Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[eXalted]

I keep forgetting this first version of the Gold Box Games has built in MORAN detectors.

Do you mean the quizes that the old games had to check if you have an original copy?

I decided to try PoR, which version is the best? I suppose the MS-Dos one?

 

[ProphetSword]

So I have been messing around in Pool of Radiance, and I have cleared all the slums except for the FUCKING TROLL BATTLE. I kept re-loading and trying different tactics, but to no avail. I kept thinking "How in the fuck is a FIRST level party supposed to do this F^%$#@ battle????"

One common tactic is to put the Ogres in the front to sleep using the Sleep spell (works best if you have at least two Magic-Users in the party), and then pelt the trolls with ranged weapons or ranged spells like Magic Missile to wear them down or reduce them to less than 0. If you do it quick enough, you can kill the sleeping Ogres before they wake up, finish off the trolls and stand on their bodies so they don't regenerate and deal with the maybe one or two ogres that are left.

Even still, it is hard as hell at low levels.

 

[octavius]

So I have been messing around in Pool of Radiance, and I have cleared all the slums except for the FUCKING TROLL BATTLE. I kept re-loading and trying different tactics, but to no avail. I kept thinking "How in the fuck is a FIRST level party supposed to do this F^%$#@ battle????"

One common tactic is to put the Ogres in the front to sleep using the Sleep spell (works best if you have at least two Magic-Users in the party), and then pelt the trolls with ranged weapons or ranged spells like Magic Missile to wear them down or reduce them to less than 0. If you do it quick enough, you can kill the sleeping Ogres before they wake up, finish off the trolls and stand on their bodies so they don't regenerate and deal with the maybe one or two ogres that are left.

Even still, it is hard as hell at low levels.

A Stinking Cloud (especially if you can cast Curse on the Trolls first) and two hired fighters as meat shields helps a lot too.

 

[Jaesun]

Do you LOSE XP if you happen to have a lot of XP points, after you train a level?

Stinking Cloud isn't available to a 2nd level party.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Only if you had enough to level twice. Because you cannot level twice in one go. So let's say you are on level 1 and need 2000 XP to reach level 2 and 4000 XP to reach level 3. If your fighter has 3500 XP when you level up, all is good. If your fighter has 4500 XP, you're going to lose 401 and be at 3999 XP after levelling up.

Or that's how it went on the P&P 1st edition, I seem to recall that GoldBox - PoR especially - was extra funky.

I decided to try PoR, which version is the best? I suppose the MS-Dos one?

Amiga version is prettiest and has best sound, then comes C64 version with DOS being the "poorest" but the difference isn't that huge and if you want to keep bringing your party with you throughout the 4 game saga (PoR, Curse, Secret, PoD) then you have to play the MS-DOS version.

 

[Morblot]

Or that's how it went on the P&P 1st edition

It works like that in PoR too. I remember wasting XP for this reason. Luckily there's more than enough of that available...

 

[GarfunkeL]

Yeah, PoR hands out more than enough XP. You can have 6 triple-classed characters and still hit level cap with all of them in all classes. Which is why it isn't really a problem if you "waste" XP or the engine coughs up at some point and removes all XP over the minimum required to level up. I have a vague memory of that happening occasionally.

 

[Grathanich]

I recommend the Amiga Forever software package for playing these games instead of bothering with DosBox. That way you also get the cool floppy clicking sound from your speakers while you load You can even use the Amiga Workbench OS to install some of the later games in your hard drive.

 

[TigerKnee]

Amiga Forever was not as good as Amiga or Amiga Returns, but at least it was better than the POS known as Amiga and Robin

 

[Kersey]

Also when doing some search on Pool of Radiance and some other stuff, I found out both Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds have a command option to turn the password check off.

When running Pool, just type start STING (this command must be all caps).

When running Curse, just type start STING Wooden (this must be typed like this exactly).

They never added these commands to other gold box games, so these are the only two I know of.

Those codes do a bit more than just deactivate the password protection, and they exist for some of the other games as well. There's some good info here. Those codes are a bit of a cheat since they allow you to access the area maps everywhere (if I recall correctly), even areas where the designers have forbidden it. Also I was just a bit bummed out at not seeing the intro to Pool of Radiance. I stopped using those codes personally because of these issues - and because it's so simple to just remove the annoyance of the password checks by hex edit.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

So I have been messing around in Pool of Radiance, and I have cleared all the slums except for the FUCKING TROLL BATTLE. I kept re-loading and trying different tactics, but to no avail. I kept thinking "How in the fuck is a FIRST level party supposed to do this F^%$#@ battle????"

One common tactic is to put the Ogres in the front to sleep using the Sleep spell (works best if you have at least two Magic-Users in the party), and then pelt the trolls with ranged weapons or ranged spells like Magic Missile to wear them down or reduce them to less than 0. If you do it quick enough, you can kill the sleeping Ogres before they wake up, finish off the trolls and stand on their bodies so they don't regenerate and deal with the maybe one or two ogres that are left.

Even still, it is hard as hell at low levels.

I tried this strategy in my playthrough, savescummed many times, and it just didn't work. Since your THAC0 is so high at this point it takes forever to kill even one troll, and Sleep will wear off eventually. Also, if I recall correctly, there're actually four trolls in this fight, so by the time you're killing the last troll, the first ones will already have regenerated fully. The best course of action, I think, is just go kill some things elsewhere and return when you have Stinking Cloud.

 

[ProphetSword]

I said it was hard as hell. In addition, luck plays a huge factor.

Also, the combat generally has three trolls. You might get four trolls if you've bumped up your scores by using "Modify" character at the beginning of the game, which is known to make the combats harder and add more enemies.

 

[octavius]

If you haven't got Stinking Cloud:
Buff by casting Bless.
Cast Curse on Trolls.
Use two Heroes as meat shields.
Use missile weapons with your own characters. If you have any Haste potions and magic arrows, gvie them to your character with the best THAC0.
When the first troll goes down, make sure you end each round with a character on the same square that the Troll died on, to prevent it from rising up again.

 

[Null Null]

First of all, when I have played you do not need to clear this fight to get the Slums reward from the Council. I thus recommend coming back when you are higher level. Remember, unlike most games, Pool does not have to be done in strict order! My favorite trick was to put off Sokal Keep until I had a 5th level mage--it's fun to watch the remaining orcs surrender immediately after you drop a fireball on them.

Other than that, yes, sleep the ogres and Magic Missile and arrow the trolls. Wise advice from everyone here.

 

[Luzur]

I usually fireball/stinking Cloud trolls as much as possible, to keep them from getting back up.

 

[Jaesun]

Also when doing some search on Pool of Radiance and some other stuff, I found out both Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds have a command option to turn the password check off.

When running Pool, just type start STING (this command must be all caps).

When running Curse, just type start STING Wooden (this must be typed like this exactly).

They never added these commands to other gold box games, so these are the only two I know of.

Those codes do a bit more than just deactivate the password protection, and they exist for some of the other games as well. There's some good info here. Those codes are a bit of a cheat since they allow you to access the area maps everywhere (if I recall correctly), even areas where the designers have forbidden it. Also I was just a bit bummed out at not seeing the intro to Pool of Radiance. I stopped using those codes personally because of these issues - and because it's so simple to just remove the annoyance of the password checks by hex edit.

Interesting, I did not know that. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[Jaesun]

The Intro of Champions of Krynn as played through my Roland MT-32/LAPC (the Roland CM-500 MODE B). Nothing too fancy, it just uses the default MT-32 instrument sounds. Not too bad. Just still shocked this game actually HAS a Roland MT-32/LAPC option. :D

 

[SkeleTony]

I have not yet read the other 91 pages of this thread so I apologize if this was already mentioned but Dungeoncraft version 1.01 is out:

http://uaf.sourceforge.net/ (info' about game)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/uaf/ (download game)

Dungeoncraft is a more modernized (no, not in the sense of 3D graphics and such nonsense) FRUA. A little confusing to set up and use at first (though you can easily find explanations online) but a worthy goldbox styled game creation kit.


Edit: BTW Gateway to the Savage Frontier was my favorite of the goldbox games and the only one I beat.

 

[Jaesun]

I have not yet read the other 91 pages of this thread so I apologize if this was already mentioned but Dungeoncraft version 1.01 is out:

http://uaf.sourceforge.net/ (info' about game)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/uaf/ (download game)

Dungeoncraft is a more modernized (no, not in the sense of 3D graphics and such nonsense) FRUA. A little confusing to set up and use at first (though you can easily find explanations online) but a worthy goldbox styled game creation kit.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...es-in-dungeon-craft.64440/page-3#post-3512947

It still has a LONG way to go just FYI.....

 

[CrawlingDead]

Pool of Radiance is the one I've played the most. I need to get into Champions of Krynn though, heard the sequel was better though

 

[Sceptic]

I need to get into Champions of Krynn though, heard the sequel was better though

Eh, I think COK is the best one of the Krynn trilogy. Death Knights is good fun, but mostly just pire hack and slash. Dark Queen has come pretty original sequences (the underwater part), but combat against the enhanced draconians gets very, very tedious.

 

[octavius]

Eh, I think COK is the best one of the Krynn trilogy. Death Knights is good fun, but mostly just pire hack and slash. Dark Queen has come pretty original sequences (the underwater part), but combat against the enhanced draconians gets very, very tedious.

Just because you can't just spam Delayed Blast Fireballs on them?

Personally I think CoK was the weakest, due to mediocre encounter design.
I loved Death Knights of Krynn. It has the best story IMO (it really captures the atmosphere of the Legend of Huma book), and is more unlinear than the other games.
Dark Queen has the poorest story/background, taking place on an unfamiliar continent, but it has the best level design and the best tactical combat of the three games, and provided a nice steady challenge throughout the whole game.

But all three games are good, and I think overall the Krynn series is better than the Pool series.

 

[Sceptic]

Personally I think CoK was the weakest, due to mediocre encounter design.

It's funny because that's the same reason I cite for placing COK above the others
I find the enchanted draconian encounters tedious because they're pretty much copy/pasta. Same with DKOK with hordes of undead. Though I agree that the nonlinearity in DKOK is quite fun, and a nice throwback to POR. The later Pool games unfortunately went for much more linear designs. I also like some of the overworld encounters in DKOK, the kuo-toa ship in particular is good fun.

But all three games are good, and I think overall the Krynn series is better than the Pool series.

I think I agree. At its best the Pool series is better (POR and POD beat any of the Krynn games) but the Pool series is also worse at its worst (Secrets is probably what I consider the worst Gold Box game). Krynn games are also a bit uneven as you described above, but they're more consistent in quality. I think I also like the character system better in them, with the Knights and the different types of mages.

 

[Null Null]

Just because you can't just spam Delayed Blast Fireballs on them?

Well, actually, if you run single-classed mages, you can. Due to the linearization of the experience tables at high levels, single-class characters advance substantially faster than multis once you get past 12 or so. I did a Champions-to-Queen run-through with a knight, two ranger/clerics, a cleric/thief, and two mages (white and red), and despite having some difficulties, it was fun dropping the delayed blast fireballs on the enchanted auraks. MR isn't listed in the manual, but looking at the monster data file ranges from 50 for enchanted baaz to 90 for enchanted aurak, so once you get close to 30 enchanted draconian magic resistance can be safely ignored.

 

[Jaesun]

I did a Champions-to-Queen run-through with a knight, two ranger/clerics, a cleric/thief, and two mages (white and red)

That actually seems like a fun party to play though.