This is the first time I'm actually having to cheat my way out of a dungeon. I'm adventuring for Stendarr in Mournoth (a province just southeast of the Bay), and was sent to destroy a powerful undead haunting the halls of Castle Sestam. I'd pretty well explored the dungeon, no luck... aside from a pit at a hallway corner that seemed to lead nowhere that I could see. Whatever was down there, I hadn't figured out how to get there without jumping down the pit. I'm currently playing an Argonian ranger.

So I rappelled down the side (ran in, catching myself periodically with my climb skill to reduce the falling damage) and found a group of spellcasters and the zombie I'd been hearing through the walls earlier. I managed to shoot them down, and upon exploring the area further, discovered that the hole in the ceiling is the only way in or out! There's no elevator, the hole is in the middle of the room (away from any walls) and I have no ability to levitate.

So my only way out is Alt-F11. I considered waiting until the quest's time was up, and then Alt-F11ing out, under the idea that when I didn't return, they did, in fact, send someone to avenge me (they said they would)... who then finds me and lowers a rope. But I also figured they'd give me credit for the kill, even if I did have to be fished out afterward. Thus, I'm going to Alt-F11 out, declaring that I piled up the coffins and stuff that are in the room so I could reach the hole in the ceiling, and climbed out.

It's amazing how well this game holds up after so many years.

Aww, those pointy-hatted jerks finally won. How dare they built pits they alone can traverse! I've never encountered such a room (or, more accurately: never recognized one for what it was), but I am disappointed that they exist. You're sure there was no odd switch or skull or torch or whatsit that triggers something helpful? Actually, scratch that question, I'm confident you searched it top to bottom.

Clever! I never thought to do something like that. I usually just jump right in and hope for the best! You, sir, have taught me a new trick

I can't run in anyway because, even if I let go of the movement keys, I maintain my momentum which either means:

1) I fall to the bottom with a spectacular view of the wall in my face for the entire trip, sometimes half of it even clipping and giving me a view of the void.

2) I fall through the wall.

i remember that room. i think you could use the goofy "swinging weapon levitate" to get out without magic. or depending on your character, you can fortify jumping through enchantments and jump up into the passageway ( i think athletics helps greatly too). i looked at that particular block as a reminant of how ropes were suppose to be utilized.

What IS this "goofy swinging weapon levitate" of which you speak, Willis? It vexes me..

jump a certain way and swing your weapon wildly left and right and you will begin to just rise upwards

Someone really needs to Youtube that technique.

Seems realistic, I imagine it works like a helicopter except with a sword instead of a rotor.

I remember doing the sword/jump trick a long time ago, but I just tried it out and couldn't get it to work.

I just did it. Got video, too, but it's in that odd format that DOSbox captures in and I can't remember how I used to convert it into a more playable format that I can upload somewhere.

The jump-swinging trick is nice because you can go higher than you can levitate--levitation has a ceiling, you know, when using the "float up" button. You can go higher than the ceiling if you use jump to go higher rather than "float up." Or, of course, you can jump-swing to the moon.


Pop quiz: what are the only two structures in the game that are taller than the levitation ceiling? :grad:

I would imagine Direnni Tower is one of them. As to the other, I haven't a clue.

Castle sentinel?

Shouldn't you be able to upload it to Youtube without having to convert? I didn't have to for my Fhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p62hA4GUw8&feature=channel_page.

Correct! Castle Sentinel is actually quite a bit taller than Direnni Tower.

Tried to put it on my photobucket account, and it froze. I'll try Youtube when I get home, then.

Since the capture function eats up some memory as it goes, I couldn't swing-jump nearly as well as I could while I wasn't filming. You need to be able to swing very quickly to do it.

I enjoy dungeon crawling playing with a barbarian (think of Conan with his amazing climbing skills) without magic skills because of the challenge having to swim and climb to reach inaccessible places. There are very few places i recall not being able to get in and out. The only situations i recall is with magically locked doors but i never checked if these can be bashed. Usually there is a way around.

With those kind of pits there's usually a secret door around, switch or a lever. Sometimes there's a moving platform that takes you up and down, but when the pit is very deep it may take a few long seconds for it to reach the top. It may also be that when jump down there's a teleporter door or a switch or a secret passage that leads out of the maze somewhere else. It's hard to say with these generated dungeons. It may also be that someone has forgotten to check this dungeon to make sure there was a viable exit without using magic. I blame Todd.

Hey, I'm not complaining, and yes, there's no way they checked every single town and dungeon in this game.This particular one was simply lacking an elevator where I usually see one. Considering who was living down there, it actually makes a bit of sense, kind of like in Morrowind where you can't visit Telvanni mages without some kind of levitate effect. At any rate, I'm just glad cheats exist to get us out of sticky situations like that.

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/Jormungandr83/?action=view¤t=fall_004.flv, demonstrated at Direnni Tower. I could do it forever when I wasn't recording, but filming slowed the game down enough that I couldn't swing fast enough. Still, you get the idea. You can only do it while jumping straight up; any forward movement cancels it.

*heh heh* Very cool.. I have the faintest, most vague memory of having read of this back in the day, but it's long since vacated my anolog, bio-storage units..

It's an excellent way of training both your weapon and jumping skill. Doing this raises the jump skill very, very quickly.
(Same thing with using Jump while levitating)

Or, alternatively, standing in the threshold of a door (preferably in an inn) and holding down the jump button. You can't actually get any height because there's no room, so you end up jumping like 1000x/sec and your fatigue drops like crazy.

I take it you need a pretty high speed score to get that trick working.

you do need decent speed. i think above 70 or 80. it's a funny glitch. funnier with a flail, like you're wailing it above you helicopter-style.

i do hope climbing and the use of a grapple will make it in the next series.