infiniteclouds wrote on 2020-06-01, 06:18:

Loved Arena as well -- feel like it's unappreciated. I played it for the first time around 2005 or so...and after I had played Morrowind already, but before Daggerfall. Had a blast. I did notice the issue with the speed... and it seemed very difficult (wasn't aware of the +/- speed at the time) to get any kind of reasonable balance between smooth movement and NPC animations that were the proper speed. Either standing in the middle of a populated town square and turning in circles would be a bit choppy but animations were correct or it would be smooth and they would be too fast. I'm glad they had patched in a slowdown tool but I wish many of these games had some sort of framerate cap for animations as well.

Glad to see another Arena fan on here! I also feel it is unappreciated; I get the feeling that even among Daggerfall fans Arena is seen as "proto-Daggerfall" and not worth playing on its own merits.

I wish Arena had a framerate cap also, but I remember playing it on my 486/50 (maybe 66) back in the day and it ran like you said above ("a bit choppy but animations were correct"), so I am pretty sure that this is just how the game plays. Smooth movement with correct animations would be the ideal, but I don't think it's possible without some kind of source port or something.

I remember not being able to get into Arena at all back in the day, then I never tried again. I was expecting something like Ultima Underworld (for whatever reason) and it felt nothing similar..

Arena is just... way too buggy for me to even try playing, especially since Hand-to-hand apparently crashes and corrupts the game... for whatever reason.

Daggerfall's last patch + all the third party hacks is somehow incredibly more stable than Arena.

Strange, I never had any crashes in Arena at all -- I played the 1.6 cd version

I've started playing Pillars of Eternity. It's by Obsidian, and mimics the Infinity Engine (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale , etc:) to a large extent. That makes the game a somewhat familiar affair, although I can not say that the main quest or the world has captured me in the way I thought it would. I am still halfway throught he first Act (Level 5) so it may pick up, we will see.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-02, 08:05:

I've started playing Pillars of Eternity. It's by Obsidian, and mimics the Infinity Engine (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale , etc:) to a large extent. That makes the game a somewhat familiar affair, although I can not say that the main quest or the world has captured me in the way I thought it would. I am still halfway throught he first Act (Level 5) so it may pick up, we will see.

The first Pillars of Eternity is very nice, the second one however is a flop. Also don't bother with the DLCs, they just feel like endless grind and are completely anticlimactic.

ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-06-02, 11:27:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-02, 08:05:

I've started playing Pillars of Eternity. It's by Obsidian, and mimics the Infinity Engine (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale , etc:) to a large extent. That makes the game a somewhat familiar affair, although I can not say that the main quest or the world has captured me in the way I thought it would. I am still halfway throught he first Act (Level 5) so it may pick up, we will see.

The first Pillars of Eternity is very nice, the second one however is a flop. Also don't bother with the DLCs, they just feel like endless grind and are completely anticlimactic.

That's disappointing -- I lost interest in PoE 1 after the first major city questline -- up to that point it felt like none of my actions had any significant consequence whatsoever or were even noted upon by NPCs. This was a highlight of Obsidian's Fallout NV so seeing this not in play in a game with retro-style graphics was a letdown. A shame hearing that PoE2 was even worse.

newtmonkey wrote on 2020-06-01, 03:51:

@DracoNihil I am pretty certain the systems are the same for both games, though I haven't played Daggerfall in years. You can c […]
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@DracoNihil
I am pretty certain the systems are the same for both games, though I haven't played Daggerfall in years. You can click on the doors of buildings to identify them (add them to the automap) in Arena, but the towns are so massive it would be a waste of time imo. Better to ask directions, like in real life!

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Last night I played:
Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World

As a bit of a lead up to this, I had been a bit concerned about how to organize my maps and notes for RPGs. My previous system has been to buy a bunch of small notebooks, and just devote a single notebook to each game, with each page in the notebook devoted to a particular town or dungeon or whatever in that game. However, I also needed to use graph paper for mapping dungeons, so it was getting a bit messy (it's also annoying to correct mapping errors).

I decided to go digital with my notes, but didn't like the idea of using another computer or tablet to do this, as I wanted to just be able to write notes and draw maps freehand, like I would on actual paper (I do have a touch pen for my Windows tablet, but it is not accurate enough for freehand writing/drawing).

Therefore, after much research, I ended up getting a Mobiscribe device. This is an eInk device like the Kindle but has much faster response so that you can write/draw naturally on it—designed specifically for note-taking, actually. Mobiscribe luckily allows you to create custom templates/backgrounds for documents, so I scanned the blank grid map from the M&M2 manual and made a nice 16x16 grid background. Another nice feature is that you can assign individual tags to each page, which makes searching through pages very quick; for example, I set tags for each map including its coordinates on the overall map (A1, C2, etc.) and the type of map (Town, Surface, etc.). This works out really nicely! I also have a few pages at the end of the document for just general note-taking.

I spent a large portion of last night getting used to the device, converting the maps I had already made, and generally coming up with a mapping and note-taking format that would work well for M&M2. Once I settled on a format that worked, I started exploring a bit. I think I am gonna enjoy this game even more than I did M&M1 (which is in my top 10 games of all time). The EGA artwork is nice, but what I am really enjoying is the loot... it seems like you are getting some kind of equipment upgrade nearly every battle, and taking a tour of all the towns in the game showed me that I'll have plenty of stuff to spend gold on for some time. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same formula as M&M1: a massive open world filled to the brim with fun content and meaningful exploration.

I've Might and Magic 1 through 3 so far. I'm not sure if you're a fan of 3-5 as they went in a very different direction with the gameplay but the world-building and kinds of weird stuff that seem to be Might & Magic trademarks are still there at least in Isles of Terra. I enjoyed all of them though the first two especially were grindy. I was only an infant when it was released in '86 but from what I've seen I'm not sure there was a more epic RPG when Might & Magic 1 was released.

One interesting thing I noticed with MM2 Gates to Another World is that the MCGA mode is almost identical to EGA but gives you flesh colored humans instead of the purple ones in EGA.

Sim Tower ....

I've been in a right muddle with my gaming and have bought->returned 2 games on Steam in the last week. Black Mesa looked to be a fine effort but meh, if I'm going to play Half Life then it might as well be the original. And for some reason I want to like survival games despite not really liking them at all historically. I tried Green Hell after watching a few reviews - there was no way to turn off the whiny voice acting or to ignore the rediculous plot of the single player mode so no dice. Now I've bought myself Stranded Deep - great setting and the environment is done amazingly well, particularly the ocean. My fear of sharks might be the deal breaker here - they're everywhere!

Playing Prey 2017.

Planning on playing some Sim Safari with my son later.

infiniteclouds wrote on 2020-06-03, 04:00:

I've Might and Magic 1 through 3 so far. I'm not sure if you're a fan of 3-5 as they went in a very different direction with the gameplay but the world-building and kinds of weird stuff that seem to be Might & Magic trademarks are still there at least in Isles of Terra. I enjoyed all of them though the first two especially were grindy. I was only an infant when it was released in '86 but from what I've seen I'm not sure there was a more epic RPG when Might & Magic 1 was released.

One interesting thing I noticed with MM2 Gates to Another World is that the MCGA mode is almost identical to EGA but gives you flesh colored humans instead of the purple ones in EGA.

I have played MM3 extensively (but did not finish it) and enjoyed what I played. In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to put it on hold and play through MM1 and MM2 first!

How can MM2 be run in MCGA mode? Is it a command line option? The GOG version (like always...) doesn't include any setup utilities, etc.
[edit] It's a command line option! You're 100% right, mcga mode ditches the purple skin! Looks much nicer.

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Got some quality gaming time in today:

Heretic
It was interesting to revisit this on an actual DOS machine. I dialed it down to "Bringest Them Oneth" difficulty this time and I feel the game plays much better at this level (in contrast with Doom/Doom2, which plays just right on Ultra-Violence). The music is phenomenal on Sound Canvas, but I dislike how it doesn't loop cleanly. My impressions from a few years back still stand; it's a high quality DOOM total conversion with some very nice levels.

Might and Magic II
I remember the dungeons being very deadly in M&M1, so I decided to explore the outside areas a bit first in M&M2. Big mistake! You are generally safe sticking to roads, but exploring offroad can be very dangerous. I decided to stick with the town caverns for now, so started exploring the cavern under Sandsobar. Some pretty tough enemies in there, but was able to explore about half of it without much problem before I decided to quit while ahead and return to town to save.

Crystal Caves
Here's a fun blast from the past for me. It was a lot of fun revisiting this one, some very fun levels here. I found it less frustrating than the similar Secret Agent also from Apogee.

Leisure Suit Larry (AGI)
Partially because I wanted to enjoy the Tandy music through the CVX4. I've tried to play and complete this game many times over the years, but I'm hopeless when it comes to point and click adventures. I never save in this game, I almost play it like an arcade game and just start from the beginning. I know it's a very short game if you know what to do, so I'm happy to just start from the beginning and make a little more progress each time. This time around, I made a tiny bit of progress but then got killed trying to get something I'm sure I need; next time I'll look around and see if I can find anything to get it.

Sorry for the double post!

Blood
FINALLY got Sound Canvas music working on this. I discovered that my One Unit Whole Blood CD is indeed working, it just does not allow you to install the game in DOS (?????). I had to install the game in Windows and then copy over the installation folder to my DOS machine.

However, I couldn't get external MIDI to work; it was like the game was playing on the wrong channels or something, with only 1-3 channels being used at a time. I tried the GOG version as well, but same problem. This is really bizarre to me. I'm guessing it's one of two things: either One Unit Whole Blood works fine with MIDI music in Windows but not DOS for some reason, or people just didn't notice due to the redbook audio soundtrack.

Luckily, there is a patch here on Vogons to address this, though the included patch tool doesn't seem to work correctly. I was able to use the Lunar patching tool to get it working.

I've completed Blood several times; back in the day when One Unit Whole Blood was first released, then again with the GOG release, and most recently with the Blood: Fresh Supply release on Steam. It is definitely one of my most favorite games of all time, due to so many factors including probably the best level design in a FPS ever, fun weapons, a much better "feel" than Duke 3D imo, great atmosphere (including a wonderful soundtrack, whether redbook or MIDI), fantastic enemies all with their own unique attacks, and SO MUCH CONTENT.

It is well-known that the only difficulty level that is not bugged is "lightly broiled," as all other difficulty levels swap enemy damage scaling when you load a saved game (i.e. difficulty level 1 will use difficulty level 5 scaling if you load a game!). This is partly why Blood has such a reputation as a brutally hard game. The other reason why it's seen as very difficult is the many hit-scanning cultists placed around corners. The game cannot be played like Doom or even Duke 3D, especially early on when you only have the flare gun and dynamite. I don't think any other FPS demands that you make use of all of your weapons (and their alternate fire modes) as consistently as Blood. You almost have to play it like a survival horror game during the first couple levels of each episode, and you definitely have to throw dynamite around a A LOT of corners to take out cultists.

None of the source ports are 100% accurate (some source ports have lighting/brightness issues, while others have strange enemy behaviors [for example, overly accurate cultists in Blood: Fresh Supply), so Blood is definitely one game that should be experienced on actual hardware imo.

I've always wanted to like Blood without success - sounds like I should have done some reading first! The MIDI song in the setup program is epic, and one of the songs I always try when testing out a new sound font or MIDI device 👍

@badmojo
If you ever have a solid block of free time, by all means give it another shot! Dynamite is plentiful (you will almost never run out), so it doesn't hurt to throw a bundle around every corner. The alternate fire mode is great for this, as it lights a timer fuse and allows dynamite to bounce off walls.

badmojo wrote on 2020-06-05, 04:54:

I've always wanted to like Blood without success - sounds like I should have done some reading first! The MIDI song in the setup program is epic, and one of the songs I always try when testing out a new sound font or MIDI device 👍

I never managed to get into Blood either, it's in a strange place for me in terms of immersion.. Taking itself too seriously while being a bit too over the top. I can get into Duke3D and Shadow Wariior, but Blood just rubs me the wrong way. I think Rise of the Triad does Blood's schtick a lot better, but that's just me.

newtmonkey wrote on 2020-06-05, 03:54:

None of the source ports are 100% accurate (some source ports have lighting/brightness issues, while others have strange enemy behaviors [for example, overly accurate cultists in Blood: Fresh Supply), so Blood is definitely one game that should be experienced on actual hardware imo.

I'm, not entirely sure where you're getting at with this statement. Blood always had aimbot hitscan enemies since v1.00 (which you can only get through second hand means) and not even the patch required to use Plasma Pak changes this behaviour.

Arguably the most inaccurate thing about "Fresh Supply" is that it doesn't actually run on the Build Engine, let alone a decompiled/reverse-engineered BLOOD.EXE engine. You can't even get smashed by doors like you can in the original BLOOD.EXE or using NBlood with eduke32. The rendering is also highly different, due to how KEX works.

--
On another subject with Blood; it's also worth a mention the work-in-progress soundtrack from the leaked alpha is way more interesting than the final game's music. The CD-Audio tracks in the final version only make sense for cutscenes or machinima usage, honestly. I always felt they were out of place for in-game usage.

The cultists react quicker (and since they are hit-scan it makes them seem "more accurate") in Fresh Supply compared with One Unit Whole Blood on Lightly Broiled, unless you go in and reduce the cultist accuracy setting using the custom difficulty level option. The final patch improved things, but it's still not 100% true to the original game. I made it through Fresh Supply from start to end including all episodes on LB and it was slightly (but noticeably) more difficult than One Unit Whole Blood (or even the other recreations).

Generally I think people should actually go with the "Made to Order" mode that the KEX based "Blood: Fresh Supply" gives players, Monolith never really cared to properly balance the difficulty settings in the original, so being able to specifically tailor everything a-la 007 mode from Goldeneye64 makes the game a lot more accessible.

Still, I managed to beat the entire thing on "Extra Crispy" with the original v1.00 release not offered by GOG. I wouldn't recommend it though, but I'm the kind of person who finds most FPS games extremely easy even on the supposed "hardest difficulty".