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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Dec 6, 2019 14:52:43 GMT
Its designed to play out that way so as not to make it too easy just as you always end up in certain areas no matter what choices you make. And of course, the Serpent of Time ( like the rest of his winged brethren ) had assumed that you would never live to use that information. Not sure why it would be designed to be meaningless. Especially the clue coming from the most powerful Serpent. Honestly it just seems like Steve forgot about it.
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Post by Ed on Dec 6, 2019 15:19:07 GMT
That's very possible, just imagine what it must have been like for him trying to keep track of all the various permutations while writing the book
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Dec 6, 2019 17:54:54 GMT
That's very possible, just imagine what it must have been like for him trying to keep track of all the various permutations while writing the book Oh man I cant even imagine. Especially back then when they were presumably keeping track of it all by hand. Im sure Excel must make it much easier. lol. On the plus side, using the clue might have meant missing out on the second tower which was really darn cool so there is that.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,436
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Dec 6, 2019 20:15:15 GMT
Especially the clue coming from the most powerful Serpent. Honestly it just seems like Steve forgot about it. The Time Serpent is unavoidable though. Anyone who has played the series from at least Book 2 will have the Time Serpent's clue so I think from a gameplay perspective it shouldn't be all that helpful. Same with the Air Serpent's clue though I can't for the life of me remember what that one is.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Dec 6, 2019 22:21:52 GMT
Especially the clue coming from the most powerful Serpent. Honestly it just seems like Steve forgot about it. The Time Serpent is unavoidable though. Anyone who has played the series from at least Book 2 will have the Time Serpent's clue so I think from a gameplay perspective it shouldn't be all that helpful. Same with the Air Serpent's clue though I can't for the life of me remember what that one is. Unless of course you get overexcited encountering a Serpent and forget to use the ring. Not that I ever did that.
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Post by Ed on Dec 7, 2019 12:37:03 GMT
the Air Serpent clue is as follows - don't use the blood candle in the chamber of night
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,436
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Dec 7, 2019 14:01:12 GMT
the Air Serpent clue is as follows - don't use the blood candle in the chamber of night Hmm that one's pretty useful actually!
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Post by Ed on Dec 7, 2019 14:22:46 GMT
Yes its fairly straightforward not cryptic like some of the other clues.
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Post by Ed on Feb 8, 2020 12:47:23 GMT
Nice to see Crown Of Kings get a shout-out on the official FF blog.
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Post by Peter on Apr 11, 2020 2:44:11 GMT
Hey ...
Libra says she cannot help you while you are within the Fortress. But when you step outside and head over to the other tower, you are no longer inside the Fortress. Can you have a quick pray while you wander across? This would give you a very useful (perhaps life-saving) stats boost before you cast the ZED spell.
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Post by Ed on Apr 15, 2020 12:24:48 GMT
That's a tricky one to answer - technically you are not inside the fortress per se so it should be allowable but you are still within the area of the fortress so it might still count as cheating.
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Post by vastariner on Dec 24, 2022 0:05:02 GMT
A few thoughts on a replay. 1. I can understand there being a merchant in a fortress; there will be things coming in from the outside cursed lands, there will need to be supplies and so on, wages to guards, who will want to buy stuff. But why would the merchant be BEYOND a set of Throben Doors? 2. I quite like that you can pick up spell items even to very close to the end - after all your PC does not necessarily know you ARE close to the end. 3. But so many of the spell options are utterly useless and a waste of time. There are already duplications therein - is there every any difference between ZAP and HOT, or FOF and WAL? When is SUS more or less useful than HOW? - but there are some absolutely insane possibilities. To pick one example, when faced with a rockfall at 551, why would you cast NIF or ROK? But with no option for ZEN to get above it. Similarly, in the Chamber of the Night, there's no chance to cast HOW or SUN. And when Whyde tells you where the Archmage's tower is, you have so many spells that might be useful, but none of them are given as options. 4. Does it need to be made more obvious that Farren Whyde is, if you RES him, obviously a genuine trader who has been possessed by the Netherworld Demon, who is also under the Archmage disguise? After all you need never know that if you have holy water with you - which by then you ought to have.
5. Then again some of the spell failures are most amusing. Your artifact gets broken or otherwise rendered useless - and looking at the Mucalytic fight, at least one is fatal...
6. You can still get through Kharé if you fail the Slangg test. That however pays off two books later when you lose access to a password. Is that the longest anyone can play when failure is inevitable? (Is there also any other way you can lose Libra without it being fatal?)
7. Would anyone EVER cast ZED without speaking to Jann first? Shame as all those references are otherwise redundant...
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Dec 24, 2022 0:25:54 GMT
For point 6, isn't it impossible to leave Khare without 4 spell lines (even though only 3 are needed for the numbers)?
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Post by vastariner on Dec 24, 2022 0:36:57 GMT
For point 6, isn't it impossible to leave Khare without 4 spell lines (even though only 3 are needed for the numbers)? In theory, yes, but, in book rules, you have all you need...
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Post by scouserob on Dec 24, 2022 9:39:45 GMT
I think you can lose Libra (non-fatally) in The Seven Serpents by praying to Throff to escape the temple.
I think you miss the Sham that way so it depends where in CoK the test is. (Sorry not that deep into Crown of Kings yet but I remember that to survive the Sleepless Ram one must seek the speedy Sham. Or something.)
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Post by vastariner on Dec 29, 2022 15:35:34 GMT
Thinking about the spell options, I went back to the Spiny Ones encounter, to see how one would get past...the spells that would be useful are: -SUN, which is ABSOLUTELY BLOODY OBVIOUS -RAP/YAP: could give the option so that there is an element of guesswork in whether you are dealing with a humanoid or not -LAW/DUM/DOZ/DIM/SAP/GOD/NAP/FIX because you're obviously facing an hostile encounter
-PEP/NIP so you can enhance yourself for a hostile encounter
-SUS/HOW which would presumably tell you to GTFO -ZIP so you CAN GTFO -JIG because you'd have half a chance of surviving -GOB/YOB to have the same effect as SIX, i.e. a meatshield -NIF for obvious reasons -TEL would be a good option, for someone who thinks there might be intel behind the creature -YAZ MIGHT be an option, based on whether a darksight creature is relying on infra-red rather than other senses -FAR presumably does not work because it's dark So, all told, you have quite a bit of the spell book that might be useful in these circumstances, as well as WAL/FOF once you get your first spine... ...and what options do you get? SIX (not the most obvious defensive spell, but OK) ROK (what?) LAW (OK) KID (um, how is this meant to work in the dark?) And DOZ - which does NOT work because you cannot focus on anything. Which takes out the run of enemy spells, but leaves still a good dozen or so which would be better options than 60% of the once you get.
The absolute crazy thing though is that for this room, and the Chamber of the Night, YOU CANNOT CAST SUN! The ONLY time that spell is useful is in the dark and you can't launch it?
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Post by scouserob on Mar 30, 2023 14:09:31 GMT
Loving this so far. I've passed the half way point now after getting through those second Throben doors. (402 out of 800 paragraphs mapped.)
The section between the first two Throben doors is magnificent.
It is huge spanning almost half the paragraph count of a standard Fighting Fantasy! (195 Paragraphs!!!)
The Mutant Meatballs are rather fun. 😂 Though I'm a bit bewildered by the contraction of an extreme phobia of reptiles that will result in instant death upon seeing ... a Giant Frog? Is our adventurer also fatally confused about animal classification? Does the phobia extend to amphibians? 🤷🏻♂️
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Post by scouserob on May 4, 2023 20:19:53 GMT
Up to the Archmage’s Tower now. 😄 What an adventure so far.
I’ve had a bit of a reconnoitre and there were a few paragraphs I’d missed out and so am having to try to squeeze into my map.
It never occurred to me to use Libra’s password at the 2nd Throben Doors. (That’s 2 missed! 🤦🏻♂️)
I caught that the spell options at Naggamanteh had 3 different POP references but somehow missed there were also 3 different SUN references. (Another 2! 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️)
Finally, I also missed 548. I’m struggling to find a reference that feeds into paragraph 548, which is a fight with Valigna’s Jaguar 🐆, similar to 94. Is it an orphan?
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Post by Peter on May 5, 2023 8:06:51 GMT
Finally, I also missed 548. I’m struggling to find a reference that feeds into paragraph 548, which is a fight with Valigna’s Jaguar 🐆, similar to 94. Is it an orphan? Indeed. If you refuse to give him gold, there are options for being aggressive and drawing your sword, but none of them seem to lead to a fight with the jaguar.
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Post by CharlesX on May 5, 2023 13:13:16 GMT
Thinking about the spell options, I went back to the Spiny Ones encounter, to see how one would get past...the spells that would be useful are: -SUN, which is ABSOLUTELY BLOODY OBVIOUS -RAP/YAP: could give the option so that there is an element of guesswork in whether you are dealing with a humanoid or not -LAW/DUM/DOZ/DIM/SAP/GOD/NAP/FIX because you're obviously facing an hostile encounter
-PEP/NIP so you can enhance yourself for a hostile encounter
-SUS/HOW which would presumably tell you to GTFO -ZIP so you CAN GTFO -JIG because you'd have half a chance of surviving -GOB/YOB to have the same effect as SIX, i.e. a meatshield -NIF for obvious reasons -TEL would be a good option, for someone who thinks there might be intel behind the creature -YAZ MIGHT be an option, based on whether a darksight creature is relying on infra-red rather than other senses -FAR presumably does not work because it's dark So, all told, you have quite a bit of the spell book that might be useful in these circumstances, as well as WAL/FOF once you get your first spine... ...and what options do you get? SIX (not the most obvious defensive spell, but OK) ROK (what?) LAW (OK) KID (um, how is this meant to work in the dark?) And DOZ - which does NOT work because you cannot focus on anything. Which takes out the run of enemy spells, but leaves still a good dozen or so which would be better options than 60% of the once you get.
The absolute crazy thing though is that for this room, and the Chamber of the Night, YOU CANNOT CAST SUN! The ONLY time that spell is useful is in the dark and you can't launch it?
ZIP is a big source of frustration for me in Sorcery!, because it's just as handy a spell as any other, yet in the entire saga you are only given a single opportunity to use it, and if you can and do so at that point, you are killed instantly. I'm sure I'm neither entirely without criticism nor without support in saying Steve Jackson does this sort of thing quite a bit and this constant deeply dark atmosphere can easily get on one's nerves (yes, I get you are warned it can be dangerous to cast it). I don't know whether the Sorcery! App gives you more opportunities to cast these spells, with more encounters and opportunities rather than things like conversation.
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