The Adventurers' Guild

Hi,

I seem to have an issue with the Bard's Tale - Tales of the Unknown. I used to play it on my Amiga 20 years ago and at the moment I am playing again using WinUAE.
I have created a party including a warrior and I remember him to be a good fighter who dealt a lot of damage back on the amiga.
My party has reached lvl 8 right now and as my paladin and the monk already hit 3 times each combat round, my warrior still only hits once!
Refering to the manual he should gain an extra attack every 4 levels, so he also should attack 3 times.
So I decided to put him back into the guild and created another conjurer and my bard has to take the warrior's position. The next fight showed that my bard has multiple attacks which I don't remember from the old times when playing on the amiga.

So I wonder if I have a version with some bugs or is this behavior of the character as it is intended?

Cheers,
Batou

That definitely sounds like some weird bugginess. Warriors are supposed to get multiple attacks – an extra one every 3-4 levels, as I recall, although I wouldn't swear to it. But by level 8, yes, your warrior should definitely have multiple attacks.

And conversely, the bard never gets more than one attack. So yeah, it sounds like your install has gone a bit screwy one way or the other.

In fact there are plenty of differences between the C64 version and the Amiga version - however, I'm not sure if multiple attacks are among these differences. Nevertheless, it would not make sense to have a bard with multiple attacks and a warrior with only one attack.

I have recently been playing the C64 tape version and can report the following:

Warriors, paladins and monks get multiple attacks
Bards, hunters, rouges and spellcasters do not.

The manual states that bards were once warriors, but they no longer get multiple attacks, so that is the intended design. I have read that some 16-bit versions are buggy when it comes to multiple attacks.

Batou wrote: My party has reached lvl 8 right now and as my paladin and the monk already hit 3 times each combat round, my warrior still only hits once!

3 times at level 8 seems like a lot to me, but I guess I haven't paid much attention in the early levels. Does the rate of advancement slow down the higher you get, or is this just different on a platform by platform basis?

For example, I have a level 38 party on DOS that's hitting 8x. That would seem to indicate an extra attack every 5 levels.

My level 176 palidin hits 8 times, and has done so for a very long time, so 8 would appear to be a maximum.

Flanimal wrote:My level 176 palidin hits 8 times, and has done so for a very long time, so 8 would appear to be a maximum.

Huh. The things you learn around here.

So it must be every 3 levels then? Wowzers, I didn't realize you topped out at lvl 22 for attacks.

It's kind of a moot point by then anyway - in BT1, the damage you inflict with eight attacks will kill pretty much anything, whereas in BT2 and BT3 it won't kill anything, and your warriors are pretty much meat shields for your mages.

brideck wrote: Huh. The things you learn around here.

So it must be every 3 levels then? Wowzers, I didn't realize you topped out at lvl 22 for attacks.

I'm not certain but the damage inflicted might be related to level,and definitely strength, so your char will continue to hit harder up to strength 18, and then perhaps below as level increases.

Actually, it's every 4 levels, but it's zero based, so you get your second attack at level 4, and your third at level 8... and your 8th at level 28. Warriors and Paladins top out at level 28, unless (like Flanimal says) they have less than 18 strength. Which isn't likely. You can get a little better if you get a better weapon.

My research indicates Weaponless Monks top out at level 99 or so. You should be averaging just over 1000 damage per round. But after level 28 you'll never see them NOT one-shot a BT1 monster. It's theoretically possible, but the odds are SO small you'll never see it in your lifetime. The damage formula at level 28 (Strength 18) is 120d4 + 24.

The Amiga's version of Warriors are definitely bugged. I can verify that they never get extra attacks. This bug isn't duplicated in the Amiga version of BT2.

Just curious: How do you verify that? Tested it? Disassembled the code? Divine inspiration?

Horpner wrote:The Amiga's version of Warriors are definitely bugged. I can verify that they never get extra attacks. This bug isn't duplicated in the Amiga version of BT2.

Holy crap, Horpner's back. Welcome back.

Sorry for reanimating this old thread, but as I want to start over with the Bard's Tale 1, I have to decide what system to run it on.
As i used to play on Amiga, the emulation would be my favorite choice, second would be buying it for the ipad.

So does anyone know a legal source of Bard's Tale 1 - adf files that don't have the bug that bards get multiple attacks and warriors don't?
Haven't checked the disks offered on this page, to be honest. Anyone already used them?

Thanks,
Batou

Never mind,
yesterday I bought the ipad version and just started over with Tales Of The Unknown