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And generally with older games it's nice to know beforehand which version of a game has least bug, and which version which allow party transfers across a whole series, as another example.
Yeah, that's obvious, and that's just good common sense.
What I personally dislike is reading up a lot about a game, the mechanics, etc., so basically you spoil half of it, just to have some kind of "optimised" build. But how cares, you can still have fun with a suboptimal build, I'd dare to say even more fun, perhaps.
The funny thing is with lots of gear & high stats is the sheer amount of mobs pumped up at you in each area in Phlan. It’s pretty crazy. I tried to see the increments from normal on up to the max mob count by tweaking the party. I lost those notes though when I wrote every piece of dialog down and was converting it to pnp in conjunction with the Ruins of Adventure module for 1e. God I hate computer failure and viruses. POOF!
I've mentioned this before, but you can get better sound in the DOS version by setting the sound in DOSBox to Tandy. The Steam versions of the Gold-Box games do this by default, and have much improved sound over standard DOS PC Speaker sound (which is what the GOG versions use and what most people use by default when they run their own versions). They sound very similar to the C64 versions when you do this.
Damn wishing for ultimate remasters of the goldbox series using the best of Amiga and later dos ports of frua. I always hoped for better character icon customization and the originals was cool. Later, you had to choose in FRUA.
I have a feeling both the "Share" option and the economy are broken a little bit in Pool of Radiance:
Note that 65490 = 2^16-46; and the remaining 46 pieces of jewelry were distributed among other party members (of course not evenly; one guy got 43 remaining pieces).
I have a feeling both the "Share" option and the economy are broken a little bit in Pool of Radiance:
Note that 65490 = 2^16-46; and the remaining 46 pieces of jewelry were distributed among other party members (of course not evenly; one guy got 43 remaining pieces).
True, but one of the things that stands out about Gateway to the Savage Frontier is being strapped for cash at the lower levels. I recall having trouble raising the funds to cure Krevish's petrification.
True, but one of the things that stands out about Gateway to the Savage Frontier is being strapped for cash at the lower levels. I recall having trouble raising the funds to cure Krevish's petrification.
True, but one of the things that stands out about Gateway to the Savage Frontier is being strapped for cash at the lower levels. I recall having trouble raising the funds to cure Krevish's petrification.
But in PoR there's an easy trick to get cash early (poor Theurgist, such a nice guy!) . In Savage Frontier I don't think so, although I don't know the game as much.
Gateway throws a bunch of giant encounters at you in the first hour that you can easily farm. It completely breaks the progression of both XP and money.
True, but one of the things that stands out about Gateway to the Savage Frontier is being strapped for cash at the lower levels. I recall having trouble raising the funds to cure Krevish's petrification.
Now an old bug on pool of radiance mostly on c64 was splitting say 255 arrows and keep splitting them in your inventory. Keep some sort of magic item at the top or bottom(i forget which) and when your inventory is max size and you split another stack; you should get an error that creates a weird item. If you only had arrows in inventory you might see invisible items that are hidden in some inventory. These items might be blankets, back pack, sack, flint, etc. it has been a long while since i did this and dos might do it too.
One item i made and duplicated by scumming was a decanter of displacement. It gave me -5 ac, a huge thaco and did decent damage like 60-200. Massive bug. Messed up shit. Try it with different items once you discover how to do it.
I recently managed to finish the Pool of Radiance:
Party consisting of 2 fighters, 2 mages, a cleric, a thief, and some cannon fodder just in case. And a typical fighter at the end of the game:
Note that the second one also had a similar amount of jewelry before the last fight - but it disappeared, likely due to an overflow after getting a reward from the clerk.
And my observations are as follows:
1) I think some aspects of resource management in this game were done really well. At first, I had to loot everything not attached to the ground in order to afford leveling; then, in the later part of the game, I used quite a lot of scarce resources - mostly scrolls - that gave me a decisive advantage during chains of fights, like getting to the kobold king or ending Boss' reign of terror. Admittedly though, the economy at the later stage of the game has legitimate issues: I was unable to deposit tons of platinum properly (which should be meaningful, for money has mass in this game); but I did not matter, as I got practically an infinite amount of weightless jewelry from a bug; but it did not matter, as I couldn't buy anything interesting for all the riches I've hoarded. In the end, I didn't even sell the 2*2^16 pieces of jewelry I had.
2) The interface could be considered a crime against humanity. Exchanging coins is an unforgettable experience. I can't choose spells to automatically memorize; and if I make an error while choosing, I have to repeat this entire process. I couldn't have equipment sets (so I usually didn't bother to use a bow when it made sense - as I would need to hide a weapon and a shield). The world view is very small without any apparent reason. On the bright side, I was able to change inventory while shopping - which should be way more common.
3) There were some good exploration-related challenges: Pyramid was hard to map; Valjevo castle labirynth made use of the game's journal system (albeit these notes useless if you already had a mapper). The visuals for the outskirts of Phlan were pretty in their minimalism. Almost all unique locations felt distinct; each one had some story, challenges or treasure, from Kobold's Cave with a Wyvern and quite a way to the king, through Kuto's Well hiding the infamous mercenary, to the Valhingen Graveyard with a lot of surprisingly open graves. I don't think the system this game was created in reinforces exploration: no piece of equipment really helped with moving through the world; the only spell useful for that type of activity was knock, and it's not like it was invaluable or something; there were no skills tied to scouting the world (or skills in general). Also, was there any purpose to random locations around the world map? Or were they just that bland?
4) I liked a lot about the writing and the plot. The journal solution - especially the counterproductive notes - was impressive. One of the most exciting parts of the game for me was the last part of the Valhingen Graveyard quest, where I had to figure out what to do from the seemingly barely related journal fragment. It's unfortunate that only a few of these notes had any gameplay implication. It was one of the few games, where, for the most part, I was knowingly executing the main antagonist's plans - like clearing Valhingen Graveyard or killing Yarash. It made sense given that the focal point of the game was the restoration of Phlan rather than defeating some radiance enjoyer.
5) Combat was functional, but not spectacular. My fighters and thieves had limited options during encounters. The only option while developing characters was available for mages - and mistakes in those cases could usually be countered with scribing. It's frustrating that the only time one can really screw self over is during the character creation (for example by creating a neutral half-elf cleric - which I did). If I understand correctly, the problem is with the system this game is based on rather than the game itself. It's also worth noting, that the monster icons used in this game look gorgeous.
6) It was interesting that each area (except for Civilized) was driven by its singular quest: for example, almost everything within Podol Plaza was centered around the auction; or the Cadorna Textile House, where everyone's eyes were on Cadorna's family treasure. Also, I liked how the game gave me multiple solutions for solving problems whenever it made sense, sometimes depending on what I did previously: like the ability to solve the problem with lizardmen in an instant after freeing the ones confined within Yarash's Pyramid, or the Cadorna's Box quest. Overall, hovewer, quests felt rather simplistic; I didn't see anything special, maybe except for the ending to the Graveyard quest.
7) Even if the translation wheel had nice properties (that implied being able to encode each statement using multiple techniques), it was fundamentally a mechanical puzzle - appropriately, it was used sparsely within the game, and, apart from that, there were no enigmas to speak of. So, the only real challenge came from combat, exploration (which was rarely troublesome), and the disaster politely called an 'interface'.
To summarize, I think this game did everything it attempted pretty well, but was severely handicapped by the underlying system in terms of combat and exploration.
The large scale battles, such as in Sokal Keep and the Bane temple were quite memorable. Tactics in Pool of Radiance, and the Gold Box games in general, is about positioning and controlling the battlefield, rather than a particular character build. Although the different classes provide a variety of ways to handle this. Ranged attacks are great for disrupting enemy spellcasters.
A pair of fireballs in the first round is even better. My fighters had low dexterity, so I wasn't fond of them disengaging and then using bows. I don't think I encountered any tough spellcasters before getting my mages to level 5.
Is there anything to spice things up, though? The rules of fighting here are similar to those in most other games: prefer group-control spells, force enemies through bottlenecks, make your troops unreachable for long-range fighters (perhaps by putting them to sleep - which usually worked great). I didn't need to ponder a lot about it, unlike in, say, Blackguards (where the environment forced me to change strategies).
One bug, at least on c64 was the "DARTS" bug. Equip darts before or after every battle. Be sure they are equipped before battle starts. When you get into battle, swap to your melee weapon and attack. I was getting the ROF the darts had when swinging melee. Was great for various mobs. Dunno if it worked on DOS, Amiga etc though.
A pair of fireballs in the first round is even better. My fighters had low dexterity, so I wasn't fond of them disengaging and then using bows. I don't think I encountered any tough spellcasters before getting my mages to level 5.
Is there anything to spice things up, though? The rules of fighting here are similar to those in most other games: prefer group-control spells, force enemies through bottlenecks, make your troops unreachable for long-range fighters (perhaps by putting them to sleep - which usually worked great). I didn't need to ponder a lot about it, unlike in, say, Blackguards (where the environment forced me to change strategies).
Doubling up on magic-users is certainly one way to go. That's the great thing about old school cRPG design is that they give such control to the player, and in turn allow the experience to be tailored to his playstyle. By foregoing a ranged approach, there is less micromanagement of ammunition and the need to stay away from adjacent enemies. Whereas relying on magic makes strategic preparation of spells more important. I think combat is spiced up by the variety of encounters and enemy types, pulling directly out of the Monster Manual. As an AD&D player, seeing this representation on the computer was very enjoyable.
It's important to remember the SSI team was not free to make up their own rules, spells or classes, they were constricted by a rulesystem designed for something entirely different: tabletop gaming. Even the price items in the shop match those in the Player's Handbook! This was a huge limitation, and still they built not just an incredibly fun game with unforgettable content, but a full franchise with many memorable games.
How do the silver box collection games on gog/steam compare to the other versions of the games? The ones on gog/steam look like the ugly DOS versions. Other versions look more pleasing to look at but I'm not sure which is better gameplay wise.
