newtmonkey wrote on 2024-11-25, 04:05:

It does indeed take quite a while to get your first level up, due to how little experience enemies give out (and of course split […]
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clueless1 wrote on 2024-11-23, 15:03:

One thing that is frustrating me is the slow pace to level up and the difficulty in doing so. My characters only have ~200 XP and for some reason the Dwarf F/T only has ~100. I lose a character often in combat and reload. Only having one sleep spell for each of my two mages is rough. I either go back to an inn and rest often, or try to get as many victories as I can by save scumming. Granted, my play time is <4 hours at this point, but, any tips for speeding up the combat victories and getting to my first level up? It doesn't help that I only have a couple of hours per week to play. Hopefully with a long Thanksgiving weekend I'll be able to devote some more time to the game. I have gotten the two cure wounds scrolls and between them and the cleric's memorized cure wounds, I have eeked out some victories without losing a character.

It does indeed take quite a while to get your first level up, due to how little experience enemies give out (and of course split among six characters). You actually earn the most experience points though finding hidden treasure rather and solving quests, rather than through combat, so if you want to level up as quickly as possible you could check a scan of the official cluebook (or that FAQ) and head right to that content. There are I think three hidden treasures in the first area, and also a side quest where a guy asks you to get a potion for him from elsewhere in the same area.

You can also hire a couple of mercenaries (if you can afford them) to make combat a bit easier early on. If you do that, you probably want to just stick with fighters because the game doesn't really know how to use magic users!

Once you get your characters to level 2, things become much easier, so it's just a matter of making baby steps until you get there. You can actually wipe out the random encounters permanently, so even if you aren't earning much gold/exp from them, you are making progress. I think there are 15 random encounters in total in the first area, so once you've exhausted them you can explore the map without any risk (other than the fixed encounters of course), which makes searching for the hidden treasures a lot easier.

One more question. I read through the manual, Reference Card, Cluebook, and Adventurer's Guide as well as Googled, but no answer. When dealing with locked doors you are given the option to Bash or Pick. What are the mechanics? Must I highlight the character I want to do this, or does the game automatically use some algorithm based on the party as a whole? What I've been doing is using the Numkey 1 to highlight my F/T, then walk into the door and select P(ick). Seems about 1 out of 10 times this worked. But the other 9 times, B(ash) worked. Surprised there's no documentation on this (that I could find).

clueless1 wrote on 2024-11-28, 13:56:

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-11-25, 04:05:

It does indeed take quite a while to get your first level up, due to how little experience enemies give out (and of course split […]
Show full quote

clueless1 wrote on 2024-11-23, 15:03:

One thing that is frustrating me is the slow pace to level up and the difficulty in doing so. My characters only have ~200 XP and for some reason the Dwarf F/T only has ~100. I lose a character often in combat and reload. Only having one sleep spell for each of my two mages is rough. I either go back to an inn and rest often, or try to get as many victories as I can by save scumming. Granted, my play time is <4 hours at this point, but, any tips for speeding up the combat victories and getting to my first level up? It doesn't help that I only have a couple of hours per week to play. Hopefully with a long Thanksgiving weekend I'll be able to devote some more time to the game. I have gotten the two cure wounds scrolls and between them and the cleric's memorized cure wounds, I have eeked out some victories without losing a character.

It does indeed take quite a while to get your first level up, due to how little experience enemies give out (and of course split among six characters). You actually earn the most experience points though finding hidden treasure rather and solving quests, rather than through combat, so if you want to level up as quickly as possible you could check a scan of the official cluebook (or that FAQ) and head right to that content. There are I think three hidden treasures in the first area, and also a side quest where a guy asks you to get a potion for him from elsewhere in the same area.

You can also hire a couple of mercenaries (if you can afford them) to make combat a bit easier early on. If you do that, you probably want to just stick with fighters because the game doesn't really know how to use magic users!

Once you get your characters to level 2, things become much easier, so it's just a matter of making baby steps until you get there. You can actually wipe out the random encounters permanently, so even if you aren't earning much gold/exp from them, you are making progress. I think there are 15 random encounters in total in the first area, so once you've exhausted them you can explore the map without any risk (other than the fixed encounters of course), which makes searching for the hidden treasures a lot easier.

One more question. I read through the manual, Reference Card, Cluebook, and Adventurer's Guide as well as Googled, but no answer. When dealing with locked doors you are given the option to Bash or Pick. What are the mechanics? Must I highlight the character I want to do this, or does the game automatically use some algorithm based on the party as a whole? What I've been doing is using the Numkey 1 to highlight my F/T, then walk into the door and select P(ick). Seems about 1 out of 10 times this worked. But the other 9 times, B(ash) worked. Surprised there's no documentation on this (that I could find).

Do a google search on AD&D 2nd Edition Thief Open Locks

https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Thief#Rogue_Skills

There is probably a default distribution going on under the hood..

clueless1 wrote on 2024-11-28, 13:56:

One more question. I read through the manual, Reference Card, Cluebook, and Adventurer's Guide as well as Googled, but no answer. When dealing with locked doors you are given the option to Bash or Pick. What are the mechanics? Must I highlight the character I want to do this, or does the game automatically use some algorithm based on the party as a whole? What I've been doing is using the Numkey 1 to highlight my F/T, then walk into the door and select P(ick). Seems about 1 out of 10 times this worked. But the other 9 times, B(ash) worked. Surprised there's no documentation on this (that I could find).

You do have to select the character you want to use before selecting Bash or Pick. In my case, even with 18 DEX my thief had trouble picking locks early on, so I suspect it's based on level with a DEX bonus. Early in the game, I just bashed the doors down with my strongest fighter... but once my thief gained a few levels, he was able to pick pretty much any lock without an issue.

Expanded my Atari, classics, and retro collections a bit over on Steam since they're having their Autumn Sale right now, through Dec 4th.

Playing around with those. 😀

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-11-28, 16:34:

clueless1 wrote on 2024-11-28, 13:56:

One more question. I read through the manual, Reference Card, Cluebook, and Adventurer's Guide as well as Googled, but no answer. When dealing with locked doors you are given the option to Bash or Pick. What are the mechanics? Must I highlight the character I want to do this, or does the game automatically use some algorithm based on the party as a whole? What I've been doing is using the Numkey 1 to highlight my F/T, then walk into the door and select P(ick). Seems about 1 out of 10 times this worked. But the other 9 times, B(ash) worked. Surprised there's no documentation on this (that I could find).

You do have to select the character you want to use before selecting Bash or Pick. In my case, even with 18 DEX my thief had trouble picking locks early on, so I suspect it's based on level with a DEX bonus. Early in the game, I just bashed the doors down with my strongest fighter... but once my thief gained a few levels, he was able to pick pretty much any lock without an issue.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of this game. Seems like I may play it through, but we'll see. I'm currently only 8.5 hours in. All characters are level 2 except for the cleric, which has just hit level 3. I'm still exploring The Civilized District and The Slums.

It's funny the circumstances that lead to The Gold Box series never entering my life at the time. I had the Apple ][e from 1983ish to 1992ish. I played all of the Ultimas that were released on that platform, and some of the Wizardrys. So I was a young RPG fan. But by 1988, I was approaching my 2nd year of university, and not really buying games anymore. I had a huge library of pirated Apple games that I played, and was actually using the computer for word processing my schoolwork. In early 1992, I got my first PC. As a graduation gift, my parents got me the cheapest 386 that CompUSA sold at the time, and my first gaming purchase was Ultima VII: The Black Gate. Once I played that, there was no going back to older games. I was hooked by the amazing graphics and sounds of U7 and my 22 year old self could never go back to a game that didn't even look that good on the Apple. So I moved forward with my RPG gaming to The Underworlds, Might and Magic 3-5 etc. That 386 lasted me about a year before I built my first PC, a 486sx-25, and that lead me on a journey of building my own PCs for the rest of my life. If I had gotten a PC 2 years earlier, then I'm sure I would've been knee-deep in the Gold Box series.

Ultra Cop:
https://youtu.be/-A5wqnNIXJY?si=Huj8YBYuBzApG5wi

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr
Finished! This is basically Diablo II in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, so if you like either of those things, I think it's worth checking this game out.

It does some interesting things with the Diablo II formula, such as a rudimentary cover system for ranged combat. More interesting is the overall structure of the game; although the main story is linear to the extreme, you're free to take on randomly-generated missions throughout the galaxy to seek out powerful gear. There are also a lot of systems and mechanics that you can pretty much ignore if you are just playing the game to finish the campaign, but that you probably need to figure out and master in order to develop a character strong enough to get through all the content you access after clearing the game. I know that this stuff is the "real" meat of any modern Diablo II clone, but I consider the game finished once the credits roll and so I won't be doing any of that.

Unfortunately, the game is way too easy. I didn't even die once over the 17 hours it took to finish the game, and I played pretty recklessly and paid no attention to all the fiddly side stuff like crafting equipment or completing optional missions. The game also gets very repetitive quickly, since the story is pretty dull and most environments look quite similar. Finally, and most problematic, is that character development is not particularly interesting. Your abilities are mostly determined by your equipment, so any two characters of the same class using the same weapon type will play mostly the same. This is a big letdown, because one of most enjoyable things about games like this is to develop your own unique build as you play through the game.

It plays fine and everything works, but any points it gains for introducing some interesting twists on the formula are canceled out by how simple and easy it is. Still, I do plan on bringing my character through the expansion, Prophecy, by the end of the year.

I finally popped in the first disk from the MIght & Magic Compendium I ebayed, I fired up Heroes of Might & Magic 1.

My first attempt at the first stand game with all standard settings got off to a rough start. Attacked something I really shouldn't have right out the gate, lost most of my army, and just really struggled week to week to not lose all my guys in difficult battles. Decided to start over, conserving my forces better, and it was pretty easy after that. That first introductory scenario (Claw) has a pretty easy chokepoint with three branches paths, with an enemy city bottled up at the end of each one. It was a pretty easy way to acclimate to the game. I think I beat it in about an hour? Maybe 90 minutes?

Fired up the second scenario today, I forget what it's called, and it's much less handle holdy. I haven't explored the whole map yet, but I'm pretty sure the AI all spawned on a separate continent from me. Which gives me a lot of breathing room, and they even already eliminated one AI for me. Still they have begun visiting my continent, and I've been swatting them away pretty decisively. I think I need some more heroes to properly secure my territory however.

Once upon a time I dated a girl who was super into Heroes of Might & Magic 2 because he older brother was really into it. I tried playing it once upon a time, and rapidly got stymied on the campaign missions. I just wasn't playing aggressively enough, as was my habit in strategy games. Always prefered to turtle. I'm under the impression HoMM requires more agile map control, not unlike a Quake deathmatch where you need to hit certain points of the map to "control" the spawns for weapons and armor in order to dominate. We'll see how it works out for me. I still haven't touched the campaign, and I save scum a lot between significant encounters.

Also, I hate ghost. Fuck those things.

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-12-01, 16:04:

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr Finished! This is basically Diablo II in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, so if you like e […]
Show full quote

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr
Finished! This is basically Diablo II in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, so if you like either of those things, I think it's worth checking this game out.

It does some interesting things with the Diablo II formula, such as a rudimentary cover system for ranged combat. More interesting is the overall structure of the game; although the main story is linear to the extreme, you're free to take on randomly-generated missions throughout the galaxy to seek out powerful gear. There are also a lot of systems and mechanics that you can pretty much ignore if you are just playing the game to finish the campaign, but that you probably need to figure out and master in order to develop a character strong enough to get through all the content you access after clearing the game. I know that this stuff is the "real" meat of any modern Diablo II clone, but I consider the game finished once the credits roll and so I won't be doing any of that.

Unfortunately, the game is way too easy. I didn't even die once over the 17 hours it took to finish the game, and I played pretty recklessly and paid no attention to all the fiddly side stuff like crafting equipment or completing optional missions. The game also gets very repetitive quickly, since the story is pretty dull and most environments look quite similar. Finally, and most problematic, is that character development is not particularly interesting. Your abilities are mostly determined by your equipment, so any two characters of the same class using the same weapon type will play mostly the same. This is a big letdown, because one of most enjoyable things about games like this is to develop your own unique build as you play through the game.

It plays fine and everything works, but any points it gains for introducing some interesting twists on the formula are canceled out by how simple and easy it is. Still, I do plan on bringing my character through the expansion, Prophecy, by the end of the year.

i couldnt get through the worst warhammer 40k game, FireWarrior from 2003

Satisfactory recently moved from Early Access to 1.0. I've been playing on and off since Update 2, so it was cool to finally start a new factory on 1.0. It's very polished and I feel it fully deserved the 2024 Golden Joystick award it recently won, "PC Game of the Year": https://www.gamesradar.com/games/here-are-all … s-2024-winners/

clueless1 wrote on 2024-11-30, 12:43:

I think I'm finally getting the hang of this game. Seems like I may play it through, but we'll see. I'm currently only 8.5 hours in. All characters are level 2 except for the cleric, which has just hit level 3. I'm still exploring The Civilized District and The Slums...

I'm glad to hear that you're getting into the game now! It does take a while to get used to its quirks, and the beginning is indeed very slow due to how weak characters are at level 1. Once you clear the slums, the game really opens up, including an actual wilderness map you can explore tile-by-tile like Ultima. Also, make sure that you visit the City Clerk's Office regularly to check for new missions (and receive your rewards for completing them).

We had very similar experiences back in the day, right down to when we got our first PCs and our first games... the only difference was I had a C64 instead of an Apple II! Going from C64 to Ultima VII was mind-blowing.

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-12-02, 02:26:

clueless1 wrote on 2024-11-30, 12:43:

I think I'm finally getting the hang of this game. Seems like I may play it through, but we'll see. I'm currently only 8.5 hours in. All characters are level 2 except for the cleric, which has just hit level 3. I'm still exploring The Civilized District and The Slums...

I'm glad to hear that you're getting into the game now! It does take a while to get used to its quirks, and the beginning is indeed very slow due to how weak characters are at level 1. Once you clear the slums, the game really opens up, including an actual wilderness map you can explore tile-by-tile like Ultima. Also, make sure that you visit the City Clerk's Office regularly to check for new missions (and receive your rewards for completing them).

We had very similar experiences back in the day, right down to when we got our first PCs and our first games... the only difference was I had a C64 instead of an Apple II! Going from C64 to Ultima VII was mind-blowing.

The power curve starting off Pool of Radiance (and Might & Magic, and Wizardry, and Bard's Tale) at level 1 was always one of my favorite parts. Maybe I'm just a masochist, but I appreciated how hard it was to survive at level 1. The jump in power from level 1 to level 2 was so enormous however, it made you really appreciate surviving level 1. I mean effectively, your characters all double in power. They have about double hitpoints (from 1d8 to 2d8 or whatever) and your clerics and magic users get twice as many spells you can memorize (often from 1 to 2 spells). THAC0 improvements aren't felt quite as strongly, but suddenly you can literally survive twice as much as you could before. Subsequent levels, while appreciated, never have the same enormous jump in capability from level 1 to level 2.

I was actually somewhat let down when I started playing Gateway to the Savage Frontier I think, and all my characters started at level 2? I felt cheated out of a rather important phase of character growth, and the game actually felt so easy I lost interest in it.

StriderTR wrote on 2024-11-28, 17:07:

Expanded my Atari, classics, and retro collections a bit over on Steam since they're having their Autumn Sale right now, through Dec 4th.

Playing around with those. 😀

bit deceptive though since atari went bust in '82 and this atari is in name only

Namrok wrote on 2024-12-02, 19:28:

The power curve starting off Pool of Radiance (and Might & Magic, and Wizardry, and Bard's Tale) at level 1 was always one of my favorite parts...

Same here! I love the struggle to get started in these games (in addition to the fine examples you gave, I would also add Baldur's Gate ).

Namrok wrote on 2024-12-01, 16:45:

I finally popped in the first disk from the MIght & Magic Compendium I ebayed, I fired up Heroes of Might & Magic 1.

My first attempt at the first stand game with all standard settings got off to a rough start. Attacked something I really shouldn't have right out the gate, lost most of my army, and just really struggled week to week to not lose all my guys in difficult battles. Decided to start over, conserving my forces better, and it was pretty easy after that.

The Compendium comes with a manual and a monster chart, doesn't it? I don't remember now how my first game went back in the nineties when I played a pirated CD-rip and had no background. Probably the same as yours. With experience and the memory sponge of a teenager I've committed the stats of all monsters in the first two HoMM games to memory, so now I have a pretty good idea of relative strengths without consulting the manual. For later games it doesn't work.

Namrok wrote on 2024-12-01, 16:45:

I just wasn't playing aggressively enough, as was my habit in strategy games. Always prefered to turtle.

Same here. That is probably one of the reasons I never got into Heroes 3. The maps there are just so big and with my turtling tactics it takes forever to get anywhere. I lose patience before I'm anywhere close to completion. However, I did finish the campaigns of HoMM1, HoMM2 and some of the HoMM2X expansion campaigns, eventually. Some just this year.

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-12-01, 16:04:

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr
It plays fine and everything works, but any points it gains for introducing some interesting twists on the formula are canceled out by how simple and easy it is. Still, I do plan on bringing my character through the expansion, Prophecy, by the end of the year.

Quoting myself here as I completed the Prophecy expansion and all the DLC stuff (except for random mission, etc.). Overall, it really added nothing to the game, and simply extended a game that had already grown repetitive/tedious another 10 hours.
For anyone interested in trying this one, the only DLC worth it imo is the two additional classes. I'd recommend just playing the base game with all non-class DLC disabled (or ignored), for a relatively short 15-hour game that's fun to play through with your brain turned off.

erm.... Overcooked 2.

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-12-01, 16:04:

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr

OMG it's my favorite ARPG. Yay!

Started playing Dark Souls III.

I'm now having to unlearn all the Elden Ring muscle memory I built up over the past 6 months.

Seek & Destroy DOS good, easy, fun, top down exploring and shooting with a helicopter or tank, in many levels you can freely choose, but helicopter is more fun and fast. Tank is slower and strategic. Love it.