Gloria Creep on 25/11/2022 at 22:39
OK I'm so stupid. The candles were right behind me all the time. :sweat::eww::eww::eww::rolleyes::sly:
:angel::angel:
Sadovnik on 26/11/2022 at 19:58
Just finished this misson, although have found only half of all the secrets.
It was such a nice journey, I hope this FM will have a sequel! :thumb::cheeky:
Gloria Creep on 27/11/2022 at 01:59
And again I need some help :eww: I've got the crystal, but I can't get back outside when I go back to the upsite bedroom. The opening is blocked now. So how do I get back out of there?
:angel:
Stingm on 27/11/2022 at 04:30
Gloria After getting the crystal keep going to the other side of the garden.
mxleader on 27/11/2022 at 23:47
Great game so far!
I had to take a break down in open are after the long tunnel decent because those floating killers skulls came out of nowhere :joke:
Also, is there a way to defeat the floating skulls that zap you?
baeuchlein on 28/11/2022 at 01:25
Some of the floating skulls can be defeated, some probably not. The ones inside the central building of the underground area can be killed with sword blows, preferrably on unwary skulls. The rest of them most likely cannot be defeated; if they are killed at all, they reappear from the portals again.
The only good way known to me which allows to deal with the ones outside the building is to remain undetected for as long as possible, including using periods when the light goes very dim for a short time. Once Garrett is detected by them, run around them as good as you can. It can be helpful to observe which portal opens when; the portals are triggered by reading the stone plaques in the darker, green areas. I think if one goes counter-clockwise, one may fare a bit better than if one does randomly read plaques. But I'm not sure.
BrokenArts on 28/11/2022 at 16:40
Quote Posted by baeuchlein
Some of the floating
skulls can be defeated, some probably not. The ones
inside the central building of the underground area can be killed with sword blows, preferrably on unwary skulls. The rest of them most likely cannot be defeated; if they are
killed at all, they reappear from the portals again.The only good way known to me which allows to deal with the ones
outside the building is to remain undetected for as long as possible, including using periods when the light goes very dim for a short time. Once Garrett is detected by them, run around them as good as you can. It can be helpful to observe
which portal opens when; the portals are triggered by reading the stone plaques in the darker, green areas. I think if one goes counter-clockwise, one may fare a bit better than if one does randomly read plaques. But I'm not sure.
baeuchlein on 29/11/2022 at 00:15
Quote Posted by BrokenArts
I never bothered with the outside skulls, I did at first. In the beginning, with 3 of them baring down your neck, it made it difficult. Playing on expert. I reloaded, and just ran, that's all I did. Run forest run. The upper deck by the candles is dark, great place to hide. It's not that difficult, if people just remain in the shadows.
I just re-checked, with v1.0 and 1.1. The upper deck by the candles was only dark for me if the lights were out (or as dark as they can be), which only happens for rather short amounts of time. If they were partially or fully lighted up, however, there was almost no shadow at all on the walkways, and the visibility gem was brightly lit. Playing on Normal and running resulted in having
four to seven skulls on my tail. They only broke off pursuit and shooting if I managed to get halfway across the walkways up there and find some shadows there. But then there was a good chance that the other group, from the opposite side, hunted me down instead.I do not exactly know why experiences vary that much there, but have a few ideas. This part comes rather late in the mission, and the player does not know when the mission will be over, so chances are that all healing potions are used up and Garrett notably hurt, and if four to six of the enemies
shoot at Garrett, he might get severely hurt. And the enemies there are not the last ones until the mission ends.
Broken parts in the lower walkway also make fleeing very difficult. Once Garrett was seen, it was nearly always reload time for me. And the fact that the enemies were attacking over quite long distances made chances of successfully getting away again smaller still.
Perhaps some healing potions nearby, such as in
the necromancers' hideout just before the place where the seal is used, would have been a good idea, at least on Normal. That way, the player (and the FM author) could be rather sure that Garrett arrived there at least in good health.
Considering instead that the player could hardly prepare for this confrontation, and that the FM author can hardly foresee how much time the player spent in the city, whether (s)he fulfilled the basic goals only or the optional ones as well, and whether Garrett's health is then rather full or more equal to someone requiring emergency medical service, it is no wonder that at least the state in which Garrett arrives here can vary much. Not a good starting point for a rather difficult part of a long mission, I guess.
nicked on 29/11/2022 at 08:03
It was designed to be a difficult challenge, since it's more-or-less the climax of the mission. The whole arena was built around careful planning and stealth, with the respawning portals to reinforce the fact that the situation is unwinnable if you're trying to fight/brute force it. This is balanced by the fact that no AI at all spawn until the player is ready. You are completely at your leisure to explore the whole arena and plan your route before ever engaging a single stealth or combat challenge. There are perfect shadows on the stairs to allow breathing room and observation time. The player's health shouldn't come into it if you don't alert anything. I'm sorry you found it so difficult, but it was designed to be the ultimate challenge of the mission, and to reward patience and planning.
BrokenArts on 29/11/2022 at 17:15
Quote Posted by nicked
It was designed to be a difficult challenge, since it's more-or-less the climax of the mission.
The whole arena was built around careful planning and stealth, with the respawning portals to reinforce the fact that the situation is unwinnable if you're trying to fight/brute force it. This is balanced by the fact that no AI at all spawn until the player is ready. You are completely at your leisure to explore the whole arena and plan your route before ever engaging a single stealth or combat challenge. There are perfect shadows on the stairs to allow breathing room and observation time. The player's health shouldn't come into it if you don't alert anything. I'm sorry you found it so difficult, but it was designed to be the ultimate challenge of the mission, and to reward patience and planning.It was a challenge, but, definitely doable. I liked the fact that you could, *take it all in* and survey, and figure out what to do. I did have to reload a few times, just because. I hid on the stairs quite a bit, had fun watching the skulls. (In my head, I kept hearing the skulls from Undying, if you're familiar with that game.) I did try brute force, to no avail. Too many of them coming down on you. It was a challenge, I enjoyed it.
