KotC -- Cleaned out the Hill Giant Fort, now what?

[alkeides]

I emptied out the entire Hill Giant Fort but now I'm stuck. From my previous playthrough I remember vaguely something about teleporting to the Frost Giant lair?

 

[Fezzik]

I think you go to the Mountain Pass after the Hill Giant fort.

 

[alkeides]

Mountain Pass is before the Hill Giant fort -- you need to go through the Mountain Pass to get to the Slaver City. There is a force-field at the fort that only comes down after you killed the Slaver Lords.

 

[quasimodo]

This might help.

http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=119&start=0

 

[suejak]

Good ol' on-rails linearity.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Did that post help you? It's usually a case of not having talked to a certain NPC after clearing a dungeon to "open" the next location. It does suck, though. Having your ass kicked should be enough of an deterrent.

 

[alkeides]

Thanks for the help. Just rescued the princess. The game really is a lot easier with a 3-mage, 1 cleric party than with a mix.

 

[Jasede]

Seems like an odd party to take on your first time through.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Good ol' on-rails linearity.

Yeah, it felt more like a strategy game with D&D rules than a proper RPG. It's still one of my favourites, but lacks personalization and freedom.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Good ol' on-rails linearity.

Yeah, it felt more like a strategy game with D&D rules than a proper RPG. It's still one of my favourites, but lacks personalization and freedom.

There are optional locations though. Atleast 2 i can remember - the lich tower and the village of dragons and lizards. I thought the structure was perfect for a dungeon crawler game, made by some dude, who happens to like games... I mean, you never get the feel, you're playing some fanfiction mod. He succeeded at making a good professional game.

Thanks for the help. Just rescued the princess. The game really is a lot easier with a 3-mage, 1 cleric party than with a mix.

2 Mages already breaks any challenge. Best first party is 2 fighters/cleric/mage - standard.

 

[alkeides]

It's not my first time through, like I said in the original post, I played through it rather long ago and forgot some details. My first party was the standard 2 fighters/cleric/mage.

 

[GarfunkeL]

If you avoid crafting, having 2 mages is still challenging enough. It's the crafting that really breaks the game, especially if you couple it with random encounters for XP/Gold farming.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

If you avoid crafting, having 2 mages is still challenging enough. It's the crafting that really breaks the game, especially if you couple it with random encounters for XP/Gold farming.

Yeah, crafting ruins the game.

I am midway through right now I think (level 13 at the Orc Fort) and its a good game- One of the better I have played recently- But its my first playthrough and I grinded a bit at the start to craft some gear and...Well, there has only been a couple parts which have really been challenging. Had I not grinded some, maybe that would be different but it seems to be a very easy game until you hit certain encounters which are very hard and then back to easy for another 10 hours.

I do have a question though- How can I change the order of my party? My fighters died and I ressed them but now my mage is the party leader and encounters are way harder to properly position myself. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to put my fighter back in the lead.
EDIT: In fact, only 2 encounters stand out as hard- One in the Spider cave was really rough and the other was when you dropped down a trap door into some sand pits and get swarmed by bugs... Other than that its been quite easy (even getting the Tomb treasure from the gargoyle things) since I can usually position myself in doors and hallways and have my fighters take the damge (cleric healz) and mage blasts the shit out of everything... IDK, still loving the game though just wish there was more challenge.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

Yeah, crafting ruins the game.

I agree, and this is exactly why even single player games need balance.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

Yeah, crafting ruins the game.

I agree, and this is exactly why even single player games need balance.

Yup- Especially tactical games.

I do not so much mind "balance" issues in many RPGs (M and M 6 for instance is completely out of whack but is a blast) but in a tactics game the lack of balance really hurts... Again, I am enjoying this game alot but I wish crafting (or grinding/random encounters) were not in it as I already made my playthrough too easy and I didnt really mean to- I am considering starting over and trying with no crafting and no grinding...

Your point is very valid but in some games the lack of balance is less noticeable or matters far less- In this game? Its pretty damn important. I enjoy grinding and becoming "overpowered" in some games - This isnt one of them although it seems like it should be- IDK???

 

[Gregz]

In general, I fail to see the neccessity of crafting in single player games other than for crafting special consumables.

I disagree with you guys.

Crafting was one of the best parts of KoTC. If you don't want to 'ruin' your game with crafting, then don't craft. Simple.

Not that it matters with no sequel in sight , Pierre could raise 100k in 2 weeks if he bothered to try.

 

[GarfunkeL]

The game does get harder the further you progress in. Dragons start to appear more and more, plus "heroic" NPCs which provide some challenge.

 

[hoverdog]

Not that it matters with no sequel in sight , Pierre could raise 100k in 2 weeks if he bothered to try.

Not really. He couldn't advertise his way out of a paper bag.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Maybe crafting does ruin the game, but it's still a cool feature and is nicely done. I prefer having it and not abuse it heavily than having no crafting at all. What really makes the game easy is dual wielding and munchkin mage specialization. Well anyway - there is atleast one fight with all the challenge you want.
Low level part of the game is tough though (if you don't grind right away).

 

[Luzur]

In general, I fail to see the neccessity of crafting in single player games other than for crafting special consumables.

I disagree with you guys.

Crafting was one of the best parts of KoTC. If you don't want to 'ruin' your game with crafting, then don't craft. Simple.

Not that it matters with no sequel in sight , Pierre could raise 100k in 2 weeks if he bothered to try.

but...wasnt he doing a sequel in a completely different style? or am i remembering things wrong?

 

[Grunker]

Good ol' on-rails linearity.

Yeah, it felt more like a strategy game with D&D rules than a proper RPG. It's still one of my favourites, but lacks personalization and freedom.

Considering the constraints of being a single developer this seems more than understandable. You're right that a non-linear KotC would be even more awesome, though.

Luzur: No over-powered bullshit crafting rendering rewards utterly useless in KotC2. It's also in more ToEE-style graphics according to him. But then again any progress of KotC2 is doubtful at this point.

 

[visions]

but...wasnt he doing a sequel in a completely different style? or am i remembering things wrong?

He was planning to make some RTS before KoTC2.

 

[JarlFrank]

Which is the most idiotic decision ever for an indie like him.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

In general, I fail to see the neccessity of crafting in single player games other than for crafting special consumables.

I disagree with you guys.

Crafting was one of the best parts of KoTC. If you don't want to 'ruin' your game with crafting, then don't craft. Simple.

Not that it matters with no sequel in sight , Pierre could raise 100k in 2 weeks if he bothered to try.

I think the idea of crafting stuff is pretty cool- Its the implementation in this game that does not work imo...

Part of the reason being that every good item seems craftable. I enter a new Town and find a new store and I already know (for certain) that the weapons and Armor they sell will be far underpowered compared to what I can make myself- In fact, I have (pretty easily) decked everyone out in +6 items (Wisdom item for cleric, Intellect for mage, Strength for fighter, etc.) and made them rings of protection PLUS scribed the hell out of all the useful clerical spells into scrolls AND made some sweet wands... And I am virtually unstoppable.

I didnt mean for this to "ruin" my game- In fact, the two hard parts I mentioned in an above post actually were so much harder than the rest of the content that it seemed plausable to craft to beat those encounters.. But now that those (out of place and extremely hard) encounters are done, I am back to walking through everything with ease.

Had the encounter difficulty stayed close to those 2 encounters (1 in the Spider Cave and 1 in the Sand Pit trap area) the Crafting would not have ruined the game so much- it was the blatant unbalanced encounters which required crafting or grinding (for me anyhow...) to beat, leading to HOURS of easy trash mob encounters until I found another "challenge".

It also made discovering new Shops and equipment a pretty bland experience since there seems to be not much "new" and I already have better gear.

Now, I am a huge D&D Player (well, I was- I play Pathfinder now) and as a DM I can say that this would be a very "bland" adventure- But could be easily fixed by removing crafting... Sure I can just "avoid" it, but that makes finding that +3 Longsword not feel so Epic when you know you can create a +6 sword with the click of a mouse.

-Anyhow, not knocking the game itself as I am enjoying it- But it is terribly unbalanced.

Just my opinion for what its worth- I should complete the game sometime this week and will give a better idea as to my thoughts once I have seen the entire game.

 

[made]

Well, iirc the game lacks a difficulty setting, but you can fine tune the challenge to your liking - always run from random worldmap encounters (best feature ever), char gen stat limits, no max hp on lvlup, skip crafting... will all make it harder. You just don't know what to expect on your first time through.

Orc fortress was probably the biggest challenge for me because it dragged on for so long without a campfire and no way out.