starting RoA - Blade of Destiny or Star Trail?

[Vault Dweller]

Star Trail. It's a top 10 RPGs ever game.
http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/102/R ... Trail.html

When I was writing that dialogue article, I downloaded the game check to refresh my memory. My first thought was "well, it didn't age well, that's for sure". Then gameplay kicked in, the starting town came alive with text adventures. I barely had time to get out of the way of some charging knights and then my conjurer attracted some unwanted attention:

In a local taven I could pick where to sit (with other people or alone), talk to them or not. I left soon and went exploring the town, getting various responses from people (great variety of those sweet, pre-graphics whoredom era NPC portraits, btw). An old woman told me to fuck off, some drunk hit on a female party member, some guy complained about good for nothing people like us who disturb peace at night. Very atmospheric.

Then I went a-traveling. A message pops up informing me about some priestess who's fighting off some orcs nearby. I've decided to help her out because that's the kind of guy I'm and I've been led to believe by modern CRPGs that I'm a great fightar and nothing can possibly stand in my way. So, the map loads up and I see 5 orcs. "Only five?" I ask in disbelief? "WEAK!". That was the last thing I said. Orcs: 5, the Chosen One: 0.

 

[Claw]

Im debating playing these games.

I started playing ROA I a while back and stopped due to the sheer amount of stuff you have to manage. I dont mind food and water, but eating utensils, blankets etc.....seems like a bit much.

I didnt play too much though.

Are the micromanaging details of this game too much to make it enjoyable? Should I give it another go?

the micromanagment part is the most fun part of the game. Don forget to provide your heroes with proper footwear. And take an instrument with you to be able to play in taverns for money.

Blade of Destiny is also very soft. You don't really need eating utensils, and what's the big deal about having blankets? It's just one reserved inventory slot; you don't have to contemplate it all the time.
Food and water are a bigger issue. I'm a packrat, and when I'm laden with loot the weight restrictions start being an issue and I have to reorganize. Normally I like to keep my food evenly distributed, although I'm not even sure that's necessary. I don't recall if a character will starve if he doesn't carry his own rations.

Star Trail is much harder. You may actually lose health or asp when resting outside a nice comfy hotel room. In Blade I always recovered at least 1 point (unless sick maybe). That's actually an explot: You can rest 1 hour (or whatever the minimum is) repeatedly to maximize your recovery.


Last not least, it's easier to go from Blade to Star Trail than the other way 'round, due to the technical improvements. It's really hard to go from ring and belt slots to holding them in the hand.

 

[Zomg]

Star Trail by a mile. BoD is trash.

Edit - D'oh necro

 

[aleph]

IIRC having blankets allows for more regeneration and decreases the chance that one of your party members "does not sleep well" or something and does not regenerate anything.

 

[Saxon1974]

Ok well then I think im gonna give these games a retry.

 

[Saxon1974]

For ROA1-Blade of Destiny;

Can anyone tell me how to tell what version of the game files I have? I don't see anywhere in the game where it lists the version.

I read that the English CD version is 3.9, I downloaded it from Abandonia but want to make sure I have the most current version.

 

[Saxon1974]

The character creation and especially spell\magic system is pretty complex in this game.

I started my party with:

warrior
dwarf
green elf
druid
witch
magician

I figured I could have my high dexterity fighter learn to pick locks and not need a rogue character.

The hardest part was deciding where to put my points into the spell areas.

2 questions for you ROA experts.

1) Should I be putting most of the spell points into those spells that are already the best for that default character? Example, Spell A my skill is -1, but for spell B my skill level is -15. I put all my skill points for each character in those skills like skill A. Is that a good strategy? The game appears to start out your base spell skills based on your ARCHETYPE(CLASS) but is that going to be diverse enough? Any particular ones I should try and build up?

2) Do you really need a Thorwalian in this game? I chose a warrior instead.

I think I need to find a strategy guide or something.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Star Trail by a mile. BoD is trash.

Edit - D'oh necro

FAIL!

 

[Claw]

The character creation and especially spell\magic system is pretty complex in this game.

I started my party with:

warrior
dwarf
green elf
druid
witch
magician

I figured I could have my high dexterity fighter learn to pick locks and not need a rogue character.

The hardest part was deciding where to put my points into the spell areas.

2 questions for you ROA experts.

1) Should I be putting most of the spell points into those spells that are already the best for that default character? Example, Spell A my skill is -1, but for spell B my skill level is -15. I put all my skill points for each character in those skills like skill A. Is that a good strategy? The game appears to start out your base spell skills based on your ARCHETYPE(CLASS) but is that going to be diverse enough? Any particular ones I should try and build up?

2) Do you really need a Thorwalian in this game? I chose a warrior instead.

I think I need to find a strategy guide or something.

A witch? Oh well, your large number of magic users can compensate for a shitty one.

The thing about inceasing a spell from -15 is that you need to invest about twenty points before it starts being useful. You may want to consider it for a few spells, but in general a spell that starts below -10 is better left alone.

Jasede loves to give advice on RoA, no need to repeat everything:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic ... ian#296888
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic ... ian#479284

 

[Saxon1974]

The character creation and especially spell\magic system is pretty complex in this game.

I started my party with:

warrior
dwarf
green elf
druid
witch
magician

I figured I could have my high dexterity fighter learn to pick locks and not need a rogue character.

The hardest part was deciding where to put my points into the spell areas.

2 questions for you ROA experts.

1) Should I be putting most of the spell points into those spells that are already the best for that default character? Example, Spell A my skill is -1, but for spell B my skill level is -15. I put all my skill points for each character in those skills like skill A. Is that a good strategy? The game appears to start out your base spell skills based on your ARCHETYPE(CLASS) but is that going to be diverse enough? Any particular ones I should try and build up?

2) Do you really need a Thorwalian in this game? I chose a warrior instead.

I think I need to find a strategy guide or something.

A witch? Oh well, your large number of magic users can compensate for a shitty one.

The thing about inceasing a spell from -15 is that you need to invest about twenty points before it starts being useful. You may want to consider it for a few spells, but in general a spell that starts below -10 is better left alone.

Jasede loves to give advice on RoA, no need to repeat everything:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic ... ian#296888
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic ... ian#479284

Ah, ok thanks for the advice and the links. I think Im going to get rid of the Witch, I havent got very far in the game so far.

i downloaded the cluebook from replacement docs as well, so that should help.

I don't remember the last time I actually had to think alot to get started on a game.

 

[FrancoTAU]

I can totally understand why modern RPGs try to make character creation simpler. But the masochist in me loved games like Wizardry and Blade of Destiny that made me think about it for a long time. And than still I had to restart my game a couple hours in to make some changes to my party.

I dig the upstart indy RPG scene, but I do wish a party based one would pop up that would require reading a 100 page pdf before even thinking about starting. Oh well, I still need to play the last 2 parts of the RoA trilogy.

 

[Saxon1974]

I love when games make you think, I meant it more as a compliment.

The more depth and content a game has the better.

It's just so rare now, I haven't seen it in a long time.

 

[Saxon1974]

Dumb question;

how do I pause the game? Since time passes if I leave the room I dont want to waste resources.

 

[Jasede]

Go to the inventory screen.

 

[Saxon1974]

Ooh, I just got into the first dungeon and this game is starting to get good. The Town was a bit boring, but I like the Dungeon so far.

Combat is pretty good even though it is rather slow, can't say i like that you can only shoot missile weapons and spells in a straight line though.

 

[Jasede]

You can shoot diagonally too RoA 2, and everywhere in 3.

Or was it everywhere in 2 and 3?

 

[Saxon1974]

One thing I did notice is even though im playing the English version of the game, some of the dialog seems a bit unusual to me.

Im sure the dialog is better in its native language, and Im not saying its bad but there are just a few things that Im not sure of the exact meaning.

One of them is "Hetman", apparently he is the captain of the guard or something, but I have never heard the term "Hetman" before. There seems to be a few occasions like this where I don't always know what the language means.

Im not saying that as a negative though, just an observation.

 

[made]

Stupid American.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetman

 

[Saxon1974]

Stupid American.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetman

Ok Kraut.

 

[Saxon1974]

I looked it up and found a reference to it being of Ukranian\Czech origin, so I was just wondering if the use of it in a German made game was slightly different.

I didnt see this part though:

"The word is probably derived from German > OHG Hauptmann,[1] with Haupt meaning "main" or "head" and Mann meaning "man". "

There are moments here and there where the dialog just seems a little odd, but still its pretty good, a heck of alot better that I could translate into German.

 

[Saxon1974]

I see there is an Amiga version of this game.

Any reason to play the Amiga version on my Amiga emulator? Some of the older games have better music on the Amiga versions.

 

[Jasede]

That'd suck, missing the awesome CD music of RoA 1 and not being able to import your party to 2 and 3 because these didn't make it to the Amiga.

 

[Saxon1974]

Hmm, all this talk of great music means I think that I dont have the CD version.

My version has midi music and its ok at best. I occasionally get internal pc speaker bleeps as well.

I think I might have to search for the downloadable CD version on the net.

I assume I can just replace my current files without overriding my characters or save games so I dont have to regenerate my characters again.

 

[Raapys]

Oh, nice, the midi music was getting so annoying I had to turn it off. Gonna find that cd version.

 

[Saxon1974]

Hmm, this trilogy on underdogs says its has ROA 1 and 2 as the title but the files in the archive all say ROA2 so Im not sure if it has the ROA I game as part of it.

Im going to give it a try when I get home and see if it does or not.

http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=888