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Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008



King's Bounty: The Legend is an RPG that combines turn-based tactical combat with a real-time adventure mode in a relatively stereotypical fantasy setting. The game is a successor to King's Bounty (1990) (if interested, there's an LP by Thuryl here, but you don't need to know anything from it for this game). It was developed by Katauri Interactive and published by 1C Company (out of Russia) in 2008. It has since spawned a number of sequels, which I plan on covering if this LP goes well.
The setting is fairly derivative, the plot is basically unimportant, there is little characterization, and the gameplay will be familiar to those who enjoy Heroes of Might and Magic. Yet somehow it all combines to a fun combat-heavy game that can be surprisingly deep and satisfying to play, not to mention addictive. Another big plus in my books is the art and animation style. It's simple, it's bright, and it's a little cartoonish, which works well with the close-in view of the combat screen.

Game Overview

The story: The Kingdom of Darion, ruled by King Mark the Wise, has long been untroubled. However, recent events have darkened the land. News from the elven lands has ceased, new conflicts have come with the dwarves and pirates, undead are seen rising from their graves, and storms and earthquakes have begun to ravage the kingdom. Pretty much the typical fate of any peaceful fantasy kingdom.
In these troubled times, new knights are being trained to meet the challenges. We are one of these trainees, awaiting our final test before going forth.

The game consist of two main elements.
Battle mode: This will be extremely familiar to anyone familiar with the Heroes of Might and Magic series. This is no surprise, as the original KB was the forerunner of the HOMM series. You command up to five different stacks of units, with the goal of destroying all enemy unit stacks. Units move, fight, shoot, and use special abilities to damage enemies or control the battlefield. Each turn, your hero can also participate in the combat through magic spells or an alternate system, Spirits of Rage. The combat is turn-based, and takes place on a board of hexagonal tiles. There are some minor but key differences to the combat of the HOMM series which will be expanded on later. Movement and positioning is very important, as it easy for your unit's path to be blocked by units and obstacles.

Adventure mode:. The adventure mode is where King's Bounty differs significantly from HOMM. Rather than a turn-based map mode, adventuring is 'real-time'. Your army (represented by a dude on a horse) moves around freely on the map. Enemy armies also move in set patrols, unless they are set guarding something. In adventure mode, you attack enemies you think you can handle, interact with NPCs, hire fresh troops, get quests, and above all, loot the countryside of anything not nailed down. Oftentimes your path will be blocked by powerful foes, which is the game's way of telling you to come back later. Although time passes and there is a day/night cycle, there are few time-based quests, and it affects little apart from a campaign score.

The LP

This will be mainly a screenshot-based LP. The game is somewhere between 40-80 hours long, there's a ton of backtracking, and the combat can get repetitive especially if you're not the one playing. I'd run out of things to say pretty quickly, and no one wants to sit through all that.

I'll be doing a thorough but not necessarily 100% LP. By that, I mean I will show off all quests/encounters in the game. I will not use every type of unit or cast every spell, but I will talk about all of them when they come up.

The Disclaimer

Although I really enjoy the game, I'm not necessarily that good at it. So I will be playing on Normal, and I am not trying for perfect, no-loss combats.

Finally, this is my first LP. I'm always open to suggestions and comments regarding changes or improvements.

Update List
Update 1: How to Train Your Dragon(killing)
Update 2: Character Generation 101
Update 3: Mechanics Ahoy!
Update 4: Digging for Junk
Update 5: The Tax Man
Update 6: Weeding out the Weak
Update 7: Animal Wrangling
Update 8: Postman Bill and Dragon Dentistry
Update 9: You wouldn't like Bill Gilbert when he's angry
Update 10: It wasn't a rock...it was a rock monster!
Update 11: Swamp Thing
Update 12: Barbarian Beach Bash
Update 12b: Trigius Talks Too Much
Update 13: Cruise Control
Update 14: It's Miller Time
Update 15: March in the Marsh
Update 16: Frogus Family Flag Fracas
Update 17: The Love of a Good Frog
Update 18: Cemetery Caper, Part 1
Update 19: Cemetery Caper, Part 2: Die Harder
Update 20: Cemetery Caper, Part 3: The Face of Death
Update 21: Turtle Time
Update 22: Stats and Stuff 1
Update 23: Pieces of Snakes
Update 24: The Shaman Shuffles
Update 25: Circumnavigation
Update 26a: I'm gonna be a pirate (on the River Saskatchewan)
Update 26b: Prison Break
Update 27: The Red Devil
Update 28: Taking Care of Business
Update 29: Head Hunting
Update 30: Weird Ships
Update 31: Unleash the Kraken...and the plot!
Update 31 Bonus
Update 32: High Seas Genocide
Update 33: Stats and Stuff: Freedom Islands Edition
Update 34: Bill's Day Job
Update 35: Mine Games
Update 35b
Update 36: Ice Ballin'
Update 37: Dwarven Security Measures
Update 38: Our Own Worst Enemy
Update 39: Damsel In Distress
Update 40: The Final Boss
Update 41: Spooky Scary Skeleton Archers
Update 42: Earl's Escort Service
Update 43: Don't Fear the Reaper
Update 44: Labour Disputes
Update 45: Oh Mehgard
Update 46: Deep Sea Fishing
Update 47: Gremlins!
Update 48a: Stats and Stuff: Kordar Editions
Update 48b: Dwarves!
Update 49: Through the Fire and Flames
Update 50: Turtles in the Sky with Crystals
Update 51: Hippie Hypnosis
Update 52: The LP title is now complete

Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Jul 21, 2018

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Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

Update 1 - How to Train Your Dragon(killing)



Without any ado, let's get started with a New Game. Normally, this leads to a character creation screen, but I'll be letting you guys make those decisions in the following update. For now, let's skip that and head to the tutorial dungeon.






The loading screens always reminds me of playing Baldur's Gate as a kid.



We find our hero (well, future hero) on the day of his final Test to become a knight. Before we chat with Iron Dick, let's have a brief look around.


Brief UI overview:
The bubble with clouds in the lower left is a day/night indicator, and can be moused over to show the current in-game time of day and days passed. Time of day has some effect on certain units and combats, days passed affects essentially nothing but your final score.
Below that, we have our hero's Gold (buy stuff with it), Rage (we will see how Rage gets used later), and Mana (used for spells). Moving to the right, we have our hero portrait (Bill Gilbert being the default Warrior name), our level, experience to next level, and Leadership (governs how many troops we can command). The middle boxes represent the troops under our command (up to five stacks). Right now, our mighty army consists of 4 Bowmen, 6 Swordsmen, and 3 Bears. In the bottom right we have our minimap, and an shovel icon that is used to dig for treasure when indicated.


This...doesn't look very promising. Looks like failure has some unfortunate consequences beyond an F.


Our mentor, knowing our kleptomanic ways, has cleverly locked this chest behind him. Nothing else to do here but to talk to him and see what we need to do.



: You mean I don't even have to take the drat exam? Could've told me that before I pulled an all-nighter! No way I'm letting all that studying go to waste, old man. [LP note: Italic text is added by yours truly]
: I'm ready to pass the Test
: You do my heart good, Bill Gilbert! - I'm proud of you. So here's the first task. Every self-respecting knight is obligated to kill dragons and save beautiful princesses. At least that's what the common people think, thanks to those catchy pop songs which the bards sing in the taverns. And we can't disappoint them, right?! In the first room you will find a dragon, and a princess that you must save. Good luck!
: I'm a real warrior. You can't scare me with a dragon.
: I wonder if it's courage or foolishness that guides your tongue. Anyway, a good sword will be useful to you. You can take the one from the chest. I think you know what to do with it. After all, it was I who taught you the art of sword fighting.
: Am I supposed to beat a dragon with a training sword?
: Of course, you can't handle the dragon by yourself. So a troop of Knights and Horsemen will go with you. We'll see how skilled a commander you are. Of course, you may also act with cunning. Your task is to rescue the princess, so you may leave the dragon alive if you choose. On the other hand, a real knight always goes bravely into combat, and combat experience is always a good thing. Alright, Bill Gilbert, go ahead.
: Now I'll sort this dragon out for sure. Thank you.

Off a-dragon fighting we go! Being a tutorial, it's much easier than it might sound. The 10 Knights/10 Horsemen given to us for this section are more than enough to carry us through. Our leadership cap has been boosted from 210 to 2210 for this section just so that we can have those troops with us.


Let's not forget to take that sword we tried to steal out of the locked chest from before. When equipped, the training sword gives our hero +1 Attack. I'll go into more details about the combat mechanics after the tutorial section.


We enter the portal where the dragon mural once stood. Do they have to rebuild and repaint it for every trainee? On the other side:



We find ourselves in what looks like a kind of crypt, with the skeletal remains of presumably a less talented trainee.




If we examine the nooks, we can find a few goodies, such as this urn. Bill the klepto, being an RPG character, has no issue rumaging through the remains of past heroes for a bit of gold.



We also find more loose change, as well as a pair of magic crystals (used for memorizing and leveling magic spells).



At the end of the hall, we find a gate that opens to the dragons hoard, complete with dragon. If we mouse over the dragon, we get this box:


Enemy troops are rated based on their total leadership value versus that of our army. The ratings go from Very Weak to Impossible. Your skills, equipment, and magic, as well as your own tactical skill (and frankly, the weakness of the AI) mean that you should be able to defeat stronger armies, and the rating is more an indication of how many losses you might expect.
Below the rating, we currently have a blank portrait representing the composition of the enemy army. Of course, we know that the enemy in this case is a dragon. There is a way to see more, as we will see later in the LP.


As we get close to the dragon, it rushes forward at us. If we wanted to, we could lead it on a merry chase. If we move far enough away, enemies will give up chasing and return to their patrol or guard position. This is what Iron Dick meant about being cunning: we can run around the dragon to rescue the princess without fighting it. Not much fun here, but it can be a valuble technique to avoid difficult encounters before you are ready.


Thar be dragons! Well, in this case, 1(one) Emerald Green Dragon. [LP note: In order to keep this update flowing, this battle update will be heavier on visuals and lighter on battle mechanics. I will go over those in detail later on].


Before we can act, the dragon flies across the battlefield towards our troops. Lucky for us, it doesn't have quite enough speed to both reach and attack our Bears.


You'll notice that there is more than our troops and the dragon present. In the middle of the field is a chest and an Altar of Lightning. These are random elements, although terrain/environment influence which non-chest objects appear.


This chest had a handful of gold. Chest contents are also semi-random and scaled to location or level. Troops with high speed and initiative like our Horsemen are useful for opening chests before anyone else can reach it. Enemies can and will open chests, the bastards, although usually only if there is nothing higher priority in range.


Our archers set their sights on the beast and fire an Ice arrow...for a whole 6 damage. Out of the dragon's 700. It's a very good thing Iron Dick gave us reinforcements, or our starting army would be nothing but a quick snack.


The Swordsmen could attack, but they'd invite a retaliation attack. In general, any unit will retaliate against the first melee attack they recieve in a turn. I haven't been able to find the formula, but it appears to be for around 75% of normal damage. This would probably crush all my swordsmen and do very little to the dragon, so I let them hang around doing nothing.


The Knights move in, and use a strong two-handed thrust to stab at the dragon, and are chomped at in return. Tactically, Knights are very tough defensive units and are much better at soaking up the retaliation damage.


Since our knight took the counter, our bears rear up to attack free from worry. Sure, it does only 11 damage, but hey, why not.


Ouch, this is why not. The Emerald Green Dragon has a Talent that attacks all surrounding hexes with magic damage, and gives Mana to the dragon's controller, if there is one. Talents are activated abilities, usually special attacks. We lose 3 Swordsmen, 2 Bears, and the damaged Knight to this.


Driven for revenge, the Horsemen charge in to drive a lance deep into dragonflesh. Here, they are using a special Ability that increases damage for each hex they charge through. Abilities are innate passive bonuses or features of units. This attack also becomes a critical attack for even more extra damage, indicated by the spiky red bubble behind the floating number.


Immediately after, our unfortunate swordsmen get zapped by the altar, killing another man. This altar hits all troops in the area (within 2 hexes of the altar). You can attack and destroy interactable objects like this to remove the threat.


Sometimes when archer-type units attack, you'll get a dramatic zoom in. No idea what triggers it, and its a little jarring when it switches suddenly back to the normal view, but it is kind of neat.

The rest of our troops continue to chip away at the dragon. Showing some tactical sense, it flies out of the encirclement, lands a hex away from the Horsemen, and uses its other Talent to pull the Horsemen towards them for a swipe that does extra damage and doesn't allow for retaliation.



Not wanting to take any more of this poo poo, the Horseman go in for a thundering charge, laying the dragon low. Bill's first battle is a success!


After each battle, we are gifted with a Victory screen, showing the losses on both sides, our experience gain, and the treasure gained (not counting the treasure found on the battlefield). Out of my own personal morbid curiousity, I will be keeping track of all kills/losses in a spreadsheet for the whole LP, by unit.


With the dragon dead, we can claim our prize...all this glorious gold! Ok, actually we can only pick up a few small piles. I guess the rest of the hoard is chocolate coins. Ah well, I guess there is still a princess to rescue, and that's got to be worth something.


Something seems a little off here...



: This is no princess! At best, this is just an ersatz princess! drat you, Iron Dick!


We return to Iron Richard to report our success at 'rescuing' the 'princess'.



: I saw the incriptions on the dummy. One of them belongs to a "Richard Iron Tooth." Does this name mean anything to you? The handwriting is pretty familiar.
: Oh, how perceptive you are! Alright, I'll tell you, but let's keep it a secret. This dummy has been used for Tests for quite a while. I used to get chased around by the dragon too - only back then they put the dummy on wheels! So yes, I scratched the inscription. Back then my nickname was the Iron Tooth. Then I lost my iron tooth in another fight. So then I became just Iron Richard.
: Just Iron Richard? I don't think so, buddy. Everyone calls you Iron Dick behind your back. Wait...if you were called Iron Tooth because you had an iron tooth, then...oh god, I thought it was just a play on your name!
: I've saved the princess! Here she is, I mean... her remains. Anyway, here they are!
: Fine! I hope the dragon made you run a lot, Bill Gilbert? Give me the dummy; it needs to be saved a couple more times today.
: Uhh, I hope you don't need an intact dragon as well. Or do you just pop another one out of storage?
: Take it. So, what's next?

And that's where we will leave it for this update. I will be posting a character selection update next so that you guys can decide what our hero will be.

Items Found

Full details of new items will be posted at the bottom of each update in the following format:

Name
Icon
Description: Each item has a brief description when you mouse over it
Effects:

Type: Which slot the item goes in
Race: All equipped items are given a race. Usually it has little effect but can impact where the item may be found or bought. Certain items have a special property where race is important.
Cost: The full cost of the item. At the start, we can only sell items for 25% of their full value.
Upgrade From/To: Some items can be upgraded into better versions.
Info: Each item has a more detailed info section.

Training Sword

Description: The ordinary training sword.
Effect: +1 Attack

Type: Weapon
Race: Humans
Cost: 8000
Info: Such swords are used for the training of young warriors in their practice exercise. Despite its blunt blade, this sword can be a fierce weapon in skillful hands!

Dummy

Description: The beat-up dummy representing the princess. Inscription: Richard Iron Tooth was here.

Type: Quest
Info: This wooden dummy with a straw hair is clothed in rags. Numerous imprints of hands, feet and even of teeth indicate that this dummy has been performing the role of the princess since she was very young.

Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Jul 15, 2016

Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

Update 2: Character Generation 101

In King's Bounty, you can choose from one of three classes for your adventure: Warrior, Paladin, or Mage. The game also has 3 skill trees: Might, Mind, Magic. Each class can take skills from any tree, but are limited by the runes they get in the game, which in turn is mostly dependent on the class taken. For instance, the Warrior recieves a large number of Might runes, a mediocre number of Mind runes, and a small number of Magic runes. The skills in the Might tree will require larger numbers of Might runes, and sometimes small numbers of Mind and Magic runes. So if you want to delve deep into the Magic tree as a Warrior, it will take more levels to acquire the necessary runes.


Warrior


The Warrior (default name Bill Gilbert) is a class that relies on a large and skilled army, as well as using the Spirits of Rage most effectively out of the 3 classes. He gains the most Leadership when leveling up, getting 60*Level (50% more than the Mage) when a Leadership bonus is picked. He also gets a naturally higher Rage intake, which is further enhanced by one of his unique skills. His primary downside is that he recieves the fewest magic runes, which results in having fewer and less powerful spells. However, his skill with the Spirits of Rage partially makes up for this. as it serves as a sort of alternate magic system.

Starting runes: 8 Might, 4 Mind, 2 Magic
Starting stats: 2 Attack, 1 Defense, 0 Intelligence, 25 Rage, 13 Mana, 210 Leadership
Starting skills: Training, Anger
Starting spells: None, although you do get some scrolls of Haste

Might Tree


The Might tree is focused on two general elements: giving units abilities and bonuses for combat, and improving the hero's ability to use Spirits of Rage. It also has a skill that gives a bonus to Undead units, if you wish to use them in your army.

The Warrior has 2 unique skills in the Might tree. 'Anger' increases the intake of Rage dramatically, and is a fantastic skill. 'Iron Fist' gives Leadership discount when using certain armored human troops (Swordsmen, Guardsmen, Horsemen, Knights). It's a little specific, but obviously can be decent if you want to use multiple of those units.

LPer Opinion: The Warrior is probably my favourite class. I'm always a fan of huge armies, and the Rage spells have a lot of really good utility. The downside of less magic does hurt, but you can at least get some buffs/debuffs spells that go well with your massed troops.

Paladin


The Paladin (default name Christian Tyler) is the jack-of-all-trades class for the game. He recieves a moderate amount of Leadership at 50*Level when it is chosen. He gets more Might runes than the Mage, and more Magic runes than the Warrior, and more Mind runes than anyone. This lets him take the widest variety of skills. He will be better than the Warrior at magic, and better than the Mage at using Spirits of Rage. Finally, he starts with a Scroll of Resurrection, meaning you don't have to rely on random generation to get that spell. But being a jack-of-all-trades, his downside is that he is not great at anything. He also suffers by the fact that the Mind tree is generally less powerful, barring a couple of exceptions.

Starting runes: 4 Might, 6 Mind, 4 Magic
Starting stats: 1 Attack, 1 Defense, 1 Intelligence, 19 Rage, 19 Mana, 160 Leadership
Starting skills: Scouting, Holy Anger
Starting spells: Healing (+ Scroll of Resurrection)

Mind Tree


The Mind tree contains largely skills that give bonuses to the adventure mode, such as increased experience, increased selling prices, better scouting, and the ability to carry reserve troops. One skill worth noting is Tolerance, which eliminates penalties caused by having Undead or Demon troops in your army. The Mind tree also provides the ability to turn Priests into Inquisitors, which is a unit that can resurrect other troops, and is a key unit for those trying for no-loss runs.

The Paladin has 2 unique skills in the Mind tree. 'Holy Anger' gives large attack bonuses against Undead and Demon enemies. This is actually quite useful, as these unit types comprise some of the more difficult fights in the game. It should be noted that any Undead/Demon troops you command do not benefit from this skill. 'Runic Stone' is an interesting skill. It basically allows the Paladin to exchange 10 Mind runes for 10 Might + 10 Magic runes. This skill really boosts the ability of the Paladin to invest heavily into any of the skill trees.

LPer Opinion: I find the Paladin to be my least favourite class. Although you can do most things well, the lack of specialization is slightly boring. You don't get enough magic to nuke things like the mage can, and your army and Rage is weaker than the Warriors. I will admit I have never gotten very far in this game with a Paladin, so I have not had the chance to really take advantage of of getting so many more runes than anyone else.

Mage


The Mage (default name Mateush Tein) relies on his skill with magic (duh) to take care of enemies, as his army will be the smallest of the three heroes (40*Level of Leadership acquired each time it is taken). His magic will far outstrip the other 2 classes, and is the only class that can have efficient use of direct damage spells for most of the game. His primary downside is his small army size, but he also has the least amount of rage intake, and so has the least ability to use the Spirits of Rage.

Starting runes: 3 Might, 3 Mind, 8 Magic
Starting stats: 0 Attack, 0 Defense, 3 Intelligence, 13 Rage, 25 Mana (boosted to 35 by Wisdom), 120 Leadership
Starting skills: Wisdom, Meditation
Starting spells: Slow, Helplessness, Fireball

Magic Tree


The Magic tree contains the skills required to use the three schools of magic:
Order: Spells focused on healing, protection, and other buffs
Distortion: Spells focused on illusions, mental manipulation, and buffs/debuffs
Chaos: Spells focused on dealing damage, summoning, and debuffs

It also contains a number of skills for greater mana pools, greater mana regeneration, and a Leadership discount for mage-type units. It is likely the most important skill tree, as the whole magic system depends on it.

The Mage has 2 unique skills in the Magic tree. 'Alchemy' reduces the magic crystal cost to upgrade spells. Fairly useful, as upgrading magic spells to level 3 can get quite expensive. However, you will usually have plenty of crystals if you are picky about upgrading. Unique skill #2 is a different story. 'Higher Magic' is the bread and butter of the Mage class. It allows for 2 spells to be cast in a single turn (1,2, or 3 times per battle, depending on the level of the skill). This gives mages far better ability to nuke the enemy, use spell combos, or just control the field of battle. Because of this skill, going first in combat is essential for the Mage, as your first strike capabilities are amazing.

LPer Opinion: The Mage is a really fun class, but its quite dependent on finding the right spells. Sometimes the game will just not spawn your favourite spell. The Mage is very strong in the early to mid game, but his power falls off near the end as direct damage spells start to lose power in comparison to the enemy numbers and your own small numbers work against you. However, in the hands of a skilled player (aka not me), the Mage is probably the best class. It is the one that is most used for Impossible difficulty, no-loss runs.

VOTE

Please vote your preference in the following, and give a name suggestion if you wish. If there's no clear winner, I'll just pick my favourite name that anyone gives.

Class:
Name:
Emblem:
A: B: C:
D: E: F:
G: H: I:


Next time on King's Bounty: We finish the tutorial dungeon, learn about combat, magic, and exploration! We also will probably end up with a wooden bowl on our head.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
I played this game once, as a paladin, and eventually lost interest somewhere around the bit with dwarves, if I recall correctly. Maybe if I'd gone with a different class I would've finished.

Warrior, with emblem C (the unicorn). We're never getting off that horse, so we may as well recognize its contribution to our cause!

Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

I just noticed some missing text and images for after the fight with the dragon in Update 1. Should be fixed now.

JamieTheD
Nov 4, 2011

LPer, Reviewer, Mad Welshman

(Yes, that's a self portrait)
Katauri King's Bounty? A good series, even if the difficulty curve can get a bit brutal in some of the games if you're not paying attention!

Anyhoo, vote!

Mage, because it's the surgical option, and really lets you explore spell possibilities (IE - Direct Damage Spells Ain't Everything), called Bill Gilbert (Why mess with a good thing... Or indeed the space-time continuum?), and Emblem C (Unicorn is almost as magical as it gets, heraldry wise.)

Lookin' forward to seeing how this goes, and reinstalling my own copies. :)

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.
Ah yes, this is a good game. :allears: I've played this, the next game and a chunk of the third. The Warrior-type classes are always great... well, except for during boss fights. Best of luck to you, Gully!

grandalt
Feb 26, 2013

I didn't fight through two wars to rule
I fought for the future of the world

And the right to have hot tea whenever I wanted
Mage
Ignation Flareson
E


This game, I did not find to be fun. There's a big issue with getting troops, mainly that you can run out of troops from a place and they never restock.

mauman
Jul 30, 2014

Whoever's got the biggest whiskers does the talking.
While I liked playing the mage class last time I played this....

Warrior
Bill Gilbert


That would also be the cannon choice, if anybody cares.

What can I say? I like continuity :shrug:

Also Emblem C

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I played this game once, as a paladin, and eventually lost interest somewhere around the bit with dwarves, if I recall correctly. Maybe if I'd gone with a different class I would've finished.


Ugh, yeah the Paladin had issues in the first game. I seem to recall that the sequel managed to fix most of the problems with said class.

Then again, I didn't play the sequel more than a few hours because

A: I was getting burned out on the series after finishing the first game twice.

B: And holy poo poo did they increase the difficulty

mauman fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Jul 16, 2016

Aces High
Mar 26, 2010

Nah! A little chocolate will do




I say we go with a Mage named Bill Gilbert since it seems like such a not-Mage name :allears: and he shall have emblem C

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

Warrior
Bill Gilbert
Emblem H

Getting screwed by the random spells is so annoying. But on the other hand as is not finding any good troops in decent quantities. It's so tempting to cheat in this series so you don't have to spent so much time running back to hire more troops all the time.

Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

I want to thank everyone for showing interest :). I'll keep voting open until after the next update, where I'll be showing off the magic system a bit. Right now, the count is at 4-3 for the Warriors.

mauman posted:

Ugh, yeah the Paladin had issues in the first game. I seem to recall that the sequel managed to fix most of the problems with said class.

Then again, I didn't play the sequel more than a few hours because

A: I was getting burned out on the series after finishing the first game twice.

B: And holy poo poo did they increase the difficulty

The Paladin definitely gets a huge boost in the second game (Armored Princess) and onward which makes them far more interesting to play. I do remember the next one being harder at the start, but there's some new unit types that are absolutely insanely good in the player's hands too. I think Armored Princess is my favourite of the series. Honestly, if we get past that point, this LP will almost become a blind LP. I've played a tiny bit of Crossworlds (the expansion for Armored Princess), gotten most of the way through Warriors of the North, and never played Dark Side. But even for the games I've played, it's been a while.

Poil posted:

Getting screwed by the random spells is so annoying. But on the other hand as is not finding any good troops in decent quantities. It's so tempting to cheat in this series so you don't have to spent so much time running back to hire more troops all the time.

I'm not usually too worried about finding any good troops in quantity, since there are a lot of viable options, and you will always get infinite amounts of some troops that are actually decent, if a little pedestrian. I will say there are two units I hope I can find in large enough numbers, and I will be sad if our game doesn't have them. It's sort of the same thing with spells, as there are quite a lot of good spells in the game, and it'd be extremely rare to miss all of the ones you like. Now, there's a couple very specific strategies which require a specific spell, which is where the randomness is more likely to screw you over. But at least on Normal, none of these strategies are required.

The community for this game did make a save scanner that shows you what units/spells/items are present in your save right from the start. I've never used it, and I'm not going to for the LP either. Like it or loathe it, the semi-random placement of these things is part of the game. It does certainly help make the game more replayable and interesting, and can force you to work with unfamiliar strategies.

Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Jul 16, 2016

Lady Morgaga
Aug 27, 2012

by Smythe

Gully Foyle posted:

The Paladin definitely gets a huge boost in the second game (Armored Princess) and onward which makes them far more interesting to play. I do remember the next one being harder at the start, but there's some new unit types that are absolutely insanely good in the player's hands too. I think Armored Princess is my favourite of the series. Honestly, if we get past that point, this LP will almost become a blind LP. I've played a tiny bit of Crossworlds (the expansion for Armored Princess), gotten most of the way through Warriors of the North, and never played Dark Side. But even for the games I've played, it's been a while.

Armored Princess Crossworlds is the best game in series imo. Followed by Legend followed by Warriors of the North followed by Dark Side. Warriors of the North suffers from being not clear where and when to travel and Dark Side is crazy hard. I didnt find Armored Princess harder then Legend but it suffers from fact that Crossworlds made regular Armored Princess obsolete.

Mage
Bill Gilbert
Emblem F

JMolen
Mar 16, 2014
Mage
Bill Gilbert
Emblem F

Man it was weird going from the Heroes games to this one. I remember resources (and troops) feeling really scarce.

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

Gully Foyle posted:

I'm not usually too worried about finding any good troops in quantity, since there are a lot of viable options, and you will always get infinite amounts of some troops that are actually decent, if a little pedestrian. I will say there are two units I hope I can find in large enough numbers, and I will be sad if our game doesn't have them. It's sort of the same thing with spells, as there are quite a lot of good spells in the game, and it'd be extremely rare to miss all of the ones you like. Now, there's a couple very specific strategies which require a specific spell, which is where the randomness is more likely to screw you over. But at least on Normal, none of these strategies are required.
You are clearly not as hopelessly terrible at the game as I am. :v:

Aumanor
Nov 9, 2012
Gonna throw my vote for a Warrior and emblem C.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Mage
Bill Gilbert
Emblem F


Get High Magic, break the game.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
These games are - to surprise to just about anyone - really, really good. Play a Warrior, don't really care about the other details.

Cathode Raymond
Dec 30, 2015

My antenna is telling me that you're probably wrong about this.
Soiled Meat
I've had this series on steam for some time but have not gotten around to it, so I'm interested to see how they play.

I'm gonna vote for Mage.

Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

Vote is currently 7-5 for Mage. I've decided to cut the update I was going to post in two, since it was getting too long. I'll keep voting open until I post the last tutorial update, which will be sometime early this week.

Update 3: Mechanics Ahoy!

: Take it. So what's next?
: Wait, who the hell are you? I was just talking to Bill, and you ain't him.

So you've may have noticed that we're now playing as Mateush, the mage. I wanted to show off a bit more of the magic system for this update, and the warrior doesn't have a good selection for that.

: The nest test will be more difficult. In the second room, a malicious necromancer with a whole army of skeletons and zombies awaits you. You are to kill the villain and take the Book of Death from him. Is that clear? Ah yes. Take these scrolls. I think that they will come in handy in your combat with the dark wizard. The necromancer will use magic for sure, so keep your eyes open.
[Yes, it does say 'nest' instead of 'next'. Being a Russian game, there are definitely a couple translation/typo issues.]

: Ok, I'll kill him! But how do I use magic scrolls?
: During combat you can open the book and read a scroll. If the spell works, the scroll disappears! You can also learn a scroll and then the spell will stay in the book forever. Learned spells can be upgradad, which increases their power.


Having casually given us our task to murder someone, Iron Richard drops a couple scrolls on the ground. Scrolls can be used without any training in magic, but are consumed in using. If you have the appropriate skills in the Magic tree, you can spend magic crystals to learn spells permanently from scrolls.


We get a scroll of Flaming Arrow and a scroll of Haste. These two scrolls are always the same, which means that these are the only two absolutely guaranteed spells besides the ones that the character starts with.


Heading through the second portal, we find ourselves in another hall lined with statues. The walls are filled with bones of those long since past.


As we get close, these skellies come to life with glowing eyes and reach out for the touch of living flesh. Very spoopy indeed!
: Uhhh, I am still in the Knight's Temple, right? Somehow, I don't think we should we really be holding the tortured souls of the damned in the foundation walls.


Much like fellow student Bill, Mateush here is more than willing to steal from the dead. I like the variety of flavour text in this game (and doing this LP is showing me there's way more than I saw playing normally). I also like the fact that we are directly loving with the traditions and beliefs of the people buried in our own temple.


We find the necromancer standing in his circle of diabolic magic, seemingly waiting for us.


If we choose the first option, we go straight to battle. Besides, Mateush finds all this necromancy...interesting. Also: 'can only see glowing eyes' my rear end.
: Master, I wish to go the way of darkness!
: Well I'll just swear by my black relics! I haven't seen such a coward in all my years. Come on then, pray before death, Mateush Tein the Weak!
: I see you've left me no choice, necromancer. Ok, let's fight!

Ah, so its a 'But thou must!' dialogue.


This battle acts as a tutorial for fights against an opposing Hero. I will also be using in to introduce a few more combat mechanics and introduce the magic system.


At the top right in Hero battles, we can see a description of the enemy Hero, as well as their level, stats, and Mana pool.


The first thing you should do in your first combat of King's Bounty is to press Alt. This does several things. First and foremost, it pops up these numbers next to all units (both friend and foe). This is the turn order. You can see that my Horsemen here have a green 1, and are the active unit. The Sprites at the bottom are next in line to act, while the Peasents above them will act much later. A unit that has already finished its actions that turn will have a grey '-'. Knowing when which units will go is probably the most useful piece of information, but its off by default (you'd have to mouse over a unit to see it). It also activates health bars under each unit. This is less useful, but it's still good to see how injured high HP units are at a glance.

Turn order is determined by the Initiative stat of each unit. If there is a tie with an opponent's unit, the 'defender' goes first. However, it's often unclear with side is the defender if you've both moved into fight. I'm also uncertain how ties are broken between your own units. So all I can say is that units with higher Initiative definitely act before units with a lower Initiative.

The second thing you should do is turn combat animation speed to 'High'. It's set to 'Normal' by default, which is positively glacial. I'm suffering through Normal when I do recordings because it makes screenshots and GIFs easier to capture, and I forgot how slow it can be.


We're a mage now, so let's take a look at what we can do with that. By clicking on the blue book on our menu bar, we open up our spell book. We can see all our spells in one list, or sort them by school. The number to the left/right of each spell is the spell level (from 1 to 3). The number below is the mana cost. To the top left/right of each spell is the icon for upgrading, if we have both the appropriate skill (we don't) and the required number of magic crystals (our store of them is shown on the left). Below the learned spells is a list of scrolls. The paper icon on the left is for our scrolls, 5(9) means we have 5 scrolls and can carry 9 maximum (for now). The icon to the right of each scroll is for spending magic crystals to learn the spell permanently. For now, even being mage, we don't have the skills to do so. It's unclear how Mateush learned these spells he has.

Let's burn these abominations with a Fireball. Hey, don't mess with the classics.


Woomph! The offensive spells is this game are pretty and satifying to use, complete with screen-shaking impacts. And they are quite strong early game especially. You can see we nearly destroyed that stack of Undead Spiders (22 down to 4).


More battlefield objects for us here. The stone sarcophagus is just a terrain obstacle, blocking movement paths. The coffin, on the other hand, is another interactable object.


We send our Horsemen to break it open (again, fast units are good for this type of thing). Out pop a unit of 20 Skeletons, under our control (shown by the blue background to the number of troops). These troops will fight with us for the duration of the combat, and are useful as sacrificial troops.


Being a Hero fight, the opponent can also use spells. He chooses to cast Haste on his Skeletons. This improves their speed (from 2 to 3). The green up arrow indicates that the unit has an active buff.


The remaining Undead Spiders go after our new bone friends, and get murdered by the counter. Our Skeletons also eat the attacks of the enemy Zombies and Skeletons. They get cut down to 5 dudes, but they are completely expendable to us.

Movement and Action Points

Let's talk about speed, action points, and movement. Our Sprites here have a Speed of 4, which means the get 4 Action Points per turn. The shaded hexes show where they are able to move. Critically, see that although they can reach the hex next to the Undead Spiders, they can't attack. Attacks also take an Action Point to perform (and end the turn of the troop). This is in contrast to the Heroes of Might and Magic games, where if you can move next to a unit, you can attack it. It's a subtle difference, but it is very important.


The other real key difference with King's Bounty is that you can do multiple actions a turn (until you attack/use most Talents). So I can move these Sprites three spaces, and then Wait, Defend, or move one more space (or attack, if something was in range). In HOMM, you can generally take one action, and that's it. It's not as crucial for melee units, but it is absolutely key for ranged units: you can move and shoot, as long as you have the Action Points. We will see how useful this is A TON in this game.


In our next turn, we can use another spell. This time, I choose a Scroll of Flaming Arrow. The base damage is 70 (the same as if we had Flaming Arrow learned at level 1), boosted to 90 by our Intelligence, and then boosted again to 99 because Skeletons are slightly vulnerable to Fire damage. It also has a 23% chance to cause Burning (20% from the base spell, 3% from our Intelligence). Burning is a damage over time effect, and I'll describe it in detail when it happens. We don't get lucky here, and the Skeletons remain unlit.


One of our Horsemen gets sliced up real good, as the Necromancer responds by casting Magic Pole Axe. This is one of the few direct damage Order spells, and does physical damage to one target.

Damage formula
The battle continues, with our Horsemen doing most of the work. Let's take a look at some of the details of combat mechanics (Who loves math? Cause I sure do :)).

When a unit attacks, it compares the modified Attack stat of the attacker against the modified Defense stat of the defender. These are modified by the Attack and Defense of the respective controlling hero, by spells, and by certain other conditions. So our Horsemen have a base Attack of 29, which is modified to 30 Attack by our Training Sword, while the opposing Skeletons have 2 Defense (unmodified because the Necromancer has 0 Defense).

If Attack > Defense, it applies a modifier of (1+0.0333*(Attack - Defense)). In other words, a 15 point difference is 1.5x the damage, 30 point difference is 2x, up to 3x at a 60 point difference. If Defense > Attack, damage is modified by 1/(1 + 0.0333*(Defense - Attack)). Or more simply, if the Defense is 30 points higher, the defending unit takes only 1/2 damage, and takes just 1/3 if they have a Defense 60 or more points greater than the Attack. The damage is then modified by the Resistances or Vulnerabilities of the defending unit, if applicable to the damage type inflicted.

So for our example combat, we have Attack 28 points higher than Defense. This leads to a damage modifier of about 1.932x to our Horsemens damage. Their damage range is 12-16, we have 7 Horsies, and they get an additional 10% boost from their Horsemen ability for charging through 1 empty hex. Therefore, minimum damage is 12*7*1.932*1.1 = 178.5 (rounded up to 179), and maximum damage is 16*7*1.932*1.1 = 238. Our final damage dealt will be a random number in this range (we get 185, for posterity). The game does keep its random seed, so if you reload and perform the same actions, you will get the same damage rolls.

If a critical hit is rolled (each unit has its own % chance), you instead will do MaxDamage x (1.3 to 1.7), depending on how full our Rage pool is. I don't know if that last part is completely true, haven't tested it out myself. Rule of thumb I use is MaxDamage x 1.5.


Our remaining skellies are obliterated by the Zombies. Again, who cares?


More to show it off than any reason, I cast Slow on the Skeletons. Slow and Haste overwrite each other completely, so it is especially effective to slow hasted units, and vice versa. Like the green arrow, the red down arrow indicated a unit has an active debuff.


Case in point, the Necromancer re-hastes his Skellies to attack my Knights. Doesn't go so well for them here, and the fight is over.



Before we return with the Book of Death to Iron Richard, let's loot the place. Always Be Looting.


In one corner, we find a banner. These banners give us a small but permanent boost to Leadership, and are particularly useful to the Mage due to low Leadership gain on level. The amount gained is semi-random, and partially tied to level. We get 28 Leadership here.


Also gold. Gold is good, gold is lovely, gold is great, gold is...ok, let's get back to Iron Richard before we get too distracted here.

: So what - is necromancer now intimately acquainted with the death he so loved?
: I've killed the necromancer and brought you the Book.

: What should I have noticed? He had a terrible face, and he was commanding skeletons. A typical necromancer.
: Ok, I know necromancer is not a race, but that still sounds really racist. And his face isn't that bad, that's just being goddamn rude.
: No, he's not a usual necromancer. The spells he used in the combat are not like those which the mages of the death normally use. And the strength of the skeletons in his troop was lower than usual. Actually, it was not a necromancer at all. It's Father William, one of the temple's priors, who kindly agreed to play the role of the necromancer in the Test. He's aged, naturally, and his spells don't work well with the undead. The point is, undead creatures under his command take more penalties.

If we choose either of the other two responses, Iron Richard just congratulates us on noticing, and then goes into the same spiel from 'Actually'.

: Does that mean I killed Father William?!
: Don't worry; it's not the first time he took part in the test. Actually he is perfectly alright and is waiting for the next student to come in. Ok, give me the damned Book.
: Here it is, safe and sound. What's the last Test?

And we will end it here for today. This update had more details than I had intended and it would be too long to add the third test. But I hope it was at least informative. As I get through explaining the combat mechanics, the pace should pick up, and I will be showing less from individual fights.

Next time, we will well and truly finish this tutorial dungeon. Voting for class choice will stay open until that last tutorial update is up.

----------------------------------------

Spells Seen
Like with items, I will put details of each spell we cast/see cast at the end of the update so it doesn't bog down the pace too much.

Fireball

School: Chaos
A Fireball hits the target and explodes, damaging and burning all targets within its blast range
Crystal Cost: 4 / 6 / 8 (The first crystal cost is for learnng the spell from a scroll, the next two are for upgrading)
Mana Cost: 7 / 12 / 17 (You can choose to cast a spell at any level up to the one you have it upgraded to)
Level 1: Damage Center: 120; Damage Adjacent:25-50; Burning 10%
Level 2: Damage Center: 240; Damage Adjacent:50-100; Burning 20%
Level 3: Damage Center: 360; Damage Adjacent:75-150; Burning 30%

Gully's opinion: Fireball is a solid damage spell for the early game, especially since you are guaranteed to have it as a Mage. Since enemies start out bunched, you can almost always hit 3 targets with it, with good chance to have something burning. The damage starts to fall off a bit in late game though. Lots of things are resistant to fire, but there's also a lot of things with vulnerability to it (like Undead).

Flaming Arrow

School: Chaos
A Flaming Arrow hits the target, causing fire damage and burning it.
Crystal Cost: 1 / 3 / 5
Mana Cost: 5 / 5 / 5
Level 1: Damage: 70; Burning: 20%
Level 2: Damage: 140; Burning: 40%
Level 3: Damage: 210; Burning: 60%

Gully's opinion: The single target companion to Fireball. High burn chance, and the cheap mana cost is nice, especially for Warriors. Good for targeting units with high fire vulnerability.

Slow

School: Distortion
Decreases the target's speed.
Crystal Cost: 2 / 5 / 12
Mana Cost: 5 / 7 / 12
Level 1: Speed: -1; Duration: 2 turns
Level 2: Speed: -2; Duration: 3 turns
Level 3: Speed: -3; Duration: 3 turns

Gully's opinion: Man oh man, Slow is one of the most essential spells in the game. It really allows for great crowd control. That stack of 100 Black Knights is coming at you? Slow them down and they are moving 1 hex per turn, while your ranged units pour fire into them. Great for Warriors/Paladins, since it is unaffected by Intelligence (mostly), and is very cheap. One of the reasons Level 2 Distortion is a priority if I am not a Mage. Slow counters Haste as well, but that's not often useful, since a Hasted enemy is likely to already be in your grill by the time your turn comes around.

Haste

School: Distortion
Increases the target's speed.
Crystal Cost: 2 / 5 / 15
Mana Cost: 3 / 5 / 10
Level 1: Speed: +1; Duration: 3 turns
Level 2: Speed: +2; Duration: 4 turns
Level 3: Speed: +2, Mass; Duration: 4 turns

Gully's opinion: The companion to Slow. Not nearly as useful, but still very good. The difference between 2 and 3 speed is huge in this game. Level 2 Haste on a stack of Knights turns them from slow, plodding defensive units into offensive whirling dervishes of death dealing. Mass Haste is nice, but expensive, since you only usually really need it on one or two of your units. Also good for countering enemy Slow spells on your units.

Magic Pole Axe

School: Order
Creates magical axes which inflict intense physical damage to a single target.
Crystal Cost: 2 / 4 / 6
Mana Cost: 5 / 10 / 15
Level 1: Damage: 120; Axes: 1
Level 2: Damage: 240; Axes: 2
Level 3: Damage: 360; Axes: 3

Gully's opinion: Meh. It does decent physical damage, but only to one target. Don't let the number of axes fool you, it just does the damage shown once. A little pricy to cast for the effect too. Compare to Fireball, which does the same damage to the center target, and has AOE + DOT effects on top, for only 2 more mana. But it does do more damage than Flaming Arrow if you just need to finish a unit off.

Items Found

Book

Description: The evil book, which was taken from the necromancer's body.
Type: Quest
Info: This book looks like an ordinary Book of Death - bloody letters, patterns of skulls and evil symbols. However, it looks suspiciously new, its pages still smell of fresh ink. How strange...

Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Jul 17, 2016

JamieTheD
Nov 4, 2011

LPer, Reviewer, Mad Welshman

(Yes, that's a self portrait)
Well, one tiny note on Magical Axes: While yes, overall, it's a "Meh" single damage spell, it should definitely be noted that most of your early damage dealing spells are Fire... And Poison. One small problem there: There's at least a few enemy types resistant to Fire, and a fair few that are resistant to Poison (By virtue of being poisonous themselves, most often.) However, while there are also physically resistant enemies, these are generally higher tier... And y'know what else Physical damage isn't counted as?

Magic. Which many higher tier and annoying ranged enemies are resistant to.

It isn't a great spell. There are definitely better spells (This is nearly always among the first five or so spells you find.) But it's still worth keeping in your spellbook, even if it loses its value later on.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Man, I don't remember using magic much at all. I dimly remember investing in passive abilities, but as far as I can recall my battles were pretty much entirely just fought with units. Maybe that's [part of] why my paladin run petered out.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
Magic is actually really good as an army size equalizer but that's usually not the damage spells (we already have slow - slow is utterly. loving. fantastic.). Also, this is the first of many times it'll probably sound in the thread, but gently caress necromancers.

I really need to give Crossworlds another shot. I burned out on it pretty early because I got it along with this one and went straight from finishing Legends to it. Bad idea.

mauman
Jul 30, 2014

Whoever's got the biggest whiskers does the talking.
Magic was Overpowered as gently caress in the original, so I understand why people are voting for mage (might as well show it when it was stupidly good).

The sequel nerfed it to hell and back (though it did deserved to be nerfed).

anilEhilated posted:

I really need to give Crossworlds another shot. I burned out on it pretty early because I got it along with this one and went straight from finishing Legends to it. Bad idea.

Ditto.

mauman fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Jul 18, 2016

Lord_Magmar
Feb 24, 2015

"Welcome to pound town, Slifer slacker!"


From just reading the description and some half remembered stuff when I personally played this game I'm pretty sure the purpose of Magical Axes is to make up for low unit numbers as a Mage. It's probably the best source of physical damage a Mage is likely to have for quite a while, especially considering most of the really high physical damage units are also really leadership intensive.

I really like this series, even if I'm ever so slightly terrible at it, and so this will be a fun LP to view. Especially if you move onto the other games as I've never finished any of them.

Finally I'm voting for a Mage with the name Ignation Flareson and Emblem F

Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

JamieTheD posted:

Well, one tiny note on Magical Axes: While yes, overall, it's a "Meh" single damage spell, it should definitely be noted that most of your early damage dealing spells are Fire... And Poison. One small problem there: There's at least a few enemy types resistant to Fire, and a fair few that are resistant to Poison (By virtue of being poisonous themselves, most often.) However, while there are also physically resistant enemies, these are generally higher tier... And y'know what else Physical damage isn't counted as?

Magic. Which many higher tier and annoying ranged enemies are resistant to.

It isn't a great spell. There are definitely better spells (This is nearly always among the first five or so spells you find.) But it's still worth keeping in your spellbook, even if it loses its value later on.

True enough, it is technically the highest single target physical damage spell. There's a Distortion spell (Ghost Blade) that I'll usually prefer over Magic Pole Axe, since it does physical and cuts through resistances. It will go into the book, since I like to get at least Level 1 of every spell (the crystal cost for level 1 is pretty minimal).

Lord_Magmar posted:

From just reading the description and some half remembered stuff when I personally played this game I'm pretty sure the purpose of Magical Axes is to make up for low unit numbers as a Mage. It's probably the best source of physical damage a Mage is likely to have for quite a while, especially considering most of the really high physical damage units are also really leadership intensive.

I think the real purpose of Magic Pole Axe is to give Paladins and characters who go with Order spells a direct damage spell option. For my Mage, I usually get to Chaos Level 2 before even picking Order, so Flaming Arrow is my main single-target spell for the early game, and there are relatively few resistant creatures for quite a while, and tons of ones with high fire vulnerability. And if they are highly resistant to fire, they are usually not resistant to poison.

anilEhilated posted:

Magic is actually really good as an army size equalizer but that's usually not the damage spells (we already have slow - slow is utterly. loving. fantastic.). Also, this is the first of many times it'll probably sound in the thread, but gently caress necromancers.

At least for a Mage, the damage spells are great for probably the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the game, especially once you get Higher Magic and can nuke twice in the first round. Later game, you run into way more resistances, and the troop numbers get too big to cut down directly. There are definitely going to be many fights where I won't cast a single damage spell. Slow is, as you say, amazing, and there are a few other crowd control type spells that are equally great - if you can find them.

Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

LP Note: I realized halfway through writing this update that I've been referring to Intelligence, when the game uses Intellect. Whoops?

Update 4: Digging for Junk

Last time on King's Bounty:
: Here it is, safe and sound. What's the last Test?
: Oh, it's you, Mateush. I half expected you to be someone else again.

I was going to show off the Paladin, but I decided against it. 1) He doesn't really have anything else to show apart from a different character model. 2) Literally no one has voted for the Paladin class. 3) I had already recorded this as a Mage, and I was too lazy to do it again.

: Yes, only the final test remains. You know that ancient temples and abandoned treasuries are the main source of gold and rare magic artifacts and spells. So searching for treasures and artifacts will be your next step. Go into catacombs. There are a few chests buried there, and in one of them there's a piece of my armor. You must bring it back, and the rest of the rags you can take for yourself. Is that clear?
: The old man is so senile he probably left one of his boots in a chest...again. I heard that he sent a troop of Guardsmen to find a 'priceless artifact' in a den of Royal Snakes. Turned out he dropped the keys to his outhouse in there. Six of the men never came back alive.
: I'm to dig out the treasure? How should I do that?
: Why are you asking how? With a shovel of course! Choose a suspicious looking place, where in your opinion the treasure is probably situated, and dig. If you guess right, you get the treasure. If not - a couple of work callouses and a pile of dirt.

So off we go to finish the final test. Soon, we will be free of the cruel tyranny of Iron Richard!


Unlike the other tests, we find ourselves now in a dark cave, with dripping stalactites and stalagmites (remember, stalagmites might grow from the ceiling, but they don't), and of course, bats.


The inhabitants of this cave turn out to be groups of spiders. As before, we can't really see any details of our opponents. Let's fix that (somewhat).


Scouting is a Tier 1 Mind tree skill. It costs only 1 Mind rune to learn, and you need to take it to progress further down that branch of the tree.


Now we can see the troop types that are in the enemy army. We don't know numbers, but we do at least know that two types of spiders are present here: Cave Spiders and Venemous Spiders. If we took Level 2, we'd be able to see approximate numbers, such as 'Few', 'Pack', 'Lots', 'Horde', and so on (as in Heroes of Might and Magic). Level 3 gives us exact numbers. I usually stop at Level 1, since composition + the army strength rating will tell me if I think I can take it on. However, Level 2 isn't bad if you have a couple spare Mind Runes.


When we go to fight the spiders, we see a couple of mysterious columns of light. Battle comes first though.


This battlefield has a new interactable, the Cursed Cross. This one seems to be more likely to show up underground and in cemeteries.


The Cursed Cross randomly casts either 'Weakness', 'Slow', or 'Poison Skull', on one random stack (friend or foe) in the area. Here it casts Slow on these Venomous Spiders.


Our Sprites destroy the cross with a spray of sprite dust (man that stuff really burns when it gets in your eye). It can be smart to go after these objects to stop your troops from getting attacked by them, especially if your troops are the only ones in the area.


The spiders are no trouble for our spells and high level units. Time to deal with those glowing spots.


Glowing columns like this indicate buried treasure. All you need to do is press the shovel icon (shorcut: D) to dig it up. You automatically get the treasure inside. Here, we find Richard's old Iron Tooth. It's a type of equipment called Regalia, and it gives our hero +20 Leadership. We also find another Flaming Arrow scroll in the other spot.


In the background we see the other spiders holding a conference. Let's go say hi (with Fireballs, the traditional Mage greeting).


Here's basically how these two fights go. Mage is real fun at the start of the game.


After the second victory, our experience bar ticks past 100% full:

Level Up!

We reach 2nd level! At each level up, we receive a selection of runes (depending on which class we are). This is our main source of runes in the game.
We also get to choose one of two available bonuses. Leadership will always be offered, IF we didn't pick it on the previous level. If we did, Leadership will not be offered. Therefore, you can take Leadership at most at every other level. When we do take it, we will get (as a Mage) 40*Level Leadership (Paladin gets 50*, Warrior gets 60*). The other bonuses are not affected by which level you take them. I believe the offerings might be weighted depending on class, but don't take my word for it.

Normally when we get a level, I will go into what skills I picked up with the new runes (if any), but since this is a temporary character I'm not even bothering to buy skills at all.


With the spiders gone, we are free to search for our quest object.


We find a Clay Bowl, and a jug of Dwarven Beer. The Clay Bowl is a helmet than gives +5 Mana but -1 Intellect. The Dwarven Beer is a usable object with 3 charges that gives us +20 Rage at the cost of -20 Mana.

I then spend a good 3-4 minutes scouring the cave looking for the thing we actually need. The treasures in this test are placed in semi-random spots, and I somehow forget to check one of them.


I finally find it just past the place we fought the first spider group, near the Iron Tooth.


: I so called it. drat it, old man, take care of your poo poo better. Also, rusty? We had to do pushups if Iron Richard caught us with so much as a spot of dust on our cloak during inspection. Hypocrite.


On my way back, I barely notice this glowy as I leave the cave. The treasure glow takes a second to get going, so you can miss it if you go past at full speed. If you are in an area with suspected buried treasure, its best to use a kind of stutter-step motion so not to overlook it like this.


This spot has a Cart Wheel, a shield that gives +2 Defense and -1 Intellect. Good for anyone not of the Mage persuasion.

Back to Richard:

: I think I've found what you needed. By the way, what is that strange luminescence that I saw above the buried chests?
: Wow! The boot! So that's what I put into that damned chest. I've been looking for it for a whole month and could never find it. It's been rusted through for a long time. A luminescence, you say? Ah, that's your gift revealing itself. It's a pretty rare gift, I should say. Humans with such gifts are able to find secrets hidden in the ground, treasures for example.
: That means I've passed the Test?
: Yes, you passed. Well done! Well, well. Oh! Look at this, the coins that I hid for a rainy day! They're still here inside the hell.
: So, how about the Test?
: Ah yes, let's consider everything in the right order. So - the rescuing of the princess. Not bad, not bad, but... dragon hunting, to be honest - it's not your strong point. You could become a good evil spirits slayer. You passed the Test, so that's good! But there is one more thing. That last test you passed brilliantly, and I think you can become a fine Treasure Searcher.
: Treasure Searcher?

We get the same text whichever answer we choose.

: Don't worry; your future life will be a thousand times more interesting and dangerous than you've dreamed. You'll explore deep caves, high mountains and faraway countries. Probably all Endoria will know your name, Mateush Tein! In the name of all the Council of Mentors of the Knight's School of Darion, I, Senior Mentor Iron Richard proclaim you to be a full knight. Be honest and fair. Carry the title with pride and dignity. And may your deeds for the glory of Darion, and your knight's honor, bring you fame throughout the centuries.
: I serve Darion.
: I am recommending you for the royal service as a Treasure Searcher. Here, take these reference letters to his Majesty, King Mark the Wise. And don't forget your teacher! Come by to the Knight's Temple whenever you like. I will always be glad to see you. After these years together, you've become almost like a son to me. Young, high spirited and certainly talented, you'll become a fine knight. Now get out of here, they're waiting for you in the castle, and I've got a couple more of you knuckleheads that I need to test.
: Thank you, mentor! See you later.

You may remember that back in the first update, we were given a chance to refuse these tests altogether. If we go that route, we get this piece of dialogue:

: Let it be, Mateush Tein. In the name of all the Council of Mentors of the Knight's School of Darion, I, Senior Mentor Iron Richard proclaim you to be a full knight. Be honest and fair. Carry the title with pride and dignity. And may your deeds for the glory of Darion, and your knight's honor, bring you fame throughout the centuries.

And the text continues the same as before. We can still take the training sword from the chest, but the other goodies are lost to us forever. That means you lose the guaranteed Haste/Flaming Arrow scrolls, lose out on about 5000 gold, and lose the 'treasure' you dug up in the cave. You also start about 100 XP behind.


Whichever path we chose, it is time for us to leave the Knight's Temple and the tutorial dungeons.

Next time, we will get to meet King Mark, get a promotion, a new job, and a new quest of danger, intrigue, and accounting. We will also get to meet our brand new voted-on hero that will stay with us throughout the game.

Class: Mage (8 votes)
Name: Bill Gilbert (7 votes)
Emblem: (4 votes)

Now that we are about to leave the tutorial, please let me know if you think there's anything I could or should change about the LP, in terms of pictures, update length, information given, etc.

----------------------------------------
Spells Seen
None!

Skills Shown
Time for a new section to be added to our post-update bonus section. Here, I will talk about skills shown off in more detail than in the main body, and show off the fancy icons. The cost will be shown as x/y/z (x Might runes, y Mind runes, z Magic runes).

Scouting
Mind, Tier 1
Prerequisties: None
Level 1: The hero is allowed to see what creatures compose enemy troops, if they are on the adventure map outside of castles and shelters. Cost: 0/1/0
Level 2: The hero is allowed to view an approximate number of units anywhere on the adventure map. Cost: 0/2/0
Level 3: The hero is allowed to view a precise number of units anywhere on the adventure map. Cost: 0/3/1


Gully's opinion: You'll need one level to progress down the Mind tree anyway, and 1 Mind rune is very cheap. Level 2 isn't a bad idea either once you have a couple Mind runes to spare. Exact numbers is never necessary to know, I'd skip Level 3.

Items Found

Artifact

Description: A heavy rusty knight's boot.
Type: Quest
Info: It seems that the boot has been in the chest for many years. The boot is eaten away by rust, and through the hole in the heel you can see that the boot has a double bottom.

Letter for the King

Description: A sealed letter with some papers inside.
Type: Quest
Info: You have to bring this letter from Iron Richard to the castle.

Iron Tooth

Description: An artificial tooth, made of a solid silvery metal.
Effect: +20 Leadership

Type: Regalia
Race: Humans
Cost: 800
Info: Nobody knows to whom this tooth once belonged, but it seems that its owner loved to fight.

Clay Bowl

Description: An ordinary bowl made of clay.
Effect: +5 Mana, -1 Intellect

Type: Helmet
Race: Neutral
Cost: 700
Info: It's very stupid to wear a clay bowl on a head. However, oddly enough, this common household item aids in the accumulation of magic energy.

Cart Wheel

Description: An ordinary wheel off of a cart.
Effect: +2 Defense, -1 Intellect

Type: Shield
Race: Humans
Cost: 850
Info: The person who always carries around a huge cart wheel, looks like a crazy man. However, this wheel can protect you against the strikes of sword or hammer!

Dwarven Beer

Description: A jug of strong barley ale.
Use: Gives 20 to Rage, -20 to Mana
Gulps: 3
Type: Used Item
Info: Dwarves brew an excellent beer. This beer goes to your head quickly, increasing your bravery.

Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Jul 19, 2016

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Oh man, King's Bounty. I've played a little of Legend, beaten Armored Princess/Crossworlds, and played a shitton of Dark Side. These are great and irritatingly addicting games and I'm stoked to watch you play.

Koorisch
Mar 29, 2009
I remember the old LP of the first King's Bounty, is magic still broken as hell or did they manage to scale it down a bit?

Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

Koorisch posted:

I remember the old LP of the first King's Bounty, is magic still broken as hell or did they manage to scale it down a bit?

I've never played the old King's Bounty personally, but going by that LP, its not nearly as broken in this game. There's nothing really equivalent to the game-breaking power of Raise Control/Clone spells (that I know of, at least). You also can't Teleport enemy troops anymore, although that would have been hilarious when combined with Slow.

That said, there are definitely some magic tricks and strategies that can be done, hopefully I'll be able to show them off. I'm not an expert at the Mage style of play, though, there may be some spell combos I might miss.

theshim posted:

Oh man, King's Bounty. I've played a little of Legend, beaten Armored Princess/Crossworlds, and played a shitton of Dark Side. These are great and irritatingly addicting games and I'm stoked to watch you play.

Glad to have you on board! Sounds like you'll be more of an expert at Dark Side by far than I will be, since I basically haven't played it. Of course, it's gonna be a long time before we get there.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Dark Side was a ton of fun and I highly recommend you play it, even if you don't end up LPing it. It had its share of thoroughly, utterly broken stuff you could do and spent a lot of time thumbing its nose at popular fantasy tropes. It also had some great music!

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
This is actually pretty neat. It feels a little odd to be adventuring on kind of a personal scale while you get into these tactical map battles, but the devs aren't afraid to have fun with things which is always a plus in my book.

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


One thing I really appreciate about the King's Bounty games is that as the series progresses they abandon all semblance of taking things seriously.

Aces High
Mar 26, 2010

Nah! A little chocolate will do




which honestly seems like Heroes took the opposite approach, or at least 4 and 5 weren't as fun and I stopped playing after 5. Don't know if it continued being too serious or not

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Aces High posted:

which honestly seems like Heroes took the opposite approach, or at least 4 and 5 weren't as fun and I stopped playing after 5. Don't know if it continued being too serious or not

Unfortunately, you're right on the money. The writing disappeared further and further up its own rear end in a top hat, where it installed a very large stick.

ChrisAsmadi
Apr 19, 2007
:D
Is the Sacrifice spell in this game?

I played Warriors of the North a while back and it's incredibly abusive there (especially because there's a skill that revives 90% of one stack at the end of combats).

Gully Foyle
Feb 29, 2008

ChrisAsmadi posted:

Is the Sacrifice spell in this game?

I played Warriors of the North a while back and it's incredibly abusive there (especially because there's a skill that revives 90% of one stack at the end of combats).

Yes it is. Well, potentially. Sacrifice is one the spells in the game. Whether it's available in this playthrough is a different story. I do hope it is, so I can show it off, but I don't plan on abusing it unless I need to maintain reasonable stacks of my favourite troops. But that skill you are referring to is much weaker in this game. There are other ways to exploit Sacrifice though, which I will show off at least once if Sacrifice pops up.

ChrisAsmadi
Apr 19, 2007
:D

Gully Foyle posted:

There are other ways to exploit Sacrifice though, which I will show off at least once if Sacrifice pops up.

Hypnotise?

mauman
Jul 30, 2014

Whoever's got the biggest whiskers does the talking.

wiegieman posted:

Unfortunately, you're right on the money. The writing disappeared further and further up its own rear end in a top hat, where it installed a very large stick.

I'm still bitter about how MM7's evil ending didn't become cannon because HMM fans complained about the sci-fi element.

Never mind that Might and Magic games (and by backstory extension, HMM games) ARE sci-fi.

R.I.P. laser-wielding necromancers :negative:

mauman fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Jul 21, 2016

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Slaan
Mar 16, 2009



ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH

wiegieman posted:

Unfortunately, you're right on the money. The writing disappeared further and further up its own rear end in a top hat, where it installed a very large stick.

Yep. 5 was decent. It took itself too seriously, but it wasn't afraid to be campy at times. 6 was 100% played straight though and thus had a story that wasn't fun at all. Especially when you find out you have to play the different campaigns all at the same time if you want it in chronological order.

I've not played the newest one, however. It any good?



Also, i'll go ahead and vote for Paladin to give the class I played though KB with some love :colbert:

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