[Custom dungeon] Xarostak 2 - The Country Site [RTC] [Thom]

[THOM]

Version: 2.0 for RTC V0.49
Platform: RTC
Author: Thom
Date published: 2008, June 13
Date last updated: 2008, June 13

I have completed a new dungeon! (well, in fact it is completed since 2 months but I wanted to wait until RTC 0.50 - but as GG seems to be absent...)

It ist a sequel to my first dungeon - but with a bit more stringency (I hope ).

It uses traditional graphics with restricted coulors. But as there just a few parts are taking place in the ususal dungeon, I had to add many new graphics and features. And there are also about 9 new monsters.

The main quest is much puzzle-based. I would describe the difficulty as "medium" - concerning the riddles and also the fights. The whole is not only inspired by DUNGEON MASTER but contains also ideas and motives of other games. But don't be worried: you will be more familiar with it than you probably might think right now.

Sadly I will be away for two weeks after Sunday. So if you will have some questions I won't be able to answer them. But don't cry for me: I have paid a lot of attention to the Hint Oracle. So please ask it. And mind that there is a bibliotheca in this game - maybe you can get some informations there...

Story:
THE COUNTRYSITE OF XAROSTAK
---------------------------

The evil wizard XAROSTAK and his dark machinations disappeared. In the last adventure it was possible for you to get into his domicile, the dark stronghold, buried deep in the mountains, guarded by a mercenary army (and by some strange beings, too). There, where he carried out his dangerous experiments with magical artifacts and where he watched his beloved fights of wild creatures against humans, fights that took place in a special arena under the earth - there you where able to destroy his evil secrets and escape from his dungeon.
After he was gone, the land was not dark anymore and the people's lives were once again filled with lightness.

You were idolized, sorrounded by cheers and applause.

But then news arrived: XAROSTAK has also a mansion on his countryside. And in the prison of this peaceful-seeming house, the principal of the Council of Wisdom seems to be taken captive. Obviously there are still some servants of XAROSTAK in the building. But as they have lost their master, it cannot be long until they will dissappear and their prisoner will be forgotten and his life will end soon.

Who else than a strong and brave hero can be asked to solve this?

Do you want to enter his mansion and free the prisoner?



Are you ready for that long journey?

Can you find a way into the domicil?

Can you solve that tiny problem?



Notes:
Here is my secound Dungeon for RTC.

It uses traditional graphics with restricted coulors. But as there just a few parts are taking place in the ususal dungeon, I had to add many new graphics and features.

The Levels are not linear or nonlinear. To be more precise: it is an open place where you should feel free to walk around, examine all the rooms, find out what secrets they are hiding and try to solve the main quest. Your first aim will be to find out how to get into the building...

As you see the whole is not only inspired by DUNGEON MASTER but contains also ideas and motives of other games. But don't be worried: you will be more familiar with it than you probably might think right now.

If you get stuck: I have paid a lot of attention to the Hint Oracle. So please ask it. And mind that there is a bibliotheca in this game - maybe you can get some informations there.



A few words concerning the entrance sequence: The global game-rules makes it necessary to choose a Party from these Mirror-Rooms which we all have seen so often. It's not very logical that all the various Dungeons, in which you are going to fight against the evil, have a stock of heroes to do the fighting. So I decided to separate the Mirrors-Scene from the rest of the Dungeon and place it into some kind of intermediate empire. Don't be frightened by the strange appearence of that opening-sequence.




Trantor has made video review of this dungeon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir8Ftt7Hdvw

Hints and comments:
Thanks

for Graphik-Support to
Ralf Hinrichsen - rh.hinne@t-online.de
LINFLAS
GAMBIT

for Beta-Testing and Translation-Support to
TRANTOR

and in general
of course to George Gilbert
and to all the helpful creatures at www.dungeon-master.com/forum

and last but not least to my patient girlfriend Heike

Download:
Download this dungeon from this Shared OneDrive (in the 'Custom Dungeons' folder)

Download this dungeon from: http://www.thomas-schrage.de/DM/

[Trantor]

I'm terribly sorry to not have beta-tested anymore THOM, but as you undoubtedly saw for yourself, I was pretty much absent from DM - stupid RL kept getting in the way again. I will certainly check out the completed dungeon eventually.

[beowuuf]

I quickly looked at this, but I think am only in the courtyard. As before, the furnishings are great, I liked the outside area and the house exterior. I missed the was inside, but the hint oracle helped me.

The creature descriptions seem less helpful, but I forget where I was at the time

Possibly won't get back to it for a while

[Trantor]

In beta-testing, I found my way inside and it seemed that it just got started there. Will check sometime when time allows.

[THOM]

Hi! I am back from my hollidays. Comments or questions are again welcome from now on.

@beowuuf
I think it is not too hard to get inside - you only have to have a bit patience to find what to need...
The Creature Oracle should work but probably you weren't in an area where some creatures were...

@Trantor
I am dying to know what you think of it. But I will wait until RL let you make some journeys into other worlds again

[Trantor]

Welcome back THOM, hope you had enjoyable holidays. I already started playing, but didn't get further than the courtyard yet. I'll write more when I progress.

[Trantor]

WARNING: This post may contain spoilers.

Ok, I had a serious go at the dungeon. Somehow, I seem to have managed to find the right way to do important stuff while I was just trying to clear the perimeter (I have a talent for that - in every Final Fantasy game, whenever I come to a crossraods, I choose the way to the boss instead of the one leading to a treasure chest). I haven't been in the Bibliotheca yet, but found a way outside again that eventually led to me finding two well-known swords so far, though I have no idea if they are important this time.

So far, I like it, I think it's better than the original. It's not as empty, plays more traditional, but doesn't give up the feel that made Xarostak 1 different. That's a good thing. Lots of stuff seems very familiar, though, and I'm undecided yet if I like that or not. I guess I have to play some more to find out. I'm a bit surprised how much time I spend outdoors and mildly annoyed that my characters are starting to starve; maybe I need to go back to the beginning and kick some Hellhound butt. Also, after killing about six trillion wolves, I found out that their death howl is THE most annoying sound effect ever.

Here come the bad news: I found two flaws that I consider absolutely critical. The first is the "key changer" in the courtyard. I guess the plan is to put a YA key and a random weapon in it to get a different key. Fine. However, the damn thing will accept every item there is, and unless I am mistaken, the items put into it are lost forever. I saved my game and tried using the vital Emerald Key (hey, it's a key after all), and all of a sudden, I cannot progress anymore. Creating a potential dead-end the player can very easily step into is a critical error and an absolute no-go.

The other flaw is in the mine. I found it, entered it with the Orange Gem and eventually found the second secret in it as well. The game did slow down more and more, though, until it became virtually unplayable (mouse moving at 1 FPS and so on). I suppose this is due to a gazillion emeralds being created in the mine that just eat up memory. Is there nothing to stop the gem generating and destroying the superfluous emeralds? If not, how did this go in your testing?

Oh, and another random comment about the mine: I immediately entered it with the Orange Gem and eventually got a message about the Vexirk being undefeatable or something, even though I was busy meanwhile with the Ninja shop guard. Is that message simply delayed for a long time? It feels very weird to get a comment about something you left a minute ago.

[THOM]

Hi Trant - you are always the one, who finds the dead ends and the unwanted traps... Maybe that comes because you never choose the way to the trasure chest...

Yes, you are right, one can loose the important emerald key at the switching station. I never realized that. I will change that in a next release. But: I cannot choose in the relay between object and a special object (or a weappon). Maybe I can exclude the emerald key somehow... I will have a look.

And yes - maybe there are too many mechanics in work, as soon as you enter the rear part of the cave. Puh - I think I have to do some redesign...

But thanks, Trantor.

[Trantor]

Yeah, maybe, or maybe it's just because I try some stuff out because I want to know how they work.
It's not just the Emerald Key, but every key item you need that you might stick into that eye switch. Actually, why not limit the key changer to what it really needs? Just put several eye switches on top of each other, each being a trigger for a certain item. One would be the YA key, and then you would need one for each weapon you would like it to accept. You could even make it so that it accepts only one weapon that you find somewhere before and change the text accordingly Sure, it does limit the options for the player, but I think this is good because you don't give the player a chance to screw up (which would result in him/her not playing your dungeon again). Also, I'd like to suggest to disable the triggers once they fulfilled their purposes. The riddle is easy enough to understand, it should be left alone once it is solved.

Now, I don't know about the mine, but is it really necessary to throw out THAT many emeralds? Just up the delay by factor 10 or 20 and make it stop once you step out of the mine again, and the game should remain playable. Sure, that's not an elegant or satisfying solution, but certainly better than nothing. I did play some more, but not much; it is barely playable even without entering the mines (I was pretty close to the entrance already, however). Will see how I fare.

[Antman]

I had a go at this dungeon but got stuck right at the beginning in an outside area. There's three door I can get to but can't open, one has a RA lock next to it but it's behind a tree and another has a switch next it that generates hell hounds. I killed a couple of worms, a thief and bunch of hell hounds and a whole mass of evil trees. I've tried hacking and blasting all the doors and trying most of the items that lying items on anything that looks interesting. Couldn't find any fake walls or secret switches either, so to sum up, I guess I'm asking for a hint.

[Trantor]

Left of the Hellhound door is an item that you can use to gain entrance. It can be found in an "alcove" in the thicket walls.

Be warned, though, there is at least one dead-end and one place that can really clog up the memory of your machine; refer to an above post of mine for details. As I understood THOM, he wanted to redesign the place that can slow down the game so much, so it might be better to wait for the next release; that's what I'm doing right now because the game becomes a huge pain if it takes several seconds to perform any action (think of the Amiga version of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis...).

[Antman]

Yeah I've noticed how it's slower than usual already. I'm still stuck though, is the item you're referring to the Vorax? I've got that but I can't chop any doors down with it, the only other item to the left in an alcove is a sling and I couldn't seem to do much with that either. You might have to be a bit more specific

[beowuuf]

No, the ram's heads give a clue a tthe door to the item you need - just keep checking aroudn the forest edges. It isn't in an alcove though, i think it is lying by a tree on the ground

[THOM]

I think Beo is right.

Don't forget, Antman, you can ask the Hint Oracle. Do you know how to do that?

[Antman]

Omg it was so obvious, I thought the item I needed was just a branch I had picked up and forgotten about for some reason

I've stopped playing for now anyway as the game has gotten excessively slow. I'll just wait for another release I guess.

[THOM]

I've stopped playing for now anyway as the game has gotten excessively slow. I'll just wait for another release I guess.

Sorry for that inconvenience...

Probably you will have to restart the game from beginning...

But OK, I will do a redisign in the next days.

[THOM]

I have updated the game and I have paid attention to all the reports above (I hope).

Sadly that meant I had to loose the flickering light effect for the torches. But probably it is better to loose that than make the gameplay too bad for most of you. At the end the slowing down of your game should now be history...

Have a look at it. I hope there will be none further bugs (but I don't believe - Trantor will find one by taking the wrong direction...
)

[MasterWuuf]

I downloaded both of the zips. I unzipped them both.
Now, how do I play them?

[beowuuf]

You need to have a copy of the RTC game - downloadable link through THOM's page I believe

Then you need to put the .rtc files in to the Modules folder of the game. When you start RTC, it will give you a list of dungeons you can play - THOM's ones will be on the list

[Joramun]

I tried X2: the "country site" (it doesn't sound evil to me, maybe it should be renamed to "the evil midwest ranch" or "the dark, gloomy and dust-covered country house" ) but for a couple of minutes only, these are my first impressions.

I'll proceed by order of discovery (these are my personal opinion, take them with a pinch of salt):
I didn't really like the Hall of Champions in X1, and I still don't like it in X2. It's original, but the tiles don't really fit and the HoC is too big, and I'm the type who likes to be sure to see ALL champions stats before choosing. Anyway, frustrated, I took the first I saw with a decent weapon (Zed+inquisitor).
Then, the hallway is nice, even though it's weird to find all that stuff in a forest.

Small, but yet annoying detail: on my very first game, I died because I wanted to go BACK. This is really bad for a first impression. You should block people, not kill them, especially since RTC has the very bad habit of exiting if there is no savegame.

Then, I explored. I'm a bit of a coward, so I didn't wake up the trees, but I like the idea. Overall, it looks good, and the atmosphere feels right.

I had no problem entering the house, and exploring a little bit. There's quite a lot of interesting stuff (provided the mechanics are cleaned up, see Trantor's comments) and some mysteries. You could use more mysterious clues in some places, like for the key converter. ("Key + Weapon = Key" could be turned into a riddle).

Anyway, the level felt very big, and I got "bored" (it was late) after some time (after entering a garden, from the alchemy room) so i'll come up with more impressions once I get enough courage to explore all that.

[THOM]

Hey Joramun
thanks for telling me (us) your impressions of X2. I am alway glad in geting feedback.
So let me do some comments on some of your opinions.

I didn't really like the Hall of Champions in X1, and I still don't like it in X2.

I realize, that I produce much confusion with this Idea. Maybe I should have designed the wallset in a better way. maybe I will do that sometimes.

Then, the hallway is nice, even though it's weird to find all that stuff in a forest.
Small, but yet annoying detail: on my very first game, I died because I wanted to go BACK.

Mmh. Maybe I didn't made it clear enough, that the stuff part is a kind of inbetween world - with the surreal HoC on one side and the normal world on the other. From the point of the mechanic it is a place where you can get to from the HoC and from starting with a savegamehero. And to which you should not go back to. (You also can't reenter the HoC)

Overall, it looks good, and the atmosphere feels right.

Fine. That was my intention.

You could use more mysterious clues in some places, like for the key converter. ("Key + Weapon = Key" could be turned into a riddle).

You WILL have more mysterious puzzles in this dungeon. The key one is just to warm up.

Anyway, the level felt very big,

In fact the whole game is more or less just one level...

(after entering a garden, from the alchemy room)

You mean after using a Numen?

so i'll come up with more impressions once I get enough courage to explore all that.

I am dying to read this.
Thanxs for that lot of effort.

[Trantor]

I didn't post in this thread for way too long. Today, I restarted the game from scratch with the newer version, and I have to report that the slow-down issue doesn't seem to be gone. After about 2 hours of playing, I now encounter some serious slowdowns, even though I haven't been to the mines yet. So it seems there is still too much stuff going on in the background... I'll try to continue, but I'm unsure how far I will be able to proceed.

[Trantor]

Sorry for double-posting, but I just found another tiny little bug: If you enter the mines with Boris,

Spoiler

you will automatically get the second secret because Boris has a Dragon Spit with him from the beginning.

EDIT: The game remains barely playable till now. Anyway, I seem to be stuck. I deactivated the alarm system, but am missing the second key to release the prisoner (the one that was supposed to be in the earth, according to the prisoner).

What item did I find next to the blue floorring? I remember finding something there, but what it exactly it was... No idea. The hint oracle only tells me to do something with the thing I found, which I sadly forgot... Any clue?

Now for some criticism: The yellow and red potion are troublesome, for various reasons. If the active character doesn't have an empty hand when you try to produce the yellow and red potion, you will end up with the yellow potion only, as there is no empty hand to put the red potion on. But what is worse: Only one of my characters survive the explosion when you create the red and yellow potion, and he only survives with HP in the single digits. Is there a way around that? Also, I think it's quite unsatisfying that you only get an audio clue whether you chose the right potion for the right stoneflask. Then again, completing the stoneflask puzzle seems to be completely optional in order to create a shortcut...

[THOM]

Hi folks - sorry for not writing for such a long time. (Was busy and had my father for visit and my mother has a broken leg and...)

After some mails with Trantor I was again in the situation to have an upgrade of X2 to do. Not only that he had found a dead end - there were also some unintended behaviours and still that f****** slowing down.

Once again I worked on the mechanics and hope, it is right now.

So enjoy the new version.

[THOM]

PS: mind that thread: http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... 31&t=28188

[THOM]

Because there was an ungly mistake at the beginning (an unwanted teleporter) I have uploaded an updated version.

[Lunever]

Currently I'm gathering all version information reagarding engine compatibility and also all dungeon files for backup purposes.

Am I correct in assuming that Xarostak 2 was completely created, compiled and playtested in RTC V0.49?

Would you maybe be willing to supply the source files, please? Of course still only you alone decide, whether they would be publicly released or not.

[THOM]

Short answers:

Am I correct in assuming that Xarostak 2 was completely created, compiled and playtested in RTC V0.49?

yes

Would you maybe be willing to supply the source files, please?

no