Bruny on 29/11/2001 at 20:24
Finally finished this after 3 hours! of playtime. I too was bitten by the crash to desktop bug. Saving and loading worked fine until I quit Thief and restarted, then none of my savegames would work when I tried to load them. I lost about 30 minutes the first time. But this game was so much fun I decided to give it another go the next evening, realizing I would have to play it through from start to finish at one sitting. Hah! Dream on! I only managed it for about 2 hours before circumstances forced me to quit. I thought that would be it for me and Crom's Blade but the next evening I decided to try loading my last savegame and Yay! It worked!
There were so many places to explore. I think that's what I loved most about this FM. All the secret ice caves and tunnels you would discover if you looked hard enough. The ice caves were marvelously designed. They looked quite chaotic and natural, not all cylindery and dodecahedrony like you might see from a lesser FM designer. I played on Expert and I thought the goal of finding all 9 diamonds was perfect. Those guys were hidden very well, in sneaky places and sneaky ways. The effect of this was that I felt extremely proud every time I would stumble across one. I kept thinking "I can't believe I found this one!" and that was a good feeling for an FM to elicit. Though I did experience a certain feeling of dreadful doubt that I would be able to locate them all after finding one in an ever more unlikely location.
I found one frog egg. There was a helmeted guard I wanted to take out but I wanted to save my gas arrows for more critical purposes, and I know it takes two frog eggs to kill a guard. So I snuck behind him and whacked him with my sword. He chased me and I threw a frog egg at him. Damaged from my sword, the single frog egg sufficed to take him out. That was a fun strategy to avoid the no-killing objective.
I have to admit the crystal balls in the two towers really detoured me for some time. I felt certain they had an important role in finding the blade and wasted quite a bit of time on them. Were these red herrings, deliberately designed to confound?
This was great mission. Long and hard, just the way I like them! With a variety of diverse locales to explore and lots of Dark Engine eye candy. Great job!
Sharga on 3/12/2001 at 01:42
Just completed Crom's Blade, very nice indeed!
I had the same issue with the tower balls, except I didn't spend that much time on them. I was sure they were for something until I noticed the one laying on its side in the main entrance and just figured they used to be lights for the large towers before the snow hit.
I loved this mission because I was able to figure almost everything out on my own. The only thing I needed help on was how to make the sword appear. I really loved all the secret doors, they were hidden so well that they didn't stand out and yet not too well so that you couldn't find them. I'm one who, whenver I see a wooden door that is unfrobable, thinks: "sword bashing time!" Except I usually end up face-to face with a solid wall. So this time I was quite surprised to find actual rooms behind the doors. I assume the metal doors under the stars that are unfrobable have nothing behind them because I couldn't get them to open.
The only thing I never found was Crom's scroll. Where was that?
and also:<br /><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Spoiler:</font><div style="background-color:#000080"><font color="#202080">Were those two flaming skeletons supposed to be the two prophet guys?</font></div></blockquote>
I loved all the Bad Cog references, including the 4th oborus. <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> Great job there schwaa!
gmcdorman on 4/12/2001 at 17:31
First, let me say that this is turning out to be the best FM I've ever played.
I have two questions and a comment:
First question: Is the basement of the castle loaded with undead, or are those chains I hear behind the boulders the extent of it? (I really really really hate the undead, and I'm not going in there if I don't have to).
Second question: Is it possible to wander into caves and not be able to get back to the castle (for example, by jumping into water a few stories down)? I am just wondering if I should forcus on finishing the castle (including the scary basement) before I go hunting snow monkeys.
My comment is this: I've noticed that sometimes when I load a saved file the guard that I was watching (who was not aware of me) is now wandering around looking for me. This has happened to me at three different places in the mission.
schwaa on 5/12/2001 at 07:30
Thanx guys, glad you liked it! <img src="graemlins/thumb.gif" border="0" alt="[Thumbs Up!]" /> <br />The two flaming guys are supposed to be Navicon and Paladies (the sorcerers.) I didn't think of the crystal balls as something that would confuse people, just a last minute addition.
gmcdorman, There isn't alot of undead activity in this mission, I don't mind a little but zombies aren't really my cup of tea, I'll probably never release a completely undead mission. You can get back in the castle if you jump out that window, you just have to look around a bit.
gmcdorman on 5/12/2001 at 12:04
Thanks, Schwaa. I borrowed someone else's, ah, courage, and went in anyway. It seemed like the smarter choice. Fear of the unknown is always more powerful than fear of the known. The potential for zombies frightens me more than really running ito them. At that point they are just a nuisance.
vandi on 23/12/2001 at 01:46
What a wonderful mission. Loads of places to explore and very interesting architecture. I love the ice caves!!!
I am however, stuck. I have all but 2 of the diamonds. I've been to schwaa's page, and checked the clues, but am still stumped. I think the 2 that I don't have are the picture at the very bottom, and the one on the bottom right.
For the picture at the bottom of his page, I've found the ruby near the debris, and have climbed in and under and around all the debris, but still no diamond.
Help!!
<img src="graemlins/erg.gif" border="0" alt="[erg]" />
vandi on 23/12/2001 at 02:08
One more question...should I be able to get to the ladder going up the side of the train at the end? I am trying to access it from the bottom, but can't seem to get under or over the train coupling.
schwaa on 23/12/2001 at 02:08
Vandi, Thanx!!!
For the pic on the bottom right<br /><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Spoiler:</font><div style="background-color:#000080"><font color="#202080">go over by the apebeast, look up and climb</font></div></blockquote><br />for the pic at the very bottom<br /><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Spoiler:</font><div style="background-color:#000080"><font color="#202080">Look to the right of the ramp, crawl through the spiderwebs</font></div></blockquote>
Thanx for playing!!!
Nightwalker on 23/12/2001 at 02:13
No, you're not supposed to be able to climb that ladder. Great mission, isn't it? <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
vandi on 23/12/2001 at 02:25
Thanks for the help folks!!!
You know, I've crawled under that web before, but totally missed the passageway!
On the other, I've already knocked out all the beasts. <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> <br />It is in the last areas of caves, near the ramp right?
Also, guess what Nightwalker...I finally did manage to wiggle under and to the left of the coupling bar. Climbed the ladder, but didn't find anything to do up there except take out the lookout guard.