Let's play ToEE!

[Thrasher]

Aw, ya left out the whorehouse...

Still, nice.

 

[Pussycat669]

It could be that the brothel is co8 exclusive. I haven't found such thing so far.

 

[Thrasher]

Yeah, that's right, C08 enables it.

Humor potential.

 

[Pussycat669]

Need moar votes. You know you want it too you lazy bastards.

 

[RK47]

whoah. 8 to 7. I'd say first to 10 wins it? Easier that way, on mean time you might way to start enchanting your gears? High AC for tanks really make a shit load of difference.

 

[Pussycat669]

To tell you the truth, the whole vote thing is just a hoax that should justify me taking a break so I can finally play Nox again. Let's say voting ends at the end of Wednesday? That should be enough time to beat the warrior's path at least. I only improved weapons so far (Johnny now got a +3 longsword of serious arse-kicking) since I though the elven armor is good enough as for now. I try hoarding some money for some pretty nifty wondrous items later. AC might be good for a warrior but I always though that some gloves of ogre’s 'I SMASH UR FACE' strength combined with some +6 dexterity items are the real deal.

 

[Sitra Achara]

You missed a hard to find summoning figure in the Imeryds run swamp. It's just to the northeast of the Behemoth Kingfrog. You can find it by hitting tab repeatedly, which makes the figure flash on and off.

The Brothel was indeed restored by Co8. To be honest, though, you aren't missing much there.

Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but if you don't talk to the gay Bertram, you can find a straight version of him in the tavern where Tolub is. It's quite possible that there was an attempt at censorship by WotC/Atari that Troika botched, intentionally or not

As for the Earth/Fire choice, there is a bug pertaining to the release of one of the Temple prisoners that has to do with being led to the Fire Temple by the guard. It was fixed in Co8, but not in patch 2. So if you wish to avoid that bug, choose Earth (you can switch sides later on anyhow). However, since your party is evil, releasing the prisoner safely may be irrelevant...
And come to think of it, it's possible that there was a bug caused by the triple cross thing you pulled on Wat and Rentsch that affects one of the Earth Temple quests. Either way, proceed with caution (and multiple savegames).

 

[RK47]

haha fuck. messy as hell. It's hard to structure a Temple playthrough, before that it was pretty linear but once you hit the Temple's front door, it's quite messy; I always end up butchering 3-4 rooms before finding someone to talk to.

 

[Thrasher]

I try hoarding some money for some pretty nifty wondrous items later. AC might be good for a warrior but I always though that some gloves of ogre’s 'I SMASH UR FACE' strength combined with some +6 dexterity items are the real deal.

Please show us a crafting example. I always thought it was one of the coolest things about ToEE.

 

[Pussycat669]

The people have spoken. Earth temple it will be. I'm quiet curious about what the quests will be like since this is the first time I actually try to join any of the evil people. Always winded up simply grinding through for one reason or another.
Mmh, I guess there is no easy way to remove the poll? I hoped I could simply edit it out later but that doesn't seem to be possible anymore.

Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but if you don't talk to the gay Bertram, you can find a straight version of him in the tavern where Tolub is. It's quite possible that there was an attempt at censorship by WotC/Atari that Troika botched, intentionally or not

Just checked it out with an older savegame. Really weird. I wonder why they did that. At least I know now how to recruit both versions. So obvious it almost hurts (for all the cheap jokes now wasted).

Please show us a crafting example.

Will do. Maybe not for the next update but I should get enough XP and money together after I'm done with the temples.

 

[MisterStone]

Am I just out of touch, or is this game the sweetest-looking TBS games ever? Even the portraits look good.

Just imagine if Jeff Vogel had this kind of production value to back his games. Well, OK, He'd probably just remake the same games he's been doing for the last 13-14 years or so, but they sure would look nice.

 

[RK47]

I try hoarding some money for some pretty nifty wondrous items later. AC might be good for a warrior but I always though that some gloves of ogre’s 'I SMASH UR FACE' strength combined with some +6 dexterity items are the real deal.

Please show us a crafting example. I always thought it was one of the coolest things about ToEE.

It's quite generic .You basically spend gold + use your wizard & cleric exp a little to add perma buffs to your fighter classes or bolster their own defence gears. Worked the same for all Craft Wand / Brew Potions as well. No failures on craft, except some items don't provide enough description (as well as spells too) so save/load before crafting those odd sounding items.

Powergaming Heaven with the +6 STR , CON and DEX for your fighters wielding a +3 Holy Keen Cleaver that could crit for 80 dmg per round.

 

[Binary]

Darn now I want to play this - and Wine doth not cooperate.

 

[Pussycat669]

'The sound of steel and claws abrading on crumbling rock echoed up to me. I stood at the stairs, uncertain. Almost fifty years I counted in age at this moment. Already my adventures had granted me wealth beyond the measurement of a simple man, enough honor that would guarantee my place amongst the heroes of legends, friends, a family. I had something to lose. Yet again the knowledge of danger drew me closer although it should have repelled me. "Why is this so?" I asked myself as I started to descent into the darkness below. A mixed feeling of terror and anticipation stirred up inside of me and I knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that I've found the only place that I could ever call home.' Lord Grey, A Man and his Dungeon


The Temple: Getting to the bottom of things (Upper levels - Chapter 1)

Welcome friends and foes to ToEE's Temple of Elemental Evil. Screamer and her faithful followers will spend most of the rest of their virtual life in this maze of twisted corridors filled with dangerous monsters. As for now, they are lead to Romag who gives them a brief overview about the situation down here.

He claims that the earth temple is the greatest of overall four existing temples (plus one elite temple). Those temples are in a never ending conflict both about leadership and self-assertion. This is all due to the law of their demon goddess called...uh..let's just call her Madame Zlut. As Screamer will later realize, Romag’s words about the awesomeness of his earth temple is not an overstatement. Those fellows got the whole first level under their control with a lot of bugbears, gnolls, ogres and simple grunts at their command. He demands three tasks to be completed before he will initialize the adventurers into the greater (fifth) temple. Knowing our place we ask for the first assignment. A snake in the banquet hall has killed the ogre chef and needs to be dealt with.

Bug report: If you should have killed the snake in the moathouse, the game will falsely assume that you've killed the other snake in the dining hall as well.

Tumblefingers loots Romag’s chest while he keeps on rambling about how he's going to revolutionize the industry of Evil. She finds a diary after she accidentally released a rather harmless poisonous cloud. Since the incident with double crosser Lareth, we know that all lunatic evildoers have a secret diary hidden closely where they are initially standing.

The books look the same, sound the same and are both equally trivial to the game experience. Some more names we ought to hear anyways, a secret door that we would have find on our own eventually and so on. We leave Romag to meet other people of the gang. Screamer runs into the guy that you play during the tutorial who has now become an ambitious field commander.

Although he ignores her for the most part and is not really significant for anything, he is at least the trigger for a funny little battle that escalates after an unsuccessful sleight of hands attempt. It ends in almost half of the earth temple population being slain by our hand.

Moral of the story: numbers never equal competence. Finally, we know what a Fungi looks like. *reload*

The snake shouldn't be a problem after a fight like this and she truly isn't.

Johnny checks the next room and encounters some goblins.

Actually, quiet a lot of goblins and an ogre. (Screamer's fear spell is as effective as always on this guy)

Next we got ghouls that guard a chest with anti undead stuff in it. Those critters aren't a real challenge although their paralyze attacks are still tendentially dangerous.

Tumblefingers almost releases some prisoners behind a locked door before we can stop her in time. A bunch of whiny traders and the only true pirate you can find in the game: Morgan.

Joinable, Fighter, more Meh than Eh. Let’s see what the traders got in stock for us.

They don’t posses anything worthwhile so we leave them to rot. The heroes explore the southern corners of the level which seems to have been used as an armory. Johnny finds a Morningstar that is almost ridiculously valuable (around 1500 gold) in one of the barrels. They face more gnolls and ghouls before they finally meet a new enemy type. A cube out of extra tasty jelly. Mh, tasty.

We enter a suspicious looking corridor and are attacked by a skeleton crossbowman. Can you spot him?

'bout time we replenish our personal army of the undead.

Not being in a particularly hurry to return to Romag, we also explore the east wing of this level. Another new exotic creature crosses our path. It’s a harpy.

Our growing number causes us some grief as we're now all stuck in a bottleneck with Screamer in front. In a more desperate attempt she makes a run for it. Johnny tries to follow her but is cut down by one of our gnolls. More harpies come down the ceiling but they are, quiet luckily, not really that tough.

Screamer earns a few more scars for this little tactical error. There are more ghouls lurking in the other rooms of this corridor. The initial plan is to go from room to room picking and selectively take them out. Sadly, the plan appears to be way too subtle for our undead minions to grasp.

We also meet some old acquaintances of ours. They are more bats (Edit: Ok, ok Stirges. Not bats) like the ones we encountered on one our very first and unquestionably embarrassing random encounter. Screamer is almost hysterical to hear their unnerving squealing again and gives the order kill every single one of those bastards. Then again, can you see them?

They don't go down without draining Punkaid some Endurance. A serious loss as it will later turn out. The secret door we find behind the throne won't make up for it.

Back to Romag who waits with a promotion. This will help us going around without troubles from the authorities.

Our next task would originally be to bring a message to Rentsch but since Wat killed him Romag will have to come up with something else. He knows that Wat was working for the chief cleric of the fire temple and sees him as the schemer behind Rentsch’s murder (why a guy, who lives miles away from Nulb, knows more about Wat than Rentsch although they both shared the same household remains a mystery). He wants us to eliminate the two assistant fire clerics as a counter measure. They can be found one more level below so we might as well explore the rest of this area before pressing on. It's also nice to receive compliments from our new buddies.

What kind of evil party would it be if we wouldn't try out the torture chamber by that chance? Johnny already appreciates the torturers attitude and his foible for black leather.

Screamer inspects some of his handiwork to make sure that he's actually worth the money.

We meet Pitak, a competent fighter and his unfunny sidekick who is the connection between him and the outside world. His name is Tuelk.

He's a bad liar and they don't deserve freedom. Maybe it would be different if we would need more fighters in the team but as it is they still got some limbs to lose so we leave them with the guy in the black mask. Two imprisoned women also draw our attention for a second. They checked in the waterside hotel and were arrested since they stole some towels or something like that. They clearly had it comin'.

There are other cells close by but they are mostly inhabited by zombies. There are more AI screw ups here. Our gnoll skeletons start to attack the nearby bugbear patrol instead of the zombies and they in return turn hostile to the rest of the party. Fortunately, no one cares if we get rid of them. There is one last prisoner left to be pointed and laughed at. Until it turns out that this prisoner is actually kind of important. Good thing that Screamer wears that ring she has long forgotten about.

He's a ninja Fighter/Rogue combo on a dangerous mission but he’ll need us to get his equipment back so that he can continue on. He promises to wait for us in a special hiding place. His stuff is found quickly and we head to the only place we haven't searched throughout. The north section has one more crypt with lots of ghouls inside. I will show you here how the apparent incompetence of one (me) can endanger your whole group. Knowing that Magedude still has his Fireball spell ready, we let Johnny and Punkaid storm in without much thought. First bad thing that happens is Johnny getting paralyzed pretty much on spot and Punkaid must venture further without him.

Second bad thing is that Punkaid is all of a sudden surrounded by all sides. All range attacks seems to be missing as for now.

The third (and of course worst) thing that happens is that Magedude fireball spell fizzles. I've forgotten to turn off defensive casting. Punkaid is quickly paralyzed as well and the ghouls start to tear him to pieces. That the bat attacks from before have decreased his HP to only 28 isn't too good either.

Punkaid goes down. Two ghouls keep on punching him until his HP drops to -9. My finger hovers over the quickload key as the impossible happens: Johnny manages to break free from his paralyzed state, Tumblefingers first hit in the entire battle kills the ghoul in front of him, Magedude casts Magic Missile and kills another, the only gnoll skeleton we got left is also very helpful. Johnny in response rushes to Punkaid and throws a last second healing potion on him. It was a really close call.

Time for some well earned rest at Wonnilon’s hiding place. He explains that there are two more things that we need to retrieve for him: his customized crossbow and a scroll that makes it possible to control plants (he claims that this will somehow be useful in the final levels). There is still one last room to be looted. It is filled with highly poisonous black spiders.

*Big* black spiders to be precise.

Two small spiders drop down in the hallway and start attacking Magedude and Screamer. Chaos ensues.

Magedude's haste spell proves very useful in times like these. It will increase the amount of attacks an enchanted person will get per round. Johnny makes short deal with the fat spider now. A few more buff spells from Punkaid and our guys are nigh invincible (well, except for Screamer perhaps as you can see).

With all the loot on their backs (and festering spider bite wounds) Screamer and her companions decide to call dibs for the day and return to Nulb. While on their way out they see an imposing looking throne.

Tumblefingers cracks open a chest that stands nearby. 'As subtle as a crowbar' she mourns as she sees what's inside.

Who can guess already that our heroes are also bound to find similar robes for water and air? They must have already been doing more undercover work than any other party this high fantasy scenario has ever known.

For now, they are just glad to breathe some fresh air again. There is still a lot to do (except for the last pose photo that follows).

 

[RK47]

lol yeah the robes thing is a little ridiculous when you think about it. Troika is really dumbing down the game too much

 

[Demicore]

Great work. Do you intend on going through the elemental nodes?

 

[Crispy]

Those 'bats' were actually stirges, I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirge_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)

 

[Pussycat669]

Yup, you're right. Pretty nasty little pests if you ask me.

Do you intend on going through the elemental nodes?

Sure I will try although they were always too hard for me in the past. We'll see if it works better this time around.

 

[Thrasher]

I seem to remember a dagger of venom helping, but I may be wrong...

 

[Keldorn]

The dull, dry, generic blandness of ToEE is quite unbearable.

You step into a house, and at the entrance is yet ANOTHER predictable dialogue exchange with an NPC so shallow and elementary, that you have zero motivation to get involved in their tribulations.


And that annoying biatch home-maker you might choose to marry, because she's one of the best Fighters in the game, with her mighty meat cleaver and all... purely lame....

...what a truly SHITTY CRPG. Unrefined, corners cut, bland, boring, yeeuck.

The text should be done differently - it's sooooo regimented in appearance. And the music sucks.

I used to like ToEE because of it's combat. But combat implementation aside, it is truly one of the WORST, must uninspiring and generic high-fantasy CRPGs ***EVAHR***.

 

[Pussycat669]

I disagree about ToEE being a bad RPG. Sure, most of the dialogue was generic high fantasy fanfare, as was the main plot, but besides that (and beyond Hommlet) there are actually a lot of things that can be considered good. The quests are often non linear with multiple ways to solve them (e.g. Preston’s tooth problem: either get onto Maria's quest or date Bertram which involves convincing Tolub what, in return, can also be solved in different ways), except for the 'go there kill that' type of quests, with a surprisingly high amount of social skill checks involved. Something that is rather unusual for a simple dungeon crawler (which I still believe that game is). They also react flexible on certain events (see the 'A letter for Rentsch' quest above after Rentsch was killed) so there are less possibilities to truly fail quest because of lacking background knowledge (although there are certainly some ways to screw things up. Like not giving Terjon his jewelry back which has no real benefits whatsoever except being super mega evil or something).

Dunno about the music. My only issue with it was that it was often way too repetitive. More diversity would have certainly been nice. I would have liked if they've taken the combat music from outside the temple actually inside instead of using the old Nulb battle theme for example. There was also another combat theme for the moathouse that was never used in the game (as far as I know). Overall though, I don't see any flaws of real catastrophic proportions.

 

[Gragt]

I think most people were expecting a game of the scale of Baldur's Gate 2 and ToEE is anything but "epic". I like it for what it is, a dungeon crawler with an awesome combat system and lots of charm.

 

[RK47]

aside from bugs and dull writing; TOEE is probably the most faithful D&D combat translated into PC. I'd say it's a tactical dungeon crawler. I think it'd sell more if it's marketed as such.

 

[Crispy]

The dull, dry, generic blandness of ToEE is quite unbearable.

As opposed to your fresh, interesting, unique contribution to an otherwise excellent Let's Play thread.

You step into a house, and at the entrance is yet ANOTHER predictable dialogue exchange with an NPC so shallow and elementary, that you have zero motivation to get involved in their tribulations.

If by the first ten minutes of playing ToEE you expected anything other than a straight conversion from the classic AD&D module (which was always meant to be nothing more than a dungeon-crawler, as all AD&D modules were anyway) then you are a moron.

The motivation was to gain some much-needed experience to prepare you for the tough battles ahead. Duh.

That annoying biatch home-maker you might choose to marry, because she's one of the best Fighters in the game, with her mighty meat cleaver and all... purely lame....

Because she's one of the best fighters in the game? WTF? Try using your imagination a little bit and leave the bitch at home like Pussycat did. Unless you brought her along just for the "lulz" then I accuse you of being a card-carrying member of the International Munchkin Republic.

...what a truly SHITTY CRPG. Unrefined, corners cut, bland, boring, yeeuck.

What a TRULY SHITTY mind you must have. ToEE was brilliant in many ways, but simply unfinished. Give Troika another six months to a year with this thing and it would have been much more polished. Sure, that's no excuse and yes, it was unrefined, but that doesn't make it "TRULY SHITTY". Boring? Fuck no.

The text should be done differently - it's sooooo regimented in appearance. And the music sucks.

Yeah, I know. And how about that stupid-assed radial menu? I mean it's so fucking ugly! And the buildings in the game. OMFG! And the character models, and the monstarz!1! Grow up.

I used to like ToEE because of it's combat. But combat implementation aside, it is truly one of the WORST, must uninspiring and generic high-fantasy CRPGs ***EVAHR***.

You used to like it because of it is combat? WTF does that mean? But knuckle-dragging mouth-breather grammar aside, I think you secretly think ToEE is the BEST, most inspired yet UNFINISHED CRPGs ***EVAHR***. I'm sorry the Balor fucked your scorched skull so many times in a row. Maybe if you knew what you were doing?

 

[Disconnected]

aside from bugs and dull writing; TOEE is probably the most faithful D&D combat translated into PC. I'd say it's a tactical dungeon crawler. I think it'd sell more if it's marketed as such.

Fuck yes. Imagine if BG2 had had similar interesting combat. Or NWN2 for that matter. Hell, imagine Oblivion with that kind of combat.