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The Game Room
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3 is done! Man, those final battles were tougher than I remembered!

For this journey I had three resources, The Bard’s Tale Online, GameFAQs, and Steam, and I say with total confidence that without all of their help put together, I’d never have reached the finish line. BTO for its character editors and maps, GameFAQs for maps and guides, and Steam for maps and plenty of tips. The thing is, none of them were perfect at anything: BTO’s map icons are hard to read, 3 is almost entirely uncovered, and there’s a lot of missing information, GameFAQ’s maps lack coordinates and are pretty cluttered (especially 2), and Steam has comprehensive solutions but is missing some crucial details like no-teleport zones (plus they have the remastered version and some of the maps aren’t accurate to the originals). Quite a workout jumping from tab to tab, but being able to keep the drive alive made it all worth it.

The most remarkable part? You know all that tiresome preaching about how you’re supposed to tough it out and take your lumps and never give up and accept the challenge and when you finally succeed after dying a million deaths and suffering a hundred lifetimes or torment you’ll appreciate the sacrifice you made and you’ll be grateful for the experience and love the game and blah blah? Well, guessed what, that actually happened to me! I set off thinking…well, more like hoping beyond hope, I’m far too wise now to set dumb expectations…that these character editors would make the games, if not a breeze, at least a slightly pleasant romp. Well, it wasn’t quite so simple. There is a very specific way to complete every task and heavy consequences for not toeing the line, and having a Paladin who can bench press a bus doesn’t change that. Then there are the great equalizers, antimagic zones and (grrr… :rage:) darkness zones, especially bitter pills to swallow because they are frequently unavoidable and have no remedies. Nor are there for wandering monster encounters, which become ridiculous in spots, especially in 3. In places like the Sacred Grove, my heroes didn’t resemble hardened adventures so much as a track relay squad with how much they ran, ran, ran from everything in sight to get to that one tile they had to get to. (I cannot overemphasize the importance of using a character editor to equip someone with Speedboots. :slightly_smiling_face:) But when I finally toppled those lord of evil…I was grateful for the experience, and I gained a newfound appreciation for the games! It turns out that learning the nuances of a game with the help of essentially God Mode (character editors) and What Everyone Incorrectly Calls God Mode (FAQs) is a challenge in itself, and one which, with victory a real possibility, I was happy to work towards. The only comparable experience I can think of was the NES Defender of the Crown where I slowly learned that, hey, if you can use save states and rewind to win every joust and swordfight, the game not only stops being a steaming load of crap but is actually kinda fun! So yeah, I’m just like all of you, I appreciate challenge and making an effort, I just have to start a little further down the line, savvy? :wink:

And yes, I’m definitely going to make another run at it, probably no later than next weekend. I got the victory, and now, with the knowledge I learned, I want satisfying victories. Maybe I’ll even unlock the secret to “powergaming” a victory (which I know won’t be completely possible with all the equalizers I mentioned earlier). But that’s what all the great adventure games do, make you come back for more, and while The Bard’s Tale is as far from great as it’s possible to get…well, at least I have the power to pretend otherwise.

Man, it’s SO nice to have a game I don’t have to rant endlessly about! It’s been too long! :grin:

ParallelLines - See? That’s what I’m talking about. No militancy. Complete chill. Salute. :+1: Yeah, I did that little gold-building and was able to get a nice halberd and full armor for my fighters, and I felt pretty clever for a little while, and I also knew it was possible to copy characters (couldn’t get that to work for some reason). I soon realized that shenanigans like these were grade-school level and wouldn’t help me actually accomplish anything meaningful. But the point was not lost on me: If you wanted any enjoyment out of this game, or computer games in general, you needed control. Fighting the beast on its own terms was never anything but a fool’s errand that would end in rage and misery.

snfaulkner - I was a kid then. I remember a time when my entertainment options were a TV with 4 channels, coma-inducing Boomer pop, and computer games. I spent entirely too much time on the latter, and believe me when I say that the technical aspects had nothing to do with the state of persistent screaming fury a great many of them left me in. (Ultima 3 could’ve had 256 color graphics and Midway-caliber digitized sound and I still would’ve embarked on a crusade to wipe it out of existence.) Also, I’ve played a great many of today’s games and…brrrrr. (Also :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:.)

DCnDC - I had BTCS! Probably the only one I liked in its original incarnation. I did spend plenty of happy hours making absurdly simple dungeons with absolutely no spinners, darkness zones, antimagic zones, or silence zones, at any rate! :slightly_smiling_face: One thing I really appreciated was how it spelled out all the numbers…experience points per level and save numbers and THAC0s, etc…that took a lot of the mystery out of the game. I actually used this as a resource for numbers to plug into the character editors a couple times.

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Now onto Dark Souls! :smile:

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As long as you’re enjoying it, that’s really all that matters. My steam backlog is full of games I haven’t found time, energy or mood to get to, and my Amazon Prime / Epic freebies are equally out of control. By the time I make myself play Bard’s Tale again I’ll probably be using VR to do so!

I’m pretty sure though that I’ll be playing my “Director’s Cut” of Wasteland 2 in the coming year, and then on to 3 while I wait for some new Fallout goodness.

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Oh, too kind, too kind. Just because I’m in the mood, I’ll close this out with a bunch of tips. Y’know, since I haven’t written to GameFAQs in ages.

= Whole series =
Learn which dungeon levels are and aren’t teleportable. Very important in making the going much less frustrating. Also remember that if a level is teleportable, you can always reach it even if you’re currently on an unteleportable level (great for egress after achieving the dungeon objective if it doesn’t give you a way out). Also, except for a couple special locations in 3, if you can’t teleport to a level, Phase Door also won’t work there (and vice versa).

Force-equipping via a character editor is a handy way to not only use items that class normally couldn’t, but wield multiple items of the same type for greater versatility (e.g. a Stoneblade and a Staff of Lor). The only problem is that if you equip another item of the same type, everything else equipped is immediately unequipped. That’s why it’s always good to have at least a couple dedicated fighters on the roster so there are fewer things you need to force.

The two absolutely essential items are Speedboots for escaping unwanted fights and a Nospen/Nospin Ring for deactivating spinners (not available in 1, unfortunately). You’ll probably want a Mage Staff for each of your casters as well.

Scry Site works even in antimagic zones and will prove very useful in such situations, especially when darkness is added to the mix (which it frequently is).

A fighter, no matter how powerful, can only kill one enemy per round, whereas a magic user with a group damage spell can potentially kill numerous enemies. However (with one very notable exception in 3), a magic user can’t sure kill (i.e. critically hit) an entire group in a round, and some of the mightier enemies are immune to magic altogether. So it’s generally a bad idea to have an all-mage party even if you can keep them alive; you will need to carve 'em up the hard way at some point.

Save your state regularly, and if it’s a new place or it’s been a while, have multiple states. That protects you from unlucky breaks and frees you to explore places you might not want to slog your way back from otherwise.

= 1: Tales of the Unknown =
Warriors or Paladins are the best fighters; with sufficient strength their damage output can always get the job done without any need for critical hits. Paladins do have better saves, but with a high enough luck this is a nonissue. I prefer Warriors since they get better weapons (and armor), but only slightly. Monks’ improving armor class is unnecessary with adequate dexterity and/or armor. The Rogue is a waste of a character slot. The Bard isn’t much better; really weak magic compared to your casters, and the one thing he’s “needed” for can be just as easily surmounted with a Phase Door.

You will be very happy to have three powerful mages in your ranks when you get to the tough fights (especially that one :grin:). Damage, both your and the enemies’, is on the low end in this game, so pouring on group damage spells is the key to winning those slugfests. Also keep in mind that you will need Dispossess (a level 3 Wizard spell) in Mangar’s Tower.

Remember that the only way to get to Kylearan’s Tower is to fight all the way through the castle and use a consumable, so once you’re there definitely follow the gameplan and get everything done in one shot.

= 2: The Destiny Knight =
There are several situations where you are forced to take less than a full party into a dungeon, so you really have to put some thought into your party’s makeup and ensure that everyone can hit hard and run like hell when needed. Never go without any mages no matter what anyone says; even in the most dire magic-hostile circumstances, Scry Site can be a lifesaver. Again, Warriors or Paladins are your top fighters (you can give them more attacks if some of the later foes take a bit too long to kill), while you want a minimum of two Archmages, and the sooner the better. Still no point to the Rogue, and I’d keep one Bard on hand as a specialist at best (like for the starter dungeon).

Beware of traps. They can get very nasty here and trip up even the most luck-blessed adventurers. Save regularly and be generous with Trap Zaps.

Give a Dayblade (casts Lesser Revelation) or Pipes of Pan (casts Greater Revelation) to someone who can use it. These work even in antimagic zones. Snares, inescapable until solved, are completely antimagic and frequently send you through darkness zones, so you’ll be very glad for this insurance.

The lowdown on The Dreamspell: Any sufficiently powerful Sorcerer can cast it at any time; it’s not unlocked by any specific thing. The code is ZZGO. Outside of combat, it transports you to the entrance of any of the dungeons. In combat, it simultaneous casts Heal All and Mangar’s Mallet. Aside from the final battle, I wouldn’t call this a lifesaver, but some players find it convenient. Your call.

Range makes a big difference. I strongly recommend giving all your fighters either an Aram’s Knife or Sword of Zar, and a Song Axe for your Bard if you have one. Add Melee Men to your magical arsenal ASAP; it’ll save you a lot of headaches. Make sure your all your ranged weapons are heavy hitters, as strength bonuses don’t apply to them and they’re no good for critical hits (it’s possible, but much less likely).

All right…the final battle. You’ll face two squads of 30 Balder Guards each (plus Lagoth Zanta himself, but he’s a pushover compared to his troops). The really, REALLY painful thing about them is that that not only do they always hit no matter what, each hit has the potential to be instantly deadly, and only the wielder of the Destiny Wand is immune to this. Plus they can absorb, to use the technical term, an ungodly crapload of damage. Even better, melee attacks against them always miss; only ranged attacks and magic can harm them. Every time I’ve fought this battle I’ve taken casualties, and even The Dreamspell only somewhat mitigates the tide. If you’re not willing to face death, your only real choice is to send your Destiny Knight out alone and prepare for a VERY long haul. Other than that, the only strategy I have is to load up on Dynamites and go full whatever-the-term-for-everyone-using-maximum-firepower-is.

= 3: The Thief of Fate =
The Hunter is the man (or woman, as the case may be). Enemies now have so many hit points that insta-kills are not only invaluable but vital. I wouldn’t touch any other fighter. You’ll get Archmages early on (one of whom you must immediately switch to Chronomancer); again, you want at least two. The Geomancer has powerful offensive spells; normally arrives too late to make a real impact (and contrary to what you may have heard, you do not need Wall Warp; Phase Door works just fine), but if you make one at the very beginning, (s)he can make life a lot easier. By the time you hit Taramitia you’ll absolutely want Earth Maw in your arsenal. Bard songs have been buffed somewhat but still don’t really do anything the right spell or item can. Plus Safety Song only prevents random encounters in the open world, not where you actually need it to, and by the time you get Kiel’s Overture none of your enemies will be seriously hurt by Trebuchet.

As for the Rogue… better but still not necessary. You heard me. The deal about the “Thief of Fate” is that Tarjan can take unlimited damage, so a critical hit is the only way to defeat him. You may recall another class that’s so gifted, and a lot more efficient to boot. (They’re also perfectly capable of wielding Sceadu’s Cloak, so you don’t even need a backstabber for that.) All their other abilities can be handled, albeit slightly more expensively, by your casters. Don’t bother unless you really like dealing long-distance death (which admittedly is pretty cool).

The only time you need to go with less than a full party is if you want to add Hawkslayer, who’s fairly strong but nothing special and isn’t needed for any tasks. I wouldn’t bother with him (or any other unnecessary specials, for that matter).

On three occasions you’ll need a wineskin (purchasable from any tavern) to hold something other than beverage. Using the wineskin at the source of the liquid replaces the old liquid with the new one. A wineskin disappears when it’s empty, so always take more of the liquid than you need, that way you can use the same wineskin to hold the next special liquid.

Other than that… just do what the guide says. If the guide says don’t kill this person, don’t. If the guide says get that item, get it. Seriously, that’s all there is to it, follow the script and you’ll be fine. Every lock has its key. There’s a complete walkthrough to reaching every statue in Malefia with a minimum of hassle at GameFAQs (it’s on the map), which I can’t recommend enough.

Whew! Done! Now for some figure skating! :grin:

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All right, there doesn’t seem to be much action here lately, so just one more. Promise! :slightly_smiling_face:

I’m not 100% sure, but it seems that getting tagged despite having roughly the same Armor Class as osmium happens because some enemies’ THAC0s are just so outrageously low that a negative two-digit AC just isn’t enough. Not coincidentally, these are also the enemies that either do truly gargantuan damage or have really nasty effects like critical hits. I noticed this when my all-Hunter front was getting tagged in places my Warrior, Paladin, and Monk survived without a scratch. So always make sure that everyone has enough hit points, and levels definitely matter as well. Having someone who knows Restoration is a must as well.

1 doesn’t have truly nasty enemies until Mangar’s Tower, and by that point you should be running from everything anyway. The only trouble spots are the spinner you have to navigate in the dark (Scry Site that mother!) and the possession square. A newly dispossessed character will have only one hit point, so be quick with a follow-up Restoration. Mangar has five helpers for the final battle; as long as you have decent weaponry and three people who know Deathstrike, it’s in the bag.

For 2, you want at least one caster with you in the three dungeons where you have to limit your party (The Tombs, Oscon’s Fortress, and The Destiny Stone). Don’t go after Oscon unless your mages have plenty of juice, at least 1,200 spell points. As for the final battle, I learned a little trick with a spell I never use otherwise… Far Foe, which moves a group back 40 feet. The Balder Guards can’t hit what they can’t see! Have two mages keep them at arm’s length while your third back row-er fires the most potent offensive magic at his disposal (preferably Mangar’s Mallet or The Dreamspell, with Wacum’s Wizard War being a distant third option) and your fighters launching as much ranged death as possible.

3 is where magic rules, in particular the Geomancer, and especially one very special spell, Earth Maw. How boss is it? Even enemies that are immune to magic can be killed by it! (Strictly speaking, it’s not a magical effect…it doesn’t even use the words “critical hit” like Deathstrike and Far Death…so there’s no defense.) I very strongly recommend giving this to all your mages, and your Chronomancer at absolute minimum, whose spells are pretty much useless outside of travel. Again, your emphasis should be on kill, not damage, as even Gotterdamurung is ineffective late in the game, and uneconomical to boot. I still recommend a 4-Hunter front line (other fighters can’t destroy Sceadu’s statue even if you force-equip the Cloak on them), but make sure they have plenty of hit points; 2000 is a good number, and I’d go up to at least 3000. For the final battles, send them against difficult single enemies and let Earth Maw clean up the rest.

And now I’m really, really done! (Just in time, too, as it looks like Battlebots is coming back. :grin:)

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The video game I play basically every day is Legends of Runeterra: Path of Champions.

Legends of Runeterra is a free-to-play deckbuilding card game (along the lines of Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone). Path of Champions is the single-player mode where you play “adventures” against a gauntlet of pre-made enemy decks, drafting new cards after every fight (along the lines of Slay the Spire).

There’s a lot of content: 60+ characters you can unlock, each with their own special abilities, with a bunch of adventures (of various difficulties) to choose from, with more content being added on a regular basis. I really like the game, but recently they’ve been adding “nightmare” difficulty adventures which are mostly too tough for me; their original adventures were ranked from “1 star” to “4 stars” in difficulty but they’ve continued to add more difficulty levels that are far, far more difficult. I’d rather have them add more 4-star difficulty adventures, but I get that some people like “end-game content”, so to speak.

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Besides my old favorites of Stellaris and Caves of Qud, I’ve played Stray for the first time. For those unfamiliar with it your character in it is a literal stray cat in a post-apocalyptic world. Fun so far, although I find the attitude of the robot NPCs funny; “this looks too dangerous for us, let’s let the cat handle it”.

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Great game. Challenging without being frustratingly so; clever puzzles that feel integrated with the world. And the friendship between the cat and its robot companion is a nice humanistic touch.

(BTW, there are certain screens where the cat can lie down and nap while the camera pulls away to a wide shot. It’s kind of cool because for the most part the camera is third-person close up. Makes for some nice scenery. Also, if you nap for at least an hour total, you’ll get an achievement.)

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I’m in kind of a holding pattern at the moment. Decided to hold off on DA: Veilguard for now and Stalker 2 is some 3+ weeks away. So mainly puttering around in Wildermyth and playing rounds of Survival in The Division. I need to find something in my library that’ll last me a good two weeks (I have tons in there, just nothing jumping out at me at the moment).

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Good news for me: Legends of Runeterra released a bunch of new adventures (with a wide range of difficulty levels) to promote the Netflix show Arcane.

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Since finishing Satisfactory, I’ve not found a game that’s satisfactory. Core Keeper and Abiotic Factor have mostly succeeded in convincing me that it’s not the explore-and-build genre that I like, but rather it’s good games that I like, and neither of these are hitting the “good game” mark for me. I think I’m done with them both, and am trying to figure out what to play next. Return to Satisfactory? Maybe.

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I tried “Space Station 14.” You can, sort of must, play different roles, so you don’t have to build or explore anything, or you can do a lot of that if you want.

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Replaying Baldur’s Gate 3, 3rd character. Got bored and stopped halfway through my 2nd playthrough as I was just effortlessly steamrolling everything.

Now that mods are available, I’m playing through with a 6-character party and bumped up to tactician difficulty. It feels more challenging, more chaotic, and more like BG1&2 did. Loot now feels more properly scarce, since I now have to kit out 6 characters and make more deliberate choices. The baseline 4-character limit felt frustratingly limited for exploration vs combat flexibility. I’m also going through as a generally evil route to see the changed content and choices.

Playing a Drow Witch (new class mod) with billowing blonde up-do (hair mod), who I’ve named Darth Shakira.

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Got to the end of Satisfactory twice (or in effect three times, once in early access july 24, restart at 1.0, then took the early access save to the 1.0 end), and was itching for another.

I found Techtonia.

It’s Satisfactory if you put it in a game engine from 2005, used those damn grabbers, and was hugely fixated in the stage of Satisfactory where you powered everything from leaves.

Now, well, sticking with it, but here’s my critique of what it is…

Steam says 63 hours played, but that’s a lot of leaving it running mining and smelting and then going back and filling those damn fuel slots.

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Thanks for the review. I have it on my wishlist, but in watching gameplay videos something about it doesn’t quite grab me. But it’s likely not the game’s fault, but rather an abundance of caution on my part to not buy yet another game I’ll play 3 hours and set aside.

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Oh man. That does not sound fun.

I restarted Satisfactory in the forest biome yesterday. Don’t know how long I’ll stick with it. Right now I’m building a lot of self-contained factories with their own biomass generators, with the goal of centralizing power once I have these little places producing enough resources to make it all work. Feeding the generators is not my idea of a good time.

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It’s sort of ok. I’m just frustrated that the next stage of powering it is kind of a bunch of hurdles away, but you can eventually, as far as I can see, power miners and smelters from automated sources (waterwheels).

You can do in effect biomass bricks, but such a faff to produce and the overall automation and space lacks. Since its underground and you mine through places.

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Yeah, Core Keeper and Abiotic Factor are sort of okay too. I think maybe games like Satisfactory and Subnautica have spoiled me for games that are sort of okay.

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Down side of Techtonia is that… It’s sort of cryptic, there are bits in places which you really don’t know how to get, and all the videos seem to be out of date (man if I have to go through another load of waffly crap. like and subscribe to get to a useless video, I’ll bury myself myself). There’s one which episode 6 is at 1.0, and yet, what I’m trying to find (some sort of green cube) just isn’t in the same map, and I go back to episode 5 and it’s clearly from before 1.0.

All in all there are bits which I really would like to find, and referred to, and there is effectively no hints for it online. Or rather, they are all out of date.

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Now that the brand-new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is out, and badly needing a distraction from current events, I decided to finally play Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary (2020). I’ve owned it for at least 3 years and never installed it. Spent most of this afternoon downloading the game and all of the free world updates, it was close to 400GB in all.

I did not do the thing everyone does and just jump into a plane and start crashing into famous landmarks. Using an XBox 360 controller. The controller kind of sucks for this but it’s better than KB+M. Maybe I’ll look over the flight stick and yoke Black Friday deals. Not really a big peripherals guy, but I feel like it’s important for this sort of thing.

Just started the Basic Training. yawn but I’m going in knowing basically nothing; the last MSFS game I played, it had CGA graphics. The training “missions” feel not that dissimilar from the terrible mandatory work training videos I have to watch annually, but I’m just trying to learn the game. Normally I would just watch YouTube videos, but I’m trying to take this seriously.