Dungeon Master Forum

Zed,

Thanks for the game!

I was on 13 levels, but many of them were very sparse, so the game isn't as large as the levels would indicate.

Played with Rachel Druidess, Ralph Heretic, Amanda Valkyria and Carlos Survialist. Rachel and Carlos made many parts of the game easier than it probably should have been. If someone is playing looking for more of a challenge, then I probably wouldn't pick these two.

The puzzles were pretty easy, although I did need some help in the ruined mansion. The graphics just don't make it obvious that something can be done there, although there is a hint and if you look at the graphics long enough/close enough you can tell what needs to be done. The final puzzle in the tavern is also not that obvious, even with the clue that is given.

The areas that are accessible only by certain party members can be a bit frustrating. I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out how to do things that my party just couldn't do. I think it is better to have character specific accessible areas behind movable walls or something like that, so that a player doesn't waste time trying to open doors that can't be opened, chop things that can't be chopped, go down paths that can't be gone down, etc. with the characters that they're playing with.

The wall sets in the game were REALLY good. They added alot to the overall atmosphere.

As Zed indicated for earlier Ravenhoods, this is an explore/fight game. There is no magic to speak of (although he did put just one spell into the game). This does change the overall play quite a bit, in that you're not trying to level up Priest and Wizard skills, or look for spells or runes.

Also,

Spoiler

there aren't any hidden buttons, levers, fake walls, movable walls, etc., (or at least I didn't find any) and there didn't seem to be any advanced mechanics going on within the RTC engine.

Not having these items changed the play and feel of the dungeon for me.

Zed included alot of new monsters,

Spoiler

most of which were human/human like rather than the traditional DM monster types

. Having Rachel and Ralph helped quite a bit until my characters had leveled up a bit. Then it wasn't necessary to use their special skills. Overall, the monsters didn't seem that difficult.

I'd say this dungeon was enjoyable to play and fairly easy and straightforward. I've only played 3 other custom dungeons (Conflux III, Tower of Champions and Escape from Order's Prison) all of which were much more difficult and challenging. After completing Ravenhood, if you're looking for a challenging recent game, then I recommend Soaponarope's Escape from Order's Prison.

Thanks again Zed! Looking forward to your next effort.

Well, being my first custom module, and I'm just getting back onto the DM scene, I haven't had much experience with the adventures. However, just by looking at the readme file, you can tell that its quite immersive. I have, now, travelled as far as the Dark Fortress, which doesn't really click with me in regards to the storyline (must...resist...urge to write...).

Now, there are a few minor "bugs", that aren't bugs, in the game. Being an English student, having the text written as it is (I may have a different one, so forgive me if I'm wrong) its like havign someone scratch a blackboard with long nails. However, most of the game is hack and slash, so its just a minor annoyance. Secondly is the battles. Some can be avoided just by doing the good ol' "back one space, slash with your weapons, repeat". Now, sometimes you will have to do this in order to avoid massive external bleeding via long sharp baldes, but it does get a bit weary after awhile (especially for the Robber, who always seems to lose loads of stamina in my game...), however the battles are "just right", except at the end of that place where you do heaps of stuff (damn just remembered it might be a little spoiler, so just bare with me).
I also did not like having no "proper" clothing - had to use rags until the Fortress - but thats just asthetics talking. Also, there is no Journal to record quests etc., but thats just a limit of the game engine and not anything to do with the actual map or its maker.

Apart from these things that annoy me, this module shows how exceptional Zed's map making is, and I enjoy it quite completely. Being the first module I downloaded, after completing DM1, it makes me want to experience more.

Zed, keep up the good work, and looking forward to you new module/s!

Also, do I really need to keep that spellbook with the Zo spell? If not, I can just leave it in the Begger's Room (which is my HQ, muhahahahah)

Being an English student......
its [sic] like havign[sic] someone scratch.....
so its[sic] just a minor annoyance.......
just bare[sic] with me......
but thats[sic] just asthetics talking......
thats[sic] just a limit of the game.....

Hmmmmmm.....

aesthetics ?

Esthetics for those who have no "u" in "colour", I guess.

And no, I'm not insane! My mother had me tested!

Paul Stevens wrote:

Being an English student......
its [sic] like havign[sic] someone scratch.....
so its[sic] just a minor annoyance.......
just bare[sic] with me......
but thats[sic] just asthetics talking......
thats[sic] just a limit of the game.....

Hmmmmmm.....

Heyyyy, I write fast on the computer and don't really check my spelling. I get enough of that at school... *COUGH* Mrs.Donovan is actually that witchh from Evil Dead 2 *COUGH*

I write fast on the computer

I agree completely. Folks on the
forum aren't worth much of one's time.

Oh, come on, he didn't mean it like that!

@Moderators? Would it be possible to move this discussion to General / Informal part of the forums so that this thread is used only for the conversation about Zed's Ravenhood? I mean for Zed's sake.

DM_Player wrote:There is no magic to speak of (although he did put just one spell into the game)

Its missunderstanding in fact game contain large amount of magic styles (almost all possible) spells are not cast traditional way but by skills, each champion have different knowledge and experience in craft and magic.

@Zed: Please refrain from insulting those that gave their time to play your dungeon. If something is wrong, answer the facts and not the character of the person reviewing.

@everyone else: please rebutt direct comments to yourselves and not on behalf of others.

New version, I updated manual to avoid future missunderstandings about magic system. Its all explain there, read before play. There is also big changes in interface, transfered here from my new experimental project.

Sounds good. I've just acquired more free time, so look forward to playing some custom dungeons again!

New version 3.20
40% of skill system was changed, skills are brand new, altered or balanced
80% changes in interface

Now everybody known three usefull skills and some of them are masters in chosen path (like Frost mage which now known Ice bolt, Blizzard, Ice wall) Allmost all possible magic styles like: air, water, earth, fire, dark, light, chaos, order, mind, spirit, body, claivorance, necromancy, voodoo, witchcraft, viking.

Now it is possible to finish game in few other alternate style and path, and should be harder to tell what team is best.

I'm intrigued! I didn't think it was possible to make such a customised magic system in RTC!!!. I will have to check it out when I get some time.

I must mention about situation on this forum, when i created one-week or one-day dungeons everything was fine, but after i begin more ambitious big projects like Hell's Tavern, Ravenhood, Escape from Necropolis something strange happend, they received more devasting critics or more ignored comparing to previously bad dungeons, my topic was baned, comments edited or removed by moderator, and they are not even placed in custom dungeons list. With every better dungeon situation is worst and soon i will be probably baned from this forum.

Please update "custom dungeons list" to Ravenhood 3.20 (full) Escape from Necropolis (demo) and remove Journeyman, Craftsman, Gemstone, Gladiator 1&2 (bad experimental dungeons for delete)

That situation started with the first critic you rejected with violence and without compromise. And you never apologised at any time.
You reap what you sow or "what goes around, comes around".

Linflas said it right. We got tired of your bad behaviour Zed. You were warned about it several times and ignored every warning, and continued to be rude to people who took the time to play and review your dungeons. Why would we want to talk to someone who is constantly rude to us? Consider this a life lesson.

That said, I still think your a great dungeon designer Zed. I haven't been very far into Ravenhood but really liked what I played.

The custom dungeon list situation is easy, I got very busy mid last year and the forum filespace swap meant I had no ftp access. Apparently, no one else in admin or mlderation updates the list and adds mirrors for new dungeons, only me.

Soaponarope was in a similar situation, his 1.1 version was not updated nor mirrored until now.

So the lack of dungeon updates is nothing against you personally, can please everyone not lump that in with anything else. And in fact can everyone leave me out of anything else. There is no 'we' here in this regard.

Zed, as Linflas said, you're a great dungeon designer and I do like your games, I enjoyed playing all of them and thank you for making them for us.

I think that in all our assessment of your games we tried to be constructive in our criticism, making suggestions etc. but of course the reviews are subjective to some extent and it's a common sense that people can't find an agreement on everything. Nobody had anything against you personally.

The truth is that we're a small community of people with a relative lack of time so it's obvious that generally only dozens of people here have time to play your dungeons (or any other custom dungeons). It's, of course, easier to find one evening to finish your shorter dungeons than to find a whole week to finish your larger projects. Another problem is that you kept updating Ravenhood, so people (like me) who played older versions (which were great!) simply don't have time to play the newer ones. Also, many people download and play your dungeons but don't tell you about it on the forums. So I think that you're dungeons are quite popular here.

You should see me on metal concert am rude like hell.

Hey am follow this concept of complexity crafting etc, in new dungeons but now less gfx (less wallsets for sure) and DM1 style. There is so much options that will probably need to write manual again. Unless there is problem with read long instructions (nobody like it) so will need to figure out how put all of these clues inside game. My first idea is to make library location, scroll is ok because may be carry but contain short text and confuse to hold tons of scrolls. Other concept is to put instructions on floor text. Maybe triggered by some items like coin of wisdom for example on wall text "armors crafting" and coin slot, if you pay then may get all tips etc.

I think certain players don't read manuals and dive right in to the game, but it's definitely a good idea to have one for hints. After all, DM all but gave you clues to many of the spells in the rune descriptions in the manual! And then in game hints for those not picking up on your clues.

Coming back after awhile, thought I might get this out and this seemed like the best place to put it...
With the Ruined Mansion quest, I have been unable to save after using the Mansion key to enter further into the Mansion, thus being unable to finish the quest associated with it. No big deal, but I thought you'd like to know considering it might be a bug of the module.

Thing is, I don't think its the module, but RTC itself. I don't have a copy of the debug file (with what LITTLE text it did have), so I can't throw it up here. Thing is, this error/bug sorta "followed" me when I went from my laptop to desktop. I had an earlier version of RTC and it had the same problem (I think, if the last update was within the past year and a half). I thought it was strange, and maybe I'll try again and place a "fresh" debug file up here.

Also, a few cosmetic changes (clothing for Heroes at the start, a store to sell unwanted goods and other like-minded RPG 'bits') could be made to enhance the overall game. Even without these its quite a good module, keep up the good work Zed.

If there's a bug in RTC, sadly it won't get fixed as development has stopped.

I've dodged playing ravenhood for quite some time now, due to constantly seeing new versions of it coming out & not wanting to play anything obsolete. Finally dove in with 3.20 and I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying it. I'm at a point where I'm not sure what to do, even with the hint that the game has given me.

I have the

Spoiler

magnifier

and I'm under the tavern. I'm being told to

Spoiler

guess which of the five people worked in the stables

, and I'm pretty sure I have the answer; but the game has done nothing to tell me how to go about

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"guessing"

. I've tried everything I can think of and nothing produces any results at all. Also, I'm out of torches and it's difficult to see anything; the lack of light in this game is criminal. Almost everywhere is perpetually dark and I just cannot figure out a way to get more torches. I even have Carlos Survivalist and thought maybe I could draw brands from the camp fires or something, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

How do you make a

Spoiler

grapple

?

From my past memory of this game I think I remember the grapple being made from a rope and a nail. There may be another element but I think this might be a starter.

I have

Spoiler

big iron nails

and a

Spoiler

leather rope

but I don't know what to do after that.

I think you put one thing in one hand and one in the other.

Trying to revive this thread
After finishing Tower of Champions I was looking for another Dungeon to play and finally came to Ravenhood.
Two things I could not figure out after several days of playing, maybe someone can give me a clue?
- how can I progress deeper into the dungeon under the tavern? I made it to the fountain in the room with the large rat. And I got a clue on a tapestry that someone with a heart of stome could enter. Sorry, no clue what to do
- In a temple, after battling something about a hundred druids, I found a magic orb. However, obviously there's nothing I can do with it. Is it useful for something, or just a token to show you have finished the temple?
Many thanks in advance!

By the way, I got the orb only because I have the thief in my party who can cast the ZO spell. But I guess this is not the intended way to do it, right?