Stuck in "Surgical Strike"

Custom dungeons for RTC
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LordLibrasulus
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Stuck in "Surgical Strike"

Post by LordLibrasulus »

Enyoing and cursing surgical strike at the same time... :twisted:

Now i have some questions. Please help me to go further.

Questions:

1) --solved--
I have no idea how to solve the "prime"-riddle.
Plz no puns, just the solution. I know, that the arrow is a clue and it has to do with drawing a prime number, but my fingers are aching from puttiing items on the pressure plates ;-)

2) --solved--
The pun-riddle with the four alcoves: got the "members only" solution to open the door. But what is the alternative item for getting the chest?

3) --solved--
There's a "twisted" door i can't pass. Error or just another puzzle?

4) --solved--
What do i need to pass the "project venom" door?

5) --solved--
Where's the RA-Key?


And Sophia: Great dungeon, but a little bit confusing to find places again. Very CSB-esque...
Respect for this hard piece of work.
Fascinating ideas and mechanics. Made my pants wet at the "not SO stupid"- pit :D
I wonder, if there's the possibility/danger of getting completey unsolvable stuck (thinking about the non-linearity of the dungeon).

A walkthrough with maps would be nice. I'm sure, i missed a lot of the secrets, but to replay the dungeon and again searching the places... puhh.
Last edited by LordLibrasulus on Wed May 09, 2007 9:48 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Parallax
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Post by Parallax »

It's been a long time but from what I remember.

1) Number the tiles, cover the prime numbers.

2) You don't need it to complete the game. You fashion casualty, you. :)

3) ???

4) You'll be told when. In the meantime, don't worry about it.
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Post by Joramun »

3/ This door is messed-up because there are too much walls around it. Anyway, you can access the other side from elsewhere, as far as I remember.

I can also add that i never managed to get the three topaz key at once in this dungeon, and i must confess i gave up with finishing it.
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Sophia
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Re: Stuck in "Surgical Strike"

Post by Sophia »

LordLibrasulus wrote:Where's the RA-Key?
It's not as simple as just finding where in the dungeon the key is lying around, there is some trick to it... you do remember how to open Ra doors, right? That's not to say that will work, but...

I hope that's not too vague. ;)
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LordLibrasulus
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Post by LordLibrasulus »

LOL, shame on me. I didn't count "2" as prime... Hoping, my old maths-teacher isn't also in DM stuff and reading in this forum...

Questions:

-I'm playing with RTC 043 and SS2.1. Maybe these versions aren't compatible? Which version of RTC and SS should i use, so there's no mess?

-Accidentally casted "YaKathSar" and...suprise... now knowing the solve for the riddle with the hole, but not knowing how to get there again, LOL
OMFG, it's so frustrating to solve an riddle and not finding the way back to it...
BTW, have i missed a scroll/hint for this spell or it's intended to mess around with the runes to solve the riddle?

-"Missing Spaces": There's a sound if walking on the fake pit, also i can put a boulder in the wallhole, but nothing happens/door won't open

-do i need the giggler bombs for the fabulous gigagiggler (which i don't met yet) or for the casual ones? They steal the bomb, but no booom...
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Joramun
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Post by Joramun »

Are you playing with RTC V0.37 ?

If you don't, search for the topic "Old RTC Versions" in the RTC general forum. SurgStrike may be "broken" with later versions...

Anyway, I play with 0.37 and the boulder thing is not working either.

PS: Well, theoretically, 1 is NOT prime, so your error is not worse than the riddle's designer ;)
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Post by beowuuf »

I think this discussion was had before - the amount of people who wouldn't count one as a prime is significantly smaller than those who do (due to knowledge) and further those who don' count 1 as a prime would think to rule it back in, while those who do wouldn't think to rule it out

Rule 1 of dungeon puzzle design - don't be smug and annoy the majority of your audience :D
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Post by Joramun »

Wha ! After all those attemps I finally managed to start a troll :P

I wouldn't ever dare to even try to criticize Sophia's dungeons, it's much too dangerous, Trantor might be banned. :roll:

Besides, if I ever manage to finish the small riddle dungeon i've been working on, you'll see how smug I can be.

:twisted: :evil: :twisted:
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Post by beowuuf »

Exactly, think of Trantor!

I think to answer LL's question above (and obliquely your point) Sophia has tried to make sure that every concieveable player stupidity has been taken into account. Given the complexity of the darn dungeon that's quite an achievement!

Lol, you do know that people will stone you - they like clever puzzles, but hate too clever puzzles. :D I look forward to wishing for your demise when you release the dungeon!
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Post by Sophia »

Joramund wrote:Anyway, I play with 0.37 and the boulder thing is not working either.
It works fine. You just haven't figured it out yet. ;)
Joramund wrote:1 is NOT prime, so your error is not worse than the riddle's designer
I think we've had this discussion before, too... :roll:
Moving on...
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Post by LordLibrasulus »

LOL, just solved the "lost corridor". What great idea! Always searched in the early days this door in DM. This riddle seems to be unsolvable to me for any "non-DM-addict"... I only got the solution, cause of excessive playing the Amiga-version and therefore remembering the original Amiga-DM-Box.

But still stuck on a few places:

1) --solved--
The pun-riddle with the four alcoves: got the "members only" solution to open the door. But what is the alternative item for getting the chest?

2) --solved--
RA-Key-door: Opened it, killed him. Is his stuff cursed? And: If i have the h... in the inventory, the lock disappears. Just locking the bonus area or opening an other area in return?

3) --solved--
"Dance": I get mad, if i had to hear moonlight shadow again... plz give me a hint.

4) "Missing spaces": Still no clue. Is the order important? Placing the boulder and then stepping on the fake pit or vice-versa?

Looking for the way to the fourth master key. I have iron/gold/saphire and skeleton key, but no locks ;-). At the moment i'm at the starting point and no clue how to go /get next.
Last edited by LordLibrasulus on Mon May 07, 2007 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Sophia »

LordLibrasulus wrote:The pun-riddle with the four alcoves: got the "members only" solution to open the door. But what is the alternative item for getting the chest?
It's an even worse pun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Members_Only ;)
LordLibrasulus wrote:If i have the h... in the inventory, the lock disappears. Just locking the bonus area or opening an other area in return?
It just locks the bonus area. Order and Chaos don't get along. :P
LordLibrasulus wrote:I get mad, if i had to hear moonlight shadow again... plz give me a hint.
The idea is to not get hit by the spells.
LordLibrasulus wrote:Still no clue. Is the order important? Placing the boulder and then stepping on the fake pit or vice-versa?
Perhaps it's that there may be another "missing space" that you need to take into account?
LordLibrasulus wrote:Looking for the way to the fourth master key.
The four ways are, roughly, the Furnace, the Mine, Nightmare, and the Tower... which haven't you done?
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Post by Joramun »

Sophia wrote: It's an even worse pun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Members_Only ;)
:shock:

So that's why this item was in !

I can't believe you could be so :twisted:
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Post by Parallax »

Sophia wrote:The idea is to not get hit by the spells.
To NOT get hit!? No wonder I never won that game!! I would have sworn the goal was to intercept as many spells as possible, since they don't do any damage and you had rigged the game so that summoned creatures in the play area would be moved aside (and yes, I tried, I'm THAT pathetic.)
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Post by LordLibrasulus »

Parallax wrote: To NOT get hit!? No wonder I never won that game!! I would have sworn the goal was to intercept as many spells as possible
LOL, same way i thought...

My list is getting smaller:

(1) This damn "missing spaces" thing... i tried almost everything... still no clue how this works.

(2) What about "Piercer", "Asassin" and "vorpal arrow" weapons? Have they special abilities like the boomerang-north star and 4shot-Hellspitter?

(3) How can i use the giggler bombs? The gigglers steal them, but nothing happens. Maybe broken RTC-Function?

It would be nice to get the *.txt-file of SS. I want to understand the structure and the mechanics of the dungeon. Or maybe a list of the weapons/items in the game.
Last edited by LordLibrasulus on Mon May 07, 2007 7:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by LordLibrasulus »

OMFG, totally confused... Maybe RTC crashes cause of the billions of worm rounds and falchions/wooden shields laying around, before i solve this dungeon :?
I hate the annoying ghosts, but at least i don't have to clean up after killing them ;-)

Still stuck at (1)-(3) (posted above)...
Anyone out there with maps to SS?

As somebody wrote in a review, SS feels like the sequel to CSB... Feeling like 10 years ago, awaking naked besides hungry worms...
Last edited by LordLibrasulus on Mon May 07, 2007 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Gambit37 »

Map it yourself -- that's half the fun!
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Post by LordLibrasulus »

YEEESSSS!!! Finally made it!! Image
What great experience, thank you very much, Sophia.
Image Image Image


I found:

- The ending with the 4 gems (surely i tried, also 1000 scrolls with warnings hadn't detained me ;-) )

- the Hellion-ending

- The "good" ending

- 15/17 secrets

Last questions:
:roll: Have i any other endings missed?
:roll: Where can i find "Bomb Cache" and "The Riddle Of The Cat?

Maybe i'm writing a walkthrough - and yes Gambit - this time i map this spawn of Sophias twisted mind :wink:
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Post by Sophia »

Oh, I like your little icon thing, it reminds me of the little picture stories some of us used to do in FlashChat :P

Anyway, since you've finished the dungeon :D
I can part with some secrets, if you want, I will send you the .txt, then you can see how things were done, and what you may have missed...

Keep in mind that this was done with RTC 0.37 and a lot of the mechanics are horribly complicated compared to what later versions might do... so it might not be as enlightening as you'd think...
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Post by LordLibrasulus »

Making maps from scratch would be very time intensive. Yes, sometimes the real life is demanding time...
The .txt would be great. My e-mail: flaz(at)gmx.de

My wife argued about the "curious sounding" all the time - here we know it as the the sounds of ramming the parties heads into walls and falling into pits... ;-)

If i would get 1 cent for every OhGorRos potion i've made, i probably could buy a firm and build a real dungeon :twisted:
And to GeorgeG: A Magic Map visible in the dungeon view would be great...
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Post by ian_scho »

Maybe i'm writing a walkthrough...
A walkthrough would help those of us 'lost' a long time ago in this particular dungeon.
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Post by Kain »

Weird thing about this one... on some tiles, you get attacked by invisible things...and the character that got hit turns around to face... the wall?

Is this supposed to be intentional? While working on my custom dungeon, I accidentally gave one of the monsters this kind of power: it could attack the player from another level. I suspect this is what's happening.
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Post by George Gilbert »

Kain wrote:Weird thing about this one... on some tiles, you get attacked by invisible things...and the character that got hit turns around to face... the wall?

Is this supposed to be intentional? While working on my custom dungeon, I accidentally gave one of the monsters this kind of power: it could attack the player from another level. I suspect this is what's happening.
This is something that was fixed in V0.43 (see http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=25903 ) and the reason you're seeing it is because you're playing with an earlier version of the engine, not the latest!

There are a few ways to fix this in SS:

- 1) Someone can let me know *exactly* why you're having to use an old version of the RTC engine and I'll fix the backwards compatibility issue so you can use V0.46 to play it when I release it.

- 2) Sophia can recompile SS with V0.45 (a 5 minute job; no changes to the *.txt file are needed, it just needs recompiling) and you can play it with the latest released engine now.

- 3) If Sophia wants to send the *.txt file (and any extra resources it requires - bitmaps / sound files etc) to someone else; they can recompile it. Obviously this has the disadvantage of someone else having the *.txt file so losing the mystery of such an excellent dungeon.

As the bug is entirely my fault, I'm more than happy to put in the leg work (i.e. option 1) and maintain the file against any future problems whilst keeping it secrets secret (i.e. option 3). Just le me know what I can do to help.
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Post by Sophia »

1) I actually don't know. I did a quick search of the forum, and found nothing, though. It might have something to do with RTC getting the separation between ranged and close attack methods for monsters wrong, but I don't know for sure.

2) No, it returns a bunch of critical errors when I try to compile it. It's just issues related to the text file being written for a much older version of the engine, and the new one doing things differently.

3) Same as above. Someone else would have to fix all those errors!

Hmm... I could always use RTSB and port the whole mess to DSB :shock: :shock: :shock:
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Post by TheMormegil »

I'd be happy to attempt 3) and I would like a copy of the txt file anyway.
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Post by George Gilbert »

Sophia wrote:2) No, it returns a bunch of critical errors when I try to compile it. It's just issues related to the text file being written for a much older version of the engine, and the new one doing things differently.

3) Same as above. Someone else would have to fix all those errors!
Fair enough; I vaguely recollect that the problem was something to do with object / spell teleporters and recompiling would just fix it.

As I said, I'd be happy to fix up any problems myself. If you want to maintain master control of the file, feel free to send it to me and I'll send you a working version back!
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