Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Hold down the space bar while your 'quicked' character is taking a turn? I only used this once on the commodore 64, and it required the joystick button pressed down.

 

[ever]

Nevermind I just tried every buttin in the keyboard till I found out that spacebar does the trick.

EDIT: I see that if I had refreshed earlier, Blackadder would have saved me some time. Alas 'twas not to be.

 

[Jaesun]

http://www.mobygames.com/game/buck-roge ... o-doomsday

Any tips, tricks, suggestions and maybe starting party recommendations for playing this?

Never played this series, as I was too much a D&D fag at the time, and basically ignored this years ago.. *sigh*

I've been in a I want to play some good old Gold Box games feelings lately, and after I finish Champions of Krynn, I want to give this a try.

 

[MMXI]

It's quite simple really. First of all the most important thing is deciding on the class distribution of your party. First time through it's better to have a nice mixture, perhaps one of each class and two warriors. Pick races that benefit the class, but remember than some races can't be certain classes, with the tinker being the most restrictive. For example, the medic's career skills all use the technical attribute, so picking a race with a high technical attribute like a tinker (+3 technical) will be a good choice. Similarly, desert runners make good warriors due to having bonuses to strength, dexterity and constitution.

I think the hardest part is picking skills for each character. All skills are available to all classes with the exception of the medic skills. For each character, focus on their career skills more than anything, and then mop up the remainder with general skills. Good luck, bro!

 

[overtenemy]

Think if I had to do it again I'd have two medics as a backup. There's not much healing outside of combat, or even inside it. How it works is, if you're medic hasn't been knocked out or killed at the end of a fight, he rolls to heal all the injuries of the party. This also includes any hitpoint loss incurred in previous battles, strangely enough, so you can actually heal yourself by going and fighting easy fights. (like space rats on the upper level of one "dungeon")

Prob is, medics don't have many hitpoints and if yours gets targeted, well, you'll be in fucking pain soon because you SERIOUSLY NEED one to keep progressing. If you had another, one can get knocked out and the other should compensate, get him and everyone else back on their feet.

The question becomes who to replace for him? Possibly engineer? I don't recall if having an engineer was helpful enough to justify him over another medic. I think you can just have other dudes get most of his skills, although they are of course pretty handy in space combat. The party Rocket Jock is pretty much nonnegotiable. Warriors too - I wouldn't have less than two. Possibly ditch engineer or rogue in favor of another medic and just take their most important crap as side skills on another character.

To clarify skills further, you get a certain amount of points to spend on career skills, and then a much SMALLER amount of points to spend on anything else you want (save medic stuff.) But if you take those tertiary skillpoints and hyperspecialize on each character, you can mostly bring them up to par with someone who has the skill as a career choice. Except for Rocket Jocks because they get a +20 or something to all that crap. And medics, once again. You can see who has what for career in the manual.

Prob look at a FAQ to see what weapons are useful and what aren't. I believe some weapons simply are not worth carrying. Rocket weapons I found inexplicably will not affect certain things (possibly they have ECM armor?) and they may be dodged by smaller things. The needle/bolt gun aren't resisted by anything AFAIK, may want to have a warrior specialize in them. If you roll a desert runner with high strength as well have him specialize in Mono sword. I think it's the best melee weapon and you get a "+1" version of it early. That can do big damage especially with backstabs. IIRC, to successfully backstab you don't need to be a rogue, but you need to make a move silently check. So give that to him as well.

If I think of anything else I'll repost. Til then I'll just say that although I felt that the combat was probably worse than the D&D Gold Boxes, it's still fucking awesome. No long term C&C that the Codex masturbates to, but there's many situations you may respond incorrectly to that can result in hitpoint loss or some other ridiculous effect, which depending on the current state of your party can be crippling. Skills can be used to bypass certain parts of quests to make the dungeon easier (mostly the computers one I think) and there's just generally more variety than the standard Gold Box I feel. A+ video game.

Oh, and modular damage for the spaceship fights. Though I usually just shoot for the hull.

Edit: Just remembered, stats affect skills, but ultimately not by much. You'll eventually have HUGE skill levels, especially in career skills (more if you're a jock/med) and the stat simply adds a flat rate. 18 charisma would add 18 to your leadership for instance, but 15 would add 15. When your skill is like fucking 80, is it really a huge difference? I say leadership specifically because it's a skill you'll probably get on a warrior on account of it being a career skill for them and nobody else. So if your warrior doesn't get KILLER charisma, well, don't spend an hour rerolling to get perfect stats is all. Be more worried about the holy trinity of str dex and con.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Needleguns are overpowered. You get your weapon specialization bonus damage on each needle fired, and they hit like 6 times. And unlike rocket and laser guns, theres no chaff bullshit to break them.

 

[Fowyr]

Train Bypass Security and Programming to 100%.
Pilot Fixed Wing/Rotor Wing and Drive Ground Car/Jet Car skills are useless.

 

[MMXI]

Think if I had to do it again I'd have two medics as a backup. There's not much healing outside of combat, or even inside it. How it works is, if you're medic hasn't been knocked out or killed at the end of a fight, he rolls to heal all the injuries of the party. This also includes any hitpoint loss incurred in previous battles, strangely enough, so you can actually heal yourself by going and fighting easy fights. (like space rats on the upper level of one "dungeon")

Prob is, medics don't have many hitpoints and if yours gets targeted, well, you'll be in fucking pain soon because you SERIOUSLY NEED one to keep progressing. If you had another, one can get knocked out and the other should compensate, get him and everyone else back on their feet.

The question becomes who to replace for him? Possibly engineer? I don't recall if having an engineer was helpful enough to justify him over another medic. I think you can just have other dudes get most of his skills, although they are of course pretty handy in space combat. The party Rocket Jock is pretty much nonnegotiable. Warriors too - I wouldn't have less than two. Possibly ditch engineer or rogue in favor of another medic and just take their most important crap as side skills on another character.

I generally agree with this. Medics are very important and two will make your life easier. But if you're anything like (a gay version of) me, you'll probably pick one of every class. In that case, I'd say two warriors is more important than two medics.

To clarify skills further, you get a certain amount of points to spend on career skills, and then a much SMALLER amount of points to spend on anything else you want (save medic stuff.) But if you take those tertiary skillpoints and hyperspecialize on each character, you can mostly bring them up to par with someone who has the skill as a career choice. Except for Rocket Jocks because they get a +20 or something to all that crap. And medics, once again. You can see who has what for career in the manual.

Something like that. 40 for career skills and 20 for general skills per level I think.

Prob look at a FAQ to see what weapons are useful and what aren't. I believe some weapons simply are not worth carrying. Rocket weapons I found inexplicably will not affect certain things (possibly they have ECM armor?) and they may be dodged by smaller things. The needle/bolt gun aren't resisted by anything AFAIK, may want to have a warrior specialize in them. If you roll a desert runner with high strength as well have him specialize in Mono sword. I think it's the best melee weapon and you get a "+1" version of it early. That can do big damage especially with backstabs. IIRC, to successfully backstab you don't need to be a rogue, but you need to make a move silently check. So give that to him as well.

Yep, mono swords are pretty good. Still, needle guns are insane. Probably the best pick.

If I think of anything else I'll repost. Til then I'll just say that although I felt that the combat was probably worse than the D&D Gold Boxes, it's still fucking awesome. No long term C&C that the Codex masturbates to, but there's many situations you may respond incorrectly to that can result in hitpoint loss or some other ridiculous effect, which depending on the current state of your party can be crippling. Skills can be used to bypass certain parts of quests to make the dungeon easier (mostly the computers one I think) and there's just generally more variety than the standard Gold Box I feel. A+ video game.

I like your style!

Edit: Just remembered, stats affect skills, but ultimately not by much. You'll eventually have HUGE skill levels, especially in career skills (more if you're a jock/med) and the stat simply adds a flat rate. 18 charisma would add 18 to your leadership for instance, but 15 would add 15. When your skill is like fucking 80, is it really a huge difference? I say leadership specifically because it's a skill you'll probably get on a warrior on account of it being a career skill for them and nobody else. So if your warrior doesn't get KILLER charisma, well, don't spend an hour rerolling to get perfect stats is all. Be more worried about the holy trinity of str dex and con.

It's not just as simple as that, though. The bonuses might be small for each individual skill, but in total it works out quite significant, especially if you spread your skills thin. In other words, don't worry about getting the best attributes during character creation, but do pick the appropriate races for their attribute bonuses. Some of them are significant. Also, don't focus too much on attributes as they relate to skills. Skill bonuses from the attributes are secondary to what the attributes bring about themselves in the form of improved derived statistics (more HP with constitution, better AC with dexterity etc).

 

[Zomg]

I remember thinking that four warriors and two medics was all you needed after I played through with a normal team with a rocket jock and engineers, which would let you autobattle more trash fights. Set pieces are won with grenades and rocket launchers most of the time.

 

[thursdayschild]

If I remember right the engineers could get so many skill points they could take medical skills without crippling themselves. I even had two engineers at one point I think. Mostly because they are very helpful in the space combat portion. Good engineering means you can beat anything.

 

[Excidium]

Am I missing something or are venusians total shit? They get the same +1 CON and +1 WIS terrans get, but with added -1 DEX and -1 CHA penalties.

 

[MMXI]

Am I missing something or are venusians total shit? They get the same +1 CON and +1 WIS terrans get, but with added -1 DEX and -1 CHA penalties.

It's for role-playing purposes, dude. Role-playing purposes.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Maneuver in zero G is a good skill for all the family.

Apart from that, everyone should develop their skills, don't try to overlap too many, ie; have one computer specialist. Don't spread it around everyone. Perhaps the lesser healing skill (forgot the name) is also a good pick for one or two others besides the medic. Sometimes your medic may get knocked out, and if others have a few points in the lesser healing skill, it may heal the medic for one point at the end of a battle, which then sets off the medic healing skills again.

My standard pick was two warriors and one of each. The game isn't horribly difficult, so you can pick your races accordingly, especially if your warriors are desert runners.

There are skills that are used in Matrix Cubed but not in Countdown. These are listed as such.

 

[Jaesun]

Thanks for the tips. Will be rolling up a party later tonight. I just finished Champions of Krynn, and have decided to play all the Turn Based Gold box games in order (according to Wikipedia):

Pool of Radiance (1988)
Curse of the Azure Bonds (1989)
Secret of the Silver Blades (1990)
Champions of Krynn (1990)
Countdown to Doomsday (1990)
Death Knights of Krynn (1991)
Pools of Darkness (1991)
Gateway to the Savage Frontier (1991)
Treasures of the Savage Frontier (1992)
The Dark Queen of Krynn (1992)
Matrix Cubed (1992)
Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (1993)

God I missed these games.

 

[MMXI]

I would treat you like a god for a short period of time if you can do the paragraph write ups for each game as you play through them. Writing about all the Gold Box games individually from memory is very difficult as some of the games tend to blur together.

 

[Jaesun]

I would treat you like a god for a short period of time if you can do the paragraph write ups for each game as you play through them. Writing about all the Gold Box games individually from memory is very difficult as some of the games tend to blur together.

Yeah that's another reason I was playing CoK. I'll work on a write-up.

 

[MMXI]

I read somewhere that you can play Neverwinter Nights single player. Is that possible? If so, is it actually any good single player?

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Instead of playing them in that order, why not play each series in order? It would make more sense.

As for Neverwinter nights...I have heard it can be played in single player as well. Also heard it isn't really worth the effort.

 

[MMXI]

Instead of playing them in that order, why not play each series in order? It would make more sense.

As for Neverwinter nights...I have heard it can be played in single player as well. Also heard it isn't really worth the effort.

Interesting. I might try it one day to see what it's like.

Not Gold Box, but how about Crimson Sands?

 

[Nukester]

I played this on the Sega Genesis and dont remember much of it except that I thought it was a really good game, and one of the only games Ive actually finished to the end. The one thing I do remember though was that I used needleguns for pretty much the whole game and never really had any trouble in combat

 

[Jaesun]

Instead of playing them in that order, why not play each series in order? It would make more sense.

I find it more interesting in seeing how the engine slowly improves over the years.

 

[Jaesun]

Oh FFS!

:/

Just finished the first "Mission" the deselect ship. Fuck that was tough! I am so fucking kicking myself in the ass for not playing this sooner. This is a fucking kick ass game.

 

[Mantiis]

It is a really good gold box game - I think it might be the best I've played with the only others I have played are the Krynn games.

A couple of tips that haven't been given (this is from memory):

- Spread out the First Aid talent to all players. A few points can make a difference.
- Jetpacks and plasma launchers are fun :D
- The space battles are a good way of earning cash if you board the ships - knock out the engines and weapons and away you go.
- You can level quicker with a 5 man party.
- Give a needle gun to the medic.
- Different weapons work better in different situations (RE:enemy), needle guns work best over all and there are only a couple of enemies that they don't work well against.

The first mission that you get after leaving earth is really really cool and can be frustrating if you don't realise that the game isn't coddling you.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Yes, I actually have a question about the GB games...

What I want to know is; Which series allow equipment to 'go over' in the later games? The reason I ask is that I cannot...CANNOT stop myself from playing the C64 versions of the earlier games. Don't ask me why, it is just impossible...unless I find out that some of the series actually have the ability to port all the loot.

So that leaves:

Pool of Radiance series: Don't worry. Already know this one.

Krynn series: I usually play CoK and Dok on the C64 and then start a new game on Amiga or PC DQoK. Do items transfer over to DQoK?

Savage Frontier: Usually play the C64 version of Gateway. Do items transfer over to Treasures?

Buck Rogers: Usually play C64 version of Countdown. Do items transfer over to Matrix?

.............................

Now, as an aside, I have seen some people ragging on the later goldbox games, especially Matrix Cubed and the Savage Frontier series. Why is this? I found them to be decent games overall.

 

[octavius]

Pool series: In case someone else wonders: the only transfer is from Secret of Silver Blades to Pools of Darkness, and then you can transfer all items.

Krynn: you keep *some* of the items when transferring from Champions to Death Knights. You lose any Dragonlances you may have aquired.
You can also transfer items from Death Knights to Dark Queen, and in this case it's *all* items IIRC.

Savage Frontier and Buck Rogers: don't know.