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CRPGAddict

Tacgnol

Shitlord
Patron
Joined
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Messages
1,871,734
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
In its most recent annual review, Pornhub said it had had 42 billion site visitors in 2019 and more than 6.83 million videos had been uploaded, with a combined viewing time of 169 years. It did not say how many moderators it employed.

Wow, it's even bigger than Lilura's blog (I think).

Barely...

But how many degenerates monocled fans jerk at Lilura's blog?

It is the definitive place to enjoy definitive content by the greatest definitive writer.

Lilura's superior writing style seems to be infecting me.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,863
How did it take him almost 70hrs to complete M&MIII? I don't remember it being much longer than 30 (I might be misremembering tho).
Fell asleep at the keyboard maybe? Watched TV. When I ran into Scorpia i had no idea who that was referencing (not until i started reading reviews years later and going to back issues).
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
How did it take him almost 70hrs to complete M&MIII? I don't remember it being much longer than 30 (I might be misremembering tho).

It is that long, except if you go for a speedrun (not the 5 minute cheat speedrun) or know it already and take some shortcuts.
If you play it for the first time and without a walkthrough, it could probably be way longer.

Shit, now i want to check the article about Isles of Terra...

Edit : I knew how it'll turn out

This fucking retard

Knights of Xentar :

4 points for character creation and development. There's no creation process, but development is relatively fast and rewarding and makes a notable difference in combat. I just wish it offered some choices.

Isles of Terra :

Character Creation and Development. Someone unversed in Might and Magic could be forgiven for thinking that it draws directly from Dungeons and Dragons. During character creation, after all, you get a list of D&D-style races and classes, as well as a list of suspiciously similar attributes. But in character development, the series offers much more rapid and continual development than the typical RPG. A character might start with a might of 15 and end the game with 75. Nearly every dungeon provides a couple of character levels. The skills, while still binary (except for thievery), offer an additional means of development that most RPGs of the time didn't feature.

In fact, it's a little too much. I don't think I've ever complained about too much character growth before, but Might and Magic III skirts that edge if any game does. As I played, I routinely delayed training (after the first few hours) because it just didn't matter. If the developers had made Level 100 a distant maximum (instead of the actual Level 200) and essentially halved the game's experience point rewards, it would have resulted in better balance. Casses, races, and alignments still don't matter in any role-playing sense. Score: 4.

Seriously?
Same score as a jrpg where your stats are distributed for you.
Isles of Terra at least deserves 5, if not 6 if put into perspective.

. NPC Interaction. As with many first-person titles, what you get in Might and Magic is not so much "NPCs" as "encounters during which someone talks." Most of the NPCs are goofy, one-note characters who offer no role-playing options or dialogue choices. You don't even really learn much about the game world from them, with a couple of exceptions. I do like the NPCs who can join the party, but they're not really necessary and if I played the game again, I'd do without them. Score: 3.

:retarded::retarded::retarded::retarded:

I think it's pretty good for a blobber, deserves 5 as well, at least.
Oh, but wait, he's a storyfag/lorefag, i get it now...
Why do i even read this shit.

Encounter and foes. Might and Magic offers a satisfying bestiary, with associated strengths, weaknesses, special attacks, and special defenses. Its frequent non-combat encounters with quasi-NPCs, statues, fountains, talking heads, and so forth are a highlight of the game. The riddles and puzzles are a little easy, but at least they're not frustrating. I would dock points for offering a "closed" system--you can kill every enemy in the game and have nothing left to fight--except that it ultimately doesn't hurt character development. Score: 5.

Satisfying bestiary ...
That's one of the first game offering such nice detailed graphics and it doesn't even hurt the monsters diversity, i find it a tour de force for that era, nothing less so the score should be 7 or 8 but this retard is using this to give a scecond score to mui balance and character dev.

Well, i get why he doesn't want to show his face around these parts...
 
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Sceptic

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Messages
10,871
Divinity: Original Sin
He's now going through an Apple II game that I had never heard of before. It doesn't sound like a great game despite some originality, but it has a "class switching" mechanic that seems almost identical to Shadowcaster and makes me wonder if someone at Raven had played the game.

Shit, now i want to check the article about Isles of Terra...
Edit : I knew how it'll turn out
This fucking retard
Eh, it's a scoring system. Like every single scoring system ever created his falls apart the second you start comparing same-score instances. Just ignore his scores and the paragraphs he writes justifying them. The concluding remarks on Might and Magic are pretty accurate and the blog posts themselves are a joy to read, he really loves the series.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
I think i'm going to start a blog about cats.

I'll start by rating cats from my neighborhood, here are the criteria
Hiding skills
Bad attitude
Laziness
Hunting skills
Fights won

But really, I'll only rate high the friendly ugly underdogscats because I hate all the other ones.

Oh wait, for a minute, I think CRPGaddict possessed me...
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,863
Its funny there a more than a few appleii/atari 8-bit crossover rpg/adventure games. Realms of darkness fell into that category but it had blobber dungeons. Looking at a sample map plod and this looks to be an easy one to screenshot.
old2.pdf

That looks like gamebook cyoa style mapping.
https://vgmaps.com/ Shows some adventure maps like Kyrandia and king's quest series done with screen shots. I believe Ross makes some maps of various games by screenshotting.
 

Invictus

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,789
Location
Mexico
Divinity: Original Sin 2
How did it take him almost 70hrs to complete M&MIII? I don't remember it being much longer than 30 (I might be misremembering tho).
Easy; he just enjoyed the experience, searched everywhere, solved most puzzles and generally had a grand old time with my favorite M&M game
Before the internet, walkthroughs and guides I would have 2 3 games per year so I would play each one throughly so I can easily say it took me 50 hours to finish Isles of Terra and enjoyed every single moment of it
 

SausageInYourFace

Angelic Reinforcement
Patron
Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
3,858
Location
In your face
Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
How did it take him almost 70hrs to complete M&MIII? I don't remember it being much longer than 30 (I might be misremembering tho).
Easy; he just enjoyed the experience, searched everywhere, solved most puzzles and generally had a grand old time with my favorite M&M game
Before the internet, walkthroughs and guides I would have 2 3 games per year so I would play each one throughly so I can easily say it took me 50 hours to finish Isles of Terra and enjoyed every single moment of it

Nice speech buddy but I like M&M3 as much as the next guy, I just don't think its is that big or long of a game. The same goes for Xeen, by the way. I even read through a couple of my old posts to find some statement how long it took me but couldn't find anything. The game has a high movement speed and combat is often over in an instant by pressing the quick combat button. The world isn't that big either, just a couple of steps in each direction. I don't really think it is a 70hr game, as I said, more in the ballpark of thirty, even if you take your time.
 

Invictus

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,789
Location
Mexico
Divinity: Original Sin 2
To each their own I guess, I kind of don’t think my experiences or play style reflect on everybody but if you “kind of remember” taking 30 hours on it, I definitely took 50 on my first play through and Chet took around 70 who am I to dispute the fact or say how long should the game take?

I remember mostly beign stumped by the special thrones on the castles, the magic cave brother’s puzzle, recovering Pegasus’ horn and meeting the few side puzzles here and there... but savoring ever single moment of the experience
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,863
I never time how long a game takes to finish games. Some people make physical journals, and draw maps manually as well. I also replayed the same games doing a few different things. Taking screenshots and sorting pics was a sort of hobby as well for a bit. I played the CRPGs with intent to convert to tabletop.

That never really worked in the end as I'd get distracted by another game.
 

Nutmeg

Arcane
Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
19,794
Location
Mahou Kingdom
The CRPG Addict hates RPGs as games, just likes them as CYOA skinner boxed TV shows / comics part the 2nd:

What makes it uniquely hateful is that of the 15 or so regular enemy types in the game, you can only kill one or two at a time, usually one. When the game begins, you're only strong enough to kill these grey fighters. You have to wipe them out to amass enough strength to kill the next tier of enemies, which is either unicorns or satyrs (they became available to me about the same time). Then you have to kill all of them before you're strong enough to defeat centaurs, and so on.

The game world consists of 120 screens, arranged 8 x 15, and while enemy types tend to be concentrated by screen, their screens could be scattered anywhere in that grid. The screens make up a long maze that winds its way throughout the island and takes about 15 minutes to run from beginning to end if you don't stop to fight. You have to make multiple loops through this map looking for your current enemy to kill, ensuring that you get every one of them or else you can't move on to the next enemy.

But you can't spend forever dithering about the game world, looking for enemies to kill, because even outside of combat, your energy depletes at a rate of roughly 1 per second. You can find five magic items (they look like signs) that boost your energy by 1,000, but even with all of them, the game will be over in less than two hours even if you take no damage from any enemy. Even with liberal save-scumming (reloading if I took too much damage or spent a while in fruitless exploration), I couldn't find enough enemies to advance fast enough.
So he describes the very essence of an RPG as a game (Kill/find things in a maze to get stronger to kill/find other things while making sure you don't deplete your resources), and then complains that the resources were finite (a mistake most RPGs make is making them infinite, which he loves, see his post "there's always a plan B").

Seriously, you add a little, tiny, insignificant amount of challenge into a non-game to turn it into a game, he cries like a baby.
 

rojay

Scholar
Joined
Oct 23, 2015
Messages
360
The CRPG Addict hates RPGs as games, just likes them as CYOA skinner boxed TV shows / comics part the 2nd:

What makes it uniquely hateful is that of the 15 or so regular enemy types in the game, you can only kill one or two at a time, usually one. When the game begins, you're only strong enough to kill these grey fighters. You have to wipe them out to amass enough strength to kill the next tier of enemies, which is either unicorns or satyrs (they became available to me about the same time). Then you have to kill all of them before you're strong enough to defeat centaurs, and so on.

The game world consists of 120 screens, arranged 8 x 15, and while enemy types tend to be concentrated by screen, their screens could be scattered anywhere in that grid. The screens make up a long maze that winds its way throughout the island and takes about 15 minutes to run from beginning to end if you don't stop to fight. You have to make multiple loops through this map looking for your current enemy to kill, ensuring that you get every one of them or else you can't move on to the next enemy.

But you can't spend forever dithering about the game world, looking for enemies to kill, because even outside of combat, your energy depletes at a rate of roughly 1 per second. You can find five magic items (they look like signs) that boost your energy by 1,000, but even with all of them, the game will be over in less than two hours even if you take no damage from any enemy. Even with liberal save-scumming (reloading if I took too much damage or spent a while in fruitless exploration), I couldn't find enough enemies to advance fast enough.
So he describes the very essence of an RPG as a game (Kill/find things in a maze to get stronger to kill/find other things while making sure you don't deplete your resources), and then complains that the resources were finite (a mistake most RPGs make is making them infinite, which he loves, see his post "there's always a plan B").

Seriously, you add a little, tiny, insignificant amount of challenge into a non-game to turn it into a game, he cries like a baby.
You've quoted selectively and out of context.

Third and worst of all, there simply aren't enough foes in some tiers to move on to the next tier. Repeatedly, I was unable to move on to any enemy. Fortunately, there is some limited respawning in the game--too rare and unpredictable to actually "grind," but if you run around long enough some low-tier enemies inevitably reappear. Only through a couple hours of finding them one at a time was I finally able to advance a couple of times.

English is your second language, so all is forgiven.
 

Morpheus Kitami

Liturgist
Joined
May 14, 2020
Messages
2,476
The CRPG Addict hates RPGs as games, just likes them as CYOA skinner boxed TV shows / comics part the 2nd:
While I'm sure that's broadly true, complaining that he doesn't like some mediocre Hylide-like is a stupid way to make that point. Unless you've played Courageous Perseus and its not like he's making it out at all.
 

Nutmeg

Arcane
Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
19,794
Location
Mahou Kingdom
While I'm sure that's broadly true, complaining that he doesn't like some mediocre Hylide-like is a stupid way to make that point.
I actually think games like Hydlie (I mean if you play it without saves lol) and Courageous Perseus are really good at making the point because they strip out all superfluous non game elements, and present you with just the game. So if you don't like it, you simply don't like the game, and so the only reason you'd play these "games" at all is for story, immersion, atmosphere, art, music, skinnerboxing, cyoa, larping etc. i.e. all the non-game things you value about the interactive media you're consuming.
 

Morpheus Kitami

Liturgist
Joined
May 14, 2020
Messages
2,476
While I'm sure that's broadly true, complaining that he doesn't like some mediocre Hylide-like is a stupid way to make that point.
I actually think games like Hydlie (I mean if you play it without saves lol) and Courageous Perseus are really good at making the point because they strip out all superfluous non game elements, and present you with just the game. So if you don't like it, you simply don't like the game, and so the only reason you'd play these "games" at all is for story, immersion, atmosphere, art, music, skinnerboxing, cyoa, larping etc. i.e. all the non-game things you value about the interactive media you're consuming.
Explain to me how someone who doesn't like those two games can also like Dungeon Master, Might and Magic, and roguelikes without also disliking the game portion of those games? Unless there are vastly different versions of those games that suddenly contain massive interactive stories in them. Assuming you're not just saying this because you're a huge weeb who's upset someone shat on your favorite Japanese video game.
 

Silentstorm

Learned
Joined
Apr 29, 2019
Messages
885
How did it take him almost 70hrs to complete M&MIII? I don't remember it being much longer than 30 (I might be misremembering tho).
Fell asleep at the keyboard maybe? Watched TV. When I ran into Scorpia i had no idea who that was referencing (not until i started reading reviews years later and going to back issues).
Hey, it can happen, or you thinking you closed a game or forgot about it and coming back and seeing it's still on, got a few more hours on Jenny Le Clue(hey, it was on my backlog...somehow didn't know it isn't actually a point n click adventure game) of playtime according to Steam because of this, i just left it running for some hours without noticing, and i swear i tried to quit.

Maybe he's just as distracted as i am and leaves some games running by accident leading to a fake playtime?
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The CRPG Addict hates RPGs as games, just likes them as CYOA skinner boxed TV shows / comics part the 2nd:

What makes it uniquely hateful is that of the 15 or so regular enemy types in the game, you can only kill one or two at a time, usually one. When the game begins, you're only strong enough to kill these grey fighters. You have to wipe them out to amass enough strength to kill the next tier of enemies, which is either unicorns or satyrs (they became available to me about the same time). Then you have to kill all of them before you're strong enough to defeat centaurs, and so on.

The game world consists of 120 screens, arranged 8 x 15, and while enemy types tend to be concentrated by screen, their screens could be scattered anywhere in that grid. The screens make up a long maze that winds its way throughout the island and takes about 15 minutes to run from beginning to end if you don't stop to fight. You have to make multiple loops through this map looking for your current enemy to kill, ensuring that you get every one of them or else you can't move on to the next enemy.

But you can't spend forever dithering about the game world, looking for enemies to kill, because even outside of combat, your energy depletes at a rate of roughly 1 per second. You can find five magic items (they look like signs) that boost your energy by 1,000, but even with all of them, the game will be over in less than two hours even if you take no damage from any enemy. Even with liberal save-scumming (reloading if I took too much damage or spent a while in fruitless exploration), I couldn't find enough enemies to advance fast enough.
So he describes the very essence of an RPG as a game (Kill/find things in a maze to get stronger to kill/find other things while making sure you don't deplete your resources), and then complains that the resources were finite (a mistake most RPGs make is making them infinite, which he loves, see his post "there's always a plan B").

Seriously, you add a little, tiny, insignificant amount of challenge into a non-game to turn it into a game, he cries like a baby.

Except that this particular game sounds like it has fucking shit gameplay design. Shitty flow, shitty structure, annoying interface.

I enjoy the gameplay of RPGs... if it's done well. If you toss me a game with mediocre combat and shit-tier encounter design, I sure as hell won't enjoy it.

But give me a modded Jagged Alliance 2 or ToEE and I can have fun with it for months.

Unless the ToEE mod has the following encounter design:
- 5 skeletons
- 5 skeletons
- 5 skeletons
- 10 goblins (you gotta defeat the three skeleton groups first to get enough XP to reach level 2, otherwise your party is too weak to survive the 10 goblins)
- 10 goblins
- 10 goblins
- 10 goblins
- 8 orcs
- 8 orcs
- 8 orcs
- 8 orcs
- 8 orcs
- 7 bugbears
- 7 bugbears
- 7 bugbears

Yeah, that would be utter trash-tier encounter design and I'd drop the game before the second hour.
 

anvi

Prophet
Village Idiot
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
7,530
Location
Kelethin
Even at level 5 in EQ they would put you up against 5 melees and an Orc Oracle that could heal like crazy and nuke too. At level 15 ish a group of enemies would be 2 warriors, 2 rangers, 2 healers. You can do it alone if you are careful and know what to do and how to split them up. Or it could kill a full group of players if they are noobs. You could just stand there and watch how people approach it. The players all run in together and start beating on the Orc Warriors at the front, and the Orc Shaman or whatever keep them healed, and then the Goblin/Dervish Cutthroat/whatever Rangers will shoot the players to death. A more experienced group will gank the rangers and healers quickly, or split them all up.
 

Deuce Traveler

2012 Newfag
Patron
Joined
May 11, 2012
Messages
2,899
Location
Okinawa, Japan
Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Looks like the addict finished off 1992:

http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2021/04/19921993.html

Some excerpts:
"
And yet we saw the glimmerings of a new future in 1992. Ultima Underworld is the most significant example technologically, with its continuous movement in a truly three-dimensional space. But there were other positive developments, none appearing here for the first time but all appearing more frequently than in previous years. These include:

More freedom. "Open world" was this year's default. Ultima Underworld, Darklands, Crusaders of the Dark Savant, Star Control II, Ultima VII, Ragnarok, Amberstar, The Magic Candle III, Realms of Arkania, Legends of Valor, Challenge of the Five Realms, Ishar, Lords of Time, and Planet's Edge were among the games with open worlds. It's easier to count the ones that constrained movement than those that allowed for freedom.

More interesting encounters and side quests. These days, plentiful side quests are the norm in CRPGs. They've even become the norm in action-adventure games. But before 1992, a lot of franchises didn't really understand the concept. You had a mission, and your only "quest" was to get strong enough to complete that mission. This is the first year in which side-quests became the norm.

More interesting endings
. For a game to culminate in a simple combat with the evil wizard is by now so 1980s. It was startling to see it again in Clouds of Xeen. 1992 gave us rituals (Ultima VII, Ultima Underworld, The Magic Candle III), epic encounters that change the rules (Darklands, Realms of Arkania, Ragnarok), and other non-traditional choices. Again, not for the first time, but for the first time usually.

More plot complexity
. This is the first year that the average game made us pay attention to what was going on. Even Dungeon Master derivatives like Black Crypt and Abandoned Places introduced a certain level of plot complexity not found in predecessors. "

His game of the year was Ultima Underworld, but he also gives a nod to Amberstar, Challenge of the Five Rings, Darklands, Legends of Valour, Ragnarok, Star Contol II, Ultima VII, Wizardry VII, Dark Queen of Krynn, Quest for Glory III, and Might and Magic IV.

So far this is his Must Play list:
Dunjonquest: The Temple of Apshai (1979)
Akalabeth: World of Doom (1980)
Rogue: The Adventure Game (1980)
Ultima (1981)
Wizardry (1981)
Moria (1983)
Ultima III (1983)
Questron (1984)
The Bard's Tale (1985)
Phantasie (1985)
Ultima IV (1985)
Wizard's Crown (1985)
Might and Magic (1986)
Starflight (1986)
Dungeon Master (1987)
Pool of Radiance (1988)
Ultima V (1988)
Wasteland (1988)
NetHack 3.0 Series (1989)
Hero's Quest (1989)
Ultima VI (1990)
Eye of the Beholder (1991)
Fate: Gates of Dawn (1991; first act only)
Might and Magic III (1991)
Ultima Underworld (1992)
Darklands (1992)
Ultima VII (1992)
Legends of Valour (1992)

The only ones I haven't played on that list are Legends of Valour, the 1989 version of NetHack, and Fate: Gates of Dawn. Here is his greatest hits list by rank:
Ultima V
Ultima VI
Pool of Radiance
Ultima Underworld
The Dark Heart of Uukrul
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Might & Magic I

Wizardry VII
Might & Magic II
Disciples of Steel
Champions of Krynn
Darklands
Death Knights of Krynn
Hero's Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero
Starflight II
Starflight
Omega
Wasteland
Ultima IV
Wizardry VI

As you can see, Darklands, Wizardry VII, Darklands, and Ultima Underworld have now made the list. I still need to play Disciples of Steel and Omega out of this second list.
 
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DaveO

Erudite
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
1,239
I can't argue with the list with the exception of Temple of Apshai. And why no Must Play for the sequel Eternal Dagger if the score was higher than Wizard's Crown? I suspect Gold Box prototype is the answer.
 

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