Since so many people have emailed me asking for a release date I think maybe I'd better do a progress log too.
The Ice Mansions follow on directly from "The Return", which will be the first 9 levels. However things haven't gone too fast with part 2. The plan is as follows:

Caves of Glass: Managed to sort out a nasty bug which made the background go peculiar. The secrets and traps are in place but I haven't put any enemies in yet.

Mountain Pass: Mostly finished, one or two bugs to sort out in conversations.

Dilemma: All exits in place and accessible but not much else done.

Double Trouble: Boss section works quite well, rest not finished.

Most of the other level layouts and exits are done but nothing else.

The basic plan is in place. However I am finding that there is a serious shortage of hours in the average day. I think I'll need a forty-eight hour day, and a twenty four day week in order to get this finished this side of Easter.

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Liz the Wiz:)

There are two rules for ultimate success in life. (1) Never tell everything you know.

I haven't done much on Ice Mansions because I have been beta testing Orthographic Universe which is totally brilliant!

I think I'm going to have to remake most of my levels - they don't even come close.

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Liz the Wiz:)

There are two rules for ultimate success in life. (1) Never tell everything you know.

Quote

Originally posted by lizwiz:
**I haven't done much on Ice Mansions because I have been beta testing Orthographic Universe which is totally brilliant!

I think I'm going to have to remake most of my levels - they don't even come close.

**

"Totally Brilliant" she says! :eek: Well, you all will find out if you agree very shortly...

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(url="http://"http://www.darkstorm.knkonline.net")Darkstorm Productions: Home of Ferazel's Wand: Orthographic Universe, MacBrickout: Pandemonium, and StarCraft-Battlefield: Sol(/url). (Coming soon) | (url="http://"http://www.PetitionOnline.com/staredit/petition.html")Help Bring StarEdit, StarCraft's editor, to Mac OS X!(/url)
"The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a mac."

Whilst everything has been quiet here I've been working on the Ice Mansions

Caves of Glass is now finished. I had a problem caused by the V blade. It kept on opening all the switches in the level beneath. Strategic placing of hidden boulders has sorted that.

Mountain Pass: Mostly finished, conversations now OK (I think).

Dilemma: All exits in place and accessible but not much else done. The secret exit on this is going to be impossible to find

Double Trouble: A double Boss level, now finished

The Endless Stair: Originally intended to be going up, but now appears to be going down. Not sure how that happened - it may change again.

Snow Joke: This one is going to be about as nasty as I can make it

The rest are still in the melting pot

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Liz the Wiz:)

There are two rules for ultimate success in life. (1) Never tell everything you know.

Quote

Originally posted by lizwiz:
**Whilst everything has been quiet here I've been working on the Ice Mansions

**

Whilst everything has been quiet here, I've been playing Diablo II. I'd better go work on my Ice levels.

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(url="http://"http://darkstorm.knkonline.net")Darkstorm Productions: (/url). Home of Ferazel's Wand: Orthographic Universe, MacBrickout: Pandemonium, and StarCraft-Battlefield: Sol | (url="http://"http://www.PetitionOnline.com/staredit/petition.html")Help Bring StarEdit, StarCraft's editor, to Mac OS X!(/url)
"The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a mac."

Wow I finally started looking at my levels again. After only four months.

The story line has finally taken off at last and I now know what I'm doing - unfortunately that means scrapping most of the levels I've already started (or mothballing them) and re-inventing the wheel whilst I'm at it. However Caves of Glass and Mountain Pass have now been completed and I have worked out the plan for the next episode of the Return.

Um again!

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Liz the Wiz:)

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

Youch! I didn't realise how long it was since I last updated this. Here goes

The story so far:-

The Return:
Ferazel has been searching the Home Caverns for the remnant of his people to send them back to their homeland after the death of Xichera. He finds that there are a lot more enemies left than he had thought - and their numbers seem to be increasing. Finally he comes to the Caves of Glass at the very edge of "Home Territory" where he encounters an old aquaintance who tells him a strange story and gives him a new quest:

The Ice Mansions:
In the confusion of the first goblin invasion the Mirror of Jeneriel was broken. Only one shard of the mirror remains the rest are scattered throughout the Ice Mansions. Up till now this fact has been kept secret - whilst members of the council of Elders searched for the missing peices. But the secret is out and one by one the elders have disappeared. Ferazel must collect the ten shards of Jeneriel and the frame in order to reconstruct the mirror which is the source of power for the Habnabits. Without the mirror the habnabits of Teraknorn will die or be enslaved by the new leader of the Mandatrakki - and the Mandatrakki are looking for the shards too...

Work done so far:-

Level 10: Caves of Glass. Pekew Lear gives Ferazel his task. Finished
Level 11: Mountain Pass. Ferazel gets information about the Mirror. Finished
Level 12: Dilemma: Ferazel has to decide which is the way forward. Layout, basics and exits done.
Level 13: Ice Crazy: A small but difficult passage which has to be negotiated. Not started
Level 14: Double Trouble: Boss level. nearly finished.
Level 15: Eastern Passage: Not started
Level 16: The Walls of Ice: Layout and basics.
Level 17: The Valley of destruction: Not started
Level 18: Arachnophobia: Not started
Level 19: The Endless Stair: Not started
Level 20: The Dungeons of Madregore: Boss level. Layout only.

It's entirely possible that some of the "not started" levels will change their names and their position in the list: This is still only a rough draft except for the first three levels.

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Liz the Wiz:)

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

The trouble with having more than one computer is that you also have more than one version of your latest level. I do think however that six copies was a bit excessive. I've finally sorted out my Ferazel's Wand folders and reduced them down to a reasonable level (only 600 Mb) by deleting all the duplictes and throwing away all the stuff that I've finished with. Now I think its clear enough to get on and actually do something produtive to the Ice Mansions which is about to be renamed - you probably guessed it - "The Shards of Jenariel"

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Liz the Wiz:)

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

Quote

Originally posted by cat99:
**------------------
Darkstorm Productions: Home of Ferazel's Wand: Orthographic Universe, MacBrickout: Pandemonium, and StarCraft-Battlefield: Sol | Help Bring StarEdit, StarCraft's editor, to Mac OS X!
"The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a mac."
**

about your signature, i hate to break this to you but StarEdit already works on OS X

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Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are not even capable of forming such opinions.

Quote

Originally posted by Salrillian:
**about your signature, i hate to break this to you but StarEdit already works on OS X
**

And the post was made in April.

---Zelda

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STILL a proud member of WIRP
--------
Heck is a place that's reserved for people that don't believe in Gosh.

Quote

Originally posted by Zelda:
**And the post was made in April.:)

---Zelda

**

Well, i checked his petition and he still only has like 90 posts, like 40 of them dont know what 'staredit' is, so i figured he would probably like to know.

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Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are not even capable of forming such opinions.

(This message has been edited by Salrillian (edited 01-10-2003).)

I' finally seem to have got over the problems with Dilemma and things seem to be moving again - at last. I'm still not entirely happy with it but it is beginning to come together.

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Liz the Wiz:)

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

Quote

Originally posted by Salrillian:
**about your signature, i hate to break this to you but StarEdit already works on OS X

**

Not natively. Using it in classic is very slow.

Heh, I don't really care about StarEdit coming to X--I have Warcraft's World Editor now.

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(url="http://"http://darkstorm.knkonline.net")Darkstorm Productions: (/url). Home of Ferazel's Wand: Orthographic Universe, MacBrickout: Pandemonium, and StarCraft-Battlefield: Sol | (url="http://"http://www.PetitionOnline.com/staredit/petition.html")Help Bring StarEdit, StarCraft's editor, to Mac OS X!(/url)
"The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a mac."

Quote

Originally posted by cat99:
**Not natively. Using it in classic is very slow.

Heh, I don't really care about StarEdit coming to X--I have Warcraft's World Editor now.

**

Yeah same, but have you tried making triggers on War3 world editor? Its totally impossible, though you can do some awesome things if you actually have the patience.

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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are not even capable of forming such opinions."
Albert Einstein

(This message has been edited by Salrillian (edited 01-13-2003).)

Dilemma is finished ready for testing and so is Ice Crazy. Double Trouble only needs some conversations and it will be finished too. Unfortunately I had to throw away Walls of Ice because it was complete rubbish. I shall have to rethink that whole area and change the map layout. I have been working on it a lot in the last few days - If I can keep this up I'll have the whole thing finished (at least for beta testing) by the end of the month.

Wow! that's what I said originally. How did that happen. Wel actually originally it was supposed to be January last year.

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Liz the Wiz:)

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

The first five levels are completed and have been shipped out for beta testing. I am currently working on Estern Passage.

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Liz the Wiz:)

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

Work done so far:-

Level 10: Caves of Glass. Pekew Lear gives Ferazel his task. Finished
Level 11: Mountain Pass. Ferazel gets information about the Mirror. Finished
Level 12: Dilemma: Ferazel has to decide which is the way forward. Finished
Level 13: Ice Crazy: A small but difficult passage which has to be negotiated. Finished
Level 14: Double Trouble: Boss level. Finished
Level 15: Eastern Passage: All layout exits traps and secrets done. Just needs prettying up a bit
Level 16: The Walls of Ice: Now "Walls of Stone" (I'm sick of ice levels). Layout (a maze) and exits done.
Level 17: The Valley of destruction: Now the "Plains of Despondency" Background, layout and exits done.
Level 18: Arachnophobia: Not started
Level 19: The Endless Stair: Not started
Level 20: The Dungeons of Madregore: Boss level. Layout only.

I think I'm beginning to get the hang of the PX Mids at last - that is to say with a bit of fiddling I can generally get something to show. It seems to be amazingly complex however and as yet I can see the connection between the dimensions I use and the finished article. At least I managed to get them working on Eastern Passage which makes the level much more interesting.

I think the deadline may have slipped a month.
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Liz the Wiz

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

(This message has been edited by lizwiz (edited 02-02-2003).)

Eastern Passage is now totally finished.
Walls of Stone is progressing very well - my only problem with it is I am rapidly running out of sprites, I'm very pleased with the way its going however It's turned out to be a large labyrinth type maze with loads of rock barriers to complicate matters.

The big end boss is causing me some grief however. It doesn't want to stay in the right place.

Deadline seems to have slipped again. OK so we're probably talking Easter here.
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Liz the Wiz

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

(This message has been edited by lizwiz (edited 02-18-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by lizwiz:
**The big end boss is causing me some grief however. It doesn't want to stay in the right place.
**

What boss is it?
MDwarrier, Gob. cheif, MDwizard,Fire gaurdians, or Xircha?

The boss is probably causing you greif because it's so large and flashes as if touched at least two inches from it's outline. It happens with axe and shield goblins.

-Ferazel_999

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Quote

Originally posted by Ferazel_999:
**What boss is it?:D
MDwarrier, Gob. cheif, MDwizard,Fire gaurdians, or Xircha?

The boss is probably causing you greif because it's so large and flashes as if touched at least two inches from it's outline. It happens with axe and shield goblins.

-Ferazel_999

**

It's the Fire Guardians! I can get them the right distance apart but they don't seem to want to stay in the right position horizontally. They came out too low when I tested the boss so I moved them up the corresponding number of places - only this time they came out exactly where I put them - ie too high.

------------------
Liz the Wiz:)

I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.