Gold Box SSI's Gold Box Series Thread

[Ozzy_98]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoeqVvNiQyE

Having fun playing hax0red characters?

You do know that he's legit right? Other than saving before a level up, it's 100% legit, not even cloaned items (The arrows I bought in the keep). Not that the hp mattered, I was hit once by the dragons (lucky shot). Beating the elf was more luck on my part.

The strength is that high due to the enlarge spell, and damage is that high due to the sword of dragon slaying. Because he's a level 10 ranger\11 mu, he has 3/2 attach rate, or three per round hasted. Takes 2 attacks to kill a dragon, then I use a spell on the third attack.

 

[Ozzy_98]

Weird, I can't see multiclass or dual class mentioned in character sheet...

They don't show the dual class, they show you the level, and you're supposed to guess it or something. It looks like it was an after thought of the programmers, because they only have one byte dedicated to classes, and one byte per class level, then starting with curse, they have a second set right after the first.

 

[octavius]

I recommend letting your ranger reach level 15 before dualclassing, SotSB will be too easy with an imported party anyway while the extra half attack per round and other bonuses you get at ranger level 15 will make a difference in PoD.
I'd dual to mage , PoD battles get very tedious if you don't speed them up with a (delayed blast) fireball which does more damage than 10 backstabs, high level mages get lots of spells, so you'll be able to speed up more than 20 battles before resting.

I've noticed that Secret is much easier than Curse. I'm breezing through it so far, and the teleporters and free healing makes it even easier.
I will dual my Ranger to Mage eventually, but a second backstabber would also have been nice.

In the Amiga version the Cloak of Displacemnt was bugged (made you immune to physical attacks) but I'm relieved that is not the case with the PC version.

Lots of weird encounters in Secret, though.
What are Crocodiles doing in ruins in the Dragonspine Mountains, for example? And why are they teamed up with Ogres?
And what do the thousands of monster in the mine shafts live on? There can't be that many tasty adventurer noobs visiting.

 

[octavius]

I didn't kill the dragons, but I still met the lone Drow Lord. I don't think he's cheating, as much as he has buffed, just like the player characters can do.

No, I mean, he's REALLY cheating. If you read the text, he was hiding a symbol of pain, it's causing you penilties on your attacks aginst him.

I've also noticed saving throws are wrong. In Pool of Radiance, they seemed to have followed the rules, but right now mine are too high (bad).

I've read somewhere that the computer "cheats" in CoAB, giving plusses to monsters' rolls and penalties to player characters' rolls.
That could explain why monsters nearly always seem to do max damage, hit more often than they should and why my own Cure Light Wounds heals 1 HP way more often that it heals 8 HP.

About the video, I assume your character has used the Scroll of Prot Dragon Breath?
I think I beat the dragons in an earlier game. Since they don't start within breathing range the party gets a little breather before battle is joined.

 

[Ozzy_98]

About the video, I assume your character has used the Scroll of Prot Dragon Breath?
.

Yea, fat lot of good it did, no one breathed on me.
...I know there's a diry joke somewhere in that comment but I'm too damned tired ti find it.

Anyways, there's two reasons why they never used the breath attacks. One is cause blink is overpowered for this encounter; After you fove for a round, it almost acts like invisibility, only monsters rght next to you will attack, and I'm not 100% sure if they can even attack you. The only hit I had in the video was from a dragon who got me during my turn; while I was casting a fireball spell.

Other thing is where I was standing. They will not normally use it next to you, they'll use their physical attacks, and they normally won't use it if it hits other dragons.

I honestly can't think of too many "good" fights in SotSB. If you start a new party (So they're weaker than imported), and have it set to max, the well fights at the begining are not all that easy due to high fire damage (Unless you use cleric spellsto lower it for example), but other than that, only the last fight is a "Opps, better think this one through" fight.

Side note, I'm never playing Curse v1.0 on pc again. Too buggy, and keeps eating my damned saves. I load up a saved game, and the location is off, soI get into some wired "secret world" where I can't interact with anything, like world -1 in mario bros or the metroid secret worlds.

 

[octavius]

I honestly can't think of too many "good" fights in SotSB. If you start a new party (So they're weaker than imported), and have it set to max, the well fights at the begining are not all that easy due to high fire damage (Unless you use cleric spellsto lower it for example), but other than that, only the last fight is a "Opps, better think this one through" fight.

I've just reached the bottom of the mines and so far the only mildly interesting fights were against the Red Dragons in the beginning and clearing out the Black Circle HQ.
The Mines are Neverending Random Encounters Hell and I'm sick and tired of fighting endless hordes of Minotaurs and Margoyles. I now remember why I only finished Secret and Pools of Darkness once...It's so bad that I don't even bother exploring all of the levels, which is not like me.

So far in the series the Mines is the most boring area and the caves under Hap in CoAB the most brutal areas. From what I recall from Pools of Darkness the most boring place there was the Moander dimension with lots of Bits of Moander and the most brutal place (apart from Dave's Challenge which I was unable to start, and the end battles) being the caves under Mulmaster.

Side note, I'm never playing Curse v1.0 on pc again. Too buggy, and keeps eating my damned saves. I load up a saved game, and the location is off, soI get into some wired "secret world" where I can't interact with anything, like world -1 in mario bros or the metroid secret worlds.

Why do you use version 1.0? in the first place.

 

[Ozzy_98]

So far in the series the Mines is the most boring area and the caves under Hap in CoAB the most brutal areas. From what I recall from Pools of Darkness the most boring place there was the Moander dimension with lots of Bits of Moander and the most brutal place (apart from Dave's Challenge which I was unable to start, and the end battles) being the caves under Mulmaster

The mines aren't too bad, since if you know where everything is, you can skip most of the borning pretty quickly. You can also kill a canary if you have one and hit the gas. Oh sure, they're still borning as hell, but the ice tunnel thing is even worse.

The caves in hap aren't nearly as bad if you're higher level; it shouldn't have been the first encounter they push you too. You can skip 90% of the fights down there anyways, heck, you get nothing for even opening the doors. But they're still pretty bad.

I'd say the mulmaster beholder corps around dagger falls would be the hardest areas up till pool of darkness. If you're playing PoD on highest level, some of the encounters with dragons can suck.

btw, little known fact. Curse and gateway to the savage frontier use the same save files for chacters. Secrets of the silver blades and treasures also use the same format as each other, so you could run a single party through all 6 of the main realms games.

Haven't tried it yet though to see if it gives any issues.

As for the 1.0, because lastime I played was on 1.3, and I was pissed when there was no darkelf waiting for me at the top of the stairs.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Uh, never had any problems with Curse on PC. Have to double-check my version but I think it's 1.0

And yes, the lone drow lord was murder. Damn I raged hard at him.

 

[Ozzy_98]

It's mostly saves will sometimes load bad areas (Happened twice now, one worked on a reload, one, in top of the tower, would not load corectly), and stat changing items are buggered. My PoR chars who I imported went from 70+ HP to 38. The bad saves also happened if you were in a training hall,removed everyone, and loaded another game.

I also think mirror image does nothing. I've never noticed it doing anything in this or PoR, forget about secret. Kicks but in PoD though.

 

[octavius]

The mines aren't too bad, since if you know where everything is, you can skip most of the borning pretty quickly. You can also kill a canary if you have one and hit the gas. Oh sure, they're still borning as hell, but the ice tunnel thing is even worse.

I'm now on the last level of the Dungeon which was a huge improvement over The Mines. The Drider Base was also not too bad.
I for once deviated from my tactic of always hitting spell casters first, since the Fire Giants do massive damage and I have one Pakadin with Long Sword vs Giants and two Rangers. One of the BC Wizards killed my Paladin with a Disintegrate spell. But interestingly he was not "gone" like happened to my Paladin in Dark Queen of Krynn, so I was able to Raise him.
I don't know if this is a bug or a design feature, though. But I also noticed that the Giant Slugs are not as dangerous in Secret as they were in Curse. In Curse they could spit for 60 points of damage, while in Sedret the max seems to be 12.

The caves in hap aren't nearly as bad if you're higher level; it shouldn't have been the first encounter they push you too. You can skip 90% of the fights down there anyways, heck, you get nothing for even opening the doors. But they're still pretty bad.

The problem is that the game tells you to go to Hap after Tilverton. But I think Yulash is probably easierat that level than Hap.
There's also the problem that you can't leave the caves to get healing in the village since the "welcoming party" respawns.
In the caves you can skip 50% of the patrols and the Mages and Clerics quarters and, if you metegame, the Fighters Quarters, but my party was too weak to fight the other set encounters without resting afterwards.

I'd say the mulmaster beholder corps around dagger falls would be the hardest areas up till pool of darkness. If you're playing PoD on highest level, some of the encounters with dragons can suck.

Well, the Beholder Corps is optional and "merciful".
I always play on the core or normal difficulty.

btw, little known fact. Curse and gateway to the savage frontier use the same save files for chacters. Secrets of the silver blades and treasures also use the same format as each other, so you could run a single party through all 6 of the main realms games.

Haven't tried it yet though to see if it gives any issues.

Heh, that would make things far too easy.

As for the 1.0, because lastime I played was on 1.3, and I was pissed when there was no darkelf waiting for me at the top of the stairs.

Hmm...maybe he's there only if you don't kill the dragons?

 

[Ozzy_98]

One of the BC Wizards killed my Paladin with a Disintegrate spell. But interestingly he was not "gone" like happened to my Paladin in Dark Queen of Krynn, so I was able to Raise him.

I'm not sure what they did in this. The Gone status is in PoR, so every game has it, and I'm 90% sure Curse of the Azure uses it, then it vanishes. I didn't know DQK used it

Not using gone, but removing the items, has a bad function. It makes any spell effects permient, not just from items, but from spells too. So any stat boosting items or vorpal swords are now stuck on that char; you can remove the effects by deleting that char's effect file, but I'm not sure yet how they handel it in SotSB; all I know for sure is curse and pool of rad store spell effects in a seperate file.

The problem is that the game tells you to go to Hap after Tilverton. But I think Yulash is probably easierat that level than Hap.
There's also the problem that you can't leave the caves to get healing in the village since the "welcoming party" respawns.
In the caves you can skip 50% of the patrols and the Mages and Clerics quarters and, if you metegame, the Fighters Quarters, but my party was too weak to fight the other set encounters without resting afterwards.

I've never figured why they tell you to go to Hap, you're right, Yulash is eaiser. I did read once though that Hap was designed by some guy named Dave (Yes, that Dave), but I can't find any refrence to it. Hell, I google "Dave curse of the azure", the first hit is this damned thread.

Heh, that would make things far too easy.

Only if you leave the monsters at the same strength I've been looking into the monster's hex values, turning dragons into old dragons, ect.

Hmm...maybe he's there only if you don't kill the dragons?

Nah, my first video I kill the dragons and him with one guy. It's stupid, I take on like 12 or 20ish black dragons with one guy, no problem. One fuckin drow lord, I beat him by pure luck of dice rolls (And fireshield). The dragon's AI is just too dumb, and I used blink, it's way to overpowered if everyone in the party uses it, especially with a dex of 18+, since you generally move first (Almost all monsters have a dex of 10)

 

[octavius]

Ozzy,

Challenging Dave must be Dave Shelley. He's the encounter author for Secret's New Verdigris, Castle Entrance and Finale.

Regarding hex editing, I actually contemplated (trying to) do that with the buccaneers and zhentrim soldiers in PoR since the Buccaneer Base and Zhentil Outpost were far too easy. The buccaneers weren't even armed and could be sweeped.

Noticed a bug in Secret when trying to cast Hold Monster from Scrolls - I can only target my party members, not the monsters. :-(

 

[panzertoter]

Yesterday I started playing Pool Of Radiance module for FRUA. Everything looked fine - no codewheel, nicer interface, ranger and paladin classes and so on. But, when i went to the shopkeepers - the only thing I could buy was weapons - but no armour. Or normal arrows, +1 only. Bug? Or I don't know about something?

 

[herdofcaribou]

So I had this game way back in the day and recently downloaded a copy for my PC. Everything is working great but for whatever reason I absolutely cannot my fighter/thief to backstab.

I try to get him attacking from the opposite direction of the last attack but it never gives me the backstab. Is there some specific timing to it? Is he restricted by equipment? My fighter thief has a broad sword and chain armor. Is this the problem? If anyone has any tips I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[mutile]

Yesterday I started playing Pool Of Radiance module for FRUA. Everything looked fine - no codewheel, nicer interface, ranger and paladin classes and so on. But, when i went to the shopkeepers - the only thing I could buy was weapons - but no armour. Or normal arrows, +1 only. Bug? Or I don't know about something?

Try visiting an armorer.

So I had this game way back in the day and recently downloaded a copy for my PC. Everything is working great but for whatever reason I absolutely cannot my fighter/thief to backstab.

I try to get him attacking from the opposite direction of the last attack but it never gives me the backstab. Is there some specific timing to it? Is he restricted by equipment? My fighter thief has a broad sword and chain armor. Is this the problem? If anyone has any tips I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

You need a short sword or lighter, dagger works not sure if others.

 

[kmonster]

So I had this game way back in the day and recently downloaded a copy for my PC. Everything is working great but for whatever reason I absolutely cannot my fighter/thief to backstab.

I try to get him attacking from the opposite direction of the last attack but it never gives me the backstab. Is there some specific timing to it? Is he restricted by equipment? My fighter thief has a broad sword and chain armor. Is this the problem? If anyone has any tips I would really appreciate it.

Thieves can only backstab with weapons and armor (wearing a shield is allowed) pure class thieves can use. So use a longsword and wear leather armor or bracers instead of chain.

 

[octavius]

So I had this game way back in the day and recently downloaded a copy for my PC. Everything is working great but for whatever reason I absolutely cannot my fighter/thief to backstab.

I try to get him attacking from the opposite direction of the last attack but it never gives me the backstab. Is there some specific timing to it? Is he restricted by equipment? My fighter thief has a broad sword and chain armor. Is this the problem? If anyone has any tips I would really appreciate it.

Chain Armoir is a problem. You need either Leather, Studded Leather, Elfin Chain or Bracers.

Backstabbing is more difficult in Pool than in the other GB games. You need to attack a monster twice, then the thief can backstab if he attacks from the opposite direction of the first attack. The monster must not have it's turn between the first attack and the third for the backstab to work.
In the other GB games you only need to attack an enemy once before a thief can backstab him. On the other hand in Pool you can backstab (just about) any monster, while in the other games only humanoid, man sizes enemies can be backstabbed.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

If anyone is interested in playing these and are too lazy to figure out dosbox....

http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/pool-of-radiance/

He has made 'packages' that self install everything, all set up, ready to go. These packages exist for all GB games, including the Buck Rogers games.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Another excuse removed!

 

[herdofcaribou]

So I had this game way back in the day and recently downloaded a copy for my PC. Everything is working great but for whatever reason I absolutely cannot my fighter/thief to backstab.

I try to get him attacking from the opposite direction of the last attack but it never gives me the backstab. Is there some specific timing to it? Is he restricted by equipment? My fighter thief has a broad sword and chain armor. Is this the problem? If anyone has any tips I would really appreciate it.

Chain Armoir is a problem. You need either Leather, Studded Leather, Elfin Chain or Bracers.

Backstabbing is more difficult in Pool than in the other GB games. You need to attack a monster twice, then the thief can backstab if he attacks from the opposite direction of the first attack. The monster must not have it's turn between the first attack and the third for the backstab to work.
In the other GB games you only need to attack an enemy once before a thief can backstab him. On the other hand in Pool you can backstab (just about) any monster, while in the other games only humanoid, man sizes enemies can be backstabbed.

This makes it seem like its not even really worth it. At least in Pool. Do people generally feel this way?

 

[octavius]

So I had this game way back in the day and recently downloaded a copy for my PC. Everything is working great but for whatever reason I absolutely cannot my fighter/thief to backstab.

I try to get him attacking from the opposite direction of the last attack but it never gives me the backstab. Is there some specific timing to it? Is he restricted by equipment? My fighter thief has a broad sword and chain armor. Is this the problem? If anyone has any tips I would really appreciate it.

Chain Armoir is a problem. You need either Leather, Studded Leather, Elfin Chain or Bracers.

Backstabbing is more difficult in Pool than in the other GB games. You need to attack a monster twice, then the thief can backstab if he attacks from the opposite direction of the first attack. The monster must not have it's turn between the first attack and the third for the backstab to work.
In the other GB games you only need to attack an enemy once before a thief can backstab him. On the other hand in Pool you can backstab (just about) any monster, while in the other games only humanoid, man sizes enemies can be backstabbed.

This makes it seem like its not even really worth it. At least in Pool. Do people generally feel this way?

It's not that important in Pool since for most of the game the backstab modifier will only be 2X.

In Curse of the Azure Bond OTOH I found it extremely useful, especially against the magic resistant Drow in and under Hap, which is the most difficult part of the game IMO.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Heh, it can make the end-fight in POR a very simple matter. Reach maximum level with your thief and then backstab Tyranthraxus or whatever its name was.

 

[ever]

Whatever happened to the gamehelp forum? It did exist bewfore right its not just my mind playing tricks on me.

Anyway I have a simple UI question:

How do I cast a clerical spell from a scroll with my cleric?

Reading the manual gives me the detailed process of casting magic-user spells from scrolls by first casting read magic and scribing it, but for clerics it just says "you can read from the scroll directly" only I can't figure out how to do this.

Specifically I have two clerical scrolls that I got from some orcs while clearing the slums. Going into the scribe menu reveals that they are just cure light wounds scrolls so there should be no level restriction problems. However I cannot for the life of me figure out how to cast from the scrolls. If I go into view->items->[highlight scrolls]->use, nothing happens. If I just go to cast it only gives me the spells my cleric has memorized, and not those on scrolls.

BTW this is a very addictive game, heaps of fun. Especially like the low level D&D action.

Help appreciated!

 

[Zomg]

Ready it in inventory (you need a free hand) then "u"se it.

 

[ever]

OH I SEE.

It requires BOTH hands. See my cleric has a shield.

Another question: Once I set my characters to A.I controlled to finish some battle quickly, how do I regain manual control. Because I set them to A.I controlled to take out a 10000 kobolds, but then found that in my next tougher battle against some ogres and trolls, where I want to make some more strategic decisions, that they were still A.I controlled. Once again the manual fails me as it just describes the A.I behavior while on "quick" mode, but doesn't mention how to turn it off