melkathi

I loved text based encounters in King of Dragon Pass, loved them in King Arthur: the Roleplaying Wargame and am loving them in Expeditions: Conquistador.

Rename characters AGAIN? *sigh* Why can't MMOs learn and give people a global handle and let them have non-unique names for their characters? If Cryptic can do it with their MMOs and Tabula Rasa could do it, then it can't be all that hard...

Did you ever try the "Creatures" series? Its a bit dated now but it was quite good.

And still some devs managed to fit things on 2 CDs that would have fit on a floppy. I never understood why Silver had 2 CDs...

I didn't know Morgoth posted outside the Random Video Game News thread.

The metro in Torino: For four stations I was waiting for the train to stop and try to take the picture before the doors opened. then I remembered there was a door just across from this one that remained closed...

Funny enough, back in the old days, on the Septerra Core forum there were quite a few people really surprised that the game was so small in file size. Comparing it to other games at the time it really was remarkable. All it took was a dev who knew how to properly compress.

Hmm, there are some slight supernatural elements to the game. Very minor so far, but not sure the game needed them. I think it could have stayed a pure (alternate) historical setting and would have lost nothing of its charm. Then again I really ahd to go out of my way and search for the stuff

You spend XP you gain on promoting your followers. There are a number of NPCs you can recruit in the first campaign. One of them does not carry over to the main campaign. I promoted him, when I could have used those XP to promote someone else who stayed with me.

Even with two scholars, I can't seem to pass diplomacy checks. granted, they are hard checks, but it makes me wonder what my chances at easy and medium checks would have been without that second scholar.

I like to level at my own pace but enjoy having instances I can run with friends. Especially if they don't take too long.

It isn't random. It's based on clan magic, how often you have heroquested, how much help you are getting, the deity of the person undergoing the quest, their respective stats... It just happens that in some quests you can proceed even with a wrong answer if your magic is strong enough but you failed the check for the right one. It just isn't guaranteed that knowing all the right things to say and do will cause a quest to succeed.

Yes, I had to struggle with my hoarding impulse Then I realized that chests on the world map respawn. But the barricades let you create choke points and the oil sets hexes on fire and spreads as long as there are flamable things in adjacent squares. The defence of the palace I think I had around 10 hexes ablaze, causing fire dots on eeryone passing through (5-7 damage per round from what I noticed). That said, even with 89% guarding, thieves just stole 2140 valuables from me... Discovered a new personality trait: Lovesick - gain morale if lover is promoted, lose morale if lover dies. The natives offered my character a husband. And I just saw a guy's morale skyrocket through one sidequest: Montego is Adventurous, Cautious, Peacefull. Send him ahead to scout: yay for adventuring! When he reported back, proceeded cautiously and then let people live. He had been at morale 7, now he is 13. edit: also playng at 1920x1080 without any map bug.

I am quite happy with my 2 of each crew. With the two additional soldiers I got in the first campaign, that makes for a great group. Now if only hadn't wasted 100xp on that shaman who abandons you when you leave for Mexico Two scholars mean that I always have barricades, oil lamps and traps to win my battles for me. Some smart 'cading and tossing of oil lamps made the last fights in Hispaniola rather easy.

Finished the introductory campaign of Expeditions: Conquistador. Now on to the main game. If I was to do it again, there is one choice I would not have made the same - a waste of perfectly good 100XP But mostly I can't complain. Most of my crew's moral is either "unwavering" or even "devoted", with only two having dropped to "enthusiastic".

...

I forgot Freelancer.

Have it installed right now and its driving me crazy. For some reason I can't get past the Grey mission...

Och, Now I'll have to out myself for wierd tastes? Ok, random order: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Dune (by Cryo) Startopia Dungeon Keeper Syndicate Wars Dawn of War Alpha Protocol Magic of Endoria Eric the Unready Mech Commander 2 Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together Final Fantasy 7 Final Fantasy Legend 2 Gargoyle's Quest Age of Wonders Age of Wonders 2: The Wizards Throne Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic Ghost Master Evil Genius Warlords Battlecry 3 Majesty Realms Planescape Torment Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

How did you do for food? With only three soldiers I had some trouble with theft, but sending everyone else out hunting except for a scout patrolling, at least a lot of the time I can mostly eat what we hunt. Also started tinkering. Upgraded my carts twice and my tools once and am now constructing more barricades.

Expeditions: Conquistador I spend a lot of time getting lost in the jungle. Am now at a point where I can get my first native member for the expedition. Need to decide what to do. Only have one racist follower, so the morale hit isn't that significant. More of a roleplay dilema: do I try and convince someone to leave behind their village or do I leave them there...

Actually I have had one night-time minor random event so far which seemed to be based on the background. I am making a fairly wild assumption here, but it seems you have a chance to unlock discussions in camp with your followers about their motivation to join you. At least one of my scholars and I had a very interesting chat. Also, the leadership skill does get a boost from followers later on, but never as much as the other skills. Leadership does not get a boost by class, but by follower rank. As you can have a max of two sergeants and one lieutenant, it seems that you can get a bonus from three followers. It also remains to be seen what the native only class "shaman" works out as. Probably the same as the spaniard only "scholar" with slightly different combat abilities. I would assume that extra soldiers are especially usefull if you are aiming for an aggressive playthrough, even though soldiers may be cautious, peacefull altruists. I went for one of each so that even if someone falls ill, gets kidnapped or whatever, I still have a spare.

Played a bit. First impression is very positive. You start out making your character. There are a number of skills you get to assign skill points to: Tactics, Diplomacy, Healing, Survival, Scouting and Leadership. Then you choose the ten members of your expedition. Each follower has a class (doctor, hunter, scholar, scout or soldier), some starting euipment based on class and very important, three personality traits which dictate how they will react to your decissions during play. So if a character is racist and you treat the natives well, they will not be happy. On the other hand, if they are open-minded, then enslaving the natives may rub them the wrong way. A narcissist likes to be appreciated - use your xp too often to level up other characters and they'll resent it. I guess it makes sense to try to have your expedition made up of mathing personalities. But with three traits per characters, some conflicts are unavoidable. Based on their class, folowers also add to your skills. Combat is turn-based. You have enough move points to move in the light green hexes and still attack, or you can move in the dark green hexes and not perform an action. There are attacks of opportunity for firing a missile weapon in melee, or moving past an enemy in melee etc. Based on class and level, characters have various skills. On the world map you move around as your movement points allow you. When you run out of points or you want to end your turn, you set up camp for the night. You have to assign food to every member of the expedition as well as tasks. Based on class, characters can perform various tasks more or less well. Soldiers are good at guarding, scouts at patroling etc. Events may happen during the night and the area you are camping in will make guarding, patrolling and hunting more or less difficult. Oh and Drowsy, I got the last name through the random button, so I couldnt resist

Downloading now...