Let's Play: Betrayal at Krondor

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Let's Play: Betrayal at Krondor

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

The Betrayal Collection is currently 35% off on steam. However, I never managed to get Betrayal at Antra to play, so maybe GoG is the place to go.

Also - activate the voice acting and... post samples, I guess? Pretty sure most people never even suspected this game has voiceovers.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2021 11:57

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 13:56

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Head to Yabon to get a Whetstone and Armorer's hammer.

You can use Capture2Text to transcribe text. Or copy-paste directly from Snugglecake's LP

# ¿ Sep 10, 2021 23:30

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I've only realized I've read the series up to book 4 (at least) upon reading the lore post about Locklear. None of this left any impression whatsoever.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2021 09:02

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I mean, the Betrayal Collection does greet your with a pair of headless tits in your library. Classy.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2021 18:01

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

PurpleXVI posted:

With no tagged skills, this is a +5% to Melee Accuracy and Defense for everyone, which is actually a pretty nice boost, especially this early on. Now we can leave LaMut behind and not see it again for, probably, several chapters worth of game.

That should be 7.5% or so with only these two skills tagged.

quote:

Barding XP progresses by some weird method I don't understand, so I just burn all of the charges on Owyn, which puts him at a threadbare 51% barding skill up from his starting 42%.

That also should be a lot higher with just Barding tagged.
...
Oh, and someone knowledgeable commenting on my guide said that books still have a chance to boost your skills even after you've read them once? Anyway, it's at least once per character, which is different from "one-use".

# ¿ Sep 14, 2021 21:03

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Guildenstern Mother posted:

The thing about trolls is they never carry loot

Rarely, but not never. Gold (sometimes in meaningful quantities) and... other stuff.

Not armor or weapons though.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2021 09:13

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

PurpleXVI posted:

Turns out that despite playing through this game like three or four times, I never knew it was possible to push the crystals diagonally before

# ¿ Sep 24, 2021 15:29

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

MagusofStars posted:

Selling Malaka's Ruby isn't as big of deal as you'd think, because (a) the shops in this game are quirky as hell in a way I'm assuming you'll show off and (b) IIRC the game just checks your inventory for any ruby so you could just grab a different one.

And there's a place where 1% rubies are actually quite useful.

...

Per my guide, go for the detour but leave the training opportunities for chapter 2.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2021 15:02

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

This is why I recommend leaving the training opportunities nearer to Krondor alone until chapter 2, to bring James (slightly more) up to snuff. Though he's never great.

MagusofStars posted:

-Assessment isn't particularly useful, but between the boost you get here and another training and the skill book, you get something absurd like +50 to the stat. So if you do ever bother to use it for some reason, your character gets the entire stat sheet of the opponent in one go.

It's decent for making sure an enemy can't hurt you if you want to take a rest in combat (much more efficient than actually resting \ chugging down restoratives) \ for defense training.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2021 03:55

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

MagusofStars posted:

I always found James to be better than Locklear. Lock has better base attack and defense, but Chapter 2/3 just have SO MANY battles, stat boosts, and buyable training books available that by late Ch.2 / early Ch.3, James takes the lead and just never gives it up.

Not in my experience. Even after travelling the world in chapter 3 and making use of basically every single training opportunity, James is still strictly worse once Locklear returns with his stats boosted.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2021 01:14

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

PurpleXVI posted:

CANDLE GLOW
Rating: 3/5
A replacement for using torches indoors. Decently worthwhile since it frees up more spell for ammo and drugs.

Also good for the few places where you can't light torches.

quote:

DRAGON'S BREATH
Rating: 2/5
If you REALLY want to make sure you miss as many combat encounters as possible, cast this. Generally you want to run into fights, though. But it can be have a fringe use or two if you manage to paint yourself into a corner that you have to fight your way out of.

I was under the impression that this spell increased your stealth, allowing you to ambush enemies more easily?

quote:

EYES OF ISHAP
Rating: 2/5
This would be a 5/5 spell because some containers are rather well-hidden but... well... you know the Spyglass? That you get at the start of chapter 3? It casts Eyes of Ishap for free. Any time. Any where.

Ah, but not everyone gets access to it all the time.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2021 18:04

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Earlier in the LP PurpleXVI asked about good times to have item descriptions up - IMO, whenever you're talking about the party picking up new equipment. Whether it's just purchased armor and weapons or a quest reward. It's kinda weird to spend a while talking about an item but not actually showing it.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2021 14:25

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Talking about the ease of getting turned around an update or two back - something worth noting is that BaK is one of the few games where you want to move around in mini-map view whenever there aren't enemies around. Otherwise, you'll get confused and turned around a lot. Local early attempts at 3d hills just play bumper cars with your characters.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2021 11:26

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I'm reasonably sure that the blessing does affect weapon damage. At least, various tips suggest not blessing a certain sword for that very reason.

Your team gets healed at the start of every new chapter, so as long as you manage to drag two near-corpses into the castle, there's no need to waste supplies on healing (why yes, this fight did kick my rear end a few times).

The one time I really invest into grinding is raising poor Patrus' defense stat. Go into a dungeon, fight some enemies, drop one to near 0 health (the one time that the Assessment skill comes in handy), then park Patrus in front of him and defend for a few dozen terms (having tagged Defense first). The dungeon part is because enemies underground never flee due to low health.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2021 00:30

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I'm absolutely confident that enemies can cast spells even if said spell requires more hitpoints than they currently have, killing themselves in the process. I suppose the AI may be less eager to cast spells in that case, but that sounds more complex than the way the game generally handles things.

Xander77 fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Dec 4, 2021

# ¿ Dec 3, 2021 19:41

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

I really don't get the "is this canon to the books" asides. I mean, if the game contradicted previously established lore - fine, that kinda makes sense. But the novelization contradicting the game - feels like no reason to get cannons involved. Or even trebuchets.

First time I played, it took me quite a while to figure out how things work in the new world. Thankfully, Owen was a full-pledged kung-fu master with his staff at that point.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2021 21:06

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

Loathing for the common peasant and admiration for the all-conquering hero who solves everything with a swing of his fist \ blade are one way in which chivalric romances remained with us regardless of democratic processes in real life and print. If anything, they are now stronger than ever - how many clever tricksters or lucky fools headline blockbuster releases in the 21st century, as compared to the 1920's?

# ¿ Dec 13, 2021 20:46

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 13:56

Xander77: Apr 6, 2009; Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.

That was one of the better examples of "the villain kinda has a valid point but batshit methods".

I played through a bit of RtK, but never managed to get the steam version of Antara to work properly, so my biggest impression is the immensely stupid name they came up with for the generic evil race.

That said, Antara, I guess.

Xander77 fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Dec 15, 2021

# ¿ Dec 14, 2021 21:26

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