Stopping at like 25% (and possibly going back up slowly, after each hour of gameplay elsewhere in the world).

I think players will understand 'farming out' a dungeon (Since each time they go through the dungeon, they visually/physically find less), but unless the knowledge that dungeon loot decreases in value is presented to the player, they'll probably just think they are victims of chance, and get irritated.