Eschalon: Book III

[Unkillable Cat]

The irony of that is that Gothic's inventory is an endless transdimensional rift, meaning you can store EVERYTHING you ever find without any worry at all. A hoarder's wet dream.

Instead of proceeding beyond the demo area of Book 3, I instead decided to replay Book 1 for the first time since its release. I'm not bothered by the 800x600 resolution, the music is nice, the typos make my OCD twitch but what's bothering me the most is that I seem to be forced to use the mouse to move around. I could use the keyboard in Book 2, so at least the series improved there.

But at the same time I'm realizing just how little the series have progressed since Book 1, in almost every sense. It's like the developers absolutely and completely ignored all player feedback, whether positive or negative. It makes you wonder why each game had a minimum development time of 3 years. Because of this, my opinion of the series has lowered overall. It looks like Book 2 is by far the best in the series, both because it has the best engine and the best/most content.

Right now I'm only interested in playing Book 3 to see how the story ends. I bought Book 1 and 2 upon release, and didn't regret my purchases then, but now I'm seriously thinking about holding off on Book 3 until a sale - or at least until some patching has been done.

A good idea for any sane developer to do now would be to revisit the series as a whole and release "Remastered" editions of each game. Provide widescreen support, make sure each game is running the latest engine, small tweaks here and there, maybe even releasie that expansion pack for the first game like they claimed they would do. But looking at the development of the Eschalon from start to finish, it's clear that Basilisk Games are not sane developers, so this is VERY unlikely to happen.

 

[Rokkzul]

Started playing the 3 book today and seems like a ranged class is viable in the beginning, gonna try a ranged-fighter build (thank god ranged helped with the matron ) with cartography and high perception to spot hidden. The main plus of this series has always been the exploration and art.

More content and interaction with the world would make the game even better, the isometric view and art is top notch and feels familiar.

 

[V_K]

Instead of proceeding beyond the demo area of Book 3, I instead decided to replay Book 1 for the first time since its release.

Demo area is probably the worst part of the game, which is kinda unfortunate. It really picks up after that.

 

[flushfire]

Anyone have any idea if armor skills work the same as in 2? Too lazy to test. It was pointless to increase armor skills beyond armor requirements in 2 since the DR bonus from skills were independent of equipment. Then DR was just a flat chance to reduce damage by 50% and also always lower than the relevant skill level whereas Dodge completely negated damage and was always == skill level.

Also, any skills without books/trainers?

 

[Yoshiyyahu]

I am stuck in that dumb slut Bazriel's dungeon. I just entered and killed a few skeletons and I can't get past this wide gate. It's not locked and I can't see any levers, except for a few past the gate.

 

[Minttunator]

Also, any skills without books/trainers?

I've seen books for most skills, so I'm assuming they are all covered. Likewise it seems likely that all skills have trainers, but personally I haven't seen the following trainers yet:
Divination
Hide in Shadows
Move Silently
Piercing Weapons
Repair
Spot Hidden
Skullduggery
...i.e. I probably have seen them but I haven't completed the necessary quests or whatever.

The whole trainer situation is somewhat lame if one wants to optimize their character, as the system encourages not using any skill points until one has maxed out the trainer (which takes a while). On the other hand, of course - these games aren't exactly difficult so optimizing one's character is sort of overkill anyway. I'm just a bit miffed that they didn't tweak this system for book 3.

 

[Minttunator]

I am stuck in that dumb slut Bazriel's dungeon. I just entered and killed a few skeletons and I can't get past this wide gate. It's not locked and I can't see any levers, except for a few past the gate.

Is there a barrel on the other side (to the left if you're facing the portcullis)? If so, then I think I know which one you mean, and:

Spoiler

I don't think you can open it but there's another entrance on the other side.

 

[Yoshiyyahu]

I am stuck in that dumb slut Bazriel's dungeon. I just entered and killed a few skeletons and I can't get past this wide gate. It's not locked and I can't see any levers, except for a few past the gate.

Is there a barrel on the other side (to the left if you're facing the portcullis)? If so, then I think I know which one you mean, and:

Spoiler

I don't think you can open it but there's another entrance on the other side.

Same issue; I can't get around those dumb gates on the other side

 

[flushfire]

The whole trainer situation is somewhat lame if one wants to optimize their character, as the system encourages not using any skill points until one has maxed out the trainer (which takes a while). On the other hand, of course - these games aren't exactly difficult so optimizing one's character is sort of overkill anyway. I'm just a bit miffed that they didn't tweak this system for book 3.

Thanks. Yeah, the trainers/books really could've used some adjustment. I don't see the point in limiting training to the first few levels as skill point costs don't increase. If any it should be the first skill point which should be restricted since it costs 3 points.

Also, the MQ requires wearing a magical ring to proceed.. So there's no way to conplete the 'True Warrior' challenge? lol

 

[Hobo Elf]

The whole trainer situation is somewhat lame if one wants to optimize their character, as the system encourages not using any skill points until one has maxed out the trainer (which takes a while). On the other hand, of course - these games aren't exactly difficult so optimizing one's character is sort of overkill anyway. I'm just a bit miffed that they didn't tweak this system for book 3.

Thanks. Yeah, the trainers/books really could've used some adjustment. I don't see the point in limiting training to the first few levels as skill point costs don't increase. If any it should be the first skill point which should be restricted since it costs 3 points.

Also, the MQ requires wearing a magical ring to proceed.. So there's no way to conplete the 'True Warrior' challenge? lol

It doesn't. You can easily bypass the need of a ring.

 

[flushfire]

Oh. Thanks, thought it was an oversight since the rings were everywhere.

Same issue; I can't get around those dumb gates on the other side

If the wide gate has a couple skeleton archers and a barrel on the other side

Spoiler

you can shoot the barrel when standing on the farthest tile right in front of the gate

 

[Yoshiyyahu]

I shot the barrel before (the TNT one) and blew it up, but the gate is still around.

 

[V_K]

I shot the barrel before (the TNT one) and blew it up, but the gate is still around.

Either a bug or you're talking about a different gate (the one accessible through Ugolek entrance), and that one cannot be open afaik.

 

[Yoshiyyahu]

I shot the barrel before (the TNT one) and blew it up, but the gate is still around.

Either a bug or you're talking about a different gate (the one accessible through Ugolek entrance), and that one cannot be open afaik.

I just opened the tree passage with the password, and entered the underground Emayu stronghold or whatever it is called. There are two branches, the leftmost one leads to two closed portculli, the other leads to one big one.

 

[Kruno]

I shot the barrel before (the TNT one) and blew it up, but the gate is still around.

Don't shoot the TNT barrels with AOE magic. Use a stone, or a single target spell/attack.

The second portcullis on the west end, put a barrel against the wall near the switch. The explosion will go through the wall and trigger the switch, but as above do not use AOE attacks against the barrel.

 

[Yoshiyyahu]

Lol I've already fucked the quest. I don't have any more relevant saves. GG

 

[V_K]

Lol I've already fucked the quest. I don't have any more relevant saves. GG

Spoiler

It's optional anyway.

 

[Yoshiyyahu]

Lol I've already fucked the quest. I don't have any more relevant saves. GG

Spoiler

It's optional anyway.

Spoiler

Isn't that the only way to get across the river to fight those betty netch creatures?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Also, any skills without books/trainers?

I've seen books for most skills, so I'm assuming they are all covered. Likewise it seems likely that all skills have trainers, but personally I haven't seen the following trainers yet:
Divination
Hide in Shadows
Move Silently
Piercing Weapons
Repair
Spot Hidden
Skullduggery
...i.e. I probably have seen them but I haven't completed the necessary quests or whatever.

See my previous post about the lack of progress in all three Eschalon games. In Book 1 I haven't found anything that says that there are trainers for Hide in Shadows, Spot Hidden, Move Silently or Skullduggery.

In a half-competent RPG, there would be trainers and books for every skill, though not all of them necessarily accessible to the same character/playthrough.

 

[V_K]

Lol I've already fucked the quest. I don't have any more relevant saves. GG

Spoiler

It's optional anyway.

Spoiler

Isn't that the only way to get across the river to fight those betty netch creatures?

Spoiler

You can get there from the eastern side of the island. And there are at least 3 ways to reach it that don't involve this dungeon.
The game is still pretty rich with alternative approaches (maybe even more so than the other two), they're just less obvious.

 

[Minttunator]

See my previous post about the lack of progress in all three Eschalon games.

I think Book 2 was a nice step forward from the first game, as there were a ton of new features and skills + a much larger game world. I agree with you, though, that I was also expecting a similar incremental improvement for the third title, but it doesn't seem to have happened.

I guess I'm about halfway through it and while I'm still having fun overall, I am indeed a bit disappointed at how little has been changed/improved since Book 2. I'm also somewhat confused as to why Book 3 took over 3 years to make since most of the assets aren't new, it's the exact same engine and even the skill/stat system has seen only relatively minor rebalancing.

 

[Cosmo]

I am indeed a bit disappointed at how little has been changed/improved since Book 2.

The guy is all alone and his game engine looks constricting as fuck...
We'll see what he's capable of in the future i guess.

 

[Gord]

I played Book 1 after Book 2 and it did feel definitely a bit dated in comparison.
OTOH, there are a good number of things that could be improved rather easily without really big engine changes, e.g. the way training/books work, some balancing issues, or even complexity of combat.
Based on the somewhat mixed feedback I'm wondering a bit as well why it took him so long to release something that could potentially have been realized as an expansion to Book 2 (well, that's just my impression so far at least).

 

[Gord]

FurthestFlung is a butthurt loser kicked out of the beta for being a jerk. He is spamming every website he can find with that diatribe as begs people to not buy the game.

My advice: Play the demo of any of the 3 versions of the game and then spend money if you like it. All three use the same engine and play the same.

I bought all 3 because I enjoy them.

Dramaz!

 

[Infinitron]

He gave the same score to the first two Eschalon games, too.

What is it with indie RPGs and insane haters?