But shouldn't CHARNAME be able to move around freely then?
The King is able to move one square per turn in any direction. The Queen is the one that moves freely.
Bishops can only move in diagonals for any numbers of squares.
Rooks can only move upwards, backwards and side to side for any numbers of squares.
Pawns can only move forward one square per turn.
Knights can only move in an L-shape, one square up and two over, or two squares over and one down, or any such combination of one-two or two-one movements in any direction.
Each party member assumes one of those roles and you can tell which party is which by their initial position on the game board.
But I don't think that this game was well implemented the enemy IA never respected the movements, so in the end, it only became a fight in a very trapped room. Too bad.
SCS keeps the disrespect for the movements and worsens it. All the Pawns rush forward becoming Queens in the blink of an eye, for example. It is really frustrating, especially for a chess fan like myself.
Durlag's Tower is a very tedious affair, I think. There's a trap every 5ft from where you're standing at any given time, and every container is locked and/or trapped to boot. The maze level with all the door opening is beyond tedious - I mean, at what point was that supposed to be fun for people? Once you get beneath all of that it gets a bit better. The chess game is good; the final encounter fine; and the questions posed about the keep's history give it a vague sense of narrative after hours of tedious dungeon crawling. Altogether, though, it is a dark necessity for completionists (which regrettably means for me). Firewine Bridge isn't that exciting, but at least it needn't take long once you find your footing.
@Raduziel the real problem with Knights is that they should 'jump' or teleport to their new square - they do not move through intervening squares as they are not blocked by existing pieces. I agree that the game is poorly implemented though, as if someone thought 'this is a neat idea' so put in something that looked like a chess board, but had no care at all about the game itself - that is all part of a bluff to make the players think they understand the death trap, you can apply familiar, but wrong, rules and trigger the traps.
the two things I hated about durlag's tower (And I hated them a lot) was the fight where you move and you get incinerated by flame ball and the second floor (?) where you have to unlock all the mirrors to progress
The Durlag Tower (and whole TotSC) experience has changed a lot over time - not just for me, the veteran player, but I imagine also for those newer to the game.
When the add on first was released, DT was a game extension, you visited it after you did the rest of BG1, i.e. with all the experience, equipment etc you had gained already. The fancy loot in the dungeon was not that important, because once you gained it, there was just the Demon Knight and the summoned Demon to beat still. >> that was when you had an additional CD still to install it.
Later, TotSC was integrated in the game and you could visit Ulgoth's Beard etc, once the bridge to the city was open, access was only from the other side of the river. This way, the episodes were delayed in your possible sequence to play the game.
Today, you can explore all of the outside area's including DT before you even clear out the Nashkel Mines. On the one hand, the player has more flexibility (and also better use from the items you find in DT), on the other hand, some challenges become less challenging after you did those dungeons. Bandit camp is a joke for those who survived Ice Island or DT. (The only episode still delayed is Balduran's Island for need of the sea charts.)
Another thing from memory: The chess game was always disappointing in a way. I know, I initially tried to beat it by figuring out how to comply with real *chess rules* to win. Just to find after many reloads, that the enemy was cheating and I could just simply win that game with a stupid steamroller attack. Not sure if those were bugs or there were coding limits at that age or they just thought that not every player would even know the rules for chess.
I agree with those saying that SCS does not work well in DT. While the tactics overall enhance the game, SCS does seldom enhance those original battles that were already designed for tactical challenges. You just can't have it all...
Comments
Bishops can only move in diagonals for any numbers of squares.
Rooks can only move upwards, backwards and side to side for any numbers of squares.
Pawns can only move forward one square per turn.
Knights can only move in an L-shape, one square up and two over, or two squares over and one down, or any such combination of one-two or two-one movements in any direction.
Each party member assumes one of those roles and you can tell which party is which by their initial position on the game board.
But I don't think that this game was well implemented the enemy IA never respected the movements, so in the end, it only became a fight in a very trapped room. Too bad.
SCS keeps the disrespect for the movements and worsens it. All the Pawns rush forward becoming Queens in the blink of an eye, for example. It is really frustrating, especially for a chess fan like myself.
When the add on first was released, DT was a game extension, you visited it after you did the rest of BG1, i.e. with all the experience, equipment etc you had gained already. The fancy loot in the dungeon was not that important, because once you gained it, there was just the Demon Knight and the summoned Demon to beat still. >> that was when you had an additional CD still to install it.
Later, TotSC was integrated in the game and you could visit Ulgoth's Beard etc, once the bridge to the city was open, access was only from the other side of the river. This way, the episodes were delayed in your possible sequence to play the game.
Today, you can explore all of the outside area's including DT before you even clear out the Nashkel Mines.
On the one hand, the player has more flexibility (and also better use from the items you find in DT), on the other hand, some challenges become less challenging after you did those dungeons. Bandit camp is a joke for those who survived Ice Island or DT. (The only episode still delayed is Balduran's Island for need of the sea charts.)
Another thing from memory:
The chess game was always disappointing in a way. I know, I initially tried to beat it by figuring out how to comply with real *chess rules* to win. Just to find after many reloads, that the enemy was cheating and I could just simply win that game with a stupid steamroller attack. Not sure if those were bugs or there were coding limits at that age or they just thought that not every player would even know the rules for chess.
I agree with those saying that SCS does not work well in DT. While the tactics overall enhance the game, SCS does seldom enhance those original battles that were already designed for tactical challenges. You just can't have it all...