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Discussions and help for the Bard's Tale Construction Set
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Darendor
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Re: Anti-Magic Zone

Post by Darendor »

dulsi wrote:Anti-magic zones stop current spells and prevents casting new ones. That makes sense but why doesn't it stop an existing light spell. I thought maybe they did it to allow torches to work but they fail when used in an anti-magic zone.
Think about it, how difficult would it be to map darkness zones if you couldn't rely on that flash of light once and again to get your bearings?
dulsi
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Re: Anti-Magic Zone

Post by dulsi »

Darendor wrote:
dulsi wrote:Anti-magic zones stop current spells and prevents casting new ones. That makes sense but why doesn't it stop an existing light spell. I thought maybe they did it to allow torches to work but they fail when used in an anti-magic zone.
Think about it, how difficult would it be to map darkness zones if you couldn't rely on that flash of light once and again to get your bearings?
Darkness zones are different from anti-magic. In BTCS if you are in darkness it does the flash of light like you expect. If you are in anti-magic, all existing spells stop except light. It doesn't allow you to cast new light spells. Ok so maybe they wanted to allow torches to work in anti-magic but after the light effect starts they don't know the "source" so anti-magic doesn't cancel it. Unfortunately for that theory, the torch doesn't work. Well maybe they can't tell it's "source" like previous explanation but the possible sources are only magic and bard song. That would be good but it has to know who is singing and what so it shouldn't be a problem to determine. It simply doesn't make sense.
dulsi
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Zero charges

Post by dulsi »

I was trying to determine how item-zot works. That is when I found out another difference in BTCS from previous Bard's Tales. Using all the charges on an item doesn't use it up.

You wonder into a darkness zone. You step out and have your fighter use his torch. Only to discover the torch is used up. Thankfully you picked up another one earlier. Then you remember you dropped it to make room in your inventory. (Yeah torches are a bad example since magic light is generally available.)

Using all the charges of a throw weapon (and probably arrows although I haven't checked) does remove the item.
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Darendor
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Re: Anti-Magic Zone

Post by Darendor »

dulsi wrote:
Darendor wrote:
dulsi wrote:Anti-magic zones stop current spells and prevents casting new ones. That makes sense but why doesn't it stop an existing light spell. I thought maybe they did it to allow torches to work but they fail when used in an anti-magic zone.
Think about it, how difficult would it be to map darkness zones if you couldn't rely on that flash of light once and again to get your bearings?
Darkness zones are different from anti-magic. In BTCS if you are in darkness it does the flash of light like you expect. If you are in anti-magic, all existing spells stop except light. It doesn't allow you to cast new light spells. Ok so maybe they wanted to allow torches to work in anti-magic but after the light effect starts they don't know the "source" so anti-magic doesn't cancel it. Unfortunately for that theory, the torch doesn't work. Well maybe they can't tell it's "source" like previous explanation but the possible sources are only magic and bard song. That would be good but it has to know who is singing and what so it shouldn't be a problem to determine. It simply doesn't make sense.

In any of the BT games, I cannot recall a single dungeon square where darkness, anti-magic and silence were all in effect at the same time. You'd be utterly screwed.
dulsi
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Post by dulsi »

I decided to implement hide in shadows. Does it give a critical hit chance? I assumed it would work like BT3 but it appears not. It doesn't allow you attack people more than 10' away.
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Darendor
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Post by Darendor »

Hiding in the shadows in BTII just skipped over the thief (Rogue) in combat if he was in the first 4 ranks.

In other words, it was more or less useless. ._.
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Darendor
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Post by Darendor »

In Bard's Tale III, the hide in shadows ability works like this:

Your party starts combat. At your Rogue's turn, you get the option to, of course, H)ide in Shadows...

When the combat round starts, the very first thing that happens is:

Code: Select all

Darendor jumps into the shadows, and succeeds!
OR

Code: Select all

Darendor jumps into the shadows, but is discovered!
Jumping into the shadows advanced your thief 10' if successful and ended their turn. If you were discovered, you basically stood there slackjawed being fair game for every enemy to attack you (and also went back to being in melee range, meaning if you were at say 50' away and tried to advance to 60' and got found out, you'd have to start over again to get to 20').

In the final battle with Tarjan, I basically ended up winning the game by having 6 dead as hell characters and 1 thief with a 99% chance of successfully hiding in shadows and hoping to God he'd crit Tarjan at 90'...
dulsi
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Re: Anti-Magic Zone

Post by dulsi »

Darendor wrote:Think about it, how difficult would it be to map darkness zones if you couldn't rely on that flash of light once and again to get your bearings?
Apparently that is what BTCS does. If you cast light in a darkness zone you don't get the flash of light. Now I think the flash of light wasn't a design goal in Bard's Tale but it's what players expect by the time BTCS came out. They should have implemented that.
dulsi
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Post by dulsi »

BTCS you disappoint me again. I decided to check how possessed monsters behave. When the monster acts, it interrupts the combat and asks who you want to attack. Why not just let the computer decide like in all the previous games?
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Darendor
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Post by Darendor »

BTCS is utter crap, period.

I could probably code a superior editor on the C64 version. Maybe.

I actually tried this once, in BASIC. I went mad for several weeks.
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