The Tomb of Zarthos (released+Source)

[Merethif]

I've just played for an hour and a bit and I must say your mod looks awesome. I've just found remnants of Contris and this door nearby, the one that slimes were trying to break through, looks amazing! This door shows how with relatively simple methods one can achieve really great effect if creativity is applied.
So far the puzzles, monster encounters and loot seems to be greatly balanced (which is not common for mods IMO). The story evolves nicely (I love reading those notes. Can't wait for next one) and visually the dungeon is well executed (not only custom props, but also overall level design). I'm sort of sorry it's only four levels (but hey, it's quality not quantity that counts!).

I have only two concerns so far (some nit picking only improves creditability of my above praises )
One is about skulls (organic ones, not crafted object from gold or crystal). They do not count as skulls for Head Hunter trait. Is skull bonus hard coded? It would be great if they act like regular skulls. Skull collecting would get much more personal if you know the name of former skull "owner" and circumstances of his demise.
The other one is about locks. The original keys and locks were paired by colour or shape and it seems logical. I spend quite a long time trying to open brass locks with brass keys and round lock with round key before I realised you mixed them all. It's not a big deal but I'd keep the original code unless you make totally new keys, but even then I'd rather keep to the rules that emerald key opens emerald lock and so on.

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Two things that I'm not sure what they are for:
- The lever on level 2 (the room with torches and two snails). I have this horrible feeling I've missed something cool.
- The rune button in that upstairs part of maze.
The bad thing about mods is you can't look for walkthrough on GameBanshee

Also there was that room on level 2 with lots of pits that you can see by windows (BTW your windows rock! Good way of tease players or foreshadow future challenges) but I guess it's still ahead of me and I will get back there from level 3. Will I?

And last but not least. I can't await that awesome forest!

[Filipsan]

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Also there was that room on level 2 with lots of pits that you can see by windows

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You can get there from lvl 2 - it's a secret area:

From the starting room to the north - there are 2 pressure plates behind gratings. Weight them down and secret door in next room (with 2 snails and 3 alcoves) will open.

[Skuggasveinn]

Thx for the feedback Merethif

Is skull bonus hard coded?

I believe it is, if the object name is skull you will get the bonus, but if the object name is black_skull it will not. Both objects are in the item class, so it looks like a hardcoded thing just like Orb of Radiance (if you clone the orb object it will not shine ingame for exemple)

monster encounters and loot seems to be greatly balanced (which is not common for mods IMO).

thank you, I forced all my friends that own Grimrock on steam to run this thing for more then 2 weeks to get balance

The rune button in that upstair maze

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There are 2 buttons in the upstair maze, you need to find the first (and you have) and that opens up a small room inside the upstair maze where there is another button, when thats done take another tour of the upstairs maze

The dungeon is designed in a way that you can finish it without finding any secrets ( 0 out off 8)
But it rewards people that take the time to look around, and I'm not just talking about some secret room, there are whole sections of the dungeon that are on a secret path. Its possible to "block" a secret, meaning that if you didn't do something its closed for good. Some people have finished it with 8 out off 8 secrets according to the comments on Steam Workshop, and that tells me I didn't go overboard in hidding things, but its difficult for sure to find them all.

and this door nearby, the one that slimes were trying to break through, looks amazing! This door shows how with relatively simple methods one can achieve really great effect if creativity is applied.

I'm really proud of that door I wanted the slime tileset to bleed into the temple clean one. But as we know you can only assign one tileset to a floor. but thats not stopping you to create custom floors and walls that replace something in your current tileset.
I have taken this method if creating something that on first thought seems to be outside what the Grimrock engine can do to a new level in the One Room community dungeon that SpiderFighter is running. Here is a sneak peak of the outcome.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =105000968
I can't wait for you guys to try it out, and the 2 rooms that I saw that came before it are awesome as well (Neikun's and Grimwolds) , really really good things happening in that community event.

The other one is about locks. The original keys and locks were paired by colour or shape and it seems logical.

I agree, that is something that should have been more visually clearer, something to better in the coming mods


Skuggasveinn.

[Neikun]

The rune button in that upstair maze

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There are 2 buttons in the upstair maze, you need to find the first (and you have) and that opens up a small room inside the upstair maze where there is another button, when thats done take another tour of the upstairs maze

I was wondering why the button I found didn't seem to have done anything haha.

[Merethif]

(...)Here is a sneak peak of the outcome.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =105000968

Mirror, mirror on the floor
Who is the fairest one of all.

[Neikun]

Everything is gorgeous!
I wonder why I've never thought to set the goblet right.. lol

Omg New alcove puzzle hint.
The direction of the placed item is key.

[thomson]

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

Absolutely amazing! That would be a perfect match for a first level of Eye of the Beholder 2 remake!

[Merethif]

I couldn't resist and read Filipsan's spoiler and I managed to walk through that secret part of level 2 and 3. That was a blast, even though the pits hell started to get frustrating after an hour of failures, but then I've turned off my inner ape and start thinking rationally and I think I handled it quite good (plus I turned down textures and shadows quality, which always worked for me in similar puzzles in original LoG, especially that iron door with blobs assault). By the way, there's one "bug". If party falls down the utmost left down pit it lends outside of room. Nothing crucial but though you may want to know.

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Of course to activate those two plates that open this entire area I've used B. and G. skulls so I had to backtrack whole area when I finally get to (what I consider) final room The room with empty sack alcove probably have some secret as well, but I didn't figured it out.
BTW, I like your spell scrolls idea very much. Brilliant.

[Lollgramoth]

one hour and i got to the green hell. It is fun, I will defnetly finish it... at least once.
Nice thing is, rushing throu the dungeon with the original grimrock group ^^ fun.

[crisman]

Great mod, I gave it a try and really liked it!
Managed to find only 2 secrets thought -_-'
I'll try it again soon, but - of course! - I'll try to find more secrets
By the way, I'd like to use your windowed walls, I was thinking I needed something similar for my dungeon, but you already did the job!
Probably I'll use your slime wallset too, only if I can find a good original concept to justify it.
I can't find the source download anywhere... am I missing something??
Thank you!