Well ... Dang (Spoilers)

[Wyvern]

Dang - by good games do you mean CRPGS? or others? As a genre CRPGs seem less popular or capable of making a nice profit than some of the other genre. I'm not paying as close attention to the game market as I had years ago. I don't play many new games anymore so my impressions on what is going on in the market may be distorted. Seems like the Shooters are easier and cheaper to develop and they certainly are very popular. Sometimes I'm just grateful that a game makes it to market at all. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Wyv

[Dang]

Whoa--been performing a little damage control in my apartment. It's raining hard here in Austin and has been flooding through the back wall. Not too bad, as far as flooding goes, and we got a wet vac to keep things under control.

Anyway, Wyvern, yes I am talking about CRPGS. I haven't played a shooter in years (the last one I actually owned was Doom II--that probably has something to do with my inability to perform jumps and the like very well), and after a several year computerless hiatus (the horror!), I've only had a computer for about a year now. Apart from some older, 90's games, I've played a real-time strategy called majesty and another (with a slice of RPG) superhero called Freedom Force. The RPGs I've played since then have been Wizardry 8, Ultima Ascension, and W&W, and in all three cases there have been statements that the game was rushed to market. Wizardry 8, like W&W, seems pretty whole, but there are obviously things that seem like they were truncated. Ultima Ascension--well, I imagine that it would still be in the workshop if Lord B has his way. Unlike many Ultima fans, I did enjoy it, and I felt like the story was pretty intact, if not the series-sweeping epic that had been promised for so many years.

But, yeah, it does seem like all the CRPGs I've played lately have said they were rushed. Of course, as far as I know the old-timey ones were rushed, too, but I just never heard about it.

One RPG that I did feel was pretty solid was Fallout 2, but that subject matter is certainly not for everybody, and it's not a Fantasy RPG, of course.

"Without any doubt it is the best flawed game I ever played and it's also a lot better than many games that were fully developed as planned."

That is true! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Wyvern]

How did you like Majesty, Dang? I tried it but gave up on it - as I recall it was very grid oriented, or am I thinking of some other but similar strategy? I still play Settlers from that genre, Settlers III to be precise. Settlers IV seemed to get too heavily into micromanaging everything and they left out the Amazons from III which are my favorite race to play - but I'm getting way off topic.

I've played so many CRPGs I'm sure I can't recall all their names at this point. Somewhere along the line it seemed to me as if the emphasis switched from really fun games to eye candy (that really is a terribly over simplification). Might be interesting to have an off topic thread wherein members can post their all time favorite CRPGS.

Wyv

[Dang]

I'm not sure what "grid-oriented" means, but if it means you move from space to space that's not Majesty. In Majesty you are the King (or Queen, I suppose--I think it shows a generic king) and you can control what buildings to construct, where to send your taxmen, and which heroes to recruit, but you can't directly control your heroes. So even if you want every hero in the land to attack that dragon that's burning down the castle, only the virtuous ones are going to try it unless you put a whopping bounty on the dragon's head. And then even the Level 1 thieves will probably commit suicide trying to claim the reward.

I played it all the way through except for the last 1 or 2 (I think 2, I think there was a final quest which if I finished, would unlock a humdinger where all the vanquished foes come back for one last try at the kingdom) missions, which I found very difficult. In a way it was entirely fresh and cool because you couldn't control the heroes and you had to work around that. In another way, once I had finished the missions I didn't feel a lot like replaying them.

There were definitely some moments of serendipity. There was one mission where several waves of monsters attacked the kingdom, and try as I might I just couldn't seem to build up tough enough heroes to survive the last wave, a bunch of stone golems led by a blind cyclops. Or rather, my heroes couldn't stop them from converging on and destroying the castle. Finally, after trying really hard to get some tough heroes, I saw the monsters appear on the edge of the map and thought, I'm never going to beat this level. So I left the game, opened a beer and watched tv. After about what seemed like 30 minutes I heard, "Your Majesty, we are victorious!" Without my bumbling attempts to interfere, the heroes had beat the monsters! That was a cool moment.

I know what you mean. It does seem like a lot of newer games sacrifice other facets for visual and audial delights.

I forgot another game I bought. Dungeon Seige. It was kind of fun but I got to some ice caves and just got tired of endlessly slaughtering wave after wave of suicidal monsters. It was billed as infinitely modifiable, but the basic campaign just seemed a little too open-ended to me. I may go back to it eventually, but not for a while.

An off topic thread might be a lot of fun.

_______

OK, I now have a questions pertaining to W&W. Do you have to get the serpent idol and have to read the Servant's book for your answers to be accepted by Xydusa? I had written them down the first time through, because I didn't realize the book was something I could take with me, (derf!) but though I'm pretty sure I'm getting the answers right, I keep getting "Infidel!" when the quiz is over. On the same note, would it be easier to get into that area with the serpent idol if I took less than 6 party members? This party is all human or elven, and even the shortest and skinniest members seem to get stuck and drown. Should I just take everybody back to Ishad N'ha (mis-spelled, I'm sure) and then have the Paladin make a solo run to get the idol?

And on another topic, is it OK to keep a rambling thread like this going, or should I start a new one for each new question I have?

[Bungleau]

LOL! Winning by staying out of the way [img]smile.gif[/img] That's a good one...

As for your W&W questions... You do not have to have the serpent idol or the book in order to answer the questions. All you have to do is to give the correct answers. But beware -- the order of the questions changes from game to game, so if you gave the answers in last game's order, they will probably be incorrect.

The "infidel" cries that I have gotten have been when I got into the temple and didn't donate gold at the appropriate times. Once you've been identified as an outsider, everyone will call you "infidel".

And for your final question, go ahead and start a new thread for a new topic. This one has kind of segued into a thread on gaming, so to avoid cutting that thread off, go ahead and start a new one. Ziroc doesn't charge extra for new threads [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Dang]

Hey, as soon as I posted the question about Xydusa's questions, I decided to give it one last try. Turns out when I had hastily scribbled those answers down, I had written one teensy little letter in a slightly hard to read form. Basically I had a "t" that I was reading as an "l". So I was able to answer the questions and get into the "inner sanctum." I kept trying to edit my post, or write a new post, last night, but IW wouldn't let me post last night. Thanks for the answer, though. [img]smile.gif[/img] I am hitting a few things I missed last time through. I completed the toadem pole quest and I accessed the Serpent Temple belfry. I also found out that a certain snakey someone can (on occassion) turn people to stone! Yikes.

OK, if I have any new items related specifically to W&W, I'll post them in a new thread. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

Ya know, Mom always told me getting stoned was bad for you...

Glad you're enjoying the new areas. I didn't get to the belfry until my third game... now, I don't miss it [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Wyvern]

By "grid" I mean that all construction ends up being aligned based upon what to me seems like a grid, a set of imaginary squares the cover the landscape. Settlers seems a lot more organic to me, if that makes any sense at all. I've tried other games of this genre but really only find Settlers (III) a great pleasure to play.

Wyv