ZARISTA GAMES’ CURSED STONE EXPANSION FOR REDSHIFT’S THE QUEST OPEN BETATESTING Hi, everyone-- we need a few beta testers for our new Quest expansion. Discussions will be here in this thread. Here are some screenshots: The Quest – Cursed Stone is an expansion for Redshift’s the Quest. The Quest is a beautifully hand-drawn, enchanting and immersive first-person role-playing game, where you can explore, talk to npc’s, fatten your inventory, gamble at cards, fight and go on quests. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s turn-based and similar to Eye of the Beholder. I don’t want to overuse the words “old school”, but old school it is. The story-The sea wind carries the sound of Banshees' wailing or is it the keening of murdered innocents whose deaths need to be avenged? The Fishermen's Fairweather Stone is cursed and the villagers are starving because their luck has turned bad. You don’t need to own The Quest or The Quest Gold to test—we test a pre-generated character in the stand-alone game which is geared for about level 16. The game should work on iPhone/iPad and iPod Touch from 6.0 up. The expansion should be available in February or March 2016. We have the following beta testers currently: Nullzone (Nulzon the Historian – in-game) Aconfusedkender Gondel516 DeMenchev on PC Liz currently on PC Old Shaman on PC Pedsipec currently on PC We would love to have a few more testers for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. Testing for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch will use Testflight and if you’re interested, please pm me your email address so I can forward it to Elendil. The beta is ready. He just has to ready it for iPhone and load it into Testflight which should take no longer than a week. The rewards for testing are: Your room in the Astrologers’ Guild and a plaque with your name on the door. You can have an item or items named after you. You can have a quest if you like. I have some to assign but you are also welcome to design your own if you wish — if I can code it. Nullzone and DeMenchev are designing their own quests. And of course you get your name in lights in the Credits. We need your feedback for the following: Typos Balance of the monsters and balance of items like weapons, armor, accessories, etc. Places where a hint could help. Do you keep getting the same item over and over when you shouldn’t? Do you get the item you found in your inventory? Did you get and finish the right quest? Glitches like being cornered by a monster you can’t kill and you can’t get out of the dungeon. Crashes.-Elendil will direct you what to send him. We would love it if we could get about 5 or 6 more testers. If you're interested, please post here and pm me your email address if I don't already have it. Please don't post your email address here. Thanks very much.
Thanks! It's looking good. I just finished the good and bad endings. I got elected Chieftain of Cloud Island--good ending! : ) Not going to tell you what else you can do as it would spoil the fun.
Thanks Catacomber! I've always wanted a quest named after me!!! It's going to have to be a fools quest to keep with tradition (; but one that has something very "special" at the end
Here is DeMenchev's ideas for his Quest: "My idea of a quest is a weird one: first DeMenchev explains mitochondria briefly in a branched dialogue, because I love all that cellular level stuff. Then it turns out that as he's aware, his magic microscope (that's much more convenient and powerful than possible in real life) could be much better if only he could get his hands on strange materials found in the most dangerous places on the island with which he can make a better microscope so he can discover something incredible and share it with the player as another easy to understand brief explanation of something weird yet real. He'll give some stuff that the hero can use too I'll write the dialogue text and send it to you, Cat. You could start adding everything else: search for some interesting things (not chemistry things, unless you really like it) on the internet that can fit into a quest like this, or leave everything to me if it doesn't interest you very much I'd also like to come up with a quest for Cursed Stone that has to do with Astronomy and maybe telescopes. That's gonna be crazy and awesome. Check out this text (not complicated): waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/4-mind-blowing-things-about-stars.html and this waitbutwhy.com/2014/11/1000000-grahams-number.html Can you add a dialogue with such facts/numbers in perspective if you like them?" That blog he linked to Wait but Why is very interesting. I subscribed. He's asked for feedback on his quest ideas. "Anybody reading this, do you like those ideas or don't and want them to change by collaborating." I know Nullzone has his ideas involving navigation and I added an Astrolabe for him.
Thanks! Dreadnok added. : ) You can design your own quest or I'll provide you with one. JT added. I need to know everyone's in-game Race and whether your avatar is male or female for your npc. Thanks very much!
Nulzon the Historian is a human male in his 40s. If you have a portrait with spectacles and graying temples, even better As for his quest: I still didn't get past the idea stage, too busy with family life. If I don't get anywhere within the next 2 days or so, I'm perfectly happy with a simple fetch quest, e.g.: "Can you go to merchant X in town Y and pick up the new Astrolabe I ordered? I am too laz... the stars aren't right for me travelling until mid of next week, and I need it before that. I paid in advance, so money's not the problem. Here's some for your expenses, and an introductory letter. If you strike a chord with (merchant X), he might even let you buy one of his works, or make something for you." --> Could be a chart that helps with navigation, or something like that, giving a small boost to a skill. Need to fire up The Quest again to see which skills are available.
Guess we could tie in somewhere? I wouldn't be surprised if the materials for the microscope can be used to make better telescope lenses, too. Some kind of special magically-treated glass, maybe? How non-modern is the Astronomy in Quest? E.g. could a Quest Astronomer conclude from planetary orbits that there must be another planet out there? Like it happened in our world with the discovery of Neptune from irregularities in Uranus' orbit. With the fancy new gadgets and a new planet/star or two, we can finally calculate correctly when the stars are really right and awaken Cthulhu and rise R'Lyeh Nulzon's fancy new Astrolabe - which allows for more precise measurements than older models - could be used to find R'Lyeh's location.
Sure. At some point could you let me know if you're a Nogur, Seiry, Rasvim, Derth or Etherim? I realize this is busy times for people. We'll probably be testing late or at least mid into January so if you want to change anything I put in you can. I'll try to make it a little more complicated than a fetch quest--maybe the astrolabe needs something special to make it work after you get it. And maybe it can be magicked into being more powerful.
I have these unassigned quests if anyone is interested. Coat of Arms-For _______, find the seven pieces of his coat of arms that were scattered throughout Devil’s Hind Quarters. Find Bones For________, find Davie MacNash’s father’s bones in Coulter’s Cave. Rescue the Villagers For_______, rescue the 3 Villagers who have been entombed in the Coal Mines.
Current quest list sent to testers via email in doc and pdf format. Check your spam. Will be adding to it. Thanks for testing! Will eventually need to know what kind of item or items you want to give the player--named after you. I haven't put the credits in yet but hope to get there before you finish the game. Waiting on that to see who all we have. I know this is a busy time for people with family and the holidays--we'll be testing probably well into January and if anyone is interested to test please don't hesitate to ask. I can probably squeeze in another quest or a shop. No one ever asked to have a monster named after them but that's also possible. : D
Got an idea for a quest! Something about having a dangerous pet that went crazy attacked some people and ran off! Could it have the texture of the tiger from mithril horde 2? I don't know if this is possible, but make the player fight him in stages, like after you beat him, say he ran off to another area with pop up dialogue. After every battle he could get stronger, and maybe tie in with DeMenchev, like he ate a piece of the microscope! P.S I am a nogur, but can play as a rasvim it needed! P.P.S. Don't have dialogue yet, either today or tomorrow.
There are no Tigers in the first version you get because Elendil already has the file, but . . . Now Tigers can roam Cloud Island although I'm sure the Chieftain would have caught and killed them and mounted their heads on the castle wall. I can't add any more monsters now but the Tiger is in and your quest is good. Send me your dialogues or post them here when you're ready. Thanks! It's a good quest. It can tie in with DeMenchev's quest--it can also tie in maybe with a reward you get for doing one of the giants' quests. You get a sword--and each time you add one of five jewels, it gets stronger. So maybe you progressively need a stronger one of these swords to kill the Tiger. Does he have a name? And need to know what reward you want to give. Thanks.
In fact, the Tiger fits in. Cloud Island is loosely patterned on the Isle of Skye and has some Scottish flavor to it--there is a Scottish wild cat called the Highland Tiger that has a lot of folklore surrounding it. http://www.academia.edu/3566764/The_Highland_Tiger_Scotlands_Critically_Endangered_Wildcat "Because of its temperament and brute strength, the Highland Tiger has a long standing reputation as a beast not to be trifled with." Sounds like your guy! And that article gives me some ideas for some small books to add to increase your stats. ; D
I think there can be a tie in. The members of the Astrology Guild have knowledge beyond the mere mortals of the island. I have to google R'Lyeh unless fictional but we certainly can wake 'em up. So this will replace your fetcher quest that I did not yet put in. It's a good quest. And if we have to call on the stars to find R'Lyeh if the conjugations of the planets permit, we can. Holy Macaroni! R'Lyeh (name possibly will be changed in Cursed Stone slightly until I can check if it's in the public domain-- is a lost city-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%27lyeh Can we call it Corpse City? We have to find this! : D "a coast-line of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror—the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh...loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours."
You really never heard of R'Lyeh before? Seems you like what you found so far, so go delve deeper into the Mythos and say goodbye to your sanity . Lovecraft is extremely weird, and absolutely worth the read. "Corpse City"? I'd guess that's what the commoners call it, in legends and whispered tales. Learned scholars like the Astrologers would have a different name for it. Is the whole area inspired by Scotland / Isle of Skye, or just Cloud Island specifically? Have to dig around a bit if I can find any suitable legends from that area. Found something else: http://fairyroom.com/2013/02/fairies-of-isle-of-skye/ The fairy pools sound interesting. Small feature that could be dropped anywhere suitable; maybe one is even home to a Selkie... Oh, and just saw this in your first post: "Fishermen's Fairweather Stone". Still being on the Lovecraft roll, I immediately thought of Dagon. I can recommend the movie: on the low-budget side, but I found it brings the typical Mythos atmosphere across very well.
Lyonesse sounds too much like a happy place, so I'll skip that Ys is Breton, but sounds interesting enough. Cantre'r_Gwaelod and Llys_Helig are Welsh, not Scottish, but still a good start.
