Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Ruhfuss]

We might need a way to measure "openness" of a game to actually compare it.

It's a subjective judgement of course, but just for laughs you could use the number of possible game orders--for example Curse with its 3 main quests can be played in any of 6 ways (6=3!), whereas DQK is basically a railroad from what I remember. Pool had about 20 quests, which gives you 2 quintillion ways to finish the game.

Some orders are much more difficult though--the CRPG addict tried to finish Zhentil Keep first and you remember how that went. Of course one of the things unique about Pool was that you could actually finish the quests in different ways--you could talk to the old lizardman and fight a solo duel or go down the stairs and exterminate the lizardmen (and get their shields +2), you could fight nomads, kobolds, or both, you could bash open the box and get Cadorna pissed at you, be a goody two-shoes and hand it over, or get the thieves to rob it for you, and so on. I guess if you really wanted to you could multiply those in.

Hmm, I guess I was thinking more in a macro way (freedom in order to take on quests), and neglected the micro (role playing choices). Since I never completed the original Pool, but only the FRUA conversion once, which I'm sure isn't 100% on par due to FRUA's limitations, I can't comment on the quality of the "RPG-yness" of it. In most of the later installments, the RPG choices usually boil down to picking the most obvious (non-stupid) multiple-choice option ("You see a pit with many spikes at the bottom. Do you a) jump in? b) look for a way around it? c) [OPTIONAL|REQUIRED] use the McGuffin that you've found recently?"). Pools also offers some not so obvious stuff, that therefore can be easily overlooked, be it regocnition of player accomplishments for flavor like in the Arcam example above, or things like the different ways of dealing with the Gelt in Zhentil Keep. But nothing of this is a game changer, because it doesn't really matter.

Your Zhentil Keep example is a funny one, since if you recall some previous postings from different users in this thread, for Pools, going to Zhentil Keep too early often seems to result in as much pain as the crpgaddict might have felt during his Curse playthrough. I consider this to be one of the many homages to the precursing (PUN!) titles, although a less obvious one.

 

[Jo498]

I did Moander... Except for searching for the bloody "Watcher" and remembering where one could go from one of the heart "circuits" to the other one it was not as bad as I expected. Although I had to check a few things in the clue book not to wander forever in the heart and I quit about two or three "howling, agents of Tanetal" encounters with ca. 10 each of blue golems (or 5 blue and 3 reddish ones) and red bits (I also did a few similar ones if the topography allowed a better chance).
Actually, two of the worst scripted encounters (and I remembered having hated them before) is the one with about two dozen dark wizards and dragons spread out between Marcus and Phlan and in Moander's brain the wizards with incredibly high initiative killing people because of wall reflections, unless one has protection spells ready beforehand. The final Tanetal fight is not that bad (as mentioned, there are worse random encounters in the heart as the # of "agents of Tanetal apparently scales with how much space there is available and ranges from a handful to 20 or more (and bad ones) whereas Tanetal has only about 4 each of bits and golems, I think.
Again, I have the impression that the fairly trivial difference between "veteran" and "adept" lvl is relevant here. All the golems are down at least one round faster and with the lvl 23-25 mage cone of cold can devastate the moander bits and the 25% HP difference matters. Hold Monster does not work that well against them, direct damage is better. With three dual class mages or other power parties the bits should pose hardly any threat. (With only one mage capable of de-stone, one has to be more careful).

So it's Kalistes' turn next
Party after Moander: Paladin lvl 24 163HP , Ranger 27 160, dwarven fighter 9/thief 23 116, Cleric 33 (she will max out before the end of the game) 135, mage 25 80, elvish f 7/m 11/t 18 85.

 

[Null Null]

Pools of Darkness was full of homages to the three prior games--most of the major NPCs show up again, the three quests kind of map (Mo->Mo, Drow->Drow, Z.Keep from Curse doesn't really), and the layout of Phlan corresponds to the civilized region and Slums in the first game. (Map it out--the dock is in the northeast, the Troll Toss tavern is where the troll and ogre fight was, the training hall's still in the upper northern bit, the temples are in similar places, Ohlo's items is more or less where Ohlo was, and countless others.)

I have to say, reading 'Howling, agents of Tanetal charge into view' still makes me groan 20 years later.

The bits are annoying even with high-level mages as Cones of Cold are hard to aim right.

I'd clean out the rest of the mini overland adventures, and even most of Arcam's Cave, before tackling Kalistes. With only one high-level mage you are going to have a hard time affecting the Drow. (I would have dualled your ranger earlier to be honest, but it may not be worth it now unless you want to do some grinding.)

 

[Jo498]

I am not dualling anyone. My point is to play with a similar party as I did in 1993 or so. As I said I already improved my lot quite a bit by modifying the weaker HP characters so they are somewhat stronger, by playing only veteran, not adept and by doing Kalistes last, not first :D
I am now in the Testing Grounds, not a big problem (the toughest fight was right in the first dungeon with the "Eyes" where I had a random? encounter with 4-5 pets, lots of spiders and a few golems... two characters were poisoned - AC is somewhat of a problem with only Drow chain mail) but I would have missed the person who leads me there (to save her son) except for the clue book. I even walked through the dungeon where one meets her but unless one steps on a particular square, I guess one misses her.
As far as I recall when I played the game for the first time I missed most of the additional stuff in Kalistes region, especially the Testing grounds... and might have had to enter the last dungeon by brute force...

 

[Jo498]

Why is that game obsessed with crossbows? Except for the blessed bolts (and they work only against Rakshasa, do they?) they have advantage vs. bows, not to speak of fine longbows with enlarged characters. And there is also no class/race that can only use xbows. But I am giving crossbows and bolts as treasure all the time as if they were something desirable. It is understandable in Myth drannor (where one gets about 3 and another one after finishing) as one might want to give two characters a few blessed bolts but elsewhere they are useless.

 

[Ruhfuss]

It adds to the range of items that usually no one bothers to use...?

Imagine you'd only find Long Swords or Composite Long Bows (that you also don't have any need for anymore), that would be boring, wouldn't it?

 

[Jo498]

Sure. But e.g. in Kalistes Land one does not find enough shields and only in the last dungeon a good mace, flail, quarter staff. I guess we had it before further up in the thread: In the computer games there is a strange discrepancy between the number of weapons that are available and the ones that are any good. And for whatever reason they put so much useless stuff there that I keep thinking I must be missing some point. E.g. ring mail, scale mail, battle axe (two handed but basically like a long sword), trident (dito), crossbow (shoots only one bolt whereas one can shoot 2 arrows).
It would be easier to give us just gems or maybe wands once in a while...
Or they should have put in some restrictions like that dwarves can only use xbows ore whatever.

 

[Null Null]

It's fun to go back now that the creator of Gold Box Companion has made the complete item list and see what they included from game to game. They went from the original list of about 40 weapons including the bill-glaive-guisarme-voulge variants and bo and jo sticks in Curse down to 20 or so in Pools, but those went all the way from +1 to +5 (even though you can't actually get a +5 weapon in Pools, perhaps to make people buy Secret). My guess is they wanted to use all the extra items, so they handed out crap like the ring mail +4, which protects as well as plate mail that isn't even magical. It does add to some variability in that you haven't got four fighters in plate, shield, and long sword +4; you get some tactical choices like mobility vs defence (banded vs plate mail) and damage vs defence (two-handed vs long sword) but not as much as later games, so choosing between a long sword+2 and a short sword +4 adds some variety. Heck, since two-handed swords usually lag in the pluses, I remember at one point having one fighter carrying a long sword +2 for humans, a two-handed sword +2 for larger-than-man-size monsters, and a short sword +4 for monsters that couldn't be hit by +2 weapons. To some degree it makes up for the fact that there really isn't that much to distinguish fighters from each other, whereas mages can specialize in buffs, debuffs, or damage. Remember, nobody's invented the skill tree yet.

This also leads to bizarre situations such as the fact that in an unhacked FRUA game an awl pike or bastard sword is never magical.

Wands aren't that useful in Kalistes' Land; they cast spells at 6th level, which means they won't work on Drow. Did you ever try using one?

They actually improved a lot of stuff in the later editions, but the Gold Box series is 1st ed and hence lacks those improvements. It's what you get for playing old games Silly archaic rules, but no PC and no endless cutscenes. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

 

[Jo498]

I did not have a wand in Kalistes land because wands do not survive the limbo travel (or do they?) and I did not find any there but I probably skipped some treasure or one or two of the smaller overland dungeons there. you are right that they are probably useless against the drow resistance.

Overall it was fairly easy with a ca. lvl 25 mage and 35 cleric. The high lvl DBF, lightning or magic missile easily go through the drow/pet resistance. The occasional beheading with the Vorpal Blade (works on pets!) helps as well.

I quit the final fight at the first attempt after the first round (although I probably would have barely managed by brute force with hastened fighters unless extremely unlucky with disintegration or hold monster from the enemy) because of crazy initiative rolls NONE of my 18/19 DEX magic users could cast before being hurt and the spells from scrolls I used had no effect whatsoever (and I also made the mistake of taking Kalistes down first instead of hitting a magic user with one of the fighters). This is probably the hardest fight before the endgame because of the huge number of dispersed magic users (incl. the pets). It also seems that the pets are really blinking and can only be hit by area spells after they acted. And the ring of invisibility one finds there is either broken as well or ALL of the Drow can see invisible things.

Apart from this end fight some random encounters (you are discovered - despite the amulet) with a half dozen pets and a few golems could be harder than scripted encounters although not to the absurd extent this is the case in Moander's Heart.

I am also disappointed by Blade Barrier. It was already mentioned that it is crippled by counting as magical instead of physical damage and therefore some monsters are astonishingly resistant. But the main problem is that it takes fairly long to cast (as opposed to the cloud area spells) and that then the effect sometimes only takes place in the next round allowing monsters to leave the barrier unscathed. This really ruins a spell that could be one of the best and the only decent aggressive priest spell. Destruction often does not work and harm (which works more often) also requires touch range which is often too dangerous or simply impossible for a back row priest.

 

[ProphetSword]

I did not have a wand in Kalistes land because wands do not survive the limbo travel (or do they?)

Going from memory, whatever is in the character's inventory in the second slot is what survives (it's not random at all). You can stack a junk item into slot 1 so that you can smuggle in an item per character via slot 2.

I don't promise my memory to be 100% accurate, but I'm pretty sure that's right.

 

[Jo498]

I had not heard about that. It would not make sense but be pretty cool... as a loophole to smuggle some very powerful items, e.g. girdle of giant strength...
I did not think it was random but that some items, e.g. vorpal sword, scroll vs. dragon's breath (how exactly does this work) and rings that do not give better AC, i.e. those against fire or the ring of wizardry etc. ALWAYS survive whereas normal magical weapons and armor (incl. girdle and boots) as well as necklaces or wands NEVER survive. And of course it is only Realms -> Elminster's camp and back whereas one can go from the outer spheres to Elminster and back (for training) without losing items.

 

[Jo498]

Cool! I just managed to win the final 3 wave fight against Gothmenes and his minions (at normal difficulty lvl, i.e. Dracolich has 80 HP) at first attempt! And this after I was quite pissed at the two earlier big fights with minions and dragons (I think I had to do the first of these at least twice). Disclaimer: I used the clue book not to lose too much time in Gothmenes palace and to get the two treasures there with more arrows and a sling for the mage (ranged weapons are essential for the final fight, every fighter should have a fine long bow and at least 30 arrows left - try out the arrows, there are som +4 and +3 available). I had about two minor fights in the inner palace with the clock running.

Party before the final fights:

Paladin lvl 30 181 HP
Ranger lvl 33 172 HP
dwarf fighter 9/thief 27 120 HP
Cleric lvl 40 149 HP
Mage lvl 31 86 HP
elf f 7/m 11/th 22 89 HP

Spoiler

I gave the crystal ring to the most expendable character, the dwarf f/t. He is reduced to about 10-12 HP when using Bane's crystal but one faces less monsters in the first wave. Of course the party is buffed with protective spells as well as enhanced with enlarge, haste and fire touch. I guess I was fairly lucky with initiative in the first wave (Blue minions, Dracolichs, pets, and yellow bits of Moander). I could kill one batch of minions and pets with a DLB and the cleric could heal the injured character (who would not have survived any breath attack). The main fighters each killed a dracolich. The others used arrows on some other minions. I got hit by a few lightings from minions and dragons but not too badly (some dragons stupidly tried charm person on characters with mind blank). Some pets tried disintegrate a couple of times but this hardly works against such high lvl characters, three of which have mirror image. Next round another DLB and the rest was basically clearing up. Had to use another two heals but the party was almost as good as new after the first wave. This first wave would certainly be easier with two high lvl mages (who would be able to take out almost all minions and pets with a DLB each, I used the multiclass elf mainly as an archer and later with a cone of cold against remaining bits o moander.)

Second wave (Elder Orb (Xoham), two Death Tyrants and 4-5? normal Beholders) is a piece of cake if one knows how to do it. The two death tyrants can be Turned easily by a lvl 40 priest (I wonder if this is an oversight: Turning is impossible in Dark Phlan but seems to work normally in Gothmenes palace. Then one kills the remaining beholder on the right of the party and withdraws a little in this direction, attacking with ranged weapons - they never even get into range for their spells and eye effects. If there are only two or so left, the fighters can again close in and kill what's left. But save your missiles, because the Third wave (Gothmenes, blue minions, green dragons, green moander bits) is bad as one cannot use any magic. One needs to withdraw quickly behind some walls (best to the left, I guess), hoping not to get hit too badly by minion's lightning. My paladin was reduced to about 40 HP from 180 but that's life. Again ranged weapons rule! Gothmenes never hit anyone and was killed in one round by my ranger (haste/enlarge had fortunately held throughout all waves). Now I wonder - can one get his Vorpal sword as treasure? I think I missed this... and how does one use the scroll against dragon breath - only readying is not enough, I think...

 

[Dorateen]

The shape-shifting Rakshasa from the palace of Gothmenes. I got fooled not once, but twice. Reading back through the journal I kept:

Spoiler

We meet Sasha and Phlanians! Huzzah!

Dumb, they are really Rakshasa! We kill them.

And then just a few lines later...

Spoiler

Elminster appears!

No, it's a Rakshasa...

I love Pools of Darkness.

 

[octavius]

Cool! I just managed to win the final 3 wave fight against Gothmenes and his minions (at normal difficulty lvl, i.e. Dracolich has 80 HP) at first attempt!

Well done! Escpecially with only one DBF caster in the first battle.
Never knew Death Tyrants could be Turned; that would have made things somewhat wasier for myself.
The Protection Scroll needs to be activated, it then gives you immunity from Dragon Breath. Not sure about the duration, though.

 

[Jo498]

I figured that the pure cleric might as well have a try at turning instead of inflicting ca. 15 damage with a staff sling from the distance (no strength bonus and only two attacks even when hasted) and with only one real cleric one should be careful. I think I discovered that death tyrants could be turned (to my surprise) in one of the fights with undead and a tyrant or two on Arcam's caves. To make Dark Phlan harder they apparently made Turning impossible there. Otherwise a lvl 30 paladin or cleric has a good chance turning a Lich and will turn almost everything else, although banshees are apparently unturnable (and rather harmless).
The keys are initative in the first battle (so there is definitely some luck involved) because it is almost impossible to hide and one has to take out the minions and skeletal dragons (who are immune to fire, was not aware of that) ASAP and fine long bows (I am pretty sure I had not quite understood their advantage the last time I tried this >10 years ago) and somewhat defensive play in the 2nd and 3rd.

 

[Jo498]

I tried to record a video with crtl alt F5 from DosBox and I got a 25 min long file but it is all black... what did I do wrong? Or do I need to tell VLC or mediaplayer some preferences? screenshots work with the assigned key combo... I want to show my brother.

FWIW I again managed to win although I was not as good as last night, or rather somewhat unlucky. The dwarf got "stoned" by a bit of moander and I could only de-stone him during the next wave. Surprisingly destoning works during combat (i.e. the character actually got up with 1 hp). I also suffered a little more damage, the paladin was down to 7 HP or so in the end but nobody went down or died, except for the stoner... Turning the death tyrants worked again at first try, so this seems regular, regardless of plausibility.

 

[octavius]

. The dwarf got "stoned" by a bit of moander and I could only de-stone him during the next wave. Surprisingly destoning works during combat (i.e. the character actually got up with 1 hp).

Happened to my Fighter/Thief too, from a Beholder ray. But I couldn't target him for the Stone to Flesh spell; I could only target those who were alreasy flesh.
Hmm...maybe my F/T had a Ring of Invisibility equipped which made him an untargetable (only for my own characters, of course) stone statue.

 

[Jo498]

In the battle when he got stoned either a monster stepped on the statue or I cast a blade barrier covering that space so it was not shown anymore. But in the next wave he was displayed as a "down" (unconscious) character (not a statue) and when I cast de-stone he was up again with one HP (unlike unconscious (or poisoned?) characters who can be healed during a fight for the next wave/fight but will not get up immediately).

BTW I am not sure how the dragon scroll is supposed to work. I uses it but nothing was shown in the display menu and it does not vanish, I can trade it to another character, use it again etc. It did not seem to work either (or only for a very short time). At least one character got hit by a dracolich's lightning breath (fortunately the high HP ranger and only for 40).
I also had a ring of invisibility but I am not sure I equipped it. I think the minions and pets can target invisible characters and I cast mass invisibility anyway. I had to step away from minions a few times but that damage is not too bad. (I do not like to step away from spiders or other monsters with poison/stone/drain if it can be helped.)
The waves here are somewhat special as there is no "end of battle/treasure" menu in between (I think there are some concatenated battles that have this). In such cases I often had the paladin uses his "lay" ability during the treasure menu. Don't know if this ability can be used in combat.

 

[Jo498]

Brief comment after playing PoD with abovementioned party that is somewhat weaker as the pre-made one because it completely lacks dual class characters. It is perfectly playable.
If one wanted to do Kalistes first or so, good luck and some battles (like the finale) are probably easier with two high lvl mages and it also would help if everyone can use a bow because of dualling.
Some other battles might even be easier with my party because of the two thieves who can wreak havoc on dark elves and Rakshasas with backstabbing, and the single class mage advances faster (for a while). And unless one can import already dualled characters or uses the premade ones, one saves the grinding at the beginning to get one or two of them up to decent levels. (As has been remarked, some sweet spots for dualling occur long before lvl 14)
Except for some battles the game did not even feel very hard admittedly I used the cluebook, mainly for maps, I hate unmapped regions because I have a very bad sense of orientation, so I might have erred around in some dungeons without that help and the weaknesses might have been more relevant.

The weakest point might be the lack of resilience with only one cleric (although high lvl paladins and rangers can learn cure poison) and only one high lvl mage (the only one who can destone, there are no dependable scrolls for destoning) but I do not recall that I had to reload because of such a case, maybe once. And as soon as one has cleared the Temple of Tyr, one could in principle go there for healing if the party survives that trip without a functional cleric.
(The manual suggests two single class clerics in the sample party but I would not do this unless one duals one to mage immediately (similar to the pre-made party). Most aggressive clerical spells suck in practice because they require touch or close range and monsters have high resistance against e.g. slay living or destruction).

I am also somewhat puzzled at remarks further above (#180), that the first wave of the last battle (always excluding daves challenge) was "20 dracolichs and 20 bits of moander" and the 2nd "20 undead beholders". Unless this is the difference between platforms (do not think so) or between using the crystal before the battle or not (and I do not think it is that big, more like 60% of the monsters after using the crystal but it's been ages I tried the option of not using the crystal and it is generally recommended to use it - one even finds a healing potion in the palace the hurt guy could use). It is more like 6 or so dracolichs and maybe 8 each of bits and pets but I did not count them.
The 2nd wave is one elder orb, two undead death tyrants (who can be turned) and about 4 normal beholders, so about 7 altogether. Hasted and buffed and able to retreat slightly after killing the two closest orbs I found this easier than an earlier fight with about 4 beholders and lots of salamanders and margoyles in the outer Palace.
One needs good characters, preferably with 17-19 DEX and >80 HP even for the mages/multis but interestingly my two mage characters with < 90 HP were almost unscathed in my two recent attempts at the final battle because of their buffs, I guess (I even gave the ring vs. electricity to the cleric to be able to heal but it is probably better to give it to a mage). But one certainly does not need a lvl 39/40 dual party or even several 15/25 dual class characters.

Overall, while the game is challenging, there are some fights in the other games that can be as bad or worse as the worst of PoD (excl. the challenge, I have not revisited this one yet). Depending on the level of the party the final fight against Kalistes can be very bad as well. Heck, I think one of the first fights, the final one in the Vala/Vaasans dungeon is a considerable challenge for the lvl 14 party that will have to face it. There are some fights with dragons in the Aerie or Thornes domain and some in cramped quarters with wizards that are as dependent on initiative as the first wave.

 

[Jo498]

Embarrassingly, I am not completely sure I counted right with the jumping frame, but the numbers on normal difficulty (but I do not think they change with level, only the hitpoints do) are roughly

Spoiler

with using crystal: 9 pets, 7 dracolichs, 5 bits, 12? blue minions
without using crystal: 7 pets, 9 bits, 11 dracolichs, 12 blue minions, maybe there is a random factor involved, I am astonished that there are *less* pets but they are usually the least dangerous of that bunch as their spells and poison usually do not work on high lvl chars and they are killed quickly by DBF or sometimes even friendly fire from minions/dragons breath)

Because the dracolichs are, if they decide to breathe or cast slow, the most dangerous foes as they are also immune to most area spells (NOT to magic missile and blade barrier) I think it is worth using the crystal (with the most expendable character). (Unless you want to train for the Challenge or have 6 30/35 200 HP fighter mages.) As one needs some luck with initiative anyway, chances are pretty good that he can be healed.

 

[Null Null]

Congrats on beating the longest and toughest of the Gold Box series!

A few things to add:

Did you try using the Ring of Blinking? If you put it on a high-DEX character you can't be targeted after you act so many dracoliches and blue bane minions will not breathe on you. You can get one in the Vala/Vaasa cavern and one by mugging Vala (Hold her in a minor battle, let the enemies knock her out, then take her Ring of Blinking while she's unconscious).

Dracoliches are not only vulnerable to Blade Barrier and Magic Missile but to Ice Storm (which doesn't actually deal cold damage in this game) and Hold Monster. Yes, undead not immune to Hold Monster. Ooops!

For Dave's challenge, stock up on Wands of Ice Storm (you can buy them after returning to Phlan after winning) and any scroll with area effect spells.

Also, if you want a few extra XP you can drop by Mulmaster--the monsters have gotten out of their pens and you might get a character up a level or two.

 

[Jo498]

This was probably also non-ideal but the multiclass elf has the ring of blinking (I did not stoop to mugging vala but I got the other one). The crappy thing is that "Blink" cannot be cast as a pre-combat buff spell. And it cannot be cast in combat because a high level mage will usually be within a globe and would not want to waste a turn for that spell
I figured that he does not have such good buffs as the high lvl mage. This is probably why he also did well during those two attempts. I tried without using the crystal and failed at the first wave, although with a little luck I could have survived with the cleric and the mage. (The placement of monsters and party was also disadvantageous, not sure if this is because the field is even more crowded with monsters or (bad) luck.)
I know about hold monster (tried it in the failed attempt with the many opponents) but the dracolichs are fairly resistant (as are the bits) so there is a chance of this being a complete waste of a mage's turn and ice storm does not do enough damage (because it does not scale with mage lvl) to kill them quickly. I also have the impression (might be a superstition) that hurt dragons tend to breathe. Any unhurt dragon does have a chance of casting a (usually useless like charm person) spell instead of using the deadly breath.
I thought about casting slow with the second mage instead of just shooting or hoping for hold monster because slow affects the bits.

Anyway, it also depends on the party I think that even if the character hurt by using the crystal should die, the fight is easier with 5 against the reduced mass of enemies than with 6 full characters. In any case I think if one does not use the crystal one depends even more on being lucky with the breath attacks of the dragons. The crappy thing is that unlike in other games there are no good healing potions to be bought or found in Goldbox games, otherwise the hurt character would only have to survive until his turn (and not depend on a cleric staying unhurt) and quaff such a potion. Again, the non-resilience of my fairly weak party might be again a factor. If one has three dual fighter/clerics he can just heal himself.

 

[Jo498]

FWIW the walkthrough on game banshee agrees roughly with my numbers of opponents for the triple Gothmenes fight. (They admit that they switched to novice level (like I did 24 years ago when I was a novice). On novice level I can also confirm that the 2nd and 3rd wave are independent of whether one uses the crystal or not. (After having beaten the sequence twice on standard level without losses (except for a stoner who could be de-stoned during the 2nd wave) I lost two characters on Novice lvl but only in the last fight, one decapitated by G, the other stoned. I can also confirm that TURNing the Death Tyrants can fail but it is certainly worth a try if one's high lvl cleric has her turn early.

 

[Joonas]

Figured out how the linked lists of the effects in the Gold Box games work and added support to Gold Box Companion to show effect status in the HUD window.

Here's a link to a screenshot:
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/gbc/graphics/effects.png

Good effects in green and bad in red. Some effects are still unknown and they're shown as a grey hexadecimal number. If a character has many effects the HUD window gets ridiculously big and some of the effect strings are currently so long that they do not fit especially if there are 7-8 characters in the party and a small DOSBox window.

Effects on characters/monsters can be edited (but not added/deleted) with GBC directly to memory or with the other tools included that modify the files which can also add/delete.

Other new stuff:
- If a character gets level drained it's shown on the HUD.
- Combat map which shows the locations of the characters and monsters but not walls. By targetting a monster with the mouse you can see its stats/effects and double clicking opens it in the editor (requires enabling the cheat-mode).
- World map view which is simply an image of the world map and names of the cities etc.
- MonsterMod now lists monster effects. Support for Dark Queen of Krynn / Unlimited Adventures added.
- Items also use linked lists so they can now be edited directly from GBC.
- The search wizard lists saved games chronologically with a description of the location (map name).

Some remarks on effects:
- Byte 0 of the effect is the effect id, in bytes 1-2 (2-3 in FRUA) is the duration. If byte 3 (4 in FRUA) is 255 then the effect is permanent.
- The "character paralyzed when in combat but no status display shown" bug in Pool of Radiance is probably result of a bugged duration counter. If you set duration to, say, 1, with such effect and move around the effect mostly goes away.
- Haven't yet looked at the bug with the Ring of Electrical Immunity in Pools of Darkness. At least now you can see if the effect is on.

This version of GBC is more picky about the used game versions and is meant to be used with the GOG-versions. The Gateway to Savage Frontier version from the Weekend Waste Monster site is not compatible but tried some abandonware versions of other games and they worked.

Uses more CPU especially when in combat.

Homepage:
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/gbc/

Direct download link;
http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/gbc/gbc.zip

 

[Goblino]

So I got myself stuck in mendors library in POR. My party is all lvl 1 and whenever we try to leave, we get permadeathed by a spectre. I'm guessing we can't hit him, because our attacks all whiff. Disengaging him results in permadeth and fighting him results in permadeth. Do I need to start a new game, or is there a trick to this guy?