|
I remember the mid-nineties lull. For me personally, it was the period between Serpent Isle and Fallout. I did play the Realms of Arkania series in that time, but I missed the Ultima-style isometric RPGs with dozens of unique NPCs to talk to. Fallout really was the resurrection of the genre for me.
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2014 03:47
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 22:14 |
|
|
I did a run through the Dragonlance trilogy not too long ago, and I spent way too much time poring over party composition. Glad it's going to be of use to someone else too. Here's what I ended up with: Human Knight Dwarf Fighter Qualinesti Fighter/Red Mage/Thief Elf Cleric of Mishakal/White Mage Human Red Mage Kender Cleric of Kiri-Jolith/Thief You definitely want a knight for the quest in Champions, and to control NPCs in battle later on. Knights get the best armor in the games. Since it's non-magical, it stacks with rings and cloaks of protection for fantastic AC. The only drawback is that it slows you down, which you can mitigate with boots of speed. You lose your major magical items going from Champions to Death Knights, but Death Knights to Dark Queen imports your full inventory. In DQK, you will find a second pair of boots, so you could take two knights, if you wanted. They also start the game with more hp than other fighters. The big beginner trap with knights is the way changing orders works. A knight of the crown levels fastest, but gets no spells. Since you get bonus melee attacks at levels 7 and 13, you'll have to decide if you want to be able to fight better earlier, or if you want access to their cleric spells. I changed orders near the end of Champions, since I had enough XP to reach the level cap even as knight of the sword. The big hitch is changing from knight of the sword to knight of the rose. Pretty much the only advantage of a rose knight over a sword knight is that they can level past 18; so you should definitely stay a knight of the sword until you have enough XP to stay level 18 when you change to rose, which will happen in the mid- to late game of Dark Queen. Rose knights gain levels at an absolutely glacial pace, so don't change earlier. Having a second high-hp fighter type is useful since you'll get a second dragonlance early in DQK. Dragonlances deal you current hp as damage to dragons, and while they're no that hard to kill, dragon breath deals their max hp as damage. An unlucky encounter with a green dragon can easily lead to a total party kill early on, and they're especially nasty if you play on the highest difficulty, as that gives enemies 50% more hp. So, while a second fighter-type isn't essential, he'll be definitely useful. I took a dwarf fighter for the extra hp and the faster leveling, but it could be a second knight, a paladin (not that useful, only available from DKK onwards) a ranger or a ranger/cleric. My dwarf outpaced the knight in hp eventually. The only noteworthy spell that rangers get is a special version of protection from fire, which lets them shrug off red dragon breath and fireballs. They do get bonus damage against giant-class enemies, which includes iron golems, and also works with missile weapons. Mages are the most powerful class at high levels, and you could easily break the game with a single knight and five mage single- and multi-classes. In the dragonlance games, mages get bonuses and penalties to their casting depending on the phases of the moons, and each type has some exclusive spells. In DQK, you can buy scrolls that let you learn some but not all of them cross-class. Red mages gain levels faster and have exclusive access to the most important melee buff spell, haste, so if you only take a single mage, they should be red. If you take more, you should alternate. White mages get some exclusive protection spells such as globe of protection (cross-class scroll in DQK), and some strong save-or-else spells such as hold monster, as well as a greater high level spell selection, but by that point, you'll be spammming delayed blast fireballs most of the time. A party of a single knight and five mage-types can go far, if that's your kind of thing. Damage spells get more powerful with each caster level, which is why single-class mages dominate in DQK. But at lower levels, multi-classes bring a lot of utility to the table. Multi-classed characters can cast spells in armor in the Dragonlance trilogy, which is one of the reasons why fighter/mages are so strong. THe most essential buff spell is Enlarge. It will set strength to 22 and lasts for a huge duration at higher levels. Good and neutral clerics have a different level and spell progression, and there are seven patron gods to choose from. To boil it down, neutral clerics get access to high level spells earlier, but there's a weird mid-game curve where they level slower, only to overtake good clerics again in the high tens or early twenties. Their god choices suck. Good clerics start with extra hp, but take a bit longer to get to high level spells. The powergame choices are Mishakal and Kiri-Jolith. Mishakal boosts all your healing spells, while Kiri-Jolith gives you a THAC0 bonus that's great for ranger/clerics and especially cleric/thieves. Majere gives you a bonus to turn undead, but the turning table is capped at level 14. I had a single-class cleric of Majere in the first two games, but never was really happy with him. The problem with single class clerics is that they can't fight, and past the hold person spells at lower levels, they don't have any go-to offensive magic. Multi-classing them gives you much better options in combat, at the price of slower leveling. A cleric/mage can be a full-time caster in heavy armor, while an elf ranger/cleric isn't level-capped, unlike a fighter/cleric, and still gets great hp for a multi-class. Some people don't like thieves, but there's nothing more satisfying in the gold box games than setting up a devastating backstab on a boss. That said, you should multi-class them. Single-class thieves can't wear any decent armor and have poor THAC0. This is where a kender cleric/thief of Kiri-Jolith shines. They can backstab in plate mail, and kender can use hoopaks, which are the best weapons for backstabbing. You can find a magical +2 version of early in Champions, which will be your best magical weapon for a while. They're level-capped as clerics, but they're still useful as backup healer. You can backstab the bosses in the first two games, but DQK becomes more about fireball spamming. My kender became less useful, but I still had some fun setting him up with all the infinite use magic items such as the eyes of petrification (not the cursed ones!), which let him turn dragons to stone. Thieves need a partner who attacks the enemy from the opposite direction first to set up a backstab, so you don't want more than two, even if you love backstabbing as much as I do. A Qualinesti elf fighter/red mage/thief is a great support character, backstabbing enemies with a fighter THAC0 when possible, casting spells against groups, and mopping up stragglers with normal attacks. I'm not a big fan of fighter/mage/cleric characters, as they don't have that synergy, and triple classes advance so slowly. Also, between the knight and kender, you should be set for back-up clerical casting. BadAstronaut posted:drat, I hope so - because I have a Kender Kiri-Joloith Cleric/Thief That looks like a very solid party. A bit light on melee, but you'll make up for that with spells soon enough. The wisdom limit isn't implemented in DKK, but it is in DQK. IIRC, if you import that character with level 6 spells, i.e. Heal, memorized, you can cast them and relearn them when you rest, but you will lose them permanently if you try to change them. Something like that. Elves can't get resurrected, so if your red mage ever buys the farm, you'll have to load your game. On the other hand, they get higher dexterity, which is very important for mage duels in DQK. Hannibal Rex fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Mar 2, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2014 15:05
|
|
|
BadAstronaut posted:Questions. Hoopaks deal more damage than long swords to human-sized enemies. They also count as a blunt weapon, which means they do full damage against skeletal warriors. And say what you will about backstabbing, dealing 80~100 damage to a death knight with one attack is no joke. Can't say how long a speedrun will take, but Champions and Death Knights aren't that long. DKK has plenty of optional areas to explore that aren't strictly necessary to finish the game. In Champions, a single class cleric isn't that bad. There's plenty of enemies you can cast hold person on, and silence occasionally works against spell-casting draconians. (You can also send a fighter next to a group, and cast silence on him for guaranteed success.) A Mishakal cleric is very good for in-combat healing when you need it. It was in Death Knights that I really noticed the lack of either fighting prowess or higher offensive spells. However, once you play Dark Queen, clerics can cast blade barrier, which is solid. Also, single class casters really outpace multi-classes in DQK. And high-level turn undead can help in DKK too. I would keep her. Use prayer and protection from evil (10') as standard buff spells. Haste doubles everybody's movement and number of attacks. It also ages everyone a year, but I'm not sure if any penalties from that are actually implemented in the series. It's not a spell you cast in every fight, like fireball, but it definitely is the best buff spell for tough fights. Combine it with enlarge on everyone.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2014 13:49
|
|
|
I think the only noteworthy items that get imported are the AC4 bracers any rings of protection +2 you find, and the +3 one you get from Myrtani. Not sure if you keep your +3 weapons, the two-handed sword would be handy if you do. If you want to switch out characters mid-game, the gold box companion lets you easily level a newly created one up to the rest of your party. Actually, you can simply download and end game save from the GBC site, and transfer the noteworthy items from that to a fresh party of your own.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 3, 2014 16:33
|
|
|
Dungeon Hack is basically Eye of the Beholder 3 with a single character and no plot. And EOB3 was already a lazy cash-in, after Westwood's pretty great first two parts.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2014 09:39
|
|
|
I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but NUVIE got an update a few days ago.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 19, 2014 00:16
|
|
|
chairface posted:Made it through my quest to go through Pool of Radiance -> Curse of the Azure Bonds -> Secret of the Silver Blades -> Pools of Darkness with one party. Unless POD works differently than the other goldbox games, I don't think you can backstab with a two-hander; or did you simply switch weapons according to the enemy? The problem with keeping the same party is that you can't have rangers or paladins in POR, which was the root cause of your dual-classing troubles.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2014 17:13
|
|
|
Does anyone here still remember the old DSA/Realms of Arkania trilogy? Mainly, I'm wondering if there are any more recent games that have a similarily intricate system for traveling on the world map.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2015 23:48
|
|
|
Are there any noteworthy spiritual successor games to the Starflight series and/or Star Control 2?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 21, 2018 23:08
|
|
|
I never completed it, but Lazarus really nailed the feeling of an Ultima game. Just thinking about it gets me close to reinstalling.
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2018 15:09
|
|
|
JustJeff88 posted:I just thought of something... what's the best way to modify the ability scores of your characters in the Savage Lands duo, the Krynn trio and the PoR quarter? I know that some of those games base the difficulty of fights on your ability scores, but they are all such difficult ball-breakers that one almost has to have all 18s in order to survive past level 2. For what it's worth, I remember reading somewhere years ago that at least by the later games of the Gold Box Series, they figured everyone maxed their character stats and balanced the games for that. I think only Pools of Radiance adjusted enemy numbers to discourage maxed stats. If you insist on rolling your stats, strength can and should be boosted 24/7 with Enlarge spells so it's not super important. Maxed dex is essential to have a chance at getting initiative for spell casters in the later games. Good wis on clerics. Genpei Turtle posted:I dunno...Shadows over Riva maybe (though I think that game suffered a lot from axing the map and multiple towns/etc) but for all the improvements they made mechanically, Star Trail was an insufferable slog. My sole memory from that game is running out of supplies and stumbling weak, starving and barefoot from town to town, because the last place that sold something worthwhile was half the map away, and I wore out the dozen pairs of backup shoes I bought in the interim. I never got very far in Star Trail, but in my memory long overland travel was more of a thing in the first one. For what it's worth, a lot of towns only had decent shops when there was a market week, which was every couple of months or so. Hannibal Rex fucked around with this message at 18:11 on May 31, 2018 |
|
#
¿
May 31, 2018 18:07
|
|
|
JustJeff88 posted:All of this is good to know, but how does one go about doing the editing? I've done hex editing before, but it is not fun. If there's any kind of utility "Radiance Keeper" software out there, I'm all for it. You can just modify your stats to whatever you want during character creation in all of the gold box games.
|
|
#
¿
May 31, 2018 22:15
|
|
|
Jagged Alliance's character interactions were a direct inspiration for Baldur's Gate's NPCs.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2018 17:03
|
|
|
I've been wondering, apart from the Ultima games, I can't really think of many western CRPGs with fleshed out NPC party members that predate Bioware. I've always considered Jagged Alliance the most direct inspiration for Baldur's Gate in that regard, but what other games are there?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 24, 2019 11:14
|
|
|
How does Pools of Darkness compare to Dark Queen of Krynn? Is it worth it to track down an end-game save from SSB to import for the items, or is it more fun to play with a completely fresh party?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2019 23:18
|
|
|
I played the games in order, and the second one is definitely a massive improvement; that said, I did appreciate the first one's more noir-ish atmosphere. If you're willing to accept more bare bones gameplay and focusing more on your solo character, it's worth checking out. Funnily enough, the third game lost my interest half-way through. It's way too front-loaded with needlessly wordy npc dialogues, and the fights offered no challenge at all, while at the same time it's far too stingy with money for gear upgrades. That game definitely could have used one or two more balance passes.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2019 01:33
|
|
|
It's real-time, but I don't remember it being particularily hectic or hard. Just give your party decent gear and make sure they're trained up. Sentri in Britannia and Menion in Serpent's Hold are the best trainers for Dex and Str respectively. Play it with Exult.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2019 18:20
|
|
|
JustJeff88 posted:The Krynn trilogy did a good job of making a lot of things viable. Kender cleric-thieves are a very good choice so that you have the obligatory trap & lock person plus another healer. The level cap for clerics is 12, which is a good solid level even late in Dark Queen, and thief is uncapped. I can't recall the specifics without research, but dwarves kind of get it in the shorts, though - possible 1/2 elves as well. Damning with fine praise and all that, but it beats every FR game where it's basically "human or gently caress off" Dwarf fighters get the most hit points out of all characters, and dragonlances deal your current hp damage to dragons. Half-elves, eh. They work for solo clerics, if you want one. But seconding that the Krynn trilogy has far superior party building options.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2020 12:33
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:Is Shadowrun Returns and its sequels sufficiently old-school? It is based on a tabletop game from 1989 As a counter-point, while the first Shadowrun game definitely is rough around the edges, I think it nailed the noir-ish gritty Cyberpunk atmosphere best. I played it first and don't regret it. Dragonfall was a fantastic follow-up, and I consider it a modern classic, but Hong Kong lost my interest for some reason. It just felt out of balance, somehow. Suddenly the NPCs were way too wordy, combat was too easy, yet the cash rewards were too stingy so you never got to play with all the new toys introduced above what Dragonfall had. As for your character, a rifle hacker is rock solid, but you should skip the Shaman part, it doesn't provide any synergies that I can remember. That said, in Dragonfall the decker NPC feels like the odd man out of the party, so you could play a decker in that game, and try something else in Returns.
|
|
#
¿
May 19, 2020 19:10
|
|
|
Yeah, you get hooked into the story much more elegantly in Dragofall. The PC can have pretty much any background you imagine them to have, the only connection is that you used to be a buddy of Monika's and she brought you into the team because she trust you. In Hong Kong, you have this whole elaborate backstory with the foster dad from the opening intro who you're supposed to care about because the game tells you to, you have a Hong Kong slum background, you have this angsty ex-cop foster brother you're also supposed to care about because the game tells you so, and on and on. In Hong Kong, I felt like I needed to play therapist and babysitter to a bunch of incompetent wannabe runners, while in Dragonfall, you have to earn the respect of a competent team that suddenly gotten into trouble way over their heads. Dragonfall made me care about Monika because she's deftly established as a cool character in the opening mission. Hong Kong just falls flat way too often. Maybe it's the disconnect between the story power level and the game mechanics. Hong Kong tries to start you as an inexperienced newbie in a team of rookies, who's under the thumb of some third grade mob boss; but mechanically, you can wipe the floor with everything the game throws at you, much more easily than you could in Dragonfall if you played that at hard difficulty.
|
|
#
¿
May 20, 2020 20:39
|
|
|
I think playing the same party through the Krynn trilogy is the best way to experience the the goldbox engine and its growth over time, such as it was. You do have to be mindful of the races' level restrictions to not end up with dead-end characters for the last game, and I'm still traumatized from not being able to figure out the rear end in a top hat wizard's tower in DQK without the clue book back in the day, but the goldbox companion should take the edge off of that. If you want to do that, here's a sample party: Human Knight Dwarf Fighter Elf Ranger/Cleric Qualinesti Elf Fighter/Mage Human Mage Kender Cleric/Thief
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2020 04:00
|
|
|
Boldor posted:The recommendation I made for playing all three games is still linked from the first post: That's a good party, and you're spot on about single-class casters in DQK. While an elf F/M/T is ultimately the most powerful thief character you can bring, Kender are perfectly fine in the first two games, and pretty drat useful against skeleton warriors and the final boss in DKK. I'd say they bring enough unique advantages to the table to make the gameplay more interesting, especially for someone who might only play Champions. Backstabbing becomes much less impactful in Dark Queen. I had my cleric/thief equipped with some infinite-use Eyes of Petrification you can find, which still made him plenty useful.
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2020 09:48
|
|
|
I've never played the Ravenloft games, but I did play Menzoberranzan which uses the same engine, and the one thing I remember was a bug with the Spiritual Hammer spell - if you kept attacking during their death animation, you got additional kill xp for every time you hit them.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2020 22:55
|
|
|
While we're talking of Old School strategy games, RPG-adjacent ones even, I've found new appreciation of the Warlords series, now that they're available on GOG. Warlords 3 had a pretty intricate and interesting army and stack building system, and I'm a little sad I never got to see it in its multiplayer heyday.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2020 02:57
|
|
|
Boldor posted:But that's not the first reference I know of, because Warlords II (1993) most certainly does have dwarves flying griffins, and so does Warlords I (1990). These dwarves lean more Irish than Scottish. Before I got to that part, I was going to say Warlords as the first reference I'm aware of. It certainly seems to be the likeliest influence on Warcraft. I don't know if Steve Fawkner is on twitter, but he may be reachable to ask. I know Lords of Midnight and TSR's Dragons of Glory boardgame were inspirations for Warlords. Hannibal Rex fucked around with this message at 13:15 on Jul 26, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2020 12:55
|
|
|
Boldor posted:Dragons of Glory does have both dwarves and griffons, but I don't think they're closely allied. Elves use both pegasi and griffons; dwarves can readily move through mountains without flying units, and dwarves/elves aren't independent factions anyway, as Dragons of Glory is a two-faction good vs. evil game. The setting of Warlords was also based on Steve Fawkner's personal D&D campaign, but your rationale makes a lot of sense.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2020 07:47
|
|
|
LawfulWaffle posted:Arcanum. Has there ever been determined who at Troika came up with the Half-Ogre Island questline, and what the hell they were thinking?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 2, 2020 14:12
|
|
|
Isn't at least one of them a Mormon? That's probably the reason.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2020 13:48
|
|
|
Thuryl posted:I heard once that kender came about because one of the Dragonlance authors had a big moral objection to the idea of heroic thieves, and decided that the way to get around it that they could live with was to have characters who are incapable of understanding the concept of property. Brb, gotta roll up Engelhoff Marxfoot for my new campaign.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2020 13:54
|
|
|
Random Stranger posted:And that's why you keep strapping halberds to mice... All you need is a boomerang and a leather helmet.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 21, 2020 16:35
|
|
|
GOG now has Planet's Edge, a nice Starflight/Ultima 6 hybrid from the early 90s.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 20, 2020 12:28
|
|
|
Pierzak posted:I'd just like to say to the naysayers that you convinced me to play Ultima 6, and I'm gonna enjoy it specifically to spite you all I didn't see it mentioned in the last few pages, but Ultimately 4, 6 & 8 are playable in SCUMMVM. If you run into interface issues, or the Ultima 6 game window is too small for your taste, you can try that version. Also, 5 & 6 have been remade as pretty polished Dungeon Siege mods, of all things.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2021 01:07
|
|
|
Pierzak posted:OK, next Ultima 6 question: When you buy spells, you get a scroll. You then move that into your black spellbook, if you did that, you shouldn't have lost the spell. I don't know if you can cast spells from the scroll itself. Did you maybe run out of mana?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 6, 2021 00:57
|
|
|
Pierzak posted:So I started Ultima 6. The tiny action window really doesn't help. I mentioned this earlier, but give SCUMMVM a try. Playing Ultima 6 with that makes a huge difference. Pierzak posted:
-You might want to look up in the reference guide how to level up your characters. -There aren't a lot of magic weapons in this game. Glass swords kill anything, but are one shot only. Worth it against dragons and demons and the like. Otherwise, the best melee weapons are arguably halberds. Beside magic bows, wands are some of the best ranged weapons, but they have limited charges and can't be bought. Swamp boots and magic armor and helmets can be bought. -There aren't any hostile ships in this game. If you find a skiff somewhere, have a look at it. You know about turning in gold nuggets in the mint? You can dig for them in a couple of dungeons, but just exploring Britannia and fighting monsters will give you plenty. There also is one particular quest that can give you a ton of gold. Apart from that, there's a pair of spells that makes it very simple to equip everyone with the best items.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 6, 2021 08:58
|
|
|
Pierzak posted:I cheated a bit by looking up WTF exactly is needed to level up (turns out I do need to take the moonstones off the shrines, then talk to the altars). That's not cheating, it's mentioned in the manual but it's easy to miss for modern gamers, that's why I told you to look it up. Not every shrine gives the same amount of stat increases, and since intelligence is mostly used for spell casting, only the Avatar really needs it. (It also influences the damage you do with wands.) Valor and Compassion are the most important shrines for your companions, or Spirituality if you want to spread things out. Secret doors are tricky until you know how to spot them. There's one or two in Lord British's castle, and in some places, you may notice walls not matching up. There's a few hidden compartments I can think of, even outside of dungeons.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2021 01:16
|
|
|
Genpei Turtle posted:Pox Goregargle. I killed that guy in Diablo so many times.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2021 22:48
|
|
|
This Ultima VII remake is still a bit bare-bones, but the most important gameplay elements are already included. https://yulotomorrow.itch.io/the-bread-gate
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2021 16:10
|
|
|
The thing I loved the most about RoA1 was the way it handled overland travel, with a network of trails between towns/locations that each had their own specific encounters, shortcuts, hazards and disease risks or were blocked during the winter. Are there other games with a similar mechanic?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2021 00:49
|
|
|
On the flip side, don't ever take Jinxed on a high CHA build, because it also applies to your party members.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 6, 2021 09:15
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 22:14 |
|
|
Dr. Quarex posted:Oh no, now AI art is going to put insanely dedicated modders who never finish their passion projects out of business, too! https://twitter.com/UmbraeSoulsbane/status/1507469166130995203?s=20&t=S_lmnC9j1dPTvBRxS-vdRw
|
|
#
¿
Nov 12, 2022 16:31
|
|