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Gold Box Games question.

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  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,146
    I think its just once you've cleared all the set encounters the slums are cleared. There is one particular, significant "coming of age" fight you'll get to by the end that is notably tougher than most of the slums. If you can handle that you graduate.
    the_spyderkcwise
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    That's my recollection as well. Clear out all of the set areas and then you face an encounter. Then you have another section to clear. You should also be getting commissions and getting paid for them. That will give you an idea what is left to do in a given section.
    kcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    YEP! It's 5 gold for one platinum! Thanks guys!

    Now 2 of my fighters and my thief are level 2! n_n
    atcDavekcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    edited March 2015
    Also, I noticed my mage/thief, Fae, can cast while wearing leather armor. Neat! Also, I bought her a sling but it seems the shop doesn't sell bullets D:

    Either that or I'm blind.

    Edit: SOOO I don't need bullets I guess! I assume Fae just pickes up a rock off the ground and chunks it? XD
    kcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    edited March 2015
    :O! Just stumbled upon a treasure room on accident that had like 1000 electrum (idk what that even is) and various other large quantities of currency. Nice!

    /writes this spot down for a future run. XD

    Edit: Just fought like a billion orcs @_@ Piro got knocked unconscious but otherwise we won thanks to sleep again lol

    Edit the second: HOLY CRAP THERE'S LIKE AN ARMY OF ORCS OH NO. I think I'll need more sleep spells!
    Post edited by Vallmyr on
    kcwise
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,146
    IRL electrum is a blend of gold and silver. I believe in the game its worth 1/2 gp.

    I like how hard it makes you work against simple monster types! But you will face worse before you finish the slums.
    the_spyderkcwise
  • the_spyderthe_spyder Member Posts: 5,018
    LOL. I am pretty sure that I know where that treasure trove was. I remember finding it as well. Wow, that throws me back a while.

    I also like the fact that early on games like that the monetary system isn't simply gold pieces. I always liked the tiered system of copper, electrum, gold and platinum. That just made sense to me. Not sure why they got rid of it other than people wanted things simpler.

    I've heard loads of things about the slums. There's one particular battle that you haven't mentioned. I don't want to be spoilerish so I am trying not to be. Faced any particularly tough monsters yet?
    kcwiseatcDave
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    edited March 2015

    LOL. I am pretty sure that I know where that treasure trove was. I remember finding it as well. Wow, that throws me back a while.

    I also like the fact that early on games like that the monetary system isn't simply gold pieces. I always liked the tiered system of copper, electrum, gold and platinum. That just made sense to me. Not sure why they got rid of it other than people wanted things simpler.

    I've heard loads of things about the slums. There's one particular battle that you haven't mentioned. I don't want to be spoilerish so I am trying not to be. Faced any particularly tough monsters yet?

    Hmmm, so far just fought Lizard Men, Kobolds, Orcs, and Goblins I think.

    Looted a BUNCH of magical gear off of orcs. Good thing I hoard treasure and cast detect magic before I sell it XD

    Between identifying the gear and leveling my guys I'm now broke again >_>

    I WAS RICH!. . .now I'm not T_T

    Also, the tavern stories make the world seem much larger than it actually is. It's great!

    Going to retry the tavern brawl now that everyone is level 2+!


    Edit: HAH! Take that, ruffians! Killed the tavern brawlers! MUAHHAHAHAHAHA

    Time to go back to the slums and fight that army of a gazillion orcs!


    Edit the second: This game is so hype! I'm in the middle of fighting the orcs. Used one sleep spell to make the archers helpess and now mopping my way through the grunts until I get to them sleeping in the back.

    I LOVE this combat system. It's like Fire Emblem/Final Fantasy Tactics but with D&D rules <3

    I'm hoping once I finish this game I can somehow transfer the saves. If not, with the save editor I have I'm sure I could create a new party and edit in my equipment/stats/levels/etc.

    Edit the third: :O! Stumbled on a group of monster leaders! Hmmmm go charm person!

    Edit the fourth: Ok, defeated the monster leaders! Going to take a break for a bit XD
    Post edited by Vallmyr on
    kcwise
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,146
    With saved games only your characters transfer. Each game seems to start with a convenient story for how you loose all your stuff! But it's no big thing, treasure is always around.

    Lizard Men? That may mean you've left the slums. At least to my recollection they were confined to the next area?
    The slums, like every map in Pool of Radiance, is a nice tidy square.
    kcwise
  • proccoprocco Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 915
    This thread has gotten me to really want to play these games now. I think these came out in between the times in my life I was into video games. Man, I played the crap out of Ultima III and Starflight back in the late 80's, but then didn't have a computer or console until the late 90's.
    Is there a good place to download these legally, and a good guide for actually getting them running in Windows 8.1?
    Also, judging by myGoogle image search, there seem to be a HUGE number of beholders in these games.
    atcDavekcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    edited March 2015
    procco said:

    This thread has gotten me to really want to play these games now. I think these came out in between the times in my life I was into video games. Man, I played the crap out of Ultima III and Starflight back in the late 80's, but then didn't have a computer or console until the late 90's.
    Is there a good place to download these legally, and a good guide for actually getting them running in Windows 8.1?
    Also, judging by myGoogle image search, there seem to be a HUGE number of beholders in these games.

    So the website where I downloaded it seems to have vanished o_o
    I'll keep looking.

    I got it to run by downloading the game and putting the files in Local Disk (C:)>Games>POR

    Then I installed dos box to the POR folder. To run you just hit the dosbox exe within the POR folder (C:>Games>POR>Doxbox>Exe er w/e).

    You'll run into an issue about needing to insert disk 3 but disk 3 doesn't exist because we don't have disks. XD

    I might be wrong, I fiddled a lot to fix this and not sure which one actually got it to work but in the doxbox options.bat file (I opened with notepad) under [autoexec] (It's at the very bottom) I put the following:

    [autoexec]
    mount c c:\games\pools
    c:
    cd poolrad
    start

    I also made a file on my C: drive called POR that's empty.

    So it's just C:>POR

    Then I also opened the POOL.CFG with notepad (Located in the Games>POR) and deleted its contents and pasted the following.

    E
    P
    C:\POR\
    C:\POR\
    F

    Then to get it to run just open dosbox, and type the following"
    Run DOSBOX
    Type: "mount c c:\Games"
    Type: "mount d c:\POR"
    Type: "c:"
    Type: "cd POR"
    Type: "start" - and enjoy!

    (Type just the stuff in quotations obviously and hit enter after each one)

    AH! Here's the site!

    http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/31044/Pool+of+Radiance.html

    Download the game and the journal, as far as the code wheel

    use
    http://www.weekendwastemonster.net/crpgs/pool/codewheel/poolwheel.html

    I also highly recommend using

    http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/gbc/

    If you can get the thing to run it shows character HP and exp at the top of the screen, is a save editor (I made an elf cleric/mage) and at least for POR (not sure about the other games) has maps built in. I don't use the maps because I want to do it the old fashioned way but I have used them when I've gotten completely lost >_>


    It took me a week's worth of fiddling and googling and messing with crap to get the game to run well.

    Edit: Also, if you make your character human before leveling up, level up, and then change them back to their original race you can bypass the racial exp cap. I'm debating about whether to do this. I'm of the mind that race/class restirctions are lame and so this is also lame to me. I'm of the mind it's D&D and so I consider these changes as "Homebrew." XD

    You could also give yourself money if you need a little bit extra to level up or buy crap with the save editor.

    I only did this once to see how much platinum is needed to level up (Which is indeed, 200 platinum or 1000 gold)

    Edit the second: Oh, I'm also running this on windows 7 so not sure how that will affect things >_>

    Edit the third: Derp, here's the link to dosbox, btw.
    http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
    Post edited by Vallmyr on
    proccokcwise
  • proccoprocco Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 915
    Whoa! Thanks for the info! That is super helpful. I'll see if I can get that going when I get home from work tonight.
    Vallmyrkcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    procco said:

    Whoa! Thanks for the info! That is super helpful. I'll see if I can get that going when I get home from work tonight.

    Np n_n

    If there's a part where I didn't explain things just say and I'll try to get more descriptive and such.
    proccokcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    Also, when navigating the menu you use HOME, END, DELETE, and PAGE DOWN instead of the arrow keys.

    Other times, you DO use the arrow keys. It's confusing. Also, everything is keybound and there are no mouse controls to my knowledge. So if you want to move and then fire a bow it'd be like.

    M (for move) and them move with the arrow keys (though home, end, page up, and page down make you move diagonal), then ENTER once you want to stop moving. A (for aim), M (for manual), and then arrow key to your target and hit enter to shoot. Same applies for melee weapons, you just have to be next to them or you can "move into them" and it will automatically attack.

    It took me ages to figure out how the keybinds worked but once you do everything runs SUPER smoothly.
    atcDave said:

    With saved games only your characters transfer. Each game seems to start with a convenient story for how you loose all your stuff! But it's no big thing, treasure is always around.

    Lizard Men? That may mean you've left the slums. At least to my recollection they were confined to the next area?
    The slums, like every map in Pool of Radiance, is a nice tidy square.

    Yeah I learned I did end up leaving the slums! XD I killed the monster leaders and actually am now about to go report back to see if I've succeeded in clearing the slums.

    Also, nice. I suppose if I can't transfer the save I'll just use the handy dandy save editor to copy my characters n_n
    kcwise
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,146
    The keyboard is interesting. I played them on both C64 and Amiga that used exclusively joystick control for everything except copy protection questions. I wonder if PC always used this arrangement?

    Since you haven't mentioned the one big fight with significantly different monsters I'm thinking you still haven't found a particular hidden room. Remember with the early Gold Box maps to search out the entire map grid.
    kcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    atcDave said:

    The keyboard is interesting. I played them on both C64 and Amiga that used exclusively joystick control for everything except copy protection questions. I wonder if PC always used this arrangement?

    Since you haven't mentioned the one big fight with significantly different monsters I'm thinking you still haven't found a particular hidden room. Remember with the early Gold Box maps to search out the entire map grid.

    The only place I haven't fully explored was the rope guild because I got wrecked there going to get Ohlo's potion. I suppose since I'm now level 3-4 with all my characters I'll check it out again.
    kcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    AH CRAP TROLLS
    atcDavekcwisethe_spyder
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,146
    Ah yes, you've found it!
    kcwisethe_spyder
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    And the trolls are getting up.

    If I kill them with Burning hands do they not get back up? I'm assuming they're like normal D&D trolls.
    kcwise
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @Vallmyr Either that, or have your own characters move into the spaces where the trolls are. Because if your characters are killed, the troll regeneration "transfers" to them. ;) I discovered that one on my own.

    Be careful on Sokol Island, too. Lots of undead, and sleep doesn't work on them. Clerics can "Turn Undead", though. If they are around 4th or 5th level, they will destroy skeletons on turning, rather than turning them (making them run away). There is a Blacksmith's shop on Sokol Island with a secret door through which is some nice loot.

    There are three hidden loot caches in the Cathedral you need to find to clear it. And the Library is fun, too. Lots of books you need to find, and lots of backstory dump as well.
    Vallmyrkcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    LadyRhian said:

    @Vallmyr Either that, or have your own characters move into the spaces where the trolls are. Because if your characters are killed, the troll regeneration "transfers" to them. ;) I discovered that one on my own.

    Be careful on Sokol Island, too. Lots of undead, and sleep doesn't work on them. Clerics can "Turn Undead", though. If they are around 4th or 5th level, they will destroy skeletons on turning, rather than turning them (making them run away). There is a Blacksmith's shop on Sokol Island with a secret door through which is some nice loot.

    There are three hidden loot caches in the Cathedral you need to find to clear it. And the Library is fun, too. Lots of books you need to find, and lots of backstory dump as well.

    Hmm I think I'll try the standing on their corpses trick lol.

    I only have 2 casts of burning hands on my cleric/magic-user and there are 3-4 trolls.
    kcwise
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,146
    Just stand on the space where they went down until the battle ends.
    kcwise
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    Three Trolls. There are three. :) (How long has it been since I played this game, and I still remember how they are in the southwest corner of the map? South=down and West=left?)

    Here is a map of the slums. Numbers equal encounters. The Troll battle is #15.

    image

    This is the map for Sokol Keep, with a map key. The Blacksmith's shop is in the NE corner.

    image

    The battle at D is the hardest one in the early game. Truly. The worst one later is (of course) Tyranthraxus.

    And, A layout of Phlan.

    image
    Vallmyrkcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    edited March 2015
    Defeated the trolls but Val'myr and Kitze are unconscious and Piro and Fae died :(

    My first actual deaths >_<

    Edit: Also I'm out of money to level XD
    kcwise
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,146
    It is definitely a hard fight!
    Vallmyrkcwise
  • VallmyrVallmyr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,457
    Sold some magical equipment I wasn't using and now Val'myr is a Cleric 3/Magic-User 2! Woo!
    Second level spells gooo!

    Can't wait to get 5 Cleric and get animate dead n_n
    kcwise
  • proccoprocco Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 915
    @Vallmyr Thanks again for the help. I got Pool of Radiance up and running. I've got some tweaking to do in the cofig file but it at least loads up.
    kcwise
  • proccoprocco Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 915
    I have just spent the last half hour switching up the character heads and bodies and laughing hysterically. Those are so fantastic!
    kcwiseVallmyratcDave
  • WilburWilbur Member Posts: 1,173
    This thread makes me want to go back to my old POR save I put on hold a while back. I might just do that :)
    kcwiseatcDave
  • proccoprocco Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 915
    I hope this isn't veering too much off topic...after messing around trying to figure out how to have multiple games set up without having to monkey with the DosBox config file every time, I downloaded D-Fend Reloaded (which is a DosBox frontend utility). It makes setting up the games super easy and you can have multiple games ready to go. I might even get around to playing soon!
    Is Pool of Radiance supposed to have music? I'm getting sound but no music, at least at the beginning.
    kcwise
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