Things you hate about W&W

[Wutang]

sorry for the rant but after countless drownings and frustrations at the High Bridge in Dragonspire, I must say that W&W is starting to get on my nerves.

1)Arcade factor - I was never really good at quick keyboard strokes or reflexes so I never liked any aspect in RPG games where you have to hit "X, Y, or Z buttons" so many times to get the cheese in order to progress further in game. IMHO, this is an annoying roadblock. In W&W fighting water currents or by jumping over broken wooden bridges for me doesn't cut it

2)Unable to move due to size of lead character - This is probably the 2nd most annoying factor of this game. You'd think you're party would be smart enough to get through doorways, holes regardless of who was in the lead.
Having to walk backwards in certain parts just to get past a point is just absurd.

3)Allow mistakes to be more easily recoverable. Fallen down into a lava river after trying to jump across a broken bridge with no way out is just aggravating. At least have a secret way of getting out and maybe fighting tougher mobs along the way to escape.

[ 03-09-2003, 03:46 PM: Message edited by: Wutang ]

[bsftcs]

Actually I believe the mistakes are easily recoverable. As to the lave issue (I suppose you are referring to the "Burning Cavern" in the Stout Mines) - one can either swim to the shore very fast, cast the vanish spell, or cast the lavawalk spell. In other words plenty of opportunities. Of course that would be a slight problem if your party did not include a sufficient spellcaster. But when one sees lava or any other dangerous spot for that matter one can always plan a strategy for dealing with the matter - such as walking back to town buying a couple of relevant scrolls.

I think that it is one of the really wonderful aspects of this game that one sometimes really has to ponder the next move. So I am sorry - but I have to disagree with you on that one.

And yes - swimming against the current can be quite irritating.

[Mygrayne]

I'm irritated by the Identify process. It would be a lot easier if you just knew what you're picking up once your level is high enough. There's just too many clicks involved, when it could have been streamlined very easily. I've noticed that when I pick up something stackable that I already have at least one already identified in my pack, then I do know what it is right away. So they did address this issue to a small degree, but didn't take it far enough.

[tater]

Wutang, if you're talking about the broken bridge in the Dragonspire, you can climb back out. There's a couple of those pillars the bridge sections are on that are climable. I forget which ones. Sometimes you have to look up and either run or hit the jump key to pop onto the top of the pillar when you get up there.

I'm with you on the swimming though, and the fitting through holes. Because of a quirk of my new graphics card, I can't get a party through the underwater hole after you jump of the bridge leading to Erasthmedor's cavern. Not even with a ratling in the lead. They just won't fit. If I don't have a teleport or call of home spell to get out, I'm permanently trapped in that section. I'd have been seriously screwed when I discovered that if it weren't for my habit of keeping a backup save outside the entrance to a dungeon I'm about to enter as well as a regular save inside it. I only had to redo the Spire, not start a new game.

What I hate is that you can only have one portal for each map. It would be nice if you could have more, maybe one for each character who can cast their own. I'd like to be able to select where call of home takes me too. It's a pain to have to run back to someplace you've long since passed, because you decide to make another role change or you forgot to get a quest before you went there or something and you have long since moved the portal. It can be a long walk. Wouldn't hurt to have a way to track down the horse or the ship either. I keep forgetting where I left them.

[Radek]

Here are my complaints:
1. Unability to rest. This forces you to travel in the night when you see nothing. I consider it a sign of wisdom not to enter dangerous areas in the night and wait for daylight when you can see problems hasting to meet you.
2. Losing quests "on fly". An example: killing Xydusa is the fourth Temple quest. But you will meet Xydusa even if you do not have the quest and, most likely, you will fight her and kill her. Doing this = losing the ability to gain the quest = retarding your party in the Temple ranks.
3. Losing opporunities to train. When you are training in the guilds, you have to return after every leveling up and train. Otherwise, you are losing the right to train for this leveling up.
4. Unability to set a base somewhere. I mean a place where you can store your items. We have to bypass the unability by keepong "mules" in the inn. Ability to set a base should be a standard feature of any good CRPG because you will always have more useful items than you need for a current mission. You should have a possibility to store your temporary unneeded equipment somewhere.

On the other hand, I cannot agree with some complaints above.
1. The Arcade factor. Right, W&W isn't Prince of Persia. Or, rather, it should not be. But - the worse "arcade" is the drawbridge puzzle in the Skull Castle. I think the other "arcades" can be survived easily.
2. Falling into lava. This cannot be considered a flaw. Lava is aways a dangerous place. You should make some preparations - and you can do it (Lavawalk) - and/or you should save the game and move carefully.
3. ID Item. In fact, I would agree and not only for W&W. I consider the ID Item harassment a nonsense. But it is a common harassment in any game. I think the ID Item in W&W belongs to the most acceptable ID Item implementations. Compare with BG2 for example! Therefore, let us sigh: "oh, well, as usual..." and don't consider it a flaw.
4. The portals. I think we should be thankful that we have one portal on every map [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Wutang]

I actually have no problem surviving the lava using lavawalk, but it's the bridge in Dragonspire over the burning lava that caused me a lot of grief. I couldn't find a way to climb back up and ending up restarting the game over and over and over and over.

I tried climbing up all the pillars til I almost broke my keyboard

Wait? There are portals in the game?!?! I haven't found any yet. Where are the portals on the Wilderness maps? Just getting from one end of the map to the other end is a chore.

I decided not even to go back to Isha 'Nad since that would mean going back through Dragonspire again. Alas I don't have any of the portal spells yet.

Agreed that ID item could have been done better but it's not a big issue for me.

[Radek]

It is possible to climb the walls and bypass the lava. You can "traverse" the walls from one end of the path to the other end in both directions. At the end of your "traversing" you will have to jump. It needs a few attempts and to find the right place on the wall from where you can jump from the the wall to the continuation of the path. In general, "traversing" is less painful than jumping from a pillar to a pillar.
It is also possible to climb all pillars. Again you will need to jump at the top of the pillars.
Nevertheless, cast Lavawalk as well. It's lava that is down there [img]smile.gif[/img]

[WillowIX]

I wouldn´t go as far as hate. There are some dislikes in the game though.

1) Skills falling off the page and thus not available to spend points on.
2) Like Radek said, somewhere to rest and store items. Since most people obtain create portal and teleport, travelling fast is not a problem. Buying a house in a town would be nice. Resting in the wilderness would bypass the monk quest.
3) The AI is sometimes too "stupid" IMO. When you get a quest to seek out a thief I don´t expect the thief to come looking for me. If I was the thief I would run and hide making it more difficult to find me.

I like that movement depends on size. A giant Oomphaz should not be able to walk through openings made for pixies. It makes the game more real. Swimming against a current is the same. (I have never had any problems with that, nor have I ever had to swim backwards.)

[tater]

You have to make the portals yourself, using the create portal and teleport spells. The main reason you want to get higher level moon magic as soon as possible is those portals and the call of home spell. I consider that the only real use for the Bard class. You can become a Bard early in the game, fill out your moon magic spellbook, and change the Bard to something more useful.

[Gnarf]

1) Get stuck swimming through that tunnel in Serpent Temple.
2) Can't get that book in Serpent Temple.
3) Can't become Zen-Master.
...
[img]tongue.gif[/img] Yah, I know, it's all the same thing, but it's the only thing that has been really annoying (so far)...