The Tomb of Zarthos (released+Source)

[Skuggasveinn]

Ships ahoy

My first mod "The Tomb of Zarthos" has been released on Steam Workshop and Nexus

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =104213526

http://grimrock.nexusmods.com/mods/60/

Designed for a startup group, and the party will be around level 8 - 10 when you finish the dungeon.
I will not overwrite the party, so will free to import your Uber-Squad and leave everything in piles of ashes if thats your thing.

This will be a fairly standard dungeon crawl gameplay wise.
It has 4 levels (well 6 to be precise but level 1 and 5 don't count)

Things that I feel worth to mention:
1. Its playable from start to finish (yeah !!!)
2. It has an Intro and three different endings
3. The ending you receive depends on how many secrets you find.
4. There is a counter that tells you how many secrets you have found / are left (hudPrint thingy)
5. It has 2 sets of re-textured Temple wallset, and one set of re-textured Dungeon wallset
6. Using both original monsters and re-textured / tweaked monsters
7. Small amount of custom models, small amount of custom objects
8 . Custom ambient music on level 4 and below, Custom music in the Intro

I would like to take this time and thank AH and this community, I'm a scripting noob and this would never ever been done without the help from this forum and the GMT provided by JohnWordsworth.
I would also like to thank my team of testers (Brabra, Þykki, Gormurinn, Kurv, Fletch, Dauduns, LCD). The last week as only been about playing this thing over and over again.

Feel free to comment on this thing, good or bad.

(ps , the source will be available in a few days and the community can feel free to use whatever inside, models, music, textures etc)

best regards.
Skuggasveinn.

[Neikun]

First of all, thank you so much for planning to release the source files.

Secondly, as you might have guessed by my being the first comment, 13 minutes after publishing,
I am really stoked to see your dungeon.

[msyblade]

You'll haveta put it on the nexus before I can get it

[Skuggasveinn]

@msyblade
Updated the orginial post with a Nexus link.
I think I created the mod correctly on the Nexus site (my first time using it)

Skuggasveinn.

[Batty]

Some interesting things in this. I like the windows and the large pits.

I'm stuck in the ashy area with all the fireballs and the broken crystal. Posting the source files is great.

[Billick]

Looks great! Added to my list of subscribed dungeons I will play once I finally finish my own dungeon

[Wolfrug]

Right! Played this one through, total playtime...aboutish two hours (1:55 at last save, although I think with loading-saving it might be closer to 3h). This thing contains spoilers, so others beware:


I liked it! You've used a lot of really neat custom assets, like the corpses on the floor impaled by spears, the custom skeletons with their custom shields, custom doors, and, yeah, wholly custom tilesets of course! The windows in the first levels were quite nice as well, although they served the same basic purpose as wall grating. I was actually quite impressed, and it gave me a reason to never let down my guard - you never know what kind of monstrosity might show up next

I liked the little bits of story through the other, less fortunate, adventurers - they gave hints and warnings as appropriate. Towards the end though I noticed you almost completely stopped giving wall-text 'hints', which was maybe a little too bad. I always enjoy the flavour they give, even if they just kind of hint at what place we're about to enter ("Slime dungeons" or whatnot).

Flow: the first two skulls, I feel, I managed to pick up very quickly, while the third skull no longer matched the setup of the first two (on an altar with a trap). The third skull also came much, much later, after the more fighting-heavy second half of the dungeon. I had no idea when I entered that room with the poison-goromorgs that this is where I'd find the third skull, so it felt like a kind of "huh?" moment to me. In fact I had entered earlier (having two dead party members and hoping for a healing crystal after the ogre fight) and promptly got killed. I backtracked all the way to the 'possibly cursed' crystal (it healed me every time I used it though) and then looked everywhere else before returning to that room, wondering if maybe it was just a kill-room of some kind.

I loved the fact the three golden skulls fixed the broken crystal though, especially as you might have accidentally left the skulls on the pedestals before going into the portal

Secrets: Eheh, maybe 2/8? I got the 'middle door' ending, whatever that means. I, for instance, still had the two skulls the ogre carried around by the end, having found no use for them (great job actually adding them to the ogre's model by recolouring the ogre's original skulls ).

Critiques:

The end fight was kind of pointless, although the reskinned warden was an impressive sight. The final 'puzzle' before the end fight was really good though, moving up against the fireballs. Fun! The only reason I really stomached the end fight was because it was over so soon: that room with the skulls you can get to by going in the opposite direction? Well, I filled my minotaur's entire inventory + off hand with skulls, giving him an attack power of close to 100 I'm not sure if this was intentional or not.

The second half of the dungeon, starting from the slime dungeon, was very fight-focused. I know there were probably secrets around somewhere, but I was never one for looking through every square searching for hidden buttons, so I must've missed most of them. The big fights against the skeletons were tough, but fair, although they did take quite a while. The lightning-scroll was super useful there. I also at one point did the fantastic mistake of dropping my chest filled with food before the teleporter to the ash-dungeon, so by that time I had practically no food. And there was none to be found beyond. Oops. Not your fault, of course, but it did make things a little tense.

I also missed the location of the mortar and pestle, so I gathered ingredients endlessly to no end Was it placed in a secret, or was I just blind?

Finally, I didn't much like the bluish-red custom temple tileset, the normal one looks better IMHO, but of course it did lend your dungeon a unique flair. The slime dungeon tileset was beautiful, and the dark ashiness of the ash-dungeon one was nice too.

Overall: Loved it. A good use of two hours+, definitely. I missed a lot of secrets; most of them are probably find-secret-button ones, which is...maybe a little meh? I think you could've interspaced the 'common' assets a bit more - right now it felt like you wanted EVERYTHING to be new (monsters, tilesets). BUT, overall: great stuff!

-Wolfrug

[Skuggasveinn]

@Wolfrug
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it.
I'm really glad that you liked this overall.

I agree with alot of the things that you point out as bad, and it will be food for thoughts down the line.

I also missed the location of the mortar and pestle

SpoilerShow

Its not hidden, its in the storage area close to where you begin (in one of the smaller rooms), its in a wooden box

Regarding the flow, you nailed it, it gets more combat oriented as you progress and that is because I was putting more effort into finishing this thing and it comes down on puzzle gameplay and walltexts and so on.
I allways make it a priority to try to bring something visually new to the player, I feel that the deeper you get into the dungeon the better visuals you get, and thats just me learning more on the editor and how to created model assets.

Stay tuned for the next one, where the bar has been set even higher
early alpha photo
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =104361174

Skuggasveinn

[Wolfrug]

Stay tuned for the next one, where the bar has been set even higher
early alpha photo
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =104361174

Skuggasveinn

Holy cow! That'll be pretty fricken fantastic to see! Aw man, awesome! Outdoor tilesets for the win! Looking forward to it.

Keep on keepin' on. Your mod went past mine in popularity on Steam Workshop earlier. Such is the way of life.

-Wolfrug

[Komag]

That forest pic is very awesome!