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Level 1 Black Magic FIRE: Deals fire damage to one enemy. BOLT: Deals lightning damage to all enemies. SLEP: Puts all enemies to sleep. A sleeping combatant spends their next action waking up. BIND: Reduces all enemies' evasion. Level 1 White Magic CURE: Restores HP to one character. HOLY: Damages all undead & evil enemies. INVS: Raises the party's evasion. WAKE: Cures the party of sleep and paralysis. For anyone familiar with vanilla, BOLT probably stands out for being a level 1 spell that targets all foes. Not many enemies are actually weak to it, but it's a good early-game staple against groups of foes (except undead, which typically resist lightning damage). BIND might seem useless, but against enemies with high evasion it can make a big difference. It's still probably the least useful level 1 spell. HOLY is similar to vanilla's HARM, but besides undead, it also works on other truly evil foes, like werewolves. INVS is a staple and will see use against bosses for most of the game. WAKE isn't useful often, but when half your party is paralyzed it can be a godsend. On the whole, there's nothing really amazing here, but that's what you'd expect at level 1. Still, CURE and INVS will see use for most or all of the game, and spells like SLEP, BIND, and WAKE can be really useful in the right circumstances. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Dec 16, 2021 |
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Dec 16, 2021 04:44
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So far this seems competent. It's nice to see low-level spells that seem like they could be staples, instead of potentially getting outclassed later on. I can't imagine that balancing around so many classes is easy...assuming you don't use Fools, are there party combinations that you think really wouldn't work well?
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Dec 16, 2021 05:59
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:So far this seems competent. It's nice to see low-level spells that seem like they could be staples, instead of potentially getting outclassed later on. In theory, the hack is balanced to be beatable with any combination that doesn't include Fools or duplicates. In practice, of course, some combinations are certainly better than others. I once ran with Paladin/Viking/Warlock/Wizard, and not having any defensive buffs or high-level healing was a hard time. I probably could have beaten the game if I'd been willing to grind levels, but that didn't interest me and I eventually gave up at Tiamat. If one of the two casters had been replaced by priest, cleric, ranger, or sage, it would have been ten times easier.
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Dec 16, 2021 13:20
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You wrote that Bolt deals damage to one enemy in your spell breakdown, instead of to all enemies (which you said everywhere else).
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Dec 16, 2021 13:22
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Blaze Dragon posted:You wrote that Bolt deals damage to one enemy in your spell breakdown, instead of to all enemies (which you said everywhere else). Whoops, so I did! Fixed.
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Dec 16, 2021 13:45
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Last time, we defeated Garland, saved Prince Sander, and got a bridge built. Today, we're going to start by... ignoring all of that.       There's actually a land route from Coneria to the Dwarf Cave. There isn't a whole lot to do here, unfortunately, as the big treasure room is one of the few still locked with the Key.  It's also a somewhat treacherous journey. Ogres, at this stage, are very durable and can hit pretty hard. Having Rogue around makes them less of a threat, though, since he makes it much easier to just run from them.   And while the bulk of the goodies are are out of reach for now, these two chests are accessible, and provide a nice boot to our funds.  Random aside: due to the hack increasing the length of party member names to five characters, the sub-menu for casting spells out of battle looks a bit funky. It works fine, though.  Finally, we head north across the bridge. I'd take a small detour to show off Matoya's cave, but it doesn't exist, nor does Matoya herself.  After traveling to the east for a while, we finally arrive in the town of Pravoka.  The entrance has some water nearby, a continuity nod to the town being located so close to the shore.  The situation here is the same as in vanilla.  Well, almost. Bikke the pirate is no longer hanging out in town for us to quickly locate and humiliate.  A helpful NPC explains it: the pirates have a lair south of the town. This is going to take some effort.   The town's magical offerings. Since we have plenty of money, I grab Cleric all the spells she can cast (PURG, SHLD, and SLOW), and also get a couple of spells for Ranger (ICE and HEAL). I could have gotten him a third spell too, but with only 1 MP for 2nd level spells, he likely wouldn't get any use out of it during the coming excursion.  The town's architecture has gotten a bit of a redesign to make it look a bit fancier. It's also a little more open so you don't get stuck behind NPCs.   The town sells bronze weapons and armor, a significant upgrade over our copper gear. Unfortunately, that upgrade comes at a commensurately high cost. I grab a sword and some mail for Rogue, but otherwise don't buy any equipment. You might be able to guess why, and if not, you'll soon see. With that taken care of, we set off to the south.   Incidentally, the Peninsula of Power is still here, though really, there's not much need for it, especially when you can get awful encounters like this.  Ravens are similar to eagles from the Temple of Fiends: high evasion monsters meant to be tackled using damage spells or BIND. Ravens are tougher, though, and won't go down to a single BOLT, and as a bonus, their attacks can blind you, making them even harder to hit. They're generally not worth the effort.  Ghouls start showing up around here too. They're still assholes who can paralyze you with their attacks.  Does this patch of swamp look suspicious?  Yeah, it's actually another higher-level area similar to the Peninsula of Power. Again, not really necessary, but it's neat to have it there.    Continuing west, we finally find the pirate lair. If we were to travel around its north side, we could eventually make our way to Elfland and put off acquiring the ship for even longer. There's not much point to doing so, but it gives the player some freedom in how to approach the game.  And here we are. The pirate lair is a two-level dungeon with open areas blocked by pillars, its design reminiscent of the vanilla Marsh Cave. It's inhabited by monsters we've already seen, like gray imps, gray wolves, and ravens, but there are a few new critters here too.  Like shadows. Shadows are similar to ravens in that they have high evasion and inflict blindness with their attacks. They're undead, but incorporeal, so Cleric's hammers don't do anything extra to them. HOLY does excellent damage to them, but without that it's usually best to just run.  The room north of the entrance contains an oak staff, which would be great if anyone in this party used staves. As it is, it's still worth money.   Now this is more like it! A new axe for Viking and some new armor, which goes to Ranger. Most dungeons have a full complement of gear from whatever town is nearby, making it worthwhile to save money and get your upgrades for free. With two sword users and four mail users, I'll still be buying some equipment, but not a lot. Cleric and Viking can stand to be a tier behind on armor and take hand-me-downs from the other two.  Not a crit. With an up-to-date axe, Viking is a beast.  Dark imps are obnoxious little bastards that can inflict blind on a hit. They don't have the evasion of ravens or shadows, but they have a surprisingly large number of hit points, and I usually don't bother fighting them.   In the northeast corner of the map are the stars down to the next level. There's even a treasure chest to greet us when we arrive; 400 GP is always welcome.  See that room in the bottom left? I completely forgot to show it off.  It's not a big deal, though, just a table and chair. Kyzokus and pirates start showing up as common encounters on this level. They tend to come in numbers, but pirates are fragile and usually go down to a single BOLT.  They're worth fighting because they drop oodles of cash.  Cleric gets a new hammer. Only Ranger is missing out.  On the west side of the floor is this room which requires a circuitous route to access.  The prize is worth it, though. Now everyone is fully outfitted for the upcoming boss fight.  Finally, on the far east side of the floor is a room containing the man himself.   If you've played vanilla, you probably recognize this fight, but that raider in the center left is a twist. That's an enemy that shows up much later in the game, and it's strong enough to constitute a boss as this point.  This is an excellent time to put our new SHLD and INVS spells to use.    The pirates barely do anything, but the raider is another story. That damage is after SHLD - he's dangerous and needs to be treated accordingly. Fortunately, once the pirates are felled with BOLT, he's the only attacker, and is manageable.  He forks over the goods. Unfortunately, we're not in town, so we're not safe yet. We still have to actually get out of here.   Fortunately, the stairs outside Bikke's room lead back to level 1, and from there it's a short trip outside.  There she is. The Aldi Sea is now ours to explore. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Jan 20, 2022 |
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Dec 18, 2021 03:31
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Level 2 Black Magic ICE: Deals ice damage to all enemies. AERO: Deals wind damage to one enemy. BLND: Blinds enemies, reducing their accuracy. POIS: Poisons enemies, damaging them over time. Level 2 White Magic HEAL: Restores HP to all characters. PURG: Removes poison (entire party in battle, one character out of battle). SHLD: Raises the party's defense. SLOW: Slows enemies, reducing how many attacks they make. Level 2 is where we start to see some truly good spells. Besides the standard damage spells in ICE and AERO, and the multitarget healing of HEAL, there are pretty interesting. BLND is probably the least useful offering here, since the loss of accuracy from blind, while noticeable, isn't usually enough to justify casting a level 2 spell. This goes double when you have POIS as an alternative. Poison deals 10% of a combatant's max HP in damage at the end of each round, so against opponents with lots of HP it's incredibly devastating. For white magic, PURG is an interesting case, as it makes you choose between using it on multiple characters in battle (at the cost of an action and at the risk of the targets getting poisoned again) or one character out of battle. SHLD is a generally useful spell against hard-hitting enemies and especially bosses, and will see use in most boss fights. SLOW is situationally useful, but when you're up against enemies that can make a lot of attacks, it can be exceptionally powerful. On the whole, while BLND is lackluster, every level 2 spell is useful in its own right, especially POIS, which I'll get mileage out of for virtually the entire game. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Dec 18, 2021 |
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Dec 18, 2021 03:41
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Does POIS work on bosses? That's the usual sticking point with status spells and effects.
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Dec 18, 2021 05:51
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Dirk the Average posted:Does POIS work on bosses? That's the usual sticking point with status spells and effects. It's possible that there's a boss or two that would be affected by it, but it's so powerful that I doubt it, as it would allow them to be killed much too quickly. But there are plenty of standard monsters that are big bags of HP (monsters in general have about twice as much HP as in vanilla), and using POIS to whittle them down is still a strong strategy, especially when you can hit all of them with a single casting. NES Final Fantasy doesn't really emphasize relying on physical attacks for standard encounters, and this hack accentuates that. Random battles can be fairly dangerous, and using spells on them isn't merely justifiable, but expected. One of the challenges when going in to face a boss is trying to walk the line between using magic to win fights and using it to heal, without using so many resources that you can't beat the boss. When you're just looking for treasure, easing the roughness of random battles using magic is a great strategy, and POIS is the first of several spells created for that end. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Dec 18, 2021 |
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Dec 18, 2021 06:24
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5-Headed Snake God posted:The pirate lair is a two-level dungeon with open areas blocked by pillars, its design reminiscent of the vanilla Marsh Cave. Vanilla Marsh Cave implies the existence of an altered Marsh Cave. That implies the existence of an altered Ice Cave  Too bad they named the new Pirate recolor Raider. Should have went in with continuing to name them Pirate in other languages. Which for fun decided to see what would work. Sadly most of the choices for Pirate end up being Pirat or Piraat or [Probably Exceeds Character Limit] gusarski or korsan seem like good fits though.
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Dec 18, 2021 16:14
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FeyerbrandX posted:Vanilla Marsh Cave implies the existence of an altered Marsh Cave. That implies the existence of an altered Ice Cave Hey, it might also imply the lack of existence of Marsh Cave in this hack! I think we'd all be much better off without that particular dungeon.
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Dec 19, 2021 04:11
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Epicmissingno posted:Hey, it might also imply the lack of existence of Marsh Cave in this hack! I think we'd all be much better off without that particular dungeon. What you don't like a random chance to helplessly watch your characters all get paralyzed before they can act resulting in a guaranteed, agonizingly slow game over? Next you'll tell me it's especially bad when this risk is taken every time you get a normal encounter.
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Dec 19, 2021 04:18
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I have to say, I'm quite enjoying this speculation. I should have another update for you in a few hours, so you can see for yourselves.
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Dec 19, 2021 23:01
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man i am kicking myself for noticing something so small but you refer to the rogue character as a he when the game states she's a she. other than that this is cool and i kinda wanna play this (i've never played ff1 personally)
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Dec 20, 2021 00:08
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Kinu Nishimura posted:man i am kicking myself for noticing something so small but you refer to the rogue character as a he when the game states she's a she. other than that this is cool and i kinda wanna play this (i've never played ff1 personally) Huh, I didn't notice that. Even odder, the readme refers to the Rogue as a male. I have therefore determined that our Rogue is genderfluid, and you can't convince me otherwise.   Last time, we got a boat! Let's head back to Pravoka and see if anything's changed.  If you've played vanilla FF and are particularly observant, you might have noticed that there's something missing from UCE's overworld.  Ports. This hack removed ports altogether, allowing the player to dock at any traversible piece of land. This gives you a lot more freedom in where you take your ship, to the point that you can actually beat the game without ever getting the airship - the only things you'll miss are one town and one optional dungeon.    The Pravokans are out and about, and giving mostly helpful advice.   After a buying POIS for Ranger and staying at the inn, we head out for Elfland.  Kyzoku still roam the seas, and they're still worth fighting for money.  The game decided to skip the basic model and jump straight to pitting me against red sahag(in). Both species have pretty high evasion, which would make them annoying to fight if not for their crippling weakness to lightning damage.  Parking in this inlet lets us walk due south to Elfland.   There's definitely a pattern to their concerns.  Elfland sells iron weapons and armor, another step up from our current gear. As before, we'll grab a sword and some mail for Rogue.   Elfland sells level 3 magic, and there's some good stuff here. We'll grab CUR2 for Cleric; we don't have enough cash to buy anything else, and Ranger doesn't have access to level 3 spells yet anyway.  According to the author, Joris was an early playtester who gave up because the hack was too hard.   Elfland also has level 4 spells, but we have neither the levels to make use of them nor the money to buy them at the moment.     After a night at the inn, we head west to the Marsh Cave. The trip is a lot shorter than in vanilla, which is nice.  The cave looks similar to its vanilla counterpart at first blush, but there's a big difference right at the start: the lack of an exit. Apparently the author noticed that the world map sprite is a literal hole in the ground, so now we're just jumping in and have to find our own exit.  The cave is full of familiar encounters, though far fewer of them inflict poison than in vanilla. This fight is pretty manageable, especially with Cleric and her hammer, though red bones are still pretty durable, and the crawl is definitely the priority target.  South of the entrance is a chest containing some plate armor. Even setting aside the lack of a paladin in our party, this sucks! It's a tier behind what Elfland sells!   More zombies and ghouls. That first fight is easily manageable, but the second one is worth fleeing.    East of the entrance is a set of stairs leading down to the bottom level. The two-part intermediate area from vanilla is gone entirely, making the trip shorter.      This floor is much the same as in vanilla: a grid of rooms, some with treasure, some without.    Scum are basically the same as in vanilla, with high defense and a weakness to fire, but their attacks inflict both poison and mute. They are awful. Cobras, meanwhile, have had their venom swapped out for something sleep-inducing. They're more annoying to fight than dangerous. Mucks inflict mute, but not poison; I've never found an elemental weakness, if they have one (it's lightning in vanilla, but not in UCE).   The obviously important chest still has the treasure, and it's still guarded by piscos (formerly wizards).    While they don't hit nearly as hard as in vanilla, their attacks inflict silence and sleep, which can make the fight drag on. They're weak to lighting, but since Ranger doesn't have BLT2, we have to settle for multiple shots of BOLT combined with physical strikes. It's not too difficult, but I really should have looted the last row of rooms before tackling them. They also give me enough XP for level 6, which is nice.(Please ignore the red outlines. I was a dunce when taking my screenshots.)  In the chest is... no, not the crown. It's actually the TNT, which gives us an exit into the outer world. The elf prince? He's entirely optional.   Finally, there's one last row of rooms to loot. Unlike in vanilla, they're not locked by the key. This chest is another one that clearly has a spiked encounter tile in front of it.  Except no, it doesn't. There's just a free axe!   The sword goes to Ranger, while the robe is money in the bank.  In each corner of the floor are stairs leading back to level 1.    To actually get out of the Marsh Cave, we have to head north from the entrance. A set of stairs here leads out. The trip back to Elfland is short, and gives us a chance to rest up and buy MUTE and SLOW for Cleric before we head off to our next destination: North Castle.      Rather than making the long walk up here, we can just part the ship nearby and take a short walk there.  No shortcuts here: if we want to get to Astos, we have to take the long way around.   And yeah, of course there are monsters here. Green ogres, geists, and images are just stronger ogres, ghouls, and shadows, respectively. Geists don't even hit much harder, though paralysis is always a concern.  There's a house just sitting here in the middle of the castle, which is handy if you feel the need to rest up after your first trip. Houses still work the same (restoring a large chunk of HP and all MP, plus letting us save), so they're good have around.  Astos's treasure room isn't locked in UCE.   But the tiles in front of the chests? Still spiked. Nothing too challenging, fortunately.    Another silk robe, some actual up-to-date plate armor, and a nice chunk of gold are our rewards.   And then there's the king himself. Since the Marsh Cave no longer contains the crown, you can actually face this as soon as you can get here. Given the land routes to Elfland, that means you can make your way here right after beaing Garland if you're so inclined. Of course, you won't win at that point without a ton of grinding, because Astos is loving brutal. His battle pattern is fairly straightforward: he casts STOP, FIRE, POIS, BOLT, ICE, BLND, and BLT2, in that order, and then starts over. So unlike in vanilla, he won't outright murder a character on round 1, and he won't spam level 3 spells on your party. But he has a lot more HP in this version, so the you can't just rush him down unless you have a ton of firepower. I'm not going to lie here: I attempted this fight about a dozen times, and realized that I just could not win at level 6. So I left, went back to Elfland, rested up, and did some grinding until I hit level 7. At that point Ranger got access to level 3 spells, including TMPR, so I figured I might be able to win. And I did.  BARELY.  Astos is, at least, worth a good amount of gold and experience. And, in a nice turn, dead characters still get XP, so your party's levels always stay equal.  The chest behind Astos contains the herb, which is needed to wake the elf prince. Good thing too, what with Matoya being a no-show. After this, we heal our two remaining characters and book it back to Elfland.  In another nice turn, clinics only charge 1 GP to restore the dead to life. It's really hard to get into an unwinnable position.   With the immediate crises taken care of, we head for the castle, turn in the herb, and get the key.     The treasures in the elf castle aren't amazing, but money is always good and more iron mail won't hurt. After that, we head back to Coneria to unlock its treasure vaults.     Some good stuff here too, including a steel staff, which we can't buy yet. Of course, no one in our party can use it, but it's still worth money. Finally, let's head back to the dwarf cave.         The steel shield is the best prize here for us, but money and consumables are nice too, and finally getting an iron weapon for Cleric is good.   We also turn in the TNT, which lets us get out of the sea and into the wide world. It only gets tougher from here, but I daresay our intrepid party can handle it. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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Dec 20, 2021 02:32
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Level 3 Black Magic FIR2: Like FIRE, but stronger. BLT2: Like BOLT, but stronger. TMPR: Raises a character's attack power. CHRM: Charms all enemies, making them fight each other. Level 3 White Magic CUR2: Like CURE, but stronger. HLY2: Like HOLY, but stronger. MUTE: Silences all enemies, stopping their spellcasting. WILL: Raises the party's resistance to status ailments. WILL seems like a really good spell, but in practice it's kind of lackluster. It's okay when used to counter enemies that inflict ailments through their attacks, but spells tend to have such high accuracy that it's effectively worthless against them. MUTE is another spell that's situationally useful; most bosses are immune, but some enemy spellcasters can be really dangerous, and MUTE can shut down groups of them. TMPR is a staple for boss fights; it will eventually be outclassed, but in the meantime it's going to pull a lot of weight, especially because it can stack with itself. By far the best spell at this level, however, is CHRM. CHRM hits all enemies and not only stops them from attacking the party, but turns them on each other. It's one of the few spells in the game I think is broken, and should definitely have been placed at a higher level. Level 4 Black Magic ICE2: Like ICE, but stronger COMT: Deals dark damage to one enemy. HSTE: Doubles the number of attacks made by one character. BIO: Inflicts sleep and poison on all enemies. Level 4 White Magic HEL2: Like HEAL, but stronger CLNS: Removes all status ailments except death and petrification from the party. Works on poison, but can't be cast out of battle. SLD2: Like SHLD, but stronger. LIFE: Out of battle, restores one character to life. In battle, deals damage to one undead enemy. BIO, I think, is overvalued here. If nothing else I think it should be switched with CHRM, since adding sleep to it isn't a huge improvement over regular POIS. HSTE is an amazing spell for boss fights, effectively doubling a character's damage output with attacks, you can bet I'll be using it in every such fight once Ranger can get it. SLD2 mostly makes SHLD obsolete, but there are times when the lower-level version might be a better choice (especially out of boss fights). LIFE was already a very good spell in vanilla; its new lower level and secondary effect (which does considerable damage) are just icing on the cake. CLNS is also a fantastic spell, especially later in the game, when enemies start inflicting more ailments, especially in one shot. Overall, white magic users do a bit better at this level than black magic users, but HSTE is still a great spell, and of course direct damage, while unexciting, is always useful. COMT is also worth mentioning for its damage type: dark. You'd think that, in grand RPG tradition, resistance to this would be far more common than weakness to it, but that's not the case. It's actually a very effective spell and worth having around if you can spare the slot. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Dec 21, 2021 |
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Dec 20, 2021 02:46
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5-Headed Snake God posted:Huh, I didn't notice that. Even odder, the readme refers to the Rogue as a male. I have therefore determined that our Rogue is genderfluid, and you can't convince me otherwise. badass
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Dec 20, 2021 03:08
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So a couple questions. Do you still whiff attacks on enemies killed like in vanilla? Also is the inventory situation still the same limited one?
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Dec 20, 2021 04:29
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FeyerbrandX posted:So a couple questions. Do you still whiff attacks on enemies killed like in vanilla? Also is the inventory situation still the same limited one? Yes to both, though the second is much less of an issue. No characters ever use more than two pieces of armor (body armor and shield), and equipment that can be used to cast spells is much, much rarer. As for the former, the author is on record as saying that he's actually a fan of it, since it forces you to pay attention to what you're doing and rewards being able to intuit how much you need to do to kill an enemy. I don't necessarily agree, but I don't think it hurts the hack any more than it does the vanilla game.
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Dec 20, 2021 04:32
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I'm really liking what I'm seeing with the spell design in this hack. There seems to be a good overall balance of usability here, although I will agree that CHRM is kinda busted to have this early.
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Dec 20, 2021 06:12
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   After leaving via the newly-created channel, we head south and west around the Devil's Tail peninsula.  Eventually, we arrive at the town of Melmond. It's located in a slightly different place than in vanilla, but the signs of devastation around it remain.  Yeah, this town is a wreck.   Level 5 spells. We're quite a ways away from being able to use these, even for Cleric.  In vanilla, this NPC claims it was the Vampire that attacked the town. Here they don't got for a fake-out: the Earth Fiend is placed front and center as the source of the problem.  The Earth Cave is located in its vanilla location, but having directions for a new player is good.  There's no library in vanilla, so some of you may find this intriguing. We'll get to it - eventually. After buying a new steel sword and mail for Rogue, we head out for the dungeon.  On the way to the Earth Cave, we run into this fight. It can be pretty nasty...   ...If you let it.  This fight got me to level 8, which gave Cleric access to level 4 spells! But I didn't have the money to buy any.   A quick jaunt east from Melmond takes is to Devil's Tail and the Earth Cave.  Knights are new here. They have passable strength and HP, and high defense. Our team is so heavy on physical power that we can actually kill them with minimal effort using only physical attacks. There's actually a weaker version of knights (squires), which show up in the Marsh Cave. I never ran into any in this run and forgot to go looking for them.  North of the cave entrance is a treasure room with an armor upgrade.   To the south is a room with a spiked tile - one guaranteed to give you a fight. Earth( elemental)s are about the same as in vanilla: tough physical fighters with no tricks and a weakness to fire damage. A shot of FIRE actually does quite a bit of damage to them, but our party's raw attack power means we don't really need it. Unlike in vanilla, they can be fled from, and they sometimes show up as normal random encounters. Very few enemies in UCE are inescapable, apart from bosses, which helps Rogue shine.  For our trouble, we get... a Cure potion. Wow.  Bulls are similar to their vanilla counterparts: big sacks of HP with high attack power. Unlike in vanilla, their attacks can paralyze, which makes them nastier.  This is actually the perfect sort of fight for WILL. Bull paralysis has a relatively low chance to proc, and WILL takes it down to near zero. After clearing out the first floor, I decided to depart early to go buy magic for Cleric, adding CLNS to her repertoire.  On the way back I finally had my first encounter with regular sahag(in)s.  Level 2 should look pretty familiar to veterans of vanilla, but it has less need to go out of your way for treasure, making it less annoying to navigate.  One of the really nice things about having Rogue around is the ability to easily escape lovely fights. Cobras aren't dangerous, but they're super annoying for very little reward.     There's some good treasure here. I also hit level 9 while wandering around.  Floor 3 should also look familiar, but again, there are some changes.  Piscos roam the lower floors of the Earth Cave as somewhat rare standard encounters. We can't run from them, but fortunately they're not nearly as dangerous with our higher levels and better gear.  Dark imps are still around. They're manageable now, but still give terrible rewards.  We also run into werewolves for the first time here. Apart from having more HP they're essentially the same as in vanilla, including their poisonous bites. As I mentioned in one of the spell updates, these things are susceptible to HOLY spells, though we don't have any.   Treasure on this floor is mostly gold.  Hmm, what could be in that tiny room?  It's a teleporter! Most dungeons from here on out have a teleporter at about halfway down, which makes treasure hunting less of a chore.  Of course, there's usually a spiked tile right in front of them.  After resting up in Melmond, we return to go deeper. As I implied earlier, the Vampire isn't here, and we don't need the ruby or the rod. We can just head straight down to level 4.  Level 4 is a confusing mix of chamber-like hallways, but the treasures here are considerable. I've always liked that the map palette gets darker here, implying that you're venturing deep underground.     North of the stairs is a room with some nice treasures and another spiked tile.  Golems have high attack power and defense coupled with good HP.  Without much in the way of offensive magic, our best bet here is to flee. Rogue's really showing her worth here.  The sword is definitely a worthwhile prize, though.  In the southwest corner of the floor is this rather important-looking room.   There's a robe, some money, and of course, a chest guarded by a spiked tile.  This one's pretty easy to run from though.  And here's our prize: the BIND Ring! Equipment that can be used to cast spells is rare in this hack, but it does exists, and this is the first piece. As the name implies, the BIND Ring casts BIND when used. This is a big part of why I didn't buy the spell for Ranger: if I had, it would now be obsolete. Cleric gets the ring, since her attacks are by far the weakest in the party. With the treasure claimed, we head back for the exit, to rest up for our big fight with the Earth Fiend. Since the party is close to leveling up, I decided to use the spiked tile in front of the teleporter to do a little grinding and get to level 11. It was worth it: Cleric hit level 5 spellcasting, and we have so much cash that I was able to fill out all three of her slots for the level. After that, it's time for a rest, then back to the Earth Cave for one last trip. This time around, we're running from every random encounter. Rogue gives us the ability to do that with relative ease, and it will let us save most of our resources for the big fight at the end.  The stairs to floor 5 are located at the northwest side of floor 4.  Floor 5 looks a lot like its vanilla counterpart as well. Fortunately, with no treasures here, we can walk to the boss pretty quickly.  And in this ominous-looking room...  Is the Fiend himself.  Lich is the game's first real boss. (Garland is pretty piss-easy, and Astos is optional, so I'm not counting them.) He's not the hardest in the game by any stretch, but he has an assortment of spells that can ruin your day if you're not careful.  Amusingly, he spent a good chunk of this fight using physical attacks, which hurt a bit but aren't especially threatening.  Ranger spent all of his first three turns casting TMPR - twice on Viking, once on Rogue. It didn't give a big boost to their damage, but every bit helps.  For Cleric, casting SHEL (which reduces elemental damage) on turn 1 was a no-brainer.   After that, well, Lich is undead, which means he's vulnerable to being damaged by LIFE. I wasn't kidding when I said its damage was considerable. It might actually do more, but there's some kind of bug in the game that can cause an enemy damaged by its weakness to take exactly 600 damage.  ICE can be painful, but with SHEL up it does barely anything.  FIR2, on the other hand, is deadly. Without SHEL this probably would have killed Ranger.  He also casts SLD2, which... is a decision. It might have kept him alive for an extra round, so at best he broke even.  Lich casting BLND is basically a free round for us.  Eventually, Viking gets the kill-shot, and Lich's foul unlife is ended.  Apparently his phylactery is made of solid gold or something because that is a lot of money.  With Lich down, one of the Orbs is shining bright again.  It's good to be back outside.
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Dec 21, 2021 06:32
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Level 5 Black Magic FIR3: Like FIRE and FIR2, but even stronger. BLT3: Like BOLT and BLT2, but even stronger. STOP: Inflicts paralyze and sleep on one enemy. WARP: Out of battle, teleport back one dungeon level. In battle, reduces one enemy's morale. Level 5 White Magic CUR3: Like CURE and CUR2, but even stronger. HLY3: Like HOLY and HLY2, but even stronger. SHEL: Defends the party against elemental damage. SOFT: Out of battle, removes petrification from one character. In battle, petrifies an enemy. Pretty much everything here is a great spell. STOP is maybe a little mediocre, but being able to lock down a dangerous enemy is still useful. WARP's teleportation effect is going to be outclassed fairly soon, especially with Cleric in the party, but it has its uses. Its secondary effect is also interesting, potentially causing an enemy to flee the battle. It's not terribly useful in my experience, but it's a potential emergency option. In white magic, SHEL is an amazing defensive spell against anything that uses elemental attacks, be they mages or dragons. But the big spell here is SOFT. On enemies, petrification is functionally the same as instant death, and white magic users get that two full spell levels before black magic users. Add in its out-of-battle effect, and I'm prepared to call it the single most broken spell in the game, if not the most powerful. It really needs lower accuracy; as it is, it lets you break certain encounters wide open.
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Dec 21, 2021 06:45
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A petrification spell/ability being overpowered in a Final Fantasy? That's some Tactics/Advanced/A2 vibes.
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Dec 22, 2021 10:47
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Back when you goons first chose this party, I promised that I would show off at least one instance of pilfering high-level treasure from a dangerous area. Today, I fulfill that promise. I don't want to show off the full world map yet since it might spoil a few surprises, but in the northwest part of it is this odd little sprite. This is the entrance to one of the game's four bonus dungeons: the Dark Cave.  The gimmick is... pretty obvious. It really sucks to navigate if you don't know what you're doing.  We're after two particular pieces of treasure, found in a room to the northwest.  Along the way we run into some zombulls, which are probably the least dangerous things here. With Rogue, running from them is no problem.  Inside the room is a pair of chests.  In the right chest is the INVS Ring, which casts its namesake spell when used. It's quite useful, but not what we're really here for.  No, what we're looking for is in the left chest.  And naturally, it is well-protected. This fight can have either one or two of each of these enemies, and realistically, this version is the only one we can win. It helps to use a tent outside to facilitate quick return trips. Spectres and wraiths are the next evolution of ghouls and shadows, respectively. Wraiths aren't too dangerous, but spectres hit like trucks in addition to their paralyzing touch. But it's the eye that's the real threat here.    Eyes have a bevy of spells to cause status ailments, and are one of the few enemies with an attack that kills outright. Not shown here: their attacks can cause petrification.  Lol, okay.  Viking lucked out and recovered from his paralysis immediately, then proceeded to crit the eye and kill it. After that, mopping up the image was a fairly simple matter.  In the chest is Sting - Rogue's ultimate weapon. Its power, especially at this stage of the game, is considerable, and it will let him outdo Viking as our #1 physical attacker for quite a while.   You can see the difference here between her old steel sword and her shiny new blade. Nearly double the attack power and accuracy, and the latter grants her more attacks, further increasing her damage output. After a quick shot of LIFE and a healing spell, we head out of the dungeon, return to Melmond to rest up, and then head for Crescent Lake, to the west. It's actually just south of Pravoka, but not accessible until you get the ship out through the canal.  En route we run into this fight, which is the first shark I've encountered all game. They're no threat now, but when first encountered they hit pretty hard. They're also slippery fish with high evasion, making them a bit of a pain.  Closer to town we run into ochus, which are absolutely not worth fighting thanks to the many status ailments they can inflict.  Giants, on the other hand, very much are, since they drop tons of gold.  Doubly so, since Sting deals extra damage to them.  In Crescent Lake lives this man, who helpfully gives us the canoe. This lets us traverse rivers, and we're expected to use it to head for the Gurgu Volcano. We're not going to do that, though.  Because, you see, he now tells us of another a treasure, and with Sting in hand we can probably get it.  Crescent Lake sells silver equipment, and as usual I buy some silver mail for Rogue.   Can't use any level 6 magic yet, but there are some nice spells here, though they're getting very expensive.   Our business done in town, we head back to the ship and sail around to the south. At the north end of the Ryukhan Desert is a cave, which was not in vanilla.  The inside suggests a once-high-tech structure that's half-buried in sand.  The monsters here are no joke. Sandhags and raiders are a very common encounter in latter parts of the game. They bring numbers, frequently ambush you, and sandhags have a special attack, Gale, that doesn't do much damage but ignores armor, so they can punch through tanks if you're not careful.  Mindflars are incredibly dangerous, able to inflict sleep, paralysis, blindness, and mute with their attacks. As members of the pisco family, they also can't be escaped. Encountering them at this level basically mandates a reload.  Priests and wizards are casters, obviously, and are, near as I can tell, immune to MUTE. Wizards are more warlock-y, focusing on damaging spells, while priests start off by healing themselves but eventually will hit the party with an 8th-level spell for massive damage. Luckily, running is an option.  Tyros are just big bruisers with no fancy tricks. Still not worth expending resources at our current level.   There are two rooms branching off from the main thoroughfare, both containing an identical sum of gold.     North of the entrance, the wall has crumbled away. By going through it and walking through the sand, we can find another crumbling wall that gives us access to the north part of the complex.  Everything comes together in this impressive-looking room. Naturally, there's a spiked tile just ahead of us.  Yeah, it's this again.    Despite the presence of a second spectre, this is much easier than before. It also get our party to level 12.   Unfortunately, there's a second spiked tile north of the first. On the plus side, this fight is much easier than the previous one. Sand worms aren't nearly as dangerous as spectres, so once the eye is down the rest is simple. The worms have a lot of HP, but POIS helps immensely with that.  And here's our prize. Once we have it, we can take the teleporter at the north end of the room.   The sky is ours! Oh, one more thing: FeyerbrandX posted:Vanilla Marsh Cave implies the existence of an altered Marsh Cave. That implies the existence of an altered Ice Cave  All in good time, friend. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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Dec 23, 2021 04:35
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Level 6 Black Magic ICE3= Like ICE and ICE2, but even stronger. DARK= Like COMT, but stronger. TPR2= Like TMPR, but stronger. GLXY= Inflicts paralyze and sleep on all enemies. Level 6 White Magic HEL3= Like HEAL and HEL2, but even stronger. CHKR= Fully restores the caster's HP and removes status ailments. WALL= Combines the effects of WILL and SHEL. EXIT= Out of battle, transports the party out of the current dungeon. In battle, lowers all enemies' morale. Almost every spell at this level is an improvement on lower-level magic. CHKR is the sole exception, and it's probably over-leveled. While not exactly worthless, its usefulness is limited: CUR3 is a full heal until higher levels, and the status ailment removal really only works on poison and blindness (since being asleep, paralyzed, or muted prevents spellcasting). It seems primarily designed for front-line white magic users, specifically Clerics, Paladins, and maybe Rangers. Apart from that, none of these spells are really exciting, but they're all really good. EXIT is a staple utility spell, TPR2 improves fighters more efficiently than TMPR, WALL saves a turn of casting, and GLXY can shut down an entire enemy team effortlessly. HEL3 is functionally a full HP restore for the party until pretty high levels, and more powerful damaging spells are always welcome. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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Dec 23, 2021 04:44
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Using run so much terrifies my terrible JRPG belief that you should just fight everything forever without ever running. Spells seem to be getting REALLY expensive, would an all magic party just utterly suck?
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Dec 23, 2021 05:57
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Tulip posted:Using run so much terrifies my terrible JRPG belief that you should just fight everything forever without ever running. You question the power of our friendship and get in the way of story progression?! NO SURRENDER NO QUARTER 
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Dec 23, 2021 06:53
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Tulip posted:Using run so much terrifies my terrible JRPG belief that you should just fight everything forever without ever running. Bear in mind that I'm running more than I normally would due to the fact that I'm in areas that would destroy me otherwise. Even setting that aside though, not all encounters are created equal. You certainly shouldn't run from everything, but knowing which fights are worth tackling and which ones are too much trouble is part of what constitutes being good at the game. Tulip posted:Spells seem to be getting REALLY expensive, would an all magic party just utterly suck? An all magic party would suck, but more due to lots of redundancy than anything else. My last party was Ninja/Warlock/Sage/Priest, which was quite expensive but entirely manageable. You have to be a lot choosier about what spells to buy and when, but overall I wouldn't say it was any more difficult to use than the group I have now.
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Dec 23, 2021 13:18
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5-Headed Snake God posted:Level 6 Black Magic Your tags are wrong here (you opened and closed the same tag instead of opening both, then closing both) so neither work.
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Dec 23, 2021 13:28
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Blaze Dragon posted:Your tags are wrong here (you opened and closed the same tag instead of opening both, then closing both) so neither work. Look, I never said I was good at this.
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Dec 23, 2021 13:35
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Now that we've got the airship, getting around the world is going to be much easier. So let's make use of that. Our first stop is Elfland, where we buy 4th-level spells for Ranger: ICE2, HEL2, and CHRM. Despite our next dungeon being a volcano, ICE2 actually won't be getting any use there.  Before we head for the volcano, though, let's grab one more treasure in an out-of-depth dungeon. This is the Ice Cave, and it's the only dungeon in the game that can only be reached using the airship.  As with the Dark Cave, I won't be going into too much detail about this place at the moment. We're here to get one treasure and get out.  Ices are similar to earths: big bruiser monsters. Unlike earths, ices' attacks can inflict sleep, which makes them more dangerous.  Rogue does her thing.   Ice lizards are also bruiser-type monsters, less powerful than ices but with attacks that inflict paralysis instead of sleep. Frost wolves are bastards that, while fragile, have FROST, an ice attack that does pretty vicious damage.  Frost wolves in particular are super dangerous, so we keep running.  This is what we're here for. But inside the door...  ...is a spiked tile. That frost dragon is quite strong, and it has a frost breath attack similar to that of frost wolves.  Like many monsters, however, it's quite susceptible to SOFT. Once the dragon is down, the ices are relatively easy pickings.   Unfortunately, the chest itself is also guarded. Since we have the first strike, though, we can run away for free.  And here's our prize: the ICE Staff. As you might have guessed, it casts ICE when used in battle, which should be quite handy. Cleric gets it, since her offense is by far the weakest in the party.  Unfortunately, lacking WARP or EXIT, we have to walk out on foot, meaning another dragon fight. SOFT takes care of it, as before.   On the way out, we run into a frost giant. They have strong attacks and are quite durable, but with Sting I can actually stand and fight for some extra gold and EXP.  Make no mistake, though: their damage output can be brutal.   Nothing more attacks us before we get out, and we head back to Crescent Lake to rest up. I realized I didn't get any shots of it last time, so: here you go. It's not much different, apart from the entire eastern area being gone due to the circle of sages being moved to Coneria.  Once we're healed up, it's time to tackle the Gurgu Volcano.  The volcano is entered via the top of its map sprite, and the first floor is the caldera, which I've always though was a neat touch. There are no monsters on this floor, but the lava tiles damage the party when stepped on. However, they don't increase the party's step counter, meaning they don't count toward the number of steps to your next random battle. This actually makes them them preferable for travel.  In vanilla, lava tiles deal 1 damage per square, but that's been raised to 2 here. This leads to some occasionally odd behavior. Damage tiles can't hurt a character who's at 1 HP, but they can take one from 2 HP to 0. Note that Rogue isn't actually dead since this isn't combat.  The second floor of the volcano is dominated by a huge room containing a maze of passages. The hallway to the south can be traversed directly to the stairs down to floor 3, making return trips less of a hassle.  Red hydras have multiple attacks due to their many heads, but don't hit too hard. I believe they also have a fire breath attack, but I didn't see it this run.  They also count as dragons, which is handy since Sting has a damage bonus against those too. (It would be pretty strange if it didn't.)  Fires are more of the same: basic attackers with high power but little else. The ICE staff does extra damage to them, though physical attacks still do more. They show up a lot in this dungeon guarding treasure chests. This first run-in with them took me to level 13.  Finding weapons and armor, even stuff we can't use, is still great. This stuff is pricey, meaning it sells for a whole lot of money.  Another spiked tile protects a less impressive treasure.  Red giants are more of the same: high HP, high power, nothing special.  Rogue lays waste to them.  This is where the player is supposed to first encounter enemy rogues. They frequently ambush the party, but they don't deal much damage, so they're not terribly dangerous.  They drop huge amounts of GP, though, so they're well worth fighting.     More treasures hidden in the maze. There's nothing special here, but money is money.  On the far west side of the hallway is a door leading to a separate area of the maze, which contains a room full of treasure chests.   Wizard ogres can be pretty nasty if you let them. Their spell routine starts with IVS2 and eventually transitions into damaging magic. Unfortunately for them, ogres count as giants, so Rogue is able to wipe them out effortlessly.     This room has some really good stuff. The rest of the chests are consumables, which I didn't bother screenshotting. With this floor looted, we head back out to rest up. I noticed that the party was pretty close to leveling, so I took some time to fight outside Crescent Lake and got us to level 14.  I wasn't kidding when I said this stuff sells for a lot of cash. Even though the GP shown is the purchase price, and it sells for half that, the silver plate is still worth 10,000 GP!  You know what level 14 means? 6th-level spells for Cleric. We're flush with cash, so she gets all three spells she can cast: CHKR, WALL, and EXIT. CHKR may never actually get used in the whole game, but that's okay: WALL and EXIT are both excellent.  Floor 3 is a twisty hallway with ribbons of lava tile. There's no treasure here, and I don't think I've ever seen any monsters, either.  Floor 4 is a huge open room dominated by lava. A few of the "islands" are surrounded by regular floors, which are worth using since they don't have encounters. No treasures here either.  Floor 5 is a mazelike passageway. Still no treasure.  Floor 6 is a set of lava-filled hallways with rooms containing actual treasure.   The first room contains a pack of rogues guarding their loot, which is a fun detail.  This room looks enticing, though it's mostly consumables. It does have one interesting feature, though: the space between the two northmost chests.  It's the fiery mirror to the battle in the Ice Cave. Red dragons are strong and have an attack called INFERNO which deals fire damage to the entire party.   You may have forgotten, but way back at the class selection post I mentioned that Rogue has the highest magic resistance in the game. It's no joke!  Red dragons are, like their icy cousins, susceptible to SOFT.   The prize for winning is well worth it.   More treasures on this floor. When reviewing the footage I took for this update, I noticed that I made a rather critical mistake: while swapping armor around to equip this silver mail, I inadvertently unequipped the mail Rogue already had on. So for the rest of this update, Rogue was wearing absolutely no armor. Don't make this mistake.  This floor contains the dungeon's teleporter.   Of course, the nearby chests are protected by another dragon, but it's no real trouble. The prize is less enticing, though.   Now, I could have gotten out using the teleporter, but it's guarded by another spiked tile. So why not just use EXIT?  After resting up one last time, we make our way back into the volcano and descend to floor 7, which is the bottom. This floor has eight branches containing rooms, though only three are relevant.  To the northeast is this important-looking room.  Of course the chest is guarded.  The treasure is worth it, though. The TMPR ring casts TMPR on the user (and only the user). It's not huge, but it can be quite helpful for monks and parties without access to the spell. Viking takes it for now.  We encounter squids for the first time on this floor. As members of the pisco family, they can't be escaped. Fortunately, they're not dangerous: they get multiple attacks, but don't hit hard and don't inflict conditions.  To the northwest is another important-looking chest.  Surprisingly, it's not guarded. More money is always nice, especially in amounts this big.   Finally, to the southwest, we have the boss room.  Kary (which is likely a mistranslation of Kali) talks a big game, and she can be a tough fight. In vanilla, she's weak to paralysis, but even if that were true here, we don't have a way to inflict that.  We'll have to use CHRM instead. I want to point that we just neutralized a midgame boss with a 3rd-level spell. CHRM is busted. Fun fact: due to a coding quirk, charmed monsters actually cast FIRE instead of attacking. This means that they never score multiple hits, never proc status ailments, and Kary's fire resistance means she takes very little damage. Still, she's not hitting us.  Another engine quirk: using the TMPR Ring causes it to display an imp as the target. It still seems to work properly, though.  Anyway, let's toss HSTE on Rogue and double his damage output.  Aw yeah, that's the stuff.  Kary eventually shakes off CHRM and throws some FIR2 at us. We had WALL up, so the damage wasn't bad, but it can be deadly without defensive magic. I still didn't care for it though, so I hit her with another shot of CHRM.  Unsurprisingly, Rogue gets the kill.  Like Lich, Kary drops a whole mess of GP and EXP. This is enough to get our team to level 15.  Two orbs down, two to go. 5-Headed Snake God fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Dec 27, 2021 |
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Dec 27, 2021 00:28
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why raise the lava damage to 2 HP. what's the purpose of that? to be slightly more annoying??
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Dec 27, 2021 06:09
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LiefKatano posted:why raise the lava damage to 2 HP. I'm not actually sure about this, but I'd assume that it's to make the player expend more resources and thus make each run that much more dangerous and challenging.
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Dec 27, 2021 14:17
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I'm not sure how "Kary" as a mistranslation could've ever happened when her Japanese name is Marilith, so clearly they didn't misread the kana or anything like it.
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Dec 28, 2021 01:27
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Blaze Dragon posted:I'm not sure how "Kary" as a mistranslation could've ever happened when her Japanese name is Marilith, so clearly they didn't misread the kana or anything like it. Most likely it was changed for legal reasons, "marilith" being a unique, copyrighted creation of TSR. Several other monsters had their names (and in one notable case, their appearance) changed for the same reason. So a Japanese employee went oops we need a new named for a female multi-armed demon warrior, renamed her in Japanese, and then took a stab at transliterating it into English.
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Dec 28, 2021 02:36
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Today's update is going to be a fairly short one, but it should be interesting for those of you most excited by the hack's new content. Our next stop is the town of Gaia, nestled in the mountains in the northeast part of the world. Strictly speaking, we don't have to come here, but it's a logical next step.  The town is mostly the same as in vanilla, laid out horizontally but with a wooded northern area.   The shops here sell level 7 spells. We can't make use of them yet, but we could buy them if we wanted to. Unlike in vanilla, there's no way to buy level 8 magic here.  One of the NPCs in town is this guy. It's apparently an old internet meme that the author thought was funny, but I don't know the reference.   The shops here sell mithril weapons and armor, which are the strongest (and, of course, the most expensive) gear one can buy. Per usual, I grab a mithril mail for Rogue.    The fairy who gave the party oxyale in vanilla has been removed entirely. Now it's the oxyale itself that's missing from Gaia.  The desert caravan is located in the same spot as in vanilla. Naturally, the area around it is woods and desert, so we can't park the airship right next to it.  This spot, to the south, is the nearest landing area. I think it might be a little closer than you can get in vanilla, but not much.  A short trip to the north takes us to the oasis. In vanilla, there was a hidden shop here.  Not so much any more. Whatever was here looks to have been wrecked. The desert caravan is a one-floor dungeon that spirals counterclockwise toward the center. The place is entirely linear and it's basically impossible to get lost here.  I feel like this encounter isn't supposed to be here, unless there's a landshark joke I'm missing. White sharks are similar to their lesser brethren: high attack power, high HP, high evasion. The BIND Ring is pretty useful when fighting them. The raiders are the same as the boss of the pirate lair, though they're not as threatening any more.  Like rogues, raiders drop lots of money.  Oozes are stronger versions of the slimes and mucks from the Marsh Cave, best handled by parties with significant magical power. Ankylos [sic] are tanky enemies with lots of defense and HP; they give so little money and XP that there's really no point fighting them if you don't have to.  Scattered throughout the dungeon are small rooms with mostly inconsequential treasure.  The rogues/sandhags group is turning into a pretty common encounter by this point. Sandhags are weak to ice, and ICE2 will usually kill them in one shot. The ICE Staff also works pretty well.  If this chest looks suspicious to you, then you have good instincts.  This is easily the most dangerous encounter here. I'd actually recommend fleeing, except that it can't be run from. Basilisks hit like trucks, and their attacks have a chance to petrify. Trickers, meanwhile, spend most of their turns casting spells: first BOLT, then BLT2, and finally BLT3. If they get to that last one you're probably hosed, especially with three or four of them casting at once.  The petrification proc chance on the basilisks' attacks is relatively low, but their raw power still makes them dangerous.  Trickers can be dealt with in several ways. They're pretty resistant to control spells like CHRM, but they're weak to lightning, so BLT3 can kill them easily (though we obviously don't have that). SHEL will stop most of the damage from their spells, though three shots of BLT3 at a time is still a problem. Since we have Cleric, I opt for the cheap option: MUTE. Trickers don't have much attack power, so this makes them basically harmless.  For the basilisks, CHRM is our best option. It will usually keep them occupied long enough to take them out. They're also weak to ice damage, so parties with ICE3 can make good use of it here.  The prize for winning is a shiny new sword for Ranger.  This room looks like it would have a spiked tile, but no. 15,000 GP is nice, but nothing amazing.  This setup also looks suspicious, but there's no spiked tile here either. A mithril robe is a great find for parties that can use it.  Tyros are a rare encounter in the dungeon. They're another monster with no special abilities, just lots of HP and strength. They're worth a fair amount of EXP though, and we even hit level 16 from this battle.  This room lies at the end of the spiral, making it the obvious place to put the big treasure.  Except... no. There's nothing here. This is actually a bit of a puzzle, and honestly, it's a little mean.  The trick is to walk out through the broken wall and check the lake.  Now that we have the oxyale, we're done here. The sandy area outside the walls has no encounters, so it's a simple walk back to the exit.  On the way back to the airship we run into cockatrices. They have low HP and power, but high evasion and the ability to petrify. Better not to fight them if you can't kill them quickly.  After resting up, our next destination is Onrac, the sea town. As with the oasis, there's no place to land next to it. You also can't walk here from the oasis landing spot, since it's completely blocked by mountains. That leaves two options. The first is to simply sail here. With no need for ports, you can just drop anchor next to the town.  I'm going with option B: a grassy area northwest of the town. The walk has tougher encounters than the ocean, but nothing really dangerous.   We follow the river, and arrive at Onrac without a problem. For whatever reason, the game doesn't trigger area transitions when leaving a river, so we can stand right on the town tile. Useless, but maybe amusing.  We come in from the south, rather than the west, and there's water here to represent the river - again, some verisimilitude. The town is largely unchanged from vanilla. It has an inn, an item shop, and magic shops selling level 7 magic (important for anyone doing a no-airship challenge).  This man drops a hint about a dungeon we'll be tackling later. Very mysterious.   These NPCs drop some hints about where to find the oxyale, and how the caravan came to ruin. Those trickers are no joke.  In vanilla, this NPC hints at the Waterfall Cave, which contains an important item. That dungeon got removed in UCE, though, so now he's just lying his rear end off.   Next time: the Sea Shrine!
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Dec 29, 2021 02:09
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Level 7 Black Magic QAKE= Deals earth damage to all enemies. TNDO= Like AERO, but stronger. DETH= Kills an enemy. HST2= Like HSTE, but affects the entire party. Level 7 White Magic CUR4= Fully restores a character's HP and removes status ailments. HLY4= Like Holy, HLY2, and HLY3, but stronger still. IVS2= Like INVS, but stronger. HEX = Inflicts poison, blind, sleep, and mute on all enemies. Black magic is pretty interesting at this level. QAKE is actually a stand-out spell, as it's the only multi-target damaging spell in black magic that's effective on undead. DETH is probably over-leveled; I'd probably swap it with GLXY, which has better crowd control power. HST2's usefulness depends entirely on your party. With only one good physical fighter, it's nearly useless, but on a team like ours, with three solid fighters, it's amazing. Too bad Ranger will probably never level far enough to use it. In white magic, CUR4 is amazing. Even when CUR3 restores just as much HP, CUR4 is strictly better, since it removes problematic conditions. HEX, meanwhile, is some impressive crowd control for white magic. It's still probably not as good as GLXY, but in the right situation it can work wonders. IVS2 is also a great spell for boss fights, supplanting INVS as a staple for them.
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Dec 29, 2021 02:16
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In vanilla, you could land the airship on top of the caravan, saving a long walk. I'm guessing that that doesn't work any more, because the hack replaces the store tile (which you could land on) with a map transition tile (which can't be landed on). I like how the hack is making dungeons out of a mix of town and dungeon tiles. It's a nice way to add variety. The vanilla dungeons could be pretty visually repetitive sometimes.
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Dec 29, 2021 02:23
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5-Headed Snake God posted:
Here's your source, a very very old flash video from a user named "somebody" affiliated with a similarly ancient group called "the friend society" (or "the gently caress society").  Warning: weird gore, loud sounds, flashing lightshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0arJSTqfFE Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Dec 29, 2021 |
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Dec 29, 2021 03:07
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 23:14 |
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 Since Onrac is right next to a river, you could land right next to it even if the ship's behavior was identical to vanilla (since you could drop anchor next to rivers with the canoe).That's your completely useless trivia for the day!
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Dec 29, 2021 03:24
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