Keep on the Borderlands - Impressions and spoilers.

I've played around with the game for several hours now, so I thought I'd post up some thoughts in hopes of generating some downloads.

First things first. KoTB is finishable but not complete. The game has dozens of hours of content, but the makers are still adding to the game and may do so for the forseeable future.

I haven't played ToEE in years and never finished it. Why? It has great combat, but the temple itself isn't enough. There just wasn't enough to do in the town between visits to the temple. Co8 had modded that game extensively and I haven't played their version in a long time either.

So how does it play out?

You start the game in a ghostly adventures guild. It is empty but has chests full of standard equipment that can be purchased with your starting gold.

From here, you'll use your radial menu to choose the "secret door tool". ToEE didn't do well with secret door detection so Co8 came up with this compromise. Use of the tool basically does a search with a Take20 added. It basically never fails unless you're not close enough to the secret. This will portal you to in front of the walls of the Keep. A whole village has been added to the game with dozens of quests available from the members. The quests are posted on a job board in the provisioners store, as all adventurers need provisions to succeed. You'll also gain many quests through conversations.

Combat is turn-based and very similar to ToEE and earlier AD&D games. Things like attacks of opportunity, 5-foot step, point blank range, etc. are all here for your tactical pleasure.

Once you've chatted up the townmembers and read the board, your map will populate with possible destinations. Pick a spot and head out. Some early quests deal with spiders, kobolds, and lizardmen. Later quests will have you facing dragons, oozes, and other monstrosities. Gear up!

The mod is free, but I donated $20 to the gang to show my appreciation. This post is just a continuation of that idea.

Sounds good, thanks for the info. Especially glad to see they managed to get new map locations working, which seemed to be a sticking point.

Let's not forget that the Co8 have added a great deal of content to the original TOEE game and you can now go on a continued adventure long after you defeat the temple.

Here's a link. TOEE
Another link to the KotB. Keep on the Borderlands

I haven't played your version of TOEE in a long time, but the problem used to be the temple itself. It was duller than Little House on the Prairie reruns.

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this, but:

Is KotB any easier than ToEE? I never finished ToEE, but had to min max like crazy to get anywhere. And those giant toads were ridiculous.

So, any easier? What about healing? Do you have to march back and forth from town after EVERY battle?

It's a lot easier Ovenall, after getting to level 2 or higher. Leveling from 1 to 2 is a bit of a crapshoot.

I cheated my party and used exploits because I don't care about the combat, but I played vanilla too so I'll give tips for the beginning w/o cheats.

1. Make sure you have good rolls for your characters. You can roll infinitely, so make sure important stats are 14 or higher. Everyone needs good Constitution. Fighters need Strength, Rogues/Dexterity, Clerics Wisdom and to a lesser extent Charisma, etc.

2. Use all of your starting gold stocking up on potions. You'll get full sets of equipiment, so don't waste money on weapons, armor, etc. Buy healing potions and healing scrolls.
Make sure you have at least one healer in your party (Druid, Cleric).

3. Save before camping. If you get a random encounter while tired and injured you might die.

4. Don't visit the spiders first. They have a poison attack and can temporarily lower attributes and also trap the party in Webs. Wait till level 2 or higher to visit that map. The best possible start is to wait until evening and visit the pub. There are two easy quests that can be started there if you choose the right options.