What's next after TOEE?

I found TOEE while I was searching for something similar to Icewind Dale. I did not know Troika had overlap with ID's developers, so I got lucky. Except for the "fix people up" bit at the beginning, TOEE gave me the tactical combat and sense of exploration I was looking for.

What to play after TOEE that provides a similar feel? Have you all found something that itches the same spot?

I've played Dragon Age, which did not engage me in the same way as Icewind dale did. I also played Neverwinter night 2, which was good. Any other ideas?

 

They just rereleased Baulders Gate, give that a shot its made by the same people with the same engine as Icewind Dale and Its be "upgraded" with some of the things they released in Baldurs gate 2 so I hear.

 

Well, if you've gotten through all the BlackIsle & Troika games, there is hardly anything worth out there - RPG wise. Unless you want to play J-rpg's or FP-rpg's like Bethesda makes them. But as I said, they have not a lot of similarities to ToEE.

You might want to try your hand at the mod for ToEE which the good people here of Co8 made: http://www.co8.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=55

One thing I want to draw your attention upon, is a wonderfull turn-based strategic game called Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, with its Unofficial Patch v1.4. It's a bit of a crossover between Civilization and Heroes of Might & Magic - or if you would have no idea 'bout what I'm speaking of, you could also compare it to chess on steroids. LOTS of steroids

It's not really "adventure-party-based", but it has quite a nice way of presenting the manual combat. And while the hero system is not D&D, it has a nice flair in how you choose to let them evolve.

Also, this game's editor is not all that bad (it still has some bugs even the UPatch team & associates can't solve), which results in a huge choice in custom made scenarios. I'm one of the active mapmakers myself, so I do speak out of my own experience And while I'm rather modest about my mapmaking skills, the people of the UPatch team have asked me if I would be willing to help in co-creating the modified campaign for UPv1.5. In short, I was honoured by their demand & am now privileged to witness its evolution from closeby :thumbsup:

And while it is an old game by todays standards (2003), its artwork as good as it gets for a 2.5D game (Units etc in 2D, terrain is 3D). Knowing you play ToEE, that shouldn't be to big of an big issue

Maybe I helped you, mabe I didn't... If I did, glad I could If I didn't, well time to try an other alignment in ToEE

 

Although a difference genre, the Fallout series has a similar feel to ID and TOEE. For more D&D fun, Neverwinter Nights I & II were good, long games.

 

Indeed, Fallout 1&2 have some similarities, though you don't have full command over your partymembers. Barring your main character, the rest just abides simple commands. It might be different with Fallout: Tactics, though I never tried that one. Fallout 3 is really not the same, just to make sure I warned you.

Also, if you don't know that yet, the Fallout series stands at the crib of Troika games. Its creator left Interplay and formed Troika studios. Troika made Arcanum as their first game, which is in fact a steampunk adventure with the Fallout game engine. Second game is our beloved ToEE, and the third game was a vampire RPG. As I'm no great fan of vampires - and certainly not in White Wolf's World of Dispair setting, which it uses- I truly can not give any advise if it's any good or not.

Black Isle has dibs on the biggest collection of D&D games. First came Baldur's Gate, which had a gameplay and game-engine that has created its own legacy. The Infinity engine was the base upon games such as Planescape: Torment, BGII and Icewind Dale were grafted.

Sure, they use the slightly more restrictive AD&D 2nd edition rules, but by the Six Spheres, they did a good job there.

I especially like Baldur's Gate 2, so if you haven't tried that one out, that's an other golden tip

 

Also if you want to stick with D&D, I loved pool of raidence back in the 90's and also Dungeon Hack..That one I still have on my computer and play every once in a while now (love the Ironman mode).
Both those go back to the 1st ED rules, but great games if though old, pool is turn based party, and Dungeon Hack is single charecter/ first person but completely random maps and semi turn based.

I wish they would of came out with more 3rd edition D&D games like ToEE since it is my favorite edition, but oh well I think the era of non.MMO and turned based combat RPGs has come to an end unfortunately even in the single player non MMO RPG world I think your going to see them stick with more of Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, and Diablo type RPGs

 

I don't know if it's come to an end.

Next year will be a good year for turn based old school RPG's.

2013 is the year of Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns, a few of my favorites for sure.

 

They're old and can be buggy(but playable); the darksun games, Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager are both pretty fun. You can import your PCs from SL into WotR as well.

 

Do you recommend the 1.4 patch for single player? How does the blocking work that knights and such have? I thought 1.4 was made for multiplayer balance. Anything I should know as a 1.3 player so as if I were to try I wouldn't freak out?

 

1.4 improved the multiplayer part, as 1.3 was mostly a bug-fixer. They also implemented some graphic goodies (like racial priests and extra buildings), so that mapmakers had more options. Some units had their abilities nerfed or upgraded (depending if they were over- or underpowered), and some new units were also implemented (Like the Lizardmen from AoW). Those extras are not always available in an random generated map, but sometimes they do.

Blocking gives the unit a +5Def against the first melee attack and gives a +5Def against physical ranged attacks.

UPatch v1.4 is certainly to be recommended, for multiplayer and singleplayer.
The Russian community has made a patch specifically for online multiplayer, called MP1.5.
Hellbrick, their projectleader, has found some more bug-solutions which will be able to be implemented in the upcoming UPatch v1.5.

So, UPatch v1.5 will have more graphic goodies (ranging from things we ripped from other games, gathered from mod forums -like civfanatics- and also homemade creations), as such that mapmakers get a huge range of things to work with.
The only problem? You'll have to wait at least a year before the first beta will come out...
Anyhow, feel free to drop by on the forum to enlighten yourself:
http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/index.cgi

 

Wizardry 8. Combat takes a little getting used to but once you get a hang of it the combat in the game is both fun and strategic. As for exploration, the game has plenty of it.

 

I wish I had the skills, I would adapt this platform to make the Against The Giants trilogy then follow it with the under dark and maybe even Queen of the Demon Web Pits. I have excellent memories from that campaign. I ran a new monk(Best of The Dragon Vol III) from The Village of Hommlette module, through the TOEE and then all of the above. It was a glorious 6 months. :thumbsup: :sadblinky

 

Its old, its clunky, its tempermenatal about where you put the cursor, but Planescape Torment is brilliant for plot and atmosphere.

 

Skyrim felt a lot like ToEE with the character building and such for me.

Turn based, nothing's better than Heroes of Might and Magic III

 

Does it work like the dodge feat in 3.0+ in DND so it is active the entire encounter against one enemy or is it like charge where it only works one time?