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Echelon II, anyone play it?? any good?

sheek

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
8,659
Location
Cydonia
Hobo Elf said:
Darth Roxor said:
Voodoo Daddy said:
Rewards creativity? How?

For example, while playing a warrior I put a minor amount of skill points into divine magic and got the cats' eyes spell, and kept using it to my advantage in dungeons and at night, since chance to hit was largely influenced by the amount of light (both for you and your opponents), before going into a fight I'd turn off all torches and activate cats' eyes which gave rather solid lighting at point blank range only for your character, which had the monsters at a HUGE disadvantage due to the lack of light, while you suffered like -5% to hit when compared to torchlight, I think.

Slightly cool idea, I guess, but it hasn't got much to do with the actual combat, which is just a boring click fest of attack ad infinitum against boring and generic monsters who attack you with a generic melee swing attack. The only monsters that I recall having something different were the bees that could poison you, and the last boss that changed into a giant spider, and I think he had a fireball spell as well. Probably a few archers there too, it's been a while since played Eschabore.
As opposed to what?

Gothic click-fests?

Fallout? Lulz.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet
sheek said:
Hobo Elf said:
Darth Roxor said:
Voodoo Daddy said:
Rewards creativity? How?

For example, while playing a warrior I put a minor amount of skill points into divine magic and got the cats' eyes spell, and kept using it to my advantage in dungeons and at night, since chance to hit was largely influenced by the amount of light (both for you and your opponents), before going into a fight I'd turn off all torches and activate cats' eyes which gave rather solid lighting at point blank range only for your character, which had the monsters at a HUGE disadvantage due to the lack of light, while you suffered like -5% to hit when compared to torchlight, I think.

Slightly cool idea, I guess, but it hasn't got much to do with the actual combat, which is just a boring click fest of attack ad infinitum against boring and generic monsters who attack you with a generic melee swing attack. The only monsters that I recall having something different were the bees that could poison you, and the last boss that changed into a giant spider, and I think he had a fireball spell as well. Probably a few archers there too, it's been a while since played Eschabore.
As opposed to what?

Gothic click-fests?

Fallout? Lulz.

dumbfuck.gif
 

Higher Game

Arcane
Joined
Apr 14, 2005
Messages
13,662
Location
Female Vagina
Lots of faggotry in here. Eschalon is the best indie in years. If you can't hit shit it's because you aren't using bless (let me guess, atheist hipster?), or you're fighting in the dark, in which case your opponent is much less accurate too.

There are places where having a bow is very important, like exploding a barrel. In fact you need to shoot a lever at one point to advance. The exploding goblins also necessitate ranged attacks. You also should use ranged attacks to finish off the acid worms, but to get out of range you need speed boost (unless you hoarded tons of arrows), which can come from many sources. Simply running around bashing everything isn't viable.

I've beaten the game ironman before with few problems (disease the only really nasty one). I think some people here are just soft.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
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Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
Voodoo Daddy said:
...but this [Plot twist in Eschalon] is painfully obvious unless you're incredibly thick.

Typical Codexer arrogance at work here. I'm guessing that you, like pretty much everyone else here, didn't have a clue about the plot twist until it was revealed to you by the game itself. At best you either guessed it out of pure luck, or thought it was one of several possible plot developments which you had brewing at the back of your head as you played the game.

And saying Eschalon is crap on the Codex is a really bizarre course of action, considering that people here are not only nostalgic about highly flawed games of yesteryear, but do so to the point of making multiple-page threads about them with screenshots, witty commentary, audience input and, most importantly, high praise.

If Eschalon had been released in 1992 it would be hailed today as a true classic, no matter how thin the plot may be, how ludicrous the combat system may be, no matter how bugged and flawed the game may be.
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2008
Messages
7,953
Location
Cuntington Manor
Eschalon is a fine little RPG and well worth the price. If you like old school RPG's at all, then buy Eschalon. If you hate old school RPG's then it isn't for you.
 
Joined
May 18, 2009
Messages
513
Blackadder said:
Eschalon is a fine little RPG and well worth the price. If you like old school RPG's at all, then buy Eschalon. If you hate old school RPG's then it isn't for you.

This.
It's fairly subjective. I can see the valid points brought up by some people who thought Eschalon was less than impressive. I can also understand why many other people loved The Witcher -- and yet I found the former to be the most enjoyable RPG in years while I couldn't bring myself to finish the latter. I bought Eschalon as a gift for two friends, one of them liked it enough to replay it several times, the other one didn't even get past the first quest. Try the demo, experiment a little with various character builds, if it doesn't click, just skip it.
 

Andhaira

Arcane
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
1,868,966
Eschalon rocks. Buy it Turok, and play the heck out of it.

ESCHALON GIGAS!!!!
 

Major_Blackhart

Codexia Lord Sodom
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Joined
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18,300
Location
Jersey for now
I really enjoyed the game actually. I'd played through it several times. One of the things I really liked was the descriptive dialogue. Very Old School, Very Classic.
 

k_bits

Scholar
Joined
Mar 26, 2005
Messages
210
Thought this was interesting: From the Book 2 Q&A:

Question #13:
[MaximB] In Book 1 the quests were very liner and often had only one solution, will it change with Book 2? Are you going to make several solutions to each quest with consequences to your choices ?

Good question. It's hard to answer because the number of solutions to each quest depends on how you define those solutions. For example, one of the first side-quests you come across has you retrieving an item for someone as part of a debt settlement. Now then, you can go directly to that person and threaten them. You can can offer to buy this object from them, knowing you'll make a bit of profit when you get your reward. You can steal it from them, either through stealth or murder. Or, if you explore a bit more, you can find something to blackmail them with. By my count that is four separate ways of achieving the final goal. Others might say "well there is still only one way to successfully finish the quest and that is by retrieving the item and delivering it." Perhaps, but that's not being very creative- you could just keep the item and murder the person who gave you the quest.

Often, we try to find several ways for a player to get from point A to point B within the game, whether a quest is part of that journey or not. Like in Book 1, there were 3 unique ways into Crakamir, and players found the best way for themselves through their own individual play style. Book II will have a lot of this type of "multi-path" gameplay.

As for consequences to quests- yes, we are definitely going to put more examples of this into Book II than we had in Book I. But in keeping with old-school game mechanics, Book II will still have plenty of quests that are simply "do this and get a reward". Some RPGs are built entirely around the concept of choice and consequence. That is the gimmick the developers are going for, and it's great to have this kind of gameplay option for RPG enthusiast. Our gimmick is that we are old-school: Lots of exploration. Tons of character development options. Stat micromanagement. Crazy monsters and powerful spells. Traps and puzzles. And in the end, we have a huge gameworld that you can make your own adventure out of: follow the main quest or don't. That's your choice and consequence.

Upfront and honest as to what they're doing, with some possibility of C&C

PS: Book 2 is looking mighty pretty.

eb2_screen_072509a.jpg
 

Heresiarch

Prophet
Joined
Mar 8, 2008
Messages
1,451
The spell list is giving me painful memories. The game's spell system was abso-fucking-awful.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
Patron
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Seattle, WA USA
MCA
Nice, I see that he added the Recipes idea I had mentioned on his forums. Basically I had asked him to add an option that once you found out one, it would then be added to your book. Neat!

Looking forward to Book II. Enjoyed Book I.
 

Major_Blackhart

Codexia Lord Sodom
Patron
Joined
Dec 5, 2002
Messages
18,300
Location
Jersey for now
Book II will be pretty damn good I think. I enjoyed Book I and I still do. I loved the soundtrack to B1 as well. Great soundtrack, even for a mainstream dev, and amazing for an indy dev. If Bk2's soundtrack is as good (might be if you consider the one released track) then hey, it's all gonna be good.
 

Elwro

Arcane
Joined
Dec 29, 2002
Messages
11,746
Location
Krakow, Poland
Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2
They licensed the tracks from a freelance artist; they were realliy fitting and atmospheric. I hope they contract the same artist again.
 

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