Incline Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

[jaylittle]

No my issue is that I am being criticized for how I am choosing to play the game on my first time through it. I was annoyed my weapon got destroyed and you respond with, "well you didn't have to go there and fight those creatures anyway!" I didn't know that. I thought that the Magera in the Wyrm could be recruited to help fight against the Draj. I had no idea they would cop out and essentially tell me to fuck myself after it was all said and done and Balbazaar was dead.

I'm actually playing the game. I'm not just killing everything that moves. But because I choose to take down some demons that happened to destroy a weapon, suddenly I'm playing the game wrong?

Whatever.

 

[Elwro]

Hm, does Balkazaar summon baubaus when you fight him? You can avoid all others and get to him.

 

[derill]

Hm, does Balkazaar summon baubaus when you fight him? You can avoid all others and get to him.

Spoiler

As he's walking towards the mirror, you can smash it before he summons anything, and take him out with relative ease.

No my issue is that I am being criticized for how I am choosing to play the game on my first time through it.

Don't be a dick about it, and just say that, then.

I'm actually playing the game. I'm not just killing everything that moves. But because I choose to take down some demons that happened to destroy a weapon, suddenly I'm playing the game wrong?

No. But because I like to play a game where I have the opportunity to follow the path of least resistance I'm a pussy? I'm not trying to be a dick or anything, I thought I was just throwing some helpful advice out there, and, by chance, I used the wrong words ( ie - "The right way" ). Sorry about that.

 

[Elwro]

Yeah, that's true, derill. And the player can get the idea that would happen from quite a few clues in that area, so no guidebook would be needed. Still, there's nothing wrong in playing the "brutal" way... makes subsequent playthroughs more interesting :D

 

[someone else]

Anyone know what to do with the plucked vulture you cook at the start? And yeah half-giants get double hitpoints.

 

[derill]

Anyone know what to do with the plucked vulture you cook at the start? And yeah half-giants get double hitpoints.

I've always wondered that. I thought maybe feeding it to the guy, but I had broken out after the first fight, so I didn't try it.

 

[derill]

Yeah, that's true, derill. And the player can get the idea that would happen from quite a few clues in that area, so no guidebook would be needed. Still, there's nothing wrong in playing the "brutal" way... makes subsequent playthroughs more interesting :D

Hence why I enjoyed my pure half-giant gladiator team. I killed -everything- that stood in my way. Then agian, I also cheated and maxed out my character's stats. This playthrough, though, I only allowed 5 rolls, and if the fifth roll sucked, I was fucked, so I just hoped it was a good roll.

I also never knew the joys of haste. If I knew how great a spell it was, I'd've had a preserver in my old group just sitting in the back hasting/icestorming.

 

[Andhaira]

Grease and fog could are fantastic spells too, for dealing with hordes and archers.

 

[derill]

Grease and fog could are fantastic spells too, for dealing with hordes and archers.

I was surprised I never had problems with archers, aside from them picking at my preserver. But, when haste was up, two turns, most of the guards/bandits were pretty much dead.

Never really used grease. I tried some cleric version of mist, but it ended up ending the battle and bringing my foes closer to me. =X

 

[jaylittle]

Yeah, that's true, derill. And the player can get the idea that would happen from quite a few clues in that area, so no guidebook would be needed. Still, there's nothing wrong in playing the "brutal" way... makes subsequent playthroughs more interesting :D

Actually let's take the time to define the way. I destroyed the mirror. I didn't get sucked into endless warfare with the mages summoned minions. There are a few demons wandering about the complex, including one guarding up front (which I was unable to bluff my way past). In addition when you initially heal the magera, Balbazaar summons two Babaus to battle your party along with a group of mageras. In addition inside Balbazaars complex there were two Babaus guarding and an idiot magera that was about to ungo a transformation. So all in all I engaged five Babaus in combat.

According to the cluebook (which I have now accessed due to this thread), all five could technically be avoided. Four out of five require letting some innocent die in order to avoid the battle. Since I'm playing typical do-gooders, that wouldn't be me doing a very good job of fulfilling my role, now would it? Apparently the guy at the front can be subdued by begging and pleading like little bitches. Heh. Right. Fuck you demon.

Anyway - it is what it is.

 

[Elwro]

Sure thing.

Spoiler

On my last playthrough I took the route of agreeing to help Balkazaar. He teleports everyone to the summoning room when he tries to summon that Thing from Beyond or whatever it is, but constantly fucks up the incantation and 4 angry fire elementals (level 12) get summoned. They're a great source for XPs and a single haste spell can last 4-5 fights with them. And when you finally grow weary of them, there's another object which serves as B's focus (I'm not sure but it may have been another mirror) there, so you can battle with him as usual.

Just a nice detail; in most games the "help the bad guy" option wouldn't even be worth considering.

 

[jaylittle]

Sweet. Yeah this game definitely has far better C&C than any Goldbox game I've ever played. I'm getting close to the final battle, so wish me luck!

 

[derill]

Good luck!

 

[Elwro]

Good luck. You'll most likely get quite a few options to choose right before the battle; save there because I'm sure you'll want to go back and experiment.

 

[jaylittle]

Wow. I don't think I can win this battle. The one with the elite warriors is just outright insane. WTF?

 

[derill]

Wow. I don't think I can win this battle. The one with the elite warriors is just outright insane. WTF?

Only my half-giant survived, as I said earlier, and I just pulled a few at a time. Fuckin' two turns and they demolished my team, knocking two out and killing the third. I killed the commander in a suicide-rush, because there was -no way- my sidekicks were gonna survive, and haste allowed my half-giant to make it to safety to begin the pull.

 

[someone else]

Did you guys use the genie? I don't remember having any problems when I played this many many years ago.

 

[Elwro]

Use haste on your folks and I'd recommend using as many domination-related spells/skills (Chaos, Mass Domination etc) as possible - I won my last battle when these elite forces started to fight themselves.

 

[Andhaira]

Bah, spam disintegrate. The only way to play.

 

[Andhaira]

Bah, spam disintegrate. The only way to play.

 

[jaylittle]

Beat it. Of course I took advantage of tons of "quirks" in the combat engine if you will. For instance, if you start using magic items to cast spells right after the commander speaks to you, you can use them as much as you want until they run out.

About 40 lightning bolts, 15 fireballs, 30 confusion spells later, there was just one black magistral and the commander himself left. They advanced through my fire walls and cloud kill spell and then all of the sudden the magistral turns on the commander. One round later: battle over.

I don't feel bad about gaming the system. My highest guy had a level of 9 (of course they are all multi-classed) and the commander was level 16. That's just outright unfair. So playing nasty was the only real option I had especially when you consider that neither of my two preservers knew haste.

Yeah I thought I would find a scroll somewhere along the way.... how wrong I was....

 

[Andhaira]

Fireball and Lightning bolt are the two top spellsof level 3. Everything else, including haste is secondary.

 

[Elwro]

Lol, no. Even casting two or three fireballs won't kill even one of the elite soldiers in the final battle, and eliminating them is crucial. But your hasted tanks might take out one each. That makes a huge difference.

 

[Andhaira]

Dude, its been almost a decade since I last played this but AFAIR I had no problems with the final battle. I used sticky spells like entangle, grease and web to sticky enemies, then raped them with attack spells, arrows and psionics.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

I used sticky spells like entangle, grease and web to sticky enemies, then raped them with attack spells, arrows and psionics.

Except for nuking the entire place from orbit, this is the only way to be sure. Makes that final fight quite easy.