[MOD] Forbidden Halls

[Lastzr0]

To start, a big Thanks for this awesome mod.
I made my second run in it because the first, on normal difficulty, was a fail in the sea of flesh part...
When i stop crying i manage to press easy on start when nobody look.
Since i enjoy

But i have the same problem as some others non English fluent, i don't find the answer with the switchs in level 6...
I try

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Torch

but with no success ?

[leewroy]

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the word is torch, indeed. You probably didn't push the levers in the right order, or pushed one wrong in between them

[Phitt]

Started playing this mod yesterday. Here is some feedback (I will mostly criticize things I didn't like, which doesn't mean there weren't lots of things I did like...and I hope the criticism is constructive):

1. There is not enough food. Well, there is tons of food actually, but the snail slices raise the food bar by a tiny amount only and food consumption is high. Especially with the combat difficulty (fighting in close quarters without any possibility of avoiding enemies) and the adjusted health potion recipe (2 tar beads instead of 1, you don't find that many tar beads anyway) you simply need to sleep quite often. I'm currently in level 2 shortly after unlocking the healing crystal (level about 50% complete when looking at the map) and have no food left, with two characters almost starving. Maybe the snails respawn and I should have stocked up my food supplies, but I didn't wait to see whether they did.

2. There are not enough healing crystals. In fact there is only one so far and I've been playing for more than one hour already (without spending much time figuring out puzzles). Whenever one of my characters died it meant reload, because I didn't know when or if I would ever find one of those crystals. And the combat difficulty is simply too high to play with a party of three only, especially when one party member is useless anyway (see 5).

3. Combat is difficult (which is good), but sometimes unfair and there is too much of it for my taste (which is not so good). Just got killed by an Uggardian who waited behind a door while the corridor where I came from was blocked. I could only watch my party die and reload, then hope the Uggardian would not be directly on the other side of the door so I could step in the room and strafe/hit him.

4. I agree with Dr. Disaster, the new rune/potion system is more annoying than fun. Don't think remembering all kind of different rune combinations is that much fun and if you've played the original game a lot it only causes confusion. For example I didn't pick up the light scroll in the beginning because I thought I didn't need it and now I can't cast the light spell because I don't know the runes. My mage could already cast fireball theoretically, but I don't know the runes. Where is the fun in that? The new potions aren't that great either, because you don't know what they actually do until you drink them and watch your stats. The new recipes cause even more confusion.

5. My rogue character is still using a sling because he didn't find a bow yet. Which makes him more or less useless. Don't think I missed anything obvious, so if there is a bow in the first 1.5 levels then it has to be hidden in a secret area I missed (found 7 so far).

Overall the dungeon has a nice layout, entertaining puzzles, only very few visual bugs (the flickering, which you already solved and the stairs issues I see in almost every mod (clipping, walls in the way etc when walking down stairs)) and is generally simply fun to play. I will definitely keep playing, even if I have to spawn a few food items to survive. Thanks for the mod, will report back once I've played more! And I hope my criticism is constructive and you don't take it the wrong way.

[Phitt]

I had to cheat and spawn a good bit of food, but now I'm enjoying the dungeon a lot. Even found a bow and a good bit later a scroll of fireball.

But now I'm stuck.

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I learned the 'unknown language' and I can read what the demon heads ask for on level 3. I already have all the keys except one. What do I have to put into the demon head mouth that says 'I'll bite yer knife'? I assume it's a knife, but I don't have one. Only throwing knives, which don't work. If it's a regular knife, where can I find one? Didn't find any knives on level 3 as far as I can tell. I know there was a knife before, but I have no idea where it was. Don't want to cheat again.

EDIT: Oh, and if someone could tell me which runes I need to cast a light spell I'd appreciate it, don't want to try all different combinations.

EDIT2: Simply spawned a knife. I know, it's lame, but I didn't want to look forever for a knife I missed somewhere.

[Komag]

console is a blessing and a curse, constantly have to use judgement to decide when to "cheat", I try to be pretty conservative about it, sounds like you too

[undeaddemon]

I subscribed to this, and thought the puzzles were good, and that there was a care about the detail. However, it is hard (not bad) but to some degree, it is hard and linear. It is progressively hard, such that it tends to get you jammed up with enough saves (was using 6 for this mod) to get back to a point where you can effectively avoid getting stuck. Lack of food and crystals (at least that I could find) compounded this into less fun. If there were more crystals or food or herds for potions, I suspect that this would be awesome.
Don't get me wrong, this is not one of those small attempts, it is a good dungeon, it just needs some tuning, IMHO.

[flatline]

I would like to voice my support for harder mods such as this one. I always play on hard and I enjoyed the difficulty, except maybe the path of the dead which seemed a bit too punishing that early. It is a great sense of accomplishment to find all secrets and complete a mod such as this without cheating and I wouldn't want Adrageron to simplify his stuff in the future. Maybe just a tad bit more food

[Phitt]

I like hard mods as well (harder than the original game at least, since it was far too easy), but I've just played the 'Testament' level and I have to say

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the 'sea of flesh' is simply impossible to beat, with my character setup/equipment at least (longsword guy, battle axe minotaur, short bow minotaur, mage insect, 4 health potions, 2 energy potions, mostly rather crappy armor, two bombs). And when I say impossible, I mean impossible. I will gladly send my savegame to anyone who wants to try and prove me wrong. Waves 1-3 were easy, in wave 4 I started to lose a bit of health, in wave 5 I needed my health potions already and in wave 6 I was surrounded by spiders who killed what was left of my party in a relatively short time (could kill two or three of them, then I was done). And then there is wave 7, which is even harder than wave 6. In the end I had to cheat. When I saw what happens afterwards I was glad I did, because then you face even more tough enemies in tiny rooms with traps shooting at you all the time - and you don't even have a healing crystal to heal any dead party members. It is too much combat for my taste and, like I said, impossible. Probably if I would have found more secrets (=better equipment, more health potions, possibly a character level or two more etc) it still would have been hard, but at least doable I guess. To me the fine line between challenging and frustrating was crossed here by a good margin.

Personally I found the 'path of the dead' far, far easier - it was certainly challenging, but not too hard, I didn't even have to think about cheating. Anyway, will keep playing now since this seemed to be the hardest part of the mod when I look at the comments. And I really liked level 3, so I hope I will enjoy the next few levels just as much.

[Numberouane]

About the sea of flesh, I suggest to start it with all members full of health/mana. Find the corner of the exit and wait there. Try to kill all the waves all the time or you might be facing too many foes. Mix potions/elixirs for ur warriors & energy for the mage. U can use between waves.

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There is a secret area u can find once u finish the flesh. Also, on the start of the last wave, the exit door opens and you can escape.

I was playing normal. I agree with the unbalanced difficulty (at least for me) of the fights especially starting level 6. At the end of the day, it is feasible as some guys here were able to finish it in normal & hard I think. So no complain.

I stopped playing which was really a pain for me because I spent so many hours finding secrets but thats life. Of course, I might have use the console but I dnt want.

Congrats to all the guys that made it of course and good luck to the others.

[Phitt]

About the sea of flesh, I suggest to start it with all members full of health/mana. Find the corner of the exit and wait there. Try to kill all the waves all the time or you might be facing too many foes. Mix potions/elixirs for ur warriors & energy for the mage. U can use between waves.

SpoilerShow

There is a secret area u can find once u finish the flesh. Also, on the start of the last wave, the exit door opens and you can escape.

I was playing normal. I agree with the unbalanced difficulty (at least for me) of the fights especially starting level 6. At the end of the day, it is feasible as some guys here were able to finish it in normal & hard I think. So no complain.

I stopped playing which was really a pain for me because I spent so many hours finding secrets but thats life. Of course, I might have use the console but I dnt want.

Congrats to all the guys that made it of course and good luck to the others.

Didn't notice the door opens after wave 6. In that case I guess it's possible, since with a bit of reloading I would have eventually killed the spiders at least. I didn't have enough ingredients to make a large supply of potions (like I wrote, 4 health and 2 energy potions was all I had), I avoided creatures on wave 1-4 and stood in a corner on wave 5+ when killing the first few enemies, then tried to avoid them as well. Thanks for the hints, but if combat becomes even more difficult on level 6+ then I guess I have to pass on this one (I play on normal difficulty).