Grimrock

Diarmuid wrote:Alright, I replayed my room last night... it takes some patience to solve for sure, even if you know how, especially the 4th "secret" pattern.

While I still like the concept a lot, I'm not sure about the general name and hints, with some distance I don't find them clear enough. In particular, the concept of mirror is misleading, since the puzzle requires you to do opposite patterns above and below ground, but if we imagine the ground plane as an actual "mirror", the light patterns would be the same, not reversed.

So maybe it would be a good idea to rebrand the room by changing references to mirrors (including the room name, Mirror Universe) to references to inversions/negative.

The scroll you find could for example change from being signed "N'Harsiyss, archmage, puzzle creator and admirer of reflections" to "S’noyss Revnni, archmage, puzzle creator and admirer of inversions."

Another idea would be to use the idea of balance, write some backround story about how the archmage discovered the magical power of geometric patterns, but also that a fundamental law of it was that any geometric magic force needed to be balanced by an opposite and equal force, and he constructed the structure there to conduct experiments.

Those who actually played it, do you think one of those would make more sense?

Either of those sounds good to me.
I'm not sure what to do about the time it takes to input the patterns. I guess a dirty solution would be to make the party's movement ultra-fast while inside the structure.

I'll have to play it again... but it does come to mind that Aaneton had his own inversion room in the ORRR2; though not the same of course.

Isaac wrote:I'll have to play it again... but it does come to mind that Aaneton had his own inversion room in the ORRR2; though not the same of course.

That's why my 2nd "balance" option might be better.

It's okay to use the work inversion again, and it sounds clearer than "balance" in this case.

Alright everyone.

Still I'm not through all rooms but I would like to do some next steps.

First: Here is the storyline I think we should go along with. Nothing brand new - I've just tried to bring together what we've got so far, tighten things up and give everything a suitable shape:

Intro (told by pics just like in LoG1 – screenshots of scenes done with the game-machine)
The party is invited to Bardwell by their old friend, Rikard, Elder of Bardwell. On their way, the party reaches the area of the Dark Tower. Old tales tell that Xarkon, a master of black magic, lives there. But the tower is shuttered and still as a grave for very long now. Even the grandfathers can’t remember when an owner was seen the last time.
As the party is hiking through the dusk, they suddenly become witness of some odd kind of giant explosion not far away! The discharge of an unknown force! Waves of it are rising up from the horizon and rushing through the land. Everything gets shell-shocked and the last thing, the members of the party can see, is the shape of a man with a wafting cloak floating across the sky.
Then they fall into a dead faint.
After some time – a long time, probably - they come around again – weak, ragged, starving.
And something uncertain has happened all round the area.
A journey begins…

(Please excuse all weird english phrases that I've probably used - some native speakers have to go through this, I think...)

Progression
The party heads to Bardwell, a small village with a mine.
It’s mysteriously abandoned; the party learns that its inhabitants had suddenly made for the Dark Tower. Their departure was freakish and hasty – the reason for this behavior obscure.
Only some Ratlings have left. They seem immune to the strange force that commanded all humans. And they are able to give the party some helpful informations und items.
During a weird spooky incident in the house of Rikard the party reaches his cry for help. He and the people of Bardwell are suffering in the Dark Tower of Xarkon. He keeps them imprisoned, sucks out will and soul from everyone and is going to make them members of his dark army to rule the world.
To help them, the party needs to explore the whole area to get closer to the dark tower step by step.
They also reach an asylum that now is robbed with all former inhabitants being dead. The party learns, that the management of the asylum stores a lot of power crystals of the balance rune in their cellar. Normally they use them to calm down and neutralize the magic, that some of their exceptional residents are repleted with. All of the power crystals are gone now, probably stolen by Xarkon to avoid having a weapon against his forces.
The party also faces the grave of Qinea, a young lady that was once the love of Xarkon, but then has unexpected been murdered by him. Or better: Cursed and locked up into the intermediate world forever.
Later an apparition of her appears and helps the champions to open the Dark Tower: There is just one key for the lock, obviously held by Xarkon himself. But the spirits of the two dead founders of the Dark Tower can open the gate. The party just have to bring them bones of their ancestors and someone worthy has to beg for help. The last is done by Qinea.
Inside the tower the party can’t make any progress because the doors to the upper levels are magical sealed. This power can only be broken by power crystals of the balance rune.
Every time the party can find one, Xarkon gets aware of it and sends members of his dark army.
Finally the party reaches the upper levels of the Dark Tower. They meet the lord and have to fight a mortal combat.
At the end they could either
- finish him off – the imprisoned people are free and the danger is averted
- let him escape - the imprisoned people are free, but Xarkon will renew his attempts somewhere sometimes…
- die – Xarkon’s army gets bigger and the danger to the whole realm also…


Most of this is already there - some parts well elaborated, others just in the state of a first sketch.

To implement this story I will have to add several parts to the game and also have to go through everything, whats already there. In example the lay-out of all common areas have to be revised. To tell a story and to give everything a unique atmosphere it will be necessary to change them a bit. Be prepared.

And because we have enough memory space left out, I would like to add several decoration assets. With the present stuff it's a bit hard to give certain areas a unique character. I am thinking of some props of Germannys DM Pack and of the LoG1 Mega Pack - both converted by minmay.

Next thing I will do, is to start to contact all modders one by one. That will need some time and I can't do them all at one weekend. I have to summarize my notes (already 20 pages!) and I have to find out, who is willing to do something on his room and which work we have to do by our own.

So that's from me for now. I hope you can agree with my ideas - but don't restrain yourself from commenting.

Sounds like a good way to delay the project by another two years. Who's going to do all the work to implement the stuff in your new story? Who is even willing to write all the new text you'll need? Even if they do, at the end of it we still wouldn't be any closer to releasing because all you're suggesting is replacing already-finished parts, not finishing the unfinished parts.

And frankly a generic villain with no motivation is considerably less interesting than Bardwell being gradually revealed to be the villain (though I freely admit the existing text is awkward and gives away the show too soon).

Don't get worried. I am right at the moment preparing these things. A lot of the text you've mentioned is already written.

And yes: It is ambitious - but what have you expected? Doing some fast tweaks and kick it online?

I think we will need until the end of the year. Only contacting all the modders will take some time. But we are already getting closer to a release...

Concerning the storyline: I do not insist on my plan. I just thought it is better to have something coherent than having several unfinished plot parts that I dislike and to which I get no ideas.

And I don't think that I am only replacing already-finished parts. But I think we must replace some, thats true.

But of course you can rewrite my suggestion, if you think there is a solution that can involve all present parts.

No need to be so harsh with THOM when he is actually willing to take the project in his hands. I haven't looked at the current state of the project, but this story seems perfectly fine to me, all it takes is some scrolls and lore and dialogs to fit it to what we have. It's still a "framing" story and what matters is the rooms ultimately.

It's okay if someone has a critical view on the things I do. As long as it doesn't ruin any progress.

And concerning my story minmay is right that it is less appealing than the original one. After some days now I think, we could alter it a bit and put back in the idea of having a "good guy" who appears to be the "bad guy" at the end. Should be possible to include this into my story. I will think about it and post something again.

And that would be the opposite of the Island master that way