Tomb Raider Forums  

Go Back   Tomb Raider Forums > Tomb Raider Series > Tomb Raider The Angel of Darkness

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 23-05-18, 01:43   #1
kietasvyras
Member
 
kietasvyras's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 142
Default The Bio-Research Facility Was Meant to be Played Backwards? (My Theory)

As we know from Murti Schofield's documents, Lara was meant to visit the Strahov 2 times through 2 different entrances. One entrance was meant to lead to The Sanitarium, the other to The Bio-Research Facility. Maybe this could explain why the door Lara enters The Bio-Research Facility looks different from the door she exits The Strahov Fortress and why she suddenly wears shorts. Also the cutscenes before The Sanitarium and before Aquatic Research Area look a little out of place as in the cutscene before The Sanitarium Lara tries to open the door she just passed through in the gameplay and then Kurtis appears on the other side of it. As of the cutscene before Aquatic Research Area, Kurtis comes from the same door again he had left previously but then Lara pushes him towards the other door leading to Aquatic Research Area and shoots the Sanitarium inmate behind him, which is kind a unusual place for the Sanitarium inmate to come from. And also at the end of the cutscene Kurtis leaves through the door that leads to Aquatic Research Area and Lara leaves through the door that leads to The Bio-Research Facility, which is illogical. In one of the pre-release renders of the game you can see a still that looks similar to the cutscene before Aquatic Research Area but the setting is completely different:

https://i.imgur.com/Wt89uXk.jpg

The door that Kurtis apparently enters The Sanitarium does not match the door through which he leaves and comes back in the cutscenes too.

There are also some screenshots that probably show removed parts of The Sanitarium or The Strahov Fortress:

https://i.imgur.com/Pza3ZUx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1noAsya.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7sEJWCB.jpg

There is even Nokia N-Gage trailer from 2003 that shows TRAOD gameplay with Lara in The Sanitarium:

https://youtu.be/TxR37sOJV9g?t=21s

We also do not know how Kurtis was captured. I think there may be some more cutscenes, gameplay or boss battles missing, for both Lara and for Kurtis... Considering he has so many removed moves and then there is unused character Luther Rouzic with his fully unknown role and I think some deleted Muller's animation of him turning into bees too? It is also quite surprising and disconnected how Muller suddenly sprays Lara with pesticide and runs away. There is a blackout between the part of the cutscene with Muller where Lara has conversation with him and the part where he sprays Lara with pesticide and runs away. Furthermore, it is very strange that during the conversation with Lara Muller says that Boaz deserved to pay for her stupidity even though Eckhardt kills Boaz only afterwards. Maybe there was meant to be some boss battle between Lara and Muller?

Furthermore, I think the maps order in The Bio-Research Facility is named backwards some reason. I would be grateful if someone like nakamichi680 or someone else who has extracted the map files could confirm this but as far as I remember the name of the first map where the level starts is 1bc38a7f-.map and the name of the last map where level ends is 1bc38a7a-.map. This is very unusual because usually a name of a map where level stars is named with letter 'a' at the end of its name and a name a map where level ends is named with a later letter of the alphabet according to how many maps there are in a level. So my idea is that maybe The Bio-Research Facility was initially designed to be somehow played backwards? Lara was meant to enter the level where it actually ends in the game, perhaps through the airlock where Aquatic Research Area actually starts in the game or maybe through some other door in that area, then see Boaz being killed by Eckhard, then talk to Muller (he would mention that Boaz deserved to pay for her stupidy), then Lara would have some boss battle with him and go thought the door where The Bio-Research Facility actually starts in the game and that door would actually lead her to The Vault Of Trophies, either to the original Eckhardt's Vault of Trophies where we would have meet Luther Rouzic or more likely to Aquatic Research Area and the actual Lux Veritatis Vault of Trophies we have in the game? And perhaps there would have been some removed gameplay or cutscene of Luther Rouzic, Eckhardt, Karel or Gunderson capturing Kurtis then? This would explain why Eckhardt says that Muller failed him too during the cutscene before Boaz Returns as during the boss battle with Lara he would not prevent her from going trough that door to The Vault Of Trophies...

So you may now wonder what was meant to be in the place where Aquatic Research Area actually is in the game then? My idea is there was meant to be the Sanitarium because: 1. As I mentioned previously, in the cutscene before the Aquatic Research Area the Sanitarium inmate appears behind Kurtis on the other side of that door, not on the other side of the door that Kurtis comes from. 2. At the end of that cutscene we also see Eckhardt and Karel in the Sanitarium looking at the monitors and Eckhardt says 'The male will be coming this way soon. Make the preparations.' Kurtis also mentions that 'Eckhardt guards the Shard in his old alchemy lab in the lower regions.' so it makes sense for him to go through The Sanitarium and Maximum Containment Area, which are at sub level 5 and 6 respectively.

And where would the huge door between the 2 airlocks that Kurtis goes through turn the power back on would lead to? I do not know. I still cannot fully put everything together. Perhaps there is a lot of things removed to completely figure out. Maybe those both airlock cutscenes were meant to take place in some totally other place that is shown in the render instead of that airlock and that other door would lead to some part of The Strahov Fortress or some part of The Sanitarium? As penguinraider mentioned in his post here, there are kind 2 power switches in The Strahov Fortress, the one that Lara uses in the cutscene and the other unused on the left in the room in front. Lara also mentions 'Better get moving whilst the grid's down.' after she shuts the power off, which implies that there was something timed there afterwards, likely some timed gameplay. There is also a text in the text file 'I must move quickly, the grid is down.' So maybe that room with the cutscene was meant in some other place? And Kurtis would have used that unused power switch to turn the power back on?

Boaz Returns must be also somewhere close to The Bio-Research Facility and there are few doors that we do not get to know where they lead to in Boaz Returns too. It felt very illogical how Lara left The Vault Of Trophies too as Eckhardt mentions that 'We have lost too many men trying to open that damned Vault.' and that 'That Vault has defeated us for months.' and Lara suddenly exits from the vault is just a clear passage away from him... Maybe she was meant to leave the tomb from where she enters just like she does in Paris? There is also a jammed door at the end of the The Bio-Research Facility. This also leaves unanswered question where the door at the end of the Strahov Fortress would lead to according to these ideas. How The Lost Domain starts also feels slightly disconnected. Maybe the last part of Eckhardt's Lab was somewhere closer to Boaz Returns as Lara later runs from the last part of Eckhardt's Lab to there, maybe not?

I was always quite suspicious about those rails in The Strahov Fortress. It looks like something large was meant to be moved on them throughout the whole level and turned towards the end of the level on that round platform towards the door using some switches and it also feels like there must have been some huge elevator there afterwards. It is just me who has this feeling?

What do you guys think about this?

Last edited by kietasvyras; 23-05-18 at 02:03.
kietasvyras is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-05-18, 04:00   #2
penguinraider
Member
 
Joined: May 2018
Posts: 10
Default

I always thought the connection between many of the areas in the game to be forced and unnatural. Two of my favorite places in the game are Eckhardt's Lab and the library in the Vault of Trophies, even though they are only a couple of isolated rooms that feel very disconnected from the rest of their levels and pretty much out of place, but they have a very unique feeling to them. Those levels feel almost like those design units in Anniversary, as if those areas were supposed to be fully fledged levels but never actually made it there.

I was also always intrigued by Eckardt's comment about the vault defeating them for months. What was exactly keeping him or his men from getting there? The vault was neither the largest or the hardest level to beat in my opinion.
penguinraider is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-05-18, 07:51   #3
kietasvyras
Member
 
kietasvyras's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 142
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by penguinraider View Post
I always thought the connection between many of the areas in the game to be forced and unnatural. Two of my favorite places in the game are Eckhardt's Lab and the library in the Vault of Trophies, even though they are only a couple of isolated rooms that feel very disconnected from the rest of their levels and pretty much out of place, but they have a very unique feeling to them. Those levels feel almost like those design units in Anniversary, as if those areas were supposed to be fully fledged levels but never actually made it there.

I was also always intrigued by Eckardt's comment about the vault defeating them for months. What was exactly keeping him or his men from getting there? The vault was neither the largest or the hardest level to beat in my opinion.
I agree that the room with the last Obscura Painting in The Vault Of Trophies and the room with the third Periapt Shard/Eckhardt's old alchemy lab in Eckhardt's Lab feel quite artificially attached to the rest of the levels. The proportions of those rooms and their exits look different compared to the corridors that lead to them. The feeling of those rooms is also kind a like they should belong somewhere else. The room in Eckhardt's Lab had been changed slightly during the development, the frescoes from St. Aicard's Church and the main menu wheel were removed from the walls, the sockets for something else (maybe for the 3 Periapt Discs?) were replaced with the sockets for alchemic phials and some items like flasks or benches were laid out slightly differently. Also what would Lux Veritatis knights do in Eckhardt's Lab in the Strahov? Where do they even suddenly appear from in that room? It is more or less clear that the room with the third Periapt Shard/Eckhardt's old alchemy lab was meant to be in Castle Kriegler. As of the room with the last Obscura Painting, I think it is probably from the original Eckhardt's Vault Of Trophies? There are even lion statues in it, are not there?

Have you noticed that Aqua - lung Lara finds in the middle of The Vault Of Trophies that almost have no use? I found it a little bit teasing Core Design has put it there as there would wait some more serious diving and then there is almost none! Lara was also meant to use harpoon gun, which is even still in the game unfinished, somewhere. There are entries in the text file like 'I'll take a harpoon gun.', 'I can always use a harpoon.' and 'A harpoon gun will always come in handy'. And harpoon gun was meant to have various tips. Standard and explosive. Maybe Lara was meant to blew her way out to Boaz Returns using harpoon explosive spears? Or maybe harpoon explosive spears were only to blow out those walls that she kicks out in the game? There is also a TRAOD trailer that shows razorjaw from Aquatic Research Area following Lara in The Vault Of Trophies.
kietasvyras is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-05-18, 18:20   #4
Pyro99
Member
 
Pyro99's Avatar
 
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 1,225
Default

Holy crap, AoD deserves an award just for how often I go "wow I thought I knew everything about the game but apparently I don't". I think it was very much obvious that the Strahov levels were very randomly stuck together, but it's nice to see some explanation regarding the alternative. I didn't know about the deleted character, and tbh the only part of the game that feels at least somewhat seamless is the Parisian levels with Lara's denim outfit, even the Louvre levels start to feel very odd when she goes into the Tomb of Ancients, since if I'm not mistaken she was supposed to take different paths.
Pyro99 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-05-18, 19:00   #5
Caesum
Member
 
Caesum's Avatar
 
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 12,070
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
In one of the pre-release renders of the game you can see a still that looks similar to the cutscene before Aquatic Research Area but the setting is completely different:
I wouldn't take any promo render (apart from level renders) for granted since they were made to promote the game. They might have nothing to do with the game itself. And they probably don't. Just look at TR1-5 renders which show locations that Lara has never even been to.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
There is even Nokia N-Gage trailer from 2003 that shows TRAOD gameplay with Lara in The Sanitarium:

https://youtu.be/TxR37sOJV9g?t=21s
It is also quite possible that Kurtis was not playable yet in the build which was shown in the trailer, that's why Lara is present there. We won't know until we get newer story documents and/or level outlines.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
it is very strange that during the conversation with Lara Muller says that Boaz deserved to pay for her stupidity even though Eckhardt kills Boaz only afterwards. Maybe there was meant to be some boss battle between Lara and Muller?
According to the story Boaz defied Eckhardt twice. First, when she created and couldn't destroy Proto Nephilim. Second, when she hid the Obscura Painting in the Vault of Trophies instead of giving it to Eckhardt. Muller probably refers to one of these situations.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
nakamichi680 or someone else who has extracted the map files could confirm this but as far as I remember the name of the first map where the level starts is 1bc38a7f-.map and the name of the last map where level ends is 1bc38a7a-.map.
The decompiled files lack their original names, and sometimes even file formats. These names have nothing to do with the original names and can't be used as a reference since they weren't picked by Core, but the unpacker. The compiler used to save data into a final level could have put these files anywhere.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
Boaz Returns must be also somewhere close to The Bio-Research Facility and there are few doors that we do not get to know where they lead to in Boaz Returns too.
Boaz Returns was probably originally going to be in Castle Kriegler, I think. And Boaz would have been the Golem if it wasn't all scrapped.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
It felt very illogical how Lara left The Vault Of Trophies too as Eckhardt mentions that 'We have lost too many men trying to open that damned Vault.' and that 'That Vault has defeated us for months.' and Lara suddenly exits from the vault is just a clear passage away from him...
The entire Vault of Trophies level is just a mashap of different levels I think. Originally the Vault of Trophies was a place where Eckhardt would put his trophies. So he would have had perfect access to it. Boaz was going to hide one of the paintings there, that's why Lara and Kurtis went there. That was all scrapped though.

The library in the Vault is most probably a leftover from the Castle Kriegler level. The underwater parts might have also been from the Castle Kriegler level (as there are outlines of the lower levels which mention underwater parts).

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
How The Lost Domain starts also feels slightly disconnected.
I think the lost Domain might have been a leftover of the Turkey level or the Egypt tutorial level that was mentioned in one of the recent interviews with the designers. Apparently there was going to be a tutorial level in the cave, which Lara could access anytime during the game and test her skills.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
Maybe the last part of Eckhardt's Lab was somewhere closer to Boaz Returns as Lara later runs from the last part of Eckhardt's Lab to there, maybe not?
Eckhardt's Lab was probably in Turkey too. Castle Kriegler was built around Eckhardt's prison so it's unlikely he would have had there a laboratory. Turkey on the other hand definitely had a laboratory and Eckhardt found that place during the Middle Ages.

Personally I think the last three levels of the game (The Vault of Trophies, The Lost Domain, Eckhardt's Lab) were not even really planned. Wouldn't be surprised if there were no outlines of these levels as they were probably left for the later stages of the game and never started. What we have is just a quick patchwork of assets made for other levels.

Last edited by Caesum; 23-05-18 at 19:02.
Caesum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-05-18, 19:59   #6
nakamichi680
Member
 
nakamichi680's Avatar
 
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 874
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
Furthermore, I think the maps order in The Bio-Research Facility is named backwards some reason. I would be grateful if someone like nakamichi680 or someone else who has extracted the map files could confirm this but as far as I remember the name of the first map where the level starts is 1bc38a7f-.map and the name of the last map where level ends is 1bc38a7a-.map. This is very unusual because usually a name of a map where level stars is named with letter 'a' at the end of its name and a name a map where level ends is named with a later letter of the alphabet according to how many maps there are in a level.
Sorry to disappoint you but there is no relationship between the zone ID and the position on the map.

nakamichi680 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23-05-18, 21:16   #7
Ruu11
Member
 
Ruu11's Avatar
 
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,087
Default

omg that Nokia clip with Lara at The Sanatorium... so rare!

I think that early ideas for gameplay concept were some levels (Le Serpent Rouge, Louvre Galleries, The Sanatorium... maybe The Monstrum Crimscene too?) playing with Lara & Kurtis like a team. I mean, there's a lot of beta screenshots in which we can see Kurtis in all those levels instead of our Lara.

Beta stuff of this game still blows my mind. SO MANY GREAT THINGS MISSED
Ruu11 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-05-18, 01:53   #8
kietasvyras
Member
 
kietasvyras's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 142
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caesum View Post
I wouldn't take any promo render (apart from level renders) for granted since they were made to promote the game. They might have nothing to do with the game itself. And they probably don't. Just look at TR1-5 renders which show locations that Lara has never even been to.


It is also quite possible that Kurtis was not playable yet in the build which was shown in the trailer, that's why Lara is present there. We won't know until we get newer story documents and/or level outlines.


According to the story Boaz defied Eckhardt twice. First, when she created and couldn't destroy Proto Nephilim. Second, when she hid the Obscura Painting in the Vault of Trophies instead of giving it to Eckhardt. Muller probably refers to one of these situations.


The decompiled files lack their original names, and sometimes even file formats. These names have nothing to do with the original names and can't be used as a reference since they weren't picked by Core, but the unpacker. The compiler used to save data into a final level could have put these files anywhere.


Boaz Returns was probably originally going to be in Castle Kriegler, I think. And Boaz would have been the Golem if it wasn't all scrapped.


The entire Vault of Trophies level is just a mashap of different levels I think. Originally the Vault of Trophies was a place where Eckhardt would put his trophies. So he would have had perfect access to it. Boaz was going to hide one of the paintings there, that's why Lara and Kurtis went there. That was all scrapped though.

The library in the Vault is most probably a leftover from the Castle Kriegler level. The underwater parts might have also been from the Castle Kriegler level (as there are outlines of the lower levels which mention underwater parts).


I think the lost Domain might have been a leftover of the Turkey level or the Egypt tutorial level that was mentioned in one of the recent interviews with the designers. Apparently there was going to be a tutorial level in the cave, which Lara could access anytime during the game and test her skills.


Eckhardt's Lab was probably in Turkey too. Castle Kriegler was built around Eckhardt's prison so it's unlikely he would have had there a laboratory. Turkey on the other hand definitely had a laboratory and Eckhardt found that place during the Middle Ages.

Personally I think the last three levels of the game (The Vault of Trophies, The Lost Domain, Eckhardt's Lab) were not even really planned. Wouldn't be surprised if there were no outlines of these levels as they were probably left for the later stages of the game and never started. What we have is just a quick patchwork of assets made for other levels.
But Muller says that Boaz deserved to pay for her stupidy, not that she deserves, which means that she has already paid for it. Muller: 'No more abomination to run amok like Boaz's Proto-Nephilim. She deserved to pay for her stupidity. Lara: 'Yes, highly inconvenient having abominations running around loose isn't it.'

I heard Germany was taken out of development quite early and Turkey even earlier.

I think the room with The Last Obscura Painting in The Vault Of Trophies may be from the original Eckhardt's Vault Of Trophies. The tapestry in that room on the wall would have probably given Lara a hint about Castle Kriegler. But it is possible that room could be from Castle Kriegler itself too. The underwater parts of The Vault Of Trophies look like something from Germany as there would have been a river not far away from Castle Kriegler and likely groundwater not that deep beneath the castle. Or those underwater parts of The Vault Of Trophies may be also some residues from The Hall of Seasons.

The Lost Domain definitely looks like something beneath the mountains in Turkey. Just look at the bright sunny light shining through the ceiling at the end of the level... Well, unless the weather in Prague changes that much by the time Lara reaches Eckhardt's Lab but still the level looks very rocky, volcanic and like somewhere beneath some mountains, not in Prague. I think The Lost Domain may have also been temporary moved to Germany when Turkey was taken out but Germany still was not. I doubt The Lost Domain has anything to do with Egypt or the cave training level as there Eckhardt's statues, his face on the door and lion symbol. There is also quite late TROAD screeshot that shows The Lost Domain barely finished, which implies that the level was rather hasty addition to the game. It is also quite surprising that The Lost Domain is named as PRAGUE6A.GMX and Eckhardt's Lab is named as PRAGUE6A.GMX even though Eckhardt's Lab is the last level in the game so would have been more logical to name it as PRAGUE6A.GMX instead and The Lost Domain as PRAGUE6.GMX...

I think that the room with the third Periapt Shard/Eckhardt's old alchemy lab in Eckhardt's Lab is definitely from Castle Kriegler. I think there is some information that the place where Castle Kriegler stands had been Eckhardt's stronghold some time ago before he was imprisoned, is not there? So perhaps that old alchemy lab would have been something in Castle Kriegler from then and would have enabled Lara to get out more information on Eckhardt? Maybe that is why there are Lux Veritatis knights?

I think it is not that easy to tell what was actually developed and what was not just from the story documents because gameplay and cutscenes add a lot more to the game to that. We can sense that in pre-release videos and screenshots as well as in the released game. A picture often tells more than a 1000 words. I think there may be quite a lot of cut out gameplay and cutscenes in overall not only because they were not finished but because something else was not finished or just changed and they did not fit in the game that well anymore. It is like a movie, there are always some scenes that do not make into the final cut. And the more changes you make, the more there usually are. I think TRAOD's gameplay and cutscenes or at least some Maya design are no exception. Considering how many changes the game has undergone I can only imagine the amount... Core Design was not just sitting there for 3 years and doing nothing. And common, it is Core Design, not Crystal Dynamics who only develop some boring, short and plain game in 3 or 5 years. Those 3 years went into something, maybe something that is unpolished but still...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruu11 View Post
omg that Nokia clip with Lara at The Sanatorium... so rare!

I think that early ideas for gameplay concept were some levels (Le Serpent Rouge, Louvre Galleries, The Sanatorium... maybe The Monstrum Crimscene too?) playing with Lara & Kurtis like a team. I mean, there's a lot of beta screenshots in which we can see Kurtis in all those levels instead of our Lara.

Beta stuff of this game still blows my mind. SO MANY GREAT THINGS MISSED
Well, there are screenshots with Kurtis in The Serpent Rouge and there is still a small cutscene in the game with Kurtis leaving The Serpent Rouge and driving away with his motorbike. There are also screenshots with Kurtis in The Monstrum Crime Scene. Maybe we were meant to visit those levels 2 times, one time with Lara, the other with Kurtis? Or maybe they were Kurtis levels during some stage of development? Or maybe we could choose to play them as Lara or as Kurtis? And perhaps there could have been some gameplay between the cutscene where Kurtis disarms our Lara and the cutscene where Kurtis and Lara run out of the Louvre, perhaps some chase gameplay with Lara disarmed like in Offshore Rig in Tomb Raider 2 for example? There are videos and screenshots with Lara in The Sanitarium so maybe some parts of The Sanitarium were meant to be visited by both Lara and Kurtis or it is just because those levels were Lara's levels during some stage of development.

There are also screenshots with Lara wearing the swimsuit in the room with The Last Obscura Painting in The Vault Of Trophies, which suggest that she was probably meant to take it off somewhere later in the game.

Last edited by kietasvyras; 24-05-18 at 02:01.
kietasvyras is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-05-18, 21:29   #9
Caesum
Member
 
Caesum's Avatar
 
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 12,070
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by kietasvyras View Post
I think the room with The Last Obscura Painting in The Vault Of Trophies may be from the original Eckhardt's Vault Of Trophies. The tapestry in that room on the wall would have probably given Lara a hint about Castle Kriegler.
According to the storyline Prague was a high-tech stronghold with trophies gathered by Eckhardt. It wouldn't really make sense for gothic environment to be there + I don't really think Eckhardt would actually put a tapestry of his own confinement after 500 years of being imprisoned.

Quote:
I think that the room with the third Periapt Shard/Eckhardt's old alchemy lab in Eckhardt's Lab is definitely from Castle Kriegler. I think there is some information that the place where Castle Kriegler stands had been Eckhardt's stronghold some time ago before he was imprisoned, is not there?
The original synopsis, the one with discs, not shards, never speaks of Eckhardt's lab inside Castle Kriegler. It only says that he was imprisoned in the Pit of Pain and that Castle Kriegler was built around it. Originally the entire lab was in Turkey and it was later moved to Germany, then Prague. The original documents also state that the lower you got in the Turkey levels, the older the entire thing looked, so it is quite possible the entire part of the Lost Domain + Eckhardt's Lab was originally intended for Turkey.
Caesum is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-18, 03:31   #10
kietasvyras
Member
 
kietasvyras's Avatar
 
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 142
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caesum View Post
According to the storyline Prague was a high-tech stronghold with trophies gathered by Eckhardt. It wouldn't really make sense for gothic environment to be there + I don't really think Eckhardt would actually put a tapestry of his own confinement after 500 years of being imprisoned..
Well...
Quote:
Originally Posted by .snake. View Post
Eckhardt's Vault of Trophies was meant to be different (a trophy room of some of his past kills, weapons, and strange prizes) however this is something he would have had since the middle ages and so it could have looked like the last Obscura Painting Room. Also, as you've noticed that Luther Rouzic was meant to be involved with Eckhardt's old Vault of Trophies and since Rouzic was keeper of the Archives, it is interesting to note that the Vault of Trophies as we know it has a lot of books and looks a bit like a library. So perhaps this was a concept for the Archives/Eckhardt's Vault, and was only modified slightly in the end to be more Lux Veritatis-esque.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caesum View Post
The original synopsis, the one with discs, not shards, never speaks of Eckhardt's lab inside Castle Kriegler. It only says that he was imprisoned in the Pit of Pain and that Castle Kriegler was built around it. Originally the entire lab was in Turkey and it was later moved to Germany, then Prague. The original documents also state that the lower you got in the Turkey levels, the older the entire thing looked, so it is quite possible the entire part of the Lost Domain + Eckhardt's Lab was originally intended for Turkey.
Well...
Quote:
Originally Posted by .snake. View Post
Originally, the Vault of Trophies was meant to be Eckhardt's own trophy room, showing grizzly weird prizes he collected over the ages from victims he killed. The corpse of Kurtis' father was even supposed to be in here. Boaz and Karel (for whatever strange reason) decided to hide the Painting here after they got it from Vasiley because Eckhardt apparently didn't frequent this old Vault of his anymore. But since this entire concept was cut, and changed very early on, the whole look of the Vault of Trophies became more Lux Veritatis themed - including the underwater room with the knights.

While I am pretty certain that the medieval part of Eckhardt's lab was meant to be in Germany, and the Sleeper Chamber was meant to be in Turkey, I think all of this was cut and condensed into one location and level (in Prague) much earlier during Pre-Production time, so I doubt this means that parts of Germany or Turkey were even built, or that these rooms were 'lifted' from other half-finished levels in these locations. Probably, they just followed their old concept designs for these locations, and so they ended up looking and feeling a bit strangely linked. Or, perhaps the Eckhardt's lab we see in Prague, was really also the original Eckhardt Vault of Trophies we were going to get.
and
Quote:
Originally Posted by .snake. View Post
In regards to the labs everyone is talking about: from the information I have it seems that Eckhardt had many labs throughout Europe, so we can't really pinpoint and label one as being THE one. Eckhardt was meant to have had a lab/medieval torture chamber at Castle Kriegler though, and this is where Lara finds the Shard. So, I'm almost certain the first half of the lab we get at the end of Prague is in fact what the Germany lab would have looked like. Bear in mind also that it was the Nephilim (after Eckhardt betrays them) who imprison Eckhardt in a hellish pit, and then it is the Lux Veritatis who build Castle Kriegler over this pit - Adrian Smith explains this (quite badly and using terrible English) in the "Future of Lara Croft" article that we all know. So there is a chance that perhaps this location in Germany was originally Eckhardt's stronghold and laboratory, which was then later on taken over and built over by the LV. He must have reclaimed it then after his escape and gradual destruction of the LV, and then kept the one Shard he was able to get hold of hidden there. It also explains Boaz's inability to kill the Proto. When she pleads with him in Prague, saying she couldn't kill it without Eckhardt's shard, it makes one wonder why Eckhardt is such an ass that he wouldn't just head down to his lab and get it for her so she could kill the beast when he commanded her to. The fact that the shard is hidden in Germany and therefore in a different location entirely (that Boaz perhaps doesn't even know about) makes that entire argument a lot more plausible.
I am unsure where that user got that information but this is what I read.

Last edited by kietasvyras; 25-05-18 at 03:50.
kietasvyras is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT. The time now is 11:08.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Tomb Raider Forums is not owned or operated by CDE Entertainment Ltd.
Lara Croft and Tomb Raider are trademarks of CDE Entertainment Ltd.