legoless wrote:
I've never seen that sprite for Varus before, so I'll be sure to upload it soon.
He actually appears to have a different far-away sprite than the other enemies in the game, too. (Zombies, prisoners, and overseers all look a little different at a distance, but Varus seems to have his own.) Here's both of those.
http://i*imgur*com/Qcl371L*pngAlso of note is that periodically throughout the game Varus will terrify you by showing up right in the middle of your base camp, and give threatening dialogue about what happens to prisoners if they don't hand over crystals. This happened to me a few times, seemingly when I'd cleared out a wing of the dungeon, although I can't be sure what it was tied to. I am not entirely sure that it's the same sprite because I never thought to screencap him there (I was usually too distracted that he was where I'm used to passing through).
legoless wrote:
If you wouldn't mind answering a couple of questions, a walkthrough could actually begin to take form.
That's my #1 goal. UESP has been a stellar resource for me over the years and I'd like to make it even better, if that's possible.
legoless wrote:
How does the corruption mechanic work? Do NPCs just get corrupted randomly? Does it block their services? Where do you get Hollow Crystals?
As best as I can tell you... the corruption mechanic did not seem to be implemented at all for me in Stormhold. If it is, I never once encountered it happening to NPCs. I'd read about it happening so I know what you're referring to, and indeed the crystals I came across would say they were "filled", but every crystal I found in the game is "filled". Dark Aura crystals are filled but also apparently usable. It says "kill monster" for their effect, I have no idea what this means as it's never really done something noticeable for me.
I popped back and forth to the other NPCs in camp constantly, giving them stuff and being friendly and training skills, and never once was I denied their "services" due to corruption. Although only two of them actually provide services, Helga with magic services in exchange for crystals, and Beneca in the northwest who you trade other items to in exchange for crystals (usually in my case I picked Experience crystals although he will give you whatever crystals in the game exist apart from the final one).
Beneca's crystals are all exchangeable for any three items, no matter what they are.
It's possible that I didn't play "long enough"? I certainly didn't explore all four wings of the dungeon all the way. I did at least clear out half of the place looking for stuff; I probably played 6+ hours total over several days. There are several diseases that I caught, like Stone Blood, Grievous Harm, and a couple of others aside from the more general Blind or Haunted. No idea what some of them did. Helga was happy to cure them.
legoless wrote:
When do Helga's rumors trigger (e.g. "Excavation in the south has opened new tunnels")? Are these areas blocked beforehand?
She seems to trigger them based on the number of treasure chests I opened, but I could be wrong. According to my final stat count I found 66 "gift points" (which, as best as I can tell, is just keeping track of how good of a gift-giver you are) and I'd estimate that she probably told me about 6 times of new tunnels. I'm not sure if that's related.
You do not need to excavate all the way forward for her to find new tunnels as sometimes I'd still be going north, warping back and forth to drop stuff off, and she'd tell me about new tunnels in the west, south, and then north again if I kept finding things. The excavation is random and can be the same direction. She DOES give you a different message "There has been a breakthrough in the [direction]. Varus is on his way to the Storm Crystal in the XX (mine does not give the dungeon name). Please Hurry! You must stop him." when that time comes, so I skipped some wings of the dungeon altogether and headed that way... and she was right, I found him eventually.
Those areas are indeed blocked off beforehand. Early in the game this is easier to find, where you'll clear out one area of the dungeon and there'll be a noticeable tunnel that just ends; later on if tunnels open in that direction, that's the tunnel they continue from.
legoless wrote:
Does Varus only appear once all the tunnels have opened, or is it related to crystal collection? Where does he appear (e.g. first zone of third dungeon in whatever random direction)?
You do NOT have to clear every tunnel, no. I never once went east. I can boot up my file and head east and there's super weak monsters and crappy treasures waiting for me one block over that way. It must be crystal collection. As to what zone... Helga gives you the direction, hang on let me backtrack a bit.
Dungeon Camp -> Charred Walls -> Charnel House -> The Ashes -> Acolyte's Plea -> Priest Hole -> Last Rites -> Stormhold Refuge -> All's Lost -> Varus' Victory
9 blocks removed from the Dungeon Camp. Assuming I have the "biggest" version that purports to have 36 dungeons, then that makes sense for 9 in each cardinal direction, despite them not being laid out directly in those cardinal directions.
Varus just turns up as an enemy in that dungeon BTW. I didn't see that coming. Next to him was a treasure chest so I was headed for the blue dot and then HERE HE COMES. Honestly he was so hard that for a minute I wasn't sure if I just needed to get past him and open the chest, so I did, but it was just a regular chest with a crummy scroll inside.
legoless wrote:
Once you kill Varus, what do you do with the Storm Crystal? Is it activated like a chest, walked over like a teleporter, or attacked like an enemy?
Varus soaked up magic spells like a sponge for a while. I was playing as a Battlemage and my Destruction got up to 80 by this point in the game, so I could pretty much wipe out everything I was coming across with Damage and Doom Hammer spells. I noted that some enemies late-game were either absorbing my spells or draining my magic because I'd cast it once on some things and my magic would take a huge hit for seemingly no reason.
After like five minutes of luring Varus, casting magic and stepping back, then running away and healing and coming back, he finally died. (Could be he's immune to Doom Hammer, which is interesting.) Where he stood a moment before is that giant crystal. You step on it like a teleporter and it leads to the victory screens.
legoless wrote:
If you're interested in helping out, you should definitely register on the wiki. We have a
project for finishing off the Java applet games.
I bought an N-Gage off eBay a few days ago with hopes of playing the rest of TES Travels in one easy place. If there's anything else I can answer let me know, and I'll definitely register on the wiki sometime this week
I can probably provide lots of the Battlespire screenshots y'all are asking for as I also beat that recently, and I recorded the entirety of floors 5 and 7.