My Run

Discuss Chaos Strikes Back, the "expansion pack" for Dungeon Master.
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Guillaume
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My Run

Post by Guillaume »

Hi,

Please see my thread in the welcome section for some background. Don't read further if you don't want spoilers!

So I started my CSB run, I have no idea what I got into. I did play it before, about 10 minutes when it came out on ST, and I think I managed to die 5 times in that amount of time (Floppy load times included).

Anyway, off I go.

Got the stuff on the 1st room, got to the "junction" I believe and without any forethought, Dain it was. Got to a crossing with Oitus. Left yielded a waterskin (no fountain though), right seemed a dead end at that point. Went straight and got to a teleporter mini maze which led me to a floor with the "laughing pit", the weird water biting puddles seem to have a nasty respawn timer so progress was slow (and eventually impossible) and lead me to a gold colored key hole. So I guess there's nothing there for me at this point.

I am unsure how/if I can backtrack at all. I tried falling in the pits and I got into a big room, some exploring and I found a button to go back up to the teleporters but nothing groundbreaking really...

I died more in 1/2 hour of CSB than in all of my DMs runs put together, but I'll make it ;)
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Saumun
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Re: My Run

Post by Saumun »

You've made good progress. Keep at it!

Be sure to save your game fairly regularly. I mention this because if your last save was before the Junction of the Ways (often referred to here as JoW), you could end up in a different place when you go back to 'Dain'. Half the battle is getting your bearings and being able to find your way around.
A little tip... The door you came to after the laughing pit with the gold keyhole. There's a way through it without using a key.

Also, did you visit 'Supplies for the Quick' before you went to the Junction? There is useful stuff there.
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Ameena
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Re: My Run

Post by Ameena »

Hehe, it sounds like you're having a pretty standard time of it, running around confused and getting killed repeatedly :D. I find Dain to be the hardest of the four Ways, personally. Apparently the "weird water biting puddles" are called Rives but I call them Air Elementals, 'cause they look a bit like a see-through Water Elemental except they can float over pits. Yaay :P. Anyway, generally you will probably find yourself pretty clueless for a while, at least until you start to get the hang of how to get from section to section - there are a whole load of invisible teleporters around the dungeon so you will often walk down a corridor and be moved elsewhere without your realising it. But it is possible to eventually be able to roughly navigate to wherever you want to go. It just takes a while to learn your way around ;).

As Saumun says, Supplies for the Quick is a handy area to pick up some loot early on (it's very close to the starting room), but it's also worth going back to later as more loot can appear there (teleported in from hidden, inaccessible locations that are off the map, I believe).

Save often! :D
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Jan
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Re: My Run

Post by Jan »

Hahaha! /rubs his hands/ As Ameena says, you've chosen the hardest of the four ways. If you manage to finish it, you are the true Dungeon Master!

As for the area between the Laughing Pit and the Gold Key Door, there is a way if you don't have a key as Saumun suggests. You just have to look around carefully as you walk around and see if something weird is or is not going on. Try to remember the
Spoiler
Clockwise
puzzle from DM.

By the way, did you try to consult the Hint Oracle? Everytime you get stuck, always try consulting it, it may give you some clues.
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Ameena
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Re: My Run

Post by Ameena »

I don't know about moving around (I don't recall specifically which door that is), but there is another way of opening some doors without using a key. But I always seem to end up with about a million gold (and iron) keys by the end of CSB so actually using some of them may not be so bad ;).
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Saumun
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Re: My Run

Post by Saumun »

Yeah, sorry... I meant a way straight through the door without a key, but the part i think Jan is referring to is very handy once you're through this door.
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Jan
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Re: My Run

Post by Jan »

I'm referring to the situation when you're standing in front of that door and don't have a gold key - you can still go through that door (i.e. get the key) but it requires some walking around.. here... and there...

But, yeah, well, we're trying to talk in riddles so that we don't spoil it to G. so we've probably got the same thing in mind just expressing it differently :wink: we've obviously managed to confuse ourselves and we do know the game backwards, so I can't imagine what poor old good G. can think of all this... :wink: .
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Guillaume
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Re: My Run

Post by Guillaume »

Haha, I haven't had much time lately, working two jobs and covering for people on holiday, but so far I'm running in circles. Staying alive isn't an issue at this point (only massive fireballs and weaken elemental spells do anything, melee seems pointless), but Im not making any progress.
I think I'll reload and at least try to get some stuff in supplies for the quick, since I completely missed that area right off the bat. A good start seems important!
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Re: My Run

Post by Ameena »

As far as door-opening goes, I was thinking of
Spoiler
the lockpicks
.

Supplies for the Quick is just past
Spoiler
the "Run and Jump" pit
, if I remember rightly, though as with pretty much every area in this game, there's more than one way to get there (and at least one of those is likely to involve falling down a pit or three ;)). There are a few highly useful items you can pick up here (including
Spoiler
a Vorpal Blade
), if you know where to look, and more may appear later on if you find yourself back here in future. Good luck ;).
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Saumun
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Re: My Run

Post by Saumun »

Yep... I usually go there for the
Spoiler
Vorpal
, an
Spoiler
axe
, and the
Spoiler
Vi potion
(for the
Spoiler
flask
)... then nip into the adjacent corridor for the
Spoiler
flask
between the pits before going to the JoW, so that i have two right from the start.

Some confusion because of trying not to give too much away. The door i thought Guillaume was referring to was the one you can
Spoiler
fireball
your way through, just before the doors leading to the
Spoiler
Rive/Water Elemental
room.
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Guillaume
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Re: My Run

Post by Guillaume »

Some good tips in here. I'll give it a shot!
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Saumun
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Re: My Run

Post by Saumun »

All this talk of CSB is making me itch for a rerun... It's been a while!
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Jan
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Re: My Run

Post by Jan »

You wouldn't dare! :twisted: Certainly not a solo run with reincarnated Buzzz (and no training in the Prison underground)! :twisted:
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Re: My Run

Post by Saumun »

8) Ha! A challenge! So i started, and umm... got killed four times in the first room.
But i'm up and running now. Just saved it in Supplies for the Quick, because i'm going to watch the football. Might go at it later.
Image

Anyway... I'll say no more about it here, because i don't want to hijack Guillaume's thread.
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Guillaume
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Re: My Run

Post by Guillaume »

Feel free to post in here, it's in no way exclusive to my (lack of) progress.

Amazing how I thought I had found stuff in supplies for the quick, I look at your screenshot and see that I pretty much have none of that.

Didn't have much time to play so not much progress. I find that when I choose a wing some of them are outright dead ends and I can't get back. I must be dumb. Or maybe I'm not supposed to touch the freebie in the altar?
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Jan
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Re: My Run

Post by Jan »

Guillaume wrote:I find that when I choose a wing some of them are outright dead ends and I can't get back. I must be dumb. Or maybe I'm not supposed to touch the freebie in the altar?
As far as I remember, there are two "dead ends" - but they are not real dead ends, they just look so. If you read the hints from the Oracle carefully, you'll get some advice. In one instance, you have to
Spoiler
"pray"
(i.e.
Spoiler
wait, like sleep
), in the other you can either try
Spoiler
touching the walls (but save your game before)
or note that when you
Spoiler
walk down the hall
a
Spoiler
teleporter might appear
.
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Re: My Run

Post by Ameena »

Taking the item from the altar will close the wall behind you, I believe - putting it back will open the way to the Junction again, provided you haven't moved away from the altar and been teleported elsewhere (which doesn't always happen - sometimes you remain at the "true" version of the altar) ;). But you can access each Way from within the other Ways - you don't have to return to the Junction if you want to try a different one since they all link together in various ways, as well as sometimes linking to other areas that aren't part of a Way (like Supplies for the Quick).
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Saumun
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Re: My Run

Post by Saumun »

As Jan mentioned, there are some parts that look like dead ends but are not.
I don't know how much information to post without giving too much away, but i'd advise always checking whether or not walls are real. There are many fake walls in CSB (some of the stuff in my screenshot is from behind fake walls in SftQ and the first room).
Also, the start of each way has teleports so you could end up at various locations (or not). However, as Ameena says, everything is linked... so ultimately all parts can be reached.
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Guillaume
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Re: My Run

Post by Guillaume »

Your reincarnated fly is still doing better than my battle hardened team ;)

This is way more painful than expected, there are pits/teleporters everywhere it seems so I quickly end up disoriented. I don't know how people did this in the pre-internet era.
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Re: My Run

Post by Saumun »

Although many people on here know it like the back of their hand, objectively it is a very difficult dungeon.
It's hard to know what, or how much info to post without spoiling the experience... but if there is anything in particular you want help with (or even how the dungeon is set up at a broad stroke), then there are plenty of us that are happy to help.
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Sophia
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Re: My Run

Post by Sophia »

What Saumun said.

Team Uxmal had a pretty rough time my last trip through, and that's with me knowing the dungeon in absolute gruesome detail because it was a test run of the DSB conversion.
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Jan
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Re: My Run

Post by Jan »

Guillaume wrote:This is way more painful than expected, there are pits/teleporters everywhere it seems so I quickly end up disoriented. I don't know how people did this in the pre-internet era.
It took some of us months or even years to complete the game without any help other that the Oracle. Patience, my young apprentice, patience :) . And perhaps a paper and a pencil to draw maps. :wink:
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Ameena
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Re: My Run

Post by Ameena »

Yeah, lt us know if you'd like any info or help with anything specific, since we don't want to spoil anything for you :). Don't worry, eventually you will start to learn which bits of the dungeon link to which other bits, and so on - there are a lot of illusionary walls so walking along deliberately bashing your head against every wall is one way to find them...well, unless the version you're playing makes a "thump" sound when you click on a wall. Then it's much less painful 'cause you can do that instead - clicking on an illusionary wall will make no sound :).
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Re: My Run

Post by Guillaume »

FYI I gave up on this...

I'll do a run with the map/hints when I get a chance because I'd very much like to finish it.

Thanks for all the feedback, you're the best!
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Re: My Run

Post by Ameena »

Aw, that's a shame. Well, it is a pretty tricky dungeon to get through - imagine how it was for those of us who played it the first time around, when there was no Internet :D.
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