Grimrock

As a less able player than those who comment here, I am stuck at a puzzle in the grove where the 3 levers turn off teleports and do something else. I can't work out what it is I'm trying to do here, whether it is to mend the broken bridge or turn off the force field enclosing something. Some help would be welcome.
With regard to the controversial light system, all I can say that the mod writer is entitled to set things up as he likes. If we players have trouble or dislike something, it is not his problem. It is part of the environment we have to work in, I would prefer to carry the light, but don't mind the variation.
With all of the new herbs and other items, I struggle to work out what they are for. Do I find scrolls that tell me recipes or is it trial and error?
I haven't identified the sleeping guardians in the grove, or what I might have to do to wake them.
All in all, I like this mod, even though I struggle with it.

Hey, no worries, everyone gets stuck on a different obstacle, glad you enjoy it so far.
There are some recipes or notes available, but the majority requires experimenting, my idea of how an alchemist would work. After all, this is just another form of exploration. The changed item descripitions for the old and new herbs clearly indicate their use (e.g. head wound treatment) and the shrooms' text should give a rough indication what they are used for. When in doubt, take a bite.

As one does, I have taken myself elsewhere when stymied in the grove. i am now in the grotto and stopped by the two plate puzzle that has me trapped on the wrong side of the pools. The only other actionable thing I can find in the area is the poison squirter, which does not seem to help. I have cleared the underwater thorns, but they haven't changed anything that I can see. How does one get teh gate to stay open while passing through?

When your down there the important thing to do is explore the different ways down from above and then circle around to connect the whole area in a loop from the other side. As a rule underwater do move down unless you know you can get back up for sure. Forget about chopping away it's hopeless. Stand on the plate that opens the door then step off quickly and look around it did something more that just opening the door...

i think i ve been trapped in the highland cavern (in the northwest)where the ice monsters coming out of a cave when i take the ice guardian figurine from the altar and the entrance was blocked by an magic force field i dont know how to get out again now i can use the crystal shard of recalling but i try first if there is a normal way to get back

hansbleeb wrote: ↑Sun Feb 24, 2019 11:23 pm i think i ve been trapped in the highland cavern (in the northwest)...

Now that is interesting. You must have successfully danced around the trigger while fighting the ice guardians which deactivate the force field upon death - probably high evasion, eh.
Placed the trigger to a choke point, so players cannot break the sequence anymore, good catch.
Unless you have a save before you entered that area, simply use the following line:
force_field_2.controller:deactivate()

One question: Do the Highlands feel like a notable surge in difficulty with its fewer, but tougher enemies?

the enemies are much tougher than in other levels i have plenty food from the wolves and the icedragons so i can rest often, the area in the highlands that says storage that you enter climbinf the tower trough the pit are very deadly if you step upon the pressureplate by the east side in the store area i died very quick i think the floating white mistmonsters (a new type monster?) are very deadly ! the slimes, spiders and ice guards in the lower caveare very strong but not quick deadly .. and what do you mean with that trigger point? as i cast fireball or poison bolt spells in that area the spell floats different ways, and stops on the wall somewhere else . what does evation exactly?? means? i have never noticed in other mods or the original game what it means!! i tried always the number keeps so positive as possible. and what are choke points? i have all the items that can be important later so i use the crystal shard of recalling

hansbleeb wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2019 12:10 pm the enemies are much tougher than in other levels...

Ahhh, good. The north is supposed to be a tough wildernis with proper food sources (mainly meat), but few herbs (harsh environment), hence why it is sealed off.

In the NW part there is an invisible trigger that activates the force field and forces you to face the guardians in the area, without being able to run away. The "choke point" is just a narrow 1-tile wide passage to which I moved the trigger. Now the sequence is as it should be:
1) you enter the area
2) you are trapped
3) you fight the guardians
4) you are set free again

Projectile spells in here get teleported to different locations, so you can get hit from another angle, even though you dodged the attack. I believe the guardians themselves also use them to teleport around, so you have to stay on your toes.

Evasion is the chance to dodge an enemy melee or ranged attack completely. Does not work for tile damagers like fireballs/shockbolts etc. Protection reduces damage taken if you get hit at all. A character with high evasion value hardly ever gets hit, though, but if he does, it usually hurts because of the trade-off, a lack of protection. In this mod I boosted evasion, so that an evasive character is more useful than in the original game, but bad luck can, of course, ruin your day anyway.

Made an account just to pick the mod maker's brain a bit. I've sunk about some odd 7-8 hours into this and if I restarted my playthrough I could get back up to where I am in maybe 30 minutes. The vast, vast majority of my playtime has been a total waste of time as I run around desperately looking for the newest development in whatever it was that I was doing, and whatever hasn't been that, is generally just constant save scumming for desired results.

I'm mainly just wondering; why? What's the point of making such an annoyingly cryptic adventure, that totally overhauls more than one system into something just blatantly player hostile like this? I don't understand what the idea was here. I get WHY one would want to make things more interesting and nerf healing potions/crystals a bit, but I don't understand why every single little injury and every single little affliction has its very own curative item. I don't understand why I've only found ONE save crystal inside a secret area in a remote location of the map. I don't get why you would LOCK THE PLAYER INTO THE RUTTED MOOR where numerous drowning death traps exist and you can't escape without doing some of THE most annoying navigation and switch experimentation you could have possibly concocted.

I know this has dipped into extremely negative territory, but that's just the fruit you reap. I want to know why there's blatant savescum bait water pitfalls. I want to know why there's no healing items anywhere to treat these injuries. I want to know why there's no crystal here to serve as a sort of anchor for my operations. I want to know why these switches are lying to me about their function, if they even have any obvious effect at all. I want to know why you've forbidden me from leaving and exploring somewhere else until I've exhausted every possibility hitting all these confusing buttons and running to anywhere that might have a timed teleporter active. I want to know why you've deliberately designed one of the most frustrating, annoying gaming experiences I've had in a very long time, because if the whole massive mod is like the moor, I just don't see what I'm supposed to enjoy here.

Thanks for the feedback, I can understand how some people dislike the features of the mod, especially the ones that stray far from the original game. Any feedback is welcome, whether it's positive or negative. It is quite interesting, though, that most negative feedback had been these lengthy paragraphs in which the pure hatred for a feature had to be phrased with so much fervor, probably to convey the personal offense the player felt. "How dare you change things, blasphemer?!1"

I believe that the main reason is the following: Originally, I made the mod for no one else but for myself and your understanding differs greatly from mine - plain and simple. I fooled around with the editor, checked out functions and possibilities, later added some crude programming on top, made custom graphics etc. Neither did I follow the newest modding discoveries in the modding community here, nor did I feel the need to learn about the do's and dont's of mod creation or what is en vogue at the very moment.

This here can be seen as an offer, it is up to the individual player to like or dislike it, that's perfectly fine. I didn't create any super difficult areas in which only the best of the veterans could survive my "butch0r trap 3000" or sprinkle some easy ones over to please the "simpeltons". Whatever came to mind and seemed fitting, I realized it. The game world opens up steadily, allowing for a few discoveries here and there and the difficulty should be rather fitting for most parties with a gradual increase and some surges.

Exploration is key in this mod or total conversion and has always been a major factor in games I enjoyed playing, especially the most hidden riddles were the most rewarding. Gothic 2 or M&M V - "The Darkside of Xeen" were gold in that regard (e.g. barkman), Skyrim a wet fart in comparisson. In the last couple of weeks I played a lot of custom DOOM WADs and I spent hour upon hour finding the secrets in each map. I did not get an achievement, nobody gave me a clap on the shoulder or a trophy. I did it, because: curiosty. I conciously decided against idiot-proof messages telling the player what just opened/spawned and where, because I hate quest markers and railroading, with a passion. Why not do like I do and have your notepad and a pen ready?

While I loved the original LOG2, I disliked how wounds were a joke, as where diseases and poison. Basically all conditions were a laughing matter and had nothing of the horror they were in older games or even the newer Dark Souls. To down a potion really isn't much of an effort, but it should be an effort to treat a severe wound or disease, after all, this is not a Bethesda game.
Dead party members were more of an annoyance because they forced me to walk back to the nearest crystal as they "recharged" within minutes. However, I never felt wrecked with tension to lose a member or the need to "really" keep my party alive as I knew the next crystal was just around the corner. I wouldn't call this challenging, but this was not the creators intent. And since I had spent almost 200h into the original game, I wanted more variety, more of everything so to speak. Hence the reason why there are way more items. And through the classes/races/traits I further specialized party members, just like the M&M series (from 6 to 8).

Hope these answers help you to better understand what the intent of this mod was or is. And again, thank you for the feedback.