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Yeah, fare thee well. Looking forward to the last 2 updates.
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Oct 21, 2020 04:15
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Yeah this was really fun but if the other games aren't enjoyable then don't feel obligated to do the whole lot, only the good ones. No one would do a lets-play-ultima LP and assume that means they're legally obligated to suffer through pagan and ascension
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Oct 21, 2020 10:55
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Secret of the Silver Blades was the weakest in the series; stopping here is definitely a good idea. There aren't many interesting events that occur in that game so tying a narrative to that would've been rough. Thanks for the LPs for the other games, they were fun!
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Oct 21, 2020 16:16
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I'll still get around to making that "Sasha's Disapproving Stare" beadart for you at some point. Honest. I do actually have the beads for it, it's just that life got kinda crazy so I couldn't start it yet.
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Oct 22, 2020 04:11
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While I am sad the LP is ending because I enjoyed it, if you aren't also having fun what's the loving point. Thanks for the cool content though!
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Oct 23, 2020 14:13
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Morand posted:While I am sad the LP is ending because I enjoyed it, if you aren't also having fun what's the loving point. Thanks for the cool content though! It's done an excellent job covering the worthwhile half of the series. No sense in sacrificing Chokes' sanity on the altar of completionism for the sake of a couple more boring slogs.
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Oct 23, 2020 15:08
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The LP's been good. Take care of yourself, friend.
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Oct 23, 2020 15:12
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Hey, if the other games are really that bad and you're not feeling it, I don't blame you. Take a break, recharge your batteries and come back with something you actually want to And in the meantime, thanks for the entertainment.
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Oct 23, 2020 15:53
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Yeah, SotSB is basically a linear dungeon bash. It's by far the least interesting of the original Gold Box sequence and would be very hard to make a fun LP out of. If you ever felt like continuing I'd skip straight to Pools of Darkness.
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Oct 23, 2020 23:28
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SotSB (and PoD) also both suffer from game design issues that are endemic to the core AD&D 1e rules; they exist in the space of the ruleset where most meaningful character development has stopped. Every level you gain in PoR and CotAB feels like a big step in progression. Even the lowly level 1->2 jump, while it gives you nothing in the way of new power, is doubling your longevity, both in hit points and spell slots. Even just at the end of Pool of Radiance, your characters are multiple orders of magnitude stronger than they started the game. Breaking it down even a little, because I'm a math nerd and this poo poo excites me in stupid ways - assuming you hit the level cap in each entry:
Silver Blades undoubtedly suffers some from being more linear and less interesting than the titles that preceded it, but SSI was helpless to do anything about the game's actual biggest flaw, which were the AD&D rules themselves, to the point where I feel like if you took these four games and remade them with a more modern D&D edition's ruleset but all other factors remaining unchanged, you'd still end up with the last two games looking much better than they did under 1e.
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Oct 24, 2020 07:09
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Reiska posted:Silver Blades undoubtedly suffers some from being more linear and less interesting than the titles that preceded it, but SSI was helpless to do anything about the game's actual biggest flaw, which were the AD&D rules themselves, to the point where I feel like if you took these four games and remade them with a more modern D&D edition's ruleset but all other factors remaining unchanged, you'd still end up with the last two games looking much better than they did under 1e. Part of the problem is also that the rules were never really made for high-level dungeon crawls, almost everything in the rules is pushing for the fact that after level 9 or so, players start setting down, building themselves a home, engaging in nation-building, politics, etc.
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Oct 24, 2020 09:48
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Reiska posted:
I know there've been some rumblings about the studio that did the Bard's Tale and Wasteland remasters possibly doing the Gold Box games next. Maybe we'll get to see how that pans out!
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Oct 24, 2020 17:12
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Yeah, high-level AD&D, at least at the start, really wanted to increase the scale of the game as the party grew in power- the martial characters would pick up followers and eventually the ability to basically create and field armies, the thief and other skill-focused classes would eventually start to lean more into political and infiltration abilities, and the casters would around spell level 5 or so start getting spells that could reshape entire battlefields, like Wall of Stone, Transmute Rock to Mud, and Animate Dead. Then after the big battlefield fight the party might go into the enemy's lair for a short dungeon crawl to face off against the big bad and a monster or three too powerful/situational/weird to just use on the battlefield. So player characters kinda started 'leveling off' in the back half of their growth because they were intended to be tide-turners on the battlefield, not so much still raiding tombs and spelunking lost caves. Of course, later settings like Ravenloft and Dark Sun dropped this almost entirely, which lead to 2E becoming the edition with some of the wildest and most hilarious magical item power creep because with player creation rules locked in with late-game PC growth being so limited, loot became the main lever creators could use to power up a party to face strange and potent new foes.
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Oct 24, 2020 17:28
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More recent editions got a lot better at handling development across levels, but I miss the grandiose magic of earlier editions. I still vividly remember a friendly lich in my campaign going along with the PCs to help them do some adventuring-type archeology at the site of an obelisk. They figured there was a complex underneath it. To get to it, first they cast Transmute Rock to Mud (at above caster level 20, so lots of rock). Then the lich strode over to the hole, peered down hundreds of feet to the huge cavern underneath the 20+ feet of rock and dirt that had been transmuted and was still pouring into the cavern, and cast Reverse Gravity. They all stood and watched the fountain of mud shooting out of the ground into the air for a while, then flew down to begin their investigations. Two moderately to high level spells, no real game effect beyond a bit of convenience, but all according to the somewhat unbalanced rules and an arrestingly memorable moment. All of which is to say, SotSB and PoD don't really have much to compare, although PoD certainly has multiple moments that would be horribly entertaining to watch someone else suffering through.
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Oct 24, 2020 18:53
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The worst part of the games is the loot doesn’t really help. An extra +2 to hit and damage against 10 dragons? And soon after that we go through a portal to a demon realm that can destroy all our magic items. Great...
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Oct 24, 2020 20:55
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Narsham posted:More recent editions got a lot better at handling development across levels, but I miss the grandiose magic of earlier editions. I still vividly remember a friendly lich in my campaign going along with the PCs to help them do some adventuring-type archeology at the site of an obelisk. They figured there was a complex underneath it. All of that stuff with rocks done with a snap of their fingers, but if Fighters try to do some feat of incredible strength without a roll of any kind people cry unrealistic 
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Oct 24, 2020 22:00
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That's why I like the Tome of Battle (and its Pathfinder equivalent Path of War) and Spheres of Might; they give a bit of that to martials.
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Oct 24, 2020 22:07
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The Shame Boy posted:All of that stuff with rocks done with a snap of their fingers, but if Fighters try to do some feat of incredible strength without a roll of any kind people cry unrealistic Players running fighters are supposed to be designing fortresses (with double or triple-walls to avoid the ol' Rock to Mud, layered with iron and lead to ward off Passwall or divination or the like), setting up armies, meddling in politics, and realizing that it takes a ludicrous amount of cash to actually construct a fortress (like, millions of gp). Also, high level wizards are supposed to be spending six months learning new spells or designing new spells between every adventure while everyone else actually makes changes to the world.
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Oct 24, 2020 23:55
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Mr. Locke posted:Of course, later settings like Ravenloft and Dark Sun dropped this almost entirely, which lead to 2E becoming the edition with some of the wildest and most hilarious magical item power creep because with player creation rules locked in with late-game PC growth being so limited, loot became the main lever creators could use to power up a party to face strange and potent new foes. Which in turn made the cursed item power creep wild. The Deck of Many Things got its start in 1st Edition, but people didn't learn to fear it until 2E.
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Oct 25, 2020 00:56
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Seyser Koze posted:I know there've been some rumblings about the studio that did the Bard's Tale and Wasteland remasters possibly doing the Gold Box games next. Maybe we'll get to see how that pans out! Oh my God, really? Day one purchase if so I was literally fantasizing about that with my RL friend who introduced me to the Gold Box games a few nights ago.
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Oct 25, 2020 04:07
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The Shame Boy posted:All of that stuff with rocks done with a snap of their fingers, but if Fighters try to do some feat of incredible strength without a roll of any kind people cry unrealistic I kind of liked Earthdawn for that. Just went 'gently caress it, even the fighters are powered by magic and you're all heroic level stuff'.
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Oct 25, 2020 06:58
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Writing for next chapter is complete! Content extraction begins tomorrow.
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Oct 29, 2020 04:36
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Chapter 14: Shocking Revelations  Oh, hey. It's you guys. You know. The ones who think I'm Tyranthraxus. Look, we've been talking things over... Yeah? Yes. We've learned a few things over the course of our adventures, and it's time we started trusting other people. Thank you for all your help so far. Hey, no problem. Glad you finally came around. Soooo. Who are you, anyway? Oh, me?   I'M TYRANTHRAXUS, BITCH I KNEW ITWelcome back to the Gold Box Adventures! As you can see, we've found Tyranthraxus. I know it's a shocking development, but please, try not to pass out from hyperventilating. Anyway, having kicked the poo poo out of the rest of the Fellowship of the Assholes, our final job is to take our three magical MacGuffins and finish off Capital T himself. You'll notice the Big Reveal has opened a path to that green square in the middle of the map. That's Myth Drannor, where once there are elves, and now there's a whole lot of ruins. As you might imagine, it's also home to some supremely obnoxious monsters.  First up, though: with everyone at level cap, it's a good time to cover our final Tier 5 spells. We've seen a few of the most useful ones, but we haven't covered the entire tier, so we might as well finish it off. First, cleric:
And for our mages:
All right, that takes care of that. Brace yourselves, everyone. It's time for the endgame.    Huh. So, I guess this thing does a thing. I'm not even sure how that works. It just... kind of says north. Who cares about that? There's monsters to kill! It's good to see you've learned literally nothing since our last talk. Ugh, fine. If anybody has any other ideas, I guess I won't stop them.    We're with Tyranthraxus! Wow! Really? Oh yeah. Us and Tyranthraxus, we go way back. Thanks! Did you know his close friends call him Mister T? I PITY THA FOOL THAT DON'T KNOW THAT ...Thri-keen have infested this area. They're humanoid praying mantises, I guess, except with more arms. I almost typed that as preying mantises. It's true either way, isn't it? Gosh I'm clever. Anyway, telling them we're with the malignant genius loci gets us a free pass, which is good, because thri-kreen are not fun to fight. We're in endgame, and we have no need for money or experience. Let's get the interesting parts out of the way and move on as quickly as possible.   ! ? I sense a presence. A very spoopy presence.  ow OW Ow? BUSTIN MAKES ME FEEL GOOD Right. Well, while you do that, I'll jot this down.Journal Entry 25 posted:We spirits of Myth Drannor have grown weak over the centuries. We can now do little but observe. We ask for your help. In return let me reveal to you a secret power of the Thri-kreen. Within this building is a glowing red web. If you speak the world Krrkik while standing before it, then walk into it, you will gain great strength. I have seen many of the Thri-kreen do this.  I swear, they have the attention span of a six year old. Don't you start!  So this is the web, huh? Looks like. Now, all we have to do is say— RARGH ... I'm not really sure how, but I think Heather just saved us.  You're welcome.   Spiders! Because Heather jumped the gun, we avoided a trap here. Saying "krrkik" or wading into the web results in a surprise attack and severely restricted movement. These giant spiders can kill with poison, by the way. But, there's only four of them, and we have fairly good poison resistance and THAC0. We splat them easily. It's not made explicitly clear, but that "spirit" was a rakshaka. Those motherfuckers love to shapeshift into all sorts of things to lure you into traps. Myth Drannor is lousy with rakshakas. Keep an eye out for anyone who's a little too helpful.    Journal Entry 33 posted:I am Caemir and my ancestors lived and died here in Myth Drannor. I have been plagued recently by evil dreams of my grandfather's tomb being turned into a nest for foul spider things. If you will help me lay his spirit to rest, I will give you this bow which he made. He shows you an exquisitely-crafted bow that radiates powerful magic. ... Uh huh. Sure. Sure, we'll do that. Well, no poo poo. Seriously, you are completely bogus. Everyone knows it. Dang, you caught me. Aw. Get out of here, you little scamp.  Like I said, anyone who seems too helpful.   Not included on that list is this dude. Anyone who calls us "bonded ones" is probably a major player. Let's see what he has to say for himself. Journal Entry 56 posted:The man says, Ask me not my name, for names are but labels men apply to that which they do not understand. I know of your bonds, and of your struggle to free yourselves, for I helped create the first bonds what seems now so long ago. Your last bond, that of Tyranthraxus the Flamed One, is the most dangerous. Whither you know it or not, you are closer to eternal slavery now than ever, for Tyranthraxus need no longer share his power over you with others, he can turn his full fury to making sure that you do not ever escape. Your only hope is to catch the flamed one by surprise and deal with him before he can evoke the power of your bonds. Oh, cool. Once again, the heroes have pooled their efforts and unwittingly paved the way for the big boss to gently caress over the entire world. That's really great. Why do we bother doing this poo poo in the first place?! Anyway, this is the Nameless Bard. You may remember him from Dimswart's info dump. That's right: this rear end in a top hat is the sole reason the bonds exist. Having Hanover rip out his tongue is sadly not an option given to us, so we just pat him on the head and go back to what we were doing.   Spoopy radar is off the charts! ??? I wanted to know what it was like. And? It's everything I could've dreamed.   AUGH WALL SPIDERS KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT Oh, they're gone. We're fine! AUGH WALL SPIDERS This is gonna be a thing, isn't it? Yup.Meet the phase spiders, the single most obnoxious enemy in all of Curse. Phase spiders are giant spiders with permanent Blink spells cast on them, which means after they move and attack,.. poof! They can no longer be targeted. And, like any spider enemy, they can poison a character for an instant KO. Hooray!  Our first fireball only does 29 HP. Sadly, that's not enough to kill outright.  They're fast motherfuckers, too, and they scatter before we can unload our second ordinance. Rather than chase them down and wait for the attacks to line up right, we (G)uard and let them come to us. That way, we're guaranteed an attack before they poof out of existence. Phase spiders are terrible. Don't fight phase spiders unless you have to.   Narrator: They fought more phase spiders.   What the hell is a bivouac? How the hell should I know? Why the hell would you ask? Why the hell do I care? There's really more questions than answers here. I know, right? Oh boy. A thri-kreen fight.  So, thri-kreens. On the face of it, they have about 4 attacks that do 1d4 damage apiece. That's not really a big deal at this point.  This is though! That's right, every attack has a chance to paralyze you.  Well, have fun in there!    The reward is utterly not worth it. Again, we want for nothing this late in the game, so this is a completionist thing. If you're playing the game yourself, there's only two or three places to hit up before you go to the final map. Let's check out one of them now!  I'm getting really sick of all these rakshakas. I wish there were some way we could detect them... Yeah. This kinda stuff makes me miss Beezer. poo poo, that's right! Where's Beezer right now? Is he okay? Who now? Beezer. Blue robot, four arms, runs on diesel. Oh, him! Don't worry, I left him with a babysitter.quote:
Aw. Sounds like Beez made some new friends. Free daycare? I could get to like this operation.   Relax, Justine. She's totally a real elf spirit. Right? Totally! See? And she's not Tyranthraxus, either! 100% correct! That's just what Tyranthraxus would say.  She's a little rough around the edges, but she's good peeps. Okay, I'm warming up to her. Thanks! Still not convinced you're not Tyranthraxus, though. That's fair.Princess Daemir—whoever the hell that is—offers her blessing here if you haven't looted any elf skeletons. I'm honestly not sure I came across any of them while playing. Nevertheless, don't loot elf skeletons. Besides being extremely rude, it'll block you from a +2 THAC0 bonus for doing absolutely nothing. It only works on this map, but still. Also, you can refuse the blessing and instead be hit with a curse for a permanent -2 THAC0. So don't do that either.   While we're here, we clean out a thri-kreen hive.  Pictured: cloud Kill doing literally nothing.  At least we win!  Oh gently caress you, game.   I bet there's loot in there! Spoopy loot? Shyeah! I mean, what other kind is there?   Right back atcha.     All right. Impress me.   Impressed?  This is one of the last treasure caches worth visiting—and believe me, you want to get this stuff. Besides nifty items like a Ring of Protection and Staff Sling +2 that will round out any holes in your loadout, you're given Blessed Quarrels and a +1 crossbow to go with it. Take these immediately and do not lose them. You will need them shortly. And with that, we've officially cleared the burial glen. The only thing left is to storm Myth Drannor proper and punt Tyranthraxus in the teeth until he takes our bonds off. So, tune in next time for our exciting conclusion, where we'll hear Rezen say: ...curried lemons?Next Time: Invader Time Chokes McGee fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Nov 27, 2020 |
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Oct 30, 2020 02:56
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I have no idea what that means.
Maybe it's some special robot code?
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Re: Cloudkill - On the GOG copy of the game I have the spell worked fine, for certain unimpressive values of "worked". (The simple fact is that by the time you get it, there's very little you're going to be facing in the Gold Box engine that's actually susceptible to it anyway. I did, however, manage to get a little use out of it against some of the more annoying trash, but it wasn't really anything Fireball wouldn't have handled equally well.) It is absolutely worthless in Silver Blades though.
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Oct 30, 2020 06:19
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If I remember right, blessed ammo is supposed to absolutely gently caress up Rakshasas, is that in this game?
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Oct 30, 2020 10:49
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Chokes McGee posted:Also, you can refuse the blessing and instead be hit with a curse for a permanent -2 THAC0. So don't do that either. Are there any signs that this one isn't a trap? Because pulling something like that after giving the player good reason to be suspicious of anyone acting helpful sounds like bullshit.
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Oct 30, 2020 16:31
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PurpleXVI posted:If I remember right, blessed ammo is supposed to absolutely gently caress up Rakshasas, is that in this game? 100% correct, which is why I emphasized hanging onto them. I was going to get to that next update, though. DGM_2 posted:Are there any signs that this one isn't a trap? Because pulling something like that after giving the player good reason to be suspicious of anyone acting helpful sounds like bullshit. Nope! To be fair, that's the whole point of rakshakas, and they do it beautifully here. They seed chaos and distrust because they're evil little duplicitous shits.
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Oct 30, 2020 17:00
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Myth Drannor- one of the most famous and notorious dungeons in the Forgotten Realms. This marks its first appearance in a Gold Box game, though not its last. Naturally the game barely scratches the surface of the place's depths of challenging content. How big is Myth Drannor? Well, at least two future D&D video games- "Eye of the Beholder 3- Assault on Myth Drannor" and "Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor"- were able to set their entire games within its boundaries. There are also numerous D&D adventure modules set in the place. What is Myth Drannor exactly? Just what the game tells us- an ancient elven city, now abandoned and in ruins after a long ago series of magical disasters cursed the area. The elves abandoned it, but left all sorts of great treasures behind. And naturally demons and other monsters have moved in to infest the place, drawn by its magic. Phase spiders, rakshasas, and elven ghosts are just a few examples of the monsters that live in Myth Drannor. Adventurers can spend months exploring its various districts and key buildings as well as the catacombs beneath the city, and encounter far worse monsters. It's a good place to set the final dungeon of this game. The heroes of the novel Azure Bonds never visited the place, at least not in that book. We do continue the tradition of our party getting their help here, though, with the Nameless Bard showing up in the city. Naturally, as an Epic character of near-godly power, he could be doing a lot more to help us. But then again, Alias probably could have made the same complaint. I'm disappointed this LP is ending soon, though I understand why. Glad I was here to enjoy it at least. 
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Oct 30, 2020 18:27
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Reiska posted:Re: Cloudkill - On the GOG copy of the game I have the spell worked fine, for certain unimpressive values of "worked". 1E Cloudkill: Automatically kills enemies with fewer than 4+1 HD, requires creatures up to 6 HD (inclusive) to save vs poison or die. Does nothing against creatures with more than 6 HD. In a game that doesn't usually confront you with low HD foes, it is pretty useless. But hey: Phase Spiders have 5+5 HD, so it can conceivably work against them, meaning there's maybe 3-4 combats where it is useful. I suppose it's more useful if you grind random encounters so you have L5 spells earlier than you're supposed to.
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Oct 30, 2020 19:21
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Narsham posted:1E Cloudkill: Automatically kills enemies with fewer than 4+1 HD, requires creatures up to 6 HD (inclusive) to save vs poison or die. Does nothing against creatures with more than 6 HD. I cannot possibly fathom the amount of masochism you'd have to have to grind a goldbox game.
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Oct 30, 2020 20:35
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Chokes McGee posted:Nope! To be fair, that's the whole point of rakshakas, and they do it beautifully here. They seed chaos and distrust because they're evil little duplicitous shits. Fair enough, but just saying "no thanks, we'll manage" shouldn't get you perma-cursed. That's a ridiculously petty thing for someone who's supposedly one of the good guys to do to people she knows are heroes. Well, hero-ish, anyway.
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Oct 30, 2020 20:48
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DGM_2 posted:Fair enough, but just saying "no thanks, we'll manage" shouldn't get you perma-cursed. That's a ridiculously petty thing for someone who's supposedly one of the good guys to do to people she knows are heroes. An elf being petty? Be still my black heart.
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Oct 30, 2020 21:15
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I guess we're not the only ones on the hero-ish side, then.
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Oct 30, 2020 21:38
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Also I can't believe I put in all that work to make a Beezer FFL2 sprite and a Roy/Zero cameo and none of you even mentioned it 
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Oct 30, 2020 21:43
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Oh man, those beezer and roy/zero cameos were so unexpected but very fun and great!
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Oct 30, 2020 22:37
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Slaan posted:Oh man, those beezer and roy/zero cameos were so unexpected but very fun and great! I don't need your pity
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Oct 30, 2020 23:54
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Now that you mention it, I really SHOULD have noticed the Beezer sprite was Gameboy-styled. It just didn't register. drat it, brain, pay more attention.
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Oct 31, 2020 01:15
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Chokes McGee posted:Also I can't believe I put in all that work to make a Beezer FFL2 sprite and a Roy/Zero cameo and none of you even mentioned it You know, one of the things I was working on for you was related to the FFL1 and FFL2 LPS you did. Its not too late for me to scrap one of the characters I was going to use and use that Beezer sprite instead if you want.
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Oct 31, 2020 03:36
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Narsham posted:1E Cloudkill: Automatically kills enemies with fewer than 4+1 HD, requires creatures up to 6 HD (inclusive) to save vs poison or die. Does nothing against creatures with more than 6 HD. Yeah, I put it to work against the phase spiders in fact. There's not much else in the endgame susceptible to it. The deeper I get into SotSB, the more and more I understand why Chokes isn't finding much to write about in it. Secret of the Filler Blades, indeed. @_@
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Oct 31, 2020 04:24
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 13:04 |
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I honestly don't think I've have as fond memories of these games if I had started with these instead of Gateway/Treasure of the Savage Frontier, as wow there's a lot of filler and ridiculously hard encounters for no real reason.
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Oct 31, 2020 04:30
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