Messages

Hello Marquillin. Thanks for the detailed account of your gaming experience! I appreciate this kind of reviews the most.

My pleasure.

On the other hand, though, I need to point out that the majority of the testers didn't get stuck with that puzzle. At the time there was no walkthrough, so I'm fairly sure they did it by reasoning and a bit of trial and error.

Well, it may be I'm not wholly smart enough for the Expert level, though I do prefer the challenge of it.  It felt like I covered all the possibilities multiple times, so I'd be interested to know the thought process of your play-testers - if they saw a pattern I didn't - and you might want to know if they came up with the same leads you expected as the designer.

Dead Ones' consciousness: actually that DeadOne's consciousness has already been restored. He has chosen to serve Chaos, and so he did receive that in exchange.

In that case I'm confused by the concept, because Rusty seems to still have consciousness though he has made no pact with Chaos.  Is consciousness something the dead gradually loose, maybe after the have passed into their respective afterlife?  If so, I suppose they don't need it in order to know they want to make a deal with ChaoS (as in a more emotional, subconscious decision, and it's their Ego they are reclaiming)?  It's a rather metaphysical area and could use more explanation (or perhaps earlier explanation if the rest of the game goes into it.)

Moreover, Dylan Jones is a great actor in my honest opinion.

Yeah, he is great.  I am satisfied and was only curious.

Isn't it gorgeous? It almost made me reconsider the possibility to have some fullscreen dialogues. But this will only be done, if at all, when the game is complete.

That is very classic loom, maybe just a few fullscreens at dramatic moments.  But the best part about them was, though they had no lip flapping, their expression would change to show their emotions front and center, and that could be done just as well with the small portraits.  It's actually nice having both sprite animation and the portrait on at the same time so that the eye can wonder where it likes.

I've noticed some other things to mention since my last post.:

- Once the mole breaks free, the music maybe should stay with that one intense piece no matter where you go so that the urgency stays in the players mind.

- Small art quibble; Lord Magnate's cloak looks like it is behind the arm of the throne rather then draped over.  I suppose the chair could be designed that way, but it does nag my mind as a bit weird.

- Rusty and the other sprites seem to be the size of the buildings on the overview of the city.  I suppose this may be necessary to see the sprites well, but you might try just two pixels if you haven't already.  Another (harder) way would be to make the buildings larger as they are already dwarfed by the garden's dome, though that has the drawback of making the cavern seem smaller.

- Did anyone else think that the schematic learned from the old woman was referring to the rocking of the chair?  Even though brittle is a more black-smithy kind of thing then rocking - maybe it just didn't occur to to me that the gloves could effect from organic things (I guess our bodies are just machines after all ).

part of what I enjoyed about the original Loom was how it played off of Tchaikovsky composition.  Maybe introduce another composer might I recommend Holst Mars Theme?  Seems very fitting for coming tides of war and Rusty interturmoil... again Just a thought.

I thought the same thing meself (without knowing which composer would be best (there were some interesting suggestions on the Forge forums if I recall)).  Though at the same time the composer that was chosen pulls off the tone of Loom very snugly, I wouldn't want to loose that.  Maybe there's room to reference parts of a public domain classical composer in with the new soundtrack.

[bug free]

I made an account at the Forge forums, but then I thought it'd be better to post feedback here where the discussion seems hotter.

All in all I really love the fruit of your loom - er, I mean efforts - it pretty much feels like the old classic game just continued it's story!  And as this is a story I've loved for a long while, I'm very grateful to see it continue at last.  And I do believe it was a bug free experience.  Well done.

So let's talk about story/design/presentation instead.  Mostly little things.

- First off I feel that the Tombstone puzzle is, if not broken, very bent.  I love the basic design as you gradually figure out what is wanted, but there are a lot of words on both the poem and epitaphs that weren't a part of the solution, nor had they an obvious reason to be disregarded.

Spoiler

There's the word "heart" on the forth tomb.  "Fire(wood)" and "Bright(ly)" are on the third and seventh tomb (though these aren't used at all).  Soul is on the eighth tomb (which makes one wonder wither to use a stone twice).  Another issue is the forth and first stanza introduces not seeing a noun/verb represented, but instead translating the meaning, which I thought was also possible with paring the seventh line with the sixth stone as well as the last line with the second stone.  Lastly the second line has two words to find, which is also possible on the third and fifth line. 

It might be alright to have red herring words, if there was some way to see that those lines were less important then the ones to follow, like if they were actions rather then descriptions, but I can't see any.

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I am the sort who tries not to turn to a walk-through, especially if I'm loving the game, but I did after hours of trying and I'm glad I did as I felt like I did everything that made sense (even tried to pick up that firewood as a way to physically strike the emblem of the anvil) and I didn't say "ah, of course" when I saw the whole solution - I just felt glad I didn't keep guessing a semi-random combo.

- Pressing space to pause is great, but it would be better if it didn't cancel out the line being spoken at the time of the pressing.

- Regarding the schematics:  I love the concept, similar enough to the original Drafts but based on visual memory rather then auditory.  Surprisingly my memory for these seem better then it was for Loom, even though I'm generally an auditory learner).  Perhaps, for more of a challenge, the reversed schematics should be backwards and upside down, possibly just on the Expert setting?  Maybe this would be harder then I know if it conflicts with patterns you've already designed.

- Hephestus tells Rusty to step aside, and they both take a small step forward, but it's not evident that he was in the way of him or the appearing statues.

- Chaos promises to restore consciousness to the dead?  Don't they already have that, seeing as how they are conversing fine?  Well maybe not that first ghost you meet, but the one who explains it all could.

- Since you obviously care about fidelity, I will question the main voice actor.  He does sound like a professional (they all sound good actually), but didn't Rusty have an Irish accent originally?  Of course he seemed to be the only blacksmith with one (even his father was English!) so I can understand the reason for the change - I prefer to play the non talkie version of loom anyway.

- Dialogue portraits harken to the original nicely, even if they aren't full screen.  It be really effective if they still changed with their temper though, if that's not asking too much of the pixel artists .

The main reason for the double-click system is faithfulness to Loom; I was looking for a useful function to assign to the right-click, though, and this seems a possibility to take into account. The other one is having r-click clear the currently selected hotspot, instead.

I'm not a scripter, but maybe it can be both?  If not then I'd choose the former and make the latter be the middle mouse button as it seem least important if people have a 2 button mouse.

Thanks again.

Spoiler

P.S. I've attained Upright, Guesser, Message, Swan Dance, Clumsy (oh god, and I really thought that would work!), Seeker and Blacksmith.  Think I should keep looking through in this demo?

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I agree that Rosella's portrait is horrifyingly creepy; are you trying to make it 3d or something?  Maybe plain painted is the better way to go.  Otherwise it's all beautiful, and I like the enhanced puzzles.

It's a nice bouncy kind of look, yet I hope you return the banners that show off the range of AGS game graphics, or else make new ones in that theme.

Hmm, no blue mug either?

Thanks Arj0n, twas was a bit too well hidden; they all look too identical to think there's not a generic response to all of them, and there's no sparkle or anything to grab the eye.  After that, I finished the game in about 3 minutes.

Hi Mjomble,

Attention - spoiler!

(unfortunately I have no idea how to format the text to make it invisible without selecting it...)

1) You need to attach something to the cane
2) If you don't have anything for attaching look under some foliage.

For the disappearing text use the magic word "hide" inside these guys [ ] and the same thing afterword with a "/hide"

a-like-so.

Spoiler

What freaking foliage?  I'm sure I've clicked on everything, even the obscure clovers, but no attachment objects.  I thought we were being set up for a pole vault over the river ala sq3, then I just noticed the resin and thought for sure that would work, but naaaaay.

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Really nice music btw.

Spoiler

18 + 1 = 19 (R is #18 in the English alphabet)

The answer, therefore, is 14136419

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Oh gawd diggity - You're right, I somehow had R coming up as 19!  I caught the OP's miscalculations easy enough, but was too arrogant to check my own work (at least in that one, simplest step) and instead went on to more and more obtuse theories!  Back to Grade 1 for me, now I know my ABC's  

I'd like a leg up, but not too overt please.

Take all of translated "Bander" numbers and use the cypher code in -\+ loop:
2-1=1, 1+2=4, 14-1=13, 4+2=6, 5-1=4, 17+1=18
Final code: 14146418.
Right? Well, wrong.

Spoiler

I seem to be in the same shoes as Urpney once was, and even though I'm more familiar with the English alphabet, I feel like I've hit a wall...

I've come up with 14136420 (the most obvious) and the reverse of the - + sequence seems to be 32152618 (if the numbers being negative has no bearing).  Then I tried using the Cypher key on the number/name(2 1 14 4 5 19) as if there were no longer any two digit numbers (2 1 1 4 4 5 1 9) which of course leaves the last two numbers with either nothing to change them, unless I loop back to the start of the cypher's first two numbers in order to fix them.  I tried both of these (starting with - and with +), and I think I converted everything back to letters as well, but its all wrong entry.
Now, if I do the looping cipher, I'm not sure how to turn over a number (namely the last one) past 9 if I'm just using 1 digit.  Should I carry the one or what?)  

Math has a small threshold of fun for me, so I hope I'm not making it too complicated.

I don't even want to help this kid out anyway, not without more answers about who I'm hacking, I've got enough Euros;  but the plot demands I go on.

P.S. I also noticed that the cypher could be seen as three numbers (13 12 11) in an even descent...is this worth exploring?

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Spoiler

Ah, I'm afraid my puzzle is too simple for your love for mathematics!
The numbers from the name are kept separate.

Spoiler

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Spoiler

Sorry, but I'm not certain what you mean.  Do you mean that I should not split a two digit number into 2 one digit numbers?  That would seem to suggest that there's an even six on six conversion from the cypher required, though I don't know what else to try.  It's still kicking my arse, so it's good to know it's simple  :.

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I'd like a leg up, but not too overt please.

Take all of translated "Bander" numbers and use the cypher code in -\+ loop:
2-1=1, 1+2=4, 14-1=13, 4+2=6, 5-1=4, 17+1=18
Final code: 14146418.
Right? Well, wrong.

Spoiler

I seem to be in the same shoes as Urpney once was, and even though I'm more familiar with the English alphabet, I feel like I've hit a wall...

I've come up with 14136420 (the most obvious) and the reverse of the - + sequence seems to be 32152618 (if the numbers being negative has no bearing).  Then I tried using the Cifer key on the number/name(2 1 14 4 5 19) as if there were no longer any two digit numbers (2 1 1 4 4 5 1 9) which of course leaves the last two numbers with either nothing to change them, unless I loop back to the start of the cifer's first two numbers in order to fix them.  I tried both of these (starting with - and with +), and I think I converted everything back to letters as well, but its all wrong entry.
Now, if I do the looping cipher, I'm not sure how to turn over a number (namely the last one) past 9 if I'm just using 1 digit.  Should I carry the one or what?)  

Math has a small threshold of fun for me, so I hope I'm not making it too complicated.

I don't even want to help this kid out anyway, not without more answers about who I'm hacking, I've got enough Euros;  but the plot demands I go on.

P.S. I also noticed that the cifer could be seen as three numbers (13 12 11) in an even decent...is this worth exploring?

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It's "hide", not "spoiler" on these boards ;-)

Thanks, the SMF help page here wasn't enlightening on that topic.

You're the second person with the bug. If you have it, you will run into a more serious one a bit later. The problem is solved and the fixed game should be online in 2-3 hours. Sorry!

Right, then my question is will old save games work in the new version, and if not, is this future more serious bug something that has a way around it (that won't spoil a puzzle or scene or general immersion too much).  Or (if old saves don't work) perhaps you could send me a save of my place in the game (more or less)?  I just don't really want to replay the game thus far again, not until some time has elapsed anyway

I've already beaten the game, so it's fully playable.
Never encountered the bug you described - do you use lighter from the hotel? Worked well for me.

Way to skip the bug:

Spoiler

hidden message: honour39

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.

Thanks for the code, at least I figured out how to get it correctly, so it doesn't feel like a cheat.  Yes, I used the hotel lighter.

I maybe should have waited till more bugs were ironed out, as I usually do, but I got excited to play this.  Now I think this may be a game stopping bug, but I'm not sure as others have progressed further.

Spoiler

I have the Countrysons card from the safe and noticed that the heat from my hand made something appear beneath, so I tried my lighter on the card to heat it up further (hoping it would display the password to the website), she says she'll try it, the lighter clicks, but then the game locks up; I can move the cursor, but that's it.

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Am I on the wrong track here, or am I the only one who is getting this?  Besides having the music get killed by certain actions, it's the only bug so far, but how serious is it?

Otherwise, it's a very compelling game.

Oy, never-mind, false alarm.  The problem simply turned out to be that the inventory menu was scrolled down to the last line.  Silly me kept trying everything in the three last rooms, except that; I suppose because it was that the scroll was not needed most of the time with such a big window, but I guess all those personality chips pushed it to the next line, then disappeared. :

Hopefully it's the same for you Tabata and Khris, then I won't feel as much like an adventure game newb.

Oh well, it got me registered here anyway.

Khris:

Spoiler

Use that glue thing (the warmth gel or whatever it's called) on the bone, by first setting the degrees to 100.

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Really? 

Spoiler

Am I the only one who had their Gel disappear once I've left the crime scene?  I thought perhaps you can only use it twice, and that I was in a dead-end because I got the temperature wrong at first; yet I played from the before that again and the same thing happens.

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