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What game are you playing now?

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Reply 6540 of 6631, by Sombrero

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-07, 08:04:

The beholder lair was a bit more challenging.

I remember basically left-handing it with the shield of balduran. That item might have been just a tad overpowered... then again if I recall correctly the particular seller that has it didn't even exist in the game originally, I suppose I had modded the game even back then.

As Alpha Protocol left me fairly grumpy (how in the hell they managed to make combat that bad??) I felt like playing something I knew would cheer me up, and I've been listening a lot of drum'n'bass music recently which got me in the mood for one of my all time favorites:

System Shock 2. It's been years and years, but from the very start of the game I immediately felt like meeting an old friend again. Holy crap how I love this game! Even remembered and found the basketball in the tutorial even though it has literally been like 15+ years and I barely remember what I ate for breakfast.

Reply 6541 of 6631, by Joseph_Joestar

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Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-07, 11:25:

I remember basically left-handing it with the shield of balduran. That item might have been just a tad overpowered... then again if I recall correctly the particular seller that has it didn't even exist in the game originally, I suppose I had modded the game even back then.

Originally, that item (and the shopkeeper which sells it) was only available if you had the collector's edition of Shadows of Amn. As I recall, people quickly figured out how to mod those items in, so the developers eventually made them officially available in some later patch, after the Throne of Bhaal expansion came out.

Since I'm currently playing Shadows of Amn without the collector's edition disc and without the expansion pack installed, I don't have access to those items. Many of them are very overpowered, so I'm fine with that, as I did want a bit more challenge for this run.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-07, 11:25:

System Shock 2. It's been years and years, but from the very start of the game I immediately felt like meeting an old friend again. Holy crap how I love this game! Even remembered and found the basketball in the tutorial even though it has literally been like 15+ years and I barely remember what I ate for breakfast.

Your memory is much better than mine, since I remember almost nothing about it, save for the plot twist and me getting annoyed by the respawning enemies.

I still liked the game a fair bit, just not as much as the Thief series from the same developers.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 6542 of 6631, by Sombrero

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-07, 11:36:

getting annoyed by the respawning enemies.

Understandable, even I used a command variable added to a config file that nearly completely eliminated respawning back then. I left it out this time to see will it bother me. Did the same with weapon degradation, both can be toned down later if need be.

Reply 6543 of 6631, by appiah4

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Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-07, 11:25:

System Shock 2. It's been years and years, but from the very start of the game I immediately felt like meeting an old friend again. Holy crap how I love this game! Even remembered and found the basketball in the tutorial even though it has literally been like 15+ years and I barely remember what I ate for breakfast.

We are.. we are.. we are....

System Shock 2 >> Dues Ex.

Fight me.

You will lose.

Reply 6544 of 6631, by mothergoose729

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gerry wrote on 2025-01-07, 09:48:
mothergoose729 wrote on 2025-01-07, 08:33:

I recently completed the Elderscrolls Arena on DOSBOX. Every single dungeon is a multi tier literal maze. Like most passages lead to dead ends with nothing of note or interest in them. Probably spent 2 hours on each one, and the main quest is just a gauntlet of 20 dungeons back-to-back with a little bit of shopping in between. Also monsters randomly spawn from the ether to harass you the whole way. Later in the game you just get bombarded by spells (fucking hell hounds) that zap all of your health immediately, so I spent the latter half the game chugging potions like gatorade. Also if you are swimming monsters can spawn on the land above you, trapping you in their infinitely vertically tall hitbox forever. The game is intended to run at about 15 fps; somewhere around 25 fps you lose the ability to swing your weapon. I would describe the experience has sluggish + confusing + irritating. It was a pretty decent time. I enjoyed it.

I am playing The Elders Scrolls II: Daggerfall using the Daggerfall Unity engine now. It's probably the most bethesda game they have ever made; huge in scope - really interesting ideas - almost all of it very poorly executed and riddled with bugs. Also, like Arena ever dungeon is a maze, only now the dungeons are three dimensional mazes! At least this game has mark/recall and with the unity engine you can access a console, so it's not all bad. I am currently waiting more than 40 days for my current quest to fail, because the quest trigger that was supposed to be activated after I dispossessed the demon child just fucking didn't leaving the quest incompletable. It's been fun so far. I'll probably complete the main quest if my game isn't inexplicably ruined by sequence breaking bugs.

i found both games to be nigh on impossible to either make progress in or enjoy to be honest, for reasons above. something about the grandeur of the worlds is appealing - until the procedural generation reveals everything is about the same with minor variations. later morrowind and oblivion get it right, by effectively shrinking the 'world' and the cast but upping the variability and detail. i wonder if any random/procedural game will ever manage the dual goals of vast size plus 'real' seeming variability

These games come from a different time. You have to be willing to engage with them on their terms. I wouldn't say I prefer it to later ES releases but I can appreciate them for what they are.

Arena and Daggerfall violate just about every modern accepted norm of game design. This makes them frustrating and unintuitive to play, but it also makes them unique and interesting.

In Arena, as you navigate a dungeon you will collect loot. The best loot is magical/enchanted, but you don't know what the enchantments are until you are able to exit the dungeon, find a mages guild, and get them "appraised" by a magician that can detect magic. One interesting side effect of this is that I would sometimes have to discard loot to make room for other items without having any idea of what I am exchanging. This is inherently bad design, but it's also kind of cool. I am an adventurer lost in a dungeon, with treasures that I am sure are valuable but not sure how valuable, trying to survive long enough to make my exit and cash in on my grave robbed goods. I won't know until I get to an expert what these goods are worth, so I might have a good haul or a mediocre one. I don't know yet. That's frustrating but it's also interesting.

In Arena and Daggerfall dungeons are dangerous. You might get lost forever. You could very well die. Or you might discover a treasure that will change rest of your playthrough. Compared to later ES titles where dungeons are pretty small and very linear that is really interesting.

The procedurally generated world also has its pros and cons. I have completed multiple 100% basically-all-factions-and-quests playthroughs of morrowind, oblivion, and skyrim. The world space is big but you can see all of it. Once you do it's hard not to see it as a limited sand box - a proxy for a game world with an exhaustible supply of content. The procedurally generated worlds discourage this perception. Sure most towns and cities and dungeons are essentially the same but they aren't identical. I can't see everything there is to see, so instead I seek out the people and places of interest in a vast world of possibilities.

All of the elderscrolls games are really just a foundation to build your role playing upon. The immersion comes from the story you write for yourself and your character where the game and the world provide a setting and points of contention so that character has purpose and conflict. This is far more true in Arena and Daggerfall. There isn't a lot of story or even a lot of game, so it's incumbent on you to write a story for yourself, and to see in the procedurally generated terrain a living and breathing world within which you inhabit. It's fantasy. Equal part game and willful make believe.

Reply 6545 of 6631, by appiah4

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As far as believable procedurally generated sandboxes go, Elite had me fooled as a kid, fwiw..

Reply 6546 of 6631, by clueless1

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2025-01-07, 18:40:
These games come from a different time. You have to be willing to engage with them on their terms. I wouldn't say I prefer it to […]
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gerry wrote on 2025-01-07, 09:48:
mothergoose729 wrote on 2025-01-07, 08:33:

I recently completed the Elderscrolls Arena on DOSBOX. Every single dungeon is a multi tier literal maze. Like most passages lead to dead ends with nothing of note or interest in them. Probably spent 2 hours on each one, and the main quest is just a gauntlet of 20 dungeons back-to-back with a little bit of shopping in between. Also monsters randomly spawn from the ether to harass you the whole way. Later in the game you just get bombarded by spells (fucking hell hounds) that zap all of your health immediately, so I spent the latter half the game chugging potions like gatorade. Also if you are swimming monsters can spawn on the land above you, trapping you in their infinitely vertically tall hitbox forever. The game is intended to run at about 15 fps; somewhere around 25 fps you lose the ability to swing your weapon. I would describe the experience has sluggish + confusing + irritating. It was a pretty decent time. I enjoyed it.

I am playing The Elders Scrolls II: Daggerfall using the Daggerfall Unity engine now. It's probably the most bethesda game they have ever made; huge in scope - really interesting ideas - almost all of it very poorly executed and riddled with bugs. Also, like Arena ever dungeon is a maze, only now the dungeons are three dimensional mazes! At least this game has mark/recall and with the unity engine you can access a console, so it's not all bad. I am currently waiting more than 40 days for my current quest to fail, because the quest trigger that was supposed to be activated after I dispossessed the demon child just fucking didn't leaving the quest incompletable. It's been fun so far. I'll probably complete the main quest if my game isn't inexplicably ruined by sequence breaking bugs.

i found both games to be nigh on impossible to either make progress in or enjoy to be honest, for reasons above. something about the grandeur of the worlds is appealing - until the procedural generation reveals everything is about the same with minor variations. later morrowind and oblivion get it right, by effectively shrinking the 'world' and the cast but upping the variability and detail. i wonder if any random/procedural game will ever manage the dual goals of vast size plus 'real' seeming variability

These games come from a different time. You have to be willing to engage with them on their terms. I wouldn't say I prefer it to later ES releases but I can appreciate them for what they are.

Arena and Daggerfall violate just about every modern accepted norm of game design. This makes them frustrating and unintuitive to play, but it also makes them unique and interesting.

In Arena, as you navigate a dungeon you will collect loot. The best loot is magical/enchanted, but you don't know what the enchantments are until you are able to exit the dungeon, find a mages guild, and get them "appraised" by a magician that can detect magic. One interesting side effect of this is that I would sometimes have to discard loot to make room for other items without having any idea of what I am exchanging. This is inherently bad design, but it's also kind of cool. I am an adventurer lost in a dungeon, with treasures that I am sure are valuable but not sure how valuable, trying to survive long enough to make my exit and cash in on my grave robbed goods. I won't know until I get to an expert what these goods are worth, so I might have a good haul or a mediocre one. I don't know yet. That's frustrating but it's also interesting.

In Arena and Daggerfall dungeons are dangerous. You might get lost forever. You could very well die. Or you might discover a treasure that will change rest of your playthrough. Compared to later ES titles where dungeons are pretty small and very linear that is really interesting.

The procedurally generated world also has its pros and cons. I have completed multiple 100% basically-all-factions-and-quests playthroughs of morrowind, oblivion, and skyrim. The world space is big but you can see all of it. Once you do it's hard not to see it as a limited sand box - a proxy for a game world with an exhaustible supply of content. The procedurally generated worlds discourage this perception. Sure most towns and cities and dungeons are essentially the same but they aren't identical. I can't see everything there is to see, so instead I seek out the people and places of interest in a vast world of possibilities.

All of the elderscrolls games are really just a foundation to build your role playing upon. The immersion comes from the story you write for yourself and your character where the game and the world provide a setting and points of contention so that character has purpose and conflict. This is far more true in Arena and Daggerfall. There isn't a lot of story or even a lot of game, so it's incumbent on you to write a story for yourself, and to see in the procedurally generated terrain a living and breathing world within which you inhabit. It's fantasy. Equal part game and willful make believe.

Very well said. I love the points you make about being willing to engage with them on their terms and being involved in writing the story. Kind of makes me want to fire them up and give them another shot. These two points actually are front and center on many older RPGs such as Wizardry 6, and that was the key to me enjoying it enough to invest over 110 hours and not only beat the game, but transfer my party over and beat 7 and 8. Best RPG experience of my life. I was playing these three games for a year straight.

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Reply 6547 of 6631, by Sombrero

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Intended to play System Shock 2 for an hour. Three hours later... yeah I think it's safe to say I still absolutely love it. Just got engineering done, found "an antique circuit card" over there that clearly had 3DFX written on two chips. I think Von Braun had a VOGONS member onboard 😁

While SS2 doesn't quite have as palm sweatingly oppressive atmosphere as it did back in the day, it still holds some of it. One of the recorded emails played a door opening sound right when I happened to be right next to a door, I immediately twitched towards the door and fired a shotgun blast at absolutely nothing. Laughed out loud when I realized what had happened.

Speaking of atmosphere when I arrived to the place where I found the Voodoo card I instantly got the chills. A distant memory from 15+ years ago said "I'm about to run into the first Midwife, aren't I". And I sure did. Those things are freaky.

Reply 6548 of 6631, by Joseph_Joestar

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Still playing Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. My party just left the Underdark, but I'll spare you the details of the drow city quests, as they weren't terribly exciting. In short, we successfully retrieved the silver dragon eggs and managed to escape without blowing our cover. I did get some powerful items from the drow shops, including a fiery dagger for Jan, a rod of golem smiting for Jaheira, and a very nice shield for Anomen. After reaching the surface, we were greeted by elven soldiers, who promptly tasked us with retrieving one of their holy relics. To do that, we need to clear out the vampire lair. Again.

Back in the city of Athkatla, the party was ambushed by a group of githyanki, from whom we looted another piece of the vorpal sword. We quickly got it reforged by Cromwell the smith, and then had him craft the +4 Gesen bow for my archer protagonist. Around that time, we also got the ring of wizardry from fighting some Harpers, thanks to Jaheira's growing feud with that organization. After grabbing a bunch of new spells and items from the promenade shops, it was time to finish up some of the remaining side quests.

We started by visiting Nalia's keep. It was overrun by trolls, and they could only be killed by fire or acid. Fortunately, we were well equipped for that, with Jaheira wielding the +3 acid club and Jan using the fire dagger. In the keep's hidden smithy, we also found the flail of ages, which dealt both fire and acid damage when fully reassembled. It was given to Anomen, who is now specialized in flails as well as maces. Thanks to all of that, liberating the keep was a breeze, and we got a ton of XP in the process.

We then entered the portal under the Five Flagons inn to rescue the tiefling bard and his friends. The trap doors in this place were very annoying, but fortunately, they could be disabled by defeating the demon guardian and burning the magic orb that he held. As a bonus, the battle with the prison warden became much easier, since destroying the orb freed all his thralls. Notable items looted here include a life draining sword and the boots of speed. Additionally, we found another piece of the wave halberd, which allowed us to reforge that weapon as well. It can instantly slay fire elementals, salamanders and efreet, which makes it very useful for some of the upcoming battles.

A short visit to the Umar Hills was next. There, we found Valygar, who temporarily joined the party to help us enter the planar sphere in the Athkatla slums. This is one of the more interesting side quests, as it involves traveling to another plane of existence to fight powerful demons and other monsters who dwell there. We also had to get past several adamantine golems guarding the inner chambers of the sphere. Those things were really strong, immune to magic, highly resistant to weapon damage and could even poison anyone who came close. However, their great size was their downfall, as they were too big to fit through doors and narrow corridors. Jaheira used that to her advantage, as she kept whacking the golems from a safe distance with the rod of smiting until they fell. Keldorn also made good use of the wave halberd against the fire creatures that were in some of the nearby rooms. Lastly, we found the gauntlets of ogre power, which are pretty decent on their own, but can also be used for crafting a certain item later on.

So far so good. The party is currently around level 16, with Imoen lagging slightly behind, and Anomen being a bit higher. We should now be strong enough to slay our first dragon, but I'll leave that for next time.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 6549 of 6631, by Sombrero

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-09, 08:03:

We started by visiting Nalia's keep. It was overrun by trolls, and they could only be killed by fire or acid. Fortunately, we were well equipped for that, with Jaheira wielding the +3 acid club and Jan using the fire dagger. In the keep's hidden smithy, we also found the flail of ages, which dealt both fire and acid damage when fully reassembled. It was given to Anomen, who is now specialized in flails as well as maces. Thanks to all of that, liberating the keep was a breeze, and we got a ton of XP in the process.

I could have sworn that quest was timed and here you are doing it after Underdark. Looked it up and apparently only Nalia will get pissed and run off if she's in the party and you don't go there soon enough, the quest remains unaffected. I've never liked those timed things in BG2, I find the damn things stressful. I'm going to have to find a list of every timed quest in the game when/if I ever revisit it so I don't have to worry about them.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-09, 08:03:

We should now be strong enough to slay our first dragon, but I'll leave that for next time.

Going to go for a fair and square slugfest instead of doing something cheeky, like slapping it with feeblemind?

Reply 6550 of 6631, by Joseph_Joestar

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Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-09, 11:27:

I could have sworn that quest was timed and here you are doing it after Underdark.

Yeah, there's a timer if Nalia is in the party. But since I never let her join up, it doesn't apply in my case.

Going to go for a fair and square slugfest instead of doing something cheeky, like slapping it with feeblemind?

Different kind of cheeky, I'm going to use Jan's traps to weaken the dragon. As I recall, the developers got wise to this in the expansion, so it no longer works there, but it's still fair game in base Shadows of Amn. 😀

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 6551 of 6631, by UCyborg

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Trying out Half-Life 25th Anniversary Update. He can't bite me.

79mmLuo.png

They fixed widescreen FOV and even HUD scaling, never played Half-Life where HUD looked as big. Or maybe I did on the old potato PC with low screen resolution and forgot about it.

They changed menus to partially resemble the old WON version, configuration dialog is still green tabbed window. Don't know how they're doing Half-Life text animation, old version used a video for it. I see they also added back logo cinematic playback at startup. It looks like the video is encoded with VP9 codec, the original was Cinepak.

I wanted to add old Sierra video to play at startup (this version lacks it since Valve has nothing to do with long gone Sierra anymore), so I added "media/sierra.webm" (without quotes) as the first line to valve/media/StartupVids.txt file, I converted the original video with FFMpeg like this from Command Prompt, assuming ffmpeg is in the path and the folder where it's run from contains sierra.avi:

ffmpeg -i sierra.avi -c:v libvpx-vp9 -vf format=yuv420p -crf 15 -b:v 0 sierra.webm

Then make sure sierra.webm is put game's valve/media folder. When I started the game, it played the video, but the audio that plays is the same that is in Valve logo video. It seems to be hardcoded to play from valve/sound/UI/valve_sound.wav. What the heck? Why add the video player that doesn't play the sound from the video? I always thought Sierra's video was a fitting startup intro for a spooky game, at least back then I found it spookier than I do now.

cxqEoiZ.png
UF99HIX.png

I was quite obsessed with bugs in Half-Life in the past. Seems someone recently fixed a bunch of errors in the maps causing Z-fighting. These didn't come to my attention back then.

https://gamebanana.com/mods/522570

Also, is it just me, or did they fix the error in OpenGL renderer that distorted some textures, it was noticeable when you played without texture filtering, but the pixelated aesthetics still came out wrong compared to software renderer. Hope someone understands what I'm asking, have trouble converting this to English... Might have had something to do with textures without dimensions not being in power-of-two values.

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A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Reply 6552 of 6631, by 3dnow

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appiah4 wrote on 2025-01-07, 12:04:
We are.. we are.. we are.... […]
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We are.. we are.. we are....

System Shock 2 >> Dues Ex.

Fight me.

You will lose.

Deus Ex > > System Shock 2.

The attachment Shot0000.jpg is no longer available
The attachment systeminfo.jpg is no longer available

I'm playing it right now using a Voodoo 3 with Glide.
You're on, and I'm willing to die on this hill!

Reply 6553 of 6631, by Joseph_Joestar

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Things are progressing a bit quicker in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn now that the party has reached higher levels. The combat has gotten faster, as the characters attack more often, while also using better equipment. This is a good time to take on some of the tougher quests, so that's what we'll be doing next.

First, we stormed the guarded compound in the temple district. There was a big ambush on the ground floor, involving a demon and a bunch of summoned creatures, but they were no match for our current strength. However, the next floor was much more dangerous, so we buffed up with improved haste and various defensive spells. Upstairs, we essentially fought against a hostile party of high level characters. Their melee warriors hit hard, and the mage and cleric could wreak havoc if left unchecked. Thankfully, Jaheira had the perfect counter: her insect plague spell, which renders enemy spell casters useless. Meanwhile, I had Imoen cast slow on the melee opponents, while an invisible Jan disarmed the traps near the stairs, allowing our front liners to move in. My archer turned the panicking casters into pincushions, while Keldorn used true seeing to reveal the backstabbing thief. The slowed melee opponents stood no chance against our hasted front liners, and the battle was over soon after. Among the bodies of our fallen enemies we found the best katana in the game: celestial fury. Jan will be holding on to it, just in case he needs to perform a powerful backstab.

We then headed down to the sewers to investigate the Unseeing Eye cult. There were a bunch of shadows, mummies and ghouls on our way to the beholder lair, but Anomen is now level 20, so he destroyed them in an instant using his turn undead ability. This is why he's the best cleric in the game. Being able to annihilate wraiths, skeleton warriors, vampires and even liches with practically zero effort is amazing. Deep inside the undead warrens we found the gauntlets of dexterity, which greatly improved Keldorn's defense. As for the beholders, they once again fell to the old paladin and his cloak of mirroring. After dispatching the Unseeing Eye itself and getting rid of the remaining cultists, we reported back to the temple of Helm. For our trouble, we got some crappy mace and a big chunk of XP.

Being confident in our cleric's turn undead ability, we traveled to the ruined temple near Umar Hills. And sure enough, Anomen basically soloed the entire dungeon, with the rest of us just chilling at the entrance. The fight with the shadow dragon was the exception though, and everyone needed to pitch in for that. We received a protection ward from the ghost girl that we met earlier, so the dragon didn't attack instantly, giving us plenty of time to prepare. Jan laid down some traps, Jaheira and Anomen buffed the party with a bunch of defensive spells, while Imoen cast improved haste on our main attackers. Upon starting the battle, the traps immediately got the dragon to the "injured" status, but it still took some coordinated effort to finish that thing off. Imoen used a breach spell to get rid of its protections, while Keldorn activated true seeing to bypass any illusions. Jaheira tanked the dragon's melee hits via iron skin, while the rest of us surrounded it, attacking from all sides. We had the big lizard at "near death" when it blew us away using its wings, before suddenly keeling over. Turns out Jan threw his fire dagger just before we were pushed off, and that was enough to finish the job. So the turnip loving gnome got the first dragon kill, which is now proudly displayed on his character sheet.

Our reward was a set of dragon scales, and a scroll with instructions on how to forge a powerful hammer. Fighting the shade lich at the end of the dungeon was underwhelming in comparison, but it allowed us to finally finish this quest. Also, since my character technically belongs to the ranger class, the mayor of Umar Hills made him the new protector of the village.

Back in Athkatla, Cromwell crafted a very nice suit of armor for my archer using the shadow dragon scales. We then sold off some excess loot, bought a few potions, and got some well deserved rest. Two of our remaining quests lead to Windspear Hills, so that will be our next destination.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 6554 of 6631, by gerry

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2025-01-07, 18:40:

These games come from a different time. You have to be willing to engage with them on their terms. I wouldn't say I prefer it to later ES releases but I can appreciate them for what they are.

i could when i was a child (well before these games came out...) in part because i had only vague ideas about how they worked, so i could think there was intent and meaning where there wasn't any, that illusion dissolved quite soon though.

it's also possible with a table top game, because of other people and interaction

most RPGs however resolve very quickly into their 'spreadsheet' mechanics, its difficult to maintain the illusion, even if the procedural approach promises so much 🙁

i actually find "modern" RPGs more immersive because at least there are more detailed environments and often voice acting etc its a shame really

Arena and Daggerfall violate just about every modern accepted norm of game design. This makes them frustrating and unintuitive to play, but it also makes them unique and interesting.

In Arena, as you navigate a dungeon you will collect loot. The best loot is magical/enchanted, but you don't know what the enchantments are until you are able to exit the dungeon, find a mages guild, and get them "appraised" by a magician that can detect magic.

that is a good feature and more akin to table top gaming

The procedurally generated world also has its pros and cons. I have completed multiple 100% basically-all-factions-and-quests playthroughs of morrowind, oblivion, and skyrim. The world space is big but you can see all of it. Once you do it's hard not to see it as a limited sand box - a proxy for a game world with an exhaustible supply of content. The procedurally generated worlds discourage this perception. Sure most towns and cities and dungeons are essentially the same but they aren't identical. I can't see everything there is to see, so instead I seek out the people and places of interest in a vast world of possibilities.

yes that's true, but the procedural never lives up to the promise, instead of feeling like a world it starts quickly to feel like 'random room type 6 containing monster type 4 and treasure type 4', the variation being insufficient to maintain the sense of "being somewhere"

appiah4 wrote on 2025-01-08, 06:29:

As far as believable procedurally generated sandboxes go, Elite had me fooled as a kid, fwiw..

me too, until quite soon i realised you can just go between two planets continuously and essentially experience the entire game, with an occasional trip elsewhere for some lawlessness. travelling far just changes the names and a few minor numbers.

even No Man's Sky ended up a bit disappointing. the procedural approach just created more or less the same planet again and again with some variations along fairly limited parameters so 'exploring' wasn't all that rewarding. only as the game added non procedural game elements and missions did it start to become better. in keeping with modern games it seems to be under continuous development so it may be really good now, but suspect the essentials are the same

Reply 6555 of 6631, by dr_st

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Finally mustered the courage to play The Witcher. Long games make me nervous, and the Witcher series more so - because I'm a bit of a completionist type of player, and as far as I understand, in all the Witcher games, it is not really possible to see everything without playing the entire game multiple times, because of all the branching plotlines activated by your in-game choices.

The first chance I had to make before even starting - which language to play it in, since the game includes soundtracks and subtitles in a whole bunch of them. In the end I settled for Italian with English subtitles, to practice my Italian listening comprehension. 😜

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

Reply 6556 of 6631, by RandomStranger

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The first Witcher is not overly long. My first playthrough was less than 60 hours. But The Withcer 2 was less than 40.

Last week I started Morrowind GOTY. It'll last me all month. Maybe the next month too.

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Reply 6557 of 6631, by GoblinUpTheRoad

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RandomStranger wrote on 2025-01-10, 21:13:

Last week I started Morrowind GOTY. It'll last me all month. Maybe the next month too.

I played through Morrowind + expansions last year, took me about 6 months...

Reply 6558 of 6631, by gaffa2002

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Finished the Warcraft 2 Beyond the dark portal expansion campaigns.
The expansion is much harder than the regular campaign, but the CPU has the habit of over-expending so the best strategy I found for most of the missions was to build a lot of towers for defense as well as some troops to handle any balista/catapult and let the CPU send troops and expensive air units to be slaughtered until they run out of gold before you do (they start to get desperate and send villagers to your base to try getting some of your gold when that happens). Then its just a matter of destroying their base little by little.
One thing I liked about the expansion was that there are less water missions.

LO-RES, HI-FUN

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Sound Blaster AWE 64 CT4500 (ISA)
32GB HDD

Reply 6559 of 6631, by Martli

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Working my way through space quest III, mainly because I managed to get myself an MT-32 without selling a kidney and I want to put it through its paces…

Fenrir Pentium MMX 166 | Voodoo1 | YMF719 | AWE64 | SC-88ST pro | MT-32
Neptune PIII 600 | Voodoo3 | Vortex 2 | YMF719
Thor P4 3.0ghz | 4200ti | Audigy 2 | YMF 754
Jupiter i5 3470 | GTX 670 | X-Fi