A big thankyou and a few comments

[Guest]

Hello everyone

First of all I'd like to thank George Gilbert for creating a program that brings new life to a game that I've always enjoyed playing. Also Beowuuf for all that hex related info which helped me understand DMute a little better.

Its really great to be able to dig into the old dungeons and figure out why monsters kept popping up in certain areas, how certain puzzles worked etc. And after playing The Grave, I've remembered whats its like to NOT know whats around the next corner, something which I think is 90% of the appeal of Dungeon Master. I know I thought the game was hard when I first played it(well I was only 10) but now I have a chance to up the stakes a bit.

I've only had DMute a week or so and I've got a lot to learn about how everything works. I have Beowuuf's manual on the Hex editing, but there's tons more I'm still unsure of(like how to proper levers...) I'm also interested in anyone who has a site with some nice dungeons.

Anyway, its nice to see that DM hasn't died, and that so many people are willing to do all this stuff in their spare time. Thanks!

[beowuuf]

Hi there...the manual was taken from this board mostly, so if you go backwards from the end and check through old relevant posts it might make things clearer to see the original posters' comments

The best webpage would be:
http://clan.gemetzel.de/bnetguards/crypt/

by, funnily enough, someone who used to go by the name guest too, Amber.

There is also an account on www.freedrive.com (login: dmdungeons/dungeons), but it is just a storage area, so there are no comments as with Amber's site.

If your unsure of anything, just post on the board if it's not on already somewhere, and I'm sure you'll get answers

Have fun

[Guest]

Thanks Beowuuf, I'll check out the freedrive account shortly. I tried the other webpage, but got a 404. Maybe its still around somewhere else?

I managed to get a lightningbolt shooter working yesterday, the only trouble is its still a little strong
I was only using one character to test it though, maybe the damage gets spread around otherwise. I found that a power setting of 0 didn't give enough distance, and anything else was a tad strong for a Level 1 trap.

Another thing that puzzled me was the shortage of different graphics available on level 1. I'm guessing that you can only have a certain number of wall object types on a given level, so I might have to do without wall fountains to put in green buttons, for example. Is this correct?

The thing I still can't understand is the torchholder trick used in George's test dungeon, where inserting a torch opens a false wall. Could you give me a brief rundown on it?

Anyway, thanks for the reply.

[beowuuf]

Hmm, odd the crypt isn't working...

Yes, 0 seems to be an exception that doesn't even have a one tile range! 1 - f behave normally, with infinite ranges...using 0x - fx inversely affects the ranges of these powers...try f1 and see if that makes it any less powerful (but for level 1, yeah, a shooter is going to be painful : ) Lightning bolts are constant, and are only affected by anti-magic stats)

You are right, there are only a few slots for graphics per level. Also, the first few lowest numbers are used to generate random graphics for atmosphere. So changing a water fountain to a green switch might get decorative switches popping up elsewhere on the level.

I discovered that for the torch holder, the code used to make it act as it does (D in the 3rd byte) also causes a natural graphical toggle effect. So, you can have the main part of the torch holder set up as an active object instead, targetting an effect to a false wall, for example, and it will still also toggle graphics and take/give out the torch.

Hope that helps

[Guest]

Ok, thats most of my questions answered, and the solutions were surprisingly simple as well.

The only other thing I can think of right off is an idea I had of trying to get an effect with a delay of more than 6(7?) seconds. I was thinking of creating a chain of wallswitches or something. If its possible, what do you think is the best way of going about it?(I'm basically looking to create a switch that opens a door, then closes it again after a longer time period)

Again, thanks for the help.

[beowuuf]

Yep, that's the easiest way (CSB did the same thing). Try to use innactive decorative features (like deliberate fountains or demon faces or manacles) for intermediate steps...saves on wall objects : )

The simplest form is to have each step after the first with the code 5 0 (3rd/4th). This is a switchable wall object (needs close effect targetted to it). If the wall object faces east/south/west, then the trigger needs to have 10/20/30 added to the 7th byte to activate it.

[sucinum]

i gave away my diablo 2 clanpage because im atm not able to lead my clan. so the crypt, which was on the same webspace, vanished. but, the crypt only offered the dungeons available on freedrive (the handling was a BIT easier) and some links. maybe i return it someday

gambit said he plans to do a better dm page which will include dungeons and more...