Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Items in the game

Saint_Proverbius

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2002
Messages
11,479
Location
Behind you.
One thing I've noticed is that the Children of the Flame people seem to have all the items going for them. If you have FLAME MAGIC, you can get armor and weapons that boost your power with that skill.

So, the question is, why aren't there GIFTS OF GODDESS weapons, armors, and so on? After all, you're still able to use the Goddess type spells, so how come Druids aren't out there making Ironwood weapons and armor and enchanting them with Goddess power like the Children of the Flame do with their metal weapons and armor? The only item I've seen so far that's close to a Goddess item is the Sylkie Tear amulet, and that boosts Willpower.

I will say one thing about items in Prelude to Darkness, I'm happy that the game doesn't revolve around monty hauling and ph4t l3wt. It's nice to see that there aren't weapons and armors that give massive bonuses to everything, thus making the player uberly powerful just because he's wearing some ancient platemail.
 

thathmew

Zero Sum Software
Developer
Joined
Nov 19, 2002
Messages
194
Location
Austin, TX
The main reason there aren't goddess items is that the power is not really transferable. Gifts are conveyed directly from the Goddess so one would assume that enchanting an item would also have to involve her direct action and most likely be a boon as a result of some incredible action.

Flame magic is a little different and as well the Children have always been of a more scientific as well as industrial bent than the People so it's more natural that they have found more ways to imbue the Flame into items. Remember it's primarily the Children who founded and researced Thaumaturgy.

-mat
 

Kyminara

Novice
Joined
Dec 21, 2002
Messages
26
Location
Ohio
It makes sense that there are more items tailored for Children of the Flame, because they tend to be more wealthy. Also, the Children are more likely to become fighters or mages than the People of the River are.
There are many River items available though through quests. Dharming will give you his staff which has a Gift of Goddess bonus if you save his flock. You can also get Winnifred's dagger (not sure if it's spelled right) in another quest, which is enchanted by Gifts of Goddess and Thaumaturgy. I also got a really nice Gifts of Goddess weapon from a miner in Jerrok.

I will say one thing about items in Prelude to Darkness, I'm happy that the game doesn't revolve around monty hauling and ph4t l3wt. It's nice to see that there aren't weapons and armors that give massive bonuses to everything, thus making the player uberly powerful just because he's wearing some ancient platemail.

I love this about the game also. There are nice items available, but they aren't game-breaking items. You don't need to have the best equipment to succeed in the game, either.
 

Saint_Proverbius

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2002
Messages
11,479
Location
Behind you.
Kyminara said:
It makes sense that there are more items tailored for Children of the Flame, because they tend to be more wealthy. Also, the Children are more likely to become fighters or mages than the People of the River are.

From what I gathered, the Priestesses of the Flame are the ones who imbue items with Flame Magic. I was just wondering why Druids don't do the same thing.

You're right about the fighters and mages thing, though. All Guardians, Scholars, and Acolytes are Flame blood. However, River blood has fighter and magic using backgrounds as well. Druid is the most obvious river blood background for magic, since they're basically the "priests" of the River people. Hunter is probably the most obvious fighter type of the river people, since they seem to be close to the rangers in D&D. Farmers might also be considered a fighter class, since they make excellent fighters.

There are many River items available though through quests. Dharming will give you his staff which has a Gift of Goddess bonus if you save his flock. You can also get Winnifred's dagger (not sure if it's spelled right) in another quest, which is enchanted by Gifts of Goddess and Thaumaturgy. I also got a really nice Gifts of Goddess weapon from a miner in Jerrok.

Ahhh.. Wierd, I don't think I did any of those quests the first time through.

I love this about the game also. There are nice items available, but they aren't game-breaking items. You don't need to have the best equipment to succeed in the game, either.

That's one thing that annoys me about a lot of CRPGs, the devs feel the need to shower the players with all sorts of uber-powerful items. Often times, the items make the character in those games rather than the character's inate abilities.

thathmew said:
The main reason there aren't goddess items is that the power is not really transferable. Gifts are conveyed directly from the Goddess so one would assume that enchanting an item would also have to involve her direct action and most likely be a boon as a result of some incredible action.

Ahh, so a Druid can't simply enchant an item the way Flame Priestesses can.

Flame magic is a little different and as well the Children have always been of a more scientific as well as industrial bent than the People so it's more natural that they have found more ways to imbue the Flame into items. Remember it's primarily the Children who founded and researced Thaumaturgy.

Well, I just wondered why the Riverfolk hadn't found a way to infuse Goddess abilities in wooden and other natural items, since both her magic and the items they crast have a wood/nature bent about them. I guess, for the most part, they never saw the need. :)
 

CP

Liturgist
Joined
Nov 20, 2002
Messages
110
Saint_Proverbius said:
Well, I just wondered why the Riverfolk hadn't found a way to infuse Goddess abilities in wooden and other natural items, since both her magic and the items they crast have a wood/nature bent about them. I guess, for the most part, they never saw the need. :)


There is one really difficult quest in Land's End that gives the player a very, very powerful GOG weapon. I'd be somewhat surprised if someone had found the Sylkie Child, but she does exist.


CP
 

Fantasm

Novice
Joined
Jan 12, 2003
Messages
12
CP said:
There is one really difficult quest in Land's End that gives the player a very, very powerful GOG weapon. I'd be somewhat surprised if someone had found the Sylkie Child, but she does exist.


CP

Ooh! Ooh! I found her! I found her! =) I was thinking of that exact weapon when this thread was started. The funny thing is, I don't have a lot of use for it because my Goddess person is also my resident thermataugist, and she really likes throwing bolts of lightning at people. But now that I've been to the Academy and got two more people skilled in Therm (what can I say, I had some extra coin lying around ;), I will probably re-evaluate her role in my party...

I have one comment about this particular quest (and the way the journal works in general)...(spoilers follow!)...The sequence I did things was to rescue the tea-party-kid from the cave, then go down and talk to the guy who lost his family in the river. It was at that point that my journal made a comment describing how the lost Sylkie girl likely couldn't speak, and that the girl I rescued could likely help. When I found Hana later, she just sits there and barks at me. It seems like this would be a reasonably easy connection for me to make on my own, without it being force-fed by my journal. I've noticed other instances like this as well, where my journal writing almost seems to be doing my thinking for me (and in one case it revealed an annoying bug, where after I bought the Banderwillow from the Ironwood sister my journal made the connection that I could use it to drug the Temple acolyte and prevent her from interfering in the temple bombing...I didn't know of any temple bombing at the time, and I was rather annoyed at getting spoiled by my own journal :p ) . Is this supposed to be a function of the intelligence of the person that's keeping the journal? Or does it always do this? Because IMO, it goes a little too far in connecting the dots for the player...
 

CP

Liturgist
Joined
Nov 20, 2002
Messages
110
Fantasm said:
CP said:
There is one really difficult quest in Land's End that gives the player a very, very powerful GOG weapon. I'd be somewhat surprised if someone had found the Sylkie Child, but she does exist.


CP

Ooh! Ooh! I found her! I found her! =) I was thinking of that exact weapon when this thread was started. The funny thing is, I don't have a lot of use for it because my Goddess person is also my resident thermataugist, and she really likes throwing bolts of lightning at people. But now that I've been to the Academy and got two more people skilled in Therm (what can I say, I had some extra coin lying around ;), I will probably re-evaluate her role in my party...

I have one comment about this particular quest (and the way the journal works in general)...(spoilers follow!)...The sequence I did things was to rescue the tea-party-kid from the cave, then go down and talk to the guy who lost his family in the river. It was at that point that my journal made a comment describing how the lost Sylkie girl likely couldn't speak, and that the girl I rescued could likely help. When I found Hana later, she just sits there and barks at me. It seems like this would be a reasonably easy connection for me to make on my own, without it being force-fed by my journal. I've noticed other instances like this as well, where my journal writing almost seems to be doing my thinking for me (and in one case it revealed an annoying bug, where after I bought the Banderwillow from the Ironwood sister my journal made the connection that I could use it to drug the Temple acolyte and prevent her from interfering in the temple bombing...I didn't know of any temple bombing at the time, and I was rather annoyed at getting spoiled by my own journal :p ) . Is this supposed to be a function of the intelligence of the person that's keeping the journal? Or does it always do this? Because IMO, it goes a little too far in connecting the dots for the player...


Journal entries are measured by intelligence and lit/lore skill, but not in all cases. Skill/attribute checks are tricky because it's really easy to get carried away. With a team of 3 scriptors it was impossible to do all of the checking that we may have liked.

You're right, the instances you brought up were too dumbed down. That's any easy fix though. We'll add it to the list.

Thanks.


CP
 

Fantasm

Novice
Joined
Jan 12, 2003
Messages
12
CP said:
Journal entries are measured by intelligence and lit/lore skill, but not in all cases. Skill/attribute checks are tricky because it's really easy to get carried away. With a team of 3 scriptors it was impossible to do all of the checking that we may have liked.

You're right, the instances you brought up were too dumbed down. That's any easy fix though. We'll add it to the list.

Thanks.


CP

OK, that's interesting that your intelligence/lit-lore skill determines what you write in your journal. Knowing that, I'm not sure I would want to discourage what I think is a pretty clever way of incorporating stats and skills into the gameplay. But doing this requires walking a very fine line, and should demand some serious thought as to how much the player is actually helped in figuring out quest solutions. In this particular case, it's probably just a minor implementation issue. I hadn't even met Hana yet, and here I was speculating in my journal about how I might communicate with her. I'm sure my character is smart, but it's a little un-nerving for her to be better at thinking things through than I am. =) (I suppose some might argue that's real role-playing ;).

In this case, it would probably be enough to simply delay this particular entry in the journal until I actually meet Hana. Once I see her sitting there barking, I will have started the thought process of how I could communicate with her, and it would be better timing and way cooler to open up my journal and see my character contemplating this exact same thing as well. Whether you actually mention the girl that talks with animals is a sticky question, but doing so at this point wouldn't seem as much as a spoiler as it was when I came across it (after talking to the father, I was simply thinking about how to find Hana, and now all of a sudden I could see how this quest was going to end...)

Anyway, my point here is that I didn't want you to take my comments and interpret them as meaning that none of my characters should do any thinking, because I really do think that's a cool concept. But you do need to be careful about how much thinking they do, and make sure that any thought processes they have pretty much coincide with the thought process that the player is going through at the time. I know, that's a tall order, and it's probably why not too many people do this...
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom