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The Mine of Malan Vael

== The Mine of Malan Vael ==

Explore the mine of Malan Vael and unravel its sinister secret.

The Mine of Malan Vael is a complete Grimrock mod featuring a new tileset made from scratch.

ATTENTION: If you've started a game using v1.3 of the mod, then updated to 1.4 and didn't solve the 'serve the dinner' puzzle yet you have to start over. I'm sorry for that, but for technical reasons it's not possible to solve the puzzle anymore with that 'version mix'. Since it's less than 10% of the dungeon it shouldn't be much of a problem though I hope.


= Installation =

Put the .dat file into your dungeons folder (My Documents\Almost Human\Legend of Grimrock\Dungeons). Start the game and click on 'Custom Dungeon', then select 'The Mine of Malan Vael'.



= Gameplay Information =

This mod is complete and was extensively tested. Of course I can't promise it's 100% bug free, but it should be close (apart from some minor 'known issues', see below). There are 5 levels to explore and the average play time should be somewhere between 3 and 4 hours.

The overall combat difficulty of this mod is quite high and the good, old 'hit and strafe' tactic will often not work. If you thought the original game was challenging you may want to play this on easy difficulty on your first playthrough. I don't recommend playing on hard difficulty on your first playthrough at all. Some important things to keep in mind while playing:

1. Secret areas are important, if you miss too many and play on normal or hard difficulty it will be very hard to survive.

2. Food is not overabundant like in the original game. Don't eat when you don't have to (eg eating a large food item to bring a character from 75% to 100% food level is not a good idea) and don't sleep when you don't have to (if just one character is seriously hurt it may be a good idea to simply use a health potion instead).

3. You will often get ambushed, so don't walk into an unexplored area without preparation. Make sure your characters are on (almost) full health and energy, get healing potions and bombs ready for use. Running away IS an option.

4. Last but not least, save often. I tried to place healing crystals in places where they make sense and help, but you can't have a healing crystal everywhere.



= Known bugs and issues =

- Ballista string doesn't move. This is because I couldn't export the weight painted model correctly. As soon as a stable, fully functional export is possible I will fix this.

- iron doors opened don't show up on the statistics screen. This is a bug with the editor, iron doors aren't counted in custom dungeons



= Credits =

Akroma222 for writing the Intro text and correcting/improving the notes I've written (and for beta testing)

John Wordsworth for the Grimrock Model Toolkit and beta testing

Xanathar for the Animation Editor

Kuningas for the Molt and Cultist creatures

Wallasaurus for the 3ds max export script

Ixnatifual for the tome descriptions

The Grimrock modding community for helping whenever I had a scripting question (you know who you are...I hope)

Almost Human for making an awesome game


I'm sorry that not all of you appear in the in-game credits (namely Kuningas, Wallasaurus and Ixnatiful), but it was a bit complicated to set up and it would have taken too much time to add more names. It's just a joke anyway, simply consider yourself part of the 'Grimrock community'. :P



= Changelog =

v1.4:

- fixed bug (caused by an engine update) that would mess up the position of the emergency vent light in the contaminated area
- added a tiny bit more food (4 food items in total) and another sack
- put a snail slice in front of the not-so-secret button that opens the 'food chamber' close the 'serve the dinner' puzzle so it should be impossible to miss
- fixed bug where the level 5 axe was 'Norja' from the original game and not my custom 'Great Axe' entry with adjusted stats
- 'Serve the dinner' puzzle was adjusted so it's more obvious what to do, you only need 2 food items instead of 4 and it looks better now (no more stacking food on the same spot)

v1.3:

- fixed minor bug with pickaxe, in the inventory it would show a required axe skill of 0 (which is pointless)
- short bow now has a required missile weapons skill of 5 (instead of no requirement)
- fixed bug where you could shoot projectiles through the destructible wall in the boss room before destroying it
- made the 'from midnight to noon' puzzle easier by adding a hint
- made the 'pitfall' puzzle a bit easier by slightly increasing the time the trapdoors stay closed
- added a note in front of the gate in the chasm area on level 2 to make 100% sure the player notices the two pressure plates
- fixed bug where ogre couldn't reach a spot
- reduced number of steps in step sequence puzzle on level 4 from 25 to 19
- slightly improved visuals for step sequence puzzle on level 4
- placed ballista arrow in front of the ballista so you can't miss it anymore
- fixed 'known issue' where looping sound effects from level 4 could be heard on level 5 as well unless you reload (thanks to Batty for finding a better approach)

v1.2:

- fixed two typos
- ogre is now scripted to walk on the correct path, he will follow the player no matter what and not get confused due to AI behavior
- fixed a bug that made the game crash when you hastily clicked multiple times on the trigger of the ballista when shooting
- fixed bug that prevented you from placing items in front of alcoves that are facing east or west

v1.1:

- greatly reduced file size by removing unnecessary files from the dat file
- doors of first pressure plate puzzle will now stay open forever after the puzzle was solved, no matter what you do
- second secret room was moved, it's easier to find now (both the button and the room) and the snail will respawn more reliably in case you run out of food for the 'serve the dinner' puzzle
- Malik now explicitly mentions the use of frost bombs in the note that lies in front of the ogre room on level 3
- made the 'four times four' puzzle on level 4 easier by filling one alcove with appropriate items
- put another safety check into the ballista script to prevent any odd crashing issues



= Terms of Use =

The mine tileset is a modders resource. I only ask for three things if you want to mod with it:

1. Give credits.

2. Don't upload the source files package or the mod itself to other sites without permission.

3. Use the assets only in Grimrock mods and don't try to sell them.