3 replies to this topic

[Site Bot]

Ghost Tower of Inverness

The adaptation of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons classic adventure module \"The Ghost Tower of Inverness.\"

[JPArtwork]

If you see any errors, graphical mistakes, or the like, please let me know, but I believe the mod is completely clean in that area.

If you have trouble, or there were parts that you hated, including "all of it" please let me know, but be as specific as you can please.

[Phitt]

I've played your mod and thought I'd write down my thoughts. Most of it is (hopefully constructive) criticism, but I still enjoyed most of the mod until I stopped playing (see below).

If you are not the author and still want to play this mod don't read this, spoilers ahead.

1. What are the gates for you put in front of the alcoves (the ones with the tomes inside in the starting room)? You can pick up the books no matter whether the gates are open or not (I know they open when you destroy the barrels/step on their tile). Additionally the gates clip badly with the walls, they simply weren't meant to be used like that.

2. Personally I don't think it's fun if the first thing I do is dropping tons of books on my character portraits. Maybe it would have been easier and more elegant to simply write a script that gives each character 20 skill points when you start the mod.

3. I'm not a big fan of mixing tilesets, at least not without a purpose. The dungeon drainage tiles look a bit out of place, like some other tiles you used. Certainly a matter of taste though.

4. The 'cave-in' tiles (collapsed ceilings) in the center of the main room have large gaps you can see through since they weren't meant to be used that way. Don't put two of them next to each other or try to hide the gaps somehow.

5. The fireball trap (fireballs shot by the two dragon statues) killed my party instantly the first time I opened the door. Not much fun, especially since there is no way to know what's ahead. You can't even see the dragons until they fire, and then it's too late already. Give a hint about a trap somewhere, make the dragon statues visible, do something to warn the player. Or at least give the player more time to act (by increasing the distance between dragons and player). Or simply tone down the fireball damage.

6. You have drainages everywhere, but the tentacles come out of a regular floor tile. That looks a bit strange and buggy.

7. The Ogre and the Warden are a bit boring to fight. Not challenging, but with the basic equipment the party has it took me several minutes to kill them by strafing around them like a madman.

8. Walking around in the dark may be fun for a while and in the beginning it even makes sense gameplay wise (I fell into the pits because I missed the trap doors), but after a while it gets annoying. The first torches I encountered were the ones in the large pit room.

9. Food? Where is it? I only found a single snail slice and that was not enough. After I fell down into the spider pit and all my characters had a yellow food bar I quit. If I would have found food shortly after it would have been nice (and actually challenging), so I apologize if that is the case.

10. Performance. The second teleporter room has how many lights? 16? In a small room? That's way too much, I think with four lights you would get a better look and better performance at the same time. I also had some performance problems in the large pit room with all the torches.

Other than that it was still fun and had a nice atmosphere. I liked the 'look behind you' message, hehe. To make sure you don't think I'm a prick I'll better endorse this.

[LiamKerrington]

Hi there,

I played it a few hours ago. And although I feel inclined to say that it is far away from being "perfect", I still endorsed your map. Reason: You catch the feeling of those old-school dungeons of D&D.

Warning: A few slight spoilers ahead ...

I have read through the first comment, and in some points I agree (most actually) - but only, because they are mentioned. Else I wouldn't have mentioned anything like that at all. Two graphical glitches I posted on the Grimrock-forum with screenshots ...

One thing 'annoyed' me a bit. And that was having plenty of puzzles, but most of the time not a single clue about what to do. This was - for example - with the central chamber and all eight pressure plates the case (I tried different combinations of pressure on those plates, and nothing actually happened; then I gave it up and simply jumped into one of those four pitfalls of this room ...).

The level representing the Element of Air was nasty, a real pain and imho unnecessary big. I liked this "turn-around" in the middle of it and was very glad to get out of it without having to fight the flying monster-stirges ... Since this level was over-populated by teleporter-clouds (which did not teleport), my 'puter's performance went nearly flatline ... Same happened in the Water-level, but not as bad ...

Speaking of which: I tried the riddle in level 9 for more then 2 hours, but I did not get behind it. (See the official forum ... There I laid out my experiences and problems ...) Thus I stopped playing your dungeon, before I actually finished it. But I guess I was at at least 95% of the dungeon, right?

Besides those remarks I must say: Really nice; and it is especially nice that you did not only use the D&D Inverness module, but that you spiced it with some awesome or brilliant ideas. Thank you for sharing!

Am looking forward to seeing more of your creations or re-creations.

All the best!
Liam