[WIP] The Old Nexus 「 Grimrock XL 」

[7Soul]

The Mod Work in progress

If you ever played the Diablo 2 Median XL mod, you know what this is. Simply put, it's the game multiplied by a thousand. More classes, more skills, more enemies, more synergies, more effects, more dangers, more puzzles!



The Old Nexus

The original idea was to add time travel elements, but I'm currently reconsidering how it's going to work, so it's not too confusing or annoying

old infoShow

The idea is to incorporate time travel into the puzzles, inspired by games like Zelda (A Link to the Past and the Oracle of Time) by having 2 similar maps that you teleport between. Hopefully I can make some intuitive puzzles and not make it unplayable. My goal is to have a level of puzzle quality similar to the main campaign

The Time Device allows you to travel to the past when you're near a healing crystal, but it only allows you to stay there for a few seconds, and then it sends you back. Over time you'll be able to power up the device so you may stay longer and travel from more places

Video showcasing a simple time travel puzzle (will open in a new tab)

Classes
(these replace all the original classes)

• Assassin - Powerful back attacks and chance to cause bleeding.
• Berserker - Doesn't like wearing armor but goes berserker in the face of danger.
• Champion - A well-rounded holy warrior who can heal himself and an ally, also able to cast spells when out of energy.
• Corsair - Can dual-wield pistols or attack with a pistol and a sword. Can also perform dirty fighting tricks.
• Druid - Can apply herbal bonuses to their trinkets, ganing many poison-related effects and damage conversion.
• Elementalist - Benefits from elemental magic, specially when alternating spells types
• Hunter - Is an expert in fighting beasts and can stack powerful bonuses during battle.
• Spell Thief - A master of neutral-type spells, who can turn invisible with ease
• Tinkerer - Can convert physical damage to fire (for Firearms) or shock (for Melee) and can better tinker with items.

Skills
A new skill interface is in place, where level 4 and 5 can be only unlocked at certain thresholds. Because of that, those skill levels grant powerful perks, and only a few can be picked per character


^ click to see all it has to offer

Tinkering



The Tinkering skill allows you to upgrade weapons and armor, complete with interface elements. Check out more about it in this post: http://www.grimrock.net/forum/viewtopic ... 20#p120915

Screenshots

ScreensShow

Present


Past

Story

Long before the events of Grimrock 2, a group of mercenaries was set in finding Nexus, a sacred place where the Gods hid the words of creation. They managed to find the Island of Nex but met adversity there in the form of its protector, the guardian of Nexus of its time. Unable to challenge him and the island's traps, they set camp in a northern island. There they found remnants of the study of a powerful wizard, a scholar of ancient Nexus lore, who was experimenting with time travel.

The place was abandoned but most of his things were intact. Among them was an artifact with time travel powers.

Days later the mercenaries were out at sea, sailing back to Nex in order to put their new tool to the test. But the ship fell under the protecting spell of the island and steered out of course, crashing, and leaving no survivors...

You play as the lowest rank of mercenaries in that group. Moments before the spell took hold of the ship, you took a small boat and escaped the ship, rowing back to your camp. In your pockets, the only thing is something you stole moments before leaving - the time device.

[andyroosta]

Looks very interesting..the time travel mechanic is a winner for me! Good luck.

[7Soul]

I made a new skill system! It's essentially the same but a little more restrictive



Skill levels 4 and 5 are called Silver Tier and Gold Tier. To get a skill to silver tier you must spend 7 skill points first, and to get gold you need 11 skill points (subject to change)

I wanted to make getting a skill to max to not be so quick. Now I can make tier 4 and 5 traits more powerful since I know players can't get them at level 4

There's also a little video showing it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOawt_qAYZ8

[7Soul]

First map (and first dungeon) complete, boss and all!

Map spoilers bewareShow

Made some improvements to the time travel mechanics as well. As you can see in the map above and in the screenshot below, the area where you can travel from is now visible



The watch icon also displays how long you have left, and while you're in the past you can stay within the zone and the seconds won't count down, giving you time to get your bearings



The next thing I need to do is fix the problem with time travelling into a tile that has a solid object or monster. I'll probably do something to keep track of your last few positions and push you back 1 if the current tile is solid

[7Soul]

I'm doing a little restructuring of how picking a race affects the game:

You get 1 trait slot and each race has 3 unique traits to choose from, which replace the original racial traits such as "Head Hunter" and "Mutation". No longer you have the option to pick generalized traits like "Agile"

Each race still has a signature bonus, such as the Insectoid's resistance to wounds and the Human's increased exp gain.

Here are a few examples:
Human:


Insectoid:


Lizardman:


Minotaur:


Ratling:

[Pompidom]

Aren't minotaurs supposed to be the opposite?

[7Soul]

Aren't minotaurs supposed to be the opposite?

#notallminotaurs

[7Soul]

More skills are being done!



More notable are the Seafaring and Witchcraft skills, since the mod has some piracy themes. I'll update the first post with all the new skill perks

As far as the maps go, I made a plan for how they'll be set up. So far I got 4 maps that are done or above 75% done

[7Soul]

New screenshots

[Slayer82]

Nice work.

Will it be available this year? There's no rush, I'm just curious as to how far through the mod you are.