🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 11 May 2001 18:08:59 -0400, Brothel
<niffa...@straw.shack.org> wrote:

>Well, the answer to all that seems to be that getting throught the 1st
>island absolutely depends on you finding several stashed goodies -
>the ancient sword (one that casts weakness), 10 AC helmet and a
>lightning rune.

Had all that.

>That sword keeps the enemy from hitting you pretty well (+15 defense),
>while casting weakness.

Does shit for damage though.

>The stupid goblin wand let me get that first obsidian, and obsidian
>battle axe really _does_ some damage.

Aye, that was my big damage weapon until leaving Gipath. Not as good
as the bone spear, but most the big critters resisted piercing, so...

>Skeletons are too tough... But they aren't supposed to be taken
>head-on... In the end, once you got the dragon quest bonus, you can get
>back at 'em...

Nonsense, Thrasher don't play that way. I clear maps and take names.
Besides, if you actually follow the quest advice and avoid the enemies
they say you should avoid you will miss out on 2 sets of armor (the
best armor avaialable) on the second island.

And besides the besides, by the third island you are required to kill
enemies that have double your health and half again your offense and
defense scores - even if you dumnp most of your points into them.

But maybe that's the issue I had with the difficulty. I tackled quests
and cleared maps as I got them, I didn't move on and do other things
to buff up and then come back to them.

>Aw, hell. It's more addictive than some other stuff I tried. I still
>haven't finished BG - getting too bored with it :)

It wasn't bad, I like what they did with game engine. I especially
like the way all of your various gera shows on yoyr character. I
haven't seen any other game handle equipment and weapons as well.
Revenant came close but didn't have anywhere near as much variety.

I liked being able to customize my gear and spells too, though the
spells were mostly useless. Putting heal spells on all the armor was
sup[er cool. By the third island I healed for 60 every time I got hit,
even when I got hit for 0 :) 

>Magic rocks, it just isn't supposed to be easy :) Right now I have a
>damage 56 lightning bolt on a second isle, and the fat mage fella can
>parcel 2 of these in a row. 

Yeah, he's not bad but I didn't use him. After I spent most of the
first island buffing up my two sidekicks assuming I got to keep em, I
decided to solo the rest of the game. Exp comes MUCH faster solo. 

>Guess what - that pretty much assures taking out most fellas. 

Not. 56 - 22 armor = 34. You can kill weakened normal guards on that
island that way but not the veteran mercenaries or whatever. And that
fat bastard can't even take 2 hits from the Unicorns.

I just thought the whole magic system was stupid. AT any given point
in the game you can take out enemies faster with using high damage
weapons and going for head shots.


>If not - those four wands of lighting 32 keep their HPs
>down while archer tries to score an eye hit :)

32 - 22 armor = 10 damage on the second island. I'd rather have
somebody shooting with a bow than using those wands, myself. You can't
go for a critical with a spell.

>It's just that you can no longer be a rockin'a'rollin' tank mage. I had
>to give up offensive magics for main char, leaving only sword and
>healing magic.

I gave up on offensive magic for everyone. It's broke. That fat guy
was pretty effective for me againts the regular guards when I got them
one at a time but I got tired of having to babysit his stamina bar and
recast lightning all the time, and I got tired of him croaking every
time he got somebody's attention. I am really unhappy with the
implementation of magic in this game. It's not effective enough to
justify wasting the exp points and the cash to develop it, in my
opinion.

>Once you stack all your armor with healing magic, it's not bad at all.

That's the only use I had for spells. Double duration continuous
strength on a meteorite chainmail shirt plus double or triple strength
triggerred healing on everything else and I could tank everything on
the thir island for quite some time. I lot of it I couldn't do much
damage to, but that's a different story.

>BTW, on both isles I stripped the extra characters bare - that's how I
>got myself the long bow, some spells, and finally brissen's armor :)

But of course! That's what they are there for!

Brissen's armor is crap though. Best armor on the second island is the
heavy canian army plate. You can lift a full set off the veteran
mercenaries. I already had it (made of steel) before Brissen would
even join me anyway.

>So, I admit, it's tricky, but that keeps the life interesting

I disagree - it's not very "interesting" to rely on reloading save
games all evening just to advance though a couple fights. I like to
live with the consequences when things go badly for me. Any game that
is _designed_ with the intent the player will be reloading a lot to
get through the tough spots is one I won't like much. I realize a lot
of people like to play games that way, but I never have - and I don't
like this extreme example of that sort of philosophy either.

For all those people bragging that they got through the game on
"Normal" - is it really an accomplishment to LOSE the same fight 30
times or more before you finally win it? That's nothing to crow about.
In most games it's harder to win a combat the first try on easy
settings than it is to stumble through it doing the save'load shuffle
for 20 minutes on the hardest settings.