Incompetent fighters

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Marco
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Incompetent fighters

Post by Marco »

Over the last week, I decided to finally get around to wrapping up two 20-year-old projects: 1) finish the Apple 2 version of BT2 (without cheating), and 2) generate a complete list of BT2 monsters sorted by images, like I did for BT1. I imported a crew that completed BT1, leveled up to the mid-40's. I figured they would breeze right through all the fights, and let me focus on exploring, clue-searching, and monster-hunting. I figured wrong.

Everything was fine until around Oscon's Fort, when my warrior, paladin, and monk abruptly became completely useless. They could barely hit anything. In Oscon's Fort, at least, the archmages could function. But in the Grey Crypt, it's a complete disaster. The spellcasters are irrelevant, and the fighting-types literally hit one time in 100 (at best).

I find it very difficult to believe that we were intended to run from every fight in the Crypt. But I don't know what the problem is. I've tried other weapons like the Sword of Zar, Song Axe, Thor's Hammer, in case it was an issue with the Spectre Snares everyone is armed with (maybe they weren't as good as I thought). I've tried spending a few hours at the dreaded activity of "experience point farming" in the Maze of Dread with the Dream Mages, and now everyone is leveled up to the mid-70's, and the fighter-types still are no good (maybe a tiny bit better).

I guess after the Maze of Dread, fighter-types are literally only good as human shields for the archmages. It made monster-hunting in the Crypt extremely painful, though.

Marco.
Ether
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Post by Ether »

I played the Commodore 64 version and my party could never hit anything either by that point.

It was just spells, flame horn, throw weapons.

It's one of the main reasons why BT2 was my least favorite of the three.
tpth
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Post by tpth »

This is all weird. Never had this problem in the PC version - fighters weren't necessarily a lot of use, as monsters have heaps more HP than in BT1 - but they never had trouble hitting.
wefuntw
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Post by wefuntw »

Fighters definitely can hit monsters in Grey Crypt, just need some buff.

In fact, it's part of the game design, basically in the later dungeons, it is no longer mindlessly attack or casting offensive spells. however,
The player need to concentrate more on inter-class cooperation to defeat monsters.





Try bard song #4 "The Melee March" in combat if fighters couldn't hit anyone, maybe VOPL MAGA OGST helps as well, but not tested.
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Darendor
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Post by Darendor »

wefuntw wrote:Fighters definitely can hit monsters in Grey Crypt, just need some buff.

In fact, it's part of the game design, basically in the later dungeons, it is no longer mindlessly attack or casting offensive spells. however,
The player need to concentrate more on inter-class cooperation to defeat monsters.





Try bard song #4 "The Melee March" in combat if fighters couldn't hit anyone, maybe VOPL MAGA OGST helps as well, but not tested.

I'd be rather amazed if anything but SCSI worked in the Grey Crypt...:?
wefuntw
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Post by wefuntw »

Oh of course these spells won't work in grey crypt,
But they would definitely work in Oscon's fortress, or other later dungeons
with high-AC monsters extremely hard to be hit

If your bard's too busy playing , let spell VOPL, MAGA, OGST help fighters do their job
Ether
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Post by Ether »

If I ever use a Commodore 64 emulator, I'll have to remember to try that.

Seems odd that one would have to use spells that you first obtained in the sewers to hit foes that much farther along though. Add I never noticed them doing that much good anyways.

Anyways, it just seems more effient to just blast everything with your mages and bard (flame horn) instead.
jrodman
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Re: Incompetent fighters

Post by jrodman »

While I encountered this problem too during my C64 playthrough around 2012, I'm pleased to report that on the Apple IIgs, this problem is completely absent.

Sure, my monk started missing now and then around the Maze of Dread point, but it's like a 5% miss chance or so, whereas previously he was around a 100% hit. I want to say there's been a very mild rise of like 98% hits in the Maze up to around 96% hits in the Grey Crypt, but I haven't been tracking so this is just a guess based on feel.

Overall, the playthrough is very satisfying. I'm missing some of the custom dungeon walls graphic sets, but there's some variation (I don't remember ANY on the Amiga port). Traps are working, dragons are dangerous, etc.
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