Dungeon Master Forum

Hi all,
I have uploaded new version of Return to Skullkeep to ModDB. This version includes:

- Two new sets of armor for mages with brand new graphics.
- 3 new pieces of armor to complete 9 sets of standard armor with brand new graphics.
- Potion Cache, Scroll Tube, Key Ring with new graphics to help you manage your inventory.
- New Ctulhu creature including 4 semi-bosses.
- Updated graphics for blowdart, small shield and spellbook.
- 2 new powerful potions with new graphics.
- 2 new tracks.

- Added "comfort" and "protection" level information to armors.
- Tweaked some items to be more fun to use.
- Rebalanced economy and weapons.
- Lowered some monster resistances.
- Casting spells now does not trigger cooldown on actions to encourage mages to use items.

- Revamped some maps to be more interesting. Added puzzles,monsters and secrets.
- Added character dialog.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/return-to-skullkeep/

Glad to read you're still plugging away THEO, my itch is returning as it has done in the past.

Thanks, Chaos-Shaman.

This is most probably last version and only minor fixes will follow. I am now quite satisfied with the state of the mod and would like to direct my creative efforts to video editing I wanted to do a version of DM2, which I think would utilize all the potential unused of the original game, although I knew it is not the most popular game even among Dungeon Master fans. Still if a few people did enjoy playing it, it would be a nice bonus.

Grabbed it to have a look THEO, will do that just after I finish replaying Heroes V. Much can be done with DM2 thanks to George. Took a break the past year due to life changes, but I do certainly look forward to playing with that engine once again.

Should you (or anyone else for that matter) be interested in playing with this mod, I can provide you with source files (once you finish the game . Now that I can maintain the "cannon" version on ModDB, I do not care what other modifications are there. I would have to ask for the extra permission for the new graphics and music tracks - some of them are open source, but new music tracks were created by my brother and new graphics are mostly work or my friend, who is a professional graphic artist. I do not expect them to object to that, however.
I know the game could at many places profit from the script database you created, so feel free to improve it, should you find that worthwhile, of course.

Hi Théo

i started playing and have several questions :

- why doing several spell books ? which have different runes for someone and if you forgot to merge it before drop it from your inventory you can lose magic rune. (it's confusing)
- what are the purpose of black star on the ground in some rooms?
- why have you changed all magic recips ?
I didn't found any glue about new spell recip (i tried random rune combinaison to find lighting, fireball, etc ...), but i am not capable to cast my own light, i must buy some torch to the shop (it's very boring). By the way i didn't find combinaison to cast poison cure potion.
- the idea to recover your health and stamina by casting spell without potion and countdown is good. but with this system the recover of health and stamina becomes on charge of the character himself (a character with low mana pool have some difficulties to heal during or after a battle), i get some low health character died by poison after a battle because not enough mana to heal himself ....
- About the food, when you get some steack or dead bat if you don't eat immediately the food become poisonous. The only way to save your food is to run at shop to heat it. (maybe if miss a way to heat it in place)
- The idea of special character habilities is good, but i didn't understand some habilites :
Thoram (how use campfire and gather ?)
Seri it seems "desarm trap" hability suck, i unable to use it i get the message "i cannot desarm shooters by hand".

In my progression:
I found all characters, i found the connection hub to village and mine. But i am stuck in the mine:
1 - i am unable to find the lost dog from the quest
2 - i found another quest about character blocked in a mine after tried several earth hole i found a room with living skeletons and a ladder ...
- it's very boring to guess which hole to clim down to forward in the mine.
The hole where you need to clim down and the ladder are too far, even with a compass if very difficult.
Why don't do a partial map on the mine in a scroll or give the grapple the clim-up near the mine localtion you need to reach ?

I try to hang on to continue this dungeon, but in view of all my remarks I have trouble .....

Could i have some other feedbacks of players which tried to play or finished this dungeon ?

Hi Jahmiann

- Should there only be one spellbook in the game? But than you could not get it in multiple places and if you miss it/lose it you are screwed. With one spellbook it would have to be pretty much mandatory. Therefore I could not use it as a loot to reward players who can find it earlier than required. Last but not least, if you only have one spellbook in the party and the character who is carrying it dies, your party cannot continue casting spells, until you dig it up.
However the fact that all available runes display in each spellbook, regardless whether they are actually recorded in it, is a confusing feature, I admit - unfortunately it is a feature of the RTC engine and I cannot do anything about that.
- It is the only place where you can save your game, if you are playing hardcore mode. Ignore them otherwise.
- Because I like it better this way The rune combinations now make more sense. Each rune you find now also unlocks specific spells and they are all equally useful. You can figure out most spells by thinking about the component runes. Trial and error is always an option.

For example: if you learn to cast light right away at the start of the game, the torches instantly lose any meaning and there is no reason for the light management anymore. Also fireballs and lightning are quite powerful in this game. You will have to settle for less potent spells for the time.

- That is why you will be able to brew all the familiar potions later. You probably already saw some of them in the shop in the mines.
- That is what a campfire is for - you can cook the food in it as well. But otherwise yes, you need to manage the food supplies wisely.
Gather: Select a Torham as party leader and pickup a mushroom. It will have a chance of regrowing later.
Disarm Trap: Select Seri as a party leader and click a shooter with a hand icon to disarm it permanently. It will be very useful very soon.

- Believe me, it is nothing compared to how this puzzle is implemented in other (more hardcore dungeons)
All I can say is that both the dog quest and the miner quest are optional and if you do not like crawling through the holes you can forget about them. All you really need is to find the key to the fortress, which is in an area you have probably not yet discovered and climbing down there through the pit is not the only option how to get there. There are at least two others i know of.

In any case I can advise putting some useless items like bones or twigs near pits you are going to climb down so that you do not climb into them over and over again. There are after all not that many of them and eventually you will get to some new areas.

Thx for the details.

About thoram campfire how does it works :
Do i need to select thoram as a leader -> cast campfire ->take food on the floor ?

I finished all quest on the mine 'lost dog included" about "lost dog" the quest i realy difficult. Because after breaking wall near the pit the wolf can be near the switch and attack the party ...
How to push the wolf away without fear (war cry), to access the switch ?
Even if you do some enough damage and the wolf flee, it should be difficult to guide the wolf near his master ....
I think a teleport which push the wolf in the corner and a floor trigger on the tile near the switch desactivated by the party when over it will solve this problem ...

I expored all holes, i have 3 keys (ring key/gold key/cross key), but didn't find blood key to access castle ... by the way i didn't find where to use the ring key ....

Just make the campfire and put the meat in it like you do in the fireplace. BTW, this is only hinted at by one of the elders, but you can also renew life of the torches in the fireplace too (not in the campfire, though).
Also this is an important information, given to you by one of the village elders: You can get runes not only from scrolls, but other magic items as well (this includes potions). So if you get a new potion, before drinking it use it to learn new runes.

As for the wolf: congratulation on this one, it was not supposed to be easy...
The easiest solution is to remove the rocks just as the wolf is turned away from the player and quickly step in to push the button before he can turn around. It may not be very obvious, but doing this quest is optional and gives you access to some nice equipment.

Now I see why you have difficulty opening the gate... The item you found is not a 'ring key', but rather a 'key ring', which is a container used to store keys. It works just like a chest, but stores keys only and fits into your pouch. Put it in the right hand and you can take the blood key from it.

I am trying 3 characters composition.
1) Seri,Anders,Uggo => (usefull runes for fireball/lightnig)
2) Jarod,Saros,Kol => (usefull runes for light)
3) Odo,Tresa => (odo is really annoying)

I am now in the room with the dwarf boss in the first floor of the castle.

I have question on first room where you found the spell book.
- Why an alvoce is empty, it here something to do ?
- After click on both tiny switches a wall removed with nothing behind, what its goal ?

- Put there some item to get the reward? You probably have it alredady though.
- Whoops, there was a bug that was not in the previous version. All it takes is a bad move with a mouse in the RTC editor. You could have chosen some additional reward in there. Thanks for noticing.

Combination 1 is very good for the first playthrough, as you will be able to bypass many puzzles with that one. Combination 2 is the best, but only later in the game, as it gives you an access to some nice loot. Odo has some really nice final ability but otherwise he and Tresa are probably the weakest heroes. BTW, you can still find the 7 remaining DM2 heroes later. You will find the runes very soon anyway, so having them a bit earlier will suddenly not feel as such a benefit.

hmm theres a serious bug at the graveyard, after resting ist dark and i cant see anythin anymore nomatter what i do, or is that intended?

The ghosts have an ability to cast darkness even across walls. By that time you should already have the rune for casting light to dispense that, but I can see that if you missed that one, it might be unplayable. I was considering removing this ability before.

Hi

I finished the graveyard and have several question :
I found 3/4 potion (neta is missing).

Spoiler

- I saw the vorpal on the table (but cannot get it), and after kill the boos the vorpal disappear. Is there a way to get the vorpal ?
- I guest the last potion is hide in the corridor with poison shooter, i clicked on 3 tiny switchs (1 in snake corridor, 1 in under the panel in the poison, shooter corridor, 1 in the wall in this corridor).

thx i managed it, killed the ghosts faster and found the rune, just weird, even if they cast darkness, since ist a spell it has to eventually wear off, or should.

This is what I thought, but obviously RTC handles light differently. There are three types of dark spells: DARK, DARK_LONG and DARK_AMBIENT. I used the first one expecting it to be temporary, but that seems not to be the case. I will remove it in the next version.

THEO wrote: ↑Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:20 pm

Spoiler

There is a clue in the room with the blade. You need to buy the blade from the ghost. It is similar to oroginal DM2.
To get the neta potion you need to bring the flower on a grave next to the entrance to the tomb.
If you clicked all those switches there should be a magic map, freezer and some green gems in an alcove at the start of the posion corridor

ok thx the neta potion i get it.

about tiny switch

Spoiler

there is no alvoce, i saw a 4th tiny switch at the end of the poison corridor but its protect by a teleport haze, how to remove it ?
Does a click on the first switch at the start of the corridor definitly pop the haze at the end ,its mens there is no way to get this alvoce once this switch pressed ?
Why don't use the same system than serpent corridor ?

Spoiler

Ok, if you pressed the switch that opens the teleport first you can not open the alcove. The teleport allows you to run through the poison corridor safely. There was a sign warning you that you should not press that switch now, if you want a reward

.

ok i restarted the graveyad and now i get the alcove with the magic map and the vorpal blade.

I have several questions:
Are there other character in the game after Het ?
about the tomb :

Spoiler

1 - How to prove that we are not a thief ?
2 - One weapon/One destiny does the choice of the weapon is important and needed ?
3 - There is another door with a skull head on the wall near how to open it ?

Yes, four more.

Spoiler

1 - show you are wealthy enough.
2 - no, its just choice of a weapon.
3 - you will find the key later. generally
keep all keys you find, you may need them later

how do u use the teleporters? cuz i think i trapped myself, cant get back after the 3rd keypart, cuz i removed the key to the graveyard and i cant go back through the mines. any help will do, thx

unless there maybe is a grapple hidden somewhere?

i just cleared the section with the armor and the firepits, i have an onys key but it doesnt really help me

i think u re referring to the character that is down there, but since i got 4 in Group already hes of no use

I looked into the most recent file and somehow the key is missing, unlike in the older versions That is very unfortunate bug. I am afraid you will have to reload an older save. I feel quite embarrassed for that.

but i still have a Onyx key, it opened the way to the graveyard.the Problem is i took off the key that allowed Access to the graveyard from the village which made me get stuck.

but theres another key i dont have, theres 2 locks in the dwarven village that i cant open ( might be an iron key but i dunno )