Old player, new updates

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by blackfly, Dec 12, 2007.

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  1. blackfly

    blackfly Established Member

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    It has been a while since I played TOEE, and the first time I did was over 5 years ago. The fact I am now reinstalling it to play it again, after a long hiatus, is in no small part to the modders who have kept the game interesting over time. Without their time and effort many would of given up and gone on elsewhere. In fact, the fact the website and forum are still going strong is the greatest testament available, and to all the modders, large or small, thank you.

    Having played through the game so much in the past most will not be new, but with the newest mods I am hoping so. I am going to try out a new gameplan but I think the fact the party will be CG, for obvious reasons, is a mainstay. I have tried too many evil parties only to find the limitations in the end to be tough, and this is where my threat is going.

    I understand the game, and module, was designed for a good party, but the computer game is not so. You can choose any alignment and there are endings for all, but lets be real; you are better to be a good party. Weapons are more numerous, you get better healing options, more quests are open to you and this in turn makes a longer game. I am somewhat amazed that with all the modding not more has been done to make the evil party as capable as the good party. In this, I mean you can only use Fragarach or Scather if good, there is no Terjon version for an evil party, eventually all the townspeople attack you (at some point) and I am only asking if there is no other tangent ot go to with modding then I humbly suggest the evil end. There are many opportunities to take this and not limit the party based on the need for Hommlet in the beginning. Without Hommlet, most young parties die, and the evil party, played true, should not adopt a friendship with them.

    But we will see. I have yet to make up my characters, which I suspect will take some time.

    But GOOD time. At least, like old times...
     
  2. Allyx

    Allyx Master Crafter Global Moderator Supporter

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    Welcome back to Co8 Blackfly, I hope you enjoy the new additions, and numerous bug fixes. You may also want to take a look at the KotB forums here, as Co8 members have worked hard to recreate the Keep on the Borderlands module with the ToEE engine, there should be a demo release really soon too. :)
     
  3. Fernando

    Fernando Established Member

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    I disagree. An Evil party could also be really good and get tons of XP. Of course, this if you play it with some... freedom, perhaps: what if your party leader is just a CE guy who just hates do-gooders, and plans to kill Calmert and Terjon? And if when you see Otis, you just try to murder him, so you could steal his stuff? And if your character just wants to be... the Butcher of Hommlet? All of this things -and LOTS more- will grant you enough XP to overcome every restriction that being evil has... and not to mention, gold and magic items.

    Playing good is fun; playing neutral, also. And playing evil... well, it's also a nice thing to do :p
     
  4. captainjackass

    captainjackass Member

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    Doesn't that depend on your definition of good and evil?

    I thought (in the game) evil meant selfish, and good meant looking out for other people. I wonder why i got that impression.
     
  5. krunch

    krunch moving on in life

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    IMO - In playing pNp D&D, evil can play [pretend to be] good, although most evil characters would not be very good at it a lot of times, and it should always be for a final result and end in a very evil cause. And, the more good that an evil character or group of characters acts or pretends to be, the more evil [the greater the evil] should result from pretending or acting to be good.

    Otherwise, evil adventurers are out of character. *laugh*
     
  6. zuluwarrior94

    zuluwarrior94 Established Member

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    Yep. It's like saying "Look at us! we're good, and we're helping people. Oops, we just killed all of you. Whuahahahahaha!"

    Since evil characters are sneaky, lying bastards, they could definitely play the "good" role as long as it suits them or as long as they can stand it.

    Me? I Always play some type of "good" character. Though in reality I'm probably Neutral Good at best.

    edited because of typo's
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2007
  7. TYrant

    TYrant Fast Limper

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    I've been playing this game for years, and really like playing with an evil party. Sometimes it's fun to kill every single living creature in the entire world map. Of course, you have to play it smart, you can't start the game walking around killing people. You have to play nice until you have an escape route (i.e. directions to Nulb) and you're able to buy all those nifty masterwork items from the blackmith. But then, carnage.

    But I hear what Blackfly is saying. There are times the game is not set up for evil parties. It often annoys me that there doesn't seem to be any way for Prince Thrommel to not join up with you, and things like that.
     
  8. wizgeorge

    wizgeorge Prophet of Wizardy

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    To play evil alignments like some people want would require a massive mod rewrite and go against the designed intent of the module. Evil-minded modders should start writing and submit their stuff for inclusion in a mod. There already is a basic war between temple factions that could be expanded and intensified. Lloth vs Z, etc. Who's going to be the next high priest? Lareth? Take over the temple then the entire area. Lot's of possibilities.
     
  9. blackfly

    blackfly Established Member

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    My point is the module, as originally written, was not really intended to be for evil parties. Now, I am aware an INTELLIGENT evil person would bide their time and wait, but a low intelligence bezerker would not and kill virtually on site (if the alignment is played correctly; look at Turuko and Kobort, Turuko keeps Kobort in line). So once all the healers are dead and with no one to buy or sell to, the doors begin to close really fast.

    My angle is one should PLAY the alignment, not play the GAME with a badge attached. Most could not really play a true Neutral person, and I have seen it tried, and I think too many do not differentiate the difference from playing an aligment and being directed by it.
     
  10. Sapper_Astro

    Sapper_Astro Established Member

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    Just reread that, and you are right. Sorry about the misunderstanding. We were saying the same thing only differently.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2007
  11. blackfly

    blackfly Established Member

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    Another facet of my argument is that there is no real benefit to being evil with crafting. Being good, you can add Holy to weapons and get the added damage since every enemy is evil. But if you are an evil party you cannot hold Holy weapons without damage nor is Unholy worth it as you get no extra damage hitting an evil opponent. Adding the Unholy facet then only makes the weapon look cool but is really useless for only Terjon and Calmert and the townspeople who by then you do not need the added crafting as you probably do enough damage already.
     
  12. matmaisan

    matmaisan Kobold lurker

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    Well, I believe you can have a LE Cleric make axiomatic weapons. Since most ToEE baddies are CE, it would still be very advantageous...
     
  13. blackfly

    blackfly Established Member

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    I have tried that. For some reason, even from the start of my playing (pre Co8) anytime I crafted and used axiomic the game CTD. So I never did it.

    But I will keep that in mind when I craft out an evil party for another go around.
     
  14. Allyx

    Allyx Master Crafter Global Moderator Supporter

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    That crafting problem has been fixed, as have the messed up burst effects, and hundreds of new magic items have been added, all as close to the D&D rules as we could posibly make them. No NWN style "Gloves of Concentration +1" here at the CO8.

    Check out the 5.0.4 cmf addon for the 5.0.0 patch if you haven't already. :)
     
  15. blackfly

    blackfly Established Member

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    Thank you. Actually, I am running the 5.0.4 version when I reinstalled everything fresh (I think). I have noted that I have yet to see any new intro movies despite having downloaded them. I remember one for Nulb, and I am not sure if Emridy Meadows has one, but I have not seen it yet.

    But I admit the game is interesting not knowing when there is going to be a new ambush around the corner.....
     
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