I’m posting this in MPSIMS even though it is sort of right for GQ. Given the ultra-specific nature of the questions (i.e. they are not very general and as such probably aren’t interesting to 90+% of this board) I figured this is more appropriate to pointless shit I have to share. For those that do play this game I offer one tip I learned towards the end by way of thanks (I don’t think it is a very commonly known tip but who knows).
I’ve had Black & White practically since the day it came out but have only recently been able to play it (thanks to the much overdue patch and even now I have to specially tweak my system to make it run). I was able to make it work in the past but only at the expense of everything else on my system so after a quick spin for a day or two it has been collecting dust till recently.
Anyway, I am thoroughly impressed by this game. It is absolutely beautiful to look at and the polish found in the little details are something I increasingly appreciate the more I play. This is definitely a subtle game that grows on you.
That said I am also thoroughly frustrated by this game as well. To help fight my frustration I have a few questions (and yes…I’ve been to the ‘official’ message boards but every search I do seems to return about 50,000+ hits so as to be impossible to sort through them all…no matter how tightly I target my search).
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Does it matter what your creature eats? More specifically, does it differ between creatures? For example, should the Tiger eat fish and cattle why the Cow eats grain? I know that your creature will eat anything but the game states ‘some things are better for it than others’. Do they just mean that fish are better than rocks or that peasants are better for the Tiger than for the Cow?
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When building something how do you select what you want to build? I throw, say, five scaffolds (or whatever the proper amount is) together and no matter where I place my cursor I get nothing to build but a field. I want to build a workshop, or graveyard or anything but a damned field…no luck so far (and I have let my hand with the scaffold range far and wide over the landscape for minutes searching for an appropriate place).
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My creature accidentally learned the Strength spell. I noticed in the Creature Cave there are only four pedestals for spells he knows and now Strength occupies one of them at 2% knowledge. I do not want him to have the Strength spell. The wood miracle would be much more handy. I’ll cast strength on him myself if the situation calls for it. I haven’t had the chance to see yet if I can overcome this spell with another but just curious if that will work or if I’m stuck with the strength spell? (Can your cretaure know more than 4 spells at once?)
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Do I care if my creature is hot or cold? How to I address his heat issues if I do care? I’ve rained on him when he’s hot but he responds by thinking I’m playing. I don’t know what to do for heat except cast a fireball on him (probably a bad idea). I know you can heat up a rock by throwing a fireball on it but I don’t know if that will work to keep him warm.
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How do I stop my creature from pooping? I’ve read it can be done but everytime I try to punish him for pooping I get a message that he won’t poop against that thing so much in the future. I don’t want him to poop at all! Is there some point to pooping? Do villagers get annoyed by it? I’ve tried putting the poop in a field but it doesn’t seem to do anything useful. I can throw poop above villagers heads and they ooooh and ahhhh but I get the same effect with a rock. The creature cave keeps a stat on how much your creature pooped. This leads me to believe it is somehow important to the game but after hours and days of coding that may have just been some smartass thing an overworked programmer threw in as a lark.
(As a funny side note my creature farted on a woman who was walking behind him and she ran away screaming…I don’t blame her. Another time he farted and knocked down a fence…powerful stuff. Anyone try lighting a fireball under his ass when he does this?)
- How do you get villagers to create an artifact? Actually, I kinda know how but I’m looking for a more surefire way to do it. Sometimes I drop a boulder in their village and they just ignore it. Other times I drop one without thinking and they are all over it. I can’t figure out what sets them off. Also, do some things make better artifacts than others or will any rock of any size do?
Tip of the Day:
Use artifacts when building a wonder. More are better up to a point…3-5 seem to do the trick nicely.
On Island 1 I set about creating artifact after artifact and finished with 5 before I went through the vortex to Island 2. I was left with three upon reaching Island 2 (I think they all made it but two of them were spit out into the sea…the game was going through its scripted sequence so I couldn’t try and catch them).
Build your 7 scaffolds and find a spot where the game will let you place your Wonder. Put the scaffolding back somewhere where it will NOT build anything. Place your artifacts very close to the center spot of where the scaffold will go down (you cannot build on the rocks themselves). Now move your 7-scaffold back to that position…if you’ve done it right you will see a MUCH larger wonder. Drop the scaffold and build away.
When I did this with three artifacts I got a huge Norse wonder in Land 2. When I cast Miracle Wood I get over 120,000 wood! Same with Miracle Food. Miracle Rain is also supposed to be affected but I can’t really see a difference there. Anyway, once this is done you never need to worry about wood or food again (at least till you’re done with that Island).
Of course, it costs nearly 80,000 wood (around 30,000 for the scaffolds and 50,000 or so for the Wonder) to build in the first place but once done it is worth it.
(Side Note: I think the order you throw stuff into the vortex is the order the stuff comes out in. I haven’t tested it but the last things I threw in the vortex were my artifacts and they were the last thing to pop out on the other side. Unfortunately all of my villagers were standing near the vortex when they popped out and quite a few were squished as the boulders bounced among them.)