Illusionist's Tower by stumpy (2010/8/5) Summer FM Vertical Contest Entry

[aidakeeley]

Ah, come on Aida, for me the actual rating system is just fine, too. No need to change it now.

 

That's fine. I can only imagine the sure as sin far-reaching repercussions and, well, even more dangerous risk of a complete decent into chaos and anarchy should the voting system be changed. All the history... all the ages... all the books, blogs, wikis and rfcs.... needing to be updated, rewritten, revised and asteriskededed*

 

But seriously. I just think the system needs more nuance on the low end especially.

 

And doublespeak is always never good. It's wonderful that way!

 

*Like with Maris, or even worse, the juicers!

[LEGION]

I expected sth like this as an answer from you.

 

I think I see what you mean when looking at the 'poor'-rating, it sounds a little bit rude and was chosen for this mission here maybe too often. But it´s taste. Renaming this rating in sth less rude would be fine to me. But five levels of rate to choose from should be enough, me thinks.

[Igor bes Thiefer]

I think im experiencing some bug... just started this mission and all my weapons (items on the lower left corner) are unusable... just my sword and blackjack show up but im not able to swing them for good. Is this how it was scripted, specifically? Anyone else experiencing it?

[Komag]

I definitely prefer the current 5 scale, sufficient and easy

[stumpy]

you need tdm version 1.02 you only have blackjack, sword and broadhead arrows and lockpicks at start, although you can find some moss, noise, water, and rope arrows in the basement area of the tower.

 

but you only need the lockpicks anyway, there's a leap of faith at a place that looks like you need to use lots of rope arrows.

 

Basically what you managed to pick up before the landlords heavies turned up at your rooms.

 

 

the poll code only allows for 5 answers per question.

Edited August 15, 2010 by stumpy

[Igor bes Thiefer]

My TDM starting screen shows TDM 1.02... and i experienced similar troubles with Glenham Tower, but only after quickloads. All other missions ran fine. Could it be that my update was partially corrupt? (and I´ve checked my keyboard mapping, so thats not the problem)

 

 

[Igor bes Thiefer]

Okay stumpy, followed ur advice (and thanks for the spoiler, i wouldnt be able to find that out with this glitch im experiencing). My overall expressions were: you're officially my favourite author to date (perhaps landing a little behind Springheel in storytelling)! Lost City, Constantine's Mansion, Krellek's Labyrinth, Shalebridge Cradle, The Mages Tower, this one, with a little twaking, earns a place between those many of my favourites. Critique: you could do something more to earn the players simpathy, make em feel like theyre in the characters skin, thus improving immersion (not sure what would do the trick, though). And a little digressing: Did anyone else notice the backside of (red) spiders looks like a demonic face? I was more than once scared when i mistook it for a floating demonic orb LOL

[LEGION]

Floating demon orb, nice! You forgot to vote, Igor!

 

there's a leap of faith at a place that looks like you need to use lots of rope arrows.

 

So, would one be able to jump over this area? I guess I only tried to get into the water. I remember this hint in the readme, but during the mission I wasn´t able to recognize sth that would have fit...

[Xarg]

Floating demon orb, nice! You forgot to vote, Igor!

 

 

 

So, would one be able to jump over this area? I guess I only tried to get into the water. I remember this hint in the readme, but during the mission I wasn´t able to recognize sth that would have fit...

 

 

If you go into the water with the spiders in it, you fall and are teleported back to the start of that section. You need to rope up, jump, rope the side, fall on to the rope and climb up, jump, rope the side and climb up, jump, then rope down and jump to the other side.

 

[LEGION]

Yeah, thanks Xarg but I already did it like this. I was just wondering about the way stumpy wrote this. I have the impression that he means that you don´t need the rope-arrows to get to the other side. And the 'leap of faith' makes me thinking of jumping...

 

he said:

 

but you only need the lockpicks anyway

Edited August 16, 2010 by LEGION

[Igor bes Thiefer]

What stumpy said is right - even with my glitch rendering all weapons unusable, i managed to get past that part. hint: it is not meant to be a "leap of faith" like in Assassin's Creed (wich was plain laughtable)

[Xarg]

I can't imagine any way to do that section without ONE rope arrow (since you can fire it, climb up it, use the mantle key, and when you start shaking from side to side as you mantle, pick up the rope arrow again, effectively using ONE rope arrow to cross the entire section), unless theres a hidden ladder or other way to get up, in which case you don't need a rope arrow at all, I just used 1 rope arrow to do that section and carried on.

[Igor bes Thiefer]

 

Look at the spiders below, and where exatcly they get stuck and have to change direction. There is an invisible solid section in that "river"

 

 

 

[Diego]

wow.. from the first moments of my play session I wasn't expecting so much depth. Even though some bits got a little repetitive, overall it's a very creative and fun mission!

[Igor bes Thiefer]

Diego! Como foram suas férias ? (p/ mim 2 semanas =/ !) Quando vamos ter o prazer de ter uma FM tua? Qual seria o estilo (terror,aventura,etc).

[LEGION]

I don´t like it when you talk in a language I don´t understand. At least I can´t see my name there so you aren´t talking about me...

 

Anyway,

 

Look at the spiders below, and where exatcly they get stuck and have to change direction. There is an invisible solid section in that "river"

 

 

So that´s the trick. A shame I wasn´t able to experience that the first time, nice secret though.

Some hint more could´ve helped, hmm, lets think of one: a scripted event where a Skeleton is blown and you see its parts bumping on the invisible floor before falling down into the water.

But the spiders are nice too, maybe they were a way too much away to see that. Well, Igor saw it, how long did it took you to figure it out, Igor(supposed to be the best Thiefer )?

[Xarg]

Heh, I never even considered the

invisible bridge

, I saw the

wooden beams overhead, pressed 6 and saw that I had rope arrows, and was across the river

20-30 seconds later. The

bridge

is cool though.

[stumpy]

actually

 

 

If you look up there's a lions statue on the ceiling, so it comes from indianna jones:the last crusade 'a leap from the lions head'.

 

[Igor bes Thiefer]

I don´t like it when you talk in a language I don´t understand. At least I can´t see my name there so you aren´t talking about me...

 

So But the spiders are nice too, maybe they were a way too much away to see that. Well, Igor saw it, how long did it took you to figure it out, Igor(supposed to be the best Thiefer )?

Actually the "bes" there in my name is supposed to emulate pagan spelling. And it took me a some minutes to figure out that possibility, and lots more minutes jumping into nothingness till i got it right =/

[Baddcog]

 

Look at the spiders below, and where exatcly they get stuck and have to change direction. There is an invisible solid section in that "river"

 

 

 

 

 

lol, never found a bridge, put a rop in a beam, jumped, jumped and mantled into the boat right behind the haunt. Suprised I never alerted him.

 

[LEGION]

Actually the "bes" there in my name is supposed to emulate pagan spelling...

 

OH! You never learn out...

[grayman]

Well, I have a love/hate relationship with this nutty mission.

 

Climbing on the chests to get what's in them drove me nuts.

 

And I had no clue what to do here:

 

 

Got stuck in the numbered halls with the switches, and had to resort to reading a spoiler, which I hate to do. But it was either do that or abandon the mission. I see no relationship with the written clue and having to move all the levers to the right. Huh?

 

 

 

 

And here I am back again because now I'm stuck here:

 

 

 

At the river with the revenant in the boat on the other side. I have no clue what to do here. Jumping in the river consistently puts me back where I jumped in.

 

 

 

Got all the loot I need. I just need to accidentally come across the fabolous treasure.

 

[LEGION]

 

On this river are two ways to get over, one is straight forward, and the other is set above you.

 

If you need more, the last couple of posts were about the river section...

 

[grayman]

All in all, a good mission.

 

 

 

The first half was tedious and repetitious, and I needed spoilers to get past certain places.

 

The second half, however, when the nuttiness calmed down, was more interesting. As soon as I reached the first surveyor's room, the age of my computer showed, and the mission brought it to its knees. I crept through the remainder of the mission and finally (!) found the fabolous treasure and the elevator out. Thanks for the elevator; I wasn't looking forward to going all the way back through the craziness.

 

 

[gnartsch]

Not sure why I seem to have problems with most Vertical-Contest-missions.

I never had issues with any of the 'older' missions so far and for sure no crashes at all.

But with these Vertical missions I manage to get at least one crash or two.

 

In this one I have repetetive chrashes whenever I turn around some specific corner.

It is after the 8-switch-room and going down a couple of stairs with some chest in side-rooms, followed by a couple of stairs with upside down rooms.

At the end there is a window with colored glass. One or two corners downstairs the mission will always crash.

So, from previous postings it sounds like I did not get very far or half the way in best case.

Sigh.... Anbody else having these issues ?

Edited August 26, 2010 by gnartsch