Help from ye old schoolers

[MetalCraze]

Played Chaos Gate yet?

I remember that quite a few Codexers were saying that it is impossible to play that game past the mission 2-3 or so due to some WinXP related bug that was never fixed, so I decided to postpone playing of that game until I'll build a Win98 machine.

 

[Shannow]

Played Chaos Gate yet?

I remember that quite a few Codexers were saying that it is impossible to play that game past the mission 2-3 or so due to some WinXP related bug that was never fixed, so I decided to postpone playing of that game until I'll build a Win98 machine.

Not sure if I played it on Win98 last time... But it has serious savegame corruption/CTD bugs. Out of 4 tries I was only able to finish once. So I'm not completely convinced that it is an XP problem...

 

[Micmu]

If by "party based", he's looking for Ian to crit him with the SMG from behind, then yes, he might enjoy FO1.

From behind? He can pretty much do a 180 degree miss and cut you in half even he's in front.

 

[MetalCraze]

I've played Star Trail for a few hours today - mighty fine game, although I didn't expect to find so much simulation in there - like the need to dress your party accordingly to the weather conditions to not let them get sick or have a pair of boots as a back up with yourself for the same reason. And then those infections and diseases that spread through the party.

Modern casual shit made me too soft.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Yeah, I've been experiencing the same thing. And where's the bloom?

 

[Luzur]

and then there is this game: http://www.parhedros.com/ourgames.html

Parhedros is a good, old-fashioned dungeon-crawl. Your Quest sends you directly into a mysterious and dangerous dungeon, populated with interesting characters and fiendish monsters, in order to solve a problem of major importance to your character.

website and game contains boobies, so not safe for work.

 

[Jasede]

That's a horrible game and you should not-

Oooh, I get it. Yeah, try out Parhedros! It's a fantastic game.

 

[Andhaira]

Hey glad to hear you guys are enjoynig Start Trail Its my favorite crpg of all time, beating even ultima 7. Its also weird to see skyway praise a game.
Anyow, the simulation prt is part of the fun; and your characters skills directly affects it. Find your pc getting diseased too often? Bump up his resistances at level up. Having difficulty finding herbs and food when you camp? Bump up hunting and wilderness lore skills when you level up!


And regarding Paerdros, it seems to be an adult crpg. How is it? They don't offer any screenshots strangely...

 

[Wyrmlord]

I've played Star Trail for a few hours today - mighty fine game, although I didn't expect to find so much simulation in there - like the need to dress your party accordingly to the weather conditions to not let them get sick or have a pair of boots as a back up with yourself for the same reason. And then those infections and diseases that spread through the party.

Modern casual shit made me too soft.

Star Trail totally destroyed me.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I've played Star Trail for a few hours today - mighty fine game, although I didn't expect to find so much simulation in there - like the need to dress your party accordingly to the weather conditions to not let them get sick or have a pair of boots as a back up with yourself for the same reason. And then those infections and diseases that spread through the party.

Modern casual shit made me too soft.

Star Trail totally destroyed me.

I am playing Blade of Destiny at the moment, and it is apparently much more anal than Startrail. It is a very full on game, but the pro's outweigh the con's.

 

[Jasede]

While Riva isn't "great", there's less and less micromanagement and more and more comfort all the way from RoA 1 to 2 to 3, so that's something to look forward to.

 

[MetalCraze]

What I don't like however is a typical Sir-Tech interface without tool-tips - not something critical, but a bit annoying.
I like simulation aspect - it isn't intrusive. At first when I saw "hunger" and "thirst" scales I thought "NOOOOO!!" - but then it turned out that keeping my characters fed is pretty easy, just hunt on every rest.
Another aspect I don't like though is that in order to get anywhere too many rests are needed, they are needed too often. It doesn't feel too reasonable and fluid.
I also like random encounters, although I'm not sure if they are that random, and not pre-scripted, happening in specific places.
The combat is good and you can see that developers were pretty anal about recreating tabletop experience, which is very cool.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

I tried Star Trail and what can i say? Half of my party drowned in the first town - that must be old school.

 

[Mackerel]

What I don't like however is a typical Sir-Tech interface without tool-tips - not something critical, but a bit annoying.
I like simulation aspect - it isn't intrusive. At first when I saw "hunger" and "thirst" scales I thought "NOOOOO!!" - but then it turned out that keeping my characters fed is pretty easy, just hunt on every rest.
Another aspect I don't like though is that in order to get anywhere too many rests are needed, they are needed too often. It doesn't feel too reasonable and fluid.
I also like random encounters, although I'm not sure if they are that random, and not pre-scripted, happening in specific places.
The combat is good and you can see that developers were pretty anal about recreating tabletop experience, which is very cool.

I hope you bought rope for everyone, and a crowbar and net!

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Realms of Arkania. Start with Star Trail.

What he said, but start with "Blade of Destiny" - If you endured Wiz6 gfx you woudn't mind the look of RoA 1.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Disciples of Steel is another semi-forgotten gem from circa-92, a strong goldbox clone with an opportunity to take over towns, gather taxes and field troops in addition to dungeon crawling.

BTW: Where did you get a working version? The cracked one fucks the game up once your party gets beyond 256 HP.

Or are you referring to a boxed original? :shock: *Drool*

 

[Wyrmlord]

Skyway, they are not random. All of them are premade.

 

[MetalCraze]

I thought as much.
Anyway where do you buy weapons and armour?

 

[mondblut]

BTW: Where did you get a working version? The cracked one fucks the game up once your party gets beyond 256 HP.

Or are you referring to a boxed original? :shock: *Drool*

Nope, just a version on some ancient pirated compilation from mid-90s. Don't remember any major problems other than the final dungeon being screwed up at parts, apparently simply unfinished. Maybe nobody had over 256 hp in the first place?

 

[mondblut]

Ah, I remember now. I did not use the crack - it didn't work for me, nor does it now, neither in the 1.001 version on that pirated cd, nor in the 1.004 version now available online. I found where passwords are stored for verification and edited them out.

The file in question is Steel4.mk1 in steeldat folder. It starts with "108" (total number of passwords), then followed by passwords each taking 4 lines - password itself and 3 numbers for page, line, word, all encoded. What you do is change "108" to "1", delete all lines after the 5th (so only one password and its 3 numbers remain), and delete all bytes in line 2 (password itself) except one, leaving it a single-letter word. Now, when the game asks you for password (always the same now) and offers first letter, you just hit enter and it lets you in. You don't even need a hex editor for that, plain notepad will work.

My Steel4.mk1 looks like that:

1
‘
‘
‘
‘

(in hex, 31 0d0a 91 0d0a 91 0d0a 91 0d0a 91 0d0a, 0d0a being carriage return). The game asks for the word number 0 on line 0 of page 0, starting appropriately with 0 which is its single letter

Curiously, my 1.001 versions runs straight from XP with mouse support AND sound (imagine that!), whereas the downloaded 1.004 has neither, although configurations are the same.

 

[Trash]

Another solid thumbs up for the Realms of Arkania games. I loved hiking and finding all sorts of cool encounters in "Star Trail" and then having my characters die of hunger, disease and apparantly a lack of decent footwear. Oldskool.

However noone here seems to remember the "Eye of the Beholder" games of yore. Superstar dungeon crawlers back in the day and still amazingly fun if you're into exploring deep and dank caves while fighting hordes of creepy crawlies. EOB2: The legend of Darkmoon is by far the best one and will keep you occupied for ages. Heartily recommended.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Another solid thumbs up for the Realms of Arkania games. I loved hiking and finding all sorts of cool encounters in "Star Trail" and then having my characters die of hunger, disease and apparantly a lack of decent footwear. Oldskool.

However noone here seems to remember the "Eye of the Beholder" games of yore. Superstar dungeon crawlers back in the day and still amazingly fun if you're into exploring deep and dank caves while fighting hordes of creepy crawlies. EOB2: The legend of Darkmoon is by far the best one and will keep you occupied for ages. Heartily recommended.

The Beholder games are excellent fun, and I would have put them forward had the OP, and Skyway not asked for Turn based combat being one of the main factors. I still personally prefer Dungeon Master in many ways when it comes to this kind of gaming.

 

[quasimodo]

Played Chaos Gate yet?

I remember that quite a few Codexers were saying that it is impossible to play that game past the mission 2-3 or so due to some WinXP related bug that was never fixed, so I decided to postpone playing of that game until I'll build a Win98 machine.

Not sure if I played it on Win98 last time... But it has serious savegame corruption/CTD bugs. Out of 4 tries I was only able to finish once. So I'm not completely convinced that it is an XP problem...

There is a CTD bug associated with WinXP that I have never found a way around. I keep a Win98 machine for older games and I have played it through many times without any serious problems.

 

[Jasede]

I can't wait to play Eye of the Beholder 2 for the first time.

Is it worth playing 1 first to import the party?

 

[Frau Bishop]

Disciples of Steel is another semi-forgotten gem from circa-92, a strong goldbox clone with an opportunity to take over towns, gather taxes and field troops in addition to dungeon crawling.

Sounds good and looks good from what I've seen in a quick search. Is drawing maps mandatory to have a good playtime?