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Halloween's End

volkan's picture

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looks like a fun mod..

- I fancy having a bash at this one.. (- LOA still looks the best modding platform..)
- but how will affect (or be affected by) Utraea and Abstraction..??
- will it break Hyperborea and/or Mageworld..??

- I don't want to uninstall those mods, as I'm always playing them..

PS - had to magnify the screenie, volkan - so I could read it..!! :woot:

Charietto's picture

The map comes along with a .dsres file.
So it has to be considered a mod for the purpose of playing another mods like LoH or MW (and as those, it is a standalone mod). But if you are playing those, you know the trick: install Halloween Special in the same way that you installed them (for XP PRO, here's how it goes):

1) go to: C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents\Dungeon Siege LOA\
2) Create a new folder called "Halloween".
3) go to your Dungeon Siege installation folder. If you haven’t changed the install location, it should be in: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Dungeon Siege\
4) Create a new folder called /hs_lls under your /Dungeon Siege folder.
5) Extract the files from the archive into the / hs_lls folder.
6) Right-click on your desktop, select New>Shortcut. A wizard opens.
7) Set the « Target » line like this:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Dungeon Siege\DSLOA.exe" res_paths=hs_lls map_paths=!hs_lls user_path="C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My documents\Dungeon Siege LOA\Halloween"

Important note: you need to rename the HalloweenSpec.dsmap to hs_lls.dsmap to use the command line above (not sure why, but the upper case "H" seems to bug the line. I'll rename the map for the next release).

wow, thanks, Charietto..

- help!! :blush:

when I get to this line:

"5) Extract the files from the archive into the / hs_lls folder."

- I'm asked for a password to open the zip.. :nervous:

is in the readme. (just like LoH and Mageworld, in fact it might be the same password!)

Sharkull's picture

I'm playing through this map / siegelet now, and have enjoyed the ride for sure. It took me just over four hours to finish the SP chapter, and then I moved on to the MP only parts. I find that the puzzles, some of which involve crafting, add a fun twist to gameplay... It's a little odd having to move from region to region by starting new MP sessions, but that's not too much of a hastle, and I think it's an interesting way to structure things into definite chapters. I found that the New Mexico region was a bit easy, but that's not too surprising since I took the time to earn enough gold to buy a top notch set of equipment before going there. Vermont, even with great gear, has some challenging battles (fortunately I've found some help along the way Wink ). There are still some things I suspect are crafting ingredients that I don't know what their use is, but I haven't tried out the "bonus level" yet, and there's a door in the shopping region I can't open. Perhaps I'll find out some answers as I move on... or think of other things to try. I'll have the time to ponder, because I need some more experience before I can go to the bonus level (I'm at lvl 36, when I need 45).

If you haven't tried out this map, then I'd highly recommend a go (if you aren't offended by a little adult content). There are some fun gameplay elements, nifty animation / modelling work, but just as noteworthy are the jokes / pop-culture references / b-movie humor. Good for a chuckle from time to time.

A big :thumbup: for the modders responsible. Smile

Malibu beach (the bonus region) only requires level 40, and the brochure from the cabin in Vermont - so don't drop it, or hide it in your backpack.

The door you can't open in the "shopping region" is the one you can't open until level 45, which is probably what you meant to write.

All nudity in this movie is necessary to the plot. I mean, you can't do Psycho without a shower scene, can you?

Sharkull's picture

Quote:
I mean, you can't do Psycho without a shower scene, can you?

No... I guess not. :P

About the level 45 thing... I was thinking about the levels listed on the MP game creation screen, and just mixed up the 40 with the 25 for Vermont. :oops: Good to know about the brochure though (thanks for the heads up). Smile

And I guess I know why I can't open that door yet now. Laughing out loud (I have a vague memory of this being mentioned on HF... which could have also contributed to the 45 mistake).

Anyways, I have four levels to grind out before I get to go to the beach! :sun: I better get to it (I have a feeling I'm going to like the scenery). Wink

Remember to say Hi! to Pammie when you get there. (Hint, hint)

Sharkull's picture

Had a nice vacation on the beach :woot: ... and Pammie certainly is a real life saver. :roll: :goofy:

Even with her help the previously locked area is proving very difficult (I keep dying :wacko: ). I'm making progress on the puzzle doors, but with the ambushes I keep having to redo the steps when I start another session. I think the beach made me lazy, and I'm not paying attention to strategy right now. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be more successful. Smile

Sharkull's picture

I fought my way through the last door I can see, and received an "Episcopal Ring" from a container. ^^ I can't think of any other areas that were locked off from me in the other levels so I think I've seen it all now. :dance1: Of course there is the possibility I'm missing something, but I think I'm through exploring. I'd post a screenie of my character with the inventory open, but I think there may be too many spoilers in such a shot and I wouldn't want to spoil anyone's fun.

I do however have some things I'm wondering about:
-I remember seeing a "named" plant in the first chapter's mansion... is there something I should be able to do with it?
-Does the police equipment have a special use?
-What about the "improvised shields"?
-Gold Nuggets?
-Rags?
-Chair leg?

Also, I couldn't get one of the spells to work: the summon broom spell. I created it fine, but it doesn't work... :?

I think I might try playing though again because it was a "Happy Halloween" time, but this go through I'll use a male character (just to see the rest of the gender specific stuff). Smile

Audrey just sits there. No apparent reason for her except decoration.

Police equipment may get used on an NPC or summon later, but was made available for general use. Charietto prefers any equipment or costume being available to the player, which is why there's so much strangely gender-specific stuff, like towels.

Shields aren't too useful in this siegelet as too many of the weapons are two-handed, but there are a few one-handed weapons. Since they don't do a lot of damage compared to the two-handed ones, you need a shield with them to survive until you get enough hits in!!

Gold nuggets are just there to be sold to buy better guns.

Chair leg may burn like a branch does, but since you get the branch first, I never tested that.

Rags are a mystery to me, too. They have been known to cause crashes, so there may be an intended use that doesn't work!

At least one of the "summon/call" spells needs a non-terrain target, IIRC, so you may just not have pointed it at anyone.

Sharkull's picture

Muchly appreciated. Smile

I know that one of the spells only works when cast on an enemy (ET go home! :P ), but the one I indicated (in hidden text) doesn't work like that (or any other way) for me.

Charietto's picture

Ghastley got it right, just some precisions:

Sharkull wrote:
I fought my way through the last door I can see, and received an "Episcopal Ring" from a container. Happy I can't think of any other areas that were locked off from me in the other levels so I think I've seen it all now. Of course there is the possibility I'm missing something, but I think I'm through exploring. I'd post a screenie of my character with the inventory open, but I think there may be too many spoilers in such a shot and I wouldn't want to spoil anyone's fun.

Congratulations.
Yes, there would probably be some spoilers, as lots of things have to be crafted. The fact that some people found the crypt dwellers too hard led me to think that some people may have overlooked the use of one of the available spells (it's extremely unlikely you didn't got it).
It's also possible that you don't have found one special item that is a random drop. You may have to kill several time the mod who hold that item to got it (remember that you're in MP). That mob is located in the Vermont part.

Sharkull wrote:
I remember seeing a "named" plant in the first chapter's mansion... is there something I should be able to do with it?

Ghastley wrote:
Audrey just sits there. No apparent reason for her except decoration.

Audrey is a reference to the alien carnivorous plant from "Little shop of horror".

Sharkull wrote:
Does the police equipment have a special use?

Ghastley wrote:
Police equipment may get used on an NPC or summon later, but was made available for general use.

As Ghastley said. Also, in contemporary days, there are not so many shields and helmet available in everyday life. Players like to collect stuff, so those items are here to add more variety. Also, they contribute to give the feeling that the ghoul fixer is blackmarketing illegal stuff.
The Tonfa is a good one handed melee weapon. It does less damage than the one handed chainsaw, but for an experimented user, when coupled with a shield, it gives you a very high chance to block melee attacks, which allows you to tank hard hitting melee monsters.
The helmet provides good defense and looks cool.
The riot shield is, at the moment, the best shield available in game. It is a "real" shield, designed to block attacks, unlike the improvised ones, so it is quite efficient.

Ghastley wrote:
Charietto prefers any equipment or costume being available to the player, which is why there's so much strangely gender-specific stuff, like towels.

True. Knowing how the twisted mind of a player work, restricting the use of some items would have ended up with people asking for the items to be made available for player's characters too. So they have been made available from the start.

Sharkull wrote:
What about the "improvised shields"?

Ghastley wrote:
Shields aren't too useful in this siegelet as too many of the weapons are two-handed, but there are a few one-handed weapons. Since they don't do a lot of damage compared to the two-handed ones, you need a shield with them to survive until you get enough hits in!

The improvised shields are just early gear, like other early improvised weapons (stones, farm implement and tools, etc...) In our contemporary world, there are not that many shields available! As some wannabe melee fighters would probably want to use a one handed melee weapon with a shield, I had to find some items that could be used as shields.
There are a bunch of one handed melee weapons, but just a few ranged ones (all the thrown weapons are one handed). As thrown weapons have a very short range, they're best used as a secondary weapon for a mainly melee character.
Otherwise, of course, one handed melee weapons are doing less damages than two handed ones (like in base DS, at about the same ratio). For the same reasons a ranged character should carry a couple different guns, a melee fighter should carry a couple different weapons, to adapt his style to the monsters faced.

Sharkull wrote:
Gold Nuggets

Ghastley wrote:
Gold nuggets are just there to be sold to buy better guns

That's it.

Sharkull wrote:
Rags

Ghastley wrote:
Rags are a mystery to me, too. They have been known to cause crashes, so there may be an intended use that doesn't work!

Rags are just that: rags. They are a bad piece of clothing destined to be worn as a bad piece of clothing.
I needed some suited clothes for a couple NPCs, and I thought that rags would look ok on them. They have no other intended use. If they had a use and weren't working, they would not have been implemented until fixed.
What caused a crash back in v1.2 is that they were flagged as: "is_droppable = false;" in their .gas file. They were just supposed to be worn by NPCs, and not drop as they are useless for players. But it doesn't seem to be possible to flag a body armor or robe as "is_droppable = false;", or saved games made after you killed the mob wearing them crash. It's possible to flag boots as undroppable, but not robes. No special reason except that we're speaking about DS, and that kind of thing is all too common when you mod that game.

Sharkull wrote:
Chair leg

Ghastley wrote:
Chair leg may burn like a branch does, but since you get the branch first, I never tested that.

Right, it may be used as a substitute for branch, or be used as is. As the first part can be played both as SP and MP, I had to provide enough starting stuff for multiple players.

Sharkull wrote:
Also, I couldn't get one of the spells to work

Ghastley wrote:
At least one of the "summon/call" spells needs a non-terrain target, IIRC, so you may just not have pointed it at anyone.

What Ghastley said. You can try by putting your character in auto attack. It works ok for me, so I'm not sure what should be wrong with it.

Sharkull's picture

I realize now that I could have used a certain spell to combat the difficult creatures... You can't really complete the first chapter without it, and I don't know why I didn't think to use it there.

RE: potentially not finding something helpful from a random drop... I can remember a couple significant battles I only went through once, so that's certainly a possibility.

I know who "Audrey" was supposed to represent, but thought there might be more. (Meat/food + gardening skill + Audrey = ??? :P ).

I'm pretty sure I tried a few things with that summon spell, without success. Perhaps I'm mistaken. :? Not sure I tried it on auto attack though, as you suggest.

I've been through a large number of times with multiple characters and apart from the initial problems with a vital ingredient not dropping at all (since fixed) I don't remember any significant variations in the drops from unique mobs.

Charietto's picture

... and the mob has 15% chance to drop it. So it may require several attempts. It's not a must have, but would be helpful versus some monsters.

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