Edison

I was just a little ways from the one at the end of level 1, so I was able to revive him there. Of course I died on level 2 and had to use that one too.

I tossed the spell scrolls since I couldn't find a use for them or the "info scrolls".

kgrogers1979

You don't need to keep scrolls. You only need to keep them to help you remember rune combos in case you forget.

Try falling in pits. I fell down one accidentally and there was some decent loot down there. Now I am making a practice to fall down every pit.

I found out why my rogue archer is sucking so bad. Strength affects both the damage of melee and ranged weapons. I just discovered that while leveling up. Dexterity only affects your accuracy (and evasion), but ranged weapons always have 100% accuracy so dexterity is useless for a backline ranged rogue since he doesn't need evasion either since he shouldn't be getting hit anyway on the backline. So my maxed dexterity minimum strength rogue is fricking useless.

If I was going to do it over, I would go with a dagger rogue. The Assassinate skill tree lets a rogue use daggers from the backline once you get 12 skill points in it. I also discovered that a mage's ice spell temporarily freezes many enemies, which synergizes well with a rogue letting him get behind for a backstab. Too bad I have been specializing in fire this game. Freezing those spider bastards on level 3 would have probably made it a lot easier.

Speaking of spider's and their poison, I completely forgot you could sleep. While sleeping, your health regenerates quicker than the poison hurts you and apparently the poison does eventually wear off on its own. So all my saving and reloading was pointless.

foxdvd

I went with two fighters front row and two mages back row. This seems to be working really well. Both mages have the early fire spell. One is focusing on ice and the other earth. They shred enemies. I spent at least 30 minutes trying to figure out spell combos. I wish once you learned a spell it was easier to cast.

Also, the end of each talent tree is amazing. It is going to be hard to focus on 3 or 4 talents, when focusing on one or two will give you amazing upgrades.

Ghym

I played a little more this morning, before work. I'm really enjoying this game. I never played too many dungeon crawlers back in the day, but this game is really fun. I'm at least halfway through level 3. I like searching around for all the secret rooms. I think my stats say I've found 10 so far. I'm working on how to open the third Iron Door I've come across. I finally found the spiders. the first one jumped me when I came around a corner. Made me jump. They've poisoned me a few times, but I've had enough ingredients to make a few potions, and if you're near a crystal, that will also get rid of poison. I had fun in one room, using a trap door to take out some extra enemies.

I really like that arrows and other thrown weapons can be retrieved. I also like that the flasks used for potions can be re-used again.

I've put most of my mage's points into earth and spellcasting (?). I just got that skill up to 5 and it says I have two new spells I should be able to use. I'm going to start trying combos to see if I can find them without needing to find scrolls. I did put enough points into ice, so that I can cast the basic ice spell. I found a spear early on in level 1 or 2, that I gave to my Rogue. He's been able to use that from the back. I also found a bow in level 3, and have had him using that a bit.

I don't usually replay games right away, but I'm pretty sure I'll be replaying this one later on, just to try out the different spells and skills I'm not using this playthrough. Hopefully there will be some mods and new dungeons added too.

kgrogers1979

Most old school dungeon crawlers were like that, so this game is just keeping with the tradition. I guess it is supposed to stimulate the difficulty of spellcasting in the middle of combat or something.


Yeah, it takes 50 skill points to max out a skilltree, and since you get 4 points per level up you need to get to level 25 to be able to max two trees. In most games like this its better to focus on two skills to max them out rather than be a jack-of-all-trades that's mediocre at everything.







I found a complete rune listing of all the spells on grimrock.net.




The main menu says something about more dungeons being added through expansion packs and/or mods. So hopefully the game does become popular with the modding community.

One thing that I really wish this game had is a Diablo style map randomizer. Diablo did that really well and it added tons of replay value since no two games would ever be exactly the same. I can't think of any other game that ever used such a randomizer and that's a shame.

foxdvd

the only thing missing is some old school midi like music as you move around...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUg49FBYEyE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzz1r...feature=relmfu

(edit and yes I know not a dungeon crawler or actually that old....I just love any excuse to put in some sword in a thread)

foxdvd

hell the first fight on level 4 took me by surprise...

kgrogers1979

Do you mean the slime room? Those things have an insane amount of hit points. I thought they would never die.

Trevor

I think I've spent 2 years of my life on that game.
Thanks!

I might hold out for the iOS release of Grimrock. I think I'll end up gaming on my iPad more than all my other consoles and systems combined.

foxdvd

actually I had no problem at all with the slimes...the two herders at the start of level 4 (from the main stairs) gave me problems for some reason. My two mages in the back died way to fast from the poison cloud...eventually I just ran like a bitch taking hits when I could and I got them...

foxdvd

I am on level 5 now...game continues to impress...

kgrogers1979

I just finished level 5. That level was very easy. The change in environment reminds me of Diablo where you would end up in a different environment after every fourth level.

I am used to deliberately falling in pits now in hopes of there being good loot at the bottom. I fell in one pit and all that was there was a note from that Toorum guy saying "I too was disappointed to make the jump only to find nothing useful."

Every once in awhile there is an earthquake or something. I wonder if this is on a timer? There are different pathways blocked by debris, and I wonder if the earthquakes cause these and if you are fast enough to get there before the earthquake hits if maybe the debris won't be there and there might be some special loot or something. I began to wonder this after seeing some debris blocking a pathway in the northeast corner on level 5 and the map shows that it continues on even though there is no apparent way to get there.

flashburn

This game needs a demo. I need to see if I want to play it on my HTPC or wait for it on iPad.

foxdvd

its less than 2 days lunch...trust me its worth picking up

kgrogers1979

If you have an HTPC, why would you even consider an iPad port?

flashburn

Honestly, I find myself picking up the iPad to play stuff more than my HTPC. Also, some games interfaces aren't very friendly with sitting so far away from the TV. Watching a video or two, made it look like the interface and font would be pretty small.

edit: After watching some other videos, maybe it won't be too bad, the interface seems minimal, mainly just during character creation. I'll probably grab it.

Trevor

I get a couple hours a week at my home PC if I'm lucky.

My iPad is with me all the time, with several hours a day of downtime at work and at least a few minutes here and there available for quick plays 24/7.

flashburn

Pretty good game so far. Midway through the second level now. I wish the combat was turn based though. Probably my only complaint. Weren't all of the first person dungeon crawler games turn based usually? It feels weird having the movement feel turn based while everything is real time.

Oh, and no quick save? WTF.

kgrogers1979

Some were and some weren't. Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder were real time. Bard's Tale, Wizardry, and Might & Magic were turn based.


You're lucky they allow manual saving at all since that is a new-school invention. They could have kept it old-school with only save point crystals allowed.

Or even older-school with the NES style password saves where you had to write down a 20-30 character password and often screw it up because O's and 0's looked alike and 1's and l's looked alike...

Imprint

I really wish they had a Mac version. Any word of a port coming?

kgrogers1979

Yes, both Mac and iOS ports are planned.

http://www.grimrock.net/2011/09/22/our-release-plans/

kgrogers1979

I just finished the game. Very awesome game.

The final enemy is


Some observations:

My party members finished at level 14. With 4 skill points per level, that means you get 56 skill points for each person. It takes 50 to max out a skill tree, so unless you focus on just one skill the entire game, you won't max any of them out. The best thing to do is focus on 2 skills per person. Any more than 2 and you will be spreading yourself too thin.

Really I think the number of skill points gained per level should be increased or the number required to max lowered, because not being able to max any tree out kind of sucks. Or maybe they plan to add some expansion content that will let you import your characters. That would be neat.

The game does not tell you this anywhere, but raising skills in a weapon tree does increase your attack power and accuracy with that weapon. So a minotaur fighter's low starting dexterity and low accuracy won't matter much in the long run.

Nothing in the game is useless. Even that bone amulet that you found early on in the second floor of the dungeon, which was seemingly useless at the time, does indeed have a purpose much later on.

The best archer in the game is the minotaur. Seriously. It sounds strange, but its true. I'm not sure if its a bug or intentional game design, but ranged weapons always have 100% accuracy. So the minotaur's low natural dexterity doesn't matter at all if he is an archer. Even damage from ranged weapons isn't based on dexterity, but rather it is governed by the strength stat same as with melee weapons. So a max strength min dexterity minotaur is the best archer strangely enough.

For a tank, evasion is better than protection. So that means a rogue focusing on the Dodge skill is actually the best tank in the game. My archer rogue had a little more than 80 evasion and when my guys were completely surrounded by enemies he avoided most of the hits and was in the least amount of trouble compared to both of my fighters. My minotaur fighter had 80 protection with his heavy armor and twice as many hit points but he was in more danger of dying than my evasion rogue. My minotaur needed health potions to stay alive and my rogue seldom did. My second fighter was a human who wore light armor and was focused on keeping a medium score in both protection and evasion. That turned out to not be such a great idea because he was often in more danger than the minotaur.

So going by all of that, I would say the best party you could create would be this:

Rogue in the front lines focusing on daggers and dodge. Max his dexterity at character creation and put the remaining points in strength and vitality. He will be an evasion tank. Give him the Lurker suit of clothes for maximum evasion. He should be either human or a lizardman. Lizardman gets slightly higher dexterity but less skill points than a human.

The second front liner should be a minotaur fighter. Max his strength and put the rest in vitality. He will be your protection based tank with heavy armor. Like I mentioned earlier, his low starting dexterity won't matter much in the long run so don't bother putting any points there. Have him focus on the armor and sword trees. There is actually a very good sword later on that gives +10 accuracy. Maces do the most damage but have penalties to accuracy, so that is a big no-no for a minotaur. Axes are not really anything special unfortunately.

The backline guys should be a minotaur rogue with focus on archery. Max his strength and put the rest in vitality just like with the minotaur fighter. Dexterity is useless for him since he won't be focusing on evasion like the rogue tank and he will have 100% accuracy with ranged weapons regardless.

The second backline guy should be the mage. Insectoid has the best willpower, but humans have more skill points. Skill points matter more, especially if you want to focus on more than one tree. Fire and air are the most damaging schools of magic. Ice does less damage, but frostbolt has a percentage chance of freezing the enemy for several seconds. Earth (i.e. poison) is completely useless. More enemies are immune to poison than any other school of magic. Poison also does less damage than ice but it has the lingering effect of constant hit point drainage. Bleh. One massive hit point drainage from firebolt or lightning bolt is better by a long shot.

So basically in summary, one fighter (minotaur), two rogues (one evasion tank and one minotaur archer), and a mage is the best party. I will probably try out that party on hard mode next.

Ghym

I'm almost done with level 9. I keep searching every wall for secrets. I think I've found most, but I'm sure I've still missed a few. I've found over 50 secrets out of 71, I think. I've only got a couple more iron doors left, and 3 treasures to find. Are the treasures useful for anything, or just the Steam achievement? I've got about 20 hours in this game, and I'm still loving it.

On skills, did you find the Books of Infinite Wisdom? I've found two of those, so far. They give 5 skill points each. There is also a skill you can choose at character creation, that gives you 4-5 extra points. That's an extra 15 or so, if you go that route. I've mostly been sticking to two skills for my characters. I put some points in other skills at the beginning, but since then I've been more focused. There are a few places where enemies re-spawn. It would be boring, and take a long time, but you could grind to get to higher levels.

kgrogers1979

Level 10 actually has the last iron door. Levels 11-13 are all highly interconnected and are rather short actually. There's maybe 6 or 7 secrets total on levels 11-13 combined.

I think you missed a treasure too. I'm pretty sure I had 5 of the 7 treasures by level 10, but I can't recall clearly. They aren't useful for anything other than saying you completed the game 100%.

Yeah, there are 3 books of infinite wisdom that give +5 skill points to one character (not very infinite if they are only +5 but oh well...) There is also a book of vitality on the third floor that gives one character +25 hit points.

Yeah, you could grind on respawning enemies to level up, but that would be incredibly tedious. That's one thing I hate about Japanese RPGs in fact is that many of them require grinding.

The Skilled character trait at character creation only gives +3 skill points. That's less than one level-up and honestly not worth wasting a trait on. Aggressive is the best trait since it gives +4 Attack Power. One point of Strength only gives 1/2 point of Attack Power, so Aggressive is actually equivalent to +8 Strength. Actually, Head Hunter (the unique minotaur trait) is actually by far the best trait since it gives +3 Attack Power for every skull in the minotaur's inventory. There are 5 skulls in the game, so that gives him +15 Attack Power, equivalent to a massive +30 Strength. Give a minotaur both Aggressive and Head Hunter and that is just insane.

Something that is odd is that according to my statistics sheet I found every secret, every treasure, opened every iron door, etc. but I never found either the Chitin gloves or Lurker gloves. I did find the complete set of Valor heavy armor for my minotaur. Either I missed them somewhere or they just don't exist in the game, but I didn't complete the Chitin or Lurker sets since I didn't find their gloves.

Ghym

I think I missed the vitality book. I can't remember. I did find a book that gave +5 to fire spells. I'm probably going to backtrack some to look for more secrets. Even if they don't get me anything, I still want to find them. Just the OCD part of me, I guess. I've got 4 skulls for my minotaur, so far.

The chitin gloves must exist, because I got the Steam achievement for finding the whole set. I'm pretty sure it was a four piece set. I've also got all the lurker armor so far, except the gloves. I think I have 2 or 3 pieces of the Valor armor. Steam also lists an achievement for getting all the plate armor. I think I have 3 pieces of that.