Grimrock

Many thanks for that Azel.
I am really enjoying your mod, but I'm stuck again. This time, I have defeated the Mechanical Age Oppressor and returned to the fortress, but I do not have the Mechanical Age Book. In an earlier post you mentioned that it came from the Ratling Boss, but I don't think I got it there, but I don't remember. Please will you give me another clue.
Chris

When you solve the Orb puzzle at the Fortress, the screen shakes and you are sent to a small isle to fight Ratling pirates. Three of them are guarding the book. You have to kill all 7 enemies in order to the obtain the book. And when you grab the book, a teleport appears that sends you back to the Fortress.

This map, Pirates Cove, should only allow you to return to the Fortress after retrieving the Mechanical Age book. Let me know if you have any issues.

Thank you again Azed. I had not even realised there was an orb puzzle. Now for the Selenitic Age.
Chris

I have just completed your great mod. Thank you for creating it and also for your help when requested. It has been a really good experience.
Chris

Hello, I was just wondering, is the walkthrough for the demo (which I realize is outdated) still available somewhere?

The walkthrough should still be valid for most of the first half of the game,

www.mystrock.com

http://www.mystrock.com/files/pathdemo/walkthrough.pdf

Just finished the mod and wanted to say thank you to the developer and that I'd recommend it to others looking for good quality mods.

I played it with a new party on Easy difficulty as recommended for new parties. In the beginning I found some of the boss battles difficult (because I didn't do them in the best order or didn't build my party optimally for the mod), but then it got a lot easier. However, I could imagine this mod being really hard on normal difficulty (even with an imported party). In terms of puzzles, most are pretty good, some are difficult; I had to look up solutions to a handful of them and two of them did not seem logical to me even after I saw the solutions (the musical wall one and the aquatic chamber one). I have not played Myst so not sure if that would have helped or made my experience different.

Below is some more feedback and other thoughts:

The good:
- Has a unique feel, especially the first part. Certain enemies are stationary (like turrets) and you can find 4 neck chains fairly early on making food a non-issue, so it makes certain fights very strategic, which was a nice change for me. I did grind out a lot of enemies early on, which might not be for everyone. The puzzles also felt a little different from vanilla Grimrock puzzles.
- You gain 2 skill points per level (and my characters made it to level 14 or 15, so that's equivalent to level 30 levels in regular Grimrock 2), which was interesting and made strategic choices in leveling up different too. For example, your magic user could max out all branches of magic and your normal melee characters could also max out some ranged weapon category.
- The mod is quite long, but in a good way that surprised me; just when I thought it was about to end: BOOM!, it hits another gear and then kept going some more...
- The story is decent, although you have to read lots of wall texts and journal entries to follow it. (The stuff about the Ages can be confusing too...)
- Not linear, which can be good or bad. Good because you have more freedom, but bad because you might explore one of the harder areas before you are ready for its boss battle.
- Some firearms have infinite ammo making firearms skill viable unlike in the original game, especially early on in the mod; in hindsight I wish I had maxed out firearms first on my alchemist (instead of throwing), although later on in the game throwing weapons are still better imo. And you don't otherwise get good weapons or armor in the first part of the game so that makes firearms and magic even more useful.

The bad:
- I did not like the music wall and aquatic chamber puzzles because even after I saw the solutions they did not really seem logical to me.
- Not sure how well difficulty is balanced; on easy with new party the first part (original demo) felt normal (although some parts were hard because I did them too early, namely the Usurper fight), but then second part (the Ages) felt a bit too easy, and then the third act gets a little crazy and there are hard fights one after another, although still not too difficult (or maybe just equivalent to normal difficulty on easy), but I could see that part being rough as hell on medium and maybe impossible on hard because I had to face tank quite a bit in certain parts.
- No full walkthough, although between the walkthough for the demo version and this thread, most of the difficult puzzles are covered. Still, I'd like to know what I missed...

Other thoughts (may contain mild spoilers relating to party build, so read at your own risk) about what I would do differently if I play the mod a second time:
- not sure I will play this again (my summer holiday is coming to an end anyway), but if I do I'd try it with a new party on normal difficulty.
- first time I rolled with a front row human battle mage that maxed out air magic first (and later all magic and concentration and armor, plus some dodge and athletics too), lizardman barbarian (basic heavy weapon user), alchemist that specialized in throwing (and later in firearms), and minotaur rogue (dual wielding strength based light weapons).
- I felt the above party was fairly strong towards the end, but in the beginning I should have maxed out firearms first because you can find good firearms early on and even a hand cannon with 120 cannon balls. Also, for the battle mage I should have gone with fire magic, earth magic and concentration first to get fire shield, healing and a poison cloud against all the stationary targets. Fire shield especially would have helped in the Usurper fight, although lightning was fine too and invisibility is always nice.
- I didn't invest any points in ranged weapons for the barbarian or rogue, but since you get so many skill points, that might be one way to go (1 magic user, 1 firearm using alchemist, 1 strength melee / throwing weapons user, and 1 dex melee / missile weapons user might be a good fit for this mod, although I don't like changing between I and II hand settings so not sure I'd personally go that route).
- Humans (skilled, fast learner) are useful since they are often 2-3 skill points ahead of the rest, although later this difference matters less. There's a lot of cheese, turtle eggs, prickly fruit, and skulls so lizardmen, insectoids, rats and head hunting minotaurs are all good too.

Thanks for the developer for making this mod. I had a good time playing it and might even give it a second whirl...

Thanks so much for the lengthy feedback!

I'm planning another update by Christmas, which will address more story-driven aspects as well as bringing some of the uniqueness of the early and mid-game battles to the late and end game scenarios. I will also work diligently on completing the long overdue walkthrough.

Glad you enjoyed the Mod. Happy gaming!

I completed up through the life/death gate, and here's some feedback.

Overall, it's a very positive experience. I played on easy with a new party as recommended. I really like the 2 skill points per level. I've always felt like mages were too restricted in the base game on what they could do, and this gave them more variety, especially battlemages. The bosses were are good difficulty (not too hard, not too easy) except for the Usurper boss. It was a pain in the ass with all the fireballs (although that was partially my fault rushing meteor storm, which was useless for a fire boss, instead of concentration for fire shield). And even during the boss' vulnerability time, I spent too much time dodging since he hits the entire party instead of just the beefy front guys, so the vulnerability period seemed too short. Other than that, all the enemies are fun to fight through.

The puzzles were really nice. Like MostlyHarmless said, I agree with him/her that the musical wall didn't make much sense at all, and I read all the notes. I especially like how you handled firearms. While there are infinite firearms, there are also cannons with limited cannonballs available in very large quantities (about 150 that I've found), only limited by your weight. Some say non-linear is good, but for me it's all the same. If I find a portal that is too hard (I tried to do usurper before lost woods), I just reloaded. So for me, it's all the same, since there's no logical reason to explore a tougher region first. It's not a criticism nor praise, but just how I feel about "open world" games. Overall, great mod, and time well spent.

My team was: mino barb, insectoid batlemage, ratling rogue, lizard alchemist. I didn't expect there to be so many racial food/skulls, but I was pleasant surprised that there were plenty, so I'm really glad.

Awesome feedback, Kholdy. I'm kinda like you with my playing style, in that I have no problem re-loading a game to change direction. It's a habit I developed from playing many old school RPG's.

That music wall has probably received the biggest critique so it will definitely get revamped in the very near future. Your group makeup is similar to my preferred group for this Mod. Alchemists do very well, as do Rogue's and Barbarians. The 2 skill points per level are a great addition and I'm glad to see so many players enjoying it. Due to the nature of this Mod, there's no way to really break the game by creating an overpowered character, even with Infinite Firearms. The goal was to allow players to fully explore character class builds, and so far the feedback has been great.

Thanks again!