Play This Game, You Must
#11 18-01-2019 
I just restarted Dragon Age Origins... this time as an Elf Mage - gonna do a complete playthrough of all the games as an elf/mage (well, in DA2, at least as a mage...) My Elf is cuter than the one in the video below. I'll try to remember to get a screenshot sometime.



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#12 27-01-2019 
Sorry to double post... BUT, it has been awhile since this thread popped to the top Wink
Here's my little elf/mage, Fern:
   
With her current retinue - Shayle (the stone golum), Zeveran (the sexy elf assassin), Leliana (who plays through all three games) and her wolf. They have just finished exploring Cadash Taigh, and know Shayles back story a bit more now. Fun times!

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#13 28-01-2019 
Aw, I want a stone golem too. Sad

Also, I beat God. Smile

[Image: BibleFight035.jpg]
He has a pretty cool-looking block. "You shall not pass!" Big Grin

[Image: BibleFight036.jpg]
Unfortunately, most of his game is morphing into all the other fighters in the game. It's the same pitfall that has always foiled Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat series: If I've already beaten every last one of those other fighters to get to you, then I already know how to beat all those other fighters, so how is that gambit going to give you the slightest advantage? God morphs into Noah? Rush into him and pour on the standing attacks so he can't summon his Two of Everything Stampede. God morphs into Moses? Jump Kick over his Burning Bush -> Standing Kick -> Jump Kick -> Snake Whip -> rinse and repeat. God morphs into Mary? Wait for her to come down from her Immaculate Deception, then Jump Kick -> Standing Kick -> Snake Whip -> Snake Whip. God morphs into Satan? Keep him away with Apple Tosses, then spam Muddy Uppercuts before he can spam Cerberus Charges. And so on.

[Image: BibleFight038.jpg]
God still has a pretty wicked Lightning Strike in his basic God form, though. Expect to get zapped quite a bit. And expect to lose once or twice.

[Image: BibleFight041.jpg]
But more good news: His Righteous Uppercut is slow as molasses. Wait for him to fly up fistfirst, then rush in and smack him — or stand back and throw a projectile (like Eve's Apple Toss) or a quick mid-range attack (like Eve's Snake Whip) as soon as he starts to come back to earth.

And that's how you do it. Smile

[Image: BibleFight042.jpg]
And then you get a nifty little post-you-beat-the-game tip.

Unfortunately, it's the same generic ending for all the fighters. I would think that taking God's seat of power over All Creation would be a pretty big deal, and I can only imagine how any of those fighters would deal with that; Eve might just turn the entire planet into one big Garden of Eden (where walking around naked, eating Fruits of Knowledge and living forever are perfectly okay), Noah might hold God to that promise that God made to humanity and stop every last flood from happening anywhere on Earth at any time, Jesus might take the opportunity to finally convince God the Father to shed the last vestiges of that hateful, wrathful Old Testament God and make the full transition into a 100% loving God, and Satan...well, Hell on Earth would become a pretty literal thing, probably. Or maybe he'd settle for telling God, "See? I was right all along! Angels rock, and humans suck, so get your priorities straight!" and then go back to being Lucifer the Archangel and call it a day. Who knows?

[Image: BibleFight043.jpg]
But if you already know the code, then you don't really need to beat Bible Fight first. Just go back to this screen and type "jehovah" at any time. Boom! Now you can play God. Smile

[Image: BibleFight044.jpg]
I don't much care for God's style, though. I'll stick with Eve, or maybe Jesus. I tried playing Moses, but Eve just kept slapping me into the dirt. Clearly my Moses Fu is not strong.

I'll have to try my hand at the Dragon Age series some time. That Savage Frontier server on Neverwinter Nights has incorporated a ton of music from other sources, including the Dragon Age series and the Baldur's Gate series. So Dragon Age has multiplayer, right? Smile
(This post was last modified: 28-01-2019 02:05 AM by Pizzatron-9000.)

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#14 28-01-2019 
Yes Dragon Age has multiplayer - at least for the third installment, DA:Inquisition. I have it, but have never tried it (MP) - I don't want to give anyone else control over my game... and I'm not sure how MP works anyway... Huh

Today I've been in the Brecilian Forest fighting werewolves. Fun Big Grin

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#15 28-01-2019 
(28-01-2019 06:10 AM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  Yes Dragon Age has multiplayer - at least for the third installment, DA:Inquisition. I have it, but have never tried it (MP) - I don't want to give anyone else control over my game... and I'm not sure how MP works anyway... Huh
I wouldn't call it "giving other people control over your game," especially if it's co-operative multiplay. Neverwinter Nights multiplayer is a good example of the delightful give-and-take relationships which can come with co-operative multiplay; we still have the Tuesday night adventuring party on the Savage Frontier server, where, as the party's half-orc priestess of Luthic, I play one of two Clerics responsible for buffing and healing the party and keeping all the other players — and their characters — alive and in the game, even if that means casting the occasional Resurrection spell while a pitched battle rages all around us. At other times, it might just be two or three of us online players joining forces with our assorted characters, ie. my Thell (Dwarf, dedicated Fighter) and another regular player's Hugo (Gnome, Wizard/Rogue) getting together and culling the numbers of goblins in the Grubber Fort again.

[Image: SF-ThellAndHugo.jpg]
(Look at Thell, drawing all that aggro so that little, fragile, unarmored Hugo doesn't get overwhelmed by goblins and killed! I'm such an awesome teammate!) Big Grin

Even joining another player on a very recent sortee through the Necropolis on the Kissmet server was fun. The other player played his Wizard, and I played my Monk. Monks are the warrior class that was expressly designed to kill spellcasters, Wizards included. But put a Monk and a Wizard on the same team and they complement each other and cover each other's weaknesses quite handsomely, with the Wizard dominating and destroying whatever Fighters and Barbarians might trump the Monk in melee (and/or buffing the Monk to the gills so the Monk can smash all those other warriors herself), and the Monk protecting the Wizard from enemy spellcasters by way of rushing in, getting their attention, shrugging off all of their attack spells, shattering their defensive spells and crushing them shortly after.

Teamwork makes the dream work. Gary Gygax himself once predicted that online roleplaying games would one day become sophisticated enough to mimic gameplay in a face-to-face tabletop troupe. I think that that day is already at hand.

(28-01-2019 06:10 AM)CatherineTCJD Wrote:  Today I've been in the Brecilian Forest fighting werewolves. Fun Big Grin
Did you remember to bring the silver weapons? Cool
(This post was last modified: 28-01-2019 11:09 AM by Pizzatron-9000.)

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#16 31-01-2019 
Well, I don't really have much to report tonight. I haven't really had much time for video games this week; I've been repairing and replacing the leaky and frequently clogged sewer pipe to my house (a task which is tremendously more disgusting than it sounds), and I've also been knocking the dust and the cobwebs off of my online D&D 3rd Edition campaign. I just picked up two new players this past week, and after lunch today I rediscovered HeroMachine 3. The family tree for the cursed noble House around which my entire Evil-Alignment-friendly D&D campaign revolves has needed reworking and expanding for years now, and I can never seem to find the time and the stamina to grab my sketching pencils and doodle portraits for the entirety of House Ainsley. So mashing portraits together with HeroMachine will do for now, I think.


And I'm not even close to being done! The House reaches back over 300 years and at least 12 generations (perhaps more; the people in that horrible family tend to die young, after all, which is why Lord Heward there was such a remarkable exception). So I have a lot of work to do.

Anyway, I'll get back to Capoeira Fighter 3, The Sims 2, Neverwinter Nights and all my other video games eventually. What are you playing now? Smile

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#17 01-02-2019 
@CatherineTCJD, don't fret, the multiplayer mode in DA:I has zero to do with your specific playthrough. Instead, it goes kind of like how you would play in Dragon's Crown, some of the Assassin's Creed games, and Mass Effect 3 where you pick a given character or class the game starts you off with. In DA:I's case, you pick one of three (four or five, I think, with a Berserker guy you get in the special edition and Isabella from DA2 in the special-est one..?) characters to control and then you proceed to dungeon crawl with a maximum of three other players until either you beat the area boss or you all die!

(Trust me. You will likely die. A lot. To the point of wondering why the mode even exists.)

Generally, you crawl to get a chance at a drop for an item to craft something that will basically unlock other characters for you to play as. Most of the unlocks are going to be better than the first three Mage/Warrior/Thief-type people you get. I had to quit playing from how both boring and immensely frustrating it was to grind for hours and get like, a scrap of leather. Gross. Also micro-transactions.


I have been prancing about in Kingdom Hearts 3 when I'm not sighing in frustration at Breath of the Wild! (Stupid mandatory stealth segment to get the stupid Thunder Helm...)
If I ain't doing those, I am mentally berating myself for having stuff like Omikron: the Nomad Soul installed and not playing it...

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#18 01-02-2019 
I'm still playing "The Long Dark". VERY addictive game.

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#19 01-02-2019 
Good to know @OracleTicTac. Maybe I'll try it sometime. I'm not really a huge fan of the fighting. I love the story and character interaction... So, unlocking characters sounds like a win for me. But, difficult fight sequences. Blargh! Slap

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#20 28-06-2020 
[Image: Darklands01.png]
So about two weeks ago, I started feeling nostalgic over a game that I hadn't played for almost 20 years. The game itself is almost 30 years old, released by the late, great Microprose in 1992 (though I myself didn't get around to playing it until late 1993, after the Air Force sent me to Malmstrom Air Force Base). And its name is Darklands.

Do the arithmetic and you can figure out how long I had Darklands on my computer, playing it from time to time until the fateful day struck when my PC's motherboard fried and took my hard drive with it. The game is uncannily replayable and ever-changing, particularly for its age. Until my first installation of Darklands died with my hard drive, I must have cycled a few dozen new characters through the same party of adventurers, as old ones either shriveled up with old age, shriveled up from curses or debilitating wounds or just plain got themselves killed. The ultimate goal is to defeat Baphomet (archdemon and one of Satan's lieutenants) and avert the Apocalypse. I think that my party must have stopped the Apocalypse from happening about fifteen or twenty times over the years.

Baphomet was pretty persistent about kickstarting Judgement Day, I'd say.

Gamespot once reviewed Darklands and called it "one of the greatest games of all time," and I have to agree with them wholeheartedly. It's not a game that you play through, beat once and never touch again; from what I gather, I'm far from being the only gamer who had Darklands installed — and well-played — for years. And now, it's on sale at the GOG site. Check it out.

[Image: Darklands02.png]
What makes Darklands unique among computer roleplaying games is the setting: Rather than plunk you down into some complete quasi-medieval Fantasy setting, Darklands takes place in 15th-Century Germany (and a few bordering regions of her neighbors, including the Netherlands, Austria and Poland). True to the time period, the Roman Catholic Church is the predominant power over Europe, the indigenous Pagan folk and their ways are against the wall, pestilence is widespread and the first firearms are beginning to appear (yet, being crude and horribly inefficient hand cannons, are still a century or two away from making bows and crossbows obsolete; the dreaded longbow and the armor-breaching arbalest will continue to rule the battlefields of Europe for the time being).

But yes, Darklands is indeed what one might call a Dark Fantasy setting. How so? I'll phrase it this way: Nowadays, we know that creatures like gnomes, kobolds, schrats (think "German sasquatches") and dragons never existed. Nowadays, we know that Europe's old Pagan traditions were entirely separate from the Abrahamic religions — and, though as superstitious as any other religion, were probably not malevolent — and had nothing to do with Lucifer or other Abrahamic bogeys. And nowadays, we know that the Order of the Knights Templar were convenient scapegoats who were slandered, persecuted and ultimately exterminated by rival authorities who grew fearful of the Templars' political power, covetous of the Templars' considerable assets, or both; the Templars were in no way the Satanic black knights that their enemies said they were.

Darklands takes all of those myths, tall tales, mistaken beliefs and dogmatic propaganda and makes them real, resulting in a medieval Germany that's half-reality and half-fantasy. Miners are being driven out of their mines — and away from their jobs — by angry dwarves, driven to unrest by dark forces below. In the deep forests, witches shape sinister enchantments in their secluded hovels until it's time for them to fly off to their Sabbats at the behest of their Infernal patrons. And in the towers of their well-defended fortress, the Knights Templar ceaselessly work to appease their diabolical lord Baphomet, preparing for the day when they can call him forth into the waking world.

And you, brave wayfarer, can get tangled up in all this and more. Tread warily.

[Image: Darklands03.png]
Speaking of brave wayfarers, Darklands' character creation system is also unique and rather dynamic. There are no classes or levels, but instead are a variety of attributes and skills which you groom, either directly (through assigning Experience Points) or indirectly (by choosing the character's origins and professions in the five-year increments of his or her preceding life). In the first stage of creating each character, you choose that character's name, sex and starting Attributes (Strength, Agility, Perception and so on). You can tell the game engine to generate a random name for your character, or you can type in your own; the random name generator is limited to rolling up German names, but there's nothing to stop you from manually entering non-German names like "Gawain of Hastings" (if you feel like playing an Englishman in Germany for whatever reason) or "Lord Chunky McButtpants" (if you're just feeling ridiculous).

(I'm a bit anal-retentive about my German, I guess; whenever the name generator comes up with something like "Hans of Straussberg," I have to go manual and change it to "Hans von Straussberg" because there is no "of" in German, dadgummit! I'm a filthy, ignorant American and I know that!)

[Image: Darklands04.png]
Anyway, family background. A noble-born child will have greater Charisma and intellectual skills (the fruits of an aristocratic upbringing and education), while a child born to rural commonfolk will have less Intelligence and esoteric knowledge (including the ability to read and write, which we often take for granted these days) but greater physical abilities and practical knowledge.

[Image: Darklands05.png]
After origin and childhood comes a choice of occupation for every five years of the character's life prior to adventuring

Not every occupation is immediately available. Some are forbidden to certain family backgrounds; aspire though you might, your peasant girl born to Rural Commoners can never become a Noble Heir or a Manorial Lord, just as a son of Nobility would never stoop to becoming a Laborer. Others have certain requisites to meet before they become available; in order to unlock access to the mighty Knight occupation, you'll need to have a Virtue of 16 or higher, as well as either an upper class background (read: Nobility or Wealthy Urban Family) or experience in certain martial or ecclesial occupations (ie. a Captain, a Noble Heir or an Abbot). Three of the religious occupations — Friar, Priest and Bishop — are forbidden to women (though curiously, despite what we know about the time period, women can become Knights), but this is offset by certain saints favoring women over men; more on saints in a little bit.

Each profession will either increase or decrease certain Attributes; for example, becoming a Bandit — tough and swift-footed yet harsh with words — will increase your Endurance and Agility while reducing your Charisma. Each profession will also increase or decrease various skills by a set amount, as well as allowing different amounts of Experience Points to be spent on those skills; becoming an Apprentice Craftsman will raise your Artifice skill by a flat 5 points while allowing you to spend as many as six EPs on Artifice on top of that, for a maximum of +11 to your Artifice for that point in your adventurer's life.

It's typically best to start your character's adventures between the ages of 20 and 30, because for every five years after Age 30, your character's Attributes begin to decay: first the physical ones (ie. Strength and Endurance), and once you're past Age 55, the mental Attributes (ie. Perception and Intelligence) begin to decay too.

[Image: Darklands06.png]
Then you just tinker with your character's appearance (small and boxy though it may be) and give him or her a coat-of-arms, add up to four characters to your party, and leap into a world of Germanic adventure! Huzzah! Big Grin

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