Asset Challenge: Christmas!

[Asteroth]

Alright, my final christmas contribution. I have updated my christmas asset pack to include the items in the dungeon plus the goromorg statue. It now includes the advent blade, cane(scavenger, sangardian(hope that name isn't taken.Will change if it is), elf skeleton, and Grand Cardinal Klaus himself. Some, like the advent blade and elf skeleton(if the animations could be fixed) would work year round.

Edit: Ho Ho Ho, I bring you gifts of pictures:

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[msyblade]

I'm using everything here, love it.

[Hustin]

Okay, Finally I have something big. To use my assets I have made a quick little dungeon. The Eye of Klaus, it can be found here:http://grimrock.nexusmods.com/mods/155. It Is completly untested, so you are my testers. It uses both the pre-existing assets in my pack plus several new ones. I'm sorry about the skeletal elfs(santa elves), I used the animation editor and they STILL teleport. I meant to take only a few hours whipping this together instead I worked nearly twelve straight. I'm sure I left many strange mistakes in tell me so I can fix them. Thanks.

It is sad that this is the first dungeon I have released.
It is sadder that I enjoyed making it.

Edit: Took a break had some pizza. I think I fixed the mismatching doors now.
Edit 2:Looked again. Now you can actually open the door to access 1/3 of the dungeon.
Edit 3:Added pull chain to cathedral door. Aaaand I'm done, nexus is probably tired of my file.
future problems are for you to tell me of.

Very cool.

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Is there supposed to be a trick to the lever on level 3? It doesn't open the door to the second ugguardian room.

[Asteroth]

Very cool.

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Is there supposed to be a trick to the lever on level 3? It doesn't open the door to the second ugguardian room.

Nope sorry, another mistake. When I removed the mismatching doors, mentioned in my update earlier, I forgot to update the connectors.
The problem is fixed now. As I think all critical problems are probably fixed now I have updated the version number to 1.(will still fix issues I'm told of though, of course.)

[Hustin]

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Does the secret button at the entrance do anything? It doesn't appear to...

[Asteroth]

Another connector I forgot to set probably, at least it's not necessary guess I had better fix it for christmas though.

Edit:fixed!

[Asteroth]

Hey, thomson just curious you gonna call a winner(Yuleland probably deserves it)?

[thomson]

Hey, thomson just curious you gonna call a winner(Yuleland probably deserves it)?

I was off-line for most of the Christmas. Ok, it's time to wrap up this challenge. Depending on how you define an entry, we had between two (Merry Christmas pack+dungeon by Asteroth and Yuleland by Skuggs) and five (Asteroth's proposals counted separately, Rook's ice cavern screenshot and Germann'ys beholder hiding behind a christmas tree, unforutnately as screenshot only).

I did my best to take a look at all those proposals as closely as possible. Here are my comments (in an arbitrary order):

1. Ice cavern by Rook: I have only seen a single screenshot. An ice cavern idea has a lot of potential. During my visit in Stockholm, I went to ice bar that was literally built from ice blocks. It was very enjoyable and unforgettable experience. The ice blocks were slightly transparent, so you could see a bit into the walls (or benches, pillars and bar table for that matter). Another cool thing was glass made of ice. Ok, that's the closest approximation of a real life ice cave I have experienced. I liked it a lot. So I'm definitely in favor of your concept. You may want to google ice bar (or ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi) for inspiration and ideas. Someone suggested having creatures frozen in some walls. That is definitely cool concept, but make sure you not overdo it. Real caverns do not have 90 degree angles, but modelling them with different angles would be very difficult and trigger many clipping issues.

Leaving footprints on the snow is another cool concept. If done properly, you could make different foot steps for different monsters and use them as part of a plot, e.g. a large dungeon with party tracking some creature that stolen something.

2. Merry Christmas pack by Asteroth: This pack includes definitions for several items (Santa jolly Boots of Doom, Eye of Klaus staff, christmas ornament that makes a bang when thrown, advent blade), monsters (candy caine - a living proof that ogres celebrate christmas, too; elf skeletons - a dead proof that elfs can are annoying both before and after they die; and distant red-white relatives of scavengers called canes in couple variations). There is also a frozen lamp - a floor standing thin lamp with eerie blue glow. It is a nice pack, but it seems a bit unfinished. Elf skeletons are scaled down (which is a nice twist), but they move forward animation was not scaled/stretched properly. They march forward for half a tile and then suddenly teleport the other half. Frozen lamp is an nice concept, but it seems a bit odd that you see the glow, but there is no glowing object. Putting something on the lamp as a visible light source (e.g. scaled down chunk of crystal) would look better, I think. There is also a definition for grand cardinal Klause, but it looked and behaved exactly as regular goromorg, when I spawned it in my dungeon.

3. The Eye of Klaus by Asteroth: this is a demo dungeon to showcase items, monsters and props from Merry Christmas pack, but I think it includes extra props, like burning charcoal holder. It also features a northern dungeon wallset. I found it very difficult. You can find couple ornaments that freeze monsters, but you almost have no weapons. Fighting uggardian with level 1 party equipped with a machete is really painful. I assume that most monsters should be evaded rather than fought, but this is also very difficult thing to do if you have 4 uggardians in a 5x6 room with obstacles. I did not manage to solve the puzzle with Ho Ho Ho No levers on level 3. The doors remained shut. Perhaps it would open if I had killed the ogre, but my party was starving, so their attack strength was pathetic. For a demo dungeon it was way too difficult. To showcase new props it would be better to make it smaller (some rooms are way to large and too empty) and easier.

4. Germanny's christmas tree: Oh man, you blew it. The ornament bulbs should be small beholders and the big one should hide behind the whole tree You score extra points for pulling off an excellent bait and switch scam ("here's a tree, please ignore that awesome, eye staring, mesmerizing beholder in the background). I'm looking forward for updates on how this work evolves. I'm 100% sure I'm not the only one.

5. Yuleland by Skuggasveinn: I'll try to describe this entry without repeating too many superlatives that were said on it already. If you keep looking straight and focus just on reaching the end, this is a nice and short dungeon. By doing so, you'll miss at the fun. This is the type of dungeon that you walk around, look at things and just enjoy them. Falling snow is definitely beautiful addition. I liked tall pine trees a lot. I especially enjoyed the fact that if you stand closely with a pine tree behind your back, you can see some branches. Just like in a real life. Snowdrifts (is this the right word to describe a pile of snow?) are great mood setters. But all this wouldn't make such an effect without mountains and sky all around. The first time I went outdoor in grimrock was definitely a jaw dropping moment. You have literally expanded the grimrock world. You've moved the boundaries of what is possible in that environment. Thank you for showing that open areas are possible.

It's time to wrap this up. Normally I would be supposed to pick a winner, but that would make the other entries losers. Let's not do that. I'd like to use a different approach. Let's measure how much impact on the grimrock community each proposal has. From that perspective Yuleland introduced the most profound change - open areas. The proof that is can be done will be copied over and over in many future dungeons. It essentially changed what people now consider doable in grimrock. The Eye of Klaus introduced several new items and colorized monsters, but something similar has been done before many times. I think the biggest and long lasting contribution are new light sources. Standing lights and burning charcoals can potentially be used in many other dungeons. Seeing thousandth torch is just boring. Asteroth showed us that things don't have to be that monotonous. Germanny's proposal is difficult to judge. If the beholder will evolve into a full featured monster, then it will be a really significant contribution. I'm aware of only one really new monster - a mummy, but it is still work in progress. The other custom monster - a slug - is a modification of existing monster. Beholder can be the first one done really from scratch. There's a huge potential for "first ever" type of things, but it seems that we are not there yet. Finally, Rook's ice cave is promising wallset with many additional ideas, but it will be difficult to implement them.

That's it. Thanks a lot for all contributors and commenters. Merry Christmas to those of you lucky enough to live in Hawaii (December 26th will end in an hour or so over there) and Happy New Year to everyone.

[Asteroth]

Thanks thomson. I agree with what you said.
I was worried that I left a crippling mistake in still, oddly enough though the cain door worked for me. You pull ho ho and ho but don't pull no.
For the lights, Coals lights are neikuns work. I credited them in the credits. However, yes I like the idea of more pillar lights and other oddities. If my model work gets better I will make more.
For Klaus, I will have to look into that. I don't know what went wrong.