Whip up a storm to wake the dead: Let's Play Ghost Master!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Whip up a storm to wake the dead: Let's Play Ghost Master!

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

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 :argh:

), 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).

# ¿ Oct 31, 2014 19:40

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 19:08

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

xeose4 posted:

Windwalker is The Best Ghost and I will hear not a single word against it.

Oh, I didn't mean he was bad, just, y'know, early access to a single ghost didn't strike me as a big deal compared to the pre-order bonuses for other games of the time. Personally, I'm a fan of Arclight and Static

xeose4 posted:

This is actually not very good later on, when we are introduced to MORTAL ENEMIES. MORTAL ENEMIES are drawn to your wandering ghosts!

That's why you get the enemies Sleepwalking and/or Possessed ASAP. Sleepwalking, of course, being the superior option. Besides, using THE GIFT to move ghosts around is essential in later missions, and that was my favorite mobility trick (since Ghosts that aren't actively using powers are almost never detected, they can get anywhere like that).

xeose4 posted:

I'm going to take a very controversial stand: Brigit is not as hard as Fingers.

There's a trick to getting Fingers, though. Hint: The cook has high base Madness, and you have Quiver's Insane Invitation. Keeping him in the room long enough is the easy part.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2014 01:10

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Another huge pain in the rear end has gotta be Harriet. You gotta be spot-on if you want to manage it in under half an hour.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2014 02:26

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

I was just reading stuff online, and, uh. Wow. Turns out if you scare away all the nurses, Greenwood will go to the basement all on his own to get some smooches from the lady that inexplicably spends all her time three feet from Brigit's fetter. Then all you gotta do is use your favorite Apparition to drag him a little closer, or even Brigid herself if you gave the guy some Madness in the course of the level to make him vulnerable to Insane Invitation. Guess Harriet officially wins Biggest Hassle.

Turns out we all suck at Ghost Master. :suicide:

EDIT: Oh, never mind. Turns out it's still no guarantee. Just tested it, and I gave up somewhere during the third or fourth hour (of a single run at the map, mind) of combining every friggin' power I had with me to no avail. I just gave up and finished out of frustration. First time I've ever had to revisit a stage for an unlock.

EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Nov 2, 2014

# ¿ Nov 2, 2014 07:37

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

If it saves you work, it might be more efficient to just make a screenshot update to show what new powers you're buying, and just type up your thoughts. Figure it'll save you nearly ten videos worth of editing.

Also, it might be worth noting something that the game never bothers to bring up, but wants you to use, and that's that rain, wind, and cold powers stack with themselves to create more powerful effects (and if things get sufficiently cold, rain turns to snow). Further, rain and wind, when combined properly, can generate a full-on thunderstorm. These are just things to think about during later videos, if you want to solve some of the game's puzzles yourselves while watching the video, before xeose explains how to do it.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2014 21:44

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Chimera-gui posted:

Xeose briefly mentioned it when I commented about one of the ghosts that Weatherwitch can release but yeah a thunderstorm is needed to release the aptly named Stormtalon.

And you need to stack up both wind and cold to recruit the ghosts in the Blair Wisp Project, though you may be able to get the wind requirement handled with just Tempest.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2014 23:32

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Emissary666 posted:

There is no way to make child-fetters suck less. Fortunately, there is no way to make them suck more. The fact that possessed mortals don't gain fear is actually in the player's benefit, it prevents them from disrupting your plans by running away; the belief bonus makes it much easier to scare them away once you are finished with them.

Actually, fire still raises a mortal's Fear meter, you notice this the most with Arclight, who has tons of fire-generating powers. However, mortals won't flee while possessed. Now, stenches, the higher-tier ones tend to cause Fear and Belief, but they also tend to cause calm mortals to investigate random fetters (scared mortals run from pretty much anything even vaguely supernatural unless directly compelled to approach), which is really only useful if you need them in range for a ghost recruitment. Anything that makes a mortal uneasy means they're in prime condition to gain bonus Fear from other scary stuff, but abilities that would normally make them curious will instead make them avoid the area. This is slightly oversimplifying some rather complex AI interactions, but this is what I've gleaned in my experiences with Ghost Master.

And yeah, Child Fetters suck.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 14:57

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

The Watercrown posted:

Actually, I find it more of a detriment. The 'correct' way to handle this bit of game design, in my opinion at least, is to allow possessed mortals to gain fear (at a reduced rate, for balance, and not from the possessing ghost's actions), but be prevented from fleeing until the ghost is manually dismissed, or perhaps by gaining madness instead (because all this spooky stuff is happening ONLY wherever they go). Having them gain no fear whatsoever doesn't make much sense to me, and just annoys me when I'm flicking through the stats and see someone with 0 fear, only to realise when I zoom to them that they're possessed.

Arclight is the best ghost with Possess, anyway, and fire causes fear in possessed mortals, probably due to a bug. Pretty sure possessed mortals gain madness normally from powers that cause it.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 17:34

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

The Watercrown posted:

I meant gaining madness instead of fear, to keep them from fleeing, but still allowing your powers to be useful. I'll keep Arclight in mind, though, even if it is a bug.

Maybe it's just me, but I've found that the 'used a power' circles are a bit unreliable for judging range of effect on mortals. It's accurate when distributing damage to objects, but I've noticed it isn't when it comes to mortals *cough quake cough*, though it could just be that some of them aren't reacting, for whatever reason.

Quake affects most of the map in terms of fear (and Tremor affects nearby areas), much like how weather powers will always affect the entire outdoors area when used outside, rather than being localized to the single fetter zone, and noise powers have a range based on their volume and any ongoing powers that might amplify them. Other than that, though, powers are generally localized to the room they're in (or just a vaguely-defined vicinity for outdoors power use).

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 18:23

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

The Watercrown posted:

Maybe it's just because I used it indoors, but whenever I've used Quake, the entire map recieves damage, but only mortals in the same room gain any fear. No one else seems to react until they step into the same room as the ghost, at which point they start cowering and gain the red terror rings, like they should've been doing when everything started exploding from the vibrations.

I actually think that's the case and I have it backwards in Quake's case. Haven't played in a while.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 19:06

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

The Watercrown posted:

I've done some testing, and Quake does not cause any fear outside of the 'room' that the ghost is fettered in. Please note that a 'room' means the segment of the map that gets highlighted when you bind an indoor/outdoor fettered ghost, which means Quake is basically useless at inspiring fear unless mortals step on mud, or spend a lot of time around potted plants.

I can think of several specific fetters that are perfectly placed for Quake to work really well. That's the thing about Ghost Master, is that each level's fetters vary enough that there's always at least one map where a given ghost or power suddenly becomes useful. There's even a map where the Child fetter is viable!

If you're curious, it's the front desk area in the police station for Earth. The potted plant there is an excellent fetter for spreading fear during both police station missions.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2014 12:39

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 19:08

EclecticTastes: Sep 17, 2012; "Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

The Watercrown posted:

I'd disagree with the effectiveness of the police station's bonsai plant (mortals begin to avoid it very quickly, and there are several other exists that they seem to prefer even when you don't use that area for scares), but it's undeniably the easiest, and probably earliest way to obtain Quake in the game.

And just so we always have more fodder for discussion, let's talk strategy when there's a risk of haunters being banished. I usually resort to benching a ghost as soon as the warning alarm sounds, but obviously this is quite annoying to do. Who's got a better tactic?

Tag that poo poo, man.

I prep a ghost with their biggest scare, and drop them right on top of the guy, then bench them as soon as the power goes off and the fear increase registers (for immobilizing powers like Surge or Twister, I'll leave them around until the guy can move again). After the first couple, they start running in a panic. Once they're fleeing like that, they're no longer capable of banishing ghosts, so then I just pile on as much as I can until they're either wiped out, or one of their friends show up. Once you make them panic once, they'll immediately start panicking again the next time you hit them with a solid scare, so they're effectively disabled, even if you don't finish them right then.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2014 20:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Whip up a storm to wake the dead: Let's Play Ghost Master!