I think PoR was doing its damage on uninstall, wasn’t it?
Yeah, and not a reformat. I just took peoples claims of reformatting as hyperbole (considering it was on the intertubes, it just seemed natural to assume).
Eric_P
3124
ToEE was an exercise in frustration last night because Windows Security Essentials kept telling me that there was a trojan in the exe, which it would dutifully quarantine. I’d go through WSE and say “don’t include this, please” and it would say “OK!” and then I’d go to run the program and WSE would say “WAIT! VIRUS!” and quarantine it again.
I eventually maneuvered through the menus to find out how to allow the program to run without interference but it was a huge pain.
I could’t get the downgrade patch to work at all, I was constantly told could not find ToEE ANY and I gave up and just ran the Circle of 8 patch and dicked around with it for about 10 minutes before I got called away.
Yeah, it uninstalled system files if you uninstalled the game and that process got borked. It did require a OS reinstall to fix the issues caused by PoR.
I had also the same exact experience.
The anti-virus popped up and I finally just disabled it.
Then the downgrade patch wouldn’t work.
Then I patched with the Circle of 8 patch.
Then I started playing. So far I’m having fun, though I’ve not done much in the original town.
I have a question though - why can’t my mage identify scrolls and why can’t he use a heal scroll to complete a quest? He should be able to, but fails on every check with 18 int and 17 wis.
peterb
3127
So I have a stupid question. I noted on the Co8 forums that the consensus (based on md5sum prints) was that GoG has basically shipped the cracked EXE from gamecopyworld.com. Given that, uh, how confident are we, exactly, that it DOESN’T actually contain a Trojan?
not trying to spread FUD, just suddenly concerned.
There is no “lore” skill in 3e D&D. I don’t recall any knowledge skills being used in this manner, either. You need an ID spell, or a merchant to do the IDing for you. You’ll need 100 gold either way; ToEE kept the gold material components costs for some spells where they exceeded 100gp (and just made it a straight gold cost). I can’t recall of the Circle of 8 patch changed that.
Not sure about the heal scroll; can mages even use heal scrolls (I honestly can’t remember)? Do you have a character with the use magic devices skill? Try them or a cleric instead?
It’s fun to reminisce, in any case. Remember that time Feedom First Resistance blew up Chet’s* Monitor?
Vesper
3130
There’s no trojan. Being a cracked EXE from “the scene”, it’s been through a code obfuscater. This means virus programs can’t figure out what it does and are flagging it as a generic trojan.
You need to cast a 0-level spell called “Read Magic” to ID scrolls.
and why can’t he use a heal scroll to complete a quest?
Because heals and the like are miracles (aka Divine magic). You don’t need higher intelligence for that, you need religion (aka a Cleric of some sort).
<mechanic’s drawl> Well that, there’s your problem </mechanic’s drawl>
It’s fun to reminisce, in any case. Remember that time Feedom First Resistance blew up Chet’s* Monitor?
LOL - yeah, I almost forgot about that one. I think it was actually Eric.
Khoram
3133
OK, but that’s a little weird. I mean, we’re talking the difference between full-orbed turn-based, and real time with pause-to-issue-commands + turns behind the scenes. In one, only one char ever goes at a time. In the other, unless it’s paused, everything is moving at the same time. I mean, you’re not really pausing TOEE. Turn based games of all stripes are “paused” by definition after each turn.
I’m not trying to argue, but I think it’s kind of an important distinction in the context of CRPGs. I for one hate pausable-real time CRPGs, with the sole exception of Darklands which I love in spite of that fact (was it in fact the first CRPG to do the pausable real time thing?). I recently made up a list of all the CRPGs I’ve ever played (after getting hooked on the CRPG Addict blog) and was sorry to see how long it’s been since the days when CRPG was synonymous with turn-based play. I know I’m probably in the minority, but that’s what I prefer.
Yeah, I agree that is a little weird Dan_Theman. Even though I paused a lot in Infinity Engine games, they never played like turn-based games to me since everyone goes simultaneously, initiative is not a factor, etc. I haven’t played ToEE yet, but it doesn’t sound remotely the same kind of gameflow to me. (Thankfully, since I really dislike the gameflow in Infinity Engine games).
You can have your distinction between rounds and turns. Enjoy ;)
Khoram
3136
I don’t care about the distinction between rounds and turns. I care about the distinction between order, and chaos; turn-based, and real-time; good, and evil.
Technically, the IE games are not real time games at all. They’re turn based, they just use continuous turns. CTBwP is a better description of them than RTwP. And eh, apart from being continuous, the system isn’t very different from the one used by ToEE.
It makes a huge differences for casters. In D&D proper, casting spells is instantaneous, whereas in a Baldurs Gate style game, casting spells takes time. This is most important for AOE spells which are sort of broken in those style games (if transferred directly from D&D). Those spells were balanced in D&D by the fact that they can hit party members, so your group needs to work together to make sure you only hit enemies, making the spells effective less often. In BG2, you can either play by the default rules that make AOE spells not hit party members (thus making them quite a bit more powerful) or with the “core” rules where they do hit party-members, but because your party members move after you begin casting the spell, they will almost certainly run into your line of fire, making managing those spells basically impossible.
I’m sure there’s other important distinctions that come about due to the differences in the systems, but I couldn’t stand ToEE (despite really wanting a more faithful D&D interpretation, mostly due to low-level D&D being annoying as hell), so I didn’t find much besides that.
kerzain
3139
Nabbed Temple of Elemental Evil the moment GoG spammed my email box about it.
I can’t wait to play it!!
Back to Icewind Dale:
It looks like the widescreen mod I saw on Gibberlings3 requires Heart of Winter. I wonder if there’s a way around that.
In the AD&D2ed system, a combat round works like this:
[ol]
[li]Combatants declare actions for the round.
[/li][li]Initiative is rolled and round order established.
[/li][li]Combatants carry out declared actions according to initiative order.
[/li][/ol]
The IE games modify that like so:
[ul]
[li]The time scale is 1/10th of the tabletop time scale.
[/li][li]Rounds are individual and asynchronous, rather than collective and synchronous.
[/li][/ul]
I’ll grant you the IE games aren’t very good at telling you when, comparatively, stuff will take place. But beyond that the modifications the IE games make shouldn’t have much of an impact on AoE use. If it’s an issue for you, I’d suggest you find some place that spawns hordes of no-threat enemies and practise AoE timing. Or that you set the game to auto-pause on each combat round.
I’m sure there’s other important distinctions that come about due to the differences in the systems, but I couldn’t stand ToEE (despite really wanting a more faithful D&D interpretation, mostly due to low-level D&D being annoying as hell), so I didn’t find much besides that.
As far as I’m aware, ToEE works exactly like the D&D3.5 tabletop rules. Which is:
[ol]
[li]Initiative rolls are made.
[/li][li]Actions are declared and enacted in initiative order.
[/li][/ol]
Incidentally, ToEE has plenty of mid-level combat. The main part of the game starts around level 5-6 (when you hit the temple). The bad bit is that the game is mostly terrible up to that point. The good bit is it’s mostly brilliant past that point. Which makes it a largely brilliant game with a really crappy beginning.
