Tomb of Xinroch

Dec 28, 2016, 3:12 pm
Ex-Tyrant of the IVANers


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Ghosts destoying terrain when killed sounds exploitable
"Put more stuff in the... thing where... more stuff goes in."
Dec 28, 2016, 4:54 pm
Joined: Apr 9, 2016
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One ghost. Not ghosts in general.
Dec 29, 2016, 8:18 am
Joined: Dec 17, 2007
Occupation: Taking Names, Formerly Kicking Ass
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I would like to see ghosts leave an ectoplasm explosion when killed, kind of like mommo slimes but maybe less sticky with some kind of side effect?
Booooooooooo!
Jul 6, 2017, 2:54 pm
Joined: Apr 2, 2014
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I have several suggestions for ToX.

Also a question: Is it intentional that doors in ToX are very hard to destroy by kicking? Doors in GC are made of granite (strength 55), while ToX has iron doos (strength 100), thus making it very hard to get into rooms with locked doors by destroying the door, especially early into ToX /or if you haven!t found pickaxe to dig around the door). Is that a design choice? If not, what about changing the door material to eg. ebony?
Jul 6, 2017, 6:55 pm
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Merged, nice changes!
The too-hard doors was probably an oversight. I chose iron more for color/mood combination without thinking about whether they could be knocked down.
Batman? wrote
its been so long since i had gotten that far i didnt think it through. arrrr!!!!!!
Jul 6, 2017, 7:18 pm
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Actually here is a file containing some of the numbers I used to balance things in XT.
Just rename the extension to .xlsx
Batman? wrote
its been so long since i had gotten that far i didnt think it through. arrrr!!!!!!
Attached files
XT_balancing.doc (39.38 kb)
Jul 7, 2017, 12:45 pm
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fejoa wrote
Merged, nice changes!
The too-hard doors was probably an oversight. I chose iron more for color/mood combination without thinking about whether they could be knocked down.

Ebony instead?
Booooooooooo!
Jul 7, 2017, 5:25 pm
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Batman? wrote
Ebony instead?

Is that a question whether the doors or ToX were changed to ebony? Not yet, they are still iron.
Jul 24, 2017, 1:42 pm
Joined: Apr 2, 2014
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As promised, I'm working on more lines for the cultists and other friendlies in TX to say. The following lines will be somehow distributed amongst them. (But if you don't want to spoil the surprise for youself when you talk to them, don't open the spoiler. )

SPOILER ALERT. Click here to see text.
Long, long time ago, there was a War in Heavens. Valpurus rose to usurp the throne of Mortifer, then King of Gods, and eventually triumphed.
After his armies conquered all Heavens, Valpurus murdered Mortifer and banished him into the darkness beyond stars.
To prevent the destruction of the very world they were fighting for, Mortifer placed a powerful geas upon all gods that prevents them from ever entering the world. Thus, even the primordial War in Heavens was fought by the many priests and other servants the gods have acquired and empowered.
The original Order of the Dark Knights was established by Cruentus nearly three millennia ago, to battle the knights templar of Valpurus during the ancient War in Heavens.
Today, the dark knights have splintered into two distinct branches, the Unholy Order of Infuscor and the Dark Knights of Cruentus, plus a handful of fringe cults.
All dark knights are still formally united under the leadership of a grand master dark knight, though how much do masters of each group heed the orders of their grand master depends entirely upon his or her power and authority.
The name of the first grand master dark knight was lost to history, yet his deeds remain. Legends say he was more a daemon than a man. He even won the favour of Mortifer and was given the newly forged Neerc Se-ulb to wield against the swarming armies of Light.
The first grand master dark knight led his armies from victory to victory, but pride was his undoing. Believing that none could defeat him, he challenged Pervetus, the high priest of Valpurus, to a duel. At first, it seemed to quickly be turning into another easy victory... until his mace-arm was severed.
When the first grand master dark knight fell and Neerc Se-ulb was lost for a time, Mortifer vowed to never lend his mace again but to a true champion of Chaos. But Cruentus trusted in the power of his dark knights and the next grand master received the terrible halberd named Mjolak to crush all who would oppose the god of blood.
The second grand master dark knight was a son of the first one. He swore an oath of revenge, to slay the high priest of Valpurus in honor of his father's death. Yet his name was erased from all records to clean the stain of shame he brought upon his family.
The second grand master dark knight ruthlessly crushed all resistance and many an enemy fled even before battle, for his trumpeters used horns of fear to devastating effect. Where the father took nearly a decade to slowly force valpurian troops back, the son brought his army of dark knights before the gates of the Citadel of Valpurus in only a few years.
As his men razed and burned the once-mightly Citadel of Valpurus, the second grand master dark knight assailed Pervetus, the high priest of Valpurus. Now being of venerable age, Pervetus quickly fell to the power of Mjolak. Alas, in a hubris of easy victory the grand master turned his back to the dead high priest and did not see a strange glow of a magical amulet that brought Pervetus back with renewed vigor. The high priest lifted Justifier and with a single mightly blow, cut off both of the grand master's hands. And in a single moment of weakness, the grand master shamed his family for the ages to come, for he didn't face death with dignity, but panicked and ran for his life.
Our lord Xinroch was the greatest and most powerful grand master dark knight to ever live, and the third to bear that title. His two crossed flaming swords are still found on the banner of the grand master dark knights to this day.
Some sources claim Xinroch was no one in his youth, maybe even one of the children kidnapped from forgotten villages to be trained for war. But soon, his talents became apparent. He was clever, quick to learn and utterly ruthless when he could get what he wanted.
In his many skirmishes with the forces of Light, Xinroch destroyed two archangels, Incendo and Lucis, and took their flaming swords. He wielded them with unparalleled skill, earning him the sobriquet of 'Xinroch the Firestorm'.
While his predecessors were beasts on the battlefield and masters of the military arts of tactics and strategy, Xinroch was well-versed in the use of another weapon they rarely considered - diplomacy. He conquered a land - then used the fear to gain ten times more in a fraction of time.
Xinroch was highly successful in all his campaigns, and it was during his life that the Unholy Order of the Dark Knights truly flourished.
Even Ischaldirh, the champion of Infuscor since times immemorial, who always thought of warriors as nothing more than brutes and uncivilized savages, eventually befriended Xinroch and accompanied him on many a campaign. Not even demigods could stand in their way.
Just as Xinroch outlived high priest Pervetus and took all his lands, years caught up with Xinroch at last after a life full of victory. No matter how strong magic sustains the body, mortals were created to die and all that lives will wither eventually. Only that which already died and was raised to undeath or which ascended beyond this world is truly immortal.
During one of the countless battles late in his life, Xinroch lost one of the iconic ruby flaming swords he wielded most of his life. The dwarves of Khaz-zadm forged an arcanite shield for him, but it was clear to everyone his prime years have irreversibly passed.
In his declining years, Xinroch heavily funded research into the newly-invented magic school of necromancy. It was thanks to his sponsorship that this discipline could start to spread, but unfortunately the early necromancers were unable to stave off the dwindling of Xinroch's life.
Xinroch died in a glorious battle. His army crushed the invasion of frost giants while Xinroch himself, by then of venerable age, dueled and slayed their jarl. Yet his years and exhaustion took their toll and Xinroch could not fend off the treacherous dagger his most trusted lieutenant turned against him. Old grand master slain and the battle won, this second-in-command became the new grand master dark knight.
Xinroch's successor feared his former master so much he eventually resigned his title of the grand master dark knight and entered the Tomb, to remain enternally vigilant as a keeper of Xinroch's grave and prevent Xinroch's resurrection and terrible revenge.
When Xinroch brought dark knights and dark mages together in a peculiar alliance, even their two ever-rival gods set aside their differences for a time. What none of their worshippers could expect, though, was the child born from the blood of Cruentus and the dark magic of Infuscor, the first vampire.
This Tomb was erected on the battlefield where Xinroch was slain, to honor and guard his grave against all who would wish to disturb his last sleep or defile his memory. Let his majestic glory never be forgotten!
Some believe it is possible to bring our lord Xinroch back. Whether through high necromancy or some dark miracle, he might be able to lead his faithful again!
It was a great shame to the dark templars when several decades ago, an unknown necromancer managed to slip past their guards and animate the skeleton of Xinroch in a mockery of his once-living might. Whether the spell was cast with belief that it could truly bring Xinroch back, or with utmost disrespect for the dearly departed, the dark templars swore they will never allow another man or woman to enter their lord's resting place.


EDIT:

BTW, those lines are much easier to read in the game's message window. They won't look as ugly as above.
Jul 24, 2017, 6:49 pm
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Quote
But if you don't want to spoil the surprise for youself when you talk to them, don't open the spoiler.

The urge to click that spoiler button is overwhelming, but I must resist.
"I think my associates were turned into monkeys." ~Shitty Bill
Aug 13, 2017, 12:28 am
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We don't happen to have a pixel artist, perchance? The thing above, about Xinroch's banner, is giving me ideas about emblems and uniforms.
Uchuudonge wrote
creating stable chaos
making patterns where there should be none
sewing order into the chaos
you spit in the face of random numbers, of chaos
Aug 13, 2017, 4:45 am
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chaostrom wrote
We don't happen to have a pixel artist, perchance? The thing above, about Xinroch's banner, is giving me ideas about emblems and uniforms.

Maybe 4zb4? Haven't seen him around lately...
Batman? wrote
its been so long since i had gotten that far i didnt think it through. arrrr!!!!!!
Oct 4, 2017, 9:02 am
Joined: Apr 2, 2014
Occupation: Navastating
Location: Aslona
Posts: 764
I was playing through TX recently, trying to get better acquainted with the dungeon. I must say I still find TX a bit harder than GC - it might be just me, it might actually be harder, but I'm not complaining in either case, it's fun. Anyway, I have some questions and suggestions.

Maybe the Temple should be an owned room, just like the Cathedral and Decos' residence. Right now, it's possible to lead dangerous monsters back upstairs from TX 1 to the Temple, whre they will be dispatched by all the guards while leaving their loot on the floor for you to pick up. This is especially egregious when the vampire room happens to be on TX 1, making the vampire too easy.

BTW, it would be great to have a generic owned room type, where you would anger the team of the room master (adjustable with a script), to handle other rooms the player should not steal from without punishment. The hardcoded rooms we have now are not very flexible in that regard.

I really like the paradise island, but I'm wondering how many people will actually see the mirrored items in the chest. I'm only rarely equipped to deal with the kamikaze dwarf and open the chest fast enough the first time I come to the island room, before the items disappear.

Zombies with nuts as food are awsome!

Gas chambre should not be generated on enner level. It happened to me several times by now, and it's not fun when the whole chambre explodes just as you enter the level.

I'm generally quite struggling when I come to the golem level depth. The maze room with five random golems seems to generate very difficult golems quite often - several times I ended with ommel bone golems. It's not that hard to try to avoid the unmanageable golems, but as this level is quite high in the dungeon, I generally tend to run through it repeatedly, which gets hairy if I still cannot dispatch the golems by the time I want to return.

BTW, drawing inspiration from GC golem room, the golems could guard a scroll of golem creation. A small guaranteed reward if you end up fighting a light crystal or an ommel bone golem like I tend to do.

The priestess experimental chambre is very nice. How do you deal with the priestess, though? I found out the hard way how quickly you can get swarmed if you ignore her, she summons some necromancers and then they start building a horde that will crush you. Do you try to kill her as soon as possible?

Also, I think it would be nice to have some reward for fighting the creatures locked in the cages - right now, there is no incentive, so they are only a decoration. Giving them some loot would make it an interesting decision when to try to open the cages. At least the mutant bear should get some loot, IMHO. He seems to be intended as a mini-boss, but him being locked in a cage with no reason for me to fight him... A bonus enchanting scroll, or a random ring, or something similar would make him more interesting. If the other two also get some minor reward, it sould be much more mundane - with the amount of food TX offers, even a loaf would be nice.

I'm seriously struggling with the four special rooms level (necromancers, vampires, mages and werewolfs, I think). All except the necromancer room are manageable for me - but if I don't kill the master necromancer fast enough, he starts ti teleport all around the level, raising zombies of all the other tough monsters I already killed again and again. This is especially problematic because of the room-and-corridor type of the level - while on zombie level in GC you can ignore the zombie horde and hunt down the necromancers, or simply avid everyone and run a circle around them to the stairs if it becomes too much, here you are clogged up with the ever-respawning zombies and cannot kill them fast enough to reach the necromancer before he teleports away, again and again. Wands help, but there is only so much charges you have.

Another problem I had was with leprosy - here is the one place in the whole game where it became a true killer. With the number of zombies, I was infected very quickly. Movement was difficult because of the zombie horde in all corridors. Antidote is very limited, priests are generally far away. I'm loosing way too much stats and limbs on that level. I would seriously like to have / be able to wish for an amulet of disease immunity. (Thinking about it, maybe this could even be the reward for fighting the mutant bear.)

I cannot comment much on the fights with Xinroch, I generally tend to die there.

Finally, I rather miss a shop in TX. It's nice to have Merka in GC for one more chance of a good item you will want to buy, especially when Hulbo has nothing of interest. Plus it's quite nice you can sell your spoils of adventuring without returning all the way back to Attnam. While it would not fit the flavour of the Tomb to have a shop in there, maybe there could be a shop on the above ground Temple level? Of course it should not sell any food, to preserve the hunger you battle in TX.

I'm quite sure I'm not playing very efficiently, so... Does anyone have some nice strategy for TX they want to share?
Oct 4, 2017, 1:41 pm
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
red_kangaroo wrote
Also, I think it would be nice to have some reward for fighting the creatures locked in the cages - right now, there is no incentive, so they are only a decoration. Giving them some loot would make it an interesting decision when to try to open the cages. At least the mutant bear should get some loot, IMHO. He seems to be intended as a mini-boss, but him being locked in a cage with no reason for me to fight him... A bonus enchanting scroll, or a random ring, or something similar would make him more interesting. If the other two also get some minor reward, it sould be much more mundane - with the amount of food TX offers, even a loaf would be nice.

If you wanted things to get nasty, there could be a trap that opens the doors, or we could let the mutant bear attack the cage door until it breaks out.


red_kangaroo wrote
Finally, I rather miss a shop in TX. It's nice to have Merka in GC for one more chance of a good item you will want to buy, especially when Hulbo has nothing of interest. Plus it's quite nice you can sell your spoils of adventuring without returning all the way back to Attnam. While it would not fit the flavour of the Tomb to have a shop in there, maybe there could be a shop on the above ground Temple level? Of course it should not sell any food, to preserve the hunger you battle in TX.

Could maybe have a treasure hunter or something along those lines set up shop on a semi-random floor? I've thought having a nomadic shopkeeper with a chance to appear on any floor would be a neat thing to have in IVAN. Smaller inventory of course, but a nice surprise if you bump into him.
Quote
Got a selection of good things on sale, stranger.
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Nov 2, 2017, 4:57 am
Joined: Apr 2, 2014
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I finally managed to beat the resurrected Xinroch and become the Master Dark Knight!

Note that I say beat, not kill him. I really, really like that unlike every other boss (except Jenny), you don't have to kill him - I managed to cut off his arm, take the lost ruby sword and walk through the portal, leaving him to his own devices. I like to imagine there's now a one-handed Xinroch already planning how to bring me down from my new position.

Moments of note:

* I played "semi-natural" limbs game. Three limb natural, one leg made of phoenix feather that Silva gave me after the vampire in the first vampire room bit my leg off.
* The zombie room dropped a nice ommel hair armor of great health that I actually used for the rest of the game - I'm a proof, guys, AOGH is actually viable.
* I did NOT get an ommel bone golem on the first golem floor, for which I was infinitely thankful.
* I managed to get myself trapped in a corridor between the two enner children. That was close and I only barely survived.
* The priestess level is still brutal once she manages to summon some necromancers. I guess I should just kill her immediately, but I don't have the heart to do so to a peaceful NPC.
* Earthquake really, really helps with the tactical level. I used two earthquakes (Silva and a scroll) and managed to open several shortcuts that made the level much more manageable.
* Gus spawned so late I totally missed killing him and only realized while reading my massacre history.
* The last level (where resurrected Xinroch dwells) was pretty intense. Mellis gave me an angel and I tried to eradicate as many mages as possible and then lure Xinroch away from them so I wasn't pelted with magic every turn. He killed my angel and nearly cut my limbs off before I managed a lucky hit and cut off his own arm.
* I killed Decos and co. and before leaving NA, cloned myself and left the clone in the village. Now when the Attnamese come in the spring, there will be someone to protect Tweraif.
Nov 10, 2017, 4:46 pm
Joined: Dec 2, 2007
Location: New Attnam
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fejoa wrote
It should automatically come up on the world map without needing to deliver the scroll. It will be set on a snow tile near to Attnam. If the continent is too small then it will appear on another continent. The picture resembles a small gray brick. Let me know if you find it

Ok found this post and just bringing this up again. It's kind of a bummer if it appears on another continent.

No way to really get there for 90% of games, as most players will not be ready to face Huang Ming Pong this early, or find any other method of levitation or swimming. There are more options these days but since it's not a guarantee, I wonder if this should be changed.

One thing I thought of too late was eating a bunch of giant mushroom corpses and waiting for levitation, but I'm also not sure if it would have lasted long enough to take me across the sea.
Nov 10, 2017, 6:54 pm
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capristo wrote
Ok found this post and just bringing this up again. It's kind of a bummer if it appears on another continent.

Darn it. I'll try fix it by Atavus day.
Batman? wrote
its been so long since i had gotten that far i didnt think it through. arrrr!!!!!!
Nov 11, 2017, 2:15 am
Joined: Dec 2, 2007
Location: New Attnam
Interests: bananas
Posts: 2,299
I’m loving it so far though! I haven to made it very deep yet but love the bat room and dwarf island.
Jan 6, 2018, 9:39 am
Joined: Apr 2, 2014
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Location: Aslona
Posts: 764
What would you say if we moved dwarven gas chamber to TX 2 to 4?

It can be generated on floors 4 to 6 right now, but floor 5 is Enner level. Thus, it's generated on Enner level in 1/3 of all games, exploding pretty much immediately after the player enters the floor. This is no fun, because the loot is burned/gone and it's safe for the player to pick up the pieces (if any) as all mines are already gone. The minefield in GC is IMHO so fun because it offers good loot very early, but at the very high risk of loosing the loot or your life, because you also tend to be underprepared by that stage of the game.

So, what if we moved the gas chamber upwards in the dungeon? It will not be exploded by Enners, offer nice loot a bit earlier, but also at a very dangerous price.
Jan 6, 2018, 12:28 pm
Joined: Dec 2, 2007
Location: New Attnam
Interests: bananas
Posts: 2,299
I like that idea. I've only made it to the enner level twice and was wondering what all the little explosions were
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