Eschalon discussion

I play a mage (what else )!!

Great, I left Eschalon running while sleeping for a good amount of time, and then saved, and the char's run time is now 28 hours. It will mean nothing. Haha.

In any case, just wanted to leave a couple of cents here: I love that you can slaughter critters (in my case, Goblins) by luring them into an open portoculis space and then close it on them.

Originally Posted by Corwin
I play a mage (what else )!!

Same for me (also 'of course' )

Hah, I also always take a mage…in ADOM, I played over hundreds of games with a Mage character. But this time I decided I wanted to keep the gameplay simple, seemed (and seems, still) like the right choice for this specific game.

wimps.

*****

Your jealousy is showing!!

Heh. I was talking to an Eschalon playing buddy of mine on IRC , telling him how I hate my weak fighter (built it poorly), and he goes: "You should reroll as an athiestic cleric."

I thought that was pretty funny.

Finished the Ostrich last night (I can never remember "Ossuary" or whatever it is, so I gave it a new name) and that's the most fun I've had with a dungeon in some time. Not sure exactly why since the map's not terribly complex and there's not that much going on, but I was really feelin' it. Perhaps finding that base 9 axe had something to do with it…

I'm wondering how much replay value this game will have for me, though. I've pumped my "spot hidden" up to 5, but I just know I'm missing stuff and that grates on the complete-ist in me. Just don't know if that will be enough incentive to start from scratch.

Hmmm, my spot hidden was 15 on one character and I didn't really find all that much. It's mostly used in the beehive dungeon. Definitely not worth a replay for the few things you missed.

Originally Posted by dteowner
I'm wondering how much replay value this game will have for me, though. I've pumped my "spot hidden" up to 5, but I just know I'm missing stuff and that grates on the complete-ist in me. Just don't know if that will be enough incentive to start from scratch.

I've started 3 replays and I haven't even finished my first game yet! For me, the replay value's all in the character builds and skills. I've got a Ranger, Mage, Fighter and Rogue all going, and they have played pretty distinctly. The other replay value I'm getting is, of course, being really, really nasty/bad with my Rogue/Assassin.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Hmmm, my spot hidden was 15 on one character and I didn't really find all that much. It's mostly used in the beehive dungeon. Definitely not worth a replay for the few things you missed.

If you mean just the jewels, I found a lot of those without the spot hidden skill at all and only a 17 or so in Perception. Hopefully there's more payoff for pumping that skill than just that.

Meh I don't think there is.

Me either and I had the 15 spot skill and a 35 perception. I should have found all the goodies. The only thing I'm unsure of is whether I found more random loot with the spot hidden. It could be there are more skeletons lying around or a few more barrels, but who would notice? Another thing that "might" happen is that chests may have more items in them more often with spot hidden. I have no good way to test that.

Could always ask Thom on the Basilisk forums…

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Me either and I had the 15 spot skill and a 35 perception. I should have found all the goodies. The only thing I'm unsure of is whether I found more random loot with the spot hidden. It could be there are more skeletons lying around or a few more barrels, but who would notice? Another thing that "might" happen is that chests may have more items in them more often with spot hidden. I have no good way to test that.

Hah. I wish. All those features are pretty cool. But I seriously doubt they are incoorperated within this game.

I'm sure you find more random loot. My first character had a high Spot Hidden and found (for example) gems hidden in the walls of the starting village. That spot just didn't show up for my next character with a lower Spot Hidden score.

Actually, it's a random chance, so if you stood outside that same spot with your next character, you'd have found the gems eventually.

Anyway, with my Spot Hidden of 5, I've only found a few worthwhile things - most of them in the beehive, as crpgnut said. Sure, the skill helps with traps too, but if it's just money you're looking for, I'd say Mercantile is a better skill to grab.

Oh yeah. Traps, of course. *duh*

Mercantile can be very lucrative at high levels. If you take a moderate level of Mercantile at low levels it will make a huge difference in cash flow over the course of the game. Do you need mercantile? Nope. This game is very easy to beat; mercantile just makes buying all the spells and skill trainer levels a snap.

Just got my boxed copy today in the mail… this may have been stated already, so sorry if I'm posting the obvious, but on the back of the case there is a quote by RPGWatch that reads:

"The first thing that strikes you is the production values - this is a beautifully crafted game that doesn't just set a new benchmark for indie CRPGs, it would be perfectly at home on retail shelves if it wasn't for the fact that 2D games have been long abandoned."

Cool to see this great site quoted on the box of (what I hope) is a great game (I haven't played it yet, so I don't know).

Well I gave it a try and well, it's a little old and I felt that:
- First minutes brought a ton of nostalgia but that disappeared fast because of too many points.
- Ingame help is missing, it's so boring to leave the current game and check the character creation panel to get some help.
- There are some very long texts a little boring to read but not have them in my native language didn't help.
- Fighting seemed quite basic and uninteresting (sword fighting).
- Town a little empty.
- Many little quests quickly got but for the few achieved soon that was quite basic.

Yes I didn't gave it a real chance, fighting and too often too long texts made me give up. I played a default rogue.