RPG Progress Report

[BogusMeatFactory]

OH MAN! YOU GOT THIS ACK!!!!

For real, there is something magical about western pc rpgs from the 80s to the early 2000s. They are flawed, but fascinating... filled with challenges and wonder. You honestly will never have modern games that play quite like them.

[MrPopo]

Castle Darkmoor was my least favorite part of the game because the Eyes had wallhack and it was filled with enemies who could dispel my awesome buffs. The dungeon you have coming up after you do the four memory crystals I found to be long and tedious; individual encounters weren't hard, but they tended to be large and the enemies had annoying effects (but nothing as bad as dispelling my buffs).

[Ack]

Yeah, I noticed that when one of those eyes hit me with a dispel as I was walking out the door. I've seen, or rather heard, some of the mages try to cast spells at me through walls, but this was the first to ever actually hit. Plus they cause insanity, and that just plain sucks. Curing it fully requires 21 spell points and two spells, this occupying my healer for longer than I like.

I don't have quite the same issue you had with the mixed classes though, because I focused on only one magic school for my Archer. Since he only gets one school, his skill points aren't as eaten up. Since it's the Wind school, it's also not as useful now that I have Light and Dark spells that cast the buffs. I mainly use his magic for the Shield spell against archers and then for dropping Implosion on folks repeatedly.

[MrPopo]

The best money you can spend now that you have Light/Dark is on Hour of Power in Light. It's expensive, but it casts Shield, Haste, Stoneskin, Bless, and whatever the buff that increases raw attack damage (as opposed to might) is. So you get your Shield, +AC, +DMG, +Hit, and reduced action recovery. And the latter is very noticeable in real time, especially in end game. The only downside is Haste has a shorter duration than the other buffs, and when it falls off (but not when it is dispelled or renewed) all your characters become Weak and cannot have another Haste applied until the Weakness is cured. But, as I mentioned, you can extend the duration by casting another Haste (either separately or through Hour of Power) and skip that problem. The increase to your derived combat stats is incredibly noticeable, which is another reason Darkmoor sucked so much; I was doing a lot less damage and hitting less often.

[Ack]

Heroism is the damage buff. I rely on it and Bless constantly, so I will have to nab that spell. I use Day of Protection and Day of the Gods or whatever they are called already for all of the elemental protections and stat buffs, and those have made a lot of the dungeons a breeze.

Did you do many of the side dungeons? Which one was your favorite? I actually really liked Castle Kriegspire.

[MrPopo]

Kriegspire wasn't bad, if I recall correctly. It wasn't a super memorable dungeon of the four for the memory cores. I did like the Temple of the Wolf; good use of teleporters to keep the minimap sane. I definitely didn't do the Temple of the Snake; I started it, got stoned, and said screw this. I certainly wasn't hurting for experience. The Temple of the Moon managed to be fair about it; lots of Stone to Flesh scrolls to go along with the handful of Gorgons. I did find that as the game went on I was less and less interested in full clearing dungeons, simply because of how resource draining they could be without enough of a payoff.

[Ack]

Life can sometimes be busy. I spent all of yesterday working as a PA on a set filming a comedy sketch, before grabbing a quick dinner and heading to a table read for an upcoming sketch show. The days before that included work, rudimentary planning for both a wedding and a trip to LA for work a film festival, putting together another sketch video shoot, and worrying about a sick grandmother. As a result, progress has been a little slow, but I have made some.

Castle Alamos took longer than I had anticipated, mainly because Warlocks are annoying, and at times I'd encounter rooms with a dozen casters capable of giving me a bad day. I eventually ended up unwittingly clearing out the entire castle, only finding the Memory Crystal in literally the last room I looked. What can I say, I tend to be thorough. With Alamos behind me, I then headed back to Silver Cover first for the obelisk there and then on to Blackshire to take on a quest in the Temple of the Snake.

Popo mentioned this earlier, but the Temple of the Snake is packed to the gills with gorgons, who are more than happy to turn you into stone. Get passed the first set, and you're presented with magical traps and a gold dragon. I had previously stuck my head in long enough to go "Nope" at the dragon, but this time I dodged the magical traps and hopped down into his hole so I can take him on mano a mano. I parked myself directly under him, then started blasting him with Incinerate and Implosion from Marurun and Popo while Ack fired arrows into his tail. Noise did his duty to keep the party standing, and soon enough we had a dragon corpse at the party's feet with no casualties on our side. With that annoying bit of dirty work taken care of, mopping up the rest of the gorgons proved to be easy, and I marched out with another sidequest completed in triumph.

Since I was in Blackshire, I figured it would be a good idea to knock out a couple other side tasks that I hadn't yet accomplished, so I grabbed the final statue I needed for a very long quest regarding a wizard seeking a youth spell and then made my way past the southern mountains to discover the area obelisk. With only a single obelisk left, I pushed further south into the sands to finally reach the Dragonsand.

What can I tell you about the Dragonsand beyond that it lives up to its name, and it is a horror to behold. Dragons fly in packs, while wingless wyrms roam the dunes. The western side near the Tomb of VARN features considerably fewer of the dangerous lizards, but the obelisk on the east is surrounded by packs eager to eat whatever warm-blooded prey than can get their claws on. I ran for the obelisk and then used a Fly spell to book my way south to Abdul's desert resort, where I found the last pedestal for the wizard. With the obelisk message now decoded, I flew back up to the northern reaches of the Dragonsand to find my prize: ludicrous amounts of money, artifact gear, and the most powerful Dark and Light Magic spells. I then returned to Blackshire for my reward, the powerful Dark Magic spell Armageddon.

After this, it was time to conquer what may well be the most annoying dungeon in the game, Castle Darkmoor. Darkmoor sucks because you are faced with a new type of enemy that can debuff you if you are close, even if you're not within line of sight. That means anything that boosts your ability to fight as well as protection spells and the incredibly useful Wizard Eye spell can be wiped out in a flash. Liches are also found in small groups throughout Darkmoor, but the Destroy Undead spell makes short work of them, while the Ogres that also populate the halls are a joke at this point. But the Evil Eyes that you will find within are absolutely nasty. I loathed this dungeon, and it is one of the few where I did not finish wiping out everything; I made some headway, did what I needed to grab the last Memory Crystal, and destroyed the Book of Liches.

With the Book of Liches destroyed, I completed the last sidequest of the game. I then turned in the last Memory Crystal to the Oracle, who informed me I must go find the Control Cube to progress. I now find myself back in the Tomb of Varn in the Dragonsand. It's a pyramid with a distinctly Egyptian vibe with its Anubis-shaped enemies and killer genies. I'm now saved within, but it is absolutely massive. However, there is a small trick I'm considering; I can use the Armageddon spell to deal damage equal to 50 + my current Dark Magic skill level to everything on the map. I'm thinking of hopping in, repeatedly casting Armageddon until my characters are running low on magic and health, and then portaling out to various towns to either heal at the temples for cash or use fountains that restore my vitals. Then I come back and continue to blast Armageddon until only the husks of my foes remain. I don't know if this will work, but I figure why not give it a shot?

Work Completed

Council Quests: 7/7
Memory Crystals Acquired: 4/4
Control Cube: 0/1
Sidequests: 26/26
Obelisks Found: 15/15
Sections of World Map Visited: 15/15

[MrPopo]

I believe Armageddon can only be cast outdoors. Otherwise it would be a good plan. Also, when you do get out to LA let me know; we could get together if you have any free time.

[Ack]

I believe Armageddon can only be cast outdoors. Otherwise it would be a good plan.

Unfortunately, you're right. Also, it's limited to a specific number of casts each day based on your mastery level, and at this point only being able to do a max of 180 damage or so wouldn't have made a big enough dent in all the enemies to be worth it. I know you talked about magic damage, Popo, but now that I'm in late game, I'm noticing how many things just don't scale effectively. It goes way beyond magic too. Bow skills, swords, basically any weapon skill that doesn't give you a damage increase based on skill level drops off dramatically in value. Axes are still good because at Mastery level they increase damage too based on skill, so putting points in them means my damage continues to increase. Against armored opponents, this can mean Ack the Knight is dealing roughly 1-50 on a hit while Popo the Archer is dealing 25-75 despite Ack having generally superior stats and gear. I've read this is so noticeable in Might and Magic VII that daggers are actually considered better for total damage output than swords. I'll look much more closely at weapon skills whenever I come back to the series, but after VI, I'm going to need to take a break.

Anyway, I'm still in the Tomb of VARN. It's huge, and it's full of annoying enemies. They don't debuff and wall hack like in Castle Darkmoor, but the red Anubis guardians have a ton of hit points, and the Efreet and Djinn are nasty with their spells and often come in packs. My resistances are negating a lot of their damage output, so I can usually knock out fair chunks of enemies with each run through the dungeon, but between the large amounts of groups and the labyrinthine corridors and massive rooms, I still don't feel like I'm making much headway. I know I am, I just don't feel like it.

As of right now, I do have one of the command scrolls and a crystal skull (suck it, Indiana Jones) for absorbing radiation, and I'm pretty sure I know where a few more scrolls are, but it's a fight getting to the room. I should probably fight my urge to kill everything and simply run through, but that feels so...anticlimactic. But I'm in the low 60s level-wise, so my skills and stats are probably good enough that I don't need the experience save for pumping up the Ancient Weapons skill once I can get it. I also finally acquired the Hour of Power buff spell, or whatever it's called, and funny enough I have a high enough Light Magic skill that it gives me roughly 12 hours of stat boosts, far more than the base spells do in their own right.

What do you think, Popo and Bogus? Should I just say "screw this" and rush it?

[BogusMeatFactory]

I say rush it! You have dedicated more time than most to this beautifully flawed game! You must finish your mission expeditiously!