catacomber.com : : ride the light

Suggested by hazarex at Touch Arcade and I think it's a wonderful idea:

"Hey all you quest fans out there I am offering you a great opportunity. For the first time in the quests history YOU can design a boss monster.

Catacomber is the one running the comp so either send in your descriptions or pics if you like to draw at www.catacomber.com. I believe Cat will open up a new thread on his site just for this comp so put them there. Or you can just leave him description as a pm or visitor message on his page.

The winning monster will be seen in a future expansion (probably HOLV but I am not sure). So dont delay, get designing."

This is the new thread. If you're interested, post here or contact me here.

The new boss will be in HOLV.

Hey everybody and Cat hazarex is here(btw cat you can spread messages fast) and im going to give the first entry so everyone can follow suite. My idea is a Drakel style thing with a dragon head, orc teeth, Wings, no tail, green shorts and t-shirt, Ram horns and the drakel is orange. enjoy.I am sure there will be ones way better than that hut that is my idea.

Welcome, hazarex! For anyone who doesn't know (like me) what a drakel looks like, here's a pic from AdventureQuest- a cross between human and dragon, one of Lore's most advanced race .:




So I can imagine such a creature as you describe hazarex. Thank you for the first entry!

But of course your entry is a modified version to avoid exact duplication. Maybe at some point you could make a drawing. : )

Drakel looks in better shape than Norbert! Norbert looks like he could lose a few pounds if you do a pose down.

My feeling is, that Argimon is the only one who can design the "boss of bosses" creature. As same as Cat is the only one who can design:
- a weapon to defeat it.
- a condition to deal with it.
- a condition to became an evil for long, looong, looooong...... long time.

With every respect, broono, I don't think Argimon would have any problem supporting a 16 year old's creative idea of new development in the HOL expansions. Argimon was given his chance to be creative in the HOL expansions, he took it to great heights and I don't think he would take it away from anyone else. : ) He's a good guy despite his umm reputation.

Besides, Argimon is making his own expansion with its own new evil, I don't think he's going to care what the new evil is in HOLV. And I know he would be happy if it's author was a creative player.

So the contest is wide open. Except to Dr. Vlad and me and anyone in our families or acquaintances.

I don't want to give away the end of HOLIV to anyone who hasn't played it but there is room for a new evil. : ) And one that doesn't displace the old one.

A boss of all bosses doesn't rule out Kozney the Deathless--it just becomes a new, powerful minion as we had in HOLI with the Blue Alpawit. A minion should have its day--I think it's written in the minion's contract. : )

I wish someone would come up with a great female boss! I can't draw for anything otherwise would suggest a big crystal type female boss that kicks ass with hurling ice shards. She would be riding a skate board that is pure crystal ice but for the sake of the Quest it wouldn't have to look like a skate board but a whirly wind type thing she rides on.

I will get working on a drawing as soon as i can.

Despite the fact that this thread is about drawing or describing a final creature, I actually thought that Argimon's alter ego in the game would create the best creature ever. Previously he had Norbert as his pet, but it was not created by magic. It was born and trained to obey Argimon. Now it's time to create something else, what this world has not seen yet. Created by Great Magic Powers. It would be the final duel between Argimon's and Cat's powers.

BTW, do you still have your rock, Cat?

Lol, broono, I got it in Mithril Horde. Not through any generosity on Argimon's part. Btw, for those of you who don't know the story behind the story, Argimon and I are very good friends in the real world but in Quest world, I am in constant trouble of being captured and imprisoned by Argimon-who knows why?

Btw, Broono, if we had a redesign Catacomber's avatar contest, since my old one was neither fresh nor original--it was Pokemon! and although it was sweet, you probably still would have won. cause I really like it! Even though it looks like I would rather eat you than help you. : ) Lol!

But let's focus on the this contest. I needa boss.

Hmmm... What about... Golem?

OK, if you want to be an official entrant in contest, need more description. A drawing would really be a big help.

Here is the picture of Prague's Golem.
But unfortunately it is not my drawing.

He should attack by flames comming from his eyes.

Hey Cat,
How about this? It's something I drew a while back, and although it's off the beaten path, as far as the style for HOL goes,I thought that the concept of Twin Bosses was unique for this; their mode of attack could be that while one drains mana, the other could drain hp's.

These are all great! Keep them coming. There will be unofficial voting in the public forum and then I, Dr. Vlad and probably Sylon and Elendil will vote on the final choice. : ) This is almost as good as American Idol. A majority of the votes is needed to win.

Good to see some great entries coming in for this comp I will probably also see these entries and will have a say but will not be an official judge because i am entering also. So keep submitting entries because so far this is going great.

Some guidelines from teh 2 chief judges:

From Elendil:

There are some limitations on image size (for any frame of the monster):
- shouldn't be wider than a block (336 pixels)
- shouldn't be larger than 64KB, which means it shouldn't be larger than
around 256000 pixels (if compressed by the VQ8 method), which means
around 336x760. If the image is narrower, it can become taller. But I
think 700 pixel is already way too tall. The largest monsters in the
base game, the dragonspawn (278x274 pixel) or the cyclops (256x312) are
quite large, if a monster is much taller, you'll probably not see it's
head (if it has one .

From Sylon:

Other than that, I can tell no more info about the 'boss' - it should
be very big and very strong and it should have/keep very good items. :
) But it's up to you which type this monster will have (it will depend
on the story of HOL V I think).

The deadline for submitting your Design the Boss of all Bosses contest entry for HOLV is October 18th.

New development I am now an official judge so keep the entries coming and tell evryone you know because we want a giant crowd on entries.

OK, I'm a RPG (& therefore Quest) newbie so forgive me if this idea is not good (or been done before). I've only played Quest, OE & Luko I (iphone) and not the others.

Here goes (drawing can be sumbitted if requested):
NAME: Emperoress Scorpion (Scorpion Queen)
DESCRIPTION: Immune to magic and all distance attacks (gotta get up close and personal with her!). I don't know if it's possible (game coding wise) but I'm thinking each front claw does 75-100HP damage and her stinger does 100-150HP+15% chance of paralysis (regardless of defense). That's EACH turn she gets 3 chances to hurt you. Also, she has the ability to "spawn" 1 Scorpion Spawn every 5 turns (or maybe they're just on her back and climb off to attack you?).

NAME: Scorpion Spawn
DESCRIPTION: Smart enough to work in groups (i.e. they won't just stand right in front of you, if there's multiple they will move to the sides/behind you. This forces you to USE your surroundings and think through your tactics - like kill the Queen asap so they quit spawning! They each can do 50-80HP damage with a 10% chance of paralizing you.

NAME: Scorpion Maurus (Death Stalker Scorpion)
DESCRIPTION: They're the "guards/sentries" on the way to the Queen. They're black in color (so they visually blend with their dark habitat - only their eyes are visible from a distance?) and move very fast (you can't out run them). If possible, the game does not give away their presence unless you're next to them (in other words, their name doesn't pop up when they're multiple steps away). They also like to hide-in-wait in crevices along corridors and attack when you walk by.

Still noodling the premise but let me know any/all feedback or if I'm on the wrong track.

One more unfinished thought....

What about a monster (frog?) that is really strong up close and can use it's tongue to pull you to it, thus making up for it's weak defense. Maybe the only way to cross a pit is to purposely get "pulled" across?

Along those lines, what about a monster immune to distance attacks (weak up close) but is very good offensively from a distance. They'd have the ability to actually push you away so you'd have to think about how to get close enough to them to kill them by approaching them laterally.

I dunno, just rambling now.....

Your entry is up to you. : ) But only one entry purr person.

The scorpion can easily spawn others but I could not give her some attack with one part of her and another with another part of her. She otherwise is doable with her spawns.

A drawing would be extremely valuable.

I don't think I could code the frog--that is I don't think it's possible but it's a very interesting idea. : )

The main reason I wanted 3 seperate attacks per turn was so that the damage done varied widely (from 0 to max with lots of possible numbers inbetween). The other reason was (and I forgot to mention this earlier) I would love to see the stinger damage increase the Scorps HP (but obviously it'd have to be a reasonable amount - another reason why the 3 attacks where only 1 adds to the enemies HP).

Well here's a very quick rough drawing to convey the idea.

And on a black background

And finally, on white

I could do damage by different parts of a monster's body possibly by coding it so that there is dialogue--you are hit by x part of body and suffer damage x and then code it so you are hit by y part of body and then suffer damage y and through code do the increase hp on random attacks. Not sure but could try. Depends on judges' results. : )

Also I could probably do the frog now that i think about it but one entry per person. : ) There will probably be a HOLVI. : )

I'm (trying to) patiently wait for HOLII! Which raises a question: I play on the iphone, if I got the PC versions could I transfer my character to the computer version (for HOL III & IV) and then back to the iphone (when HOLII becomes available)? Even if this could be done should the HOLs be played in order?

Thanks,

HOLII should be available in November. They should be played in order because each HOL is progressively harder--you'd have a hard time surviving.

I don't think it's possible to transfer an iphone save like that--I wouldn't risk it--iphone is too expensive device to glitch it. : )

I am going to extend this to 10/30 to allow another forum to make submissions. : )

Hi all,
I'd been thinking along the bigger better faster line about the Boss of all Bosses, but decided that this was probably the wrong take, after all that is what henchman are for. Think of the number of human dictators who have been physically rather unimpressive! I thought it would be more fun to create a Boss of all Bosses that had to be defeated by a bit of thinking rather than just armouring up to the gills and wading in, sword flashing ala Conan the Barbarian, not that I have anything against the odd bit of mayhem now and again, so this is what I came up with. (Some of you may have seen some initial ramblings on the HOL 1 forum.)

Some basic parameters to avoid hack and slay:
1. BoB has to be impervious to magic/disease/poison etc.
2. BoB has to be impossible to hit.
3. BoB must have a fatal flaw that adventurers can, with a tad of imagination, exploit to create BoB toast.

After that it was obvious, it had to be a moth! After all have you ever tried to get rid of an infestation of clothes moths (immune to poison magic etc)? Tried to catch a moth in flight at night (impossible to hit)? But we all know that moths are attracted to light (fatal flaw)!

Without going into too many details (puzzle monsters are easy to defeat if you know the secret), it works along the lines of: you are confronted by moth (there will be means of defeating it, but you have to be creative). You fail to defeat it, it grabs hold of you and takes you to a great height, and then drops you. You fall, you search frantically through your inventory for a way out (and if your again creative you'll find one). You can't find an escape, and you hit the ground, hard. Adventurer pancake. Job done. BoB rules! Heroes die young!

So far so good (even if I say so myself!), but all BoB's need an army of followers. What army would a moth have? Caterpillars! What do caterpillars do? Well they're effectively small eating machines that wind up as big eating machines. What do they eat? Well, adventurer's, cloth, paper, and I'm sure Cat could put one together that could make an attempt on the odd bit of metal. And this is where you get your mayhem, because you have to kill them quick, before you lose too many appendages to voracious caterpillars!

I have privately mailed Cat with a few more details, and Cat thought they were doable. So without anymore chat, I present you with "the Moth"! Hope you like it.

Bother. image too big again. I thought I'd got it down to a good size. Will follow shortly!

OK managed it. See above.

Best

It's pretty frightening.

But check out the caterpillars with the appetites!

That moth is actually quite a good one

Thanks Hazarex, I'm glad you like it!

Ok everyone I am here to announce the winner of the design the HOLV boss Competition.

Ok and the winner is.................................................................... ...................Sphinx67 with the twins boss idea Congrats Sphinx on a great boss design.

Congratulations, Sphinx67! Well done!

Don't be sad, everyone else, with your permission we will try to use all the entries in some HOL at some time.

Congrats Sphinx67!! I'm already frightened of your 'Twin Bosses'

Congrats Sphinx67!

Now...How am I going to break it to my daughters that our entry didn't win.....

Maybe I'll tell them the scorpion was TOO scary?!?!
Or, since they're not allowed/supposed to watch the fighting maybe a white lie? Or, maybe by the time HOLV comes out for iphone they'll have forgotten all about it (they're 9 & 7 so still young enough to forget).

Ah haaa! I've got the solution! I'll trade my kids for some other kids who've never heard of The Quest!!! Anyone know where suck kids could be found?

Sphinx67, congrats again! I'm considering switching my play from the iphone over to the pc just so I don't have to wait for the expansions to be ported (though I love having it with me everywhere I go!). If I switch I'll get to meet the "TWINS" sooner!

Well done, Sphinx! I look forward to meeting the twins!
Best Moth

Hello Everyone

I thank you all for the very kind words and congrats! You guys are awesome!

Congrats Sphinx67, I'm really looking forward to meeting your creation in a future HOL episode.

Hi Echo
Thank you for the kind words

Actually, I'm wondering about the encounter a bit myself-I hope the twins won't hand my poor Derth Mage's head to him on a silver platter

...what have I spawned?!

Ohhh the beautiful irony: "My own monster killed me!"

Haha! I can relate to Dr.Frankenstein, on a certain level

Sphinx67 has artistic content on Deviant Art and was kind enough to send the links:
http://www.deviantart.com/- this is to the site itself.
http://shadowofechoes.deviantart.com/- this should take you directly to Sphinx67's page there.

hows about something from an old game thats still new? just like the quest which is already relatively old...
woo hoo first post

Congratulations on your first post but we have a winner. : ) Save the thought. : )