[Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Talk about creating Grimrock 1 levels and mods here. Warning: forum contains spoilers!
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Phitt
Posts: 442
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:43 am

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by Phitt »

Bibbly wrote:ARGH!!
Very frustrated and not sure what is going on. I am stuck on the first puzzle even after seeing someone on youtube get through. What am I doing wrong? I love the look and am excited to seemore but this one 3 by three room is getting boring. :(
If you know how to solve the puzzle and if you are as fast as possible there is only one possible reason why you can't get through. Just like in the original game timing based puzzles are affected by framerate. I tested the puzzle with 30 fps, if you have less than 30 fps it may not be possible to solve it. In that case you need to turn down graphics settings until you get at least a minimum framerate of 30 while solving the puzzle.
Bibbly
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Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 7:36 pm

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by Bibbly »

ARGH!!!!!! I BLASTED THROUGH FIRST TRY WITHOUT LOOKING OR TRYING. OF COURSE WITH OVER AN HOUR OF PRACTICE!!!!
Thanks that really helped. I thought I was losing my mind :)
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Merethif
Posts: 274
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:58 pm
Location: Poland

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by Merethif »

Ok, so I've finally finished The Mine of Malan Vael today - I had started it ages ago, but then I was sidetracked from LoG for a bit. Fortunately I got back to it. Even though it has been written many times already I have to write it one more time - it is truly brilliant mod, crème de la crème! All is perfect - from visual mastery and witty story, up to puzzles and fights. Chapeau bas and thank you for the fun I had while adventuring within the Mine of Malan Vael.

I'll definitely will play it again because I've found just about half of all the secrets (the bigger half probably, but still ;-) ). I'll try not to look up for them in source file...

Also, after I defeated final boss I had a though "Wow, this was breath taking experience". I hadn't known by that time that the most breath-taking experience is still ahead - I was simply stunned as soon as I saw final credits :-D
epeli
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2013 2:35 pm

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael feedback

Post by epeli »

I had to register just to thank you for this mod!

Incredible quality for a mod, it's at least on par with the base game, although only 1/5 in length (took me 4 hours). Every aspect of this mod is pretty damn well done, from all the custom assets to storyline and from puzzles to balancing. I couldn't even find any bugs other than the missing ballista string and the obvious 0/0 iron doors.

Most of the dungeon was built in a sensible way rather than just an abstract combination of random puzzles and monsters for no reason. The story was good and well presented, Malik's notes giving it extra depth and helping with puzzles.

Your puzzles are great and thought-provoking, best I've seen so far in a Grimrock mod. Some of them made me take notes while playing - something I never did in the original game! That two-level puzzle with pressure plates under pitfalls was very nice. That feeling of "eureka!" when you realized what to do. Great stuff. However, "Serve the dinner" puzzle was somewhat counter-intuitive due to gameplay mechanics involved - having to stack 4 food pieces on top of each other like that didn't feel right.

Balancing was just perfect, in terms of exp, gear and food availability. The limited food kinda makes you rush through the whole thing and getting stuck in puzzles might lead to starvation - unless you realize there was a place to farm respawning slugs in level 1...


Oh, and the ending credits were the best. It's rare to see credits you don't want to skip. 10/10. :)
Ryeath_Greystalk
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Joined: Tue Jan 15, 2013 3:26 am
Location: Oregon

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by Ryeath_Greystalk »

Not sure if is thread is active anymore, but anyways,

just finshed playing your mod and it is outstanding. My stats are pretty horrid compared to others on here,

Time 6:00:58, secrets 9/15.
Couldn't imagine where the others are except on level 4 I found what appears to be some type of receptor up high on a wall but I couldn't find a way to trigger it.

Puzzles were excellent. I only needed help on the sundial one, all the others I was able to figure out on my own. Just a couple observations on them,
SpoilerShow
On the 4x4 puzzle I'm not sure if there is a way to solve it using only the two items left in the alcove. I was fortunate enough to have saved a legionnaires spear and 9 rocks which gave me the required weight for each alcove. If I had left any of those behind I would have been unable to proceed, unless there was another way, perhaps one of the secrets I missed.

People that may be tone deaf might have a hard time with the sound puzzle at the end.

On the Ogre encounter I was too dumb to figure out smashing the barrier. I just stood toe to toe and beat him down thanks to the frost bombs and a couble lucky frostbolts from my mage, though I was about one swing from going down when it died.
There's not much I can say that hasn't been mentioned in the previous 17 pages, just let it be known by all I thoroughly enjoyed the entire 6 hours of my starvation fueled dungeon crawl (maybe with the exception of the contaminated area (shudder)).
jpaf84
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2013 1:13 am

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by jpaf84 »

Really nice dungeon. Amazing what you've done. The tileset is 5 stars. I'm actually building a dungeon that uses it and find that It takes a lot of work to "lego" build it adding the planks for the walls and the pits. But your hard work paid off, because this is really good.
SpoilerShow
Finished it around 6:41 and found 8/15 secrets.
Was stuck on some places and came here for help.
Had to cheat on the Ogre fight because the frost bombs were not enough for my weak party.
Just spawned some more.
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Komag
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Location: Boston, USA

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by Komag »

SpoilerShow
actually, you are meant to simply outrun him, using frost bombs to buy more time to do so
Finished Dungeons - complete mods to play
jpaf84
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Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2013 1:13 am

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by jpaf84 »

Komag wrote:
SpoilerShow
actually, you are meant to simply outrun him, using frost bombs to buy more time to do so
I did try that, but
SpoilerShow
my party didn't clear the wood barrels fast enough. Also I suspect my computer gives me a bit of lag.
fractalier
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Joined: Fri Apr 26, 2013 6:09 am

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by fractalier »

Thank you, Phitt, for this labor of love...just finished it...was every bit as pro as the pros...don't know what you do for a living, but I think you've got some creds should you wish to apply at a software company...
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Phitt
Posts: 442
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:43 am

Re: [Release] The Mine of Malan Vael

Post by Phitt »

Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

@jpaf84: There is another frost bomb in the alcove half way through the Ogre room. Even a really weak party should be able to run away with three frost bombs - I managed to do it with a single frost bomb with my party.

Took a small break from Grimrock, but now I'm eager to play Master Quest and Back into the Dungeon with Germanny's tileset...and possibly other mods I missed.

Made a small update for the Mine as well, fixed some remaining bugs and got more or less rid of the annoying 'serve the dinner' puzzle, which is now really easy to solve and looks better (placed dishes on the table so you don't have to stack the food in the middle of the table). Workshop should update automatically, Nexus version is up.

- fixed bug (caused by an engine update) that would mess up the position of the emergency vent light in the contaminated area
- added a tiny bit more food (4 food items in total) and another sack
- put a snail slice in front of the not-so-secret button that opens the 'food chamber' close the 'serve the dinner' puzzle so it should be impossible to miss
- fixed bug where the level 5 axe was 'Norja' from the original game and not my custom 'Great Axe' entry with adjusted stats
- 'Serve the dinner' puzzle was adjusted so it's more obvious what to do, you only need 2 food items instead of 4 and it looks better now (no more stacking food on the same spot)

Wish I could have fixed the stupid ballista string finally, but still no fbx support unfortunately. That's the last thing I want to do, then the mod is final and should be 100% bug free and balanced (apart from the iron door statistics, but that is impossible to fix and doesn't matter anyway).
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