Critical help needed!!

gnipperjei · Post by **gnipperjei** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:43 pm

Hello there!

Firstly, I'm happily amazed there is still an online interest in this fine series of games.

I recently started going through these games again for the first time in over 15 years but have run in to a problem with The Thief of Fate.

I've found and equipped both a stoneblade and a shadelance, which I know should critically hit or stone an enemy but neither weapon has the desired effect. My paladin hits 8 times and only manages 20+ damage with immediate death no where in sight!

Anyone have any ideas why this is?

I'm playing the MSDOS version through DOSBox 0.72 and have successively imported my characters from one game to the next.

EDIT: Ok, the shadelance isn't a critical hit weapon, my bad! Still confused about the stoneblade.

Marco · Post by **Marco** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:37 pm

Correct, the shadelance is not. The stoneblade, however, should work. I have played both the Apple IIe and C64 versions, and the stoneblade works exactly the way it's supposed to. I have not acquired it in the PC version, so I can't test it there.

This could be yet another bug with the items. For example, the Brothers Figurine in the Apple IIe version of Bards Tale II summons a wolf (and that's after it asks you who you want to use it on). They fixed this in the PC version of the game, and it summons the Kringle Brothers the way it's supposed to.

Marco.

gnipperjei · Post by **gnipperjei** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:04 pm

Thanks for your reply!

My party has now picked up the Strifespear and a Heartseeker but neither has the desired effect. I've tried editing my characters and replacing a different item with the crit/ston weapons but that doesn't work either.

Ultimately, they pale in comparison to EAMA and other powerful spells so I'm sure it won't be too large a hindrance.

Painfully annoying though...

I think I'll start playing Dungeon Master when I finish this. Never quite got around to completing that first time around.

storrs19 · Post by **storrs19** » Wed May 27, 2009 4:30 pm

It's the same on the Amiga version as well. I transferred in some 30+ level characters and gave the Warrior, Paladin, and Hunter all a Stoneblade and my bard has a Song Axe and no one is doing more than 30 points of damage with no stoning or critical hits. This really sucks wind. My 3 archmages are doing fine though, but then they are not in the front four flanks involved in combat.

Marco · Post by **Marco** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 5:20 am

Thinking back, I vaguely remember that once in a while, some critical hit weapons don't work the way they're supposed to if you transfer characters that have them equipped.

Some other odd things happen when you transfer characters. For example, in the Apple 2gs version of BT1, the maximum number of hits your warrior, paladin, monk can get is 8. However, upon transfer to BT2, these characters are able to score hits over the cap of 8 according to the original formula of level/4 (I think that's what it is). But as soon as you visit the review board and gain a level, you're back to the cap of 8.

Marco.

ckdamascus · Post by **ckdamascus** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:07 pm

Seems like the best versions with regards to reliability and gameplay are the c64 and apple versions.

The amiga version looks nice, but alas, I think when I tried it, you could not type in spells but had to select it using a mouse. Obviously anyone who designed that never played this game very much.