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Help the Spoooky Spook ghost
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Aug 14, 2016 07:36
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Ghostrim. Help the living dead claim their vengeance!  Oh man, upgrading items. On one hand it is an interesting idea but on the other it is kinda tedious and you have to savescum to know if you can do it or not. Maybe the worst part was only added in the sequel and on but I don't really like it for some reason. Inquisitors are a unit I always bring along because they're just so useful. Personally I only use the best griffins, throwing disposables at your enemy sure feels great.
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Aug 14, 2016 08:34
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Let's kill Baron Norge Because reward is better and we already stole his wife.
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Aug 14, 2016 08:42
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Lime Tonics posted:Just want to say that this LP has got me to buy this. It's on sale at GoG for like 2 dollars and change. Haha, awesome. Feels like I've reached some kind of LP milestone with this. Hope you enjoy the game! You'll definitely get your money worth at that cost, in terms of time spent at least.
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Aug 15, 2016 14:07
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Let's help Baron Norge. No telling what a ghost is going to do when he realizes that's not his son on the throne...
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Aug 16, 2016 03:40
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I say we help the ghost since it seems to make the most sense. I mean in this world of fantasy I think the peasantry can get over a ruler that is undead.
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Aug 29, 2016 07:15
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And we are back, finally. Sorry for the delay with this update. I've been working on finishing up my grad school work, and it got busier than I thought. Hopefully I will get back to at least an update per week. Thanks to everyone who voted. By popular request, we will be helping Gostrim the Ghost...in a future update, not this one. Update 10: It wasn't a rock...it was a rock monster! Last time on King's Bounty, we were sent to find the Chest of Rage. Due to a slip and some blood, that chest is now bound as a parasite to our hand, feeding off of our anger.  Let's take another look at this chest. Before, the spirits wouldn't talk to us. Although nothing has appeared to change, we should try again. Maybe we can figure out how to get these spirits to serve us... LP note: This is kind of odd, as the game never actually tells you to try again. You kind of just have to try. Not very intuitive. I think you can play the game entirely without even touching the Chest again.  Alright, so we can get into a pretty long conversation with Zerock here. For the whole thing, check out the Lore section of the bonus material. For the main update, let's just get right to the point.  : Will you serve me? : TO SERVE? HA. HA. YES, I AM A WEAPON. YES, I AM CREATED TO KILL AND OBEY. BUT I AM INTELLIGENT AND I HAVE A GOAL. MY CREATORS WANTED ME TO BE THEIR WEAPON AND KILL THEIR ENEMIES - MAGES. THEIR WAR IS NOT YOUR WAR. YOUR WAR IS NOT MY WAR.: I'm the mage myself, but my enemies are wizards and magicians. A weapon like you would come in handy. Are you ready to serve the mage?: DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT I COULD BE CREATED WITHOUT MAGIC? I WAS CREATED BY MAGES TO KILL OTHER MAGES. IF YOUR HATRED AND YOUR POWER ARE STRONG ENOUGH AND YOU CAN PROVE IT TO ME, I WILL SERVE YOU. I AM CREATED FOR IT.: I'm ready to prove to you that I can kill mages!: I AM A WEAPON. A WEAPON NEEDS A TARGET. OTHERWISE THERE IS NO PURPOSE. OTHERWISE I AM NOT NEEDED. I WAS CREATED TO KILL THE WEAPON NEEDS A MASTER, THE ONE THAT CAN POINT OUT A TARGET. CAN YOU DO THIS? I FOUND A TROOP OF BATTLE MAGES. IF YOU ARE READY TO SHOW ME THAT THERE IS A PLACE FOR ME IN YOUR WAR, I WILL CARRY THEM HERE AND KILL THEM!: Give them to me and I'll show you how we kill mages in my world! With that, Zerock pulls out his mages - plus 2 Demons for some reason - out his hyper-dimensional pocket for a fight. We also get to fight in a somewhat unique environment, the bridge outside the capital.  We told Zerock we were a mage. Let's see how much we've improved. We got Chaos Magic 2 at the end of the last episode. As such, we've now got access to Level 2 Chaos spells (if we spend the crystals for upgrades). Level 2 Fireball is basically double damage for slightly less than double mana.  I do wish that upgraded spells came with upgraded graphical effects. But we just get the same fireball with bigger numbers. Still, it's very effective, and Fireball will remain a main part of our arsenal for a long long time.  Still, Fireball is not always appropriate. For instance, these Demons have a 50% resistance to Fire. Therefore, I picked up a scroll of Poison Skull from the Magic School in between updates. Poison Skull is essentially a Poison version of Flaming Arrow - single target with a high chance of inflicting a DoT effect. However, unlike Flaming Arrow, Poison Skull has a very wide damage range, making it potentially more powerful but also risky. Elemental Effects We've now seen all the elemental effects, so let's review, with some additional details. Burning: Small amount of Fire DoT, plus -20% Defense. Lasts 3 turns. Poisoning: Small amount of Poison DoT, plus -20% Attack. Lasts 3 turns. Freezing: -1 Speed. Lasts 3 turns. Shock: Reduced to 1 Action Point. -1 Initiative. Lasts until end of turn. The DoT effects are usually minimal - at least for this game. When we get to Armored Princess, Burning/Poisoning become far better. In this game, its not usually that good, and more just annoying when it burns your own valuable or rare units away. All the other effects are pretty nice though.  The Poison Skull failed to finish the Demons off, so our Marauders bludgeon them out of the picture.  As our Thorns finish off the last mage, I'm impressed by the detail in the background, which actually shows the village and mill in the right place.  : THE TARGET IS IDENTIFIED: BATTLE MAGE TROOP... TARGET STATUS: TARGET IS DESTROYED... EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CANDIDATE: AVERAGE... TESTING RESULT: POSITIVE...: What is this nonsense? I've passed your test?: YES. YOU KILL MAGES. I AM CREATED TO KILL MAGES YOUR TARGET IS MY TARGET. NOW I AM YOUR WEAPON. POINT TO ME THE TARGET THAT MUST BE DESTROYED, MASTER...: You will have plenty of targets, believe me. But I don't need at the immediate moment.: I WILL WAIT FOR YOUR ORDERS. MASTER, MY SKILLS AND TALENTS ARE AT YOUR COMMAND. MY FLESH IS WEAK AND I AM NOT AS STRONG AS BEFORE. EVEN THE SHARPEST SWORD WILL BECOME RUSTY, HAVING LAIN IN A SHEATH FOR A THOUSAND YEARS. POINT ME TO THE TARGET. LET ME DESTROY IT. AND SOON I WILL REGAIN MY FORMER STRENGTH. THE BLADE WILL BE CLEANSED OF RUST BY THE BLOOD OF HIS ENEMIES.: Your skills will come in handy soon. Have rest.Let's take this sucker for a spin. We head back to the Magic School. I skipped over this before, since we didn't meet the conditions, but there's a conversation branch that leads to a Trial of Will. : Maybe I could learn something in your school? : Learn something? Hum... But didn't you graduate from the Knight's School at the Temple?: I'm sure that Knight's School mentors teach us better than you sorcerers, and I'm ready to prove it!: Hum. Maybe you wish to pass one of the trials that our students and adherents pass? Many of them would be difficult for you, but some could be useful. I can permit you to enter a Trial of Will...: Trial of Will... sounds pretty interesting. Tell me more!: Students enter this trial on the second month of training. In fact, there's nothing extraordinary about it. It's simply a bit of combat training, against an enemy's with superior forces. But in this combat you'll have to rely on magic only; no combat skills will help you. The Trial sometimes enables students to discover new talents. Maybe you'll learn something too, who knows...We are now given a choice: : [Normal difficulty] Sounds interesting! Maybe I'll try my hand at this trial.: [High difficulty] Ha! That's all you got? Well it's no surprise that your School's graduates are so weak! Our trials were much more difficult than this.Jeez, Bill. I feel like I should make you lose on purpose to learn some humility. Unfortunately, I actually had this conversation and selected Normal many updates ago, and I wasn't great about saves back then. So thats the choice we took. Note that we also need 1000 Leadership to even try this Trial.  The Trial of Will gives us 5 Archmages instead of our usual troops. I guess that counts as 'magic only'?  Welp, it is a trial of magic, so the Fireball takes care of three stacks easily enough.  You may have noticed the new icon next to our Magic book... as we've activated one of the Rage Spirits, we have access to the Chest of Rage in combat. Each Rage spirit has four abilities, but only one is unlocked at first. Rage abilities take, well, Rage to cast. Rage is gained through dealing/receiving damage, and drains away between combats. When we use a Rage ability, the Spirit associated with it must rest for a number of turns before we can use any of that Spirit's abilities again. And, like Magic, we can use only one Rage ability per turn. Let's try out Smashing Sword.  When we summon Zerock, his body assembles from rocks that roll in from all around...  His body transforms into a giant sword...  The sword flies into the air, spins around as it plummets towards the target, and smashes straight into the earth. Very impressive looking...damage wise, it's kind of poo poo. Each animation has a long form and a short form. Still highly, highly recommend using Fast animation speed setting, because these Rage abilities take way too long on Normal (these gifs are skipping a lot of frames for size reasons). Not quite Final Fantasy summon long, but still quite long.  We easily finish off the remaining enemies. : Great! To tell you the truth, I didn't expect you to pass the trial. By the way, watching the fight, I noticed that your magic potential rose a bit. I do hope you understood that strength of will and magic can be far stronger than sword and steel. [You got some Magic Runes]In this case, 'Some' means 2 Magic Runes. Not a bad reward for a simple battle.  The goal of this episode is to clear out most of Greenwort. By the road leading to Verlon Forest, we find this side track.  Pretty much all the battles of this update are no challenge, as we've out-leveled this content.  As Zerock was created to kill mages, he comes with double damage to any mage-type unit, including these Inquisitors.  Not that we need it when there's only one of them. But the Rage Spirits get gain experience for every Rage ability used, so its good to use them as often as possible.   This small group of bandits serves as no challenge.   And neither does this collection of wolves/thorns. We do get some loot along this path, including a banner and some gold. Every bit of Leadership helps.  Our next cleaning-up area takes us past the village where we killed a bunch of Thorns, where a path leads deeper into the woods.  We find a lone Hunter's House sitting in the darkened forest.  : You don't look like you're dying. What's happened? : Recently I was hunting for wolves, as usual, but this time I had some very bad luck. I ran into a wolf-pack which had a werewolf-leader. I ran away, but he managed to scratch me. I've cleaned the wounds, but it didn't help. When night comes, I am overcome with the urge to howl in the moonlight and roll in grass. And it will be a full moon soon, and I suppose you know what that means? The only thing that can help me is a potion made of the blood of the werewolf that bit me. I beg you - find his den and kill the beast. By killing him, you'll be saving hundreds of innocent lives, and you may help me remain human. Get his blood, even a couple of drops would be enough for the antidote. But hurry - the full moon draws nearer each day... (Reward: 960 Gold, 60 Experience): Ok. I'll try to get back to you before the full moon comes...This is one of the very few quests that has a time-limit, but it is so generous that you basically have to try and fail. Maybe I'll go back and see what happens if you do kill a few days.  As expected, wolves haunt these woods.  Not enough to form any kind of threat right now.  But the wolves aren't alone.  These guys aren't the werewolf leader, but they'll serve as practice. These are Werewolf Elves, one of the first Elf faction units we have seen. In Elf form, they are slow as poo poo, and not that threatening - slightly stronger than Swordsmen, basically.  These guys did not want to co-operate and show off what I wanted to show off here, so I had to spend a few turns shuffling around dudes while the Werewolf Elf crawled towards us at 2 hexes per turn.  Finally, jeez. As might be expected, Werewolf Elves can transform into wolves. This gives them bonus +2 Speed at the cost of lower Defense. Like actual Wolves, Werewolves can use the Wolf Cry Talent. The wolf form can also move them across the battlefield fairly quickly, so they can be annoying that way too.  Still not a threat in these numbers.  Using Zerock in our battles pays off, and he levels up. At Level Up, Spirits of Rage give two options. If a new ability is offered, it will continue to be offered until you take it. We pick Stone Wall up here.  The next fight shows off one of the Werewolf Elf abilities, Regenerate. This puts the unit back to full health if it is damaged. It's only mildly annoying right now, and as numbers grow it basically amounts to nothing. It can help keep your own unit numbers up in a small way, I guess, if you want to use Werewolf Elves.    After killing the last group along this path, we claim a bounty of Mind Runes before heading on.  The werewolf tracks lead to this cave...  Inventively called Werewolf's Underground.  As the name suggests, there are indeed Werewolves underground.   Caves are usually really good sources of Magic Crystals, which is nice now that we are starting to get higher level spells and want to upgrade them.  The cave is not deep, and we find the Werewolf leader we've been looking for in the next room. He attacks while I'm picking up this scroll.  The composition of our foe's army is not a big surprise, given what we've been fighting.  Oh, I just love the AI sometimes. So when units transform, they tend to lose any stat buffs/debuffs (I guess the new stats overwrite the values). So here we have the hero Hasting his stack of Werewolf Elves, which then immediately transform and erase the buff. Nicely done.  Martin here does have access to several actually annoying spells, including this one, Blind. Blind is familiar to those who've played Heroes of Might and Magic. Blinded troops skip their turn until either the spell wears off or the unit is attacked. I am desperately hoping to find this spell.   Remember how I said Blind is broken if the unit is attacked? Welp, the AI shows its smarts again by Blinding my Bowmen, and then immediately breaking it. Bravo.  With moves like that, Martin falls easily, yielding a good chunk of gold and his blood.  We clear out the last bits of loot, and head back to Trey. : You again. So, have you found the den? Come on, tell me!: Yes, don't worry, here's the werewolf's blood.: Oh... Give it to me then. I have to prepare the potion as soon as possible. Thank you! I was already convinced that I'd have to live among wolves the rest of my life, howl in the moonlight and fight the other wolves for the females. Huh-huh. I'm kidding about that, of course... I think... Ok, here, take your reward.: Thank you. It wasn't so difficult. And besides, a good man is better than a good wolf anyway. Right. Let's leave Trey to figure out his desires. He does turn into an outpost now, but he's got nothing special for us at all.  Our final area to finish off is this cave in the north-east of the region, near where we found the missing polar bear.  Welcome to 'Cave'. Even more creative names here.  But the cave does seem to have a theme.  Snake Eggs are of course another creature container. Unfortunately, they can't hatch into Royal Snakes.  As I said, there's definitely a theme going on here.  Take this as a picture of how the next 3 battles go. Fireball, Smashing Sword, a few ranged shots, occasional melee combat with no losses.     One of the three groups does have a new spell for us in a battle chest. However, this spell stinks. Last Hero is an Order spell that prevents the last soldier in a troop from dying. I could see some ways to try to exploit this, but it means using a solo unit stack, which is a waste of 20% of your army.  At the end of the cave, we find the snakes have been mixing with some other cave denizens.  The geometry of this battle gives an opportunity to show off the utility of our new Rage ability, Stone Wall.  Stone Wall summons a three-hex long wall. For now, the hit points might let the wall stand a hit or two, but generally it will crumble in a single hit.  The real utility is not in the wall's durability, but in the fact that the AI will basically always go around it if possible. As long as it isn't blocked in, AI troops will go way out of their way to bypass it. Combined with slow effects, this can potentially keep attackers away for a good amount of time, and is the only ability Zerock has that will be useful in the later parts of the game. However, it is highly dependent on battlefield obstacles and geometry to work.    Spider Eggs hatch into spiders. I don't think I've ever used any kind of Spider. They are relatively weak melee units of various flavours. They can use the Web Talent to freeze units in place...but only when they are right next to them.  Near these eggs, we find a crack in the wall that leads to a spider-infested part of these caves. Like the other battles, nothing of note happens.   Finally, one last thing awaits. Back in the capital, at the Knight's Temple, our old mentor Iron Richard has been waiting to talk to us, and give us an opportunity to show what we've learned so far.  : So Bill Gilbert, how do you like serving the king. Oh, and, by the way, thank you for finding my lost boot...: But why me? As I understand, you decided long ago that I was to be the man who received the title of royal searcher.: Call it flair or intuition, or whatever you like. You are a smart guy, Bill Gilbert, one of my best students. Maybe not the best, but your potential is great. Besides, when His Majesty asked me to find a smart young man among our graduates for that position - well, I don't know why, but I thought of your immediately. You're a good man, resourceful. I hope you don't regret taking the position?: Yes, everything's good. I like the job. Our king is strict, of course, but probably that's the only way to maintain control.: That's fine! I hope it does not disappoint you how I decided your fate.: I'd like to try my hand in a tournament.: In the tournament? Well, of course. If the rules are unfamiliar to you, I can tell you. If you know everything, then go, choose your opponent and proceed to your victory. I do hope you win. But remember, this is no training combat, but a real one. It will end with the death of one of the participants.: Tell me the rules.: The rules are simple. Along your way, you must defeat several opponents. With every victory your next opponent will be stronger and stronger. The last and most difficult fight will determine who will win the prize of the tournament - an extremely precious artifact! And not only is it precious, but also extremely useful! With that, we are given our list of opponents, sorted by level. We begin where we have to.  The tournament fight gives us one of our more numerous foes, if not the strongest. Adun commands a fast, mobile army of Furious Goblins and Hyenas, along with a number of ranged Goblins. To make this harder, I completely forgot to let my mana recharge or to use the mana fountain right outside. As such, I only have enough for 1 Fireball.  I forgot to mouse over Adun's portrait during the actual fight, so I went back to grab this screenshot.  Our sole available Fireball is used to vaporize most of his left flank units.  As his fast units approach, Adun takes the opportunity to use Pygmy, a spell which shrinks a target unit, reducing Health and Damage. It also prevents certain Talents from being used, such as the Biting Strike of these Marauders.  Despite their size, they still pack a punch with their regular attack. And are adorable to boot.   Despite the mana shortage, the battle is soon over. Our forces were just too numerous. We also lost more Bowmen than this (to a Flaming Arrow), but our Inquisitors brought most of them back. : Well done, Bill Gilbert! You have passed this stage. I'm sure that further successes await. I hope that a fight with an experienced opponent did not only help you to show what you are capable of, but also helped you learn something about battle tactics... [You've obtained 2 Might Runes!]: Thank you!We get some precious Might Runes from doing these battles, which is very nice for us as a Mage. We will come back occasionally to keep heading up the tournament ladder.  While we are here at the Knight's Temple, I pick up the other item I've been saving for. The "Well of Mana" Belt will give us much better mana recovery in and out of combat. We have to give up the Chieftain's Belt, but the loss of Leadership is offset by the banners we've found this update. Plus, our early big money purchases are done, so the Marauders are no longer needed, and the other benefit of the Chieftain's Belt is also unnecessary.  With the runes found/won, I pick up the Healer skill. This Magic skill increases the power of various healing/resurrection/buff spells. It's pretty useless, but I'm getting it because it lies on the way down to Higher Magic. Next update, the audience has spoken and we will help Gostrim the Ghost, as well as take care of some other business in the Verlon Forest. We will also unlock the second Spirit of Rage. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Let's cover the rest of the conversation with Zerock. : Who or what are you?: I AM ZEROCK. I AM A WEAPON.: What kind of weapon are you?: I AM CREATED FROM THE SPLINTER OF THE BLACK STAR. MY FLESH IS A STAR STONE. ETERNAL. INDESTRUBTIBLE. INVULNERABLE TO MAGIC. I AM CREATED TO KILL MAGES.: Sounds impressive! : I see Zerock likes you, Master of the Chest. Let me tell you, Zerock, in my homeland of Litan, you'd be priceless. I don't know why you don't want to join me. And instead you give this boy a chance! Oh, I imagine what can this new master of the Chest will do, having gotten hands on such a weapon as you, Zerock. [LP note: this sentence is so terribly written!]: Hey hey! I'm not a boy; I'm the Royal Treasure Searcher!: YOU ARE YOUNG. SHE IS OLD. IN YOUR WORLD, THEY DO NOT LIVE FOR SO MANY YEARS. EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE. FOR HER YOU ARE A BOY. FOR YOU SHE IS A VERY VERY OLD LADY. [After these words of Zerock you seem to hear the sound of furious woman's snarling, inside the Chest.]: Who created you?: THE MASTERS. THERE IS A GREAT WAR OF MAGES ON MY WORLD. EACH SIDE WAS LOOKING FOR A WEAPON. POWERFUL. PERFECT. AND MY CREATORS CREATED ZEROCKS. CREATED ME. I AM A PERFECT WEAPON; I AM CREATED TO KILL MAGES.: Are you intelligent?: I AM A WEAPON. THE CREATORS GAVE ME MIND. I KNOW WHO IS MY MASTER. I KNOW WHO IS MY TARGET. I KNOW HOW TO DESTROY THE TARGET. I CAN LEARN. I LEARN HOW TO KILL MORE EFFECTIVELY.: Can you tell me anything about the Chest?: IT IS A WEAPON. NOT LIKE ME - IT IS DIFFERENT. IT HOLDS BACK SOMEONE WHO IS STRONG. IT IS A TRAP. IT IS A PRISON. IT USES THE STRENGTH OF THE CAPTIVE AS A WEAPON. I AM A WEAPON AND I AM CAPTIVATED BY A WEAPON, HA HA!: How did you get into the Chest?: A WAR. WHEN THE MASTERS CREATED ZEROCKS THE ENEMY WAS DOOMED. I AM A PERFECT WEAPON. I CANNOT BE DESTROYED. I CAN NOT BE CORRUPTED. BUT THE ENEMY FOUND THE WAY. PORTALS. CREATED BY MAGIC, BUT NOT THE MAGIC. PORTALS TO OTHER WORLDS. THEY BEAT US BY REMOVING US FROM THE WORLD. I WAS THROWN TO DEMONIS, THE FIRE WORLD. THERE I WAS FOUND BY THE MASTER OF A DEVICE. THE CHEST. IT IS STRANGE THAT THE CHEST COULD CAPTURE ME. IT IS NOT MAGIC. IT WAS STRONGER THAN ME.: Tell me about your world.: MY WORLD IS A SMALL WORLD. THE WORLD OF THE BLACK STAR. THE WORLD OF THE GREAT MAGES. THE WORLD OF ENDLESS WAR BETWEEN MAGES. THE WARS BETWEEN MY CREATORS AND THE ENEMY.After completing Zerock's test, we can talk to him about his abilities. : Tell me about your combat skills. What's your worth as a weapon?: I CAN KILL. I WAS CREATED TO KILL MAGES. I CAN IMPROVE MY SKILLS. I CAN BECOME A WEAPON. YOU CALL IT IN YOUR WORLD A "SWORD". I CAN FALL ON AN ENEMY FROM HEAVEN, DESTROYING HIS ARMIES AND DEFENSIVE INSTALLATIONS. I CAN BECOME A WALL IN THE WAY OF THE ENEMY. I CAN PUT AN ARMY TO FLIGHT, ATTACKING SUDDENLY FROM THE DEPTHS.There's also a small bit of talk with Richard. : What happened to the previous searcher?: His name was de'Virre... He was a good warrior, and a talented searcher. But it was not only treasures he sought, but clues and various secrets. The more ancient and dangerous the secret, the more aggressively he pounced upon it. In the end, he must have run up against something that was too difficult for him.Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Today, we will look at the first transforming troop we've fought. Werewolf Elf  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 3  Transformation: A werewolf can turn into a wolf. Its fangs inflict less damage than blade, but the wolves move faster. Also, the wolf can use the "Wolf Cry" ability. Reload: 2.Abilities Blades: Serrated blades inflict severe wounds, decreasing the target's fighting ability. Night Sight: During nighttime and underground combat, Attack is increased by 50%. Regeneration: Recovers his maximum points of health each turn. Tolerance: The creature can tolerate the presence of undead in the army without a penalty to morale. Werewolf  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 2 Talents  Wolf Cry Transformation: A werewolf can turn into a human being. While in the form of a human, it is less active, but it has high Defense and inflicts more damage to living creatures, causing them to bleed. Reload: 2.Abilities Frenzy Night Sight Regeneration Tolerance Gully's opinion: Werewolf Elves aren't very good. Relatively fragile for their Leadership cost (only 45 HP), as melee troops they will die fairly quickly. The do have decent attack/damage in human form, but that is offset by only 2 speed and no run. The wolf form does give a very good speed and access to the Wolf Cry though, which is very useful against certain armies. If you could transform at will, they would be quite a bit better. (Edit: What I meant here is that the time the ability takes to reload means that you might be stuck in the 'wrong' form when you want to change while the ability is on cooldown). Fighting them: Beware of the Wolf Cry, and make sure you have units immune to it. They do have low Health, not great Defense, and no Resistances, so they will die to most attacks fairly well. Remember that transformation will wipe out any Slow spells, so it is hard to keep them away. Spells Seen Poison Skull  Spectral skull does poison damage and poisons the target. Crystal Cost: 2 / 3 / 5 Mana Cost: 5 / 7 / 10 Level 1: Damage: 40-140; Poisoning: 30% Level 2: Damage: 70-250; Poisoning: 60% Level 3: Damage: 100-365; Poisoning: 90% Gully's opinion: Not a bad alternate damage spell for those invested in Chaos Magic for when Fire damage is not the best idea. The damage is highly variable though, so it's hard to be certain how many troops you will kill. Skills Shown Healer An experienced healer can use the divine spells Bless, Divine Armor, Healing, Life Light, and Resurrection more effectively. Magic, Tier 3 Prerequisites: Order Magic  Level 1: Spell power increased by 15%. Cost: 0/1/1 Level 2: Spell power increased by 20%. Cost: 0/2/2 Level 3 : Spell power increased by 25%. Cost: 0/3/3Gully's opinion: I usually just get Level 1 on my way to other skills. A Paladin who likes to use Resurrection spells and Divine Armor can get some mileage out of this skill though, and the skill is very cheap even for Level 3. I really don't know how Bless gets buffed by this. Items Identified "Well of Mana" Belt  Description: A magical belt, decorated with a sapphire. Effects: +20% to Mana recovery, +3 to Mana every turn during combat Use: Recovers points to Mana to maximum Charges: 3 Type: Belt Race: Humans Cost: 21000 Info: It is in fact the sapphires, naturally imbued with magic energy, which are called Wells of Mana. This magic energy can be used by mages when their own power runs out. Snake Egg  Description: A snake egg with yellowish eggshell. Type: Used Item Info: Several young snakes can hatch out of this huge snake egg at once. Spider Egg  Description: A small egg, covered with spiderwebs. Type: Used Item Info: Several small spiders are just about to emerge. Werewolf's Blood  Description: A glass vial, filled with werewolf's blood. Type: Quest Info: This vial contains a little blood of the werewolf which bit the hunter. With the help of this blood, one can prepare a serum against the poison which turns a bitten man into a werewolf. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 17:55
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Eggs are such junk items, at least the snake eggs have a small chance to give you royal snakes (I think), but the spiders eggs are basically vendor trash. Don't sell for much either as the shopkeepers know how useful they are. That belt is pretty sweet though. I can't wait until we get some actual fun RAGE!!! stuff. But I suppose the wall will always be useful regardless of enemy numbers. Werewolves might not be the best units but the concept of switching forms with different strengths is very cool. It can make battles drag on however. Especially if there are 5+ stacks of shapeshifting jerks.
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Aug 31, 2016 20:28
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Wait, hold on. The werewolf transformation is at random? What a lousy way to screw up a promising troop type.
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Aug 31, 2016 20:54
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Poil posted:Eggs are such junk items, at least the snake eggs have a small chance to give you royal snakes (I think) They do. I know this from experience. You COULD save scum it if you really felt like doing so I suppose, but the chance is so small that I think even I would go insane from such an endeavor. Loxbourne posted:Wait, hold on. The werewolf transformation is at random? Nooooooo? I don't think it's random, it's just not implemented well. I think he means it eats up a turn, hence not at-will. mauman fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 20:55
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It's random when the AI decides to use it. It's an activated ability you chose to use or not just like any other. It just takes time to watch several stacks change shape instead of charging towards their deaths.
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Aug 31, 2016 21:15
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Loxbourne posted:Wait, hold on. The werewolf transformation is at random? No, I didn't mean that. As those above have said, its an activated talent. What I meant was that the ability takes several turns to reload, so if you switch to Wolf form to move fast, it takes a couple turns before you can switch back to Human form for the higher damage/higher Defence when attacking. You have to be careful with that if you want to use them effectively. The main issue is that their Damage is just a little too low and their Health is just a little too fragile for their cost in Leadership. Their primary benefit is definitely that it gives you access to the Wolf Cry ability on a unit that is Level 3. If you compose your whole army out of Lvl 3+ units and then use Wolf Cry, it completely shuts down any low level Human, Elf, or Dwarf units (for three turns). That situation doesn't come up quite enough for me to like them, but it definitely is a big draw. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 22:59
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Loxbourne posted:What a lousy way to screw up a promising troop type. Also, don't get tricked into thinking that the "you have to defeat the pack leader before the curse overcomes me" stuff is the usual RPG bluster, because you can very much fail this quest by putting it off. Trey is a bit miffed about turning into a werewolf, but he's remarkably chill about it and will sell you some animal units afterward. EDIT: Dammit, beaten by the edit. Doopliss fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 23:38
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Doopliss posted:Also, don't get tricked into thinking that the "you have to defeat the pack leader before the curse overcomes me" stuff is the usual RPG bluster, because you can very much fail this quest by putting it off.
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Sep 1, 2016 01:01
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meristem posted:How long? I've never had that happen to me.
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Sep 1, 2016 21:58
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Everybody keeps talking about de'Virre. We'll either find his body or he'll be the end boss.
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Sep 7, 2016 01:50
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Hey everyone, I know it's been awhile since the last update. Rest assured that this LP isn't dead. But I have run into a computer issue, which I'm working on solving. I might need to transfer things to a new machine. As such, the next update will be a little while yet. I'm hoping to have it done for early next week, if things work out. Even if they don't, I'll likely be able to post some shorter than usual updates. Thanks for the patience, sorry for the delays.
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Sep 19, 2016 22:01
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Gremlins? Still eagerly waiting. Hope things get solved 
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Sep 19, 2016 22:08
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To spergpost a bit, why do people find dark side so hard? Well, I did pick the demon girl and abused split stacking with sacrifice from the blood priestesses or whatever to the max. Basically, this troop can sacrifice one of your stacks to summon more of another stack, and since you can sacrifice summons and illusions, proper managment mostly ensures that your entire army is always at full strength. I disliked about Dark Side that you mostly stick with your same troop type though.
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Sep 20, 2016 00:41
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IT'S ALIVE!!!! Back at last, and many apologies for the long delay. Still having some technical issues, and the new computer that was supposed to solve them is having GPU issues. Still, the LP will continue, even if at a slower pace. Update 11: Swamp Thing Last time on King's Bounty, we brought the first Spirit of Rage, Zerock, under our control. Let's see if any of the others will help us out.  : Who are you? : My name is Sssleem. I am the crown princcce, the ssseventh child of the Lord of Ashur Sswampsss. And I'm the last of the ssscragg, the only one to survive.As with Zerock, Sleem has a lot of lore dialogue to reveal, but we'll keep that for the bonus material. For now: : Will you serve me?: To sserve? Never! The Crown princcce will never ssserve.. But... We could become friendsss! Sshouldn't friendsss help each other? You help me and I help you... The Sscraggsss' lasst prince will call you his friend!: Friendship? Sounds good! How can I help you?: You might be a giant swamp monster, but there's no way you'll be as gross as my roommate at the Academy. I didn't know laundry could become sentient until then.: I am hungry, human! A thousand yearss without water and food. A thoussand of long yearsss I sssurvived only thanksss to my magic and the sstrange devicces of Lina. Sshe made to me... anabiossiss, rear end sshe called it. But you've awakened me and I am very hungry... Bring me meat. Much meat. I need sspecial food, sssodden with ssswamp poissson. Living food... Or I will asssk the cold female for anabiossisss again... [Satiety: 0/100%]If we speak to him again: : Why do you disssturbing me, human? Sssleeem is hungry. Sssleem mussst sssleeep.... Or have you brought fressh meat? Sssweeet, sssodden with sssappy poison![Satiety: 0/100%] [Sleem will gobble up poisonous Swamp and Royal Snakes and Poisonous Spiders from your army. The stronger the creatures eaten, the more satiated is the Swamp Spirit]. Well, we have no Swamp or Royal Snakes available (and I wouldn't sacrifice Royal Snakes for anyone), but we do know a purveyour of spiders.  Stephen Hall at the menagerie sells Venemous Spiders. Let's try feeding Sleem one. : I've brought meat for you.: My sympathiess for you grow ssstronger with every piece of meat... I feel we can really become friendsss...: Poisonous spiders. You can eat them...: [The crown prince of the now-extinct race of Scraggs pounces on the poor animals with great violence. Still fluttering, their bodies disappearing into the insatiable monster's enormous maws, eaten alive...]Not sure I'd ever think of spiders as fluttering, but hey, no great loss : So, how is that?: Ssstrange creatures... In my Endoria there were no creaturesss like thisss. But they are tasssty. Worthy for a royal meal. I want more! [Satiety: 3/100%]: Wait a little, I don't have anything else.33 Venemous Spiders later... : Yesss! I've been waiting for that day for thoussands of years! Sstarvation tormentsss torture me no more... I am sssorry, warm-blooded... We, sscraggsss, can live without food for a long time, but our ssstrength dwindlesss fassst if there iss little ssswamp poison inside of usss... We have ssuch.. Hmm... How do you call it... A difficult word...: What are you talking about?: Metabolism - our scaly friend means metabolism, young man, do you understand? Probably some vital organs of their body need some complex organic compounds in order to perform all their functions welll, compounds which are deadly poisonous for common organisms.: What did you just say?: Thank you, cold human female... My metabolisssm. It needss ssswamp poisssonsss. It was a good meal. Your food iss my food - my food iss your food.: You can keep your food to yourself; it runs around the table too fast for my taste... So, what about our friendship, Your Highness?: "Your food is my food, my food is your food"... This is an ancient expression of friendship...sscraggsss' tradition. Now we are friendsss. I am ready to help you... Sssleeem is a good warrior. Sssleem wass a Chief Cressadire in his father'ss army, and fought even Titansss.: Excellent! I am honored to have such a friend... The last prince of the scraggs! - Nobody else could make this claim! With that, we now have two of the Spirits ready to aid us. Spoiler, it will be a good long while before the third comes into play. The spacing is kind of odd for the Spirits.  Sleem's starting ability, like Zerock's, is a cheap, single-target damage. This one adds a guaranteed poison effect, which is decent for now.  We also replace our Marauders with some Wolves. Mostly just to show them off, but it also gets rid of the morale penalty our Bowmen are suffering.  For our next bit of unfinished business, you may recall we had a poll over the fate of Castle Gefen. Although not unanimous, the popular vote decidedly sided with Gostrim, the ghostly spirit of the former owner. So we head to the castle to overthrow the current occupier, Baron Norge.  Before we fight, I sell him a few Spider Eggs so that I can afford the Bandage of Concentration. This Helmet gives us +1 Intellect, boosting our spell damage even further.  The Bandage of Concentration is also our first example of Set items. Although neat in idea, in practice.... Remember how this game has randomized items? Well, that means that the whole set may not even be in the game. Even if it is, it might be a long time before you find the last piece, and by then, it is likely that other equipment outstrips it. Like this one: +2 mana per turn is nice, but not worth sacrificing useful slots later on for it. Enough mercantilism for now, time for business...of revenge!  : I can't see through the castle windows if the ghost is standing at his usual place...: Yes, he is there. But there is more. I have decided to kill you after all; it is the young Farmir who shall own these lands. We are plunged into our first castle assault. Fortunately, castle owners are always polite enough to lower their drawbridges. So unlike in Heroes games, there is no worrying about walls or catapults or arrow towers. We do have a narrow bridge and limited movement space for our troops. But at the same time, it means that the opposing melee troops will have to bunch in to get to us. Also, notice that there is no opposing hero here. Looks like Baron Norge is not a fan of battle, even when its for his life.  We start by frying the Thorns out of existence. Level 2 Fireball will carry us quite a ways.  Next, our wolves come into play. Wolf Cry is fantastic...against the right enemy. And this is one of those. Even without the targeting restrictions it causes, the 50% chance for the affected troop to do nothing is powerful.  I've gotta say that doing this LP is giving me a huge appreciation of the background details, like the town far below here.  As said, the restricted bridge leads their troops to bunch up, perfect for a Fireball. Time to Sleem it up!  Sleem gathers himself up like a slime-based T1000  He emerges from the slime ball...  And pukes a ball of digestive juices onto these hapless Swordsmen  After a turn or two more, the Wolves go for the crotch, which proves too much for the Guardsmen. After a few more finishing attacks...  The last Swordsman succumbs to the poison inflicted by Sleem's spit.  Returning to the Ghost with the good news of vengeance...  : Baron Norge is dead, I feel it! At last, I can leave this world. Thank you, Bill Gilbert, you did the right thing. (Reward: 3400 Gold, 70 Experience): Yes, you are avenged. Rest in peace, Gostrim.With that, the ghost slowly disappears from this plane.  Back at the Castle, Gostrim's 'son' Farmir has taken his rightful place. Despite his words, he does not look friendly. No new items, spells, or troops available. We do replace our Thorns for some Swordsmen for reasons.  Before we carry on further in the area, I noticed this quest marker above the hut of Archon (the dude who gave us the beholder breeding papers last time we saw him.)  : Glad to see you again, Bill Gilbert! So, how is my friend Stephan? - Did he find what he wanted in my papers?: He is studying them, and he thanks you very much.: "Thank you" can't fill a bottle and doesn't jingle in your pocket, ha ha! But why have you come here? Do you want to listen to some of my stories?: I don't have time to listen to your stories, but I would certainly be glad to help you, if you have any need.: Hmm... I've never seen a royal servant to offers his services of his own free will. Do you say you are ready to help me with all sincerity and kindness?: Only fairies from fairy tales work for thanks and sage advice. Get my hint?: Don't worry, young man, I was a mercenary when I was young, your reward will be worthy. The job is simple: I had a bird, not a common one, but speaking bird. And recently I forgot to close the cage, so he flew away. If you bring the bird back I will pay you. Money is not a problem. So, will you do it?: I see you're completely out of your mind in your old age. How can a bird talk?: If you had wandered the world as much as I have, you would believe in any wonder. I've seen living stones in deep caves and speaking trees in the forests of elves. I collected animals for my circus all over Endoria. By the way, my Talking Bird came to me right from the elves. He could speak only their language at the time, but he managed to learn a hundred or so of our words during our voyage from Ellinia to Darion.: What a clever bird! It would be a pity if some predatory animal ate him. I will look for your bird.I don't know why Bill thinks a talking bird is odd when he summons spirits from other worlds out of a parasitic box that feeds on blood. Anyways, we have a bird to find.  Behind   We will suffer no tax dodgers on our watch. Nor any fomenters!  Fireball is a good start.  But Fear is much better. Wolf Cry is the secret weapon for this fight. You see, Peasants are Lvl 1 troops. Now that my army has only Lvl 2+ units, his peasants can't do poo poo for three turns. And his other units have a 50% chance to miss a turn, and can't target my Lvl 3 units. Not bad for a single action.  Despite my general contempt for Peasants, locking them down for this fight is actually important. You see, some heroes have special abilities beyond their stats. Stephen here gives his Peasants +1 speed, which is a huge boost in their capabilities. Not that we'd be in danger of losing, but we could take a lot more damage if these guys were in the fight. It can be dangerous to make assumptions of troop capabilities when a hero is leading them.  The Marauders give our Wolves a good bop. The big downside of Wolves is that they are very fragile. Half the hit points of even our Bowmen is not much, especially for a front-line unit.  Sleem gets in on the action, gooping up the Marauders. I really want to get his next ability...  The peasants do nothing but defend for three turns while taking Fireballs to cut their numbers down.  : And that's what tax evaders get! Cut to pieces and fed to a bear! Even with Resurrect, the Wolves take a good number of casualties.  After defeating these rebels, the path to the lake is free. Bill collects a banner and some gold on the way before enjoying the view for a minute.  On the island we find a bag containing some Battle Cry scrolls for sale-fodder, and this River Farm that apparently hatches mutant dragonflies. Maybe we will be back to try out these squishy bugs.  Along the perimeter of the lake are a couple of patrols of, appropriately, Lake Dragonflies.  Though they are Lvl 1 troops, our Wolf Cry doesn't work on non-humanoids. So its back to the basics. Luckily, these guys bunch up for us here.   A sneak preview of next update with a view over this camp of barbarians. I also believe that this hill is one of the places the talking bird can be found.  Continuing our circuit, Bill find's this Druid's House.  For now, he is just a shop. Nice to see a large quantity of Ancient Bears around, they can serve as decent melee units for the whole game, especially with some mobility spells.  Completing the circle of the lake, we track down the second group of patrolling dragonflies.  Sleem continues to be used whenever possible to get him some experience, rising out of the lake to drop a poison ball on these flies.   Backtracking slightly along the shore, Gilbert finds a fourth obelisk guarded by a group of Griffins.  Their line-up is pretty weak though, and the Priests can get Wolf Cried.  As often, the troops do little besides witness the fire raining from the heavens.  It's good to keep using Spirits whenever possible, and with Sleem resting, Zerock returns to finish this battle.   Was this really worth have someone magically inscribe an obelisk for? A rest stop?   A mixed group of humans, insects, and plants guard this path leading away from the lake next to the Druid's house.    The victory gets Sleem to Level 2, and we get access to his second ability: Evil Shoal. This ability is fantastic, and one of the best abilities for the first third of the game. I won't be showing it off now though...see how it costs 15 Rage? Well, Mages start with only 13, and Bill hasn't picked up any extra sources yet. Evil Shoal is a key component of the Warrior early game though.  After digging for some gold here by the Magic Rune, the path leads towards a seaside village.  This is the second location the Talking Bird can appear, on the roof of one of the houses. Not this time though.  Come on, Bill. Like, theres plenty of room there. Are you afraid of the water or something?  The town also holds a pretty useless Merchant Mishar, selling tiny amounts of Devilfish and Barbarians, not enough to even fill a stack. His real purpose is to be able to buy a boat if we want.  Another few points of Leadership and a bit of gold is all that the town nets for us. Not even a buried chest or anything. Well, I won't complain about free Leadership.  By the magic of me having played the game before, Bill gets a hunch to head back along this spooky path (the path to the right is the bridge to the Dragon's Castle), and head down left instead. We find what could be a tougher encounter than any we've seen in this update.  A few new enemy types in this fight. Hyenas we saw briefly in the tournament fight. Undead spiders are the toughest spider variant, but still not super threatening. And Skeleton Archers...well, I'll just say that we will see plenty of these guys over the game, and they can be super annoying if we don't get the right spell. But a mere 63 of them isn't a threat...  as demonstrated thusly. This leaves the enemy with only melee attackers of moderate speed.  Taking a look at the terrain, I see an opportunity that requires some rage. So my Inquisitors pull out their second ability, Holy Anger. This replaces the Priest's Bless ability, giving the same bonus of maximum damage (and additionally 150% damage to undead), but it also gives our hero 5-10 points of Rage. Situational, but very nice. And with that Rage...  Bam, AI exploitation commences. See, Stone Wall has it's uses, mostly in the way the AI works. We've now blocked off the bottom path from these melee units pathing. Now, if they were smart, all three could attack and destroy the wall in a single turn. But instead, there's a path open at the top of the map.  As the 'path' to the north is open, all the enemy troops spend a turn rushing that way.  And as soon as the path is closed off by the Undead spiders, the Cave spiders decide to turn around and go right back to the wall. They did literally nothing for two turns, giving us time to use ranged attacks, especially the double-damage Inquisitors, and spells, to knock the Undead Spiders out of the picture.  I get stupid and leave my Wolves exposed to an attack from the last Spiders, but no big deal. This is one of the ways we can turn an enemy of "match" strength into a one-sided slaughter.  Ugh, I did not want this to happen though. I don't want either of these options. Stone Wall is basically only good for the sort of AI exploitation above. I don't need health, since the AI rarely attacks it unless there is no way around. A longer lifetime is slightly more useful, but 15 Rage is a large amount. In the interest of leaving the Rage cost as low as possible, I take the Health upgrade, sigh.  The path past the spider/hyena/skeleton force leads to a hill with a number of Spider Eggs, and more importantly a Magic Absorber.  Bringing us to 9 Intellect now. Coming along nicely for sure.  The quest marker is a small giveaway that this is the bird we are looking for.  : Oh no, you won't fool me. I can tell the difference between the elven dialect and a normal bird's song! You're the talking bird, aren't you. : Fyu-fyu-fyu! Weet-weet... Weet-weet [The bird thinks for a moment and says:] Caw!!: You have such a wonderful proficiency with languages! Bird language... But can you sing in human language? Not clever enough for that?: Who's the fool here! I'm a rare bird. I'm smart and clever. Smart and clever!: Aha! I got you, talking bird!: What do you want?: I came to tell that your master really wants you back. He feels very sorry and promises to feed you better in the future.: Myur? You mean "mil faerra"? No kiddding? Allll riiight, I'll come back...: Fly home; dinner is waiting for you.And the bird flies off.  Nothing special here, just another huge source of Marauders. The Rage potion could be good, but I'm a little poor a bit right now. Good to know its here though. Back to Archon to complete the bird quest. : Well, have you found my birdie?: Yes, I've spoken to your bird. What a spiteful creature! But he promised to come back.: Thank you very much Bill Gilbert, but I need to go heat up the oven. He is cranky and might fly away again. Here, take this. (Reward: 1850 Gold, 56 Experience): Hmm, so he is your wife, more or less. Thank you for the reward, and good luck with your birdie. Woo, just enough to push to the next level! This is a tougher pick for a bonus. Both Mana and Attack are nice. But in my experience, we will likely pick up enough Mana along the way from equipment, skills, and other sources. Attack is a bit more rare, so I go for that instead. Since we won't likely be using much Attack boosting equipment, it's important to try to keep up where we can.  More importantly, the runes we get let us get a few key skills. First up on the docket is the Archmage skill. This decreases the Leadership cost of 'mage' troops, including Archmages, Priests, and our Inquisitors (and a few others we will see later on). The bonus is nice, but it is also the last skill leading to the Mage ultimate skill, Higher Magic. THAT one costs 5/5/20, so it's gonna be a while of saving. Second, and more importantly for the immediate future, we spend some Might runes on Rage Control in the Might tree. This gives us +10 maximum Rage, bringing us up to 23. This will let us employ Evil Shoal, and will improve our Rage intake (since intake is proportional to max Rage). Third, I spend one measly rune on the Trade skill in the Mind tree. This boosts the amount we can sell equipment and scrolls for. Not a big deal, but it also leads further down the tree. Well, that's it for today's update. More clean up in the Verlon Forest and elsewhere next time, as well as showing off a new type of combat encounter. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Let's have a look at the extended conversation with Sleem. : You've named yourself a "scragg". What does that mean?: In our language, sscraggsss' language, it means "child of the poisonousss abyssss." We are pangolinsss, a race of swamp inhabitantsss. There were timesss, when we were ssstrong, we were the lordsss of the whole world, but it was many thousand yearsss ago. Now I am the only ssscragg, the lassst Lord, a princcce with no sswampsss...: What's happened to everybody else?: Winter came. We are pangolinsss, human. Cold-blooded. Cold makes usss weak, helplesss, kills usss, and plungess uss into sssleeep. I wass lucky - when the continentsss budged and all the flessh died, I wass far away, captive in another world...: How did you get into the Chest?: When the Great Icesss came, many sscraggsss died... all of them except for Sssleem. I wasss lucky, or they were not...Anabiossisss, Lina sssaid that. And I was sssleeeping in icce deep in the ground for many thousssands of yearsss. When Khasss, our United Continent was broken into partsss, everybody died...But me - I wasss found by Demonisss's emisssariesss. And they took me to the mussseum, as a sssample of the vanisshed raccce. There the creator of the Chesst found me. Sssubordinated. Very ssstrong. Hundredsss of timesss ssstronger than you...: Tell me about your world.: About my world? That iss your world asss well! Or have you not heard of the sscraggsss that inhabited Endoria before the Titansss came? We, sscraggsss, were the first intelligent race to inhabit thisss world. We lived in our poissonousss sswampsss, and we conquered everyone, and nobody could meassure themsselvesss againsst usss... We were ssstrong, and you'll never reach thosse heightsss. We appeared from the ssseeeds of life, like the other firsstss, but we appeared to be ssstronger than the othersss, and we conquered the whole world. We created ccivilizzation... We fought with Titansss asss equalsss. But we were defeated, and the sscraggsss disssapeared, desstroyed by those who were created by the godsss.: Titans? You lived in Endoria before they came, and you fought them?: I sssee, you have heard me, human. When the world wass created, and sssewn with the sseedsss of life, sscraggss were among thossse who grew from thessse sseedsss... Titanss were created by the godss much later. They were sstrong; they sseemed to be ssstronger than we. Creators. Divine sspark... They inflicted the Great Iccesss... All Endoria wass covered with an icce layer... It wass very cold, we were dying, and we were... no more... When returned to Endoria oncce more, I ssaw a different world. But it iss the placce where I hatched from my egg, here, in thissss world. I hear itss voice, and native voicce...: If you've fought the Titans... Can you tell something about them?: I led my army against the Titansss. They were... Big, yesss.. Titansss were huge. And... foolissh. The godsss gave them a divine ssspark, but did not give them sskillsss. Titansss' magic is crude, primitive, wasssteful. They did not fight with usss. They only wanted to clear the world of ssscraggsss. In order to create their own world, and inhabit it with their creaturesss. They tried to sshatter usss with magic, inflicted terrible monsssterss, which were created to kill usss. We learned to destroy their spellsss, we sssent the beasstssss of the sswampsss againssst the Titanss and their monsstersss... And then they plunged the world... into winter...: How can the great warrior of scraggs help me?: We, the scraggs, feed on the sswampsss' poison. And we can throw it out, ssstriking your enemiesss....My ssquirshesss - ssswamp predatorsss - are alwaysss ready to come at my first ssummonsss and attack my enemy! Fortunately... I have sssaved them. Ssquirsshsss sssleep, waiting for my sssummon... The power of my family, the weapon of Sssleem, is the poisonousss fogsss of Asshur sswampssss. Ssscraggss' magaic. Maybe I will awaken ancient forcesss of the world which hassss not had Great Sswamps for a long time... And what gave usss hope and sstrength to fight the Titansss, Glo'Ote'ss ssspell, which made sscragg warriors invulnerable. Alasss, the ssspell did not sssave us from the freezing of the world. It is created for sscragg warriorsss, but perhapsss... I will be able to change the ssspell... Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Hyena  Resistances: -10 Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defence Bonus: 2 Talents  Preparation: A hyena prepares its attack carefully. All attacks in this turn will be Critical. (Reload: 1)Abilites Night Sight: During nighttime and underground combat, Attack is increased by 50% Scaveneger: Can reach a killed troop, which is otherwise beyond reach, receiving 2 additional Action Points. Gully's opinion: I don't think I've ever used Hyenas. Much like Wolves, they are a very fragile melee attacker with moderate speed and initiative. But they are far stronger on offense than it appears, as a guaranteed Critical every other turn is pretty drat good, and their base damage isn't bad at all. I feel they would die very quickly later on though. Fighting them: Take advantage of low HP and their vulnerability to Fire, and spell them down or use ranged attacks. When in melee, try to hit them before their turn, so their retaliation won't be a Critical hit. Like other melee troops, Slow spells really cut down any threat they pose. Spells Seen Nothing new. Skills Shown Archmage This skill decreases the Leadership requirements when the hero is hiring Priests, Inquisitors, Druids, Shamans, Necromancers and Archmages. Magic, Tier 4 Prerequisites: Healer, Chaos Magic  Level 1: Leadership requirements reduced by 10%. Cost: 0/0/3. Level 2: Leadership requirements reduced by 15%. Cost: 1/0/4. Level 3: Leadership requirements reduced by 20%. Cost: 2/0/5.Gully's opinon: Decent skill, since it affects a good number of very good troops (Shamans, looking at you). As with other discount skills, the first level is the most effective. And if you are a Mage, you WILL be getting this on your way to Higher Magic. Not a bad place to put extra magic runes though. Rage Control Increases the amount of Rage that a hero can accumulate. Prerequisites: None Might, Tier 1  Level 1: Maximum Rage +10. Cost: 4/1/0 Level 2: Maximum Rage +20. Cost: 7/2/0. Level 3: Maximum Rage +30. Cost: 10/3/0.Gully's opinion: Equivalent to the Magic skill Wisdom, this is a really nice source of max Rage. If you want to use more expensive Spirit abilities as a non-warrior, it's basically required (Evil Shoal, looking at you). Always get one level, more is a fine sink of Might runes if have them. +Max Rage also increases your Rage intake too, making it doubly useful. Trade This skill allows the hero to sell items and scrolls for a higher price. Prerequisites: Learning Mind, Iier 3.  Level 1: Selling price of items is 50%, while selling price of scrolls is 30%. Cost: 0/1/0. Level 2: Selling price of items is 75%, while selling price of scrolls is 40%. Cost: 0/2/0. Level 3: Selling price of items is 100%, while selling price of scrolls is 50%. Cost: 0/3/0.Gully's opinion: Get one level, and nothing more. 1 mind rune to basically double potential gold intake from selling is alright, and it gets you further up the Mind tree. Gold is not nearly rare enough to put more levels in though, its not worth it. Possibly on higher difficulties, where gold is rarer, this skill may be better. Items Identified Bandage of Concentration  Description: A silken headband decorated with a piece of crystal. Effect: +1 to Intellect Type: Helmet Race: Neutral Cost: 3500 Info: Mages use such bands for meditation and concentration. Thanks to a special properties of the crystal, the mage can achieve concentration much more quickly and deeply. The set of the Bandage of Concentration, Monk Belt and Pilgrim Boots gives to a hero +2 to Mana every turn during combat.
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Oct 8, 2016 01:57
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 Evil Shoal is really fun if I remember correctly. Nom nom nom.  Oh and that lizzzzard princcce, issss it hissss people that sssshow up in Armored Princesssss?
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Oct 8, 2016 09:14
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I really need to play this game and figure out what portion of the gibberish on display in an artifact of the translation process, and what was actually as nonsensical in the original.
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Oct 10, 2016 16:30
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LP news: I've got my graphics card working on the new computer, so technical issues should hopefully be gone. I'm changing resolution as well, so the screenshots may look a little different now. I'm working on the next update, should be out by Sunday. After that, I will do my best to get at least one update a week. Otherwise this LP will be years in the making.Poil posted:
Yeah, Evil Shoal is great. It will be my go-to Spirit ability until we get the next Spirit for sure. As for the lizard question, I don't think so? But it's been a while since I played the next game, and I skimmed past the lore for the most part. Xander77 posted:I really need to play this game and figure out what portion of the gibberish on display in an artifact of the translation process, and what was actually as nonsensical in the original. I'm curious as well what the original Russian writing is like. Translation issues are there (tense problems, odd word-choice here and there, and so on), but I have a feeling the original text is still pretty silly.
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Oct 12, 2016 18:56
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So what do you do with all the points in skill trees you don't use much? Can you actually buy up a couple abilities in those trees or are they all spent on incidental costs to get abilities in your main tree?
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Oct 12, 2016 23:14
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Glazius posted:So what do you do with all the points in skill trees you don't use much? Can you actually buy up a couple abilities in those trees or are they all spent on incidental costs to get abilities in your main tree? Not quite sure what you are asking here. You can buy any skill (except unique skills) from any of the three trees (Might, Mind, Magic) if you have the runes. So yes, you can buy abilities in the trees your character doesn't specialize in. So the LP Hero, though he is a Mage, has several skills in both the Might and Mind trees, even though he has the most from the Magic tree. Does that make sense? Once we reach certain milestones in the plot, I plan on posting a more complete update of how the character is developing, including a look at all of his skill trees.
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Oct 14, 2016 02:48
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Also, besides a few skills, generally you need some quantity of all 3 levelling runes to buy skills.. And Character level is not attached to Rune levelling level (aside from being a source of more runes)
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Oct 14, 2016 03:26
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I kind of liked the writing because it was hilariously dorky. Zombie wives yay. Dark side was kind of dumb and cringe worthy writing wise though.
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Oct 17, 2016 21:42
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Update 12 - Barbarian Beach Bash This update, we return yet again to the Verlon Forest to finally finish everything there...OK, that's a lie. We will be back again. But at least we will visit somewhere else meanwhile.  We begin our journey at the capital of the region. We've been here before to hire troops and sell things, but we never spoke to the Marquis here. You may also see that we've replaced our Wolves with Lake Dragonflies.  : Great, you're just in time. I have a job to offer you! I'm always in need of an army and the help of experienced commanders. You see, these places are known to be very quiet and peaceful, which is why His Majesty sends very few soldiers here, and so I am left to keep order here with very few troops.: Very few troops? Marquis, my man, you have like thousands of Marauders, Peasants, and Cave Spiders, right there. Like, I can see them from my window.: Well, some gold will come in handy. What do you want me to do?: The situation is as follows. The barbarians landed on the south coast and set up camp. I do not mind their camping on the coast, but their forays into the South Port is putting a damper on trade. I need someone with enough courage to go down there and talk to their leader... I want to offer him a treaty, so that the barbarians will leave Darion ships in peace, and for each pirate ship they destroy, they will get a reward!: But might this not mean too many rewards for the barbarians?: Bill Gilbert, my friend! If we sign the treaty, the barbarian presence will be turned to our advantage, and looting the pirate ships will be quite enough reward! Look, I will not pay a penny to them from the royal treasury, and meanwhile they will be protecting our frontiers. It's politics, son, so don't worry yourself over it. Your business is to count the money you'll get for a job well done! (Reward: 56 Experience, 960 Gold): Yes, I see - a perfect plan! I will find their leader. The path to the barbarian coast lies just by the Druid's Hut we saw last time.  As I've noted, the game puts a good deal of work into varied arenas. Including reshaping the arena to represent fighting along a narrow coastal strand.  Lake Dragonflies are great troops in terms of Initiative and Speed. 6 base initiative is great, and we've boosted that to 7 with our banner. At 7, I think there are only 4 units in the game that might act before me. Speed 4, meanwhile, is great for seizing chests like this.  Meanwhile, my real goal in this minor battle is to build up some Rage. Inquisitors help quite a bit with Holy Anger.   Continuing along the coast, we pick up the first of many banners in this update. Like, seriously, more than I think I've ever seen. We see another barbarian army guarding the ship they must be using to raid.  Last time, we picked up the Evil Shoal ability, but couldn't show it off due to insufficient Rage. Now that we've got the Rage Control skill, the previous fight gave us enough Rage to see this Spirit ability in action.  As the description notes, it summons a swarm of 5 swamp fish. The fish need to spread out, so the area of affect is more cone-shaped. It also needs an empty hex to start in. And, as the description also said, those fish will eat all units in the path, including your own. This means that Evil Shoal is best used on Turn 1, since you can easily hit a ton of enemy troops before your own melee troops get in the mix. Once we order Sleem to unleash the Shoal:    Nom nom nom! The hungry fish devour dozens of the opposing units. At this point in the game, Evil Shoal outdoes almost any spell in terms of overall damage. This makes it a staple for Warriors who lack offensive magic, and even for Mages like us, it only strengthens our ability to demolish the enemy in the first turn of the fight, as long as we have both Rage and Mana available. Unfortunately, it also means that ordinarily we would see very little from Zerock for the rest of the game, since you'd almost always rather save the Rage for Evil Shoal.  Evil Shoal + Fireball is devastating, leaving this army with only a handful of Barbarians.  We get lucky with this battlefield chest, gaining a Magic Rune. Compared to the 500 Gold that these chests usually have, Runes are an amazing find.  Well, so much for the mighty Barbarians. Barbarians are the offensive twin to the defensive Swordsmen. They cost the same Leadership, but have much stronger offensive skills, and are conversely much less tanky. Interestingly, Barbarians (and certain other outlaw type troops) are considered Neutral troops, not Human. This has few in-game impacts though.   Approaching the ship, we find they are mercenary in their outlook, and are fine with selling troops to the army that just crushed their raiding parties.  By the chieftains tent, we pick up another two banners (3 so far)  : Easy, easy! I come to you with a message from Marquis Kontu. : Ha! I don't care about messages. We barbarians value our freedom, and we will fight anyone who gets in our way.: Calm down, hothead! The Marquis offers you good conditions for a peaceful co-existence.: Hogard didn't get your words. Coex..What? If it is a dirty word, I'll tell you a few in return.: How can I explain to you... The Marquis is ready to pay for your living on his lands.: That's much better. Gold makes sense, it is good. But Hogard likes sheep as well. Is your leader going to pay with gold or sheep?: Gold is more likely, but I can see about the sheep. Anyway, the baron asked you not to attack Darion ships. But you can do what you like with the pirate ships - he will even pay you for them.: Yes, I will take gold from pirates, and the local leader will pay me for that. Hogard agrees and will sign the treaty - he can write his name. But there is one condition. I want your leader to send me one hundred bull-skins every year as a sign of his friendship.: Thank you, thank you. I think the Marquis will not mind sending one hundred of the best skins to his faithful guardian of the Darion border.Back to the Marquis with the good news: : Well, Bill Gilbert, have you found the barbarians' leader, and signed a treaty with him?: Yes, I have found him. I signed the treaty with their leader, Hogard the Destroyer. But he demanded one hundred bull-skins per year as a sign of friendship.: Well done, Bill Gilbert! You well deserve your reward! It's not very good news about the bull-skins, but I will think of something in the way of payment. (Reward: 56 Experience, 960 Gold): Yes, perhaps it's not the best way to pay the barbarians, but this just happened to be the way negotiations turned. Thank you for the reward. The hidden reward of this quest is that having paid off Hogard, the Marquis now has a good number of Berserkers for hire. Beserkers are similar to Barbarians, but even more offensively focused. Unfortunately, they also have the Berserking ability which makes them uncontrollable by the player.  Next, near the path to the Dragon's Castle, this peasant calls out for our aid.  : My son, my son Ilik! He's disappeared. He likes to run away from home, but I always know where to find him. But this time.. The track leads to the cave - but I strictly prohibited him going there.: Why don't you go to find him yourself?: I enetered the cave, cried out his name, but there was no answer from Ilik. There are a lot of monsters in the cave; I saw their red sparkling eyes. They were looking at me, and I was so scared. Please, go there and find my son! I cannot give you a big reward, but please, Bill Gilbert, help me, in the name of the common people and valiant deeds!: Ok, I will try to find the boy. Also, how do you know my name? Did the king pin a name tag on my back while I wasn't looking? In search of the kid, we head into the nearby cave. We find it's labeled as the Spiders' Underground. Appropriate name, as all the enemy armies in this place have nearly identical compositions of mixed groups of Venemous and Cave Spiders, along with some Skeleton Archers or Thorn-Hunters. (Note the 4th banner to the side)   The Evil Shoal does not need to be sent in horizontally. It can move in any of the six directions out of the origin hex. This can come in real handy if enemies have moved or to get even more units in the area of effect.  Dragonflies are fragile, so even easy fights can result in a few casualties if you are using them to fight.  With this battle, Sleem reaches Level 3. The choice here is easy. Evil Shoal, as you see, is amazingly useful. +40 damage to all targets for only 1 Rage more is a fine bargain. +30 damage to a single target boost is clearly inferior.  More spiders.   More Fireballs and Shoals.  And a few attacks to finish off the stragglers. This is how all the fights go in this cave.  So I'll skip to the victory screen for these fights.  Like so.  In this corner, this army guards a lair complete with suspiciously shaped webbed prey. Hopefully Ilik isn't one of these.   Defeating the army, we find another Magic Rune in the chest. Definitely won't complain, since we need 20 to get the Higher Magic skill. No quest marker, so it looks like Ilik isn't here.  Banners 5 and 6 are found along this one path.  The final spiders in the cave are found. Hard to see, but there's a quest marker being hidden by the column. And banner 7! The floor glowy, by the way, is just a buried treasure chest with a couple Poison Skull scrolls.    : Yes, that's me! Do you know my dad? Take me back to him. I promise not to run away from home ever again - never!: Ok. But remember the words you've just said to me! Get on my horse.I wish the kid showed up as an inventory item, but no such luck. We grab that last banner and leave the cave. : Have you been to the cave already? Have you found my Ilik?: Yes, here is your son. Don't be too tough on him, he promised he would never run away again.: Thank you once again! And you, you naughty boy, how many times have I... Hey, Ilik, what's wrong with you? Oh my God! Look at him, Bill Gilbert, it seems that a spider stung him and he's been poisoned! I beg you, would you be so kind as to help me once more! I need flowers of Odorous Nirva to make an antidote and save my son. I will take him home, his mother must have some ointments that will help to relieve his suffering.: Odorous Nirva? Where can I find this flower?: Usually it grows along the roads and in places where spiders live. Try to use the road leading to the sea. Maybe you'll find it there. I need at least 5 flowers.: Ok. I'll do it as quickly as possible!: I will wait for you in the village. I need to take Ilik home...: This is the right thing to do. He can get some help in the village right away... Immediately, golden flowers appear nearby. Convenient that.  Less convenient are the also immediately spawned armies along the same path.  Much like inside the caves, the armies are mostly spider-based. The single Ghost here falls easily to Dragonfly spit.  Our built up Rage from the battles in the cave has dissipated by now, so more Holy Anger helps stock it up again. Dragonflies are great targets for it, since the Bless effect works so well with their 1-3 damage range.   The last bulbs of the Nirva are on the hill where the talking bird was, guarded by this army.  The Beholders in this army are eaten to the bone (do they have bones?) by the Evil Shoal.  And the spiders fall easily.   We pick the last few flowers we need to save Ilik.  We catch up to Peter and Ilik as they slowly, slowly meander back home. Man, they are not in a hurry at all. : Yes, this is exactly what we needed! You've saved my son twice today! Thank you very much! (Reward: 2 Slow scrolls, 77 Experience): You're welcome; I'm always ready to help.Not the biggest reward, but I guess its good to help save a future taxpayer for the King. Also shown in the above screen, it looks like someone at the Academy wants our attention.  : So, Bill Gilbert. How do you feel? No dizziness? No strange voices at night? What about during the day? No excesses of rage? I'm sorry to be so inquisitive, but you are the first person who has ever become master of a demonic artifact that uses Rage energy and symbiotic attachment.: I'm looking for a job. Maybe you have something for me?: First I'll tell you about Darion magic. In contrast to Kordar, where dwarves haven't used magic for several thousands years, instead relying on technics - and in contrast to Ellinia, where elves completely depend on the magic of their forests - Darion uses magic quite reasonably. We use dwarven mechanisms and at the same time perform magical experiments. We use magic in our daily lives quite successfully. Do you wish to listen further?: Yes, sure.: Over the last thousand years we have advanced in our research significantly. We managed to use this long period to study some of the demonic artifacts captured by Kerus Leonar. But we have made especially great progress in the creation of "living" items. And if you want to earn some money, your mission will be connected with this area of our research.: Tell me more about it.: Nowadays the main magic trend is the creation of living items that have a soul of their own. Such artifacts are much more powerful than common enchanted items. Today in the Magic Tower we create the best magical items in Endoria. They must pass through the most severe tests before mass production. If you want to help, I can offer you to test the Judgment Day Arena. It's for half-finished living items, and we would like to know how hard it will be to defeat the keepers of the item.: Sounds very interesting. What should I do?: We created the item on the basis of the half-finished product. You are simply to try to suppress this item, defeating its keepers in the Arena. But there is one special feature. You can't run away from this Arena. It's win or die! That is why we called it Judgment Day Arena. So, do you still want to try your hand? (Reward: 5400 Gold, 325 Experience).: Yes, I'm ready for combat - it sounds very interesting. Welcome to the next unique type of combat in King's Bounty. We are brought into the magical essence of an item, and have to fight to suppress the Keepers of that item. In every Keeper battle, the opposing troops are joined by a number of Gremlin Towers. The Health of these towers depends on the item in question.  Evil Gremlins cast damaging and debuffing spells on your troops. Generally my first priority in these fights. Spell damage scales with the strength of the tower.  Friendly Gremlins cast spells each turn that tend to buff, summon, and revive their troops. My second priority after Evil Gremlins. Combined, the 4-5 spells per turn from the Gremlin Towers make Keeper fights potentially very difficult, and often its impossible to avoid casualties.  Fortunately, as a Mage, we have an advantage over other classes in these fights. Direct damage spells are one of the best ways of taking out the towers. Towers seem to have significant Defense, and very high resistance to Magic Damage, but no resistance to Fire Damage. As a Mage, the ability to start taking towers out immediately is very nice.  The Friendly Gremlin decides to slow our Bears down. This is one of the few spells that the Friendly Gremlins cast on your troops.  Summoning troops is another main spell they cast. The number summoned scales with Tower strength, and the type depends on the troops already present.  Spirit abilities still work, and Evil Shoal is fantastic against weak Towers. I manage to hit three Towers here, along with most of his troops.  My Shoal is strong enough to one-shot the Towers here, so no more spells for them.  The remaining troops fall quickly to my units.  The Gremlin Towers don't count towards killed units, nor do summoned troops.  After the fight, Sleem levels again. I could strengthen Evil Shoal further, but I like to pick new abilities almost always, so I go with Sleem's third ability, Cloud of Poison. : Well, did you like it? I see you have successfully tried out the Arena. This will significantly assist us in our innovations. We thank you, and will be always glad to see you in our Academy. (Reward: 5400 Gold, 325 Experience): Yeah, thanks. That was an incredible test. Trigius now stocks a huge number of Priests if we wish to use them.  After the fight, we try looking for Peter and Ilik to make sure they got home safely. Instead, we find a village full of stone statues. That's odd. Maybe this boy knows what's going on.  : Calm down, boy, calm down, what's happened? : Everybody has turned to stone. It started recently. My mom, dad, uncle Pimus and even squabbler Niles are now just stones. I don't want to be a stone! Sir...You have the horse of a knight; you are a knight, aren't you? My dad told me that true knights help everyone, and defeat evil. Help me; I don't want to become a stone!: How can I help? Your people must have offendeed a wizard and he cursed you. It's what I would do, after all, if I knew how.: No, there are no wizards here. And we would never do harm to a wizard! We are just common peasants. There is only one druid, old Corban, but he is not a wizard. Instead he cures our animals and sometimes the people if someone is ill. And we bring him food and clothes for his help. He was here a little while ago, and after he had left, everybody started to turn into stones.: Druid, you say? Tell me where he lives, I will go to him and ask for advice.: Please, go there. Corban lives in the wood, somewhere near the lake. I've never been there. [The boy broke down and burst out crying.]: Ok lad, don't cry. I'll be back shortly!Well, we've seen the Druid's hut a few times, let's head on over.   : Aha! So that's where he is... I'm sorry, traveler. I was in that village the other day, curing some sheep. I did my work, then had lunch with the nice people, but when I returned home I couldn't find my Amulet of Concentration. But if you say that the people in the village have turned into stone, then my Amulet must be there. Strong spells protect it from being stolen by evil people. That's why everybody turned into stone. The boy must have picked up my amulet and it all got started.: That's a hell of a security system.: That's right! There was an amulet around the boy's neck.: What a pity! Poor boy! Why did he take what didn't belong to him? We need to take it from the poor boy, or the amulet will take all his living power from him. Then, all the people of the village will be free from the protective spells. But if you just take the amulet from the child he may die. To take the amulet off without doing him mortal harm, you must first defeat its keepers.: Ok. Thanks for your help.: So what happened, sir? Have you found the druid?: And where, may I ask, did you get this nice amulet on your neck?: I just.. I have found it under a bench when the druid was gone. Ok, sir, please forgive me I will never steal again. I just wanted to be a wizard. I wanted to study magic. Please forgive me.: Ha! I was the same when I was a kid. You'd better ask the druid to teach you magic. By the way, can you take the amulet off?: Yes, I wanted to take it off, but my heart starts hurting me whenever I do it. It hurts so much...: What did that old druid say, I got bored by his voice. Something about...take the amulet from the child?: Ok, let me try (take the amulet off the boy...) [Hardly have you done it, and the boy has started yelling]: Aaaaaa! Burning, it's all burning! There is a fire inside of me!: Holy dragon, I didn't mean to do this! : Uhhhh....whoops? With that, about a third of our troops revolt and attack us. Good thing Bill Gilbert lives in a universe with saves!  [30 seconds ago:] : Whoah, what a weird trip. Did those wizards slip me a magic mushroom while I wasn't looking? Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, the stupid peasant kid.: Wait quietly! I will fight with Keepers of the Amulet. (Suppress the amulet.) We are sucked again into the void inside an item. Fortunately, this item is even weaker than the one from the Judgment Day Arena (Tower Health: 127).  I leave the dragonflies forward to get attacked by the Griffins, which builds up some needed Rage.  Evil Shoal takes out the entire back row of troops and Towers.  And Flaming Arrow suffices to demolish the Evil Tower on the right flank.  The Dragonflies take a few casualties from the Griffin attack, but that's the only damage we suffer. : Uncle, you did it! Hurrah! Go, go to druid, quickly! Get him to remove the spell from my mom and dad.: I am glad to see such joy.Off we go! : Well, tell me, have you removed the amulet?: Yes, of course. It had strong keepers. No, it did not, Bill. I think they are the weakest in the entire game.: Well done, knight, give it to me. Now the people in the village are safe, and I can renew my own strengths as well. You deserve a reward. (Reward: 1600 Gold, Scroll of Dragon Slayer, 91 Experience): Thank you, old man. See you later.I don't know why some quests don't have quest items when others do, but we had no Amulet of Concentration despite delivering it to the Druid. Anyways, Dragon Slayer is an Order spell that buffs our troops damage against Dragons. Useful, but we won't see it used for many updates.  Now that we know how to deal with Keepers, let's take another look at the Pilgrim's Staff we are using. As indicated by the Academy, the Keepers are the key to upgrading items.  If we have such upgradeable items, we can choose to fight the Keepers to upgrade an item at any time. Definitely recommend saving before trying these fights, since the battle difficulty is completely hidden until you try it. But I feel like we should be able to at least upgrade the Staff here once.  Because the Staff is Elven, we get a different appearance to the battle arena, and the layout is quite different from what we saw in the previous ones. The enemy troops are all various forms of wildlife, and in significant numbers.  The Towers are also significantly tougher than the other Keeper battles we've seen (Tower Health: 399). Fortunately, Bill's Fireballs are still able to take them out in one hit. If we hadn't gotten Lvl 2 Chaos Magic, though, this fight would have been much harder.   Our Dragonflies could reach the closest Gremlin, but notice that the towers are not defenseless, and they will retaliate against melee attacks (with more spells). This is another element that makes Keeper fights more frustrating for Warriors and Paladins. Instead of risking taking a lightning bolt to the face, the Dragonflies turn on the nearby Wolves, scoring a critical hit.  As I use my Inquisitors to buff the Dragonflies (and generate some Rage), the Friendly Gremlin uses Resurrection on the Wolves, bringing 20 back to life.  At least we have Fireballs on our side to... wait a minute... those are my troops  . Yeah, getting a taste of my own medicine isn't very nice. Luckily, the AI only hit my troops with the splash damage, and the only important loss (1 Inquisitor) can be Resurrected. The towers are strong enough to survive a Shoal pass, but this at least cuts down the enemy numbers nicely.  Although my spells take care of the enemy towers easily enough, their troops do manage to reach my lines in numbers. The Fire Dragonflies move into the center to fight my own Lake version, the Fire Spiders and Thorn-Warriors move down the left to target my Bowmen, and the Swamp Snakes approach my Swordsmen on the right flank.  I've lost enough of the Lake Dragonflies that I decide I now longer care about their fate. Destroying some summoned spiders and damaging these other units is too tempting, and so my Dragonflies get roasted by my own spell.  A few do manage to survive, and they take out the last of the opposing forces.  Yeah, not the cleanest victory. But the Dragonflies are the kind of unit I don't care about losing. You can't get attached to troops that have 6 Health.   The victory transforms the Pilgrim's Staff into a Druid's Staff, boosting it to a +2 Intellect bonus. I could try to immediately upgrade again, but my army would probably just perish entirely.  Wandering around after this fight, I find an odd army hiding in this corner. What makes it odd is that this army isn't patrolling and isn't guarding anything at all. It seems to be entirely optional.   I get to show off why Beholders can be really annoying. Their Cyclops-like eye beams have a high chance of putting your troops to sleep when they hit. It's not threatening when you outclass the enemy entirely, but in close fights, that can be devastating.  I also get to show off the new Sleem ability, Cloud of Poison.  When activated, Sleem transforms into a green mist that floats above the battlefield to the selected area.  All the troops in the area of effect suffer poison damage. The damage may seem small, but there's an important aspect to this ability.  You see, the cloud damages the units beneath it after each troop's action, not just once per turn. So the damage is applied repeatably and potentially quite quickly. However, the cloud does move in unpredictable ways, so your own troops can be caught in it if you are fighting in melee range. All in all, Evil Shoal is likely more impactful and more predictable. But Cloud of Poison is fun to use.  The last of our Dragonflies perish (mostly from my own Cloud of Poison). Meh. There's one last piece of business to take care of. Heading back to Verlon Castle, we find Marquis Kontu with another job for us. : Bill Gilbert! Nice to see you again! I am glad you have come. I have some new problems and some gold to spend.: And I with gold which has already been spent. What can I do for you?: You see, looking at the previous treaty with Hogard the Destroyer, which you helped to negotiate, I thought that if the barbarian is so... to put it mildly... not so keen of wit, then maybe he would sign an even more...advantageous treaty.: So what is your plan this time?: I want to offer Hogard a new treaty, according to which he will receive a noble title, but for it, he shall give half of the money he obtains to Darion's treasury. If he agrees, then great, and if not, well, what is the risk in trying? If you go to him once again you will get an excellent reward! (Reward: 84 Experience, 2200 Gold): Well, fine, why not try again. I agree! We head back to the beach.. But before confronting Hogard, I decide to hire some of my own Barbarians to replace the lost Dragonflies. : Is that you again? What else do you need from me?: Marquis Kontu has sent me once again. He wants to offer you a new treaty even better than the old one. It seems that he likes you for some reason.: Come on, tell me.: He offers to sign a treaty that gives you a noble title.: And what do I do?: You give half of your loot into the Darion treasury. And you can visit feasts, masked balls, and military parades.: Hogard, a noble man? For half of our loot? Ha-ha-ha! You must be kidding me! You here, believe us barbarians, we're very stupid and you're very smart, right? Ha! My brave warriors can unsheathe your swords. Now we can have some fun.Vote! Decision time. Hogard has proven resistant to the new treaty from Marquis Kontu, and is offering battle. Do we: Attack? : What a hot head you are! Well, let's have some fun. (Attack the leader.)Run Away? : Calm down, Hogard, calm down! I will settle the case with the Marquis, and we will forget this misunderstanding. [This barbarian turns out to be not so stupid after all.] A look at Bill after this update. Note that even without leveling up, we gained more than 150 Leadership in this update just from picking up banners. We could pick up a Magic skill, but runes are being saved up for the Higher Magic skill. Next time on King's Bounty, this LP is on a boat! ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore I have a bunch of lore from talking to Master Trigius at the Academy, but there's so much I'm going to post it in a seperate small update in a few days. Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Barbarian  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 15 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents  Berserker: A Barbarian falls into fighting frenzy for 3 turns. His Initiative, Attack, and possibility of Critical Attack increase by 100%, but Defense decreases by 50%. The Barbarian is out of control. (Charges: 1)Abilities Resistant to Cold: Allows the creature to take less damage from Ice spells. The creature cannot be frozen. When combat takes place on frozen terrain, the creature's Defense is increased by 50%. Gully's opinion: Barbarians are fun offensive troops. Not impressive stat-wise, their real strength lies in the Berserker Talent. This gives them 6 Initiative and 20 Attack, and gives them a nearly 1/3 chance of a critical. That's potentially a great amount of damage, and you get to choose when to activate it (which is why I prefer them over Berserkers). Fighting them: As soon as they are in range for a melee attack, they will go Berserk, so try to stay away if you can. They can't be frozen by Ice Arrow, but the Slow spell is very useful to keep them away from melee. Try to hit them first with melee, since their retaliation attack will be much weaker if they haven't gone Berserk yet. Spells Seen Nothing new. Skills Shown Nothing new. Items Identified Druid's Staff  Description: A curved oak staff carved with runic signs. Effects: +2 to Intellect Type: Weapon Race: Elves Cost: 7000 Upgraded From: Pilgrim's Staff Upgraded To: Great Druid's Staff Info: Such a staff improves spell casting easier, and is presented to druids during their consecration. However, ordinary mages can also use such staves, to aid their spellcasting. Odorous Nirva  Description: A big yellow flower with a disagreeable odor. Type: Quest Info: Because of its lasting smell, Nirva is called as odorous." This flower is known as one of the best folk remedies against poison."
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Oct 20, 2016 21:32
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Attack, for the opinion that I didn't take myself.
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Oct 20, 2016 21:49
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Let the barbarians be, the noble that gave you the quest seems like kind of an rear end in a top hat.
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Oct 20, 2016 21:56
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Let the barbarians be, they need their fun. Also the vikings vs pirates situation is too awesome to break up.
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Oct 20, 2016 22:45
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Ehhh, let's Leave the Barbarians alone. We're already allied with them, why break that up?
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Oct 20, 2016 23:14
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Leave the Barbarians The local Lord is kind of an rear end. Are we sure he's not a duke?
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Oct 21, 2016 00:41
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Attack, that way we will convince them and we'll all drink together in fun, in this life or the next, if need be.
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Oct 21, 2016 01:47
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"The barbarians didn't want your treaty so I decided to kill them." Is there anybody who'd be happy to hear that?
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Oct 21, 2016 04:36
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Romans Fortunately we are knights and will spare the barbarian
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Oct 21, 2016 09:57
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Evil Shoal is great.  Anyway, I vote attack. Sounds like the barbarians would sort of enjoy that!
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Oct 21, 2016 10:10
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Picayune posted:Evil Shoal is great. Attack, They will respect us if we beat them
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Oct 21, 2016 11:51
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Attack them.
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Oct 21, 2016 11:53
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| # ? May 8, 2024 15:51 |
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FIGHT
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Oct 22, 2016 20:17
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