Game News Greyhawk: ToEE Demo News

[Ibbz]

Tags: Steve Moret; Temple of Elemental Evil; Troika Games

Some juicy <a href="http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4214032#post4214032">information</a> about the upcoming demo {Mentioned in the Gamespy chat log <a href="http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=55945049&replies=0h" target="_blank">here</a>} has been revealed on the <a href="http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=007b7856882e7f4d82215c9201224728&forumid=286" target="_blank"> official ToEE forums</a>...
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The demo should contain all of the moathouse and its associated levels/dungeons. You are given a 2nd level party and a little bit of backstory on why you are there and it ends when you reach the very bottom of the moathouse.
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IIRC the party consists of a Monk, Fighter, Cleric, Bard, and Wizard. All the non moathouse maps have been stripped so there is no worldmap travel, all the spells should be there, all the monsters that don't spawn on the moathouse or in the moathouse random encounter tables have been removed, all the non moathouse music has been removed, and the existing moathouse music has been recompressed (to make it smaller). Most of the movies have been recompressed to be smaller, and lots of the sounds (especially spell sounds) have been compressed to make them a lot smaller (at the expense of quality and a tad bit of performance the first time they are loaded).
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The last time I measured it weighed in about 220meg, its mostly all the damn spells and spell effects, not to mention plenty of monster art.
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Since the game has already begun it is not in ironman mode, you can save and load games and play the tutorial.
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<i>Steve Moret
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Lead Programmer, ToEE </i></blockquote>
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This should give people a good chance to test out ToEE and find out whether its worth their dollars, ensuring that they dont waste money on something that isnt up to par {Not that there's currently much to compete with in RPG genre.}
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Spotted at <a href="http://www.rpgdot.com/" target="_blank" >RPGDot</a> / <a href="http://www.eye-on-troika.net/ target="_blank">Eye on Troika</a>

 

[triCritical]

I would say the best thing about this demo is that you can play the tutorial. This way you do not waste your time with it when the game comes out.

 

[HanoverF]

I thought they were saying a demo would hit the same time ToEE is hitting the shelves, is it going to be sooner now?

 

[Whipporowill]

It doesn't seem that unlikely since Troika worked during the weekend to complete the demo. I think it's possible Atari has woken up to the hype. I'm thinking pre-release, with at least a week or so. Let's hope QA doesn't have to much to say and we can all play it soon... hehe.

 

[Voss]

Well, presumably... (and I admit I'm assuming things)

if Atari has accepted a gold candidate, and if the demo is based off the gold version, there shouldn't really be much QA of the demo to do. The installer and that sort of thing perhaps, but not the actual game content.

 

[Spazmo]

Yeah, but the demo dumps you at the first dungeon of the game--which isn't quite the beginning, as well as giving you a pre-made party. Therefore, it's not quite teh same as the game itself and may have a bug in. And I'd rather they make quite sure everything is as bugless as possible before releasing.

 

[Whipporowill]

Yeah, a buggy demo would NOT be in Troika's or Atari's interest, that's for sure. Considering a certain other game and it's effects on the game's supposed "customer base". Not that it was really bugs that stopped it though...

 

[Voss]

Theres an update on the demo front from smoret on the atari forums:

The demo is NOT done, it is still being "put together." We are just about done with it, and expect to either FedEx or FTP a build of it to Atari to make an installable version within a day or two.

And it does include a spiked chain... hehhehehe...

 

[Rayt]

What's so special about these spiked chains I keep reading people raving about?

 

[Spazmo]

They're chains! And they're spiked!

 

[DrattedTin]

They're an "exotic weapon". They're pretty cool... and magical ones would be cooler yet.

 

[Sammael]

A spiked chain has reach, can be used to trip people, and is finesse-able (substitute Dex for Str for attack rolls). This makes a fighter/rogue spiked chain specialist with Improved Trip and Combat Reflexes a very dangerous opponent indeed...

 

[Michael_Wolf]

I have sent an e-mail to Brandon Smith, Atari's Senior PR Manager responsible for ToEE, and asked him if he could tell us when the demo will be released and if we could hope for a release this week. He just answered NO.
Hmm, it seems he is not allowed to talk about it or he just doesn't know. The only thing we can do now is wait, drink tea and eat chocolate cookies :wink:

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Hmm... cookies.

*drools*

 

[Elwro]

Or pie.

 

[Voss]

Since its Atari, I'd say he just doesn't know.

And the really nice thing about chains with spikes on is that it has reach, or not, depending on how the wielder uses it. Flexibility is a lovely thing. Though the number of feats it can take (particularly if you go the finessable approach) can make a character a one-trick pony.

 

[Sammael]

Spiked chain specialist
Required abilities: High Dex, Int 13+
Required feats: Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Improved Trip, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse, Whirlwind Attack
Recommended feats: Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization
Recommended skills: Tumble

It takes a human fighter 9 levels to take all the required feats to be an effective spiked chain combatant... but once he does, he becomes nearly undefeatable. I'd probably take one or two levels of rogue early on, for the ranks in Tumble and sneak attack, and then go on with rogue levels (for even more sneak attack goodness) once I have all the required feats.