The Elderin Stone

[slowdive]

I posted LPs 12, 13 and 14. I made a few bad choices in LP14 so in my next recordings I will need to go back to an earlier save game

[Pongo]

Yeah LP14 went a bit wrong! Not entirely your fault though. One of the traps you triggered was invisible - they are background tiles with a prop overlay of spikes when triggered, but the tile hadn't made the transition so you couldn't see it. There is at least one other "invisible" trap that you didn't trigger. Also the gas room should fire up a warning immediately on entry so you don't waste HP wandering around in it - the warning triggered after you teleported out of the room (you may not have seen it) which wasn't much help. Finally, the last trap that killed you is a bit opaque on reflection - a design flaw rather than a bug - I can make it more obvious in the next update. In the meantime, slight spoiler, but think on/off switches.

I also need to check the "frightened" effect, which didn't seem to do anything, and sort all those typos!

Edit: just for info, there is a campfire on every level of the dungeon. Some are hidden behind secret or locked doors, but they're there somewhere. I might add a new spoilerific thread with a list of all the secrets and campfire locations etc for folk that are getting frustrated / just curious. You're finding most stuff, but missing a few bits here and there (eg two campfires, a few secret doors), which is broadly about right I think. I also need to add convos on those torches that weren't triggering when you tried to interact with them.

[slowdive]

I'm not frustrated at all, just laughing at myself for poor decision making. RPGs for me are always more enjoyable if you die every once in awhile for poor decisions . Before I went to bed, I loaded up an older save game and wondered around the previous map a bit to double check that I didn't miss any doors and I realized that I did. So next LP I will go back to that save and make sure I explore more before going to the next level.

[slowdive]

I recorded two more sessions LP15 and LP16. I think I am getting near the end possibly. The twists so far are really good and unexpected. I'm not sure if some of the events happened the way they were intended so will need to look into that after I have finished. I tried fixing a few bugs before playing this session, but it looks like a couple were fixed and a couple more are still there...will need to investigate again after completing.

[Pongo]

Look forward to seeing them. I'm aware of one essential convo coming up for you that should always trigger but you can accidentally miss it if you take a certain path - things would stop making sense (briefly) if you did that. My fix list for when I get back to Belgium is now quite long!

Edit: ack yeah that's gone very wrong. I knew you could accidentally get the convos out of order if you hugged the wall rather than approaching her direct. I didn't know you could trigger the "hidden" convo option - that hidden convo should only trigger if you picked up a global integer in a secret room on the previous level that you didn't find. It doesn't make any sense as is. That is a very broken convo...

[slowdive]

Finished and posted two more LPs.

Excellent work Pongo! I'll go back and fix any of the issues I hand with the conversion (tiles missing, etc.) and then when you get a chance to update the IB2 version I can update the IBmini version with those changes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story line, lore and the varied themes of each level. I'm assuming that all this new lore of the setting will fit in nicely with Blackwinter and The Raventhal.

[Pongo]

Awesome, glad you enjoyed it! I'll have a good time checking out the end of your Lets Play later tonight.

I have a list of fixes to get on with - loads of typos, a few balancing tweaks, some missing spell effects, one very breakable convo etc. I'm back at my pc next Tuesday so I'll have this sorted out next week and upload a new version.

You've already done a great job with the IBmini version. It looks like it works brilliantly! A few tweaks here and there and it will be fantastic.

[slowdive]

Most everything was automated in the conversion since the mod uses the tile system only. The only significant change was to adjust all the encounters to use 11x11 maps.

[Pongo]

Quick update - still bug fixin'!

I thought the ending was working fine, but it really wasn't. Loads of things were triggering incorrectly. I then thought it would be a simple matter of replacing some of the triggers, but this then broke other stuff that needed fixing. When its working properly, there should be twice as many options in the final encounter than are currently available (at least potentially - it depends on what you find during the playthrough), and the Big Ending convo that terminates the module should reflect a couple of the player's choices more accurately and trigger every time. I've now got exactly half of it working properly... which is an improvement!

On reflection, I very much overcomplicated the ending to this module. For example, the player's decisions can lead to the Big Ending convo on either of the last two levels - which is fine, in theory, but means that the ending convo has to work in multiple locations (currently three) in order not to leave the player anticlimactically wandering around. I kinda love offering loads of options at certain points in the module, but ultimately it would be much, much easier if all of the key decisions were placed in one convo rather than four different convos on two different floors. The ending would need to be written differently, but this needn't mean fewer options if it was planned properly. I think the bandit camp convo (which has nearly as many options, depending on whether you find a violent or non-violent solution) was much easier to test because it was written this way - the only variable that could affect the bandit camp outcome on another map was the Druids, but that was a fairly simple convo. I need to remember this lesson for my next module!

Right, back to it! I expect to get the fully operational version up next week.

[slowdive]

Sounds great Pongo. I'll add the changes to the IBmini version once you have them posted. I'm using a repo on GitHub to track changes. I just drop the new module folder on top of the old one in the repo folder on my hard drive and then push the changes. I then get a nice report showing all the changes: https://github.com/slowdive-fan/ModuleC ... its/master