Hello,
anyone ever play Natuk (or, Nahlakh)?! Fun game!

- Twilight

If you like turn-based tactical combat(ala Jagged Alliance) then you cannot do better than POWS, Natuk, Tower of Darkness and Nahlakh.If you cannot stand 2d old school graphics(circa ultima 6 or so) then nevermind but the gameplay/tactical combat in Tom proudfoot's games beats all hands down.

BTW, real-time combat sucks and cannot possibly be "tactical".Strategic maybe but never tactical.It is for people who like to keep their hands busier than their brains.

Hello,
yep, the whole Proudfoot product line is a lot of fun in the classical fantasy CRPG genre. They are great games for anyone who is into that stuff. Problem is, Tom's website no longer seems to exits. You can get Nahlakh from a gaming server, but it is Natuk that is truly the top game. What to do? I have the CD, but where can anyone else get it? I really am waiting for the mythical release of POWS (and Jagged Alliance 3), one day - I have faith, although it may not have a basis.

I agree about the turn-based aspect!! Nobodu controls the movements of 10 people in real-time. This leaves you with AI - either not good enough, or else so good that you have to ask, "Why role do I have?". With games like BG or Mechcommander, I would pass, submit order, run, pause... That was cool.
The BEST setup that I have come across was, believe it or not, in X-Com 3! You could play real-time, turn-based, or phased-turn. Really nice. BG is a also good with its pause features. The point is that these games, with their "action points" are not, nor should be, totally realistic. Just work within their world. The real-time only games don't give me a break - eventually the mad rush gets to be too damn annoying. I played BG1+/2+, Mechcommander, etc. like the turn-based ones (Fallout, Jagged, etc.), because that was how I could really be involved, rather than a spectator.

- Twilight

Nice yes, but unbalanced. An example:

4th final alien dimension building. On real time:

5 skeletoid come round a corner and take out two of my men with heavy disrupters before my tox-C darts can take them all

on turn based:

I come upon 5 skeletoids. shields take all the oppertunity fire, and then I pump darts into all of them til they die. Loot their shields , and Im inbetter shape than before I encountered them.

I played it. It was cool, I played the police campaign and the terrorist campaign till the last level.

I played it. It was cool, I played the police campaign and the terrorist campaign till the last level.</font>[/QUOTE]Hehe! I was a real meanie! After i'd throughly enjoyed the police campaign, i played the terrorist and booby trapped/C4ed everything and then mande the police come after me, blockaded and killed hoards of them ....... good for points, took hostages too *Angelic look*

Twilight:

POWS has been released for a while now(freeware thus far) and you can get it at www.proudft.com (from the main updated news page click on the "screw it" link).
Tom is no longer using the TomProudfoot.com addy...it is back to the old www.proudft.com/

I am one of those "gameplay rules all" types

Fallout Tacrics, the Ufo series (except enforcer), Jagged Alliance

Those are the best, best, best.

Actually since this is a "tactical" thread I have to say something about that.

I have played games like Baldur's Gate and NWN and the like via multiplayer.

I have tried many other genres multiplayer.

I have to say that Nothing comes close to a first person tactical shooter.

The last LAN party went something like this.

Picture this.....

************
Nine-thirty in the evening. The room is dark. My only companions: an icecold Heine and an the even colder barrel of a HK G3. The rain is streaming down my face as I try to distinguish between the howling wind and the trampling of enemy footsteps through the mud. Up ahead I can hear the roar of artillery shells exploding and to my left a friendly tank is making its way down the main road of this shelled town. I am covering the northern wall as my friend shouts from beside me...."There, over that hill!" I turn to see what he sees, but to no avail. He is looking through his sniper scope, which I do not have the luxury of...just then the richochet of enemy bullets fill my ears as the thundering roar of a Sniper Rifle next to me makes me flinch (Is this sound too loud or what, I think to myself). Just then I see them ... 15 no 20 ... whatever ... crouch down ... take quick aim .... RATATATATATATATATAT ... I empty 200 rounds of 7.62mm in the general direction of the shadows over the hill. Whilst reloading I try to see through the resultant cloud of gunpowder in front of me .... THWACCK. "I'm hit! Aren't you guys covering me????" I shout to my friends. "What are you talking about, you are the covering fire" comes the retort. Ahh well, I guess I'll have to .... wait "JOE...to your right coming from the tank's direction" "There's too many of them" he replies as he takes cover as a barrage of bullets ridle the rock behind him" "PETE, handgranade", I scream at the top of my lungs, trying to make myself audible above the artillery shell explosions that have locked on to our position. All hell has broken loose and I have stopped breathing ... I drill another volley of G3 fire towards the oncomming enemy from the hill, with more pleasing results. "GOT 5 of them" "C'mon lets get out of here" Pete flings a grenade hurriedly in the direction of the second lot as we run for better cover just over the hill, guns blazing away, as artillery shells smoke the air around us................CHOCK, CHOCK......CHOCK, CHOCK.....I did not see the russian behind that tree...my last remaining thoughts as I crumple into a pool of my own blood...

Reload......as I ask "Geez guys, what happened?"

That my friends is the first 40 seconds of a particular mission in Ghost Recon. Played with the right equipment, in the right spirit, with the right atmosphere, it becomes more than a tactical shooter, it becomes role-playing in the extreme. For a little while it becomes the only reality I know.

Hello,

first of all, Ishanda - I couldn't agree with you more!

Second, whacky: Proudfoot's back?!?!?!?!? I had even used search engines to find him! YAAAAAAAAAAA! POWS is out???!!! Gotta jump to that link!!!
Thanks!!!!

- Twilight

Heads up for Paradise Cracked this looks like a great tactical squad based rpg. (Q1 2003)