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Latest Episode: Ghoul Room 1. My name is xeose, aka ShadowKnight, and welcome to my Let's Play of Ghost Master, a 2003 puzzle/strategy game that enjoyed poor success despite making truly innovative strides in gameplay. Co-commentating with me is the amazing JamieTheD, who provides the LP the class and Welshness that it would otherwise lack. Who are we? We take on the role of the titular Ghost Master, a ghost that has moved up the corporate ladder and no longer haunts personally, but rather directs other ghosts as a team captain and strategist. G-g-g-ghosts??? Yes, ghosts. Our trusted allies and the executors of our will, these astral entities are capable of affecting the material plane and interact with mortals to a degree, as dictated by the available Plasm in a haunt. Plasm? Like blood? No, silly, like ectoplasm. Plasm is generated by mortal terror and acts as the fuel for ghosts to use their powers. Plasm dwindles as mortals remain calm, so once the haunt begins, we are on a time limit. However, once a mortal flees, we gain permanent Plasm that we are in no risk of losing. Haunts. That doesn't sound good. Haunts are stages, the missions that we undertake. We bind ghosts to fetters in the haunt and make them use their powers to accomplish our goal. Haunts have varied goals, and sometimes we must hold our terrifying impulses in check and avoid scaring off mortals if we desire them to do things for us. Binding to fetters? What dark sorcery is that? Every ghost needs to be bound to a fetter before they can use their powers. The simple act of binding occupies a portion of our available Plasm, so even having a ghost out there doing nothing is taxing our reserves. Each family of ghosts has its own set of fetters, which makes them more or less useful according to what we have available in a given haunt. What is the goal of the game? We are a servant of the astral powers, and they want to establish a foothold on Gravenville. We are told what our goals are, but we are given complete freedom to form and execute plans. As our control over Gravenville grows, the powers that be will lend us additional ghosts and present us with greater challenges. So why the poor success? What are the problems in the game? I will be making a long post later on about the faults I find in the game and where I think it went wrong, but to keep it short, it tried to do too much at once and it made a crucial mistake by making some of the puzzles hinge on luck and randomised AI, which drove players mad with frustration. You'll see what I mean later on. I want to know more about the game mechanics before I watch a video! Go ahead and read my mechanics post before watching, then! Some of the stuff in there gets more technical and complicated, but you should be fine reading up to the Fears part. Spoilers! They're fine, it's not a terribly serious game, just remember to put them under spoiler tags. EPISODE LIST     JamieTheD's Posts of Awesome Analysis on the ghosts of Haunting 101. Cool Things by People from the Thread Official poster with all the ghosts: Pesky Splinter posted:Spoilers for unseen ghosties: THEM GHOSTS Starting Roster  Aether Family: Air Elemental. Class: Elemental. Fetters: Air, Outside. Epitaph: A being of air cannot sing, but becomes the song itself. Aether has inhabited music for hundreds of years, and so is a popular spirit at parties. Powers: Innate: B2 Gather Winds B4 Piping B8 Shattering Song Learned: B1 Footsteps B1 Moan B3 Howl B3 Laughter B5 Shriek B5 Thunderclap B6 Wail B7 Whisper Personal Note: Aether is a ghost mostly oriented towards Noise powers, though she does have a smattering of wind powers, as all Air Elementals do. She is capable of learning a couple of Madness powers, but they are not her forte. She is mainly suited to improve the wind powers of other ghosts, shatter fragile things or capitalise on a mortal's fear of Noise.  Boo Family: Spook. Class: Disturbance. Fetters: Inside. Epitaph: They say Spooks never grow up, and this feisty scamp is proof. His party tricks include introducing himself to geese and sneaking into mortals to haunt them from the inside out. Powers: Innate: B2 Rattle Chains B3 Leak B4 Hide & Seek B6 Kinesis Learned: B1 Fool’s Errand B1 Moan B5 Jinx B5 Thunderclap Personal Note: Boo is the incarnation of the :iamafag: face. He's got a grab-bag of powers, the most useful of which is doubtlessly Rattle Chains (followed closely by Kinesis), but he makes himself quite useful throughout the game. He's mainly suited to build Belief and Plasm at the beginning of a stage and luring mortals to a particular location.  Clatterclaws Family: Horde. Class: Sprite. Fetters: Inside. Special: This Horde’s flavor is Creepy Crawly, its swarms are made of spiders. Epitaph: Clatterclaws is much in demand. For some reason many mortals seem unnaturally afraid of living spiders—let alone living dead ones. Powers: Innate: B2 Scattered Swarm B3 Creepers B4 Hide & Seek B5 Swarm Strike Learned: B1 Flower Power B6 Arboreal Prison B6 Legion Personal Note: Clatterclaws is one of the only two sources in the game of Creepy Crawly horror. That said, she is quite cheap, which makes her good to start a stage with. She is not a very sophisticated ghost. Her main tasks are twofold, and she can perform both simultaneously: Make mortals Uneasy and scare them with straight horror.  Cogjammer Family: Gremlin. Class: Sprite. Fetters: Electrical. Epitaph: This organ grinder’s monkey was unlucky enough to be ground by his own organ. Now a respected Gremlin, Cogjammer is as wild in death as he was docile in life. Powers: Innate: B2 Spark B4 Strange Behavior B5 Jinx B7 Wild & Crazy Learned: B1 Fool’s Errand B1 Cut Lights B3 Blow Fuse B3 Wild Geese B6 Blackout B6 Sparkstorm B8 Luckstorm B8 Surge Personal Note: Cogjammer is your starting Gremlin and performs quite adequately as one. The other two Gremlins you're getting later on are actually quite specialised (towards machinery disabling and luck), whereas you have the freedom to lead Cogjammer towards either of those two paths, towards a more direct horror path, or get a nice blend of all three. What he is most suited towards depends quite heavily on what powers you invest in him, though his starting powers predispose him towards straight horror with a touch of Belief generation.  Ghastly Family: Specter. Class: Horror. Fetters: Violence. Epitaph: Everyone in the Astral Realms knows Ghastly—this Specter was haunting when you were not even a disturbance in the raw plasm. Powers: Innate: B1 Bitter Cold B4 Dread B5 Dominate B7 Paralyze B8 Terror Incarnate Learned: B2 Fright B3 Strange Vision B6 Spooky Surprise B6 Terrorize B9 Danse Macabre Personal Note: Spectres are not complicated. They are arguably the best at scaring people (though their horror is, unfortunately, quite flavourless) and that's what you will use them primarily for. They have a secondary usefulness in building Belief (with powers like Dominate, Danse Macabre and Possess), but since Ghastly lacks the ability to learn Possess, he is unfortunately stationary, which predisposes him to unloading as much of his powers as he can on those hapless mortals before they run away from his location.  Shivers Family: Phantom. Class: Frightener. Fetters: Emotional. Epitaph: Always in the running for MVP (Most Valuable Phantom), Shivers tends to be as uneasy around mortals as they are around him. Powers: Innate: B2 Fright B4 Taste Aura B5 Numb B9 TK Storm Learned: B1 Lingering Smell B1 Fluster B3 Suspicious Stench B6 Aura Reading B6 Terrorize B7 Paralyze B7 Spooky Stack B8 Twister B8 Scared to Death Personal Note: Ah, Shivers. A fan-favourite. He is quite possibly the most useful ghost in the initial roster, barring perhaps Boo. He has an extremely varied skillset, which makes him quite useful for practically any of the more common haunting tasks (straight scaring, mortal wrangling, Belief building, discovering fears, making mortals Uneasy), and his only impediment is the same that befalls all Phantoms: the elusive and mystifying Emotional fetter.  Stonewall Family: Earth Elemental. Class: Elemental. Fetters: Earth. Epitaph: The grating of tectonic plates, the slow erosion of mountains, and the inexorable compression of carbon matter conspired to form this inestimably patient spirit. Powers: Innate: B2 Tremor B5 Slow B8 Swallow Learned: B1 Flower Power B3 Leak B3 Creepers B4 Twisted Vines B6 Arboreal Prison B6 Trap B7 Quake Personal Note: Stonewall is, tragically, very hard to differentiate from the other Earth Elemental in the game, which is a shame, because Earth Elementals have some extremely unique powers. They are well suited to making mortals Uneasy and they are extremely good at providing the somewhat rare Trapped flavour of horror. Tremor and Quake are also invaluable when objects need to be destroyed in a haunting.  Whirlweird Family: Poltergeist. Class: Disturbance. Fetters: Child. Epitaph: Three-time winner of Poltergeist of the Year, Whirlweird is still best known for his debut professional haunting, the seminal Pollock’s Paint Store Mystery. Powers: Innate: B1 Fool’s Errand B3 Blow Fuse B5 Jinx B6 Kinesis B9 TK Storm Learned: B2 Tremor B4 Ice Breath B7 Spooky Stack B7 Wild & Crazy B8 Flood B8 Twister Personal Note: Whirlweird is an excellent ghost, with very impressive powers at an extremely cheap cost. This would make him practically invaluable in all sorts of hauntings, as they are well suited to building massive amounts of Belief for cheap and deploying substantial terror. However, he suffers from having an incredibly awful, unreliable fetter. Children are quite possibly the worst fetter in the game, which cripples Poltergeists enormously. Haunting 101  Weatherwitch Family: Banshee. Class: Vapour. Fetters: Thoroughfare. Epitaph: As owners come to resemble their pets, so do witches come to resemble their spells. Specializing in weather control, this unhinged Banshee soon became controlled by the weather, and now her mood swings are as temperamental as the skies. Powers: Innate: B1 Fog B4 Gusts B5 Thunderclap B8 Siren Song Learned: B2 Fright B2 Distant Thunder B3 Rain B6 Aura Reading B6 Wail B7 Ghostly Apparition B7 Haunted Hail B9 Cacophony B9 Typhoon Personal Note: Weatherwitch is an excellent ghost, quite possibly the best Banshee you'll have available. She has an excellent balance of powers, with a strong focus on weather. Her fetter is sometimes puzzling but overall useful, allowing her to be fettered inside and outside. You will see me make heavy use of her. Weird Seance [screenshot to be added] Wendel Family: Spook. Class: Disturbance. Fetters: Inside. Epitaph: As might be expected of a ghost who considers teen comedy movies to be art, Wendel intends to have some fun with his newfound intangibility. Powers: Innate B1 Footsteps B2 Brief Scare B3 Laughter B6 Chase Learned B4 Hide & Seek B4 Insane Invitation B5 Jinx B5 Thunderclap Personal Note: Spooks are one of the least varied ghost families, and it shows. You could turn Wendel into a Madness-oriented ghost with Insane Invitation, but there are other ghosts who do his job better. His Chase power produces Hunted-flavoured horror and lets him move around rooms in pursuit of a mortal, but there is a ghost that we will get later on that also has it and can be fettered Inside or Outside, which makes Wendel rather useless. [Screenshot to be added] Lucky the Cat Family: Gremlin. Class: Sprite. Fetters: Electrical. Epitaph: Lucky found that frat boys are a useful source of food, and so decided to become an Alpha Tau. Sadly, their electrical repair skills were wanting, leading to Lucky’s electrocution by their warm but malfunctioning pinball table. Powers: Innate B1 Cut Lights B4 Strange Behavior B6 Charm B8 Luckstorm Learned B1 Fool’s Errand B2 Spark B3 Blow Fuse B3 Wild Geese B5 Jinx B7 Wild & Crazy Personal Note: Despite the lack of variety in Lucky's powers when compared to other Gremlins, it's neat that she still has a luck specialisation, but the main problem is that luck is not terribly useful in later stages, even when it comes to building haunt-wide Belief. Outside of a few specific puzzles, you won't see me make much use of Lucky. [Screenshot to be added] Terroreyes Family: Apparition. Class: Vapor. Fetters: Murder. Epitaph: Mortal children play a gruesome game at Halloween, passing objects to one another blindfolded. Peeled grapes become a dead man’s eyes. Well, children...these are a dead man’s eyes! Powers: Innate B4 Ice Breath B5 Fascinate B6 Icy Touch B7 Ghostly Apparition Learned B1 Bitter Cold B2 Intrigue B3 Hidden Maze B3 Strange Vision B8 Terror Incarnate B8 Frozen Stiff Personal Note: Terroreyes is an apparition, which makes him automatically useful due to their amazing mortal-pulling powers. The problem with Terroreyes specifically is that there is a future Apparition that completely corners the market when it comes to mortal-pulling, leaving Terroreyes without much to do. Other haunters do cold and flavourless terror better, and they don't have an Apparition's awkward fetter. xeose4 fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Nov 27, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 11:14
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I'll be using this post to talk about the game's mechanics. Screenshots to come soon. Basic Mechanics At the beginning of a stage, you are taken to the ghost selection screen to choose the ghosts you can take with you. You are allowed to take 4, 6 or 8 ghosts, depending on the complexity of the stage. There is a Recommended button that gives you a team of ghosts that is what the game thinks is your best shot at completing the haunt, but that is not always true, particularly if you are aware of combos between ghost powers. Once you get to the stage, you will be given a briefing which outlines your goals for the haunt, pans over the location and highlights any restless spirits in the area. Restless spirits are optional challenges. You must do extra tasks in order to release them, but doing so adds them to your roster of ghosts once you complete that haunt's goals. At the top of the screen is a green bar that measures your main resource: Plasm. This plasm is not an expendable resource. Rather, it functions like electricity. You divert part of your available Plasm to your ghosts to fuel their powers. Even if your ghost is not using any powers, they need Plasm simply to be bound to a fetter. All ghosts need to be bound to a specific fetter (that varies from one family of ghosts to another), and can only use their powers once they're bound. You may bench a ghost at any point in order to free up the Plasm they were using. Plasm is generated by mortal fear, but it is reduced when they calm down (or, at the start of the haunt, by long periods of calm). Once a mortal flees, however, they leave behind a residue of terror that generates a set amount of permanent Plasm. Driving a mortal insane accomplishes the same as making them flee, for all intents and purposes. Ghost Powers Ghosts have their powers ordered in Bands. Each band costs more power the higher it is (so Band 1 is the cheapest and Band 10 is the most expensive). Not all ghosts can reach bands from 7 to 10. Wisps can only reach Band 5; Hordes and Spooks can reach up to Band 6; Gremlins, Elementals, Wraiths and Apparitions can reach up to Band 8; the rest of the Vapours and Disturbances (minus Sandmen), plus Phantoms and Spectres, can only reach Band 9. The remaining ghosts can reach Band 10, and are the most powerful ghosts you can recruit. Powers come in two varieties: Recharge and Continuous. A ghost can only sustain a single continuous power, and cast only one recharge power at a time. However, he can cast as many recharge powers as it can while sustaining a continuous power (for example, Weatherwitch can sustain Gusts for as long as she wants and cast Thunderclap or any of her other recharge powers while doing so). Recharge powers have a cooldown after casting, and the more powerful the ability, the longer the cooldown. Ghost Training You can teach powers to your ghosts by spending Gold Plasm. This currency is what you get at the end of every stage (which is why it's important to obtain a high score). The higher the Band of a power, the more it costs. Typically, ghosts will give you a choice between 2 powers for a given Band, though some ghosts are only able to learn 1 power in that band. Training your ghosts is essential because it allows you to specialise them. By examining the powers that they have already learned, you can then choose to specialise ghosts to avoid overlapping. This is sadly impossible for all ghosts (our Earth Elementals will end up nearly indistinguishable, for example), but I will do my best to make them as different as possible. Mortals Mortals have 4 statistics. They have a Terror bar, that fills up with red as they grow progressively scared, a Madness bar, that grows yellow, and a Belief bar that grows blue. A mortal's Willpower is not a bar, but it's the size of all three bars. Mortals with high Willpower will have large bars that take longer to fill up. A mortal flees the haunt when their total Terror exceeds the size of the bar. A mortal is driven insane when their Madness exceeds the size of their bar. Belief, however, works different: by itself it does nothing, and nothing happens when their Belief exceeds their maximum, but it affects how susceptible they are to the powers of your ghosts. The more belief a mortal has, the more Terror they receive from experiencing a ghost's horrifying power. There are other specific powers that trigger differently if mortals have more or less than a given percentage of Belief, and there are some specific conditions within some haunts that trigger when a specific mortal reaches a certain Belief threshold. When a mortal is surrounded by several concentric circles of a given colour, they are currently experiencing an effect that raises Terror, Madness of Belief, depending on the colour. It's worth noting that while Terror is applied additively, Madness and Belief are applied multiplicatively. That is, mortals begin with a minimal amount of Madness and Belief and powers apply a multiplier of the number already present. This means that if a mortal's Madness or Belief is zero, then they will never increase (children always have zero Madness, for example, and cannot be driven insane, though to my knowledge no mortal has zero belief). Unease and Mood Mortals can also gain a condition called Unease, which is visually represented by some white mist-like flickers surrounding them. Some powers only work on mortals that have been made Uneasy first, but in general this condition merely increases the effect of a ghost's power. Mortals behave differently depending on their status. Calm mortals will investigate strange noises, for example, while terrified mortals will flee from them. Terrified mortals are fidgety and rarely stay in one place for long (and tend to go to the bathroom often), while calm mortals tend to linger. Calm mortals tend to be more susceptible to luring powers and will take their time to investigate objects of interest, while terrified mortals are difficult to manage. Terror Zones A Terror Zone is a room that has a lot of fetters and is located in such a way that is difficult to avoid. In Haunting 101, we see that the sorority house's living room has an abundance of fetters and is the heart of the first floor, making it easy for us to drop all our ghosts there and difficult for the sorority girls to avoid walking by it. If they were to stay upstairs, the noise made by Boo's Rattle Chains would lure them down, while Weatherwitch's Thunderclap would make them flee inside if they wanted to stay outdoors. Later haunts will not be so generous, and we will not be able to set up a Terror Zone, which is why we will pick ghosts that can go anywhere and work well alone, like Boo, Clatterclaws and Weatherwitch. Terror Zones are also inadvisable for those haunts where we don't want to scare people off. Fears Every mortal has two fears that we can exploit. Conscious fears are fears that the mortal is aware of, and tend to be easy to detect and overall weaker. Subconscious fears are harder to detect but far stronger. Hitting a mortal with a power that inflicts the type of fear they are weak against generates far more Belief, Terror and Madness, and may easily cause them to faint. At the end of the stage, we will be rewarded for doing so with extra points (denoted in the scoring screen as Paranoias and Super-Paranoias). Fears are also what give our ghosts "flavours". For example, Clatterclaws's powers are "flavoured" Creepy Crawly, since she summons spiders. Creepy Crawly is a "weak" flavour, and therefore tends to be present in mortals with low Willpower. Later on, we will gain the ability to set people on Fire, which is a "strong" flavour, and therefore tends to be the fear of high Willpower mortals. Damage There are three types of damage in Ghost Master: Glass, Machinery and Structural. Some things are weak to Glass damage, others are weak to Machinery damage, but absolutely everything that can be broken in a given haunt is weak to Structural damage. Typically, things weak to Glass damage are made of glass or something of the sort, while things weak to Machinery damage tend to be electrical appliances. Dealing damage to objects in order to break them is sometimes necessary to lay to rest spirits or complete the goals in a haunt. Different ghost powers deal different types of damage. We will go over them in detail later on. Fetters Fetters are objects, areas or other things in a haunt that allow us to bind ghosts to the Material Plane. Fetters are broadly classified in 4 categories: Object Electrical, Mirror, Emotional, Violence, Murder, Corpse. Area Inside, Outside, Thoroughfare. Elemental Earth, Water, Fire, Air. Mortal Child, Sleeping. Typically, Elemental fetters are also objects, though there are exceptions (we will find large areas of Earth and Water in some haunts). It is rare that a Corpse fetter is not also a Murder fetter, though exceptions are possible (suicide, accident). All Murder fetters are also Violence fetters, and all Violence fetters are also Emotional fetters. Thoroughfares are hallways, pathways and all rooms that connect other rooms and lack a purpose on their own. Children are by far the worst fetter in the game. Sleeping mortals are under the control of the bound ghost, and therefore tend to be of service, while children tend to wander off to the most secluded places and rarely stay around other mortals. The corpse fetter is the second worst, which is why all ghosts that bind to a Corpse fetter learn the Possess power in order to be able to move around a haunt. Fun Facts Haunting 101: Weatherwitch doesn't know Rain as a power because if she did, she would be able to free herself! Rain inflicts Machinery damage, which was what we needed to do in order to release her. Weird Seance: You may also use Boo's Kinesis to release Terror Eyes, if you manage to send an item from the main living room to Terror Eyes's room and then miraculously getting it to collide against his jar. You can try to do it with the beer cans in Terror Eyes's own room, but there are only like 4-5 of them, while the main living room has 10+ movable objects. I would not recommend you to actually do this, as given that it has an over 1 in a 100 odds of happening, it can drive a mind to utter insanity. xeose4 fucked around with this message at 10:20 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 11:14
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This seems like an interesting game idea. So do you get a bonus for scaring someone into complete madness? Is it possible to scare anyone to death and recruit their ghost, or is that a little to evil for this game?
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Oct 24, 2014 13:38
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Woah, woah, wait, someone's LP-ing Ghost Master? Man, this I gotta see. This is probably the game I've played the most proportional to the content (as in, I've played other games longer, but they had more new content) Heck, I even eventually found a 'use any ghost' mod so I could go back to earlier missions and use the latter-game ghosts (who might not be better, but they're certainly extra variety in how to handle the mission) I'm not entirely sure whether I'm hoping you'll not be too experienced, so that we can see you flounder a bit, or that you'd be experienced enough to explain some mechanics. Geostomp posted:This seems like an interesting game idea. So do you get a bonus for scaring someone into complete madness? Is it possible to scare anyone to death and recruit their ghost, or is that a little to evil for this game? Madness is worth extra points, I'm pretty sure (but it's so hard to do, you'd either need to be better than me at it, or go for a gimmick run) Unfortunately, you can't (as far as I remember) kill anyone, no matter how much potentially-lethal stuff you do to them. Oh, and I've actually read someone doing a so-called 'post-mortem' on the game: The main reason, as far as they claimed, that the game wasn't very successful is that it was under-hyped. Personally I found out about it by stumbling across it in a store, but apparently it took a bit of luck or word-of-mouth to find out about the game at release. I really hope someone will eventually release a Ghost Master 2, the way they eventually did a sequel to Majesty (Majesty 2 might not be as good as the original, but it's a good game. And Majesty 1 wasn't anywhere near as 'flawed' as Ghost Master 1 is) But it'll probably not happen. EDIT: Eh, screw it, I guess it MIGHT be spoiler-ish. Let's break out the black felt pen. aerion111 fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 18:50
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Geostomp posted:This seems like an interesting game idea. So do you get a bonus for scaring someone into complete madness? Is it possible to scare anyone to death and recruit their ghost, or is that a little to evil for this game? You are definitely rewarded for driving someone to insanity rather than making them flee (double points, in fact). Insane people count as "fled" for the purposes of giving you permanent plasm and completing any goals that require people fleeing, but they have a special bonus: insane people run around the haunt disturbing other mortals. If we have a haunt with a couple of high Madness mortals, it often pays to hit them with Madness early so that they snap and help you build up Terror. There are some ghosts that are very good at making people go mad, and they tend to be sound-oriented. Clatterclaws actually has a power that gives a small Madness hit (Swarm Strike), but it's not very much. Later on we will get ghosts that come with Madness powers, and I will be specialising them in that. In at least one of the final missions, I will go for a "Madness" run in an attempt to drive everyone insane rather than making them flee. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to kill mortals, or harm them in any meaningful way. You will later on see me set mortals on fire, but this is an illusion. There's even a power called "Scared to Death", which unfortunately only makes mortals faint (though making a mortal faint is useful, it creates a Sleeping fetter and reduces 20% of the mortal's willpower, making him easier to scare or drive to insanity). The game definitely lets you be evil with mortals. You can set them on fire, electrocute them (with real electricity, even!), scare them, drive them insane, freeze them solid and telekinetically make them dance around like dolls for your own amusement. The only "lines" they draw are "no physical harm" and "can't drive kids insane." aerion111 posted:Woah, woah, wait, someone's LP-ing Ghost Master? I've played this game a ton, but I am probably not an expert. I rely too much on the Prima Guide to give me solid numbers on what the powers do so I can strategise better. You will definitely see me flounder in later stages though! While I get the job done, I am not terribly efficient about it, and the randomised AI sometimes screws me over. aerion111 posted:Oh, and I've actually read someone doing a so-called 'post-mortem' on the game: I read that post-mortem too! I was actually going to link it later on in the thread when I sat down to do my thought piece on where the game fails. While I can agree that the game was under-hyped, it wouldn't have had too much success with adequate marketing either, given that it fails a crucial part of game design by making puzzles that rely on luck and randomised AI, and then putting you on a timer to give you the best score (which in turn, gives you the points you need to spend on ghosts' powers). This game is brilliant and introduces mechanics to the industry that have never been seen again since, but it drops the ball hard in some areas and it's certainly worth exploring why and where it failed (don't get me started on my undying hatred of Wraiths and Tricksters). Well, I wouldn't lose hope. With the success of nostalgia-driven Kickstarters, we might yet see a Ghost Master 2.
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Oct 24, 2014 20:28
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xeose4 posted:"can't drive kids insane." Not that you'd want to. It's much more fun to watch them 'Oooh' and 'Aaah' as their ghost-friends play pranks on the adults (I dunno if there's sound effects, I generally play with the sound off, but they do the general body-language) I'm pretty sure no mission requires you to scare away the children (but you can, if you want, I guess) A note on madness: Because they know 'The Truth About Reality', or whatever, Mad people are not as easily scared. So if you're going down that route with a particular guy, you need to commit to it, otherwise you're just being slightly inefficient in scaring them away. EDIT: Oh, and the 'illusionary' fire is still perfectly able to burn objects. I'd been working on the assumption it was real fire, just wasn't able to leave lasting damage because, well, it's a game.
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Oct 25, 2014 05:00
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aerion111 posted:Not that you'd want to. There's definitely one mission where a child is the central character, and at the end of the mission, you must scare her from the house. There are also children in a few other missions that have "make everyone flee", but they are so irrelevant to the stage that I don't blame you for forgetting. aerion111 posted:A note on madness: Because they know 'The Truth About Reality', or whatever, Mad people are not as easily scared. Yeah, and Madness powers in general are rather difficult to use since they tend to require some "preparing the ground" first (of special note is Whisper, which is useless unless you know that the mortal has a fear of Noise, or Voice on the Wind, which only hits for Insanity once you've uncovered their fears and if they are already significantly insane). This is why Psychotic Rage is the best Madness power. No fiddling around, just a straight massive hit to Madness, which is often enough to send an already unstable mortal straight into complete insanity. aerion111 posted:EDIT: Oh, and the 'illusionary' fire is still perfectly able to burn objects. I'd been working on the assumption it was real fire, just wasn't able to leave lasting damage because, well, it's a game. That's still an illusion, actually! According to the Prima Guide, the fire is a complete illusion, and the reason it sets things on (illusory) fire is so that mortals come back with fire extinguishers to put it out. It's a very roundabout way to compel mortals back into a Terror Zone after unleashing hell on them.
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Oct 25, 2014 05:39
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I'd like to express an opinion that there's no point in having a guest commentator if you only have time for five sentences between the two of you. I really don't understand what the idea was to rush through the first level.
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Oct 25, 2014 09:59
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This was released for XBOX. They changed a few bits between versions; for instance, you don't get to choose your team, most stages are timed, movelists were reduced.
Bloodly fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Oct 25, 2014 |
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Oct 25, 2014 10:05
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Oh hey, this game. It was pretty cool, and and interesting concept. Shame they didn't do anything more with it. If you're interested xeose4, I have a poster (with the coloured portraits) that came with my copy of the game, that I can upload if you want. Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Oct 25, 2014 |
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Oct 25, 2014 11:56
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supermikhail posted:I'd like to express an opinion that there's no point in having a guest commentator if you only have time for five sentences between the two of you. I really don't understand what the idea was to rush through the first level. Well, there wasn't so much point to it in the first level, but... Some stages get hella long if you want to collect all the ghosts. And some stages are hella long if you don't quite get how to do things... You'll see. Bloodly posted:This was released for XBOX. They changed a few bits between versions; for instance, you don't get to choose your team, most stages are timed, movelists were reduced. Ah, now that is interesting! Technically, the stages are timed here now, but it's not, as I believe you're saying here, a fixed timer so much as a par time you'll want to beat if you want maximum pumpkins/score (you can go back to certain stages, and it's unbelievable the amount of points you can rack up if you know exactly what you're doing and the AI is exploited right!) I might occasionally post some mechanical funtimes, analysis of the houses, etc, if I have some free time. But suffice to say, there's two main rooms you want to focus the terror on in the first house, and, if you know what you're doing, Weatherwitch can be used in certain parts of the house to draw the AI right... Where you want them... [sinister laughter]
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Oct 25, 2014 14:14
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supermikhail posted:I'd like to express an opinion that there's no point in having a guest commentator if you only have time for five sentences between the two of you. I really don't understand what the idea was to rush through the first level. This stage was very short and 20% cutscenes, so there really wasn't much time to say anything. Even if I had been alone I would've barely managed to cover the same things I did this time around, and the end result wouldn't have been as funny or entertaining. Like I say in the video itself, it's more of a gameplay trailer than anything else. I'll definitely get more into the game mechanics in the next stage, which features a very straight-forward goal but takes longer because some of the restless spirits are a bit tricky. Bloodly posted:This was released for XBOX. They changed a few bits between versions; for instance, you don't get to choose your team, most stages are timed, movelists were reduced. Wow, that sounds awful! Choosing your team for every mission is half the fun! Later on, you will see me make some Sick Combos(TM) with some ghosts that most definitely aren't what the game wants you to use (I am fond of cold powers to slowly erode mortal willpower, for example). Timing the stage is a dickbag move in some cases, because as I repeat relentlessly, some puzzles rely on the randomised AI. Pesky Splinter posted:Oh hey, this game. It was pretty cool, and and interesting concept. Shame they didn't do anything more with it. I'd definitely link you in the OP and give you credit if you did that! Anything that improves the quality of the LP with bonus coolness is most welcome. JamieTheD posted:I might occasionally post some mechanical funtimes, analysis of the houses, etc, if I have some free time. But suffice to say, there's two main rooms you want to focus the terror on in the first house, and, if you know what you're doing, Weatherwitch can be used in certain parts of the house to draw the AI right... Where you want them... [sinister laughter] 
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Oct 25, 2014 14:44
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No problem: Spoilers for unseen ghosties:  http://i.imgur.com/I80BH6W.jpg
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Oct 25, 2014 15:25
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supermikhail posted:I'd like to express an opinion that there's no point in having a guest commentator if you only have time for five sentences between the two of you. I really don't understand what the idea was to rush through the first level. As Jamie and xeose noted, Haunting 101 was just an extremely short level. Some of the missions and release conditions for the ghosts can get downright obnoxious because of how luck-based they are. Chimera-gui fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Oct 25, 2014 |
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Oct 25, 2014 18:03
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Chimera-gui posted:As Jamie and xeose noted, Haunting 101 was just an extremely short level. Some of the missions and release conditions for the ghosts can get downright obnoxious because of how luck-based they are. And he got rather lucky on this one. Either that, or he did something I didn't quite catch. Either way, you'd normally have more people hiding outside, hiding in rooms, and in general just hiding. I rarely manage to get 'Terror Rooms' to work more than once or twice per person.
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Oct 25, 2014 18:26
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Chimera-gui posted:As Jamie and xeose noted, Haunting 101 was just an extremely short level. Some of the missions and release conditions for the ghosts can get downright obnoxious because of how luck-based they are. When I've been really on the ball, to give an example of how short the first level can be, I've gotten everyone out of the house in under 4 minutes by being on the ball. On the other hand, when someone just keeps going between one bloody room and another, or gets down to the basement without me noticing, it can take anything up to 15. Why such a disparity? Because that one person usually ends up avoiding most of the scares, so I have to go through the whole process with a single person. Which generally requires trapping them so they have a hard time running to a room with multiple exits.
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Oct 25, 2014 18:28
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JamieTheD posted:Because that one person usually ends up avoiding most of the scares, so I have to go through the whole process with a single person. Which generally requires trapping them so they have a hard time running to a room with multiple exits. Well, you don't have to trap them, you can just use someone with a 'quick' power. I tended to use Buck, the dog, who can usually hit them with tiny bits of scaring. Heck, if you set it up ahead of time with ready-to-use powers, you can probably smack down two or three ghosts, which can help on certain maps such as the freaking hospital. Fun map, in theory, but loads of corridors and small rooms
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Oct 25, 2014 19:09
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Wow, this looks like a fun and neat game. It reminds me of Haunting! Starring Polterguy! for the Genesis kinda. Funny enough, that too had just enough random human movement to make some levels an absolute pain. "No! Don't run that way! You just came from there!"  
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Oct 25, 2014 19:46
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Oh Xeose before I forget, Weatherwitch's comment about being able to "whip up a storm to wake the dead!" wasn't hyperbole. You actually can use her to wake up Daydreamer which will yield unique dialogue from him.
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Oct 25, 2014 20:59
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Pesky Splinter posted:No problem: Thank you! I've added you to the OP. aerion111 posted:Either that, or he did something I didn't quite catch. I abuse the crap out of Boo's Rattle Chains before I set him on a higher band! Mortals are very likely to investigate strange noises like Rattle Chains when they're calm. I will get more deeply into the mechanics later on, but I just wanted to clarify this. In Haunting 101, one casting of Rattle Chains is enough to bring the entire household (minus the sleeping girl) down to the living room. Choco1980 posted:Wow, this looks like a fun and neat game. It reminds me of Haunting! Starring Polterguy! for the Genesis kinda. Funny enough, that too had just enough random human movement to make some levels an absolute pain. "No! Don't run that way! You just came from there!" Your words will prove prophetic in later levels.  Chimera-gui posted:Oh Xeose before I forget, Weatherwitch's comment about being able to "whip up a storm to wake the dead!" wasn't hyperbole. You actually can use her to wake up Daydreamer which will yield unique dialogue from him. It's actually a phrase that works on many levels! First off, there's the fact that it's Weatherwitch's most famous phrase, and she's one of The Best Ghosts. It also serves as a metaphor for our work in Gravenville. We are taking the town by storm and releasing restless spirits to join us, driving an entire city into madness and horror. Then, it also serves as my personal playstyle (I am very fond of weather effects), and whipping up a storm is how you release at least 2 restless spirits (one is the one you mentioned, another one is a secret ghost). All in all, it's a great way to sum up the game. We're here to transmogrify plasm and unleash chaos, and we're all out of plasm.  Also, a heads up about the next video: I worked all day today and I have to do the same tomorrow, so I couldn't really get any recording done. On top of that, the next stage features a ghost that can be freed in 3 different ways and I have this ambitious idea of recording the footage of the other 2 versions and splicing them into the "main" video (so that you guys can see all 3). However, I fear my nascent video editing skills might be taxed by such a daring goal, so I am loathe to estimate how long it will take me. Hopefully I will have it before Friday? Fingers crossed?
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Oct 26, 2014 01:48
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xeose4 posted:we're all out of plasm Well, that's your own fault  Now you'll have to get more.
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Oct 26, 2014 02:06
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Speaking of a ghost that can be freed in different ways, Daydreamer can be woken in other ways such as Cacophony, Wail, or Suspicious Stench so using Weatherwitch isn't technically required but it does get the unique dialogue as I mentioned while any other method gets the basic dialogue for waking him up.
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Oct 26, 2014 02:57
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If you don't mind a bit of  , it's just occurred to me that if there was suddenly a wave of such obvious and detectable ghost sightings, it wouldn't prove that ghosts have been real all along, but rather that our world has changed, possibly because of an incursion of aliens of a very different physical make-up. ...Sooo, any non-obvious fiction suggestions? I've seen a Doctor Who episode along these lines, but it doesn't exactly hit the spot, because the ghosts are secondary to the recurring villains. I don't remember reading any books tackling this idea, but I bet there are some. Although maybe not this particular idea, where the alien "ghosts" actually have nothing to do with our legends, just superficially resemble them. Hm, this sounds like a great way to become a bestselling author on the back of the recent supernatural resurgence  ... I'll shut up now.
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Oct 26, 2014 03:44
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supermikhail posted:If you don't mind a bit of I believe the cartoon Ben 10 did something along these lines with the ghost-like Ectonurite species along with other horror species, all of which dwell in a solar system called the Anur System.
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Oct 26, 2014 04:17
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I've always wanted to see this game done by someone that knows what's going on; I loved the premise but just didn't have the planning, timing, or understanding to really get far. Though I do hope you can lower the game audio a little, I could barely hear any commentary once the screaming and wailing started.
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Oct 26, 2014 21:05
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After restarting the level roughly 120 times, I finally manage to get a plate to randomly fly in the right direction at the right height... and then I run out of drive space in mid-recording without realising it, so I don't actually manage to capture it. 
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Oct 28, 2014 01:38
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You're not trying to free one of the ghosts, are you? None of the ghosts in missions 2 or 3 need a direct plate to the right place; there are other options, which might save you some sanity.
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Oct 28, 2014 04:15
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Kacie posted:You're not trying to free one of the ghosts, are you? None of the ghosts in missions 2 or 3 need a direct plate to the right place; there are other options, which might save you some sanity. I am, and I wanted to try to showcase all the ways you can free one of them. After about 40-50 tries, I have been unable to reproduce it, so I have decided to just let it be. You guys will see Kinesis a lot throughout the game and there isn't a special animation or special dialogue that justifies me losing sanity trying to capture something with a literal 1 in a 100 chance of happening. Video is recorded, commentary scheduled for tomorrow, should be up then. Once this one is done, I'll probably make a bonus video about the "headquarters" and ghost training.
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Oct 28, 2014 04:25
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The game takes long enough to play as is so it's better to only do alternate solutions when it actually gives unique results.
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Oct 28, 2014 04:47
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xeose4 posted:I am, and I wanted to try to showcase all the ways you can free one of them. After about 40-50 tries, I have been unable to reproduce it, so I have decided to just let it be. You guys will see Kinesis a lot throughout the game and there isn't a special animation or special dialogue that justifies me losing sanity trying to capture something with a literal 1 in a 100 chance of happening.  You are extremely dedicated, sir, and I salute you. But please don't burn out over this. Goodness knows, there are later missions which require the AI to do that 1 in 100 thing. I love this game, I laugh so hard. Except when I swear because I have to restart because AI.
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Oct 28, 2014 06:40
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loving hell, this game. I had this game pretty close to when it came out, and for some reason so did a lot of people where I lived. No advertising, just word of mouth. I was always insanely terrible at it, and will say that I never completed it, so it'll be nice to see what actually makes up some of the later levels. I can remember hating the human AI because they never did what I wanted them to do.
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Oct 29, 2014 01:55
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Okay, because I want to get this in before Xeose gets the video up, let's talk a little about Haunting 101: Specifically, the ghosts we used, and why they're useful or not in a level. I will be attempting to explain game concepts and the like, and also try and find something about hidden stats for ghosts (Because believe me, there are hidden stats!) The actual hauntings themselves, strategies and the like, are something I want to work at, so they'll be delayed somewhat (free time, other LP, RL, etc etc) Haunting 101: The Haunters Ghost Master is a game in which the Haunters you choose can have a major effect on your strategies and playstyle, so it's important to understand why a ghost has been picked for a certain level. Obviously, for the first level, Xeose picked Boo, Clatterclaws, Cogjammer, and Shivers, gaining Weatherwitch at the very beginning. How useful are they really? Let's explore! Boo Ahhh, Boo. A nice, simple Spook from the Disturbance family (10 Plasm just to put him on the map without powers), Boo's first strength is in his Fetter (Where you can put him): Inside. There aren't many maps where there's more Outside than Inside, and so he's a cheap source of Terror that's pretty versatile. In the first level, he's not much use Orders wise (Level 0, which means he doesn't take many Orders. More on Orders later, but basically, they're AI tweaks of great tactical value), but he starts with powers that mix gaining Belief (Important if you want to scare someone better), Terror, and a little bit of AI "Pull". Rattle Chains, his first ability, is a relatively weak Pull that will draw unwise mortals to a room so other ghosts can dogpile them. Of course, it's a Sound, which means that it doesn't have an amazing range (and walls reduce that range even further), and if Mortals are too scared of a room (IE - The terror gained there is higher than everywhere else), they won't investigate. But it's a good starting strategy if you want a quick burst of terror from a bunch of nearby mortals. It also raises Belief a little, and spooks people who are afraid of Noise and are Paralysed or Uneasy (More on Fears when we get to Shivers) Leak, on Band 2, is a Terror ability that's very specialised (Only causes Terror on Mortals who are afraid of Water), but also draws Mortals' attention to a room, and slightly more useful than Rattle Chains in that it's LOS, not Sound based. Hide & Seek, Band 4, is a great ability for scaring the bejeezus out of Mortals with high (50+) Belief, and an okayish Terror ability otherwise. It does one hit of Light Hunted Horror (More on Horror when we discuss mechanics, but for now, assume a base of 8 Horror for Light), and, if the Mortal truly believes, anything up to five more (50% chance until it fails, or it makes a total of six hits). It's single target, but since raising Belief raises the amount of Terror Mortals suffer, it only gets better the longer the haunting lasts! Kinesis, Band 6, is the final ability Boo starts with, and by the Great Pumpkin, it's a doozy for such a cheap ghost! It throws objects round the room Boo's in, causing Medium Belief and Terror to anyone who can see it. It also lightly damages both an object and a thing it collides with (2+ damage) if two objects happen to hit each other. That's rare though, so don't depend on it! Boo gets more abilities as the game goes on, but he's pretty limited in choice, and you can honestly go the entire game without needing to upgrade Boo. Fool's Errand (Band 1) sends someone looking round random Fetters, or you could pick Moan, a quiet, low range sound that causes Light Noise Horror in anyone who hears it, and doesn't always work besides (20% chance, Band 1, DO NOT BUY), Jinx (Band 5) causes Bad Luck (More on that later, but it's a thing other Haunters do better, to be honest), and finally, as Band 5's other choice, you can have an indoor Thunderclap (Cf Weatherwitch). If you're going to buy abilities for Boo, go for Fool's Errand and Thunderclap rather than Moan and Jinx, you'll be happier. Or don't upgrade Boo at all, and keep him as he is: A versatile, if not amazing Terror/Belief Haunter. EDIT: Someone is wrong, either the numpty who gave Boo Thunderclap, or the Powers descriptor saying it only works Outside. EDIT 2: It's the Powers descriptor, Weatherwitch edited to reflect that! Clatterclaws Clatterclaws is a Sprite, part of the Horde class (Extremely cheap, at 5 Plasm for manifesting!), and, like Boo, he's Fettered Indoors. He's also our first Haunter with a special, in that nearly all his powers are Creepy Crawly terrors (Which, natch, do more to someone who's afraid of Creepy Crawlies!). So let's look at what he does, shall we? Scattered Swarm (Band 2) is a Horde specific ability, and it causes Light Terror of the Horde's flavour (Creepy Crawly, in this case). It targets everyone in a room, and although folks can be more afraid of things, they can't be less afraid of things. So it's a nice, cheap, area effect form of cheap Terror. Sweet. Creepers (Band 3) is the first example of a power we can do in combo with someone else's power (specifically, Boo's Rattle Chains), because, on top of causing Light Normal Horror, it makes Mortals Uneasy (For an easy multiplier, which can further be exploited with powers that do more with Uneasy people. It's not an amazingly good combo, but always note when something causes Uneasiness, because powers can get better when Mortals are Uneasy! Hide & Seek (Band 4) is, pretty much, exactly the same as Boo's. Swarm Strike, at Band 5, is, on the one hand, slow to recharge. On the other hand, it causes Medium Hunted Horror to a single Mortal (And Creepy Crawly, in this case!)... On the third hand, it also causes Light Insanity. Insanity is bad unless you're specifically aiming for it, because the crazier a Mortal is, the harder they are to Terrorise. But still, it's useful in the first level! The powers that can be bought are interesting, but start fairly weak. Flower Power (B1) just causes Uneasiness. No horror, so booooooo! Twisted Vines (Band 4) causes Light Horror and Belief in a room (and to those who see the room), while Band 6 presents the choice of Arboreal Prison, which Traps a single Mortal briefly (Light Belief, Medium Trapped Horror for Mortals with Trapped Fears, Rattled Mortals, or Terrified Mortals. IE - A good single target "finisher") or Legion, for area effect, Heavy Creepy Crawly Horror (If you need to know what being really scary for multiple Mortals is good for, you're playing the wrong game!) Cogjammer Cogjammer is a Gremlin, of the Sprite class (5 Plasm Basic), so he's cheap, but he's our first example of a more limited Fetter. Cogjammer can only be attached to Electrical objects, and, besides freeing Weatherwitch (more on that in a moment), he's mainly good for Belief raising, although, as we'll see, he's also good for when you need a machine broken! Spark (Band 2) causes his Fetter to shoot out sparks, causing Light Electrical Horror to nearby mortals, but also causes 1 point of damage to the object he's Fettered to if it's Fragile. A good start. Strange Behaviour (Band 4) again causes light damage to his Fetter (1+), but also causes Light Belief in Mortals who see the weird things he's making the electrical device do. Jinx (Band 5) is an interesting one, because many folks merely think it causes Light Belief and funny electrocution animations whenever the now Unlucky Mortal plays with something electrical. What they might not notice is that this causes Light Normal Horror every time they get shocked, and have to drop any large items they're carrying when they do. If it isn't cancelled by Charm or Luckstorm giving them the Charmed condition, it lasts for 5-10 minutes, and it almost guarantees they get shocked at least once (Unless you wreck everything electrical) Wild & Crazy (Band 7) is Cogjammer's Nuclear Option. Every Electrical Fetter in the room is suddenly under the effects of Strange Behaviour, causing Medium Belief and Light Normal Horror to anyone who can see it, but also damaging fragile things for 2+ points every time he does it. His upgrade options are pretty varied, but mostly follow the same motif: Raise Belief, Change Luck, Damage Electrical stuff (that he can still attach to, because, even broken, it's still a thing wot used to run off Electricity!) Shivers Shivers is a Phantom type Frightener, one of the more expensive classes of the game (Base Plasm 20 to manifest), with the medium availability Fetter of Emotional (You'll nearly always find at least one Emotional Fetter around, but they won't always be in useful places). For the first few Hauntings, he's one of our two heavy hitters, as only his weakest scare ability causes anything less than Medium Horror. He is the ghost you send out to finish the scare, and he will finish it. Used well, he'll finish it in one TK Storm and a chorus of [THUMP]s as a gaggle of Mortals faints! Which is a good segue into Fright (Band 2), which causes Light Normal Horror, and recharges quickly. That's it. Taste Aura (Band 4), on the other hand, does not cause any Terror at all... But it does pluck a single target's Conscious Fear out of their mind. So, Fears... Mortals always have a Conscious Fear, and often (but not always) a Subconscious Fear. Target a Mortal with the right Conscious Fear, and you've doubled the Terror you cause. Do it with a Subconscious Fear, you triple it. And this is before other factors come in, like high Belief, being Uneasy... It's useful if you want to learn how to scare folks most efficiently without a guide, although by no means necessary to use if you already know their Fears. Numb (Band 5) is fun, because it causes not only Medium Normal Horror in a single Mortal, it causes Freeze too. Freeze makes mortals... Well, Freeze, which lowers their Willpower (a hidden stat), which in turn makes it easier to screw with them. If their Willpower is low, it also fixes them in place, perfect setup for hitting them with multiple powers (10 seconds for low Willpower, 5 for High) Finally, TK Storm causes Heavy Normal Horror and Heavy Belief to anyone witnessing everything in a room being thrown about, before it's dumped on the floor, causing 3+ damage to the objects, and anything they collide with. It's expensive, but it's so worth it as a finisher, because if you time it just right, you might cause a Scream or a Faint, for extra plasm. Nearly all of Shivers' purchasable abilities are useful, although you may want to save Aura Reading (Reveals all Conscious Fears within range) for a first playthrough, so you can write them down and save them for your score attack run. Finally, we have Weatherwitch. Released by damaging her Fetter (so a surprising amount of things work), she is, when first discovered, mainly for weather effects, and AI control. She's a Banshee type Vapour (15 Plasm Basic, so high-middle tier in cost terms), and she lives up to her name! She is the first ghost with the Throughfare Fetter, and that one's a very interesting one indeed! Any corridor, path, or other "Place between two rooms" counts as a throughfare, so she can create some nasty surprises if you put your mind to it! Fog (Band 1) does what it says on the tin: It makes a Fog. This will cause Light Darkness Horror in everyone who's afraid of the dark, over the course of a minute. Gust (Band 4) raises the Wind Force of an area by 2, again for as long as Weatherwitch wants it to. I've never seen it work inside (It's not marked as a specifically outside power, though), but, as you might imagine from the "raises" thing, it stacks with other powers that raise Wind Force. It's one of her powers that can make the outside very unattractive to Mortals. Thunderclap (Band 5) claims to be an outside only power, but it isn't, and, with Extreme Volume, it can reach a lot of folks, even indoors! It only causes Light Storm Horror, but it makes Terrified Mortals run away from the area, and convinces Mortals outside that it's better to be In than Out. AI "Push" ability, to keep them where you want them! Siren Song (Band 6) is a good starter AI "Pull", because, even though it's a Medium Volume sound (and thus doesn't go very far, about half the radius of a Thunderclap), it pulls any mortals within earshot to Weatherwitch, and may get curious Mortals to investigate it. When you're not Thunderclapping, you should be using Siren Song to keep Mortals in corridors near a Terror Room you've set up, switching her between the two as necessary, so the Mortals stay where you want them until... It's time for them to leave. Shrieking. Takes a hella long time to recharge though. If you guessed most of her purchasable powers are to do with making the outside very unpalatable, making lots of noise, with the occasional bit of Terror, you'd be perfectly correct. She's a Controller, and she knows it. Use her well! Once I've gotten all the notes together, have a spare moment, etc, I'll be noting how this all applies to Haunting 101... And why the Basement is less than ideal with this specific team. JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 29, 2014 22:53
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Hey everyone, let's have a weird seance! Highlight of this episode: Edith Piaf makes a guest appearance. Fun fact: You may also use Boo's Kinesis to release Terror Eyes, if you manage to send an item from the main living room to Terror Eyes's room and then miraculously getting it to collide against his jar. You can try to do it with the beer cans in Terror Eyes's own room, but there are only like 4-5 of them, while the main living room has 10+ movable objects. I would not recommend you to actually do this, as given that it has an over 1 in a 100 odds of happening, it can drive a mind to utter insanity. Update on the ghosts to come as soon as I can figure out how to screenshot with this new software. xeose4 fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Oct 30, 2014 |
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Oct 30, 2014 09:06
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Here we go, Weird Seance is the first real level of the game as it gives a better indication of what to expect in later levels whereas Haunting 101 was basically a tutorial. First off, you're going to have at least three ghosts per level and their release requirements will range from unmissable like Wendel to painful as we'll see in later levels. Additionally, the level goals are not aways going to be scaring all the mortals away as the next level will demonstrate.
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Oct 31, 2014 18:43
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Man, this game is great, in concept if not quite execution. I take it you're not using the Steam version (or the normal version with the pre-order code), given that you don't have early access to Windwalker. That always struck me as a slightly unusual pre-order bonus, kind of insignificant. I eagerly await the next chapter, as a couple of my favorite ghosts will be recruited at that time, if I remember the order of levels correctly. Also, it'll be interesting to see a lot of AI control effects in action, doing what they're supposed to. I generally preferred to just horror/madness-bomb the hell out of everyone, just adding the control powers at random to make things spoooooookier. When I needed to control the AI (especially when unlocking A CERTAIN GHOST ), I tended to use hard controls like Maze and/or Siren's Song to bring them right where I wanted, rather than using stuff like Thunderclap or Gusts or the various indoor equivalents. My favorite strategy, though, was abusing ghost powers that allowed the ghosts to become mobile, rather than shackled to their fetter (like Possess). Sadly, I could only make heavy use of that in the last few missions (the biggest flaw in Ghost Master is that when you replay missions, you can only use the ghosts you could have had available at the time, unless you use the mod mentioned in the OP).
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Oct 31, 2014 19:40
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EclecticTastes posted:(the biggest flaw in Ghost Master is that when you replay missions, you can only use the ghosts you could have had available at the time, unless you use the mod mentioned in the OP). Pretty sure the OP didn't mention it. I did, however. And I don't mind that the LP-er isn't going to use Lucky much; I used her in just about every mission, and usually at least one other Gremlin. So, I've seen enough shenanigans with luck and weird electronics. I'd actually more hope to see the ghosts with 'rare' fetters used - I didn't even bother bringing Shivers, much less Ghastly.
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Oct 31, 2014 23:10
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Huh, I don't remember aether, Raindancer, Wavemaster, etc. having nude breasts. About time someone lp'd this game though.
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Nov 1, 2014 06:29
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EclecticTastes posted:That always struck me as a slightly unusual pre-order bonus, kind of insignificant. Windwalker is The Best Ghost and I will hear not a single word against it. EclecticTastes posted:My favorite strategy, though, was abusing ghost powers that allowed the ghosts to become mobile, rather than shackled to their fetter (like Possess). This is actually not very good later on, when we are introduced to MORTAL ENEMIES. MORTAL ENEMIES are drawn to your wandering ghosts! EclecticTastes posted:(especially when unlocking A CERTAIN GHOST I'm going to take a very controversial stand: Brigit is not as hard as Fingers. aerion111 posted:And I don't mind that the LP-er isn't going to use Lucky much; I used her in just about every mission, and usually at least one other Gremlin. I am not terribly good at bringing either of those, since they're fan-favourites (they and Boo make up most of the promotional material) and I assumed everyone had seen them played a lot. Mostly I love me my Banshees, Fetches and Apparitions. Nalesh posted:Huh, I don't remember aether, Raindancer, Wavemaster, etc. having nude breasts. Do they? I always assumed the elementals, even though they were referred to as he or she, were of indeterminate gender (due to the androgynous voice acting and model design), so they weren't exactly breasts.
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Nov 1, 2014 21:07
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Nude breasts, nude moobs, whatever they are 
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Nov 1, 2014 21:17
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Nalesh posted:Nude breasts, nude moobs, whatever they are Well, this was made in Britain. European sensibilities and all that. 
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Nov 1, 2014 21:32
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