Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[octavius]

If i didn't complete that quest with bottle for silver dragon will i miss something important cause i killed that djin thing in kobold caves(i assume that was the quest item bottle)

If you have the bottle the Djinn will be an ally when fighting a Vampire.

 

[janior]

If you have the bottle the Djinn will be an ally when fighting a Vampire

Well, that's not a big loss i guess

my party right now is:
fighter human
fighter human
cleric\fighter human
fighter human
fighter\magic-user\thief half-elf
magic-user human

Any suggestions what characters change in my party when i'll start Curse of the azure bonds?

 

[octavius]

my party right now is:
fighter human
fighter human
cleric\fighter human
fighter human
fighter\magic-user\thief half-elf
magic-user human

Any suggestions what characters change in my party when i'll start Curse of the azure bonds?

Personally I'd replace most of the party to be honest.
You'll need a high level Cleric, and a Paladin and Ranger would be better than the Fighters (although that is mostly a matter of taste, really; I like diverse parties), and the Half-Elf will not advance much as magic-user.
But the party will be good enough, except for the lack of a high level Cleric (you really need someone to cast Neutralize Poison, for example).

 

[Null Null]

For Curse, you can win if you just swap out your fighter/cleric for a pure cleric. I would dual one of those fighters (maybe two) to a magic-user though. Taking it into Curse, you can actually start out with some pretty high-level fighters, so it's a reasonably viable party.

It was actually similar to the party I used through Pools (F, F, F, C, M, F/M/T), if you want to do that.

Oh, and nitpick: it's actually an Efreet. They're separate monsters in D&D. Don't worry about the bottle though. He helps a little with the Vampire, but the Vampire's beatable without him.

 

[janior]

Yeah, i've killed that vampire without any problem, now when i think about it maxing my party stats was not so great idea. It's too easy right now(only castle left to deal with).

 

[Alchemist]

This may be of some interest to Gold Box fans: http://synthbard.bandcamp.com/album/gold-box-renditions

Basically, analog synth renditions of some of the Gold Box series theme music.


You can even get a cassette version for that authentic vintage feel:

Better grab it now, before the cease and desist...

 

[janior]

Alright iv'e finished the game and... i have no idea how to import my party, when i copy save file from PoR to Curse folder it doesn't work also if i copy it to c:\save file. I found tutorial only on gog version of the game but not on normal.

 

[CryptRat]

Alright iv'e finished the game and... i have no idea how to import my party, when i copy save file from PoR to Curse folder it doesn't work also if i copy it to c:\save file. I found tutorial only on gog version of the game but not on normal.

With my DosBox version, for Buck Rogers, I place my BUCK entire folder directly in C next to BUCK2 folder, then it works.

 

[janior]

Alright i've figured it out

 

[weirwood]

Also, from a power gamer perspective, they wasted white mages during DQK. White mages need more XP/level compared to red mages per the rules; IIRC in Kristophan (the minotaur city) there is a shop selling white and red mage scrolls with random spells, so random that a red mage can get all the white mage spells (and vice versa). Then you can have it all, the fast level progression of red robes with all the defensive goodies of white robes.

I've played from Champions to DQK a couple of years ago, and that's not quite true. I did my best to fill out my mages' spell books, and bought a ton of the randomized scrolls, and while there are a bunch of spells available for both robes that should be restricted according to the manual, it's far from all. I think it was actually a quite sensible game design choice in order not to screw over parties with only a single mage. Staples such as Mirror Image, Haste and Globe of Invulnerability are available to both, but there's still plenty of more specialized spells like Hold Monster, Charm Monster and Mass Charm for white robes and Slow, Dimension Door and Fire Touch for red robes that stay exclusive.

Red robes are still the power gamer's choice because for a single class mage the faster progression will amount to about 5 extra levels worth at the end of the game, which is a significant difference when it comes to beating magic resistance and for uncapped damage spells like DBF. But that doesn't make white robes obsolete. Especially for a mage/cleric multi-class, since neutral clerics suck.

 

[Null Null]

Neutral clerics are the only ones capable of casting seventh level spells (and thus un-level-draining characters without going to a temple) in Death Knights of Krynn, which raises complications if you're trying to use the same party all the way through.

 

[Dorateen]

I had a lawful good cleric in the party, and I see in the notes for Death Knights of Krynn, I kept a "Restoration List" in the side margin. This, a reference to characters who had been drained and needed to be healed presumably when we returned to a temple. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed DKoK was due to playing through several areas with characters less than the levels they should be at due to draining. Did scrolls of Restoration work for non-neutral clerics?

 

[octavius]

Did scrolls of Restoration work for non-neutral clerics?

Yes.
I don't recall ever having problems with not having Restoration available in DKK.

 

[Null Null]

Oh yeah, but they take up space in your inventory. It's really a question of play-style--I hate depending on non-renewable resources like scrolls (I tended to leave wands unused for the same reason).

 

[octavius]

Oh yeah, but they take up space in your inventory. It's really a question of play-style--I hate depending on non-renewable resources like scrolls (I tended to leave wands unused for the same reason).

But Wands of Fireball are excactly what your fighter and thief types should use against groups of Wraiths in order to minimize chances of getting drained. It's not like they will make much of a difference in most boss fights, but against groups of level drainers and spell casters I use them when I have them. No reason to save them for something else.

 

[Null Null]

Ah, thanks. I think I could never keep track of which games let you use the wands for non-mage characters--according to the AD&D rules only mages could use wands other than magic missiles, but the games tended to forget that.

 

[TigerKnee]

according to the AD&D rules only mages could use wands other than magic missiles, but the games tended to forget that.

Much better this way IMO - gives Fighters more options than just hitting Auto-Attack every turn.

Fuck 3E for popularizing the Magic Using classes as the main users of offensive consumables - IMO it should be Thieves >> Fighters > MUs

 

[Null Null]

Yeah. Playing the Avernum remake it seems pretty clear Vogel made battle disciplines as a way of giving fighters more to do than just attacking every round.

 

[HobGoblin42]

By the way, if someone is interested: I am currently selling duplicates of my Goldbox collection through 1 EUR auctions on Ebay:

Pool of Radiance (C64, 1988)
Curse of the Azure Bonds (C64, 1989)
Secret of the Silver Blades (C64, 1990)
Pools of Darkness (MS-DOS, 1991)
Champions of Krynn (C64, 1990)
Death Knights of Krynn (MS-DOS, 1991)
Gateway to the Savage Frontier (C64, 1991)
Treasure of the Savage Frontier (MS-DOS, 1992)

Spoiler

Those are the original U.S. releases by SSI complete with code wheels, manuals, adventurer journals etc. - not some cheap Euro or value re-releases.

...and other classic RPGs worth to collect:

Spoiler

AD&D Shadow Sorcerer (MS-DOS, 1991)
AD&D Dungeon Masters Assistant Volume I (C64, 1988)
AD&D Eye of the Beholder (MS-DOS, 1990)
AD&D Hillsfar (C64, 1989)
Demon's Winter (NEW/MINT, Atari ST, 1989)
Wizard's Crown (NEW/MINT, Atari ST, 1986)
The Eternal Dagger (Atari 800/XL/XE, 1987)
Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (C64, 1991)
Legend of Faerghail (NEW/MINT, MS-DOS, 1990)
Might and Magic II (C64, 1989)
Might and Magic - Dark Side of Xeen (NEW&MINT, MS-DOS)

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

mindx2

 

[HobGoblin42]

Wrong forum? Where to put that stuff ? I don't want to see those games in the hands of infidels...

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Wrong forum? Where to put that stuff ? I don't want to see those games in the hands of infidels...

I was just summoning the #1 collector on the Codex

 

[mindx2]

mindx2

You rang? There are two there I'm actually interested in if HobGoblin42 wanted to "make a deal." At least he would know they're going to a good home.

 

[Mozg]

Ah, thanks. I think I could never keep track of which games let you use the wands for non-mage characters--according to the AD&D rules only mages could use wands other than magic missiles, but the games tended to forget that.

A lot of the ones that follow the rule have "Necklaces of Missiles" which IIRC in the GBs are just a better (usually less common) wand of fireballs that anyone can equip and that you can wear without using a hand slot.

 

[kek]

Hello fellow RPG fanatics, I've been really putting on an effort to get into the gold box SSI games - I'm really into exploring these worlds and getting to know them. I'm amazed by how much content one can find in these forgotten realms gems - not to mention how many of them there are if you count the FR, Dragonlance, Ravenloft and Dark Sun titles. I remember playing a few of these when I was younger but I never got far in any of them.

I'm really having a problem with how the game engine aged though. Don't get me wrong this was an absolutely fantastic game engine, well ahead of it's time and it's still a lot of fun to play with but right now it's just taking too much time to advance, especially on battles and resting. I'd love to spend a few years just playing the games in the pace they were intended for but it's just not an option right now. The kind of things that bug me are the constant manual memorization whenever you cast a spell, having to micro-manage your inventory when switching from close to ranged weapons, how many keys you have to hit for a single ranged attack, the awkward inventory/shop/money management, etc. Not to mention how error-prone all of this is, meaning you often screw things up and have to redo it.

So I come to rely on the knowledge of you fine folk that have played through these classics several times (or more)! Are there any tricks, "challenge modes", party composition and so on that will let me enjoy the games on a faster pace and focus on exploration? For example: how feasible would it be to play through the games without spellcasters or with only 1 or 2 characters? For many classic games like the Final Fantasy series there are a bunch of information on challenges like this but I found none for these games - although it's possible I missed something nice on this huge thread here.

Just to be clear: my main interest is exploring these worlds and getting to know them, I love tactical battles but the engine hasn't aged well in this regard so I'd like to minimize struggling with the user interface as much as possible. Let me know if any of you has tried anything in the past that could serve this purpose or if you can think of something that just, maybe could work and I'll try to refine it into something better. If all goes well I promise to write a FAQ for all games on GameFAQs with whatever works for me! Solutions that could be used in any and all of the games would be much appreciated!