Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

So does your mother.

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Amazing how versatile that sentence is.

 

Just finished it. For all the pacing, balance, and design quirks this is a surprisingly playable game. I've tried several times to get into these games to no avail. This time I started out stuck on a long road trip with nothing but my tablet/keyboard and a print out of the materials to entertain me. By cutting myself off from guides and seeking advice here, I simulated the sensory deprivation of being an 80s kid. I loved this game and I thicken and throb with excitement to know that it was only the first of its kind. Also, gonna go back and help that dragon to the north. I accidentally killed his ifreet last time.

 

Played a little too much White Wolf?

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(and told the Efreet you were a vampire)

Anyway, glad you found a way to enjoy the game.

 

Yup, now I'm having trouble deciding what to play next. I'm sorta following the CRPG addicts top rated and just exploring the indelible classics. The best candidates are M&M1-3, Motherfucking Wizardry: the Goddamn Proving Grounds of the Dickass Mad Overlord, and Disciples of Steel. Ultima V is tasty too but Ultima doesn't seem to have super compelling combat, from what I seen.

 

Or you could transfer your characters to Curse of the Azure Bonds and continue the adventure.

 

Ultima V is the only Ultima with a good combat engine. Encounter design was also quite good (only random encounters at night).
MM1 and 2 have possibly the best combat in turn based blobbers, but are brutal in the beginning.
Wizardry 1 is an excellent introduction to turn based blobbers, being compact and relatively easy.
If you are new to old school cRPGs I think I would save Disciples of Steel for later.

 

On a warm summer's eve
On a road bound for Yulash
I met up with a fighter
We were both too tired to sleep
So we took turns a-starin'
From the campfire at the darkness
Then contempt overtook him,
And he began to speak

He said, "Son, I've made a life
Out of readin' monster manuals
Knowin' all their weaknesses
Before I got into a fight
So if you don't mind me sayin'
I can see you're out of coppers
For a taste of your whiskey
I'll bring some stuff to light"

So I handed him my bottle
And he drank down my last swallow
Then he bummed a halfling pipe
And asked me for a light
And the night got deathly quiet
And his faced lost all expression
He said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to cold 'em
Know when to fireball
And know when to turn undead
You never walk away from monsters
When you're next to 'em in combat
There'll be time enough for walkin'
When the fightin's done

Every fighter knows
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep
Last items on the list are winners
But save in case they're losers
And cast detect magic or you'll throw away
that two-handed sword+3

And when he finished speakin'
He yelled 'Hey, a gas spore!'
Fired off some arrows
And then dropped as if asleep
And then I fell and played dead
The beastie, well it missed me
But on his stiff corpse
I found some plate mail I could keep

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to cold 'em
Know when to fireball
And know when to turn undead
You never walk away from monsters
When you're next to 'em in combat
There'll be time enough for walkin'
When the fightin's done

 

I've dicked around with old games a lot. I just have a hard time focusing on any game to the end. Disciples has a lot of appeal for me cause it's ambitious, creative, and a little broken. I also have an easier time beating games I can explore laterally (eg: with POR I could leave anywhere that annoyed me to find gear and xp elsewhere). I feel like there's lots of nerd cred for playing through dsteel.

 

How about Wizardry 4? It's supposed to be one of the hardest games of the era, and was one of the earliest perspective flips (you play the bad guy from a prior installment).

 

Wizardry 4 is a no fly zone for me. I appreciate it as far as concept but I'd rather buy Dragon Age Inquisition+ DLC at full price than try to slog through Werdna's quest to find himself in a dungeon full of fuck.

 

Sorry bro but that is literally the worst advice ever. A guy just barely finishes Pool of Radiance and you recommend the most fucked-up, difficult, craziest dungeon crawler ever made?

Dude, try Ultima V, it's more of your speed and you should have a good time with it.

 

Settled in on M&M 1. If it proves too much I'll try U5 or Magic Candle.

 

I'm playing Pool and when I'm trying to train my level 6 female human chaotic evil cleric to level 7 it says I don't have enough experience, but I already have more than 100kXP, about four times as much as when I become level 6. I thought that level caps didn't apply to human characters.

 

There are game levelcaps. Import them to Curse of the Azure Bonds to train further.

 

6 is the maximum level for clerics and magic users in POR.

http://poolofradiance.wikia.com/wiki/Experience

 

But I haven't even explored the first area fully (East of New Phlan), just dueled for a few hours and I'm already hitting level caps. These early games were really fast.

 

Multi-classes rule in PoR.

 

Instead of dueling, you should be out adventuring.

 

Holy shit why are playing still? If I thought I had to duel that much I would've quit playing. You know you're supposed to be cleaning the slums and shit right?

 

That's a grinder right there!

 

My sides! I never even duelled once in all of my multiple playthroughs.

 

I also never dueling.
How does it work? Some sort of "arena" thing in other games? Go to NPC who organize fights and stuff?

And I though rest encounters thing in ToEE was bad...

 

Duels in PoR are simple. You choose one character who is going to fight 1:1 versus a computer controlled opponent who is exactly the same. You can make the odds more favorable by unequipping armor before and equipping it during combat, at low level it's simply about who rolls the iniative and hits first.

Your character either wins and gets XP or is unconscious after combat.

 

They can also die if you're unlucky. That's how my glorious dueling career came to an end.

 

I know some on here have experimented with the Gold Box Companion.

I tried to get it working tonight with Windows 10, 64 bit version, but I constantly get the following error:

(Yeah, I'm following the steps correctly)

- Save folder is "D:\Games\D-Fend Reloaded\VirtualHD\radiance\".
- Save game file "SAVGAMA.DAT" loaded (13137 bytes).
- Party size 1 characters found from offset $3208.
- Current map location: World map / Menu-town (GEO 3, 0).
- Outdoors party coordinates: 00,00.
- Indoors party coordinates: 15,01, facing W.

- Save game file "CHRDATA1.SAV" loaded (285 bytes).
- Found 1: "BRODY", race 7, class 2, alignment 3, 11 hp.

- Party size matches vs found characters! Click Search...

- Trying to solve base address by searching for 1st ID starting at $1000000...
- ERROR: Could not solve base address. 1st ID not found!

I've scoured the Googles trying to find a solution, but nothing works. Well, if there's anyone who knows what the issue is, it's the Codex.