clueless1 wrote on 2022-09-18, 12:28:

Is it possible to save before using a wand, then restore and try again if you pick the wrong one?

Yeah, you can save anytime outside of combat, so it's not a big deal. Still, it can get annoying because some areas will mix all three kinds of mines.

Played a bit of Lemmings, Planet X3, and Microsoft Hover on my Austin M1RC laptop. Which reminds me. I gotta recap the board sometime since there's a whine coming from the voltage coil for the display assembly.

Baldur's Gate (PC)
I decided to resume this, as I'd really like to finish it (for the first time) this year. I had forgotten how far I was into Chapter 6, and it turned out I was one (very difficult) battle away from completing the chapter. I must admit, I'm not liking these enemy spellcaster battles. It honestly just seems like a lot of trial and error to beat these.

The typical battle goes like this: I walk my party into a room, some boss character and his 3-4 henchmen initiate combat and I am immediately pelted with Confusion and Lightning Bolt spells, lethal arrows, etc., killing or severely wounding half my party while the other half runs around in confusion killing each other. I don't think there are any spells that prevent Confusion in BG1, so I'm sort of forced to cheese it at this point. I inch my own mages forward and have them cast stinking cloud, web, and fireball into the room before the enemies are triggered, hoping to incapacitate, weaken, or even kill some of the enemies before sending my fighters in.

I have gotta be missing something, because these battles really aren't very fun. I don't understand how you could get through these without knowing in advance what you're facing and/or using cheesy tactics. Maybe I need to make more use of potions, but you only have three slots per character, so again, you'd need to know what you're getting into ahead of time and prepare the right potions before.

I did really enjoy this game up until the end of Chapter 5, but it's a bit of a drag now. I wanted to just get it over with, but decided to do some of the expansion content and see if I can't level up a bit doing that.

I've never been a fan of real time combat in RPGs. Maybe its just that Baldur's Gate sucks.

newtmonkey wrote on 2022-09-19, 18:04:

I have gotta be missing something, because these battles really aren't very fun. I don't understand how you could get through these without a mixture of knowing in advance what you're facing, and/or using cheesy tactics. Maybe I need to make more use of potions, but you only have three slots per character, so again, you'd need to know what you're getting into ahead of time and prepare the right potions before.

Shagittarius wrote on 2022-09-19, 18:12:

I've never been a fan of real time combat in RPGs. Maybe its just that Baldur's Gate sucks.

I played BG again a few years ago. There were a few really punishing mage battles. The thing about the AD&D ruleset these are based on, and faithfully adapted into Infinity Engine games, is that hitting a wizard has a chance to disrupt their casting. This makes darts your friend, because you can throw them so fast. Until you get a handle on them, your best option is to have at least 2 characters spam darts at them. Even then, they can be very obnoxious and take a few tries. The worst of them I remember was at the end of Chapter 4. Largely because he automatically puts up an anti-missile field that can't be prevented, really ruining my whole darts strategy.

If you have any summons, those can be great at disrupting casters as well. Due both to the fact that they tend to attract fire, and they also contribute to interruptions.

It's easy to blame the real time combat for this, but battles against power enemy casters was a sore spot for me in the few Gold Box games I dabbled in as well. I think it's more an effect of magic in old school Dungeons & Dragons being really wild and unbalanced. Not so bad when a GM might be pulling his punches. Kind of rough with a computer just dispassionately following the rules as Gygax wrote them.

The Gold Box games I've played/completed definitely had some annoying enemy casters (priests casting Hold Person were infuriating in Curse of the Azure Bonds), but I felt like they sort of tipped things in your favor. I found I often got initiative even without particularly high DEX, which let me disrupt many enemy spell casters before they could do anything.

In BG, I never seem to get initiative (or maybe the game is just more accurate to the rules). I do know that you can disrupt spellcasters by hitting them, and maybe getting some bows and arrows for my frontline would help pin spellcasters down while I work on getting buffing/debuffing spells off. It just seems like the moment I walk into the room, I am immediately getting charmed/confused and pelted with lightning bolts, etc. before I can really do anything.

I also want to stress that this has only really been a problem from the end of the Chapter 5, which seems like a massive difficulty spike. Up to that point, I felt the game was really pretty fair. I did have trouble here and there with some of the "boss" battles in earlier chapters, but was able to beat them after a couple of reloads and changing tactics a bit (though the mage in Chapter 4 was very annoying). Beginning from the end of Chapter 5, it seems like every "boss" battle is just trial and error. I know you can send a hidden thief out to scout ahead, but even that's a bit annoying, since you can't both hide and search for traps at the same time (and there are a LOT of traps in these areas). Unless you are just advancing the thief inch by inch, there's a good chance of triggering a boss battle. I guess you could hide the thief and cast Invisibility on him/her.

Return to Monkey Island, of course 😜

Isn't everyone? If not, Le Chuck is mightily displeased.

NovaCN wrote on 2022-09-18, 12:24:

RiverBoa wrote on 2022-09-17, 18:54:

I've been playing through some of the FMV games that span multiple disks. I'm working on the Tsunami games now, Silent Steel and Flash Traffic.

I've only ever played FMV games via Steam/GOG releases or by ripping the CDs into iso files. I can't imagine how maddening it must be to play them if you have to physically swap discs.

I'm using Daemon Tools in Windows and just swapping ISOs off PCMCIA storage on an 8 GB CF. It works well.

Busy week of attending the concerts on PSO2 (for a limited time only.)

Since they're rare and as a "test", people are recording them. Maybe you can spot me on some of those 😀

newtmonkey wrote on 2022-09-19, 18:46:

The Gold Box games I've played/completed definitely had some annoying enemy casters (priests casting Hold Person were infuriating in Curse of the Azure Bonds), but I felt like they sort of tipped things in your favor. I found I often got initiative even without particularly high DEX, which let me disrupt many enemy spell casters before they could do anything.

I only played Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds so far, but I distinctly remember the final boss for one of them would always go first, always cast lightning at me, and more often than not instantly kill 3 out of 6 of my characters from full health. I mostly just had to keep retrying that battle until RNG favored me and only killed 1 character before I could act.

I'm actually remembering now exactly how much I cheesed Baldur's Gate as a kid. I didn't have the chops for strategic thinking, and Baldur's Gate was only my second RPG after Might & Magic VI. So I mostly saves scummed, and threw fireballs into the fog of war where I knew enemies were. So. Many. Fireballs.

I just beat Chapter 5 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 last night. I felt like the game was beginning to drag, but holy shit did it just suck me back in. I'm not usually one for 2 hours straight of cutscenes in my games, but this had me on the edge of my seat. May have shed a tear in a few scenes. I'd say more, but it would be heavily spoiler laden, so I'll abstain.

Namrok wrote on 2022-09-20, 13:25:

I just beat Chapter 5 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 last night. I felt like the game was beginning to drag, but holy shit did it just suck me back in. I'm not usually one for 2 hours straight of cutscenes in my games, but this had me on the edge of my seat. May have shed a tear in a few scenes. I'd say more, but it would be heavily spoiler laden, so I'll abstain.

I'm still on the fence about that game. I'm not as far in as you, so it's heartening to hear that things pick up.

Don't get me wrong, the game is an outstanding creation, that's plain to see. I'm just really not used to this "half game, half movie/anime series" type of experience.

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-09-20, 19:35:

Namrok wrote on 2022-09-20, 13:25:

I just beat Chapter 5 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 last night. I felt like the game was beginning to drag, but holy shit did it just suck me back in. I'm not usually one for 2 hours straight of cutscenes in my games, but this had me on the edge of my seat. May have shed a tear in a few scenes. I'd say more, but it would be heavily spoiler laden, so I'll abstain.

I'm still on the fence about that game. I'm not as far in as you, so it's heartening to hear that things pick up.

Don't get me wrong, the game is an outstanding creation, that's plain to see. I'm just really not used to this "half game, half movie/anime series" type of experience.

I'm constantly of two minds with Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I think the characters and story are the best yet.

I'm marginally less impressed with the actual world construction. Or am I? XC1 had some real high points and low points in world design. XC2 only occasionally felt as expansive as XC1. XC3 feels more consistently expansive and interesting. But I'm not sure it's high points quite hit the highs of XC1 or XC2, even if it's lows aren't as low either.

I had high hopes for it's job system. Any RPG with a job system is usually the better for it. But it's so artificially constraining I'm really just not feeling it.

On the one hand, most of the pointless fetch quests are gone. Yay! On the other hand, they are mostly replaced by long sequences of just talking to different NPCs. Makes me feel like the whole sequence could have just been a single cutscene. Walking from point A to point B and hitting the A button, then walking to point C and doing it again isn't a vast improvement on a fetch quest. At least fetch quests give the combat some extra meaning.

The combat IMHO is way better than XC2. I'm not sure it's as good as XC1. But it's mostly completely unnecessary. I'm not sure where it keeps coming from, but I constantly have enough bonus XP such that I only ever have to fight mandatory bosses. I used a ton of it to jump from like, level 20 to 30, and since then I've tried to use as little as possible. Makes combat even more pointless than it already is.

The unique monsters are fun. They even introduce a job that learns powers from them, encouraging you to hunt them.

I'm curious how I'll feel by the end, but right now XC3 feels like a game where they tried to smooth over as much as possible in the name of "accessibility", and forgot to actually replace it with, you know, more game. When I finished XC2, I was excited to jump into a NG+. Somehow I don't see myself doing that with XC3. The story is still the best of the bunch though, if that's a thing you prioritize.

Namrok wrote on 2022-09-20, 13:25:

I only played Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds so far, but I distinctly remember the final boss for one of them would always go first, always cast lightning at me, and more often than not instantly kill 3 out of 6 of my characters from full health. I mostly just had to keep retrying that battle until RNG favored me and only killed 1 character before I could act.

This was definitely CotAB, because I had the same exact experience! 😀 I think initiative plays a very heavy role in that one, and my best "legit" attempt was when my fighter/thief (with cloak of invisibility) went first in the round, and I carefully sent him over to attack the boss and prevent him from casting. It went okay at first, but soon got overwhelmed by all the high level priests wiping out the rest of the party. Maybe some clever use of potions, scrolls, and wands might have helped.

I ended up resorting to using the Dust of Disappearance, which makes the entire battle trivial. It's not "cheating" per se, since you find that item by just following the plot and searching around normally, but it sure did feel like it!

---

Baldur's Gate (PC)
I was initially going to skip most or all of the expansion content, since I started to get annoyed with the combat from the end of Chapter 5. However, I read that having the expansion installed makes the final battle harder in some ways (under the assumption that you would be of a higher level after the expansion content), so I decided to give it a try and have been really enjoying it! I did the ice cave area without much trouble, and am working on Durlag's Tower now. I've finished exploring the basement, upper levels, and outdoor area, and just started the lower levels.

It's a great dungeon, but I also feel that the BG engine suffers a bit in cramped quarters. It's harder to manage combat (especially if you are running a six-person party) in narrow confines, and pathfinding becomes quite an issue. My solution for now is to first send my thief on her own finding and disabling traps, with the rest of the party waiting around the stairs. If she finds any enemies, she runs back to the stairs, and then I move my frontline (fighter, paladin, cleric) forward and wait for the enemy. This has been working pretty well throughout the expansion. I'll sometimes even just send out my fighter and paladin alone with appropriate buffs to tackle certain encounters (basilisks on the roof, for instance).

I've also studied a bit more about spells, and found some useful ones. I still use Web, Stinking Cloud, and Fireball, but also have started making a lot of use of Blind. I've also been treating my cleric more like a spellcaster and less like a fighter; she's a pretty poor fighter at this point in the game, and it seems better to have her stand back and support my front line.

One goal before the endgame is to save up enough gold to buy a set of full plate armor for my paladin, to replace his plate+1. The combination of full plate plus a ring of protection should give him a lower AC by one point, and I think every point helps now.

newtmonkey wrote on 2022-09-21, 01:04:

Baldur's Gate (PC)
I was initially going to skip most or all of the expansion content, since I started to get annoyed with the combat from the end of Chapter 5. However, I read that having the expansion installed makes the final battle harder in some ways (under the assumption that you would be of a higher level after the expansion content), so I decided to give it a try and have been really enjoying it! I did the ice cave area without much trouble, and am working on Durlag's Tower now. I've finished exploring the basement, upper levels, and outdoor area, and just started the lower levels.

Here's a get out of jail -card for annoyingly tough fights: BG1 has no limit on summons. If you've tried some summon spell you most likely thought it was pretty underwhelming... but imagine what happens if you fill the screen with summons using spells and Wand of Monster Summoning and then buff them up with haste? It was so OP they added a summon limit to BG2. It can be somewhat finicky though, the amount of summons and what they are are at RNG's mercy.

newtmonkey wrote on 2022-09-21, 01:04:

It's a great dungeon, but I also feel that the BG engine suffers a bit in cramped quarters. It's harder to manage combat (especially if you are running a six-person party) in narrow confines, and pathfinding becomes quite an issue.

Very know problem of the infinity engine, every game that uses it has pathfinding issues.

Also hats off if you play the 100h+ long BG1 + expansion all the way through with the excruciatingly slow walking speed the original has, something I never could do.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-09-21, 06:05:

Here's a get out of jail -card for annoyingly tough fights: BG1 has no limit on summons. If you've tried some summon spell you most likely thought it was pretty underwhelming... but imagine what happens if you fill the screen with summons using spells and Wand of Monster Summoning and then buff them up with haste? It was so OP they added a summon limit to BG2. It can be somewhat finicky though, the amount of summons and what they are are at RNG's mercy.

Nice! Thanks, I will check summoning out... I've never even tried it.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-09-21, 06:05:

Also hats off if you play the 100h+ long BG1 + expansion all the way through with the excruciatingly slow walking speed the original has, something I never could do.

I am playing the original! I just have Durlag's Tower lower levels, that Werewolf quest (might skip this), and the rest of Chapter 7 to complete. GOG Galaxy reports just under 70 hours so far, but I skipped a lot of optional stuff, including most wilderness areas unreleated to the plot, and much of Baldur's Gate itself 🤣.

Baldur's Gate (PC)
Durlag's Tower is pretty difficult! It ended up taking me 3-4 hours to clear the first sublevel, including the bosses, which were rage-inducing. I tried fighting them legit first, but I couldn't even react to them because they were all hasted the moment the encounter was triggered; they just ran straight at me and were slaying my party left and right within seconds. I reloaded, buffed up the entire party (haste, bless, aid, chant, protection from evil), but even then they would kill me in 5-10 seconds.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up having to cheese them. I decided to try drawing them out one at a time, and then saving each time I killed one or two. This worked, but even then it was an exercise in frustration. I simply could not defeat Pride (fighter) before killing Love (mage), because the spells Love would cast on Pride made him simply impossible to beat. It's very difficult to get only Love to follow you, so I had to try a few times to get it just right.

I don't feel great about cheesing the battle like that, but there was simply no legit way for me to stand toe-to-toe with even two at a time, never mind four. I'm especially disappointed, because I was having a blast exploring the level and solving the puzzles, but then the boss fight just reminded me of everything I don't like about this game. I am really dreading the endgame.

[EDIT] That boss battle left me in a foul mood, so I decided to explore the second sublevel a bit. This is more like it! Some nice puzzles, combat wasn't too hard, and no crazy boss fight at the end. I was able to get through the whole level (completely explored) in one go.

Been playing Return to Monkey Island. Beat it and going through to collect some of the remainders. Quite the ode to the series, considering it's the last one.

RiverBoa wrote on 2022-09-21, 22:02:

Been playing Return to Monkey Island. Beat it and going through to collect some of the remainders. Quite the ode to the series, considering it's the last one.

Eh who said it's the last one?

I thought this was the conclusion, unless you’ve heard differently.

That may be the intention, but time will tell, ultimately. Really good IP's are rarely allowed to fully die. Everyone's familiar with the "band X's umpteenth farewell tour" meme.