that is the question.

I bought this game when it first came out, but was too involved in Dark Age of Camelot at the time. It wasn't until I got sick and tired of DAoC that I finally started playing this game a few weeks ago.

Well I patched it. Never having played it unpatched, I thought I needed to patch it to get into certain areas or whatever.

Now I read about how pickpocket skill has been ruined in the patched version.

So what is the true advantage to the patch? Is the game fully playable without it?

I did the patch when it came out and played the game almost all the way through. Then I found out that I didn't intall the patch right so I was not able to get into the last segment (Ascension Peak). I had no troubles at all before or after I installed the patch correctly.

Good luck

I'd recommend you download the patch and have a read through the README text, then you can decide if you want all those fixes or not. Personally speaking, PPing is not a big thing for me, so I have no problem at all with the changes, makes it more realistic in my mind.

[img]smile.gif[/img]

Simply put: Yes, you need the patch. The game was released with a major flaw that prevented players from reaching the Ascension Peak section (merely the endgame ;) ). Without the patch, you can't finish.

Of course, if you want to take advantage of easy larceny, you don't have to install the patch until you're ready for the Peak.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

Install the 1.00B patch. This way you take care of the Ascension Peak bug and you can still pickpocket.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Zanthia:
Install the 1.00B patch. This way you take care of the Ascension Peak bug and you can still pickpocket.<hr></blockquote>

This will get you into ascension peak, but once you're there another bug will kick your butt in quite a few fights. There is a bug with the Toxic cloud spell that causes the poison effect to be permanent and lvl 255. In other words you die and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

The first time I played through, I didn't realize that this was a bug that was fixed in the final patch and had to reload over and over again in fights until the enemy didn't cast the spell and it took forever.

I used the full patch in game two, and ascension peak was sooo much easier since I wasn't getting instsa killed by every monster with toxic cloud in their spellbook. I'd vote for using it. There aren't any items in the game that can be pickpocketed, that can't be gotten in other ways.

My thanks to all of you. A decision has been reached. I will keep the game as it is. I really do not want to restart just to see what I can pickpocket. If I should ever take a party to completing this game, and I still have time to kill, then I might try the unpatched version.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Zanthia:
Install the 1.00B patch. This way you take care of the Ascension Peak bug and you can still pickpocket.<hr></blockquote>

Im with you Zanthia - this one is patch 2, and I had no problems whatsoever.

From memory

Patch 1 is the Ascension peak patch (1.00a)

Patch 2 is the Mook Hologram fix and the Ascension Peak patch (1.00b)

Patch 3 has the huge stuff up with condition spells like toxic cloud

Patch 4 is stable but limits (not totally screws up) pickpocketing.

I ran patch 1.00b - the only drawback that I know of is that there is a resistance wrap bug. The way I understand it works is that if I loaded my level 25 bishop with say every fire resistant article and spell he could carry, if I push him past about 175% resistance he goes back to 1%. Same seems to happen to initiative with max speed, high snakespeed, haste spell - my samurai dropped back to 1 swing per round (no it wasn't an encumberance problem ;) ).

The "wrap-around" problem is in the original, unpatched game (as I know, since that's what I have at the moment). Came as a very nasty surprise in Rapax Castle, when one of my bishops took a lot more damage from magic missiles than I was expecting.

However, the toxic cloud problem doesn't exist with the Ascension Peak only patch (I had that last time).

<center>Nightowl2</center>

Can you play part way through without the patch and then apply it?

I.e. does it update whatever save games you have at the time?