Dungeon Master Forum

Jan wrote:I always finish each way from bottom to top

That would make an interesting 'movie'. A
very different way of playing the game.

Get first key, Get first Corbum. Thow it in Pit.
Get second key ... etc.

Anyone game to make such a 'movie''?

By the way - I have 'movies' of DM and
CSB in DVD format created from the CSBWin
frame-capture capability. Makes it easier to
view in non-computer settings or where an
executable would not work well.

Trial and error with pits in the DDD

Adventure Log#16

Diabolical Demon Director
Im Pretty much stuck at the moment.

Im back in the beginning area in the Diabolical demon director (Rock Piles and Demons).
Pit to my right is open,and after awhile i noticed that it only closed when a creature stood on the pressure plate (the way that i went to before to KU).
I enticed a Demon to stand on the pressure plate,and used a magic box to freeze it in place so i could get across the pit.
Now...There is a Set of stairs up to my right which lead upwards..but in front of the stairs is an invisible pit.
And in front of me is a corridor with a closed portcullis at the end.But..there is an invisible pit along the way too...stopping me from getting to the portcullis.
Im assuming..that i have to get a creature to follow me over the pit,and it will trigger something that will close the 2 invisible pits in this corridor.

Haven't figured it out yet.

Drop an apple at your feet. You are
standing on a pressure plate. Then go
upstairs.

I told you that you will need hints or a
map. This is just the beginning.....a
simple pressure plate to close a (nearby!) pit.

I'll let you try the other pit a bit longer by
yourself. It is more exciting.

The square immediately after the pit is a pressure plate????

Damn!!!

Thanks for the info Paul.

but in front of the stairs is an invisible pit

Not at all 'invisible'. You are standing on
the pressure plate that closes it. When it
is open, it is quite visible.

The Hint Oracle tells you exactly what to do here and how to close various pits ("To stairs" and "To door") - although there are so many puzzles, pits and hints in the area that it might easily all get very confused. The DDD really is evil.

I tend to find that wandering about and killing stuff eventually gets me down somewhere I haven't been yet. But yeah, it is something of an arse, that place, isn't it?

Wandering around in the DDD

Adventure Log#17

Diabolical Demon Director

Not much to report tonight.
Found myself in a new area in this DDD (Up the stairs,after i closed the pit).
A Blue mist transported me past a pit,into an area with more of the Hell hound's.
Discovered a series of tunnels with invisible force fields,and later found a skeleton keylock..behind which was one of the stone golems.
Cant seem to find anything else in this area,though i suspect i must be missing something because i haven't seen any other way of progressing.

Im assuming....that there is a wall switch somewhere in this area with the force fields.
I only had time to play for about an hour this evening,but im hoping for a longer play session tomorrow night.

You've explored the area with "tunnels and invisible teleporters" as far as you could - you can't do anything else here. Go back to the area where a blue mist teleported you accross a pit (with the hellhounds). Simply continue

Spoiler

north from here

.

Discovered a series of tunnels with invisible force fields

Ouch. Nobody goes there.

Skeleton Puzzle/NETA Entered/Corridor of fire

Adventure Log#18

Diabolical Demon Director

*Thanks once again to Jan and Paul Stevens for their hints.Without them,i would have probably spent another 3 hours wandering around the corridor with the invisible force fields

So...Out of the corridors with the invisible teleporters (At last) and back to the Hell hounds,down the stairs to the North..and back into the familiar DDD.
Cant go north because of a pit..but ahead is another set of stairs leading down into a largish room that was re-spawning Skeleton warriors.
Found a couple of treasure chests in this area,along with a Dragon armour shield.

Spent the next hour or so trying to figure out what to do with the closed portcullis...and then had a nightmare of a time trying to war cry a skeleton into the area with the blue haze.
Skeleton is transported to other side of portcullis,and is then destroyed by a lightning bolt (I dont understand where the lightning bolt came from that killed the skeleton OR why the skeleton has to be dead in order for the portcullis gate to open?? )
Used key on lock...and was soon in a new area with a set of stairs leading up to 'NETA'

DDD-NETA
Up the stairs,and i run into the games next devious trap.A corridor of fire.I had a couple of tries at this particular problem,but kept getting caught by the fire.So..i think it will be what i refer to as a timing exercise,and i'll need to struggle through it using keyboard rather than mouse.
Im just glad i finally found the next way path.

I think, regarding the dead-skelly-opens-portcullis thing, there's a trigger to open the door (on the floor) that is activated by placing an item there, therefore when the skelly dies its sword and shield drop to the floor and activate the invisible pressure pad - triggers can be set to activate by either a monster or an item, I think, hence why a "living" skelly doesn't do anything.

oic. Thnx Ameena

Great Progress......Really. DDD and onward is tough going.

Too bad you didn't pick up that Horn-of-Fear. It is a bit
more powerful than War Cry.

NONE SHALL PASS THE CORRIDOR OF FIRE! Muhahahaha! This is my favourite section of the upper part of CSB.

Read the Hint Oracle carefully - it gives you hints for each "leg" of your journey through the corridor. Save your game into a new slot when you're sure you're safe and then go on. I think that for someone who's new there it's more a "trial and error" than a timing excercise. Good luck!

Your progress is amazing! It's really not easy to figure out what to do in the upper parts of CSB and to find your way through it.

Funnily I always found Neta the easiest path, but haven't really played it under RTC. Good luck!

The truth is that in CSBWin I'm able to survive one or two fireballs in the Corridor of Fire. I've never played CSB in RTC but I guess the fireballs are much stronger in the CoF as anywhere else in RTC and thus CoF is much much harder? Dunno. I looked into editors and found that in CSBWin the fireballs in CoF have energy 88 (out of 255) and in RTC they have strength 25 (out of 100). I wonder what that means? They would look stronger in CSBWin (1/3 vs 1/4 of max value) but perhaps in RTC the fireballs are much stronger in general, i.e. have much higher their max value / damage?

I wish I could remember how it felt on Atari. I don't remember much details from these times - I just know it was hard... but... well... it still is hard. Looking at it from that perspective, the fireballs in CSBWin might be too weak making the CoF and other places (like the Dragon Den etc.) too easy? Dunno. I guess I should play CSB in RTC to see the difference.

I think the speed of firing might be more the issue, I recall it was reasonable to run between the fireballs, while I haven't seen the speed of the CSB fireballs.

You can certainly outrun fireballs in RTC - I've done it plenty of times, right after casting one at a mob .

The CoF is neither a test of speed nor
resistance to fireballs. It is a puzzle.
You will spend most of your time waiting
for the proper moment for your next
action.

Paul Stevens wrote:Get first key, Get first Corbum. Thow it in Pit.
Get second key ... etc.

I'll do this but without a movie (that's because I have to train it first, I'll be saving my game a lot and I know it'll take me many hours so nobody will want to watch it anyway). And if I succeed I might do it once more with a recording.

I'll take resurrected Tula Princess Of Uxmal and see how it goes. I'll start today and finish in May or June.

Paul Stevens wrote:The CoF is neither a test of speed nor
resistance to fireballs. It is a puzzle.
You will spend most of your time waiting
for the proper moment for your next
action.

Managed to get down to the blue mist area only getting hit once by the fireballs.
Iv hit a dead end though.
There's a pit just around the corner that wont close.
I tried the blue gemstone in the hole in the wall,and all it did was open an Altar of Vi.

Im stuck again.
Im guessing there is a switch in the corridor of fire that iv missed.Im going to check it out,and try to solve this puzzle after my dinner.

Happy Easter to everyone btw

lord soth 75 wrote:There's a pit just around the corner that wont close.

Read the Hints on the "Second Leg" and "Third Leg" carefully. They describe what to do here basically step-by-step.

And, of course, happy Easter to you too. And enjoy your dinner.

Corridor Of Fire

Adventure Log#19

DDD-NETA

Finally solved this pain in the ass of a trap.

The pit is controlled by a switch that is beyond a false wall. But..that wasn't the end of the problem,It was just the beginning.
The freakin timing required to get past that pit after you switch it off was ridiculous.
Here was another part of this game that i had to switch to keyboard to be able to tackle effectively.
Took me absolutely AGES to get past this damn pit tonight.

Worse was still to come.
After i finally did get past the pit..the fireballs started comming again!! And there was a damn Mummy hiding in one of the safety alcoves,which meant i got blasted to hell once again.

To cut the frustrating story short.....I am now in what appears to be the resting place of the Neta Corbum.
There is Pits everywhere..blinking between open and closed...Dont know where to begin to tackle this.So,i saved my game for another night.
It looks like another part where i will have to use the keyboard rather than a mouse.

-Fireball Notes-
It would take 2 fireballs in the Corridor of fire to effectively wipe out my entire party.Im not sure whether they are as strong as the spellcasters fireballs though,as the Vexirks on RTC CSB were nearly capable of destroying my party with 1 fireball.And the Spell Vines and Beholders in RTC DM 's fireballs seemed stronger too (My characters were weaker back then though it should be noted)


-Slightly off-topic question-
Is there a thread in this forum that discusses the creation of new DM monster graphics? I want a crack at creating some new monsters,but im unsure if i will be able to do so,with just basic programmes on my lap top. Thanx in advance.

The freakin timing required

It should not be that hard. One simply needs
to plan in advance where the mouse-clicks will
be placed and then do them reasonably quickly.
I wonder if RTC gives you fewer milliseconds
to do your thing at that pit. Or in general.
Does it perhaps gobble up mouse-clicks that
are too fast? That would make the timing
more critical.

I always jump out, blast the Mummy, then
jump back in as the fireball zips by. Repeat
until the mummy is gone.

But you are doing marvelously well for a
beginner. Quite marvelously.

lord soth 75 wrote:There is Pits everywhere..blinking between open and closed...Dont know where to begin to tackle this

NETA Corbum is a tricky one. Beacause I'm generally a very uncoordinated person, it always takes me several attempts to get it. Begin with exploring the whole area. Soon you'll find that the pits are operated by two mechanisms - a

Spoiler

pressure plate to your left

and a

Spoiler

hidden switch behind a false wall to your right

. Learn how do they work. Speed is not that essential - you need good timing and kind of synchronisation. I'd bet you'll need more than one attempt to get the corbum - don't worry, don't give up, don't get frustrated, it's normal. As Paul said, your progress has been amazing so far. Good luck!

Wheee, so close to your second Corbum already - nice one .
Regarding monster graphics - you can draw any graphics in a program as simple as Paintbrush, so don't worry about having any major art prog in which to design stuff. One note - if you want things to be transparent, you need to use magenta (maximum red and blue), also known as "power pink", I believe. Anything done in this colour won't show up in-game. You can load in existing graphics (such as the character portraits) to see what I mean by this.

NETA Corbum/Back to the Junction to kill Worms

Adventure Log#20

DDD-NETA

Got my 2nd corbum earlier tonight.
Had to use the keyboard controls because of the timing required again.

Went back to the Junction of the ways afterwards and travelled to the worm repawn in ROS to get some food.

So now its back up into the DDD to find the remaining 2 ways (Haven't got a clue which direction to go in though.)

Wow, you need to go back for Worm Rounds after emptying both the Dragons' Den and the maze in Ros? What happened to all the Dragon Steaks?

Ameena wrote:Wow, you need to go back for Worm Rounds after emptying both the Dragons' Den and the maze in Ros? What happened to all the Dragon Steaks?

I killed only 1 of the dragons in 'the den',and iirc i didn't kill any of the dragons in the Ros maze.
The dragon steaks from the Dragon on the bottom level (that i killed ages ago) have long been digested.

The worm tunnel in Ros is a habit.
As soon as i discovered it,it let me to sink into a DM 1 comfort mode.
I go there all the time,and destroy the endless spawning worms to keep my characters food levels at maximum.

Despite their relatively low level stats,my rag tag party of characters haven't had many problems with the creatures of CSB so far.
Their biggest test in combat was the Vexirk lair in KU.And that was because i was going up against fireballs that did about ten million hit points of damage per hit.

-Why does it have to all end with CSB?-
Im hoping that somebody on this great forum has created new dungeons (Using ONLY DM1 graphics/grey walls/monsters ect) for characters who have played through DM1 and CSB.High level dungeons for high level characters.
In rpg board games like D@D,There were adventures for characters that went all the way through to Immortal character level.
I played a custom dungeon last night created by r0ck,and it was thoroughly enjoyable and was everything that i love about playing this DM game.The only downside to the dungeon was the fact that i had to start with 2 characters who were feeble.

Iv looked through the 'custom dungeon' section of this forum,and 2 things confuse me:

1-If i am using the newest version of RTC......Am i even able to play on some of the dungeons? I dont know what is compatible with the version i am using.
2-How many of the dungeons listed in the Custom Dungeons section of the forum use DM1 graphics AND DM1 graphics only? I looked through a few of the dungeon descriptions,and there was only one creator called 'ZED',who gave descriptions as to what wallsets and graphics he had used ect.
I downloaded Trantors dungeon a few weeks ago,and was dismayed when i saw the Dungeons beginning,because it didnt 'feel' like a DM game,because of the walls which were from another game (DM2?)

Are there any custom dungeon creations that use the DM1 graphics...and allow the importation of DM/CSB champions?