Pool of Radiance-Unsafe at Any Price?

My theory about the lag in TOEE is that it comes from the extremely heavy optimization of modern video csrds for 3D - and therefore totally neglecting games that use simple bitmaps.

Everything is outlined for speed in calculating 3D objects, but the very same cards seem to be ridiculously slow when just copying bitmaps around in their video RAM.

This is an well-known issue with "Cultures", a game similar to the "Settlers", for example. Everyone in the quite active community over there knows that.
(I personally like "Cultures" more. )

I don't know what it was, Alrik, but the lag in ToEE was a real game killer. It was certainly the worst in the Fire node, where the flickering, constantly changing flame animations probably made a lot of demands. I hung with it and finished the game, but it left me with no desire to do the whole thing over again.

Maybe someday I'll try again. I'd like to play it with the more recent mods and the
Co8 patches.

AFA PoR2, I have downloaded the demo and been killed (entire party) twice so far. Looks promising!! (I hate easy games.)

Originally Posted by magerette

AFA PoR2, I have downloaded the demo and been killed (entire party) twice so far. Looks promising!! (I hate easy games.)

LOL Don't forget the healing shrines!

Funny, I've never had any problems with ToEE of the lag kind (since it would be a joke to say of not having any problems with the game ). Except maybe the fight on the center of the forth level of the Temple or the sideway ruined tower, since it was my (last) party of about 7 against 30 … But lag or no lag it was fun

Yes, Arma, those fights were great fun--I had a fighter/druid who really made the day there--even if the fights did take about thirty minutes each!

I never had any lag in ToEE either. Only flaw with ToEE was the last 2 levels in which the developers obviously ran out of time. Up to that point it was a very nice game.

Question--JemyM and Arma--when did you guys play the game? I played it right after release, with only the one Co8 content patch. It could possibly have been my system at the time, I suppose, but I had no trouble with playing Morrowind on it, which I would think was just as demanding graphically.

And re: PoR2, now that I've gotten a bit more familiar with the *cough* user-friendly interface *cough* and found the healing shrine ToddMcF mentioned, things are going good. I would probably not pay top dollar for this game, but at twelve bucks, it doesn't sound bad.

I purchased and played TOEE shortly after it was released with just one patch IIRC. I don't remember experiencing any major bugs or technical difficuties.

Originally Posted by magerette
And re: PoR2, now that I've gotten a bit more familiar with the *cough* user-friendly interface *cough* and found the healing shrine ToddMcF mentioned, things are going good. I would probably not pay top dollar for this game, but at twelve bucks, it doesn't sound bad.

Believe it or not I got it for $7, full retail box with the nice color map. Later I spent $20 bucks or so on the Prima guide and then bought the fiction book. I guess I really got hooked!

I loaded up ToEE last night with all the mods. Havent gone though the character creation yet - this time through I'll try a Rogue, Barbarian and Druid core I think.

I believe I last played it when patch 3 was released, since at first I could not loot bodies (the most notable bug of the then new DirectX), and with Co8 patch 3 I believe. If I am not mistaken, it was bout 2 years ago. Had a really great time (since I shortcutted to Level 3 of the temple )

Originally Posted by magerette
Question--JemyM and Arma--when did you guys play the game? I played it right after release, with only the one Co8 content patch. It could possibly have been my system at the time, I suppose, but I had no trouble with playing Morrowind on it, which I would think was just as demanding graphically.

Right after release. Ofcourse, I usually spend alot of money on computer hardware and thus I always had a strong computer with lots of ram, the latest entusiast graphiccards, the highest cpu mhz and an up to date soundcard.

TOEE runs on myAthlon 800 with more than 300 MB RAM, but an older GeForce 2 GTS, except the first main battle against someone called Hedrack or so.

I had uncountable CTS. Plus 2 or 3 locks.

Haven't played further on since then.

I think it is typical for Atari that they never produced any German-language patch for TOEE. I had to use the GULP mod instead (after installing the only available official, English-language patches).

Well, perhaps the problem was my rig at the time--IIRC, it was a pentium2 with a pretty crappy video card( nVidia TNT2 32 mb) amd only 128 mb of ram, so that might have been it. All this talk is making me want to fire it up again and find out if it plays any better, especially since the modding since then has been really intense.

Thanks again to all for their input.