Ravenhood 2.1

[Zed5Duke]

Its

Spoiler

under tavern,

you probably miss entrance to last level because

Spoiler

its in middle of labirynth,

Spoiler

when touch one wall you make circle

[Jan]

Hmmm... I can't progress much outside the tavern. I can't unlock practically anything. Perhaps I'm just not good enough. Most importantly:

- what / where is the Big Dragon Treasure?
- how do I open the mansion (or whatever it is - with the cracks in the doors)?
- where do I find the Zo rune (I can't find more than poor four runes... I'm also missing the Ful rune)?
- what is the point of the well behind the witch's hut (apart from finding the

Spoiler

knife

)?

Please, use as subtle hints as possible. Thanks.

EDIT: OK, I found the use for the

Spoiler

arena prize

, so I can go on - at least for now.

[Adamski]

I've finished the game and this is the review, my first review as member of this forum:

Craft: 8.5
There is a very good use of textures and new elements, in particular the enemies. However the editor potential is not completely utilized, for instance in making elaborate mechanics.

Originality: 7.5
Basically it’s an exploration-fight game, but it doesn’t improve a lot this aspect. In general the biggest enhancement is the interaction with NPCs and some new ideas (spells, enemies etc…)

Size: 7.5
It’s a medium sized game, you need about 7 hours to finish it.

Difficulty: 7
Quite easy, above all around the ending.

Gameplay: 8.5
Good difficulty progression and food/water management. Playing is pretty pleasant except for the starting, where bumping into a wall or a tree could kill you (some chars start with 5 hp!). There aren’t deadlocks and annoying parts.

Atmosphere: 8
The good atmosphere (due to the wallsets) could be increased with a better music selection and more sound effects (e.g. fire noise, fountains, background effects…). The main theme is not appropriate and it’s really monotonous IMHO.

Fights: 7
Too easy and repetitive, the usual “dance” around the monster without any strategy, with a couple of exceptions.

Puzzles: 2
No puzzles! You don’t need to think a lot to finish this game.

Game Ending: 2
I got really disappointed when saw the ending. Zed, you could do better!

Replayability: 4
There aren’t many reasons to play again the game, no secrets or obscure areas.

Overall: 6.5
A respectable game, not really innovative (walk, kill the monster, pick up the key, open the door etc…). It isn’t my genre. Anyway, as fighting game it fails because is too repetitive, as exploration game it is not totally convincing (too little, no secret areas). I think it’s mainly a virtuosic use of graphics.

Best part:

Spoiler

The battle against the King in the temple

Worst part: The end

[Lord_BoNes]

@Adamski: I like the review, good to see someone produce an easily read & well produced one. Even though it's only your first one as a member... KEEP IT UP!

[Zed5Duke]

(changed post because its my habit huehhueh etc ::evil laugh::)

- what / where is the Big Dragon Treasure?
- how do I open the mansion (or whatever it is - with the cracks in the doors)?
- where do I find the Zo rune (I can't find more than poor four runes... I'm also missing the Ful rune)?
- what is the point of the well behind the witch's hut (apart from finding the

Spoiler

knife

)?

-dragon have it, when you find it you will known
-you dont need to use keys nor switches
-its inside
-before zo was there but it was too easy and i change that

[Jan]

I still haven't finished this game, but from what I've seen I can say that this is definitely the best Zed's dungeon so far and one of the best dungeons I'v ever played. And I mean it!

Of course, Adamski is using the "God = 10" scale for comparison (Adamski's medium size = my large size, Adamski's 7 hours = my 7 days, Adamski's quite easy = my very hard, Adamski's no puzzles = my permanent head-scratching, etc. ; although you're right that the fights are repetitive and simple even for me - the side-step dancing does the job in 99 % of cases), so obtaining 6.5 is still very very good IMHO! Excellent review, by the way, Adamski!

[Adamski]

I know I am very strict when I judge something... for my standards 6.5 is a good mark.

Zed, I think you have improved a lot your dungeons, probably my final mark for games like Journeyman would be no more than 2 (3 for its clones). I think you can do better (atmosphere, puzzles, fights) learning the editor advanced features, you are already an expert in graphics (wallsets, monsters, interface)

@Lord Bones and Jan: thanks, I look forward for a complete review of my review

[Zed5Duke]

Am think about possible changes, but maybe fights are laready ok, because only boss should be difficulty, otherwise exploration speed would be too slow and annoying. I known that from Wizardry8 where every battle take me about half hour, so i walk only few steps forward to stop for long fight and it was major reason to not finish it. Most of monsters have here damage level 2, only different armor, so its dont need to evade it and with good weapon its going fast and painless. Boss have lev3-5, and only dragon lev7 of dmg.

About puzzles, the same reason, and its not true that there is none of them or that is too easy. Anyway i tryed to follow Might and Magic in everything (also in game ending) In usual hack & slash exploring style like M&M it is only keys and quests, so that is correct. In future changes i will probably make just larger world to explore, with similar balance. I found that alsmost each M&M game have around 30 dungeons/places to explore, so its long way before reach that point.

BTW here is basic map of Ravenhood (in version 2.1)

[Jan]

Hmm, I still can't find the fourth orb. As far as I understand it, it's in the ruined mansion. I enetered it, found the

Spoiler

treasure and returned it to the owners

, but it doesn't seem to help. I've also find a clue to

Spoiler

climb up the tower

(of the mansion?), I

Spoiler

climbed on the first level

, I can see a

Spoiler

hole leading up but I can't climb any further

. Any clues?

EDIT: OK, ignore me, I found the way. I don't know how, though.

EDIT 2: OK, finished! Uffff! It was excellent, well, except for the ending (!) The score is impressive, as usually: 9 hours 30 minutes, 65 km travelled, 5.000 sword chops, 1.200 stairs ascended.

I will write the review tomorrow.

[Zed5Duke]

It is my last custom dungeon for sure, because its better update it to new elements instead of build from zero similar big project.

Upcoming update 2.2 will contain huge pack of changes, its not just to fix few details but: rebuild old and brand new levels ,new monsters and tough boss in old places, items, quests, puzzles, inventions etc. (balance/resize current game and something brand new for + X hours longer playing)

[Gambit37]

Sounds good. When you release 2.2, please create a new thread and leave this one here. You have a habit of editing your old threads and changing all the earlier posts which makes the rest of the thread unreadable and sound like nonsense, because people have commented on things which no longer exist. It would be better to make a new thread and leave the old ones for posterity. Thanks.

[Zed5Duke]

With 50% changes in game its probably new part of it, something beyond simple update to fix stuff. So i will probably relase it as Ravenhood 3 (in new thread)

So far i changed or add around ten levels with new gfx and ideas, monsters, quests etc and difference is very wisible, if i will follow that its going to be true new part. Ofcourse am not build it all new from zero so these who already played will feel familiar, its similar game world.

[Jan]

If I might suggest something, I would advise you to change:

- the ending (it's a bit chaotic, not logical and kind of disappointment if I may say so)
- some of the fights (i.e. to try to avoid too many dull slash-step-slash-step and slash-stairs-slash-stairs fights, if you know what I mean; boy, I was fighting these

Spoiler

five knights in the castle (on my way back from the dungeons) for about 45 minutes using the stairs technique

! - I thought I would destroy my mouse as I destroyed my joystick in the Summer Olympics on Atari back in the 80s!)

[Zed5Duke]

Tactics for death knights
-lure and close them in rooms
-healing touch + restore mana, then just stand and fight (i survived fight with two of them attack me from front and left at one time)
-summon wasp (after update will be stonger and different summons, they search monsters and attack them until die)
-invisibility and run to exit (after update its skill and work longer)
-dance and step stairs (old boring stuff, not recommended)

Ending area was mentioned in npc and books, so thought "wtf is that?!" should not appear in player head (who read it)

Here is demo screen from Ravenhood 3 (one from new inventions: apples fall on ground when bash tree)



EDIT

Funny thing i found during create new gfx, compass from DM2 show wrong directions (proof on screen, from left to right: DM1, DM2, and my compass)

[Jan]

compass from DM2 show wrong directions

I had problems with my compass in Ravenhood 2, although I didn't dare to ask because I didn't want to look stupid. Navigating between the locations was a bit difficult for me (the sign told me "castle to the west", I was sure I was going to the west, and I came to the tavern, lol), so for most of the time, I would use the "left-hand-rule" or "right-hand-rule" and sooner or later I would come to the location I wanted.

-healing touch + restore mana, then just stand and fight (i survived fight with two of them attack me from front and left at one time)
-summon wasp (after update will be stonger and different summons, they search monsters and attack them until die)
-invisibility and run to exit (after update its skill and work longer)

The funny thing is that I finished most of the game (like 3/4 or even more, including the castle) with only 4 runes and three spells (stamina, health, light). I found most of the spells only at the end of the game, so I had almost no opportunity to use them.

[Zed5Duke]

I was many times confused usung dm2 compass, am wonder where lay this bug, in DM2 or RTC?

About goods to find, I thought its ok for replayability, when make different choices one items become more usefull and other less. Now am think about new concept (will tell later when finish design)

[DM_Player]

Zed,

The problem is with the DM1 compass. The DM2 compass gives the correct direction. You can easily see this by facing north on both compasses and turning to the right. You should now be facing east. The DM2 compass will indicate east, but the DM1 compass will indicate west.

It's only a bug in the sense that the DM1 compass graphics for east and west are opposite of what they should be. There is nothing wrong in the RTC game engine itself. If you're going to use a DM1 compass, then you should clone it and correct the graphics although many games don't do this . IMHO it's just easier to use the DM2 compass, as it shows the correct graphics to begin with, and forget about using the DM1 compass. Why would you want both in the game anyway?

[Zed5Duke]

Zed,

The problem is with the DM1 compass. The DM2 compass gives the correct direction. You can easily see this by facing north on both compasses and turning to the right. You should now be facing east. The DM2 compass will indicate east, but the DM1 compass will indicate west.

It's only a bug in the sense that the DM1 compass graphics for east and west are opposite of what they should be. There is nothing wrong in the RTC game engine itself. If you're going to use a DM1 compass, then you should clone it and correct the graphics although many games don't do this . IMHO it's just easier to use the DM2 compass, as it shows the correct graphics to begin with, and forget about using the DM1 compass. Why would you want both in the game anyway?

DM1 compass is based on real one, it act like should be (you can check this when compare to real), in DM2 compass red arrow show "east" if you can imagine that east is always to right when stand face to north, so when arrow point to right user can think when is to right it must be east because east is always to right. Only this weird way it can work, but in fact it is wrong. On picture characters are turning face to east, and dm2 compass is turned to south (arrow should point always north) At begin i made clone of dm2 compass and in test first i thought that it must be my mistake, and i fixed it by change direction of arrow, then i put to game every compass and found that dm1 and my fixed are correct, its dm2 wrong.

[Jan]

LOL, this is a very confusing thing.

I checked the compass in Ravenhood 2 again and I found that:
- the graphics "switches" east and west
- the text (if you examine the compass = look at it with the champion's eye) shows correct directions

[Zed5Duke]

I think it was somebody mistake, but he leaved it because somehow can be used to navigate. But only if you imagine it as fantasy compass which arrow is not magnetic, but magic or mechanic. Personaly am confused because am prefer real like it was in DM1 (even prefer its gfx style IMO perfect one)

I've finished the game and this is the review, my first review as member of this forum:

Craft: 8.5
There is a very good use of textures and new elements, in particular the enemies. However the editor potential is not completely utilized, for instance in making elaborate mechanics.

Originality: 7.5
Basically it’s an exploration-fight game, but it doesn’t improve a lot this aspect. In general the biggest enhancement is the interaction with NPCs and some new ideas (spells, enemies etc…)

Size: 7.5
It’s a medium sized game, you need about 7 hours to finish it.

Difficulty: 7
Quite easy, above all around the ending.

Gameplay: 8.5
Good difficulty progression and food/water management. Playing is pretty pleasant except for the starting, where bumping into a wall or a tree could kill you (some chars start with 5 hp!). There aren’t deadlocks and annoying parts.

Atmosphere: 8
The good atmosphere (due to the wallsets) could be increased with a better music selection and more sound effects (e.g. fire noise, fountains, background effects…). The main theme is not appropriate and it’s really monotonous IMHO.

Fights: 7
Too easy and repetitive, the usual “dance” around the monster without any strategy, with a couple of exceptions.

Puzzles: 2
No puzzles! You don’t need to think a lot to finish this game.

Game Ending: 2
I got really disappointed when saw the ending. Zed, you could do better!

Replayability: 4
There aren’t many reasons to play again the game, no secrets or obscure areas.

Overall: 6.5
A respectable game, not really innovative (walk, kill the monster, pick up the key, open the door etc…). It isn’t my genre. Anyway, as fighting game it fails because is too repetitive, as exploration game it is not totally convincing (too little, no secret areas). I think it’s mainly a virtuosic use of graphics.

Best part:

Spoiler

The battle against the King in the temple

Worst part: The end

This is valuable stuff, thanx for that review, here is what am follow in next part (under construction)

Craft: Editor potential now about 90%, figured out few new tricks and there will be things probably (no probably, am sure abut that) never seen before. This time am longer spend on mechanic and new concepts than size, because its mostly the same game world with better quality and different gameplay.

Originality: Well its still fight-exploration game, but if understand this part as amount of inventions and creativity, then its 95% (around 50+ pages of new designs stand behind new ideas put there) Am not sure it can be even more original from what is it now. Well in fact always can be.. but am trying to avoid every crazy ideas (at high level of originality begin craziness imo)

Size: 10 for standard playing, 100 hours if somebody wish to explore every secrets, details available only to some champion. But lets say that is 20 hours of playing (include: making decisions, solve puzzles, fight, exploring)

Difficulty: Its improved, for sure but how much? Try it, to me it can be always too easy as creator.

Gameplay: Food manage, equipment manage, team manage, its dungeon manager now hah but some parts as survival can be skipped by select champions experts in survival.

Atmosphere: I known now how sound localizer work, but when couple of them is placed only one generate sound, thats why after experiments i removed them, yep there was birds and fire etc, but i can live without that details. BTW graphic is now even better, and sounds more, champions can talk more often etc.

Fights & Puzzles: Its now more balanced, fights still dominate but more and better tactics available

Ending: I think you miss plot, now npcs more talko about it, and its extended. As ending craft it was my best from every previously dungeons, no classic boss because its supposed to be very mysterious (btw look at my comment to originality)

Replayability: It is now 99% actualy am most of time spend on this part of game and its probably perfect now. Must play around 10x to find everything there.

Worst and Best: Its just game moments, impossible to make everything best and bester, its always worst and better. There will be other worst and other best.

[Lord_BoNes]

@Zed: Where you mentioned using localised sound fx, what do you mean "only generate one sound"? I've found a bug with the sound fx in RTC... localised sounds only update when they starts playing... in other words, if you have a looping sound effect that goes for 3 seconds, then the sound only checks how loud it should be playing (stereo panning included here) every 3 seconds (whenever the sound actually starts)... if you move away from the sound in that time, it continues to play at full volume until it loops, and then it checks how loud it should be and dulls itself down suddenly.

I think that GG left some extra check out somewheres

[Adamski]

I am not used to finish a game if it is not interesting, so that's a good thing for your game. I've played many custom dungeons but finished only 4: Towers of Chaos, Conflux III, Doom Blade and Ravenhood 2, all worth to be played. I would add also Sukumvit II to the list of worth games, but I was stuck due to a key I didn't find (don't remember where).
I don't agree with you about the sounds, I think they can improve a lot the atmosphere. Anyway, after reading your description I'm really curious about this new Ravenhood.