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 King's Bounty: The Legend is an RPG that combines turn-based tactical combat with a real-time adventure mode in a relatively stereotypical fantasy setting. The game is a successor to King's Bounty (1990) (if interested, there's an LP by Thuryl here, but you don't need to know anything from it for this game). It was developed by Katauri Interactive and published by 1C Company (out of Russia) in 2008. It has since spawned a number of sequels, which I plan on covering if this LP goes well. The setting is fairly derivative, the plot is basically unimportant, there is little characterization, and the gameplay will be familiar to those who enjoy Heroes of Might and Magic. Yet somehow it all combines to a fun combat-heavy game that can be surprisingly deep and satisfying to play, not to mention addictive. Another big plus in my books is the art and animation style. It's simple, it's bright, and it's a little cartoonish, which works well with the close-in view of the combat screen. Game Overview The story: The Kingdom of Darion, ruled by King Mark the Wise, has long been untroubled. However, recent events have darkened the land. News from the elven lands has ceased, new conflicts have come with the dwarves and pirates, undead are seen rising from their graves, and storms and earthquakes have begun to ravage the kingdom. Pretty much the typical fate of any peaceful fantasy kingdom. In these troubled times, new knights are being trained to meet the challenges. We are one of these trainees, awaiting our final test before going forth. The game consist of two main elements. Battle mode: This will be extremely familiar to anyone familiar with the Heroes of Might and Magic series. This is no surprise, as the original KB was the forerunner of the HOMM series. You command up to five different stacks of units, with the goal of destroying all enemy unit stacks. Units move, fight, shoot, and use special abilities to damage enemies or control the battlefield. Each turn, your hero can also participate in the combat through magic spells or an alternate system, Spirits of Rage. The combat is turn-based, and takes place on a board of hexagonal tiles. There are some minor but key differences to the combat of the HOMM series which will be expanded on later. Movement and positioning is very important, as it easy for your unit's path to be blocked by units and obstacles. Adventure mode:. The adventure mode is where King's Bounty differs significantly from HOMM. Rather than a turn-based map mode, adventuring is 'real-time'. Your army (represented by a dude on a horse) moves around freely on the map. Enemy armies also move in set patrols, unless they are set guarding something. In adventure mode, you attack enemies you think you can handle, interact with NPCs, hire fresh troops, get quests, and above all, loot the countryside of anything not nailed down. Oftentimes your path will be blocked by powerful foes, which is the game's way of telling you to come back later. Although time passes and there is a day/night cycle, there are few time-based quests, and it affects little apart from a campaign score. The LP This will be mainly a screenshot-based LP. The game is somewhere between 40-80 hours long, there's a ton of backtracking, and the combat can get repetitive especially if you're not the one playing. I'd run out of things to say pretty quickly, and no one wants to sit through all that. I'll be doing a thorough but not necessarily 100% LP. By that, I mean I will show off all quests/encounters in the game. I will not use every type of unit or cast every spell, but I will talk about all of them when they come up. The Disclaimer Although I really enjoy the game, I'm not necessarily that good at it. So I will be playing on Normal, and I am not trying for perfect, no-loss combats. Finally, this is my first LP. I'm always open to suggestions and comments regarding changes or improvements. Update List Update 1: How to Train Your Dragon(killing) Update 2: Character Generation 101 Update 3: Mechanics Ahoy! Update 4: Digging for Junk Update 5: The Tax Man Update 6: Weeding out the Weak Update 7: Animal Wrangling Update 8: Postman Bill and Dragon Dentistry Update 9: You wouldn't like Bill Gilbert when he's angry Update 10: It wasn't a rock...it was a rock monster! Update 11: Swamp Thing Update 12: Barbarian Beach Bash Update 12b: Trigius Talks Too Much Update 13: Cruise Control Update 14: It's Miller Time Update 15: March in the Marsh Update 16: Frogus Family Flag Fracas Update 17: The Love of a Good Frog Update 18: Cemetery Caper, Part 1 Update 19: Cemetery Caper, Part 2: Die Harder Update 20: Cemetery Caper, Part 3: The Face of Death Update 21: Turtle Time Update 22: Stats and Stuff 1 Update 23: Pieces of Snakes Update 24: The Shaman Shuffles Update 25: Circumnavigation Update 26a: I'm gonna be a pirate (on the River Saskatchewan) Update 26b: Prison Break Update 27: The Red Devil Update 28: Taking Care of Business Update 29: Head Hunting Update 30: Weird Ships Update 31: Unleash the Kraken...and the plot! Update 31 Bonus Update 32: High Seas Genocide Update 33: Stats and Stuff: Freedom Islands Edition Update 34: Bill's Day Job Update 35: Mine Games Update 35b Update 36: Ice Ballin' Update 37: Dwarven Security Measures Update 38: Our Own Worst Enemy Update 39: Damsel In Distress Update 40: The Final Boss Update 41: Spooky Scary Skeleton Archers Update 42: Earl's Escort Service Update 43: Don't Fear the Reaper Update 44: Labour Disputes Update 45: Oh Mehgard Update 46: Deep Sea Fishing Update 47: Gremlins! Update 48a: Stats and Stuff: Kordar Editions Update 48b: Dwarves! Update 49: Through the Fire and Flames Update 50: Turtles in the Sky with Crystals Update 51: Hippie Hypnosis Update 52: The LP title is now complete Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Jul 21, 2018 |
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Jul 15, 2016 15:58
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Update 1 - How to Train Your Dragon(killing) Without any ado, let's get started with a New Game. Normally, this leads to a character creation screen, but I'll be letting you guys make those decisions in the following update. For now, let's skip that and head to the tutorial dungeon.      The loading screens always reminds me of playing Baldur's Gate as a kid.  We find our hero (well, future hero) on the day of his final Test to become a knight. Before we chat with Iron Dick, let's have a brief look around.  Brief UI overview: The bubble with clouds in the lower left is a day/night indicator, and can be moused over to show the current in-game time of day and days passed. Time of day has some effect on certain units and combats, days passed affects essentially nothing but your final score. Below that, we have our hero's Gold (buy stuff with it), Rage (we will see how Rage gets used later), and Mana (used for spells). Moving to the right, we have our hero portrait (Bill Gilbert being the default Warrior name), our level, experience to next level, and Leadership (governs how many troops we can command). The middle boxes represent the troops under our command (up to five stacks). Right now, our mighty army consists of 4 Bowmen, 6 Swordsmen, and 3 Bears. In the bottom right we have our minimap, and an shovel icon that is used to dig for treasure when indicated.  This...doesn't look very promising. Looks like failure has some unfortunate consequences beyond an F.  Our mentor, knowing our kleptomanic ways, has cleverly locked this chest behind him. Nothing else to do here but to talk to him and see what we need to do.   : You mean I don't even have to take the drat exam? Could've told me that before I pulled an all-nighter! No way I'm letting all that studying go to waste, old man. [LP note: Italic text is added by yours truly]: I'm ready to pass the Test : You do my heart good, Bill Gilbert! - I'm proud of you. So here's the first task. Every self-respecting knight is obligated to kill dragons and save beautiful princesses. At least that's what the common people think, thanks to those catchy pop songs which the bards sing in the taverns. And we can't disappoint them, right?! In the first room you will find a dragon, and a princess that you must save. Good luck!: I'm a real warrior. You can't scare me with a dragon.: I wonder if it's courage or foolishness that guides your tongue. Anyway, a good sword will be useful to you. You can take the one from the chest. I think you know what to do with it. After all, it was I who taught you the art of sword fighting.: Am I supposed to beat a dragon with a training sword?: Of course, you can't handle the dragon by yourself. So a troop of Knights and Horsemen will go with you. We'll see how skilled a commander you are. Of course, you may also act with cunning. Your task is to rescue the princess, so you may leave the dragon alive if you choose. On the other hand, a real knight always goes bravely into combat, and combat experience is always a good thing. Alright, Bill Gilbert, go ahead.: Now I'll sort this dragon out for sure. Thank you.Off a-dragon fighting we go! Being a tutorial, it's much easier than it might sound. The 10 Knights/10 Horsemen given to us for this section are more than enough to carry us through. Our leadership cap has been boosted from 210 to 2210 for this section just so that we can have those troops with us.  Let's not forget to take that sword we tried to steal out of the locked chest from before. When equipped, the training sword gives our hero +1 Attack. I'll go into more details about the combat mechanics after the tutorial section.  We enter the portal where the dragon mural once stood. Do they have to rebuild and repaint it for every trainee? On the other side:  We find ourselves in what looks like a kind of crypt, with the skeletal remains of presumably a less talented trainee.   If we examine the nooks, we can find a few goodies, such as this urn. Bill the klepto, being an RPG character, has no issue rumaging through the remains of past heroes for a bit of gold.  We also find more loose change, as well as a pair of magic crystals (used for memorizing and leveling magic spells).  At the end of the hall, we find a gate that opens to the dragons hoard, complete with dragon. If we mouse over the dragon, we get this box:  Enemy troops are rated based on their total leadership value versus that of our army. The ratings go from Very Weak to Impossible. Your skills, equipment, and magic, as well as your own tactical skill (and frankly, the weakness of the AI) mean that you should be able to defeat stronger armies, and the rating is more an indication of how many losses you might expect. Below the rating, we currently have a blank portrait representing the composition of the enemy army. Of course, we know that the enemy in this case is a dragon. There is a way to see more, as we will see later in the LP.  As we get close to the dragon, it rushes forward at us. If we wanted to, we could lead it on a merry chase. If we move far enough away, enemies will give up chasing and return to their patrol or guard position. This is what Iron Dick meant about being cunning: we can run around the dragon to rescue the princess without fighting it. Not much fun here, but it can be a valuble technique to avoid difficult encounters before you are ready.  Thar be dragons! Well, in this case, 1(one) Emerald Green Dragon. [LP note: In order to keep this update flowing, this battle update will be heavier on visuals and lighter on battle mechanics. I will go over those in detail later on].  Before we can act, the dragon flies across the battlefield towards our troops. Lucky for us, it doesn't have quite enough speed to both reach and attack our Bears.  You'll notice that there is more than our troops and the dragon present. In the middle of the field is a chest and an Altar of Lightning. These are random elements, although terrain/environment influence which non-chest objects appear.  This chest had a handful of gold. Chest contents are also semi-random and scaled to location or level. Troops with high speed and initiative like our Horsemen are useful for opening chests before anyone else can reach it. Enemies can and will open chests, the bastards, although usually only if there is nothing higher priority in range.  Our archers set their sights on the beast and fire an Ice arrow...for a whole 6 damage. Out of the dragon's 700. It's a very good thing Iron Dick gave us reinforcements, or our starting army would be nothing but a quick snack.  The Swordsmen could attack, but they'd invite a retaliation attack. In general, any unit will retaliate against the first melee attack they recieve in a turn. I haven't been able to find the formula, but it appears to be for around 75% of normal damage. This would probably crush all my swordsmen and do very little to the dragon, so I let them hang around doing nothing.  The Knights move in, and use a strong two-handed thrust to stab at the dragon, and are chomped at in return. Tactically, Knights are very tough defensive units and are much better at soaking up the retaliation damage.  Since our knight took the counter, our bears rear up to attack free from worry. Sure, it does only 11 damage, but hey, why not.  Ouch, this is why not. The Emerald Green Dragon has a Talent that attacks all surrounding hexes with magic damage, and gives Mana to the dragon's controller, if there is one. Talents are activated abilities, usually special attacks. We lose 3 Swordsmen, 2 Bears, and the damaged Knight to this.  Driven for revenge, the Horsemen charge in to drive a lance deep into dragonflesh. Here, they are using a special Ability that increases damage for each hex they charge through. Abilities are innate passive bonuses or features of units. This attack also becomes a critical attack for even more extra damage, indicated by the spiky red bubble behind the floating number.  Immediately after, our unfortunate swordsmen get zapped by the altar, killing another man. This altar hits all troops in the area (within 2 hexes of the altar). You can attack and destroy interactable objects like this to remove the threat.  Sometimes when archer-type units attack, you'll get a dramatic zoom in. No idea what triggers it, and its a little jarring when it switches suddenly back to the normal view, but it is kind of neat. The rest of our troops continue to chip away at the dragon. Showing some tactical sense, it flies out of the encirclement, lands a hex away from the Horsemen, and uses its other Talent to pull the Horsemen towards them for a swipe that does extra damage and doesn't allow for retaliation.   Not wanting to take any more of this poo poo, the Horseman go in for a thundering charge, laying the dragon low. Bill's first battle is a success!  After each battle, we are gifted with a Victory screen, showing the losses on both sides, our experience gain, and the treasure gained (not counting the treasure found on the battlefield). Out of my own personal morbid curiousity, I will be keeping track of all kills/losses in a spreadsheet for the whole LP, by unit.  With the dragon dead, we can claim our prize...all this glorious gold! Ok, actually we can only pick up a few small piles. I guess the rest of the hoard is chocolate coins. Ah well, I guess there is still a princess to rescue, and that's got to be worth something.  Something seems a little off here...  : This is no princess! At best, this is just an ersatz princess! drat you, Iron Dick!We return to Iron Richard to report our success at 'rescuing' the 'princess'.  : I saw the incriptions on the dummy. One of them belongs to a "Richard Iron Tooth." Does this name mean anything to you? The handwriting is pretty familiar.: Oh, how perceptive you are! Alright, I'll tell you, but let's keep it a secret. This dummy has been used for Tests for quite a while. I used to get chased around by the dragon too - only back then they put the dummy on wheels! So yes, I scratched the inscription. Back then my nickname was the Iron Tooth. Then I lost my iron tooth in another fight. So then I became just Iron Richard.: Just Iron Richard? I don't think so, buddy. Everyone calls you Iron Dick behind your back. Wait...if you were called Iron Tooth because you had an iron tooth, then...oh god, I thought it was just a play on your name!: I've saved the princess! Here she is, I mean... her remains. Anyway, here they are!: Fine! I hope the dragon made you run a lot, Bill Gilbert? Give me the dummy; it needs to be saved a couple more times today.: Uhh, I hope you don't need an intact dragon as well. Or do you just pop another one out of storage?: Take it. So, what's next?And that's where we will leave it for this update. I will be posting a character selection update next so that you guys can decide what our hero will be. Items Found Full details of new items will be posted at the bottom of each update in the following format: Name Icon Description: Each item has a brief description when you mouse over it Effects: Type: Which slot the item goes in Race: All equipped items are given a race. Usually it has little effect but can impact where the item may be found or bought. Certain items have a special property where race is important. Cost: The full cost of the item. At the start, we can only sell items for 25% of their full value. Upgrade From/To: Some items can be upgraded into better versions. Info: Each item has a more detailed info section. Training Sword  Description: The ordinary training sword. Effect: +1 Attack Type: Weapon Race: Humans Cost: 8000 Info: Such swords are used for the training of young warriors in their practice exercise. Despite its blunt blade, this sword can be a fierce weapon in skillful hands! Dummy  Description: The beat-up dummy representing the princess. Inscription: Richard Iron Tooth was here. Type: Quest Info: This wooden dummy with a straw hair is clothed in rags. Numerous imprints of hands, feet and even of teeth indicate that this dummy has been performing the role of the princess since she was very young. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Jul 15, 2016 |
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Jul 15, 2016 15:58
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Update 2: Character Generation 101 In King's Bounty, you can choose from one of three classes for your adventure: Warrior, Paladin, or Mage. The game also has 3 skill trees: Might, Mind, Magic. Each class can take skills from any tree, but are limited by the runes they get in the game, which in turn is mostly dependent on the class taken. For instance, the Warrior recieves a large number of Might runes, a mediocre number of Mind runes, and a small number of Magic runes. The skills in the Might tree will require larger numbers of Might runes, and sometimes small numbers of Mind and Magic runes. So if you want to delve deep into the Magic tree as a Warrior, it will take more levels to acquire the necessary runes. Warrior  The Warrior (default name Bill Gilbert) is a class that relies on a large and skilled army, as well as using the Spirits of Rage most effectively out of the 3 classes. He gains the most Leadership when leveling up, getting 60*Level (50% more than the Mage) when a Leadership bonus is picked. He also gets a naturally higher Rage intake, which is further enhanced by one of his unique skills. His primary downside is that he recieves the fewest magic runes, which results in having fewer and less powerful spells. However, his skill with the Spirits of Rage partially makes up for this. as it serves as a sort of alternate magic system. Starting runes: 8 Might, 4 Mind, 2 Magic Starting stats: 2 Attack, 1 Defense, 0 Intelligence, 25 Rage, 13 Mana, 210 Leadership Starting skills: Training, Anger Starting spells: None, although you do get some scrolls of Haste Might Tree  The Might tree is focused on two general elements: giving units abilities and bonuses for combat, and improving the hero's ability to use Spirits of Rage. It also has a skill that gives a bonus to Undead units, if you wish to use them in your army. The Warrior has 2 unique skills in the Might tree. 'Anger' increases the intake of Rage dramatically, and is a fantastic skill. 'Iron Fist' gives Leadership discount when using certain armored human troops (Swordsmen, Guardsmen, Horsemen, Knights). It's a little specific, but obviously can be decent if you want to use multiple of those units. LPer Opinion: The Warrior is probably my favourite class. I'm always a fan of huge armies, and the Rage spells have a lot of really good utility. The downside of less magic does hurt, but you can at least get some buffs/debuffs spells that go well with your massed troops. Paladin  The Paladin (default name Christian Tyler) is the jack-of-all-trades class for the game. He recieves a moderate amount of Leadership at 50*Level when it is chosen. He gets more Might runes than the Mage, and more Magic runes than the Warrior, and more Mind runes than anyone. This lets him take the widest variety of skills. He will be better than the Warrior at magic, and better than the Mage at using Spirits of Rage. Finally, he starts with a Scroll of Resurrection, meaning you don't have to rely on random generation to get that spell. But being a jack-of-all-trades, his downside is that he is not great at anything. He also suffers by the fact that the Mind tree is generally less powerful, barring a couple of exceptions. Starting runes: 4 Might, 6 Mind, 4 Magic Starting stats: 1 Attack, 1 Defense, 1 Intelligence, 19 Rage, 19 Mana, 160 Leadership Starting skills: Scouting, Holy Anger Starting spells: Healing (+ Scroll of Resurrection) Mind Tree  The Mind tree contains largely skills that give bonuses to the adventure mode, such as increased experience, increased selling prices, better scouting, and the ability to carry reserve troops. One skill worth noting is Tolerance, which eliminates penalties caused by having Undead or Demon troops in your army. The Mind tree also provides the ability to turn Priests into Inquisitors, which is a unit that can resurrect other troops, and is a key unit for those trying for no-loss runs. The Paladin has 2 unique skills in the Mind tree. 'Holy Anger' gives large attack bonuses against Undead and Demon enemies. This is actually quite useful, as these unit types comprise some of the more difficult fights in the game. It should be noted that any Undead/Demon troops you command do not benefit from this skill. 'Runic Stone' is an interesting skill. It basically allows the Paladin to exchange 10 Mind runes for 10 Might + 10 Magic runes. This skill really boosts the ability of the Paladin to invest heavily into any of the skill trees. LPer Opinion: I find the Paladin to be my least favourite class. Although you can do most things well, the lack of specialization is slightly boring. You don't get enough magic to nuke things like the mage can, and your army and Rage is weaker than the Warriors. I will admit I have never gotten very far in this game with a Paladin, so I have not had the chance to really take advantage of of getting so many more runes than anyone else. Mage  The Mage (default name Mateush Tein) relies on his skill with magic (duh) to take care of enemies, as his army will be the smallest of the three heroes (40*Level of Leadership acquired each time it is taken). His magic will far outstrip the other 2 classes, and is the only class that can have efficient use of direct damage spells for most of the game. His primary downside is his small army size, but he also has the least amount of rage intake, and so has the least ability to use the Spirits of Rage. Starting runes: 3 Might, 3 Mind, 8 Magic Starting stats: 0 Attack, 0 Defense, 3 Intelligence, 13 Rage, 25 Mana (boosted to 35 by Wisdom), 120 Leadership Starting skills: Wisdom, Meditation Starting spells: Slow, Helplessness, Fireball Magic Tree  The Magic tree contains the skills required to use the three schools of magic: Order: Spells focused on healing, protection, and other buffs Distortion: Spells focused on illusions, mental manipulation, and buffs/debuffs Chaos: Spells focused on dealing damage, summoning, and debuffs It also contains a number of skills for greater mana pools, greater mana regeneration, and a Leadership discount for mage-type units. It is likely the most important skill tree, as the whole magic system depends on it. The Mage has 2 unique skills in the Magic tree. 'Alchemy' reduces the magic crystal cost to upgrade spells. Fairly useful, as upgrading magic spells to level 3 can get quite expensive. However, you will usually have plenty of crystals if you are picky about upgrading. Unique skill #2 is a different story. 'Higher Magic' is the bread and butter of the Mage class. It allows for 2 spells to be cast in a single turn (1,2, or 3 times per battle, depending on the level of the skill). This gives mages far better ability to nuke the enemy, use spell combos, or just control the field of battle. Because of this skill, going first in combat is essential for the Mage, as your first strike capabilities are amazing. LPer Opinion: The Mage is a really fun class, but its quite dependent on finding the right spells. Sometimes the game will just not spawn your favourite spell. The Mage is very strong in the early to mid game, but his power falls off near the end as direct damage spells start to lose power in comparison to the enemy numbers and your own small numbers work against you. However, in the hands of a skilled player (aka not me), the Mage is probably the best class. It is the one that is most used for Impossible difficulty, no-loss runs. VOTE Please vote your preference in the following, and give a name suggestion if you wish. If there's no clear winner, I'll just pick my favourite name that anyone gives. Class: Name: Emblem: A:  B:  C:  D:  E:  F:  G:  H:  I:  Next time on King's Bounty: We finish the tutorial dungeon, learn about combat, magic, and exploration! We also will probably end up with a wooden bowl on our head.
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Jul 15, 2016 15:59
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I just noticed some missing text and images for after the fight with the dragon in Update 1. Should be fixed now.
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Jul 15, 2016 20:00
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I want to thank everyone for showing interest  . I'll keep voting open until after the next update, where I'll be showing off the magic system a bit. Right now, the count is at 4-3 for the Warriors.mauman posted:Ugh, yeah the Paladin had issues in the first game. I seem to recall that the sequel managed to fix most of the problems with said class. The Paladin definitely gets a huge boost in the second game (Armored Princess) and onward which makes them far more interesting to play. I do remember the next one being harder at the start, but there's some new unit types that are absolutely insanely good in the player's hands too. I think Armored Princess is my favourite of the series. Honestly, if we get past that point, this LP will almost become a blind LP. I've played a tiny bit of Crossworlds (the expansion for Armored Princess), gotten most of the way through Warriors of the North, and never played Dark Side. But even for the games I've played, it's been a while. Poil posted:Getting screwed by the random spells is so annoying. But on the other hand as is not finding any good troops in decent quantities. It's so tempting to cheat in this series so you don't have to spent so much time running back to hire more troops all the time. I'm not usually too worried about finding any good troops in quantity, since there are a lot of viable options, and you will always get infinite amounts of some troops that are actually decent, if a little pedestrian. I will say there are two units I hope I can find in large enough numbers, and I will be sad if our game doesn't have them. It's sort of the same thing with spells, as there are quite a lot of good spells in the game, and it'd be extremely rare to miss all of the ones you like. Now, there's a couple very specific strategies which require a specific spell, which is where the randomness is more likely to screw you over. But at least on Normal, none of these strategies are required. The community for this game did make a save scanner that shows you what units/spells/items are present in your save right from the start. I've never used it, and I'm not going to for the LP either. Like it or loathe it, the semi-random placement of these things is part of the game. It does certainly help make the game more replayable and interesting, and can force you to work with unfamiliar strategies. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Jul 16, 2016 |
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Jul 16, 2016 15:59
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Vote is currently 7-5 for Mage. I've decided to cut the update I was going to post in two, since it was getting too long. I'll keep voting open until I post the last tutorial update, which will be sometime early this week. Update 3: Mechanics Ahoy!  : Take it. So what's next?: Wait, who the hell are you? I was just talking to Bill, and you ain't him.So you've may have noticed that we're now playing as Mateush, the mage. I wanted to show off a bit more of the magic system for this update, and the warrior doesn't have a good selection for that. : The nest test will be more difficult. In the second room, a malicious necromancer with a whole army of skeletons and zombies awaits you. You are to kill the villain and take the Book of Death from him. Is that clear? Ah yes. Take these scrolls. I think that they will come in handy in your combat with the dark wizard. The necromancer will use magic for sure, so keep your eyes open.[Yes, it does say 'nest' instead of 'next'. Being a Russian game, there are definitely a couple translation/typo issues.] : Ok, I'll kill him! But how do I use magic scrolls?: During combat you can open the book and read a scroll. If the spell works, the scroll disappears! You can also learn a scroll and then the spell will stay in the book forever. Learned spells can be upgradad, which increases their power. Having casually given us our task to murder someone, Iron Richard drops a couple scrolls on the ground. Scrolls can be used without any training in magic, but are consumed in using. If you have the appropriate skills in the Magic tree, you can spend magic crystals to learn spells permanently from scrolls.   We get a scroll of Flaming Arrow and a scroll of Haste. These two scrolls are always the same, which means that these are the only two absolutely guaranteed spells besides the ones that the character starts with.  Heading through the second portal, we find ourselves in another hall lined with statues. The walls are filled with bones of those long since past.  As we get close, these skellies come to life with glowing eyes and reach out for the touch of living flesh. Very spoopy indeed! : Uhhh, I am still in the Knight's Temple, right? Somehow, I don't think we should we really be holding the tortured souls of the damned in the foundation walls. Much like fellow student Bill, Mateush here is more than willing to steal from the dead. I like the variety of flavour text in this game (and doing this LP is showing me there's way more than I saw playing normally). I also like the fact that we are directly loving with the traditions and beliefs of the people buried in our own temple.  We find the necromancer standing in his circle of diabolic magic, seemingly waiting for us.  If we choose the first option, we go straight to battle. Besides, Mateush finds all this necromancy...interesting. Also: 'can only see glowing eyes' my rear end. : Master, I wish to go the way of darkness! : Well I'll just swear by my black relics! I haven't seen such a coward in all my years. Come on then, pray before death, Mateush Tein the Weak!: I see you've left me no choice, necromancer. Ok, let's fight!Ah, so its a 'But thou must!' dialogue.  This battle acts as a tutorial for fights against an opposing Hero. I will also be using in to introduce a few more combat mechanics and introduce the magic system.  At the top right in Hero battles, we can see a description of the enemy Hero, as well as their level, stats, and Mana pool.  The first thing you should do in your first combat of King's Bounty is to press Alt. This does several things. First and foremost, it pops up these numbers next to all units (both friend and foe). This is the turn order. You can see that my Horsemen here have a green 1, and are the active unit. The Sprites at the bottom are next in line to act, while the Peasents above them will act much later. A unit that has already finished its actions that turn will have a grey '-'. Knowing when which units will go is probably the most useful piece of information, but its off by default (you'd have to mouse over a unit to see it). It also activates health bars under each unit. This is less useful, but it's still good to see how injured high HP units are at a glance. Turn order is determined by the Initiative stat of each unit. If there is a tie with an opponent's unit, the 'defender' goes first. However, it's often unclear with side is the defender if you've both moved into fight. I'm also uncertain how ties are broken between your own units. So all I can say is that units with higher Initiative definitely act before units with a lower Initiative. The second thing you should do is turn combat animation speed to 'High'. It's set to 'Normal' by default, which is positively glacial. I'm suffering through Normal when I do recordings because it makes screenshots and GIFs easier to capture, and I forgot how slow it can be.  We're a mage now, so let's take a look at what we can do with that. By clicking on the blue book on our menu bar, we open up our spell book. We can see all our spells in one list, or sort them by school. The number to the left/right of each spell is the spell level (from 1 to 3). The number below is the mana cost. To the top left/right of each spell is the icon for upgrading, if we have both the appropriate skill (we don't) and the required number of magic crystals (our store of them is shown on the left). Below the learned spells is a list of scrolls. The paper icon on the left is for our scrolls, 5(9) means we have 5 scrolls and can carry 9 maximum (for now). The icon to the right of each scroll is for spending magic crystals to learn the spell permanently. For now, even being mage, we don't have the skills to do so. It's unclear how Mateush learned these spells he has. Let's burn these abominations with a Fireball. Hey, don't mess with the classics.  Woomph! The offensive spells is this game are pretty and satifying to use, complete with screen-shaking impacts. And they are quite strong early game especially. You can see we nearly destroyed that stack of Undead Spiders (22 down to 4).  More battlefield objects for us here. The stone sarcophagus is just a terrain obstacle, blocking movement paths. The coffin, on the other hand, is another interactable object.  We send our Horsemen to break it open (again, fast units are good for this type of thing). Out pop a unit of 20 Skeletons, under our control (shown by the blue background to the number of troops). These troops will fight with us for the duration of the combat, and are useful as sacrificial troops.  Being a Hero fight, the opponent can also use spells. He chooses to cast Haste on his Skeletons. This improves their speed (from 2 to 3). The green up arrow indicates that the unit has an active buff.  The remaining Undead Spiders go after our new bone friends, and get murdered by the counter. Our Skeletons also eat the attacks of the enemy Zombies and Skeletons. They get cut down to 5 dudes, but they are completely expendable to us. Movement and Action Points  Let's talk about speed, action points, and movement. Our Sprites here have a Speed of 4, which means the get 4 Action Points per turn. The shaded hexes show where they are able to move. Critically, see that although they can reach the hex next to the Undead Spiders, they can't attack. Attacks also take an Action Point to perform (and end the turn of the troop). This is in contrast to the Heroes of Might and Magic games, where if you can move next to a unit, you can attack it. It's a subtle difference, but it is very important.  The other real key difference with King's Bounty is that you can do multiple actions a turn (until you attack/use most Talents). So I can move these Sprites three spaces, and then Wait, Defend, or move one more space (or attack, if something was in range). In HOMM, you can generally take one action, and that's it. It's not as crucial for melee units, but it is absolutely key for ranged units: you can move and shoot, as long as you have the Action Points. We will see how useful this is A TON in this game.  In our next turn, we can use another spell. This time, I choose a Scroll of Flaming Arrow. The base damage is 70 (the same as if we had Flaming Arrow learned at level 1), boosted to 90 by our Intelligence, and then boosted again to 99 because Skeletons are slightly vulnerable to Fire damage. It also has a 23% chance to cause Burning (20% from the base spell, 3% from our Intelligence). Burning is a damage over time effect, and I'll describe it in detail when it happens. We don't get lucky here, and the Skeletons remain unlit.  One of our Horsemen gets sliced up real good, as the Necromancer responds by casting Magic Pole Axe. This is one of the few direct damage Order spells, and does physical damage to one target. Damage formula The battle continues, with our Horsemen doing most of the work. Let's take a look at some of the details of combat mechanics (Who loves math? Cause I sure do ). When a unit attacks, it compares the modified Attack stat of the attacker against the modified Defense stat of the defender. These are modified by the Attack and Defense of the respective controlling hero, by spells, and by certain other conditions. So our Horsemen have a base Attack of 29, which is modified to 30 Attack by our Training Sword, while the opposing Skeletons have 2 Defense (unmodified because the Necromancer has 0 Defense). If Attack > Defense, it applies a modifier of (1+0.0333*(Attack - Defense)). In other words, a 15 point difference is 1.5x the damage, 30 point difference is 2x, up to 3x at a 60 point difference. If Defense > Attack, damage is modified by 1/(1 + 0.0333*(Defense - Attack)). Or more simply, if the Defense is 30 points higher, the defending unit takes only 1/2 damage, and takes just 1/3 if they have a Defense 60 or more points greater than the Attack. The damage is then modified by the Resistances or Vulnerabilities of the defending unit, if applicable to the damage type inflicted. So for our example combat, we have Attack 28 points higher than Defense. This leads to a damage modifier of about 1.932x to our Horsemens damage. Their damage range is 12-16, we have 7 Horsies, and they get an additional 10% boost from their Horsemen ability for charging through 1 empty hex. Therefore, minimum damage is 12*7*1.932*1.1 = 178.5 (rounded up to 179), and maximum damage is 16*7*1.932*1.1 = 238. Our final damage dealt will be a random number in this range (we get 185, for posterity). The game does keep its random seed, so if you reload and perform the same actions, you will get the same damage rolls. If a critical hit is rolled (each unit has its own % chance), you instead will do MaxDamage x (1.3 to 1.7), depending on how full our Rage pool is. I don't know if that last part is completely true, haven't tested it out myself. Rule of thumb I use is MaxDamage x 1.5.  Our remaining skellies are obliterated by the Zombies. Again, who cares?  More to show it off than any reason, I cast Slow on the Skeletons. Slow and Haste overwrite each other completely, so it is especially effective to slow hasted units, and vice versa. Like the green arrow, the red down arrow indicated a unit has an active debuff.  Case in point, the Necromancer re-hastes his Skellies to attack my Knights. Doesn't go so well for them here, and the fight is over.  Before we return with the Book of Death to Iron Richard, let's loot the place. Always Be Looting.  In one corner, we find a banner. These banners give us a small but permanent boost to Leadership, and are particularly useful to the Mage due to low Leadership gain on level. The amount gained is semi-random, and partially tied to level. We get 28 Leadership here.  Also gold. Gold is good, gold is lovely, gold is great, gold is...ok, let's get back to Iron Richard before we get too distracted here. : So what - is necromancer now intimately acquainted with the death he so loved?: I've killed the necromancer and brought you the Book. : What should I have noticed? He had a terrible face, and he was commanding skeletons. A typical necromancer.: Ok, I know necromancer is not a race, but that still sounds really racist. And his face isn't that bad, that's just being goddamn rude.: No, he's not a usual necromancer. The spells he used in the combat are not like those which the mages of the death normally use. And the strength of the skeletons in his troop was lower than usual. Actually, it was not a necromancer at all. It's Father William, one of the temple's priors, who kindly agreed to play the role of the necromancer in the Test. He's aged, naturally, and his spells don't work well with the undead. The point is, undead creatures under his command take more penalties.If we choose either of the other two responses, Iron Richard just congratulates us on noticing, and then goes into the same spiel from 'Actually'. : Does that mean I killed Father William?!: Don't worry; it's not the first time he took part in the test. Actually he is perfectly alright and is waiting for the next student to come in. Ok, give me the damned Book.: Here it is, safe and sound. What's the last Test?And we will end it here for today. This update had more details than I had intended and it would be too long to add the third test. But I hope it was at least informative. As I get through explaining the combat mechanics, the pace should pick up, and I will be showing less from individual fights. Next time, we will well and truly finish this tutorial dungeon. Voting for class choice will stay open until that last tutorial update is up. ---------------------------------------- Spells Seen Like with items, I will put details of each spell we cast/see cast at the end of the update so it doesn't bog down the pace too much. Fireball  School: Chaos A Fireball hits the target and explodes, damaging and burning all targets within its blast range Crystal Cost: 4 / 6 / 8 (The first crystal cost is for learnng the spell from a scroll, the next two are for upgrading) Mana Cost: 7 / 12 / 17 (You can choose to cast a spell at any level up to the one you have it upgraded to) Level 1: Damage Center: 120; Damage Adjacent:25-50; Burning 10% Level 2: Damage Center: 240; Damage Adjacent:50-100; Burning 20% Level 3: Damage Center: 360; Damage Adjacent:75-150; Burning 30% Gully's opinion: Fireball is a solid damage spell for the early game, especially since you are guaranteed to have it as a Mage. Since enemies start out bunched, you can almost always hit 3 targets with it, with good chance to have something burning. The damage starts to fall off a bit in late game though. Lots of things are resistant to fire, but there's also a lot of things with vulnerability to it (like Undead). Flaming Arrow  School: Chaos A Flaming Arrow hits the target, causing fire damage and burning it. Crystal Cost: 1 / 3 / 5 Mana Cost: 5 / 5 / 5 Level 1: Damage: 70; Burning: 20% Level 2: Damage: 140; Burning: 40% Level 3: Damage: 210; Burning: 60% Gully's opinion: The single target companion to Fireball. High burn chance, and the cheap mana cost is nice, especially for Warriors. Good for targeting units with high fire vulnerability. Slow  School: Distortion Decreases the target's speed. Crystal Cost: 2 / 5 / 12 Mana Cost: 5 / 7 / 12 Level 1: Speed: -1; Duration: 2 turns Level 2: Speed: -2; Duration: 3 turns Level 3: Speed: -3; Duration: 3 turns Gully's opinion: Man oh man, Slow is one of the most essential spells in the game. It really allows for great crowd control. That stack of 100 Black Knights is coming at you? Slow them down and they are moving 1 hex per turn, while your ranged units pour fire into them. Great for Warriors/Paladins, since it is unaffected by Intelligence (mostly), and is very cheap. One of the reasons Level 2 Distortion is a priority if I am not a Mage. Slow counters Haste as well, but that's not often useful, since a Hasted enemy is likely to already be in your grill by the time your turn comes around. Haste  School: Distortion Increases the target's speed. Crystal Cost: 2 / 5 / 15 Mana Cost: 3 / 5 / 10 Level 1: Speed: +1; Duration: 3 turns Level 2: Speed: +2; Duration: 4 turns Level 3: Speed: +2, Mass; Duration: 4 turns Gully's opinion: The companion to Slow. Not nearly as useful, but still very good. The difference between 2 and 3 speed is huge in this game. Level 2 Haste on a stack of Knights turns them from slow, plodding defensive units into offensive whirling dervishes of death dealing. Mass Haste is nice, but expensive, since you only usually really need it on one or two of your units. Also good for countering enemy Slow spells on your units. Magic Pole Axe  School: Order Creates magical axes which inflict intense physical damage to a single target. Crystal Cost: 2 / 4 / 6 Mana Cost: 5 / 10 / 15 Level 1: Damage: 120; Axes: 1 Level 2: Damage: 240; Axes: 2 Level 3: Damage: 360; Axes: 3 Gully's opinion: Meh. It does decent physical damage, but only to one target. Don't let the number of axes fool you, it just does the damage shown once. A little pricy to cast for the effect too. Compare to Fireball, which does the same damage to the center target, and has AOE + DOT effects on top, for only 2 more mana. But it does do more damage than Flaming Arrow if you just need to finish a unit off. Items Found Book  Description: The evil book, which was taken from the necromancer's body. Type: Quest Info: This book looks like an ordinary Book of Death - bloody letters, patterns of skulls and evil symbols. However, it looks suspiciously new, its pages still smell of fresh ink. How strange... Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Jul 17, 2016 |
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Jul 17, 2016 17:14
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JamieTheD posted:Well, one tiny note on Magical Axes: While yes, overall, it's a "Meh" single damage spell, it should definitely be noted that most of your early damage dealing spells are Fire... And Poison. One small problem there: There's at least a few enemy types resistant to Fire, and a fair few that are resistant to Poison (By virtue of being poisonous themselves, most often.) However, while there are also physically resistant enemies, these are generally higher tier... And y'know what else Physical damage isn't counted as? True enough, it is technically the highest single target physical damage spell. There's a Distortion spell (Ghost Blade) that I'll usually prefer over Magic Pole Axe, since it does physical and cuts through resistances. It will go into the book, since I like to get at least Level 1 of every spell (the crystal cost for level 1 is pretty minimal). Lord_Magmar posted:From just reading the description and some half remembered stuff when I personally played this game I'm pretty sure the purpose of Magical Axes is to make up for low unit numbers as a Mage. It's probably the best source of physical damage a Mage is likely to have for quite a while, especially considering most of the really high physical damage units are also really leadership intensive. I think the real purpose of Magic Pole Axe is to give Paladins and characters who go with Order spells a direct damage spell option. For my Mage, I usually get to Chaos Level 2 before even picking Order, so Flaming Arrow is my main single-target spell for the early game, and there are relatively few resistant creatures for quite a while, and tons of ones with high fire vulnerability. And if they are highly resistant to fire, they are usually not resistant to poison. anilEhilated posted:Magic is actually really good as an army size equalizer but that's usually not the damage spells (we already have slow - slow is utterly. loving. fantastic.). Also, this is the first of many times it'll probably sound in the thread, but gently caress necromancers. At least for a Mage, the damage spells are great for probably the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the game, especially once you get Higher Magic and can nuke twice in the first round. Later game, you run into way more resistances, and the troop numbers get too big to cut down directly. There are definitely going to be many fights where I won't cast a single damage spell. Slow is, as you say, amazing, and there are a few other crowd control type spells that are equally great - if you can find them.
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Jul 18, 2016 16:44
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LP Note: I realized halfway through writing this update that I've been referring to Intelligence, when the game uses Intellect. Whoops? Update 4: Digging for Junk Last time on King's Bounty: : Here it is, safe and sound. What's the last Test?: Oh, it's you, Mateush. I half expected you to be someone else again.I was going to show off the Paladin, but I decided against it. 1) He doesn't really have anything else to show apart from a different character model. 2) Literally no one has voted for the Paladin class. 3) I had already recorded this as a Mage, and I was too lazy to do it again. : Yes, only the final test remains. You know that ancient temples and abandoned treasuries are the main source of gold and rare magic artifacts and spells. So searching for treasures and artifacts will be your next step. Go into catacombs. There are a few chests buried there, and in one of them there's a piece of my armor. You must bring it back, and the rest of the rags you can take for yourself. Is that clear?: The old man is so senile he probably left one of his boots in a chest...again. I heard that he sent a troop of Guardsmen to find a 'priceless artifact' in a den of Royal Snakes. Turned out he dropped the keys to his outhouse in there. Six of the men never came back alive.: I'm to dig out the treasure? How should I do that?: Why are you asking how? With a shovel of course! Choose a suspicious looking place, where in your opinion the treasure is probably situated, and dig. If you guess right, you get the treasure. If not - a couple of work callouses and a pile of dirt.So off we go to finish the final test. Soon, we will be free of the cruel tyranny of Iron Richard!  Unlike the other tests, we find ourselves now in a dark cave, with dripping stalactites and stalagmites (remember, stalagmites might grow from the ceiling, but they don't), and of course, bats.  The inhabitants of this cave turn out to be groups of spiders. As before, we can't really see any details of our opponents. Let's fix that (somewhat).  Scouting is a Tier 1 Mind tree skill. It costs only 1 Mind rune to learn, and you need to take it to progress further down that branch of the tree.  Now we can see the troop types that are in the enemy army. We don't know numbers, but we do at least know that two types of spiders are present here: Cave Spiders and Venemous Spiders. If we took Level 2, we'd be able to see approximate numbers, such as 'Few', 'Pack', 'Lots', 'Horde', and so on (as in Heroes of Might and Magic). Level 3 gives us exact numbers. I usually stop at Level 1, since composition + the army strength rating will tell me if I think I can take it on. However, Level 2 isn't bad if you have a couple spare Mind Runes.  When we go to fight the spiders, we see a couple of mysterious columns of light. Battle comes first though.  This battlefield has a new interactable, the Cursed Cross. This one seems to be more likely to show up underground and in cemeteries.  The Cursed Cross randomly casts either 'Weakness', 'Slow', or 'Poison Skull', on one random stack (friend or foe) in the area. Here it casts Slow on these Venomous Spiders.  Our Sprites destroy the cross with a spray of sprite dust (man that stuff really burns when it gets in your eye). It can be smart to go after these objects to stop your troops from getting attacked by them, especially if your troops are the only ones in the area.  The spiders are no trouble for our spells and high level units. Time to deal with those glowing spots.  Glowing columns like this indicate buried treasure. All you need to do is press the shovel icon (shorcut: D) to dig it up. You automatically get the treasure inside. Here, we find Richard's old Iron Tooth. It's a type of equipment called Regalia, and it gives our hero +20 Leadership. We also find another Flaming Arrow scroll in the other spot.  In the background we see the other spiders holding a conference. Let's go say hi (with Fireballs, the traditional Mage greeting).  Here's basically how these two fights go. Mage is real fun at the start of the game.  After the second victory, our experience bar ticks past 100% full: Level Up!  We reach 2nd level! At each level up, we receive a selection of runes (depending on which class we are). This is our main source of runes in the game. We also get to choose one of two available bonuses. Leadership will always be offered, IF we didn't pick it on the previous level. If we did, Leadership will not be offered. Therefore, you can take Leadership at most at every other level. When we do take it, we will get (as a Mage) 40*Level Leadership (Paladin gets 50*, Warrior gets 60*). The other bonuses are not affected by which level you take them. I believe the offerings might be weighted depending on class, but don't take my word for it. Normally when we get a level, I will go into what skills I picked up with the new runes (if any), but since this is a temporary character I'm not even bothering to buy skills at all.  With the spiders gone, we are free to search for our quest object.   We find a Clay Bowl, and a jug of Dwarven Beer. The Clay Bowl is a helmet than gives +5 Mana but -1 Intellect. The Dwarven Beer is a usable object with 3 charges that gives us +20 Rage at the cost of -20 Mana. I then spend a good 3-4 minutes scouring the cave looking for the thing we actually need. The treasures in this test are placed in semi-random spots, and I somehow forget to check one of them.  I finally find it just past the place we fought the first spider group, near the Iron Tooth.  : I so called it. drat it, old man, take care of your poo poo better. Also, rusty? We had to do pushups if Iron Richard caught us with so much as a spot of dust on our cloak during inspection. Hypocrite.  On my way back, I barely notice this glowy as I leave the cave. The treasure glow takes a second to get going, so you can miss it if you go past at full speed. If you are in an area with suspected buried treasure, its best to use a kind of stutter-step motion so not to overlook it like this.  This spot has a Cart Wheel, a shield that gives +2 Defense and -1 Intellect. Good for anyone not of the Mage persuasion. Back to Richard:  : I think I've found what you needed. By the way, what is that strange luminescence that I saw above the buried chests?: Wow! The boot! So that's what I put into that damned chest. I've been looking for it for a whole month and could never find it. It's been rusted through for a long time. A luminescence, you say? Ah, that's your gift revealing itself. It's a pretty rare gift, I should say. Humans with such gifts are able to find secrets hidden in the ground, treasures for example.: That means I've passed the Test?: Yes, you passed. Well done! Well, well. Oh! Look at this, the coins that I hid for a rainy day! They're still here inside the hell.: So, how about the Test?: Ah yes, let's consider everything in the right order. So - the rescuing of the princess. Not bad, not bad, but... dragon hunting, to be honest - it's not your strong point. You could become a good evil spirits slayer. You passed the Test, so that's good! But there is one more thing. That last test you passed brilliantly, and I think you can become a fine Treasure Searcher.: Treasure Searcher? We get the same text whichever answer we choose. : Don't worry; your future life will be a thousand times more interesting and dangerous than you've dreamed. You'll explore deep caves, high mountains and faraway countries. Probably all Endoria will know your name, Mateush Tein! In the name of all the Council of Mentors of the Knight's School of Darion, I, Senior Mentor Iron Richard proclaim you to be a full knight. Be honest and fair. Carry the title with pride and dignity. And may your deeds for the glory of Darion, and your knight's honor, bring you fame throughout the centuries.: I serve Darion.: I am recommending you for the royal service as a Treasure Searcher. Here, take these reference letters to his Majesty, King Mark the Wise. And don't forget your teacher! Come by to the Knight's Temple whenever you like. I will always be glad to see you. After these years together, you've become almost like a son to me. Young, high spirited and certainly talented, you'll become a fine knight. Now get out of here, they're waiting for you in the castle, and I've got a couple more of you knuckleheads that I need to test.: Thank you, mentor! See you later.You may remember that back in the first update, we were given a chance to refuse these tests altogether. If we go that route, we get this piece of dialogue: : Let it be, Mateush Tein. In the name of all the Council of Mentors of the Knight's School of Darion, I, Senior Mentor Iron Richard proclaim you to be a full knight. Be honest and fair. Carry the title with pride and dignity. And may your deeds for the glory of Darion, and your knight's honor, bring you fame throughout the centuries.And the text continues the same as before. We can still take the training sword from the chest, but the other goodies are lost to us forever. That means you lose the guaranteed Haste/Flaming Arrow scrolls, lose out on about 5000 gold, and lose the 'treasure' you dug up in the cave. You also start about 100 XP behind.  Whichever path we chose, it is time for us to leave the Knight's Temple and the tutorial dungeons. Next time, we will get to meet King Mark, get a promotion, a new job, and a new quest of danger, intrigue, and accounting. We will also get to meet our brand new voted-on hero that will stay with us throughout the game. Class: Mage (8 votes) Name: Bill Gilbert (7 votes) Emblem: (4 votes)Now that we are about to leave the tutorial, please let me know if you think there's anything I could or should change about the LP, in terms of pictures, update length, information given, etc. ---------------------------------------- Spells Seen None! Skills Shown Time for a new section to be added to our post-update bonus section. Here, I will talk about skills shown off in more detail than in the main body, and show off the fancy icons. The cost will be shown as x/y/z (x Might runes, y Mind runes, z Magic runes). Scouting Mind, Tier 1 Prerequisties: None  Level 1: The hero is allowed to see what creatures compose enemy troops, if they are on the adventure map outside of castles and shelters. Cost: 0/1/0 Level 2: The hero is allowed to view an approximate number of units anywhere on the adventure map. Cost: 0/2/0 Level 3: The hero is allowed to view a precise number of units anywhere on the adventure map. Cost: 0/3/1Gully's opinion: You'll need one level to progress down the Mind tree anyway, and 1 Mind rune is very cheap. Level 2 isn't a bad idea either once you have a couple Mind runes to spare. Exact numbers is never necessary to know, I'd skip Level 3. Items Found Artifact  Description: A heavy rusty knight's boot. Type: Quest Info: It seems that the boot has been in the chest for many years. The boot is eaten away by rust, and through the hole in the heel you can see that the boot has a double bottom. Letter for the King  Description: A sealed letter with some papers inside. Type: Quest Info: You have to bring this letter from Iron Richard to the castle. Iron Tooth  Description: An artificial tooth, made of a solid silvery metal. Effect: +20 Leadership Type: Regalia Race: Humans Cost: 800 Info: Nobody knows to whom this tooth once belonged, but it seems that its owner loved to fight. Clay Bowl  Description: An ordinary bowl made of clay. Effect: +5 Mana, -1 Intellect Type: Helmet Race: Neutral Cost: 700 Info: It's very stupid to wear a clay bowl on a head. However, oddly enough, this common household item aids in the accumulation of magic energy. Cart Wheel  Description: An ordinary wheel off of a cart. Effect: +2 Defense, -1 Intellect Type: Shield Race: Humans Cost: 850 Info: The person who always carries around a huge cart wheel, looks like a crazy man. However, this wheel can protect you against the strikes of sword or hammer! Dwarven Beer  Description: A jug of strong barley ale. Use: Gives 20 to Rage, -20 to Mana Gulps: 3 Type: Used Item Info: Dwarves brew an excellent beer. This beer goes to your head quickly, increasing your bravery. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Jul 19, 2016 |
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Jul 19, 2016 15:52
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Koorisch posted:I remember the old LP of the first King's Bounty, is magic still broken as hell or did they manage to scale it down a bit? I've never played the old King's Bounty personally, but going by that LP, its not nearly as broken in this game. There's nothing really equivalent to the game-breaking power of Raise Control/Clone spells (that I know of, at least). You also can't Teleport enemy troops anymore, although that would have been hilarious when combined with Slow. That said, there are definitely some magic tricks and strategies that can be done, hopefully I'll be able to show them off. I'm not an expert at the Mage style of play, though, there may be some spell combos I might miss. theshim posted:Oh man, King's Bounty. I've played a little of Legend, beaten Armored Princess/Crossworlds, and played a shitton of Dark Side. These are great and irritatingly addicting games and I'm stoked to watch you play. Glad to have you on board! Sounds like you'll be more of an expert at Dark Side by far than I will be, since I basically haven't played it. Of course, it's gonna be a long time before we get there.
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Jul 19, 2016 21:14
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ChrisAsmadi posted:Is the Sacrifice spell in this game? Yes it is. Well, potentially. Sacrifice is one the spells in the game. Whether it's available in this playthrough is a different story. I do hope it is, so I can show it off, but I don't plan on abusing it unless I need to maintain reasonable stacks of my favourite troops. But that skill you are referring to is much weaker in this game. There are other ways to exploit Sacrifice though, which I will show off at least once if Sacrifice pops up.
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Jul 20, 2016 15:46
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Update 5: The Tax Man Before we venture out into the world, let's meet the hero that will be joining us for the rest of the game. Bill Gilbert has had a change of profession, a change of face, and has resurrected himself as Mage. He's also taken a fancy to nature such that his emblem is a glowing white tree on a black field (sable, an oak tree eradicated argent).  When Bill here gained level 2 in the tutorial, he chose a point of Intellect. Being a Mage, Intellect is all important, and it is acceptable to skip the early Leadership bonuses (because they grow over time, while attribute bonuses do not). We will likely be taking Intellect whenever possible (almost) in this playthrough, which hopefully won't lead to our ruin. One thing to note: the ingame tooltip for Intellect is a filthy, filthy lie. Read this:  You might think that you get only 10% more spell damage every 7 points of Intellect. Which sounds like junk, and it would be. In reality, it is 10% per Intellect, PLUS a multiplicative 10% for every 7 points rounding down. So 7 points of Intellect is actually 87% more spell damage (a modifier of 1.7*1.1). The extra duration for spells per 15 points is correct though. By becoming a Mage, Bill starts with the skills Wisdom 1 and Meditation 1. Wisdom 1 gives him an additional 10 Mana for his pool (and slightly more scroll capacity), while Meditation speeds up Mana recovery speed in adventure mode. Further, with our starting runes + those from Level 2, Bill has learned Distortion Magic 1 and Concentration 1 (as well as Scouting 1). Distortion Magic 1 will let him learn new Distortion spells, while Concentration 1 gives us +2 Mana back per turn in combat. Our current target is to get Chaos Magic so we can add more destructive elements to our repertoire. Anyways, onwards and upwards! As soon as we leave the Temple, we are immediately summoned to the Royal Castle to see the King.   : Here are the letters of reference from my mentor at the School. : Oh, so it is you, Bill Gilbert. Iron Richard told me about quite a talented and promising young man, when I raised the subject of the new Treasure Searcher. I hope you'll be able to handle all your new responsibilities. : So it is decided! Of my royal will I, the King of Darion, Mark Leonar the Second, do declare the knight by the name Bill Gilbert to be my Royal Treasure Searcher, and confer upon him the title of Viscount and all the regaila which thereto append!Literally one second out of the temple and we've got a shiny new promotion. And it's not just ceremonial, either. The Viscount promotion gives us +100 Leadership (that's what he means by regalia). : I'm happy to serve you, Your Majesty!: And now, Bill Gilbert, you are to take up the first task immediately. We shall see if you can manage to find our missing Plugens. Recently, the tax collector was robbed as he was bringing some Plugens to the castle. The crime was committed by a robbers' gang on the eastern road. The robbers escaped, and the guards who were sent to chase them collected only a small part of what was stolen. You shall recover the rest of the loss, all four hundred Plugens - and punish the robbers.: No problem, consider them as good as found. : Ha-ha... We'll consider as soon as we have something to consider. I can't see even a single Plugen at the moment!: I'd like to clarify, what is it I'm looking for? - What are Plugens?: It's very simple. We have replaced the old tax system by Plugens, special tokens made of precious metal. Every citizen buys a certain number of Plugens from us annually. Plugens are a symbol of honesty and loyalty to Darion. They give the people the tight to elect a mayor, or be granted a loan, even place their sons in court, or evade prison by receiving a royal pardon. Thus, all the right-minded people receive the protection of the crown, and the sale of these Plugens assures that the kingdom's treasury remains full!: Excellent idea! Thank you for the explanation.We immediately talk to him again. : I do hope, Bill Gilbert, that you have brought us good news, and a bag full of Plugens?: I'd like to ask you a couple of questions, Your Majesty.: I don't have time for gossiping, my young servant. I hope your questions are of some importance?: What happened to the previous Searcher?: His name was de'Virre... He was a worthy Searcher, and it was thanks in large part to him that our treasury was regularly filled with gold - and it was through his efforts as well that the Academy's sorcerers acquired many rare artifacts and ancient manuscripts to study. Once he told us that in one such a manuscript he had found mention of a mythical Temple of the Undead... We tried to dissuade him from searching this place, but to no avail. A few days later, our Searcher to left for parts unknown, and we never set eys upon him again.: I understand you're familiar with my mentor, Richard?: Yes, we've known each other since our childhood. Richard was the son of my fencing teacher. And Richard, my brother, and I studied fending together. We became friends. Those were the days...By the way, do you know, Bill Gilbert, how Richard got his nickname? Long ago, he was called 'Richard Iron Tooth,' because once in a fight he lost his tooth and his father without a second's thought made him an iron tooth for him. And oh my hand ached for days after that fight! - His teeth really are like iron, too! But now of course I cannot even recall what the fight was about...: I have no more questions; I will disturb Your Majesty no further.Now that we have some breathing room after all that chatter, let's take a look at the Castle screen.  In the top left, we find out we are at the Castle Kronberg, in the region of Greenwort, and it serves as the capital of Darion. Below that, we have the important NPCs in the castle, who we talk to by clicking on the portraits. Below that we can see what this castle has for sale. The Equipment and Magic lists are a semi-randomized selection. I'd like to buy that banner, but it will be a bit before we can spare 24k gold. The spells (Last Hero and Shroud) aren't very good right now compared to our direct damage spells. Finally, each castle will have a selection of troops available to hire. Many castles and outposts offer the same troops every game, but there are some that have some element of randomness (though usually along a theme). The number inside the unit portrait represents number available, with 'Horde' indicating infinite availability. The selection and number of troops available can change as we perform certain quests. And of course the cost is listed below. We can also store unwanted troops below in the Garrison slots. I leave my Sprites, Peasants, and Dragonflies here, and hire Bowmen and Swordsmen instead. I'll come back for the Peasants in a bit since I have nothing better to use (OK, Sprites are better per unit, but I have no source to fill up on them right now) Let's chat with the Princess.  : Nice to meet you, Your Highness. I'm your new Treasure Searcher. My name is Bill Gilbert. I'm a Mage.: Forgive my daughter, Bill Gilbert. She is a mischievous little princess, despite of her divine origin. I hope she hasn't wearied you with chatter.: Not at all, Your Majesty! You have quite a nice daughter. : Daddy! [The girl slightly raised her voice and stamped her foot!] I had a deal with you. I don't prevent you from talking to the uncles who come to see you. and I'm a good child, right uncle Bill Gilbert?: Yes. You are the best child I ever saw, Your Highness!: And how do you remember and pronounce all these "Your Highness" and Uncle Aron, and Uncle Richard... I'm just Amelie. It's easier to remember, I figured it out myself.: Do you know Uncle de'Virre, the former Treasure Searcher?: Yes! We were friends. He brought a real little horned horse to me. And also he showed me some lightning in a can. And told many stories. About pink dragon, and about ghost-ship, and about a terrible Kraken. Have you heard about a fish that's the size of the biggest ship ever? I wonder, if it swallows you, will you be scared? He told me about a real shoe of a Titan.: And do you also know that dragons like to kidnap princesses? Aren't you scared?: Oh, uncle, you are so old and still believe in fairy tales? First, I'm still a little girl, and dragons kidnap only adult princesses. And second, if a dragon kidnaps me, then a prince on a white horse will appear and will save me. That happens in all the fairy tales. I even had a dream that a prince on a magic horse saves me. Only the horse was not white, but made of wood for some reason. Besides, my dad would protect me from a dragon. My father is a real king, and he has a real big army. The army will beat the dragon, and it'll fly away hungry.: Do you want me to bring you a flower from faraway lands?: Yes, I want a flower. But not from faraway countries. I like closer ones. Because when you carry the flower from faraway, it will dry up. One day Uncle Virre brought me a pretty flower. Not only red, but blue. It was... Gerbarius. He said that it's a magic elven flower. But my horned horse ate the flower, and I scolded it. But I scolded it quietly, so that the horse wouldn't get upset and go away.: I was glad to chat with you Amelie. But right now I have a lot of things to do. We can also go visit the Knight's Temple again, which is now a castle complete with equipment, magic, and some Priests for hire. We will talk to these jokers later, for now I just pick up a few Priests for my army. I also want that 21k belt (it gives a good deal of Mana recovery in combat).  Here's a look at the ingame quest log. It does a decent job of giving details you might miss in the dialogue, such as where to look for our stolen  A look at the bustling capital city here...ok, maybe it's a work day or something. We're going to ignore the dwarf by the balloon despite his quest marker calling out to us.  In the center of town is this mana fountain, which seems extremely unsafe. Maybe that's why its so empty in the town square. In game, it will give us full Mana, and recharges every so often. It's honestly not super useful here, since Mana regens over time, and you will usually be back here buying troops a long way away from any fights.  As we leave over the bridge, we can see the trail of Plugens off to the east. But first, I need to round out my army.  So I head just to the southwest to the Magic School. There's a ton more dialogue and a new side quest here, but we will save it for another time. I call these mini-shops outposts. They usually have a smaller selection, but are still valuable sources of units, equipment, and spells. For now, I buy 1 Archmage (all I can fit with my Leadership).  Bill takes a second to read the inscription on a nearby obelisk. Some strange glow is briefly seen...hmmm. We head back to the capital to fill up on Peasants, and our mighty army is complete! Units and Unit Cards Units are the main attraction of any game like this (at least for me). So let's look at what makes units tick.  Name: Starting at the top, we of course have the unit Name. Faction: In the top right, we have an icon that represents unit race/faction. The crown is for the Human faction (its actually more confusing than it seems, since there are human units that don't belong to the Human faction). Factions have a variety of effects. The Factions in this game are Human, Dwarf, Orc, Elf, Undead, Demon, and Neutral. Level: We see that the Priest is a Level 2 unit (I'd call them tiers personally, but Level is the KB term). Some spells, abilities, and equipment work only on certain unit Levels. There are 5 Levels total. Leadership: In each stack we can only control units with a total Leadership under our Hero's Leadership value. Attack/Defense: I talked about the damage formula in Update 3. But basically, more attack = more damage when attacking, more defense = less damage when attacked. Any % modifications to A/D work on the base number (like the 10 here), not the adjusted value. Initiative: Determines the order in which units act. Speed: Determines the number of Action Points a unit gets each turn. Health: Don't need to explain this, I think. Current: If damaged in battle, we can see how many HP the unit has left. Damaged units will heal to full at the end of any combat. Damage: The damage range per unit in the stack. The icon to the right indicates type of damage (the Priest here does Magic damage). Hidden stats Resistances: Can be seen by mousing over the Defense stat. There are 4 varieties: Physical, Poison, Magic, and Fire. Critical Hit %: Oddly enough, I believe there is a way to see this (until Armored Princess, at least), and it can vary significantly between units. I'm getting this number off of GameFAQs. Defend Bonus: If we choose to end a units turn without spending all of their Action Points, the unit gets a small bonus to defense. More tanky units get a bigger boost. It's not much of a bonus, but hey, its something. Talents: Useable skills in combats. There are two types: Charge Talents, and Reload Talents. Charge Talents can only be used a given number of times per battle. Reload Talents have a cool down, given in number of turns before the Talent is ready to use again. Reload: 1 means every other turn at most. Abilities: Passive bonuses/benefits/attributes. Morale: The grey  face indicates our Priest has a Neutral Morale rating. Positive Morale boosts Attack/Defense/Critical Hit %. Negative Morale detracts from those. You get +morale from certain items, units, and other sources. One that we probably won't see in this playthrough is a +1 morale boost if all your units are from one faction...except for the Human and Neutral factions. You can get -morale from spell effects, unit abilities, and other sources. If you have Undead or Demons in your army, other troops hate that unless you have the Tolerance skill.Quantity: The number indicates number of units in our army (duh). At the bottom, we have the skull icon for dismissal, and a special upgrade button (only applicable for Priests, and only if we have the Inquisition skill). With a few exceptions, I will put the unit data at the bottom of an update, like the other bonus material. I will also limit it to a certain number per update, even if we've seen more troops than that in action (otherwise I'd have like 14 cards to do for this update).  Let's take our new army for a spin. Some Dragonflies near the bridge should serve nicely as target practice.  Our  NOT THE BEES! Also on the field is a new interactable, the Vespiary. This object sends out a horde of wasps to do physical damage to a random nearby troop. Not much of a threat ever, but it can be annoying. [  Our Archmage, although feeling lonely in his troop of one, activates a Talent called Fighting Trance. This doubles his damage for 2 rounds, and increases his chance to cause Shock with his attack.  Archmages attack with a spear of lightning that reaches anywhere on the battlefield with no range penalties.  Shock is a pretty useful debuff to apply. It reduces the initiative of the troop by 1, but more importantly reduces their Action Points to 1 for that turn. So these Dragonflies can only move 1 space this turn instead of 6. However, Shocking a unit that has already finished its turn is pointless.  Our Mage shows these Dragonflies that Fire resistant does not mean Fire proof, and the battle is soon over.   We grab the spoils of combat from the nearby bag, which turns out to be a few scrolls of Stoneskin. This Distortion spell buffs Defense and Physical Resist. It's actually a pretty nice spell, but better for Warriors/Paladins. I learn it, but we may not see it in use for a while.  We follow the trail of Plugens east, where we can see the robbed cart in the distance. We loot the countryside as we go, nabbing a couple of banners, some gold, and this:  This sprout belongs to a class of usable items I call creature containers. By using them, we get a small number of a certain variety of troops. These sprouts sprout into Thorn-Hunters, which are a ranged Level 1 plant unit. I'd say 80% of creature containers are useless. You only get a few low-level units out of most of these, and need many of them to get a full strength stack. I'll be selling most of these.  We reach the cart and find the robber hasn't left the scene of the crime at all. Rule of thumb: If you steal a whole bunch of valuable Royal treasure, it's a good idea to move more than five feet away. Well, I guess this is a form of natural selection.  Further enforcing my opinion of his stupidity, the robber moves his troops into this position. Rule of thumb #2: When you fight mages, don't do this. I mean, this is just begging to have hot fiery death rain down from above. And I can't resist it.   Arrrgh! One of the Robber stacks uses a Talent called Greed that lets them teleport next to a chest on the battlefield, and then he steals my treasure. I'm the official Treasure Searcher, so all treasure belongs to me. I mean, I know they're robbers and all, but drat it.  So gently caress these guys. Rule of thumb #3: Don't take my poo poo. I'm the Treasure Searcher, says so on the business cards.   We steal the Plugens back.  Still a few Plugens short of 400, we go hunting for the rest. I guess these bears stole these from the cart too?  I always feel a little guilty fighting wandering troops of just wild animals, especially when it's 'real' animals like bears and wolves.  I somehow missed this last stack of Plugens, but find them by searching along the road back to the castle. That done, we head in to see the King and report success on our first job. : I've found all the Plugens and punished the robbers, Your Majesty!: Not bad, Bill Gilbert. I think you shall be an excellent Treasure Searcher. (Reward: 1000 Gold, 60 Experience): Yes, I had to run all over in search of them, and it hasn't been easy. Next time, we will ignore the King's Quest for a bit and do a bit of sidequesting and exploration in Greenwort. We will also take a look at the map screen, and we will do weeding for the local community. ---------------------------------------------- Bonus Material Talkin' 'bout Troops Welcome to the newest addition to the bonus section, where I'll discuss units we see on our journey. Today, we will take a look at the units that compose Bill Gilbert's current army. Priest Resistances: 10% Magic Critical Hit %: 5 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents  Healing: Recovers 10 points of health to the selected troop. Charges: 2. Bless: Blesses target for 2 turns, causing it to inflict maximum damage. Decreases the combat performance of undead troops. Reload: 1.Abilities Holy Attack: Ranged Attack, which does double Magic Damge to the undead. Holiness: Takes no penalties for the presence of undead in the army. No melee penalty: The creature inflicts the same damage during Melee and Ranged Attacks Gully's opinion: Priests are decent early game units, especially going into undead areas. Their ranged attack is fairly weak, but very strong if against undead. Healing is useful only in the early game for the most part. Bless is also alright, and can be great with the right unit combination. Fighting them: No real threat, since I don't tend to use undead, and their damage is low. Plus they will waste turns blessing/healing. Bowman  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents  Ice Arrow: Discharges an Ice Arrow, dealing 3-4 damage and freezing the target (-1 Speed for 3 turns) Fire Arrow: Discharges a Fire Arrow, dealing 4-5 fire damage and burning the target. Requires Training 2 (Might Tier 1).Abilites Archer: Ranged Attack (half damage retaliation, half damage if long range) Gully's opinion: Not the strongest ranged troop, but usually ends up a staple for me anyways. Ice Arrow is basically a free cast of Slow level 1, which is very useful. Fire Arrow (which is meant more for Warriors) adds extra damage and flexibility against physical resistance, and is great if they have Fire vulnerability (Plants, Undead). There's another ability that extends their usefulness into the end game as well. They also act as a damage soak for more valuable units, since the AI looooves targeting them. It's a good thing they will soon be available in infinite numbers. Fighting them: They have lowish HP, so spells and ranged attacks cut them down easily enough, and they will die quickly if you get into melee with them. Can be painful in large numbers though. Swordsman  Resistances: Physical 20% Critical Hit %: 8 Defense Bonus: 4 Talents  Smashing Blow: Attacks the enemy fiercely, dealing 6-9 damage. Reload: 2. Requires Training 1 (Might Tier 1)Abilities Armor: Good Physical Damage Resistance Gully's opinion: A decent tank unit for the early game. Good Defense stat, decent HP, and Physical Resist makes these guys quite durable early on. Speed 3 is also not bad to have (faster than our other jokers right now). Their damage output is low for us, but actually quite good once we get Training 1 and Smashing Blow, which gives them a strong first attack. Fighting them: Spells and non-physical damage helps deal with them faster. Slow and Freeze will keep them away longer as well, if their stack is large enough to be really dangerous. Peasant  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents: None Abilities Team Spirit: For every 30 peasants in a troop, Attack is increased by 1 (maximum +10). Gully's opinion: I don't like these guys, they are literally cannon fodder and will die in droves. But they are cheap, plentiful, and who cares if they die? They have low speed for a melee unit, and so work best to help defend ranged units. They do actually have high HP for their Leadership (of course, 1 Defense offsets that). Ironically, they can also have one of the strongest possible damage outputs in the game, at 0.3 damage/Leadership, and their attack is actually OK due to Team Spirit when in large number. They are also a good Bless target. I've heard that late game, if you have the gold to spare, huge stacks of Blessed Peasants are fantastic damage dealers, especially with Teleport. Fighting them: Easy prey. They die to anything really fast, and even Slow 1 and Freeze cut their move to a crawl. Even large stacks just evaporate. Archmage  Resistances: 50% Magic Critical Hit %: 7 Defense Bonus: 4 Talents  Magic Shield: Gives the target a magical defense for 3 turns, during which the target will only talk half damage. Reload: 1. Fighting Trance: The Mage falls into a fighting trance for 2 turns. Attack as welll as probability of Shock and Critical Attack is increased by 100%, but Defense is decreased by 50%. While in trance, the Mage is not able to use any other abilities. Reload: 2. The tool tip lies, it actually doubles Damage, not Attack. Telekinesis: Moves a friendly or enemy troop one cell in any direction, provided the target cell is free.Abilities Lightning: Hits the target with lightning at a distance. Inflicts Magic Damage and has a chance of shocking the target. Magic Protection: Gives the creature 50% Magic Resistance. Immune to Mind spells: The creature is immune to mind spells and effects. Gully's opinion: These guys are interesting tech units. They have very low damage output for their Leadership cost, and very low HP as well. However, their base damage is increased to at least a decent level by Fighting Trance, at the payoff of not being able to use their other Talents. Magic Shield is very very good, since it cuts any source of damage in half and stacks with Resistances. I forget to use Telekinesis, but it can be good to get one of your units in range to attack, or keep a dangerous stack away. I always use them for a bit in the early game, partially out of a lack of replacements, and partly because they are Level 4 units, which lets them ignore certain fear effects. Their initiative is also decent, so my Mage can cast spells early. Fighting them: They have low HP, so spells are usually great to kill them (just avoid Magic damage). Their Shock effect can be annoying. Usually not present in large enough numbers to be difficult to deal with. Spells Seen None! Skills Shown Wisdom Magic, Tier 1 Increases the amount of the hero's Mana and the maximum number of scrolls in his Spell Book. Prerequisites: None  Level 1: Mana +10, Scrolls +2. Cost: 0/0/4 Level 2: Mana +20, Scrolls +4. Cost: 0/0/7 Level 3: Mana +30, Scrolls +6. Cost: 0/0/10Gully's opinion: Max mana is useful, but the cost is too high for more than 1 level for the early game. Eventually it is handy to invest in, as Level 3 spells get fairly expensive. The scroll capacity is largely useless, especially for a mage. Scrolls are cast at Level 1, so its usually better to use your own, better spells. Meditation Magic, Tier 10 Speeds up the Mana restoration of the hero while on the adventure map.  Level 1: Mana regeneration rate increased by 30%. Cost: 0/1/1 Level 2: Mana regeneration rate increased by 60%. Cost: 0/1/2 Level 3: Mana regeneration rate increased by 100%. Cost 0/1/3Gully's opinion: I stick with one level. It is mostly a convenience thing, since you can alomst always just wait a bit longer if you need mana, plus there are mana fountains, mana potions, and other sources. The only benefit is to get full mana quickly before your Rage drains away, so you can go into battle with high Mana and high Rage. Distortion Magic Magic, Tier 2 This skill allows the hero to learn and upgrade Distortion Magic spells. Prerequisites: Wisdom, Meditation  Level 1: Distortion spells can be learned from scrolls. Cost: 1/1/4 Level 2: Distortion spells can be upgraded to level 2. Cost: 2/2/7 Level 3: Distortion spells can be upgraded to level 3. Cost 3/3/10Gully's opinion: One of the best magic schools, especially for non-Mages. Contains lots of key buffs/debuffs (like Slow), as well as some great crowd-control tools. For non-Mages, Distortion 2 is my magic priority. As a Mage, I'll level Chaos first, but this is still very good. Concentration Magic, Tier 2 Allows the hero to restore Mana during combat. Prerequisites: Meditation  Level 1: 2 Mana restored per turn. Cost: 0/3/8 Level 2: 4 Mana restored per turn. Cost: 0/3/9 Level 3: 6 Mana restored per turn. Cost: 0/3/10Gully's opinion: As a Mage, get this to Level 3 eventually. Especially with the ability to double cast, you need some Mana regen in combat. Non-mages can afford to only get 1 level, since they cast cheaper spells. One note: this only applies for the first 10 turns of combat, so this runs out as a Mana source in long battles. Items Identified Thorns Sprout  Description: A big green sprout, covered with tiny thorns. Type: Used Item Info: A big thorny sprout of the natural plant, Thorn. Plugens  Description: Metal rectangles upon which the Darion crown is engraved. Type: Quest Info: The plugen is the invention of one of the court treasurers. Plugens are used instead of taxes. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Jul 22, 2016 |
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Jul 22, 2016 03:25
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mauman posted:Welp, since we're going to be a mage, then you better get your butt to higher magic and bend the game in two Planning on it. It will be a few levels before we get there though, since its at the bottom of the tree, and the first level is like 5/5/20 runes. I usually go Chaos 2 as the first priority, then start saving for Higher Magic (after all the prereqs are bought).
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Jul 22, 2016 03:41
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Glazius posted:Do simple enough enemies, like, willingly group up for easier explosions? Not really, but they don't ever try to avoid it. That grouping looks more intentionally bad than it was. Basically, the two Robber stacks hadn't acted yet, the one Marauder stack in between them decided to wait, while the others moved in front, probably on a path to get to my Bowmen. So only one stack moved for that to happen. Since almost all combats start out with the stacks lined up along the opposite walls, if you go first you can always hit at least three stacks with a Fireball. IAmTheRad posted:Hopefully watching this will help me suck less at the sequel of Armored Princess. Not really a spoiler when you can find out there is a sequel to this one. No worries, I'm not trying to hide that there are sequels, I've already talked about them in vague terms. As long as it doesn't turn into a discussion solely about the future games, I don't care. For spoilers, I'd prefer if specific bosses/encounters weren't brought up until we see them, and avoid in-depth discussions of how to use units/spells we haven't even seen, much less had a chance to recruit/buy.
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Jul 22, 2016 19:16
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Eeepies posted:I'm not a fan of Archmages at all though. Too little damage for their cost, and in this game, money is pretty hard to come by. Then again, I'm not a fan of any Human unit in particular, they're all pretty weak. I won't be keeping Archmages for too long, for pretty much that reason. Their damage output is too low past the early game. I disagree about Human units though. They are definitely not the strongest, but they are generally decent, and their availability is the best in the game, so they are always there for you. As those above say, they are good enough. But money has never been an issue for me, probably because I play on Normal. I know on Hard/Impossible money becomes much harder to come by.
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Jul 22, 2016 21:55
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Update 6: Weeding out the Weak Last time, we were given a task by the King to deliver a replica Royal Seal to his brother. So naturally, we will completely ignore that quest and instead explore for nearby treasure. Hey, the King made us a Treasure Searcher, not a postman.  Right past the bridge out of town is the village we passed by last time while hunting for plugens. Let's go say hi.  : Good day, traveler. What did you want to know from me?: Hey, elder, why are you so gloomy? What happened?: I'm gloomy because random strangers come up and call me 'elder'. I don't look that old, drat it! : Predatory plants? Interesting, interesting...Can you tell anything about them. I bet it's possible to exterminate them with fire and sword. If not then you've got a real problem.: You're right. We've beaten and burned them, but it's all useless; still they come. Though I do have one idea. I heard from the villagers that a huge red Thorn has appeared by the lake - the likes of which nobody has seen before. And it appeared around the same time that these creatures started to crawl into our gardens. I think that's what you need to look for. That may be the root of the problem. (Reward: 1000 Gold, 65 Experience): Hah, 'root' of the problem, get it?! I thought up that one while waiting for the inevitable questing adventurer to take care of our problems.: Ok, I'll try to find it.See, we Searched and found a source of 1000 gold right here! Just need to apply a minimal amount of effort to acquire it.  Hey, maybe this is the Thorn the elder was talking about?  Nope, just a collection of Thorn-Hunters and Thorn-Warriors. These are low level, fragile enemies, with Hunters being ranged attackers, and Warriors the melee version (details in the bestiary section of this update). As a mage, we are easily able to deal with these guys. See, they are Plants. This gives them some benefits like Poison resistances and immunity to certain spells. But it comes with a whopping 100% Vulnerability to Fire damage. So our fire spells will do double damage to them. Thorns will need to be in huge numbers to be much of a threat to a mage.  So we do what we love.  I leave one of the Thorn-Hunter stacks alive so that I can reach the chest. It is important to get any chest possible. Sure, we already have this spell, but it could have been something new. We can also get Runes from battle-chests, which is a great prize as well.  We do have our first casualty of the campaign (not counting the tutorial), as the Thorn-Hunters targeted my Peasants while we went for the chest. Am I a bad person for sacrificing a dude just for some duplicate scrolls?  A nearby woman's hut also seems to have a Thorny problem of its own.  : Good day, warrior!: Good day, kind woman!: I hope you can help me...I'm an old woman; I can't cope with the trouble that has come to my house. Terrible creatures, evil Thorns have come into my garden. I can neither gather the harvest nor feed my cows. Help me, kind man - save me from this trouble. (Reward: Thorns Sprout (3 pcs.), 65 Experience): Why not, I'll do it. Quest accepted, the gate swings open, and the Thorns attack. They look so cute when they go for a bite like this. We can never be attacked by more than one enemy army at a time, so we fight these armies one at a time.     And we take care of them as we know how to do. The second fight does show off a unique feature of Thorns.  Thorns (both Hunter and Warrior variants) have a Talent called Sowing. It lets them plant a seed on a battlefield corpse, which immediately sprouts into a new stack of Thorns (the type grown seems to be random). The number sprouted is between 25% and 50% of the stack using the Talent (minimum of 1). Having destroyed the infesting Thorns, we pick up the guarded scroll.  Dispel is an Order spell that removes magical effects. Not often used, but it can be very useful when the enemy decides to use certain disabling spells. Higher levels allow you to remove effects from enemies as well, and selectively remove effects. We knock on Wilma's door again.  : Thank you! I'll surely come back later. On our way out of town, Bill sees another house with the icon that indicates someone to talk to.  : Good day, traveler. Where do you come from? My name is Maria. Maybe you've heard about me?: Hello, Maria, I'm Bill Gilbert. No, I haven't heard about you. Should I have? : Yes, good idea! Using dragonflies' wings instead of window glass...You're smart, Maria!: I mean, who wouldn't want a window made out of the flesh of a freshly-killed giant insect?: Thank you for your words, kind man. Maybe you could offer me a little help as well? I'm not so young anymore, and it's hard for me to go around and gather shredded dragonfly wings by myself. But if somebody young and strong like you were to help me... And for those wings I'll give you magic stones crystals. My husband was a pretty decent sorcerer back in the day, and I inherited a lot of his crystals. But I don't actually need them... So if you find such wings anywhere, please bring them to me. I can give you one crystal for every three wings. : Magic crystals for dragonfly wings? Not bad! If I manage to find some, I'll be back!This is quite a nice for us as a Mage, as we will eventually want all the crystals we can get our hands on.  Behind her hut, yet another Thorn is guarding a scroll bag. Let's burn them out.   We get a new spell here, Precision. This Distortion spell gives ranged units bonus damage. The Level 3 version includes a mass effect, which is actually pretty effective if you go ranged-heavy. It is also one of the few buff spells that has increased effect from Intellect.  We head out of the village towards the lake. The approach is guarded, but we also find a precious Mind rune. The shimmering curtain here marks the transition to another region.  As we go in for the rune, we see our Treasure-Sense is still working, but the guard is not about to let us dig freely.  We face an eclectic range of units, including a couple of Guardsmen (a higher-tier version of Swordsmen).  New units to fight means new units to roast.  The enemy Priest pauses to heal the last Guardsman. This is one of the reasons I never find Priests threatening. Sure, this heals the unit, but the Priests do no damage. And even if they have like 100 Priests, the AI will still do this sometimes.  We finish them off with no losses. Unfortunately, the buried chest they were guarding was just another Precision scroll.  We reach the lake, which is swarming with Dragonflies as well as Thorns.  One of the annoying thing about fighting Dragonflies is that they have both high speed and high initiative, so will often be able to open chests before you can even do anything. They also tend to stay less bunched up for Fireballs.    Besides losing a couple of Peasants, we clear out the nearby groups. We do get more dragonfly wings to exchange for crystals though.   One last group of Thorns falls to our blades (ok, to our Fireballs) and we can reach the red Thorn.  We could attack the Royal Thorn to complete the quest. I admit, I've never actually seen what happens if we do that. But we'd miss out on a decent reward if we do. : Hey-hey! You'd better not call me food. Can't we just talk as two intelligent...creatures? : To have a talk? Can the walking-on-two-legs talk peacefully? Those who come before you, they just beat us with sparkling sticks and burn us with lightnings. They say my children came to lands of walking-on-two-legs.: And why do you smell so strongly of my children and burning?: Yes, well that's true. Your children pursue the villagers - they're all over the village. People are dying!: We don't care about the walking-on-two-legs. Our children begin to die - there is no tasty soil for them! And the walking-on-two-legs' soil is tasty. Children must go to tasty soil. If we find tasty soil, then we will leave the walking-on-two-legs' land.: Hmm. You need someone to find tasty soil for you? Ok, I'll ask the villagers about that... We travel back to the village by a different path, encountering more dragonflies. A view of our Peasants in action, forking the enemeny.  The victory pushes us over the top to reach a new level! Level 3  For this level, I choose the Leadership bonus to strengthen our army. I'm still a few Magic runes short of being able to pick up Chaos Magic, so I instead learn our first Might skill with Training 1. This will give our Swordsmen the ability to do a Smashing Blow, a strong attack, every other round.  We find this scroll by the lake as well. Magic Spring is a Distortion spell that increases the Defense of a friendly troop and gives Mana when that troop gets damaged. Useful for those longer fights when Mana starts running low.  Bill takes a look at a nearby statue, drawn by its power.  I guess hearing voices is a good thing sometimes? Bill isn't too delusional to forget about picking up the floating Might rune anyways. Returning to the village elder with our news of the Royal Thorn: : So, did you find the huge flower? I tell you - that one is the cause of our misfortune.: Hum. I don't really know how to tell. I found, but... You know, Etvid, it actually can talk. And it says that they've come to your gardens for tasty soil. Do you know what it could mean? : the elder.: Wilma? Of course, we know each other already. I cleared her garden from Thorns. I expect she'll be pleased to help.Back to Wilma: : Glad to see you, young man. What brings you here?: Good day, Wilma. I need a cow, so Etvid told me about you. You're a milk-woman, and your cows are the best in all of Greenwort.: A cow you say.. And what do you need it for? All cows are different you know. Zorka has a delicate and sensitive heart. You can't shout at her, or whip her with a stick. Nochka is the exact opposite - so naughty! This cow is given to butting, and I don't know what to do with her - you'd better not approach her without a stick. And Ladushka is so obedient and clever, and the milk she gives is so fatty.: I need a cow which can help fertilize gardens.: Ha-a! Then Star would be the best for you! What a cowpie she makes! It's just wonderful - each like a big star, that's why I call her Star. And the droppings are rich and aromatic - just right for the garden. I'll give her to you for just 500 gold coins, since I remember your service - you saved me from those terrible Thorns! Thank you so much for your help with them.: Ok. Here's the 500 gold coins.And back to the Royal Thorn with the #1 shittiest cow: : So what, walking-on-two-legs, have you found any tasty soil for us?: Better! I found out how to make your soil tasty! Here it is - I've brought you a cow! If you feed it with grass and water, it will make your soil tasty!: How strange is this cow... This walking-on-four-legs eats grass and makes soil tasty?!! Good. Walking-on-two-legs are resourceful, they have cows for tasty soil. Now we have a cow too. We won't come to your land any more, walking-on-two-legs.: Great! Don't forget - it must be fed with grass and water!When we talk to the Royal Thorn again: : Is it you, walking-on-two-legs? do the tasty-soil-people complain about my children again? We don't go to their lands anymore; we have much s-sweet soil here. Your walking-on-four-legs feeds us good.: No, they don't complain about your children, on the account that your children are dead of Sudden Onset Fireball Syndrome: I could take some of your children to the other tasty soil. And the Royal Thorn has become an outpost! Completing quests often give new sources of troops and other items.  We've found our replacement for the Peasants! They will basically be ranged Peasants for us - same HP, same damage, slightly more expensive, and ranged. And with 1400 available, we've got plenty to spare.  Let's take these babies for a test-drive. This army has been guarding an altar near the Magic School. Short and Long Range attacks  Let's talk about range and archers. Some ranged units, like the Archmages, do full damage no matter what range they shoot. However, most ranged units only do 50% damage at long range. For instance, our new Thorn-Hunters above would be shooting long range here.  If we move a couple hexes closer, we find that we can do twice as much damage. This is one of the benefits of being able to move and shoot in this game, you can shuffle archers forward to increase damage. The actual hex distance varies between units. For these Thorn-Hunters, anything within 4 hexes is a short range attack. Both Bowmen and Priests have a longer range, so anything within 6 hexes is short range. When you are playing the game, you will have a broken arrow icon if your archer is at long range, and a straight arrow when at short-range.  The Thorns do a great job, I'd say. Using plant monsters to kill local peasants...that's not a bad thing ,right?  Let's investigate the altar they were guarding.  This magic altar powers up our Intellect. Fantastic! Worth the killing I'd say. Let us finally finish this weeding quest and return to the elder with our news. : So, did you find Wilma the milk-woman? Did she give you one of her cows?: Yes, it's ok, don't worry. The villagers are safe now; I came to an agreement with the giant Thorn. It won't bother you anymore.: Thank you, Bill Gilbert! The villagers will never forget you. (Reward: 1000 Gold, 65 Experience): You're welcome, I'm always glad to help. Here's a look at Bill Gilbert after filling up our army. Next time on King's Bounty, we will have a chat with a zombie, lure a bear, help out the local fisherman, and continue to avoid the main quest. ------------------------------------------ Bonus Material Marking the Map Our next addition to the bonus material is a look at our ingame map.  When we pull it up, we get an animated view of clouds pulling away from the places we have been (since the last time we looked at it).  The village we've been doing our questing for is directly south of the castle, with the Magic School west of that. The lake where the dragonflies and Royal Thorn were is in the southwest. The Eastern road is where our Plugen hunt took us.  The world map so far. Talkin' 'bout Troops Today, we will look at the local plants and insects. Thorn-Hunter  Resistances: 50% Poison, -100% Fire Critical Hit %: 5 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents  Sowing: Grows a troop of Thorns from the slain troop in a neighboring cell. The total Leadership of the new troop is: 2-4. Charges: 1.Abilities Archer Plant: Plants have no Intellect or living flesh, and the have the following features: Vulnerable to Fire (200% Damage), Posion Protection (50% Damage), Immune to Mind spells and some other spells. Eyeless: Immune to "Blind", "Precision" and "Shroud" spells. Can sense invisible creatures. No melee penalty Gully's opinion: These guys are great early archers. They have great damage output per Leadership. They have 3 speed, which means they can move 2 spaces and still shoot, and they are way better in melee than Bowmen. Their downside is their range (4 hexes for full damage) and fragility, especially if Fire spells get involved. Sowing isn't going to be too useful outside of a couple of circumstances, since you need a nearby corpse. Fighting them: Burn them, if you can. Fragile, but they can be found in huge numbers, so they can deal out some damage. Being immune to Blind is frustrating if you've been depending on that to deal with archer stacks. Thorn-Warrior  Resistances: 50% Poison, -100% Fire Critical Hit %: 12 Defense Bonus: 2 Talents SowingAbilites Plant Eyeless Gully's opinion: I don't think I've ever used them except when sowed. Conceptually, better than Peasants at the glass cannon role. High damage for Leadership (especially if Blessed), decent speed, and decent HP. But they will melt in the face of attacks and retaliations, and without access to infinite recruits, its not going to be easy to replace them. Fighting them: Burn them. But they are also quite fragile in melee, so you can usually cut their numbers down before they can retaliate. Lake Dragonfly  Resistances: 30% Magic Critical Hit %: 12 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents: None Abilities Soaring: Allows the creature to fly over low obstacles and road irregularities. Magic Resistance: Gives the creature Magic Resistance ability. Weakness: When attacking, the creature has 30% chance to cast "Weakness" on the enemy troop, lasting one turn. Gully's opinion: Never used them. High damage output, fast, high initiative. Would be great glass cannons if you could find them in numbers. Super fragile. Fighting them: Hit them with ranged and spells before fighting them in melee (if they have high numbers). Usually easy enough to cut down. Fire Dragonfly  Resistances: 30% Fire Critical Hit %: 12 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents  Haste: Doubles the quantity of Action Points. Reload: 1.Abilities Soaring Fire Resistance: Gives the creature Fire Resistance. Gully's opinion: Never used them. Conceptually similar to Lake Dragonflies. Although technically slower, the Haste Talent gives them 6 speed every other turn, which is insanely fast for this game. I could see them being good at darting into hit ranged units on the second turn. But again, fragile troops need basically infinite supply to use well. Fighting them: See Lake Dragonfly. Only annoyance is that Fire spells/abilities will do much less damage. Spells Seen None! Skills Shown Training Might, Tier 1 This skill helps the hero train his troops, teaching them new battle skills. Prerequisites: None  Level 1: Swordsmen learn Smashing Blow talent. Cost: 2/0/0 Level 2: Bowmen learn Flaming Arrow talent. Cost: 3/1/0 Level 3: Knights learn Circle Attack talent. Cost: 4/2/0Gully's opinion: Training gives your Human troops much needed Talents. Level 1 is required for advancement anyways, if you intend on doing anything further down. Smashing Blow turns an OK tank into an OK tank with decent damage. Level 2 is great for Warriors/Paladins for a source of Fire damage early in the game. Mages can probably skip unless you want to use Bowmen. Level 3 gives your Knights a fantastic offensive move. Really need to combine it with some movement spells so the Knights can position themselves to use it well. Items Identified Cow  Description: The cow, bought from the milk-woman. Type: Quest Info: The ordinary cow with horns and hooves. Dragonfly's Wing  Description: The translucent yet firm wing of a dragonfly. Type: Quest Info: The firm, translucent wing of that strange cross between animal and insect known as the dragonfly.
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Jul 24, 2016 14:59
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Doopliss posted:Deeply disappointed that you won't be showing off this game's ultra-deep, Witcher-esque system of choices and consequences - though I guess I'm not one to talk, since I never wound up fighting the Royal Thorn either. Haha, fair enough. I will put some choices up for a vote for some quests, I just like the Royal Thorn shop too much for the early game. Tylana posted:Never tried these games, though I saw a friend play them a bit. I appear to have Crossworlds GOTY from something or other, is that part of the Armoured Princess games, judging from the cover shot? Thanks a ton, dude . it's been fun to make so far. Lots of work but it feels great knowing that people are watching and enjoying it. And yeah, Crossworlds is the expansion for Armored Princess. If you play the Orcs on the March campaign, its the nearly the same as the Armored Princess campaign with new units, items, and quests added, so I do recommend it that way. That's what I'll be doing when we get there. These games are a little too long to be directly replayable without getting burned out, in my opinion.
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Jul 25, 2016 01:56
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Doopliss posted:One thing that you can miss in an SSLP is that this game is a thing of beauty in motion. Most notably in this case, Thorns have less in common with the Zerg than they do puppies. Haha, nice. I've been trying to capture some of the cooler animations with GIFs, but I missed that one. They really are adorable. Unfortunately, the Thorns probably won't be staying in my army for the long haul, they just die so easily that reinforcing them can be a pain. anilEhilated posted:Someone was mentioning that it's a shame you can't recruit the big red one: you can get them later in the game, they're basically a cheaper, weaker high-level unit. I do like them a lot as well (Royal Thorns, that is), since they are one of the stronger ranged units in the game, and have a way better Talent than the junior Thorns do. But as was said, they are hard to get in numbers and they die easily, especially when Fire damage get to be more common (cough, dragons, cough). But I will hopefully show them off for a couple battles at least, if I find enough. One of the nice things about the smaller Leadership cap of the Mage is that I don't need as many troops for a full stack.
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Jul 27, 2016 16:15
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Update 7 - Animal Wrangling: Look, Bill Gilbert. To tell you the truth, it is not right for me to ask you again, as you have already helped our village with those terrible plants. Last time on King's Bounty, we helped out the local village with the local plant-life with a cunning combination of diplomacy and Fireballs. But being a town mayor in a fantasy RPG, the Elder has another quest for us. : What happened? I mean, I've just been standing here, and nothing is on fire, so how much trouble could you have gotten into?: You see... We really don't know what the matter is, but our miller, Bob Bucker, all the sudden has locked himself in the mill. He doesn't want to see or talk to anybody. That would be... well, alright if he wants his privacy. But if he stops the mill, then the whole village will be without flour!: Huh. Well, I'll go to the miller and find out what's happened. Lucky for us, the mill is about five feet away.  Inside the basement, we find a charming fellow.  : Don't come up! Get out of here! Don't look at me!: Oh, Gods of Endoria! What is this!?: Don't you see? I'm the local miller! My name is Bob Baker...: Are you sure? 'Cause the elder literally just said your name was Bucker. I guess the old fool is fairly senile.: It's strange! But you resemble a zombie much more than a miller.: Don't doubt it - I really am the miller... Or perhaps I should say instead - I was him not so long ago... Working the mill is not a cushy job, I can barely make a living. Normally I take on extra work, but to tell you the truth, it was not always honest work. Sometimes I went grave robbing. I was spending nights at the cemetery in Marshan Swamp, searching for valuables in the graves and crypts... It seems like I caught a disease at the cemetery. You can see that for yourself what... happened to me.: Sounds terrible. Maybe I can help you?: I don't know. Maybe mages from the Magic School will be able to do something. Maybe they could help somehow. They are wizards and they must be able to treat strange illnesses!: Yes, the mages might help. I'll go to the Magic School and tell them of your trouble.We go off to find this poor man some help...but not before looting his basement right in front of him of a banner, a might rune, and a crystal. We head to the nearby Magic School. We recruited our Archmages from here, but never really talked to the leader.  Now, there's lots of things we can ask him. But in the interest of flow, I'm going to start putting lore and non-quest related dialogue into the bonus section. : I came at a Zombie's request... : Zombie? What's this!? I once heard of a man like you who thought he speak with the dead, but not being a mage he first had to prepare himself by drinking a couple jugs of wine! You don't seem like a man trained to commune with corpses...: The miller from the village has turned into a zombie. I talked to thim and he sent me to you for advice...: Interesting! By this account, the miller had gone through a sort-of partial transformation into an undead creature, but still preserves some part of his living senses! This is a rare thing indeed, but it's not impossible.: And what could have caused it?: Usually this happens as a result of a curse, probably by wearing some cursed item. The curse gradually blackens the soul of its owner and deadens his flesh... Yes, it must have happened like this. If you brought me the cursed item, I would be able to analyze the structure of the curse, and perhaps create a counter-spell...: The cursed item? Ok, I'll ask the miller if he's come across any strange items.And back to the mill! By the way, this quest is called Trouble at the Mill. While I appreciate the reference, it is also a lot of trouble with this back and forth. : Ugh... Who's there? I feel the warmth of living flesh... A-a-ah... It's you, Bill Gilbert... So have you visited mages? What did the wizards say? Is there any hope for me?: Yes. The mages think that a curse befell you, when you took some enchanted item out of a grave.: Oh! I knew, I knew that something was wrong with that ring! So, it turned out to be cursed... I found a golden ring in a grave. When I tried it on - well, it really hurt! The wound took a long time to heal. And now I remember that it was frm this wound that my flesh began to transform. I gave the ring to the Rotten Hake, the robbers' leader. I give him all my loot, and the sell the stolen things.: Ok, I'll go to him. How can I find him?: In the forest to the north from the capital, there's a robbers' den. The place is not welcoming - the forest is gloomy, and it just feels wrong, like unkind people and animals live there. And in fact this is indeed the case. Rotten Hake and his gang make their living there. I hope he still has the ring, because if he already resold it, I'm in trouble!: Don't worry, miller. I'll find Hake and the things which you sold him. The path to the northern forest appears to be guarded. Bill decides to try the western path.  Snakes... why did it have to be snakes? Actually, Royal Snakes are probably my number one favourite unit to use in the entire game, and I really hope I get to show off why.  Mid-fight, I move my Thorns up to get into close range. They should be safe here, right?  Ugh, nope. The Royal Snakes move up from the back row, and start the next turn with a lunge that kills 6 Thorns.  And the poison claims 2 more over the rest of the battle. Snakes are awesome (but not to fight against).  A nearby stump looks somewhat suspicious.  Aww, just a couple of Slow scrolls. Well, still means money in the end.  The real prize is nearby. Not only do we pick up a floating Mind rune, but this chest...  Bam! 3 more Mind runes pop out of the chest. Keep in mind we get 7-8 runes at level-up, and we just found 4 right here.   And another one is right nearby with these dragonflies. That's 5 Mind runes in as many minutes. Alright, enough distractions. Let's continue deeper into the forest to find this Rotten Hake...wait, do you hear something rustling in the bushes?   Oh poo poo, they've come for revenge! Uhhh, time to think of a clever strategy... Run like hell! It's a good lesson with this game that you will not necessarily be able to take care of everything in an area. This means either come back later or find another way. Looks like Rotten Hake will have to wait for a bit. (I loaded up to see how many Thorns were in this army, and it's over 900. I could kill maybe 60 per turn with Fireballs).  Similarly, we are not equipped to deal with these nearby armored troops.  These troops are set to guard that banner, so they have a short aggro radius. Further, they won't go far from their guard post. This is good, because they won't chase you far before giving up. But you also can't really kite them away from their post to sneak by.  Having to run away twice in a row is doing no good for Bill's confidence. He feels the need to kill rising, and who better than some apparently overzealous guards by the river?  After a couple of turns, we've dealt with most of their ranged units. But the enemy Guardsmen have moved up to striking distance of our Swordsmen.  I decide to protect the Swordsmen with Stoneskin. Stoneskin adds +Defense and +Physical Resist. This makes it ultra-effective on already tanky units like these Swordsmen. It does lower their Initiative though.  Two attacks later, and our Stoned Swords haven't even lost one guy, even with a critical hit against them (although it's a really close thing).  And we get a lossless victory. Of course, a Fireball would have probably worked just as well, but Stoneskin and other buffs get more powerful in proportion to our army, while Fireballs will get more powerful in proportion to our Intellect/Spell Level. This makes Stoneskin much more powerful for Warriors than for Mages.  With our Zombie quest on hold, let's go exploring a new direction. We went to the right at this path before, but now we will explore down the left.  Bears out of nowhere!  More like Wolves out of nowhere! Wolves are one of the most annoying enemies in the early game. Not because of they are dangerous or anything, but because of this:  The Wolf Cry Talent inflicts the Fear status on all human, dwarf, or elf units under Level 3. This means we can't control them, they have a 50% chance to do nothing, and they won't attack units of a higher Level than themselves. If we had all of our army affected by it, I wouldn't be able to cast any spells either, since it would never be my turn. And since Wolves have high Initiative, they will almost always do this before you can act. Always make sure you have at least one unit immune to this effect.  gently caress wolves.   Near this army, we find a scroll of Battle Cry. This Order spell increases Initiative of the target. I find it a relatively useless spell, unless you really need a unit to act before another one. I usually have more important spells to cast. Just off of the path, we find this structure in the woods.   : Do you want to have a look at the animals I sell in the menagerie? Hunters bring unusual animals to me from all the corners of Darion, and other lands as well.: You have a menagerie? You wouldn't happen to know anything about all these bears and wolves wandering nearby, would you?: No, I don't need any unusual animals. Maybe I could help you something?: Oh, I really do need some help. Not long ago a bear escaped from my menagerie, a white bear. He was specially brought from Kordar's snowy woods. Last night he broke his cage and ran away. I think he ran into the Royal Wood, to the north. That's why I need your help - please catch it and bring it back. Can you do it? (Reward: 1100 Gold, 40 Experience).: Sure I will, why not? How should I bring it here, though? He will attack me and I'll have to kill him. As far as I understand, you need him alive...: Of course, alive. I'll give you a special herb called the "Bearka." A bear becomes drunk with its smell and won't attack you - indeed, he'll follow you as if he's on a leash. Bring him back here; I'll prepare a strong cage.: Ok, I'll go and search for your bear. Look, this herb won't do the same to me, will it? I don't want to follow my horse around, as if I was on a leash. Heh, I'm kidding, alright? As he mentioned, the menagerie is an outpost that specializes in selling animals. Currently, we can get Venomous Spiders, Wolves, and Bears.  : Gah! They're everywhere! I think I need to speak to the menagerie about their security measures. Thanks to the Wolf Cry, these Marauders get to a battle chest first since I can't control most of my units.  We also lose a couple more Thorns.  Without a Wolf in sight, we take care of the second group easily.  As we finish off these animals, Bill hears something coming from a nearby boulder.  : I...The stooone...Teeell youuu... Beee so kiiind... Gooo to the Maaagic Schoool... Aaask.. There was a yoooung maaage... Hee diiid not enchaaant me to the eeend... Doooo not waaant to beee an ooordinary stooone... Leeet him fiiinish whaaat waaas beeegun..: Ok, I'll go to the Magic School. It's not far; I'll ask them how to help you.One more sidequest for the pile. Let's deal with the rogue bear first.  Of course, we still want to ransack the countryside as well. By the speaking stone, we find yet another Mind rune, and a magic wishing well.   Welp. Wishing wells can give a wide variety of rewards, from runes to spells to gold to equipment. Of course, you might get unlucky and just get some experience from the lesson. Hint: don't learn the lesson this message says, it's always worth risking a crystal on them.  The Royal Woods the zookeeper directed us towards lies down this path. One more free rune (thankfully a Magic one this time) as well.   This group of Thorns and Peasants falls quickly, and we get the Fear scroll they guarded. Fear is a Chaos spell that is similar to the Wolf Cry. Key difference is that it affects only one target, but can affect any level target. It can be decent for disabling hordes of low level units. If you target a Level 1 stack and you have nothing below Level 2, they can't attack at all (if they aren't immune to it, like Undead are).   This fight is also nothing special, but we do find a scroll of Healing in the battlefield chest. Healing is an Order spell that, well, heals. Only really useful on high Level units. However, it can also be used to damage Undead. At Level 3, Healing also removes Poison, Weakness, or Plague.  At the end of the path, we see a bear that doesn't act like an enemy. I think we found the quest goal. Let's lead it back to the zoo.  It's actually a little annoying to do so. If you get too far away, the bear stops following. If you are too close, the bear will stop to rear up again. Above you can see the bear somehow got confused, turned around, and refused to follow me for a few minutes. Eventually, we wrangle the bear back to the menagerie. : So, have you found my bear? You will recognize him by his white fur. There are no other white bears around here.: Here's your bear. Actually I had to run from him, you know. Put him into the cage quickly, the stronger the cage the better, because it seems to me that your herb has lost its smell.: Certainly, certainly. I've already prepared the cage - one strong enough to hold a dragon. A small one though... But this bear will definitely be unable to break it. Thank you, you've rescued me. Take your reward, Searcher. (Reward: 1100 Gold, 40 Experience): You're welcome, goodbye. Ah, after all that excitement, Bill could use a midnight stroll along the beach.  : Oh! Thunder! It looks like I have guests. What do you come for Bill Gilbert? Here to listen to an old seaman's stories?: Listen, don't you have any errands for me, or perhaps a cup of coffee?: How do you like that! Now he wants some coffee! How can you expect a former seaman, now a mere commoner, to have such a rare foreign beverage? Only the nobles and the rich money-lenders can afford to frink it. As for a job... We've got trouble large and small around here. Maybe there's something you can help us with?: Alright, tell me about your small trouble. I'm not ready for anything too serious yet. I wanted to show off that we can almost always refuse side-quests, usually by being incredibly rude and condescending towards them. But if you aren't doing sidequests, why are you playing an RPG-style game? We agree to go talk to the king.  But you know, we could take care of these fish another way...  Devilfish have decent speed, high initiative, do good damage, and can inflict Fear on targets they bite. On top of that, they are mildly resistant to fire. But...not immune, and so not a threat in these numbers at least.   Unfortunately, we can't complete the quest just by murdering fish by the dozen.  Also inhabiting the beach is a majestic Griffin. Let's kill it.  Griffins are fast, flying units that can retaliate multiple times per round. They have enough defense and hitpoints that my units would get hurt, especially if they are Blessed like this.  So I think some roast Griffin is in order.   Beaches are great places for buried treasure, make sure you hunt carefully. This chest just had some gold. We head to the King to talk about the fishing edict. : So, did you visit my brother Carl? I mean, you can't have been ignoring my orders and doing anything but, could you?: Uhhh...uhhh, about that...: I came to tell you about an issue with your edict on fishing.: Hmmm. It seems to me that by royal decree we have appointed you Treasure Searcher - not fisherman. Why then are you talking about fishing?: It's not that I myself have a concern regarding fishing. But you see, Your Majesty, your decree has forbidden the catching of certain sea creatures beyond a strictly-defined limit. For this reason, the fishermen cannot fish the "devilfish" - huge fish which are quickly multiplying and overtaking the waters. These fishes are both dangerous and predatory, and your royal fishing waters are falling into chaos.: I see you have a kind heart, and care for our people and the land. That is good, Bill Gilbert. Just so you know, we didn't have such fish in our waters before, oh - well that's something we can discuss later. In any case, we must hire some mages to check what kind of fish this is, and why it has appeared in our waters in such quantity. Meanwhile, you may convey to the fisherman my permission to fish without restrictions, for the next three years!: Thank you, I will go directly - and I am sure the fisherman will be delighted.We also talk to the Magic School: : I saw a strange speaking stone in the forest...: Speaking! And what did it say?: It said that one of the school's students tried to enchant it, to transform it into something unusual. But he didn't entirely succeed, and so the stone is till a common stone.: Didn't succeed? Well, Bill Gilbert, wouldn't you say that a talking stone itself is rather an unusual thing? Well at any rate, in the case of a partial magic transformation, you simply need to finish the conjuration. Then the object - in our case, a stone - will become whatever the original conjuration's author intended it to become.: And do you know how to finish the conjuration?: Interesting... A speaking stone... I'd like to talk to the student who cast such a spell. The school's top minds have wrestled with the conjuration and animation of natural elements for scores of years... Hmm, you might try the universal Zerillon's formula - "ut umus lemo canis"... Maybe it will work.: Thank you, I'll try it.Back down to the stone and beach. : Yooou... Muuust knooow? Hooow to tuuurn into somethiiing but the stooone?: Yes. I know the magic words... "Ut umus lemo canis".  : Ummm...did I just..kill the stone? I mean, it was sentient and all. I'm feeling a bit guilty... : Never mind, worth it!Onward to the beach. : Well met, Bill Gilbert! So, have you talked to the king?: Yes, I've just seen him... Our good King Mark the Wise has lifted the edict, and permits you to fish without restriction, for the next three years!: That's great news, Bill Gilbert! We'll fill our nets with those horrible creatures. From all the village, thank you! (Reward: 960 Gold, 30 Experience): Glad I could be of service. Is there anything else I can help with?: Alright young man, I'll tell you about my trouble. My passion for wine and gambling have got the better of me. You see, I diced away all my money to one of Rotten Hake's cutthroats, Beardless Joe. I even had to give him my fishing tackle. But without the gear, I can't fish, and so my family will soon starve... I've already offered him more than enough money to buy it back, and I'm more than willing to work off my debts. but he just laughs in my face and says he's keeping my fishing tackle as a memento, and won't trade it back to me for any price. Would you help me? Find Beardless Joe, bring him to reason, and return my tackle to me. I will pay you generously for the job. (Reward: 1200 Gold, 60 Experience): Deal, I'll talk to Beardless Joe about your tackle as soon as I find him. Good luck in the meantime.Ignoring the fact of someone who is apparently dead broke having 1200 gold to pay us with, we find our prey right near the local lighthouse.  Beardless...right...  : Who're you? What do you want from me? Get our of here while you're still in one piece!: Give me the tackle, you oaf! Fancy that, he thought he was going to frighten me...: What tackle are you talking about, buddy? I don't know nothing about no tackle...: You've insulted my friend, taking his fishing tackle away from Kitano. And because he's my friend, I'm going to tear your mouth to shreds with his hooks, then pluck out your eyes. You'll be going to sorceresses for the rest of your short, miserable life! (Goddamn Bill, calm down!): Well, now, old chap! Do you really mean to threaten me? You'd better not do that...you know... Otherwise, I can... you know...: Don't try to frighten me, I'm Viscount Bill Gilbert; I won't stand for threats from a petty thief. If you don't want this to play out nice and friendly, we'll do it in a less pleasant way!   Beardless Joe puts up very little fight. We finish off the last of his Robbers with a Smashing Blow from our Swordsman.  We grab the tackle, and presumably carry out our threats to mutilate Joe, because he is never seen again. : Hi Bill Gilbert! I'm still waiting for you to bring me my tackle. I hear Joe planned to visit the lighthouse keeper. You can try to track him down there...: I know, I know. That's exactly where I found him, at the lighthouse. Here's your tackle.: And what about Beardless Joe? I hope he's not going to come bothering me again.: Don't worry about him. He's gone to join his ancestors: See, I didn't torture him as I threatened...just murdered him: Well, it serves him right. I'm just sorry I didn't kill hm myself. I could have caught him coming out of the tavern and beaten him with an oar... Sorry, I must have been daydreaming... what was I talking about? Ah yes, good job Bill Gilbert! Here's your reward! (Reward: 1200 Gold, 60 Experience): We'll have time to talk later. Goodbye! The quest experience pushes us to a new level. Since we chose Leadership last level, it's not on offer now. I go with Intellect, of course.  Here's Bill after leveling up. I go ahead and spend our hordes of runes: I pick up Chaos Magic 1 at last (so we can learn Chaos spells), and I pick up the first level of Glory. Glory 1 gives us +100 Leadership. Not really worth it, but its best to take it early if you want to go further down the Mind tree (which I do). We have enough runes to buy other skills, but I want to save up for Chaos Magic 2. Sorry for the extra long update, but I will be away for the weekend, and I wanted to get through a good chunk of material. Next time on King's Bounty, we will at last continue the King's quest, and visit the neighboring region of Arlania. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Yet another addition to the bonus section. This section will show off the dialogue and conversations that do lore-building in King's Bounty, to avoid text-dumping in the main updates. Today, we will chat with Elerio about the Magic School and some history. : I'd like to know more about the Magic School.: Darion Magic School was founded by the former mage-lecturer of the Academy, Archmage Goyen Waldi, better known as Waldares the Winged. Together with two of his former students he bought a half-ruined house on the city outskirts and began to teach basic magic to the children there talented enough to learn. Decades passed, and a modest school turned into what you see now - Darion Magic School, where scores of the greatest sorcerers teach young mages who come not only from Darion, but from all across the world. We even have two elves studying here!Here we teach reading and writing, literature and languages, history and philosophy, herbalism, astronomy and, of course, magic. Nearly thirty theoretical and practical courses are available - from spell design to battle magic basics. And starting from this year we introduced a couple of courses that even the central Magic Academy doesn't offer! : What about a lost town? (This seeming non-sequitur is related to a quest he gives us): There is a myth, a legend, of a time long past. At school you must remember studying an epoch known as the Necromancers' Rebellion? As you will recall, all the necromancers were either eliminated or banished to the Land of Death, and all their horrible black towers and towns were burnt to the ground with sacred fire.But there is one town, a legend about a town I should say, which escaped the inquisition and King Vilor's retribution. With the help of a bloody ceremony - bloody as all the other rites of necromancers - the black art mages managed to conceal the entire town from the eyes of their enemies. And so it disappeared as if it had never existed. But we know for sure that the town was neither destroyed nor taken into the other world. At least not taken entirely... In other words, there was once a town and now there's not. But the curious thing remains that sometimes quite strange individuals and other things appear from nowhere and disappear in the same way. Some of our mages are sure that this town still exists and one could even pass into it! And with the help of the Chronicles we wish to learn how necromancers managed to transport the town to... well, there, where it is now. : Why did the Mages quarrel with the Witches Coven?: It's an old story. As a young student, I was preparing my final report before graduation. And I asked a good friend of mine, Chvakha, a young and quite, ah, promising witch for a bit of help. A month later, she had prepared not just a report, but a groundbreaking scientific treatise, with great number of examples and rare specimens. But alas, on the day of the presentation, all these priceless records transformed into a set of stupid and abominable witch's recipes! And to top it all off, a terrible stench arose from out of the papers, which made the whole Council sick, and caused hallucinations! Needless to say, after that, all contact with witches was broken off...Marking the Map  Rotten Hake's is in the cloud covered north-west, where our path was blocked by Thorns galore. The menagerie is off the path to the beach, with the path north of that where we found the bear. The talking stone was west at that intersection instead. And of course, our fishing and murder adventures took us to the beach in the north. Talkin' 'bout Troops Today we will look at some of Endoria's wild forest animals. Bear  Resistances: -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 4 Talents  Running: The troop receives additional 2 Action Points to rush to the enemy. Charges: 1.Abilities Critical Attack: Chance to make a Critical Hit is very high. Brutality: When the bear takes damage, his Attack doubles until the end of the turn. Hibernation: The creature can fall asleep from inactivity. Wakes up when it is attacked. While sleeping, the creature can recover its health. Gully's opinion: Bears are solid melee units for the early to mid game. They are fairly sturdy units. Their attack/damage might seem a bit low for their Leadership, but their Abilities help out greatly. High critical chance, and 2x Attack if they've been hit that round makes them far better than it seems, and makes for great retaliation damage. Mobility-wise, the Bear is slow, but the Running talent gives it 4 speed for one turn, allowing it to dash into combat. Watch out for Hibernation though, never end a Bear's turn early, otherwise it will miss its whole next turn. Fighting them: Avoid melee if possible. Ranged units can hurt them, and they have a slight vulnerability to fire. They are also great targets for slow, because they'll be moving 1 hex a turn after their run is used up. Ancient Bear  Resistances: 10% Physical, -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 30 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents RunningAbilities Critical Attack Brutality Hibernation Gully's opinion: It's a Bear, but way better. +1 Initiative, +10 HP, +4 Defense/Attack, +10% Phys resist, and +2 Damage all for just 10 more Leadership. Above all, it gets a whopping 30% Crit rate, tied for highest in the game. They can deal huge amounts of damage with criticals while under the effects of Brutality, and the additional HP/Phys Resist makes them quite beefy indeed. If I use a stack of Bears, it will probably be Ancient Bears. Fighting them: Same as bears, just be more cautious about them getting to attack. Wolf  Resistances: -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 15 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents  Wolf Cry: Makes a long, horrible howl, which makes humans, elves and dwarves of 1-2 level frightened, forcing them to skip the turn with probability of 50%. Charges: 1.Abilities Night Sight: Attack during nighttime and underground combat is increased by 50%. Frenzy: The creature has 20% chance to infect the enemy with "Frenzy" during an attack LP note: Frenzied creatures are removed from control of the player, and will attack the nearest troop friend or foe. Gully's opinion: I've never used Wolves. They have decent attack characteristics and speed, and high initiative. But they are quite fragile, with only 15 HP at 30 Leadership. Swordsmen are more than twice as beefy, as strong on the attack, and same speed, so I prefer them. The Wolf Cry is great when it works, and isn't bad if they have large amounts of Bowmen/Swordsmen or other human troops. Many things are immune to it though. Fighting them: Unless you go first, they will almost certainly use Wolf Cry. Make sure you have at least one unit immune to it. Beyond that, they are very fragile. Spells and ranged attacks will hurt them badly. Spells Seen Stoneskin  Target's skin turns to stone, providing defense and resistance from physical damage, but it reduces target's initiative as well. Crystal Cost: 1 / 2 / 4 Mana Cost: 3 / 5 / 7 Level 1 Defense and Resistance: +20%; Initiative: -1; Duration: 3 turns Level 2: Defense and Resistance: +30%; Initiative: -1; Duration: 4 turns Level 3: Defense and Resistance: +40%; Initiative: -1; Duration: 5 turns Gully's opinion: Fantastic at keeping things alive. The Phys Resist stacks additively with existing Physical Resist (up to 80% maximum), so tough units become nearly uncrackable. Combined with Teleport or Target, you can make the enemy waste lots of attacks on your tank while you hit them with other units. One of the best spells for Warriors. Skills Shown Chaos Magic Magic, Tier 2 This skill allows the hero to learn and upgrade Chaos Magic spells. Prerequisites: Distortion Magic, Concentration  Level 1: Chaos spells can be learned from scrolls. Cost: 2/0/6 Level 2: Chaos spells can be upgraded to level 2. Cost: 4/0/8 Level 3: Chaos spells can be upgraded to level 3. Cost: 6/0/12Gully's opinion: Chaos Magic contains many of the direct damage spells, but also a number of debuffs to weaken enemies. It has a few summoning spells, and also contains the Sacrifice spell which lets you transfer health between units and is one of the only ways to rebuild units that you've run out of recruits for. Chaos Magic is really only useful for Mages, and I tend to only get level 1 for the other classes. Glory Mind, Tier 1 Everyone wants to fight under the banner of the famous hero. This increases the hero's Leadership. Prerequisites: None  Level 1: Leadership +100. Cost: 2/5/0 Level 2: Leadership +250. Cost: 3/6/0 Level 3: Leadership +500. Cost: 4/7/0Gully's opinion: This skill basically sucks. Since its a flat bonus, it quickly gets outclassed by other sources (by the end game, even 500 Leadership might be around 2-3% of your total). However, if you want to go down that branch of the Mind tree, get Level 1 early when it is most effective. I wouldn't get any more unless you are near the end game and have nothing better to spend it on. Items Identified Bearka  Description: A flower with a sharp smell which attracts bears. Type: Quest Info: It's known that bears love to dig up and chew the roots of the Bearka. Its sharp smell and sweet taste intoxicate bears, making them playful and good-natured. Fishing Tackle  Description: It's ordinary fishing tackle. Type: Quest Info: This fishing gear has not been used for a long time.
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Jul 28, 2016 02:01
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Slaan posted:I'm glad I'm not alone in my love of Royal Snakes. My first game had a stockpile of 500 or so at the Menagerie. It took me through most of the game. I never found a spawner for them in any of my other games though. Usually (and I'm really hoping this game too) you can get significant numbers of Royal Snakes on offer in a couple of the Marshan Swamp castles, after you do certain quests. There is another place that I believe is a guaranteed spawner, but it doesn't come with the numbers to last the whole game. Part of the fun of this game, though, is that you can't always count on the same units being around in the same quantity (except for most of the Human ones). I'm also going to try to shake up my composition a little more than I usually do, to show off more troop combinations. So I probably will try rotating Royal Snakes out once in awhile even if I have thousands available. In a normal game, though, Royal Snakes stay in my army right through to the end if I can swing the numbers.
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Jul 28, 2016 14:46
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Doopliss posted:One of this game's eccentricities is the ability to use random-rear end quest items for equally random-rear end effects. For example, here's what happens if we were to use those bear-taming herbs we got a while back: Oh wow, I had no idea you could use those at all - tempting to go back to get that +2 Rage (I won't, it's part of the fun). I'll keep an eye out for using Quest items in the future though.
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Jul 28, 2016 16:31
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meristem posted:Argh, you didn't show in Update 5 what happens if you go to the King (after the initial tests) decked out in the Training Sword, the Cart Wheel *and* the Clay Bowl. Haha, I didn't know there was something for that. I'll go load an old save and check it out, and put it in the next update as a bonus. It appears there's still a lot in this game to see that I didn't know about at all, so I'm glad people are letting me in on things I missed. Keep it coming! Next update should be up either tonight or tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy week.
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Aug 5, 2016 19:27
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Update 8 - Postman Bill and Dragon Dentistry: So, did you visit my brother Carl? You do know I can have you executed for insubordination, right? Last time(s) on King's Bounty, we studiously ignored the King's request for us to deliver a replica Royal seal to his brother Carl. Having cleared out much of the immediate region, Bill has a bit of time to spare for his actual job now. : May I clarify, where exactly can I find Carl?: To the east of Darion, in Arlania. He lives in the observatory at the top of a hill. He doesn't leave his tower, either day or night, as he studies the tractates of the great geographers. It's easy to find him - just gallop along the main road to the bridge which leads north, near the mill. Take the bridge, then bear right just after, and proceed into the hills. You will recognize his tower at once.I wanted to show off the kind of dialogue you get when you have an active quest with a character. If for some reason the quest log isn't good enough, NPCs will give you very specific directions. Considering the small size of the region maps in this game, it's almost an excessive amount of detail. But its there if you need it.  For some odd reason (cough, side-quest, cough), Bill Gilbert feels a real need to talk to this dwarf near the balloon now.  : Yes I'm impressed...So, what is it? It looks like a boat with a balloon attached, but...it seems to be hanging in the air. What kind of magic holds it up? : Eh, by the sound of it, you've never been out of Darion. Otherwise you'd know about dwarven machines! This flying boat is called a "dirigible." It's a dwarven invention for traveling through the air...Pure science and no magic! It's just this balloon that holds it in the air. So you, stranger, would you like to take a ride on such a thing?: My name is Bill Gilbert. But I don't know...it's a bit frightening.: Bill Gilbert? So! You are our royal Treasure Searcher? Wonderful! Me and your predecessor de Virre traveled a lot around the world a long time ago... My name is Tregum... I'm the pilot and service technician of that thing there. Basically, I watch over the dirigible to keep it in good order. Well, Bill Gilbert, I'm glad we've got acquainted. I knew you were my man from the moment I caught sight of you! You see how you got interested in the dirigible!: Look, it seems like it would be nice to fly over the forests and mountains in a thing like that! Maybe some day you will show me what Darion looks like from the dirigible...from above, you know?: Sorry, but that's not going to work out...not right now anyhow. After Kordar and Darion started their war, there's no way to find spare parts. So this aircraft stays in the air only thanks to a prayer and my leather belt, which I used to fix the elevators. Maybe it'll go for a few miles but after that ... Ehh...: Well, I don't want "Ehh" to happen. But don't worry, we will take your machine up sometime, be sure of that!: I can hardly wait! you probably don't understand my excitement - probably you've never flown before. Do you know what it is like to fly in the clouds like a bird?: You know, Tregum, you are the first dwarf that I've met that enjoys the sky so much! But to tell you the truth, in fact, you're the first dwarf I've ever spoken to. Anyway, see you later!One later later : I wanted to ask...maybe I can help you, with spare parts or so? Where can I get them?: Hmm... You want to help... Maybe you can. I think your help might come in handy.: What happened?: Look, here's the thing... One of the last dirigibles that was flying here from Kordar didn't make it. It barely reached the coasts of Arlania when it crashed. I don't know what could have happened to it... Please, find the crashed dirigible and bring me its Black Box. I expect it will be easy to find - it looks like a big black box. It couldn't have been destroyed, that's for sure. (Reward: 2700 Gold, 110 Experience).: Ok, when I get there, I'll certainly find it. Where did you say it had fallen?: It crashed in Arlania, somewhere to the east of here.: Why, what a coincidence that I happened to get this quest when I was on my way to Arlania anyway!: Ok. If I find it, I'll certainly bring you that box.When I normally play these games, I usually just stock up all the quests you can get from the nearby NPCs. In the LP, though, I'm trying to make it a bit more coherent story by mostly keeping sidequest dialogue to the relevant update - as much as I can, at least.  Passing through the glowing curtain that represents the border to Arlania, Bill gets his first glimpse of a new region. His attention is immediately drawn to this magical barrier.  : Magic Range? That sounds right up my alley. Are we talking Fireball target practice? Pin the Tail on the donkey with a Flaming Arrow? Ring toss?: Yes, of course! : It is a special place which adjusts to the magic potential of the testee, and subjects him the attacks of different creatures. One cannot leave the Range until the test is passed. Unless you are a graduate of the Academy, you must pay 5000 gold coins to receive the right to pass the test. After you enter the Range, please remember that it will let you out only after you activate all three altars: Order, Distortion, and Chaos. (Reward: Scroll 'Fit of Energy', 4000 Gold, 2 Magic Runes, 300 Experience): So in other words, I pay money and see if I can live through the test? So no ring toss?: No, that is not all. Anyone who has paid 5000 gold coins can enter, but the Range is designed for testing mages, and if you are not a mage - or don't have magic talent - the Range will try to kill you and your army will have a more difficult time. Please consider this also. [You will lose part of your army, if you are not a mage, or your Intellect is below 15!]: Yes, of course!: Come in, the Range is open to you.: Thank you. The barrier turns green, and we are able to enter...but absolutely should not under any circumstance (not yet). See, even though we are a Mage, the Range is higher-level content. Waiting in the center of the Range is this impossible strength enemy, and we would need to fight it and 3 more armies of similar strength to get out. We would lose, and badly.  Turning away from the Range, we find the castle of the region.  The Castle Netvill is the home of Earl Argus. We'll talk to him later. No new spells for sale, and the Spear, though an improvement over our Training Sword, is not worth the cost for us. Of interest to us, though, are the Ancient Bears for sale. With three other ranged units, our Archmages becoming pretty weak in our army, and we could use a tougher melee unit.  I talked about Ancient Bears last update, but they are slow, tough units with strong melee attack and high critical chance. Ideal to protect our ranged units. So I leave the Archmages chilling in the castle garrison and hire these Bears.  With bears added, Bill takes his army along the south side of this stream.  On this side, we find this stump full of gold, a wishing well, and some bears.  Time for some hot bear-on-bear action.  Bears (and other 2-move units) are the best targets for Ice Arrows and other slow effects. Even with the Running Talent, these Bears are basically stopped, which gives us plenty of time to reach any chests around.   With the bear guard gone, we throw a crystal in the well. This time, we are rewarded with some Haste scrolls.  Nearby is a fine establishment called the Dragon Tooth. Let's take in some refreshments.  : Well, I wouldn't mind having a rest and a little snack. And maybe you have some goods for sale? This inn is a quite the wretched hive of scum and villainy, with a horde of Marauders and Pirates for hire.  Not that we have any moral judgement on all that. We replace our Swordsmen with these Marauders. The Marauders are more offensive-focused than the Swordsmen, giving up some tankiness for an interesting couple of Talents. And there is one Talent that makes these guys good to hire for a little while at least. Beware, though, they do lower the morale of Human units Level 1-2 in your army. Right now, that's not a big deal. : Thank you for the hospitality. Maybe you could even amuse this weary traveler. Tell some story... : Story? Sure, I have one story - and a request at the same time.: Ok, tell me!: I can tell you the history of my tavern, the "Dragon Tooth." The name of the tavern was given by my great-great-grandfather, who managed to get a real dragon tooth. He befriended a dragon named Drahha, and had arranged with him a little trade. My grandpa brought for him some discarded armor, and in exchange for them, Drahha gave him the teeth which he had shed. We kept up the trade for several centuries: old armor in exchange for his discarded teeth.: Good story. What about that request?: Well... The business of the tavern has been slacking off recently, and I have to do something. I've decided to rename the tavern. I want to name it - the "Dragon Fang"! I'm sure this is a great idea, but I can't just rename my tavern. Here inside the tavern, in plain view, we display the real Dragon Tooth. But really it needs to be a fang, if we're to call the tavern the "Fang." Otherwise or visitors won't be impressed. (Reward: 1600 Gold, 77 Experience).: What's the problem? You are friends with the dragon. Ask him for a fang.: No, it's not that easy. A fang is not a regular tooth and armor can't help here. I visited the dragon a long time ago. There were some problems with the tavern. You have to go to the dragon and find out how I can get one of his fangs. What will he want in exchange? Well, that's my request. Will you do it?: To the dragon? With great pleasure. Dealing with dragons is my kind of work. As we leave the inn, we get a chance to see why we got the Marauders.  The Marauders have the Search Talent. This gives them the ability to look through corpses for gold. I have no idea what the formula for the amount found is. In this update, it ranged between 280 and 1500 gold.  The Talent has 2 charges, so it's worthwhile leaving the last few enemies alive while grabbing as much gold as possible.  We might get a couple more casualties because of this, but we also get 3x as much gold from the Marauders as from the victory itself. A cool 1-2K gold extra per battle is pretty nice right now.  We start exploring the nearby side-paths. This one leads up a hill where we can see another obelisk in the distance. Some Bowmen stand in our way.  Not for long though.   Along the path is a scroll-bag. Much like the individual scrolls, except you get multiple copies. Unfortunately, you can never find multiple spells in these. This one had three scrolls of Healing, which will be converted to gold eventually.  The Obelisk describes the nearby Griffin Island. As the obelisk implies, Griffins are intelligent and may prove good allies to have.  Back down near the castle, we can clear out the other side of the stream.  We have our first battle with an Inquisitor. Inquisitors are upgraded priests, replacing their Heal Talent with a Resurrection Talent, and their Bless Talent with a Holy Anger talent. I love using them. But like Priests, they aren't much of a threat as an enemy.  Here we see the offensive Talent of Marauders, the Biting Strike. This lets them strike across a hex, with no retaliation allowed. This is fantastic, as it both increases survivability and offensive range of the unit. They can use this Talent every other turn (one of the reasons Snakes are awesome is because they get this ability, only better).  As the numbers grow, lossless victories become harder to achieve, since we won't always be able to kill their ranged units before they strike.  But Fireballs are still very effective against groups of Bowmen and Thorns.  Exploring further, we find a pond infested with dragonflies.  And wolves, naturally. Another annoyance of the Wolf Cry is that we won't be able to Search for extra gold.  Death to wolves!  In the pond, dragonflies have used the trees to hang their egg sacs from them.  Who wants to carry a giant sac full of insects with them? Bill Gilbert does! Dragonfly Eggs, like the Thorn Sprouts, are creature containers. One guess as to what they hold. These will also likely never get used.     Though disappointed by a stump, Bill manages to find the observatory where Carl is hanging out.  : Hello, Your Highness. Yes, your brother sent me. Don't call me "Your Highness." My name is Carl Leonar, and I'm just an ordinary scientist, though I may have royal blood. I forswore those privileges long ago. So, does my brother afford me what I asked?: His Majesty sent me to deliver this spare Royal Seal. Also, he asked me to inquire what you might need it for... Wonderful! 'Tis a perfect replica. And I understand his concern. You see, I had written to my brother in rather a fit of despair. I have been lonely for a long time, for I had never met a woman worthy enough to inspire my love. But recently, I found a scientific manuscript in which it is argued that there is a microcosm inside the existing world. The fascinating idea was well presented and developed by the author, and confirmed by a number of experiments carried out upon frogs. And no less amazing than the manuscript's deep sense was the handwriting and signature: Martha di Gonda. A woman had written it!: A remarkable woman, surely... Yes! That was what I thought as well! Hardly had I read it, but I understood that only such an intelligent woman could be a worthy wife! Having found out where she lived, I sent her a love letter, indeed a heap of letters, along with a proposal. But I received an answer - that she would marry only a man of royal blood, that this was somehow predestined for her. This is why I wrote to my brother, begging to borrow the Royal Seal. I shall imprint my letters to my love with the royal seal, to mark of my royal ancestry.: Can I help you? With Martha I mean? Your offer is quite timely! Indeed, I think I will need a bit of help...: Of course I'm ready to help. So, what kind of help do you need? As we finish listening to Carl's request for a postman (shouldn't the kingdom hire an actual postman?), we look out over to the nearby valley. A crashed dirigible lays in wreckage. Presumably this is the vessel Tregum told us to find.  The path is guarded. Just some cyclops. 'Slightly stronger' doesn't sound too bad, does it?  Just 2 of them? Aww, this should be a walk in the park...  Wait...that's a lot less damage than usual...I guess their defense is a tad higher than we are used to.  Let's try using the Helplessness spell. This Order spell lowers the defense of the target, in this case by 30%.  OK, that was less than impressive. Helplessness is...kind of lovely? Especially for a mage, it will be a long, long time before you will do less damage with a spell than by lowering their Defense. And there are nearly always better non-direct damage options. By the way, Cyclops have 520 Health. Our units are going to be in for a real struggle here.   The Cyclops attack by chucking huge boulders. And it hurts a ton. That's 4 Bowmen down from a single shot...from 1 cyclops.  They are even resistant to fire, but this is still by far our main way of hurting them.  By the start of the fourth turn, our army is hurting. The Bowmen are nearly gone, and the Marauders, Priests, and Thorns are suffering.  We finally take the first one down to rubble.  By turn 7, our Marauders are nearly extinct.  A combination of Fireballs, Flaming Arrows, and the attacks of our entire army grind the second monster into dust.  This is a Pyrrhic victory at best. A full 75% of the army lies dead, including all of the Bears. If we weren't a mage, we could not have survived this yet. But the path now lies open to the blimp.   Searching the wreckage, we find the mysterious Black Box.  Several thousand gold later, we've refilled our depleted ranks. We still need to find the dragon for it's fang.   Exploring the woods, Bill finds a friendly group of Peasants. Friendly groups (indicated by green orbs on the mini-map) will offer to join you. I don't think I've ever found quality troops this way...usually it is Peasants or something similary useless.  The battle with these guards is unremarkeable except for:  Ouch. One of the downsides to using Thorns is that vulnerability to Fire damage. Now, most normal armies don't have any unless it is a Hero army, but I sort of forgot that these Fire Dragonflies do, you know, Fire damage.  Ouch. It's not that these losses are that expensive, its just annoying to replace.  Near a stump that is hiding some much needed gold, Bill runs into a hostile group of Griffins.  This is a lot more than the 2 we ran into on the beach last update. Well, 3 stacks isn't too bad. Wait, what the...  : Oh god, I think I'm going to be sick... did that Griffin just undergo mitosis?Griffins have the Split Talent, which lets them divide their stack in half once a battle. If I'm the one using the griffins, I rarely do this. Concentration of force is usually the better choice. But the AI will almost always do it (just like it will basically always use the Running Talent immediately).  By the end of the turn, the splitting and speed mean that our army is stuck in quite the...pack? flock? pride? of Griffins (any idea what the collective noun for Griffins would be?). One of the benefits of using Split is that it lets you surround ranged units, and it prevents me from using Fireball without hurting my own guys.  Good thing I've got Flaming Arrow instead.  Whoops, sorry dudes, that Fireball missed, I swear.  One last Flaming Arrow, and the battle is won.  Not the cleanest win, but it does the job.  The Griffin was guarding quite a horde, a total of 7 Magic Crystals (2 inside the chest), and a nearby Mind Rune.  To the south of the Griffins we find the blue dragon that Drin asked us to find.  : Dear Drahha! Let me speak to you! : What? Who is there?: It's me, Bill Gilbert! I came to you at the request of Drin, the owner of a tavern that's named after you.: Drin? Who is Drin? I don't remember him.: Innkeeper Drin. His great-great-grandfather brought you armors in exchange for your teeth.: Hey! I remember! So what do you want? I don't see any more armor than the suit you are wearing. Hey, I know! He's begun to send me food! I can't believe it! And the food is packed in armor.: I'm not food! He wants to ask you for a fang.: Fang? Well that's much more difficult, you see. It's not like a tooth! Teeth come out every 50 years, but fangs are much stronger and come out very rarely. However, your Darin is in luck. Just recently, one of my fangs has begun to ache and has even came loose. If you help me pull it out, I'll give the fang to you. You must strike it hard.: Ok, that's easy.: Ready! When you're ready, shout.: You shout... Ready! Punching dragons in the face, does it get any better than this? Returning to Drin with the Fang: : Well, have you met the dragon?: Yes! Here it is, take the Fang!: Great! Just wonderful! Now, I'll rename my tavern "Dragon Fang" and everything will be ok. Thank you. (Reward: 1600 Gold, 77 Experience): You are welcome! It was a pleasure! Got to punch a dragon right in the face, I'd have done it for free!Back in Greenwort, we return the Black Box (I made sure we can't use it as item, as I was informed we could have for certain other quest items). : Hi, Bill Gilbert. Did you find the fallen dirigible yet?: Yes, I found the debris and your box. Here it is. Do you know what's inside of it? It's so heavy... And it gurgles!: You ask me why it's gurgling? Aviation beer, of course, the best beer in the whole of Endoria! This beer is brewed specially for us pilots, and is packed in strong Black Boxes. We dwarves are not used to flight - it makes us sicker than the sea. But if you drink a glass of beer, the ship is being tossed to one side while you're swaying to another side, the ship is on the left - and you're already leaning to the right. So you don't even notice the tossing. Thank you! (Reward: 2700 Gold, 110 Experience): Beer? Beer? 20 good men gave their lives for that, not to mention those poor bears!: Hmm, you dwarves are strange people... Ok, I'll drop in sometime to share a glass of beer with you.And finally, we return to the King with news of success! : So, did you visit my brother Carl? He asked again, expecting the answer no: Yes, I found your brother, Your Majesty.: Oh, you delivered the seal? Fine then. So what did my learned brother need it for?: Yes, I've given him the copy of the Seal. You see, Your Majesty... Your brother wishes to marry, but his darling will only agree to marry a member of the royal family. So he asked for the seal to make an impression upon his next letter, which is to contain a marriage proposal.: To marry! Carl! Fancy that - finally there's a woman who has won my brother's heart. And here I thought he cared for nothing but science... Excellent news! Thank you most kindly, Bill Gilbert..: Yes, my king, this is really good news.: Hard times for Darion have come, Bill Gilbert. Difficult trials are just ahead. We will need a fierce weapon able of putting enemy armies to flight - and we have one! Go to the Magic Academy in Verlon Forest. Trigius will give you an item which is called the Chest of Rage.: Sounds great. I'll go at once and deliver this chest to you!For once, Bill is not lying. We want to do this quest as early as possible. Next update, we will visit the Magic Academy, and find out what this mysterious secret weapon is.  In the meantime, here is a look at our character. We used some of the gold we earned to buy the Chieftain's Belt from the capital. This Belt gives us +100 Leadership, and gives +5 Attack for Robbers and Pirates (including our Marauders). With that last Mind rune the Griffins were guarding, we also got enough to buy the Learning skill. This skill gives us bonus experience (+10% Experience at Level 1). Very useful to get this early. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore This time, we will see the bonus conversation material for Tregum, the Dragon Drahha, and one Easter egg I missed earlier. Tregum: : Hello, Bill Gilbert. You came to have another look at this fine flying machine? Don't you mind that the balloon is patched all over and the fasteners are rusty; it'll still fly at least ten more years.: I'd like to ask you some questions...: Oh, please ask me, ask me... Cause I'm standing here all alone, no one to talk to, no one to play cards with. I am so bored that I've polished all the iron parts five times.: What's going on with the parts? - Have you already fixed your dejetable?: Hey, you got a vegetable in your helmet? It's a "dirigible." Anyway, what I'm telling you is that at the moment it's impossible to get spare parts. Look, let's play some cards, eh? Anyway, we don't have to play for money - we can play for fillips. But get that vegetable out of your helmet first, eh?: Cards? In the Knight's School, if they caught us gaming, we were made to run fifty laps with a bag of wheat on our shoulders...I don't want to play cards, sorry...: It was only a suggestion. It's your choice whether you want to or not... So, as you wish. Anyway, knight what were you going to ask?: I don't have any more time for talk. See you later, Tregum...Drahha : What else do you want? Do you want me to clean my teeth with your armor?: No, no. I'd like to ask you - why do you live here, not with other dragons?: Well, you see... There are different kinds of dragons: emerald green, black, red. And now look at me: blue ear, blue belly... They say that I'm not like them, I'm a monster. You humans are the same way; you can't stand people different from you. It's much the same with dragons. That's why I had to leave my relatives.: Well... Are there other dragons like you?: I don't know, I've never met one.: Awkward silence ensues.... Well, I have to go! Good luck, blue dragon! As suggested by helpful reader meristem, I missed some unique dialogue that shows up if you leave the tutorial wearing the Training Sword, Clay Bowl, and Cart Wheel. : Reference letters from the Knight's School you say? Ha-ha-ha! You are a better candidate for the position of our court jester... A bowl on your head, and a wheel in your hands! How amusing!: I truly apologize for my ridiculous appearance, Your Majesty. But truly I have come to you from my mentor, Richard. Please read the letter.And the rest of the conversation is as before. Marking the Map  Hey, I finally remembered I can mark the in-game map. Unfortunately, the label is only visible when you mouse-over it. So hopefully the quick-and-dirty labeling I added using IrfanView is decent enough. Talkin' 'bout Troops Today, we will examine the Robber class of units, and a look at the Cyclops that gave us so much trouble. Robber  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 4 Talents  Biting Strike: Strikes the target with a chain across a free cell. Does 2-4 damage, and the enemy cannot retaliate. Reload: 1. Greed: Driven by thirst for loot, the robber can teleport himself to any chest on the battlefield. Charges: 1.Abilities RobberMorale of human troops Level 1-2 is decreased by 1. (Doesn't affect other Robber units.) Gully's opinion: Although they have good attack and damage for their cost, Robbers are fragile and slow. Being stuck at 2 move with no running is molasses. However, Greed is a very good talent that lets you seize chests very easily. But if the chest is close to the enemy, the Robber will take a lot of pain in return. Generally, I'd rather use Marauders. Fighting them: They are fragile, so usually easy to take down. Very vulnerable to slow/freezing as well. Annoying mostly because they steal chests. Marauder  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 12 Defense Bonus: 6 Talents Biting Strike: Strikes the target with a chain across a free cell. Does 3-6 damage, and the enemy cannot retaliate. Reload: 1. Search: Looks through slain creatures in search of gold. Charges: 2. RunningAbilities Robber Gully's opinion: Great units in the early game. Their attack is high, their defense/HP is not that bad, and they have very high initiative. Their slow speed is offset by both their running Talent, and Biting Strike which lets them reach one hex further. Under the right circumstance, they can hit a unit 5 hexes away. The lack of retaliation on Biting Strike also helps their survivability. The Search talent is great for building up money in the early game. By the mid-game, we won't need money and the morale hit on our Bowman/other human units, and the Marauders lack of tankiness means they will lose usefulness over time. Fighting them: Beware their Biting Strike range. Luckily, the AI always wastes the Running talent. Other than that, similar to fighting Robbers. Cyclops  Resistances: 30% Physical, 60% Poison, 30% Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 10 Talents  Stun: Stuns the target, inflicting 60-70 damage. Charges: 1. (Stunned targets miss their turn) Push: Pushes the target away, and inflicts 80-100 damage. Reload: 2.Abilities Archer Sniper: No penalty for Ranged attack (meaning no penalty at any range) Stone: Stone creature animated by magic. It is slow, but is Resistant to Physical, Poison, and Fire Damage. In addition, is Immune to Mind Spells, and to spells of healing and resurrection. No melee penalty Gully's opinion: Cyclops are the strongest archers in the game. Huge damage and attack, they actually do better in melee due to their Talents. They are also supremely tough, with huge Defense and some of the highest Resistances in the game. Their main downside is that they are slow, and will usually act last. Fighting them: They have low hitpoints for their leadership, so if you can bypass the Defense/Resistance, they go down relatively easily. So spells that do Magic damage, and a certain spell on your archers Dragon Arrow go a long way. The other good way is to use certain summons to block them from using a ranged attack while your army plinks away. Spells Seen Helplessness  Decreases an enemy target's defenses. Crystal Cost: 1 / 2 / 4 Mana Cost: 2 / 4 / 6 Level 1: Defense: -30%; Duration: 3 turns Level 2: Defense: -45%; Duration: 4 turns Level 3: Defense: -60%; Duration: 5 turns Gully's opinion: Meh. I've never found a real niche for this. Ideally, it's best used on high Defense targets. Usually better options exist. However, if there is one large stack of tough units (Cyclops, Green/Red Dragons, Giants, etc), this will help your army do a lot more damage, especially at higher levels. Much better in the end game. Skills Shown Learning Mind, Tier 2 A hero is thirsty for knowledge. This skill helps him to learn faster, receiving additional Experience after combat. Prerequisites: Scouting  Level 1: Experience gains increased by 10%. Cost: 1/5/1 Level 2: Experience gains increased by 15%. Cost: 1/6/1 Level 3: Experience gains increased by 20%. Cost: 2/7/2Gully's opinion: 1 Level is good, and more is basically a waste. It helps you get levels faster, but there is more than enough experience to reach the level cap if you are doing all the content. Level 1 gives the biggest impact, and is required for progression down the Mind tree, so it's good to get it nice and early. Items Identified Chieftain's Belt  Description: A wide leather belt with a silver fastener. Effect: +100 Leadership, +5 Attack bonus for Robbers and Pirates Type: Belt Race: Humans Cost: 4200 Info: Very few people dare to put on this belt, for it is a symbol of chieftain's power, and it attracts increased attention from both guards and criminals. Dragonfly Egg  Description: The dragon-like dragonfly is just visible through the translucent eggshell. Type: Used Item Info: The bag-shaped nest contains eggs of little dragonflies. Black Box  Description: A heavy black box. It is locked. Type: Quest Info: This box is locked. According to the dwarves, even a dragon can't bite it through or even scratch the surface of such a box. And it seems to be the truth. After the box dropped from the enormous height, there is not even a dent on it. Dragon Fang  Description: The huge dragon fang, which has yellowed over time. Type: Quest Info: This fang you pulled out of the dragon at the request of the innkeeper. Letter for Martha di Gonda  Description: A letter, closed by the Royal Seal. Type: Quest Info: Carl Leonar sealed his love letter with the Royal Seal, to prove all the seriousness of his intentions. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Aug 6, 2016 |
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Aug 6, 2016 20:32
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meristem posted:Uff, this low morale irks me. Since you decided to get the Chieftain's Belt, I really hope that this means you also decided to, like, garrison the priests or archers and swap in the pirates instead. The low morale is basically doing nothing right now. Its like -1 Attack/Defense for those two units, and a bit lower Critical Hit %. Compared to the amount of spell damage I can do, it's peanuts. The Marauders won't be staying super-long anyways. I took them to A) get some extra cash so I can play around with more things, and B) shake up my usual army plan. I might take your suggestion on the Pirates, though. That's another unit I think I have never used before.
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Aug 7, 2016 21:07
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Glazius posted:So what kind of unit replenishment does an extra 1000 gold of looting buy you? 1000 gold isn't much money. It gets you 100 Peasants, or 10 Bowmen/Priests, or maybe 5-6 Ancient Bears? The rough guide is 2 Gold per point of Leadership. So currently, I'd need roughly 1500 Gold per full stack of things, or 7500 for the full army if I lost it all. The thing is that it adds up pretty quickly for this point in the game. Over the course of the last episode, the Marauders probably brought in 8K+ extra, which is enough to cover the cost of buying them, replacing my losses after the Cyclops fight, and buying the Chieftain's belt. As the game goes on, money will quickly become an essentially unlimited resource (at least on Normal difficulty), and you are more restrained by the troop availability than the costs. In my test game (the one I'm playing ahead of the LP), I think I have around 2.5 million gold in the bank. Money never quite becomes useless though, there is one money sink we will find roughly half-way in. Koorisch posted:So what are these magic equipments that you can use after a certain amount of battles, are they used up if you use them or do you keep them afterwards? Depends on the equipment. Generally, you get to keep it after using (especially the big 3 that give 10 runes after 50 victories). Certain other ones change or transform after using them.
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Aug 9, 2016 15:43
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Update 9: You wouldn't like Bill Gilbert when he's angry. The king has asked us to fetch some kind of artifact or weapon from the Magic Academy in nearby Verlon Forest. Before we go there, Bill Gilbert's side-quest radar blips, and we pay a visit to the menagerie owner, who we last saw after luring a bear back to his place. : Hey, young man! Ah good, I'm glad you've come.: Something wrong?: No, nothing, nothing special. I've just received several unusual animals - the miners from Creiston Mines brought them to me. They call them "Evil Beholders." They say there are a lot of these beasts in the dwarven mines. I've seen lot in my life, but this... You must understand me. One thing never leaves me in peace. I can't even sleep at night, trying to find it out; how do they breed? I've examined them this way, that way, and every way, looking all over them, but I still have no idea...: Can't you just ask somebody?: If only there was somebody I could ask. Nobody has heard of them, we don't have these creatures here. Maybe the dwarves know... Anyway, I want you to visit old Archon in Verlon Forest. He's the former owner of a monster circus. When he was young, he showed his beasts all over the Darion, he was said to mate each and all. Visit him, alright? I'll repay your kindness as I can. (Reward: 880 Gold, 50 Experience): I'll have to go to Verlon forest anyway, so why not visit Archon then? I'll ask him if he knows how to breed these Evil Beholders.Yeah, sounds like a great idea to breed something called a loving Evil Beholder. Goddamn it Stephen, when I inevitably have to fight hundreds of these things, I'm so blaming you.  We transit to Verlon Forest, directly south of the castle in Greenwort. Let's head east to start.  The forest seems to have something of a Griffin infestation. We saw how annoying it can be to fight large numbers of Griffins last update.  Fortunately, even though Griffins are present, the numbers are not high. I honestly have no idea how the game chooses the creature that represents the army in adventure mode, but it actually does have an impact on how fast the army will move once it notices you.  Nothing remarkable happens during the fight. But I want to show off more of the art in this game, like the awesome way Bowmen literally just punch the poo poo out of things in melee.   The second group of Griffins comes with wolves. Great.  Sometimes, by accident, the AI does things that seem quite smart. 1) Wolf Cry goes off. 2) My now out-of-control Marauders use their Running Talent immediately to run right next to the hive. 3) The Bowmen freeze my Marauders. With no run left and frozen, my Marauders have been essentially neutralized for the next three turns, and even more, are stuck next to the hive and likely to get stung.  Of course, Fireballs and whatnot take care of them easily at this point. And of course, gently caress wolves.   On the left side of the path, we find a small hut.  : Actually I don't have time to hear stories. Oh, and by the way, my name is Bill Gilbert. : My name is Archon - have you heard of me? Eh, there was a time when everyone knew my name! I had my own circus and I traveled with it all over Darion. I showed people rare animals that didn't exist even in legends.: I know about you from Hall, the menagerie owner. His request has brought me here.: Hall? Well, well. Yes, he is my colleague and an old friend. How is his menagerie? How is my old friend Stephen doing?: His menagerie burned down, the surviving animals have run away and Stephen himself was hit on his head by a burning beam and has now become mentally deranged now.We could have said that the menagerie owner was doing fine. But Bill Gilbert is a real rear end in a top hat sometimes. : Oh my God! And you are saying it so calmly. When did it happen? Have they found out who did this?! And where was the royal guard during all this, I wonder!? I should go immediately to him! Immediately! Where are my glasses?: Calm down, that was just a joke. He is very well - his menagerie is prospering and there are no problems with his health. By the way, he invites you to come visit.: That was a bad joke, young man. I'm old, and a person like me can't easily cope with that much stress! So, you are saying that Hall has sent you? I don't think he sends you just to greet me and invite me to his place. What does he want? I guess he's got another strange creature and doesn't know what to do with it, right?: Something like that. He managed to buy a couple of Evil Beholders. And now he can't calm himself down till he finds out how they breed.: Ha ha, what a laugh. Old Stephen hasn't changed at all. Last time, he decided to confirm whether bear that has been dyed white will stop being afraid of the cold. And one day I had to drag him out of a Bone Dragon's den. He wanted to see how the Bone Dragon eats, and if the food would fall out through his ribs or not, ha ha! And one time he puts a phoenix into a well, just to satisfy his curiosity.: ...well? What happened with the phoenix in a well?: So, can you help me, er, help him?: Well, why not. I'll do what I can. I have some familiarity with those creatures. There is some information about them in my old records. But there are more stories than truth. Through one of those creatures with only its glance once forced an old warrior to cut the throat of his friend - right in front of me. After that I'm ready to believe pretty much any fairy tale. Ah, here it is. Why don't you take it. This is everything I managed to find out about those monsters. If Stephen can not discover what he wants here, then I don't know anyone who would be able to help him.: Thank you.With that, we are given a stack of papers. As certain readers of this LP pointed out, you are able to use some Quest items. In this case, we get a chance to read the notes on Evil Beholder breeding.  Kirhan's notes:  Skolepeya's notes:  Doggit's notes:    Near this hamlet, we come across a spooooky Ghost. First, we clear out the banners for some additional Leadership. But this ghost seems like he has something to say.  : Cursed? Why : Why? I was killed by the present owner of the castle, "Baron" Norge. He had been my adviser a couple of years. But then he betrayed me, poisoned me and took my home, my wife, and my child. Now I, the former owner of the castle, want only one thing - vengeance against the traitor.: Yes, I can understand how you must feel.: Thank you for listening to me, Bill Gilbert. It is good for me to share my problems with someone else.: Yes, it is unjust. Can I help you?: If you kill Baron Norge and occupy the castle, I will be able to rest in peace, and my son, young Farmir, will rule the castle. (Reward: 3400 Gold, 70 Experience): Revenge is a noble deed, I'll try to help you!Despite his words, maybe it'd be best if we spoke to this Baron first, see if there's another side to the story.  The Castle Gefen is the castle in dispute. It has a couple of mildly interesting equipment and spells (such as the headband that gives +1 Intellect). Right now, though, I'm saving up money for something special. We also see that we get access to basically unlimited Swordsmen for the early game here. Let's chat with Gostrim's widow first.  : Thank you. You are so kind.Great chat. But Baron Norge will be far more voluble.  : And what about Gelena? : Yes, I married his widow. Gelena is a wonderful young woman. I was secretly in love with her for a long time, but I could do nothing when Gostrim was alive. I didn't even try... But after the terrible accident, my daybreams grew into real hopes, and to my great joy I managed to persuade her to marry me - to preserve the power of the barony, and protect her lands from intervention... I ask you, is that not just as it should be?: And what about young Farmir, the baron's son. Why didn't he inherit the castle and the lands?!: Farmir?! That youngster?! He doesn't even have a mustache. Look at him! What kind of baron could he be! With those eyes! Gelena's bastard spawn has no business with Gostrims's lands! : ...: Dude, Gelena is right there, maybe try not calling her kid a bastard spawn? Little bit of relationship advice.: Well, then, maybe you know who the father is?: No, Gelena refuses to tell me. But clearly he wasn't a human! Look, I have a different offer for you. Gostrim confuses the minds of the common people in our lands. He fills them with doubt. And for this reason, the people work badly, and they are easily annoyed. Can you kill Gostrim, not for me, but for them? You know as do I that there's no place for the dead in the world of the living.Glbert: Kill Gostrim? Of course. He is just a ghost, after all. And a ghost should be more at home in the land of the dead. : Excellent! As soon as you've done it, let me know. I will pay, fear not, I'm not that kind of person... (Reward: 2300 Gold, 77 Experience): Don't worry, I can handle a ghost.So, we come to the first set of mutually exclusive quests in the game, and the first thread vote since character selection. Vote Time Who should Bill Gilbert side with? Gostrim, the Ghost, who accuses Norge of poisoning him and stealing his lands, wife, and taking power away from his 'son'. Norge, the Baron, who claims Gostrim happened to poison himself, married Gelena, and thinks that mustaches are the determining factor for leadership.  Behind the castle, the path takes us down to a Shrine of Knowledge, but it's guarded by this numerous army of fragile units.  Double damage to plants helps, but Fireballs are starting to weaken a bit as enemy numbers grow. Really looking forward to getting Chaos Magic 2.   The unguarded Shrine of Knowledge awaits.  Our mana reserves get boosted for the first time to 39. So far, mana has not been an issue. But as we get higher level magic skills, mana costs will be increasing significantly.  Our exploration down this side of the map is cut off by Stephen Zwein's army. Peasants may be fragile, but they are dangerous in numbers. We will be back though, with a surprise for them. Let's look elsewhere for the Academy.  Down a side-path, we get a great find inside a stump.  We finally get to replace our Training Sword with something more appropriate. This staff is our first example of an upgradeable item. However, we aren't quite ready yet to do this. The upgrade system is quite interesting, but I'll talk about that in more detail when it comes up. For now, the Pilgrim's Staff will be used anyway for +1 Intellect.  The guarding troop serves as a test-bed for the upgraded damage from the Pilgrim's Staff - went from 190 to 225 for the primary target.    With some fancy animations, our troops finish them off easily. For some reason I found that last priest frame hilarious. Looks like a great dance move.   The third obelisk lies nearby as well. King Fandor started his travels here (there's a ruined castle nearby we will see later).  Another easy fight here for a might rune.  I love finishing battles with the environmental objects.   We passed this Tavern on the way in. It's just a shop, no chatter. I wish there were a few more Griffins to buy.  Those dragonflies in the background act as a light lunch.   The regional capital of Verlon lies here.  Some mildly useful items here that would give us a bit of Defense if we so wished. It also has another huge troop of Marauders available, so I restock while here.  South of the castle we find our goal! Before getting into the plot, let's visit the shop.  Inquisitors! Sweet find here. Inquisitors are basically better than Priests in every possible way other than availability.  And so our priests get dropped off to do their own thing, and we grab these guys while we are here.  By an interesting coincidence, the spell Gift is for sale here too. Gift is an Order spell that reloads and recharges all the Talents of the unit. Inquisitors can use a Resurrection Talent once per battle. You can see where this is going. Inquisitors + Gift is one of those combinations that can be exploited if you are going for a no-loss game. And it is useful if one of your rare troops gets savaged. But you notice we can't buy it, due to limited space.  We can fix that by heading back to Verlon Castle to sell off all duplicate spells/scrolls. Shopping done, let's get down to business at the Academy. Warning: Walls of words ahead! I'd normally put some into the bonus section, but its kind of important stuff, for the game/story.  : I came by order of His Majesty, I am to collect some artifact from you.: You were talking about the purpose of the artifact. : Oh yeah... I was speaking about the ritual that attaches the Chest to its new master. The one who, by the end of the ritual, will be able to understand the force of the artifact and will be able to talk to the spirits captured in this item.: Just give me the damned Chest.: There is no need to shout at me like this. Besides, you are in a physical and emotional state that is optimum for... Here, take the Chest, be careful, and don't let it fall... WATCH OUT!: drat it! Go to hell with your Chest.  : Who is there? : You are the new massster of the Chessst?: I don't understand. What are you talking about? Who are you? I can't see you!: Blood... Your blood ssssprinkles the sssstone of Anger. The unity rite hassss been performed... but wasss not.. completed. You... have completed it... Now you are the new massster of the Chest...: Show yourself, will you?!: Weak... Too weak... You cannot handle thisss power...: You are making me angry! Where are you?: Hey, Bill Gilbert, are you alright? I hope your wound is not very serious. And who were you talking to - there is nobody here except for us.: Don't you hear? There's this strange voice.: Yes? Voices? And what do they tell you? - Something sensible or is it just a murmuring?: They are saying some kind of nonsense about blood, an unfinished ritual and masters of the Chest.: Your blood on the chest...feeling of intense rage... And you were thinking of this artifact for sure, weren't you? Besides, all these strange voices from nowhere. I don't even know whether to congratulate you, young man, or to feel sorry for you. First of all, you haven't gone out of your mind. You are really hearing those voices. And secondly... You have just finished the ritual of unity. Now this artifact and you make one. In other words, you are the master of this chest. But I don't think you wil be glad of it.: I don't get it...: There is nothing to get. We have been bothering over the ritual for four months, and spent a lot of money on all the necessary ingredients. For three days and nights, twelve of our highest mages performed the most complex ceremony of high magic. Only one final detail remained - the person would become a master of the Chest if, being in a condition of extreme rage, he wished for power over the artifact and sprinkled it with his own blood. You asked me to give you the chest very insistently, so fiercely that you tried to snatch it our of my hands... And there was enough blood to complete the rite. Do you understand me?: Yes, it's very clear now. So what next?: I don't know. His Majesty will decide. But we will not be able to repeat the ritual for at least a few years. The voices you've heard are the voices of Rage Spirits. The Chest of Rage was created in order to capture and rule such spirits. I don't know who they are and where they came from, or how they got themselves into the Chest. But like any wizard would, I feel their great power power - and great anger.: So, does it mean that all the power of the Chest belongs to me now?: I doubt it. The Chest is a container, like a jail. Ultimately, it may help you rule these spirits, but unfortunately we don't know that. And it might take several centuries to find the answer. Maybe its previous masters made arrangements with the Chest's residents, or figured out some way to pay them. I don't know. You can ask them yourself if they are talking to you. There was no one able to hear the spirits among those mages who studied the item. We know only that they are locked up in this artifact. There is a theory that they are creatures of other worlds that had been captured by the demons for some purpose, but this is only conjecture.: It means that I am the first owner of the Chest for the last thousand years? And it has been there in the Academy for all these years?: Yes, for all these years, many generations of mages have tried to solve the mystery of this artifact. Where did it come from? What purpose does it serve? How can we control it? And almost all these questions have been left without definite answers. As for its master... I'm not sure that it has ever had what you could call a master. The chronicles of the war for the Fire Bridge do not have any reference of demons using the Chest, which would suggest that they chose not to use it - or maybe they simply could not. Perhaps they were afraid? Or perhaps they even didn't know how. We do not even know who made it, or for what purpose.: I guess I will have to ask the spirits myself. And how can I get rid of the Chest?: That one we do know, and it's a very easy answer: you simply need to die. No, I'm not kidding. This is an artifact-symbiont. How can I explain this to you? It consumes your emotions, steals your anger and rage and accumulates them. This is the way many demonic artifacts work. And now it will function only in your hands, for as long as you may live. And now you cannot do without the CHest - look, it seems as though it has grown into your plam. And you are stroking it without even noticing. Now to show you one more thing, I will take it from you for a second...: One move and you will die!: You see? Soon you will not be able to give it away and you will not let anyone take it out of your hands until you die. It is possible to kill, paralyze you or put you to sleep to take the Chest away, but then it will become useless again. And in the best case scenario, you will lose your mind along with the Chest/ Even after that it is necessary to wait for a long time before a new ritual of unity can be made, to bind the artifact to a new master.: Hmm. Well how do you like this weapon? I can't use it, I can't give it to someone else. Alright, let's see what His Majesty will say. He's named "The Wise" for a reason, after all.TLDR: We are now bound for life to a parasitic chest that feeds on our rage and contains otherworldly monsters. And if its removed, at best we go insane. Yay?  In our Hero screen, the empty lower left is now occupied. Will these Spirits of Rage cooperate with us, now that we are bound together for life?  : (Close the Chest quickly!) : (Leave him alone...) : I'm sorry...(Close the Chest...) : (Close the Chest, and keep out of harm's way...)One nice touch is that unlike the others, Reaper is just called Reaper. So we have the anthropomorphization of death attached to our body. A little worrying.  We will have to leave the riddle of the Chest for another day. Meanwhile, more Griffins attack us as we are hanging around the Magic Academy.  Our new inquisitors come into play. As basically colour swaps of priests, they attack the same way - magic ranged damage, double damage to undead, no melee penalty, etc. One subtle difference is that Inquisitors have +1 Range over Priests. So they get full damage at greater distances, which is pretty useful. The other difference is that as a Level 3 unit, Inquisitors aren't affected by Wolf Cry or by the presence of Robbers.  Of course, the main draw to Inquisitors is their unique Resurrect Talent. This heals a target unit for 7 Health per Inquisitor. Unlike Priests, this healing carries over as the name suggests.  Resurrected units don't count against casualties either, if that's important to you. Inquisitors are pretty good at keeping your forces strong without needing to reinforce. Do note that you can't Resurrect a few things - Plants (like our Thorns) can't be resurrected, nor can Undead units or the Cyclops.  Although we should be returning the Chest to the King, our sidequest radar is blipping down this dark path.  It's a g-g-g-ghost!  Actually, yeah. Its a Ghost. Not that threatening alone. Ghosts can be annoying. But they aren't the dangerous nightmares they were in the original King's Bounty (or in early Heroes of Might and Magic games).  One ghost is not a threat in the slightest, especially to a Mage.  Up the path we find a rickety bridge leading to a dragon-headed castle. Maybe its a bad idea, but let's say hi to the castle owner.  Dragon Castle here sells mostly a variety of low-level animals. The weapon for sale looks like our Training Sword, but its actually called an Ordinary Sword, which is able to be upgraded to a Runic Sword. I will likely come back for it, as the Runic Sword would be quite nice for us right now. : I'm the Royal Teasure Searcher and my name is Bill Gilbert. : Aha, another searcher then. Well just so you know, I have no treasures. There was this fellow named de'Virre, who poked me with his sword and took away everything I had. It would be better to help a poor dragon, if you are a good man. And I will find a way to thank you.: I don't mind earning some money. What kind of help were you talking about?: You see, I used to live in an empty cave, and I loved to burn villages and to hunt people. Just like any other dragon. But one day love changed my life. I stole the young princess Gelena, and we lived together for three wonderful years. We were head over heels in love. I courageously protected my trophy from all different heroes and knights who wanted to set the poor princess free from the evil dragon. That was, until Gostrim came. This weakling didn't kight me like a true knight, but crept in and seduced my fair princess while I was out hunting. He promised her some kind of rubbish and convinced her to sneak away and meet him back at his castle.: The next day, Gelena packed her things and went to this baron, having told me that she couldn't live like this anymore. I promised to change... but she didn't believe a word of it and left me. My feelings couldn't let me stop her, even though I was dying from despair. But I thought it over and decided that my love was worth fighting for. I came to my senses, decided I would help the people instead of hunt them, and even started transporting cargo for the king. All of this enabled me to build a nice castle. I even have hot water and mirrors! I beg you - become my conductor to the world of happiness. Help me to bring back my love!: That's a sad story. I will help you!: The castle of Baron Gostrim is located in the north-east of Verlon Forest. Go there to my beloved Gelena, and talk to her. Tell how much I have sacrificed for her, and how happy we can be together. Here, take this amulet. It's a heart, the heart of the dragon - as hot as the one that beats inside my chest when I think of her. (Reward: 2300 Gold, 91 Experience): Ok, I'll try to persuade her to come back.Well, I guess we know where Gelena's child came from. I really don't know how the biology of that works out, and I really don't want to think about it. We head back to Gefen Castle. Gilbet: I came to you with a message from Dragon Attah. : Have you brought a message from Attah? How is he? I haven't heard from him for a long time.: The dragon asked me to give you his heart as a symbol of his love! He asks you to come back to him. He has built a wonderful and comfortable castle for you, and now you don't have to sleep on the cave floor and wash yourself in the brook.: He has built a castle? And gives me his heart? How nice of him. You know...My life has not been so good without the dragon. My husband was killed and I had to marry his murderer. The only happiness of my life is that my son Farmir was born just after I left the dragon. I miss Attah too. After all, we lived together happily for such a long time. Our son has now grown up; he is an educated person and can protect himself. So, I guess I will return to my dragon.: That's wonderful news! Attah will be so happy.Oddly, Baron Norge doesn't say anything at all about his wife suddenly running off. So much for that love story he spun. Back to the Dragon Castle... : Thank you, Mage. You see, my love, my precious Gelena, has came back to me. I'm so happy. You deserved your reward (Reward: 2300 Gold, 91 Experience): Thank you! Many happy times to both of you. The experience from the quest pushes us to Level 5. This one was a tough choice. Leadership is nice, but +1 Defense will be better than +200 Leadership in the late game. However, I decide to pick up Leadership anyway, as its better for the near future. : Hello, Bill Gilbert. And a big thanks for your help. Is there anything we can do for you?: Hello, Gelena! No, I've just come by to say hello.Gelena just as chatty as ever. To be fair, this is more Bill Gilbert's fault here. We head back to Greenwort to talk to the king about this parasitic chest. First, a quick visit to the menagerie to return the Evil Beholder notes. : So, have you found out anything about the Evil Beholders?: I've visited old Archon. Here, he sent you a pile of manuscripts about these strange animals.: Fine, fine! Finally I'll know the truth, and be able to sleep. Thank you, Bill Gilbert, very much. (Reward: 880 Gold, 50 Experience): By the way, I've looked through these manuscripts. And, uh... I'm not so sure they'll answer your question.: Hmm... What are you talking about? - No, don't tell me. I'll figure it out by myself.: Have fun then. Goodbye!As we head back to the castle over the bridge, the voices speak to us again.  : Master? A new master we have? Time flies, time flows...Irreversibly changes everything around us.: Voices again? Is that you, inside the Chest?: Yes, strange and foolish he seems. But no - he is only young. Filled with sand is his hourglass.: Oh, great Spirit from the Chest! Could you keep silent for a while, I'm already doubting my sanity.: The course of your life is so short, with every moment giving the perception of the new and unknown. May you enjoy it.: (Ignore the voices...)OK, King, you better have a way to deal with this poo poo. : Have you already talked to the mages at the Academy? Time is of the essence!: I've brought you the Chest of Rage, my King!: Give it to me. The mages should have prepared the artifact to serving its new owner. The power enclosed therein must not fall into the wrong hands.: I'm afraid that I cannot do this, my king...: You refuse to submit to your king's will? Bill Gilbert, do you have any idea of the power of my anger? Guards!: My king, you may call your guards, but this will change nothing. You see, the ceremony has already been completed, and as it turns out, I am the new master fo the Chest! A sad accident has changed our plans.: What accident are you talking about? What has happened?: I found the Academy, and requested that the Chest be delivered, as you ordered... (Tell what has happened...): Well... It's probably all for the better. Only time can tell. Maybe you are the man destined to command these creatures. So, our faithful knight. You have already proven that you are ready to serve the crown faithfully. And your talents deserve better use. This time, however, you will have to pass a trial most difficult and dangerous. Do you accept the challenge?: Certainly. I also feel that I might do much more than collecting plugens from robber.: We would accept no other answer, Bill Gilbert! So, Lyaro Island awaits you - and there you will most likely be met by an unknown enemy. If you return victorious, you will be admitted to the most important and secret tasks of the crown. I can already see that I can trust you, but I must be sure you are strong enough to carry out crucial tasks.: We do not know our enemy in this trial, but as a royal Searcher you should not be afraid of the unknown! Lyaro Island appeared not too long ago. First there was a terrible storm and then the new Island appeared in the northern ocean. We sent people there to investigate, but they failed to return. We sent a second expedition, but there's still no news. Go to the island on the dirigible and find out what has happened to our people. And remember, the dirigible will not take you back until your reveal the secret of the island, and eliminate this threat to Darion.: Yes, I can see that this is a difficult situation, but I swear here and now that I will bring the matter to conclusion, or my name's not Viscount Bill Gilbert!: It is good to hear these words, Bill Gilbert. Take 3000 gold coins. You may need them for hiring troops. And visit the Temple of Truth; I think Aron Demion's warriors may be useful in your quest.: Thank you, I will set out as soon as I am prepared.Another day, another quest. No solution to this drat box. With that, we come to the end of the update.  Here's a look at Bill Gilbert. Note that I've finally spent a bunch of that money I was saving up, 24K in fact, on a Banner of Heroism. This Banner gives +300 Leadership and +1 initiative to units Level 1-3 (which is all of our units). With that and the level, our Leadership has jumped up a ton. With the runes we've been stockpiling, Chaos Magic gets upgraded to Level 2, and we pick up the first level in Order Magic. We can now learn all spells in the game. The next goal is to work our way down to Higher Magic. Next update, we will figure out if we can do anything with this Chest of Rage, and clean up the Greenwort region as much as possible. Remember to vote for our Ghostly sidequest outcome. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Today's episode will cover some additional material from King Mark, including about the Chest, his daughter, and the war with the demons. : This Chest of Rage. Could you tell me more about it?: It is enough for you to know that it is a powerful artifact, created by Demons. It is a weapon capable of putting whole armies to flight - if it is used in the proper way! A thousand years ago, a Chest of Rage was obtained by king Kerus, among other trophies. It stumped the sorcerers, who have been racking their brains over its secret for all these years. But now, as the current president of the Academy assured me, they have succeeded!: Interesting. I hope this weapon will serve Darion well!: I'd like to ask you about your daughter, Princess Amelie.: I don't know if you've heard this - Amelie is my adopted daughter. Sadly, I cannot have children. Even our best mages and doctors have failed to cure me of this plight, whether it be illness or curse. But the royal family must be continued! Even my brother, who has little to do with the politics, understands that much. Besides, my wife and I wanted to have a child - we wanted to care for a child, and I wanted a descendant to whom I could leave the throne. And so I prayed to all the light gods of Endoria. And the gods replied!: They cured you?: No. One day at the door of my bedroom I found a basket, inside of which was a baby. A beautiful child, sent to me by the gods. The guards swore that they didn't close their eyes, and they were completely at a loss to explain how the basket arrived at the door. And when the baby was taken to the Temple to be given a name... The gods themselves spoke to me! They said I was to call the girl Amelie, after the brightest star in the sky, and they predicted a most unusual fate.: You've mentioned the King Kerus. I'd like to know more about him.: The mage Kerus was one of the brightest stars of the Leonar Dynasty. A thousand years ago, when Demons invaded our world, our King Orto Mellis locked himself up in the capital like a coward. There he gathered his army for his own personal defense, leaving the whole country to the mercy of fate. And then he appeared - Kerus, in whose veins flowed the blood of the Leonars. He was a true Battle Mage, and brought with him a small troop of hardened warriors and mages. My ancestor clearly understood that he would not manage to drive all the Demons away with such a small army...: But nevertheless he accomplished the impossible! Kerus's troop attacked the portal of Fire, which connected our world to the Demon's Land. They managed to penetrate into the other world and destroy the portal - and by himself, Mage Kerus killed the Archdemon Baal, the commander of the Demons. Kerus and his warriors went forth to their doom, but they returend with victory and rich trophies, among which there was a Chest. The cowardly King Mellis escaped as soon as he heard of the heroes' victorious return. Kerus Leonar thus became king and so the throne of Darion returned to the Dynasty.: Thus a ruler of Heron, a small land of mages, rose to become the king of all Darion. Heon, Arlania and still more provinces joined Darion, which finally formed the state we know today. Kerus created the Magic Academy of Darion, where he brought the artifacts he took from the Demons, for their examination. As Kerus came to the crown, so began the Golden Age of Darion. It was an age of magic and prosperity, and it lasted almost five hundred years.: I have no more questions; I will disturb Your Majesty no further.Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Let's look at our new acquisition. We've also been fighting a lot of Griffins, I think it's time to check them out too. Inquisitor  Resistances: 10% Magic Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 4 Talents  Resurrection: Resurrects slain creatures of the selected troop, recovering 7 points of health. Holy Anger: Gives the hero 5-10 points of Rage, blesses the target and provides it with the "Holy Anger" ability. Decreases the combat performance of undead troops. (Note: Holy Anger, in addition to blessing the unit, makes the unit do 150% damage to undead).Abilities Holy Attack Holiness No Melee Penalty Gully's opinion: Fantastic units only hampered by their general poor availability (unless you get the Inquisition skill). Stat-wise, they are essentially double Priests: 2x the Leadership, 2x the Health, 2x the Damage. Attack and Defense are improved by +6. As mentioned, they also have +1 range over priests. They are still not great against non-undead units. But the Resurrect ability is amazing, especially when you are venturing far from reinforcements. Holy Anger is also great, and is great for adding Rage if you need it. Fighting them: Usually easy to fight. They are still pretty fragile, so die easily to range attacks and spells. Further, they like to use their talents instead of attacking. Griffin  Resistances: 10% Physical, 20% Magic Critical Hit %: 12 Defense Bonus: 5 Talents  Separation: The troop is separated into two partsAbilities Flight: Can fly over low obstacles or rough terrain Furious: Always retaliates against enemy attacks Magic Resistance: Gives the creature Magic Resistance ability Gully's opinion: Griffins are great, and will be part of our army at some point guaranteed. They are one of the most mobile units (that aren't Level 5), with 5 Speed, 5 Initiative, and Flight. They are actually pretty tough, too. Interestingly, they are the unit with the highest Health per Leadership in the entire game. That, plus decent Defense and some resistance makes them able to take a hit. Their downside is low Damage for their cost. They are great for bypassing melee units and hitting enemy archers/mages. The Furious ability (unlimited retaliations) is interesting. If you are willing to sacrifice them, Griffins are great to send into a horde of units and get attacked repeatedly. This works better if paired with some spells. Fighting them: Frustrating. The high speed/initiative/flight + Separation means Griffins get into your grill quickly, and love to swarm over archers. But your own melee units can usually out damage them, and spells are good as always. Spells Seen None! Skills Shown Order Magic Magic, Tier 2 This skill allows the hero to learn and upgrade Order Magic spells.  Level 1: Order spells can be learned from scrolls. Cost: 0/2/2 Level 2: Order spells can be upgraded to level 2. Cost: 0/4/4 Level 3: Order spells can be upgraded to level 3. Cost: 0/8/8Gully's opinion: Order Magic is probably my least used magic tree. The school is primarily meant for Paladins, which is my least used class. Containing plenty of buffs and healing, it does have a few damage options, including the strongest Magic damage spell, Lightning. Also present are spells that buff damage versus demons and dragons, some of the toughest enemies in the game. Finally, the Dragon Arrow spell is a personal favourite spell that extends the usefulness of archers dramatically. Items Identified Banner of Heroism  Description: The banner with an attacking griffin depicted on it. Effects: +300 Leadership, +1 to Initiative for all troops of level 1-3 Type: Regalia Race: Humans Cost: 24000 Info: The attacking griffin is a symbol of fearlessness and justice. However, the creator of this banner did not rely upon the symbol only, and had embroidered several runes of fearlessness on the banner as well. Pilgrim's Staff  Description: An ordinary oaken staff. Effects: +1 to Intellect Type: Weapon Race: Humans Cost: 5000 Upgraded To: Druid's Staff Info: A long oak staff. Such staves are often used by travelers on long journeys. Sheets  Desciption: Several sheets, yellowed from time, are covered with different handwriting. You can read them. Type: Quest Info: These papers contain information for the menagerie owner, about the breeding of Evil Beholders. Dragon Heart Amulet  Description: The amulet in the form of a Dragon's Heart. Type: Quest Info: The small amulet, which contains a small copy of a dragon heart. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Aug 13, 2016 |
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Aug 13, 2016 23:03
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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As of this post, it looks like the vote is tied 7-7. I'll give it a day or two more to see if the stalemate is broken, since I'm slightly busy with Civ VI and all. Update 12b - Trigius Talks Too Much In the last main update, we did the Judgment Day Arena for Master Trigius at the Magic Academy. What I didn't show you guys in that update is all the lore dialogue we've been skipping by any time we visited the place. In the interest of completionism, though, I'm putting that dialogue here. Read on if you want to learn more about Magic, Necromancy, and aspects of magical history in Darion. Feel free to skip it if you like, as I did anytime I played this game for fun.  : Tell me about magic. Imagine that I'm a novice student.  : King Kerus? Was he a mage?  : Tell me about the Academy. : I'd like to know more about necromancy. : Also... Could you tell me about the Death Magic Department and Necromancers?  : The necromancers' revolt, and the Inquisition? Tell me more about it... : And why was the Death Department closed? : I'd like to know about how to upgrade items. : A sword that turns into a piece of steel? Incredible! : And how can I win the respect of such an item? 
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Oct 23, 2016 03:10
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Aumanor posted:Live and let live. Tie-breaking vote made, Bill will be going with Walking away. Same choice I normally go with, since it's pretty cruel to come back with a 'new' lovely treaty and kill them for not agreeing.
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Oct 24, 2016 18:52
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Update 13 - Cruise Control By 8 votes to 7, Bill has been told to let the barbarians be, and ignore the Marquis' attempt to get a new treaty in place. : Calm down, Hogard, calm down! I will settle the case with the Marquis, and we will forget this misunderstanding.The barbarian has no further words to say to us, so we return with the bad news to the Marquis. : So how is the barbarian situation developing? Is there any news?: Yes, I talked to their leader. But you know, here's the thing... He felt that the treaty was not in his favor, and he attacked me. And I had to admit, he's right in a way. I decided not to fight with him and promised to settle the question with you, Marquis.: That's a pity. It was a good plan. But never mind. I'm satisfied with the previous treaty, which we've already signed. However, I'm sorry - but I cannot reward you. The new treaty is not signed, and that was our deal.: That's a pity. Well, Marquis, see you later. With that, the quest is failed. We get no reward, but 1200 more Berserkers come in to the Marquis' collection of mercenaries. So, what to do now? Well, one thing we can do is return to the Knight's Temple and Master Richard's tournament. We've gotten quite a bit stronger, and maybe we can challenge a new hero. The last tournament fight was in Update 10, when we fought Adun the Goblin. Coming to the Knight's Temple, we indeed find the next fighter, Robin of Greenwood, is at the same level as Bill (Level 6). We step into the arena once again.  Robin of Greenwood boasts an army with a heavy archer component, including both Bowmen and Elves in numbers. To guard his archers, he also brings a number of Swordsmen, Ancient Bears, and Robbers. Robin himself has a good Attack boost, and some minor magical skill of his own. Robin also has a hidden boost that gives all of his archer troops +1 Damage.  Starting this fight, I need to cut his strong archers down quickly, or my troops will be pincushions.   Using my Inquisitors, I manage to cobble enough Rage to soon bring out the Evil Shoal. It is particularly effective for these kinds of fights, since there are so many enemy stacks. Even though we miss one stack of Ancient Bears, it still inflicts nearly 2000 total damage on the enemy, far more than even my magic does right now.  Despite the wounds inflicted on the enemy by spell and Shoal, his archers still inflict quite a bit of damage on my own Bowmen.  I cut loose my Barbarians, using their Berserking talent. This removes them from my control, but makes them deadly on attack. Their Defense suffers though, so I expect to lose plenty of them.  By the start of Turn 3, my Bowmen have lost nearly a third of their number, and the berserked Barbarians have taken a beating from the melee fighters. But we've decimated his archers and melee troops between spells and combat, and it takes just a bit more fighting to finish them off.  : 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 no 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!] In addition to the reward of 2 Might Runes, Bill gets enough experience from the fight to reach Level 7. From this point on, Leadership will basically be taken at every opportunity.  The casualties taken from the tournament fight do have consequences, because my Bowmen are now pretty depleted, and I don't have any source of them currently.  So we return to the Thorn-Hunters for a ranged unit. The only other ranged troop I could get in numbers right now is Priests, and I think we will see plenty of that in the near future.  I also pick up a scroll of Shroud while getting reinforcements. This Distortion spell reduces the damage of ranged units in its area of effect. It's a poor spell, but I'll try to show it off at some point in the future.  Stocked up, we head back to Arlania.  Along the main road, we take the cross road south past the Dragon Fang Inn.  This sailor-looking fellow has a quest for us.  : To buy? Maybe we can arrange another way? I do need a boat, though. : Let's do it this way - you help me and I'll give you a boat. Quid pro quo. Recently, I carried some goods from Verlon to Arlania, and ran into a terrible storm. I never seen one so bad before! Part of the cargo got washed overboard. If you could find my lost goods... I would give you a ship for it!: Ok, I'll find it! With that, a ship appears out of nowhere. Maybe it's like the capsules from the Dragon Ball world?  With that, Bill hits the high seas! Well, maybe not the high seas, since we can't actually sail out into the ocean. But we can now explore the coasts of Darion.   Following the coast, we find the first bit of lost cargo for Gek.  The second chest floats by this small island. We could ignore these Devilfish and sail by, but who knows what kind of treasure they might be guarding?  Indeed they are! This chest is just a bit of gold though.  They say to fight fire with fire. How about fish with fish?   The third chest is found here by a magical barrier.  As before, this represents the transition to the other maps.  And we are back in Verlon Forest for the umpteenth time! This time we can explore the small islands and coves we could not reach before.  Most of the troops we find are pretty weak. We could have done this sea exploration at a much lower level, in which case these might have been challenging (of course, then we'd be stronger for the fights we did have).  I particularly like these island combat maps. They always look like the desert islands from a comic strip, with a single clump of trees in the middle. These clumps tend to create lanes and chokepoints for troop movement. Restricted movement almost always benefits the player, as the AI doesn't know how to deal with it well.  This Berserker look so drat smug considering he's just been wrecked.  It's hard to always prevent Thorns from dying, and Plants can't be Resurrected.   The Wishing Well at the top of the hill yields a great trove of 3 Mind Runes. Considering we get 1 or 2 per level, this is awesome.  On the mainland we run into some Wolves and Barbarians. If nothing interesting happens in a fight, I'll be cutting down on pictures from combat.  A variety of loot awaits us after the fight. The chest contains some scrolls of Fear, so essentially just more money.  As we sail down the coast, we pass by Hogard's tent again. No reason to say hi though.  The island just off the coast has another easy fight guarding a Mana Absorber.   Sleem reaches Level 5 due to using Evil Shoal whenever possible. And I bump the damage of Shoal another 40 points once again. The Rage cost is climbing though, I hope I get some other options soon.  The Mana Absorber gives us another point of Intellect, always a good bonus to get.  We pick up the banners from the strand past the lighthouse that we couldn't get by on land.  Sailing past the village here, the shore becomes rocky and uninviting, and no seaway exists here. Take a look at this formation of rocks, though. That's Dragon Castle just above the camera, and I never noticed before that these rocks are meant to look like a dragon's tail with spines. Unable to go further, we return to Skipper Gek with the lost cargo. : So what, have you found my good?: I've found all the chests. Here, take them.: Thanks! You can't even imagine how much you've helped me! Goods from one of the most important pirates on the Islands were there, I would have been killed for the loss!: You are welcome. I am always glad to help.Having returned the cargo, we get 2400 Gold in addition to the boat itself. We could have bought a boat from a number of different people so far (Gek himself, Kitano back in Greenwort, and the merchant from the fishing village in Verlon Forest), and if you ever lose track of where you left your ship, its usually easier just to buy a new one.  With official ownership of our boat, Bill returns to the pirate life. The bay in Arlania is dominated by this island (called Griffin Island, no guesses as to why). We won't head there in this update, but we will scour the coastline.  Sailing counter-clockwise, we grab some gold and find this house on the far side.  : Who are you? A real artist? : Don't you believe me? My name is Alexo de Artisto! I studied from the best masters of Darion and other lands! I know the le Pikal's technique, Malevio methods, and also the sun dust technique. Kings of all different countries order their portraits from me. One time I was the resident artist in maestro Katauro's studio. There I painted the legendary canvases of knights and their feats...: No, I don't need your pictures. Maybe you have something else for sale?: What does it mean "don't need my pictures"? These "pictures" as you call them are true artworks. Please, just look at them.: Ok. Show me! The artist's store is one of the fixed stores in the game, and these two paintings will always be for sale there. I go ahead and purchase the Image of Fear. -3 to enemy Attack basically means +3 Defense, and that's very good for a single equipment slot for most of the game. The other painting gives +1 Attack.  I kind of like the idea that Bill is just holding this over his head during battle.  Continuing along the island coast, the next beach over holds a Training Dummy.  We get another boost of +1 Defense permanently.  As we make our way back to where Gek was, we find this island with some Sea Dogs on it. Sea Dogs are upgraded Pirates, and have a Talent that lets them take a swipe at multiple hexes simultaneously. Other than that, they are pretty much normal melee fighters.  The Holy Statue casts a buff on a nearby troop, usually either Bless or Divine Armour (as shown here). which boosts all the resistances of the affected troop.   The pirates go down for the count.  We return to following the mainland coast. More Sea Dogs guard this chest.   The chest contains a Magic Rune. One closer to Higher Magic!  This point of land marks the edge of the bay that contains Griffin Island. Up from the beach a path leads to a bridge guarded by some Cyclops. I have a plan here, but I need some Rage first. So I head along the beach to take on the Sea Dogs over there.   Holy Anger gives us that Rage. With a damage range of 1-2, the bless effect also really helps my Thorns.   We also find another Mind Rune here (that's 5 Mind Runes found in this update).  Stocked up with anger, we return to the Cyclops.  Last time we took on a pair of Cyclops, our army was devastated. Lets see if we can do better now.  First off, we have a new tool in our Spirits of Rage.  Next, our Fireballs are much stronger. Checking back, in the last fight against these guys, my Fireballs were doing 133 damage. Now we are doing 3x the damage.  The Cyclops do get an attack off against my Ancient Bears, but they are immediately resurrected.  And the second Cylops falls with the second Fireball.  Yeah, I'd say that went a hell of a lot better than the last time.  The chest the stone beasts were blocking contains a decent chunk of change.  The nearby Viking ship is a good find, as we can re-stock up three of my troops. I'm always glad to find hundreds more potential Bears for sure.    This army falls. Nothing much more to say about it.  This unusual army patrols this small spit of land. It looks like they broke out of a cage, presumably from a shipwreck.  The army is a mix of Sea Dogs, Goblins, and a single Dwarven Cannoneer. Cannoneers are interesting ranged troops, which will certainly find their way into our army at some point. But since there's only one here, it's not really worth talking much about.  Instead, lets just clean these guys out.    The next army is eaten by our fish will little effort.  On the northern Arlanian coast, we find a spookily haunted ship.  The ghosts and skeletons of former sailors guard this shipwreck in death.  Ghosts (and their upgraded version, Cursed Ghosts) are fast, strong, and only take half physical damage. Fortunately, they are not nearly as terrifying as the versions from older Heroes of Might and Magic games. Though they can create more Ghosts by sucking the essence out of troops they attack, they only do this at a rate of 1 Health per 4 Damage they deal. Inquisitors and Priests are great at fighting them, as is any spell that does Fire or Magic damage.  They do have a Shriek attack which pushes nearby troops away and does minor damage.  Even physical attacks will take them down eventually. And the numbers here aren't threatening.   Having defeated the spooky guards, we can now purchase troops from the shipwreck. In this case, its just some Decaying Zombies. Not a troop I'd care to use.  Just off-shore from the shipwreck, we find a pair of Top-Boots in a floating chest. I don't know what makes them Top, but they do offer +2 Defense. Since I didn't even have any boots yet, this is a great find.  This last strip of beach in Arlania has a nest of Snakes.  NOM NOM NOM!    We've now cleared all the coast of Arlania, so it's time to return to Greenwort.  The coast here is pretty short, and really only has two islands. This one contains one more of Fandor's obelisks.   The second island has another haunted ship, some Sea Dogs, and a Might Rune.  Look at all those matching socks!   Our fish take an incorporeal bite out of these Ghosts.   This shipwreck also sells some Skeleton Archers. I believe that Skeleton Archers are one of the most damaging archers per Leadership cost. The problem is that my other troops will all suffer a morale penalty for the presence of Undead in the army, so I leave these guys alone for now.  Having cleared out that wreck, we've completed our tour of the Darion coastline. Bill has gotten a lot stronger over the course of this update. Between equipment and map objects, Bill has gained a massive effective +6 Defense, as well as +1 Intellect. He's also found a ton of runes. Because of this influx, we are able to spend some on the skill Reserve.  This skill gives us the ability to have an additional slot to carry troops around which don't participate in battle. First, you can use this slot to carry extra troops of one of your main stacks, in order to keep them at max strength in between combats. Usually this will be your ranged troops, since the AI likes to target them and they are usually weak. In most games, I will carry a reserve of Bowmen around with me.  The second use is to carry a more situational troop along for the ride, to substitute in when you face enemies they do well against. For instance, I could bring along a bunch of Priests which destroy Undead. Either way, I can't imagine playing the game without the Reserve skill, and I pretty much always get both levels of it. It just saves a ton of hassle in bringing troops up to strength. Next update, we will finally conclude a quest from Update 7, in which a miller was having a bit of a problem with turning into a zombie. Bonus Material Let's look at what happens if we attack Hogard and the barbarians. : What a hot head you are! Well, let's have some fun. Hogard's army is...anti-climactic, I'll say. It's quite weak, even compared to other nearby forces. Hogard doesn't even lead them himself, which is odd considering the tough talk he was giving.  Poison Skull wipes out one stack of Barbarians.   The melee troops bring out their big attacks and wipe out the few troops that make it over.  Welp, so much for the treaty. Let's see what the Marquis has to say about killing his new allies. : So how is the barbarian situation developing? Is there any news?: Yes, I talked to their leader. But you know, here's the thing... He felt that the treaty was not in his favor, and he attacked me. I had to defend myself... To make a long story short, the barbarians don't have a leader any more. And, uh... there aren't many barbarians left, actually.: You killed him? I don't know what to say... On the one hand, he could have been a good source of income. On the other hand, nobody knows what this vulgar barbarian might do tomorrow! Well, in any case he could easily have brought more problems than benefit. Let us say that you've settle the issue. (Reward: 84 Experience, 2200 Gold): Thank you, Marquis. Until we meet again.So yeah. The way to actually complete the quest and get the reward is to kill Hogard off. Marking the Map    Talkin' 'bout Troops Elf  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents  Double Shot: Discharges two arrows at once, inflicting double (8-10) damage. (Reload: 2)Abilities Archer Sniper: No penalty for Ranged attack. No Melee Penalty Gully's opinion: These guys are very solid archers. Though their base damage isn't significantly higher than Bowmen (4-5 instead of 3-4), the extra Attack, Defense, and better HP/Leadership ratio is quite effective. Sniper and no melee penalty means they can attack at any range for full damage. Double Shot is an awesome talent, giving you an extremely strong first shot, when it is most important. High initiative also means they are good at getting the first shot in. Fighting them: Not much you can do to avoid taking big damage from them unless you use spells or can block them off somehow. Like most archers, try to get melee attackers in their face, they are relatively fragile. However, they can still deal significant damage in melee, so beware of their retaliations. Spells Seen I didn't cast it, but it was seen: Divine Armor  Provides the target increased defenses from all types of damage. Crystal Cost: 6 / 10 / 14 Mana Cost: 15 / 20 / 30 Level 1: All Resistances: +20%; Duration: 2 turns Level 2: All Resistances: +25%; Duration: 3 turns Level 3: All Resistances: +30%; Duration: 4 turns Gully's opinion: This is an interesting spell. The best way to use it is to stack Resistances on something that is already Resistant. Combine with Stoneskin and you can make a unit have up to 80% Physical Resist, which is insane. Or stack with Fire Resist units (like Horsemen or Knights) when fighting certain fire-breathing serpents. Too expensive for ordinary use, but awesome in certain cases. Great for Warriors or Paladins. Skills Shown Reserve This skill allows the hero to keep reserve troops that do not participate in combat. Mind, Tier 2 Prerequisites: Glory  Level 1: The hero can keep one set of units in reserve. Cost: 3/3/0. Level 2: The hero can keep two sets of units in reserve. Cost: 3/3/0.Gully's opinion: I take both levels of Reserve in every game of King's Bounty I play. The convenience of being able to bring reinforcements around is fantastic, especially for your troops that get targeted a ton (like Bowmen). If you really want to save the runes, you can skip this skill and just go back every time you want to reinforce. I don't recommend it. Items Identified Top-Boots  Description: Exceptional boots, steel-reinforced. Effects: +2 to Defense Type: Boots Race: Neutral Cost: 6000 Info: Long leather boots, reinforced with inserts of flexible steel. Cheap, but good. Image of Fear  Description: This picture inspires the enemies with fear. Effects: -3 to the Attack of enemies Type: Artifact Race: Humans Cost: 16600 Info: Seeing this picture, the enemy feels nervous and ill-at-ease. Inspirational Image  Description: This picture inspires troops to great feats. Effects: +1 to Attack Type: Artifact Race: Humans Cost: 5000 Info: The picture was painted using a special technique, which increases the ferocity of troops. Floating Chest  Description: A chest which is used for the maritime transport of goods. Type: Quest Info: A strong wooden chest, the main virtues of which are flotation and watertightness. Special runes, which were drawn on it by skilled mage, sometimes make the chest itself more valuable than its contents.
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Nov 1, 2016 19:20
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Apologies for the long delay for this update. Life stuff happened, and I also had trouble figuring out how to fit the material I recorded into one update. I've given up on that, and decided to post just this first half. So the next update should be coming in not too long. From this point on, I will probably be posting shorter updates, but hopefully more frequently since each update will be less intimidating to make. Update 14 - It's Miller Time  We start this update back in our ship, just past the haunted ship we cleared out at the end of the previous coastal tour. There's one major area in Greenwort that we haven't finished yet, and a quest we've been working on since Update 7 that we can finally finish.  The coast is guarded by some pirate-types, but not in much strength.  Our forces have no trouble with small armies like this, especially pure melee ones.   Having cleared off the beach, we dig a few lost scrolls up, and survey the land. The most interesting feature is the structure on the right.  This Robber's Den is the home of Rotten Hake. It's been a long time, but we were told to come see Hake in connection with a potentially cursed ring that the miller sold to Hake (and the miller subsequently became zombiefied).   : stolen goods, you know.: I'd like to buy something. I heard you buy and sell stolen stuff? I'd like to have a look at what you have.: What's this? You trying to cause trouble? We are honest workers - we even have a license. What, do you think the license is no good? We have great document specialists, you know! They can't read, but they'll write whatever you tell them, in elven or even in the sunset language! And we don't sell the stolen stuff! Even if we did, we definitely wouldn't tell you about it.: I believe you, chief, I believe you. So show me your license and your other stuff. So yeah, Hake isn't so good at hiding this whole criminal thing. He does sell a few robber-types, but nothing else useful. : Hey guys, just look who's come to pay us a visit! Can this be that king's detective? Why did you come? You wanna test the sharpness of our knives or the strength of your skin?: I was sent to you by...uhh...the Crooked Tooth! A famous robber from the capital.: Crooked what? That's the first time I've ever heard of him. Of course, long ago there was a Crooked Dog in the capital - and there was Crooked Mug, who lived in Arlania port, but I never heard about your guy before. Maybe because there ain't such a person, and you're a spy, sent by the town guard?: I'm no spy; I'm the new Treasure Searcher of His Majesty. You probably heard about it.: Searcher you say? So you steal ancient treasures by the king's order? Well-well, good job, filling the king's treasury - but if we was in business together, one of them shiny treasures might... say, drop out of your bag by accident, am I right? Eh, Bill Gilbert?: I need to talk to you. It has to do with a stolen ring that the miller sold you.: The miller? What miller? I don't know any millers! And of course I don't sell stolen goods...: Don't play all innocent. Everybody knows that all the stoeln goods around here passes through your hands.: Bah! You don't have any evidence. Even if you did, you won't have long to live.: It's up to you... But the point is that the ring is cursed. The miller has turned into a zombie!: Cursed? A cursed ring? So that's why there's such trouble with my Rina! It's because of the ring!: I don't get you. What Rina?: Rina... My sweetheart... I gave her the ring, as a symbol of our love. She felt bad already last night. In the morning I found such a frightful monster in her bed, that I nearly killed it myself. Thank god it wasn't too late before I recognized that the zombie was my dear Rina... Listen, my good man - you're not asking about this ring just because you want to keep turning people into zombies, right? There must be a way to get rid of the curse! Please help me. Remove the curse from my beloved, and I'll gladly pay you for the service.: Ok, but I need the ring. Call Rina. : Oh...No, I'm not your new toy... : Hrg-ar! Bad! Will you play with Rrrina? Rrrr... Rina forgot! Introduce yourself; first you have to introduce yourself! I'm Rina.: What a face! Pah! A real monster!: Grauu! Hake! He offended Rina! I will bite you to deathhhhh! I'll tear you to pieces! I'll eat you up! [The zombie-girl bares her teeth and jumps towards you, but she is grasped by Rotten Hake, who holds her in his arms tightly...]: I'm not tasty. You'd have trouble choking me down!: [Tightly holding the zombie as it tries to escape his hands, Hake turns to you.] Hey you! Be careful what you say! You're talking to my fiancee, you know! Get out! Come back when you learn some good manners - or my guys will stab you in a minute...: See you later...To get the ring back from Rina requires us to take the right choices in a dialogue tree, while wrong choices lead to Rina trying to eat us like this or just ignoring us. Fortunately you can just try again, and eventually get there by trial-and-error. I'll skip the extraneous dialogue. : I'm Bill Gilbert. Today is a wonderful day isn't it?: Grrr... ok! Rina ok! [The unfortunate girl closes her eyes and starts to stroke the ring that is on her finger.]: Oh, you have a wonderful ring! It's so nice...: Aggrr! A ring! Prrretty... Precious... So precious!: I had a ring like that too...: Agrr? A ring? Another pretty ring?: But then I lost it. And you probably found my ring! Return it to me, please!: Mine... Mine... Mine! He's bad! He wants to take away my ring!: Let's swap! I'll give you 100 gold coins and you can buy yourself some nice new beads!: Prretty! My darling gave it to me... [It's amazing, but it seemed like the zombie just gave you a wink...]: Look at this cunning creature... Not enough? Alright, then let me give you 1000 gold coins.: Yes! Prrretty beads for Rina! Give it, give it!: Take it. Buy beads for you...: Thank you! Take the ring! I'll have prretty beads!: Oh, at last! Thank you! We've got the ring at last, and we need to return to the Magic School with it if we hope to find an answer for the zombie curse. There are now two lives at stake. We could return to the boat and sail around, but I think we have the strength to force our way back over the land.  First, we want to get this guarded chest. More of Hake's robbers stand guard over it.  This group is a little stronger than the beach pirates. But it still is pure melee. A starting Fireball weakens their centre.  We can't always rely on Fireball, but Flaming Arrow is still quite good, especially for only 5 mana.  Soon the last brigand falls beneath our blades.  A couple of minor losses result because of the Biting Strike talent. The chest has a few thousand gold for our trouble.  We grab a banner, and run into a group of Thorns on our way out. This is same group that scared us out of the area back when the Miller Zombie quest started.  Even now, an army of close to 1000 Thorns is not necessarily easy, and they have a strong amount of ranged Thorn-Hunters.  The placement of the ranged troops on the wings means I need to resort to an non-optimal Fireball placement in order to wreck the ranged units. Luckily, the double damage that Plants suffer from Fire goes a long way to aid us.  The Evil Shoal comes out to finish off that weakened stack, and thin the rest out a bit.  The remaining stack of Thorns target our well-armored Swordsmen. I carefully place my units just outside of the attack range of the melee plants.  This lures them in, and I get to strike first. This is very important against fragile units like these Thorns.  The only unit to take damage was our Swordsmen, who are resurrected by the Inquisitors. A perfect fight! Note: this battle could have gone very differently in terms of troop losses. I was less careful in a practice run, and lost dozens of Barbarians and a ton of my own Thorn-Hunters. Having broken through back to territory we've already pacified:, we take the ring back to the Magic School.  : I've brought you the cursed ring!: How interesting... No-no! I guess I won't take it in my hands now. The curse is rather strong, and I wouldn't like to take the risk. By the way, are you alright? You don't feel giddy? Your feet growing numb?: But what's this have to do with removing the curse?: I'm sorry, never mind, just my curiosity... I beg your pardon, but I can't help you under the circumstances. This is no common object, but a highly animate one. And at this moment, the Ring's Keepers are in quite an aggressive mood. They won't even let me approach close enough to examine the magic structure of the ring, not to mention break the charm. I'm afraid you'll have to eliminate them, young man!: Ok, I'll suppress the cursed ring! Time for another Keeper battle!  As expected for a Zombiefying ring, this Keeper battle has undead guards. One of the Friendly Gremlin towers casts Mass Haste, speeding up all the troops. This could have been threatening, if their stacks weren't miniscule.  This Fireball is major overkill on this tower (Health: 54).   No, that's not a double-posted screenshot. We get Fireballed twice by the Towers. Despite the fact that the towers have very low HP, a Fireball still hurts, and two of them really sucks. I'm mostly happy they didn't target my irreplaceable Inquisitors.  The units loss tab doesn't look too bad in the end. All of these troops are easy to find right now.  We also level up Zerock, giving us access to his third ability, Rockfall. We will have a look at this relatively unimpressive ability next update. Having suppressed the ring, we talk to Elerio again. : I've dealt with the cursed ring, as you requested.: Excellent! Now I'll be able to examine the structure of the curse and make up a counter-spell. Actually, it's a fairly elementary task... now to modify the structure a little and...[While talking to you Shivarius strangely manipulates the ring which for a moment throws off blue sparks as it glitters a reddish color...] All ready! Ah, and the spell that will take off the miller's curse sounds like this: "Sobius rat caberian torus!" As for the ring, I'll have it melted down so that it won't kill any more poor souls. : Sobius rat... Yes, got it. Thank you kindly! Time to return to heal the miller.  : I've found the ring. And I got a spell from the mages which will remove the curse...: Don't tantalize me, Bill Gilbert! Come, remove the curse from me!: "Sobery rat kabame conusom": It seems... Yes! Something is going on... As if... Like... Oh, I just thought for a second... Hmmm, maybe you learned the spell wrong.: Something is wrong... Let's try it one more time... "Sobius cant berlil tonus": Well... Well... It's working! I feel something crackling inside me... How... How my ribs are rotting and breaking! Oh no, I rot alive - I mean dead! What have you done?: Whoops! Let's try this again... "Sobius rat siberian torus": Yes! You did it! I'm already feeling how my eyesight is becoming clearer. The fog and darkness disperses - I see as if I stand in dayling. I see you, every crease on your clothes, and every vein in your neck. I hear how your living heart beats.. Oh, how I want to dig my teeth into it!!!: Fourth time's the charm, I guess. Klaatu verata nicto? Wait, no, wrong pop culture universe... : "Sobius rat kaberian torus": It worked! I felt at once how it became warmer inside me... And my legs became more obedient as if they have thawed...: That's how it should be. Soon you'll have completely returned to being a normal human... Good luck!: So, have you visited the miller?: Yes. You don't have a miller anymore - he has turning into a zombie... I guess I probably should have told you about that way back: Oh, I knew his trips to the cemetery wouldn't end well. How many times I've told him - "come to your senses, Bob, the dead won't forgive your violation of their remains!" So how shall we manage without a miller now?: Don't worry; I've already removed the curse.: Oh, thank you! Now every shadow frightens me. What if the miller comes to get me?: I thought you cared about the village, but you're just concerned about your own skin! Alright, I have to go. Whew! Finally finished off that quest, only took like 8 updates to get around to it. If those magic words worked on the zombied Miller, what about Rina? The girl looked like she could use some help. : So did you find the spell for removing the curse from my sweetheart?: I learned the spell which will remove the curse.: Excellent! But, you know... You'd better write it down on a piece of paper for me. We'd better not remove the curse from Rina right now.: I don't think I got that... You want your wife to remain a zombie?: At first, they just laughed behind my back - of course... And then my men decided I should be removed. That's when Rina came to my help. The first time, she smelled a poison in my food. The second time - she took an arbalest shot for me. To her, well, she's undead, so it doesn't do her no harm... You try to find a bodyguard like that! No sleep, no food, no rest, no salary. But oh how she loves me. If I can just keep her under control, well, you can't find a better wife.: Ok, write this down - "Sobius rat caberian torus"!Yes, I got it. Well, my friend, you've save me. I am indebted to you. [Reward: 2100 Gold, 84 Experience] : Good luck with your family life.Hmm, that does sound like a useful wife to have. What if we had such a wife... : Thank you for such a wonderful wife! She's such a lovely angel.: I have a suggestion concerning your Rina...: Oh? I hope you won't try to eliminate her. She's no common riffraff. At least, not most time, heh-heh.: Give her to me.: How much you gonna pay? Think about it - what do you think is a good price? First, she doesn't eat, doesn't sleep, doesn't need rest or a salary. And second, you're taking my beloved wife, you see?: 1000 gold coins.: Not enough. Don't be mean. It's not a cow you're buying - It's my wife, and a good wife at that.: 5000 gold coins.: Deal! Alright, you can take my darling... Do you remember the secret word.: I have no problems with my memory, thanks.Wives and Gender Politics in King's Bounty With the completion of the cursed ring quest, we get our first chance to interact with the marriage/wife mechanic in King's Bounty. Unfortunately, there's not too much character to it, and lots of sexism in terms of controlling them as you will. Wives are essentially inventory bags with certain bonuses. Each wife has 4 additional inventory slots, with the type of slots given depending on the wife. Additionally, each wife gives an innate bonus, usually to certain races or types of units.  For instance, Rina here gives us an additional Torso, Boot, Belt, and Artifact slot.  In her Zombie form, Rina improves the speed and initiative of all Undead creatures. Very powerful if you have an Undead army. Obviously useless otherwise. Another aspect of the wife system is that you can have children. Ignoring all realities of pregnancy and gestation time, a child will pop out only a little while after you agree to have one. Children occupy one of the wives inventory slots permanently, and give a random bonus. Some are quite good, but many are worse than potential equipment, or may not fit your character. And you can't get rid of them without also ditching the wife. : Darling, darling! Will you give Rina a ring? Rina will be a good girl!: Well... My wife, I wanted to talk to you about children...: Arrg! Yum-yum. Tasty meat. Fine meat!: drat you! Cannibal! It seems to me that while you're a zombie there's no sense talking to you about children.Well, I guess we won't be having children with Zombie Rina. How about asking for a divorce? : You know, I don't need such a wife! Get out!: You don't like Rina? Is Rina bad? So, you're bad too!: Sorry, you misunderstood. Of course, I love you and will never let you go!Divorcing a wife means she will take any equipment you've left in her slots, all of the children, and 1/5th of your gold. It's also permanent, no going back and getting remarried. Because of this, canon Gilbert did not actually marry Rina, since I don't want to lose her in case I want to come back later with an Undead army. Remember those words of un-zombiefication. Well, we can use them at any point to return Rina to her humanity. And even though we were never told how, we can return her to Zombie form by saying another magic word. I'm guessing its the same words, but backwards.  Rina as a living human has the same slots, but now gives bonuses to Robbers and Pirates. A much more useful bonus for this point in the game, given that we could easily get 3 stacks of these guys. Let's chat with Rina, see if she has more things to say as a human.  : No, don't turn me into zombie again!: And what is it like to be a zombie?: I... I don't remember... Normal sensations, like a pain, happiness, sadness, fear and the other feelings - they go far away, and are no longer my own. There are only the cold and hunger. Wild hunger, which can be satisfies only by living flesh.: What on earth made you become a zombie?: That's all because my fiance, Hake. He bought a little ring from the miller, but the miller had stolen it from the cemetery, and it turned out to be curses. I really loved Hake and protected him even as a zombie. But he got rid of me. Sold me like I was his property. It's terrible and unfair. But now you are my husband, and I will love and protect you.: Aww, isn't that sweet. Look, don't you think that it's time we had a child? : I mean, I bought you off of your previous fiance a whole five minutes ago, let's get cracking on this!: A child? But... I thought your life makes it difficult to raise children.: My lifestyle doesn't matter. My service should not hinder our feelings and desires.: You... you really want it? Then I'm the happiest wife in the world. Someday we'll have a big family and our own house. What am I talking about... a house? But my husband is the Royal Treasure Searcher, and a Viscount! We'll have our own castle!: That's wonderful, honey. (Kiss your wife.): Psych! I don't actually want a child. Maybe I should ask for a divorce?: I'm sorry, but I've decided that the former fiancee of a robber-chief, and zombie - well this is not the best thing for me right now. I want to divorce you.: Eh, you know, I've been meaning to say we should break up too. I'm tired of the constant chuckles of your warriors behind my back, and the pieces of dead flesh which they sneak into my tent, and all the holy symbols.: Come on, obviously the Inquisitors have holy symbols, its part of their job. And the Thorn-Hunters are blind, they didn't mean to leave their dinner in your tent.: Yes, I'm turning into a zombie, but it is not my fault. I can't bear it anymore! I'll take my things and one fifth of our property, and I'll go away. I can see there's no place for me beside you. Find yourself a normal living girl, and good luck.: Sorry! I really don't want to let you go. And I promise that I'll put an end to all the jokes about your... uncommon fate. Please don't leave.or : Goodbye. And be careful; try to avoid any paladins you might come across.As said, though, this marriage never actually happened. Although we could use Rina's human side with her bonus to Robbers/Pirates (and we still have that belt that gives them +5 Attack), it would restrict our army composition, and we'd lose any chance to potentially use Zombie Rina later if we want to use an Undead army instead. That finishes off this half-update. Small amount of bonus material this time, but we will have more when I go through the rest of the already-recorded material for the next update. Next time, we will march through the marshes! ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Marking the Map  Items Identified Cursed Ring  Description: The ordinary golden ring, found by the miller in a cemetery. Type: Quest Info: The miller found this ring in one of the graves, and paid a heavy price for his greed - the ring was cursed and the grave-robber was turned into a zombie. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Dec 4, 2016 |
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Dec 4, 2016 23:05
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mauman posted:Your wife turning into the robber chief is quite funny.  Haha, wow, thanks for the heads up. Although I think that would have been way better if that was the case. Fixed now.
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Dec 4, 2016 23:31
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Poil posted:I remember a much better wife being available soon anyway. Not a very healthy relationship there either though. Oh yeah, I will almost certainly be using the wife you are thinking of. She is much more flexible in terms of army composition, at least for a mage. I agree regarding the reserves skill. Having to unlock a convenience with runes is annoying. I think they could have made it so that you unlock the slots through quest rewards in the main quest. You don't really need the reserve slots while you are on the first island, it's more for when you are far away from the stacks you are using.
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Dec 5, 2016 19:08
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Psycho Lawnmower posted:What about the Zombie Miller? As I recall, isn't there some sort of bonus if you recite the spell given to you on the first try? Huh, I didn't know if there was any difference if you do it right the first time. I'll go back and check it out from an earlier save. Glazius posted:I like that they're making neat plot use of the item-guardian mechanic. Yeah, the Keeper battles are an interesting mechanic, and I like the way it is used in many of the quests. They can be some of the hardest fights in the game. 5 or 6 spells per turn can really screw with you, and if you don't have great ranged troops or spells to take them out, you get even more cast against you as retaliation from melee attacks. One of the (many) reasons that Mages are great is because of these battles.
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Dec 10, 2016 16:36
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