(REL) A Curious Conundrum v1.3

[Redweaver]

Well, 1.3 has been up on steam and nexus for a while and I haven't gotten any further feedback, so I think I can consider it done.

If anyone has played it or decideds to try it out, I'll ask of you a few questions:

1. Does everything work? Are any puzzles broken? Specifically the pillar/teleporter-maze room, does it cause crashes?
2. Are any of the fights in the main dungeon too hard or too easy? Are any of the respawns too fast? Should I remove the respawning?
3. Is the optional end fight room too hard? Should I keep it in or just put back the small reward room that was in version 1.2?

Please, if you can take just a minute or two to type a quick response I would greatly appreciate it. If everything works just great and you don't mind, I would also appreciate a click of your mouse on a thumbs up or endorsment to let me know that you think this dungeon is ready for prime time.

Thank you all for your help making this mod come together and thank you to anyone who takes the time to play through it, especially extra big thanks if you take the time to post some feedback or give a click.

[bazzietuk]

There's not enough clues to switch puzzles and some respawn points are kind of annoying in the green corridor for instance with the skeletons, they respawn quite quickly until you end up surrounded by them and with very few weapons they're kind of difficult to kill especially if you've not imported a character with high stats to begin with. There's also a teleporter in a long corridor that just throws you backwards and there's no way to bypass it, if this is intentional then okay but it makes the map look incomplete when you view it (just a niggle of mine when it comes to this type of game but something tempting you can get to through another route would help entice players to find a way through it without giving much away (if that makes sense).

It'd also be a help if you notified people what is the best order to get the gems in (I found the green one the easiest, then the blue then the red). But that has to tie up with getting the notes left which unfortunately in this game (including Grimrock itself) can be difficult to see at times.

Also from the start of the dungeon you have the writing on the wall (1wb 2eg) etc. It's kind of cryptic and hard to decypher. I have the 3 gems (red green & blue) so I know the w, b, g refer to them. I'm assuming the numbers (1, 2) refer to the alcove and that the (e, w) are east and west. I've tried using the 3 gems in the alcoves and pressing the button but I keep getting gassed and lose health. I've tried multiple combinations and can't seem to get the door to open. I'd appreciate some help on this one so I can progress further into the game.

[Redweaver]

There's not enough clues to switch puzzles and some respawn points are kind of annoying in the green corridor for instance with the skeletons, they respawn quite quickly until you end up surrounded by them and with very few weapons they're kind of difficult to kill especially if you've not imported a character with high stats to begin with. There's also a teleporter in a long corridor that just throws you backwards and there's no way to bypass it, if this is intentional then okay but it makes the map look incomplete when you view it (just a niggle of mine when it comes to this type of game but something tempting you can get to through another route would help entice players to find a way through it without giving much away (if that makes sense).

There is actually a clue to every puzzle, but they are not necessarily right next to the puzzle they solve.

SpoilerShow

Look for notes on the floor. They can be hard to spot. At least one is found by falling in a pit.

I'll take another look at the green corridor encounter. This is the first feedback I've gotten on it, and it's easy enough to fix.

The teleporter is intentional.

SpoilerShow

There is another path to find there

It'd also be a help if you notified people what is the best order to get the gems in (I found the green one the easiest, then the blue then the red). But that has to tie up with getting the notes left which unfortunately in this game (including Grimrock itself) can be difficult to see at times.

The gems are meant to be gotten in any order of your choosing. Much like the stages of megaman, the "best order" can be debated.

Also from the start of the dungeon you have the writing on the wall (1wb 2eg) etc. It's kind of cryptic and hard to decypher. I have the 3 gems (red green & blue) so I know the w, b, g refer to them. I'm assuming the numbers (1, 2) refer to the alcove and that the (e, w) are east and west. I've tried using the 3 gems in the alcoves and pressing the button but I keep getting gassed and lose health. I've tried multiple combinations and can't seem to get the door to open. I'd appreciate some help on this one so I can progress further into the game.

You are on the right track. Starting at the beginning point of the dungeon, the text on the walls refers to the alcove it is next to in line.

SpoilerShow

The 1 and 2 refer to the two solutions to the puzzle. E and w do indeed refer to those directions so you know which side of the hall to place the given gem. R, g and b refer to the red, green and blue gems respectively. Putting the gems in one way opens the end door, putting them in the other opens an optional end area.

Thank you very, very much for taking the time to play my dungeon and leave me some feedback. I'll see about making some tweaks and posting a new version in the very near future.

*edit*

Tweaks made and new version posted to both nexus and steam.

[bazzietuk]

Call me dumb here but I still can't grasp the gem section from the clues. I cheated and downloaded the source and found the script relating to the gems so I know the alcoves they go in now to open the exit door and the blue globe door but no matter how I work the alcoves out on paper they don't seem to me to tally up with what the script is saying. For instance you have to use alcove 5 from the script twice, once for a green gem and once for a blue gem (depending on what you want to open up). But none of the wall clues lead you to think about using alcove 5 or 6 (which doesn't seem to be used at all).

1wb, 2eg. 1er, 2wr. 1wg, 2wb ----> 1wb, 1er, 1wg ------> alcove 1 west blue & green, alcove 1 east red.
this would work out as alcoves 1 & 2
-----> 2eg, 2wr, 2wb ------> alcove 2 east green, alcove 2 west red & blue.
this would work out as alcoves alcoves 3 & 4

Granted you could say 4+1 and 3+2 are five pointing to alcove 5 but it's a roundabout way to get to that if people don't know how to number the alcoves to start with. Personally just can't get my head around the way this one breaks down to reference the 5th alcove at all and I'm sure I won't be the only one here.

Sorry if I'm annoying you with this problem, I did enjoy the dungeon but it is a bit small, although I didn't realize there's a whole huge section on level 2 I still have to do. Once I get my head around this problem I'll continue. I haven't run across any other problems so far with it so I'd say it's almost complete other than the clue issue mentioned above.

[Redweaver]

Call me dumb here but I still can't grasp the gem section from the clues. I cheated and downloaded the source and found the script relating to the gems so I know the alcoves they go in now to open the exit door and the blue globe door but no matter how I work the alcoves out on paper they don't seem to me to tally up with what the script is saying. For instance you have to use alcove 5 from the script twice, once for a green gem and once for a blue gem (depending on what you want to open up). But none of the wall clues lead you to think about using alcove 5 or 6 (which doesn't seem to be used at all).

1wb, 2eg. 1er, 2wr. 1wg, 2wb ----> 1wb, 1er, 1wg ------> alcove 1 west blue & green, alcove 1 east red.
this would work out as alcoves 1 & 2
-----> 2eg, 2wr, 2wb ------> alcove 2 east green, alcove 2 west red & blue.
this would work out as alcoves alcoves 3 & 4

Granted you could say 4+1 and 3+2 are five pointing to alcove 5 but it's a roundabout way to get to that if people don't know how to number the alcoves to start with. Personally just can't get my head around the way this one breaks down to reference the 5th alcove at all and I'm sure I won't be the only one here.

Sorry if I'm annoying you with this problem, I did enjoy the dungeon but it is a bit small, although I didn't realize there's a whole huge section on level 2 I still have to do. Once I get my head around this problem I'll continue. I haven't run across any other problems so far with it so I'd say it's almost complete other than the clue issue mentioned above.

Hmmmm. Maybe I can try to explain it better.

SpoilerShow

The 1 in the clue (as in 1wb) is refering to which solution you're inputing. So the 1 means the first solution...the one that opens the end door. The 2 in those clues means the second solution, the one that opens the optional end fight. You'll notice the alcoves are in pairs, one to the east side and one to the west...THE NUMBERS DO NOT REFER TO THE ALCOVES. So, when the first text says 1wb, 2eg, it means "to open the first door, put the blue gem into the west alcove of this pair, to open the second door, put the green gem into the east alcove of this pair."

So, if you look at each text in turn up the hall, they each tell you "for the first door, put x gem into the x direction one of this pair of alcoves."

1wb, 1er, 1wg means "for the first solution, put the blue gem in the west alcove of the first pair, the red gem into the east alcove of the second pair and the green gem into the west alcove of the third pair. This opens the end door and is the win condition."

2eg, 2wr, 2wb means "for the second solution, put the green gem into the east alcove of the first pair, the red gem into the west alcove of the second pair and the blue gem into the west alcove of the third pair. This opens the optional end area ."

I hope this helps clear things up for you.