Fate: Gates of Dawn

[Grampy_Bone]

So I guess Wizards and Warriors is the second blobber with a controllable boat?

This one actually requires you to sail somewhat. You can't just go wherever, you have to steer and track the wind. Mostly dumb, and the viewable distance is horrible for it. Still, neat idea for the time.

 

[Butter]

So I guess Wizards and Warriors is the second blobber with a controllable boat?

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Okay fine, third.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

It turns out fucking off and sailing around was a super good idea. Not only are the best trainers only reachable by sea, but nearly every island has a supercool treasure on it, and it's totally unguarded. You even get XP for finding them; I've gained like 5 levels just from looting. Dungeon treasures are much more fiercly protected so this feels totally unbalanced. I guess they thought it was worth it because you have to 'search' OR 'dig' to get the items, but the islands are small and most of the time I find the item in the first or second try.

Seriously thinking healers are dead weight in this game. Witches get the Druid spell list second and can craft unlimited full healing potions (it costs 1 water bottle to make a potion tho), not to mention you can buy them easily after Larvin. Starwands cure poison and disease for the whole party and also seem plentiful. My cleric meanwhile has the worst MP total in the group and can't use any decent weapons, and gets splattered every ~5 combats or so by OHKOs.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Playing this game makes me realize why I dislike CRPG Addict: he's kind of shitty at combat.

He just sort of bumbles his way through every game like it's Skyrim, expecting to beat every fight on the first try, but making no real attempt to work out any kind of optimization. When this doesn't work, he always blames the game. Somehow he can spend 200 hours mapping every empty square in FATE, but can't just leave a dungeon and come back later when he's stronger.

I was getting clobbered in the Grotto so I left, ate my wheaties, returned and now I'm rocking the place. Chet suffered through it and whined about it. I reached the level 3 enemies he called "unkillable" (Dracs), and lo and behold, they are quite killable. Tough, sure, but still nothing extreme. Simple debuffs reduce their defense enough for straight melee combat to prevail, while the Freeze! + Dupe combo is also highly effective. I'm not even higher level than him, I just spent all my training points beefing up Winwood's strength to max and getting all my mages high Magic Power.

Game is getting kind of tedious now, not sure how much longer I'll keep going with it. Though I am past the point of 'sunk cost' where I feel like I've played it long enough I have to finish just to justify the time.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

I was getting clobbered in the Grotto so I left, ate my wheaties, returned and now I'm rocking the place. Chet suffered through it and whined about it.

This is good news. 15 years ago I gave up the game in the Grotto. I was immediately swarmed by monsters. I have no time to press the save button between 2 battles! So there is hope!

 

[octavius]

I have no time to press the save button between 2 battles!

Sounds like Bard's Tale 2. I have to pause the program every time I check or add to my map, in order to preserve what is left of my sanity.

Regarding the CRPG Addict, I get the impression that he just brute forces his way through combat, and if it's too hard he just grinds more levels. He has improved in other areas, though.

 

[vitellus]

crpg addict: this game no goldbox. goldbox bestest. fireball go brrr

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I was immediately swarmed by monsters.

Once you clear the initial rush it's not so bad. I feel like half the fights in the first floor don't respawn, I haven't had this experience since returning.

just grinds more levels.

I'm not going to fault someone for grinding, but he rarely makes a strategic attempt at it. When levels don't immediately show results, he gives up and just runs or mass-spams items for fights, while blaming the game for his playstyle sucking. In The Magic Candle, he claimed leveling up wasn't effective (it requires you to descend to the bottom of each dungeon and wake a god for stat boosts) so the game "forces" you to uses dozens of consumables to win fights, but it never occurred to him that these two decisions might be related. On my playthrough of those games I rarely had to use consumables and found the fights balanced and fair, because I took the time to level my team effectively instead of just combing every square of the map.

In this game you get big dividends from the Altar in the Larvin catacombs. In a battle with 25+ mobs, you can freeze them and spam debuffs and enchants for several rounds, and easily gain 100+ 'Effect' stats per battle. This takes a few minutes. Return to the altar with 1000 or so effect hits per character (less than an hour), and enjoy your 20 free spells and 30 improvement slots (you get one each per normal level).

goldbox bestest.

Somehow he played through umpteen billion goldbox games yet never figured out that Str affects melee accuracy in D&D, not Dex. When commenters tried to explain this to him in Dark Sun, he argued with them.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

crpg addict: this game no goldbox. goldbox bestest. fireball go brrr

If only the CRPGAddict actually did take the Gold Box games as the exemplars of CRPGs, rather than Baldur's Gate and Skyrim.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

Is there any penalty for reviving a dead party member?
Attribute/xp loss?

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

Cursor keys are not working. Any tips?
Which attribute is more important? I have a Warrior STR30 HP30 and another Warrior STR24 HP43. Which one should I keep?
I am trying recruit every class.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Is there any penalty for reviving a dead party member?

Characters revive with stats set to very low values, take them to a Guild (any one, doesn't matter) and use 'Restore' to get their stats back. A Cleric's Rejuvenate spell works too.

Once they've died 15 times they'll start complaining, if they die and revive again they'll leave forever. You can reset the death count at the Alarian altar in the Larvin catacombs.

Cursor keys are not working. Any tips?

Try numlock on/off. The number pad should let you move, F1-F7 select party members, regular number keys 1-8 select the menu options on the right panel, and Return goes back to the previous menu.

I've had issues where it stops reading the keyboard if my screen shuts off due to inactivity, and I have to restart it.

Which attribute is more important?

Definitely strength. You need some strength to move objects and flip certain levers in the dungeon, and you need 50 to rescue the mage from the pit outside town but you can use buffs to reach that. Stat boosts in the first town are inferior to the rest of the game, you can get 2 or 3 points per training slot later on. So its worth it to save your training slots until later (there is a guild in the first town that gives +3 skill though, which is the best place to train it).

Str - damage, certain quests
Stamina - HP regen I believe, kinda pointless
Int - Needed for demon summoning, lets you get more charges out of items. Doesn't increase spell damage or anything like that.
Wis - Mana regen. Useful up to a point
Dex - Turn order and dodging. Very important
Skill - Turn order and accuracy. Also important
Cha - Affects dialogue success and Nymph powers. Mostly unneeded.
Magic power - Needed to overcome magic resistance. Very important for mages.

 

[mindx2]

Is there any penalty for reviving a dead party member?

Characters revive with stats set to very low values, take them to a Guild (any one, doesn't matter) and use 'Restore' to get their stats back. A Cleric's Rejuvenate spell works too.

Once they've died 15 times they'll start complaining, if they die and revive again they'll leave forever. You can reset the death count at the Alarian altar in the Larvin catacombs.

That's awesome! "Good God man, quit throwing me into the meat-gridder! I'm outta here!" I can't think of another game that has that. Is there one?

 

[Mortmal]

Is there any penalty for reviving a dead party member?

Characters revive with stats set to very low values, take them to a Guild (any one, doesn't matter) and use 'Restore' to get their stats back. A Cleric's Rejuvenate spell works too.

Once they've died 15 times they'll start complaining, if they die and revive again they'll leave forever. You can reset the death count at the Alarian altar in the Larvin catacombs.

That's awesome! "Good God man, quite throwing me into the meat-gridder! I'm outta here!" I can't think of another game that has that. Is there one?

None had that feature , its amazing all there was in just two floppies isnt it.Some codexers been talking about this game since 2010. Wait for them to discover there's genderswapping too...

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Not only that, but party members who leave will take anything they are carrying with them and it's gone forever. The game auto-pools money on each character when you select them in the shop, so if that character was the last one to buy something, there goes all your money (this happened to me). Hope you don't have any quest items on them either.

Obviously, use all the save slots. Other commenters mentioned linking the game directory to dropbox just to have more backups.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I am trying recruit every class.

I believe there are 30-ish classes and you have a max of 4 parties of 7, so 28 total. You'll also definitely need open party slots to split your main team up for some puzzles, unless you want to run multiple teams in every dungeon.

All characters in all parties gain some XP and get all the bonus training slots from quest progress, but they do not gain the Altar bonuses, those are only for individuals.

Also I was wrong about Warlocks being optimal casters and fighters. They can use a lot of weapons but only Witches and Banshees though can use a Vixhammer, which hits all enemies. Banshees have great spells while Witches are a bit slower before they really get going. I'm liking having all three though as my main casting team.

 

[Mortmal]

Not only that, but party members who leave will take anything they are carrying with them and it's gone forever. The game auto-pools money on each character when you select them in the shop, so if that character was the last one to buy something, there goes all your money (this happened to me). Hope you don't have any quest items on them either.

Obviously, use all the save slots. Other commenters mentioned linking the game directory to dropbox just to have more backups.

Use winuae save states,not just save , i think scrooge had trouble with her save disk.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

Use winuae save states,not just save , i think scrooge had trouble with her save disk.

Can you use Winuae save states safely?
If a program writes information onto disk aside the memory, that could be a problem.

 

[Mortmal]

Use winuae save states,not just save , i think scrooge had trouble with her save disk.

Can you use Winuae save states safely?
If a program writes information onto disk aside the memory, that could be a problem.

Besides the backdoor it offers to CIA and mossad, and yes we know about your weird fetishes and browsing history, it's safe to use winUAE.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

Can I use 500x CPU cycles?
At normal CPU cycles the game is laggy and slow.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Can I use 500x CPU cycles?
At normal CPU cycles the game is laggy and slow.

I tried a few different things, like bumping it up to a 68030 CPU or enabling the FPU. But that made it run too fast and I have to enable a 40% throttle to keep it from being unplayable. The FPU seemed to produce more stable results.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

Having general issues with the emulator. When I launch the game pre-configured it runs kinda slow. Movement is clunky and clicks are laggy. But when I exit to the config menu and go back--without changing anything--it runs overly fast, and I have to pull the CPU down 40% to get it to stop double-clicking everything. Amiga emulation, why are you like this?

Same for me. But not always become fast when I exit to the config (F12) and back.
The keyboard works well, mouse has only the double-clicking problem.

 

[TheDeveloperDude]

How can you make light in the dungeon?
I bought a lamp, but it lasts very short time.

What 7 member party do you suggest?
1. Winwood

 

[Grampy_Bone]

How can you make light in the dungeon?

Enchanters get a light spell. Banshees learn one after they max out their first spell book but that probably takes too long for the first dungeon. I found an enchanter in the dungeon myself, then ditched him after my Banshee leveled up a bit more.

What 7 member party do you suggest?

I'm using Warlock, Witch, Banshee, Cleric, Nymph. There's a guaranteed Warlock and Nymph, and a mandatory Archmage that you need to finish the game. The nymph has no combat ability but she's handy for reviving dead party members and you need her to kill the first boss. The Cleric's rejuvenate spells along with mana restore fountains allow me to dungeon delve freely. Witch, Banshee, and Warlock have a large array of great spells and can use good weapons.

I had a slot open on my way to recruit Mandrag (the Archmage) but for some reason the door to his room on level 7 of the Grotto won't open. I think I need to go back to level 6 and make sure I hit all the wall plaques. But the dungeons have become super tedious so I may just call it quits for now.